What effects a good rank up and why should you rank a champion up?
TP33
Member Posts: 1,683 ★★★★★
So I think we can all agree but if you go on the recent discussions page of the forums there are WAY too many “I need rank up help”, “Who to take up”, “Rank up decision” threads and nobody can convince me they haven’t made a post about a rank up (I definitely have, can’t remember when but I can remember I have). I wanted to make this post to help people who are wondering on who to rank up, I’ll share some factors and things that I do when I want to determine a rank up. Of course every situation (almost) is different, players are making different decisions and some not based at all on how good a champion is in terms of damage and utility but if they enjoy playing them, prestige, fun, memes etc. I will try to cover some of these aspects as well. Also please don’t take this as written in stone, you don’t have to rank somebody up just because I or any other member of the community says so (within reason, if 90% of people say that you should take a champion up you might want to follow their advice)
Damage
We can’t just ignore it, there is a subconscious motivation to rank champions up based on damage, it’s only natural right? When you see big yellow numbers that’s a sign that you’ve got a good contender to rank up. However as shown in champions like Squirrel Girl and OML big yellow numbers aren’t everything, you need some...
Utility
A champion who can clear 90% of the game in 10 minutes is FAR more enticing than a champion who can only do 10% of the game in 10 seconds. Take Quake for example, I’ll say it here, she has pretty average damage, of course Aftershock can be great but she does take longer in fights than many other ‘god tier’ champions, however her play style also means she is one of the most valuable assets in any roster of champions. To test utility I usually jump into a quest in Act 4 for example, where there are lots of fights with varying nodes and champions, the champion that I seem to use the most will be noted, they obviously have some decent utility. Also work out what utilities you don’t already have, there’s no point in ranking up based on immunities if you already have Emma Frost and Warlock at R5.
Other potential resources and costs
Now say for example you have a choice to make, OR or Cap IW, they both have high damage and utility, however to shine they both need to be duped and one needs suicide masteries. Are you willing to invest an AG, Sig Stones and mastery cores into a champion to unlock their full potential. If so then go for it but you should think about this when making a rank up, over the catalysts how much is this rank up really going to cost you?
Fun
Last but not least fun. Do you enjoy playing this character. I mean are you having fun, you could take up Warlock over Ghost and that’s fine as long as you’re having fun with Warlock. There’s no way of saying X champion is more fun than Y champion for everybody so in the end I think each player will make different choices based on this final category.
I really hope that this helped players who are stuck with rank up decisions in the future. Again these are in no order and you can rank up who you want, these are just some pointers to help you, the player, make the right decision for you. Feel free to agree/disagree at the end of the day it is a game and you can have whatever opinions you want,
Damage
We can’t just ignore it, there is a subconscious motivation to rank champions up based on damage, it’s only natural right? When you see big yellow numbers that’s a sign that you’ve got a good contender to rank up. However as shown in champions like Squirrel Girl and OML big yellow numbers aren’t everything, you need some...
Utility
A champion who can clear 90% of the game in 10 minutes is FAR more enticing than a champion who can only do 10% of the game in 10 seconds. Take Quake for example, I’ll say it here, she has pretty average damage, of course Aftershock can be great but she does take longer in fights than many other ‘god tier’ champions, however her play style also means she is one of the most valuable assets in any roster of champions. To test utility I usually jump into a quest in Act 4 for example, where there are lots of fights with varying nodes and champions, the champion that I seem to use the most will be noted, they obviously have some decent utility. Also work out what utilities you don’t already have, there’s no point in ranking up based on immunities if you already have Emma Frost and Warlock at R5.
Other potential resources and costs
Now say for example you have a choice to make, OR or Cap IW, they both have high damage and utility, however to shine they both need to be duped and one needs suicide masteries. Are you willing to invest an AG, Sig Stones and mastery cores into a champion to unlock their full potential. If so then go for it but you should think about this when making a rank up, over the catalysts how much is this rank up really going to cost you?
Fun
Last but not least fun. Do you enjoy playing this character. I mean are you having fun, you could take up Warlock over Ghost and that’s fine as long as you’re having fun with Warlock. There’s no way of saying X champion is more fun than Y champion for everybody so in the end I think each player will make different choices based on this final category.
I really hope that this helped players who are stuck with rank up decisions in the future. Again these are in no order and you can rank up who you want, these are just some pointers to help you, the player, make the right decision for you. Feel free to agree/disagree at the end of the day it is a game and you can have whatever opinions you want,
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Comments
Personally I’ve found that champs that rely heavily on buffs (ie Hyperion) scale the best while champs that rely on debuffs (ie Void) scale the worst. Champs that rely on neither fall squarely in the middle.
It’s not 100%, but as a rule of thumb I think it’s fairly accurate.
And that’s not to take anything away from my 5/65 Void, I still love the champ, but haven’t been as impressed by his scale up as I have other, buff heavy champions.
I ranked my sentry, ronin, old man logan, taskmaster to r5 because i enjoy playing them
I personally rank 5´d my doc ock for enhanced power gain in variant as i didnt had any other good power control champs, also hes pretty fun to play. On the other hand i really regret that i rank 5´d blade. Hes not fun for me and i dont use him except of arena...
A prime example of this would be Sentinel.
Investing in a R4/5 Sentinel means that you’ve got the ability to clear out V3 with reasonable efficiency. This in turn is going to yield 3 x R3, 1 x R4 for completion and for exploration 3 x 2016 R4 and a R5 gem. So you’re making a massive profit on the resources invested.
Also does sentinel need to be awakened?