With the weekly reset finally arriving, Bungie has released a more difficult variant of the final Excision mission, complete with its own rewards and a brand-new catalyst for the Ergo Sum Exotic Sword. From this challenge, Champions of all type will be appearing in this mode. This article will guide you on how to complete the Grandmaster Excision mission with relative ease.
Which Champions will appear?
In GM Excision, two Champion variants will spawn in this mission, which is Barrier and Overload. The best Artifact mods to bring for this mission are the Ant-Barrier Pulse Rifle mod and the Overload Handcannon mod. If you need more flexibility in your loadouts, it’s recommended that you bring a weapon with the Chill Clip perk, as the Stasis slow effect will stun Overload champions easily and just one or two bursts will easily take care of them.
Tormentor and Subjugator strategies
These enemies are the most dangerous threats in the mission as they are the only ones capable of crowd-controlling players and shutting down ability usage. Therefore the best possible weapon to use against them is the Microcosm Exotic Heavy Trace Rifle. Microcosm is highly effective against Tormentors and Subjugators because these enemies have a hidden health modifier, which makes it count as a shield, something the Microcosm is very effective against.
If you still don’t have the Microcosm, a good alternative would be any Stasis or Strand Heavy Weapon, since matching your weapon damage to a Subjugator’s element will deal extra damage to them (i.e. Strand weapons against Strand Subjugators and Stasis weapons against Stasis Subjugators.)
Grandmaster Excision does not have the Locked Loadout modifier, allowing you to switch weapons on the fly depending on the enemy you’re fighting.
Activity Element Surges
Another feature added to Grandmaster Excision is the element surge modifiers. Bringing any weapons that match the current elemental surge modifier will grant them an extra 25% damage bonus for the rest of the activity. This can also affect Kinetic weapons, as all you need to do is match your current Super with the modifier to grant them the same damage bonus. Some weapon types will also be given a surge modifier, but take note that bringing a weapon that matches both the element and weapon type will not stack the damage bonus to 50%. As of this writing, the current Surges are Arc, Void, Glaive, and Machine Gun, but expect them to rotate out after the next weekly reset.
Limited Revives
Since this activity is considered a Grandmaster, Guardians will have a limited number of revive tokens available, along with the Extinguish modifier, which kicks the entire team into orbit if all players die. Champion kills will add an extra token to the pool, so play your lives as long as you can and be efficient in killing Champions.
When reaching the Witness, Champions will constantly spawn at the sides of the arena, giving the whole team an opportunity to restock their revive tokens to prevent a total team wipe.
Opening Encounter Guide
When starting up Excision, everyone must pick a side plate and gather there. This is done to make bursting down Champions and minibosses on each side easier since all 12 players are dealing damage to the same target. Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn are great Supers for holding down plates, while Hunters can use Golden Gun, Gathering Storm, or even Shadowshot to help with bursting down priority targets.
This encounter will be the only time where you and other players can cast Supers, so don’t save it for the next encounter and use them as often as you can. This will generate Orbs of Power for your teammates, helping them gain their own Super that will generate Orbs for you.
The Witness Encounter Guide
In this encounter, Supers will not be available except for Transcendence. Saint-14 will provide a permanent Ward of Dawn in the center of the arena, as well as a Heavy ammo crate that constantly spawns. Take advantage of these since there will be even more Champions and Tormentors that spawn at the back and sides of the arena.
There is no wipe timer here, so you and your team should take your time picking off the Tormentors, as killing both will start the next phase of the fight. Remember to only kill Champions if you need to stock up on more revive tokens.
Once both Tormentors are dead, everyone can focus on picking up Light from the fissures and dunking them on the Rift to destroy Darkness statues. After all statues are destroyed, this starts the damage phase.
It’s important that you don’t focus your energy on damaging the Witness as they will still attack you with Darkness beams that can kill you fast. Instead, do your best to dodge their attacks, as there is no DPS check here. The best way to dodge the Witness’ attacks is by going to the side where their hand is glowing. You can also watch the ground as it will glow before the attack goes through.
Note that on the third damage phase, it will stay permanently for the rest of the fight, giving you and your team more than enough time to continue killing Champions for tokens and gathering more Heavy ammo to damage the Witness. Once players have reachedtheir health gate, you have essentially beaten Excision.
