**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Options
Black Widow (Deadly Origin): full review.
Qacob
Posts: 2,253 ★★★★★
*DISCLAIMER* This thread may be a little laggy trying to load the GIFs and images, though I lowered their quality to try and avoid this, hope it's all okay. Additionally, any numbers you see are based off a 5/65 5* Black Widow, though I will be providing small gameplay clips from my r4 unawakened 5*.
Okay so this is my first ever full champion write up as I usually leave this to the pros, but I for once felt confident enough about a somewhat new-ish champion that I feel isn't talked about enough that I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. That being said it will still probably suck but oh well. I hope you enjoy it because it took me way too long to do. Anyways, introducing: BLACK WIDOW (DEADLY ORIGIN)
ABILITIES:
Always a good place to start, and in Widow's case it's very straightforward.
- Widow's insight
Widow's core ability, and the reason mine is at r4 (only the real gang will know), widow's insight is a passive effect that is active for 0.85 seconds after the opponent is dashing towards you, ending a combo or recovering from a heavy or special attack. It is refreshed whenever black widow lands a hit while it is active.
This means to maximise up time and therefore damage, an aggressive and interceptive playstyle is required. Also, widow's insight cannot be lost other than after an sp3 which I will cover later. While active, Black widow gains additional beneficial effects that I will mention alongside their respective abilities.
- Baton hits
Baton hits (literally every attack except first hit of heavy and first hit of sp1) deal energy damage and each have a 40% chance to place a shock dealing 1827.75 damage over 3.65 seconds.
This makes her a viable korg counter as you do not take his thorns damage with most of your attacks although not ideal as he is immune to shock.
While widows insight is active: mediums have a 70% passive DAAR, lights have +60% shock chance and ending a combo grants a +286.36 crit chance precision buff for 24 seconds with a stack limit of 8.
- Counter attack evade
When Black Widow is caused to miss, she gains a passive evade for 8 seconds, causing the next hit to be evaded and then countered by a flashbang that cannot miss, does not give power and inflicts a sabotage debuff.
This has no cooldown making her an insane miss counter which is an ability we are seeing more of recently, leading me to think that this complete passive safety net will just gain value as the game evolves. The passive evade can also be gained after a sp1.
- Sabotage
Reduces defensive ability accuracy by 20% for 6 seconds, and deals 48.74 damage whenever it causes an ability to fail to trigger.
- Sig ability
Sabotages last 1.2 - 4.8 seconds longer and are paused for half a second whenever struck while widow's insight is active. Also damage dealt when abilities fail is increased to 73.11 - 107.228
- Heavy attacks
While insight is active, 100% chance to stun for 1.75 seconds. This ability can be used to push yourself out from the corner or find an opening but I think it is widely overlooked.
- Sp1
Last hit inflicts a shock dealing 2437 damage over 13 seconds and activates the passive evade.
- Sp2
This is where the real damage comes from… all hits deal 4630.3 damage when striking a shocked opponent. When widow's insight is active, opponent's DAAR is reduced by 70% on each hit. Thats a minimum of 23,151.5 damage per sp2, excluding all damage from any of the hits themselves. This can also be elevated by the cruelty passives from her sp3.
- Sp3
Removes all insight and places 1 passive cruelty increasing crit damage by 430.12 for 30 seconds for each 5 of widow's insight removed. That's a max of 4301.2 if you have 50 stacks of insight, and combine that with her crit buffs and you can do some serious damage.
SYNERGIES
Not gonna go through them all as this is already way too long, but the only 2 I think are worth using are with RG to provide a safety net / instant sabotage at the start of the fight; and with Taskmaster (shoutout to max) to give a juicy boost in her power gain.
USES / PROS
Finally got the boring stuff out of the way, now let's talk about her uses. And she actually covers a lot more than you might think.
- Diss track counter
Obviously works very well here as there are almost always more than 3 shocks on the opponent.
- Buffed up counter
Not someone you'd typically think of when looking for a BU counter but she does it incredibly well as you can very easily have 3 presicion buffs up 100% of the time.
- Cavalier EQ skill node
Probably the fastest character to reach the 20 passive fury cap, she is absolutely insane for this node.
- Icky stick root node counter
Because of her 7 hit combo, she can very easily reset the root timer by landing 10 hits. She can also be very useful for other root variants because of her ability to counter heavies and specials with a heavy of her own to inflict a stun and create an opening.
- Viable Korg counter
She avoids damage on most of her hits because they are energy based, and the 7 hit combo can shatter his rock shield pretty easily, though her damage is massively affected by his shock immunity
- Miss counter
Probably the best in the game because of her safety net afterwards that also reduces the opponents defensive ability accuracy and with no cooldown.
- DAAR potential
Now this will also be included as a downside later on, but her 70% DAAR on mediums while insight is active combined with 20% from sabotage is a very solid and underrated mechanic with heaps of potential uses.
- DOT queen
More than 50% of her damage comes from shocks, and she doesn't actually hit that hard which counters physical resistance, rage and other fun nodes of the like.
- Fast and easy to intercept with animations
Personally, this is huge to me, especially as a character that is heavily reliant on intercepts; having sleek animations is vital. Also makes her REALLY satisfying to play.
DOWNSIDES / CONS
Like all good things, there are downsides. Also a couple things that I think have been implemented into her kit poorly.
- Heavily reliant on shocks
If the opponent is shock immune, you lose practically all of you damage, which is obviously not fun
- No immunities
Not surprising at all, but it's always nice to have
- Reliant on intercepts / aggression
Making her not ideal for nodes like might charge. (Though if you can reparry your opponents second medium you can strike with insight from a parry. Plus you can still punish specials and heavies to activate widow's insight so it's not a complete inconvenience.)
- DAAR potential
Now, this is my one complaint about the character. I think the DAAR is a great ability for her to have, but in my opinion it hasn't been put into her kit well.
The sabotage only is a 20% reduction and does a pathetic amount of damage when it makes an ability fail which isn't an issue because that damage isn't needed anyway, it just seems odd to even put in a damage mechanic if it's going to do that little.
I think the tiny amount of damage was just removed and instead of her sig ability affecting that, it instead modified the reduction percentage, maybe to a max of 80% reduction, which sounds high, but considering the impracticality of keeping it up is actually pretty reasonable.
CONCLUSION / TL;DR
To conclude I think that Black widow is criminally underrated, and when you look at what she can cover it is much wider than what you might first think. Her damage is great and she is amazingly fun and satisfying to play. Her utility is nice but I just wish her sabotage was more useful, allowing her to sacrifice some of her damage to get a chunky DAAR, though not game breaking.
I also think that in recent days she has gained a huge amount of value through the addition of Cav EQ skill node, root, and the increasing number of champions that have the ability to miss. And I also believe that her value will continue to increase as we see more miss and root mechanics in the future.
Thank you to anyone who has read the whole thing, I would appreciate any constructive criticism as I have actually really enjoyed writing this and would like to do more. Also this is my 1000th POST!!!
Please share your thoughts below.
Okay so this is my first ever full champion write up as I usually leave this to the pros, but I for once felt confident enough about a somewhat new-ish champion that I feel isn't talked about enough that I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. That being said it will still probably suck but oh well. I hope you enjoy it because it took me way too long to do. Anyways, introducing: BLACK WIDOW (DEADLY ORIGIN)
ABILITIES:
Always a good place to start, and in Widow's case it's very straightforward.
- Widow's insight
Widow's core ability, and the reason mine is at r4 (only the real gang will know), widow's insight is a passive effect that is active for 0.85 seconds after the opponent is dashing towards you, ending a combo or recovering from a heavy or special attack. It is refreshed whenever black widow lands a hit while it is active.
This means to maximise up time and therefore damage, an aggressive and interceptive playstyle is required. Also, widow's insight cannot be lost other than after an sp3 which I will cover later. While active, Black widow gains additional beneficial effects that I will mention alongside their respective abilities.
- Baton hits
Baton hits (literally every attack except first hit of heavy and first hit of sp1) deal energy damage and each have a 40% chance to place a shock dealing 1827.75 damage over 3.65 seconds.
This makes her a viable korg counter as you do not take his thorns damage with most of your attacks although not ideal as he is immune to shock.
While widows insight is active: mediums have a 70% passive DAAR, lights have +60% shock chance and ending a combo grants a +286.36 crit chance precision buff for 24 seconds with a stack limit of 8.
- Counter attack evade
When Black Widow is caused to miss, she gains a passive evade for 8 seconds, causing the next hit to be evaded and then countered by a flashbang that cannot miss, does not give power and inflicts a sabotage debuff.
This has no cooldown making her an insane miss counter which is an ability we are seeing more of recently, leading me to think that this complete passive safety net will just gain value as the game evolves. The passive evade can also be gained after a sp1.
- Sabotage
Reduces defensive ability accuracy by 20% for 6 seconds, and deals 48.74 damage whenever it causes an ability to fail to trigger.
- Sig ability
Sabotages last 1.2 - 4.8 seconds longer and are paused for half a second whenever struck while widow's insight is active. Also damage dealt when abilities fail is increased to 73.11 - 107.228
- Heavy attacks
While insight is active, 100% chance to stun for 1.75 seconds. This ability can be used to push yourself out from the corner or find an opening but I think it is widely overlooked.
- Sp1
Last hit inflicts a shock dealing 2437 damage over 13 seconds and activates the passive evade.
- Sp2
This is where the real damage comes from… all hits deal 4630.3 damage when striking a shocked opponent. When widow's insight is active, opponent's DAAR is reduced by 70% on each hit. Thats a minimum of 23,151.5 damage per sp2, excluding all damage from any of the hits themselves. This can also be elevated by the cruelty passives from her sp3.
- Sp3
Removes all insight and places 1 passive cruelty increasing crit damage by 430.12 for 30 seconds for each 5 of widow's insight removed. That's a max of 4301.2 if you have 50 stacks of insight, and combine that with her crit buffs and you can do some serious damage.
SYNERGIES
Not gonna go through them all as this is already way too long, but the only 2 I think are worth using are with RG to provide a safety net / instant sabotage at the start of the fight; and with Taskmaster (shoutout to max) to give a juicy boost in her power gain.
USES / PROS
Finally got the boring stuff out of the way, now let's talk about her uses. And she actually covers a lot more than you might think.
- Diss track counter
Obviously works very well here as there are almost always more than 3 shocks on the opponent.
- Buffed up counter
Not someone you'd typically think of when looking for a BU counter but she does it incredibly well as you can very easily have 3 presicion buffs up 100% of the time.
- Cavalier EQ skill node
Probably the fastest character to reach the 20 passive fury cap, she is absolutely insane for this node.
- Icky stick root node counter
Because of her 7 hit combo, she can very easily reset the root timer by landing 10 hits. She can also be very useful for other root variants because of her ability to counter heavies and specials with a heavy of her own to inflict a stun and create an opening.
- Viable Korg counter
She avoids damage on most of her hits because they are energy based, and the 7 hit combo can shatter his rock shield pretty easily, though her damage is massively affected by his shock immunity
- Miss counter
Probably the best in the game because of her safety net afterwards that also reduces the opponents defensive ability accuracy and with no cooldown.
- DAAR potential
Now this will also be included as a downside later on, but her 70% DAAR on mediums while insight is active combined with 20% from sabotage is a very solid and underrated mechanic with heaps of potential uses.
- DOT queen
More than 50% of her damage comes from shocks, and she doesn't actually hit that hard which counters physical resistance, rage and other fun nodes of the like.
- Fast and easy to intercept with animations
Personally, this is huge to me, especially as a character that is heavily reliant on intercepts; having sleek animations is vital. Also makes her REALLY satisfying to play.
DOWNSIDES / CONS
Like all good things, there are downsides. Also a couple things that I think have been implemented into her kit poorly.
- Heavily reliant on shocks
If the opponent is shock immune, you lose practically all of you damage, which is obviously not fun
- No immunities
Not surprising at all, but it's always nice to have
- Reliant on intercepts / aggression
Making her not ideal for nodes like might charge. (Though if you can reparry your opponents second medium you can strike with insight from a parry. Plus you can still punish specials and heavies to activate widow's insight so it's not a complete inconvenience.)
- DAAR potential
Now, this is my one complaint about the character. I think the DAAR is a great ability for her to have, but in my opinion it hasn't been put into her kit well.
The sabotage only is a 20% reduction and does a pathetic amount of damage when it makes an ability fail which isn't an issue because that damage isn't needed anyway, it just seems odd to even put in a damage mechanic if it's going to do that little.
I think the tiny amount of damage was just removed and instead of her sig ability affecting that, it instead modified the reduction percentage, maybe to a max of 80% reduction, which sounds high, but considering the impracticality of keeping it up is actually pretty reasonable.
CONCLUSION / TL;DR
To conclude I think that Black widow is criminally underrated, and when you look at what she can cover it is much wider than what you might first think. Her damage is great and she is amazingly fun and satisfying to play. Her utility is nice but I just wish her sabotage was more useful, allowing her to sacrifice some of her damage to get a chunky DAAR, though not game breaking.
I also think that in recent days she has gained a huge amount of value through the addition of Cav EQ skill node, root, and the increasing number of champions that have the ability to miss. And I also believe that her value will continue to increase as we see more miss and root mechanics in the future.
Thank you to anyone who has read the whole thing, I would appreciate any constructive criticism as I have actually really enjoyed writing this and would like to do more. Also this is my 1000th POST!!!
Please share your thoughts below.
39
Comments
But BWDO is #2 imo
(No we, as a community, are not starting this again)
Also show him some love people it's his 1000th post!
I enjoyed reading this. Her damage is great and her utility is undiscovered, but I think people like you will help us see the light!
Very nice job breaking down her abilities.
6*s are expensive to rank up though but I'm looking forward to playing her fully leveled.
I don't think so, her use case is VERY specific, and, as you pointed out, is useless if up against a shock immune champ. Lots of nodes aren't friendly to her as well.
She still better than lots of champs, but, there are other champs that are much better than her.
Nice write up!