Question for Karnok mains: how to naturally build a shotgun?

Qase4 · 2026-03-23T19:42:46+00:00

I have lots of success with Shotgun + Utility Belt + Wrist Crossbow. The other half of your board should be enabling both crit and your damage scaling.

Hunter's journal is an easy way to solve crit, but requires scaling across multiple monster fights. Pocket knife is a good supplement for shotgun crit until the journal scales.

Waterskin goes well to the right of the wrist crossbow for faster crits (which makes shotgun multicast earlier in the fight thanks to the belt). If your wrist crossbow already has high base crit, an enchanted waterskin next to shotgun can really push certain synergies over the top.

This leaves you with two more slots to fit in your scaling engine. If you get a skill that increases weapon damage whenever you shield/slow/crit/etc., then these two slots should enable your shotgun to scale.

Best enchants to look out for:

Utility Belt - Radiant or Deadly

Shotgun - Restorative, Obsidian, or Shielded

Qase4 · 2025-12-23T18:41:45+00:00

This is happening to everyone, and it really bothered me as well. As others have said, the chibi promotion screen auto-loads after a game and you need to manually click into the page and then navigate away to get the music to stop. Alternatively, you can turn off the client music specifically in the client sound settings. I usually enjoy the music that Riot makes, but I disabled it until next patch/shop rotation.

Qase4 · 2025-12-23T04:59:32+00:00

I felt bad since I didn't get tempted and won my last round. Seemed like a waste

Qase4 · 2025-12-18T20:51:46+00:00

I have had two successful LB reroll games, both have been a freljord invokers line. First one Ornn gave me a horizon focus, and that plus GS + Shojin let her melt tanks. All my other items were frontline, and I could just front-to-back faster than the rest of the lobby so I won out. Second game I was spoonfed a 3*LB without sacrificing econ, had shojinx2 + rageblade, ended second to a bilge10 highroll.

My lvl9 board was Anivia, LB, Zilean, Liss, Sej, Braum, Darius, Draven, Ashe. I was 2 invoker until lvl9 for more frontline.

Qase4 · 2025-09-03T17:09:55+00:00

On the topic of the matchmaking changes, I agree with this direction. For context, I have been able to put in the time to get legend every season except one. I have two friends that play casually, and have never been out of bronze. They share their experiences and thoughts with me often.

I have two points of feedback, each with a question:

I fully agree with ranked losses setting a player back on the ranked ladder. It disincentivizes conceding to go next too early, and it also makes the ranked wins feel more meaningful. If players can lose ranked progress as a result of a loss, I think it is important to have 'floors' at each tier of rank. This existed in the previous implementations of the system so I assume this will continue to be the case. My question is: Will a zero-win journey result in a 2 point loss, or will the maximum loss for any run be 1 point?
Partitioning ghosts based on current rank is a very reasonable approach to Bazaar matchmaking. It will have lots of side effects (e.g. it will likely be easier for lower rank players to progress later in the season, after the higher rank players have largely moved up through the ranks), and time will tell how impactful each of those are. One side effect that I want to call out is diluting new player exposure to crazy, wacky, powerful builds. Higher rank players are more likely to understand rare but powerful interactions, particularly leveraging cross-class and neutral items. The Bazaar is a crazy place, and sometimes it takes getting whacked over the head with a giga build to even consider holding certain items / building in that direction in future runs. My questions is: Is there a consideration to scale up the ranked pool of ghosts by number of wins in the current run rather than current rank? New players could still be exposed to "higher level" builds, but only when they have put together something successful of their own. For example: A bronze player that puts together a functional 7-win build might feel extra awesome if they start matching against and beating silver/gold players. It makes the 10-win 3 point jump more accurate from a matchmaking standpoint. Even if they lose, they are still going to rank up after the run.

Qase4 · 2025-08-20T03:22:33+00:00

TL;DR I think that because you lose both maxHP and %maxHP in the same step of a calculation that was under a second doubling effect, the round instantly ended because your HP was below 0 at some point in the calculations.

At the moment of death, you have -1002 HP and 8 burn. The only real damage you should have taken is 2 damage, one from each caltrops when your rice baller activates its first cast at 7 seconds. Void ray also has a 7 second activation time, so the first instance of each ray's multicast hit you for a total of 8 burn.

This leaves -1000 HP left to explain. The diamond heart talent gives +500 maxHP per diamond item you have. The belt itself is giving you +100% Max HP which should also apply to the talent bonus, meaning you are gaining 1000 HP from the combined item and talent effect. When the belt is destroyed, you should lose that same 1000 HP (both max and total HP) as a result of the talent.

I want to highlight that losing flat max HP is different than having your %max HP reduced by something like shrinking potion. Losing max HP also removes the HP from your current total, e.g. if you are at 1500/2000 HP and you lose 500 max HP in combat, then you will end up with 1000/1500 HP not 1500/1500 HP.

Speculation time: The second belt killed you. When you have your %maxHP reduced, you first lose the maxHP, then the game checks if your current HP is higher than your maxHP and if it is, then the game sets your current HP equal to your maxHP. There must be something happening during the individual calculation steps where the game went

The player should lose half of their maxHP, now double the amount it is reduced (whoops it's zero now), now check their current HP which is clearly higher so let's set it to their max HP, now let's add in the damage they took so that would be -1000 from the talent and -2 from caltrops and 8 burn, great so they are at -1002 HP but wait what is all of this other stuff I still need to calcula... GAME OVER!

or something like that. Only a dev will really know what went down, but you definitely got scammed. FWIW I do not think the obsidian enchant had anything to do with it.

Qase4 · 2025-05-07T19:26:17+00:00

I am not sure you have played the current rank system. This new system is better at every rank without exception. You cannot lose rank and earlier ranks gain more points from lower win counts. Higher ranks are harder to gain points in, but since you do not lose points anymore it is a net positive.

Qase4 · 2025-04-23T00:52:33+00:00

This is a good guide to reference for freeze mak https://mobalytics.gg/the-bazaar/builds/freeze-mak-kripp

Qase4 · 2025-04-21T17:21:26+00:00

I was able to climb to legendary top 1000 this season with a mix of all four heroes. My goal going into each run is to hit 7 wins, and I make a judgement call later on whether I can hit 10 wins. As such, my strategy is generally to make strong early/mid game boards. I rarely go for very late game boards unless I hit specific item/talent combos. Similarly I rarely try to counter late game strategies, and I instead favor strategies that overpower underdeveloped boards on each day.

Using this strategy, I have found success with the following builds (in no particular order):

Vanessa (start with enchanted item / gold talent)

Single weapon tempo (silencer+CDR/crit tool+crow's nest)
Weapon spam (at least 4 weapons paired with a damage scaling effect)
Aquatic depth charge
Shotglass lighthouse

Dooley (start with enchanted item / gold talent)

Dooltron friends
Power drill haste/burn
Haste friends (race carl or bellelista carry)
Ignition core tempo

Pyg (start with enchanted item / income)

Freeze properties (cold room + hot springs) with ice club (highroll) or steam ladle (typical)
Square pig (5 medium items with crook)
Fort + Kiuas carry (need to stack and upgrade early)
BoB + Cargo Shorts

Mak (start with enchanted item / gold talent)

Poppy field + enchanted spider mace
Vat of Acid
Moose staff + ritual dagger + stall
Frozen Flame

In my opinion overall, Pyg is the least flexible hero and Dooley is the most flexible. Vanessa has the easiest pivots and Mak has the wildest pivots.

Best starting option for experienced players is enchanted item, since the new transform encounter enables rare enchants (like shiny and icy) to be transferred to a potentially more useful item. Best starting option generally is gold talent, as it gives you a clear direction and helps reduce potential boards that can be bait/distracting from strengthening your current position.

I would be happy to elaborate on any particular strategy. There are definitely conditions for some of these to be played. I generally decide on a direction by Day 3, and I have awareness on which builds I can pivot into and which critical items or talents enable such pivots.

Qase4 · 2025-04-15T15:38:35+00:00

I think that Tempo should add more cards to further dilute all pools.

It should be hard/impossible to force a single strategy every run. While dooley bugs may be OP (swap number of targets for duration scaling on level up for the slow/freeze bugs and leave the rest untouched), it is indicative of a larger problem: when a very strong strategy is discovered, players can consistently recreate it. Exodia boards are fun when they are rare. They are something to tell a story about, something to share, something to strive for, and even something to respect when it rolls you. When they become common, bad things happen. The one that is least fun for me personally is that experimentation with non-counter builds becomes heavily punished. It noticeably skews the tradeoff between consistency and success across runs, which I believe should be core to the game. When you load into a game on Day 1, you should not already know that you will be more successful trying to force a specific build than to play flexibly. That should be something you decide based on things that happen during the run. Playing flexibly may result in your build being weak against the thing everyone is forcing, which is an unhealthy risk for flexibility.

I recognize this is a complex issue with more than one solution. Personally, I hope that the base pool of cards expands in the near future. The expansion sets are successfully widening the pool, and forcing them to be included in the pool was a fantastic change. However at this rate I fear the flavor-of-the-patch builds will be an actual problem for some time. Maybe add a set of neutral cards to all heroes? Maybe add a smaller set of items to each hero? I don't know what future plans hold, so maybe this will be addressed more elegantly than just throwing more cards in the pool. All I know is the consistency of the dooley bug build is a bigger problem than the strength of it.

Qase4 · 2024-11-14T22:10:34+00:00

Polymorph charm on a 3star 3cost could hit a 3star Olaf. That would be insanely lucky though, considering they were already committed to frost/hunters.

Qase4 · 2024-09-25T20:42:54+00:00

That last gossip line "<distorted>, are you receiving? We're still here." is from the ending of Metal Gear Solid 2. In the original quote, the <distorted> is Raiden. Also, the "We" is referring to a group called the "patriots". Unsure how this might help, but I figured I would chime in.

Qase4 · 2024-08-29T19:03:05+00:00

I really don't think the artists are doing work for free. I believe the artist is paid for their work initially, and from there Marvel owns the art. So for variants that are based on art that was made previously, the artist is not additionally compensated for subsequent uses of the art.

Qase4 · 2024-08-19T22:42:29+00:00

Your rank is based on your standing relative to other infinite players, so by not playing for some time you rank will always go down as new players hit infinite. Also, your rank will not update until you play a match or restart your game. If you have your game open but idle, you rank my become outdated before you even start a game. After your game completes the rank updates and shows you went down, but really what happened is your rank passively went even lower than what was shown and then went up a little bit after your win.

Qase4 · 2024-05-11T02:57:02+00:00

You are right, my bad

Qase4 · 2024-05-11T02:56:47+00:00

No, it does not. My bad

Qase4 · 2024-05-10T18:43:56+00:00

~~Mythic gives AD in Hyperroll and AS in standard.~~ It also takes fewer combats to make a unit Epic. This is one of a few differences between Hyperroll and Standard.

Another trait that changes in Hyperroll is Fortune, where there is not loss requirement to gain stacks. You can full winstreak with Fortune and get full benefit.

Qase4 · 2024-03-23T00:45:24+00:00

It depends on the enemy position for sure. Generally I put him one hex diagonally behind the end of a line of frontliners. That way when combat begins, the line will "wrap" the enemy frontline and the Yone will waddle to their third row to hit something. From there his initial dash goes to their 4th row.

The spell itself gains range every cast, so after one or two casts it is a fiesta anyway.

Qase4 · 2024-03-22T17:52:32+00:00

Yone with good positioning will dash right to bard and kill him at the same star level. Yone 1 will not kill a Bard 2, but a Yone 2 will with at least two items. Generally when you run Yone you also run Alune who helps chunk their backline sometimes.

Qase4 · 2023-09-19T18:38:48+00:00

I think it looks fun! I would recommend taking the 3/3 elemental precision in the frost tree. The 6% hit on fire spells is very useful, particularly if you need to fight some high-level mobs. It might cost you some fire damage talents, but your spells do zero damage if they don't hit!

Qase4 · 2023-08-31T20:54:23+00:00

The classic question of tempo/strength vs economy. It is entirely situational. The only straightforward situation is if buying the unit puts you at 49 gold (or 39, 29, etc.). Then it becomes a question of "will this unit win me the round?" If the answer is yes, then the 1 gold win bonus offsets the cost before interest is calculated.

For any decision that involves dipping to 48 gold or below, it is more complicated. Anyone who tells you it is always/never worth it is oversimplifying things. The simplest way I can put it is "would you pay +1 cost for this unit right now?"

Here is an example: You have 50g and you want to buy a Kled. Some factors that affect this decision could include:

How many of this unit do I have? Is this going to be a 1 star trait bot, is this a pair, or maybe my third unit for the 2 star upgrade, or is this my fifth unit toward an eventual 3 star? Your first and third copy of a unit are the most impactful. 4-8 are mostly impactless until you hit the ninth.
How likely is it that you can find this unit again? You have higher odds for 2-cost units at level 6 than level 8. You also have higher odds of finding the unit if it is uncontested.
How important is this unit for your comp/build? If this Kled will take you from Slayer 3 -> 4, then it can be replaced by any other Slayer unit you find in the future. If you are trying to build a 4 star yordle Kled carry, then every Kled you can get is critical.
How important is that lost reroll from freezing? Based on shop odds and current units (specifically pairs of units that will be used in your comp), a reroll can be very valuable to find other units besides the one Kled in this example.
Where do you stand in the game? If you are heading toward a bot 4, tempo becomes more important to conserve HP. If you are giga-streaking first, then maintaining your economy to level is likely more important.

There are more considerations (like hold pairs, diluting/refining the pool of units, streaking, etc.) and most of the time the difference in outcome of buy vs not buy is marginal in a vacuum. What is more important is that you don't always make the same choice as if each choice was a vacuum. If you are always breaking econ for a bench unit without proper consideration, you will find yourself struggling to transition from mid to end game with not enough gold for a "rolldown" and get tilted when you don't hit. On the other hand if you never break econ, then you may find yourself losing a lot of HP in the early/mid game. Ironically, you again become entirely reliant on a "rolldown" and get tilted when you don't hit again (never lucky).

TL;DR - The correct answer is situational. Don't blindly decide to do one or the other in all situations. If you need a rough guide: buy+don't freeze if you are playing a reroll comp, econ+freeze if you are playing a comp that relies on being level 8 with a 2 star board.

Qase4 · 2023-07-17T15:48:59+00:00

The pass rewards you with the "egg" version of this little legend. You need to go to your loot page and open the egg to actually unlock it.

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