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Karnak Or Elektra
HomerJBond
Posts: 118 ★
What’s your first instinctual answer to the question of who is a better pull: Elektra or Karnak?
Most say Elektra, but they are wrong.
I’m not making the argument that either one is the best in the Skill class. However, I see more people using Elektra over Karnak in the mid tiers, and my point is that if these two champs did the ol’ switcher-roo face-off where they swapped stats and abilities—then Elektra (with Karnak’s abilities) would still be used more frequently. That is, Elektra is more popular now primarily because of her looks despite Karnak having the edge as an attacker.
Let’s break it down based off the abilities that I see with both of mine as four stars at 4/40:
Ignoring Evade
The primary draw to use both of these champions as attackers is their ability to ignore evade (of course Iceman is better but that is a different discussion and not everyone has Iceman). Karnak’s sp1 has a 100% chance to ignore 100% of potential evades for 8.5 seconds (or 11.5 seconds with the Medusa synergy), and it activates even if you miss connecting for damage on the sp1. Elekra’s sp1 has an 75% chance to activate for 7 seconds if the defender can bleed (9.5 seconds with 5/5 deep wounds; or 70% chance to activate for 9 seconds vs bleed immune), and when it does activate there is still a 15% chance the defender can sneak in an evade. Anyone who has used Elektra has seen Spidey evade her sp1 completely, or they’ve seen the bleed not activate at all after hitting the sp1, or they’ve seen Spidey evade and counter attack while bleeding. Winner—Karnak with his 100% reliability.
Armor Break:
Karnak’s true strike from the sp1 ignores all armor. Elektra’s armor break only activates vs bleed immune opponents, and it ignores just a percentage of the armor rating. Winner—Karnak.
Critical Rating and Critical Damage:
Karnak’s “Focused” buff boosts his critical rating after 9 seconds of not getting hit or immediately after any sp1. But awakened Elektra has guaranteed critical hits when the opponent has below 25% health and she also gets increased critical damage during that time. Winner—barely Karnak (it’s a close call but I’d lean towards Karnak in a longer fight because his Focused buff could be up almost the whole fight when used by a skilled player)
Misc:
Elektra has strong bleed but only from her special attacks. The fact that it only activates vs special attacks means she is not very useful against safeguard, but she is very useful against Power Shield (the node where only specials do damage). Still not 100% reliable.
Karnak reduces class disadvantage by 2% every 5 seconds, which is certainly useful against their primary responsibility of taking down those evade defenders—Nightcrawler.
When awakened, Karnak reduces poison damage by 65% and can shrug off non-damaging debuts 40+% faster than normal. Nothing exciting there but worth mentioning.
Block proficiency (both 4* 4/40): Karnak 3,468. Elektra 2,807.
Karnak has higher PI.
Both are good champs, but Karnak seems to be the better champ. So why is Elektra more popular?
Most say Elektra, but they are wrong.
I’m not making the argument that either one is the best in the Skill class. However, I see more people using Elektra over Karnak in the mid tiers, and my point is that if these two champs did the ol’ switcher-roo face-off where they swapped stats and abilities—then Elektra (with Karnak’s abilities) would still be used more frequently. That is, Elektra is more popular now primarily because of her looks despite Karnak having the edge as an attacker.
Let’s break it down based off the abilities that I see with both of mine as four stars at 4/40:
Ignoring Evade
The primary draw to use both of these champions as attackers is their ability to ignore evade (of course Iceman is better but that is a different discussion and not everyone has Iceman). Karnak’s sp1 has a 100% chance to ignore 100% of potential evades for 8.5 seconds (or 11.5 seconds with the Medusa synergy), and it activates even if you miss connecting for damage on the sp1. Elekra’s sp1 has an 75% chance to activate for 7 seconds if the defender can bleed (9.5 seconds with 5/5 deep wounds; or 70% chance to activate for 9 seconds vs bleed immune), and when it does activate there is still a 15% chance the defender can sneak in an evade. Anyone who has used Elektra has seen Spidey evade her sp1 completely, or they’ve seen the bleed not activate at all after hitting the sp1, or they’ve seen Spidey evade and counter attack while bleeding. Winner—Karnak with his 100% reliability.
Armor Break:
Karnak’s true strike from the sp1 ignores all armor. Elektra’s armor break only activates vs bleed immune opponents, and it ignores just a percentage of the armor rating. Winner—Karnak.
Critical Rating and Critical Damage:
Karnak’s “Focused” buff boosts his critical rating after 9 seconds of not getting hit or immediately after any sp1. But awakened Elektra has guaranteed critical hits when the opponent has below 25% health and she also gets increased critical damage during that time. Winner—barely Karnak (it’s a close call but I’d lean towards Karnak in a longer fight because his Focused buff could be up almost the whole fight when used by a skilled player)
Misc:
Elektra has strong bleed but only from her special attacks. The fact that it only activates vs special attacks means she is not very useful against safeguard, but she is very useful against Power Shield (the node where only specials do damage). Still not 100% reliable.
Karnak reduces class disadvantage by 2% every 5 seconds, which is certainly useful against their primary responsibility of taking down those evade defenders—Nightcrawler.
When awakened, Karnak reduces poison damage by 65% and can shrug off non-damaging debuts 40+% faster than normal. Nothing exciting there but worth mentioning.
Block proficiency (both 4* 4/40): Karnak 3,468. Elektra 2,807.
Karnak has higher PI.
Both are good champs, but Karnak seems to be the better champ. So why is Elektra more popular?
6
Comments
Never bothered ranking my elektra tbh.
The second part and a big one you are missing is that elektra unlike karnak isn't just used to stop evade, her ability allows her to bypass all defensive abilities. This makes her a very good option for any champion with tricky defensive abilities like elektro, modok, magik, etc. Her 75% on her sp1 still makes her very reliable since its 2x 75% and her defensive ability reduction can still activate on parries.
Yes, karnak can be a better option in certain circumstances like debuff immune evade champions but in almost every other scenario elektra is better and by a quite a large margin. She has better damage, better utility, and more diverse uses.
Winner : Elektra
thats abit inaccurate dun u think?? didnt know blade looks like tom cruise, ghost rider definitely dont look like brad pitt neither.
i use elektra alot cause her damage is good (p.s. there's alot of "hotter" champions in the game)
Good points! Karnak’s sp3 also bypasses those but takes longer to get there. Elektra is better vs Electro and the rare thorns. Scale tipped a little bit back towards Elektra’s favor but I still prefer Karnak 100% reliablity vs the evade defenders
Haha I thought that would strike a cord. Maybe I’m just bitter because Modok is now my main avatar and I’m tired of looking at his ugly mug.
I do think Karnak’s damage is underestimated in the longer fights no one crits more than him and with ignoring the armor it all adds up. He’s not in the highest tier but underestimated with damage
I created this post after reflecting on giving advice to a newbie about who to take to 4/40 for their first skill champ. Those were the two options. Better to rank up one skill champ to 4/40 than none.
I like Crossbones the most of the 3, but he is definitely not the most reliable. You have to be lucky and get a few furys before he is usable.
Hard to believe Elektra’s does way more damage like some of you say. She probably does a little more but not a lot. I still like Karnak’s evade shut down better because you don’t need to worry about it being evaded.
Do you really still think a 4/55 5* does 800 per a hit?
Where as Elektra inflicts that 85% ( I believe not sure exact number) ability reduction. Which means against electro, thorns, magiks limbo and evade champs she is useful.
Which means overall she has way more uses.
As well she how is she bad against safeguard? She crits and can bleed enemies which both bypass safegaurd
If you are doing RTTL vs safeguard, you want an attacker that does bleed/residual damage from basic attacks. Elektra can be used there for her specials but there are dozens of better champs vs safeguard.
Every champ crits, but none of their crits bypass safeguard, not even Elektra
And yea there are plenty of better champs then Electra for safegaurd between Karnak and Electra she is the better option.
Ok his sp3 which by the time he gets to it that's at least 3 limbos and a ton of thorns/static shock damage taken.
Electra can span her l1 which the throwing stars mean 0 thorns/static shock damage and only a bout 1 limbo
If you have a debuff on the opponent she will bypass safeguard. She can also not tigger arch overload or ultron regen.
That is cool that BW can do that over safeguard. I don’t have her duped.
My opinion is that the point about Elektra bypassing thorns is barely worth mentioning because thorns isn’t in AW. And Electro is kind of a joke as a defender. The better block profiency of Karnak makes up for that and more on a long path.
Bypassing limbo is very useful so that is definitely noteworthy for Elektra. Karnak does get the same reduction for 40 seconds from his sp3–that is a long time. So on a boss fight after the first sp3 that reduction will stay on without worry or hurry, whereas Elektra’s can run out while baiting or just not activating (bleed not guaranteed).
I think a lot of people assume Elektra is better, not becasue of her looks (I was always joking about that and I still find it funny) but really because Seatin’s list said she was better and that Karnak wasn’t very good so they just never gave Karnak a try. Seatin is sharp but not always right. Karnak takes time to learn to use well. He’s probably in that top 6-10 in the skill class right where Elektra is.
There was footage somewhere on YT