Cyclops (X-Men '97) Buff Ideas - Drop your own!!

Aaand we're back ladies and gentleladies - let's party.

As always, we gotta start at the only logical place: the source material.

Scott Summers, X-Men superhero name Cyclops, was the son of a USAF Pilot. On vacation their plane was attacked, and his mother pushed him and his brother Alex (Havok!) out to save them. In true meme fashion, Scott landed *BONK* on his head and this injury is what causes him to not be able to control his powers without his goggles (which we'll get to later). He and Alex were separated, and he found himself stuck in a terrible orphanage run by who would eventually be identified as Mister Sinister in disguise. He escaped and found his way into Professor X's hands, and the rest is history.

Powers/Abilities: Concussive Blasts, Hand-to-hand combat. From the Marvel comics website: "Cyclops can project a beam of heatless, ruby-colored concussive force from his eyes"

PAUSE: Quick note. Heatless, concussive. That means NO incinerates people. But bear with me.

"His eyes are actually no longer just complex organs that utilize the visible spectrum of light to see the world around it; rather, they are interdimensional apertures between this universe and another. Cyclops’ body constantly absorbs ambient energy, such as sunlight, from his environment into his body’s cells, which allows him to open the apertures. Cyclops’ mind generates a particular psionic field that is attuned to the forces that maintain the apertures."

Okay, now THIS is interesting. I see potential for a few pretty cool things. To start, Energy Damage, Energy Damage, Energy Damage. High Energy Resistance himself, and then his kit needs to be all about fine-tuning how much Energy Damage he deals. I'm thinking a lot of Resonance and Prowess passives/buffs - Beta Ray Bill is the first champion to feature Resonance, and it is an awesome buff in the contest. We should absolutely have more of it in game. Photon has the equivalent debuff of Overload, which does essentially the same exact thing (both cause an additional burst of Energy Damage on hits). However, Resonance makes more sense due to the fact that the energy output is on Cyclops to absorb, tune, and release.

Final source material notes before diving into the kit: "Cyclops is immune to the energy generated by his brother, Havok"

Yay immunity to Feedback, and Plasma Build Up. All other Energy DOTs will be addressed...standby.

"Cyclops is also a skilled strategist and battle tactician who possesses an innate spatial awareness that allows him to ascertain complex geometric relationships in his mind through observation of objects and surfaces in his surroundings. As such, he can determine the angles found between them in order to cause his optic beam to ricochet so as to strike a target or targets in a trajectory of his choosing. He can successfully reflect his optic beam off over a dozen surfaces in the course of one blast."

This could be a pretty sick sig ability - maybe unlocking a Perfect Release Mechanism where you even further fine tune his blasts to change how you affect the defender.

Time to put it together!

Passive Abilities:

+4500 Energy Resistance.
All of Cyclops' concussive beams deal Energy Damage and cannot be Evaded. Reduce the potency of incoming Passive Direct Damage by 100%.
Cyclops is immune to the effects of Feedback, Plasma Build Up, and Overload.
Well-timed blocks grant Cyclops a 15% Prowess passive.

Explanations: Havok has +2550 Energy Resistance, Bishop has almost +5000 (both at 7* r2). Reading through the source material, Cyclops absolutely deserves high Energy Resistance. For the beams, I took that idea from Stryfe's kit (like father, like son). Specifically calls out Evade, so that means you can still Dex. Also ties into the source material in that he gains the ability of Trajectory Bending, meaning he doesn't just shoot in a straight line, but can control the path. Thus, no evade!

Basic Attacks:

Cyclops is an expert in hand to hand combat, and his mutation grants him superior Spatial Awareness. His basic attacks cannot be Missed and deal Physical Damage. During his basic attacks, Cyclops absorbs the energy around him, granting the following effects:

Medium attacks have a 45% chance to place a dormant 15% Prowess passive on Cyclops.
Light attacks have a 35% chance to place a dormant 10% Resonate passive on Cyclops.

Special Attacks:

Upon activation, all dormant Prowess and Resonate passives are activated.
After each Special Attack Cyclops consumes all his Personal Prowess Passives.
After each Special Attack, Resonate passives have a duration of 6 seconds.
If Cyclops has over 8 Prowess Passives, his next Special Attack is Unblockable.
Perfect Release: During special attacks, time slows to allow Cyclops to fine tune his concussive blasts, increasing the potency of all active Prowess effects by up to 30%.

We barely see dormant effects in the Contest, and so I'd love to see more, particularly with Cyclops's powers from the comics. The Perfect Release would allow you the chance to further increase his damage, if you're able to focus and release his energy beams.

Special 1:

The force of Cyclops's beams overwhelms the opponent. Each beam places a 20% Concussion passive on the opponent lasting 12 seconds.

Some nice damage, but also some solid AAR via his concussive beams.

Special Attack 2: Surplus Energy

Cyclops's superior energy absorption results in extra energy that must be released. Increase the potency of activated Resonate passives by 10%.

Focus here is DAMAGE. Yay big yellow and red numbers.

Special Attack 3:

Upon activation, Cyclops enters gains an Overload Passive for 20 seconds. While Overload is active, Cyclops generates one dormant Prowess Passive every 3 seconds.

Gimme moar damage pls.

Signature Ability:

Years of spending time with telepaths have allowed Cyclops to hone his mind, resulting in immunity to Reverse Controls.
Increase the potency of Prowess and Resonate effects by 5% - 20%.

And scene. I think a kit like this would be dope. The two interesting things I want to be included are the integration of a Perfect Release mechanic and the use of Concussion. I'm not married to the idea of the Concussion debuffs, but with them being literally concussive beams, I feel like it should be there, lol. The Perfect Release (or something else that it can be called) should absolutely be there to mimic Cyclops's need to focus the energy output via his visor in the comics.

Let me know your thoughts. Drop some suggestions of your own below!!

Comments

spiderknight616

Idk about abilities themselves but he needs to have strong synergies with the other X-Men.

captain_rogers

He should either have sig ability like cap infinity war, or synergy to enhance mutants like prof x, or prefight to enhance fellow mutants like apoc

HassamaMama

He should either have sig ability like cap infinity war, or synergy to enhance mutants like prof x, or prefight to enhance fellow mutants like apoc

Yea I didn't put too much thought into that, but he absolutely should have a synergy titled "To me, my X-Men" and grant an Attack boost at the very least.

EdisonLaw

I think he should have some sort of counter evade attack ability similar to Kate, Elsa or Bullseye. I mentioned this in another thread

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/374284/cyclops-buff-concept-ideas-and-discussion

Awesomep12

Imagine they release the buff and it ends up just being a synergy XD

Magrailothos

Really nice, @HassamaMama
I enjoyed the referencing of his source material 😉

I had quite a similar rework, which I'll post below: I also went with Concussion as a really useful general-purpose Utility.

My understanding of Marvel canon is that Cyclops is way, way less good at absorbing/resisting energy than Havok or Bishop are: so, personally I think his Energy Resistance should be a relatively minor thing.

I also went with countering Autoblock rather than Evade, as his Blasts are too powerful to hold back (ultimately, he gets Unblockable Beams, anyway).

Magrailothos

The leader of the X-men, Cyclops's tactical skills are as legendary as his powerful Optic Blasts. Cyclops builds up a strategic understanding of his opponents abilities to defeat them, can shut down their abilities completely with a combination of strategy and concussion; and inflicts ever-increasing stacks of Armour break on the opponent, eventually reducing even the strongest-armoured opponent to dust.

He'll be useable,but not ideal for Battlegrounds - he's going to be best in medium-to-long content, ramping up as the fight goes on and he blasts away at his opponents defenses. However, his abilities largely centre around his Optic Blasts, making him vulnerable to opponents who can control his power. And contrary to many suggestions, his Optic Blasts don't inflict Incinerate, and can Miss. Sorry...

Abilities for 6* 5/65. Apart from his Health and Attack, all other numbers are purely speculative suggestions. With that in mind - Enjoy!

Cyclops

Attack 3927
Health 53576
Energy Resistance 350

Passive
Cyclops gains 15% less Power from landing or receiving attacks.
Whilst below one bar of Power, Cyclops gains 2.5% of a bar of Power, per second.

Heavy Attacks
This is a short-range projectile Beam attack, with a new Animation similar to Destroyer's.
During this attack, the opponent's Stand Your Ground Mastery is removed, and their Evade ability accuracy is reduced by 50% unless the opponent is #Flying.

Blocking
Cyclops isn't as good at absorbing energy as some other mutants; but when blocking Energy-based attacks, he gains an additional +350 Energy Resistance; and benefits from +50% Defensive Combat Power Rating.

Strategy
Cyclops gains and loses strategy charges during a fight, max 99:

+4 When he makes a well-timed block
+4 When he intercepts the opponents Dash
+4 When he dodges an attack using Dexterity.
+2 Every ten hits in his, or his opponent's combo
+2 When the opponent suffers an Armour Break effect

On defense, Cyclops gains Strategy charges when the Attacker completes the actions listed.
Cyclops loses 10 Strategy charges if he is stunned or concussed; or 20 if he is struck by a Special-3.

Each point of Strategy grants Cyclops the following bonuses.

+2% Special Attack damage
+20 Critical Rating with Beam attacks
+20 Block Penetration with Beam attacks
+0.5% Ability Accuracy and Concussion potency on Beam Attacks
Opponent suffers -2% Autoblock Ability Accuracy

Cyke gains special damage by building Strategy instead, which is why he lacks Prowess. This should help him cope with opponents who can punish or remove Prowess.

Tactical takedown
Cyclops uses his optic blasts to decisive effect, weakening and eventually permanently disabling his opponent's Armour abilities.

If Armour break is prevented by an Immunity, Cyclops inflicts stacking Energy Vulnerability passives of equal duration, which decrease the opponent's Energy Resistance by 1250.
When Armour Break debuffs end for any reason, they have a 75% chance to be replaced with an indefinite Armour Break passive, which reduces Armour rating by 115. Inflicting an Armour break passive does not remove an additional stack of Armour.
Max stacks 20.
For each Armour break or Energy Vulnerability effect on the opponent, Cyclops gains +85 critical rating. This applies to all attacks.
For each Armour break or Energy Vulnerability effect on the opponent, Beam attacks inflict an additional 10% of the damage done, as a Burst of Energy damage.
For each Armour break effect on the opponent, reduce the ability Accuracy and Potency of new Armour Up effects by 5% (max -100% Potency).

Combining the increased critical rating and Special damage from Strategy with the increasing burst damage from stacking armour break passives should mean Cyke's damage gets very decent in long fights.

Special attacks
Concussion debuffs gain Potency with Strategy, as described above. They do not stack, and their Potency is affected by class relationships. If a concussion debuff is placed on an opponent who already has one, it starts Paused for 3.5 seconds.

SP1: Each beam has a 75% chance to inflict Armour Break (-950 armour for 7 seconds). Each hit inflicts a Concussion debuff (-40% Ability Accuracy) for nine seconds.
SP2: Each beam has an 85% chance to Armour Break (-1550 armour for 9 seconds). Each beam hit inflicts a Concussion debuff (-60% Ability Accuracy) for nine seconds.
SP3: Energy Burst damage on this attack is increased by 50%.
Inflict five stacks of Armour Break (potency of -1250 for 12 seconds) and an 80% Concussion debuff for 12 seconds.
Inflict a 100% Exhaustion debuff on himself for ten seconds.

This will temporarily shut down Cyke's passive power gain, which reflects the exhausting effect of his SP3; but it will also enable a bit of Willpower healing if that Mastery is unlocked.

Signature Ability:
Cyclops starts the match with 10 Strategy charges, plus an additional 50% in Battlegrounds.
Additionally, when Cyclops has a combo of 15 or more, Beam attacks can inflict Critical Hits through block, and Energy Burst damage on Beam Attacks is increased by 40%

HassamaMama

The leader of the X-men, Cyclops's tactical skills are as legendary as his powerful Optic Blasts. Cyclops builds up a strategic understanding of his opponents abilities to defeat them, can shut down their abilities completely with a combination of strategy and concussion; and inflicts ever-increasing stacks of Armour break on the opponent, eventually reducing even the strongest-armoured opponent to dust.

He'll be useable,but not ideal for Battlegrounds - he's going to be best in medium-to-long content, ramping up as the fight goes on and he blasts away at his opponents defenses. However, his abilities largely centre around his Optic Blasts, making him vulnerable to opponents who can control his power. And contrary to many suggestions, his Optic Blasts don't inflict Incinerate, and can Miss. Sorry...

Abilities for 6* 5/65. Apart from his Health and Attack, all other numbers are purely speculative suggestions. With that in mind - Enjoy!

Cyclops

Attack 3927
Health 53576
Energy Resistance 350

Passive
Cyclops gains 15% less Power from landing or receiving attacks.
Whilst below one bar of Power, Cyclops gains 2.5% of a bar of Power, per second.

Heavy Attacks
This is a short-range projectile Beam attack, with a new Animation similar to Destroyer's.
During this attack, the opponent's Stand Your Ground Mastery is removed, and their Evade ability accuracy is reduced by 50% unless the opponent is #Flying.

Blocking
Cyclops isn't as good at absorbing energy as some other mutants; but when blocking Energy-based attacks, he gains an additional +350 Energy Resistance; and benefits from +50% Defensive Combat Power Rating.

Strategy
Cyclops gains and loses strategy charges during a fight, max 99:
+4 When he makes a well-timed block
+4 When he intercepts the opponents Dash
+4 When he dodges an attack using Dexterity.
+2 Every ten hits in his, or his opponent's combo
+2 When the opponent suffers an Armour Break effect
On defense, Cyclops gains Strategy charges when the Attacker completes the actions listed.
Cyclops loses 10 Strategy charges if he is stunned or concussed; or 20 if he is struck by a Special-3.

Each point of Strategy grants Cyclops the following bonuses.
+2% Special Attack damage
+20 Critical Rating with Beam attacks
+20 Block Penetration with Beam attacks
+0.5% Ability Accuracy and Concussion potency on Beam Attacks
Opponent suffers -2% Autoblock Ability Accuracy
Cyke gains special damage by building Strategy instead, which is why he lacks Prowess. This should help him cope with opponents who can punish or remove Prowess.

Tactical takedown
Cyclops uses his optic blasts to decisive effect, weakening and eventually permanently disabling his opponent's Armour abilities.
If Armour break is prevented by an Immunity, Cyclops inflicts stacking Energy Vulnerability passives of equal duration, which decrease the opponent's Energy Resistance by 1250.

When Armour Break debuffs end for any reason, they have a 75% chance to be replaced with an indefinite Armour Break passive, which reduces Armour rating by 115. Inflicting an Armour break passive does not remove an additional stack of Armour.
Max stacks 20.
For each Armour break or Energy Vulnerability effect on the opponent, Cyclops gains +85 critical rating. This applies to all attacks.
For each Armour break or Energy Vulnerability effect on the opponent, Beam attacks inflict an additional 10% of the damage done, as a Burst of Energy damage.
For each Armour break effect on the opponent, reduce the ability Accuracy and Potency of new Armour Up effects by 5% (max -100% Potency).
Combining the increased critical rating and Special damage from Strategy with the increasing burst damage from stacking armour break passives should mean Cyke's damage gets very decent in long fights.

Special attacks
Concussion debuffs gain Potency with Strategy, as described above. They do not stack, and their Potency is affected by class relationships. If a concussion debuff is placed on an opponent who already has one, it starts Paused for 3.5 seconds.
SP1: Each beam has a 75% chance to inflict Armour Break (-950 armour for 7 seconds). Each hit inflicts a Concussion debuff (-40% Ability Accuracy) for nine seconds.
SP2: Each beam has an 85% chance to Armour Break (-1550 armour for 9 seconds). Each beam hit inflicts a Concussion debuff (-60% Ability Accuracy) for nine seconds.
SP3: Energy Burst damage on this attack is increased by 50%.
Inflict five stacks of Armour Break (potency of -1250 for 12 seconds) and an 80% Concussion debuff for 12 seconds.
Inflict a 100% Exhaustion debuff on himself for ten seconds.
This will temporarily shut down Cyke's passive power gain, which reflects the exhausting effect of his SP3; but it will also enable a bit of Willpower healing if that Mastery is unlocked.

Signature Ability:
Cyclops starts the match with 10 Strategy charges, plus an additional 50% in Battlegrounds.
Additionally, when Cyclops has a combo of 15 or more, Beam attacks can inflict Critical Hits through block, and Energy Burst damage on Beam Attacks is increased by 40%

Dude this is so much better than mine LMAO. SO sick!! I love the Strategy ability. I was wondering how to put his specialty as a strategist/leader into effects and this is so dope. Very well done.