This is a Mecha Break Panther Guide for those Panther pilot wannabes who want to pierce the heavens with their lances. Or who wants to beat the pesky shield users and parry masters.
So, you wanna play Panther huh? Feeling like you’ll solo carry the team or kidnap lonely mechs and beat them up in a dark corner?
Ever since the Nerfs were done to Panther since the last OBT, his aggressive playstyle isn’t as prominent but the nerf is deserved. He won’t be the massive pressure on the enemy team anymore, but the one who breaks them up one by one. In Marvel Rivals terms, he’s like a mix of both Venom and Wolverine.
You are slightly tanky, but bad plays won’t be forgiven so easily, as energy is your lifeline. Your EN recharge skill is your savior. Just don’t run out of it.
So let’s see the basics of Panther.
by Dragonil [Lance Ablaze]
Mecha Break Panther Guide – Build, Abilities, Counter
Basic armament guide:
Two melee weapons and two shields. One EN recharge skill. Your shield blade allows you to chase, while your lance is your killer. Melee dash is connected to the first swing of the shield blade and it is quick enough to chase fast fliers, but it consumes energy very quickly. Melee damage is true damage to HP. Nuff said.
As for shields, when activated, external shields will take damage first before the handheld shield. On the other hand, the handheld shield has more HP compared to external shields. However, only the external shield will get recharged by the skill. It isn’t recommended to keep both shields up so you can regen one or the other. Additionally, external shields are your melee counter. It will shrug off any melee stagger if a blade hits you. Just make sure it’s on whenever you’re engaging a melee user aggressively.
The handheld shield has a parry window which is also shown by the glow around it. If the glow is still up it means you can still parry. If it’s gone, you can’t parry anymore. Parry guarantees at least half or 3/4 lance charge follow up. Just don’t get too close to full charge or else the enemy will dash away.
EN recharge skill regens energy and energy shields. You have three uses and they regenerate albeit somewhat slowly. Iirc each charge has a CD of 12 sec. Just be careful on using them in quick succession since you may not be able to disengage when needed.
Basic engagement/energy guide:
For Panther, movement is key in engaging and disengaging. But most importantly, energy is your most important resource. You are a melee mech. Melee uses energy, dashes use energy, going in and out uses energy. So much of what you do uses energy. That is why you treat your energy as your lifeline, your ammo, your protection.
Melee dash is good for getting in and out quickly, but it also uses a lot of energy while activated. It is better to use a melee dash when within 150m of the target so you don’t waste so much energy chasing them. But if no target is in sight, just lurk around the area for a chance to pounce on a unit that is:
- Alone/overextended
- Does not notice you
- Is not Tricera
Panther is basically a solo duelist and wants to keep it that way. If other units come to help, you can still brawl a bit longer to get the kill or disengage to go back to your team. During the engagement, you can use at most 1-2 recharge skills to keep up both your external shield and energy when needed. The last recharge is when you need to disengage or use it for emergencies. But as much as possible, always have 1 ready for use since having 0 is asking your Panther to off itself when you need to escape.
In the case of target priority, below are the mechs you need to deal with based on risk:
- Luminae
- Pinaka
- Narukami
- Aquila
- Falcon
- Skyraider
- Stego
- Inferno
- Hurricane
- Alysnes
- Welkin
- Panther
- Tricera
Just don’t bother with Tricera unless he’s either braindead, or you are not alone.
Against units with a shield, check if they notice you or not. You can execute the guaranteed combo against them if they don’t notice you. But if they do notice you, and they have the shield up, use the plunge attack against them. Plunge attack breaks parry windows and guarantees that they won’t be able to block the follow ups after that. However, plunge attacks have a maximum horizontal range of 100m so don’t exceed that. Vertical range does not matter.
The minimum requirement to do it is having lock on and energy to pull it off. As well as minor air time and vertical advantage. You can do it almost instantly after pressing space, look slightly down, and right click when you are equal height against the enemy.
Additionally, another strat is using the side dashes that melee dash have to try to bypass the shield. Simply put, when almost close enough to hit the enemy you can input a side direction to either dodge or get to their side and then input the melee again to dash and hit them. Personally, I forget to do this.
Another thing. If the enemy melee mech notices you trying to plunge attack, they may strike you first instead to interrupt. If possible, you can bait the strike by just jumping and holding up your shield instead. This way, they get parried instead of clashing with you.
Basic combo guide:
Shield blade (SB) to lance (guaranteed against real pilots)
Lance to SB 2x (when you feel like the lance will connect/the unit is low HP)
Plunge attack to lance (guaranteed against real pilots, but uses more energy)
SB 2x (guaranteed melee combo for shield blade)
SB to lance to SB 3x (when against the corner and body blocking the mech from escaping)
Tips for Panther:
You are not a tank. You are just a really hard to kill unit that disengages quickly and has a bunch of shields.
You have decent damage resistances to all types. So don’t be afraid of going in. If possible, take the risk in focusing on an enemy that you can take and kill quickly. Afterwards you can dip and dash.
Do not engage enemies that have a shield frontally. You are basically asking for a parry. If one on one however, abuse the plunge attack if you can.
Think of your EN recharge skill as your ammo, and your lifesaver. Don’t use it willy nilly. Make sure to check your resources before engaging in any kind of combat.
Disrupting the backline, or kidnapping the frontline is your job. In Marvel Rivals terms, you can be like a hybrid of Venom and Wolverine. Always aim for the support/snipers.
If a duo or trio with melee mechs, make sure to coordinate who to kill. Alys or Panther can peel an enemy while Welkin traps the overextended unit. Wombo combo ensues.
You can chase a flier, but only for a short moment. Don’t waste all your resources chasing, since you may overextend yourself.
Again. Energy is your lifeblood, your power, and your decision maker. Always keep an eye on your energy, and where you can stay to recharge energy for free.
Welkin’s spin is interrupted by a plunge attack. Welkin flash can be blocked by parry timing. Just don’t panic when fighting against Welkin
Tricera is vulnerable on the top to dagger hits. But only if you can stand on him and he doesn’t move
Falcon can be one-shot by the guaranteed combo. Narukami, I am not sure, but in my experience it dies from 2 SB hits to lance.