Champions: Captain Kanuk: The build

 

 

 

 

 

Champions:  Captain Kanuk: The build

Rating: Build rating is on a 1-5 scale with 1 being poor/ difficult through 5 being Great/ Easy.

Solo Time: Is the percentage of time you are likely to spend doing missions solo. This does not mean you have to. It may be advantages to group with 1-2 others. More, and most of your Crisis zone missions will be too easy.

Type: Unarmed Martial Artist

 

Solo Difficulty: 2

PVP Difficulty: 1

Captain Kanuk in his city spandex outfit

Captain Kanuk is a Canadian hero taught Martial Arts by the French Canadian Master Monk named Hey-Aye. After the death of his girl friend in a violent crime the Mountie fled to the mountains where he was taken in by the great master who trained him. He returned to Quebec to right wrongs and eventually was called to Millennium City to beat back an Alien invasion.

The First 10 to 12 levels:

Solo time: 80% +

Difficulty: 4

From Champions Builder http://champions.zarzu.ch/download.html

This is a pure unarmed martial arts build. This will be one of the most difficult characters to play in PVE and will not be good at all in PVP but watching this character fight is a load of fun, especially when combined with Acrobatics. I have a hunch the build will get some love soon as well as it greatly needs it.

Going into the Crisis zone you have only a few choices as a Unarmed Martial Artist. With your first two powers, Righteous fists (your energy builder) and Thundering Kick you will find that you will need to run up to an enemy as fast as you can. This makes Acrobatics a great choice for your travel power once you leave the tutorial zone.

Crashing Wave Kick definitely should be your next attack power.  The ability it has to stun your enemy is critical when fighting mobs of henchman and the occasional Villain. When taking advantages do not take the ones that increase threat and agro. You are not a tank. Increase your damage output. Add a rank to either Thundering Kick or Crashing Wave kick to increase DPS.

You will most likely want to make your superstats Strength and Dexterity as your main passive Defensive is Dex based and not only will Strength increase your damage output in melee but it will allow you to pick up increasingly larger objects to hurl as you enter combat. You can kill one or two henchmen in a shot if you can hurl a truck into the enemy before entering the fray.

At 8^th level you have some choice but taking Dragon kick will give you yet another crushing attack.

The other option, which may be better for you,  is to take your passive defense, lightning reflexes at 8^th instead.  This defense works best in one on one combat with a villain rather than fighting large mobs.

When taking Talents that is a good time to take one that spreads some points across multiple stats, increasing Ego, End, or Con some. If you want to focus purely on your damage dealing put it all in Strength. However, later on you will encounter more powers from enemies that may require other stats. Martial Focus or Acrobat will be good talents to take at these levels.

Somewhere between 10^th and 11^th level you will finish the crisis zone. It depends on whether or not you have done both of them but you should not be higher than 13^th at this stage.

13 the through 23^rd level:

Solo Difficulty: 2

From Champions Builder http://champions.zarzu.ch/download.html

Solo time: 70%

My first recommendation at this stage of the games development is to begin to deviate from the MA abilities and maybe take some might attacks or blade attacks. But, let’s say you don’t want to. That is OK as long as you understand the challenges.

With the Captain I was not trying to build a Ninja but a fighter. Regardless, when you hit 14^th level you will want to take the best Martial Arts attack there is, Burning Chi Fist, and upgrade it with fists of Righteous flame as soon as you can.  If I were building a Ninja style character I would have taken Smoke bomb next. With combat being pretty tough for the unarmed Martial Artist smoke bomb will get you out of a jam. By this type viper agents have probably used this very tactic on you so you know what it does.

The Captain in his cold north outfit

What I took after Burning Chi Fist was Bountiful Chi Resurgence which is a healing power. With no extra ranks in it the power is not effective at all. You may want to look towards something else if you feel the need for self healing. Regeneration might be a better choice if it fits your concept.

I did take a leap of faith and increase Bountiful Chi to rank 2. This actually had a pretty big impact on the power and I found it more (but still marginally) useful.

At 20^th I went with Inexorable Tides. This kick attack hits a cone in front of you, causes good damage, and will stun/root most common enemies and typical villains. This and Burning Chi Fist make up the two best attacks you have as an MA build. As far as advantages I pumped as many as I could into Burning Chi Fist to give it some extra DPS. 

At 23^rd I decided to take an active defense power in Masterful Dodge. This power will help keep you alive at later levels when fighting villains. You will see the dodge damage reduction blurbs flying overhead once activated.

I did a few respec’s at the Powerhouse and tried out some different approaches (as they were free at the moment for this character) and wishing to stay with a straight unarmed build this is the best I could get to. The Captain is pretty solid but still gets beat more often than other heroes. I love the high flying martial arts though and visually it is a blast.

 As you reach into the high teens in level you will begin to encounter areas you will not be able to solo in and, unlike some other builds, will probably not be able to solo some small group missions the other   builds could such as beating Poe (Purple Guild leader) and taking on the Fight Club.

 

25^th Level and your Nemesis:

Aside from you build your nemesis is coming soon after your pass the 23^rd level mark. Be wise with this creation. If you give your nemesis power sets like Telepathy, Ice, or Darkness with minions that are similar you will be in a world of hurt. The ability to create your Nemesis is a blast though and don’t forget that the first mission with your arch enemy is not really meant to be taken alone…invite a friend. You CAN solo it but it will be really tough.

I won’t ruin any of the story from you but you will get drops with clues from some of the random minion attacks by your arch enemy that will allude to the Nemesis plans. The drops could be notes, data chips, etc.

In one of the first ones I had to take out a radio tower.

The Nemesis missions are fun and if you choose a good arch enemy they will make the game for you in many ways. I chose a woman who studied under the same Master (Craven Huntress) but focused on the single sword. She later recruits a clan of Ninja to her cause.

She seems to have a near endless supply of minions to throw at me. On occasion, they even beat me.

Nemesis at the TV station with some minions

Conclusion:

The Unarmed Martial Artist is, without a doubt, the weakest build in the power sets. I like a challenge though and find the powers to be a load of fun even though at times it can be frustrating. Make sure to find the closest spawn point.

Gotta have a desert camo suit as well

I am thinking that Cryptic will give this and other melee classes some love. Even though they may appear to do more damage than the ranged guys the reality is they still do not do enough since most of the unarmed powers are focused on a single enemy.

Another piece of advice is lead into your fight by throwing something heavy like a good old pick up truck if you can. You will probably take out a minion or two with the one attack and is another benefit of the Super Strength.

You also might ask “Why didn’t you take Thunderbolt Lunge?” Well, others complained about it being weak and not very effective. I tried it against dummies in the Powerhouse and swapped it out for Lightning Reflexes at the time. I then got Lightning reflexes to Rank 3.

To close I want to say I actually enjoy the power set and build but hope that Cryptic will give them a little bump soon.

 

A sweet high flying kick!

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