Damage Pip with a pinch of support, bcuz why not?
by Anonymous
Catalyst
Targets hit with Explosive Flask are marked for 3s and take 40% increased damage from your Weapon Shots.
Explosive Flask
Reload
Instantly reduce Healing Potion's Cooldown by 0.6-3s for each ally hit.
Healing Potion
3
Medicinal Excellence
Increase the Radius of your Healing Potion by 8-40%
Healing Potion
5
Smithereens
Hitting an enemy with Explosive Flask generates 1-5 Ammo.
Explosive Flask
3
Acumen
Gain 10-50% Lifesteal against enemies slowed by Explosive Flask.
Explosive Flask
2
Sturdy
Your weapon no longer knocks you back and deals 20-100% less self damage.
Weapon
2
Guide
Not really a guide but an explanation why I actually thought off this deck...
The first thing to argue would be the Reload set to 3 and Medicinal Excellence set to 5, instead of both of them being set to 4.
That choice had been made by me because of the timer the Reload card has set on itself which is 5 seconds.
The regular cooldown of the Healing Potion is 8 seconds, which is pretty much a lot. And lvl 3 card reduces the amount by 1.8 seconds (feels like 2 though).
But notice that this card reduces the cooldown with each teammate hit, meaning that you can actually hit 4 of them with cooldown reduced by 7.2 seconds.
The help of the massively enlarged healing zone only helps in making teammates that are pretty far away, healed. Not to mention that this effect works even on fully healthy people, remember that.
But now... why 3 not 4? It's mostly because of the timer of the card, which has 5 seconds. Which means that if you heal others during that cooldown, your potion will have 8 seconds of cooldown, instead of reduced one, which I'd say, greatly handicaps the gameplay.
And now here comes the part, why setting it to 3, not 4. The reason is simple, with such big range and game's role, you'll be very likely to find two people, near each other, with one or both being wounded. You can easily heal them and the effect will stack to -3.6 seconds. Meaning that the cooldown will not reach 8 seconds , but 4.4 seconds, which is also very very safe for the card cooldowns because you just need to wait mere 0.6 seconds for the card to recharge.
Now about the explanation about 5 points to Medicinal Excellence... would you prefer to heal more people? Of course! This is the role of a support! And let's not lie ourselves, the normal range of Pip's potion is not good. It's not good to the point where even these mere 8% will always matter. Yes, there is a huge difference between 32% range boost and 40% one, it's all because of width of the zone. Not to mention that you can toss it even more freely because more people will be in the range, counting even yourself. It helps a lot. Especially that Healing Potion's zone bypasses walls, but you can't really see trough walls how far your ally is from you, (or the wall) so by maximizing the range, you are also enlarging the chances for the allies to get healed in such scenarios.
Now for the Smithereenes. I could say it's one of his best cards. It amplifies on the skill that has really a lot of range, and this skill is an Explosive Flask. What else much to say? Something that bypasses the reload is really really good. Especially for someone that doesn't really have much of the ammo. Many people are putting it and just leaving it on 1, but that's just misusing the true value of this card. If you really don't want to spend credits on deft-hands or taking a slot for Acrobat's Trick, because the Smithereenes are gonna make the whole work for you, I really suggest you guys to put it above 1 and around under 4, because you'd either want it to be used when you are lacking in ammo by 3 or you having just 1 potion left. In that scenario you can fully replenish or expand your ammo from 1 to 4 potions. Add catalyst to that that makes a lot of champions go down in 3 potions, it's really good. And you even have a spare for scenarios like "If you somewhat miss or don't hit with the potion launcher properly". Yes, it happens and that's definitely frustrating.
A bit of a fun fact. This card is also useful for Combat Medics, since free shots = free heals.
..."But you need to hit the foe, or foe afterall". Well yes. 1. Good luck with aiming, it isn't that hard for this skill, and 2. If there is no foe, then you can reload in peace.
Now for the Acumen. That one is set to 2 because setting it to one would be just a pure waste. Now you'll probably wonder why something like this. Why not Moxie?
Well... Moxie is very good, and if you guys want you can just swap it with Moxie, I don't mind!... but I actually have a reason why having Moxie might not be the best idea.
I agree on the fact that it kinda replaces the Mega Potion (although, MP is still the best heal booster), but then... you are probably thinking of using the potion in situations like being at critical health while fighting alone, and then using the mixture. Now... wouldn't it be better to have it saved? Like, your teammates might need that as well. Your role is a support afterall. And judging by the fact that many, MANY people like to challenge and 1v1 supports, it's kinda reasonable why you'd want a 20% lifesteal over 12% bigger healing effect that doesn't fully do much. You have no cooldown on the ammo (just 1.5 sec reload) and you can replenish it with Smithereenes as well, and kinda boost it with Lifesteal item (which would help you a lot tbh.). Cauterize argument doesn't really count here because it can pretty much ruin the arguments for both Moxie and Acumen.
Now for the Sturdy... It's purely for surviving close range attacks. You know, being closer decreases the possibility for you to miss. But sometimes you might just get too close and then become a target of yourself. Pip now gets 200 dmg and with sturdy, he'll take 120. Not to mention that without Sturdy, you'll bounce back - be in aerial state. And being airbone decreases your accuracy, which is very very very bad for Pip, since pretty much one step away from the explosion can decrease the damage of the potion splash by a lot of dmg points. I know it would be much better to have bigger sturdy or at least lvl 3 one, but the price for having this is a bit too big for me to take that risk.
Now for the Catalyst itself. There are many reasons why.
1. You pretty much help your companions a lot by making so much damage in such short timespan
2. You can kill enemies much quicker. Most of the champions can kill you before you fire your 4th potion. That pretty much says that for survival, you need to boost the power
3. Healing sure is nice, but taking out a foe that damages is better at this point. Not only you can have more peace, but you get more credits, which for support is a very very huge help.
P.S. English wasn't my first language so pardon if I made any mistake or my sentences sound/look kinda odd. Try it out and see if it helps you. Being a dual class sure is funnier than being a single one.
