Character Guides - Cook - Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset - May 30, 2020

Abilities

Viper Cudgel

Far Shot

Viper Blast

Extreme

Phenomenon Flare - Cook places 16 damage-over-time flames at his position, with the most damage concentrated towards the middle

Cook's Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset is a very fundamental themed build. Cook's high stats and strong basic attacks thanks to holding his ranged weapon make him able to deal strong damage at any time, even with abilities on cooldown. His Far Shot lets him do decent damage to distant enemies and is available frequently.

Cook has two major problems -- his high cooldowns on Viper Cudgel/Viper Blast and his low Extreme gains with Phenomenon Flare. This means that he will almost always have less combat options than other characters. He can gain more Extreme by attacking enemies while his ranged weapon is out, but this decreases his high attack power -- one of his main strengths.

Cook is probably the only character who is meant to block and take attacks, thanks to his high stats (HP, Attack and Defense) -- he needs to do so to Stagger Tag enemies for higher damage, in a block-and-counter fashion, and he will need to follow up with dodge cancels to reposition and avoid other attacks. Mastery of combat fundamentals will go very far with Cook. If an enemy can be killed by Cook without holding his ranged weapon, consider throwing it out for that slight Extreme boost -- Cook needs as many options as he can get, and his Extreme is a good option. Block-and-counter also helps keep Viper Cudgel accurate, which is important given its low cooldown. Viper Blast is good at picking off distant weaker enemies.