So far I'm underwhelmed by Scream (at least in comparison to Medusa)
altavista
Member Posts: 1,520 ★★★★
I've seen the videos of Scream being amazing at handling all sorts of defenders/content, and I know there are posts comparing Medusa and Scream as being similar levels of awesomeness, but when I compare her (as a 7R1) to my 7R1 Medusa, I find myself underwhelmed.
Medusa is just instant mindless damage after 1 SP1, and I can easily see the utility (poison immune, autoblock, true accuracy).
With Scream, I'm struggling here. After stacking my buffs, stacking debuffs on the opponent, and using my SP2, I can see that the damage is good, but its not amazing like everyone is claiming it to be. Is this a case of 7R1 compared to what a 7R2/7R3 Scream can do (for example, the greatness of Hulk-lock feels greater with a high ranked Hulk compared to low ranked Hulk), or is this more "user-error" (such as having to ensure 8 Madness everytime)?
And then in terms of Scream's concepts - I'm not sure I 'get' her buffs either. Vicious and Energize I get, but Bulwark only comes in handy a few times (for minimizing chip damage when autoblocking), and Impact seems pointless because your special is either unblockable or you have Undermine going cause you're not trying to hit into block.
I know Scream has some obvious utility in her Sig ability, and both Medusa and Scream can counter theoretically similar things. But I am left feeling that there is a certain 'messiness' with Scream's kit, that seems underwhelming to me.
Thoughts?
Medusa is just instant mindless damage after 1 SP1, and I can easily see the utility (poison immune, autoblock, true accuracy).
With Scream, I'm struggling here. After stacking my buffs, stacking debuffs on the opponent, and using my SP2, I can see that the damage is good, but its not amazing like everyone is claiming it to be. Is this a case of 7R1 compared to what a 7R2/7R3 Scream can do (for example, the greatness of Hulk-lock feels greater with a high ranked Hulk compared to low ranked Hulk), or is this more "user-error" (such as having to ensure 8 Madness everytime)?
And then in terms of Scream's concepts - I'm not sure I 'get' her buffs either. Vicious and Energize I get, but Bulwark only comes in handy a few times (for minimizing chip damage when autoblocking), and Impact seems pointless because your special is either unblockable or you have Undermine going cause you're not trying to hit into block.
I know Scream has some obvious utility in her Sig ability, and both Medusa and Scream can counter theoretically similar things. But I am left feeling that there is a certain 'messiness' with Scream's kit, that seems underwhelming to me.
Thoughts?
6
Comments
Can’t give you much of a comparison between her and Medusa as I haven’t ranked my Medusa yet nor put her through the paces. Wouldn’t say I’ve even fully put Scream through her paces, but she has won me a number of BGs matches.
What's the problem?
Medusa is definitely much simpler to utilise to her full potential. Personally I think Scream has a higher potential in the right hands, but is certainly trickier to use.
Being able to easily consume her Madness at any point by charging a heavy to create easy openings via her autoblock is incredibly valuable - even moreso when against champs with non-contact basic attacks (i.e., basic attacks that you can't trigger a parry stun against). One of my favourite mechanics at the moment!
Since the autoblock charge is ONLY consumed when parrying a contact attack, you can charge a heavy at the start of a fight with, say, Onslaught, and just stand there while it autoblocks all of his non-contact attacks AND even resists all of his heavy attacks until eventually he is parry stunned when his contact attack hits (or, of course, the autoblock charge naturally expires).
You can see examples of this here: https://youtu.be/Quui25i1frk?si=X0k5oA7UETLN1qc8 and here: https://youtu.be/qLcsjspPo0k?si=FjD9PtBL9vgp8Mqx and (for a particularly funny interaction) here: https://youtu.be/ZRMJQ7LZEFs?si=5k1ciaxwhzEUFWYS
Since each autoblock also inflicts a Bleed/Armour Break, you can essentially start her debuff ramp up without even needing to land a hit - of course until you run out of Madness charges.
Although she doesn't have immunities, her access to burst via Direct Damage (i.e., big red numbers) is in itself a great piece of utility.
Similarly, her access to Undermine (instead of a True effect) is fantastic against autoblock champs that will negative the effects of a True effect (i.e., Peni Parker). With the right rotation, you can even have a 100% uptime of Undermine without detracting much from her upper damage potential.
Once she's at high sig, she accesses additional utility. I think the tech-specific utility is particularly valuable at max sig, as it will prevent any tech defenders from starting a fight with any armour effects active (ability accuracy increasing abilities/nodes notwithstanding).
Different matchups will require you to use different rotations with Scream, and will require you to adjust your approach in real-time - which is why she's arguably a lot harder to master than Medusa. But I think that's precisely what makes her more versatile, and by consequence, more fulfilling (and subjectively "more fun") to play, in my opinion.
I won't go into all of the specifics here, but I think Allison Edits (https://youtube.com/@allisonedits?si=s1tsAMHOb4viWPDu) and Da Ppl Champ (https://youtube.com/@dapplchamp?si=CMgX9GQo5gTRfF41) have some really great videos on Scream at the moment that I'd recommend you checking out if you want to start delving a bit deeper into her different rotations and matchup possibilities!
For bg, only first two buffs are sufficient.
Do MM to add 1 vicious buff
One more MM to add another vicious buff
Do MLLL to change to power gain buff
Do MM to add 1 power gain buff
Do MM again to add one more power gain buff
Throw SP1. Do MLLLs and Race to SP2. You can repeat it again with no more MMs required.
For bigger health pools, There are 4 buffs to add, here just 2 needed.
You can also simply do sp1 and then sp2 with MLLLs if you don't understand the buffs.
She’s certainly a tech destroying machine however I find myself getting stressed out by her rotation involving the autoblocks, I have both at r2 and playing Medusa is just so much better.
Just do MM enders to gain buffs. Light enders to switch buffs. 2 vicious and 1 or 2 power gain buff are enough, then simply do sp1 and sp2 cycles with Light enders. This i have been doing well in bg. You can even skip the buff part especially if opponent is bleed immune and simply do sp1 and sp2 with light enders.
It’s really risk and reward play with that rotation.
The autoblock non contact attack strategy wasn’t something I had thought about. Maw might not be the best matchup… but on the other hand, Scream just might work
At start of the fight during the run, hold heavy for auto block, then MLLLL followed by another heavy charge for autoblock, MLLLM then sp1, dodge opponent's sp1 then hold heavy again, spam MLLLL till sp2 for BG fights, at this point you should have 10-18 bleed+armour breaks on opponent and after sp2 it should be 15+ with 8 madness for maximum damage output.
For longer fights build buffs during ramp but try to throw sp2 with atleast 4 madness.