Gladiator Buff? I think he needs it

first off great video showcasing his damage against other mid tier damage dealers, and one top tier one (vox)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGAgTAQqCy0

I think gladiator should get a quick buff to increase his damage number atleast, and def add a immunity like incenerate, or coldsnap (per his info on his character per wiki). I think that would help him in the short term atleast.

Comments

EdisonLaw

I think he’s fine for now. Not all champs have to be Hercules level

Emilia90

I think he’s fine for now. Not all champs have to be Hercules level

Saying that a champ needs a buff doesn’t mean they have to be Hercules level. I’d like to see some parts of his kit slightly altered tbh. I think he’s a pretty uninteresting champ as it is, but there are definitely some things I’d like to see added to him.

He’s a pretty decent cosmic though, and if he doesn’t get a buff, it wouldn’t really matter. I just wish people didn’t vote for him hoping for another Herc lol

EdisonLaw

Yes I wish that the next summoner’s choice is a different class other than cosmic.

Armageddøn

I think he’s fine for now. Not all champs have to be Hercules level
Saying that a champ needs a buff doesn’t mean they have to be Hercules level. I’d like to see some parts of his kit slightly altered tbh. I think he’s a pretty uninteresting champ as it is, but there are definitely some things I’d like to see added to him.

He’s a pretty decent cosmic though, and if he doesn’t get a buff, it wouldn’t really matter. I just wish people didn’t vote for him hoping for another Herc lol

I really wanted white tiger to win

I knew they will be too afraid to make another Hercules and mess it up and make an underwhelming cosmic champion

2StarKing

I think Gladiator is fine as is. I'm enjoying perfecting his unstoppable cycle.

Ercarret

I suspect that what'll make or break him is when people start to properly play around with his ability to deal damage during the opponent's special attacks. From what I've seen, those numbers have the potential to really add up. However, it needs to be a viable strategy for more than just some niche special attacks for it to be an interesting ability and not just something that maybe looks cool on paper.

It kind of reminds me a bit of Tigra's ability to miss projectiles while charging her heavy. There are enough such missable projectiles in the game for that to be a worthwhile ability to have and for it to be worth it to learn how to utilize it. The same has to be the case for Gladiator. If players can learn how to punish enough special attacks for that damage to add up into interesting numbers, we'll probably see opinions change (positively) over time. If, however, it turns out to be mostly a novelty feature, I suspect that his value will diminish greatly and we might see him rebalanced.

Ur1nAl

Not a hugh blogger myself but I recently opened my second titan crystal which is and should be a big deal. Guess who I duped? You guessed it an underpowered summoners champ Gladiator! I beg you please give this champ a rebalancing or buff however you see fit.

Sceptilemaniac2

Those who say he's fine as he is haven't played with him enough. He has potential. No doubt. It almost never translates to ideal fights. His gimmick is way too narrow and not reliable at all. With his bang on average damage you'd think he'd have a broken utility kit yes? No.
He has an evade counter and a vigilance I think? That's about it.
Completely underwhelming champ compared to quicksilver and herc. They both brought something new to the game, while glad is just another cosmic with a gimmick you can't use in like 90% of fights.

Ruwqiersa

I think he’s fine for now. Not all champs have to be Hercules level

Okay so you are saying everything has to be groot level?

Shadowstrike

I mean, we can speculate us to how and why Gladiator isn't as popular as we'd like him but at the end of the day they're going to focus on the data. So I would encourage everyone to actually still use Gladiator and really show objective fights where he's not performing as well as he should be.

EdisonLaw

@Ruwqiersa everything has to be balanced. Hercules is the exception

TheDaywalker

I have a r2 7-star Gladiator, he's a good champ and I like him. However, he straight up blows as a Summoner's Choice and feels like a straight downgrade of Vox, heck I'm genuinely convinced that Silver Surfer, Aarkus and Odin are better than Gladiator. Worst Champ of 2023 material as well (yes, I think Kindred and Shocker are better).
Here are some things to point out:
The Good

Evade OR Miss Counter: Even though his Vigilance and Coldsnap could be slightly longer, he's still great for Evade or Miss since a combination of both Evade and Miss is rare. Pretty much the only problem is that he kind of can't deal with both Evade AND Miss, but it's alright.
Sig Ability:
Line 1: Would be great if Gladiator also gained Confidence at the start of the fight rather than only an increased Confidence Limit. Just not rewarding enough for a requirement that is 2x worse than Sentry's Persistent Reality Warps.
Line 2: At Sig 200, having PASSIVE True Damage and reducing Armor Up EFFECT (not just buffs) Ability Accuracy is amazing. Only problem is that it's tied to Gladiator's Vigilance Buff, which is only 20 seconds long.

The Bad

"Stunning Intimidation": He relies on possibly the worst effect in the whole game (even if the AI were to be fixed) for ramp, being Intimidate. The Intimidate is also a Debuff (it's so worthless, that it isn't worth being a Debuff), so now he's gonna have to throw at least 12 heavies in Purify or Debuff immunity matchups, just to get to Ultra Confidence. Also, what if he's already Ultra Confident and want to punish the Opponent's Special Attack? In that situation, the Intimidate is gonna screw him over if it's applied, since the Opponent most likely won't throw a Special ("Most likely" is bolded because again, Intimidate is so unreliable).
Embolden (Literally would not be affected if this was removed): Embolden is a joke on both offense and defense, it doesn't even work for Nodes and requires some ramp. However, it is somewhat good against Doom's Aura, Sorc Supreme (can stall out some of the Null Aura) and Ebony Maw (The Fury he places on you won't be Nullified), all of these must be timed though with some good AI cooperation. Other than that, Embolden is a joke.
Defender: Two lines of Ability description automatically makes him absolute garbage on defense. This is fine though if he was intended to be an attacker only. How to stop him? Well just hit him and bait Sp2!
Flow: Nothing in his kit seems to flow at all and is like an "Ability Scrambled Salad Cosmic Frankenstein". The Intimidate makes this even worse.

Then there's his Ultra Confidence (Stun Immunity and bursting down the Opponent during their Special Attacks by hitting them). In my opinion, it's super bad. If these abilities are gonna be at the peak of Gladiator's Ramp-Up, then it needs a serious buff since this is probably the most worthless part of his kit other than Embolden.

Burst Damage during Opponent's Special Attacks

Pretty much useless against Specials with too many hits or if Confidence Limit is 24, since Gladiator will just get pushed back into Super Confidence.
On-hit DoT effects, DoT Debuffs and probably all red numbers ignore the Hit Damage Reduction. So Gladiator is just gonna drop dead depending on how nasty those effects are.
80% Hit Damage Reduction isn't enough.
Gladiator is pretty much only limited to one burst per Special Attack if Gladiator isn't Unstoppable or the Opponent's Invulnerability Window is too short (like Star-Lord's Sp1).
Needs to throw an Sp3 or already have some Persistent Confidence Limit to even make functional use of the ability.

Stun Immunity

Can't even trust the Stun Immunity actually working for Nodes just by looking at how Embolden works (ex. immune to the OPPONENT'S *insert effect here*). Maybe it does, or it doesn't.

Ways he can be Improved

Optional: Special Lock Immunity to compliment the "need" to throw Specials while Unblockable (which is short).

Confidence (Not Needed): Replace the Armor Rating Increase with a Fixed 1.5% Damage Reduction from all sources.

Coldsnap and Vigilance: No changes are needed, but a small duration increase would be great to be a better Evade/Miss counter.

Signature Ability (Line 1): Also gain Confidence at the start of the fight, equal to the Persistent Confidence Limit.

Stunning Intimidation: Make the Intimidate a Passive, no point in changing it now with his playstyle. Another thing, maybe let Gladiator's Heavy Attack inflict a Taunt or Infuriate when the Opponent is pushed to or already at 2 Bars of Power.

Intimidate: While active, blocking Opponents suffer 100% reduced Defensive Ability Accuracy. This could either be a bonus or a buff to Intimidate itself, just to make it on par with Infuriate.

Heavy Attack: Cannot Miss when the Opponent is Stunned.

Super Confidence - Embolden: Make it longer or paused during the Opponent's Special Attacks. Maybe make it work for Nodes instead of just personal abilities too just to make it not a steaming pile of garbage. Making Embolden not require Super Confidence would be good too.

Super Confidence: Can block Unblockable attacks while personal Unstoppable or Vigilance is active.

Ultra Confidence - Stun Immunity: Extend the Stun Immunity to Gladiator's Vigilance Buff and no longer needs a Paused Unstoppable.

Ultra Confidence: Reduce the Opponent's Offensive Ability Accuracy by 100% during their Special Attacks.

Ultra Confidence: Raise Hit Damage Reduction from 80% to 90%.

dude10

I say… upon the next update, give gladiator the buff. That way, we can see how good he is as a cosmic champion.

TheDaywalker

I say… upon the next update, give gladiator the buff. That way, we can see how good he is as a cosmic champion.

Yeah... they're never gonna do that.

EdisonLaw

I think he’s fine for now. Not all champs have to be Hercules level

I regret saying this. Originally I thought he was a good champion, but after seeing all the feedback on him and having tested him myself, I kinda agree that he’s mediocre for now. Since the rebalancing info should be out soon, let’s see what they have to say about him.