A Semi-Comprehensive Guide to Silver Surfer

Hey y'all!
Today I decided to make a guide on silver surfer, in text this time(I previously have made a video that I don't recommend you watch).

Overview

SS is a champ that I believe many underrate. He has very solid utility and good damage. If you can get his rotation down, he's probably a top 5/10 cosmic, especially in the 6 star pool. He also has very high prestige, which means that many people at higher levels are likely to rank him anyways.

Basic Rotation

The rotation you want for surfer is
1. throw a heavy at the beginning of the fight to active power gain buff. This is the key to keeping up his buffs, and his damage. Heavy attacks cause surfer to phase for a short period of time, meaning that it is 100% safe to throw it at the start of the fight. The power gain buff is half as long as the other buffs, meaning you can consistently refresh all buffs when it expires.
2. Once you have the power gain buff, save for a sp1 and wait for the power cosmic to refresh and for it to rotate to the dormant fury buff. Throw the SP1. This will activate 2 fury buffs, which vastly increase the damage. Once you're done with that, you can start saving for SP3.
3. Once the power cosmic refreshes, wait for armor up buff. Throw heavy to activate it. If you are at a special 3 already, activate it. This will grant an aptitude buff, increasing buff potency by 25%.
4. After this, the goal is to keep all buffs active. You refresh the buffs by activating power gain buff when it expires. Each buff increases his energy damage.
5. Throw as many sp2s needed to end the fight. These are unblockable. The energy damage is increased by a huge amount during this attack. My 5/50 can do 2-3k energy damage per hit.

Special uses.

Silver surfer is a good counter to many champions and nodes. I have listed some below
1. safeguard. Silver Surfer's energy damage bypasses this node, making him a good option.
2. any matchup where you need armor break debuff. Surfer has easily accessible armor breaks through sp1 and heavy attacks.
3. Iceman. Surfer takes 100% reduced coldsnap damage.
4. Freezer burn. Surfer takes 100% reduced coldsnap and incinerate damage.
5. havok(if you don't have better options). If necessary, surfer is a decent havok counter. He has easy access to armor up buffs. You might have to sacrifice some damage though

TLDR

Surfer is an underrated champ with lots of niche utility and very good damage. His rotation is Heavy, S1 with fury active, Heavy with armor active, SP3, SP2.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Comments

Mathgeek

I prefer the video

SpideyFunko

the video was better, had an interesting fellow

unknown

This content has been removed.

Lunae

Hey y'all!
Today I decided to make a guide on silver surfer, in text this time(I previously have made a video that I don't recommend you watch).
Overview
SS is a champ that I believe many underrate. He has very solid utility and good damage. If you can get his rotation down, he's probably a top 5/10 cosmic, especially in the 6 star pool. He also has very high prestige, which means that many people at higher levels are likely to rank him anyways.
Basic Rotation
The rotation you want for surfer is
1. throw a heavy at the beginning of the fight to active power gain buff. This is the key to keeping up his buffs, and his damage. Heavy attacks cause surfer to phase for a short period of time, meaning that it is 100% safe to throw it at the start of the fight. The power gain buff is half as long as the other buffs, meaning you can consistently refresh all buffs when it expires.
2. Once you have the power gain buff, save for a sp1 and wait for the power cosmic to refresh and for it to rotate to the dormant fury buff. Throw the SP1. This will activate 2 fury buffs, which vastly increase the damage. Once you're done with that, you can start saving for SP3.
3. Once the power cosmic refreshes, wait for armor up buff. Throw heavy to activate it. If you are at a special 3 already, activate it. This will grant an aptitude buff, increasing buff potency by 25%.
4. After this, the goal is to keep all buffs active. You refresh the buffs by activating power gain buff when it expires. Each buff increases his energy damage.
5. Throw as many sp2s needed to end the fight. These are unblockable. The energy damage is increased by a huge amount during this attack. My 5/50 can do 2-3k energy damage per hit.
Special uses.
Silver surfer is a good counter to many champions and nodes. I have listed some below
1. safeguard. Silver Surfer's energy damage bypasses this node, making him a good option.
2. any matchup where you need armor break debuff. Surfer has easily accessible armor breaks through sp1 and heavy attacks.
3. Iceman. Surfer takes 100% reduced coldsnap damage.
4. Freezer burn. Surfer takes 100% reduced coldsnap and incinerate damage.
5. havok(if you don't have better options). If necessary, surfer is a decent havok counter. He has easy access to armor up buffs. You might have to sacrifice some damage though
TLDR
Surfer is an underrated champ with lots of niche utility and very good damage. His rotation is Heavy, S1 with fury active, Heavy with armor active, SP3, SP2.
Thanks for reading everyone!

Video that follows a similar format for the more visual learners.

https://youtu.be/JmABDEAAx0c

He does some cool stuff, but still can't really get excited about him tbh.

Lunae

The only thing Id suggest adding to your guide is that maybe its better to start with heavy for power then build to sp3, but before launching it trigger the other power gain buff with his heavy and then build him up after the sp3. This way youll have the 2 powergain buffs and increased potency from his aptitude buff.

LilMaddogHT

I'm loving Surfer and I think you are leaving out two very important pieces / tips to getting maximum damage on those specials...

1. Dex! Activate that Crit buff from Dexterity mastery and fire your specials with it or immediately after you first hit (it will still be active for a moment). This will help ensure you get either the Vigilance buff (from L1) or Unblockable buff (from L2) up earlier on in the fight AND the Crit buff is also paused on the specials so you get the extra damage on each special hit for having the extra unique buff up, and that really adds up.

2. Also try to time those specials with either the Power Cosmic buff up or immediately after you phase so you have the Phase buff up on top of that.

You can get 8 buffs up on a special attack w/o any extra synergies: Armor, Fury, Power Gain, Vigilance, Unblockable, Aptitude, Crit (w/ Dex), and either the Power Cosmic or Phase buff to get some sick energy damage.

LilMaddogHT

Here's a quick clip of the energy damage at R5 max sig with all 8 buffs up. 6100+ energy damage per hit. L2 hit for over 60k total damage (not all hits crit):

https://youtu.be/bgtwF8CdRow

FRITO_Man

Well I pulled the six star and really really like him. ANy tips @lowlevelplayer for him as a 6 star rank 1?

lowlevelplayer

Well I pulled the six star and really really like him. ANy tips @lowlevelplayer for him as a 6 star rank 1?

Isn't it the same thing? Just read the above.
TLDR
Surfer is an underrated champ with lots of niche utility and very good damage. His rotation is Heavy, S1 with fury active, Heavy with armor active, SP3, SP2.

Lunae

Well I pulled the six star and really really like him. ANy tips @lowlevelplayer for him as a 6 star rank 1?

Without his Hulk or Strange synergy, he’s pretty annoying to play, can’t imagine him unduped, but I’ve never played him upduped so I can’t really say whether or not he needs it. If you really wanted to play him undupe I’d suggested using Cap IW with his cosmic synergy to extend the duration of Surfers buffs.

Masterpuff

I would still take many over surfer except for prestige purposes. Great overview!

Colonaut123

Thanks for the guide!

I have him as a 4* 4/40 unawakened, I wonder if he is worth ranking up.

Kill_Grey

Lol, that heavy at the start doesn't work for me sometimes cuz of lag ☹️

Lunae

Lol, that heavy at the start doesn't work for me sometimes cuz of lag ☹️

Are you holding heavy before the fight actually starts? I basically do what quake players do, I just hold heavy as soon as the champions start to run in and then when the actual fight starts your already locked in on your heavy.

Kill_Grey

Lol, that heavy at the start doesn't work for me sometimes cuz of lag ☹️
Are you holding heavy before the fight actually starts? I basically do what quake players do, I just hold heavy as soon as the champions start to run in and then when the actual fight starts your already locked in on your heavy.

I hold heavy like quake, works for her but not for surfer.

Lunae

Lol, that heavy at the start doesn't work for me sometimes cuz of lag ☹️
Are you holding heavy before the fight actually starts? I basically do what quake players do, I just hold heavy as soon as the champions start to run in and then when the actual fight starts your already locked in on your heavy.
I hold heavy like quake, works for her but not for surfer.

Weird, yea tested it out and I do get a little bit more lag with Surfer then I do with Quake, must be the phase and buff conversion. You could also try to spamming light attacks before the fight starts instead of holding heavy. You’ll usually get the hit first or just hit into their block then go for the heavy.

Kill_Grey

Lol, that heavy at the start doesn't work for me sometimes cuz of lag ☹️
Are you holding heavy before the fight actually starts? I basically do what quake players do, I just hold heavy as soon as the champions start to run in and then when the actual fight starts your already locked in on your heavy.
I hold heavy like quake, works for her but not for surfer.
Weird, yea tested it out and I do get a little bit more lag with Surfer then I do with Quake, must be the phase and buff conversion. You could also try to spamming light attacks before the fight starts instead of holding heavy. You’ll usually get the hit first or just hit into their block then go for the heavy.

🤔. Usually don't get that "entercept" quite right tho...