Cap Sam might have the most infuriating design in mcoc

Sachhyam257Sachhyam257 Member Posts: 1,353 ★★★★
^ alongside super skrull (I have beef with him too)

I don't know why I picked up cap sam today, but I did and it was a mistake. I would usually just gloss over it if I didn't have fun, but he actually pissed me off. So yeah, I'm here to rant. I know it's pointless because no one in their right mind uses him, but it's annoying so I will complain nonetheless.

(Keep the durations of his effects in mind, I will explain why below)

Sp1: Inflicts 1 phys vuln for 14 secs. Inflict 2 phys vuln if locked on.

*phys vulns are paused during lock on*

*lock on cooldown is 12 secs*

*You have to dash back and hold block for 1.2 secs to trigger lock on* <- you might see what I'm annoyed about (it is definitely on purpose)

Sp2: DMG scales with armor rating. Inflict 3 puny ruptures. Does extra instant rupture dmg if locked on.

Sp2 is his main dmg source. His instant rupture mechanic replaces crits, so it scales with crit dmg. To increase that rupture burst, ideally, he'd have to stack phys vuln with sp1s. So sp1 -> sp2 while locked on is the way to go (2 sp1s -> sp2 does not fit within the constraints). And it works fine I guess, but his dmg is mediocre at best (I'm being generous).

However, here's what pissed me off: There is a way to get better (actually decent) dmg out of him. Unfortunately, they made it as awful as possible to pull off (or they didn't want you to pull it off for some reason even though his dmg is garbage).

The idea is to trigger lock on and then spam a bunch of sp1s to stack phys vuln (they are paused), then once lock on goes on cooldown (phys vulns start expiring), build up to sp2 and wait for the cooldown to end. Dash back and trigger lock on immediately after cooldown to pause the phys vulns right before they end. <- THIS is the annoying part because the lock on cooldown is 12 secs, and in that 12 secs the phys vulns have ticked down 12/14 secs. So you have 2 secs to re-trigger lock on to catch them. Again, it takes 1.2 secs holding block to trigger lock on. Yup. A whopping 0.8 secs to squeeze it in. I've done it vs. rol ws a few times and the resulting dmg is decent. What blew my fuse was failing it multiple times on rol ws where he wasn't even being problematic. Just watching it fall off by a fraction of a second again and again because dashing back and holding block didn't trigger lock on (it takes like a fraction after the cooldown for that too work too lmao). Completely impractical vs any real fight btw. The fact that it's there bottlenecking his dmg is such a dumb design. QoL change would be doubling the potency and duration on those (then maybe add a stack limit idk).

Not to mention, his lock on only really counters miss and kitty (with the cowardice passive). I'm not even sure how they could even go about making that lock on extend to the current mutant champs tbh.

His movie is coming around and it looks like absolute **** too. (They'll probably slap some synergy to joaquin and call it a day is what I'm guessing, or not even that lol). It sucks because I like his animations, and rupture on a tech champ that isn't #metal would make him an option for onslaught (he can also parry onslaught without getting daunted). He'd work for dust for the same reason, as well as sinister because he does not crit. Those are some of the top mutant defenders. He's an okay defender vs non-auto block counters too. There is potential for a solid dual threat in there. Just bump up that dmg and maybe a new line of utility or sth.

*Note: lost the first discussion to the void of approval after a minor spelling edit, so here it is again*

Comments

  • Wicket329Wicket329 Member Posts: 3,777 ★★★★★
    edited February 11
    Could you mess with that loop a little bit? Get to right under an sp2, not locked on, then throw sp1, combo, sp1, lock on, rush to sp2? Or maybe get your lock on in after the first sp1 so you can stack three vulnerabilities?

    I haven’t messed around with him, so definitely not an expert, but altering the rotation might help a little bit

    EDIT:

    Just went in and tried it and managed to get 6 physical vulnerabilities stacked up and landed an sp2 during lock on. I don’t know if those are the kinds of numbers you were already getting or not, but figured I’d post my results.
  • Sachhyam257Sachhyam257 Member Posts: 1,353 ★★★★
    Wicket329 said:

    Could you mess with that loop a little bit? Get to right under an sp2, not locked on, then throw sp1, combo, sp1, lock on, rush to sp2? Or maybe get your lock on in after the first sp1 so you can stack three vulnerabilities?

    I haven’t messed around with him, so definitely not an expert, but altering the rotation might help a little bit

    EDIT:

    Just went in and tried it and managed to get 6 physical vulnerabilities stacked up and landed an sp2 during lock on. I don’t know if those are the kinds of numbers you were already getting or not, but figured I’d post my results.

    Yep. 6 phys vulns sp2.

    On your previous statement, sp1 out of lock on into another sp1 would give u 2 phys vulns, the same as 1 sp1 during lock on. So that'll cost extra power.

    I guess you could go sp1 -> sp1 then lock on and another sp1 -> sp2 (so 4 phys vulns). But for that amount of time and power being spent I think would be better to just go the normal route? Haven't tested it yet though.
  • Sachhyam257Sachhyam257 Member Posts: 1,353 ★★★★
    edited February 11


    🥲

    Use him much?
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  • FeydRauthaFeydRautha Member Posts: 223 ★★★
    There is a great champion in there. He just needs a few tweaks in some places to be a really great champion, like Red Skull.
  • Toyota_2015Toyota_2015 Member Posts: 968 ★★★★
    edited February 11
    He seems to suffer from what I like to call Tech Champion Syndrome, where a surprisingly large number of Tech champions have extremely difficult and stressful damage rotations for absolutely no reason. See also: Civil Warrior, Silver Centurion.

    Some Tech champions find a way to escape it, but not completely. Ultron, for example, gives you a whopping 6 second window after his heavy attack for you to use a special attack. Sounds like a decent amount, but considering you not only have to close the distance on the opponent and get enough AI cooperation to squeeze in a special attack, it can be difficult sometimes. Miss that window for whatever reason and you have to wait ~30 seconds to try again.

    My favorite champions all have some layer of safety and consistency to them, which is why the Tech class has the lowest number of my favorite champions. My tinfoil hat theory on why iDoom is significantly less safe and consistent than normal Doom is strictly because he’s a Tech champion…
  • captain_rogerscaptain_rogers Member Posts: 12,735 ★★★★★
    And I thought ironheart is the most annoying tech champ to play lol.
  • Wolf911Wolf911 Member Posts: 1,012 ★★★★

    And I thought ironheart is the most annoying tech champ to play lol.

    she isn’t that annoying

    just you can’t get both utility and damage at the same time

    for utility you have to spam sp1s

    for damage you have to do MLM combos build a lot of debuffs, get lucky with armor up buffs and throw sp2
  • captain_rogerscaptain_rogers Member Posts: 12,735 ★★★★★
    Wolf911 said:

    And I thought ironheart is the most annoying tech champ to play lol.

    she isn’t that annoying

    just you can’t get both utility and damage at the same time

    for utility you have to spam sp1s

    for damage you have to do MLM combos build a lot of debuffs, get lucky with armor up buffs and throw sp2
    One change I would like to see is, instead of pausing her sp1 should refresh the debuffs. A trade off could be her sp2s will consume all debuffs.
  • TheBlindSalmonTheBlindSalmon Member Posts: 92
    Wolf911 said:

    And I thought ironheart is the most annoying tech champ to play lol.

    she isn’t that annoying

    just you can’t get both utility and damage at the same time

    for utility you have to spam sp1s

    for damage you have to do MLM combos build a lot of debuffs, get lucky with armor up buffs and throw sp2
    What utility are you getting from her sp1? It's easy to keep 5+ debuffs on for target lock without pausing them. For raw damage I use the rotation of building almost to sp2, then going for sp1 and getting back up to 2 as fast as possible to make use of the pause and vulnerability, which reliably gives me 15+ debuffs during sp2.

    The only other utility she has is suppression and removing prowess with heavies, but you get all benefits of target lock playing normally.
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