Hawkeye buff is live: and he works!

The update is here, and Hawkeye's buff is live. He works, folks. I wouldn't say he's got crazy utility; and he's definitely got slightly less power control. But the damage has had a huge boost:
I've got a 1/25 Hawkeye, Sig 20. No suicides or synergies are active.
Pre-buff =

Post-buff =

I don't think it'll take too much practice to get a bit more damage out of him; it's all about the Perfect Release and the Dialed In mechanic:
His Spotlight states "During Special Attacks, press the Block after the first hit Input to slow down time. Releasing the Block Input precisely when Hawkeye releases the arrow grants a perfect Release bonus."

Now it took a while to get the time-slowing mechanic to activate - I thought it wasn't working at all! You can get Perfect Release without slowing down time, but it's harder.

To activate the time-slowing mechanic, the key is: don't press block too soon! If you try to activate Perfect Release too soon (whilst he's doing a kick or hitting the opponent with his bow) it won't work - you need to wait for a moment until Hawkeye is drawing back the arrow.

Then press block and time will slow down and make Perfect Release a lot easier.

Try it out, and post your thoughts below. I like him; and I'm really enjoying the Perfect Release mechanic, now I've worked out how to activate it properly.

Still not sure he'll go to R2, but I'm definitely thinking about it... 😃👍👍👍

Comments

Riptide

That’s a big difference!

Also, how did you have a biggest of 0 but still finish the fight lol

Magrailothos

FYI, you can indeed attack Suppression debuffs, and Fragility debuffs. I was trying for damage, and those Fragility debuffs help a lot. But if your aim is pure Power Control, I think he can work pretty well in longer matches.

And I've no idea how I finished once with apparently a biggest hit of zero, @Riptide . Hey, it's a beta feature...

I think the biggest yellow numbers I remember seeing was 13,000 from a critical SP1 with two Fragility debuffs.

Riptide

FYI, you can indeed attack Suppression debuffs, and Fragility debuffs. I was trying for damage, and those Fragility debuffs help a lot. But if your aim is pure Power Control, I think he can work pretty well in longer matches.

And I've no idea how I finished once with apparently zero hits, @Riptide . Hey, it's a beta feature...

Saw a couple other screenshots and they all have a biggest hit of 0. Interesting bug lol

H3t3r

Not a fan of losing all the perfect release passives. Why not just make it so you just lose 1 instead of all

Batty_Numppo

Yeah, after a ramp up of 2 SP2s to stack bleeds and fragility debuffs, he does much more damage now. A medium crit and a SP1 from an R1

Quick Edit: I should mention I run full suicides but brought Diablo for the synergy which is why you don’t see the poison

Aldac

Not a fan of losing all the perfect release passives. Why not just make it so you just lose 1 instead of all

Completely agree. It’s taken some of the shine off the buff to be honest. If the characters is too stressful to play he won’t be used as much.

Polygon

So the power control is worse now?

Lovejoy72

Seen some pretty great damage showcases so far. Takes some practice, but whatever.

Terra

So the power control is worse now?

The immediate control is worse, it's not a instant drain like pre-buff, it's more a substained control over time

rockykoston

I'm sorry, I have a 6* r1 Hawkeye and this extra input mechanic is just BS. Tested him and it just added extra layer of stress to get the timing right Everytime.

Sadly he'll never be used anymore, not even for power control.

Magrailothos

So the power control is worse now?
The immediate control is worse, it's not a instant drain like pre-buff, it's more a substained control over time

You're doing a mix of Power denial/Power Removal, instead of pure Power Removal Against WS, where you can play aggressively, you can keep his power pretty well controlled.

You can stack two Suppression debuffs, and give the opponent no power at all for a short time. But not for all that long. It's skill-related: If you get your timing in, and build five Dialed In counters, you get slightly better power control; but overall it's less easy. Certainly for a beginning player, it'll be a lot harder to control power with Hawkeye than it used to be. With skill, he's probably comparable to what he was; but trickier.

Magrailothos

Oh, by the way - with Tigra synergy: Critical Poison damage...

IronGladiator22

So he really needs dupe? That’s a little annoying for my 6*

FluffyPigMonster

He’s great. They did a great job on him. I was hitting 36k mediums.

And the fragility debuffs are insane

Diablord

sig 1 hawkeye with even 3 bleeds is hitting 100k sp2's without fragilities.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Magrailothos

@FluffyPigMonster @Diablord

I'm afraid he may not keep hitting quite as hard - his Sig is broken, especially at Sig1:

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/289163/hawkeye-signature-ability-scaling#latest

Aldac

Has the damage bug been fixed yet?

unknown

This content has been removed.

Aldac

So it appears to have been fixed now. Goodbye damage 😫

Magrailothos

Update: since they fixed his Sig (and then fixed it again) the damage isn't actually that different at Sig 20. Sorry to those who had him at Sig 1, which was pretty crazy, by all accounts!

I've pulled two more 6* Skill champs to compare him to; and was interested/impressed by the results. And not quite in the way I was expecting!
All champs are 6* 1/25. No Suicides:

Buffed Awakened Hawkeye (Sig 20)

Not buffed, Unawakened Stealthy

Also Buffed, but Unawakened Masacre

I know that Winter Soldier isn't the perfect test subject; and is just a 'beat him till he crumbles' run. But I think it says something about the buff program that both of the buffed champs are right up there, damage-wise, with Stealth-suit Spider-Man. Not known for his pillow-fists! And both of the two buffed champs are taking down WS faster. Even if Hawkeye is slightly slower than his initial post-buff hyperspeed, when his Sig was broken.

Yes, Stealthy could do more Damage if he was Awakened; but so could Masacre, come to that. And it's interesting to see where the damage comes from.
Stealthy: all brutal Basic Attacks
Hawkeye: mainly massive bleed damage
Masacre: respectable Incinerate damage; plus a fairly stonking 50% of his Damage from Special attacks thrown into block.

I have to say I was surprised that both these two recently buffed champs out-damaged Stealthy; and that they did it in different ways.

I'd been waiting to see if I was going to rank HE after his buff. His Damage is a lot better; but the Power control less so. And I do kind of like the Dialed in/Perfect Release mechanic; but it's very temperamental and easy to mess up. Whereas hitting into your opponents block is a lot harder to mess up.

I'm going to play with them both a while longer, but I'm starting to think of choosing Masacre for R2/R3. At the very least, he'll be amazing for Deadpoolooza Variant, from what I'm told...

FluffyPigMonster

Use SP2, then hit the SP3 while Fragilities are up.

I get WS down in about 70 running LC and DE.

Honestly he is pretty good