Zola on Polka Dot

curious how folks are approaching this fight with the new war meta. an already tricky defender with nodes that make him difficult to fight with the already limited number of safe counters.

i took one with OG phoenix using a risky strat of throwing a heavy “close” to him but without actually stunning to get the first incinerate and drop the stun shield. it can go okay after that but you’re constantly watching the timer tick down and hoping to be in the middle of a heavy charge or in your flame aura when it expires.

zola poses a similar problem on the boss node (or any stun immune node) as the tactic attackers either rely on a passive stun or don’t have a reasonable spacing setup to punish his heavy with a heavy consistently. some can do it after a first medium but that’s about it

Comments

Wolf911

IRONHEART

best counter just dex and boom you got incinerates on zola

get to 5 debuffs and you can parry non contact and no need to worry about accidental parries as she has -100% AAR while blocking ( if you have 5 or more debuffs )

just spam sp1s to keep incinerates on zola parry heavy when wifi charges go above 15

Furrymoosen

As started above, Ironheart is gonna be the best counter on polka dot.
For a stun immune Zola, Shuri is the way to go. I got several solos with her when he was the boss in the last regular war season. She can heavy counter his heavy, plus has the invisibility for safety. She's fairly tanky if you can reparry well, and her DoT ramps up real nice which is really the best way to deal damage to him anyway since he nerfs special damage. Just gotta spam that SP1 to avoid detonation.

nismo41886

to follow up and clarify a bit - the issue is the new war tactic and zola being a tactic defender. neither ironheart nor shuri are tactic attack hence the pickle we’re in.

the new war tactic seems to be near impossible to fight without tactic attack so i was hoping for a counter from the #fantastic pool

captain_rogers

Starky should work well against zola with a 6* relic in stun immune nodes. Max ramp then use relics to deal with his charges, or heavy counter him.

hungryhungrybbq

IH is good for normal people.. for me I would use Red Hulk lol
He's actually amazing Zola counter (easy heavy punish and red numbers to cut through him)

Laninos

Jeez... reading is hard i guess 😕

War meta champs only... Otherwise you will literally MELT!
-Hype and sp1 only?
-I believe CMM can heavy counter Zola but you won't gain power so the detonation will catch up to you eventually.
-Maybe some PS1 interactions?

hungryhungrybbq

Lol no.. the def tactic is a joke

hungryhungrybbq

My alliance mate used IH.. the tac isn't that serious, but she can use specials anyway

LordSmasher

Yeh, I used Ironheart. Just spammed Sp1, didn't notice the defender tactic.

hungryhungrybbq

Let me rephrase.. it can be annoying from a potion standpoint, but it shouldn't make anyone lose a match, but using champs with Energy Resistance (in general - when possible) is huge plus (it's energy damage)

hungryhungrybbq

But yeah, calm down with condescending remarks to people who actually know what they are talking about and trying to offer advice to OP - the people saying IH are correct

nismo41886

i’ll give a non-tactic champ a shot next time. maybe i’m too concerned about how much tactic will hurt. just reviewed my fight video and noticed that specials remove ALL the power detonations you’ve accumulated at once so realistically if they are expiring one at a time on the 10s timer you’ll get chipped down but avoid a massive melt? stingy AI or baiting a certain special will factor in but if you can keep tempo up that sounds less bad. detonations will cost approx 6-8k each if i’m referencing the correct attack numbers which isn’t terrible if you only take a few

Jack2634

i swear, ironheart in game is so good and underrated, she can do a wide variety of matches....unlike her movie series xD

Laninos

Curious what level you're playing at for you to consider losing roughly 2% of your health in an equal matchup (more if class disadvantage or if you're punching up) every 3 seconds for a fight just to use a couple of potions? Feels very costly.
-Yes you can do the fight without dying using a nontactic. I wholly agree (Ironheart and getting the fight down is an option so thanks for those shares). But if the expectation is full health if you use that champ, what cost does that bring?
-Yes the 2% every 3 seconds is an extreme where it'll be less than that outside worst case. Id say half that in a typical match where they're throwing specials. That ends up being maybe 1% every 3 seconds meaning full health, no chip damage, you lost 60% in a 3 min fight.
-Yes the use of Riri will probably help reduce the time to throw specials on that node and reduce the 1% to maybe 0.8% or half your health.
- I appreciate the idea of spec'ing into energy resist. That was a good call.

Again, it feels costly given t1 war expectations so thinking through tactic options for planning purposes is important.

hungryhungrybbq

Tier 1

I did mention afterwards that it can be annoying from a healing perspective if you use a champ without energy resistance.. but I can't see it costing someone a match or anything

Tbf, my comments were in response to "you will MELT!!" which was pretty dramatic and not really accurate imo

But it's 30% of the defenders attack.. there will be certain characters with energy resistance who laugh at it.. but yes, characters with no energy resistance will chip down and it will be annoying if you need them for several fights based on item cost

But yeah, can spec energy resistance or use stat focus to mitigate it if needed some.. just pointing out that the tac is energy damage for whatever it's worth.. it may even cause some interesting interactions with champs you don't want to use energy against

Furrymoosen

Let's also keep the context of the original conversation - Zola on the boss node and Zola on polkadot power, the next to last fight. On the boss node, remaining health doesn't matter because there are no fights left. The odds of someone taking the boss with Ironheart after clearing polkadot are also pretty slim.
It could be an expensive and reckless approach to every fight to go with an ideal champ while ignoring tactic, but with OP's original context it is only getting the solo that matters because there won't be another fight to take.
Doesn't apply to all fights, but applies to OP's primary concerns.

hungryhungrybbq

I think another major difference is that I'm never in a war fight for 3 minutes.. that's an eternity for me
I prioritize damage first in AW, and utility second.. many defensive abilities and nodes can be countered by gameplay.. and the sooner the fight is over, the safer a fight it was (less time for anything to stack up.. or go sideways, etc.).. but again, that's just me

hungryhungrybbq

Ok, I just looked up my worst fight so far this off season regarding tac damage
2:20 fight (yes, an eternity according to my statement:) using a champ with no energy resistance and it removed roughly 15% of my health over 2:20
So yeah, it's annoying, but not terrible?

Laninos

No I think you're right for most of your feedback. I'm the opposite with utility first then offense so that part may need to be reconsidered since you may come out healthier that way. I appreciate the extra insights to try out during the rest of the off-season.

Also, you're correct, the drama comment, YOU WILL MELT, was probably a bit more than it should have been for the majority of players. Shorter fights and the tactic seems to be less of an issue than stall fights.

nismo41886

what’s a little time on the forums without DRAMA tho lol

but for real, appreciate the discourse. pulled the curtain back on concerns for how much damage the tactic would deal and gave me some ideas going forward. early days in the tactic and the better we understand exactly what it does the better we can pick it apart.