Black Cat
Tier List
Villain, City, Skill, Brawler, Spider-Verse, Secret Defender, Legendary
| Arena | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Alliance War Offense | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Alliance War Defense | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Blitz/Real-Time Arena | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Raid | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Dark Dimension | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Cosmic Crucible | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
Iso-8
Black Cat’s Basic ability can Rewind enemy Speed Bar and fill own Speed Bar at the same time, this also works on Counters/Assists/Iso-attacks, which makes her a great candidate for a Striker class. This will ensure that she deals a lot of damage with her Piercing attacks, and will measurably speed her up.
Another good option for her might be Skirmisher. You won’t have problems removing Revive Once from enemies since she gets increased Focus for that task, but Black Cat also applies a lot of negative effects and has an ability that can remove Charges, and to make sure that those are not resisted she might need additional Focus while we have her at low stars.
Although her Passive increases her Focus, it also increases her chance to Counterattack, and with Skirmisher she would be able to apply a lot of Vulnerable effects with her Counterattacks.
T4 Priority
S – Special ability
P – Passive ability
U – Ultimate ability
B – Basic ability
Special – this attack will apply Trauma to the primary target and will apply +2 Charged to self and Secret Defenders allies. Out of all the T4 abilities, this one is the most important one, because Trauma isn’t mode specific, and all other team members have potent Charged mechanics.
Passive – at the start of any match this will prevent Bio enemies from spawning with Speed Up. This can be useful in Arena, but more so in War right now. Where it will affect Zombie Iron Man, Brawn etc.
Ultimate – Only affects Arena, will Apply Trauma to the enemy if Black Cat has Trauma, and will steal Safeguard if the enemy target has Safeguard.
Basic – Will add more Piercing damage to the attack and more Bleed. Since she will be a Striker, having more damage on her basic attack is highly beneficial and additional Bleeds will synergize well with Ghost Rider’s (Robbie) Passive ability.
Infographic
Theory Craft
Black Cat is the next Legendary character to join MSF. She will be the heart of the Secret Defenders team that will be dominating the Arena for the foreseeable future.
Felicia Hardy is the daughter of a world-renowned cat burglar. She followed in her father’s footsteps, adopting the name Black Cat and becoming an international thief. She’s an accomplished gymnast, a deadly fighter, and has been outfitted with technology to cause “bad luck” for anyone nearby. Black Cat has danced the line of hero and villain throughout her career, partnering with the likes of Spider-Man on some occasions and leading crime rings on others.
Black Cat is a brawler who can ensure that luck is always on your side, even if she has to steal it, and, as a professional Burglar, that’s something she can do very well. Black Cat can steal positive effects (including Charged and Revive Once), but her forte is stealing Speed Bar with her every Ability.
Felicia Hardy will also support her team by applying Safeguard to them(in Arena only), increasing their Max Health, and providing them with Charged.
Additionally, when she has Deathproof, she protects her team from having their Speed Bar reduced, this alone makes her worthy of being a Legendary character.
Black Cat spawns with 9 Deathproof and for each one of them, she gets +10% bonus to Resistance/Armor/Focus/Counterattack Chance.
As it was with the latest Legendary, Black Cat will have Awakened Abilities, namely her Basic, Passive, and Ultimate. These Awakened abilities are designed to give you an advantage in a mirror match.
Basic – Stealth Slice
With her Basic Ability Black Cat will deal Piercing damage to the primary target and apply Slow and 2 Bleed. But the more significant part is reducing the Speed Bar by 5% while filling her own 5%. Enemies killed by this attack cannot be revived.
After using her Basic, Black Cat will gain +1 Charged and if her Health is below 30% she will slip into Stealth.
When Awakened and on Arena Offense, this attack ignores Defense Up
Iso-8/Counters/Assists
This is a very potent Basic Ability, especially when you take into account that all of the above happens on Counters/Assists/Iso-Attacks. Not only Black Cat will be fast and deadly, but she will also get plenty of Charged that will synergize well with her Passive.
Special – Bad Luck…For You
Energy Cost: 5/5
Her Special Ability will completely immobilize the primary target by applying Trauma, Stun, Disrupted, and Bleed. This attack deals Piercing damage and will also steal 10% Speed bar and clear 1 Charged. And to top it off, this will apply +2 Charged to Black Cat and Secret Defender allies.
This will also Rebound Chain to 4 adjacent targets and will deal Piercing damage, apply Bleed, and Clear 1 Charge from each of them.
This is an amazing ability that can deal with a lot of dangerous enemies that have a Charged mechanic (I.e. Red Hulk, She-Hulk, Dormammu, Kestrel etc.).
Additionally, Black Cat will use this Special on her first turn, which means that she will get Safeguard from her Passive immediately and will Charge up her whole team.
Ultimate – ill-gotten Gains
Energy Cost: 5/7
This attack will steal Immunity from the primary target and then transfer all Negative and Vulnerable Effects from Black Cat to the target and deal Piercing damage. After that, it will steal all Positive Effects(excluding Taunt) and Charged from the target and steal 20% Speed Bar.
In Arena it can also apply Trauma to the target (if Black Cat has Trauma) or copy Safeguard (if the target has it)
Enemies killed by this attack cannot be revived. This attack is Unavoidable and cannot be blocked.
When Awakened and on Arena Offense this will apply Blind to primary target and 1 random SPIDER-VERSE enemy.
This Ability will be used on Black Cat’s second turn and it can cripple any enemy while strengthening Black Cat at the same time. It’s also the first time that a character could transfer Vulnerable effects from self to an enemy. This ability will greatly improve Black Cat survivability.
Passive – Nine Lives
On Spawn, Black Cat will:
- Gain 9 Deathproof, 3 Charged, and 1 Immunity,
- Clear Revive Once from all enemies (+1,000 Focus for this action). Gain Revive once, if any enemy had Revive Once.
- In Arena, apply Safeguard to self and Secret Defender allies.
On turn, when Black Cat has 5 or more Charges, she will remove all Negative Effects from self and Heal for 30% Max Health, fill Speed Bar by 30%, and gain +1 Safeguard up to a maximum of 2, then lose 5 Charged.
While Black Cat has a Deathproof Positive effect active, this character and all Secret Defender allies cannot have their Speed Bar reduced. For each Deathproof she gains +10% Armor/Chance to Counterattack/Focus/Resistance. Gains +50% Max Health and Secret Defender and Spider-Man allies also gain +50% Max Health.
This Passive prevents Bio enemies from Spawning with Speed Up effects.
When Awakened and On Arena Offense enemies cannot spawn with Deathproof and this will lower Damage Reduction for all enemies that do not have Deathproof by 15%
The Awakened Passive basically guarantees that your Secret Defender team will win in a mirror match since without Deathproof enemy Black Cat and the team will be susceptible to Speed Bar reduction. Which means that you will control the fight and outcome.
Conclusion
While Black Cat’s kit is incredible overall, her Passive is the part that’s gonna make her and the Secret Defenders team dominant in Arena, since a lot of current Arena Meta teams heavily rely on manipulating Speed Bar (Horsemen teams, Eternals etc.) Negating that is a sure way of getting the advantage. More than that, she can even counter someone like Dormammu, making his Passive Revive obsolete.
Another big part of her passive is the Stat Boost that she gets from each stack of Deathproof. This means that she will counterattack almost every time she is hit, that in turn will fill her Speed Bar and make her even faster. Plus all the bonus Focus she gets should allow her to more easily apply Negative Effects and Clear Charged.
Black Cat is set to release through Trials, the same as it was with Nova. The required character traits for her Trial are Knowhere and Sinister Six, and we expect her Legendary event to start sometime in August.
Judging by her abilities, Black Cat seems a little self-centered, not offering her team as many benefits as she gets herself, and that fits her character. That said, what she does offer is invaluable. She will be a great character to have even outside of Arena since her kit isn’t tied to that mode that much and you will be able to use her and potentially her team to counter tough opponents in War and Crucible.
Considering all that, Black Cat is definitely worth recruiting, so don’t miss your chance.
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