Champion review: Patriot
EdisonLaw
Member Posts: 6,091 ★★★★★
Greetings Summoners,
Today is the second episode of my Champion Review series. In this episode, we will take a look at the African-American, Captain America-inspired Young Avenger, Elijah Bradley, also known as Patriot. We will analyze his animations, damage, rotation, utility, the Reversal mechanic, signature ability, and best uses/matchups and determine where he will fit in the Contest.
Animations: 7/10. Patriot is a Super Soldier similar to Captain America and Winter Soldier, and his animations reflect that. He is mostly a trained hand-to-hand combatant who also wields a shield like Captain America; as such, he uses a lot of punches, kicks, and shield bashes in his basics and specials. His Special 2, however, utilizes three five-point throwing stars as projectiles. According to the comics, he does wield these as weapons
Damage 8/10. Patriot has some consistent damage if his rotation is used properly. His damage mostly comes from big yellow numbers, but he does inflict some ruptures on his SP2. Patriot also gains a lot more attack rating if he's also inflicted with many debuffs. From Nick136's videos, his 6*R5 Patriot can hit for up to 21k on the SP2 projectile hits when they crit. When they don't crit, they hit for more than 6k. With the recoil masters, however, and with a 7* R2 Patriot, critical Special hits can hit for up to 35k, and non-criticals can hit up to 11k. Even the basics can also deal that much damage, as shown in the video.
Rotation: For those who haven't watched the Deep Dive yet (I recommend you watch it), Patriot's rotation is building up combo via light attacks, then using the SP1 to build more combo, build up to 2.5 bars of power, then trigger the Reversal (see below) to gain your fury and precision passives and launch the SP2 for the ruptures. If you are in a matchup with a lot of non-damaging Debuffs, you can go straight to the SP2 without using the SP1 since each non-damaging Debuff, when expired, turns into a Resolve debuff, which helps you get to that Reversal that much faster.
Utility: 7/10. Patriot has some good utility within his kit. He has access to a Vigilance on well-timed blocks (this makes him an excellent Miss counter), his healing rate cannot be modified and/or reversed, he isn't affected much by Inequity, and he inflicts up to a 100% Weakness on Science champions when they have a Fury. He can gain combo through block and gains 2x the amount of combo compared to other champions, which helps him ramp faster. Patriot is also a surprisingly sustainable champion thanks to the Willpower healing from the resolve debuffs, similar to Kingpin and Attuma's self-inflicted debuffs. However, one of my biggest complaints with Patriot is that his reduction to his Regeneration rate (44%) means he's not great with the suicide masteries. Referring to Nick136's video again, willpower allows him to heal for 143 health per second, but he also takes 193 damage per second from the liquid courage poison. This resembles Daredevil Hell's Kitchen, whose regen rate is around 40%. Also, don't use Patriot against Void; it's a bad idea.
Sudden Reversal: As part of his kit, Patriot has a new mechanic called the Sudden Reversal. It's basically like an Autoblock combined with a heavy attack. On attack, when the opponent tries to attack Patriot with a Heavy once he's at 7 Resolve debuffs, he triggers some explosion from the shield, which deals damage and knocks the opponent down. After triggering this Reversal, he gains that chunky Fury passive and precision passives, which is why it's essential to activate it when Patriot is above 2 bars of power. Additionally, the SP2 is unblockable after the opponent stands up from the Reversal, so you don't need to worry about them parrying or blocking the special. On defense, he can trigger this when you hit him directly. As of right now, there are no counters to this Reversal. Since it's not an autoblock, effects like true strike, sense, and accuracy don't bypass it. Heavy attacks don't bypass it. When he is stunned, he can still trigger it. However, when Patriot is knocked down with a special, he loses one resolve, two against mutants, so on defense, try to knock him down as much as possible using specials and try not to inflict too many debuffs on him.
Signature Ability: 9/10. Like most champs designed by DLL, Patriot's signature ability is worth investing in. Firstly, his precisions can gain up to 40% increased potency. This makes him hit harder, and his yellow numbers go even higher. He also gains extra block proficiency for each Debuff on him, plus the opponent's block penetration is reduced to zero. Additionally, when he is inflicted with ten debuffs, three against science champs, he gains a Steadfast passive, allowing him to block unblockable. All of this combined makes Patriot one of the best counters to Photon as she cannot penetrate his block with her debuffs, plus he can block her specials when she is in pure light form. If you want to use Patriot to counter Photon, awaken him ASAP
Best uses/matchups: As mentioned above, Patriot is one of the best Photon counters (his vigilance on parries also allows him to bypass her miss as well). He is also suitable for most other science champs and nodes that inflict a lot of debuffs, such as the node: long-distance relationship, which inflicts a ton of weaknesses when close. Additionally, he can deal with miss matchups like Guilly 99 and Spot and unblockable matchups if awakened.
In summary, Patriot, inspired by Captain America and a key member of the Young Avengers, brings a unique blend of combat skills and versatility to the Contest. His animations, while reflective of a traditional Super Soldier, are bolstered by the addition of projectile attacks. His damage output is impressive, particularly when leveraging his rotation strategy to maximise crits and ruptures. Despite his solid damage and utility, Patriot's performance can be hindered by his reduced regeneration rate, making him less ideal for suicide mastery setups. Overall, Patriot shines in specific matchups, especially against science champions and nodes that inflict numerous debuffs. His ability to counter miss and unblockable mechanics also adds to his strategic value. Patriot is a strong contender with considerable potential in the right hands for summoners looking to add a versatile and powerful champion to their roster.
Thoughts? Post your comments and questions here
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Comments
Still need to do Arenas to get him and practice a little.
But the fight I had on MQ ,he shows up very strong.
It is the same thing which Mr Negative and other heavy hold champs have.. you need the AI to rush in to hit you with a basic attack.
More common than not, once i hold heavy with 7 + charges the AI dashes back and hold block.. waits out the timer of the heavy and auto release which then results being hit in the face.
Two options can fix this, Add a infuriate whenever heavy is held for more then 1s and removed when heavy release or make it so the heavy can be held indefinitely.
Prefer having an infuriate to keep the tempo of the battle and make it viable for BGs. Having heavy hold indefinitely could mean wasting time in BG matches.
Looking forward to The Leader and ur review on him
It's not damage that makes the champion. It's utility as well.
Also here is MSD’s video
When you reviewed Northstar, you did not refer to his race.
Having said that - I personally do not like champions where the player has a timer where something needs to happen or you lose your ramp, and it is dependent on the AI being cooperative or not. That champion can be great (like Absorbing Man or even Onslaught), but I have encountered far too many situations where the enemy AI decides to turtle and wait out my refined form timer or neuroshocks to disappear.
With how Kabam has carte blanche to change the AI whenever they want (whether on purpose or its a bug), I just don't like these interrupt/non-medium intercepts based champions.
But
Kabam continuous to NOT fix AI acting like a total dog and passive whenever a player charges their heavy??
What? AI won't charge at you and will dash back forever. 😃
I have 6* Patriot (awaken) and 7* Patriot (undupe), higher the sig is going to be better.. even DLL says a 6* rank5 sig200 ascend is going to be better.. but if you were me.. and you can only rank one up.. who would you pick and why?
BTW, my next review will be on Leader, probably tomorrow or next day evening