Hit Monkey Write-up
Saquongoat
Member Posts: 133 ★★
Hey y'all! Back again with a write-up. I have nothing better to do and really enjoy these. Today I'll be looking at Hit Monkey. I feel he has been both overrated (remember all the hype on his release?) and underrated (there are a LOT of good skill champs), and want to bring more attention to him. I do believe he is r3 worthy for many accounts. (All stats will be based off an unawakened 6* r2 unless otherwise stated)
Guaranteed crits: This monkey's best thing going for him are his guaranteed crits. HIs first medium, first light, and second medium in a combo are guaranteed crits. On top of that, this guy has a great base critical rating at 31%.
Bleed: After landing 3 straight critical hits, Hit-Monkey inflicts a bleed on the opponent, dealing 1556 damage to the opponent over 4.5 seconds. This bleed can be increased by deep wounds, dramatically increasing his damage output.
Awakened ability: Far from neccesary. The odds are you will never use an awakening gem on this guy unless you are looking for prestige (2nd highest skill prestige at sig 200, behind Thor rags), due to many other skill champs needing awakening. While the opponent is at or above 25% health, your schemes last .5-3.5 seconds longer, depending on sig. Also, while the opponent is below 25% health or is a #mercenary, they suffer 10-40% daar. Overall, this awakened ability is nice. It's not enough I think to justify a skill or generic ag, however, it does warrant skill sigs. I feel that is because only Aegon and Falcon warrant high sig, and honestly I think Falcon doesn't really need high sig, and Aegon at r3 high sig is going to be very unnecessary unless you're going for Abyss exploration. Hit Monkey's awakened ability has a pretty even scaling throughout sig 1-200. More uptime on schemes is certainly helpful, and at max sig, with Hit Monkey's disorient on the opponent, and only one point in the Assassin mastery, if the opponent is below 25% health or is a #mercenary, they suffer 100% daar.
Monkey schemes (2 parts): (These schemes are unaffected by ability accuracy, unlike Sorcerer and Sym's blessings, and last for 8 seconds)
Assassin's cunning: His main damage scheme. This scheme allows Hit Monkey's bleeds to become critical bleeds, dealing 3656 damage over 4.5 seconds (increased by deep wounds, these bleeds are MASSIVE!). Every 3 critical hits in a row increase the chance for Hit Monkey to inflict a critical bleed (although the chance is not listed. Kabam can be very vague sometimes). Additionally, while in Assassin's cunning, Hit Monkey prevents the opponent's evade, meaning even if they have a 500% chance to evade, they will not. Oh, and one more thing. While in this scheme, Hit Monkey gains a 60% chance to evade, a solid safety net I suppose.
Primal rage: This is the debuff shrugging and bleed immune opponent scheme. When in this scheme, Hit Monkey has a 100% chance (can be reduced by aar) to purify one of each stun and dot debuff on him, at the cost of removing this scheme. Stun purification here is interesting. This means that if you are in Primal rage and then are inflicted with a stun (encroaching stun) Primal rage will be consumed, however, the stun on you will be purified. This purify mechanic also consumes one of each dot debuff on you. Meaning if you have a bleed and poison, one of each will be purified. However, if you have 2 bleeds, 1 poison, and 1 incinerate, only one of each debuff will be purified, leaving you with one bleed, and Primal rage will be consumed. This purification makes him great for encroaching stun and suicides. Also, while this scheme is active, each light attack hit will have a 20% chance to inflict a NON-STACKING disorient on the opponent, reducing their block proficiency and defensive ability accuracy by 40% for 6 seconds. The chance for disorient is increased by 2.5% per hit landed while in Primal rage, up to an additional 45% total (giving him a 65% chance to inflict a disorient on every hit). While Primal rage is active, Hit Monkey also ignores the opponent's armor and resistances (making him great for a certain Emma Frost on oscillate). This resistance ignoring, however, does not affect bleed resistances, such as Corvus or Omega Red. (Due to Kabam's poor wording, I used to think Hit-Monkey's bleeds would be doing good damage vs bleed resistant champs. Took awhile for me to figure out that is not the case)
How to enter these schemes (2 parts): Landing 3 crits in a row gives you a dormant scheme. This will show up as a little grey icon where your buffs and debuffs go. Also, against #mercenary opponents, activating one scheme activates both. So go to town on them and don't worry about which scheme to use!
Assassin's cunning: Once you have the dormant scheme active, if your next action is blocking a hit or dexing a hit, your dormant scheme is converted into Assassin's cunning.
Primal rage: Once you have the dormant scheme active, if your next action is attacking the opponent (through block or hitting them) or getting smacked, your dormant scheme is converted into Primal rage.
Sp1: If in Assassin's cunning, gain a vigilance passive for this special. If in Primal rage, gain an unblockable passive for this special. If this attack causes miss to fail, this refreshes Assassin's cunning with the vigilance passive active until Assassin's cunning expires. If this breaks through the opponent's block, it refreshes Primal rage with the unblockable passive active until Primal rage expires. This special is great for keeping significantly more uptime on primal rage, which in turn helps keep the disorient on the opponent. Other than that, it is pretty useless.
Sp2: The main damage dealer. If launched after Hit Monkey lands a critical hit, every hit in this attack is guaranteed critical. This attack is only 7 hits, although it seems like 20.
Sp3: Gives Hit Monkey a 27 second cruelty buff, increasing his crit damage by 1718. While this cruelty is active, hitting the opponent pauses all schemes on Hit Monkey for .3 seconds. I like to do this in higher healthpool matchups.
How I use this bad boy: As a suicide runner, the first thing I do is activate Primal rage. The quickest way I've found to do that is to do a mllm combo. If that register's Primal rage, great! If not, my next combo will be a mlm combo to gain Primal rage. I then get into Assassin's cunning and build up to a sp2. After I throw the sp2, I've done around 150k damage. From there, I stay with Assassin's cunning and if necessary, throw one more sp2 and they're dead.
However, if they have a bigger healthpool (400k+) , I do the same thing but throw a sp3 first. I then do mlm combos to rush to my sp2 while trying to keep Assassin's cunning up as long as possible. That does a lot more damage.
Lastly, if they're bleed immune, stay in Primal rage. I rarely use him in these kinds of matchups, but his armor and resistance ignoring capabilities are very helpful.
Synergies: I don't use him with any, but he has that amazing synergy for black bolt. Check https://auntm.ai/champions/hitmonkey/tier/6 for a list of his synergies.
Overall, I love this monkey. I feel he is a top option damage dealer, but unfortunately his squishiness and essentiality of parrying in his playstyle keeps him below more sustainable options such as Cgr or Cmm. Hope this makes some of y'all give this monkey another chance!
Sorry for any typos
-Saquon
Guaranteed crits: This monkey's best thing going for him are his guaranteed crits. HIs first medium, first light, and second medium in a combo are guaranteed crits. On top of that, this guy has a great base critical rating at 31%.
Bleed: After landing 3 straight critical hits, Hit-Monkey inflicts a bleed on the opponent, dealing 1556 damage to the opponent over 4.5 seconds. This bleed can be increased by deep wounds, dramatically increasing his damage output.
Awakened ability: Far from neccesary. The odds are you will never use an awakening gem on this guy unless you are looking for prestige (2nd highest skill prestige at sig 200, behind Thor rags), due to many other skill champs needing awakening. While the opponent is at or above 25% health, your schemes last .5-3.5 seconds longer, depending on sig. Also, while the opponent is below 25% health or is a #mercenary, they suffer 10-40% daar. Overall, this awakened ability is nice. It's not enough I think to justify a skill or generic ag, however, it does warrant skill sigs. I feel that is because only Aegon and Falcon warrant high sig, and honestly I think Falcon doesn't really need high sig, and Aegon at r3 high sig is going to be very unnecessary unless you're going for Abyss exploration. Hit Monkey's awakened ability has a pretty even scaling throughout sig 1-200. More uptime on schemes is certainly helpful, and at max sig, with Hit Monkey's disorient on the opponent, and only one point in the Assassin mastery, if the opponent is below 25% health or is a #mercenary, they suffer 100% daar.
Monkey schemes (2 parts): (These schemes are unaffected by ability accuracy, unlike Sorcerer and Sym's blessings, and last for 8 seconds)
Assassin's cunning: His main damage scheme. This scheme allows Hit Monkey's bleeds to become critical bleeds, dealing 3656 damage over 4.5 seconds (increased by deep wounds, these bleeds are MASSIVE!). Every 3 critical hits in a row increase the chance for Hit Monkey to inflict a critical bleed (although the chance is not listed. Kabam can be very vague sometimes). Additionally, while in Assassin's cunning, Hit Monkey prevents the opponent's evade, meaning even if they have a 500% chance to evade, they will not. Oh, and one more thing. While in this scheme, Hit Monkey gains a 60% chance to evade, a solid safety net I suppose.
Primal rage: This is the debuff shrugging and bleed immune opponent scheme. When in this scheme, Hit Monkey has a 100% chance (can be reduced by aar) to purify one of each stun and dot debuff on him, at the cost of removing this scheme. Stun purification here is interesting. This means that if you are in Primal rage and then are inflicted with a stun (encroaching stun) Primal rage will be consumed, however, the stun on you will be purified. This purify mechanic also consumes one of each dot debuff on you. Meaning if you have a bleed and poison, one of each will be purified. However, if you have 2 bleeds, 1 poison, and 1 incinerate, only one of each debuff will be purified, leaving you with one bleed, and Primal rage will be consumed. This purification makes him great for encroaching stun and suicides. Also, while this scheme is active, each light attack hit will have a 20% chance to inflict a NON-STACKING disorient on the opponent, reducing their block proficiency and defensive ability accuracy by 40% for 6 seconds. The chance for disorient is increased by 2.5% per hit landed while in Primal rage, up to an additional 45% total (giving him a 65% chance to inflict a disorient on every hit). While Primal rage is active, Hit Monkey also ignores the opponent's armor and resistances (making him great for a certain Emma Frost on oscillate). This resistance ignoring, however, does not affect bleed resistances, such as Corvus or Omega Red. (Due to Kabam's poor wording, I used to think Hit-Monkey's bleeds would be doing good damage vs bleed resistant champs. Took awhile for me to figure out that is not the case)
How to enter these schemes (2 parts): Landing 3 crits in a row gives you a dormant scheme. This will show up as a little grey icon where your buffs and debuffs go. Also, against #mercenary opponents, activating one scheme activates both. So go to town on them and don't worry about which scheme to use!
Assassin's cunning: Once you have the dormant scheme active, if your next action is blocking a hit or dexing a hit, your dormant scheme is converted into Assassin's cunning.
Primal rage: Once you have the dormant scheme active, if your next action is attacking the opponent (through block or hitting them) or getting smacked, your dormant scheme is converted into Primal rage.
Sp1: If in Assassin's cunning, gain a vigilance passive for this special. If in Primal rage, gain an unblockable passive for this special. If this attack causes miss to fail, this refreshes Assassin's cunning with the vigilance passive active until Assassin's cunning expires. If this breaks through the opponent's block, it refreshes Primal rage with the unblockable passive active until Primal rage expires. This special is great for keeping significantly more uptime on primal rage, which in turn helps keep the disorient on the opponent. Other than that, it is pretty useless.
Sp2: The main damage dealer. If launched after Hit Monkey lands a critical hit, every hit in this attack is guaranteed critical. This attack is only 7 hits, although it seems like 20.
Sp3: Gives Hit Monkey a 27 second cruelty buff, increasing his crit damage by 1718. While this cruelty is active, hitting the opponent pauses all schemes on Hit Monkey for .3 seconds. I like to do this in higher healthpool matchups.
How I use this bad boy: As a suicide runner, the first thing I do is activate Primal rage. The quickest way I've found to do that is to do a mllm combo. If that register's Primal rage, great! If not, my next combo will be a mlm combo to gain Primal rage. I then get into Assassin's cunning and build up to a sp2. After I throw the sp2, I've done around 150k damage. From there, I stay with Assassin's cunning and if necessary, throw one more sp2 and they're dead.
However, if they have a bigger healthpool (400k+) , I do the same thing but throw a sp3 first. I then do mlm combos to rush to my sp2 while trying to keep Assassin's cunning up as long as possible. That does a lot more damage.
Lastly, if they're bleed immune, stay in Primal rage. I rarely use him in these kinds of matchups, but his armor and resistance ignoring capabilities are very helpful.
Synergies: I don't use him with any, but he has that amazing synergy for black bolt. Check https://auntm.ai/champions/hitmonkey/tier/6 for a list of his synergies.
Overall, I love this monkey. I feel he is a top option damage dealer, but unfortunately his squishiness and essentiality of parrying in his playstyle keeps him below more sustainable options such as Cgr or Cmm. Hope this makes some of y'all give this monkey another chance!
Sorry for any typos
-Saquon
Post edited by Kabam Porthos on
11
Comments
Amazing write up. I love Hitmonkey and personally think he should be talked about more.
For another write up, maybe you should look into night thrasher. Another in my opinion VERY Underrated skill character
BTW , i usually start the fight with mm parry and then mlm... what do you think about this option?
Who would you take as a 5 star between her and hit monkey? No suicides
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