Blackout’s base upgrades are actually very solid, provided
you research them in a chapter, against real enemies as opposed to at the
Training Grounds. Wing Whip offers up
56-84 and the Jump Attack deals 52-78.
Shadow Orbs seem disappointing with only 16-24 3x, BUT when you fire the
orbs against real enemies and not the dummies, you are rewarded with a 44-66
initial hit, which makes for a 92-138 cumulative dealing of damage…and that is
much more in line with expectations!
Base Upgrades
Blackout’s Base Upgrades get started with his tertiary
attack, Black Hole. It lasts roughly 16
seconds and you can have 2 active at once…The Black Holes hold enemies in and
deal 20-30 on an initial hit…You can also teleport in and do a blade attack
that deals the same 20-30 damage. If you
shoot Shadow Orbs at a Black Hole you get 22-33 with Darkness Overload. I’m not a huge fan of this and I never really
saw an advantage over just using Shadow Orbs alone for their higher damage
toll. I could be missing something as
the numbers fire off quickly and are hard to catch, especially at 4 AM when I
do most of this stuff. Shadow Blade at
first seemed just like our jump attack, but after trial-and-error you can get
the Shadow Blade rolling where it does 20-30 damage on contact and allots you
roughly 12 seconds of rolling time. Take
It Back finishes things off and bumps the damage Blackholes do from 20-30 to
30-45.
Wing Warrior Upgrade Path
Wing Warrior exclusively addressees Blackout’s primary
attack, Wing Whip. A Spinning Finish
lets you execute a ground pound of 60-90 with a good radius after a 3 hit combo
and if you extend that you can get a blade dash that does the same 60-90. I like the ground pound, but found the 4th
hit combo hard to execute and control…it will be a move I only use when it is
done incidentally. The Wing Whip and
function of the ground pound is just too effective and efficient to really
bother with “going for” the 4th hit combo. You can also tailor your landing spot mid air
with the 3 hit combo…a very nice bonus!
Warp Speed is the last upgrade on the path, but I feel should have been
second, especially since the middle upgrade addresses this move despite you not
having it. Anyway, Warp Speed does
nothing at the Academy, but in a combat situation it needs about a 3-4 seconds
charge of the primary attack button before it reels off a lighting quick
teleport that does 78-117 4 times! Whip
it Up increases the damage on Wing Whip, Shadow Blade, and Warp Speed. Warp Speed jumps from 78-117 to 102-153, Shadow
Blade moves from 20-30 to 26-39, and wing Whip gets a nice boost from 56-84 to
73-109!
Prince of Darkness Upgrade Path
Prince of Darkness addresses Blackout’s secondary attack,
Shadow Orbs. This is a great path in my
opinion. Dark Energy Clouds upgrades
Shadow Orbs from 44-66 on impact to 66-99.
Similarly, the 16-24 damage from 3 Swirls is now 24-36, but for 8
counts! That is almost 3x the
duration! That is an even bigger
accolade when you consider that Under the Cover of Darkness turns out to cut
damage from enemies roughly in half!
That is like the old SSA +40 Armor essentially. If you were getting
decked in Nightmare Mode by a troll who dealt 150 damage, he will now register
75 when you are within the Dark Energy Cloud!
Most people won’t even talk about this upgrade, or consider it a waste…I
consider It absolute gold! Cloud Gravity
takes about 5 seconds to charge, runs about 10 seconds, and does 40-60 damage
around 16x, or for the 10 seecond cycle.
You can move about while doing this too…However, the big thing about
Cloud Gravity is the spectacle. This is
just a really cool attack to witness. It
is totally unique and will definitely be something players remember.
Soul Gem
Supernova Blackhole is usually easy to execute, although
sometimes you can fire off two blackholes in succession, from the same spot,
only to see them wind up not overlapping.
However, once they do they create a powerful suction, colorwash the
screen, and then proceed to erupt for a staggering 4450-675 damage!
Attack Damage Numbers (Click to Enlarge)
Conclusion
Overall, Blackout has two solid upgrade paths. If you are a fan of the Primary Attack Wing
Whip, take Wing Warrior. If you like the
Shadow Orbs, go with Prince of Darkness.
If you feel one of those is fine as is and the other is weak, proceed
accordingly. If you use the primary
attack almost exclusively you will benefit the most from Wing Warrior. If you are on the fence, I would have to give
the edge to Prince of Darkness. While most
people will rave about Cloud Gravity, I would argue it is the least important
upgrade on the path. Dark Energy Clouds
is just purely effective AND that plays in to utilizing Under the Cover or
Darkness to seriously nerf your opponents.
Taking 250 damage can kill you quick in Nightmare Mode, making that 125
can double your life span and be the difference between loosing a Skylander and
getting a weak one off the Portal to swap for another Champion; You can not
under estimate what this upgrade can do.
Toss in the bonus of Cloud Gravity and you have a memorable spectacle to
associate with the path as well. The
good news is, regardless of your preference you get a fantastic Soul Gem! I will likely reset this Blackout to return
to Prince of Darkness. Wing Warrior is
very solid, but Under the Cover of Darkness is calling my name!
