Count Nefaria

Count Nefaria is a Science Champion. Being a Science Champion, he has a Class Bonus against Mystic Champions, but is weak to Skill Champions.

Bio[]

Count Luchino Nefaria was the descendant of a long line of Italian noblemen, and used his wealth and connections to become a powerful leader within the Maggia crime syndicate. He furthered his rise to power by subjecting himself to scientific experiments that granted him superhuman abilities, but cost him his life. He was later resurrected as a being made entirely of Ionic energy, rendering him effectively immortal as long as he drains other Ionic beings to maintain his power.

Mechanics[]

Count Nefaria is a powerful, cruel fighter, who will happily pull the rug out from under his Opponents and beat them when they’re down. As his Opponent gains Health and Power, they will be inflicted with Energy Build Up Debuffs. Count Nefaria can Evade incoming attacks that would be Well-Time Blocked, which will also inflict Build Ups. His Special 1 devours these Build Up Debuffs and grants him Ionic Energy. As he builds up Ionic Energy, he gains more Attack Rating and Resistances. If he gets enough of it, he will enter Ionic Overcharge, which decreases the amount of Health and Power the Opponent gains, and Nefaria takes it for himself instead. Lastly, his Special 2 will grant him Fury Passives based on the amount of Ionic Energy he has, significantly increasing his damage.

Stats[]

Max Rating	Max Health	Max Attack
590	2213	147
-	-	-
1576	5881	391
-	-	-
3958	14748	979
4931	-	-
7986	29569	1963
10700	-	-
13619	50455	3349
18260	-	-
34600	128155	8506
-	-	-

Abilities[]

Always Active

Count Nefaria’s body is composed of Ionic Energy, granting Immunity to Power Steal and Bleed effects, and 90% Shock and Incinerate Resistance.

Dev Notes: Even though he’s Immune to Bleed, Count Nefaria still suffers when he would be inflicted by one. See below, under “Ionic Charges".

Energy Build Up

Whenever the Opponent fills a Bar of Power, they gain 15 Stored Energy.
For every 1% of the Opponent’s Max Health or Power they would gain from a Buff or Passive, they gain 2 Stored Energy. This is unaffected by reduced Regeneration or Ability Power Rates.
Every 10 Stored Energy is automatically converted into an indefinite Energy Build Up Debuff.

Dev Notes: Energy Build Up Debuffs are the key resource for all of Count Nefaria’s abilities. They don’t do anything on their own, but he needs to devour them off the Opponent to fuel his kit, so the more of them the Opponent has, the better he’ll perform in the fight.

Note that the Stored Energy they gain from gaining Health or Power has rollover. So for example if they gain 1.5% of their Health at once, they’ll gain 2 Stored Energy and this ability will ‘remember’ the remaining 0.5%. Then if they gain another 2.5% later on, the ability will roll the previous 0.5% into the trigger, and they will gain 6 Stored Energy.

The fact that this ability is unaffected by reduced Regeneration or Ability Power Rates means that the Stored Energy they gain remains the same even while Ionic Overcharge is active.

Well-Timed Blocks – Evade

When Count Nefaria would Block a Basic Attack or the final hit of a Special Attack with or just after a Well-Timed Block, he has a 100% chance to Evade instead.
This Evade has a cooldown of 11 seconds, but the cooldown is ignored for Evading Special Attacks.
When Evading, Count Nefaria Counter Attacks. On hit, this deals a burst of X Energy Damage and inflicts 2 Energy Build Ups.

Tier	Energy Damage
	44.1
	117.3
	293.7
	588.9
	1004.7
	2551.8

If the Opponent’s Special Attack is punished after Evading it, inflict a X Energy Vulnerability Debuff for 18 seconds.

Tier	Energy Vulnerability
	1700
	1850
	2000
	2100
	2250
	2750

Dev Notes: This is the first key gameplay mechanic of Count Nefaria. You want to be triggering this Evade as frequently as possible to inflict lots of Energy Build Up Debuffs (as well as avoiding incoming damage). While the Evade normally has a cooldown, it will always be available to avoid the last hit of Special Attacks. The Evade also has a hit associated with it (similar to Elsa Bloodstone), so triggering the Evade means that he’s able to immediately follow it up with a combo.

The phrase “with or just after a Well-Timed Block” is a bit unclear, but it helps cover an edge case. There are some Special Attacks where the two final hits are immediately after each other (like Winter Soldier’s Special 1), making it impossible to Well-Time Block the final hit. So in those cases, performing a Well-Timed Block on the second-last hit will still allow Nefaria to Evade the last hit, if it follows immediately after.

The Energy Vulnerability he inflicts when punishing Special Attacks is also key to his damage output, so try to inflict that as often as possible.

Ionic Charges

Gain 10 Ionic Charges when performing a Well-Timed Block.
Lose 20 Ionic Charges when Count Nefaria would be inflicted with a Bleed effect while fighting a non-Mystic Champion.
Ionic Charges grant up to +X Attack Rating, maxing out at 100 Charges.

Tier	Attack Rating
	161.7
	430.1
	1076.9
	2159.3
	3683.9
	9356.6

They also grant up to +X Physical and Energy Resistance and 90% Degeneration Resistance, maxing out at 100 Charges.

Tier	Physical & Energy Resistance
	3966.67
	4316.67
	4666.67
	4900
	5250
	6416.67

Dev Notes: While Energy Build Ups are what you need to monitor on the Opponent, Ionic Charges are what you should keep track of on Nefaria. Fortunately, they increase pretty steadily over the course of the fight, and provide a nice set of bonuses, scaling up to when Nefaria has 100 of them.

Ionic Overcharge

At 100 Ionic Charges, activate Ionic Overcharge for 17 seconds. It is paused during Count Nefaria’s Special Attacks. Lose 100 Charges when it expires.
During Ionic Overcharge, all of Count Nefaria’s attacks are non-contact and deal Energy Damage instead of Physical.
Additionally, the Opponent’s Regeneration and Ability Power Rates are reduced by 95%, and when they gain Ability Power he gains 60% of the Power denied this way.

Dev Notes: Ionic Charges don’t have a maximum, but whenever Nefaria has over 100 of them he’ll enter Ionic Overcharge. Since the Ionic effects all cap at 100 to begin with, the big benefits of Overcharge is that he’ll take a portion of the Power the Opponent would have gained from Power Gain effects, and his Basic Attacks can now benefit from the Energy Vulnerability he inflicts.

Signature Ability[]

Ionic Recharge - Always Active

During Ionic Overcharge, Passively Regenerate X% of the Health denied to the Opponent due to any reduced Regeneration Rate. Each tick of this healing cannot exceed X Health, scaling with Base Health.

Tier	Regeneration %	Health Limit
	10 - 70.43%	4.43
	10 - 70.43%	11.76
	10 - 70.43%	29.5
	10 - 80.1%	59.14
	10 - 80.1%	100.91
	10 - 80.1%	256.31

When the Opponent gains X% of a Bar of Power from a Passive or Buff within 0.5 seconds, instantly gain 50 Ionic Charges. Then activate Ionic Overcharge.

Tier	Bar Of Power %
	100 - 24.99%
	100 - 24.99%
	100 - 24.99%
	100 - 20%
	100 - 20%
	100 - 20%

This also triggers when they gain X% of their Max Health for any reason within 0.5 seconds.

Tier	Max Health %
	20 - 9.99%
	20 - 9.99%
	20 - 9.99%
	20 - 8%
	20 - 8%
	20 - 8%

Dev Notes: Nefaria’s Signature Ability serves two key purposes. The first is that it allows him to also steal any Health that was denied to his Opponent during Ionic Overcharge (similar to how he takes their Power in his base kit). The second part of the Signature Ability is a sort of ‘emergency activation’ of Overcharge. If the Opponent gains a lot of Health or Power all at once, Nefaria will activate Overcharge in response, to stop them gaining too much more, and start taking it for himself.

Special Attacks[]

The first hit of any Special Attack deals a burst of X Energy Damage if it is the first or second hit after Count Nefaria’s Counter-Attack hit.

Tier	Energy Damage
	88.2
	234.6
	587.4
	1177.8
	2009.4
	5103.6

Dev Notes: This is the last bit of icing on the cake for Count Nefaria’s damage loop. In most situations, using his Evade to punish a Special Attack and inflict Vulnerability will get you the majority of his damage output. However, if you’re able to make the stars align and follow up with a Special Attack of your own (or a Medium then a Special Attack), you’ll benefit from this additional burst of Energy Damage.

Special 1 - Count’s Consumption
Count Nefaria disorients his Opponent with quick strikes, then violently drains the energy from their body.

The final 4 hits each devour 2 Energy Build Ups. This can trigger through Block and is unaffected by Ability Accuracy.
Each devoured Energy Build Up grants 16 Ionic Charges, 2% of his missing Health, and 9% of a Bar of Power.

Dev Notes: Count Nefaria drains the energy from his enemies in order to sustain himself. The Special 1 is the main way of building Ionic Energy. In addition to putting him immediately into Overcharge if the Opponent had at least 8 Build Ups before the attack, it also gives him a decent chunk of Power and missing Health.

Special 2 - Ionic Obliteration
Count Nefaria fires a searing beam of energy from his eyes, before warping next to his Opponent and beating them into the ground.

On activation, gain a +X Fury Passive per 10 Ionic Charges, each lasting 16 seconds. Max stacks: 15.

Tier	Attack Rating
	17.64
	46.92
	117.48
	235.56
	401.88
	1020.72

The final hit inflicts an Incinerate Debuff, dealing X Energy Damage over 6 seconds.

Tier	Energy Damage
	191.1
	508.3
	1272.7
	2551.9
	4353.7
	11057.8

Against Mystic Champions, inflict a Plasma Debuff instead.

Dev Notes: If Special 1 is the main way of building up Nefaria’s resources, then Special 2 is his main damage ability. The Fury he gets based on his Ionic charges significantly increases his damage, and then he has the Incinerate/Plasma to finish it off.

Special 3 - Hundredfold Power
After briefly vanishing, Count Nefaria reappears behind his Opponent. He drags them across the floor, then pulverizes them with an intense series of Ionic energy blasts.

Gain 50 Ionic Charges, then activate Ionic Overcharge.
Pause Ionic Overcharge for 10 seconds.

Dev Notes: The Special Attack 3 is a nice way of shortcutting directly to Ionic Overcharge and its corresponding reductions to Ability Power and Regen Rates in matchups where it’s needed. If Ionic Overcharge was already active before using it, it’ll be re-triggered, effectively refreshing the duration.

Synergy Bonuses[]

Synergy	Partner(s)	Effect(s)
Two Sides of a Coin		Count Nefaria: Whenever an Energy Build Up is inflicted, also inflict a 15% Decelerate Debuff lasting 18 seconds. Iron Man: Whenever a Prowess is Invalidated, gain an Armor Up Buff. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies. Dev Notes: Count Nefaria’s Evade can struggle a little when the Opponent has easy access to Unstoppable, because triggering the Evade and its corresponding Hit won’t interrupt an Unstoppable Opponent. Getting access to Decelerate will help tip the matchup in his favour.
Colleagues in Crime		Count Nefaria: At the start of each fight, activate Ionic Overcharge for 50% of its normal duration. No Ionic Charges are lost the first time Ionic Overcharge expires. Baron Zemo: Light Hits pause Zemo’s Root for 0.2 seconds. The Hood: Once per fight when the Hood has 0 Bullets, he loads 12 Bullets. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies.
Back from the Dead		Synergy Champions: When starting a fight at 20% or 40% Health, gain a Regeneration Buff restoring 12.5% of missing Health over 6 seconds. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies.
Peak Fashion		Synergy Champions: Block Proficiency increased by +400. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies.
Enemies - Level 3		All champions: +155 Critical Rating.
Incoming Synergy	Partner(s)	Effect(s)
Noble Lords		Synergy Champions: +7.5% Combat Power Rate. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies.
Rivals - Level 3		All Champions: +115 Critical Damage Rating.

Strengths and Weaknesses[]

Strengths[]

Fighting against Health and Power Gain
- Count Nefaria inflicts his Opponent with Energy Build Up Debuffs whenever they gain Health or Power from Buffs or Passives. These Debuffs are the key resource for his kit, so when fighting Opponents who do either (or both) of those, he’ll have a lot more to work with. While Ionic Overcharge is active, he’s also able to steal those gains from his Opponent, further powering up his kit.

Evading Special Attacks
- Count Nefaria can Evade incoming attacks that he would have Well-Time Blocked. This Evade also hits the Opponent, similar to Elsa Bloodstone or Kate Bishop. A key difference for Count Nefaria is that he’s also able to Evade the last hit of incoming Special Attacks, which gives him new ways to avoid and punish Special Attacks.

Applying Debuffs
- Count Nefaria is able to apply a lot of Build Up Debuffs during a fight. These are also indefinite. So he works well with any quest nodes or masteries looking for the presence of Debuffs on the Opponent.

Non-Contact Attacks
- During Ionic Overcharge, all of Count Nefaria’s attacks become Non-Contact Energy attacks, allowing him to bypass any of his Opponent’s abilities or mechanics that are looking for contact attacks.

Weaknesses[]

Debuff Immune
- If the Opponent is immune to Debuffs, they will be immune to Count Nefaria’s Energy Build Up Debuffs. This will deprive him of the single most important resource for his kit, so he really struggles in these matchups.

Bleed
- As a being made of Ionic Energy, Count Nefaria is Immune to Bleed. However, whenever he would be inflicted with a Bleed while fighting a non-Mystic Opponent, he loses Ionic Energy. This makes it much harder to build up and maintain his core loop in fights where there are lots of incoming Bleeds.

Evade Punishment
- Count Nefaria’s Evade is a key part of his gameplay loop, since it’s one of the main sources of Build Up Debuffs. In fights where Evading is impossible, punished, or when the Opponent has a counteracting effect like Unstoppable, Nefaria will have a hard time performing his normal loop.

Recommended Masteries[]

Despair
- Count Nefaria is able to easily inflict lots of Debuffs on the Opponent, thanks to his Energy Build Ups. This means that he can also easily scale up and benefit from the Despair mastery. Its reduction to Regeneration rate will in turn further benefit the healing he gets from his Signature Ability.

Inequity
- Similar to why he benefits from Despair, Count Nefaria is able to capitalize on the Inequity mastery due to his easy access to Debuffs. This will keep the Opponent’s attack rating consistently low for as long as they have Energy Build Up Debuffs on them.