Marvel Contest of Champions Reveals Ebony Maw Spotlight

Member of the Black Order, and Thanos’ most trusted lieutenant, Ebony Maw has officially joined Marvel Contest of Champions. He features powerful telekinetic abilities instead of physical strength, and he can curve and bend the environment around himself with little effort. He can also sway some of the most stalwart of minds with his persuasive voice.

“…choose a side or die. One side is a revelation. The other is an honor known only to a few…”

Ebony Maw’s Mechanics:

Lacking raw physical strength, Ebony Maw uses his telekinetic abilities to strike his Opponent, this can make it quite challenging to parry him since only his Light 1 makes contact. As well, if given the time to focus on his opponent, Ebony Maw will begin to persuade them causing them to falter and miss attacks.

If Ebony Maw is able to fully persuade his opponent, he digs even deeper into their mind and begins deteriorating their mental state completely making him a dangerous foe that can hurt you without a single touch.

Base Stats & Abilities
*All stats based on 4-Star, Rank 5, Level 50, Signature Level 99

HEALTH: 13379 ATTACK: 1092
MAX PI:
WITHOUT SIGNATURE: 3846
WITH SIGNATURE (99): 4787

*All stats based on 5-Star, Rank 5, Level 65, Signature Level 200

HEALTH: 26826 ATTACK: 2189
MAX PI:
WITHOUT SIGNATURE: 7738
WITH SIGNATURE (200): 10500

Character Class: Mystic

Basic Abilities: Degeneration, Nullify, Falter, Power Steal

Strengths:

• Opponents that take a while to ramp up: Any opponent that take a while to ramp up will be a good target for Ebony Maw since it gives him the perfect opportunity to persuade them before they’re able to fully ramp up to their full potential.
• Power Control: Ebony Maw can steal Power Gain buffs by landing a Heavy Attack, making targets such as Hyperion much more manageable. Additionally, Ebony Maw’s heavy attack and Special 3 Attack steals some of the opponent’s power making him a great option for power control.
• Non-Contact Nullify
  • Ebony Maw’s Special 1 Attack doesn’t have to hit the opponent to Nullify up to 1 buff. This can be great in dangerous situations such as when the opponent has an Unstoppable Buff.
• Bypass Guaranteed Critical Hits: Ebony Maw can be extremely dangerous when brought into the right match-up since all guaranteed critical hits will miss instead, say goodnight Corvus.

Developer Notes: Ebony Maw can be a pretty strong Alliance War Defender, especially when placed on a dangerous node, however, he also brings utility that allows him to dominate in a variety of different matchups, especially long-lasting fights where he’s given the opportunity to inflict the opponent with Black Tongue.

Weaknesses:

• Champions With No Buffs: One of the reasons Ebony Maw is dangerous is because he can nullify Buffs without landing a hit, allowing him to inflict Degeneration without making contact, however, this ability falls short when his opponent has no Buffs to Nullify.
• Long Reaching Heavy Attacks: When knocked down by a Heavy Attack Ebony Maw’s focus is broken, this gives opponents with long reaching Heavy Attacks a huge advantage since they can easily keep his focus broken.
• Champions Who Inflict Non-Damaging Debuffs: When suffering from Non-damaging Debuffs Ebony Maw takes double the time to focus. This makes it difficult for him to build persuasion and gives the opponent the opportunity (if played right) to keep his focus broken for the whole fight.

Developer Notes: Ebony Maw is very dangerous when focused, continually breaking his focus is the best strategy to defeating him. Champions with long reaching heavy attacks combined with non-damaging debuffs on their heavy hit are great counters since they will not only break his focus, but double the time it takes for him to focus again.