#Apocalypse
wispy stag
wispy stag
About Apocalypse
Thousands of years ago in ancient Aqaba, the first living being on Earth to express the mutant X-gene was born, given the name “En Sabah Nur” or “The First One”. As he traveled the Earth, En Sabah Nur deemed himself “Apocalypse” convincing ancient civilizations that he was a deity and manipulating them into fighting wars which he justified as stimulating growth, judgment, and destruction. After conquesting the Earth for many millennia Apocalypse used Celestial technology to enter a period of suspended animation for many centuries, awakening in the current age and deciding the Earth is ready for further examination.
Apocalypse’s Mechanics
Apocalypse is all about ramping up to empower himself or his fellow Mutants, he does this by simply winning fights which will grant him Genetic Code. Apocalypse can choose to keep his Genetic Code for himself to boost his own abilities or spend them in the Pre-Fight screen to empower any Mutant teammate! In combat, Apocalypse is all about big Special Attacks! Special Attacks 1 and 2 will trigger a Debuff based on the last attack landed, these Debuffs can be converted into enhanced versions with the Special 3! Finally, if Apocalypse’s signature Ability is unlocked, whenever he doesn’t participate in a fight he enters a deep slumber, allowing him to Regenerate health based on how many fights his team wins while he slumbers!
Character Class: 
Mutant
Basic Abilities: Bleed, Weakness, Poison, Concussion, Degeneration
Strengths
Prevent Purify Abilities
Apocalypse reduces the Opponent’s Purify Ability Accuracy by 100%, so in most matchups against difficult Purify Champions/nodes such as Kingpin, Korg or Mole Man, the Opponent will not be able to Purify Debuffs.
Fighting Mutant Opponents
When Fighting Mutants, Apocalypse’s Special Attacks will be more impactful and allow him to ramp up his Genetic Code much faster.
Prevent Evade
As the Opponent evades, Apocalypse increases his chance to bypass Evade by 10% for the rest of the quest. This makes him a great option when fighting Evade Opponents.
Significantly enhance any Mutant
Using his Ability, Horseman of Apocalypse, Apocalypse can boost your favorite Mutant to some pretty crazy levels! However it does require some ramp up time.
Weaknesses
Robots
Apocalypse needs Genetic Code to power himself up, Robots will grant no Genetic Code.
Stun Immune / Block Penetration
Apocalypse needs to land a decent amount of Heavy Attacks while he balances his Debuffs before locking them in with a Special 3. Stun- immune matchups will significantly reduce his effectiveness and Opponents who deal damage through Blocks will chip him out fast.
Poison, Degeneration or Debuff Immune
Apocalypse needs to place a lot of Debuffs to be effective, Opponents who are immune to his Debuffs will render him ineffective.
Ramp Time
Unless Apocalypse fights a Mutant, it can take quite a few fights before he builds up all his Genetic Code, this can make his first fight or 2 more difficult.
Abilities
Genetic Enhancement – Max Stacks 4
Start each quest with 1 Persistent Genetic Code. This becomes 2 if Defending, and 3 if Defending a final boss node.
Knocking out a non-#Robot Opponent grants 1 Genetic Code.
Gain 2 Genetic Code at the start of the fight when fighting a Mutant.
At the start of the fight gain 1 indefinite Passive Prowess for each Genetic Code, each increasing Special Attack Damage by 40%.
At 3+ Genetic Code, become Stun-immune while striking.
At 4+ Genetic Code, striking the Opponent’s Block with Light Attack inflicts a Stun Debuff for 0.8 seconds. Cooldown 12 seconds. This has no effect against Well-Timed Blocks.
Using Genetic Code, Apocalypse has the ability to hold infinite Passive Prowess effects making him great in some more niche situations such as the “Special Connoisseur” node in Act 6. Additionally, Apocalypse’s ability to Stun into Blocks is great in situations where the Opponent is playing hard to get, giving him an instant combo opener.
Dev Notes
** Total Molecular Control**
Develop immunity to Bleed, Incinerate and Disorient effects over 8 seconds while suffering from them. Once developed, these immunities persist for the entire quest.
Each time the Opponent Evades, gain +10% chance to bypass Evade. This is not affected by Ability Accuracy reduction and the chance to bypass Evade persists throughout the quest.
Opponents suffer 100% Purify Ability Accuracy reduction.
“Purify Ability Accuracy reduction” means that unless the Opponent facing Apocalypse has some way to increase their chance to trigger Purify, they will never be able to remove his Debuffs with Purify. This includes the stun from Parry.
Dev Notes
Heavy Attacks
Both hits inflict Bleed dealing 797.65 Direct Damage over 7 seconds.
Refresh personal Weakness, Poison, Concussion and Degeneration effects on the Opponent.
Special Attacks
If the Opponent is suffering from a Damage Over Time effect, Special Attack Debuffs trigger on activation and last 30% longer.
Each hit deals a burst of 615.33 Physical Damage for each personal Weakness, Poison, Concussion or Degeneration on the Opponent.
On Attack Apocalypse can chain his Heavy into a Special Attack to inflict Bleed and thus gain the bonus duration in his Special Attack Debuffs. Additionally, fighting Apocalypse with the suicide Masteries turned on is probably not the best idea since he will trigger his Special Attack Debuffs without needing to land a hit.
Dev Notes
Special 1: Celestial Energy Blast
Inflict a Debuff determined by the last Light or Medium Attack thrown. If fighting a Mutant, or if Apocalypse has 4 Genetic Code, trigger both.
Light Attack – Inflict a non-stacking Weakness reducing Attack Rating by 25% for 25 seconds.
Medium Attack – Inflict a non-stacking Poison dealing 4558 Direct Damage and reduce health recovery by 30% over 25 seconds.
Special 2: Overheated Projectile Barrage
Inflict a Debuff determined by the last Light or Medium Attack thrown. If fighting a Mutant, or if Apocalypse has 4 Genetic Code, trigger both.
Light Attack – Inflict a non-stacking Concussion reducing Ability Accuracy by 35% for 25 seconds.
Medium Attack – Inflict a non-stacking Degeneration dealing 7976.5 Direct Damage over 25 seconds.
Combo enders are key in choosing what effect you want to trigger in Special Attacks 1 and 2. You can think of it this way: end with a Light Attack for Utility, end with a Medium for Damage.
Dev Notes
Special 3: The Final Judgment
All personal Weakness, Poison, Concussion and Degeneration effects on the Opponent are retriggered at +100% Potency and paused indefinitely. This Potency increase does not stack multiple times.
If no personal Weakness, Poison, Concussion or Degeneration effects are active, inflict 2 at random. These will not gain additional potency and will not be paused.
The Special 3 is most powerful for locking in your expiring Debuffs from Special 1 and Special 2. The ideal loop is to use Special 1 and Special 2 to get the Debuffs you want then use heavy attacks to refresh them as you build to your Special 3.
Dev Notes
Horseman of Apocalypse – Pre-Fight and Cross-Fight
Once Per Quest If Apocalypse has 4 Genetic Code he can spend them in the Pre-Fight screen to place a Cross-Fight on the next fight. The next Mutant teammate excluding Apocalypse to enter this fight becomes a Horseman of Apocalypse for the rest of the quest.
Horsemen gain the following abilities:
+100% Bleed Resistance.
An indefinite Prowess increasing Special Attack Damage by 50%.
+30% Offensive Ability Accuracy.
Go Unblockable for 2 seconds when the Opponent Purifies a Debuff.
Once per fight go Unstoppable for 3 seconds when struck.
This horseman is one of Apocalypse’s coolest abilities and allows him to transform any Mutant into a horseman for the rest of the quest giving them a ton of additional power!
Dev Notes
Signature Ability: Survival Of The Fittest
When Apocalypse doesn’t participate in a fight he enters his Rejuvenation Chamber to slumber. At the start of his next fight, he Regenerates 3749.5 health for each fight his teammates won while he slumbered. This can stack up to 2 times.
This ability essentially allows Apocalypse to Regenerate whenever his teammates win a fight. If you swap between using Apocalypse and his Horseman every few fights you can get the power of the horseman AND allow Apocalypse to slumber with his signature ability to regenerate back any health he might lose!
Dev Notes
Recommended Masteries
Inequity
Apocalypse can apply 4 indefinite Debuffs on his opponent allowing him to synergise nicely with the reduction to the opponent’s Attack Rating granted from this Mastery. This can also stack with his personal Weakness to significantly lower the Opponent’s damage output.
Recovery
The regeneration potency increase offered in this Mastery works very well when paired with Apocalypse’s ability to Slumber between fights.
Double Edge
Although Apocalypse will take some bleed damage initially, he will quickly develop full immunity to Bleed for the rest of the quest, allowing him to benefit from the Attack Rating bonus without suffering the Bleed.
Synergy Bonuses
The First One – Unique (Self)
With Apocalypse
#1082360836556849172: Gain +15% Attack Rating for each Mutant on the team excluding himself.
Your Fate Is Mine – Unique
With (Kang, Mister Sinister, Cable)
#1082360836556849172: Start the first fight in a quest with maximum Genetic Code.
#1082345076434423818: Every 4 seconds, Kang Gains an indefinite Fury Buff granting 20% Attack Rating. This ends when reaching 20 stacks of Fury.
#1082356636892536862: Degeneration Debuffs gain +50% Potency.
#1082349884415418478: Incinerate Debuffs gain +150% Potency. Additionally, Heavy Attacks now inflict Degeneration on each hit and their stack limit is removed.
Bringer of Death I – Unique
With Psylocke
#1082350239823953950: Basic Attacks have a 30% chance to grant a psi-charge and each psi-charge grants +5% Critical Rating.
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Gain +50% Critical Damage Rating and +50% Attack Rating when striking an Opponent at 0 Power.
Bringer of Death II – Unique
With Gambit
#1082349179172556840: Each time a Kinetic Charge is gained there is a 70% chance to gain an additional one. Cooldown 0.8 seconds.
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Each Kinetic Charge grants 10% Perfect Block Chance up to a max of 100%.
Bringer of Death III – Unique
With Wolverine
#1082341943054454846: Personal Bleeds have a chance based on Critical Rating to be Critical Bleeds dealing damage based on Critical Damage Rating.
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Gain +30% Critical Rating and +40% Critical Damage Rating.
Bringer of Death IV – Unique
With Archangel
#1082350186627616788: Each hit of a Heavy Attack into a Stunned Opponent has a 10% chance to pause all Neurotoxins for 3 second(s).
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Neurotoxin stun duration is increased by 30%.
Impending Storm – Unqiue
With Storm
#1082370870296723538: Each hit of a Heavy Attack into a Shocked Opponent has a 60% chance to inflict an additional Shock Debuff, dealing 70% of modified attack over 8 seconds.
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Shock effects last +50% longer and Heavy Attacks refresh all Shock Debuffs on the Opponent.
Guardian of the Pyramid – Unique
With Storm (Pyramid X)
#1082358885257580654: After charging her Dormant Prowess Storm has a 70% chance to trigger a Passive Prowess for each Prowess Buff that is already active. Each increasing Special Damage by 15% for 6 seconds.
If this Champion is a Horseman of Apocalypse Gain +30% Critical Rating and +20% Prowess Potency.