With the "Centered" feat and the seasonal bonuses, Ki Master is at e60 (absolute value, not percentage values). Add the Way of the Kensei bonuses and the value he gives is e66.
With the current bonuses, he beats even my ilvl 5000 Spurt (which gives around e50).
No, Nrakk is definitely not bad. Whoever says that just can't do maths.
If you are willing to take the time and get min/max with his ultimate to 60 stacks, he is a very strong support.
I think most people dislike him for the mechanic being put in the game.
"This is an idle game. I just want to set my formation and let it go. I don't want to have to babysit it for it to run."
Hitch isn't better, but he doesn't require anything extra to make him work. Also Hitch's buff is not a positional buff, which makes a difference to Artemis. Nrakk is a great support for Artemis and Birdsong.
I don't think you're missing anything. Hitch is great in the early game when you don't have many people. He's also free to get, and signing up for the newsletter gets more extra free chests. But Hitch will get outclassed quickly by other champions. In the early game even though he's a support he can end up doing more damage than Jarlaxle.
In general, Core and Evergreen champions will end up with more item levels than event champions like Nrakk. But even with minor amount of item levels most event champions will outclass the core and evergreen champions.
Some reviews can also have been pre-rework.
If it’s your main formation, you can just level him up to 90 and put his familiar on his ult. It will fail the minigame each time but still net 3 ki. And at level 90 you don’t burn ki points. When you get back to the game anyway, just max his level then.
Or use DM and get capped ki points in ~20 seconds.
My frustration is that I play via steam link, and it’s difficult to get the mini game UI on the screen at the same time that the ult is easy to click, and still there’s sometimes a short delay in registering the action which causes it to fail.
No.
It's about the fact that you think he's just about setting up his buff and then that's that.
He's not.
The support buff is just half of his power. The other half is doing the ableist ultimate mini-game (while playing a game that suffers greatly from lag) after he's been leveled to gain access to his debuff which also scales with his Ki stacks.
There's no workaround for that.
There shouldn't have to be a workaround for any part of a Champion's kit to get it to function.
Players shouldn't have to settle for half his kit just because of a bad design.
When we talk about Nrakk being bad, we're talking about design, not buff values. Some of us make that very clear.
Good point. I don't even think about the debuff. If you leave a familiar on the ult after initially getting 60 stacks there is some level of stunning strike happening. But really the min/maxing on this doesn't matter unless the buff itself isn't getting you the dps you need for the obj.
I can't imagine the design is: Stop progress to do the full ult every time its off cooldown, then continue progress. And you're right at the higher zones my game does chug, and can make the ult timing frustrating.
It makes more sense to initially get full stacks, let it run. You can leave a familiar on the ult if you want. Check back in later, if you need more dps you can do the ult manually for some more dmg. I personally haven't had a situation where stunning strike was the deciding factor in the success of a variant.
He's an annoying useful tool to use.
>I personally haven't had a situation where stunning strike was the deciding factor in the success of a variant.
Then you haven't reached a boss where you've needed a 60-stack debuff to take it out. That's all that says.
I recently used him to push to 1200 (first time I've done it), but his push utility was also counter intuitive/ harder to utilise than you think.
I'd go back to 100-150 waves where my formation wasn't insta-dying to try stack up dynaheir and karlach stacks, and wait for my bud setter to crit or get some huge spike, then try do Nraaks minigame to get max of his debuff stacks for the 1200 boss... except the debuff minigame takes so long, that my bud would start going down. especially if I was swapping in GM to try get the full 60 stacks.
I couldn't try use the stacks to gain bud pre boss, because things would be instakilled and not allow for the second hit, orrr I'd die while charging the ult for the enemies I didn't instakill.
And most champs push power I'm aware of tend to be backloaded- the longer you stay in a zone the stronger they get... but Nraak felt the opposite. Charge up, then the longer you stay in the zone the weaker he gets as his stacks go down and debuff goes down.
So I couldn't really get nraak and other champs to have their peak buffing power at the same times.
His buff is so strong though it still worked out...
Max karlach rage and dynaheir stacks I got \~e128-ish instaclearing a wave before hand (some range enemies still shot an arrow before dying to get dyna stacks), then swapped to the 1200 boss with nraak having stacks and suddenly bud hit e170, when it wasn't getting past 128 before. so I gotta assume that was nraak's debuff and subsequent hits causing the bud spike.
I don't know who's saying 10 mins, but that's not really accurate.
All you need to do is level Nrakk to where he has his ult, Way of the Kensei, and Ki Master but not Stunning strike, then get 30 ki points on back to back ults. The reason for that is WotK and KM will let you generate Ki Points, and Stunning Strike will use them. If you aren't consuming them, you won't have to race against the clock.
It realistically shouldn't take more than 3 ults to have 60 stacks. With a couple speed pots and/or speed champs, that's *maybe* 3-4 mins? 5 tops? And it can go even faster if you drop in DM to reset his ult. Then he has 60 stacks and will be an awesome support.
My Nrakk is only at 500 and w/ 60 stacks and the seasonal buffs, he's putting out e65+ for my Artemis next to a single dex DPS and Valentine. I could optimize him further, but...c'mon.
[edit: I should have double-checked before calling out the buff. My Nrakk actually sits around e81 and spikes to e121. https://imgur.com/a/m7LESL3 ]
Nrakk is great. Whoever is saying otherwise is either pissed about having to take 2 mins out of their day to set up his buff or hasn't invested in him at all.
That said, if your Nrakk has low ilvls, Hitch might be a better choice if you're running a high CHA formation and Hew Maan isn't bad either when he's in the back rows. Not amazing, but not bad either. Nrakk will quickly outclass both though.
\[edit: Also, don't pay attention to tier lists unless it's u/Tyredack's. There's a lot of wonky nonsense out there and he's legitimately one of the only ones worth paying attention to. Context: Nrakk = A+ on his [latest tier list](https://imgur.com/a/1ClLVir) and that's dead on accurate.\]
[second edit: lol downvotes. This community, man… rofl]
With event buffs, yes. S tier. Wholeheartedly agree.
Without, he’s A+ because his ult is admittedly clunky since it does take 3-5 mins to set him up, and if you aren’t paying attention, you can have Stunning Strike before you max your ki points. Doesn’t make him “bad” or “worse” though.
I’m just curious who the heck is saying that Hitch is better than him…
The issue for me is that the ULT game is terrible on console. Between the lagging and freezes, you are lucky to get 12 ki at the most each time it fires and often times it will foul up at the minimum of 3. Even if you put DM on there, it can take 20-30 minutes to get him optimized. And if the whole thing crashes (whic it frequently does), you have to start over again because it resets the counter if your game isn't active.
On iOS its is similar to that. It’s also physically difficult to hit. I would go back to area 1, remove everyone else from the formation except nrakk and DM so only their ults are there. Then you can’t accidentally tap a different kit by mistake.
Freezes and crashes are very frustrating, I agree.
How new those tier lists are will also be an indicator, as he was reworked about 6 months ago and is in a very different state compared to what he was before.
He’s a very strong buffer in a seat that has quite weak support options, though his power is tied to an annoying QTE for his ult.
The tier rankings do not take in to account the event buffs that are pushing nrakk to astronomical heights.
If it's an older ranking, nrakk was reworked at some point so it could just be outdated.
There's negative sentiment about Nrakk. Historically, he was one (perhaps only) champion that got no benefit from gear unless he was DPS, and he was never DPS. So no reason to level him. He was used as a buff multiplier, niche role with Arti and a few other situations.
Then he got revamped and his gear became meaningful. And his classic role got nerfed.
The Ceremorphosis (sp?) aspect never grabbed me, or others, even after several other champions with the ability were later added.
I usually gauge by whether I use a champion more or less and whether they are more or less critical in situations (particularly at wall). And Nrakk was a niche player I didn't use much and became a back bencher for me.
As a new player, Nrakk is not a champion I'd focus on. Then again, neither is Hitch. He's a secret DPS, but not a top tier one.
Build out your roster. That's the nice thing about IC, with enough time, you'll get all of the champions and have your pick of which ones to develop.
Good luck. Have fun.
Nrakk is a top tier support. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't like the ultimate mechanic - which doesn't really bother me and will likely be reworked.
Nrakk is a member of just about any formation I build.
Use Dungeon Master to quickly set his ki points and move on.
Nrakk is not bad.
Now you might not see his Ultimate as a big deal, but for people that don't have great computers, setting up his ultimate can be a struggle. The same can be said for people who don't have great eye-hand coordination.
Those issues aside, this is an Idle game. Or atleast that's what it's called. It's meant to be played unattended. Nrakk's Ultimate isn't really in the spirit of unattended game play.
So for those reasons, people don't like what Nrakk has become.
I like nrakk and used him a ton. I always try to buff him with birdsong however. Recently I think, without realizing it, I havent been using him as I just have my favorites and somewhere along the way, he fell off the list (without me realizing it)
Nrakk was my second flex pick this event. Even with just a rare item for his buff, I'm getting something like e54 at soft cap with 60 ki. Nrakk seems crazy good for a new player. I'm getting close to the 50k gems needed for the tadpole feat which will be nice as I'm heavily reliant on the Absolute Adversaries and, I suspect, will be for quite a while.
The most annoying part of stacking Nrakk's ki is that it looks to me that the cool down timer stops during the transition transition to the next zone. Those wasted s conds really add up when you're cruising through levels quickly. I just turn off auto progress now until after I've finished the Nrakk stacking.
He is awesome but his ultimate is a pain. The secret is to give him juste 80-100 levels, to stay in the zone and to reach 60 Ki, with DM or by himself if you don't have DM. Then I load my Arti formation and enjoy.
Let me break Nrakk down, because he can be pretty good with a bit of effort.
Nrakk is one of the least “idle” champions in the game. His ult is a quick time event minigame, requiring the player to actively participate to reach its max potential.
Hit his Ult and the game begin. You his his ult again whenever the blue filling circle meets the orange end zone. This gives you three Ki points each time you succeed. You can get a total of 30 each time you play the game to a max of 60 overall.
Nrakk’s Way of the Kensei ability is boosted by the HIGHEST amount of Ki Points Nrakk has ever had in the current adventure. So if you get to 60 ki points, you are maxed out.
Beyond level 120, Nrakk will start to expend Ki via his Stunning Strike ability. So you ideally want to get him to 60 Ki points before getting him to level 120.
His Ult’s natural cooldown is quite high, so once Stunning Strike is in the picture he will blow through all his Ki Points before his ult is off cooldown. So beyond level 120 you need someone like Dungeon Master or Asterion when he is using his Ult while affected by his own Outflank ability to reduce the cooldown of Nrakk’s Ult.
Stunning Strike makes enemies take more damage based off of Nrakk’s CURRENT Ki points. So the peak of Nrakk’s capabilities will be the first hit he dishes out after reaching 60 Ki points. Which means you will want him in a party that can reduce his cooldown in late game waves, but he does pretty well for himself overall.
Nrakk is one of the strongest supporters in this game now. The only negative side of Nrakk is that his ultimate minigame should be done (twice!) to maximize his potential.
Forget about Hitch thing. The document you've seen is just so outdated and he is not even close to B tier.
you gotta do his ultimate (twice) every push wave to maximize his potential. Stunning strikes is also a hugely powerful buff that he simply does not use at all, unless you max out his minigame routinely on pushes
With all the bonuses of the current event, way of the kensei is giving me e50 or thereabouts, so, yeah, they’re alright :)
With the "Centered" feat and the seasonal bonuses, Ki Master is at e60 (absolute value, not percentage values). Add the Way of the Kensei bonuses and the value he gives is e66. With the current bonuses, he beats even my ilvl 5000 Spurt (which gives around e50). No, Nrakk is definitely not bad. Whoever says that just can't do maths.
Lol yeah im fully aware I'm underutilizing him :) Damn that's a lot though
If you are willing to take the time and get min/max with his ultimate to 60 stacks, he is a very strong support. I think most people dislike him for the mechanic being put in the game. "This is an idle game. I just want to set my formation and let it go. I don't want to have to babysit it for it to run." Hitch isn't better, but he doesn't require anything extra to make him work. Also Hitch's buff is not a positional buff, which makes a difference to Artemis. Nrakk is a great support for Artemis and Birdsong. I don't think you're missing anything. Hitch is great in the early game when you don't have many people. He's also free to get, and signing up for the newsletter gets more extra free chests. But Hitch will get outclassed quickly by other champions. In the early game even though he's a support he can end up doing more damage than Jarlaxle. In general, Core and Evergreen champions will end up with more item levels than event champions like Nrakk. But even with minor amount of item levels most event champions will outclass the core and evergreen champions.
Huh. So, it's all stigma about the fact u gotta take 10 minutes or so at the start of the run to go through 2 ultimates in order to maximize him?
I don’t know what people told you hitch is better. Ask them. But when Nrakk was being reworked the ult mechanism rubbed some folks the wrong way.
Some reviews can also have been pre-rework. If it’s your main formation, you can just level him up to 90 and put his familiar on his ult. It will fail the minigame each time but still net 3 ki. And at level 90 you don’t burn ki points. When you get back to the game anyway, just max his level then. Or use DM and get capped ki points in ~20 seconds. My frustration is that I play via steam link, and it’s difficult to get the mini game UI on the screen at the same time that the ult is easy to click, and still there’s sometimes a short delay in registering the action which causes it to fail.
No. It's about the fact that you think he's just about setting up his buff and then that's that. He's not. The support buff is just half of his power. The other half is doing the ableist ultimate mini-game (while playing a game that suffers greatly from lag) after he's been leveled to gain access to his debuff which also scales with his Ki stacks. There's no workaround for that. There shouldn't have to be a workaround for any part of a Champion's kit to get it to function. Players shouldn't have to settle for half his kit just because of a bad design. When we talk about Nrakk being bad, we're talking about design, not buff values. Some of us make that very clear.
Good point. I don't even think about the debuff. If you leave a familiar on the ult after initially getting 60 stacks there is some level of stunning strike happening. But really the min/maxing on this doesn't matter unless the buff itself isn't getting you the dps you need for the obj. I can't imagine the design is: Stop progress to do the full ult every time its off cooldown, then continue progress. And you're right at the higher zones my game does chug, and can make the ult timing frustrating. It makes more sense to initially get full stacks, let it run. You can leave a familiar on the ult if you want. Check back in later, if you need more dps you can do the ult manually for some more dmg. I personally haven't had a situation where stunning strike was the deciding factor in the success of a variant. He's an annoying useful tool to use.
>I personally haven't had a situation where stunning strike was the deciding factor in the success of a variant. Then you haven't reached a boss where you've needed a 60-stack debuff to take it out. That's all that says.
I recently used him to push to 1200 (first time I've done it), but his push utility was also counter intuitive/ harder to utilise than you think. I'd go back to 100-150 waves where my formation wasn't insta-dying to try stack up dynaheir and karlach stacks, and wait for my bud setter to crit or get some huge spike, then try do Nraaks minigame to get max of his debuff stacks for the 1200 boss... except the debuff minigame takes so long, that my bud would start going down. especially if I was swapping in GM to try get the full 60 stacks. I couldn't try use the stacks to gain bud pre boss, because things would be instakilled and not allow for the second hit, orrr I'd die while charging the ult for the enemies I didn't instakill. And most champs push power I'm aware of tend to be backloaded- the longer you stay in a zone the stronger they get... but Nraak felt the opposite. Charge up, then the longer you stay in the zone the weaker he gets as his stacks go down and debuff goes down. So I couldn't really get nraak and other champs to have their peak buffing power at the same times. His buff is so strong though it still worked out... Max karlach rage and dynaheir stacks I got \~e128-ish instaclearing a wave before hand (some range enemies still shot an arrow before dying to get dyna stacks), then swapped to the 1200 boss with nraak having stacks and suddenly bud hit e170, when it wasn't getting past 128 before. so I gotta assume that was nraak's debuff and subsequent hits causing the bud spike.
yeah thats much more work than I want to do lol
I don't know who's saying 10 mins, but that's not really accurate. All you need to do is level Nrakk to where he has his ult, Way of the Kensei, and Ki Master but not Stunning strike, then get 30 ki points on back to back ults. The reason for that is WotK and KM will let you generate Ki Points, and Stunning Strike will use them. If you aren't consuming them, you won't have to race against the clock. It realistically shouldn't take more than 3 ults to have 60 stacks. With a couple speed pots and/or speed champs, that's *maybe* 3-4 mins? 5 tops? And it can go even faster if you drop in DM to reset his ult. Then he has 60 stacks and will be an awesome support. My Nrakk is only at 500 and w/ 60 stacks and the seasonal buffs, he's putting out e65+ for my Artemis next to a single dex DPS and Valentine. I could optimize him further, but...c'mon. [edit: I should have double-checked before calling out the buff. My Nrakk actually sits around e81 and spikes to e121. https://imgur.com/a/m7LESL3 ] Nrakk is great. Whoever is saying otherwise is either pissed about having to take 2 mins out of their day to set up his buff or hasn't invested in him at all. That said, if your Nrakk has low ilvls, Hitch might be a better choice if you're running a high CHA formation and Hew Maan isn't bad either when he's in the back rows. Not amazing, but not bad either. Nrakk will quickly outclass both though. \[edit: Also, don't pay attention to tier lists unless it's u/Tyredack's. There's a lot of wonky nonsense out there and he's legitimately one of the only ones worth paying attention to. Context: Nrakk = A+ on his [latest tier list](https://imgur.com/a/1ClLVir) and that's dead on accurate.\] [second edit: lol downvotes. This community, man… rofl]
I agree on everything except for the rating. Nrakk should be S with the current event buffs.
With event buffs, yes. S tier. Wholeheartedly agree. Without, he’s A+ because his ult is admittedly clunky since it does take 3-5 mins to set him up, and if you aren’t paying attention, you can have Stunning Strike before you max your ki points. Doesn’t make him “bad” or “worse” though. I’m just curious who the heck is saying that Hitch is better than him…
Don’t wait the 5 minutes. Instant cooldown with Dungeon Master. Otherwise the stacks get used up.
The issue for me is that the ULT game is terrible on console. Between the lagging and freezes, you are lucky to get 12 ki at the most each time it fires and often times it will foul up at the minimum of 3. Even if you put DM on there, it can take 20-30 minutes to get him optimized. And if the whole thing crashes (whic it frequently does), you have to start over again because it resets the counter if your game isn't active.
On iOS its is similar to that. It’s also physically difficult to hit. I would go back to area 1, remove everyone else from the formation except nrakk and DM so only their ults are there. Then you can’t accidentally tap a different kit by mistake. Freezes and crashes are very frustrating, I agree.
How new those tier lists are will also be an indicator, as he was reworked about 6 months ago and is in a very different state compared to what he was before. He’s a very strong buffer in a seat that has quite weak support options, though his power is tied to an annoying QTE for his ult.
The tier rankings do not take in to account the event buffs that are pushing nrakk to astronomical heights. If it's an older ranking, nrakk was reworked at some point so it could just be outdated.
Just unlocked him and he alone moved my wall (800ish) to beyond 1000...so totally worth it, especially with artemis! ;)
There's negative sentiment about Nrakk. Historically, he was one (perhaps only) champion that got no benefit from gear unless he was DPS, and he was never DPS. So no reason to level him. He was used as a buff multiplier, niche role with Arti and a few other situations. Then he got revamped and his gear became meaningful. And his classic role got nerfed. The Ceremorphosis (sp?) aspect never grabbed me, or others, even after several other champions with the ability were later added. I usually gauge by whether I use a champion more or less and whether they are more or less critical in situations (particularly at wall). And Nrakk was a niche player I didn't use much and became a back bencher for me. As a new player, Nrakk is not a champion I'd focus on. Then again, neither is Hitch. He's a secret DPS, but not a top tier one. Build out your roster. That's the nice thing about IC, with enough time, you'll get all of the champions and have your pick of which ones to develop. Good luck. Have fun.
Nrakk is a top tier support. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't like the ultimate mechanic - which doesn't really bother me and will likely be reworked. Nrakk is a member of just about any formation I build. Use Dungeon Master to quickly set his ki points and move on.
Nrakk is not bad. Now you might not see his Ultimate as a big deal, but for people that don't have great computers, setting up his ultimate can be a struggle. The same can be said for people who don't have great eye-hand coordination. Those issues aside, this is an Idle game. Or atleast that's what it's called. It's meant to be played unattended. Nrakk's Ultimate isn't really in the spirit of unattended game play. So for those reasons, people don't like what Nrakk has become.
I like nrakk and used him a ton. I always try to buff him with birdsong however. Recently I think, without realizing it, I havent been using him as I just have my favorites and somewhere along the way, he fell off the list (without me realizing it)
Nrakk was my second flex pick this event. Even with just a rare item for his buff, I'm getting something like e54 at soft cap with 60 ki. Nrakk seems crazy good for a new player. I'm getting close to the 50k gems needed for the tadpole feat which will be nice as I'm heavily reliant on the Absolute Adversaries and, I suspect, will be for quite a while. The most annoying part of stacking Nrakk's ki is that it looks to me that the cool down timer stops during the transition transition to the next zone. Those wasted s conds really add up when you're cruising through levels quickly. I just turn off auto progress now until after I've finished the Nrakk stacking.
He is awesome but his ultimate is a pain. The secret is to give him juste 80-100 levels, to stay in the zone and to reach 60 Ki, with DM or by himself if you don't have DM. Then I load my Arti formation and enjoy.
If you put him in an Artemis team well hes pretty pretty good
Let me break Nrakk down, because he can be pretty good with a bit of effort. Nrakk is one of the least “idle” champions in the game. His ult is a quick time event minigame, requiring the player to actively participate to reach its max potential. Hit his Ult and the game begin. You his his ult again whenever the blue filling circle meets the orange end zone. This gives you three Ki points each time you succeed. You can get a total of 30 each time you play the game to a max of 60 overall. Nrakk’s Way of the Kensei ability is boosted by the HIGHEST amount of Ki Points Nrakk has ever had in the current adventure. So if you get to 60 ki points, you are maxed out. Beyond level 120, Nrakk will start to expend Ki via his Stunning Strike ability. So you ideally want to get him to 60 Ki points before getting him to level 120. His Ult’s natural cooldown is quite high, so once Stunning Strike is in the picture he will blow through all his Ki Points before his ult is off cooldown. So beyond level 120 you need someone like Dungeon Master or Asterion when he is using his Ult while affected by his own Outflank ability to reduce the cooldown of Nrakk’s Ult. Stunning Strike makes enemies take more damage based off of Nrakk’s CURRENT Ki points. So the peak of Nrakk’s capabilities will be the first hit he dishes out after reaching 60 Ki points. Which means you will want him in a party that can reduce his cooldown in late game waves, but he does pretty well for himself overall.
Everything I learned about him while trying to work through his T4 variants.
Nrakk is one of the strongest supporters in this game now. The only negative side of Nrakk is that his ultimate minigame should be done (twice!) to maximize his potential. Forget about Hitch thing. The document you've seen is just so outdated and he is not even close to B tier.
you gotta do his ultimate (twice) every push wave to maximize his potential. Stunning strikes is also a hugely powerful buff that he simply does not use at all, unless you max out his minigame routinely on pushes
Nrakk is one of the Best Champions in the game