A few quirks about Strikers

Magrailothos

I've been keeping track of a few weird things I've noted about Strikers. Some might be entirely predictable. Some might be unintended/bugs.

Either way, I was finally inspired to write them down, by a recent thread (below), because I thought that these things might be worth being aware of, now that Kabam is working on new Relics (although I missed the Livestream, and I guess it's possible that the new relics might have a different mechanic instead of Strikers...).

Hopefully some of these things might be useful for players who haven't spotted them; so please feel free to add any other 'Striker abilities', interactions or possible bugs that you've noted.

First, a couple of easy and obvious ones, which are almost certainly intentional:

• Striker hits don't add to your combo meter. But they do add to the defender's, if they have an ability that activates on hits received.
  
• Striker hits don't generate you any combat power (this can be helpful, sometimes; say, if you're waiting out an Indestructible before launching an SP2)
  
• This may seem obvious, but Strikers bypass a lot of abilities that trigger against basic attacks (Bullseye's Evade, or Red Skull's Autoblock for example) or that trigger against Special attacks, since they're neither.

Next, a couple of interesting quirks, which are notable, and probably fine whether they're intentional or not:

• If you have a proximity-based power (like Omega Red's death spores, or or Mephisto's Aura) it disappears when the striker is active. If the Defender has a proximity-based power, it keeps working whilst the striker is active. That seems a bit unfair, but whatever...
  
• In this thread (here) it's described that a Striker can be parried. It's never happened to me, but it's interesting that it's possible - should it be?

And finally, Striker hits completely bypass some defensive mechanics in ways that may not be completely intentional. Some examples I've noted include:

• Power Shield - Striker hits do normal damage; I guess because they're neither basics nor specials
  
• Safeguard - they can bypass the damage cap, as if they were DoT effects
  
• Mr Sinister's Crit Healing - they don't trigger this at all. Which is a bit odd.
  
• Strikers don't Miss. At all. It's easy to test: Duel Photon with a champ who can't bypass Miss. Parry her, then activate your striker. Good, eh?
• I'm less confident this is a universal thing, but Strikers don't seem to get Autoblocked either, even by opponents who should block any attacks. At least, not when I've tested it tonight, dueling IMIW and Arcade...

So, those are a few things I've noticed about Strikers which I thought might be worth sharing (and possibly, fixing if they're not supposed to happen).

Anyone else have any more?

Average_Desi

Strikers also deal damage in Do You Bleed. I think Slayer used this to solo Do you Bleed Medusa with CGR 🫠🫠

Average_Desi

Also, strikers increase Thing Rock stack. But do not decrease the stacks of Korg. Iirc

ShashankGupta

Also a fact the only time striker don't stun the opponent when they have unstoppable buff or passive on the opponent even if you are unblockable and launch striker it will not stun them

Magrailothos

Okay, so this died a death. 😅

Next time I'm planning to write a post about something I've noticed that I think is a bit interesting/noteworthy, I'll check my calendar, and make sure that there's no Endgame content coming out...

🤷‍♂️

Average_Desi

Magrailothos said:

Okay, so this died a death. 😅

Next time I'm planning to write a post about something I've noticed that I think is a bit interesting/noteworthy, I'll check my calendar, and make sure that there's no Endgame content coming out...

🤷‍♂️

Fwiw, appreciate your writeups. Really interesting

Average_Desi

I think this is worth adding to the list

Magrailothos

Thanks, @Average_Desi

Two more observations:
Although you still take damage from any debuffs you may be carrying, Willpower gets shut down whilst your Striker is active. If you're very low on health, you might drop dead during your Striker phase.

Strikers can kind of break you out of Root; in that your Striker will move as usual. However, when the striker ends, you'll flash back across the screen to where you were Rooted. Still, it's useful if you've been Rooted by someone like Zemo, and need some breathing space.

Average_Desi

I don't know if you have recorded this, but putting the striker against Warlock's block will cause degen. Meaning they count as non contact basic hits.