Honestly speaking, i have zero hopes with the rebalance program. I have lost faith since they decided to keep iron heart and dust unchanged and barely even nerfed bullseye or onslaught. I just came on forums to complain about the serpent, mainly his power gain. Bro just now in bgs, i was using r5 torch against 7 star serpent, and I barely even landed any hits for the entire fight due to him not using specials and gaining power. With the AI issues, he's far worse than a nightmare. He has the massive power gain, and since he played super defensive, he kept using specials back to back without letting me land hits. Really annoyed at this stuff now. It's high time we got any good champion rebalance and now is the perfect opportunity for Kabam to utilise the program
By all seriousness, obviously people will be pissed if they nerf serpent on defense, cuz he is a dud in bg attack. So maybe buff him a bit in bg attack and nerf him on bg defense, like let him start with 2 dread in bg attack, and 8 cull force charges. At the same time let him have 2 dread on defense, and remove his fate seal immunity and neutralize bypass mechanism.
While in theory that would be cool adding to the 4 Cul charges he already gets, I feel that would be a little unfair for other champs that need something as well. I feel they couldn't (or more so shouldn't) increase the benefits Serpent starts with as an attacker without also giving champs like Corvus a charge or 2 to start with in BGs to keep them relevant as well. And this is coming from someone who loves using Serpent offensively.
The thing that annoyed me when I fought him with Spidey Supreme recently is that he could survive SP3 after SP3 after SP3 as long as the death immunity was up. I'd prefer if that ability worked like either Hercules' immortality, where you get KO'd by an SP3, or maybe Iceman's ice armor, which can prevent you from dying from an SP3 but then disappears. Iceman's armor comes back after a while so he can technically survive several SP3s, but I don't think the Serpent needs to be able to do that.
Obviously this was a bit of a fringe case - Spidey Supreme against someone who has a chance to gain an armor up buff whenever you strike them gets just as insane power gain as the Serpent, which is why I soared past my intended SP2 and ended up throwing SP3s back-to-back-to-back - but it still highlighted how absolutely broken that death immunity is.
I just wish there was some caveat to it. I don't really care about what it is, as long as it's there. Otherwise you basically can't hit him for 8 seconds because you're scared that you'll push him to his SP3. At least with Hercules, you're incentivized to keep attacking him since his immortality is paused while he attacks you. Yes, it drags out the end of the fight, but you don't have to back off and block special after special for the duration of his immortality.
But other than that quibble, I don't really have any complaints. I'm sure we'll find ways to defeat him eventually, as we always do. You mentioned yourself that Bullseye has his own weaknesses that have made him somewhat manageable, but it wasn't that long ago since the community was crying about him being too difficult. Sure, he's getting a slight nerf in a few days, and it's possible that the Serpent gets one as well, but if Bullseye stayed largely the same after his rebalancing, I doubt we'll see too big of a nerf for the Serpent.
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
There is a difference between “tough defender” and this. He reduces the impact of almost all damage sources, pretty much ignores ability power reduction, and if you get him down you have to survive an immortality timer that’s pretty hard to fail, and gives even more broken power gain.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
For what it’s worth, Sym Supreme shreds him. I just used my r4 unascended 6* against an r3 7* AW boss and it was comical. I think most stagger-based mystics will do well against him.
Chavez is another great counter, as she can shut down his power gain and all those buffs on him just give her more damage.
Doom works, but Serpent’s sig does mess with the cycle since the sp3 stun won’t apply. Still doable with sp1/sp2 spam, but slow.
I don’t have a Kushala yet to confirm this, but I understand she can put in work.
I think there are more counters to Serpent than people typically think of, but if a tune down were necessary I think it would be in the unavoidable damage department. Make it so that only his projectiles can’t be dexed, rather than the entire special. Getting clipped by the edge of a melee feels bad
The problem is not really he can’t be defeated or champion A or B can’t shred him. Almost every defender has this going for them. In a bare-bone nodes, this may be true. Now add a slightly difficult nodes combination and these so-called shredders struggle. That’s the problem with some of these recent defenders. Their balance is off, such that external nodes makes their difficulty unreasonable.
Remove the ridiculous power gain. He alreadt gains power at the start of the fight and during the fight. Gaining it at an insane rate during his death immunity is too much.
I have a r5 ascended 6* Serpent, and r2 7* Serpent...and STILL wouldn't mind some type of nerf.
By all seriousness, obviously people will be pissed if they nerf serpent on defense, cuz he is a dud in bg attack. So maybe buff him a bit in bg attack and nerf him on bg defense, like let him start with 2 dread in bg attack, and 8 cull force charges. At the same time let him have 2 dread on defense, and remove his fate seal immunity and neutralize bypass mechanism.
While in theory that would be cool adding to the 4 Cul charges he already gets, I feel that would be a little unfair for other champs that need something as well. I feel they couldn't (or more so shouldn't) increase the benefits Serpent starts with as an attacker without also giving champs like Corvus a charge or 2 to start with in BGs to keep them relevant as well. And this is coming from someone who loves using Serpent offensively.
Corvus wasn't released when bg was there. They usually don't buff old champs that easily but it would be great if cg starts with 2 charges.
He won't get touched, Photon, Bullseye, Onslaught all got little or no tuning. He won't either.
All of those other champs have a lot of counters and aren’t a guaranteed win on defense. Photon is getting nuked left and right by any decent skill shruggers and Onslaught can be countered by pretty much anyone and nuked in under 50 seconds. I’ve fought a lot of the top people in GC and pretty much no one I’ve seen has ever done serpent solidly unless they draft Kushala or Chavez and even then they usually die or lose the round
I kill him everytime in around 30-40 seconds with Wiccan, sorcerer supreme, sym supreme and Chavez. Sinister I've done it in 70s ish provided AI doesn't hold block to sp3 during death immunity.
The question isn't do I think he needs to be rebalanced, because that would be a yes, I think onslaught and bullseye needed tuning too. My answer was do I think he will, and that sadly, is a no.
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
My god this guy really has to be the biggest apologist I have ever seen on these forums. Every single time the community says something, he's against them.
He won't get touched, Photon, Bullseye, Onslaught all got little or no tuning. He won't either.
All of those other champs have a lot of counters and aren’t a guaranteed win on defense. Photon is getting nuked left and right by any decent skill shruggers and Onslaught can be countered by pretty much anyone and nuked in under 50 seconds. I’ve fought a lot of the top people in GC and pretty much no one I’ve seen has ever done serpent solidly unless they draft Kushala or Chavez and even then they usually die or lose the round
I kill him everytime in around 30-40 seconds with Wiccan, sorcerer supreme, sym supreme and Chavez. Sinister I've done it in 70s ish provided AI doesn't hold block to sp3 during death immunity.
The question isn't do I think he needs to be rebalanced, because that would be a yes, I think onslaught and bullseye needed tuning too. My answer was do I think he will, and that sadly, is a no.
Lmao you are not killing him in 40 secs with any of those, not unless there are a ton of buffs supercharging them or you're a punching down a rank or two.
I just took him up to r3 sig30 knowing the risk of a rebalance is on the horizon. I also have a 6*r5 ascended one; but alas, the aura of silver stars on the purple 7* border is too strong.
Kit-wise and visually, he's one of my absolute fav champs in the game. I hope they don't nerf him too hard, I really don't want to see his offensive potential and utility suffer as a result.
Maybe slight tweaks to his dmg reduction amount and death immunity power gain rate? Idk. He should still remain one of the best defenders after the nerf, but not as busted as he is now. Hoping they strike that balance well.
I just took him up to r3 sig30 knowing the risk of a rebalance is on the horizon. I also have a 6*r5 ascended one; but alas, the aura of silver stars on the purple 7* border is too strong.
Kit-wise and visually, he's one of my absolute fav champs in the game. I hope they don't nerf him too hard, I really don't want to see his offensive potential and utility suffer as a result.
Maybe slight tweaks to his dmg reduction amount and death immunity power gain rate? Idk. He should still remain one of the best defenders after the nerf, but not as busted as he is now. Hoping they strike that balance well.
Yeah all he needs is minor changes. Just lower dread to 2 on defense and raise dread to two in Battlegrounds attack, and he’s good to go. I love using him on attack so I wish the nerf isn’t too much
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
My god this guy really has to be the biggest apologist I have ever seen on these forums. Every single time the community says something, he's against them.
Wait till you have a conversation with that scuffed Ironman guy 💀
I wouldn’t lol. Each time you fight him he gets easier, kushala/chavez ruin him. Doom can do it, Tigra can do it as can rintrah. Maybe stop banning him in Bgs and actually try fight him for once? I found once I stopped banning him i got better as a player. That’s why i always laugh when people ban hard defenders, how are you going to better yourself?
I wouldn’t lol. Each time you fight him he gets easier, kushala/chavez ruin him. Doom can do it, Tigra can do it as can rintrah. Maybe stop banning him in Bgs and actually try fight him for once? I found once I stopped banning him i got better as a player. That’s why i always laugh when people ban hard defenders, how are you going to better yourself?
Weird, even Celestial players complain about it and agree he is overtuned, are you saying Celestial players suck? Lmao
I wouldn’t lol. Each time you fight him he gets easier, kushala/chavez ruin him. Doom can do it, Tigra can do it as can rintrah. Maybe stop banning him in Bgs and actually try fight him for once? I found once I stopped banning him i got better as a player. That’s why i always laugh when people ban hard defenders, how are you going to better yourself?
Lol that’s not how it works. Have you fought him yourself without a counter?
I wouldn’t lol. Each time you fight him he gets easier, kushala/chavez ruin him. Doom can do it, Tigra can do it as can rintrah. Maybe stop banning him in Bgs and actually try fight him for once? I found once I stopped banning him i got better as a player. That’s why i always laugh when people ban hard defenders, how are you going to better yourself?
Lol that’s not how it works. Have you fought him yourself without a counter?
If you have a counter to use why would you not use it lmao?
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
There is a difference between “tough defender” and this. He reduces the impact of almost all damage sources, pretty much ignores ability power reduction, and if you get him down you have to survive an immortality timer that’s pretty hard to fail, and gives even more broken power gain.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
This is how Kabam operates. Release a tough defender, then a few months later release a counter, which you will feel a need to acquire.
If the issue is BGs, then ban Serpent. If it is AW then you have a team of people to produce a counter, plus boosts and such.
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
There is a difference between “tough defender” and this. He reduces the impact of almost all damage sources, pretty much ignores ability power reduction, and if you get him down you have to survive an immortality timer that’s pretty hard to fail, and gives even more broken power gain.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
This is how Kabam operates. Release a tough defender, then a few months later release a counter, which you will feel a need to acquire.
If the issue is BGs, then ban Serpent. If it is AW then you have a team of people to produce a counter, plus boosts and such.
No nerf needed.
I feel like the point is completely lost on you. When it comes to tough defenders, Kabam had at least designed them in a way where skill can still let you win the fight. Player complained at first with champions like Peni Parker and Hulkling all the way to Photon, Onslaught and Bullseye and then learned how to cleanly dispatch them using their skills in a tough matchup.
The Serpent is the first defender since Magik's buff to not fall in thr above category, however his case is worse as Magik's buff was designed in an era of very simple champion design. To brush The Serpent's defensive impact off as just being how Kabam operates is disingenuous to the issues of his design.
To start with, The Serpent forces you to take damage through the block with Specials. You can't dex his Special Attacks unless you get rid of his True Focus buff with a well timed Stagger or Neutralise effect. Nullify won't even matter as you can't remove it during the special and he'll gain it back when he launches another Special Attack. Also he's immune to Fate Seal so you're stuck to Neutralise or Stagger. If you can't get rid of the True Focus, you're punished even further with Serpent's Pierce bonus and passive Attack increases.
So bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ right?
That's just half of the trouble. The Serpent is immensely tanky, having really high health and resistances and even reduces the potency of incoming damage effects. To top it all off, once you've managed to work around that massive bulk, Serpent will basically become unkillable for 8 seconds while gaining health back and loads of power. As if that wasn't enough, it effectively IGNORES neutralise and will trigger anyway even if you bring an ideal champ.
Oh yeah, back to the power. Serpent gains so much power and will frequently launch his Special Attacks. Combined with the fact that you can't even dex his Special Attacks unless you specifically bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ where Neutralise champs are still punished with an unavoidable Death Immunity, Stagger doesn't seem that friendly of a counter consider that Serpent gains a lot of buffs and can heavily screw you up if you are unlucky with the staggers and his special timing.
Every other defender allows for a way for the player to work around their mechanics with varying degrees of skill. The Serpent is Hyperion, Man-Thing and Photon in one champion. The amount of annoying abilities he has and they way they interact makes fighting him not a battle of skill, but a battle of stupid luck even if you bring an ideal counter.
The Serpent has been out for 5 months now and is a very popular champion. If there was a skillful way to dispatch him like every single other defender, it would have been found.
With the way Kabam has designed defenders, The Serpent is an outliar and for the health of the game I hope he is nerfed before he invokes a new status quo of unavoidable punishment champions.
I wouldn’t lol. Each time you fight him he gets easier, kushala/chavez ruin him. Doom can do it, Tigra can do it as can rintrah. Maybe stop banning him in Bgs and actually try fight him for once? I found once I stopped banning him i got better as a player. That’s why i always laugh when people ban hard defenders, how are you going to better yourself?
Lol that’s not how it works. Have you fought him yourself without a counter?
If you have a counter to use why would you not use it lmao?
In some cases you may not have access to a counter
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
There is a difference between “tough defender” and this. He reduces the impact of almost all damage sources, pretty much ignores ability power reduction, and if you get him down you have to survive an immortality timer that’s pretty hard to fail, and gives even more broken power gain.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
This is how Kabam operates. Release a tough defender, then a few months later release a counter, which you will feel a need to acquire.
If the issue is BGs, then ban Serpent. If it is AW then you have a team of people to produce a counter, plus boosts and such.
No nerf needed.
I feel like the point is completely lost on you. When it comes to tough defenders, Kabam had at least designed them in a way where skill can still let you win the fight. Player complained at first with champions like Peni Parker and Hulkling all the way to Photon, Onslaught and Bullseye and then learned how to cleanly dispatch them using their skills in a tough matchup.
The Serpent is the first defender since Magik's buff to not fall in thr above category, however his case is worse as Magik's buff was designed in an era of very simple champion design. To brush The Serpent's defensive impact off as just being how Kabam operates is disingenuous to the issues of his design.
To start with, The Serpent forces you to take damage through the block with Specials. You can't dex his Special Attacks unless you get rid of his True Focus buff with a well timed Stagger or Neutralise effect. Nullify won't even matter as you can't remove it during the special and he'll gain it back when he launches another Special Attack. Also he's immune to Fate Seal so you're stuck to Neutralise or Stagger. If you can't get rid of the True Focus, you're punished even further with Serpent's Pierce bonus and passive Attack increases.
So bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ right?
That's just half of the trouble. The Serpent is immensely tanky, having really high health and resistances and even reduces the potency of incoming damage effects. To top it all off, once you've managed to work around that massive bulk, Serpent will basically become unkillable for 8 seconds while gaining health back and loads of power. As if that wasn't enough, it effectively IGNORES neutralise and will trigger anyway even if you bring an ideal champ.
Oh yeah, back to the power. Serpent gains so much power and will frequently launch his Special Attacks. Combined with the fact that you can't even dex his Special Attacks unless you specifically bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ where Neutralise champs are still punished with an unavoidable Death Immunity, Stagger doesn't seem that friendly of a counter consider that Serpent gains a lot of buffs and can heavily screw you up if you are unlucky with the staggers and his special timing.
Every other defender allows for a way for the player to work around their mechanics with varying degrees of skill. The Serpent is Hyperion, Man-Thing and Photon in one champion. The amount of annoying abilities he has and they way they interact makes fighting him not a battle of skill, but a battle of stupid luck even if you bring an ideal counter.
The Serpent has been out for 5 months now and is a very popular champion. If there was a skillful way to dispatch him like every single other defender, it would have been found.
With the way Kabam has designed defenders, The Serpent is an outliar and for the health of the game I hope he is nerfed before he invokes a new status quo of unavoidable punishment champions.
I think this is a perfect explanation. I hate that some people are bringing up champs like Onslaught, Photon, and Bullseye when people can take them all out fairly easily at this point. Serpent is an outlier in that he hasn’t become any easier from when he was released
Before photon even came out, there were champs that could nuke her in 30-40 seconds (Hulkling, Mantis, CB, Shang, Adam) and since then people have learned to manage her even better. Her whole thing is don’t parry, don’t take too many blocked hits, manage pure light. No massive resistances or immense power gain that makes her unbelievably annoying (good defender still ofc but very manageable now)
Onslaught’s neuroshock damage can’t be prevented by anyone but his whole difficulty lies in the special dexing and your ability to intercept. So many champs can nuke him at this point, but not only can they nuke him, you can heal to full by purifying neuroshocks and letting crushed give you some WP. At this point everyone knows that there are a lot of ways to handle him and you’re not really starved for a specific counter. Even some metal champs can nuke him before taking too much damage (Starky, CGR, FAM)
For Serpent no amount of practicing or managing anything will get you out of the fight as quickly as any of these other defenders. You need to draft a specific perfect counter, you need to have decent AI, you need to hope he doesn’t sp3 during death immunity, you’re stalled guaranteed for 8 seconds, you can’t dex the sp1 or 2, and he’s just so tanky
Not to mention that the last 2 GC nodes have been hell when it comes to managing serpent. Archaos and rich get richer meant that his best mystic counters were extremely neutered because he’d gain power way too fast and would go unblockable. This meta extends buffs and debuffs by 150%, meaning his death immunity now lasts for 10 eons and you’re guaranteed to waste a lot of time. Any defender that does this shouldn’t be allowed. Bullseye, Photon, or Onslaught don’t do this and are very manageable at this point
With every great defender, follows a counter or two. We'll be fine with Serpent as he is.
There is a difference between “tough defender” and this. He reduces the impact of almost all damage sources, pretty much ignores ability power reduction, and if you get him down you have to survive an immortality timer that’s pretty hard to fail, and gives even more broken power gain.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
This is how Kabam operates. Release a tough defender, then a few months later release a counter, which you will feel a need to acquire.
If the issue is BGs, then ban Serpent. If it is AW then you have a team of people to produce a counter, plus boosts and such.
No nerf needed.
I feel like the point is completely lost on you. When it comes to tough defenders, Kabam had at least designed them in a way where skill can still let you win the fight. Player complained at first with champions like Peni Parker and Hulkling all the way to Photon, Onslaught and Bullseye and then learned how to cleanly dispatch them using their skills in a tough matchup.
The Serpent is the first defender since Magik's buff to not fall in thr above category, however his case is worse as Magik's buff was designed in an era of very simple champion design. To brush The Serpent's defensive impact off as just being how Kabam operates is disingenuous to the issues of his design.
To start with, The Serpent forces you to take damage through the block with Specials. You can't dex his Special Attacks unless you get rid of his True Focus buff with a well timed Stagger or Neutralise effect. Nullify won't even matter as you can't remove it during the special and he'll gain it back when he launches another Special Attack. Also he's immune to Fate Seal so you're stuck to Neutralise or Stagger. If you can't get rid of the True Focus, you're punished even further with Serpent's Pierce bonus and passive Attack increases.
So bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ right?
That's just half of the trouble. The Serpent is immensely tanky, having really high health and resistances and even reduces the potency of incoming damage effects. To top it all off, once you've managed to work around that massive bulk, Serpent will basically become unkillable for 8 seconds while gaining health back and loads of power. As if that wasn't enough, it effectively IGNORES neutralise and will trigger anyway even if you bring an ideal champ.
Oh yeah, back to the power. Serpent gains so much power and will frequently launch his Special Attacks. Combined with the fact that you can't even dex his Special Attacks unless you specifically bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ where Neutralise champs are still punished with an unavoidable Death Immunity, Stagger doesn't seem that friendly of a counter consider that Serpent gains a lot of buffs and can heavily screw you up if you are unlucky with the staggers and his special timing.
Every other defender allows for a way for the player to work around their mechanics with varying degrees of skill. The Serpent is Hyperion, Man-Thing and Photon in one champion. The amount of annoying abilities he has and they way they interact makes fighting him not a battle of skill, but a battle of stupid luck even if you bring an ideal counter.
The Serpent has been out for 5 months now and is a very popular champion. If there was a skillful way to dispatch him like every single other defender, it would have been found.
With the way Kabam has designed defenders, The Serpent is an outliar and for the health of the game I hope he is nerfed before he invokes a new status quo of unavoidable punishment champions.
The combo of Hype, Man Thing and Photon lol. You freaking nailed it dude.
Comments
Bro just now in bgs, i was using r5 torch against 7 star serpent, and I barely even landed any hits for the entire fight due to him not using specials and gaining power. With the AI issues, he's far worse than a nightmare. He has the massive power gain, and since he played super defensive, he kept using specials back to back without letting me land hits. Really annoyed at this stuff now. It's high time we got any good champion rebalance and now is the perfect opportunity for Kabam to utilise the program
Obviously this was a bit of a fringe case - Spidey Supreme against someone who has a chance to gain an armor up buff whenever you strike them gets just as insane power gain as the Serpent, which is why I soared past my intended SP2 and ended up throwing SP3s back-to-back-to-back - but it still highlighted how absolutely broken that death immunity is.
I just wish there was some caveat to it. I don't really care about what it is, as long as it's there. Otherwise you basically can't hit him for 8 seconds because you're scared that you'll push him to his SP3. At least with Hercules, you're incentivized to keep attacking him since his immortality is paused while he attacks you. Yes, it drags out the end of the fight, but you don't have to back off and block special after special for the duration of his immortality.
But other than that quibble, I don't really have any complaints. I'm sure we'll find ways to defeat him eventually, as we always do. You mentioned yourself that Bullseye has his own weaknesses that have made him somewhat manageable, but it wasn't that long ago since the community was crying about him being too difficult. Sure, he's getting a slight nerf in a few days, and it's possible that the Serpent gets one as well, but if Bullseye stayed largely the same after his rebalancing, I doubt we'll see too big of a nerf for the Serpent.
Oh and for fun you MUST take chip damage from the removal of a mastery.
His counters would need to be equally broken to be a hard counter, and tbh they’d probably end up making Hercules look like Groot and break the game.
Just wait for champs who are direct counters to him, i know a bunch of mystics which do great against him and there will be more
I have a r5 ascended 6* Serpent, and r2 7* Serpent...and STILL wouldn't mind some type of nerf.
The question isn't do I think he needs to be rebalanced, because that would be a yes, I think onslaught and bullseye needed tuning too. My answer was do I think he will, and that sadly, is a no.
Just kidding, he 100% needs to be nerfed. They could basically remove any 2 parts of his kit and he'd still be a nasty defender.
Kit-wise and visually, he's one of my absolute fav champs in the game. I hope they don't nerf him too hard, I really don't want to see his offensive potential and utility suffer as a result.
Maybe slight tweaks to his dmg reduction amount and death immunity power gain rate? Idk. He should still remain one of the best defenders after the nerf, but not as busted as he is now. Hoping they strike that balance well.
Weird, celestial players complain about anything when they lose any match lmao.
He should turn off willpower, plus some kind of glancing
If the issue is BGs, then ban Serpent. If it is AW then you have a team of people to produce a counter, plus boosts and such.
No nerf needed.
The Serpent is the first defender since Magik's buff to not fall in thr above category, however his case is worse as Magik's buff was designed in an era of very simple champion design. To brush The Serpent's defensive impact off as just being how Kabam operates is disingenuous to the issues of his design.
To start with, The Serpent forces you to take damage through the block with Specials. You can't dex his Special Attacks unless you get rid of his True Focus buff with a well timed Stagger or Neutralise effect. Nullify won't even matter as you can't remove it during the special and he'll gain it back when he launches another Special Attack. Also he's immune to Fate Seal so you're stuck to Neutralise or Stagger. If you can't get rid of the True Focus, you're punished even further with Serpent's Pierce bonus and passive Attack increases.
So bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ right?
That's just half of the trouble. The Serpent is immensely tanky, having really high health and resistances and even reduces the potency of incoming damage effects. To top it all off, once you've managed to work around that massive bulk, Serpent will basically become unkillable for 8 seconds while gaining health back and loads of power. As if that wasn't enough, it effectively IGNORES neutralise and will trigger anyway even if you bring an ideal champ.
Oh yeah, back to the power. Serpent gains so much power and will frequently launch his Special Attacks. Combined with the fact that you can't even dex his Special Attacks unless you specifically bring a Stagger or Neutralise champ where Neutralise champs are still punished with an unavoidable Death Immunity, Stagger doesn't seem that friendly of a counter consider that Serpent gains a lot of buffs and can heavily screw you up if you are unlucky with the staggers and his special timing.
Every other defender allows for a way for the player to work around their mechanics with varying degrees of skill. The Serpent is Hyperion, Man-Thing and Photon in one champion. The amount of annoying abilities he has and they way they interact makes fighting him not a battle of skill, but a battle of stupid luck even if you bring an ideal counter.
The Serpent has been out for 5 months now and is a very popular champion. If there was a skillful way to dispatch him like every single other defender, it would have been found.
With the way Kabam has designed defenders, The Serpent is an outliar and for the health of the game I hope he is nerfed before he invokes a new status quo of unavoidable punishment champions.
Before photon even came out, there were champs that could nuke her in 30-40 seconds (Hulkling, Mantis, CB, Shang, Adam) and since then people have learned to manage her even better. Her whole thing is don’t parry, don’t take too many blocked hits, manage pure light. No massive resistances or immense power gain that makes her unbelievably annoying (good defender still ofc but very manageable now)
Onslaught’s neuroshock damage can’t be prevented by anyone but his whole difficulty lies in the special dexing and your ability to intercept. So many champs can nuke him at this point, but not only can they nuke him, you can heal to full by purifying neuroshocks and letting crushed give you some WP. At this point everyone knows that there are a lot of ways to handle him and you’re not really starved for a specific counter. Even some metal champs can nuke him before taking too much damage (Starky, CGR, FAM)
For Serpent no amount of practicing or managing anything will get you out of the fight as quickly as any of these other defenders. You need to draft a specific perfect counter, you need to have decent AI, you need to hope he doesn’t sp3 during death immunity, you’re stalled guaranteed for 8 seconds, you can’t dex the sp1 or 2, and he’s just so tanky
Not to mention that the last 2 GC nodes have been hell when it comes to managing serpent. Archaos and rich get richer meant that his best mystic counters were extremely neutered because he’d gain power way too fast and would go unblockable. This meta extends buffs and debuffs by 150%, meaning his death immunity now lasts for 10 eons and you’re guaranteed to waste a lot of time. Any defender that does this shouldn’t be allowed. Bullseye, Photon, or Onslaught don’t do this and are very manageable at this point