u/InsidesAreWeary

5 Seasons of not swapping has finally paid off. Eternity is next.

Post Season 0 Characters (including reworks) and how they effect Iron Man

Iron Man Counters

List of Character Damage and Mobility in Relation to Iron Man

How the roster fares against Iron Man's ultimate

I was inspired to make this after seeing the post of buffs and nerfs for the roster. As of today, Iron Man is considered one of the worst characters in the game, and has received 9 buffs and 18 nerfs over his lifespan. My goal is to spread awareness and create a conversation around Iron Man that helps the devs make changes for him in the right direction.

I am making this post because after 600 hours on Iron Man, I am exhausted, but I still seriously desire change.

I have been waiting for well over a year for him to receive some form of microscopic balancing love that allows his skill expression to bloom without making him a low ELO monster, yet every balance change has resulted in more and more disappointment, as Netease continues to add characters that feel as though they are specifically designed to counter Iron Man, while simultaneously demonstrating over and over that they don't understand the core issues with his kit, or they simply do not care.

On top of this, they say they can't buff him as it would disrupt low ELO, but they nerfed his base damage, gave him a noob stomper teamup, and then decided his noob stomper teamup that already came at the cost of a nerf in high elo is too much of a noob stomper in low ELO, and gets nerfed. That is the same behavior of a cop planting a bag of coke and beating the shit out of somebody. Also don't forget that the Gamma teamup nerfs his overdrive, as the timer doesn't reset after death. This also applies to the enhanced Thor teamup.

I don't want Stark to be meta or some overtuned monster like Elsa or Black Cat. All I want is for his kit to start rewarding skill expression, rather than punishing him with clunky animation and low damage for even daring to think about making any game changing plays. Almost 2 years, and Iron Man still stuns himself. I am not going to start on the Luna hate train. However, I feel that if Luna can cleanse herself out of any stun in the game, you can remove Iron Man's fucking self stun.

I am a disgusting One Trick Iron Man player. While your first instinct might be to call out "skill issue" or mention how he was ripping your entire team a new one, I ask that you consider your rank and platform prior to jumping to conclusions.

This isn't to dissuade anyone from sharing their opinions, as his performance on console and low ELO is vital to the decisions made around his balancing. I only ask as I want to provoke an actual discussion, and to avoid the swarm of "As a Lord Iron Man, you stink" and "Iron Man is insane rn, wdym? He slobbered on my plat 3 team with MK and wolverine earlier today!" type comments that provide nothing of value. Anyone is welcome to provide their input, and it is appreciated so long as it is constructive.

I play on PC, and so far, I have managed to hit C3 this season and was 5 off from C2 before taking a trip back to the bottom of C3. Everything above is based on my 600 hours of experience, and all characters placements are based on their current state in Season 9.5.

Quick Pest Lecture.

I have been sitting on this one for about a year now as to not make it common knowledge, but I figured it was about time to share this considering the damage that the nerfs have done to Stark at high ELO.

This works on an unsuspecting Iron Fist about 95% of the time. They will typically show you respect and leave you alone/swap, but if you do it enough they will eventually learn to either bait out overdrive, or to only engage you in a 2v1.

Obviously the missile tech will explode any squishy and is ideal for diving (WITH LOTS OF PRACTICE), however I personally believe it works best on Iron Fist, as it can be used much easier as a defensive measure rather than an offensive measure when he is involved. I explain below what is required and ideal for the kill.

Ideal Conditions: You should ideally be engaging Fist in a 1v1 on flat Ground or facing an incline while in the enemy backline. You would think that being around your healers should be the best scenario, but a good Fist will just soft engage and make you waste your overdrive before coming back to go knee deep up your ass. While you can be in your backline for this, isolation is key.

You can do this while flying below a platform, however it is a little bit trickier/inconsistent and requires practice.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Spot Iron Fist. The more time you have before he gets to you, the better. Sometimes you don't have a lot of time, and that is okay, but it means that you need to have good muscle memory to react quickly.
2. Isolate yourself. 99% of the player base underestimates you until you give them a reason not to. Depending on your playstyle prior to your engagement with Fist, he likely thinks that you will be a free pick/ult charge. When you isolate yourself, he will get even more confident, leading him to hard commit right into a consistent 75% to 100% health one/two shot.
3. Activate overdrive. If this Fist is smart and knows that you are about to Thanos snap his ass, he will retreat, and you have an opportunity to disappear silently, or barrel back to your team. If the poor bastard has no clue what is about to hit him and continues to beeline it towards you, he may as well be dead already.
4. As soon he is locked on to you, ideally flat on the ground, look straight down while pointing Iron Man towards Fist and pop the missiles.

4b. If the missiles don't completely pulverize him like in the clip above, you can either repulsor him, typically once, or beam his ass to death. I highly recommend getting consistent with repulsors at close range for characters like the Rodent. While he was nerfed and can no longer 3 tap a 275, he can still 3 tap a 250 and 4 tap/3 tap + beam/melee and 275.

5. If his corpse hasn't been eradicated, engage in light necrophilia for ragebait purposes before quickly fleeing behind cover.

6. Use the manpower advantage + your weird ass positioning advantage to fix the enemy that your team is actively routing towards you. You can prevent them from safely retreating with your unibeam, and your frontline can easily use the proceeding panic and small, but teamscale damage coming from their asshole to finish the enemy team and take the objective.

Noticed my left tail has an uneven hollow, and now I am OCDing over whether or not they rounded the tail as well. Thoughts?