In Depth Review of Every 2020 Champion - Part 1/4
Sungj
Member Posts: 2,113 ★★★★★
Hey fellow summoners. As the year comes to a close I wanted to review every champ released this year pretty in depth to show their uses and pros and cons. Many people haven't had a chance to pull them at a high level as they haven't been in the crystals very long or if at all but they will be much more common in the coming year. I wanted to put out a bit of an info guide on my opinion on each of the champs to give people a baseline on how good a champ could be and where they will be useful. This will be a four part series and each post will be quite long as I'm breaking down six champions each post. I spent more time on this than I should have so I'd appreciate anyone giving it a read as well as feedback
Squirrel Girl - I remember when Squirrel Girl first came out there was actually quite a lot of hype around her as a couple of show case videos from youtubers like Lagacy really demonstrated her potentially amazing damage output. Unfortunately though as we've learned with champions like Cull Obsidian high damage output isn't always enough to propel a champion into the top tiers if they have other glaring weaknesses of which Squirrel Girl has many.
The first being her lack of meaningful utility. She has the ability to occasionally shrug off all non-damaging debuffs and can prevent evade/autoblock effects. Now both of these pieces of utility are circumstantially useful but they are dependent on switching tippy toe which isn't always what you want to do if you're trying to cycle her big bleed damage and it's also not always very practical. She is completely dependent on the opponent being able to bleed as well as easy access to special attacks so champs/nodes that reduce debuff duration, add immunities, mess with her power, etc will render her effectively useless.
She needs her sig ability and ideally 200 sig levels to maximize her damage output. This isn't necessarily a weakness if the payoff is worth it like with Omega-Red and Aegon but Squirrel Girl simply doesn't bring enough to the table to warrant using any sig stones which are still a valuable resource. So 99.5% summoners will never even be able to play her at her peak potential. On top of all that she has very very low base block proficiency at only 49%. Now this can be mitigated by switching Tippy toe onto you but again you're not going to be able to have 100% up time on this if you want to see her strong damage output so occasionally you're going to take noticeable damage off parries and blocked hits.
The way I see it she's basically a noticeably worse version of Carnage, high bleed damage but little utility. I've sounded pretty negative so far so to end on a more positive note for Squirrel girl. I really don't want to sell her damage output short. She can absolutely burst down fights very quickly hitting 100k+ sp2s, she can be a fast lane clearer on easier paths in act 6 that don't require specific pieces of utility and she can be really good against trickier do you bleed matchups. I haven't tested her out in Cavalier EQ but I also imagine she'd be pretty insane there as well considering she applies bleeds very quickly.
Overall Rating - 5/10
Nova - Onto one of the most underwhelming champions in recent history compared to how hyped they were before release. Going through Nova's weaknesses first, the most glaring thing to me is his incredibly odd and impractical playstyle paired with his low damage output. Done well, his dashing and distance based mechanics could've been really fun and I do know people who enjoy playing Nova but the payoff simply isn't worth the effort. His playstyle having to often dash back and dash forward makes fights seem very slow and even played optimally his damage output is no more than average at best. You need to take advantage of his dash mechanic to even just get normal levels of power gain rate the average champ has at base.
His utility, though it is there and I'll go through them in a bit, a lot of it isn't consistent. He can gain a true strike buff off his SP1 but you can't get 100% uptime on it so there are many better options out there to use against evade and autoblock mechanics. He can inflict armor breaks but only against tech champions so that can be occasionally useful maybe against like a mysterio. Again the utility isn't bad but there are limiting factors that will never make him a top or even good option in matchups where his utility is useful.
Going onto his strengths, the best thing Nova has going for him is probably his non-contact medium attacks. This is legitimately useful utility which makes him viable if you have no better answers for fights like Electro or nodes that inflict damage if you make contact with the defender. Again it's only on medium attacks and Nova doesn't have much else going for him so he's never going to be insane for any match up but if you really need it he's an option.
Another cool piece of utility I don't think many people know about is he lowers opponent's attack by 70% when struck by unblockable, true strike or critical hit attacks. The last 2 parts of that isn't very relevant but the first part is. If there's a fight against a champion with tricky specials to dodge like darkhawk or Dr. Strange on an unblockable special node he can tank it pretty well. This paired with his non-contact mediums actually make him a decent korg counter. He also gains buffs very regularly, this can be weakness but also makes him viable for Cavalier EQ. If you play him well he can hold 3 buffs for most of the fight and they are furies so he will get the aptitude bonus. So yeah, he's definitely not good but has some things going for him. His damage isn't good but it's not bottom of the barrel like Rhino or Iron man and his utility is scarce but situationally useful.
Last thing I'll touch on is Nova as a defender. Now I don't consider this aspect nearly as highly when reviewing a champion but he is a near top tier defender on certain nodes so I do know many people take up Nova for defense.
Overall Rating - 3/10
Longshot - A champion that was insanely hyped in CCP videos, Longshot didn't quite live up to those expectations but he is still an amazing champion. Longshot is relatively simple but very very effective in matchups where there are buffs to be taken advantage of. His damage first off is simply insane, even where there are no buffs on the opponent landing an sp2 with max bad karma on the opponent bursts them down so quickly and each heavy attack after that deals a ton of damage. He can easily take down ROL bosses in well under 2 minutes even Storm and Vision who generate zero buffs.
Now add buffs to the equation and it take's longshot to a different level. He likely becomes the top pure damage dealer in the mystic class, ROL black bolt down in a minute tops, resistor nodes absolutely bullied, etc. His Sp1 also deals a lot of burst bleed damage if you need to finish off a fight and don't want to build to another Sp2. His utility isn't just tied around buffs either, he has a lot of increased power gain based on the bad luck on your opponent and he has a huge ability accuracy multiplier making him great against Domino, disorient effects and nodes that reduce your abiltiy accuracy.
Being relatively simple is good in that he's very easy to play and master but that also means he lacks the wide breadth of utility that all the other top tier mystic champions have. The main problem with Longshot and the reason why I think he's actually become a little underrated or even kind of forgotten as the year has winded down is the top of the mystic class being Doom, Claire and Sorcerer Supreme just do fights that Longshot is good for but better. They might not have the damage but they have a level of control and utility that Longshot lacks. That being said he's still an arguably top 5 mystic champion and well as a pretty good lane clearer based off of his very high damage output alone.
Finally, his Awakened ability is kind of a mixed bag, it's pretty decent in certain match ups like Juggernaut and Hyperion where there are buffs you need to control before getting up to an SP2. However it's only 60% reliable at sig 200 so it's not like it's a guarantee help in those match ups. On top of that it reduces the amount of buffs on the opponent so it can reduce Longshot's damage output for his first sp2 quite significantly.
Overall Rating - 8/10
Mojo - The Mystic Class really got a big bump this year and Mojo is in my opinion a champ that's being really slept on by a lot of the general community. Like Longshot, Mojo is a mystic champion with really strong damage output which the class was kind of lacking as a whole before 2020. He is a ramp-up champion but his ramp is very easy and quick so it's not a huge hindrance to the character like with someone like Morningstar whom really doesn't start to shine until 3-4 fights in. All he needs to do to ramp is complete prompts which are a natural part of his rotation and are relatively simple like dashing back, holding block and activating a special attack.
Mojo still hits super hard unramped, against ROL Wintersoldier without suicides Mojo can take him down in 93 hits and around 2:15 seconds of fight time. His damage output can rinse fights like 6.2 champion even pre-nerf, Mojo could get the takedown in under 2 minutes if played well. He can solo the 6.4 hydra adapoid boss, absolutely shred lanes in variant 2 as well as throughout act 6. His powergain once ramped is through the roof especially paired with MD and he actually is very sustainable. His regen while at first seems insignificant but as you go deeper into a harder quest you can regen 10-20% health if not more per fight if the opponent has buffs. Mojo can burst fights even faster than Longshot in short-medium matchups and can match his damage in longer fights as well.
That being said Mojo still has his fair share of weaknesses. He has very little control over permanent buffs so he can't take advantage of fights like black bolt and any nodes that apply permanent buffs the way other mystic nullifiers can. He also only reduces buff duration by 90% while death field is active so you can still be taken off guard by a long unstoppable effect or a strong power gain buff. He is super dependent on his sig ability for his damage output, he pretty much needs to be awakened as well as be sig 200. Now him being mystic is probably the best class to have this issue at as there are very few mystics that need their sig at a high level so Mojo I'd say is worth the resources to get up to that level. At sig 200 he is in my opinion in contention as a top 4-6 mystic champion
Overall Rating - 8/10
Moleman - With such insane animations I think most of us expected more out of Moleman so natually we were left disappointed. I definitely welcome the coming buff but I also really don't think Moleman is a terrible champion. I think most people reading his abilities , guaranteed crits, guaranteed bleeds, shock, expected a crazy damage output machine which Moleman defnitely is not. That being said I think if we switch our view of Moleman as a utility champion, he's really not unusable and definitely in my opinion should not be part of the worst champion of 2020 discussion.
His debuff shrug off mechanic is really really powerful. When managed correctly you can absolutely counter debuff lanes in questing, he's actually great for the icarus node, fighting voids, can solo the annoying daredevil boss in Variant 6 with Biohazard. This alone makes him a pretty versatile champion. He also has a very potent evade counter below 5 mole mass. This actually makes him a top option for that super annoying evade adaptoid boss in Variant 2 and useable against other evade matchups but the downside of this abiltiy is that you will gimp his damage output even further never going above 5 mole mass. He has innate shock immunity on top of his debuff shrug off so while I haven't tested it myself should make him an option for EMP mod nodes. He can do a little work against stun immune fights as blocking hits grants an unstoppable if you have at least 1 monster mass so you can get openings that way but again this will gimp his damage even further. The unstoppable buff also lets him cheese that one node combination in variant 6.
So that's a lot of pros for a "bad" champion and while I wouldn't say Moleman is straight garbage like most he can't be called great or even that good because his damage is so poor. It's actually kind of crazy how a champ with guaranteed crits and high bleed stacking can hit like such a noodle. Ramping up his monster mass to even get into frenzy can be a pain and once you're in frenzy critting and bleeding like crazy his damage output is still below average. That's what makes me so excited for his buff, just bringing his damage output to like even slightly above average level I think would make a lot more people see the value in his utility.
Overall Rating - 4/10
Terrax - Oh boy. Let's just get it out of the way, Terrax is my candidate for worst champion of 2020. His ability list is so long for a champion that at the end of the day does almost nothing. Starting with his few pros, he is shock and bleed immune which is always relevant utility to have. He also has easy access to armor breaks for when that is relevant against champs like Emma frost. His power can't be messed with in basically any way against tech champions so he can be okay against Guilly 2099 not having to worry about the sp1 power drain. Finally he gets indestructible passives based on his power cosmic but the indestructible doesn't count against sp3s and all fall off when rock field ends so it isn't very useful.
And that pretty much it or pros. Basically all of Terrax's ability are for defense so offensively he does so little. His base stats are so bad, he has low damage, low crit rate, low crit damage. The low crit damage and crit rate alone will make his additional damaging abilities less impactful. He gains a pretty big attack increase while rock field is active, around 150% attack and still with that his mediums will seldom hit harder than 2.5-3k at a rank 5 level as a five star. But wait maybe his rock field will make up for his low base attack . . . nope. Even keeping up the rock field for any meaningful period of time is very impractical and in moments you can see bigger red numbers you can only keep it up for like 5 more second before it falls off.
He also has really counterintuitive mechanics involving his heavy attacks, rock field and armor breaks. Charging his heavy attacks pauses rock field so in theory you could use this to up the time rock field is active increasing the damage from it but nope landing the heavy ends rock field. His armour breaks which are tiny by the way have such a short up time if you do use the heavy attack you can't refresh them with your fourth light attack.
Finally his "ramp up" is completely useless on offense. You gain power cosmics by ramping up to 50 attack charges but the power cosmics barely do anything. You get increased power when struck which if you're playing the champion you don't want to get struck. You get increased power when blocking but in high level content with bigger attack values you don't want to take blocked hits. Terrrax's block proficiency is just average if not slightly below so taking blocked hits isn't sustainable. You get indestructible passives on rock field activation and maybe could get value from this if you time it so you get hit while you have rock field active and the passives to get a lot of power. But you can only get 6 indestructible passives maximum and you have no idea if the opponent will chain into a special after a five hit combo just wrecking you so it's not a viable strategy. Yeah Terrax sucks and honestly even though he's being buffed I don't have much hope for it because its just a tune up of numbers and it's Terrax's design itself that is bad not just the numbers.
Overall Rating 2/10
Squirrel Girl - I remember when Squirrel Girl first came out there was actually quite a lot of hype around her as a couple of show case videos from youtubers like Lagacy really demonstrated her potentially amazing damage output. Unfortunately though as we've learned with champions like Cull Obsidian high damage output isn't always enough to propel a champion into the top tiers if they have other glaring weaknesses of which Squirrel Girl has many.
The first being her lack of meaningful utility. She has the ability to occasionally shrug off all non-damaging debuffs and can prevent evade/autoblock effects. Now both of these pieces of utility are circumstantially useful but they are dependent on switching tippy toe which isn't always what you want to do if you're trying to cycle her big bleed damage and it's also not always very practical. She is completely dependent on the opponent being able to bleed as well as easy access to special attacks so champs/nodes that reduce debuff duration, add immunities, mess with her power, etc will render her effectively useless.
She needs her sig ability and ideally 200 sig levels to maximize her damage output. This isn't necessarily a weakness if the payoff is worth it like with Omega-Red and Aegon but Squirrel Girl simply doesn't bring enough to the table to warrant using any sig stones which are still a valuable resource. So 99.5% summoners will never even be able to play her at her peak potential. On top of all that she has very very low base block proficiency at only 49%. Now this can be mitigated by switching Tippy toe onto you but again you're not going to be able to have 100% up time on this if you want to see her strong damage output so occasionally you're going to take noticeable damage off parries and blocked hits.
The way I see it she's basically a noticeably worse version of Carnage, high bleed damage but little utility. I've sounded pretty negative so far so to end on a more positive note for Squirrel girl. I really don't want to sell her damage output short. She can absolutely burst down fights very quickly hitting 100k+ sp2s, she can be a fast lane clearer on easier paths in act 6 that don't require specific pieces of utility and she can be really good against trickier do you bleed matchups. I haven't tested her out in Cavalier EQ but I also imagine she'd be pretty insane there as well considering she applies bleeds very quickly.
Overall Rating - 5/10
Nova - Onto one of the most underwhelming champions in recent history compared to how hyped they were before release. Going through Nova's weaknesses first, the most glaring thing to me is his incredibly odd and impractical playstyle paired with his low damage output. Done well, his dashing and distance based mechanics could've been really fun and I do know people who enjoy playing Nova but the payoff simply isn't worth the effort. His playstyle having to often dash back and dash forward makes fights seem very slow and even played optimally his damage output is no more than average at best. You need to take advantage of his dash mechanic to even just get normal levels of power gain rate the average champ has at base.
His utility, though it is there and I'll go through them in a bit, a lot of it isn't consistent. He can gain a true strike buff off his SP1 but you can't get 100% uptime on it so there are many better options out there to use against evade and autoblock mechanics. He can inflict armor breaks but only against tech champions so that can be occasionally useful maybe against like a mysterio. Again the utility isn't bad but there are limiting factors that will never make him a top or even good option in matchups where his utility is useful.
Going onto his strengths, the best thing Nova has going for him is probably his non-contact medium attacks. This is legitimately useful utility which makes him viable if you have no better answers for fights like Electro or nodes that inflict damage if you make contact with the defender. Again it's only on medium attacks and Nova doesn't have much else going for him so he's never going to be insane for any match up but if you really need it he's an option.
Another cool piece of utility I don't think many people know about is he lowers opponent's attack by 70% when struck by unblockable, true strike or critical hit attacks. The last 2 parts of that isn't very relevant but the first part is. If there's a fight against a champion with tricky specials to dodge like darkhawk or Dr. Strange on an unblockable special node he can tank it pretty well. This paired with his non-contact mediums actually make him a decent korg counter. He also gains buffs very regularly, this can be weakness but also makes him viable for Cavalier EQ. If you play him well he can hold 3 buffs for most of the fight and they are furies so he will get the aptitude bonus. So yeah, he's definitely not good but has some things going for him. His damage isn't good but it's not bottom of the barrel like Rhino or Iron man and his utility is scarce but situationally useful.
Last thing I'll touch on is Nova as a defender. Now I don't consider this aspect nearly as highly when reviewing a champion but he is a near top tier defender on certain nodes so I do know many people take up Nova for defense.
Overall Rating - 3/10
Longshot - A champion that was insanely hyped in CCP videos, Longshot didn't quite live up to those expectations but he is still an amazing champion. Longshot is relatively simple but very very effective in matchups where there are buffs to be taken advantage of. His damage first off is simply insane, even where there are no buffs on the opponent landing an sp2 with max bad karma on the opponent bursts them down so quickly and each heavy attack after that deals a ton of damage. He can easily take down ROL bosses in well under 2 minutes even Storm and Vision who generate zero buffs.
Now add buffs to the equation and it take's longshot to a different level. He likely becomes the top pure damage dealer in the mystic class, ROL black bolt down in a minute tops, resistor nodes absolutely bullied, etc. His Sp1 also deals a lot of burst bleed damage if you need to finish off a fight and don't want to build to another Sp2. His utility isn't just tied around buffs either, he has a lot of increased power gain based on the bad luck on your opponent and he has a huge ability accuracy multiplier making him great against Domino, disorient effects and nodes that reduce your abiltiy accuracy.
Being relatively simple is good in that he's very easy to play and master but that also means he lacks the wide breadth of utility that all the other top tier mystic champions have. The main problem with Longshot and the reason why I think he's actually become a little underrated or even kind of forgotten as the year has winded down is the top of the mystic class being Doom, Claire and Sorcerer Supreme just do fights that Longshot is good for but better. They might not have the damage but they have a level of control and utility that Longshot lacks. That being said he's still an arguably top 5 mystic champion and well as a pretty good lane clearer based off of his very high damage output alone.
Finally, his Awakened ability is kind of a mixed bag, it's pretty decent in certain match ups like Juggernaut and Hyperion where there are buffs you need to control before getting up to an SP2. However it's only 60% reliable at sig 200 so it's not like it's a guarantee help in those match ups. On top of that it reduces the amount of buffs on the opponent so it can reduce Longshot's damage output for his first sp2 quite significantly.
Overall Rating - 8/10
Mojo - The Mystic Class really got a big bump this year and Mojo is in my opinion a champ that's being really slept on by a lot of the general community. Like Longshot, Mojo is a mystic champion with really strong damage output which the class was kind of lacking as a whole before 2020. He is a ramp-up champion but his ramp is very easy and quick so it's not a huge hindrance to the character like with someone like Morningstar whom really doesn't start to shine until 3-4 fights in. All he needs to do to ramp is complete prompts which are a natural part of his rotation and are relatively simple like dashing back, holding block and activating a special attack.
Mojo still hits super hard unramped, against ROL Wintersoldier without suicides Mojo can take him down in 93 hits and around 2:15 seconds of fight time. His damage output can rinse fights like 6.2 champion even pre-nerf, Mojo could get the takedown in under 2 minutes if played well. He can solo the 6.4 hydra adapoid boss, absolutely shred lanes in variant 2 as well as throughout act 6. His powergain once ramped is through the roof especially paired with MD and he actually is very sustainable. His regen while at first seems insignificant but as you go deeper into a harder quest you can regen 10-20% health if not more per fight if the opponent has buffs. Mojo can burst fights even faster than Longshot in short-medium matchups and can match his damage in longer fights as well.
That being said Mojo still has his fair share of weaknesses. He has very little control over permanent buffs so he can't take advantage of fights like black bolt and any nodes that apply permanent buffs the way other mystic nullifiers can. He also only reduces buff duration by 90% while death field is active so you can still be taken off guard by a long unstoppable effect or a strong power gain buff. He is super dependent on his sig ability for his damage output, he pretty much needs to be awakened as well as be sig 200. Now him being mystic is probably the best class to have this issue at as there are very few mystics that need their sig at a high level so Mojo I'd say is worth the resources to get up to that level. At sig 200 he is in my opinion in contention as a top 4-6 mystic champion
Overall Rating - 8/10
Moleman - With such insane animations I think most of us expected more out of Moleman so natually we were left disappointed. I definitely welcome the coming buff but I also really don't think Moleman is a terrible champion. I think most people reading his abilities , guaranteed crits, guaranteed bleeds, shock, expected a crazy damage output machine which Moleman defnitely is not. That being said I think if we switch our view of Moleman as a utility champion, he's really not unusable and definitely in my opinion should not be part of the worst champion of 2020 discussion.
His debuff shrug off mechanic is really really powerful. When managed correctly you can absolutely counter debuff lanes in questing, he's actually great for the icarus node, fighting voids, can solo the annoying daredevil boss in Variant 6 with Biohazard. This alone makes him a pretty versatile champion. He also has a very potent evade counter below 5 mole mass. This actually makes him a top option for that super annoying evade adaptoid boss in Variant 2 and useable against other evade matchups but the downside of this abiltiy is that you will gimp his damage output even further never going above 5 mole mass. He has innate shock immunity on top of his debuff shrug off so while I haven't tested it myself should make him an option for EMP mod nodes. He can do a little work against stun immune fights as blocking hits grants an unstoppable if you have at least 1 monster mass so you can get openings that way but again this will gimp his damage even further. The unstoppable buff also lets him cheese that one node combination in variant 6.
So that's a lot of pros for a "bad" champion and while I wouldn't say Moleman is straight garbage like most he can't be called great or even that good because his damage is so poor. It's actually kind of crazy how a champ with guaranteed crits and high bleed stacking can hit like such a noodle. Ramping up his monster mass to even get into frenzy can be a pain and once you're in frenzy critting and bleeding like crazy his damage output is still below average. That's what makes me so excited for his buff, just bringing his damage output to like even slightly above average level I think would make a lot more people see the value in his utility.
Overall Rating - 4/10
Terrax - Oh boy. Let's just get it out of the way, Terrax is my candidate for worst champion of 2020. His ability list is so long for a champion that at the end of the day does almost nothing. Starting with his few pros, he is shock and bleed immune which is always relevant utility to have. He also has easy access to armor breaks for when that is relevant against champs like Emma frost. His power can't be messed with in basically any way against tech champions so he can be okay against Guilly 2099 not having to worry about the sp1 power drain. Finally he gets indestructible passives based on his power cosmic but the indestructible doesn't count against sp3s and all fall off when rock field ends so it isn't very useful.
And that pretty much it or pros. Basically all of Terrax's ability are for defense so offensively he does so little. His base stats are so bad, he has low damage, low crit rate, low crit damage. The low crit damage and crit rate alone will make his additional damaging abilities less impactful. He gains a pretty big attack increase while rock field is active, around 150% attack and still with that his mediums will seldom hit harder than 2.5-3k at a rank 5 level as a five star. But wait maybe his rock field will make up for his low base attack . . . nope. Even keeping up the rock field for any meaningful period of time is very impractical and in moments you can see bigger red numbers you can only keep it up for like 5 more second before it falls off.
He also has really counterintuitive mechanics involving his heavy attacks, rock field and armor breaks. Charging his heavy attacks pauses rock field so in theory you could use this to up the time rock field is active increasing the damage from it but nope landing the heavy ends rock field. His armour breaks which are tiny by the way have such a short up time if you do use the heavy attack you can't refresh them with your fourth light attack.
Finally his "ramp up" is completely useless on offense. You gain power cosmics by ramping up to 50 attack charges but the power cosmics barely do anything. You get increased power when struck which if you're playing the champion you don't want to get struck. You get increased power when blocking but in high level content with bigger attack values you don't want to take blocked hits. Terrrax's block proficiency is just average if not slightly below so taking blocked hits isn't sustainable. You get indestructible passives on rock field activation and maybe could get value from this if you time it so you get hit while you have rock field active and the passives to get a lot of power. But you can only get 6 indestructible passives maximum and you have no idea if the opponent will chain into a special after a five hit combo just wrecking you so it's not a viable strategy. Yeah Terrax sucks and honestly even though he's being buffed I don't have much hope for it because its just a tune up of numbers and it's Terrax's design itself that is bad not just the numbers.
Overall Rating 2/10
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Edit: Yeah maybe she does deserve a 6/10, I just haven't seen much gameplay that really convinced me that she's that much above average in terms of actual use. I'm pretty conservative with my rankings of champions