Hawkeye: A God Tier in Disguise. (Full write up)
Qacob
Member Posts: 2,253 ★★★★★
*You might have to leave this thread open for a second to let the pictures and GIFs load, but once they've played through for one loop they should all smooth out*
Since his buff in December last year, very little has been spoken of Hawkeye. I want to change that. I truly believe this champion is a top tier skill, who, in the hands of a skilled player against an aggressive AI, can genuinely compete with the likes of Nick Fury in both damage and utility. (Don't stop reading, this is not a troll post, Nick is better but not by as much as you may think). Right then, prepare to be enlightened.
ABILITIES: (numbers based on my 6r3, sig 40)
For each of Hawkeye's attacks, I am going to group their damage abilities and utility aspects separately, and then mention any noteworthy insights afterwards.
Before that though, I'm going to briefly cover his bleed and "dialed in" mechanics. At base, Hawkeye's bleeds deal 3052 damage over 10 seconds. However once awakened, any bleeds triggered by critical hits become crit bleeds, having their potency multiplied by his critical damage multiplier. This is very important for Hawkeye's damage, so you really want to have him awakened, though this part of his sig doesn't scale with higher sig level. Additionally, each bleed reduces the opponent's physical resistance by 318.43 - 565.69 depending on sig level, which scales badly; I'd recommend sig 40 as a sweet spot (466.3).
After the first hit of his sp1 and 2, holding block slows down time, and releasing block just as his arrow glows blue triggers a "perfect release" (the timing can be a little tricky to grasp at first, but you don't even have to think about it with a bit of practice.) A perfect release guarantees the arrow hit to be critical (essentially allowing all of his bleeds to be crit bleeds) and grants a "dialed in" passive. Each of these passives increases the duration of all personal debuffs inflicted by arrow strikes by 10% and they can stack to a max of 5, so precisely 161.051% of base duration after all 5 have been built up. Note that these are removed if a perfect release is failed, but as I said, this won't really happen at all after some practice.
Basic attacks:
Damage:
- Pause all bleed debuffs for 1 second.
Utility:
- none
This pausing of bleeds allows for the damage to really ramp up if you have an aggressive AI. Depending on which rotation you're playing, you can somewhat comfortably maintain ~6 bleed debuffs, ticking for very respectable red numbers and complimenting his sig ability to reduce your opponent's physical resistance by almost 3000 which results in some juicy yellow numbers too.
Heavy attacks:
Damage:
- I mean the hits do damage...?
Utility:
- inflicts a 10 second slow debuff
This obviously makes Hawkeye a great unstoppable and evade counter. Just note that his Dialed In passive do not increase this slow's duration as it is not an arrow-inflicted debuff, and also this attack cannot be chained against the wall, who knows why.
Sp1
Damage:
- Inflict 1 bleed debuff
Utility:
- drains 75% of a bar of power
- inflicts an 8 second suppression debuff, reducing the opponent's combat power rate by 50% (this can stack, but the power rate reduction is not a flat 50%, that would be a bit broken)
This is the perfect attack to build up your dialed in passives on. The power drain and suppression allow a skilled player to continuously stand-up and back-draft intercept while spamming this special multiple times before needing to bait the opponent's sp1. It's a pretty fun cycle and very effective.
Sp2:
Damage:
- inflict 2 bleed debuffs
- inflict 2x 25 second fragility debuffs, each reducing the opponent's block proficiency by 50% and increasing Hawkeye's critical damage rating by 921.43.
Utility:
- none
The fragility debuffs here increase Hawkeye's crit damage rating, which not only increases his damage on critical hits, but more importantly increases the damage of his crit bleeds, quite drastically too.
Sp3
Damage:
-inflict 3 bleeds with up to +200% duration based on Hawkeye's critical rating.
- these bleeds can be critical based on crit chance. Getting the perfect 20% damage bonus guarantees them to be crit bleeds.
Utility:
- none
Pro tip: dexing before dropping the sp3 gives you the precision buff, increasing your chances of landing crit bleeds even if you miss the damage bonus.
SYNERGIES
Hawkeye has a range of absolutely brilliant synergies, and with equally brilliant champions. Honestly it's his synergies that really bring him up and above other champions to make him stand out, especially when it comes to utility. Not gonna mention them all, just the ones that I think are the most impactful. Once again I'll group them as damage or utility synergies.
Damage synergies:
Synergies with Mangog, Darkhawk, Taskmaster, Void, Hercules, BWDO and BPCW all increase Hawkeye's damage either by raising his attack or by increasing bleed potency/duration.
While these are all very useful bonuses, the only one that I think needs special attention is his synergy with Hercules:
Having access to a fury buff unlocks a lot of potential to counter nodes that he otherwise wouldn't be able to, which is something we'll return to later.
Utility synergies:
This is where it gets really saucy.
With Tigra:
This is a big one. Where so many skill champs fall down at bleed immunity, this synergy allows Hawkeye to maintain damage even when the opponent is bleed immune. Not to mention the synergy partner is amazing herself. The one downfall is obviously that this synergy is present for a whole quest, so you can't have both bleed and poison for a path, you can only choose one.
With Nick, BW, BWDO and quake:
Again, this is huge. I may be wrong here so don't quote me on this, but off the top of my head this makes Hawkeye the only skill champion that can be poison immune (Other than Taskmaster once he's gone debuff immune but that doesn't really count.) I don't need to list the reasons why that's amazing (and I won't because this post is far too long already). In combination with the Hercules synergy I mentioned earlier, this means that Hawkeye can even counter Caustic Temper, which is unheard of for skill champs.
With MODOK, OML, X23 and WeaponX:
Hawkeye already counters Thing really well due to the slow, but this allows him to counter Korg too, and obviously in both fights you'd want the tigra synergy since both are bleed immune but neither poison immune.
With Abom, Ibom, Diablo and King Groot:
Who doesn't love extra duration on their slow debuffs? Doesn't really have a huge effect on his kit, but makes countering unstoppable and evade a bit more manageable.
ROTATIONS
This section will be very short, for a reason I absolutely love Hawkeye for. He has no rotation other than throw specials and stay aggressive. Which special you want to be throwing if you really care about getting a tiny bit more damage is totally dependent on fight length. My general rule of thumb is for short fights, spam sp1s, for medium length fights, spam sp2s and for long fights, build up 5 dialed ins with your sp1 and then spam sp3s. But honestly, if you just play him how you enjoy him, you'll be near enough to max potential regardless.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, Hawkeye is a beast of a champ, with high damage that ramps up throughout the fight and an easily-overlooked arsenal of utility. He is customisable and dynamic with his range of insane synergies that give him seriously unique and valuable attributes. Though he may not quite be Nick Fury, he is not far behind, and a truly amazing champion who has won my heart and the crown of my favourite in the game. Hats off to Kabam for his buff. I LOVE IT.
TL;DR
Rank up your Hawkeye.
Or should I say...
...HawkGOD!!!
Thank you for reading if you managed to get through it all, I appreciate your time - Q
Since his buff in December last year, very little has been spoken of Hawkeye. I want to change that. I truly believe this champion is a top tier skill, who, in the hands of a skilled player against an aggressive AI, can genuinely compete with the likes of Nick Fury in both damage and utility. (Don't stop reading, this is not a troll post, Nick is better but not by as much as you may think). Right then, prepare to be enlightened.
ABILITIES: (numbers based on my 6r3, sig 40)
For each of Hawkeye's attacks, I am going to group their damage abilities and utility aspects separately, and then mention any noteworthy insights afterwards.
Before that though, I'm going to briefly cover his bleed and "dialed in" mechanics. At base, Hawkeye's bleeds deal 3052 damage over 10 seconds. However once awakened, any bleeds triggered by critical hits become crit bleeds, having their potency multiplied by his critical damage multiplier. This is very important for Hawkeye's damage, so you really want to have him awakened, though this part of his sig doesn't scale with higher sig level. Additionally, each bleed reduces the opponent's physical resistance by 318.43 - 565.69 depending on sig level, which scales badly; I'd recommend sig 40 as a sweet spot (466.3).
After the first hit of his sp1 and 2, holding block slows down time, and releasing block just as his arrow glows blue triggers a "perfect release" (the timing can be a little tricky to grasp at first, but you don't even have to think about it with a bit of practice.) A perfect release guarantees the arrow hit to be critical (essentially allowing all of his bleeds to be crit bleeds) and grants a "dialed in" passive. Each of these passives increases the duration of all personal debuffs inflicted by arrow strikes by 10% and they can stack to a max of 5, so precisely 161.051% of base duration after all 5 have been built up. Note that these are removed if a perfect release is failed, but as I said, this won't really happen at all after some practice.
Basic attacks:
Damage:
- Pause all bleed debuffs for 1 second.
Utility:
- none
This pausing of bleeds allows for the damage to really ramp up if you have an aggressive AI. Depending on which rotation you're playing, you can somewhat comfortably maintain ~6 bleed debuffs, ticking for very respectable red numbers and complimenting his sig ability to reduce your opponent's physical resistance by almost 3000 which results in some juicy yellow numbers too.
Heavy attacks:
Damage:
- I mean the hits do damage...?
Utility:
- inflicts a 10 second slow debuff
This obviously makes Hawkeye a great unstoppable and evade counter. Just note that his Dialed In passive do not increase this slow's duration as it is not an arrow-inflicted debuff, and also this attack cannot be chained against the wall, who knows why.
Sp1
Damage:
- Inflict 1 bleed debuff
Utility:
- drains 75% of a bar of power
- inflicts an 8 second suppression debuff, reducing the opponent's combat power rate by 50% (this can stack, but the power rate reduction is not a flat 50%, that would be a bit broken)
This is the perfect attack to build up your dialed in passives on. The power drain and suppression allow a skilled player to continuously stand-up and back-draft intercept while spamming this special multiple times before needing to bait the opponent's sp1. It's a pretty fun cycle and very effective.
Sp2:
Damage:
- inflict 2 bleed debuffs
- inflict 2x 25 second fragility debuffs, each reducing the opponent's block proficiency by 50% and increasing Hawkeye's critical damage rating by 921.43.
Utility:
- none
The fragility debuffs here increase Hawkeye's crit damage rating, which not only increases his damage on critical hits, but more importantly increases the damage of his crit bleeds, quite drastically too.
Sp3
Damage:
-inflict 3 bleeds with up to +200% duration based on Hawkeye's critical rating.
- these bleeds can be critical based on crit chance. Getting the perfect 20% damage bonus guarantees them to be crit bleeds.
Utility:
- none
Pro tip: dexing before dropping the sp3 gives you the precision buff, increasing your chances of landing crit bleeds even if you miss the damage bonus.
SYNERGIES
Hawkeye has a range of absolutely brilliant synergies, and with equally brilliant champions. Honestly it's his synergies that really bring him up and above other champions to make him stand out, especially when it comes to utility. Not gonna mention them all, just the ones that I think are the most impactful. Once again I'll group them as damage or utility synergies.
Damage synergies:
Synergies with Mangog, Darkhawk, Taskmaster, Void, Hercules, BWDO and BPCW all increase Hawkeye's damage either by raising his attack or by increasing bleed potency/duration.
While these are all very useful bonuses, the only one that I think needs special attention is his synergy with Hercules:
Having access to a fury buff unlocks a lot of potential to counter nodes that he otherwise wouldn't be able to, which is something we'll return to later.
Utility synergies:
This is where it gets really saucy.
With Tigra:
This is a big one. Where so many skill champs fall down at bleed immunity, this synergy allows Hawkeye to maintain damage even when the opponent is bleed immune. Not to mention the synergy partner is amazing herself. The one downfall is obviously that this synergy is present for a whole quest, so you can't have both bleed and poison for a path, you can only choose one.
With Nick, BW, BWDO and quake:
Again, this is huge. I may be wrong here so don't quote me on this, but off the top of my head this makes Hawkeye the only skill champion that can be poison immune (Other than Taskmaster once he's gone debuff immune but that doesn't really count.) I don't need to list the reasons why that's amazing (and I won't because this post is far too long already). In combination with the Hercules synergy I mentioned earlier, this means that Hawkeye can even counter Caustic Temper, which is unheard of for skill champs.
With MODOK, OML, X23 and WeaponX:
Hawkeye already counters Thing really well due to the slow, but this allows him to counter Korg too, and obviously in both fights you'd want the tigra synergy since both are bleed immune but neither poison immune.
With Abom, Ibom, Diablo and King Groot:
Who doesn't love extra duration on their slow debuffs? Doesn't really have a huge effect on his kit, but makes countering unstoppable and evade a bit more manageable.
ROTATIONS
This section will be very short, for a reason I absolutely love Hawkeye for. He has no rotation other than throw specials and stay aggressive. Which special you want to be throwing if you really care about getting a tiny bit more damage is totally dependent on fight length. My general rule of thumb is for short fights, spam sp1s, for medium length fights, spam sp2s and for long fights, build up 5 dialed ins with your sp1 and then spam sp3s. But honestly, if you just play him how you enjoy him, you'll be near enough to max potential regardless.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, Hawkeye is a beast of a champ, with high damage that ramps up throughout the fight and an easily-overlooked arsenal of utility. He is customisable and dynamic with his range of insane synergies that give him seriously unique and valuable attributes. Though he may not quite be Nick Fury, he is not far behind, and a truly amazing champion who has won my heart and the crown of my favourite in the game. Hats off to Kabam for his buff. I LOVE IT.
TL;DR
Rank up your Hawkeye.
Or should I say...
...HawkGOD!!!
Thank you for reading if you managed to get through it all, I appreciate your time - Q
30
Comments
Edit: Perhaps an intercept in a certain way where you can redeem your focus back or at least there is a countdown timer an easy 5 seconds they start falling off until you can intercept.
Was thinking of r5’ing mine for that unstoppable path in 7.4.5
I used Hawkeye for everyone on that path except DragonMan. He works a treat. Rank him up!
I had a r5 before the buff was announced because he had good power control.
Now he has that, plus so much more. People are legit sleeping on Hawkeye
Hawkeye was my first ever R4 5 star champ back in 2017 and he was my questing and AW MVP for a long time. I R5d him 2018 just cuz I really liked him and he put in work. Years before a buff was even a thought.
My issue with the new HE isn't that he's bad but he's tedious to play and saying he's just behind Nick for damage isn't very true.
I tested him vs WS and without a crit bleed his ticks were doing a whopping 98 per tick and with a crit bleed they went to 350 and I was able to do perfect release all fight and it still took over 130 hits and about 2 mins while spamming sp1s which means i had up 5+ bleeds all fight due to pausing them so often and still.
I mixed it up and did some sp2s for the fragility debuffs just for more damage and it was faster but not by too much in a fight after.
His MAIN issue is you HAVE to ALWAYS be in your toes with him or else all 5 dialed in are gone and it does make a difference when not having them which can be frustrating. See the other issue is NOT only a skill issue. We have a partially broken game meaning lag, freezing, frame skips, etc etc meaning it may not even be your own fault you miss a perfect release and have to start over.
Needing to do FIVE specials perfectly in a ROW only for something even if it's your own fault to restart is annoying to do ANOTHER 5 PERFECT SPECIALS IN A ROW IS.... alittle annoying.
Don't get me wrong, I'm like the only guy I know who really like Hawkeye as a character in the MCU and was crazy excited for his show and i REALLY liked him in game before his buff cuz he was simple and effective even if he fell off.
Yes his buff makes him better by a good bit and have utility in his slow and unique poison immunity but Civil Warrior is also much better now but he also has the same issue of being annoying to play after being buffed.
Just increase the drain for his sp1 back to pre-nerf amounts and it’ll be pretty good.
I learnt something new today!
Can't wait till the next one 🔥
It traded short-term, for long-term