Another "The Most Underrated Champion" Thread

This one is about...

RONIN

Tier lists put him at High Demi-God. I say he's High God Tier (not beyond, but high).

tl; dr - He has some great act 6 and cav difficulty utility. His damage output in general is solid. He's usable in variants 1 and 4. He absolutely tears through AW. His animations are legit the most intercept-friendly ones in the game (he has even better flow than starky if you ask me). His playstyle also relies on intercepts so attack values aren't so scary bc u never block hits.

THE LONG VERSION:

Act 6 + Cav Eq:
Right now in the contest, nuanced class specific nodes are becoming more common every update. With Punishment Glutton, Polka Dot Power, Do You Bleed/Bleed Vulnerability, and even Diss Track, Ronin's utility is only rising. I understand that Nick is a better version of him, but without Nick's sig, they're really not all that different. Sure, people might argue that Ronin's overall damage output is too low for him to be High God Tier, but with the high health pools we see nowadays, fights are going to take a while no matter what, so that little bit of extra time isn't important. Additionally, Ronin's playstyle (more on this later) is one of the most intercept-friendly ones in the game, only rivaled in intercept-friendliness by Starky, Magik, and a couple of others. With today's attack values, an intercept-encouraging playstyle is a necessity. Parry-heavy is no longer an acceptable tactic. Side note - Personally, I have him unawakened 6* rank 1, so I won't be including his sig (from what I can tell, it's just a safety net) in this. Example of his utility specifically - I took him into 6.2.4 (Destructive Feedback quest) expecting him to do a couple fight for me, and soloed the quest aside from the boss with him. He tore through every fight (except I didn't use him for rainbow of power/armor/unblockable finale deadpool x-force) and literally was at 100% health going into the Hood miniboss. He came out somewhere in the high 70s, and I could have used him for Kingpin, but soloed the boss w starky instead. The fact that a rank 1 6* could solo an act 6 quest, especially one with a node that punishes so severely the tiniest mistake, shows something about how good he is. Also, I used him to solo 6.3.1 medusa. Go ahead and argue, I will never budge.

Variants 1 + 4:

I'm not going to go into too much detail about this. He did a good job in the skill/mutant part of V1, so yeah. Variant 4 doesn't really require specific champs, so he worked well for the 5*/6* quest in that. He He wasn't quite as effective as he is in other content, and he isn't usable in other variants, but I still feel like I should throw this in here.

AW:

Aah, Alliance War. This is my favorite place for Ronin. I bring him into literally every single one. Let's start with flow. This was honestly the biggest surprise for me. i expected him to suck against flow. He's not control, so it's really hard to keep the power gains down, but his Guard Stance means that you can safely parry and get rid of the power gains without having to worry about taking massive block damage. He does crit a lot, but if you don't swap stances too often, you don't get precision, and then you crit an average amount. He is only truly unusable for Claire, Dormammu, IMIW, and Guilly 2099, bc they are bleed immune and give him the crit rating boost which makes flow a trillion times harder. Overall, he performed surprisingly okay against Flow DT, and can handle one or two people on flow in war if he really needs to. Next, we've got STUBBORN! This was fun. I never really realized before this how little you dex with Ronin. His playstyle involves lots of intercepts, but no dexing if you play him right. Once again, guard stance means you can tank some blocked hits, so you don't need to dex in order to special bait and you can take a special on your block. Also, for special baiting, if you're in demon stance, when you hit the opponent's block to special bait, you can get some nice bleeds through block (which nick can't do. just saying.) Bleed immunes are a bit frustrating (i.e. Korg - more on him later), but doable bc you get the bonus crit rating. Protect is straightforward, I just avoid using sp3 and bc he's damage over time he never really deals that much damage in one hit. Same for bulwark, and I've never used him on siphon, so IDK about that. Then, there's war bosses and minbosses. First off, Korg. This sucks. This is one of the few times, IMO, when Ronin is completely useless. You can't bleed him, so there goes a bunch of your damage. He's got a couple of non-contact attacks, but not enough, and he deals physical damage, so he takes massive thorns damage. Mix-Master (shout out to all you mix master korgs in the crowd) makes you unable to be in any stance but Guard, so your pretty much screwed. I tried Ronin-ing a Korg once - I will never try it again. Ronin also struggles w Killmonger because he gives too many debuffs to keep the power gain check. For Void, however, he's great because he's got an easy guaranteed purify. Void isn't bleed immune, so no worries there. Mix-Master kills Ronin regardless of who's on it, so just avoid that. Then there's THING! I honestly can't count the number of times Ronin has soloed a thing boss or miniboss. Thing is bleed immune, but that literally makes no difference. Ronin absolutely decimates him. Unless you get horrible RNG, you don't need to worry about rock stacks at all, and worst case scenario, you have to bait a special or two. You get nice crit damage from the combo of lots of Cruelties, Precision, and that nice sp3 fury. Damage output still isn't the absolute best without bleeds, but it's good enough to kill before timeout. Stun immunity on boss node makes no difference bc Ronin isn't at all parry-reliant. For Nick bosses, he's fine bc he gets his bleed damage back (yay!) and stun immunity after revival makes no difference as war boss. Like anyone versus nick, you need to be careful not let nick get any sp1s while unblockable, but if you do get hit with one, it's survivable bc he has no defensive abilities and therefore is unaffected by disorient and just gets a little bit of willpower regen (as long as you avoid guard stance). When nick's basic attacks go unblockable, it's also fine bc Ronin never really blocks hits anyway as he is an intercept champ. He doesn't get any buffs from basic abilities and doesn't rely on dex, so he's a solid counter for Mojo. He's average for Annihilus. Personally, I don't think there's really such thing as a perfect Annihilus counter. Obviously mystics perform better, but the difference really isn't so huge (i guess fire and forget claire would be really good, but that's one champ with a synergy). Once again, guard stance means you can take the occasional obliterating strike. He's skill, so you shouldn't take him into a Domino fight unless you're dumb. He does well versus doom, personally I think doom is an easy war boss tho. Overall, he is close to War MVP for me (fight me on this, I dare you), and is only overshadowed by a couple of champs.

Labyrinth:

Pretty straightforward. He can take most of the people here if you have a relatively high amount of skill. I personally used him to solo all science champs except Spider-Gwen back when I did exploration of this. This content is kind of old, so I won't talk about it too much. I'm not gonna talk about abyss, bc I do understand that he's not good enough for that (although for fun after I did completion I did try him out on easy path thing just to see how low I could get him, and I got him down to 50% before charges ran out).

Playstyle + Animations:

I personally love his animation flow. I put him above Starky in intercept feel, and above literally all other champs too. It just feels so nice to backdraft and smack, swap stances, backdraft and smack, etc. Even when the enemy isn't up against a wall his reach is just so perfect for intercepts. It just feels right. And on top of this, his playstyle supports this intercept use perfectly. This means you don't have to worry at all about the crazy block damage you see these days in late content.

Conclusion:

Ronin is high god tier.
I know this was crazy long, but I hope at least a couple of you actually read it. Have fun smashing the dislike button (lol)!

Comments

Thicco_Mode

@Masterpuff

Thicco_Mode

really nice write up! maybe a few more paragraphs for readability, but I enjoyed it

unknown

This content has been removed.

Rookiie

Speaking of tier lists
Does anybody else think @Seatin should revisit his High Demi God Tier column?

Thor in the same class as Angela, Kamala Khan and Air-Walker?
Wasp and Red Hulk in the same class as Invisible Woman and Hulk?
Winter Soldier in the same class as Masacre and Elsa Bloodstone?
Hmm ..

Jelle

With Killmonger synergy winter soldier is actually ahead of both masacre and elsa. He is basically starlord.

Yodabolt21

But also has bleed, incinerate and power drain easily accessible. WS is very underrated.

Masterpuff

Yes!!! Ronin is awesome.

He is not a champion that is often talked about but certainly has a lot of potential. One of the great things about him is that he doesn’t need his signature ability to be worth adding to your team, whilst it’s nice to have he can still bring varied utility and some above average damage to your roster. His character design and animations are some of the best in the game in my opinion and that only makes him even more appealing to me. From basic attacks to specials, each of Ronin’s movements feel incredibly smooth and very satisfying to use overall. His victory animation is just as good and really completes the character from a cosmetic perspective.

As part of his base kit Ronin can trigger precision and cruelty passive effects and also inflict bleed on sword attacks with a 15% chance. If any of your sword attacks are critical, (all basic attacks aside from your final light or second medium) the chance for that attack to inflict bleed is raised to 100%. As a result, the precision passive can provide a significant increase to your damage output. In order to activate the precision passive, you will first need to build up seven cruelty stacks. There are a few ways to do that which are as follows:

* Switch stances.
* Attempt to inflict bleed on an opponent that is immune to bleed.
* Whenever the opponent evades or causes one of your attacks to miss.

You cannot gain more than seven cruelty stacks at any given time, when you have seven stacks switching to any other stance will activate the precision passive. All of your cruelty passives will be consumed when using a special attack so it’s best to launch them soon after precision activates. That gives you time to rebuild it before the precision expires. If you’re going for SP3 you can usually get to seven, use the precision for an increased critical hit rate and then get it ready again whilst you continue to build power. You won’t lose cruelty unless you use a special attack so you won’t need to worry about that until you reach three bars.

**Stances:**

Understanding when and how to use each of Ronin’s stances is critical to using him properly. Each one provides different benefits and knowing which one to use in difficult matchups can have a huge impact on the fight and give you the advantage. One of the great things about Ronin is how versatile he can be, he has a lot of tools at his disposal to overcome a variety of different nodes and champion abilities. Each of Ronin’s light attacks have a different stance tied to them, dashing back after specific light attacks will switch him into the desired stance. The only light attack that doesn’t have a stance tied to it is the final light. You can use this at the end of combos to avoid switching if you wish to remain in a particular stance. If you end with a medium attack and then dash back, you’ll switch back to demon stance as the last light you performed was the third one.

Guard Stance:

To switch to Guard stance, you need to dash back after striking with your first light attack. This doesn’t have to happen immediately though; you could actually stay still or block a few hits before dashing back and still switch stance. As long as your first light attack was the last one you used it’ll work. You can even use medium attacks to avoid triggering it, the delay is best used when you know a debuff will be coming soon but isn’t quite there yet, it’s especially useful against void. When entering this stance Ronin will shrug off one debuff (making him very useful for bleed/poison nodes or even suicide masteries if that’s something you run). In addition to shrugging debuffs in Guard stance he also gets the following benefits until he switches to a new one:

* He can parry stun non-contact attacks, for example IMIW mediums or Ebony Maw
* He has a 35% chance to perfect block (can be very helpful for the stubborn global in Alliance Wars since you’ll need to block often to remove the indestructible)

Wraith stance: Ronin passively reduces the opponent’s ability accuracy by 40% whilst in wraith stance. It’s extremely useful in certain matchups such as fighting Electro (to avoid static shock damage) or when going up against the Thing since he won’t gain rock stacks on many of your attacks. To enter wraith stance, you need to dash back after landing your second light attack.

Demon stance: Demon stance is very straightforward; it allows you to inflict bleed through blocks and also increases the ability accuracy of your bleed effects by 75% to make them trigger more frequently. If you end a five-hit combo on a medium attack and then dash back at any point before landing another light Ronin will enter demon stance if he isn’t already in it. This stance is tied to his third light attack.

**Special Attacks:**

All of Ronin’s special attacks are useful in their own unique ways. Sometimes you may choose to prioritise utility over damage, which will influence which special attacks you rely on in that fight.

SP1- There are two things that are helpful with this first special attack. It has a 100% chance to inflict a disorient debuff on the opponent, reducing their ability accuracy by 40% as well as allowing Ronin to enter the stance that he currently has prepared. It’s a great way to enter wraith stance since the combined AAR will add up to an 80% reduction. To do that, you would need to use your SP1 immediately after landing your second light attack. At the end of the animation is when the stances will change, unless of course you’re already in that stance when you use it.

SP2- SP2 has some very good damage potential if used in the right circumstances. The final strike will inflict multiple bleeds on the opponent equal to the number of cruelties you had at the time. For example, if you have five stacks or cruelty, you’ll inflict five stacks of bleed. If you have deep wounds this attack can be particularly powerful when the opponent is on low health. The reason for that is that each new bleed you inflict when the opponent has less health than you will deal a quick burst of direct damage depending on your deep wounds level. At level five it’ll be 1% health, so seven cruelties could instantly strike down 7% of the opponent’s health without even taking into consideration the raw damage of the attack or the bleed damage that follows. With fury active (more on that later), Ronin can deal large amounts of damage from this attack at any point in the fight.

SP3- In longer fights this is where Ronin can really start to shine. The passive fury effect that he gains from using this attack can massively increase his damage output and very quickly start to knock off large amounts of health from his opponent. To maximise the strength of this fury you need to be at seven cruelty stacks, each one is consumed to add 473.8 attack for the duration of the fury. That’s an overall increase of 3,064.6 attack for thirty-five seconds. Combined with his incredibly high critical hit rate, bleed and cruelty passives, you’ll notice a very big difference in how much damage you’re able to inflict. You shouldn’t be far off another SP3 when the fury is close to expiring, so you’ll be able to cycle this pretty easily to keep the increased attack rating.

**Playstyles:**

The best way to use Ronin is to build up your cruelty passives as quickly as possible so that you can activate the precision passive. To do that, you need to keep switching stances as often as possible by ending combos after different light attacks. Ronin has a very high critical hit rate when precision is active so his damage gets a nice boost from those two abilities. If the fight is long enough it’s best to start off with a SP3 to gain the passive fury effect. As I mentioned earlier this fury gets stronger depending on how many cruelties you had when the SP3 was used. At this point you’ll be hitting much harder than before. Ideally, you want to rebuild the cruelty back up to seven stacks, activate the precision and fire off a SP2 before the fury expires. If you can do that in time the raw damage of the SP2 will be devastating, only to be followed up by seven stacks of bleed. The final hit alone can hit for 16k on a critical hit, I had that happen against Thing war bosses a few times even when protection was active (his ability accuracy reduction in wraith stance allows him to bypass the damage reduction and make it much easier to get the damage in). Ronin may not have the best damage output in the game but it’s certainly something to be respected. If the fight is particularly long, I would recommend keeping to SP3 and using the big SP2 to finish the opponent off when they’re close to being knocked out. That way you’ll be able to keep the fury up as often as possible.

Sometimes it’s better to stay in one stance or deliberately stay out of a particular stance depending on the matchup. For example, wraith stance is extremely useful against evade champs or Thing. I consider him to be one of the best Void counters as well, since you don’t need to worry about your combo count if you play it right. When you’re up against Void the best way to take him on is to make sure you stay out of guard stance until he places a debuff on you. After that happens, simply hit him with your first light and dash back. Ronin will shrug off the debuff and Void won’t hurt you anymore. You can of course still watch the combo meter to avoid taking damage from it, but it’s not really necessary. With the class advantage to work with as well Ronin is a very strong counter to Void. If you can prepare guard stance as Void is placing the debuff on you should be able to shrug it as soon as it’s applied. You can even wait a brief moment by blocking if you need to. Just remember to switch out of guard stance again after shrugging off one of his debuffs.

**Signature Ability:**

Whilst it’s nice to have Ronin is one of those champions that really doesn’t need to be awakened to be worth using. I personally have mine at 5/65 without his signature ability, but would like to awaken him when I can get a gem. It allows him to consume his cruelty stacks for a controlled auto evade, the higher his signature level, the longer that evade will last. If you attempt to use dexterity, parry or even regular blocks this evade won’t trigger. You would need to let go completely in order for it to work. Being able to choose when that happens would give you good opportunities against any special attacks that are tricky to avoid. Examples could include War machine, Punisher 2099, Tigra or anything else that you struggle with. After using the auto evade you will gain a passive fury effect ranging between an attack increase of 307.97 to 544.07. It’s not as powerful as his SP3 fury, but it’s something to offset the loss of cruelty passives since they are consumed when he evades.

**Synergies:**

The only synergy I would consider using for Ronin is the CMM one. It extends his bleed duration by 3% per cruelty which can be quite good with deep wounds as well. In return, CMM gains 150 critical rating when intercepting attacks. Another decent one that he has is with Moon Knight, where he will gain a 15% fury buff each time he switches stances, I personally would not want to lose a slot on my team for that though. The best part about the CMM synergy is that she is also a very useful champion to have and another one that I often use at 5/65. If you already use her Ronin would be able to fit into your team nicely.

**Strong Matchups:**

Ronin is useful for a wide variety of content but here are a few examples of where he can be a great asset to your team:

* Void
* Thing
* Evade champions in general
* Electro
* Any champion with non-contact basic attacks like IMIW or Ebony Maw
* Anything where ability accuracy reduction can be useful
* Stubborn global node in Alliance Wars (High PB chance)
* Poison and bleed nodes since he can shrug them off
* Suicide friendly, again he can shrug off the negative effects and has a nice SP3 cycle
* Iceman
* Do you bleed nodes
* Armour up related champions and nodes, critical hits can bypass that well and Ronin has a very high critical hit chance, this can be helpful against Doctor Doom since he is very resistant to critical hits.

Aleor

InWomen > wasp and hulk < redhulk imo, so I don't really get your point here. And yes, they are pretty close actually.
Those skull champs are also close. Same for cosmic champs.
Most importantly, it's only one man's opinion of a rough guide, and he mentions it every video

MegaSkater67

I thought something seemed familiar there and then I realised it was because I wrote it haha

Masterpuff

Yeah it was better than mine lol.

Masterpuff

Didn’t mean to take credit for your work btw, I would have @ you but I couldn’t remember your forum name.

MegaSkater67

Yeah no worries, all good.

Tiger360

Thor isn’t amazing anymore since a lot of people do what he does and more (insane damage)

Rookiie

I agree with you, but that's not my point
Imo he's a class above the ones I mentioned

Moot4Life

i never knew that ronin was underrated i thought everybody knew he was good

Savage

Black Widow Deadly Origin is far more underrated than Ronin. I'd argue she's even better than Stealthy.

Mattstafari

Nice write up guys, thanks both.
I have a 6* r1 Ronin and haven't really spent that much time using him but, this guide will help loads.

KDSuperFlash10

Finally someone says this, it's about time. Imo the High Demi-God Tier needs to be revisited in Seatin's tier list.

How are Air-Walker and Spider-Gwen in the same tier? Spider-Gwen is so much better.

How are Wasp and Red Hulk in the same tier as Kamala Khan? They should both be God Tier, especially Red Hulk, who is super relevant in the AW meta these days.

MaxGaming