Does Punisher 2099 need his awakened ability to be good?
Omedenn
Member Posts: 891 ★★★
Just want to know if he needs to be awakened. Just gotten him and have all the materials to R3 him, only don’t know if he needs to be duped
Post edited by Kabam Porthos on
0
Comments
1) It allows him to start with an additional 25 battery charges. That makes his ramp-up a lot quicker. This number does not change with sig level, it's just a static number.
2) When the opponent reaches 3 bars of power, Punisher 2099 expends 40% of the battery to power-drain them slightly and then power-lock them. It's not an ability that you use most of the time since you'll deny so much power anyway. However, it can come in clutch at times. It has saved me a couple of times when I've pushed for a kill and accidentally let the opponent gain max power. It basically gives you a second chance to bait out an SP2 instead of taking an SP3 to the face.
The sig level decides how long the resulting power-lock is. I think you start with 4 seconds and then it goes up to 10 seconds at max sig. So not an ability you need to push stones into.
It has nothing to do with regen. He has regen at 15% but that's not in his sig.
All in all, I love Punisher 2099 and have him at r3. However, there are some things that are worth mentioning. Without them, I'd still enjoy him but he would maybe not be as effective.
1) Mine is awakened. It doesn't change him fundamentally but that quicker ramp-up really helps. Especially together with the next point.
2) I always bring Captain America Infinity War. They have a synergy that allows Punisher 2099 to begin with even more battery charge, allowing him to control the fight from more or less the get-go. This synergy basically "awakens" Punisher 2099 when he's unawakened and then doubles the battery boost when you have him awakened. It's a really good synergy.
3) I run the collar tech mastery. No one really talks about it since it's not nearly as useful as mystic dispersion is, but it is amazing for Punisher 2099. When he's in overdrive, he denies the opponent 90% power; collar tech denies them even more on top of that. With 3 or 4 points, you'll completely shut down their power gain. That means that, no matter how much you hit them while in overdrive, their power meter will just never move. You never have to worry about special attacks. It's not the most valuable mastery you can invest in but I love that safety net. Without it, the opponent's power meter will slowly creep upward even while you are in overdrive - it'll just take them 10x the time to gain a bar of power. You can't be sure they won't be able to throw one, whereas with collar tech you can.
If he is unawakened, you don't have CapIW (or one of the other Caps), and you don't run collar tech, is he still r3-worthy? I would probably play around with him first. None of those things changes him to the core, they just make his existing abilities better. There's (hopefully) no rush to r3 him. In fact, I never want to push someone to rank up a champ they're unsure about. I've done that mistake before and it sucks to then be stuck with a "great" champ that you're not going to use much because you don't click with them. So I suggest that you simply take him to arena (or some other place where you can easily test him out) for a while and see how long time it takes for him to reach overdrive in his current state. If you feel like it goes quickly enough for you to control the fight, go ahead and rank him up.
Sorry if I'm rambling a bit but it's late where I am. But my point is, he has a great kit but also a lot of things (sig ability, synergies, masteries) that make that kit even better. His sig doesn't make him a fundamentally better champion, it mostly just allows him to reach his true potential faster. It is, in a way, exactly how an awakened ability should work.
I have almost all recourses to take him to R3 (missing two t5b and some iso) and might do it. Sounds like a fun champ and already enjoyed using him in ROL when I got him
I enjoy talking about him. I tend to like quirky champions that aren't at the top of most people's tier lists and it's fun to explain their worth to people sometimes.
Despite being Unawakened, mines now R3 (and I'm someone who needs to be selective. I've no regrets.
However two of my other top champs are R3 CAIW (also Unawakened) and CGR: Punisher 2099 has great synergies with both. If I didn't have them, I might not play with him so much.
I've also just put a single point into Collar Tech, and it's a marked improvement for him.
I didn't think it would be at first; but it's about marginal gains: In Overrun, his opponents usually gain 10% Power. With a single point in Collar Tech, they gain 6% Power. That's a 40% improvement, from the perspective of the guy playing with P2099.
So he's great for shutting down a lot of tricky opponent/nodes like Magik or Apocalypse, nodes like Footloose, etc.
Also: his main abilities don't require any Power, buffs or debuffs (although it's nice if he can inflict Armour Break). Overdrive provides his Power denial and Attack bonus; but it's totally seepassive and ignores effects like Plagued mind. So whilst he can't manage Power Gain effects, he's pretty good on nodes like Buffet and Masochism, too.
I did r3 him prior to the dupe tho as I found it was a decent enough with cap, IMO without cap or the dupe he’s still good but with one or both he’s just amazing as it makes him so fast to get into the damage and power rate reduction.
He is by no means a suicide-"friendly" champ but you don't necessarily have to spam SP1s all the time. That is one way to play him - and admittedly one way I've used on several occasions as well - but it's not the end-all, be-all of his possible rotations.
However, if you do end up running suicides, you'll probably have to turn off collar tech. That was ultimately what made me switch those masteries off. I really, really prefer him with collar tech and the absolute certainty it brings with his power control.