My Ironheart honeymoon phase has ended
altavista
Member Posts: 1,456 ★★★★
When she was first revealed, I was lovestruck with her kit, and she was one of my desired Titan pulls.
After pulling her, I thoroughly enjoyed Ironheart, and supported her even as detractors lamented her low damage and narrow rotation.
Even after the chance at being buffed came and went, I was still a fan.
But now .... I have fallen out of love.
I am generally a Utility over Damage guy, as I don't play much competitive modes where speed or big damage is important.
And while Ironheart's Utility >>> her Damage, there is this annoying thing where both can disappear at the same time.
Stacking 5 debuffs and keeping them paused with SP1 seems like it wouldn't be difficult, but with the AI playing keepaway or doing shallow intercepts, common timers that prevent applying debuffs (eg. unstoppable, miss, evade, etc), and common nodes that remove all buffs/debuffs/power, all this means it can be difficult to apply and maintain 5 debuffs.
And if I want to heavy to remove Prowess? I now have a shorter window to maintain debuffs, and with less debuffs, I can remove fewer Prowess.
Use utility > lose damage > lose utility > lose more damage.
Choosing Utility vs Big Damage is not unique to Ironheart. What is unique to her is that her Utility and Damage (the DoT) can disappear even if one skips the Big Damage loop. Stick with SP1 to maintain Utility, but even then, my debuffs can fall off even if I am focused on SP1, because of the defender or node abilities.
And even when I choose to "cashout' on my utility by going for the SP2 damage, it seems a bit underwhelming even after stacking a bunch of debuffs (I encounter the same problem with Rintrah, where the SP2 damage after stacking ruptures doesn't seem to hit as hard as it should).
And this is made worse by the fact that her more 'permanent' utilities can easily be turned off by champions and nodes (armor breaks, nullifies, etc). Her sig Regen ability also seems underpowered (compared to other Tech champions) to where the opponent can easily outdamage the regen rate.
The final cherry on top of all this is seeing the next dating show contestant, Jack o Lantern, having similar Utility without needing to sacrifice Damage.
After pulling her, I thoroughly enjoyed Ironheart, and supported her even as detractors lamented her low damage and narrow rotation.
Even after the chance at being buffed came and went, I was still a fan.
But now .... I have fallen out of love.
I am generally a Utility over Damage guy, as I don't play much competitive modes where speed or big damage is important.
And while Ironheart's Utility >>> her Damage, there is this annoying thing where both can disappear at the same time.
Stacking 5 debuffs and keeping them paused with SP1 seems like it wouldn't be difficult, but with the AI playing keepaway or doing shallow intercepts, common timers that prevent applying debuffs (eg. unstoppable, miss, evade, etc), and common nodes that remove all buffs/debuffs/power, all this means it can be difficult to apply and maintain 5 debuffs.
And if I want to heavy to remove Prowess? I now have a shorter window to maintain debuffs, and with less debuffs, I can remove fewer Prowess.
Use utility > lose damage > lose utility > lose more damage.
Choosing Utility vs Big Damage is not unique to Ironheart. What is unique to her is that her Utility and Damage (the DoT) can disappear even if one skips the Big Damage loop. Stick with SP1 to maintain Utility, but even then, my debuffs can fall off even if I am focused on SP1, because of the defender or node abilities.
And even when I choose to "cashout' on my utility by going for the SP2 damage, it seems a bit underwhelming even after stacking a bunch of debuffs (I encounter the same problem with Rintrah, where the SP2 damage after stacking ruptures doesn't seem to hit as hard as it should).
And this is made worse by the fact that her more 'permanent' utilities can easily be turned off by champions and nodes (armor breaks, nullifies, etc). Her sig Regen ability also seems underpowered (compared to other Tech champions) to where the opponent can easily outdamage the regen rate.
The final cherry on top of all this is seeing the next dating show contestant, Jack o Lantern, having similar Utility without needing to sacrifice Damage.
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Comments
She can parry non-contacts and with 5 debuffs she can parry onslaught without getting daunted.
She really needed damage boost but Kabam said NOOOO and now we have hero who's just there because, "she was in movie so she's now in game hehe 😚"
With AI trained so they backdraft intercept like prime MSD, have RNG better than Domino from the comics, and somehow hoarding power like a permanent All or Nothing node, most champions that have time-critical rotations are falling off steadily.
Check out @AllisonEdits video on the poor AI.
I think White Tiger keeps being the exception this year, Shathra may prove me wrong though. Nefaria’s damage potential is greatly capped by AI reaction speed, and the unfazed mastery so we are already seeing he’s in this same bucket as Ironheart.
Kabam really could have made her a GREAT champ instead of just a good one.
Here’s a r3 Omega Sentinel
When I watched her deep dive I thought she looked awesome, an sp1 sp2 rotation champ with a lot of solid utility and seemingly an onslaught counter. How could that not be great? Well it would be if that’s what she actually was, and it’s what she should’ve been. But in her current state instead of being a strong versatile attacker she’s a much more niche, slow but safe utility champion, which is quite a shame.
All she needs is a longer pause, or some sort of debuff refresh, or extra attack on her sp2 per debuff, but nah we got nothing. Idk why the rebalancing team is afraid of giving her a slight damage bump to make her a great champion instead of being stuck to her 3/5 damage. But hey, serpent is balanced right?
She's always on my aw atk team saga atk champ easy to get to 5 and above.
BGs good 2 way champ.
In most medium fights I don't bother with sp1 to pause .. I keep doing MM to apply many debuffs and dex special to apply more and race to sp2 do big dmg.. rinse and repeat as needed usually 2 sp2s does it
Mine is still an R2, which might be why I am finding her damage side of things underwhelming. And while I could R3 her, with her rigid rotation and how her Utility can easily disappear due to Nodes/AI, I can't commit to spending R3 resources on her just to make her damage feel better. I feel like in the current state of the game, and R2 should feel satisfying to use, with R3 damage being an extra bonus. It shouldn't feel like a champion has to be R3 just to feel good.
Because she's metal, she can't remove neuroshocks, so she loses a lot of life.
In AW and BG, for example, she's terrible. If you try to do Onslaught as a boss in AW, you'll die from neuroshock.