**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Kingpin - The AgentVenom-Crossbone Hybrid
Tropical_Chris
Posts: 137 ★
Short Story: Kingpin is a really good utility champion that can shrug off debuffs and consistently apply ability reduction - like a mix of Agent Venom and Crossbones.
Longer Story:
Many people are underwhelmed by Kingpin's damage output. And just like any other champ that dont hit hard, Kingpin doesnt get any love. But the crime boss is actually a pretty good champ by simplifying a fight to a straight up brawl. If there's a pesky ability or debuff you need to work around against - you can use kingpin for that.
Or if you're thinking:
1. "This fight would be better if my crossbone can convert debuffs to furies more often" or
2. "This fight would be better if my agent venom can hit harder" or
3. "This fight would be better if agent venom can also turn off ability accuracy"
Then consider Kingpin
Recent Uses in the Game:
To give an idea of what Kingpin can do, here are some recent uses I had for my Kingpin. If you're interested about Kingpin after reading this, proceeding reading the rest of my post. If not, you can skip them all
* Uncollected Void - Kingpin's black ISO reduces ability accuracy which means Void sometimes fails at applying debuff. And for those debuffs that get through, there's a 50-50 chance that it'll be converted to Rage (with hood/joe fixit synergy, you get +15% more)
* Uncollected Killmonger - Sure Kingpin doesn't have armor break. But Kingpin can reduce ability accuracy and can keep it on throughout the fight far easier than Crossbones or Elektra. And 45% ability reduction is more than enough to turn off thorns damage.
* Underdog Boss Rush Challenge - Magneto - Again, with Kingpin's ability reduction, torns damage can be turned off for the whole fight.
* Community Boss Rush Challenge Dave's Iceman - The initial coldsnap turns into rage, and you can go around safeguard with his black ISO from his SP1. The black ISO both allows you to hit pass 1% sometimes and apply a damage over time that iceman is not immune to
Kingpin's mechanics:
Rage
Rage gives Kingpin about +15% to his attack per rage charge. It's not as much as Crossbone's fury which gives about +50% attack per fury, but Kingpin's rage does not have a timer and cannot be nullified. Also, Rage increases your power gain by +5%. If your Kingpin is duped, you start with 2 rage charge immediately and that's already like having a Daredevil + Elektra synergy (+10% power gain) - that means with 2 rage charges, you can get to your SP1 after 2 5-hit combos.
You can gain rage with one of the following ways (arranged in what I think to the most common to the least common):
1. 2 at the start of the fight (if your duped)
2. Convert Debuffs to Rage
3. After launching an SP3
4. While getting hit while you're unstoppable after an SP2
5. After Overpower (if your duped)
6. After an auto-evade
Main Way to Use Kingpin:
If you need his ability reduction ability, then keep spamming his SP1. If your kingpin is duped, you can reach SP1 after two 5-hit combos which is not much If you dont need his ability reduction, then you can go for his SP2. Damage-wise, I find it roughly the same (though I havent thoroughly tested it) but SP2 can you give additional rage charges. And if you think the fight will be long, try to get to 6 or 7 rage charges. Easiest way against any champ is to launch his SP3. Dont go Overpower though or else you'll loose all your rage charges.
Main Weapons:
Debuff Shrug
One of the main weapon of Kingpin IMHO. The effectiveness of his shrug (50%) is second only to Agent Venom (70%). So if you'd like to play AV but want higher damage or more utility, then Kingpin's your man!
Kingpin can convert debuffs to rage for 50% of the time. It's less than AV's 70%, but it's higher than Crossbones Debuff-to-Fury which is 20% . And with Hood/JoeFixit, you can increase this by another 15%. Now to be honest though, I dont really know what that +15% mean. Does it mean 50% * 1.15 (i.e 57.5%) or does it mean 50% + 15% (65%)? I dont know. But from my experience, it's closer to 65% since I find it almost as good as AV's debuff shrug.
Ability Reduction
Kingpin's secondary weapon. The black ISO coming from his SP1 not only gives out damage over time that even Iceman, Ultron, or Dormammu are not immune to, but it also reduces the ability reduction by 45%. But what does 45% mean? It means
1. Turn off thorns,
2. Turn off void's debuff sometimes.
3. Turn off magik's limbo on power bar most of the time
It's like a mix of Blackwidow (except that it's not affected by class advantage/disadvantage) and Elektra (it's not 85% like Elektra, but you need to keep applying it by doing SP3. But it's easier to apply because it lasts for 12 seconds compared to elektra's 7 seconds).
Now the main take away here have already been discussed above. But here are a few more of what Kingpin can do that you can have fun with
Notes
* Theoretically, Kingpin should be great against Dormmamu given Kingpin's ability to convert debuff (degen) into Rage. But i've never seen Kingpin convert Dormammu's degen into rage.
Longer Story:
Many people are underwhelmed by Kingpin's damage output. And just like any other champ that dont hit hard, Kingpin doesnt get any love. But the crime boss is actually a pretty good champ by simplifying a fight to a straight up brawl. If there's a pesky ability or debuff you need to work around against - you can use kingpin for that.
Or if you're thinking:
1. "This fight would be better if my crossbone can convert debuffs to furies more often" or
2. "This fight would be better if my agent venom can hit harder" or
3. "This fight would be better if agent venom can also turn off ability accuracy"
Then consider Kingpin
Recent Uses in the Game:
To give an idea of what Kingpin can do, here are some recent uses I had for my Kingpin. If you're interested about Kingpin after reading this, proceeding reading the rest of my post. If not, you can skip them all
* Uncollected Void - Kingpin's black ISO reduces ability accuracy which means Void sometimes fails at applying debuff. And for those debuffs that get through, there's a 50-50 chance that it'll be converted to Rage (with hood/joe fixit synergy, you get +15% more)
* Uncollected Killmonger - Sure Kingpin doesn't have armor break. But Kingpin can reduce ability accuracy and can keep it on throughout the fight far easier than Crossbones or Elektra. And 45% ability reduction is more than enough to turn off thorns damage.
* Underdog Boss Rush Challenge - Magneto - Again, with Kingpin's ability reduction, torns damage can be turned off for the whole fight.
* Community Boss Rush Challenge Dave's Iceman - The initial coldsnap turns into rage, and you can go around safeguard with his black ISO from his SP1. The black ISO both allows you to hit pass 1% sometimes and apply a damage over time that iceman is not immune to
Kingpin's mechanics:
Rage
Rage gives Kingpin about +15% to his attack per rage charge. It's not as much as Crossbone's fury which gives about +50% attack per fury, but Kingpin's rage does not have a timer and cannot be nullified. Also, Rage increases your power gain by +5%. If your Kingpin is duped, you start with 2 rage charge immediately and that's already like having a Daredevil + Elektra synergy (+10% power gain) - that means with 2 rage charges, you can get to your SP1 after 2 5-hit combos.
You can gain rage with one of the following ways (arranged in what I think to the most common to the least common):
1. 2 at the start of the fight (if your duped)
2. Convert Debuffs to Rage
3. After launching an SP3
4. While getting hit while you're unstoppable after an SP2
5. After Overpower (if your duped)
6. After an auto-evade
Main Way to Use Kingpin:
If you need his ability reduction ability, then keep spamming his SP1. If your kingpin is duped, you can reach SP1 after two 5-hit combos which is not much
If you dont need his ability reduction, then you can go for his SP2. Damage-wise, I find it roughly the same (though I havent thoroughly tested it) but SP2 can you give additional rage charges. And if you think the fight will be long, try to get to 6 or 7 rage charges. Easiest way against any champ is to launch his SP3. Dont go Overpower though or else you'll loose all your rage charges.Main Weapons:
Debuff Shrug
One of the main weapon of Kingpin IMHO. The effectiveness of his shrug (50%) is second only to Agent Venom (70%). So if you'd like to play AV but want higher damage or more utility, then Kingpin's your man!
Kingpin can convert debuffs to rage for 50% of the time. It's less than AV's 70%, but it's higher than Crossbones Debuff-to-Fury which is 20% . And with Hood/JoeFixit, you can increase this by another 15%. Now to be honest though, I dont really know what that +15% mean. Does it mean 50% * 1.15 (i.e 57.5%) or does it mean 50% + 15% (65%)? I dont know. But from my experience, it's closer to 65% since I find it almost as good as AV's debuff shrug.
Ability Reduction
Kingpin's secondary weapon. The black ISO coming from his SP1 not only gives out damage over time that even Iceman, Ultron, or Dormammu are not immune to, but it also reduces the ability reduction by 45%. But what does 45% mean? It means
1. Turn off thorns,
2. Turn off void's debuff sometimes.
3. Turn off magik's limbo on power bar most of the time
It's like a mix of Blackwidow (except that it's not affected by class advantage/disadvantage) and Elektra (it's not 85% like Elektra, but you need to keep applying it by doing SP3. But it's easier to apply because it lasts for 12 seconds compared to elektra's 7 seconds).
Now the main take away here have already been discussed above. But here are a few more of what Kingpin can do that you can have fun with
Kingpin's Other Utilities:
Unstoppable after SP2
After an SP2, Kingpin becomes unstoppable for 6.5 seconds. Or if you're fighting him in AW, it feels like he's unstoppable for forever That's because Juggernaut himself can only go unstoppable for about 4 seconds (though juggy can do it for every special). So Kingpin's 6.5s unstoppable feels really really long
Unstoppable Heavy
Kingpin's heavy attack also makes him unstoppable. This is useful in two ways (three if you can figure out the third which I still havent )
1. Against an opponent that turtles up and is in the corner, you can safely do a heavy attack. There's a small chance that the opponent will evade and counter. How small? - well how often have you ever fought AI that evades? ..it happens, but not often.
2. Unstoppable also grants higher Physical Resistance for that duration. Which means, you can catch a debuff with his heavy attack in hopes of converting it into a rage. But what do I mean by catch a debuff? - let's say you're fighting somebody that applies armor break, or weakness, or any other non-DOT debuff. You can catch that attack with Kingpin's heavy and damage is a little more than blocking damage. And then you have a chance to convert it to rage. Do I do it often? - not so much. Is it fun to do? - hell yeah!
3. If you can manage to hit 3 heavy attacks within 2.5secs of each other, he gets a fury that's like +75% of his attack.
Rage after Evade
Kingpin also gains rage if the opponent autoevade. This means higher damage and faster power gain. I dont have much to say here but it is quite useful against spidermans. Against spidermans, you can do Medium + Light + Light + Light (end). If done properly, you'd be able to stop midway when they evade before you get countered. Dont try this though against Nightcrawler because his evade is so fast that he can intercept a light ..Also useful against Starky or DD. If you do an SP2 and they auto-evade, you'll gain quite a few Rage charge
Unstoppable after SP2
After an SP2, Kingpin becomes unstoppable for 6.5 seconds. Or if you're fighting him in AW, it feels like he's unstoppable for forever
That's because Juggernaut himself can only go unstoppable for about 4 seconds (though juggy can do it for every special). So Kingpin's 6.5s unstoppable feels really really long Unstoppable Heavy
Kingpin's heavy attack also makes him unstoppable. This is useful in two ways (three if you can figure out the third which I still havent
)1. Against an opponent that turtles up and is in the corner, you can safely do a heavy attack. There's a small chance that the opponent will evade and counter. How small? - well how often have you ever fought AI that evades?
..it happens, but not often.2. Unstoppable also grants higher Physical Resistance for that duration. Which means, you can catch a debuff with his heavy attack in hopes of converting it into a rage. But what do I mean by catch a debuff? - let's say you're fighting somebody that applies armor break, or weakness, or any other non-DOT debuff. You can catch that attack with Kingpin's heavy and damage is a little more than blocking damage. And then you have a chance to convert it to rage. Do I do it often? - not so much. Is it fun to do? - hell yeah!
3. If you can manage to hit 3 heavy attacks within 2.5secs of each other, he gets a fury that's like +75% of his attack.
Rage after Evade
Kingpin also gains rage if the opponent autoevade. This means higher damage and faster power gain. I dont have much to say here but it is quite useful against spidermans. Against spidermans, you can do Medium + Light + Light + Light (end). If done properly, you'd be able to stop midway when they evade before you get countered. Dont try this though against Nightcrawler because his evade is so fast that he can intercept a light
..Also useful against Starky or DD. If you do an SP2 and they auto-evade, you'll gain quite a few Rage charge Notes
* Theoretically, Kingpin should be great against Dormmamu given Kingpin's ability to convert debuff (degen) into Rage. But i've never seen Kingpin convert Dormammu's degen into rage.
9
Comments
Thanks. I actually, I find Kingpin's ability reduction more reliable than Elektra and Crossbones. With an awakened Kingpin, you can only need two 5-hit combo to reach 1 bar of power, then you can reapply 50% ability reduction before your current black ISO expires. It's far easier to apply than that of Elektra's or Crossbones.
Elektra and Crossbone though can have higher ability reduction but not all the time.
I also got Kingpin with my 1$ crystal. Then I trying to study how to use him. One thing to note though - dont even try to ramp up his damage not unless you think you can launch 2 SP3s and your opponent will still have 80% of his life
Another way to increase your rage (when not fighting auto-evaders) is by hitting your opponent with his SP2 when your opponent has little power. Once you become unblockable, you can attack and opt to get hit and gather some rage charges (this is why your opponent needs to have little power when you do this so that you only get hit by normal attacks). If I have a 6* kingpin, I'll probably do this technique more often because i can regain HP via adrenaline.
I rarely use his heavy attack except when the opponent is blocking (i.e. you go for a dash, opponent blocks, you do M-L-L-L-H, ...that hits most of the time).
But yeah, it's just expectation setting. He wont be a hard hitter. But he can simplify the fight by reducing ability accuracy and shrugging debuffs