Champion Spotlight - Knull

Kabam Zibiit

About Knull
When all that existed was the darkness there was Knull and he thrived in it. But when the Celestial’s creations began consuming his Living Abyss with radiant light, he retaliated. Knull felled one of these primordial gods, absorbing its power and forming All-Black, the Necrosword. With the power of the Celestials on his side and sheer darkness as his weapon, Knull spawned an army of his own, the Symbiotes. Creatures formed from darkness and fear and designed to extinguish the light.


Knull's Mechanics

Knull wields All-Black the Necrosword, which he uses to inflict Instant Bleeds. He also commands a hive of Symbiotes, stripping away Armor Up Buffs and allowing him to restore Health. Knull can take control over any fight by Corrupting his Opponents, drastically lowering their Combat Power Rate, inflicting Armor Breaks and reversing their controls.

BASE STATS & ABILITIES

	Health	Attack	PI (Max Signature)
3-Star	6609	485	1934
4-Star	16572	1216	4858
5-Star	33227	2437	10650
6-Star (Rank 3, Level 45)	42815	3140	13690

Character Class: Cosmic

Basic Abilities: Armor Break, True Accuracy, Degeneration, Bleed

STRENGTHS:

• Instant Bleed
  
• Knull’s Necrosword Attacks inflict substantial Instant Bleeds, greatly boosting his damage while the Opponent is Corrupted.
  
  
• Counter Armor Up
  
• Knull can easily remove Armor Up Buffs with the combination of Armor Break and Living Abyss Debuffs.
  
  
• Counter Regeneration
  
• With his Signature Ability awakened, Knull can remove Regeneration Effects from is Opponents while Corruption is active.
  

WEAKNESSES:

• Power Gain
  
• Champions that don’t rely on Combat Power Rate as heavily, will have a much easier time against Knull.
  
  
• Reverse Controls Immunity
  
• With Immunity to Reverse Controls, Champions can bypass the scariest part of the Corruption mechanic.
  

ABILITIES:
The following Stats and Abilities are based on a Rank 5, Level 65, 5-Star Champion


Lord of Darkness - Always Active

• +40% Degeneration Resistance and +60% Bleed and Poison Resistance.
  
• Every 10 hits in the Opponent’s Combo Meter, inflict an indefinite Darkness Passive, lowering Combat Power Rate by 15%. Max 8 stack(s).
  
• When the Opponent uses a Special Attack, remove 1 Darkness Passive.
  

Developer’s Note: Darkness only comes into play while Knull is defending. Make sure to throw as many Special Attacks as you can to keep Darkness stacks low.

Corruption - Passive
Knull inflicts Corruption on his Opponents using his Special Attacks, causing the following effects:

• The Opponent’s Armor Break Debuffs are paused.
  
• On activation, convert all indefinite Living Abyss Debuffs on the Opponent into Armor Break Debuffs that lower Armor Rating by 233.33, for 10 second(s).
  
• For each Armor Up Effect on the Opponent, inflict an Armor Break Debuff, reducing Armor Rating by 233.33, for 10 second(s).
  
• The Opponent suffers from -3.25% current Combat Power Rate for each Armor Break Debuff. Max 65%.
  
• The Opponent passively suffers from Reverse Controls.
  

Developer’s Note: Corruption severely lowers the Opponent’s Armor Rating (thanks to all the Armor Breaks) and their Combat Power Rate. This sets Knull up for the opportunity to deal tons of damage while limiting the amount of Power the Opponent gains.

Symbiote Attacks - Medium, Heavy & Special 1 Attacks

• Symbiote Attacks passively gain True Accuracy, ignoring all Evade and Auto-Block effects.
  
• While the Opponent is not Corrupted, landing a hit or striking into Block has a 75% chance to inflict an indefinite Living Abyss Debuff, removing 1 Armor Up Buff.
  
• While the Opponent is Corrupted, consume 3 Armor Break Debuffs to inflict 3 Living Abyss Debuffs, regenerate 10% of hit damage and inflict a Degeneration Debuff, dealing 1949.6 Direct Damage over 2 second(s). This ability does not trigger when using the Medium 1 Attack.
  

Developer’s Note: Use Symbiote Attacks to build up Living Abyss Debuffs, before Corrupting the Opponent to convert them all into Armor Break Debuffs. While Corruption is active, Symbiote Attacks can be used to consume Armor Breaks in order to lifesteal some health and refund Living Abyss stacks, this can be great for longer fights or when you’re looking to top up Knull’s Health.

Necrosword Attacks - Light & Special 2 Attacks

• Pause the duration of the Opponent’s Corruption for 1.25 second(s).
  
• While the Opponent is Corrupted, inflict an instant Bleed dealing 65% of hit damage as Direct Damage.
  

Developer’s Note: Necrosword Attacks can extend the duration of Corruption and have a lethal instant Bleed that deals a large fraction of damage dealt on hit. This means that any boosts to Knull’s Attack Rating are twice as valuable!


SPECIAL ATTACKS

Special 1 - Swarm On activation, inflict an Encroaching Corruption lasting for 10 second(s). Upon expiry, inflict Corruption for 10 second(s). While fighting as a Defender, Encroaching Corruption will not inflict Corruption while the Attacker is performing a Special Attack. Developer’s Note: This Special Attack is vital in Knull’s playstyle. He uses it to inflict an Encroaching Corruption, which works similar to an Encroaching Stun.

Special 2 - Cull Inflict 10 Armor Break Debuffs, reducing Armor Rating by 233.33 for 10 second(s). Developer’s Note: While maintaining Corruption on the Opponent, the Special 2 Attack can be used to boost damage and continue pausing Corruption’s duration.

Special 3 - Purge Inflict Corruption, lasting 25 second(s).

Signature Ability - King in Black At the start of each fight, inflict +1 Living Abyss Debuff(s) on the Opponent for every 13 Signature Levels obtained. When Corruption activates, gain an Unstoppable and Unblockable Buff for 2 second(s). While Corruption is active and the Opponent has 50% Health or less, when they would gain a Regeneration Effect, replace it with Knull’s Degeneration Debuff. Developer’s Note: This is a very loaded Signature Ability! It allows Knull to start the fight with Living Abyss Debuffs on his Opponent, shortening his gameplay loop. And it gives him a window to attack the Opponent whenever Corruption activates. Lastly, it allows him to remove his Corrupted Opponent’s Regeneration Effects as long as they’re below 50% of their Max Health. This is super useful on Quest Buffs like Vigorous Assault.

SYNERGY BONUSES
Knullification - Unique - - with Knull

• All Champions except Knull: Gain +2% modified Attack Rating for each of Knull’s active Synergy Bonuses. #Symbiotes gain double.
  
• All #Symbiotes except Knull: Once per fight Knull possesses his Symbiote teammate when they would be knocked out, gaining an Indestructible and Fury Buff granting +50% Attack Rating for 10 second(s). When the Indestructible Buff expires, deal 5% of Max Health as Direct Damage to the teammate.
  

Vessels of the Darkness - Solo - With Venom, Venom the Duck, Red Goblin, Symbiote Supreme

• Knull: When the Opponent is immune to an effect, Knull gains a Fury Buff, increasing Attack Rating by 35% for 16 seconds. Max 1 stack(s).
  

Abyssal Hosts - Solo - With Anti-Venom, Agent Venom, Carnage, Venompool

• Knull: Gain an Unblockable Buff during his Special 1 and 2 Attacks.
  

Darkness Inside You - Solo - With Sentry, Void, Hood
Knull: While the Opponent is suffering from 12+ Armor Breaks, Knull gains an indefinite Energize Buff, increasing Combat Power Rate by 20%.




Banish the Bright - Solo - With Silver Surfer, Storm, Thor
Knull: +15% Attack Rating while the Opponent is Corrupted.




RECOMMENDED MASTERIES
Liquid Courage & Double Edge

• Thanks to Knull’s resistance to Bleed and Poison effects and his ability to lifesteal using Symbiote Attacks, he can benefit greatly from using these Masteries.
  

Despair

• Knull can very quickly stack up his Living Abyss Debuffs which make him a very powerful user of the Despair Mastery.
  

Rotelly

@Kabam Zibiit for knull’s sp1 does that mean encroaching corruption will not trigger if a special attack is timed at the same time corruption timer expires?

Kabam Zibiit

Rotelly said:

@Kabam Zibiit for knull’s sp1 does that mean encroaching corruption will not trigger if a special attack is timed at the same time corruption timer expires?

The Corruption that would be placed will not apply if the opponent is in the middle of a Special Attack when Encroaching Corruption expires. This only happens if Knull's a defender though; if you're using him on attack, you don't have to worry about your opponent preventing Corruption with a special attack.

Kript_king2

Such a cool character and I hope I get him soon but I hope he gains a persistent charge where he can corrupt non symbiote characters, and provide buffs to them kinda like apoc.

Crine60

@Kabam Zibiit Your developer note for Lord of Darkness says the darkness debuff only applies if Knull is defending but there is no mention of that in his actual in-game ability descriptions. Why is it not listed in-game?

Also, why do you guys keep adding abilities or functions to champions that only apply when they are on defense so that if we obtain them we don't get to benefit directly from it but having to fight them ourselves is harder? It is the same thing that you sometimes do with putting restrictions on champs when we use them that don't apply when we have to fight them like with Air Walker not being able to use SP3 when we play him until we get multiple kills in with him which also means we can never use his SP3 in arena. I think that is a lousy design strategy you guys are using sometimes.

Ty1513

When do crystals become available for him?

H3t3r

Ty1513 said:

When do crystals become available for him?

Tuesday I believe

CyborgNinja135

Rillian said:

Just pulled a knull. To confirm, when not on défense, knull has 0% degen resistance and 0% bleed and poison resistance?

No. The resistances are always active: 60% for Bleed and Poison, 40% for degen

ZAHIDMALIK1588

How is he in variants?