Hulkling relevance

We all know Hulkling is a monster, but how many meta relevant defenders can his 7 star version take on and best his counterparts in these match ups?

Comments

ahmynuts

Yes

XxLoOhNuTiCkxX

Little off topic, but Arnim Zola would be a problem with him right? Hitting block and all.

ItsClobberinTime

Well, first off the ones that he worked for before, he obviously still cooks so: Nick, Sinister, Onslaught, Havok, FAM, Red Skull, Kindred, Photon, Nimrod, Scorpion, KP.

After he got phased out we did get some defenders he can't take but as a 7* with the right stat focus and the right statcast he should handle: Lumatrix, Gentle, Jean, Cassandra, Solvarch, Yondu, High Evo and Spider Woman even though some of these matchups won't be the quickest; Bullseye and Yelena probably doable too just a bit of chip damage.

So, I don't think his value on attack will drop all that much honestly even in today's meta. What will drop massively is his value on defense basically every mystic relevant attacker we have right now + Abs who's in the realm event will mandhandle him with no issues.

I'd say he's going to be the most meta relevant one in the box tho followed closely by Scorpion and then Valk. Jane, X-23, Nimrod all tied

Herbal_Taxman

He will be a relevant attacker but not as big a deal as the hype would suggest. The reality is, none of the champs from 3 or 4 years ago are as impactful as they were. NF and FAM are good examples. Still very good champs, but I wouldn’t say they’ve made an outsized difference since HoF.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905121#Comment_2905121

FAM definitely has for me even up here in Mysterium, he's not an instadraft like he used to be in 2023 but when they're not ready for it it's a guaranteed win on defense and still very reliable on attack

MrSakuragi

FAM still gets banned from my deck a good amount of the time

WednesdayLength

He's meta not only because of his offensive prowess but also his insane defender value. If someone drafts him you have to work out whether they're bringing him for offense or whether you need to bring a counter to him

Usagicassidy

Hulking is perhaps my only 6* I still use in Questing and Everest content and AW and AQ and BG attack and BG defender.

I don't really care how many of the 'meta' defenders he can take, he's more versatile and universal than a lot of them anyways.

Hulk808

Hell yes.

GroundedWisdom

I'm still using the 6* Ascended. So....a number.

Ercarret

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of Mystic champs from the last year or so have power steal as a very important part of their kit - Pavitr, Spiral, Shathra - and Hulkling is immune to that. It won't make any of them into potatoes against him, but none of them will be able to utilize their full power against him either. Nico will probably still smoke him (I haven't tested it out, but I would imagine so anyway), but I'm not sure if there are a lot of Mystic attackers that have been tuned towards him in recent years. Which makes sense, since he hasn't been available as a top-tier defender anywhere competitively. However, I think that might make him quite viable as a defender again. It's not like with Nick Fury where Kabam spent a good part of the "He's not available as a 7*" period seeding the game with a whole slew of new counters to him.

But at the same time, they haven't exactly released a bunch of Tech defenders where I've thought, "Oh, I wish I had Hulkling here" either. He'll still be a very good champ, like he always was, but he isn't the most dominant key to as many fights as he was when he was first released.

So to sum it up, I think he might land in a pretty healthy spot.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905144#Comment_2905144

Those you mentioned won’t be as good but he is going to go get smoked by Chavez, Werewolf, Abs, Juggs + obviously Nico newest addition, Karolina should also be light work. Chavez and Juggs haven’t exactly been that meta relevant in a while but there’s still plenty of options for Hulkling, just as many as there are for Nick.

I do agree with the attack part tho, likely won’t even be a top 5 cosmic but will land in the top 10 for sure.

Herbal_Taxman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905126#Comment_2905126

insane defender value… let’s calm down, bro.

TotemCorruption

Other than power burn or invade or hazard shift metas, he's not displacing any of these cosmics in your BG deck if you have them: Serpent, DThanos, Dark Phoenix, Galan, Cull.

He's in the tier below them with the likes of Knull, Medusa, Maestro, etc.

This is for upper tier BGs (quantum and up). In the lower tiers he'll be more valuable since he's easy to use, has great damage, and you're not facing the same meta defenders every match.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905158#Comment_2905158

I would 100% throw him in my deck over Galan personally, he has far more reach and the nuke potential for some of them is actually still there. Also, yes I’m currently sitting in Mysterium 1, and I doubt a lot of people would agree with Galan > Hulkling in today’s meta there’s way more stuff he can do in general.

Take all of these defenders and dual threats: Nick, Sinister, Onslaught, Havok, FAM, Red Skull, Kindred, Photon, Nimrod, Scorpion, KP, Lumatrix, Gentle, Jean, Cassandra, Solvarch, Yondu, Peni, High Evo, Spider Woman. Other than Nimrod Peni and Solvarch there isn’t a single one Galan can do better or faster unless it’s a power burn or armor meta, and then there’s also the fact that Hulkling will easily handle Bullseye and Yelena with way less chip damage than Galan ever could. It’s not even close if you ask me really, Galan is extremely meta reliant these days which is why mine’s still sitting at r3 even though he’s already sig 60.

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905165#Comment_2905165

Chip damage against Yelena? Huh?

Anyway, use who you want to use. Hulkling is a good champ and I am sure you will get enough guardian box keys to get all the champs in there at least once.

Pryor

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905168#Comment_2905168

He is talking about the bleed damage through the block.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905168#Comment_2905168

Block damage while you force her to throw sp2 yes. Anyone can do Yelena with this trick:

https://youtu.be/4zrCgg8KZKE?si=z6APyQl_eaV2sjhu

With Hulkling, you trigger her elimination mode go for sp2 make sure you saved the relic and she's probably dead. Galan can do it too but again, Hulkling way faster everywhere unless there's armor or power burn drain etc.

Not sure if that was a dig at me for turning into a bit of a whale recently or not but thanks, I will lol

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905180#Comment_2905180

Yelena doesn't reduce Galan's harvest damage in observation mode. You can kill her before she gets to her second phase easily.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905184#Comment_2905184

That requires like three sp1s because you need max harvest or close to max for it to kill since your basic attacks will be tickling the whole fight. Hulkling will probably still be faster, just gotta bait one sp1 one sp2 and she's dead pretty much. Also, Galan ramps up with MLM so that will probably result in more block damage than Hulkling.

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905185#Comment_2905185

No, you don't go for three SP1s against Yelena with Galan.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905186#Comment_2905186

That's been my experience with mine so far which is why he's no longer in my deck, if you can show me a Galan fight against a same rank Yelena in under a minute in a meta where the harvest doesn't shoot through the roof I'll believe it. Two sp1s hasn't usually killed Yelena for me unless I was punching down, and neither has a single sp2 cause the incinerates expire very fast.

Even if he could take her down in two sp1s, the fact is Hulkling covers more ground better than Galan does in general. Have you tried taking Onslaught and Photon with Galan in a regular meta? Not only is it extremely hard but very frustrating when AI doesn't play ball, Hulkling nukes both in 45 secs and they're arguably the most common r4 defenders these days along with Serpent who can't be done by either of them.

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905188#Comment_2905188

Galan bypasses Captain Britain's safeguard. He avoids High Evo's combo detonation because he can avoid crossing a bar of power. He bypasses DThanos's protection. He bypasses Yelena's damage cap. He takes Photon and Onslaught pretty easily imo. And none of those are even his target matchups.

We'll see how 7R4 Hulkling does, but how many buff champs who do big crit damage does anyone need in their deck? Is he more useful or faster than Cull? I don't think so.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2905192#Comment_2905192

Britain: valid point but you have to choose either a full hp two minute fight because you have to stop every single time her exhaustion triggers, or you just sacrifice 75% of your health since duped Britain doesn't care about energy resistance. Either way I wouldn't call that great, I did Serpent with MODOK on this last meta and I took him down but I still lost lol it doesn't really mean too much unless he can put up a high score especially in Mysterium.

High Evo: there's nothing really stopping Hulkling from nuking him in 40 secs one sp2 relic into combo and he's dead, there is no way Galan beats him in speed on that one. Also, if you time the unlockable sp2 properly with the second round of autoblock it gets disabled immediately cause all the remaining sp2 hits will count towards the shield or whatever it's called so after the special there is no autoblock and he dies before power detonation even triggers.

Thanos: I will give you that one because I have lost to someone using Galan against Thanos myself and they did it very fast all things considered.

Yelena: again, I know he can do it but question is will he do it better than Hulkling? I don't think so but we'll find out soon enough.

Photon and Onslaught: debatable because you can't parry at all so you have to LM intercept all the way up to two bars (cause you have to go sp1 sp1 there is no way he kills with just one bar and one special the whole fight unless there's a lot of armor or power burn drain etc) and we know how trash and inconsistent Photon's and Onslaught's AIs are. Hulkling is just hit on block until you go unblockable then keep hitting and once you're at two bars they just die, not hard at all and he builds up power very fast this way as well, you just brute force both fights with full hp basically.

For me personally, depends more on how many matchups he can take and how fast. The matchups Hulkling can take will be for the most part 40-45 sec fights and he won't rely on any metas to do so. 40-45 secs by today's standards is considered a nuke, so while he may not be at Cull level he's definitely worth a spot in my deck. But again, to each their own I suppose, just hard disagree on the whole Galan > Hulkling argument even back in 2023. Now? Even more because Hulkling is going to get an even bigger damage boost with stat focus and statcast, Galan hardly benefits from them the only relic than can increase his damage is whichever one triggers that vigor passive can't remember which one it is.

ItsClobberinTime

Also, to anyone saying he's bad for Zola, not really, you just have to play him in a different way. You can't go for four pierce buffs at once you have to go for two at first, do the sp1 heavy punish and then go for the other three once you're ready to throw sp2; but you have to do sp1 heavy punish throughout the whole fight because you want him at 0 charges when you throw sp2 that's the most important thing.

Yes I know it's just a practice match but it's a 6* Hulkling vs a r4 Zola and he died before I could even throw relic, plenty of overkill. In a same rank match in BGs he's pretty much dead after that sp2 especially if you give Hulkling crit rating and a statcast with armor penetration.