**** Karnak (The Shatterer) ****

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Comments

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,125 Chairperson of the Boards
    Thanos said:
    A taste of him in action. I'm open to any team suggestions.


    The blog post suggests he'd be good with 1* Hawkeye and 1* spider-man...
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,125 Chairperson of the Boards
    Unironically, I imagine he'll play well with Modok, who can add loads of red spam to the board. Maybe 4* professor X, what would the strongest color be on that team? Is that at all useful?
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    Anon said:
    Thanos said:
    A taste of him in action. I'm open to any team suggestions.


    Yikes

    I mean sure.  He looks well designed, and will have especially high value to 4*/5* transition players (like Ghost or now Juggs) thanks to his high match damage.  But playing someone with 5X and bishop (especially someone with a good blue power that does boardshake) and claiming that the third wheel is beastly  is kinda missing the point. . . I bet quake would also be pretty damn good with 5X and bishop fueling her. . .
  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 2,518 Chairperson of the Boards
    Damn, dude. Those crits are a definite problem.
  • MrPlow
    MrPlow Posts: 237 Tile Toppler
    Karnak's passive black is awesome bait for a well covered purple Kitty.
  • LavaManLee
    LavaManLee Posts: 1,246 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited February 2020
    MrPlow said:
    Karnak's passive black is awesome bait for a well covered purple Kitty.
    Yep!  Found that out in the PVP.  I think we see a lot of Gritty in this PVP as people catch on to it.

    Either that or you could counter with BRB/Kitty so that Karnak's first placement isn't the only special tile out there.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,125 Chairperson of the Boards
    Perhaps of note: Karnak's red, even being a power that does targeted tile destruction, receives the benefit of Wakanda Forever!

    Presumably this is due to order of operations having the power do fixed damage first, but other characters who have powers written this way like Grey Suit Black Widow do not get to take advantage of it.
  • MoosePrime
    MoosePrime Posts: 946 Critical Contributor
    edited February 2020
    MrPlow said:
    Karnak's passive black is awesome bait for a well covered purple Kitty.
    I've been using the loaner, and trying to make him take the Circuit Breaker hit, to save my character's health.
    I had a non-black Karnak I was using (used shards to roster him with only a red cover), but somehow he now has a black cover, so I can't use him in that way anymore.
  • PuceMoose
    PuceMoose Posts: 1,445 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited February 2020
    Even with just the 1/1/1 loaner, he's a pretty fun character. I usually only play to about 600 or so in PvP, but I was surprised to see that I climbed up to 816, just enjoying slinging Karnak's powers around. Even though an enemy Kitty will slurp him down for lunch with that one "regenerating" protect tile, he also works well with Kitty, as even one buff-pass on his protect will probably knock match damage down to nearly nothing. Also, I liked the way his red could be used to safeguard friendly strike tiles, by getting rid of dangerous matches. 
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yeah, I really had fun with his release PvP, up there with Chavez. Of course, some of that was just not having to deal with the 6 figure health pools from SCL10 PvE, but he is genuinely fun, brings something to the party for even a 5* team, and that 4.5x Crit multiplier with his buffed match damage is, for lack of a better term, Inhuman.
  • iron-n-wine
    iron-n-wine Posts: 495 Mover and Shaker

    Same, I have a black cover that I can’t account for.

  • spidyjedi84
    spidyjedi84 Posts: 514 Critical Contributor

    Nabbed a total of eight covers for him in his release events. He slaps pretty good.

  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited February 2020

    I am 50 shards shy of 9 covers for him myself (without being in a top 100 alliance). Cl 10 seems likely to make shield training a fair bit more manageable for mid-to-high-end rosters.

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 2,904 Chairperson of the Boards

    7 covers for me after moving up to CL8 from CL7 (I'm also not in a T100 alliance) with 100 shards left over.

    If he's run once more in PvE and then as the 2K prize in Shield Sim I'll have 9 organic covers and will easily be able to shard a 10th since I have 100 of the 400 required.

    KGB

  • Ythik
    Ythik Posts: 15 Just Dropped In

    @IceIX Karnak's black seems to be boosting base damage (meaning it changes who tanks what color) rather than just damage (when he's already tanking that color) as the power write-up suggests. Can you let us know if this is intentional (and possibly fix the power write-up if so) or whether we should expect it to be fixed as a bug in the future?

  • spidyjedi84
    spidyjedi84 Posts: 514 Critical Contributor

    Even being in PVE SCL-8 without a top 100 alliance puts me within two covers of Karnak being ready for S.H.I.E.L.D. Training in the future. I played SCL10 in PVP because why wouldn't I play for the better rewards, even if other rosters pummeled me on defense? With the wins only, I could still get to the rewards I wanted, it just meant more fights and occasional wipes to get to 75 wins overall. I had to scramble harder for the 10th cover of Northstar than I did any of the Karnak covers. Seriously, that climb for the last 200 points in Simulator was so aggravating.

  • RickOShay
    RickOShay Posts: 452 Mover and Shaker
    edited February 2020

    Have to agree, shards from all sources made Karnak the highest level I've ever gotten a character to during their Shield Training. And what an excellent character to achieve that with.

    So far, I'm trying to figure out how to spec his black vs red. Typically I'll settle on 5/3/5 if his match damage will be a factor in the team, or if the protect tile is important to be strong from the beginning.

    Otherwise, his red has so much damage potential it's tempting to go 3/5/5 sometimes. I definitely like how the Crit tile is actually spared from being destroyed from his Shatter ability when one is chosen. I had originally assumed that the crit itself would be lost along with the surrounding tiles.

    Doubt there's usually much reason to reduce his blue down from 5 to increase the other abilities. In most team considerations, you will certainly want all 3 crits (available at level 4-5). The damage difference from 4 to 5 isn't huge though, so maybe 4/5/4 makes sense as well when he's brought along to be your red-blue user.


    And by the way, anyone who has a 4*+ roster and wants to get into a motivated but chill T100 PvE alliance please message me here. (Or pend to Alliance: Medusas Gaze)


    {@KGB , @Vhailorx , @spidyjedi84}

  • RickOShay
    RickOShay Posts: 452 Mover and Shaker
    Karnak now in Tokens, and may be set as your Target Hero.
  • Tiger_Wong
    Tiger_Wong Posts: 1,014 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2023

    Karnak as an ascended 5* is unbelievably strong. After turn 4, his match damage escalates to ridiculous levels.


    As you can see, my Karnak is only at level 455 but that match damage can only be duplicated by maybe a champed Shang Chi after Combo Point 8+.

    And because he makes 2 crits on the same turn his match damage increases to 560%, the match is usually essentially over as the first enemy character dies immediately right then and there. He overpowers Colossus’ match damage defense passive easily.

    I team my Karnak with Killmonger and a tank or defensive character (usually ascended rogue or Wanda or Chasm). Their crit-making and crit-punishing team together to make a DEVASTATING duo after turn 4.

  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards

    Not at all surprising. Karnak was always an absurdly strong 4*. It's just that very few people noticed because (1) polaris also existed and (2) 5* s could just overwhelm him.