Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck – Quack-Fu Master of Battlerealm

Champion Breakdown

About Howard the Duck

Character Class: Tech

Brief Overview: Howard the Duck strides into Marvel Contest of Champions equipped with razor-sharp wit, a bulky ISO-Loader suit, and his infamous Big Freaking Gun. Embodying the ultimate fighting style of Quack-Fu, he brings a unique blend of Fury, Armor Break, and Suppression abilities designed to reduce his opponents’ survivability and longevity.

Howard the Duck Origin: Howard the Duck originally hails from Marvel Comics, where he started as a comedic character from Duckworld. His wacky adventures and satirical wit made him an underground cult classic. Transferred to Battlerealm by the Collector, Howard is ready to show off his upgraded fighting prowess equipped with borrowed tech and his returning artillery.

Lore Background

Howard the Duck History: From a private detective agency in New York to the quarantined Collector’s warehouse, Howard has seen it all. His journey into the Battlerealm was unexpected and, to put it lightly, infuriating for him. Insulted and humiliated, Howard rose from organizing Crystals to transforming himself into a formidable champion, adapting tech tools to complement his iconic Big Freaking Gun and deploying his home-bred Quack-Fu.

Personality Traits: Howard is witty, sarcastic, and resourceful. His rebellious nature and determination to break free from the mundane job thrust upon him by the Collector shape his aggressive and unpredictable fighting style, making him both entertaining and formidable as an opponent.

Howard the Duck's Gameplay Mechanics

Basic Abilities: Fury, Armor, Suppress, Armor Break, Heal Block, Stun

Outline: Howard excels in the long game, utilizing his Fury and Armor Break abilities to gradually break down his opponent. His durability is enhanced by Dormant Armor, allowing him to sustain damage over extended fights. His responsive MASH! mechanic rewards quick reflexes, stacking buffs that enhance his survivability and damage output.

Light Attacks

  • Rapid sequence of blows utilizing Quack-Fu, ending with a precise wing swipe.

Medium Attacks

  • Mid-range strikes utilizing his bulky ISO-Loader suit for increased impact.

Heavy Attacks

  • Massive overhead strike with his Big Freaking Gun, applying Armor Break and reducing enemy defenses.

Passive and Active Basic Abilities:

  • Bleed Immunity: Immunity to Bleed effects.
  • Dormant Armor: Starts fights with a stack of indefinite Armor which converts to Armor Up buff.
  • Fury Buffs: While either opponent is Stunned, gain Fury.
  • Button Mashing Bonuses: Enhanced abilities through rapid Block button pressing.

Special Attacks:

  1. Special 1: Unarmed Attack

    • 100% chance to inflict 2 Heal Block Debuffs, each lasting 2.50 seconds. MASH! inflicts additional Heal Block Debuffs.

  2. Special 2: B.F.G Surprise

    • 80% chance to inflict a Suppression Debuff, reducing Combat Power Rate by 10% for 4 seconds. MASH! adds more Suppression Debuffs.

  3. Special 3: Junkyard Smackdown

    • 100% chance to inflict a 3-second Stun Debuff. Perfect result in the mini-game during this attack leads to the Stun becoming a passive debuff, extending its duration to 4 seconds.

Signature Ability: Quack-Fu

Effects:

  • Activated through class advantage, granting:
    • Critical Resistance equal to 40% of Howard’s Armor Rating.
    • Base Ability Accuracy at 115%.
    • Incoming Debuffs durations are reduced by -1.3 seconds.

Being able to break enemies’ critical hits and reducing debuff durations drastically improves survivability, especially against high-damage and debuff-centric opponents.

Strategy and Playstyle

General Strategy: Leverage Howard’s durability by focusing on long fights. Stack Armor Breaks and Fury Buffs to overpower opponents gradually. Utilize Special 1 for sustained heal control and Special 2 for power rate reduction, safeguarding against opponents’ abilities to fire off heavy damage.

Advanced Techniques: Focus on mastering the timing for Howard’s MASH! technique. Rocking the device back and forth or rapid block button pressing to stack buffs provides a high reward. Coordinating combo sequences post heavy attacks to continue reducing armor enhances damage output multiplication.

Mastery Tips

Skill Mastery: Fine-tune the rapid block responses to gain button mash bonuses. Prioritize Despair for additional heal control, and Collar Tech coupled with Suppress ensures enemy power remains muted throughout fights.

Team Composition: Howard synergizes well in tech-heavy teams enabling him to maximize his buffs. Including buffer champions for defense or potent debuffers with high survivability rates can make Howard the central aggressive force of a team.

Synergy Bonuses:

  1. Friends:
    • She-Hulk, Rocket Raccoon: All Champions gain +70/95/130 Armor Rating.
  2. Teammates:
    • Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Dragon Man, Man-Thing: All Champions gain +3/4/5% Perfect Block Chance.
  3. Nemesis:
    • M.O.D.O.K., Psycho-Man: All Champions gain +5/6% Attack.
  4. We Ain’t No Punchline (Unique):
    • Gwenpool, Spider-Ham, Goldpool: Howard: Critical Hits Pause all personal Debuffs for 0.5 seconds. Other Champions: +20% Taunt, Incinerate & Bleed Debuff duration.
  5. New York Brawlers (Unique):
    • Daredevil (Hell’s Kitchen), Doctor Strange, Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Stealth Suit): Howard: Opponent Suffers -65% Evade Ability Accuracy. Other Synergy Champions: Up to +15% Attack Rating, based on missing health.
  6. Not So Uncanny (Unique):
    • Gambit, Bishop, Storm (Pyramid X), Platinumpool: Howard: Knocking the opponent down removes all their Prowess effects and grants Howard 1 Prowess Buff for each effect removed, enhancing Special Attack Damage. Other Synergy Champions: +12% Prowess duration and Potency.

Countering Howard the Duck

Counter Tactics: Take advantage of Howard’s dependency on buffs by using Mystic champions to convert those buffs into power. Purify debuffs rapidly to inhibit Howard’s extra damage sources and utility abilities.

Howard the Duck Counters:

  1. Doctor Doom: Utilize Doctor Doom’s Mystic capabilities to nullify buffs, fire off heavy damage with the decreased buffs.
  2. Emma Frost: Being immune to critical hits in Telepath form, she's also able to switch stances; minimizing many debuffs from Howard.
  3. Kingpin: Specifically his debuff cleanse and reduction from rage stacks make handling Howard's fury buffs manageable.

Conclusion

Final Thoughts: Howard the Duck brings a refreshing mix of durability, wit, and aggressive debuffs that mark him as a valuable Champion across various battle scenarios. His unique mechanics and enjoyable lore make him an engaging character to develop and master.

Encouragement to Experiment: Players are encouraged to explore different team compositions and strategies, uncovering the many facets of Howard’s abilities to maximize his potential. Enjoy unlocking the full capabilities of Quack-Fu and show the Battlerealm what Howard can do!