The Serpent is a Cosmic Champion. Being a Cosmic Champion, he has a Class Bonus against Tech Champions, but has a disadvantage against Mystic Champions.
Bio[]
In an age long past, when Earth was known as Aesheim, the eldest son of Bor Burison learned to draw terrible power from the fear of living beings. Aided by his brutal Worthy, Cul Borson gained such a stranglehold on the planet that to stop him, his brother Odin had to cleanse it of intelligent life. Prophecy declared that Odin could not kill his brother, and so the Serpent was sealed beneath the oceans as the millennia marched on. But now the God of Fear has returned, and the Nine Realms shall weep.
Mechanics[]
The Serpent aims to shatter his opponent’s will by chasing them across the field and breaking them against the wall. Use his Power Gain abilities to throw frequent Special Attacks and break your opponent’s block to crush them faster.
Abilities[]
Always Active - Ancient Terror
- The Serpent was sealed away once. He does not intend to be sealed away twice. His primordial, non-magnetic armor grants Immunity to Power Lock, Special Lock, Heal Block, and Fate Seal effects, and prevents his Ability Power Rate from being reduced below 50% by non-Mystic Champions.
- Adaptations from eons beneath the sea grant Immunity to Coldsnap and reduce the duration of incoming Bleed effects by 90%.
- The Serpent’s Combat Power Rate is reduced by 30% and cannot be reduced further, and he reduces the potency of incoming Power Drain and Burn effects by 60%.
- At the start of each fight, gain a Power Gain Buff, granting 25% of Max Power over 8 seconds. When this Buff ends or fails to activate, it goes on cooldown for 8 seconds, after which it triggers again.
- As a Defender, inflict a Fear Debuff for 10 seconds whenever the Opponent activates an Unblockable or Unstoppable effect, unless Fear is already active.
Dev Notes: This is admittedly a dense section, so let’s break it down a bit. Note the Immunities, including Power Lock, Heal Block, and Fate Seal, but not Nullify or Stagger. Serpent is also resistant to Power Control of most types, but Power Steal is effective, as is reducing Ability Power Rate, although only Mystic Champions will be able to zero out or reverse his Power Gains.
His Power Gain Buff can be Nullified or Neutralized, but note that doing so will start the cooldown to bring it back all the sooner. Attackers also need to pay attention to their Unstoppable and Unblockable effects when fighting the Serpent, as activating either will place a Fear Debuff on them, locking out their Unblockable abilities for a short time and removing their ability to Perfect Block.
Persistent Charge - Dread - Max: 3
- The Serpent starts each quest with 1 Persistent Dread. Winning a fight grants him 1 Dread. As a Defender, he starts with 3.
- At the start of each fight, gain an indefinite Fury Buff increasing Attack Rating by +1478.4 for each Dread.
- For each Dread, the Opponent’s Critical Penetration and the potency of incoming Instant damaging effects from Champions are both reduced by 20%
Dev Notes: As the Serpent conquers additional foes, he feeds on their fear, both increasing his damage output and improving his resilience. Instant effects are only those with a base duration of 0 seconds, such as Valkyrie’s instant bleeds, and does not include effects whose durations are reduced to 0 by other modifiers. Critical Penetration refers to the amount of Armor and Resistance that Critical Hits ignore. The base value for this stat is 80%, so a Serpent at max Dread (such as one on Defense) will force opponents with lots of Critical Hits to deal with four times as much Armor as they would against someone else.
Cullforce Charges - Max: 16
- +1 Charge when one or more personal Buffs end or are prevented by Ability Accuracy or Immunity.
- +1 Charge when the Serpent’s Power is Drained or Burned. Cooldown: 2 seconds.
- +1 Charge the first time an Opponent Dodges back during each of the Serpent’s Special Attacks.
- +1 Charge per Bar of Power spent when the Opponent is knocked down by a Special Attack, plus another if knocked into the wall.
- -1 Charge when the Serpent is knocked down by a Special Attack, minus another if knocked into the wall.
- As an Attacker in Battlegrounds, start with 4 Charges.
Dev Notes: Just as Dread ramps the Serpent over a Quest, Culforce charges represent his ability to feed on the fear of his opponents within the fight. Removing a defending Serpent’s Buffs may be worth it, but doing so will ramp him more quickly. The biggest thing to focus on here is that an Attacking Serpent and someone attacking Serpent himself both want the same thing – to throw lots of Special Attacks against the far wall.
Channeling The Culforce
- At 4+ Charges, gain a 1500 Resistance Up Passive.
- At 8+ Charges, gain a 562.5 Pierce Passive. While active, attacks that strike the Opponent or their Block while their back is to the wall deal a burst of Energy Damage equal to 10% of Attack Rating.
- At 12+ Charges, attacks that cause Evade or Miss abilities to fail deal a burst of 739.2 Direct Damage, and striking the Opponent’s Block pauses personal Power Gains and Furies for 0.35 seconds.
- Whenever the Serpent gains a Charge, he also gains a 40% Inexorable Passive for 3 seconds, plus 0.3 seconds per Charge. This effect does not trigger if already active and is removed when struck by a Special Attack.
- Whenever the Serpent would gain one or more Charges while at max Charges, he instead gains a Fury Passive increasing Attack Rating by +739.2 for 60 seconds. Max stacks: 20.
Dev Notes: This section is why you should care about charge gain. Keeping a defending Serpent away from that Pierce Passive is a top priority, and an attacking Serpent wants to get these effects up as quickly as possible and start working towards the Furies.
Inexorable is a new effect that prevents a Champion from being pushed back by Basic Attacks and increases Combat Power Rate when struck by Basics. Try to time your Specials with the Serpent’s charge gain to avoid granting him too much power during this time.
Signature Ability[]
Immortal Resilience
- Each Culforce Charge grants up to +277.73 Attack Rating, scaling with how close the Opponent is to the wall.
- The Serpent gains Immunity to Stun effects during the Opponent’s Special Attacks.
- Once per fight, when the Serpent would be Knocked Out, he has a 125% chance to consume all Dread to gain a Death Immunity Buff for 8 seconds. This Buff cannot be Staggered or Nullified. For each Dread consumed, this Buff also recovers 1.25% Max Health and grants 10% of a Bar of Power per second.
Dev Notes: An awakened Serpent cares even more about where he is on the battlefield, so pay attention to spacing, but obviously the big ticket here is the Death Immunity, previously only seen on Black Widow (Claire Voyant). This effect does not prevent further incoming damage, but does heal and grant Power over time. It scales with Dread, but also only activates if Serpent has at least 1 Dread, so after using this as an Attacker, he will need to win a fight before using it again.
Special Attacks[]
Special Attack 1 - Chill of Fear
- On activation, inflict a Fear Debuff for 10 seconds, unless already active.
- Projectile hits inflict an instant Coldsnap dealing 924 Energy Damage.
Dev Notes: This Special Attack provides some insurance against Unblockable effects and deals reliable damage.
Special Attack 2 - Maelstrom of Nightmares
- Projectile hits deal a burst of 2402.4 Direct Damage, multiplied by 250% of the Opponent’s Armor Rating.
- At the end of this attack, gain a Power Gain Buff, granting 15% of Max Power over 5 seconds.
Dev Notes: This Special Attack ramps charges quickly by granting another personal Buff and refunding some Power, and does massive damage to highly armored opponents.
Special Attack 3 - Hour of the All-Father
- Gain a non-stacking Hour of the All-Father Passive, doubling all Culforce Charge and personal Fury gains for 40 seconds.
- If the Fury Buff from Dread is not active or if an Aptitude or Intensify is active, reapply it.
- If this attack deals 0 damage, gain a Power Gain Buff, granting 2 Bars of Power over 1 second.
Dev Notes: Use this Special Attack to ramp Culforce Charges more quickly, or to stack Furies if you’re already ramped, and when fighting the Serpent, beware of trying to escape this attack with sneaky Invulnerability effects.
Synergy Bonuses[]
| Synergy | Partner(s) | Effect(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Minister Of Justice |  
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Synergy Champions: When the Opponent is below 25% Max Health, gain a 20% Flourish Passive. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies. |
| Hammer Time |    
|
Synergy Champions: Hammer attacks gain +20% Attack Rating. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies. |
| Polearm Pals |     
|
Synergy Champions: Striking the Opponent while their back is against the wall grants a 500 potency Cruelty Buff for 6 seconds. This does not reapply if active. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies. |
| The Main Event |   
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#Cul's Worthy: Instant Damaging effects gain 15% potency. The Serpent: Personal Fury effects are 8% mor potent for each #Cul's Worthy Champion on the team. Unique Synergy: Does not stack with duplicate synergies. |
Strengths and Weaknesses[]
Strengths[]
- Surviving Damage
- The Serpent is very hard to kill. Between his increased base Armor Rating, his mitigation of Critical Hits and burst damage, and his Signature Ability, he can outlast most opponents, buying himself time to finish the job.
- Anti-Miss/Evade
- You can run, but you can’t hide. The Serpent is the first Champion with True Focus, an ability that prevents the opponent from Evading or causing attacks to Miss. It’s possible for an attacking Serpent to have this Buff active for nearly the entire fight, and eventually he begins to deal damage to opponents bold enough to even attempt such cowardly abilities.
- Power Gain
- The Serpent has ready access to frequent Special Attacks, allowing him to better manage the tempo and spacing of fights.
Weaknesses[]
- Frequent Special Attacks
- The God of Fear does not take well to be knocked down by Special Attacks. Enough of them can slow or even reverse his ability to access increasingly powerful abilities.
- Block Unblockable
- Characters who can resist the block break from an Unblockable effect badly hurt an attacking Serpent’s damage output.
- Direct Damage Over Time
- The Serpent is the first Champion to directly resist Instant damaging effects, or those with a base duration of 0 seconds, but this leaves him vulnerable to more traditional damage over time effects like Degeneration or Poison.
Recommended Masteries[]
Recovery[]
- More healing on your Death Immunity could make the difference in a fight.
Recommended Relics[]
Ms. Marvel[]
- This relic grants additional punishment for using the Serpent’s True Focus to bypass Evade abilities.
Thor[]
- This relic improves the Serpent’s large Fury from Dread.
References[]
[]
 List of Cosmic Champions
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Playable: Adam Warlock ● Air-Walker ● Angela ● Annihilus ● Beta Ray Bill ● Black Bolt ● Captain Marvel ● Captain Marvel (Classic) ● Carnage (Pre-Update) ● Corvus Glaive ● Cosmic Ghost Rider ● Cull Obsidian ● Drax ● Galan ● Gamora ● Gladiator ● Gorr ● Groot ● Heimdall ● Hela ● Hercules ● Hulkling ● Hyperion ● Ikaris ● King Groot ● King Groot (Deathless) ● Knull ● Maestro (Cosmic) ● Medusa ● Ms. Marvel ● Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) ● Nova ● Odin ● Phoenix ● Proxima Midnight ● Red Goblin ● Ronan ● Sersi ● Silver Surfer ● Spider-Man (Symbiote) ● Super-Skrull ● Superior Iron Man ● Terrax ● Thanos ● The Champion ● The Serpent ● Thor ● Venom (Pre-Update) ● Venom the Duck ● Venompool ● Vision (Aarkus) ● Vox
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