Interesting Dani Moonstar Kit

Full disclosure: anything New Mutants or Alpha Flight will automatically get my interest. Dani (along with the likes of Cannonball, Magma, Karma (please bring the Vietnamese Asgardian weapons + Stark-level wealth and tech + empath/telepath into MCoC) and Rahne) was a favorite. So forgive my gushing about what may be a mediocre champ.

First: the Valk synergy is very nice, as shown below.

The following is also an interesting piece of utility. Tested on my Herc and it works like a charm. Still figuring it out on Nick because she wipes him out quickly. But this arguably makes her able to eliminate LMD, immortal as quick or quicker than anyone in game.

Finally, neuroshock that triggers at high sig on stun shrugs and (I think) purifies.

Finally, what seems like a fairly low stress and fun play style that blends a little bit of the typical mutant prowess features with some of the miss features of Spot or Ghost. Falter gives you a chance to quickly counter off a block. Her mechanics are clean and fluid and she flows from one attack to another (even in this laggy update—sorry, video won’t upload so here’s the Falter mechanic).

Is she Herc? There is no Herc but Herc. But she seems at first blush to be useful, fun and a solid damage dealer. I’ve had her less than 12 hours, and perhaps I’m overcome by nostalgia for the old New Mutants, but I’m tickled with how she translated into the game. Any additional thoughts welcome…

Dr. Zola

Comments

DrZola

Side Note: Game team probably needs to clarify or correct the “Dead Means Dead” developer note above regarding Nick’s LMD.

The Marked passive apparently doesn’t negate the LMD. Instead, it’s the Neuros she places that affects its activation.

Other champs that go immortal (Herc, iHulk) or indestructible (Hela) are where the Marked passive kicks in.

Still testing…

Dr. Zola

Rookiie

Yeah she looks like a great champ
I’d love to have her as a 7-star
And the nicest thing is that she’s both simple and rewarding to play

DrZola

So far, agreed. She could stand to have a more durable Miss counter, but I may just need to practice more. I don’t see her as defender, really, but she could be a very viable attacker.

Dr. Zola

DrZola

Thanks for that.

Just chatted with @Campo4 specifically about that @BitterSteel, and I’m gathering insiders got more detailed info on that. I think a little clarification on that specific interaction in the dev note would be helpful, because it’s very easy to conflate the LMD part of “Dead means dead” with the negation of immortal/indestructible buffs.

One appears to be absolute, while the other at less than full sig is subject to % chance.

Dr. Zola

AverageDesi

While it can be slightly less than clear, the description of Dead Man's dead part of the spotlight does specifically put the effects of marked passive after they talk about LMD. It is in fact the part of the signature ability that talks about replacing shrugged effects with passive neuroshocks that prevent Nick furies healing.

DrZola

Sure. But I’m not the only veteran who had questions about that disclosure and the specific interaction.

Bear in mind there are a lot of players who are leagues away from the “inside baseball” most high-end players discuss. When you’re promoting a new champ (yes, for sale) my opinion is that it is incumbent on the team to spell out things explicitly.

Dr. Zola

AverageDesi

I agree. Tbh, i was very confused first when they talked about marked passive and also her countering Nick fury. I thought it was a case of this trumps that .

Imo , this might be brought up once or twice and then quickly resolved once the kit is read

DrZola

Right. General rule I would suggest to team is whenever AAR interactions are involved, talk to community like we are little kids. So much misunderstanding.

Dr. Zola

AverageDesi

Hehe

Pikolu

Dani was designed to be a hard counter to NF and his LMD. However, due to how NF is coded, he is very wonky to get around, so I think the intent to counter him is why the neuroshocks have a chance to go passive. Then to expand on her dead means dead, she puts the marked ability to counter other champions who can cheat death.

altavista

I feel like Dani's Champion Description is worded poorly, and kind of overblown.

You would think that when something is trumpeted as being a NF counter, that when you take NF's LMD down to 0, then that would lead instantly to a KO. But, no, the 2nd life still occurs, it is just that the health remains at 1% instead of regenerating, and then the damage from Neuroshock takes down the remaining health without needing you to attack.

The way the Sig ability is parsed out is also a bit confusing initially. Marked provides the regen block and the Neuroshock passive on purify makes it seem like the Marked ability and not the Neuroshock is what is countering NF's 2nd life (by preventing regen). It doesn't seem like Neuroshock debuff turning into passive would initially play a role. But, like you said, the way NF is coded means you need one ability to block regen, and once the regen is blocked, you need another ability to apply to take the remaining health down.

For Kabam to play up Dani being a NF counter so much, it doesn't seem that much better than a Toad or a Peni Parker.

DrZola

That seems to be the issue.

But…the oversimplified gloss provided in the spotlight doesn’t quite mesh with the fine print.

I may be missing the full interaction here, but it seems as if it goes something like this:

Dani is a *hard* counter to the LMD if (1) you get the Neuroshock on Nick (2) that is 100% guaranteed only at sig 200 (3) by landing an arrow strike on one of her specials when Nick is at 10% health or less and (4) the 8 second Neuroshock lasts long enough to be purified by Nick’s LMD attempt, which means you also need to kill off the remaining ~10% or less on Nick (6) at which time the Skill champ heal block kicks in and the LMD activation is prevented.

If that’s close to how it works, that’s different from “dead means dead.” I’m happy to find out it’s easier than that, because I love the character and the champ and have already invested in her.

Dr. Zola

Pikolu

Marked isn't doing the heal block, it is the neuroshock that heal blocks him.

From what I've seen from the devs conversations, Nick Furys LMD is a pain to try and bypass. It would take a miracle to get some line of code that looks at NF's LMD specifically and says no to it. His LMD was very stubbornly created, so to counter it, they made Dani work similar to Toad by allowing Neuroshocks to go passive when purified.

After doing that, they decided to have her counter other death defying champions by introducing the marked ability since things like immortality and whatnot can be affected by AAR.

altavista

The confusing thing is that Marked reduces ability accuracy of regeneration, immortality, indestructible, and death immunity effects. So one would think the the Marked-Regeneration is what is blocking NF, when, as you say, it is the Neuroshock side of things that is doing the heavy lifting.

I am actually more interested to see if Marked interacts with champions that heal on getting struck (like a Gorr or Hulkling), or nodes. Would Marked, by itself or in conjunction with Neuroshocks, counter Lifecycle?

DrZola

I am told it will not counter Lifecycle.

Dr. Zola

Pikolu

Keep in mind that neuroshocks only stop the healing of skill champions. I would recommend spending time reading through her kit to understand her complexities and watch some of the CCPs videos of her.