**Mastery Loadouts**
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Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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Stark-Enhanced Spider-Man: The most overrated champion in 2019 MCOC
JohnHS
Posts: 509 ★★★
Starky is overrated.
Now, a lot of you might be thinking "What? He's got crazy damage, can auto-evade specials, and has taunt and power drain." That's true. But that's ALL he has. That's not enough to "Beyond God Tier" in 2019. Why do I believe this? Well let's compare him to other "Beyond God Tier" champs. (I'll be using Seatin's tier list for simplicity). Skip to the end TL;DR if you don't want to see all the comparisons
Archangel: Personally I think he shouldn't be considered Beyond God Tier because of the immense number of champs immune to bleed an/or poison, but in the fights he can do, he can completely shut down all their abilities and regen with just a few heavy attacks, and proceed to melt them. Starky, on the other hand, has no way to deal with damage back like Electro, evade, heavy healing, Unstoppable, and other abilities that AA can just turn off. OK with suicides
Domino: Turns off evade, has massive bleed damage off her SP3 and SP2, can fail basically any ability in existence, shrug off bleeds, has high block prof and perfect block chance, just keeps getting better as the fight goes on, and can cheese content absurdly easily with her amazing Flaming Trinity synergies. Starky does none of those things. Can shrug off the bleed from suicides and mostly relies on SP3, which negates recoil.
Omega Red: Massive DOT that he get simply by standing next to the opponent. Immune to Poison and massively benefits from being bled. Negates Thorns, Electroshock, rock hard thorns, and even Limbo with his tentacle attacks. The only champ that can resist his death spores is Ghulk. Also regen. Gets basically none of the negatives of suicides and massively benefits from the positives, especially the bleed.
Namor: Has massive damage from hitting the opponent like Starky, but unlike him has regen and takes ZERO DAMAGE while attacking. This counters an absurd amount of problems. Heals from suicides.
Magik: Opponents never get to use specials and just get stuck in the corner. 'Nuff said. Also great damage mitigation with Limbo. Even though Starky will evade most special attacks, he can't deal with abilities given by launching specials, like regen, Unstoppable, evade, etc. Negates of a lot of the damage from suicides.
Symbiote Supreme: Can tank SP3s, power control, armor break, and the best Nullify in the game. He's a bit more niche, but if it has buffs and bleeds, he's among the best options. Starky has no counter to many annoying buffs. Not super suicide friendly, but he is mostly SP3 reliant.
Claire Voyant: Triple immunities, is great against immunities champs (of whom there are many), nullify, power gain, crazy regen, power steal; just overall solves a lot of problems Starky can't. Extremely suicide friendly.
Blade: A little behind the meta due to the prevalence of Bleed immune champs and non-villains, but still he's got lots of sustainability with regen, decreases debuff duration, and shuts off lots of abilities that melt Starky, such as Limbo and Aura of Incineration. OK with suicides due to regen.
Aegon: When ramped up there's basically nothing he can't do. Very suicide friendly as he can shrug off the debuffs and just use SP3s.
Nick Fury: Best DOT around. Counters miss, auto-block, and evade. Has so many bleeds he can negate a lot of regen. Is stun immune and can shrug off all debuffs by simply using a heavy attack. Has two lives. You WANT to mess up and die with Nick Fury. OK with suicides, but recoil hurts in the second phase.
Corvus: Ends fight extremely quickly with guaranteed damage, has power control, a bunch of immunities, can counter evade and auto-block, and literally can't die without getting knocked down or running out of Glaive charges. He can go at 1HP for half a quest. Starky isn't in his league. Extremely suicide friendly.
Hype: Poison immunity, can stack debuffs, and gets to specials very quickly and even without hitting the opponent. This by itself solves a lot of problems. SP1 spam ignores most damage back. He can special intercept and counter a bunch of nodes that you require you to use specials in certain situations. Crazy damage. Regen. Can use a lot of SP3s and is poison immune, making him good with suicides.
Medusa: Probably not Beyond God Tier anymore, but still has the crazy utility of completely shutting down some of the most annoying defenders: Robots. No power, no abilities. Also the safety net of auto-block. OK with suicides.
Captain Sparkles: When duped and at high sig, she finishes a lot of fights before her indestructible even goes away. Ridiculous burst. Immunities. Tankiness. Requires one fight of buildup and you're basically good to go. Maintain by using heavy attacks, which deals damage instead of building Poise by running away and wasting time like Starky. Immune to suicides for most of the fight.
Ghost: Best. Champ. In. The. Game. Except for maybe Quake. Immune to all DOT debuffs. In fact she benefits from the opponent bleeding/poisoning/shocking/incinerating her. Doesn't need to parry or intercept to get an opening. Can completely or partially phase most annoying specials (which is better than auto-evade). Can tank SP3s. Ignores evade, unblockable, etc. Takes no damage while phasing. GUARANTEED damage which ignores armor and physical resist, and most importantly, critical resist. Ends basically any fight that doesn't have damage back or unstoppable all the time (or something that punishes you for Guaranteed crits like Maw. Negates/benefits from Suicide debuffs, and can even ignore recoil. The bump to her base attack means she's among the best for suicides.
Quake: Never needs to touch the opponent. Evade counters shut her down, as do DOT debuffs you get at the start of the fight, but the same goes for Starky. Difficult to play, sure, but she and her massive AAR solves a crazy amount of problems Starky can't.
Beardo: Crazy high block proficiency, crazy regen reversal, armor break, is tanky, massive SP2, shrugs off debuffs, has 100% AAR on his SP1 which is surprisingly useful, counters unstoppable, and is very sustainable. Pretty good with suicides. Just parry and heavy until you get an SP2, and you'll take basically no damage, unlike Starky, who's the definition of flimsy.
Void: Deals damage by simply existing. Has loads of health and is incinerate immune. Can kill opponents without hitting them much. Shuts down and reverses healing and power gain. Partial evade counter. Not great with suicides though.
There are even many non-BGT champs who are better than Starky. Warlock and his AAR, guaranteed heal block, solid damage, double immunities, and massive tankiness. Destroys opponents who try to regen. Sentinel, who's among the tankiest who exist, has immunities and regen, a lot of damage, heal block, armor break, and an entire Variant designed for him. Thing, who has an absurd amount of immunities and utility, can eat a combo to the face and take basically no damage, is Unstoppable half the time.
TL;DR
In short, Starky's ramp up involves dodging around and losing ground rather than hitting the opponent, he's super flimsy, and has only three pieces of utility: Limited power control by taunting out special attacks and his heavy (which takes too long to recharge), auto-evade on specials, and stun-lock in some situations. But even Luke Cage can do those things just as well. He's still very good, and I'm not saying he shouldn't be used, isn't viable, doesn't hit crazy hard, isn't fun for many people, etc. But the random evades messing up your fighting patterns, lack of ways to deal with taking damage, the annoyance of building poise, the awful block proficiency and health pool mean he's no longer top of the meta. #DemoteStarky
*Disclaimer: No, I haven't been playing as long as some, and I don't have a super impressive roster; just 5/50s and 3/45s. But I study this game avidly and many players who have massively impressive rosters and skills, such as KT1 and Brian Grant, agree.
Now, a lot of you might be thinking "What? He's got crazy damage, can auto-evade specials, and has taunt and power drain." That's true. But that's ALL he has. That's not enough to "Beyond God Tier" in 2019. Why do I believe this? Well let's compare him to other "Beyond God Tier" champs. (I'll be using Seatin's tier list for simplicity). Skip to the end TL;DR if you don't want to see all the comparisons
Archangel: Personally I think he shouldn't be considered Beyond God Tier because of the immense number of champs immune to bleed an/or poison, but in the fights he can do, he can completely shut down all their abilities and regen with just a few heavy attacks, and proceed to melt them. Starky, on the other hand, has no way to deal with damage back like Electro, evade, heavy healing, Unstoppable, and other abilities that AA can just turn off. OK with suicides
Domino: Turns off evade, has massive bleed damage off her SP3 and SP2, can fail basically any ability in existence, shrug off bleeds, has high block prof and perfect block chance, just keeps getting better as the fight goes on, and can cheese content absurdly easily with her amazing Flaming Trinity synergies. Starky does none of those things. Can shrug off the bleed from suicides and mostly relies on SP3, which negates recoil.
Omega Red: Massive DOT that he get simply by standing next to the opponent. Immune to Poison and massively benefits from being bled. Negates Thorns, Electroshock, rock hard thorns, and even Limbo with his tentacle attacks. The only champ that can resist his death spores is Ghulk. Also regen. Gets basically none of the negatives of suicides and massively benefits from the positives, especially the bleed.
Namor: Has massive damage from hitting the opponent like Starky, but unlike him has regen and takes ZERO DAMAGE while attacking. This counters an absurd amount of problems. Heals from suicides.
Magik: Opponents never get to use specials and just get stuck in the corner. 'Nuff said. Also great damage mitigation with Limbo. Even though Starky will evade most special attacks, he can't deal with abilities given by launching specials, like regen, Unstoppable, evade, etc. Negates of a lot of the damage from suicides.
Symbiote Supreme: Can tank SP3s, power control, armor break, and the best Nullify in the game. He's a bit more niche, but if it has buffs and bleeds, he's among the best options. Starky has no counter to many annoying buffs. Not super suicide friendly, but he is mostly SP3 reliant.
Claire Voyant: Triple immunities, is great against immunities champs (of whom there are many), nullify, power gain, crazy regen, power steal; just overall solves a lot of problems Starky can't. Extremely suicide friendly.
Blade: A little behind the meta due to the prevalence of Bleed immune champs and non-villains, but still he's got lots of sustainability with regen, decreases debuff duration, and shuts off lots of abilities that melt Starky, such as Limbo and Aura of Incineration. OK with suicides due to regen.
Aegon: When ramped up there's basically nothing he can't do. Very suicide friendly as he can shrug off the debuffs and just use SP3s.
Nick Fury: Best DOT around. Counters miss, auto-block, and evade. Has so many bleeds he can negate a lot of regen. Is stun immune and can shrug off all debuffs by simply using a heavy attack. Has two lives. You WANT to mess up and die with Nick Fury. OK with suicides, but recoil hurts in the second phase.
Corvus: Ends fight extremely quickly with guaranteed damage, has power control, a bunch of immunities, can counter evade and auto-block, and literally can't die without getting knocked down or running out of Glaive charges. He can go at 1HP for half a quest. Starky isn't in his league. Extremely suicide friendly.
Hype: Poison immunity, can stack debuffs, and gets to specials very quickly and even without hitting the opponent. This by itself solves a lot of problems. SP1 spam ignores most damage back. He can special intercept and counter a bunch of nodes that you require you to use specials in certain situations. Crazy damage. Regen. Can use a lot of SP3s and is poison immune, making him good with suicides.
Medusa: Probably not Beyond God Tier anymore, but still has the crazy utility of completely shutting down some of the most annoying defenders: Robots. No power, no abilities. Also the safety net of auto-block. OK with suicides.
Captain Sparkles: When duped and at high sig, she finishes a lot of fights before her indestructible even goes away. Ridiculous burst. Immunities. Tankiness. Requires one fight of buildup and you're basically good to go. Maintain by using heavy attacks, which deals damage instead of building Poise by running away and wasting time like Starky. Immune to suicides for most of the fight.
Ghost: Best. Champ. In. The. Game. Except for maybe Quake. Immune to all DOT debuffs. In fact she benefits from the opponent bleeding/poisoning/shocking/incinerating her. Doesn't need to parry or intercept to get an opening. Can completely or partially phase most annoying specials (which is better than auto-evade). Can tank SP3s. Ignores evade, unblockable, etc. Takes no damage while phasing. GUARANTEED damage which ignores armor and physical resist, and most importantly, critical resist. Ends basically any fight that doesn't have damage back or unstoppable all the time (or something that punishes you for Guaranteed crits like Maw. Negates/benefits from Suicide debuffs, and can even ignore recoil. The bump to her base attack means she's among the best for suicides.
Quake: Never needs to touch the opponent. Evade counters shut her down, as do DOT debuffs you get at the start of the fight, but the same goes for Starky. Difficult to play, sure, but she and her massive AAR solves a crazy amount of problems Starky can't.
Beardo: Crazy high block proficiency, crazy regen reversal, armor break, is tanky, massive SP2, shrugs off debuffs, has 100% AAR on his SP1 which is surprisingly useful, counters unstoppable, and is very sustainable. Pretty good with suicides. Just parry and heavy until you get an SP2, and you'll take basically no damage, unlike Starky, who's the definition of flimsy.
Void: Deals damage by simply existing. Has loads of health and is incinerate immune. Can kill opponents without hitting them much. Shuts down and reverses healing and power gain. Partial evade counter. Not great with suicides though.
There are even many non-BGT champs who are better than Starky. Warlock and his AAR, guaranteed heal block, solid damage, double immunities, and massive tankiness. Destroys opponents who try to regen. Sentinel, who's among the tankiest who exist, has immunities and regen, a lot of damage, heal block, armor break, and an entire Variant designed for him. Thing, who has an absurd amount of immunities and utility, can eat a combo to the face and take basically no damage, is Unstoppable half the time.
TL;DR
In short, Starky's ramp up involves dodging around and losing ground rather than hitting the opponent, he's super flimsy, and has only three pieces of utility: Limited power control by taunting out special attacks and his heavy (which takes too long to recharge), auto-evade on specials, and stun-lock in some situations. But even Luke Cage can do those things just as well. He's still very good, and I'm not saying he shouldn't be used, isn't viable, doesn't hit crazy hard, isn't fun for many people, etc. But the random evades messing up your fighting patterns, lack of ways to deal with taking damage, the annoyance of building poise, the awful block proficiency and health pool mean he's no longer top of the meta. #DemoteStarky
*Disclaimer: No, I haven't been playing as long as some, and I don't have a super impressive roster; just 5/50s and 3/45s. But I study this game avidly and many players who have massively impressive rosters and skills, such as KT1 and Brian Grant, agree.
16
Comments
And also...
He’s from 2018.
I guess i missed all the hype he was getting in 2019, he started falling out of the top mid to late 2018.
I agree OP. Starky is still a good champ but newer champs (and some older ones) blow him outta the water.
Maybe if he said thing, or stealth then I’d say sure. But a champ from almost 20 champ releases ago. Nah
But the related question is whether Sparky should be in Seatin's, or anyone else's, "beyond god tier" list. And that depends on how you define that. Just because Sparky is not perfectly equal in value to other things on the list doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't belong on that list, because every list has to have a range, not a specific value. If Seatin's (or anyone else's) lists comprised only champs of one specific value, then you'd need dozens of tiers to encompass everything.
If I look at Seatin's November list and look at the "Beyond God Tier" and "God Tier" champs, I'd say that Sparky sits near the border between the two, so it is a judgment call as to whether he belongs in either of those two categories. And based on how he's managed the lists over time, I believe Seatin tries to be "sticky" with his evaluations so champions don't flap randomly back and forth between tiers. For consistency, once he rates a champion into one category or another, he doesn't change it until there's significant reason to do so. If it is just a maybe here or there, they stay put which is a reasonable way to do thing. If I had to guess, I'd guess that if you asked him, he'd say Sparky is borderline, but until he's clearly over the border he's keeping him in the BGT group.
It is also possible that Sparky is in the beyond god tier for Seatin because Sparky gets bonus points for having specific usability in the current content. In general, he might be weaker on paper, but he does have specific advantages in, say, Variant difficulty. He was also one of the answers for Lagacy's Symbiote Supreme and that wasn't an isolated incident: he has been a useful champ for an above average number of nasty fights in content over the last couple years. Coincidental or not, that does count for something.
Domino doesn't always bleed, shrug off bleeds, or turn off evade
Corvus is awesome, but very limited in end-game content because of node design
AA I agree can be completely stopped by immunities
Namor taking ZERO DAMAGE requires sig 200
Aegon requires multiple long fights to really rank up
Many others you mentioned have zero immunities also
I agree that there are better champs overall, but Stark should be right in the mix with the best in the game. Also, high probability to avoid all special attacks is extremely useful in end-game content.
Stark, if used correctly, can go through entire paths by himself even in 6.2
I do agree that AA and (possibly)Medusa should be moved down and then Sparky would be near the bottom of the BGT list. Also, you are comparing his utility to utility-based champs and completely ignoring his insane damage output while leaving out 2 pieces of utility (his SP3 Ensare and SP2 Shock DOT). You give no weight to his ability to avoid chip-damage heavy specials like Bishop, Pun, Pun99, etc.
Sparky was on top for a very long time in AWA before Thing and crit-punishing champs were introduced. He could easily solo any node outside of Bleed and Poison. While the Meta has shifted, that doesn't change a champion's tier. If Kabam releases more Corvus immune content for the next 6 months and he is less useful (which has already been happening) he will not get demoted a tier. I think you are confused on what Meta is and how an arbitrary tier list would relate to it.
In addition, I'd argue that you don't know how to use him correctly. My proof is your complaining about his block proficiency, his evades throwing you off and your concern of "'losing ground." None of these should be huge concerns when using him correctly.
TL;DR: If your argument is just that he is less effective in today's Meta, you are correct. But you are incorrect thinking this has any effect on an arbitrary list of champion power in a vacuum or that he is over-rated.
To actually answer the question, I think it's unfair to compare Sparky to any non-Tech class members since the Tech champs are the ones he's most directly competing for Rank Up Resources with. Apart from Ghost (arguably a top 3 champ in the entire game) and maybe Warlock, Sparky is still one of the top Tech champs in the game. The Auto-Evade helps you ignore serious chip damage from some super annoying Special Attacks, and the Poise charges really don't take long to ramp up and are easy to keep between 8-10 with the Taunt.
In addition, you need to consider judging Sparky on a fight-by-fight basis. Namor performs relatively poorly in Robot matchups, whereas Sparky gains a huge boost to his already potent Shocks. The problem with tier lists and judging Champions is that there are so many unique matchups in the game. Nearly all of Seatin's "Beyond God Tier" characters have their fair share of bad matches. Nick Fury struggles against Bleed Immunity, Quake is nearly impossible to play properly against True Strike, Captain Sparkles takes a ton of damage against Mystics, Void is pretty terrible against Debuff Shruggers, etc. Just because a Champion has bad matchups doesn't make them a bad Champion.
The "meta" of the game (really, the current design direction of the content) is not heading towards or away from any one particular champ, but rather towards diverse rosters as a whole. Or to put it another way, the current direction of the game is not to make some champs more useful and other champs less useful, it is to make individual champs less broadly useful and more champs situationally useful. To the extent that there are champs more broadly useful than Sparky, it is more likely that future content will make those champs less broadly useful than it is Sparky becoming increasingly less useful. Champs like Omega and Namor and Void aren't going to ever become useless, but future content is likely to contain increasingly more counters to them in some situations, while allowing them to shine in others.
You also can’t rate him while using suicides. He isn’t a suicide friendly champ. Not fair to the champ to rate him as one.