Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Act 6.2.2 “Severed” in Marvel Contest of Champions.

General Thoughts: This is the first chapter of Act 6 I 100% explored post-nerf. Honestly, it’s all about having the counters. The fights aren’t really difficult if you have the right team construction, otherwise it can get expensive.

The Global Node is meant to counter Ghost and Corvus. Quake shouldn’t have any problem here. I didn’t find my champions triggering it too often, but there are so many excellent Incinerate Immune options that also work to counter the individual lanes that it’s just safer to go in that direction.

Best Champs: Void, Sunspot, Human Torch, Warlock, Mephisto, Colossus, Hyperion

Restrictions: Only 5* and 6* Champions

Global Node: Backblast – The Attacker’s Critical Damage is doubled, however if damage from a critical hit exceeds 5% of the Defender’s max health or the Attacker lands 4 or more guaranteed crits throughout the fight, the Attacker suffers from an Incinerate Debuff dealing damage equal to their last Crit over 5 seconds

Boss: Mr. Sinister

Nodes: Prey on the Weak, Genetic Perfection, Caustic Temper (Note this fight used to have EMP Modification, but that was removed as part of the Act 6 Nerfs)

Notes: So the big impact of the nodes is not on the fight itself, but on your team construction. You really have to be smart about how you use your roster slots so you don’t get put in a bad situation.

Basically, you’ll need a champion that is Poison Immune and can gain a Fury Buff. Furthermore, Mr. Sinister can transfer Damaging Debuffs back to you, so if you bring a champion that is dealing those out, you better be Immune to them, or be able to avoid triggering them on Sinister. Finally, Mr. Sinister will heal significantly during the fight due to his Passive Molecular Regeneration. Once your combo is above 30 hits, he will actually gain health from your crits.

So let’s look at who can work for this fight. Champions that can do this fight without added synergies include Hyperion, OG Hulk, Abomination, Captain Marvel Movie, and Ronan, but I would only recommend Hyperion and Captain Marvel Movie from that list.

Once you get into synergy teams, the list opens up to some better options. Heimdall with the “Daughters of Asgard” synergy (Hela/Angela) allows you to dash back and gain a permanent Fury Buff, thus opening up the fight to all Poison-Immune champions. Some of the best options to use with this synergy are Darkhawk (my personal favorite), Sentinel, Hulk Ragnarok, Nebula, Omega Red, OG Vision, and Warlock.

There is a second synergy called Robot Uprising that allows you to take Warlock with either of the Ultrons or Visions. This will grant you a Fury Buff for 6 seconds every time one of these champions is inflicted with a debuff they are immune to. Because Poison will constantly be inflicted by Caustic Temper, you’ll have solid uptime on the Fury buff. If you want to go with a Warlock/OG Vision team, this also has the benefit of giving you two options that can solo the fight while freeing up an extra roster spot compared to the Heimdall Synergy.

For my runs, I used Hyperion, Hulk Ragnarok, Darkhawk, and Mephisto. All of them work, but Hulk Ragnarok is a slower option now that EMP (which triggered Face Me and gave GHulk a damage boost) has been removed. As I mentioned above, Darkhawk is my favorite, because his Null Mode has the benefit of both big damage and a 30-second Heal Block, so once you launch the SP3 you actually feel like you’re getting somewhere in the fight.

The fight itself is usually a pretty slow one. Sinister is an easy solo, but you have to make it a thoughtful fight. If you just go in and try to blow him up with Big Yellow Numbers, you’re not going to get much of anywhere. Play it slow, bait Sinister’s SP1, and chip him down.

There are two mini-bosses for this chapter, Havok on the left and Emma Frost on the right. Of the two, Havok is far more limiting because of the Crumbling Armor node, which basically requires you to bring Colossus. Emma Frost is a standard fight, as long as her SP1 Reverse Controls don’t present a problem you don’t need to bring a specific counter. The gated center paths do not have to fight either mini-boss.

Note: I am listing these paths in the order I completed them. I ran my first path without Heimdall as he wasn’t in my roster.

Lane 1 – Center Left

Gate: 2 Mystic Five Stars

Defenders: King Groot, Thor, Captain Marvel Movie, Medusa, Angela, Annihilus

Nodes: Rage (Path), Resistor (King Groot), Tank Buster (Thor), Plagued Mind (Captain Marvel Movie) Aggression: Cruelty, Parry (Medusa), Aspect of Nightmare (Angela) Soft Guard (Annihilus)

Team: Mephisto, Sunspot, The Champion, Symbiote Supreme, Hyperion

Tips: This was my first path, and without Heimdall I knew I didn’t have a great match-up for Mr. Sinister so I popped a 20% boost and went for it. Mephisto was excellent for the early part of the path, handling King Groot, Thor, and Captain Marvel Movie before Medusa and her Auto-Block got me. Sunspot did cleanup on the Medusa fight and took out Angela. Then my newly duped Symbiote Supreme did the one job he was on the team for by shutting down Annihilus. The Champion, who was just on the team to give Mephisto a damage boost, never got off the bench. It took me 4 revives to take down Sinister with Hyperion.

Lane 2 – Right, Up

Gate: Two 6-Star Champions

Defenders: Ghost, Killmonger, Void, Loki, Kingpin, Hela

Nodes: Villainy, Aspect of Chaos (Entire Lane)

Team: Hela, Heimdall, Thing, The Champion, Hulk Ragnarok

Tips: Since I was bringing Hela and Heimdall anyways (to get a Fury buff on Hulk Ragnarok to counter Caustic Temper) this was a perfect chance to once again break out the Hela cheese method for Aspect of Chaos. My Hela is only a Rank 2 5 Star but it still worked perfectly. If you aren’t familiar with this tactic, you let the opponent hit you until your health bar is at 1%. You want to time it so you go Indestructible and then the health bar switches, putting your opponent at only 1%. Then you can rush in for the easy KO. It might take a little practice, but it’s much faster and easier than fighting the node straight-up.

(Act 6 Nerf)

Lane 3 – Left to Portal 5, Left To Falcon, Up To Thor Ragnarok

Gate: None

Defenders: Falcon, Thor Ragnarok, Mordo, Mephisto, Hyperion, Havok

Nodes: Buffet (Falcon), All-Or-Nothing (Thor Ragnarok-Hyperion), Friend from Work (Thor Ragnarok), Mordo (Kinetic Transference 3 (Mordo), (Redoubled Determination (Mephisto), Burden of Might (Hyperion), Crumbling Armor, Improved Power Gain, Enhanced Energy Attacks (Havok)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 73), Warlock (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 0), Iceman (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Captain Marvel Movie (6-Star Rank 1 Sig 0)

Tips: So Falcon is the warm-up fight – I used Captain Marvel Movie to get her ramped up for later – then it’s on to an All-Or-Nothing path. All the defenders have been picked because they gain more power than usual.

Thor Ragnarok is pretty easy, and Warlock was able to keep him under control with his SP1. Don’t forget about the bleeds on his heavy as damage over time is always helpful in All-Or-Nothing situations.

For Mordo I went with Doom, and I was having a good fight until I launched Doom’s SP3. This caused me to gain a Fury, and then I triggered Backblast and died. I finished the fight with Iceman as Mordo was almost dead.

Then I went with Iceman vs Mephisto, and relied on Iceman’s Ice Armor to tank SP3s. Iceman can regenerate his Ice Armor instantly via his SP3, so factor that into your play style. One mistake I did make was letting Mephisto Power Drain me when I had two bars of power, which allowed him to activate his permanent Aura of Incinerate. While Iceman is immune to the damage, it has the unfortunate side-effect of increasing Mephisto’s Power Gain for the rest of the fight.

Since Doom was dead I again went with Iceman to tank specials vs Hyperion, and once he was dead, I blitzed Hyperion down with Captain Marvel.

Havok has crumbling armor, which is unfortunate and that ended up costing me a couple of revives with Warlock. I’m not the most experienced Warlock player, and I’m sure someone more comfortable with that matchup could run it item-less. You just have to stay really aggressive so the Armor-Break timer doesn’t get you.

Initially I tried Magik on this path, but I got destroyed by Backblast on her first SP2, so I can’t recommend her.

Lane 4 – Left to Portal 5, Left To Falcon, Down to Gwenpool

Gate: None

Defenders: Falcon, Gwenpool, Archangel, Blade, Carnage, Havok

Nodes: Buffet (Falcon), Biohazard, Bleed Vulnerability (Gwenpool-Carnage), Crumbling Armor, Improved Power Gain, Enhanced Energy Attacks (Havok)

Team: Warlock (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 0), Darkhawk (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 130), Heimdall (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Hela (5-Star Rank 3 Sig 40), Colossus (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40)

Tips: This is one of the Easy Paths due to the defenders and a lack of unique nodes on the Biohazard Path fights. This allowed me to put together a team that better countered the Havok mini and Mr. Sinister boss than the previous path.

Colossus is fantastic for this lane, his combination of Bleed and Incinerate Immunities makes him the perfect counter to Backblast and Biohazard, plus he’s Armor-Break Immune, which takes all the stress out of the Havok mini-boss.

I utilized Darkhawk, Colossus and Warlock on the main path. None of the fights really require a specific counter beyond being Bleed Immune. Warlock doesn’t crit that much so I only triggered Backblast once, and Darkhawk only had an issue while in Null Mode vs Archangel (so in his damage mode and with class advantage). These are straightforward fights all-around, and with Colossus you can take your time with Havok. I used the Heimdall/Hela synergy to get Darkhawk the Fury buff vs Sinister and got the solo.

Lane 5 – Left to Portal 5, Right to Black Widow, Down to Miles Morales

Gate: None

Defenders: Black Widow, Miles Morales, Wasp, Spider-Gwen, Nightcrawler, Havok

Nodes: No Retreat (Black Widow), Spry, Mesmerize (Miles Morales-Nightcrawler), Crumbling Armor, Improved Power Gain, Enhanced Energy Attacks (Havok)

Team: Colossus (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Heimdall (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Hela (5-Star Rank 3 Sig 40), Darkhawk (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 130)

Tips: This was an Easy Path for me, as I have all the counters needed. This team construction works really well because it counters the boss, the Havok mini, the two spider-verse champions, and the evade from Nightcrawler and Wasp.

Starting out is a No Retreat Black Widow. No Retreat is one of my least favorite nodes, and since Hela was on the team purely for synergy purposes, I decided to sacrifice her to this fight and take whatever damage I could get as a bonus. She actually did quite well for a Rank 3, getting Black Widow down to 30% health, and Colossus wrapped things up quickly after that.

If you have Venom, you want to bring him for Miles and Spider-Gwen. He completely shuts them down, and I had no issues with Backblast (I did avoid throwing my Sp2 though).

With Wasp and Nightcrawler, you need True Strike or an Evade counter. If you’re bringing Heimdall for the Fury Synergy, you can actually use him for this fight if he’s ranked up. He gets a permanent True Strike (as long as you don’t get hit after activating it) via his SP1. While the fights were long, they were pretty straightforward after gaining True Strike. If Heimdall is on your team anyways, this is probably the way to go to save yourself a roster spot. If you’re not bringing Heimdall, and all your traditional True Strike champions will work for these fights. Note that since Spider-Gwen can nullify True Strike, it’s still advisable to bring Venom.

Colossus then took care of Havok, and I got the solo of Mr. Sinister with Darkhawk.

Lane 6 – Left to Portal 5, Right to Black Widow, Skill Gate to Cap WW2

Gate: Need Two Skill 5-Stars

Defenders: Black Widow, Captain America WW2, M.O.D.O.K., Human Torch, Thing, Havok

Nodes: No Retreat (Black Widow), Spry, Mesmerize (Kinetic Transference, Explosive Personality), Crumbling Armor, Improved Power Gain, Enhanced Energy Attacks (Havok)

Team: Colossus (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Medusa (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 24), Killmonger (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 119), Nick Fury (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 1), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 73)

Tips: For a class gated path, this one wasn’t too bad. Nick Fury and Killmonger met the gate requirements for me. Fury had no issues with Backblast, but Killmonger triggered it twice, once versus Black Widow and once versus M.O.D.O.K. Both times it was during specials and True Strike was active, so that probably had something to do with it.

Other notes on my team for this lane. I opted for Colossus to take out the Crumbing Armor Havok, and had to go with Hyperion for Mr. Sinister.

As for the lane itself, it’s not actually bad. Nick Fury was my main clearer. Captain America WW2 is the easy warm-up fight for the nodes. M.O.D.O.K. will likely be an issue unless you have a True Strike champion like Killmonger or potentially Danger Sense Blade, but that might be hard to fit on the team.

Human Torch is a pretty standard fight, but Thing you have to be careful about. Nick Fury is fantastic for this fight. Your real issue here is Exploding Personality, which cuts into your margin for error when clearing the Rock Stacks off Thing. If he gets to 15 Rock Stacks and he’s at low power, you’re in trouble. Remember Thing is immune to Armor Break and Nullify, so you can’t easily clear the Armor Up Buffs. You always want to bait the Special 1 with Thing to be sure he has a bar of power ready to go. Nick Fury is great for this fight, but Blade, with his Bleed-on-Parry is a very safe option as well.

Once I got through the main lane it was an easy solo of Havok with Colossus, and then a long but ultimately successful solo of Mr. Sinister with Hyperion.

Lane 7 – Right To Portal 6, Left To War Machine, Down to Darkhak

Gate: None

Defenders: War Machine, Darkhawk, Venom, Iron Man Infinity War, Heimdall, Emma Frost

Nodes: Optimist (War Machine), Redoubled Determination 3, Aggression: Armor (Darkhawk-Heimdall), Raptor Upgrades (Darkhawk), Limber, Feats of Power, Kinetic Transference (Emma Frost)

Team: Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 154), Sunspot (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Medusa (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 24), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 73), Iceman (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: Finally, a lane where I could fit Sunspot on the team and turn him loose – with some caveats. Redoubled Determination means you have to be careful with his Flare State and you need to Siphon the Incinerate Debuffs off the opponent after each combo so you don’t get whacked by the power gain.

War Machine, Venom and Heimdall are all pretty standard fights for those defenders, so you don’t really need a specific attacker to match up with them. I just went with Sunspot for Incinerate Immunity and big damage.

Darkhawk has Raptor Upgrades active, meaning he starts the fight in Null Mode (his big damage mode) and his Light and Medium Attacks are Unblockable. It’s quite a bit to deal with. If you have Medusa, bring her. Once you Armor-Shatter Darkhawk, because he’s a Robot, the Unblockable attacks will go away and then it’s just the fun of a normal Darkhawk fight. If you don’t want to go with Medusa then Quake, Ghost or Magneto should all be safe options.

Iron Man Infinity War is the other tricky fight, just because of the Armor Buildup. I would recommend someone like Void (who I used) or Hyperion where you can safely play the heavy-counter game and avoid the Auto-Blocks. It’s a bit slow going, but it’s not that difficult.

Emma Frost is the mini boss. The nodes down add too much to this fight, and as long as your consistently about the Dex Emma’s SP1 with Reverse Controls it’s nothing special to worry about.

Lane 8 – Left To Portal 6, Left to War Machine, Up to Science Gate

Gate: Need 2 5-Star Science Champs

Defenders: War Machine, Diablo, Morningstar, Ebony Maw, Scarlet Witch, Emma Frost

Nodes: Optimist (War Machine), Aspect of Death (Diablo-Scarlet Witch), Kinetic Brewing, Toxic Rage (Diablo), Limber, Master of the Sword (Morningstar), Long Distance Relationship (Ebony Maw), Pilfer (Scarlet Witch) Limber, Feats of Power, Kinetic Transference (Emma Frost)

Team: Hulk Ragnarok (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 0), Thing (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Heimdall (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Hela (5-Star Rank 3 Sig 40)

Tips: This lane isn’t too much to worry about, and if you have Human Torch you’ll absolutely blitz through it.

We’ve already been over War Machine, so next up through the Science Gate is Diablo, and he’s actually the most difficult fight if you’re using Human Torch. This is because he will go Unstoppable during the fight and if he counters you with Death Touch active you’re, well, dead. Play it slow and keep it to 3 hit combos and you’ll be fine.

Morningstar is a generic Morningstar fight, just bait the SP1, punish, repeat and you’ll be fine. Thing’s Bleed-Immunity made it a risk-free fight. I used Torch’s pre-fight for Ebony Maw to take the threat of Falter away and just melted him. Then Thing for Scarlet Witch and Emma Frost, and finally Hulk Ragnarok for the solo of Mr. Sinister.

Great alternate options for this lane are Void and Captain America Infinity War.

Lane 9 – Right to Portal 6, Right to Punisher 2099, Right to Sentinel

Gate: None

Defenders: Punisher 2099, Sentinel, Night Thrasher, Agent Venom, Phoenix, Emma Frost

Nodes: Maximum Overdrive (Punisher 2099), Freezer Burn, Highly Flammable (Sentinel-Phoenix), Bane of Damballah (Sentinel), Utility Belt (Night Thrasher), Limber, Feats of Power, Kinetic Transference (Emma Frost)

Team: The Champion (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 20), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 0), Heimdall (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Hela (5-Star Rank 3 Sig 40)

Tips: If you have two of the top tier Incinerate Immune Champions – Human Torch, Sunspot, Mephisto, Iceman, Void, Havok, Colossus – then you will likely find this qualifies as an Easy Path, as most of the difficulty simply comes from countering the Freezerburn node. Even better, some Incinerate counters like Sunspot, Mephisto, and Human Torch actually become stronger when the node places an Incinerate on them.

Starting off is Punisher 2099. If you are bringing synergy champs like Angela, Heimdall, or Hela, this is a good place to use them to soak up the chip damage and save your boss killers and Incinerate Immune champs for later. Personally I used The Champion, but really, any champ can do it.

Onto the main path, I took Mephisto against Sentinel. This is a long fight because it’s Sentinel, but nothing special to deal with. Then I took Human Torch against Night Thrasher and used his Flame On pre-fight, since Night Thrasher is Incinerate Immune. You don’t want to use someone like Sunspot against Night Thrasher or you’re in for a very long fight. Then I used Human Torch against Agent Venom, mainly because I knew I would take a lot of block damage in this fight and I wanted to save Mephisto’s health pool for the Sinister Boss.

Phoenix is an easy fight for Mephisto, and I picked up another Soul Charge while staying at 100% health thanks to Willpower healing. Emma was another Champion fight, then on to Sinister where the tag-team of Mephisto and Human Torch brought him down to conclude an itemless path.

Lane 10 – Right to Portal 6, Right to Punisher 2099, Down to Ultron

Gate: None

Defenders: Punisher 2099, Ultron, X-23, Old Man Logan, Goldpool

Nodes: Maximum Overdrive (Punisher 2099), Aggression: Regeneration (Ultron-Goldpool), Spry (Ultron), Bubble Shield (X-23), Bane (Old Man Logan), Backup Recovery (Goldpool), Limber, Feats of Power, Kinetic Transference (Emma Frost)

Team: Darkhawk (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 132), Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 159), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 0), Heimdall (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Hela (5-Star Rank 3 Sig 40)

Tips: This is your standard Regen path that you ideally want to counter with Heal Reversal or Heal Block. If you have one of the top options like Void, Warlock, or Human Torch, this will be an Easy Path for you.

For my run, I sacrificed Heimdall and Hela to Punisher 2099, then it was all Void all the way through Emma Frost. Other than the Bane node on Old Man Logan, there really isn’t much to worry about here. The opponents will simply regen themselves to death with Void. Goldpool has Backup Recovery, but by the time that kicks in, Void’s debuffs will be in place to negate it.

Recommended Videos

DarkZodiac – Warlock vs Sinister Boss

Karatemike – Blade vs 6.2.2 Sinister

MetalSonicDude – Guillotine 2099 vs Sinister

-Dano357