Thanks for the only reply lol! I watched the video and while it’s meant for a complete endgame Attikus, I get the general idea. I’m slogging through leveling him up in story missions for now trying out the new drop rate and staying away from PvP at the moment.
He seems like a melee ambush character and it’s a real bummer his survivability is pretty bad early game.
I promise you…his survivability in the early game PALES in compare to how badass he is in the later. With proper helix choices…as long as you are hitting something you are basically immortal.
One of the tricks I’ve realized with Attikus is that he is momentum based, use your skills to take out minions and stack your hedrons, then you use the full power of the skill to kill a player and then you keep going… I like his lvl 5 mutation in pvp cause then you never drop below 4 charges unless you die… Mind that drawback as it is fair in my opinion…
Yeah he definitely gets a lot more durable it’s just that…a lot of PvP matches the game can be over by then or at least, those lvls 1-4 can dictate the total outcome of the match.
Take another late blooming character like Boldur who also doesn’t really hit his stride until lvl 5+. I’m still able to fill my Tank/Defender role and soak damage middle lane, kill Thralls to help level, push against minions, and CC/stun players. With Attikus I feel like I’m dead meat if I try and stay in lane.
Yeah Attikus evolves in role as you lvl, act as an assassin and focus on minions every respawn, if you role-play to do better rember Attikus is very very clever… Brains do exist with his brawn… Play smart and take a risk or two… You can’t win without risking a death… I try to use my charges on the arc because of its massive chain damage potential…
Just feels wrong to have the “King of the Thralls” have to play so hit and run.
VERY carefully; and always remember to wear protection.
Attikus weirdly enough plays a backfield role until about level 3 to 4. Make sure you aren’t picking him in a team comp with too many squishy characters. Ideally you’ll want another melee attacker who does well sustaining early (ie not El Dragon) to fill your front line position until you hit that mark. Until then, you are a shard gatherer/thrall spawner and, once you’ve gotten comfortable with his early weaknesses, sideline ambusher to discourage flanks or buildables being lost.
Level 3 brings you Tenacity, which absolutely explodes your damage output. Level 4 is Quickening Arc, eliminating Attikus’ movement speed weakness. Level 5 brings your choice of Hedronic Regeneration or his stack saving mutation (I prefer regen) and your Ult, and level 7 explodes your damage potential yet again with Swift Strikes.
Attack speed gear is also extremely important for Attikus, so in your early game stage, try to conserve some of them to get one of those activated. A zero cost shard generating gear will help with this, as you will take a long time to reach level 4 if you aren’t occasionally popping out an elite minion or turret. Attack damage gear is alright as well but Attack Speed takes priority as when you have Tenacity, faster attacks will naturally lead into yet more damage.
Once you have hit this point and hopefully activated some gear as well, Attikus becomes one of the most liberating characters to play. He has the damage potential of a Phoebe or El Dragon with the tankiness and body blocking ability of Montana. The right helix choices in his pounce and arc will ensure that your initial target has no hope of escape, and if you find yourself staring down a good chunk of the enemy team at once, your ultimate will save you from being CC’d and focused to death.
I’d take the blue pill and go back to the Matrix, where my humor is appreciated.
Good feedback there, thanks. Let me ask you this though, if I run Vow of Vengeance could I take the life steal at 3 instead of the damage boost?
So I might be on to something. I’m labbing Attikus damage to test some stuff and I found a way to incorporate L.Hook into his regular attack string by canceling it.
First some basic numbers:
Regular Attack Damage at lvl 1 (no gear): 78 dmg
L.Hook uncharged Attack Damage at lvl 1 (no gear): 156
So right away we see that uncharged L.Hook counts for 2 reg attacks.
Next we run a regular series of uninterrupted basic attacks over 10 secs
Regular Attack = 20 attacks in 10 secs = 1,560
L.Hook (uncharged) cancel in Reg Attack = 15 attacks in 10 secs = 2,340
So even though it’s less attacks it hits for way more. This is before any sort of damage buff/attack speed buff too. Only caveat is that you have to have the timing down to cancel properly so it’s skill based but it’ not hard to learn.
I wouldn’t personally. As I said I prefer the regen option at level 5, which means my Attikus build has little difficulty staying alive. I go in, lose my charges from activating Pounce and stun my primary target, kill that target and get 5 charges back, and then I have +35 HP per second to keep myself alive for either a retreat or to take another target.
Attikus, like any large target, is very vulnerable to CC. If he’s CC’d, life steal won’t keep him alive because he isn’t hitting anyone. He needs to be able to kill or scare off the most dangerous target with his Pounce and followup attacks. The Pounce stun leads well into the followup attacks to get your full Tenacity chain (as you noticed, even better if you have either of the Vow gears), which will definitely leave your target under 50% HP or worse before they have a chance to bail. So you target those CC characters, scare them off or kill them outright, and your natural tankiness should keep you alive afterwards even if you didn’t take regen.
I use attikus as an disruptor or an assasin. I like to play meltdown with him because he can kill steal easier and level up faster because of that.
Attikus appears to be getting a complete reworking in the next content patch so I wonder how much of this advice will still apply.
I hope not because I`m doing really good with him how he is now 
Depends on how they overhaul him. Unless they nerf his damage a fair amount he’s still going to be a glass punch cannon.
I’ve got some raw data if anyone cares btw. Whole point of testing was to see if I could skip Tenacity for Brawlers Boon (+15% Life Steal) supplanting damage w/ Legendary Glove Vow of Vengeance.
Conclusion: VoV in perfect conditions tops out around 19-20 dmg where Tenacity gives an easier to maintain 52 dmg (which increases per lvl).
Gear Specific:
Attikus is a thrall stomper and can level quickly farming them. With tenacity you can take the mid thralls in incursion single handed very quickly.
The VoV is a great choice on Attikus. He’s a juggernaut, in a 1v1 he’s terrifying as he hits so hard and his charged hook is huge. I’ve seen a few Attikus players who charge into battle winding up charged hook, after you cop that a few times you learn to run away. The Boots of the Brute is great on any melee but would be especially nasty on Attikus, when he starts punching all you want to do is run away and he’s easy to avoid in most cases but when he slows you repeatedly you’re gonna have a bad time.
Yes they’re two top-tier legendaries that are superb on any melee character, but especially lethal on those large characters with slow movement speed and lower DPS than the assassins. Could you imagine Boldur running those items? Oh my, I hope I never have to experience that 
Yeah I’d love to get my hands on Boots of the Brute, I’d run that with Vow and maybe spec Leap for the life steal.