This month's surprise Yondu buff looks interesting...

Magrailothos

So unexpectedly, there's a buff incoming for Yondu as well as DPX this month: https://playcontestofchampions.com/news/champion-spotlight-yondu/

It's largely a minor Tune-Up, but a couple of useful changes are made.

Summary of the changes:

• Yondu now can steal both Armour Ups and Prowess* effects; and turn them into (quite strong) armour up buffs
  
• Chance to inflict bleed/armour break increased from 25% to 40%
  
• Armour Break potency increased from 233 to 370
  
• Slightly longer Heal Block on SP1
  
• Increasingly strong Fury on SP2 - grants +30% Attack for each Special the opponent has thrown. A bit like Ultron's Cauterise, it now lingers for 14s, instead of just boosting the SP2.

*Shout out to @Raichu626 for suggesting this here.

So, more bleeds and stronger armour breaks (nice, but nothing too special, there) in short matches. However, his damage will definitely spike decently post-SP2 in longer matches. And that Prowess-stealing ability will be dynamite against certain nodes in War.

I don't think he'll (anywhere near) dethrone Nimrod, Ultron or Warlock as the top mutant-killer, but this is definitely a nice change.

I'm a bit surprised they didn't touch his Sig (make the debuffs a bit longer?), but the Prowess steal and SP2 damage spike make him a lot more interesting and useful.

Especially in places like Variant 8, since he's a Mercenary...

Artoria77

To be honest I would have rather preferred Super Skrull get a buff as it'll also tie into the narrative story of this month's EQ.

Guytennis

Is ‘ interesting’ secret code for useless? Looks to as significant as Psycho Man’s.

Colinwhitworth69

Not every buff can make the champ OP, and I’m good with that. Buffed Yondu isn’t going to break any arena records, but plenty of players with small 6s rosters will benefit from this.

Also: Kabam, now please do Rocket.

Terra

I wish he would have passive True Strike on Arrow attacks.

I've been enjoying my 5/65 for a few years now, happy that he's getting a uptune.

Magrailothos

Guytennis said:

Is ‘ interesting’ secret code for useless? Looks to as significant as Psycho Man’s.

Psycho Man's main problem was, and remains, that he's tricky to use, and trades damage for utility. The main part of Yondu's buff is that his SP2 now grants a 14s Fury passive, which gives up to +350% Attack. How tricky to use is that?

He also now steals/removes Prowess, which is a very rare ability.

So 'useless' seems harsh, friend.

If you can't use this, I can only sympathise your lack of imagination.

Guytennis

Magrailothos said:

Guytennis said:

Is ‘ interesting’ secret code for useless? Looks to as significant as Psycho Man’s.

Psycho Man's main problem was, and remains, that he's tricky to use, and trades damage for utility. The main part of Yondu's buff is that his SP2 now grants a 14s Fury passive, which gives up to +350% Attack. How tricky to use is that?

He also now steals/removes Prowess, which is a very rare ability.

So 'useless' seems harsh, friend.

If you can't use this, I can only sympathise your lack of imagination.

Lmk how great his is when kitty Pride is regenerating from the bleed debuff while invisible and bishop is causing him energy damage while he’s bleeding, also, I suspect he’ll be really good vs Sauron’s 95% bleed reduction and Mangeto’s 90%.

I don’t need to use my imagination when I know the facts, my friend.

H3t3r

I think hes gonna be one of the hardest hitting tech Champs next to ghost and ultron. As for a r3 yondu 12 passive furys of a sp2 gives an addition 10,778.4 attack for 14 seconds a 320% increase in attack. Apply that to the bleeds with deep wounds maxed and each bleed will do about 531 a tick. For a total of 9827 damage. So I have high hopes.

Wicket329

Guytennis said:

Magrailothos said:

Guytennis said:

Is ‘ interesting’ secret code for useless? Looks to as significant as Psycho Man’s.

Psycho Man's main problem was, and remains, that he's tricky to use, and trades damage for utility. The main part of Yondu's buff is that his SP2 now grants a 14s Fury passive, which gives up to +350% Attack. How tricky to use is that?

He also now steals/removes Prowess, which is a very rare ability.

So 'useless' seems harsh, friend.

If you can't use this, I can only sympathise your lack of imagination.

Lmk how great his is when kitty Pride is regenerating from the bleed debuff while invisible and bishop is causing him energy damage while he’s bleeding, also, I suspect he’ll be really good vs Sauron’s 95% bleed reduction and Mangeto’s 90%.

I don’t need to use my imagination when I know the facts, my friend.

Kitty’s phasing is dependent on her having prowess charges. Bishop’s energy overload damage is dependent on him having prowess charges. His prowess stealing isn’t guaranteed, so we’ll have to wait and see how effective he actually is in those matchups. Might work well, might not.

Also, Kitty healing while phased isn’t part of her base kit, you’re attributing mastery utilities to her that don’t exist in the majority of content, plus Yondu has an easily accessed heal block on his sp1 anyway if you’re that concerned about it.

Yondu’s primary damage tool isn’t his bleeds, it’s the fury off of his sp2. Yes, he’ll have less damage in those matchups, but it doesn’t render him a noodle by any means.

Morpheus_123

This buff on paper sounds OK, but seems heavily reliant on 1 key thing, which is being able to get the AI to throw specials. That is something that’s becoming more and more difficult, and along with the input problems leaves us open to getting battered. Lol

Of course every buff can’t be OP’d, and I think this one is rather good, if the game was working properly. Nice try.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Magrailothos

Morpheus_123 said:

This buff on paper sounds OK, but seems heavily reliant on 1 key thing, which is being able to get the AI to throw specials. That is something that’s becoming more and more difficult, and along with the input problems leaves us open to getting battered. Lol.

I definitely agree. When I wrote a suggestion for Yondu in the Champion Improvement Thread (here) I suggested he have a Passive Taunt effect, increasing with every debuff on the opponent. So you could be really aggressive, and debuffs would simultaneously reduce combat Power, and also draw out Special Attacks.

Ercarret

I like what I'm seeing. He won't dethrone champs like Nimrod and Ultron as the main mutant killers, but he does seem like a good alternative to them if you don't have those two. I also like that they didn't touch his sig ability. He's a tank with it. I remember fighting him a while back and him barely taking any damage whatsoever from my specials because he'd managed to place a bunch of debuffs on me.

World Eater

Sorry this seems very lazy. They didnt even do anything with his mostly useless awakened ability.

ThatGuyYouSaw235

Guytennis said:

Magrailothos said:

Guytennis said:

Is ‘ interesting’ secret code for useless? Looks to as significant as Psycho Man’s.

Psycho Man's main problem was, and remains, that he's tricky to use, and trades damage for utility. The main part of Yondu's buff is that his SP2 now grants a 14s Fury passive, which gives up to +350% Attack. How tricky to use is that?

He also now steals/removes Prowess, which is a very rare ability.

So 'useless' seems harsh, friend.

If you can't use this, I can only sympathise your lack of imagination.

Lmk how great his is when kitty Pride is regenerating from the bleed debuff while invisible and bishop is causing him energy damage while he’s bleeding, also, I suspect he’ll be really good vs Sauron’s 95% bleed reduction and Mangeto’s 90%.

I don’t need to use my imagination when I know the facts, my friend.

Literally the only fight listed that'd be remotely a problem for Yondu would be Bishop, even then Bishop sucks to fight in a lot of cases.

Terra

World Eater said:

Sorry this seems very lazy. They didnt even do anything with his mostly useless awakened ability.

His sig ability makes you quite alot tankier against specials, so I wouldn't call it useless in scenarios when dexing it isn't a option.

GinjabredMonsta

It looks interesting , but I'm more excited to try out DPX. However I've seen people suggest yondu may be a bishop counter after this, but I'm not to sure about that

Magrailothos

Well, the buff is live. And the SP2 Fury effects definitely help.

It doesn't last long though: 14s is over pretty quickly; particularly since the SP2 itself is 4-5s long (shame they aren't paused during the Special Attack...)

Still, it's a definite improvement. Without any suicides or recoil, you go from this pre-buff (pretty underwhelming):

To this post-buff (adequate/useable):


I think this buff is a success in making Yondu useable; which was ultimately what he needed. His damage really was an issue before; and now it's... okay.

So, Yondu post-buff: useable, not amazing; but has a few bits of unique utility that will work well for certain scenarios and opponents. Not the best buff (by far), but still, better than quite a few have been.

World Eater

Terra said:

World Eater said:

Sorry this seems very lazy. They didnt even do anything with his mostly useless awakened ability.

His sig ability makes you quite alot tankier against specials, so I wouldn't call it useless in scenarios when dexing it isn't a option.

I understand what you’re saying but I’ve got an awakened Yondu and have rarely seen his awakened ability be of any use, have you ??

In another thread I said his dupe is “mostly” useless but i forgot that word this time. Nobody’s perfect.

Best regards

Guytennis

Magrailothos said:

Well, the buff is live. And the SP2 Fury effects definitely help.

It doesn't last long though: 14s is over pretty quickly; particularly since the SP2 itself is 4-5s long (shame they aren't paused during the Special Attack...)

Still, it's a definite improvement. Without any suicides or recoil, you go from this pre-buff (pretty underwhelming):

To this post-buff (adequate/useable):


I think this buff is a success in making Yondu useable; which was ultimately what he needed. His damage really was an issue before; and now it's... okay.

So, Yondu post-buff: useable, not amazing; but has a few bits of unique utility that will work well for certain scenarios and opponents. Not the best buff (by far), but still, better than quite a few have been.

Pleas tell that’s a rank 1 6* or rank 4 5*

Morpheus_123

It's an improvement for improvements sake. It would help someone who has a relatively young account who has just pulled Yondu as their top champion. But I think that is as far as it stretches. There are still a lot of champs who do similar things much better, and as much as I like Yondu and wanted to take my 5* to the max, I'm not going to waste my resources.

Hector_1475

A generic matchup against RoL opponents, will not showcase any of his real utility, which is against Mutants. Use him against an Apocalypse, and similar champs, to see how he decimates them, increasing his own armors and sustainability dramatically.

I also tested him against my own IMIW and Yondu removed his PASSIVE armor up, making him unable to autoblock in his last 15%. Things are getting interesting...