Yelena Belova Champion Guide
Yelena Belova Summary
Yelena is primarily a defender, but has quite a bit of value on attack as well. In this guide, I’ll discuss both aspects of Yelena. If you want to skip to the attacker summary, click here, and if you want to skip to the defender summary, click here.
In this section, I want to review a few fundamental aspects of Yelena’s kit that are important to understand for the rest of the guide to make sense.
Attack Rating Cap
This is the defensive ability that makes Yelena a serious stall threat and is fairly complex, so it is worth understanding well. Keep in mind that this ability is only present in Observation mode.
At the start of each fight, Yelena measures the opponent’s attack and stores that value. From there, she applies a cap of 60% of that starting value to your modified attack rating. If a daunted effect is present on Yelena, she raises that cap to 100%.
Practically, this has the following effects (assuming you have no daunted effect):
- Fury buffs will only increase your attack rating if it is somehow being reduced below 60% of its starting value (such as from a weakness). Under most circumstances, this means you won’t notice an attack boost from fury effects or other attack boosts.
- Fury effects gained at the start of the fight increase the ceiling of the cap. Examples of this include Serpent and Sabretooth.
- Mutants that rely on prowess buffs won’t get a damage boost from them.
- Attack rating increases from boosts, masteries, or collectives still work because they are applied before the fight starts.
- This cap only impacts damage affected by modified attack (which is most damage). Examples of damage not based on modified attack include Black Panther (Civil War)’s bursts (scales with base health), Galan’s harvest (scales with base attack), and X-23’s bleeds (scales with base attack).
Instant Bleed and Direct Damage
When Yelena lands a critical hit, including through block, she inflicts an instant bleed or burst of direct damage (if the opponent is immune to bleed). While the burst of direct damage is stronger, Yelena can also inflict bleed vulnerabilities on her heavy attack. In practice, this means that Yelena deals more damage against opponents that can bleed, but the upkeep is more difficult.
This interaction also means that bleed resistance is the only safe way to avoid damage from this ability.
My Thoughts on Yelena Belova
I really like Yelena and the way she has redefined parts of the meta in Marvel Contest of Champions. In particular, I think the way her defensive threat has added to the value of daunted-focused attackers and reduced the value of prowess-based attackers has allowed the Mutant class to evolve in important ways for its class identity. In addition to rewarding daunted effects, Yelena also does a great job at incentivizing bleed resistance and reinforce effects, which show up primarily in the Mutant class.
On attack, Yelena continues to have utility keys that allow her to succeed in a certain number of Science matchups that require rapid combo gain, like High Evolutionary and Cassie Lang. While Yelena doesn’t have the highest damage, she still has enough value on offense that ranking her up for defense doesn’t feel too bad.
Does Yelena Belova Need to Be Awakened?
TL;DR: No, Yelena doesn’t need to be awakened. If you have the resources though, it can be worth the investment.
Yelena’s signature ability does 2 things: caps the opponent’s critical damage rating with similar functionality to the cap on attack rating, and allows her to bypass evade and miss in Elimination mode. I have found that this is mostly helpful on defense in shutting down champions that rely on big critical hits (like Shang-Chi) or use miss or evade in their attacker loop (like Tigra).
Yelena also has really high prestige, so if that is important to you, it can also increase the relative value of Yelena’s sig ability.
Best At?
Yelena is the only character in the game that places a hard cap on the opponent’s attack and critical damage rating, which makes it very hard for certain characters to nuke her down. This ability makes Yelena an especially difficult defender because of her ability to stall and slow down fights. You can read more about this ability in Yelena’s defender summary.
Overlooked Interactions
Endurance Passive
Yelena has an indefinite endurance passive, which reduces the duration of non-damaging debuffs by 35%. This can include your parry stun, which can cause problems when you try to use heavy attacks against Yelena.
Matchup Summary
This is a list of matchups I wanted to highlight because they are good, bad, or tricky and force you to modify your normal loop.
High Evolutionary
Yelena has some of the quickest combo gain in the game, making her great for High Evolutionary, as she can almost completely remove his combo detonation with a single heavy attack. Keep in mind that Yelena only has rapid combo gain in Observation mode, and has less than normal combo gain in Elimination mode. Yelena doesn’t have any other abilities to counter High Evolutionary’s other threats, like his auto-block.
Cassie Lang
Similar to High Evolutionary, Yelena’s combo gain helps avoid some of Cassie’s combo-gaining threats. In Elimination mode, Yelena can also bypass Cassie’s evade.
Immortal Abomination
Yelena is immune to poison, making her a great counter to Immortal Abomination.
Count Nefaria
I fell in love with the Yelena/Count Nefaria matchup when he was a Coliseum boss. Because of Yelena’s damage caps from Observation mode and her disarm passive, she rarely needs to worry about block damage from Nefaria’s special attacks. Count Nefaria is also unable to prevent any of Yelena’s damage.
Wow, Yelena Belova Can Take...?
Nico Minoru
Yelena is immune to poison, which is Nico’s main threat. She has to play around many of Nico’s other abilities but can bypass her miss in Elimination mode if awakened.
Defender Summary
Yelena’s defender kit is focused on successfully navigating her Observation and Elimination modes. While there are specific nuances involved in each, the general theme is that Yelena is more tanky but easier to fight in Observation mode and less tanky but harder to fight in Elimination mode.
One of the biggest choices you need to make when fighting Yelena is where you want to concentrate your damage. If your attacker’s damage doesn’t require increasing their attack rating, you should try to focus your damage on Observation mode and avoid Elimination mode for as long as possible. If your attacker does increase their attack rating to deal damage, you should focus your damage into Elimination mode and try to get through Observation mode faster.
Observation Mode Summary
In this mode, Yelena gains combo over time and gains it faster the more frequently she is knocked down. Her critical hits are not guaranteed, making blocking her hits less threatening. Additionally, she does not have access to her reversal. However, she does apply her attack rating cap as explained here.
Elimination Mode Summary
In this mode, Yelena loses combo over time and loses it more quickly as you hit her block. Her hits are guaranteed crits, making blocking very scary. Yelena will also use her reversal if hit with lights/heavies (or any basic attack if she has her SP1 impact passive up). However, she does not apply her attack rating cap and is much less tanky, allowing you to deal much more damage. You can get Yelena out of this phase by repeatedly hitting her block.
Champions Best in Observation Mode
Here is a non-exhaustive list of champions who want to deal their damage in Observation mode. These are generally Yelena’s best counters.
Jean Grey
I consider Jean Grey to be the fastest counter to Yelena while not being as safe as other Mutants. Because Jean uses daunted and doesn’t increase her attack rating, her damage won’t suffer against Yelena. While she has no protection against Yelena’s bleeds or crits, her force field can help mitigate quite a bit of chip damage.
Silver Samurai
Silver Samurai is really good for Yelena because he has daunted and can consume the opponent’s combo meter, which can keep Yelena away from Elimination mode. He also has protection against Yelena’s critical hits and 100% resistance to bleed.
This is an an Alliance War fight against Yelena on Node 47:
Onslaught
Uses daunted, bypassing some of Yelena’s attack rating cap.
Cassandra Nova
Uses daunted, bypassing some of Yelena’s attack rating cap.
Deadpool (X-Force)
Uses daunted, bypassing some of Yelena’s attack rating cap.
Gentle
Uses daunted, bypassing some of Yelena’s attack rating cap. Gentle also has reinforce, helping him against critical hits.
X-23
All of X-23’s bleeds scale based on base attack only (as opposed to modified attack), so they are not subject to Yelena’s attack rating cap. Dexing Yelena’s special attacks also builds Frenzy very quickly.
Sabretooth
Sabretooth relies on furies, but he gets quite a few at the start of the fight. While he is still subject to Yelena’s attack rating cap, his ceiling is much higher than other champions because his attack starts higher.
Karolina Dean
Karolina Dean is the most popular non-mutant Yelena counter, primarily because her damage scales via energy vulnerability and total incinerates, not modified attack. Her glance also allows her to block Yelena’s special attacks while taking very little damage. She will still have her attack rating capped at 60% of its starting value.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead
She isn’t particularly good for Yelena, but she doesn’t rely on attack rating increases for her damage.
Domino
She isn’t particularly good for Yelena, but she doesn’t rely on attack rating increases for her damage.
Omega Red
He isn’t particularly good for Yelena, but he doesn’t rely on attack rating increases for his damage.
Iceman
He isn’t particularly good for Yelena, but he doesn’t rely on attack rating increases for his damage.
Wolverine (Weapon X)
He isn’t particularly good for Yelena, but he doesn’t rely on attack rating increases for his damage.
Champions Best in Elimination Mode
Here is a non-exhaustive list of champions who want to deal their damage in Elimination mode. These are champions that aren’t very good for Yelena but can work if you play very carefully. For all of these champions, that usually requires pushing Yelena into Elimination mode with more frequent knockdowns and making sure you have enough power to deal your damage as she crosses 100 combo. Once she is in Elimination mode, throw your big special and hope it finishes the fight.
- Dazzler
- Storm
- Storm (Pyramid X)
- Cyclops
- Kitty Pryde
- Pixie
- Apocalypse
- Dani Moonstar
- Dust
- Emma Frost
- Havok
- Sunspot
- Bishop
- Northstar
- Toad
- Magneto (House of X)
- Gambit
- Sauron
- Professor X
- Stryfe
- Colossus
- Namor
- Nightcrawler
Champions That Don’t Care Which Mode Yelena Is In
Here is a non-exhaustive list of champions who don’t care which mode Yelena is in for a variety of reasons.
Mr. Sinister
Mr. Sinister isn’t the fastest Yelena counter, but he is by far the safest. Because he is resistant to bleed and not immune to it, he avoids Yelena’s bleed/direct damage on a critical hit or reversal. This makes Mr. Sinister one of the few champions that can be hit by Yelena’s reversal with basically no consequences. Additionally, he regenerates a significant amount of damage from crits, making him incredibly resilient. However, his attack rating will still be capped to 60% of its starting value, slowing him down noticeably.
Captain Britain
Because of Yelena’s attack rating cap, prowess won’t benefit Captain Britain’s special attack hits, but it will scale the potency of her neuroshocks. If you can line up your power efficiency with entering Elimination mode, Captain Britain can throw quite a few special attacks without using basic attacks. Captain Britain isn’t the best for Yelena, but she is equally good in both modes.
Dexing Yelena’s SP1
Dexing Yelena’s SP2 (Easy)
Dexing Yelena’s SP2 (Hard)
Gamemode Summary
In this section, I’ll cover the general rotation first, then highlight the game modes where you may need to adjust your approach or pay attention to additional details to perform effectively.
General Rotation Summary
As an attacker, your main goal is to properly manage going in and out of Yelena’s different modes, which is simpler than it sounds. For the most part, this will happen naturally as the fight progresses, and there are so many different triggers for combo gain that it is not worth talking about them all here. Instead, I’ll just provide some tips and tricks on how to best play Yelena.
- Only use the SP2. Comparatively, the SP1 and SP3 have very few benefits. On the other hand, the SP2 will give you 50 combo in Observation mode and refreshes and pauses bleed vulnerabilities in Elimination mode.
- Use the SP2 to increase your comstrongo in Elimination mode. In this mode, almost all of your actions will decrease your combo with the exception of the SP2, which raises it. This can help you stay in Elimination mode for a little longer.
- Use your heavy attacks to quickly increase your combo. Heavy attacks are the most efficient way to build combo with Yelena. In addition to that, they also allow you to place your bleed vulnerabilities. If you can stack these in Observation mode, you will be much better set up for Elimination mode.
Battlegrounds Rotation
- Yelena can be useful on offense, especially if your opponent drafts a counter to her (like Jean Grey or Silver Samurai).
- Heavy attacks become even more important in Battlegrounds to help you get to Elimination mode quicker.
Coliseum Rotation
- Yelena can perform very well in Coliseum, especially when she has time to set up for high-damage Elimination modes. She isn’t good for every boss, but she is a very good option when she is. I really liked her for the Count Nefaria boss.
Bonus Videos
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