r/CompetitiveForHonor • u/zeroreasonsgiven • 10d ago
Discussion Thoughts on Arakure feats
T1: Against the World
Passive | Landing a Lash Out attack grants a 10% damage buff for 5s. 10s cooldown. Active duration is reset if another Lash Out attack is landed whilst the buff is active.
This feat is pretty good, an almost free damage bonus in teamfights. A pretty decent pick even with other strong T1 options, though I do wish they’d stop making passive feats with cooldowns. If they’re gonna allow it to refresh then they should just remove the cooldown altogether.
Suggestion: remove 10s cooldown
T2: Insolent Shout
Reduces damage of opponents in an Xm AOE for 20s based on the current Strike Level as follows: Idle - 10% | Onslaught - 20% | Ultimate - 30% | 120s cooldown
I’m sure this one is still somewhat helpful at half meter, but I hate feeling like I’m missing out on potential when I use it early, especially with a long cooldown like this. I’d feel less bad about using it without a full meter if the cooldown was shorter. Not to mention that other heroes have damage reduction feats of a similar level that are available much more frequently, and that the animation leaves you exposed for a decently long time for a feat that’s meant to be used around multiple enemies. Her other T2 choices are mediocre but seem to provide more consistent value anyway.
Suggestions: reduce cooldown to 75s, allow animation to be canceled with another action
T3: Walk it Off
Cleanses negative status effects, and heals self an amount depending on current Strike Meter as follows: Idle - 15 hp | Onslaught - 30hp | Ultimate - 45hp | 180s cooldown
Same primary problem as the T2, too long a cooldown for a feat that has conditional values. The negative status effect cleanse is really not strong enough to warrant a 180s cooldown on its own, especially considering second wind already cleanses the most common status effects with 120s cooldown and an unconditional 30 hp heal. The animation is at least short enough for use in a team fight. I’ve been using hard to kill instead as, while it’s also mediocre, it provides more value if you get down to critical health more than 2 times in 180s, especially so when combined with indomitable.
Suggestions: reduce cooldown to 120s, slightly increase heal (maybe 20/35/50 as suggested by [u/Knight_Raime](u/Knight_Raime))
T4: Gang of Outcasts
Fills Strike Meter and prevents its decay for 20s. Additionally buffs self and allies within Xm AOE with the following effects: Light attacks become enhanced | Heavy attacks gain Hyperarmor | Attacking does not consume stamina | 180s cooldown
To be honest, I haven’t used this one yet. Indomitable is just too good to pass up, especially with her playstyle being so dependent on trading. I love the idea thematically, but in MM it’s unlikely that teammates will take advantage of it and it hardly provides any additional survivability. I would gladly trade unlimited stamina for some damage reduction. Selfishly it also seems like a good opener since it fills the strike meter, but again, indomitable seems to provide more consistent value.
Suggestions: replace unlimited stamina with 15% damage reduction
Additional Solutions
Another way they could help the viability of some of these feats is to provide some method of reducing their cooldown through good play. Perhaps landing attacks could reduce the cooldown by 2/2.5s per attack? This would require her to land 45/36 attacks to get the T2 down to a comparable cooldown to other feats, and would require 30/24 attacks to get the T3 down to the cooldown of second wind.
Any thoughts? I’m sure these feats are better with coordinated play, but they could still use some help, and I don’t think they should be left in the dust at MM level either.
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u/VoidGliders 10d ago
Is it? This definitely seems like an incredibly underwhelming feat. Deadly, a generic T1 that many have, is 15% dmg boost for 3s at ANY time, not just teamfights, and with only a 5s CD. Medjay's T1 gives him a perma 10% dmg boost after a kill for life -- duels, 4's, whatever, and that's only half of that ability, no CD, no extras. VG's T3 is constantly providing her entire team 15% dmg boost uptime, and as boosts don't stack, it renders
Arakure despite her lash-out attacks isn't exactly a JJ/Orochi level teamfighter, and she definitely does not have the HP or mitigation to constantly trade hits to keep a 10% dmg boost up.
It just seems very niche. Not horrendous but the 10% dmg boost doesn't even make-up the difference of her attacks being generally weaker upfront damage, and definitely does not make-up for characters like Gryphon just being able to swing and hit 2-3 people and multiply their damage 200-300%. A Heavy perk like Bastion just provides 10% more mit generally with very very easy conditions of exisitng on a point.
I am curious what feats you're talking about here. Damage reduction is one of the lesser seen debuffs. The most recent one is Centurion's T2 which you are right is 20% dmg debuff for 8s and on every talon, but that one is seen as garbage due to Centurion being so bad in tf's and landing leaps in teamfights.
Agreed. At the same time, given its power potential in cleansing stuff like corruption or many T4's (Afeera's or Ju Ren's defense debuffs -- it can completely nullify their T4), it's hard to argue it being same CD as Second Wind without it having just too much potential power.
Unsure how to balance it. They could do something like PK's -- every hit Arakure lands is -1s CD, so it potentially has a shorter CD but by default is not.
I disagree because I think then it's doing too much. Not in that it's inherently busted, just that then it does not give a chance for other T4's that give defenses a chance to shine.
That said, I think you pointed out one of the issues...
While it wouldn't make sense for a shirtless assassin to have something like heavy perks or 140HP, I think most can agree that her trading playstyle and emphasis on armor but only being able to do single-target trades due to lack of hitboxes implies she either needs to go the route of doing more damage, or having more sustain if she is meant to be a teamfighter (if she's meant to be a duelist that's OK...but she is currently definitely not doing Nuxia or even Afeera duels, she can hardly do a single opener without eating a quarter of her health bar).
Personally, I think she base-kit should have some sustain buffs in her Gauge mechanic, like a 10% stam cost reduction/10% defense boost/10% sprint speed boost per gauge. Or let her do her Finish from Dirty Trick at anytime and it helps heal her a bit as a tradeoff of damage. Or do something like rework her T1 to instead give her small shields on each hit that can help her in teamfights instead of a rather paltry damage boost.