Hello summoners of MCOC. Today is the start of a new series where I review brand new champions when they come out. The goals of these reviews is to see if the new champion shines, are they a good or bad addition and are they worth adding to the roster. In this episode we take a look at Northstar and his value in the contest.
Stats: Northstar's stats are pretty average across the board. Compared to Quicksilver (the first speedster), Northstar has higher crit damage rating, Quicksilver has higher attack, Quicksilver has more health, Quicksilver has more prestige, Northstar has higher crit rating, both have the same block proficiency, etc. You can see the stats here
Animations: Being a speedster, Northstar's animations are flashy. He has multi hit combos like Quicksilver and while this may seem like a good thing, his combo speed is actually quite slow, similar to Quicksilver (which is ironic considering both are speedsters)
Damage: 8/10. His damage isn't too great at first since he needs to ramp up but once he's ramped up with reverb (blue passives that deal red damage) and prowess, he does hit hard. He's basically a Quicksilver that's made for long form content. In the deep dive rotation, against Necropolis Hit Monkey, he was easily dealing over 100k damage in one sp2 when fully ramped. That's pretty impressive.
Utility: 7/10. Northstar has Slow, Armor Break (against Skill champions), Unstoppable, Power reserve, Unblockable and a passive stun on specials when ramped. His slow is probably the best piece of utility as it is passive, meaning nobody can remove it unless they are immune, it lasts for a good while, and the duration of the slow increases per momentum. The Armor Break is more niche, as it only applies to Skill champs. I believe it's specifically made to counter Killmonger seeing as it reduces Crit resistance by 80% as well. Also if a Skill champion purifies it he gains 1 reverb charge. His Unstoppable when he has 2 momentum makes him easier to intercept with and makes punishing some special attacks easier, especially when trying to activate Speed Burst. Speaking of which, Speed burst is basically a power reserve passive that is activated when using a special attack after a dash, and makes his specials cost 25% less power. This is good for nodes like Langour where you are punished when you hit 0 bars of power, and it also enables him to spam specials, which is important for keeping his prowess paused.
Signature ability: 8/10. Northstar's signature ability is pretty good and is worth investing in. He gains a Physical resist passive whenever he gains momentum, and its duration increases per momentum like the slow. This makes him more sustainable especially in those long fights. While this is active, he gains a new Reinforce passive which causes incoming hits to have 60% reduced block penentration at max sig. This again makes him more sustainable and may also reduce the damage from specials, especially physical specials.
Best uses: Northstar is one of the best counters to Killmonger. With one MM combo, he shuts down his vibranium armor, turning off most of his abilities and critical resistance. His Slow will help deal with Killmonger's counterpunch charges as well. He is also a decent evade counter as the slow lasts for a while and is accessible on the SP1. He's good for skill champs in general, especially those who purify debuffs; as mentioned above, if they purify the armor break, Northstar gains one momentum, which helps him ramp faster.
What I would change: Despite being a good champion, Northstar does have some flaws. First of all, his heavy attack currently does nothing despite being a cool animation. Personally, I think it should do something like refresh the prowess. Currently, each hit has a 15% chance to pause prowess and reverb effects for 2 seconds. These pauses can stack, and expire one at a time. But I don't think it can be refreshed. Secondly, I believe his armor break should apply to all champs except for tech champs, and its potency should increase depending on the amount of momentum/reverb. Countering Killmonger is nice but it's not that powerful against other skill champs. Last, I think he should have some kind of persistent charge mechanic for the prowess, like when winning a fight, keep 25% of the prowess as persistent charges (like Stryfe or Aegon), this would make him a more viable quester, and in BGs, he should start with some prowess or something like that. These changes aren't major but they might help him.
Conclusion: Northstar, the new MCOC champion, is a speedster with flashy animations and impressive damage potential when fully ramped up, making him suited for long-form content such as Necropolis, questing and Winter of Woe. He offers solid utility with abilities like Slow, Armor Break, Unstoppable, and Power Reserve, and his signature ability enhances his sustainability with Physical Resist and Reinforce passives. Overall, he is a solid addition to the roster, especially for players seeking a versatile and durable speedster to add to their roster.
Thoughts?
