Taskmaster Major Buff Concept [Final Draft]
LemoNot
Member Posts: 185 ★
I've made buff concepts for Taskmaster before, and have posted so many edits & additions to those concepts in the Improvement/Buff thread that I'm almost surprised the mods haven't already locked me out at this point. That said, I just can't leave well enough alone, as Taskmaster is my favorite character, both in terms of his playstyle, and in the Marvel Universe as a whole.
I understand Taskmaster isn't the weakest champion, nor is he in the most need of a major buff, but he is still very noncompetitive among Skill champions and, like I said, I like him the most and am thus biased.
This Taskmaster Buff concept should be the final draft for a long line of buff concepts,
Probably.
Maybe.
Stats based off of a rank 5 6-star. Hope you like reading as much as I did writing.
Anything You Can Do...- Pre-Fight and Cross-Fight Ability
Metallic Affinity (White Magneto's Synergy) - Unique
Replaces Professors in Crime.
I understand Taskmaster isn't the weakest champion, nor is he in the most need of a major buff, but he is still very noncompetitive among Skill champions and, like I said, I like him the most and am thus biased.
This Taskmaster Buff concept should be the final draft for a long line of buff concepts,
Probably.
Maybe.
Stats based off of a rank 5 6-star. Hope you like reading as much as I did writing.
Anything You Can Do...- Pre-Fight and Cross-Fight Ability
- - When Taskmaster defeats an opponent, he gains a Class Imitation of the opponent's class for the rest of the quest. Max 1 Imitation of each class.
- - While Taskmaster has at least 1 active Class Imitation, he bypasses immunities to Ability Accuracy Reduction and any Ability Accuracy above 125%.
- Ok yes I am buttmad about AAR immunity fights. In its defense, using this ability does require winning a fight and not sharing an Imitation, and still leaves him vulnerable against anti-Concussion defenders such as Colossus, Emma Frost, or Attuma, so it's not totally busted, in theory.
- - If the opponent belongs to the same class as an active Class Imitation, Taskmaster places 2 Photographic Reflex charges on himself and the opponent. These charges are not removed when Taskmaster is knocked down by a Special Attack.
- - If Taskmaster has at least 1 Class Imitation he can spend an Imitation in the Pre-Fight Menu to place a Cross-Fight on the next fight. The next teammate excluding Taskmaster to enter the fight gains this Class Imitation for the rest of the quest. Champions besides Taskmaster can only have 1 Class Imitation.
- - Skill Champions besides Taskmaster gain +1500 Critical Rating, +500 Critical Damage Rating, and +50% Offensive Ability Accuracy while an Imitation is active.
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- With the small & slowly growing niche of "Pre-Cross-Fight Boost" utility - Apocalypse, Odin, & Galan - I thought it best that Taskmaster fill the "Pre-Cross-Fight Boost" niche for the Skill class, due to his background as a teacher as well as his own copycat powers.
- - Skill Imitation: Critical Hits have a 50% chance to apply a 5-second Bleed Debuff, dealing 25% of damage dealt as Direct Damage. Each time a Bleed effect fails to apply due to an Immunity, instead deal a burst of Direct Damage with equal Potency.
- - Science Imitation: Debuffs besides Stun gain +20% Potency and Duration. Duration bonus is doubled for non-damaging Debuffs.
- - Mystic Imitation: Heavy Attacks place an 11-second Neutralize Debuff on the opponent, reducing their Buff Ability Accuracy by -45%. Max 2 stacks.
- - Cosmic Imitation: Buffs and Armor Break effects gain a flat +20% Ability Accuracy and Duration.
- - Tech Imitation: Each fight, gain an indefinite Armor Up Buff increasing Armor by 100 and reducing Bleed & Poison Potency by 10% while it is active.
- - Mutant Imitation: Taskmaster cannot replicate the genetically-based powers of Mutant champions.
- Class-specific Abilities such as those on Air-Walker or Purgatory are usually inapplicable to their respective Class Disadvantage, so I kept that consistent with Taskmaster.
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- - This ability is not affected by Ability Accuracy Reduction.
- - Each Unique Attack* Taskmaster makes places a Photographic Reflex charge on the opponent, reducing their Defensive Ability Accuracy by 10% and increasing Taskmaster’s Direct Damage Potency by the same amount.
- - Each Unique Attack* the opponent attempts grants Taskmaster a Photographic Reflex charge, reducing the opponent’s Offensive Ability Accuracy by 10% and increasing Taskmaster’s Perfect Block chance by the same amount.
- - Photographic Reflex charges on both champions are removed and disabled for 5 seconds when Taskmaster is knocked down by a Special Attack.
- UI Change- Photographic Reflex charges placed on Taskmaster are blue, charges on the opponent are orange. Both charge types use Taskmaster's shield as the icon.
- *Unique Attacks should include ALL available attacks: Medium Attacks 1 & 2, Light Attacks 1, 2, 3 and 4, Heavy Attack, and all 3 Special Attacks. With the amount of Skill champs who can easily access 50%+ AAR, and the presence of champs who require specific attacks/attack combos to trigger their abilities (Ronin, Galan, & Shang-Chi for example), it feels unfair to gimp Taskmaster's potential AAR due to an outdated definition of "Unique Attacks."
- - Each time a Debuff is placed on Taskmaster, all future Debuffs placed on him have their Potency reduced by 10%. Up to 80% Debuff Potency reduction persists from fight to fight.
- - If this Debuff Potency reduction reaches 100%, Taskmaster becomes Immune to Debuffs for the rest of the fight.
- UI change- Taskmaster gains 10 Potency Reduction counters for whenever a debuff is applied to him, similar to Apocalypse’s Evade AAR. Counters are grey with the same icon as Debuff Immunity, also similar to Apocalypse's Evade AAR. At full immunity, Taskmaster's counters are replaced with a Debuff Immunity Passive.
- Taskmaster's current Debuff Potency reduction/immunity is gimmicky at best, and almost useless next to Cleanse & Purify abilities which other Skill champions have in spades. Making some amount of this Potency Reduction persist across fights gives it far more value than its current state, and allows for a long-term synergy with suicide masteries.
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- - Taskmaster spots a weakness in the last Attack his opponent attempted, which can be exploited by striking his opponent with the same attack within 10 seconds.
- - Attacks that will trigger Exploit Weakness do not trigger Evade or Auto-Block.
- - Each time Taskmaster successfully triggers Exploit Weakness, it places a Passive Concussion on his opponent, reducing their Ability Accuracy by 10% for 11 seconds. Max 5 stacks.
- - Additionally, successfully exploiting a weakness deals 3946 Direct Damage and refreshes all Concussion effects on the opponent.
- - After Exploit Weakness is triggered or expires, it goes on cooldown for 5 seconds. This cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each active Concussion Passive on the opponent.
- If I had to pick a single buff change for Taskmaster, it'd be something like this. Applying Concussions to the opponent is the single most important aspect of Taskmaster's utility, damage, and playstyle, to the point that it'd be hard to find someone who wouldn't argue that the Concussions should be in his base kit. Tangentially, Taskmaster's ambivalence between Concussion Passives & Debuffs makes his AAR inconsistent in matchups which discourage Debuffs, so I set them all as Passives for the sake of consistency & utility.
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- - If Exploit Weakness is on cooldown, the cooldown immediately ends, and the target is set.
- - If Taskmaster has triggered Exploit Weakness in the last 1 second, or his current Exploit Weakness target is Heavy Attack, charging a Heavy attack will make incoming attacks Miss for 1.5 seconds.
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- - Taskmaster’s Direct Damage Potency is increased by +50% for every active Concussion effect on the opponent.
- - If the opponent is suffering from at least 5 Concussion effects, this increased Direct Damage Potency lasts for 15 seconds after this attack. Max 1 stack.
- - Final hit inflicts Bleed, dealing 295.95 Direct Damage over 10 seconds for every Concussion triggered on the Opponent this fight. Max Damage after 10 Concussions.
- Shifted Taskmaster's damage from being Debuff-based to Concussion-based and focusing more on the Exploit Weakness damage, since Taskmaster's playstyle already revolves around those two anyway.
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- - First and final hits inflict a non-stacking, 15-second Armor Break, reducing Armor Rating by 400. Reduces Armor by an additional 400 for every Buff and Armor Break triggered on the opponent this fight. Max effect after 10 Buffs/Armor Breaks.
- - If the opponent is suffering from at least 5 Concussion effects, Taskmaster ignores positive Armor Rating & Physical Resistance while his personal Armor Break is active.
- - For every active Concussion effect on either Taskmaster or the opponent, gain +2367.6 Attack and +1462 Critical Rating.
- The obligatory "Big Sp2". Doesn't really have the most offensive might or utility, as Exploit Weakness bypasses most damage mitigation anyway and the Sp1s are where Taskmaster's big damage lie, but sometimes you just want the big yellow numbers.
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- - Automatically triggers any active Exploit Weakness target with an additional 5919 Direct Damage.
- - Inflicts a 10-second Bleed dealing 1183.8 Direct Damage per Concussion triggered on the opponent this fight. Max Damage after 10 Concussions.
- - Inflicts a 15-second Armor Break, reducing Armor Rating by 400. Reduces Armor by an additional 400 per Buff and Armor Break triggered on the opponent this fight.
- - If the opponent is suffering from at least 5 Concussion effects, this attack deals True Damage, and damage dealt by this attack benefits from Taskmaster's Critical Damage Rating. Includes any Direct Damage from triggering Exploit Weakness.
- - For every active Concussion effect on either Taskmaster or the opponent, gain +4340.6 Attack.
- - Triggering Exploit Weakness on a Special Attack locks the Exploit Weakness target to that Special Attack for [0.5 - 2.5] seconds.
- - Increase the duration of personal Concussion effects on the opponent by [1.5 - 9] seconds.
- - Taskmaster’s second Medium Attack exploits any Exploit Weakness target with a -[100 - 50]% damage penalty. Exploiting a weakness this way consumes one Concussion Passive and does not apply a new one. These penalties do not apply to an Exploit Weakness - Medium Attack target.
- With the Concussions moved to base kit, the sig ability has room to give Taskmaster more flexibility, and 'more flexibility' for Taskmaster mostly consists of higher Concussion uptime. Also slightly reduces Taskmaster's dependency on AI behavior, boosting his damage output.
Metallic Affinity (White Magneto's Synergy) - Unique
- - Magneto: Gain an indefinite Prowess Buff, granting +20% Special Attack Damage.
- - Taskmaster: Apply 4 Photographic Reflex charges to the opponent at the start of the fight. These charges are not removed when Taskmaster is knocked down by a Special Attack.
- All other synergy members' benefits from this synergy are unchanged.
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- - Taskmaster: 33% chance to Evade his current Exploit Weakness target. Expands to Evade all attacks at 5 Concussion Passives.
- - Moon Knight: +25% Critical Rating. All of Moon Knight’s Moon Phase abilities gain a flat +10% chance to trigger.
- Moon Knight's end is subject to change depending on what his buff looks like, assuming he ever gets one.
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- - Taskmaster: Current Exploit Weakness target Attack has a 33% chance to become Unblockable. Breaking the opponent's block with this Ability increases Direct Damage by 100% for 0.2 seconds.
- - Winter Soldier: Flat +29% Fury Ability Accuracy. While a Fury Buff is active, each Bullet hit from Winter Soldier's Special Attacks has a 100% chance to apply Bleed and recovers 10% of Power spent on the Special Attack.
- - Red Guardian: +10% Trauma Debuff Duration for every Durability active before Fracturing.
- - Ghost: Charging a Heavy attack instead Pauses Phase for 1 second.
- - Taskmaster: If the opponent would bypass Taskmaster’s Miss, Taskmaster Auto-Blocks the attack. If the opponent would break or bypass Taskmaster's Auto-Block, Taskmaster Evades the attack. Cooldown: 35 seconds.
- - Nick Fury: Each Tactical Charge increases Nick's Combat Power Rate by 3%. After the Life Model Decoy is destroyed, Tactical Charges also increase Nick's Perfect Block Chance by 5%.
- - Taskmaster: When the opponent Misses, inflict a non-stacking 50% Taunt Debuff for 15 seconds. Taunt is removed from the opponent if Taskmaster is knocked down.
- - Deadpool(s): Critical Hits inflict a 10% Infuriate Debuff for 10 seconds. Intercepting the opponent with a Special Attack detonates active Infuriate Debuffs, dealing 33% of Deadpool's modified Attack for every Infuriate removed.
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Replaces Professors in Crime.
- - Taskmaster: Instantly gain 5% of max Power each time he Exploits a Weakness.
- - Crossbones: Entering Overrun pauses all active Fury Buffs for 12 seconds. [Contempt] Fury Buffs gained while Overrun is active are Paused until Overrun expires.
- - Red Skull: Well-Timed Blocks against Basic Attacks generate 1 Armor Up Buff. Should be part of his base kit tbh.
- - Ghost Rider: Inflicting Damnation applies 1 Hellfire Passive to the opponent for each active Judgement, dealing 500% of base attack as Incinerate Energy Damage over 30 seconds. Hellfire is refreshed when placing Judgements and bypasses Incinerate immunity unless the opponent is a #Dimensional Being.
- - Ghost Rider and Cosmic Ghost Rider: Damnation becomes a Passive with equal Duration & Potency.
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- - Black Widow (Classic): Triggering Exploit Weakness on a Critical Hit increases Direct Damage dealt based on Taskmaster's Critical Damage Rating.
- - Captain America (Classic): Each time Taskmaster successfully Exploits a Weakness, apply 1 Concussion Debuff lasting 10 seconds and reducing Ability Accuracy by 5%. Max stacks: 5.
- - Scarlet Witch (Classic): Each active Concussion Passive reduces Buff Ability Accuracy by -15%.
- - Thor (Classic): Gain a 10-second Fury Buff each time Taskmaster Stuns the opponent while an Armor Break is active, increasing Attack Rating by 10%. Max 4 stacks.
- - Iron Man (Classic): Triggering Exploit Weakness refreshes Taskmaster's personal Armor Break.
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Comments
I love your style and the general concept!
Couple of notes:
Its better to change sp1 description to "Taskmaster gets Vicious passive of X potency, increased by Y for each concussion on opponent".
Ghost rider relic already does similar thing to make degen potency higher. Makes sense to give Taskmaster the same thing, for consistency sake.
"If the opponent is suffering from at least 5 Concussion effects, Taskmaster ignores positive Armor Rating & Physical Resistance while his personal Armor Break is active."
What's the point, if Armor break already reduces armor rating?
I feel like bypassing ability accuracy reduction immunity might be too op, but the real weird part is "bypassing 125% ability accuracy reduction". How does that even look like? How it would be coded?
Don't forget, that Taskmaster already can equip Black cat relic to make better use of his failed abilities. I think this is not necessary.
"Skill Champions besides Taskmaster gain +1500 Critical Rating, +500 Critical Damage Rating, and +50% Offensive Ability Accuracy while an Imitation is active." - This is straight up op. There are so many champs that will go beyond god tier with this pre-fight, and i don't even know why Taskmaster needs it.
Sure, he is known in comics for being Assassin that has his own school. But he doesn't train people into becoming superhumans lol
I feel like some synergy for all members of the team would be better instead. Like:
"Training from the expert (Solo) - Unique
All champions, except for Taskmaster and #Avengers: for each unique attack done by champion and the opponent grant indefinite cruelty passive of 100 potency"
Also, i think i want to create my own version of Taskmaster buff. Can you help me?
I don't need much, just to know who are the opponents that Taskmaster canonically already copied in the contest already.
Like, its obvious from Maestro's look and abilities that he: killed Captain America, took Surf from Silver messenger himself, using some Stark tech, and wields Ronan's hammer. But i can't grasp everything in same way for Taskmaster.
The odd Ability Accuracy choice, was mainly for champs with higher base ability accuracy (I was specifically thinking of Longshot at the time I drafted this), and that it would be absurd to try and bring Taskmaster's AAR up to that extent. Instead, Taskmaster would reduce their Defensive AA by 80% in a standard rotation (all basics + Heavy + Special 1), and reduce their Ability Accuracy by a further 50% through the Concussions, for a total 130% Defensive AAR in a standard rotation.
This is still a very roundabout way of doing it though, true, and rereading it again I notice that it fails to account for how it would interact with Attuma, a defender who I want to leave as a hard-counter to Taskmaster, so I wouldn't be against just cutting it down to "ignores immunity to AAR effects."
The "positive Physical Resist" line is one I ripped from Crossbone's ability page (could have sworn there was another champion who ignored both Armor and Physical Resist, though). As for the perceived redundancy, when champions like Medusa or Iron Man apply enough Armor Breaks to reduces armor below 0, the opponent still takes more damage from subsequent hits. This line just allows Taskmaster to bypass the need to stack his non-stacking Armor Break.
As I mentioned in the draft, I specifically added the whole Imitation ability because I want Taskmaster to become the "Pre-Cross-Fight Boost" champion for the Skill class, as it made the most sense for the class considering Taskmaster's background. In the comics, Taskmaster's most notable trainees that come to mind have been Brock Rumlow (Crossbones), John Walker (US Agent), and his students at the Avengers Initiative (Butterball Fans FTW). He doesn't train these people into becoming superhumans, but his training helps them stand toe-to-toe against superhumans, regardless of whether or not they have powers of their own.
The Skill-specific boost could definitely use some softening, though; maybe reduce it to an Offensive AAR immunity, and inflict the opponent with either an indefinite Sunder or Fragility Passive.