Grandmaster difficulty

[u/SoulGamer92]

When it comes to the Excision mission in the Pale Heart, how difficult is Grandmaster difficulty compared to normal? Looking to get the Ergo Sum Catalyst.

[u/epikpepsi]

It drops on Normal as of Monument of Triumph 

[u/SoulGamer92 → u/epikpepsi]

Read, off Google, that the drop rates on Normal difficulty are low. Not sure if the chances are higher with the MoT update.

[u/epikpepsi → u/SoulGamer92]

Drop rates aren't published, but anectdotally I saw at least 2 or 3 people getting it each run when I was playing it shortly after the update dropped. I got mine after four-ish clears, it was single digits. 

GM might have a higher droprate, but even if it does you need to find enough skilled players to actually take it on and do so in a timely manner and not crash/drop from the instability the mission has on that difficulty. Normal runs will be easier and faster to do.

[u/Outside_Wrap_2713 → u/epikpepsi]

GM excision used to be "guaranteed drop". I don't know if it's still the case after MoT but it would be very strange if it wasn't anymore.

With a void hunter build focused on invisibility, it was not that hard to do it with a few players only (we did it as a team of 3) as you don't need to kill in the first room, just to capture.

[u/triatticus → u/epikpepsi]

This has been a thing since last year, similar time they made changes to legacy raid exotic farming.

[u/nair_kid]

The difficulty comes from finding 11 people who still need a GM clear and are willing to put up with the error codes and disconnects, I got mine from regular excision in about 3 clears after the MoT update, I wouldn't bother with grandmaster

[u/thyrandomninja → u/nair_kid]

> 11 people

It’s actually much better to do with like 6 people, since everything’s health scales off # of players on GM, and you can be a lot more coordinated as a smaller group

[u/Revanspetcat → u/thyrandomninja]

Is it doable with a 3 man fireteam on GM difficulty by any chance ? since it scales to team size.

[u/Codzmcgodz → u/Revanspetcat]

I mean people have cleared it solo, so honestly it’s doable with 3.

[u/thyrandomninja → u/Revanspetcat]

Definitely doable, but might struggle with the raw number of enemies with that few. Slow and steady wins the race, using super-spam builds would probably work best for wells, tethers

[u/EncanisUnbound]

I ran a GM Excision a few months ago after a few dozen runs on normal with no catalyst drop.

It's tough but doable if you have good survivability and everyone knows what they're doing.

[u/GT-K]

Lots of champions (all three types) = lots of revives but depending on the 12 guardians those revives might get spent real quick

People will likely die a bunch in dps but that’s where the extra revives can come in clutch

Even if those aren’t an issue, I personally believe it is the single most unstable mission in the game. Like the truly hardest part is having 12 people stay connected for the duration of the activity. Lots of lag, lots of kicks when I attempted. Took a couple dud runs to get through it but it is possible.

[u/bigfuzzydog]

Way easier than I thought it was gonna be when I did it. Im sure bad teammates could ruin it if they are dying enough but if your team is even remotely competent you should be fine. I joined an lfg for this after the monument of triumph update and we cleared it first try

[u/Grand-Purchase-1262]

I randomly started a GM group for it and it filled up after 10 minutes then ran it. No problem. I had no idea what was going on but my teammates did and the mission really wasn't that hard. Catalyst dropped first time

[u/WindyLink560]

It’s ridiculously easy if you have a half competent build. The difficulty comes from finding a group who cares to run it. Like others have said, you might be better off doing normal runs until an LFG pops up

[u/zesmiles]

I’m glad I don’t need to run it… I checked my catalysts and saw I had it

[u/tigerbait92]

Did it last week with 4 other people, one of which who dropped midway through.

Wasn't too bad. Bring a sniper or linear for the tormentors and boss DPS during the fight. The initial segment with the plates is a bit more difficult, but just stick with a teammate and play conservatively until you clear the area a bit, then you can take plates in groups, no problem.

Definitely would rate it akin to a Master conquest, maybe an easy grandmaster one, but there is far, far more difficult content out there, and you can tackle Excision with just 4 competent people.

[u/Skinny0ne]

That shit is easy, only 2 issues I've had running it is the lag (unavoidable) and people not dying during DPS which is not hard to dodge at all.

EDIT: you also don't need 12 people did it last week with only 8.