Hulk: Subtle Game Mechanics for Tank Builds

This guide introduces some subtle game mechanics to help bolster the ability of Hulk to apply status and battery effects, primarily for tank builds. Specifically, how to allow Hulk to use small debris attacks throughout entire light combo chains without the debris breaking and how to use small debris attacks simultaneously with attacks using a mob as a bludgeon.

Introduction

This is a guide for subtle optimisation of Hulk for stun/status effects, and in particular battery effects. While it can be used in any build it is primarily of use for tank builds.

A Hulk tank build, while almost impossible to kill due to high defense and life regen, the downside is a lack of damage as it is not uncommon for full tank builds to have 750-1000 might/valor.

But even with a tank build, Hulk is a strong AoE character so this guide covers ways to help improve Hulk's damage, through consistent battery effects, but to also bolster Hulk's tanking role, e.g., crowd control, while spreading stun & status effects in an AoE with some subtle use of particular game mechanics. Specifically using dodge to maintain small debris attacks throughout entire attack chains and using small debris attacks simultaneously with using a mob(s) as a bludgeon.

Legend

L = Light attack
H = Heavy attack
H*= Power attack (Hold H)
j = Jump
CC = Crowd control.
DoT = Damage over time.
Battery effect = +/- status together give bonus damage for strikes and DoTs.
Debris attack = throughout this refers to attacking while holding small rock debris.
Grapple = Hulk's Grab attack.
Bludgeon = This refers to Hulk using a grabbed mob as a weapon to attack with.
Polarity = Refers to the (-) or (+) qualifier for a given status type.
(-) polarity = gamma, cryo, shock, sonic
(+) polarity = plasma, pym, cosmic, vibranium

Status Effects

Using status damage for CC and battery effects is essential for a tank build Hulk. Hulk generally has easy access, either innate or through gear, to seven of the ten possible status effects: stun, plasma, pym, gamma, vibranium, sonic, and cosmic.

With the recent patches, all characters have access to all of the standard status effects.

Primary: These are the types effective for CC.

• Stun is the simplest. It allows for takedowns and also acts as temporary CC if the mob is left stunned.
  
• Plasma acts as intermittent CC by interrupting some enemy attacks, and staggering weaker enemies, on top of dealing damage.
  
• Pym shrinks enemies causing them to take more damage and deal less damage. The pym effect also interrupts all attacks, even bosses, as the enemy shrinks.
  
• Cryo freezes / slows enemies. The added bonus specifically to Hulk is that a slowed mob cannot escape or evade grab attempts.

Secondary: These are more damage oriented, either directly, supplying a damage buff, or by affecting Intrinsic and Heroic meters.

• Gamma applies a DoT which will spread to other mobs, allowing damage and status to spread easily. Mob death causes a gamma explosion.
  
• Vibranium causes damage explosions on attacked mobs.
  
• Sonic causes the mob to charge heroes that are close enough heroic and intrinsic meters. Note: Sonic status can help Hulk with his rage meter and cooldowns, but again not as essential as the primary CC effects.
  
• Cosmic increases damage taken by mobs and heals the attacker(s). Note: The cosmic healing is not needed by Hulk due to rage healing, and with Boneshaker with taunt specced Stranglehold and Thunderclap the mobs should be focusing on Hulk making it less of a team perk that needs to be supplied by Hulk.

Tertiary: Hulk cannot can now access these effects through gear, but can also apply them via using a specific mob as a bludgeon.

• Shock increases damage done to mob and increases an attacks critical chance against them.
  
• Cryo freezes the mob slowing all actions. This has been added to useful CC effects above.

Other:

• Graviton. This causes mobs to float up into the air. This cannot be dealt as a status effect from players except through specific chance based perks on gear, a graviton bomb/box is destroyed during combat, or if Hulk uses a graviton mob as a bludgeon.

Melee Without Breaking Small Debris

Hulk can maintain his hold on small debris without it breaking or being dropped throughout entire combo chains that begin with light attacks.

Normally when Hulk holds a small debris, he can attack with one hit which smashes the debris on the enemy. However, using a dodging light attack vs. a stationary light attack to begin an attack chain causes held small debris to not break upon striking a mob for the entire duration of the combo.

Hulk performing a standard small debris attack, smashing the debris.
Hulk holding the debris while performing a light attack chain with (left) a light finisher and (right) a heavy finisher.
By holding the debris for the duration of the attack chain, the status of both hand equipment (L finisher perks) and range equipment (small debris melee attack perk) will give two status effect damages, leading to a battery effect if the status types are opposite polarity, as both status damages are applied.

Note: Standard dodge+L attack or a sprint+L attack deal slightly more damage than the standard stationary strike. It has the same damage as the 2nd hit in the scaling L,L,L,L combo, e.g., L1,L2,L3,L4 becomes L2,L2,L3,L4 damage wise.

Debris Attacks: Non-Breaking & Breaking

Small Debris Attacks: Non-Breaking

The following attacks do not break small debris on impact with a mob.

Note: The dodge debris strike and chains do not benefit from the Mastery/Ranged/Hand Cannon ability.

Re-tested Apr 19/2022: Hand Canon only applies bonus damage when debris breaks on a mob, i.e., the first normal attack with small debris.

• Dodge+L,L,L,L or H finisher
  
• Sprint+L
  
• Sprint+L, dodge-> L,L,L,L or H finisher

Small Debris Strikes: Breaking

Note: These strikes do benefit from the Hand Cannon ability.

• L
  
• H
  
• Dodge+H
  
• j+L
  
• j+H
  
• j+H*
  
• All Heroics break debris.

Using a Mob as a Bludgeon

The grapple (hold light attack) is a very strong tanking tool for Hulk, but also gives access to more status effects, and allows him to spread them in an AoE.

• Spreads status effect(s) and stun easily in an AoE, including types Hulk normally has no access to. Graviton, Shock, Cryo.
  
• Crowd control. Grappled enemies = 1-2 CC'd mobs until dropped/killed, while also applying damage to the CC'd mob(s).
  
• All bludgeon attacks interrupt mobs from blocking with a shield.
  
• Hulk is immune to interrupt during bludgeon attacks with Vice Grip ability.
  
• Hulk can negate attack damage with a bludgeon with Combatant Shield ability.
  
• Hulk can generate regen packs from H attacks with perk Regen Slams ability.

Note: Combatant Shield is an odd ability. It does not absorb red attack damage, only white or yellow. Once the timing for a parry is learned this ability is essentially useless.
Update: My views on Combatant Shield have changed somewhat in that I don't view it as useless. While parry is a much more useful ability, it isn't often available due to the infrequency of attacks that can be parried on higher difficulties. Combined with the frequent lesser mob spawns, this gives Hulk plenty of opportunity to carry a shield. It still has the downside of having the bludgeon dropped on use. I would say this ability may be more useful for Hulk builds with lower resolve / resil.

Note: The Ionic Overflow ability is required in the Primary/Grab Attacks tree for bludgeons to apply status effects. Mob colour indicates their status effect type: red = plasma, green=gamma, white=cryo, blue=shock, purple=graviton.

Note: Graviton effects seem to only come from Synthoids or Adaptoids.

Hulk applying Cryo status via bludgeon attack. Cryo damage is only accessible to Hulk via bludgeon attacks.

Bludgeon Attacks While Holding Debris

Hulk can grapple one or two mobs and attack with them as bludgeons while simultaneously holding small debris throughout the entire bludgeon combo.

Grappling normally breaks the debris but if Hulk attacks or dodges, immediately and continuously, the debris is kept; Hulk can attack with any regular Light or Heavy bludgeon chain to maintain the debris. Enemies do not need to be hit in order to keep the debris. Thus the debris can be kept while making empty attacks and/or dodges to maneuver Hulk to reach enemies.

Note: If any of the dodges or attacks are mistimed, i.e., there is a pause between the inputs of one and the next, the debris will be dropped.

Note: The innate pause after a H, H, H single bludgeon attack chain will cause the debris to be dropped. This pause can be cancelled with a dodge, but inserting a dodge cancel mid chain has much more simple timing, e.g., H, H, Dodge, H, H, ...

If the bludgeon dies, Hulk keeps the debris allowing Hulk to continue to use dodge debris strikes.

The status effect of the debris is applied to the grappled mob(s) and to enemies attacked with the bludgeon. This allows Hulk to apply, in theory, up to six status effects while striking with bludgeon(s) as stun, the debris effect(s), hand equipment effect, and the bludgeon(s') status effects are applied to enemies struck with debris+bludgeon combos.

Note: This makes the Anomalous Platelet Graft ranged item, which is generally considered to be somewhat useless, to be quite useful if it has two small debris attack perks. The lack of stats make it less so on some endgame areas, but until that point it is a very effective gear piece to help create battery effects.

To grapple a mob while holding debris:

• Hulk must be holding a small debris.
  
• Dodge +L to strike the target mob.
  
• During any of the hits in the light combo chain, hold L to grab.

Hulk holding a bludgeon and small debris.

To grapple a 2nd mob while holding a bludgeon and debris:

• Once holding the first mob with debris, Hulk must continuously attack in order to not drop the debris.
  
• While attacking with the mob and debris, strike another mob with a L,L,L bludgeon combo. After any of the strikes, hold L again to grapple another mob.

Hulk holding two bludgeons and a small debris. The first bludgeon has one status effect, gamma, applied from the debris (range slot perk). The second bludgeon has three status effects: cryo, plasma, and gamma. The cryo is from the first bludgeon, plasma from the hand slot perk, and gamma from the debris. These were applied in the process of grappling the second mob. Mobs being struck will now receive stun, cryo, plasma, gamma, and any status effect from the 2nd bludgeon.

Grapple Setups

Standing grapple will rarely work after a certain mob level, e.g., only by surprise similar to surprise takedowns, and some mobs are resistant or evasive to grapples. There are times where a grapple is essentially guaranteed.

Stun State
Stunning a mob, i.e., able to perform a takedown, is the easiest opportunity to perform a grapple.

Grounded
Mobs that have been knocked over onto the ground can be grappled before they get back up.

Stagger-> Grapple

• L,L,L,L, -> stagger -> grab
  
• L,L,L,H -> stagger -> grab
  
• Parry -> stagger -> grab
  
• Sprint+L -> stagger -> grab

Note: The grab attempt can be made on any of the strikes in the chain combos once the mob is staggered. The finisher or parry however may throw mobs out of range depending on toughness or environment.

Float-> Grapple

• Sprint+L -> float ->grab
  
• H,H, float, -> grab
  
• L,L,L,H, float, -> grab
  
• Parry, float, -> grab

Note: A mob affected by Cryo status falls more slowly as well, giving a chance to grapple.
Note: Some float setups will instead stagger larger enemies, but the grapple opportunity still applies.

Battering Ram (Sprint + L)

The Battering Ram (sprint+L) is quite possibly one of Hulk's most useful attacks. Given the tools discussed it is useful at this point to single out some of the reasons why.

• If it floats, grab. If it staggers, grab. If neither happens, then continue into a chain combo.
  
• Sprint+L makes two hits on a mob. The attack animation can be cancelled with a dodge as soon as either hit makes contact with a mob. This is useful for dealing with fodder, e.g., proto-synthoids, turrets, or other weak mobs, in the midst of stronger enemies or bosses that need to be engaged or avoided quickly.
  
• As Sprint+L does not break debris, this allows for sprint+L -> dodge cancel -> non-breaking debris chains -> grapple with debris opportunities.

Hulk performing a Battering Ram against a mob while holding small debris. The small debris is not broken or dropped.

Mobs With Grapple Immunity

Some mobs are resistant to grapples, some are partially immune, and some are completely immune.

• Riotbots. These mobs are evasive. Stagger, float, stun, or take the Enhanced Grab ability.
  
• Mobs with energy barriers and/or shields. Energy barriers, similar to a Jarvis Barrier, cover a portion of a mobs life bar. This must be destroyed before a grab can occur. Shields held by mobs will prevent grabs as well. This can be overcome by breaking their block first.
  
• Huge/Strong Mobs. Grabs are possible on these mobs with the Pym status effect. These types of mobs would include, e.g., Dreadbots, Exos, Adaptoids, and Shockmutt.
  
• Bosses are always immune. Monica's primary clone(s), when ground based, can be grappled. Her swarming clones can always be grappled.

Combat With Bludgeons

Melee With a Single Bludgeon

• L,L,L -> Keeps bludgeon
  
• H,H,H -> Keeps bludgeon
  
• H*, j+H* -> Drops bludgeon

Melee With Two Bludgeons

• L,L,L -> Keeps bludgeon
  
• H,H,H -> Drops bludgeon
  
• H*, j+H* -> Drops bludgeon

Sprinting and transitioning into a bludgeon attack has some odd properties. Sprint + L bludgeon attack will stop the sprint and make a standard L bludgeon strike, however sprint + H with a bludgeon will cause Hulk to perform Unsteady Ground -- Hulk's diving body slam attack. To make a heavy bludgeon attack when coming out of a sprint Hulk must stop sprinting first then attack.

Note: While sprinting jump+H is a convenient way to avoid an unwanted Unsteady Ground. Once the mob is slammed one is free to continue attacking however one chooses.

Fast Single Mob Bludgeon Chain
This can be used to attack mobs, but it is also a great way to deal damage to a CC'd bludgeon. This sequence can make use of animation cancels to greatly increase attack speed.

• j+H, j+H, j+H,...

This deals damage faster than the standard H,H,H bludgeon chain as there is no pause after three hits. More importantly the jump animation can be cancelled by making the heavy attack, and the slam recovery animation can be cancelled as soon as Hulk slams the mob on the ground by performing another jump. This allows the bludgeon slams come out very quickly.

Two Mob Bludgeon Chains to Keep the Bludgeon
Heavy bludgeon chain finishers, while powerful, sometimes cause the bludgeon to be dropped; the following allows one to keep the bludgeons. As with the fast 1x chain this is primarily used to damage the bludgeon while keeping them CC'd if there are no enemies to strike.

• H,H,Dodge,H,H,Dodge,...
  
• H,H,j+H,Dodge,H,H,j+H,Dodge,...

Bludgeons & Heroics

Boneshaker -> Drops bludgeon(s)
Stranglehold -> Drops bludgeon(s)
Thunderclap -> Keeps bludgeon(s)