Heimdall Testing - Long Post
V1PER1987
Member Posts: 3,474 ★★★★★
So I posted a brief synopsis of Heimdall in his spotlight thread, but I thought I would create a thread to share some more detailed information, along with my opinion of the champion, and my opinions about what makes him great compared to other popular champions in the game currently.
NOTE: This is a post based mostly on opinion and my opinions on Heimdall and his abilities, synergies and overall utility. I will be posting some opinions about why I think he is better or worse than some champs. This is purely opinionated and not meant to be incendiary comments that attack other popular champs. My hope is that this can be a constructive conversation that will shed some light on this new champion that seems to be underwhelming according to popular opinion.
So let's start off with his strengths and what Heimdall does really well:
True Strike - So this is Heimdall's greatest asset. Permanent true strike. The way this works is anytime Heimdall activates a special, he gains a permanent true strike buff, that is only removed if Heimdall gets struck, not when his block is hit. If you are good at avoiding getting hit, this is an amazing asset to have. Heimdall gets additional abilities unique to him while true strike is activated. Opponents cannot use the dexterity mastery to evade (not important), Heimdall can parry projectiles (similar to Proxima), and Heimdall has a 25% chance to parry basic attacks (not terribly important, even on defense). The ability to parry projectiles is incredibly useful for those Yondus, IMIWs, and Dominos on war defense. A simple L1 special is all it takes to activate this, which is made much easier to achieve when he is awakened which I will mention later.
Permanent Buffs - Heimdall can convert a total of 5 buffs to be permanent each fight. These buffs include aptitude, precision, fury, and armor and this order determines which order Heimdall will try to convert first. Heimdall is much easier to setup than Hela, Proxima, or Angela, albeit with less damage output. Nonetheless, the setup is easy, and even though the buffs converted permanently expire at the end of battle, if he is awakened, these buffs convert into power for the next fight. To gain aptitude buffs, Heimdall must use an L3 special and for precision Heimdall must both be awakened, and not already have a true strike buff when he activates a special for it to trigger. For fury he gains 8 charges when attacking a block, or 16 when striking the opponent and he gains 8 armor charges when blocking an attack or 16 when being struck. 100 fury or armor charges triggers the respective buff for 10 seconds. Generally about 7 clean hits gets a fury buff. Once you trigger the desired buff, just use a heavy and it is permanently converted. In quicker fights I find that just trying to convert a few fury buffs is generally easier and most efficient. For longer fights, I recommend converting 3 fury buffs, his signature precision buff, and an aptitude buff gained from his L3 special. This will allow Heimdall to trigger much more crits without sacrificing too much in damage. As mentioned above, all remaining buffs will be converted into power in the next fight if Heimdall is awakened, which will be discussed later.
Synergies - This one can be argued as either a strength or a weakness, as Heimdall does not benefit from this himself. However, his synergies do provide powerful effects for his allies (fitting as he is a guardian):
Heimdall (himself) Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, the first time when you would be knocked out gain both an Indestructible and an Unstoppable Buff which last for 2 seconds." This synergy is great, because you do not need a specific champion to activate this synergy except Heimdall himself. This synergy allows you to be more aggressive if need be. This can synergize well with champs like OG Hulk and Punisher who gain power when their health is low, and can allow you to even potentially take an L3 special.
Heimdall (Thor, Thor Rag, Loki) Warriors of Asgard - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to Regenerate 15% of missing Health instantly." This synergy can be very useful, especially when compared to the Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge synergy. However, keep in mind this is 15% of missing health not max health.
Heimdall (Angela, Hela) Lost Daughters of Asgard - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to gain an infinite Duration Fury Buff increasing Attack by 15% of Base Attack." This synergy is self explanatory and a huge boon to anyone on your team, not just Angela or Hela. It helps that Angela and Hela are popular, great champs to use.
Heimdall (Magik, Guillotine) Enchanted Blades - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to gain an infinite Duration Precision Buff increasing Critical Rate by 250." Not a bad synergy, especially since Magik and Guillotine are popular, great champs to use.
All Seeing (Signature Ability) - "Heimdall gains a 100% chance to trigger a Precision Buff increasing Critical Rating by *381.35* and lasting for 10 seconds, each time a True Strike Buff activates on him.
Heimdall converts all of the Buffs active on him at the end of the previous fight into Power. Start the fight with a Power Gain Buff granting *5.27%* of his Max Power per Buff converted at the beginning of the fight, over 5 seconds."
* *denotes this value is based on sig level. These values are based on a 5* Heimdall with sig level 64.
Let me start by saying I used my 5* generic awakening gem on him. Are there better champs suited for a generic gem? Of course. Do I regret my choice of using my generic gem on Heimdall? Not at all and here's why:
Heimdall has a very poor crit rate (9.2% at 4/55). I cannot imagine any champions' are lower. The precision buff Heimdall activates with a special is decent. It helps him with his incredibly poor base crit rate and with an aptitude buff, makes it even more potent. This allows Heimdall to strike with noticeably more crits than without the buff. The best part of Heimdall's signature ability though, is his power gain. He converts all buffs at the end of the fight into a power gain buff in the next fight. If my Heimdall had 5 buffs at the end of the fight, he would gain 26.35% power over 5 seconds in the next fight, which is pretty incredible. In most fights, even when you are not trying, you will have a minimum of 4 buffs, getting you more than halfway to an L1 within the first 5 seconds of the match. This is what I believe makes Heimdall such a great champion. At the start of your second fight and going forward, Heimdall basically has a special in the first 5 seconds, meaning he can basically trigger True Strike at the beginning of the match without any build up or setup. For champs like OG Spiderman, Miles Morales, or NC, this is a huge advantage to have to make your fights go very smoothly. Even against the likes of Medusa and IMIW, having True Strike up as soon as possible reduces the complications you will have in the fight and makes the fight so much easier. For this reason alone, I believe he was worth my generic awakening gem. I know others will feel differently and that is ok. For me (stun) immune spidey, Medusa, and IMIW are my nemeses. They can be very difficult for me, so I believe using a generic gem should be used for something that will add a lot of value, which will in turn reduce item usage. So for me, this was a no brainer.
Masochism/Immunity Nodes - Heimdall, like Angela, focuses mainly on buffs and not debuffs. This allows Heimdall to setup safely on these nodes and not worry about triggering regeneration. Also, Heimdall excels against certain fights like immunity Spiderman, which typically counters popular counters like Archangel, Elektra, and Iceman. Since True Strike is a buff, he can safely setup and counter Spiderman/NC on immunity nodes.
Flow and Animations - For a larger champion, Heimdall's movements and attack animations are very smooth. He feels very smooth and his animations flow very well. Also, I really enjoy his attack and special animations. He feels very powerful when using his specials. Also, it is worth mentioning Heimdall's heavy has longer range than most other champions, allowing him to counter heavy/special attacks easier.
NOTE: This is a post based mostly on opinion and my opinions on Heimdall and his abilities, synergies and overall utility. I will be posting some opinions about why I think he is better or worse than some champs. This is purely opinionated and not meant to be incendiary comments that attack other popular champs. My hope is that this can be a constructive conversation that will shed some light on this new champion that seems to be underwhelming according to popular opinion.
So let's start off with his strengths and what Heimdall does really well:
True Strike - So this is Heimdall's greatest asset. Permanent true strike. The way this works is anytime Heimdall activates a special, he gains a permanent true strike buff, that is only removed if Heimdall gets struck, not when his block is hit. If you are good at avoiding getting hit, this is an amazing asset to have. Heimdall gets additional abilities unique to him while true strike is activated. Opponents cannot use the dexterity mastery to evade (not important), Heimdall can parry projectiles (similar to Proxima), and Heimdall has a 25% chance to parry basic attacks (not terribly important, even on defense). The ability to parry projectiles is incredibly useful for those Yondus, IMIWs, and Dominos on war defense. A simple L1 special is all it takes to activate this, which is made much easier to achieve when he is awakened which I will mention later.
Permanent Buffs - Heimdall can convert a total of 5 buffs to be permanent each fight. These buffs include aptitude, precision, fury, and armor and this order determines which order Heimdall will try to convert first. Heimdall is much easier to setup than Hela, Proxima, or Angela, albeit with less damage output. Nonetheless, the setup is easy, and even though the buffs converted permanently expire at the end of battle, if he is awakened, these buffs convert into power for the next fight. To gain aptitude buffs, Heimdall must use an L3 special and for precision Heimdall must both be awakened, and not already have a true strike buff when he activates a special for it to trigger. For fury he gains 8 charges when attacking a block, or 16 when striking the opponent and he gains 8 armor charges when blocking an attack or 16 when being struck. 100 fury or armor charges triggers the respective buff for 10 seconds. Generally about 7 clean hits gets a fury buff. Once you trigger the desired buff, just use a heavy and it is permanently converted. In quicker fights I find that just trying to convert a few fury buffs is generally easier and most efficient. For longer fights, I recommend converting 3 fury buffs, his signature precision buff, and an aptitude buff gained from his L3 special. This will allow Heimdall to trigger much more crits without sacrificing too much in damage. As mentioned above, all remaining buffs will be converted into power in the next fight if Heimdall is awakened, which will be discussed later.
Synergies - This one can be argued as either a strength or a weakness, as Heimdall does not benefit from this himself. However, his synergies do provide powerful effects for his allies (fitting as he is a guardian):
Heimdall (himself) Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, the first time when you would be knocked out gain both an Indestructible and an Unstoppable Buff which last for 2 seconds." This synergy is great, because you do not need a specific champion to activate this synergy except Heimdall himself. This synergy allows you to be more aggressive if need be. This can synergize well with champs like OG Hulk and Punisher who gain power when their health is low, and can allow you to even potentially take an L3 special.
Heimdall (Thor, Thor Rag, Loki) Warriors of Asgard - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to Regenerate 15% of missing Health instantly." This synergy can be very useful, especially when compared to the Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge synergy. However, keep in mind this is 15% of missing health not max health.
Heimdall (Angela, Hela) Lost Daughters of Asgard - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to gain an infinite Duration Fury Buff increasing Attack by 15% of Base Attack." This synergy is self explanatory and a huge boon to anyone on your team, not just Angela or Hela. It helps that Angela and Hela are popular, great champs to use.
Heimdall (Magik, Guillotine) Enchanted Blades - "Once per fight Heimdall will intercede on your behalf, dash back and hold Block for 1.5 seconds to gain an infinite Duration Precision Buff increasing Critical Rate by 250." Not a bad synergy, especially since Magik and Guillotine are popular, great champs to use.
All Seeing (Signature Ability) - "Heimdall gains a 100% chance to trigger a Precision Buff increasing Critical Rating by *381.35* and lasting for 10 seconds, each time a True Strike Buff activates on him.
Heimdall converts all of the Buffs active on him at the end of the previous fight into Power. Start the fight with a Power Gain Buff granting *5.27%* of his Max Power per Buff converted at the beginning of the fight, over 5 seconds."
* *denotes this value is based on sig level. These values are based on a 5* Heimdall with sig level 64.
Let me start by saying I used my 5* generic awakening gem on him. Are there better champs suited for a generic gem? Of course. Do I regret my choice of using my generic gem on Heimdall? Not at all and here's why:
Heimdall has a very poor crit rate (9.2% at 4/55). I cannot imagine any champions' are lower. The precision buff Heimdall activates with a special is decent. It helps him with his incredibly poor base crit rate and with an aptitude buff, makes it even more potent. This allows Heimdall to strike with noticeably more crits than without the buff. The best part of Heimdall's signature ability though, is his power gain. He converts all buffs at the end of the fight into a power gain buff in the next fight. If my Heimdall had 5 buffs at the end of the fight, he would gain 26.35% power over 5 seconds in the next fight, which is pretty incredible. In most fights, even when you are not trying, you will have a minimum of 4 buffs, getting you more than halfway to an L1 within the first 5 seconds of the match. This is what I believe makes Heimdall such a great champion. At the start of your second fight and going forward, Heimdall basically has a special in the first 5 seconds, meaning he can basically trigger True Strike at the beginning of the match without any build up or setup. For champs like OG Spiderman, Miles Morales, or NC, this is a huge advantage to have to make your fights go very smoothly. Even against the likes of Medusa and IMIW, having True Strike up as soon as possible reduces the complications you will have in the fight and makes the fight so much easier. For this reason alone, I believe he was worth my generic awakening gem. I know others will feel differently and that is ok. For me (stun) immune spidey, Medusa, and IMIW are my nemeses. They can be very difficult for me, so I believe using a generic gem should be used for something that will add a lot of value, which will in turn reduce item usage. So for me, this was a no brainer.
Masochism/Immunity Nodes - Heimdall, like Angela, focuses mainly on buffs and not debuffs. This allows Heimdall to setup safely on these nodes and not worry about triggering regeneration. Also, Heimdall excels against certain fights like immunity Spiderman, which typically counters popular counters like Archangel, Elektra, and Iceman. Since True Strike is a buff, he can safely setup and counter Spiderman/NC on immunity nodes.
Flow and Animations - For a larger champion, Heimdall's movements and attack animations are very smooth. He feels very smooth and his animations flow very well. Also, I really enjoy his attack and special animations. He feels very powerful when using his specials. Also, it is worth mentioning Heimdall's heavy has longer range than most other champions, allowing him to counter heavy/special attacks easier.
8
Comments
Low Base Stats - It's true, Heimdall's base stats are far from impressive. 9.2% crit rate, 172.4% crit damage, 8.2% armor, and 60.6% block proficiency are far from stellar. Add to that a lower base attack and his offensive power does not seem too appealing until you can set him up.
NOTE: Heimdall does make up for a lower base crit rate with his signature ability precision buff and lower armor and block proficiency stats with a decent health pool.
Synergies - I know I listed synergies as a strength, but I know people will disagree. While it is a huge boon to every champ except Heimdall, Heimdall himself cannot benefit from his own synergies which is a negative.
Signature Ability Required - In my opinion, if you are going to use Heimdall and excel with him, I believe he needs his signature ability. The precision buff really helps to patch his base crit rate shortcoming. Also, his power gain buff is one of his best abilities, only second to his permanent true strike.
Limited Permanent Buffs - I understand Kabam wanted to cap his permanent buffs at 5 so as not to go overboard with his power gain from his signature ability, but 5 does not feel like enough buffs. If Heimdall was able to cap around 8 buffs, I think he would be more in line and would be able to overcome his handicapped base stats.
Buffet/Burden of Might Nodes/MD - Heimdall will have a really tough time against buffet nodes as he is constantly triggering buffs. This can make fights extremely long when the opponent is constantly regenerating, especially with recovery nodes. Burden of might nodes can also be a little difficult as Heimdall will not be able to efficiently gain power. Also, and this should go without saying, Heimdall should stay away from mystic defenders. His constant activation of buffs will only fuel mystic's power.
So you threw all these words and all this info at me. What am I supposed to take from this?
Heimdall is not a top tier damage dealer. His role is not to dish out large amounts of damage, but to support and have lots of utility. You simply cannot have everything, but I think Heimdall has great balance. When awakened, Heimdall can easily end fights with between 5 and 10 buffs, making it extremely easy for him to activate True Strike the next fight. True Strike makes threats like Spiderman, NC, Medusa, MODOK, IMIW, and Domino much easier to handle. As for actual numbers, at 4/55 Heimdall has the ability to do respectable damage. Light crits hit for ~2,600-2,800 and medium crits hit for 3,600-4,200. I will try to get some video footage for support ASAP, but these numbers are not bad at all considering the utility he has.
To end this, I want to compare Heimdall to some popular champions currently used.
True Strike/(IMIW) - I think Heimdall is hands down the best user of True Strike in the game (sorry Killmonger!) This is not to say Heimdall is better than Killmonger in any way as he is a great champion, also with lots of utility, but Heimdall pulls off True Strike better. Heimdall only needs to activate one special and he can permanently use True Strike for the rest of the fight provided you have enough skill not to be hit. Killmonger needs to either punish a champion recovering from a special, or take up another champion slot with Winter Soldier and intercept for a chance to gain True Strike. This can be extremely difficult for Killmonger versus IMIW. IMIW makes it very hard to punish his specials and therefore makes it very difficult for Killmonger to activate True Strike. Heimdall on the other hand, can activate True Strike on any special. In addition, once Heimdall has True Strike, he can easily parry IMIW and finish him off. Others may argue Corvus is much better than Heimdall in terms of damage, and with Proxima he can have True Strike, too, but that would require you to bring Proxima, which may be more of a burden than a boon. In addition Corvus must knock down a champ that evaded or auto blocked him in a fight which can prove to be quite a challenge. Not only to find a champ with one of those abilities, but not to be punished for triggering one of those abilities. Similar to Corvus, Heimdall can also trigger multiple armor breaks with his L1 special. While it is not quite as easy as just parrying, it can still be used effectively to shut down IMIW's signature ability.
Projectile Parries - While Proxima can parry projectiles right at the start of the fight, Proxima can take too long to setup in a normal fight. Also, when Heimdall is awakened and has power gain, he can almost immediately start parrying projectiles right away. He does not require the amount of setup required like Proxima does.
Raw Damage - Angela, Starlord, Stark Spidey, and even Blade will all outdamage Heimdall even with little setup. If your goal is pure raw damage for Labyrinth of Legends or similar, Heimdall is not the greatest candidate. Remember, Heimdall excels at controlling autoblockers and evaders, and providing support/synergies to teammates.
Hopefully this gives some insight into Heimdall and clarifies what his strengths and weaknesses are. At first I was skeptical, but after a couple wars, duels, and EQ runs, he has become a favorite of mine. His smooth animations and great utility make him a respectable AW attacker and great for those annoying evaders/autoblockers. I can say with complete confidence at this point that my ideal dream AWA team would be Sabretooth, Killmonger, and you guessed it, Heimdall.
Thank you for those of you who read this extremely long book and let me know what you think. Did I miss anything? Did I mention something incorrectly? Let me know and hopefully we can have a good debate on the subject.
@Demonzfyre @zeezee57
Lol I don't blame you. But I did warn....
This is interesting. It almost makes me think that his attack scales differently as a 4* than a 5*. Heimdall's damage output really doesn't seem too low compared to other 4/55. For example, my 4/55 GP hits about 1,900 on a medium crit with a bleed for ~1,600 damage, so Heimdall doing 2,800 on a light crit and ~4k with a medium crit is pretty nice in my opinion. So it is interesting your results seem to differ.
I am also one of those people who doesn't mind less damage if the utility is good. I like to build questing teams to break the monotony of acquiring resources during the daily grind, and obviously, his synergies are great for that aspect of gameplay
Nice summary, and congrats on owning a cool champ.
A few things that could probably stand some clarification:
-Every champion with the Parry mastery can parry projectiles, but you keep referring to this as something unique to Heimdall and Proxima. Remember, a parry is a well-timed block that reduces block damage. I don't have these two champions, but what I think you mean is these champs can STUN opponents when parrying a projectile. I don't know Heimdall well...is this what you mean?
-In the self-synergy portion, you mention that Hulk and Punisher gain power at low health. They both have ways to increase damage output at low health, but they don't naturally gain any extra power at low health. Deadpool X-Force does, but not these guys.
In any case, nice write-up. I'd love to see more of these.
Parry stun Is What he meant.
In regards to “power” I think Op meant not “literal power” as in power gain. But a strength sort of power. I.e. being more powerful.
It would have been nicer to incorporate the "dash back and hold" mechanic that is required for the synergies.
Yeah would say he is the Blade of the autoblock/evade meta. His true strike is fairly easy to setup and lasts infinitely.
These are good points. I did write a lot and late at night so thanks for pointing these out. I did mean parry stun projectiles alongside Proxima. Also for the synergies I did mean they become more powerful, not that they gain actual power. If I ever manage to do another write up I’ll be sure to pay more attention to the terminology. Thanks!
Yes this is with 3 fury, 1 precision, and 1 aptitude. We have to keep in mind mine is 4/55 so it’ll be slightly more powerful, although the numbers seem to have a larger gap than I would think. Also to respond to your other comment, keep in mind that Heimdall has great range with his heavy, although he may struggle against heavy attacks from champs like MODOK who also have slightly more range than normal.
Thank you. It was a bit long but I’m glad you enjoyed it. Like I said I don’t regret using my generic gem, but also, you might want to hold onto it until you’re sure you like using him and he will benefit you. I especially wouldn’t use one on him if he’s only R2, too.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the kind words!
@Demonzfyre @zeezee57
Here is a small clip of Heimdall vs node 27 Medusa. Ignore the horrible intercept I did at the beginning. Keep in mind, 4* 5/50 Medusa, 20% champ boost, and I only converted a precision buff.
That was decent. I can see where it could have been a much shorter fight if she wasnt stun immune. It's pretty tricky getting heavies off with him. Not converting 1 or 2 furys can really hinder him.
What you think if he had a unstoppable or unblockable heavy attack?
It was also a long fight because she had breakthrough too so I had to get a lot of hits in there. An unstoppable heavy attack would be perfect actually.
I don't think he would be OP with that. They could apply a condition like must have 1 buff converted.
Yeah I agree. It would add a lot of value to him without being game breaking. It can sometimes be difficult to convert on stun immune like you said. I need to work on my heavy counter game I guess. Medusa’s is easy if you practice. Or so I’ve seen in YouTube videos.
@zeezee57 here are his base stats. I’m running GC 2, so not maxed out. And yeah I had true strike up right away with just his power gain. I only lost it because of a bad intercept. And that’s a good point that for Medusa she uses up her fury, too, which is another benefit. The damage isn’t too bad considering I only had 1, maybe 2 fury up. When I learn to counter Medusa’s heavy with my own, I can actually convert fury.
I personally really don’t like Magik myself. To me I feel like she’s hyped up and I just don’t care to use her myself, but I see others do great things with her. With Heimdall or Killmonger, once true strike is up, she becomes just another champ with no other tricks. I do take path 3 and I usually head for the physical resistance/L1 unblockable boss which is OG Spidey 90% of the time. Usually I don’t get a chance at him because while I’m sleeping an international buddy takes it down. But that’s the other great thing about Heimdall/Killmonger, is for the path I typically take, there’s a Spidey mini so 2 birds.
That's awesome! Love it when one champs is the answer to both bosses on your path. We will have to agree to disagree on Magik because I think she is the answer to just about anything power related. For me she works amazing because usually Medusa is on 27 and then there are two 100% power gain nodes on the upper path. Either way great post with a great explanation of Heimdall's abilities. Glad to see he's a viable attacker.
Yes he is definitely a viable attacker and as I get more used to him, my errors should in theory go down and I can maximize converting buffs. Thanks for the kind words.