Ranking the First Half of the 2021 Champs
As we are now halfway through the year in terms of champs, it seems like a good time to reflect upon what we’ve had so far this year before we get Hercules’ and America Chavez’s abilities in the next couple of days.
Let me begin by stating that the champs so far this year have been...a bit dire to say the least. There is a clear Top 3 to me then it kind of falls of a bit of a cliff. And then it falls off another cliff.
No. 12:
Surprising no one, No.12 is Super Skrull. The man whose kit doesn’t work, is way too stressful, has too little payoff, and almost all his utility is impossible to upkeep anywhere near the time you need to. I can’t think of anyone situation where this guy is even a half-decent option. Although this bottom spot is a toss-up between him and our next champ
No. 11:
In at No. 11, we have Psycho-Man. He had so much potential, and his mechanics are interesting. But his loop is clunky, the damage is absolutely nonexistent, and the removal of his heavy chaining was the final nail in the coffin for this guy. With a buff that makes his damage loop less stressful, and you know, actually gives him damage, he could be an incredible champ. Although he would also definitely need a damage increase using his utility modes too. Still, actually having some quirky and useful utility saves him from the bottom, even if fights take 15 minutes. In Act 3.
No. 10:
Purgatory. Yes, I know she hasn’t been out that long, but I grinded the 5* myself. And while I love everything about her backstory, design, even the idea for her kit, the execution, as much as it pains me, was woefully flawed. Her utility is situational at best, and highly dependent on the path she’s taking. Even then, it only persists for a few fights afterward. And in a lot of quests, especially Act 7, the paths are built around needing one bit of utility to counter the entire path. Which most of the time she just isn’t able to do. Her damage is thankfully half-decent, although, for an ability called demonic rampage, it does feel more like a toddler attempting to knock over a Jenga tower. Not to mention her regen off the SP1 is just sad.
No. 9:
In the number 9 spot, we have the physical manifestation of the Hatred felt by one angry Squirrel. Mangog had so much promise. On paper, he looked like a utility machine, the kind of thing I love in a champ. And he isn’t absolutely unusable, it’s just that he’s impractical. His pure damage rotation requires you to get hit, and while he might have damage mitigation, it isn’t nearly enough. And if you want to go for an SP1 rotation, his damage absolutely dies. His extra immunities don’t have nearly enough uptime at the start of the fight to be practical. You’re going to have to land at least 30 hits or so before you can actually get the first energy protection up, at which point you’re usually dead.
No. 8:
Frustratingly, Jubilee comes in 8th place. I still think she’s kind of underrated, but her issue is that she doesn’t do anything potently enough to be a real consideration for a lot of fights. That isn’t helped by not being able to gain prowess while under a firework surge, practically forcing you to choose between making her utility actually halfway effective, and having the fight not take 10 minutes. And all of these flaws are amplified by being in the most competitive class in the game
No. 7:
I’ve got to give 7th place to Overseer. He’s very new, so we could very well see him climb or descend the ranks in future, but right now this seems apt for him. Solid damage output, some pretty decent utility, but overall he’s not a champ that particularly stands out at anything in particular unfortunately. He’s a champ that might help progressing players, but once someone has a fairly decently sized roster, I think they’ll be looking elsewhere within their roster to do what he does
No. 6:
I had such high hopes for Jabari. Cleanse looked mental, anti-miss, and evade, coupled with really, really good damage. And she’s a good champ, I won’t deny that. But when push comes to shove, I haven’t seen anything more from her after the first CCP vids. The cleanse is good, but nowhere near as good as I think we all thought it would be. The anti-evade is still great, but we have so many skill champs that do it better and easier she struggles to compete in that department. Hunt takes too long to get into for her to be a viable miss counter. But really her main flaw is that her entire playstyle practically revolves around parries. Sure you can use the SP1 to build your hunt but it’s much slower and more difficult to capitalize upon. And her block proficiency is lower than it needs to be for that playstyle. It’s not quite a Cull situation, but it’s dangerously close
No. 5:
In what has to be one of the greatest comeback stories in recent MCOC memory, number 5 is Odin. His pre-fights are great, essentially making your entire roster mostly resistant to Shock, as well as pumping up damage numbers, especially on champs like Red Goblin. The issue was before his buff was that he was about effective in a quest as a plank of wood. Except a plank of wood would actually work every fight. Odinsleep was possibly the worst mechanic we had ever seen on a champ, maybe bar Diablo’s potions. But after his buff, he became an actually very decent champ on his own, and most importantly, able to work every fight. He’s still a bit light on the utility side of things for my liking, but being able to keep up True Strike for almost the entire fight is very good, using Killmonger for so long taught me that. Plus he’s surprisingly very tanky, this guy that can take blocked hits for days. He’s a bit rubbish for low healthpools, but he’s incredibly good against mid to high healthpools
No. 4:
A placement I was not expecting to make back in April, we have Silver Centurion in at number 4. Bleed immune, Shock immune, no crits, decent slow off the heavy and SP3, able to access a heal block off the SP1 which can go passive, access to shock and incinerate, pretty respectable damage output, and when at a high sig his block proficiency is amazing. Personally, I saw soloes of the first two summer of pain bosses with him, and going forward I really do think we’re going to see a lot more from this guy. Still hate that he’s another carbon copy though.
No. 3:
Time for a controversial placement. Number 3 is Stryfe. Stryfe has been out for 6 months now. And we have seen him do nothing. I haven’t seen him in war, AQ, questing, I’ve rarely heard of him being used in abyss or labyrinth. I think he’s a great champ, don’t get me wrong, he’s a fair bit above Silver Centurion on this list. He can counter unblockable, unstoppable, evade, deals energy damage, can get around passive damage like Thorns, reduces ability accuracy, access to shock, and some tremendous damage once ramped. He can do a lot. He just doesn’t seem to do a lot of it better than other options. He’s like a slightly better Jack of all trades but can do fewer trades overall in exchange for being slightly more potent at some of them. Maybe a piece of content comes out that allows him to shine, but right now it feels like he has no place in the game. I certainly don’t blame anyone for placing him in No. 2, I’ve seen some interesting stuff done with him.
No.2:
Now, I know placing Mr. Negative above Stryfe must sound like heresy to some of you. But I really think this man is incredible. He absolutely does have a high skill cap, I won’t deny that, and I think his degen resist could be better (although the sig does compensate for some of that). He has the same nullify immunity that Overseer has, which is a nice bit of utility for a champ to have. His healing reversal, especially with Despair off the SP2 is incredible, it’s one of the best in the game, and it has a fairly decent uptime, especially if you’re playing aggressively. In addition, the ability to remove buffs from himself is incredibly handy for nodes like Icarus or champs like Mojo. Unfortunately, it still interacts with Dormammu’s sig for whatever reason. His damage when played well is pretty high. It is all based on debuffs, but so are most science champs and at least not many champs are immune to degen. Being able to access quite a few buffs and debuffs makes him viable for nodes like Diss Track and Buffed Up. But the thing that really elevates Mr. Negative is the evade on heavy. No, he’s not Quake, but this is unbelievably good for getting around mechanics and achieving openings in a fight, and it doesn’t even hamper his playstyle much at all. Is it optimal? Not necessarily. Plus, if you need to regen, he has a surprisingly beefy regen off the SP3
No. 1:
To absolutely no one’s surprise, the best champ this year so far is Shang Chi. Very, very high damage, incredibly easy access to slow, pretty much able to handle any debuffs, can counter autoblock and find openings through his unblockable and stun. And he can do Buffed up as an added bonus. He’s already proving himself and exemplifies why great champs are ones that aren’t trading off utility for damage, or damage for utility, a theme we have unfortunately seen frequently this year
And that is my ranking. As far as I’m concerned, the only champs I expect to leave a lasting impact on the game are the top 5. Even then, Silver Centurion, Stryfe, and Mr. Negative could very well fade into irrelevance. I don’t think they will, I think they’ll gain relevance, but it’s always possible the opposite occurs.
I’m not quite sure what’s going wrong with champs this year. On paper, almost every champ has looked amazing but when push has come to shove around half have fallen into complete irrelevance immediately. Either champs are tuned too low (See Mangog, Purgatory, and Jubilee), or they are set up to require sacrifice within their play style (See Super Skrull, Psycho-Man). Maybe it’s down to the buff program stretching devs too thin. The buffs are a separate conversation in their own right anyway.
There is hope on the horizon though. Hercules, from what we’ve seen, looks kind of stupid good, as much as I hate to say that (#Should’veVotedMorgan). My only reservation with what we’ve seen so far is his Special intercept mechanic, but the infuriate debuff looks like it might be able to offset that somewhat. And here’s hoping America Chavez is also amazing. Who knows whether she’ll be Mystic or Cosmic. The mystic class has a better record but Cosmic’s need help. And 2020 was pretty dire for the first 6 months or so. Maybe this year can be turned around yet.
Feel free to leave your rankings below, or just shout at me for mine. Either works.
