Captain Hook Tips and Appreciation

Card_Brigade · November 11, 2019, 8:34am

Disclaimer: Although I do go in-depth with Captain Hook’s White, this is not necessarily meant to be a thorough analysis on Captain Hook’s role as a Control character. It’s just some general tips on his playing style mixed in with some appreciation.

Swoggle me eyes, it’s Captain Hook!

After waiting for over half a month or so, everybody’s favorite original pirate captain is finally here, me hearties!

As you can see, I hoarded and farmed enough resources to quickly bring him up to speed, considering I’m not at a high enough VIP level where I can have newly unlocked characters start out at a certain ranking.

I didn’t mind since it was so worth it, getting everything for one of the original Disney villains

Thoughts + Impressions + Tips = Overview

Captain Hook has the unique role of being a Frontline Control character with Tank qualities, proving that characters can indeed fulfill two roles at once.
- I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how his stats turned out, being mostly even all around, save for his low Reality.
  - Because of his stats, and better utility (i.e. Armor Shredding)/survivability overall, I immediately replaced Mr. Incredible on my Study team with Captain Hook.
  - Captain Hook’s defense stats could be seen as an inverse to The Mad Hatter, who has high Reality but low Armor.
- He deals great damage despite being only at 2 stars! This is a great way of making up for the lack of 3 star characters by putting more oomph into 2 star characters
You could potentially use him in Invasion Boss Bot fights as a pesudo tank who boosts Merida and Hiro’s Megabot damage output, but the problem is that the Mama Bot doesn’t attack often enough to activate Captain Hook’s counterattack. He is good in Breaker fights, if only to, again, help out Merida and deal with pesky Invisible users like Scar and Randall.

Captain Hook has the unique property of being able to attack twice in a row. His 2nd basic attack usually deals lower damage than the first attack.
- The only other character in the game who has a unique attack, is Baymax, who is able to hit all enemies with his basic attack.
  - Because of Captain Hook’s high Normal Crit stat, he tends to land several Critical hits often. It also helps that he has a high Armor Negation stat.
Because of his high Armor, he’s able to shrug off Merida’s On the Target, which is great since a lot of characters tend to suffer major damage from that move. His high Armor also negates the stagger that comes from On the Target.

Cold Steel is incredibly great. Cold Steel, when activated, makes Captain Hook a perfect counter to Randall, Peter Pan, Mr. Incredible, Nick, Aladdin, Jack Sparrow, Olaf, and Violet/Baymax. Cold Steel is also a great way of dealing with Thieves in Heists, since it renders Captain Hook immune to the Thief’s stuns, in addition to retaliating after said stun.
- Randall
  - I don’t know about other people, but for me, when I fought against Randall in Breaker fights, I absolutely hated him! Once his revive kicks in, he gets a huge damage boost; because of his long period of invisibility rendering him untargetable, Randall is clear to sweep your entire team. Even if you revive your team afterwards and use the appropriate Buffs, his Invisibility’s length will wear those buffs out, leaving him to sweep your entire team again.
    
    However, once I used Captain Hook, I found out his Cold Steel not only lasts longer than Randall’s Invisibility, but it also activates whenever Randall, in his increased speed, attacks.
- Peter Pan
  - Peter Pan’s White Air Parry is usually a death sentence for any character Peter Pan targets. Funnily enough, Cold Steel will pierce through Air Parry’s invincibility, essentially KOing Peter Pan; of course, this is all assuming that Peter Pan targets Captain Hook when he has a full bar.
- Mr. Incredible
  - His explosive fighting style, especially his White will no longer pose a danger if Cold Steel is activated - Mr. Incredible will easily fold after Captain Hook’s counterattack.
- Aladdin
  - You know how annoying Aladdin can be with his high evasion and counterattacks? Yeah, that’ll be a problem of the past with Cold Steel, since Captain Hook cannot miss if he counterattacks.
- Jack Sparrow
  - Pretty much the same case as Aladdin. Blocks Avast! and counters Acting Dodgy. It’s sooo satisfying to see Captain Hook counter Jack Sparrow’s counter
- Nick
  - Cold Steel blocks Nick’s Charms; it’ll actually activate Cold Steel’s counterattack. Cold Steel will also block and activate if Lemming Rush is used.
- Darkwing Duck
  - Cold Steel pierces through his Invisibility
- Olaf
  - Pretty much the same case as Nick; Captain Hook laughs in the face of his Freezes
- Violet/Baymax
  - Cold Steel is strong enough to overpower and pierce Violet’s shields, doing either major damage, or just enough damage to KO her and her allies. The same goes for Baymax.
While we’re on the subject, I’m not sure what would happen if Bo Peep with her Deflection Spin were to come into contact with Captain Hook’s Cold Steel though if I had to hazard a guess, I would assume that Cold Steel would win and prevail in the end, considering that it overpowered Peter Pan’s Air Parry.
- If so, then I think we finally have a proper counter to Bo Peep’s devastating Deflection Spin. Of course, assuming she doesn’t KO him early by exploiting his low Reality stat with her Billy, Goat and Gruff.
  * MAJOR UPDATE AS OF NOVEMBER 28, 2019! I had a chance to battle against a Bo Peep, and was able to activate Cold Steel at the same time she used Deflection Spin. I can confirm that Cold Steel does pierce through Deflection Spin
Cold Steel will steadily but slowly drain Captain Hook’s energy bar. Assuming that you have other characters who can Study the enemies, in addition to having Cold Steel’s counterattack trigger against a Studied enemy, Captain Hook has the potential to infinitely use Cold Steel
Assuming you have Captain Hook’s second disk from a character who hasn’t been revealed at the time of writing this, Captain Hook can essentially truly step up to be another Tank in your team, considering that his second disk not only provides durable Shields to the entire team with Cold Steel, but he is now able to protect his team with Cold Steel which gains the property to deflect projectiles.
Cold Steel makes Captain Hook immune to Buzz’s Anti-Gravity Cage; it immediately cancels it. Cold Steel also makes Captain Hook invincible to Stitch’s 626 Scuffle
Cold Steel’s invincibility to disables is not level dependent
Not sure how, but sometimes, Cold Steel will pierce through Yzma’s transformed target from Llama Drama, damaging them and ending the Stun early.
For as good as Cold Steel can be, Cold Steel does have its downsides though…
- Cold Steel’s counterattack only activates when enemies use skills; their Basic attacks will not trigger Cold Steel’s counterattack.
- Cold Steel keeps Captain Hook in one place. If there are no enemies nearby him, this slightly lowers Cold Steel’s effectiveness–on the one hand, all attacks targeted towards him won’t deal any damage, but on the other hand, it doesn’t shield his team from projectiles, like from Calhoun’s/Merida’s White, in addition to the counterattack never triggering if there are no enemies nearby him.
  - The other problem is that it takes about 12 seconds for his energy bar to drain, meaning Captain Hook won’t be contributing much to the team, at least not without his secondary disk.
    - This is more noticeable in the Campaign than in other modes like Coliseum, where all characters are always moving, so Cold Steel’s counterattack should trigger more often there.
- Goofy’s White will drain Captain Hook’s energy bar quicker, which can be bad or good depending on the situation, but generally speaking, it’s more on the bad side.

Hooked comes along with a brand new debuff, called Sapped, which compliments the good old fashioned Curse; it’s actually about time we got an Energy equivalent with Curse.
There’s really not much to say about this skill. It deals great damage, has a great debuff, but unfortunately only hits one enemy even if there are other enemies nearby when Captain Hook uses Hooked
- As great as Sapped is, it’s a shame Captain Hook can’t apply it more quickly (unless of course you have Barbossa’s disk). I hope we get more characters in the future who get Sapped so we can have another new meta, this time revolving around energy gain
Screenshot_20191110-164728_Disney Heroes.jpg2220×1080 121 KB
- Strangely enough, Captain Hook’s Green skill shares the same name as Maui’s Purple

Map Study is great - the Study duration as well as the Armor Decrease is AoE is long, the Armor Decrease is huge, compared to Mr. Incredible’s unefficient one-by-one % shredding, and it’s also permanent (though that’s par for the course for any Armor Shredding skills)
At 4 stars (AKA 8 seconds), Map Study can greatly lengthen the initial Study with Barbossa’s Tia’s Disk by 11 seconds.
Map Study’s downsides
- Map Study can be interrupted and canceled if Captain Hook is attacked during this
- If you pair him up with Merida, he tends to be a little slow with Map Study–it can vary from time to time, but generally speaking, Merida is often quicker with her On Target than Captain Hook can pull off Map Study. Use a Basic Damage Mod to fix his speed.

Another great energy gaining skill that has balancing to it
Captain Hook, if he’s paired with Barbossa (Ti), can quickly gain 200 energy in one go with his Basic Attack
- If you’ve forgotten, Captain Hook attacks twice in his Basic Attack
Not much else to say here

I’m usually not too big on the whole concepts of there being Red Skills, still am actually, I’m still not too keen on them…
But I do have to say, this is actually a pretty good Red Skill, since it addresses and fixes the main issue I have with Hooked (at least in terms of Sapping multiple enemies at once; it still doesn’t damage multiple enemies unfortunately) in addition to enhancing Captain Hook’s role as a Control character by buffing Map Study.
- Now if only Red Skills were made more accessible to everybody, especially to F2Ps like myself, then perhaps we’d all be just a little happier
  - Buuut that’s another story for another time

Mods

Two Skill Mods to capitalize on his skill power, which his skillset is dependent on, with a focus being either full offensive (Hooked), balanced offense and support (Hooked + Map Study), or full support (Map Study). One HP Mod to patch up his Reality, and one Basic Damage to boost his Attack Speed.

Alternatively, one Skill Mod, one Basic Damage Mod, and then two HP Mods, with a focus on Reality, to make him Tankier.

Random End Bits

Captain Hook is strong and fast enough to potentially KO Maui before he get off his Bravery. Same goes for Jack Sparrow.
Captain Hook unfortunately is easily staggered; he can be prone to being stun locked if multiple attacks head his way.
If you want a deadly combo, pair him up with Yzma (Ur) after you give him Barbossa’s Disk, Filthy Lucre, Cursing, Sapping, and lowering the Armor of enemies
If you want an anti-energy team, pair him up with Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent (Ur) and Jasmine.
- If you want a full villain team, replace Jasmine with Zurg. It could work since Captain Hook is a pseudo tank.
Captain Hook could be a good addition to a Scare team to balance things out, though I’m not sure if he would have as much utility as he would in a Study team. Maybe with his secondary disk he could protect them, but even then, I’d say just keep him in a Study team.
Oh, and as for the people saying that Captain Hook’s hook is on his right hand, it’s actually on his left hand as it always has been in all printed media coming after his debut in Peter Pan; his model is correct. What is wrong is the skill pictures, which are flipped.

vs

vs

I mean for goodness sakes, a simple Youtube search of Captain Hook clips isn’t that hard to do, people!
- To remedy this, @Polaris would it be alright to pass a message to whoever’s in charge of portraits to flip those two skill pictures to the other side? Aside from clearing up confusion from this thread: https://discourse.disneyheroesgame.com/t/captain-hook/670500/9, it would be more appropriate to the character himself

Just wanted to say a major thanks to @Polaris and their crew for showing a lot of love towards Captain Hook!

The_Vizier · November 11, 2019, 11:52am

He’s a remarkable fighter. “Map Study” and “Hooked”, while they are both awesome and useful skills, also have very low cool downs, and Hook uses them quite frequently. Cold Steel has become possibly one if the best hand-to-hand combat skills in the game. To top it off, A Pirate’s Life and beefy stats make him a terror to deal with. He might have some issues dealing with Hercules(Ma), but other than that, he’s a brilliant adversary.

Yunno · November 11, 2019, 1:20pm

Ironically, I invested in Hook to replace Quorra for my Red Invasion team. Then I found out, he is not that great in boss fights Hopefully with Peter Pan’s disc, he will be better…

Oh, and I still need Quorra my team nothing changes

Card_Brigade · November 11, 2019, 4:49pm

@The_Vizier That’s one of the reasons I love Captain Hook, since he’s such a solid character all around

@Yunno I would say that you should still keep Captain Hook around for Breakers. As for Quorra, yeah, she’s the only Red character who can consistently get rid of Brutes in Boss Bot fights, in addition to dealing major damage to said Boss Bot with her Purple.

Despite being frail, she is worth the investment. Go with Buzz’s Disk, since it increases her Skill Power; it also gives her a Shield based on the amount of damage her Green skill does.

Also, keep investing in Hiro (Ba) if you haven’t; his MegaBot is crucial to keeping the focus off of Quorra and her teammates.

You should also have Mickey on your team if you don’t already have him

Gjmguy · November 12, 2019, 12:09am

Incorrect. Gonzo also hits all enemies, shank hits 3 times, and Gaston hits twice during his punch basic attack. There are also several others I’m not going to name but this is just to give you an idea.

Gjmguy · November 12, 2019, 12:18am

Overall I do appreciate this article @Card_Brigade. It gives a good in depth analysis and shows his strengths and weaknesses well. Good job.

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 12:33am

@Gjmguy Oh thank you! I don’t really use a lot of characters so I didn’t even know there were other characters who had unique basic attacks.

And thank you again, I’m glad to hear that you liked my analysis

Yunno · November 12, 2019, 1:45am

I have her Buzz’s disc and I still am using her in Invasion. Just that, like you said, she is so frail. No matter how many power-ups I use on her, she still get one shot K.O-ed from bosses, which is not nice.

For my Red team, I’m using Merinda (EG), Mickey (Jack), Quorra (Buzz), Peter Pan (Alice) and Goofy (Mickey). Just want to share that, when you combine Mickey’s white skill with Peter Pan’s blue ones, your team would do a lot of damage ;)))

Unfortunately, I don’t use Hiro. I can invest in him is I save up, but truth to be told, I don’t want to invest in old characters because they are getting outclassed… so, here I hope they would release a better Red hero so that I can replace Quorra with

Pipsqueak · November 12, 2019, 2:22am

Quorra’s EVE disk is her only remotely viable disk for invasion.

Gjmguy · November 12, 2019, 2:55am

I agree. Though normally I’d say buzz disk, in invasions use EVE disk as her green skill would only hit the boss and thus get a very weak shield.

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 3:12am

I feel you there; I wish she was more durable too

Do you have access to HP Mods? And if you do, do you have at least 15 Armor and Reality upgrades? If so, then I suggest equipping them to Quorra, as that would probably fix her frail nature, considering she has low HP and defenses.

If you want her to last longer in Boss Bot fights, from what I’ve read around the forums, the Boss Bot’s laser is Normal damage, so maybe for the HP Mods, you might wanna focus on just the Armor upgrades.

I can’t really tell you how much after that, considering I’ve never upgraded a Mod with one of them

Oh that’s a very solid team! Especially since you have extra healing with Alice’s Disk for Peter Pan! And yes, I can see how just how devastating that team can be

My only change to that would be Merida’s Disk - for Breakers, Elastigirl’s Disk is great, but for Boss Bots, you wanna use Bogo’s Disk as Merida gets more utility out of it - Merida can’t Freeze the Boss Bot, so she might as well damage it heavily.

Just so you know, Bogo’s Disk makes Merida do insane amounts of damage, and it’s sad that not a lot of people are talking about that.

I understand the struggle, since it can be kind of a major hassle to grind up materials, money, and skill points to bring up a character up to speed.

I would say, however, you have a lot of time, at least 2 weeks to get Hiro, considering right now it’s Blue Invasion, which means Yellow will be next week.

Hiro’s MegaBot makes the Boss Bot turn around and completely ignore your team, which helps Quorra and her teammates breathe easier.

Considering that you have Peter Pan (Al) along with Mickey, healing the Megabot shouldn’t be too much of a problem as it is with Mickey was the only healer.

Even though I love using Merida to take down Boss Bots, in this instance, I think you might wanna replace her in your Boss Bot lineup with Hiro, considering that he can save your team.

And I can understand the frustration with older characters getting outclassed, I do, it’s just that there’s no other Heroes at the moment who have the ability to redirect the Boss Bot’s attention somewhere else; only Hiro has the ability.

At least consider him to be an option worth looking into one of these days.

And yeah, I wish there was a more durable Fantastic Damage character in the Red team too.

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 3:15am

@Gjmguy Is it because of the added Crit stats? In addition to Quorra being able to heal whenever she uses her White?

I thought the added Skill Power from Buzz’s Disk was better overall, weak Shield from the Boss Bot notwithstanding?

The Crit stats seem so negligible though, when compared to the added Skill Power.

Well, either way, I’m genuinely curious, because I really really want to power through Red Team myself; any help I can get to buff up Quorra would be deeply appreciated.

Gjmguy · November 12, 2019, 3:19am

Quorra is fragile and that’s her biggest flaw. You’re not using the disk to boost damage, you’re using the disk to help survive.
Yes buzz disk is usually better IMO, but in invasion as it only hits 1 enemy you aren’t getting hardly any shield hp out of it.
You’ll be getting much better survival out of EVE disk since it happens over time, so that she can hit creeps and the boss.

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 3:23am

Ohhh, that makes a lot more sense, especially if you have Goofy speeding her up.

Looks like I have another Friend Disk to unlock lol.

Thanks @Gjmguy !

Yunno · November 12, 2019, 4:50am

I have them. I always try my best complete all the tiers in Invasion, but I don’t have a lot of hero chips, so I’m just stacking them up without spending.

I actually forget about that disc. Now that you mention it, that disc sounds nice for boss fight.

But just like you said, I think I will replace Merinda soon, so I may not want to spend disc power on her Bogo’s disc. Many suggests Hiro, so he must be good. I’ll consider him. Thank you

Oh and one more thing, If you use Peter Pan, please time his white skill. When he actives it, he will absorb all the boss’s attention, as well as attacks. So, for a brief time, he will be a shield to your whole team. Along with Goofy ;)))

It may sound like I have a solid team, but in reality, Quorra still die… the most. And if you are unlucky, Peter Pan will follow :)))))

Scrooge is released soon. I wonder if he is good for Invasion? Looking at his skill set, I’m not amazed though

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 5:01am

Guess it’s back to slow grinding the Elite Campaign, eh?

Assuming Merida has two Tooned Ups from Mickey, Merida with Bogo’s Disk can shave off a huge chunk of the HP of Boss Bots - there are times when she can shave off as much as 50-70%!

And no problem! I hope you like Hiro; remember, get Baymax’s Disk, not Darkwing Duck; Baymax’s makes the Megabot more durable, in addition to giving it Shield.

And thanks for the tip! I’ve been trying to use Peter Pan in Boss Bots, only to have little luck with it, so this will help once I get him up to speed someday.

So yeah! Work on improving Quorra’s HP and Defenses, as well as Hiro, and I think your team will be more solid!

EDIT: Never mind, just looked him up and saw he was announced.

And yeah, you’re right, unless it’s Fantastic Damage, he might not be a good character for Boss Bots.

Good to see his iconic Pogo Stick tho

Yunno · November 12, 2019, 6:23am

Thanks fo the tip. I just look at Hiro’s friend discs. And true that Baymax’s is better for Invasion

Card_Brigade · November 12, 2019, 6:32am

No problem you might wanna give temporarily give Hiro an HP Mod at times, since he can be a little weak in his initial stages; the beginning portions of the Campaign are a little hard

Yunno · November 26, 2019, 1:37am

@Card_Brigade After focusing on Hiro, as in leveling him up to my current team lv, he is really good in Invasion. His robot turns the boss away, keeps my whole team safe And thanks to that, the survivability of my Red team is no longer my problem

The only time my whole team die this month in boss fights, is because I don’t pay attention :))))

Thank you again for your help,. Hope you are doing well with your Invasion too

P/s: my full team now is: Mickey, Goofy, Quorra, Peter Pan and Hiro, in case you wonder

Card_Brigade · November 28, 2019, 6:06pm

I’m so happy to hear your luck in Red Invasion has significantly improved after you started using Hiro

And no problem, I’m always happy to help

P.S. Your team is solid! My team is pretty much the same, except I have Merida instead of Peter Pan; still trying to bring him up to speed