Champion Spotlight - Hulkling

Kabam ZibiitKabam Zibiit Posts: 7,033
edited June 2022 in Champion Spotlights
About Hulkling
Growing up, Theodore "Teddy" Altman thought he was simply a mutant with shapeshifting and super-strength. Then one day he was hunted down by Super-Skrull and informed that not only was he actually a hybrid of the Kree and Skrull races, he was also a member of the Skrull royal family. As time passed, Teddy claimed his role as the once and future King of Space, emperor of the united Kree/Skrull alliance, and wielder of the mythical star-sword, Excelsior.

Hulkling's Mechanics

    Hulkling is a strong, but versatile Champion, who excels at dealing damage through the Opponent’s Block and penetrating their Armor. He builds up Shapeshift Charges over time, which he can convert into a variety of different Buffs depending on the situation. Careful management of these Buffs will allow him to periodically go Unblockable, and with proper timing will also significantly enhance the Fury Buffs he gains from his Special Attacks.

BASE STATS & ABILITIES
   Health  Attack  PI (Max Signature)
 3-Star  6609  490  1954
 4-Star  16572  1227  4913
 5-Star  33227  2459  10650
 6-Star (Rank 3, Level 45)  42815  3169/td>
 13690

Character Class: Cosmic
Basic Abilities: Shapeshift Charges, Pierce, Aptitude, Bulwark, Regen


STRENGTHS:
  • Pierce and Armor Penetration
  • Hulking has access to a new kind of Buff, called “Pierce”. Pierce grants both Block Penetration and Armor Penetration. Hulkling is able to quickly and easily build up these Pierce Buffs, allowing him to easily deal damage to Opponents who are blocking and/or have high Armor.

  • Immunities
  • Hulkling has a wide variety of Immunities. He is Immune to Poison, Shock, Power Drain, Power Steal, and Power Burn. Additionally, whenever one of these Immunities prevents an effect, Hulkling gains a Shapeshift Charge.

  • Fury
  • Hulkling gains very potent Fury Buffs from his Special Attack 2. While strong on their own, they are also enhanced by the Aptitude Buffs he can gain from his Shapeshift mechanic.
WEAKNESSES:
  • Neutralize and Nullify
  • The vast majority of Hulkling’s effects are Buffs, making them susceptible to Nullify effects. However, he does have some effects which are Passive, or keep track of how many Buffs he’s triggered, even if they’re removed. So using Neutralize to prevent his Buffs from triggering in the first place is the best strategy against him.

  • Regeneration Rate reduction
  • Hulkling uses Regeneration Buffs to recover the damage he takes, and he also reduces the duration of any Heal Block effect on him. This means that the best way to control and reduce his healing is by lowering his Regeneration Rate, via effects like Spectre and Petrify.

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


Always Active:
  • Advanced Kree-Skrull physiology provides full Immunity to the Poisons and Shocks of the Battlerealm
  • Additionally, the mystical Excelsior Sword protects Hulkling’s energy, granting Immunity to Power Drain, Steal and Burn, and reducing incoming Heal Block duration by 2 second(s) flat.
  • When Hulkling prevents an effect via Immunity, he gains 1 Shapeshift Charge(s).
  • +614.75 Attack Rating for each unique Buff Hulkling has.
  • Offensive Combat Power Rate is decreased by 20%
Dev Notes: Hulkling has quite a few Immunities, which is handy in and of itself. But he gains additional benefits on top of that, since triggering his Immunities will grant him extra Shapeshift Charges, making it even easier to build up his Buffs.

While his Combat Power Rate may be lower than normal, he makes up for it with the extra Power he gains from his Shapeshift Charge mechanics.


Shapeshift Charges - Max 8:
  • Start the fight with 3 Shapeshift Charge(s), and gain 1 Charge(s) every 1 second(s) while not attacking with Basic Attacks or being Struck.
  • A Shapeshift Charge is converted into a Buff when Hulkling performs certain gameplay actions. These Buffs each last 16 second(s) and can stack up to 4 times.
  • Whenever a Shapeshift Buff is gained, Hulkling also Passively gains 7% of a Bar of Power.
Dev Notes: Shapeshift Charges are Hulkling’s core mechanic. He builds them quickly over time, but not while he’s attacking or being stuck, so occasionally you’ll have to back off and wait a moment for the Charges to build up before attacking the Opponent.
The Passive Power Gain he gets from his Shapeshift Buffs is also very useful, both compensating for his decreased Combat Power rate, and allowing him to get more Power than usual from striking the Opponent’s Block.

Shapeshift Buff Conversion:
  • Hit into Block: Convert into a Pierce Buff of 700 potency.
  • Strike with a Light or Medium Attack: Convert into an Aptitude Buff, increasing the potency of Fury, Armor, and Precision Buffs by 18%.
  • Well-Timed Block: Convert into a Bulwark Buff, increasing Block Proficiency by 700.
  • Struck by the Opponent: Convert into a Regeneration Buff, healing 65% of the damage taken from the Strike.
Dev Notes: Hulkling’s Shapeshift Buffs help him adapt to whatever situation he finds himself in. Striking the Opponent’s Block will give Pierce, letting him do more damage into a Block. Blocking with a Well-Timed Block will grant him Bulwark, improving his Block Proficiency. Being Struck will grant him Regeneration, restoring some of the damage taken.

Peak Transformation:
  • Every 5 Pierce Buffs gained also grants an Unblockable Buff for 5 second(s). Reduced to every 3 Buffs when fighting as a Defender.
  • Every 8 Regeneration Buffs gained also grants an Indestructible Buff for 2.50 second(s). Reduced to every 5 Buffs when fighting as a Defender.
  • If either of these Buffs are Nullified, they are replaced with identical Passives, and their duration is 3 second(s) longer.
  • Both the Indestructible Buff and Passive are removed after being struck by the Opponent’s Special Attack 3.
Dev Notes: Peak Transformation is the key thing to keep track of while playing as and against Hulkling. Shapeshift Charges and their Buffs trigger very easily, and don’t require much management. However, triggering the Unblockable Buff from Peak Transformation is key to getting as much damage out of Hulkling as possible, while also being a potent threat when he’s on Defense.

Heavy Attacks:
  • Inflicts a non-stacking Intimidate Debuff for 7 second(s), making the Opponent less aggressive and reducing their Block Proficiency by 900. Cooldown 15 second(s).
Dev Notes: In order to trigger the Unblockable from Peak Transformation, Hulkling needs to strike the Opponents Block and generate Pierce Buffs. But this can be tricky to do if the Defender isn’t Blocking very often. So, the new Intimidate Debuff makes that easier, by making the Opponent more Defensive for a period of time.


SPECIAL ATTACKS
Special 1 - Oblivion Wings:
  • For the next 10 second(s), the time between gaining Shapeshift Charges is decreased to 0.5 second(s).
  • If Hulkling is or becomes Unblockable during this Attack, pause all his personal Buffs, other than Unblockable, until 2 second(s) after this Attack.
Dev Notes: Special Attack 1 is a great way to accelerate Hulkling’s main gameplay loop. By significantly increasing the rate at which he gains Shapeshift Charges, he’ll be able to build up Shapeshift Buffs much faster.

Special 2 - Sky Drop:
  • On Activation, gain a Fury Buff, increasing Attack Rating by 1721.3 for 10 second(s).
  • If Hulkling is or becomes Unblockable during this Attack, gain another Fury Buff, increasing Attack Rating by 2704.9 for 10 second(s).
Dev Notes: Special Attack 2 is Hulkling’s big damage source. The Fury Buff he gets if he was Unblockable during this attack is very large, and will further be improved by the Aptitude Buffs he gets from his Shapeshift mechanic. So if you’re able to line up the Aptitude, Pierce, and Unblockable Buffs all before doing an Special 2, he’ll get access to a lot of damage for a long window of time.

Special 3 - By the Power of Excelsior:
  • If Hulkling has at least 2 Bulwark Shapeshift Buffs, pause 2 of them for the remainder of the fight, once per fight.
  • If Hulkling doesn’t have enough Bulwark, or they’re already paused, pause Aptitude Buffs instead, then Pierce Buffs.
  • If Hulkling doesn’t have enough of any Bulwark, Aptitude, or Pierce, or all are paused, he instead gains Shapeshift Charges up to their Max.
Dev Notes: Special Attack 3 is primarily useful in longer fights. By permanently pausing his Bulwark, Pierce, and Aptitude Buffs, it’s much easier to maintain the benefits they grant over the course of a long fight. Note that pausing the Buffs won’t stop future ones from triggering, so Hulkling will still gain all the other benefits he gains from triggering Shapeshift Buffs.

Signature Ability - King of Space:
  • Always Active:
  • Personal Bulwark Buff duration is increased by 4 second(s) flat.
  • Personal Fury Buff duration is increased by 3 second(s) flat.
  • +525.49 Armor Penetration for each active personal Pierce Buff.
Dev Notes: Hulkling’s Signature Ability generally makes it easier to do what he wants to be doing in the first place. Increased Bulwark duration and Armor Penetration will make it easier to take less damage, and deal more. The increased Fury Buff duration lets him get a few more strong hits in after the Special 2, and also makes it easier to pause the Fury Buffs with his Special 1.


SYNERGY BONUSES - Unique
True Love (3*+) - Unique - With Wiccan
  • Hulkling: Hulkling is Stun Immune while he has at least 3 Pierce Buffs.

Son of Mar-Vell (4*+) - Unique - With Captain Marvel
  • Hulkling: Max Shapeshift Charges is increased to 12.
  • Captain Marvel: If Captain Marvel would start the fight with less than 10 Energy Charges, start with 10 instead.

Fighting Destiny (4*+) - Unique - With Super-Skrull
  • Hulkling: When striking a Tech Opponent, 25% chance per Armor Up Buff they have to gain a Pierce Buff of 700 potency for 16 second(s).
  • Super-Skrull: Personal Energy Vulnerability Debuffs are paused while Attacking the Opponent.

Kookie Triplet (3*+) - Unique - With Squirrel Girl
  • Hulkling: 50% chance when Striking the Opponent while Unblockable to inflict a non-stacking Armor Break Debuff for 10 second(s), reducing Armor Rating by 500.
  • Squirrel Girl: 25% chance to Purify one of each Non-Damaging Debuff each time the Opponent is inflicted by a Bleed Debuff.

The Prince and the Frog (3*+) - Unique Synergy - With Toad
Hulkling: The number of Pierce Buffs needed to trigger Peak Transformation’s Unblockable Buff is reduced by 1.
Toad: When the Opponent gains a Poison effect, if they have 5 Poison effects, refresh Toad’s personal Slow Debuff.




Teammates (2*+) - With Sunspot, Loki, Hawkeye
  • All Champions gain +(3/4/5)% Perfect Block Chance.

Romance (2*+) - With Wiccan
  • All Champions gain +(3/4/5)% Combat Power Rate.


RECOMMENDED MASTERIES
Extended/Enhanced Fury:
  • Hulkling’s damage is heavily based on the Fury Buffs he gets from his Special Attack 2, so enhancing them with these Masteries will help him do even more damage.

Liquid Courage:
  • Since he’s Immune to Poison, Hulkling gets all the benefits of Liquid Courage, without having to take any damage from the Poison it inflicts.

Recovery:
  • This is a slightly more niche choice, but still useful. Hulkling’s Regeneration Buff from Shapeshift restores a portion of the damage that was dealt to him. The Recovery Mastery increases the effectiveness of this Regen, providing even more of a safety net if Hulkling takes a few hits.
Post edited by Kabam Zibiit on

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