Killmonger vs. Venom the Duck
SpideyFunko
Member Posts: 21,943 ★★★★★
So I was sparked by some discussion on whether Killmonger is better than Venom the Duck. Wanting to come to a good conclusion, I enlisted the help of @Lvernon15, @Rockypantherx, and @DrZola to write some paragraphs about the respective champions.
First off, Killmonger, by @Rockypantherx and @Lvernon15:
Firstly, his true strike. Most practical, and therefore, best true strike in the game. Easily accessible and has a long uptime, nor does it require you to alter your playstyle (unlike night thrasher). Counters some of the most potent defensive abilities in autoblock and evade, and well as small things like resistances and armour
Indestructible charges. Excellent for being sustainable, mess ups, but can also allow him to tank some SP3’s (most notably Hyperion) in high power gain scenarios.
His counter punch charges, which you should consult LV on.
Then various dribs and drabs like access to bleed and pretty tanky.
As for uses in the endgame, very helpful on both AW offence and defence. There are lots of evaders/autoblockers in act 6, and there is at least one path in each variant and chapter of act 6 which is focused solely on evade abilities. He’s also just a great sustainable path clearer. SP3 tanking is useful in a few Act 6 fights. He’s not really outstanding for any act 6 bosses, but can get a few of them done.
Yeah, he has the obvious use as autoblock evade and all or nothing/power gain counter, anything that forces or benefits intercepting he’s a top option for, counterpunch helps a ton in 6.2.5 for example, any stun immune matchup he can somewhat bypass the stun immunity by counterpunch, same works for limber and shrug off abilities. Icarus he cheeses with the void synergy, he can do the aggro fury cheese with heimdall like electro can, all sorts of stuff that he’s good for.
And Venom the Duck, by @DrZola:
He’s basically a RNG jukebox. The key is the ramp up, and most people have a certain set of buffs they like to store in the RNA bank. Personally, I like to hit a few regens, at least a few furies and the rest power gain—all the offensive buffs.
He gets a lot of complaints because of the perception he never pulls the buffs you need. However, Zzyx and I did a reasonably thorough run of his buffs and concluded (1) they do happen in a fairly random order and (2) the addition of Symbiote synergy partners does increase the odds you will generate more of either offensive or defensive buffs.
(https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/200049/venom-the-duck-a-study)
His toxic armor on Sp2 can be very potent, although I find myself disappointed sometimes with the lack of damage it provides.
His major problems are his lack of immunities. In today’s game, that’s a bummer. He also is a terrible choice against nullify champs (a loaded VtD will likely die against SymSup in the first few seconds).
Where to use him? I think people see him as a great incursions champ, and he also can shine in AQ. Basically, anywhere you have time and multiple fights to get and store buffs. He’s a pretty weak AW defender, and even at my AW level I never see him in attack. Probably useful in some Story and EQ, and he is a bit of a cheat code on some Variant fights (Symbiote and XL).
Me again! After reading both of these, I’ve got to say, the clear choice for me is Killmonger. Decent damage, survivability, and doesn’t rely on RNG for utility. In the end, the true winner is this guy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXl7JHuknOg
First off, Killmonger, by @Rockypantherx and @Lvernon15:
Firstly, his true strike. Most practical, and therefore, best true strike in the game. Easily accessible and has a long uptime, nor does it require you to alter your playstyle (unlike night thrasher). Counters some of the most potent defensive abilities in autoblock and evade, and well as small things like resistances and armour
Indestructible charges. Excellent for being sustainable, mess ups, but can also allow him to tank some SP3’s (most notably Hyperion) in high power gain scenarios.
His counter punch charges, which you should consult LV on.
Then various dribs and drabs like access to bleed and pretty tanky.
As for uses in the endgame, very helpful on both AW offence and defence. There are lots of evaders/autoblockers in act 6, and there is at least one path in each variant and chapter of act 6 which is focused solely on evade abilities. He’s also just a great sustainable path clearer. SP3 tanking is useful in a few Act 6 fights. He’s not really outstanding for any act 6 bosses, but can get a few of them done.
Yeah, he has the obvious use as autoblock evade and all or nothing/power gain counter, anything that forces or benefits intercepting he’s a top option for, counterpunch helps a ton in 6.2.5 for example, any stun immune matchup he can somewhat bypass the stun immunity by counterpunch, same works for limber and shrug off abilities. Icarus he cheeses with the void synergy, he can do the aggro fury cheese with heimdall like electro can, all sorts of stuff that he’s good for.
And Venom the Duck, by @DrZola:
He’s basically a RNG jukebox. The key is the ramp up, and most people have a certain set of buffs they like to store in the RNA bank. Personally, I like to hit a few regens, at least a few furies and the rest power gain—all the offensive buffs.
He gets a lot of complaints because of the perception he never pulls the buffs you need. However, Zzyx and I did a reasonably thorough run of his buffs and concluded (1) they do happen in a fairly random order and (2) the addition of Symbiote synergy partners does increase the odds you will generate more of either offensive or defensive buffs.
(https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/200049/venom-the-duck-a-study)
His toxic armor on Sp2 can be very potent, although I find myself disappointed sometimes with the lack of damage it provides.
His major problems are his lack of immunities. In today’s game, that’s a bummer. He also is a terrible choice against nullify champs (a loaded VtD will likely die against SymSup in the first few seconds).
Where to use him? I think people see him as a great incursions champ, and he also can shine in AQ. Basically, anywhere you have time and multiple fights to get and store buffs. He’s a pretty weak AW defender, and even at my AW level I never see him in attack. Probably useful in some Story and EQ, and he is a bit of a cheat code on some Variant fights (Symbiote and XL).
Me again! After reading both of these, I’ve got to say, the clear choice for me is Killmonger. Decent damage, survivability, and doesn’t rely on RNG for utility. In the end, the true winner is this guy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXl7JHuknOg
Post edited by Kabam Porthos on
6
Comments
Dr. Zola
KM has awesome evade and autoblock counter, good damage, can tank damage and sp3s, stun immune counter, great do you bleed counter, massive bleed off sp3.
Dr. Zola
A ramped up Venom the Duck with the right buffs tho can be quite monstrous.
Sorry about your imprisonment. Here’s to hoping you receive clemency soon.
Dr. Zola
If you know how to properly use him, you can clear the entire quest while keeping your other 4 champs fresh and ready to fight.
• Bleed and Degen (for bleed immune champs)
• Toxic Armor (add special #1 for added damage)
• Sustainability via buffs in RNA (reactivate w/ SP3
• Versatile (power gain, Fury or Regen)
• Good Synergies
Oh and Toxic Armor is a passive which means it can still affect debuff immune champs.
The one thing he does have over Killmonger is V2, and even then, I didn’t use my 6* in there except from the quest where the global beefed him up because he just couldn’t deal with a lot of nodes to properly ramp up
You made a mistake in the last para though
Decent damage, survivability are points of vtd not killmonger.