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Necrotronus is the inferior version of Hot Rod

I've recently been working on where to put Necrotronus on my personal tier list of warrior bots and this is what I have concluded. Necrotronus is essentially an inferior version of Hot Rod - let me explain.

If you think about it. Hot Rod could basically do what Necrotronus could do, but better in some ways in my opinion.

For one, Necrotronus' signiture provides him increased critical damage up to 80.3% (if the bot intel report is to be accurate) and titan charges up to 40 which in-turn increases his attack power. At the lower signiture levels, the increased critical damage isn't much significant. For Hot Rod's case. If you pair him up with Mirage, it gives him +30% critical damage on all attacks and that's without the need to have his signiture unlocked, unlike Necrotronus.

Speaking of signatures. Hot Rod has a guarantee to gain massive amounts of power per hit once his signiture is unlocked, with the added bonus of having a chance to evade range attacks. For Necrotronus on the other hand, you only have a chance to gain power on his special 1 attack.

Necrotronus' special 2 could do massive amounts of damage in tandem and has a chance to provide an increased critical rate buff. However Hot Rod could also do massive amounts of damage consistantly, as long as you have inflicted a deceleration debuff on the opponent which when hit with a melee attack, automatically provides you an increase critical rate buff per hit without the need for his specials 2 to provide him said buff unlike Necrotronus. The overall damage output of Hot Rod rivals that of Necrotronus' titan charges at max 40 charges or more even.

Hot Rod is not able to inflict damaging debuffs unlike Necrotronus, but his constant high critical damage output more than makes up for it. While Necrotronus' bleed is extremely weak compared to the likes of Bonecrusher or Scorponok. However once Overwhelming Power is active, every hit inflicts / refreshes his bleeds which could prove beneficial is certain scenarios.

Necrotronus has a 20% chance to prevent the opponent from evading per melee hit, however Hot Rod could completely cancel out any evade chance on the opponent with a deceleration debuff inflicted on them. Necrotronus himself does not have a chance to evade unlike Hot Rod.

The Deceleration debuff on Hot Rod once inflicted also reduces the opponent's power flow by 22 - 37.5% per stack. While perhaps not as strong as Necrotronus' power rate down ability which reduces the opponent's power gain by 50%. Hot Rod could stack a maximum of 2 deceleration debuffs in most scenarios on the opponent. Thus rival that of Necrotronus' power rate down ability.

Necrotronus' Overwhelming Power ability leaves him more vulnerable as the fight progresses. A decrease in his block proficiency and takes increased melee damage by up to 25%. Unless you're good at maintaining combos, this will not be a factor to you but it's still something to consider given no other bot in the game has this rather detrimental ability towards themselves. However Necrotronus has a chance to become unstoppable, potentially saving you from taking damage while the opponent launches their own special attacks.

Hot Rod has a chance to stun on critical heavy attacks while Necrotronus' heavy simply has an increased chance to be a critical hit per titan charge.

Lastly when Necrotronus drops below 10% health, he gains 2 bars of power and activates a burn aura effect around him. In most instances, you'll rarely trigger this ability of his as most of the time you'd rather want to avoid taking unnecessary damage whenever possible. But when it does trigger you could be guaranteed a win at times.

So there you have it. These are objectively my thoughts on Necrotronus. As Kabam puts it. Necrotronus is 'a more powerful version of Megatronus, being merged with a Necrotitan'. But in reality, and some of us already knows this. Megatronus is far superior in terms of overall utility and survivability.

My advice would be, if anyone is seeking to use their Titan Fragments on a 5* Necrotronus and does not have a 5* Megatronus themselves. You might want to reconsider. But to each of their own in this case. Purchase and use what you like, as long as you're happy. That's all that matters.

TL;DR - Hot Rod to Necrotronus : Whatever you do, I can do better.
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Comments

  • Primerprime5Primerprime5 Posts: 853
    edited May 2020
    A very well-researched guide, and most of your points are correct. However, what most people seem to be forgetting is that the sole purpose of Necrotronus' existence is quickly and easily finishing off a match. Hot Rod requires a little bit of practice and a lot of luck (see what I did there?) but Necrotronus can deal around the same amount of damage in a relatively shorter time. Granted, Hot Rod can deal with evasive opponents better, but he doesn't fare so well against tankier characters that require marathon fights. Hot Rod is also a fair bit squisher, and it's as easy to take lethal damage as it is to dish it out.

    Basically, Hot Rod is better in shorter matches against Scouts, Necro works better in longer fights like LoCs.
  • FirebotFirebot Posts: 525
    YESSSSSSS!!!!!
    I Never realized this, thank you so much for telling me!
    My hot rod is 4 star fully maxed and forged and has a signature level of 82.
    And he does pretty decent damage his attack being 1,170(is it good for a warrior bot?)
    But yes the lack of debuffs does annoy me.
    Here is the picture of my hot rod:
    6pqajsu3mngm.jpg
    (if anyone could post a necrotronus picture then....)
  • Gunz0Gunz0 Posts: 2,949
    Thanks for making Necrotronus a mediocre bot in times of Warrior material drought, Kabam. Now choosing who to buy with Titan Frags and who to upgrade with red mats will be much easier. :#
  • VectorSierraXÎXVectorSierraXÎX Posts: 84
    edited May 2020
    https://youtu.be/dcEpZWvC478
    https://youtu.be/_RMsH0pmWPY
    I would recommend reviewing a video of Synthwave's 5* Hot Rod, Rank 5 Max Forged as well as iNightSkies' 5* Necrotronus, Rank 5 going against Rulers of Kaon Sideswipe for comparison.
  • Gunz0Gunz0 Posts: 2,949
    A very well-researched guide, and most of your points are correct. However, what most people seem to be forgetting is that the sole purpose of Necrotronus' existence is quickly and easily finishing off a match. Hot Rod requires a little bit of practice and a lot of luck (see what I did there?) but Necrotronus can deal around the same amount of damage in a relatively shorter time. Granted, Hot Rod can deal with evasive opponents better, but he doesn't fare so well against tankier characters that require marathon fights. Hot Rod is also a fair bit squisher, and it's as easy to take lethal damage as it is to dish it out.

    Basically, Hot Rod is better in shorter matches against Scouts, Necro works better in longer fights like LoCs.

    So Necrotronus isn’t just an inferior version of Hot Rod, he’s also an inferior version of Bludgeon
  • KittenKitten Posts: 1,897
    Now that Necrotronus hype is over I can definetly say although Necrotronus is top tier, he definetly needs a buff if he wants to be at least on par with his former self
  • MutantdocMutantdoc Posts: 470
    At least he looks cool... in a hot way. But yeah I’m so glad I spent my Titan frags on the original Megatronus
  • Primerprime5Primerprime5 Posts: 853
    Gunz0 wrote: »
    A very well-researched guide, and most of your points are correct. However, what most people seem to be forgetting is that the sole purpose of Necrotronus' existence is quickly and easily finishing off a match. Hot Rod requires a little bit of practice and a lot of luck (see what I did there?) but Necrotronus can deal around the same amount of damage in a relatively shorter time. Granted, Hot Rod can deal with evasive opponents better, but he doesn't fare so well against tankier characters that require marathon fights. Hot Rod is also a fair bit squisher, and it's as easy to take lethal damage as it is to dish it out.

    Basically, Hot Rod is better in shorter matches against Scouts, Necro works better in longer fights like LoCs.

    So Necrotronus isn’t just an inferior version of Hot Rod, he’s also an inferior version of Bludgeon

    Explain yourself.
  • Darm0kDarm0k Posts: 2,485
    TL;DR - Hot Rod to Necrotronus : Whatever you do, I can do better.

    Necrotronus: I can bleed opponents.
  • Vinod_7991Vinod_7991 Posts: 61
    For Hot Rod to excel, he needs the appropriate synergies. Necrotronus can even destroy as a stand-alone bot. His synergy with Megatronus just makes things better. Like PrimerPrime stated, Hot Rod is a basic warrior that is useful in short fights. I can’t see many players completing LOC3 with Hot Rod in their team. Necrotronus, yes. The deep wounds Tronus inflicts cause massive damage over time. It’s almost as if the opponent is bleeding for the entirety of the game. I’ve seen bleeds in the range of 4K-6K on opponents with N.Tronus. Hot Rod is a super fun bot to play with, but lacks the basic structure of strength and grit required to win the big games. Necro still wins the battle. In the basic warrior overview tier, it’s debatable but IMO, it’s

    Scorponok > Necrotronus > Drift > Arcee > Bludgeon > Bonecrusher > Hot Rod > Hound.
  • KillMasterCKillMasterC Posts: 3,105
    edited May 2020
    Vinod_7991 wrote: »

    Scorponok > Necrotronus > Drift > Arcee > Bludgeon > Bonecrusher > Hot Rod > Hound.
    Exactly mine, except Warrior Shark in front of Hound.
  • VectorSierraXÎXVectorSierraXÎX Posts: 84
    edited May 2020
    Vinod_7991 wrote: »
    For Hot Rod to excel, he needs the appropriate synergies. Necrotronus can even destroy as a stand-alone bot. His synergy with Megatronus just makes things better. Like PrimerPrime stated, Hot Rod is a basic warrior that is useful in short fights. I can’t see many players completing LOC3 with Hot Rod in their team. Necrotronus, yes. The deep wounds Tronus inflicts cause massive damage over time. It’s almost as if the opponent is bleeding for the entirety of the game. I’ve seen bleeds in the range of 4K-6K on opponents with N.Tronus. Hot Rod is a super fun bot to play with, but lacks the basic structure of strength and grit required to win the big games. Necro still wins the battle. In the basic warrior overview tier, it’s debatable but IMO, it’s

    Scorponok > Necrotronus > Drift > Arcee > Bludgeon > Bonecrusher > Hot Rod > Hound.

    I for one, believe synergies could propel a bot to greatness as evident by the Optimus Prime + Ratchet + Jazz synergy or Swordmasters. Hot Rod is one of them and even without the Racing Rivals synergy provided by Mirage. Hot Rod could still dish out high volumes of special attack 2s almost every 8-10 seconds with his signiture ability if you're playing him aggressively. He could particularly neutralize any evade bot. Something of which Necrotronus seems to have a difficult time with still for a warrior bot, and even more difficult when faced in Legends of Cybertron. Thus leading to more damage is a shorter period of time as it shows in Synthwave's video of Hot Rod. Granted, it is under class advantage but I genuinely believe Hot Rod could still deal as much damage if he was against any other bot.
    https://youtu.be/ODvIxXLbCgI
    iNightSkies' video represents the dilemma perfectly. He has maxed Deep Wounds, Assassin, Star Seeker, and it took a considerable amounts of hits still to take down Prowl. If Hot Rod was in his place. I'm confident Hot Rod could finish the fight in less than 400 hits at most.

    The goal is to finish off your opponents quickly. We can all agree both Hot Rod and Necrotronus could fair well in short as well as long term fights. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

    My intention was to have an informed discussion alongside the community on whether or not spending Titan Fragments, an extremely scrace material on Necrotronus would be the wisest of ideas. But as mentioned, each to their own.
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    I believe Necrotronus is designed to be used in conjunction with deep wounds and a sword masters team due to his synergy with Bludgeon and Windblade.

    I also believe that if he excels with deep wounds, then he would be better off in something like master spotlight against opponents of similar HP up to maybe double his HP, so deep wounds can really take hold.

    I also think that NT and Hot Rod's power situation is very different - NT is good at surpressing power, Hot Rod good at gaining power. I'd prefer power supression rather than power gain, because I prefer utility.

    I think Hot Rod mainly shines in shutting down evasion and makes it safe to play VS evaders, especially on the power gain mods.

    That said, without factoring in synergy and masteries I think Hot Rod is probably better.

    W/ deep wounds - I think Necro is better unless we are talking long fights then I think Hot Rod is probably better.
  • Gunz0 wrote: »
    A very well-researched guide, and most of your points are correct. However, what most people seem to be forgetting is that the sole purpose of Necrotronus' existence is quickly and easily finishing off a match. Hot Rod requires a little bit of practice and a lot of luck (see what I did there?) but Necrotronus can deal around the same amount of damage in a relatively shorter time. Granted, Hot Rod can deal with evasive opponents better, but he doesn't fare so well against tankier characters that require marathon fights. Hot Rod is also a fair bit squisher, and it's as easy to take lethal damage as it is to dish it out.

    Basically, Hot Rod is better in shorter matches against Scouts, Necro works better in longer fights like LoCs.

    So Necrotronus isn’t just an inferior version of Hot Rod, he’s also an inferior version of Bludgeon

    Nah. Necrotronus is far beyond bludgeon and Hot Rod.
  • Darm0kDarm0k Posts: 2,485
    I would recommend reviewing a video of Synthwave's 5* Hot Rod, Rank 5 Max Forged as well as iNightSkies' 5* Necrotronus, Rank 5 going against Rulers of Kaon Sideswipe for comparison.

    It’s hard to compare a fight with a forge 100 bot to a forge 0 bot. Forge levels makes a difference.
    iNightSkies' video represents the dilemma perfectly. He has maxed Deep Wounds, Assassin, Star Seeker, and it took a considerable amounts of hits still to take down Prowl. If Hot Rod was in his place. I'm confident Hot Rod could finish the fight in less than 400 hits at most.

    I would say it’s hard to really go by hit count. Necrotronus’ specials are a cluster of hits while Hot Rod’s is a little less.

    Not saying who is better, but just saying...
  • VectorSierraXÎXVectorSierraXÎX Posts: 84
    edited May 2020
    Darm0k wrote: »
    I would recommend reviewing a video of Synthwave's 5* Hot Rod, Rank 5 Max Forged as well as iNightSkies' 5* Necrotronus, Rank 5 going against Rulers of Kaon Sideswipe for comparison.

    It’s hard to compare a fight with a forge 100 bot to a forge 0 bot. Forge levels makes a difference.
    iNightSkies' video represents the dilemma perfectly. He has maxed Deep Wounds, Assassin, Star Seeker, and it took a considerable amounts of hits still to take down Prowl. If Hot Rod was in his place. I'm confident Hot Rod could finish the fight in less than 400 hits at most.

    I would say it’s hard to really go by hit count. Necrotronus’ specials are a cluster of hits while Hot Rod’s is a little less.

    Not saying who is better, but just saying...

    https://youtu.be/r2Di4AHhKFE
    Perhaps another video by iNightSkies could provide a better comparison. A 5* Rank 3 Hot Rod, Signiture Unawakened, 0 Forge Level taking on Rulers of Kaon Sideswipe. It took a total of 256 hits for Hot Rod to finish off Sideswipe at half of his full potential compared to iNightSkies' video on a full powered Necrotronus, Rank 5, No Forge Levels against Sideswipe which took 204 hits. In this instance, both bots on both videos had no forge levels on them whatsoever. Yet it took Hot Rod nearly as much hits compared to Necrotronus at full power.

    If we look at this in another way and not look at the total number of hits, but instead we'll look at the overall potential damage output of both bots. Based on this factor and what we've seen so far. We can conclude overall Hot Rod could dish out consistently high amounts of damage at an excessively faster rate in tandem with his acceleration signiture coupled with his deceleration debuff on the opponent, reducing their power flow while in-turn increasing yours which of course leads to more frequent special attacks and thus outputing more damage in a shorter period of time than compared to Necrotronus where it takes longer to charge up his power to his special 2 attack.
  • Vinod_7991Vinod_7991 Posts: 61
    I agree that Hot Rod has the ability to dish out damage in massive amounts. From what I’ve analysed, I can barely see a difference between N.Tronus and Hot Rod except the bleeds that Tronus inflicts. Hot Rod’s Deceleration is super useful as well. I surely plan on ranking him. In fact I’ve R3’ed him as a second warrior. He super fun to play with as well. Highly suited for aggressive and attacking players.

    This puts me in a spot of bother with respect to Titan Store. Lol. I already have a Megatronus. With Hot Rod taking the second warrior spot, I will definitely not buy Necro anytime soon. The rest of the Titans, don’t impress me much. Maybe TC, IDK. Sigh! I guess it’s just a waiting game then.
  • FirebotFirebot Posts: 525
    edited May 2020
    Well yes hot rod does a lot of damage and has a very high attack rating and surprisingly with the very few synergies that he has he actually does a whole lot of damage
    Just pair him up with prowl and mirage and BOOM!
    I use hot rod in a lot of fights though hits crit doesnt deal a lot of damage his crits are really frequent almost like his normal hits thus in turn dealing a lot of damage
  • DrShotgunDrShotgun Posts: 2,157
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    edited May 2020
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.
  • Primerprime5Primerprime5 Posts: 853
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    Won't his Deceleration cancel out the Evade though? Combine the Acceleration Signature and Sp2s every 7-8 seconds, and KB won't even have the opportunity to evade.
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    Won't his Deceleration cancel out the Evade though? Combine the Acceleration Signature and Sp2s every 7-8 seconds, and KB won't even have the opportunity to evade.

    Yes, that's the point, but good luck getting a SP2 every 7-8 seconds.
  • Primerprime5Primerprime5 Posts: 853
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    Won't his Deceleration cancel out the Evade though? Combine the Acceleration Signature and Sp2s every 7-8 seconds, and KB won't even have the opportunity to evade.

    Yes, that's the point, but good luck getting a SP2 every 7-8 seconds.

    What do you mean? Isn't the point of his Signature to massively amp up his Power Flow? Wouldn't it be easy to atleast reach 1.5 Bars of Power even with the Power Leaks? Or am I missing something here?
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    Won't his Deceleration cancel out the Evade though? Combine the Acceleration Signature and Sp2s every 7-8 seconds, and KB won't even have the opportunity to evade.

    Yes, that's the point, but good luck getting a SP2 every 7-8 seconds.

    What do you mean? Isn't the point of his Signature to massively amp up his Power Flow? Wouldn't it be easy to atleast reach 1.5 Bars of Power even with the Power Leaks? Or am I missing something here?

    Hitting the opponent to actually gain power is easier said than done at certain levels.
  • Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    The one thing we can be grateful about is the fact that Hot Rod could still trigger his deceleration debuff on the opponent even when they're blocking against your range attacks. Once deceleration is applied, you could dash in, hit through their block and perform a heavy attack to potentially stun them. Providing you an opportunity to perform a combo on the opponent. In case the opponent however is constantly dashing towards you, especially bots who evades often and for which making it difficult for you to apply a deceleration debuff on them. This could easily be mitigated by deploying Hot Rod's special 3 attack. Inflicting a deceleration debuff for 23.6 seconds. Particularly effective towards Kickback's recent update. Thus eliminating the need to perform range attacks for a suitable amount of time in case you're facing constantly dashing, evading opponents. From there you could persistently go on the offensive, racking up critical hits and damage and accelerate you towards his special 2, rinse and repeat from there.

    Though I wouldn't oppose the idea of Kabam potentially updating him in the near future, just slightly improving on his stats mainly a higher chance for Hot Rod to apply his deceleration debuff as you've mentioned.
  • On another note. While it is true, more often than not hitting the opponent to actually gain power is easier said than done. We can take comfort in the fact that Hot Rod doesn't necessarily rely on his power gain ability to excel. His main strengths are his deceleration which in turn provides him the critical rate buffs per hit which translates to more critical damage thus finishing off the opponent faster. His anti-evade ability only makes it easier to land hits on evading opponents. And his power gain which no doubt is a substantial amount per hit (60% - 120%) is there to ensure the opponent stays decelerated while at the same time constantly deal powerful heavy damage as a special attack should. With the added bonus of evading range attacks himself should he be caught in a tight situation.
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    edited May 2020
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    DrShotgun wrote: »
    So many really underestimate Hot Rod. His consistent damage output and really predictable anti evade debuffs make him an brutal fighter, and fast.
    When paired with Mirage, well, definitely top tier. Like Synthwave said in his video, not too damage dealer, but consistently strong and useful.

    I still think his Deceleration needs buffing....longer and/or higher chance to trigger and/or stackable from ranged. There are some fights, especially against higher end content, where the bots keep coming at you making it almost impossible shoot at them. Sixty percent isn't really that high when Decelerate is supposed to be his bread and butter, maybe you have a chance to get one or two shots in and there's a very real chance you won't get a Decelerate to stick and you end up with a bot evading all over the place. Needs to be more comparable to Blaster's Interference.

    On paper Hot Rod seems like he could be a god-tier bot but, in my opinion, it doesn't translate to the actual fights.

    In light of Kickback's recent evade buff, especially, Hot Rod deserves something or his heavy will be missing all kinds.

    The one thing we can be grateful about is the fact that Hot Rod could still trigger his deceleration debuff on the opponent even when they're blocking against your range attacks. Once deceleration is applied, you could dash in, hit through their block and perform a heavy attack to potentially stun them. Providing you an opportunity to perform a combo on the opponent. In case the opponent however is constantly dashing towards you, especially bots who evades often and for which making it difficult for you to apply a deceleration debuff on them. This could easily be mitigated by deploying Hot Rod's special 3 attack. Inflicting a deceleration debuff for 23.6 seconds. Particularly effective towards Kickback's recent update. Thus eliminating the need to perform range attacks for a suitable amount of time in case you're facing constantly dashing, evading opponents. From there you could persistently go on the offensive, racking up critical hits and damage and accelerate you towards his special 2, rinse and repeat from there.

    Though I wouldn't oppose the idea of Kabam potentially updating him in the near future, just slightly improving on his stats mainly a higher chance for Hot Rod to apply his deceleration debuff as you've mentioned.

    Yes, it works through their blocks but you have to assume that the opponent isn't constantly sidestepping and even then 60% is still low, if you have to hit (blocking or not) an opponent 3-4-5, or more, times just to get one Deceleration then I don't really consider that being an anti-evade bot. The anti-evade bot should have a MAJOR advantage over the evade bot.

    You still have to be able to work up to a SP3 and in the meantime one unexpected evade and you've lost a ton of health against higher-end content.
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    edited May 2020
    On another note. While it is true, more often than not hitting the opponent to actually gain power is easier said than done. We can take comfort in the fact that Hot Rod doesn't necessarily rely on his power gain ability to excel. His main strengths are his deceleration which in turn provides him the critical rate buffs per hit which translates to more critical damage thus finishing off the opponent faster. His anti-evade ability only makes it easier to land hits on evading opponents. And his power gain which no doubt is a substantial amount per hit (60% - 120%) is there to ensure the opponent stays decelerated while at the same time constantly deal powerful heavy damage as a special attack should. With the added bonus of evading range attacks himself should he be caught in a tight situation.

    I think I've already addressed these points in this thread.
  • Red_EyesRed_Eyes Posts: 994
    edited May 2020
    I think the fact that, amongst the player base, a maxed out Drift is far more common than a maxed out Hot Rod pretty much says it all.

  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    Red_Eyes wrote: »
    I think the fact that, amongst the player base, a maxed out Drift is far more common than a maxed out Hot Rod pretty much says it all.

    I have no idea why - Drift isn't all that good IMO. Just has some bleeds, some crits, some crit damage, some evade and some anti-evade. Hotrod is definitely the better anti-evader, but Drift does have good DPS
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