Cap Sam might have the most infuriating design in mcoc
^ 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*
