Best Of

I was preparing my own thread, but have decided I should add my thoughts here.

For anyone who hasn't read Yondu's buff notes, it's mostly about damage:

• Bleed has been switched out for Rupture.
  
• Also he inflicts Rupture more often than he used to inflict bleed.
  
• And his Fury boost after SP2 lasts a lot longer (functionally, around twice as long)
  
• He's got a small boost to his Block and Armour penetration
  
• And some minor tweaks you'll barely notice.

It doesn't sound like much. It's simple.

But simple, in a game where champs are increasingly complex, can be good. Yondu is a simple character, but he's effective. Particularly at armoured champions, and those that regenerate or have Prowess. Or those that like to turtle up, because he can do very solid damage through block.

He's got no timers to watch, no charges to manage, no complex rotations to learn: play completely normally. Hit into block if you like, because the damage is still good. Throw SP2s for a high-damage phase. That's literally it.

So, despite playing him very simply indeed, the damage is a lot better. Here's ROL Winter Soldier with a 5/65 Yondu, pre-buff and post-buff. Take a look at the times, and especially the relative DoT damage:

Pre-buff:


Post-buff:


However, whilst this could be mistaken for a simple damage tune-up, that's not the full impact of these changes. Because of the switch from Bleed to Rupture, this buff is going to be beneficial for a huge number of opponents. But some of them aren't immediately obvious, so I thought it could be interesting/helpful to call some of them out.

Now I'm not going to try listing every bleed-immune champion this is going to help with - you can find one of those elsewhere. But considering opponents who actually benefit from or punish Bleed/Armour Break, or who are immune to both, this buff makes him substantially better against these opponents:

Mutants
Apocalypse, Bishop, Cable, Domino, Dust, Gambit, Havok, Magneto, Omega Red, Onslaught, Sauron, Storm, Weapon-X

Mystics
Absorbing Man, Clare Voyant, Destroyer, Dragon Man, Mangog, Man-Thing

Cosmic
Corvus, Serpent, Superior Iron Man

Skill
Attuma, Elsa Bloodstone, Moondragon

Tech
Arnim Zola, Bastion, CapSam, Civil Warrior, Hulkbuster, Lady Deathstrike, Nimrod, Omega Sentinel, Sentinel

Science
Abomination, Photon

Of course, there are a handful of opponents where this buff isn't helpful: Mister Sinister is still an issue. And arguably Yondu is actually a lot less good against Emma Frost: that Armour break was clutch for keeping her under control, and it won't activate against her, any more.

Also, he'll be less effective against quite a few Science champions:
Mostly, those who are rupture-immune (Scorpion, Silk, Spider-punk), those with very high physical resistance, and a few who actually have a specific weakness to Bleed (Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Thing)

Utility

So what else does Yondu do?

Sig ability - unchanged; this helps him tank Special attacks quite spectacularly.

Combat power mitigation - also unchanged, although he places more Rupture debuffs for longer than Bleeds, which will make this ability more effective. It's definitely visibly effective at limiting the number of Specials you have to deal with; although not so effective that it prevents you ramping up your SP2 Fury ability. I can see that these two abilities might appear counter-intuitive; but really, it works fine in practice.

Pilfer armour and Prowess - he's a little better at doing both of these. This is actually very useful, particularly since he can do it using basic attacks, and through block. And he can manage Armour buffs on champs resistant to Armour Break or Nullify, like Red Skull and Civil Warrior.

Finally, for some reason, they've given Yondu an immunity to Concussion Debuffs when fighting against Mutant Champions. This seems pretty niche; because although Concussion is actually something several mutants do (Apocalypse, Gambit, Emma Frost, Mister Sinister, Stryfe), they mostly do it by hitting you with an SP2, at which point the actual concussion is the least of your worries. So I suspect that this tweak is intended to help him deal with particular War node placements where people like to put Mutant defenders.

Can he defend?

I'd predict that Yondu is going to be a useful stall defender:

• He's got a non-contact opening Light attack.
  
• He's going to slow down attackers with a solid Stifle ability from his special-1.
  
• He's going to resist damage with his Sig ability
  
• He also inflicts serious Rupture damage through block.

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Nice to see other people's thoughts, especially a well-known Yondu fan, @Cat_Murdock

Personally I think this is a good buff, broadening the useability and enhancing the damage of an unusual champ. And he's gone from being useable but niche (and very dependent on RNG) to being much more effective in a wide variety of situations; as an effective DoT-dealing champ.