THE BEST MACHAMP BUILD GUIDE - POKEMON UNITE

Attack Weight :
How fitting for the bodybuilder Pokemon to have Attack Weight as its core item. Machamp is all about beefing up its Attack stat through self-buffs to make his combo hit like a truck. With Machamp having THREE different ways of increasing said Attack stat, the flat stats provided by Weight as compounded even higher on him, and give huge returns. Combine that with Close Combat having a 413% total ratio and Unite move being 800% total, weight lifting is key to success.

Razor Claw :
the other core asset to Machamp’s kit other than stat buffing, is combo bursting. Since Dynamic Punch gives a boosted basic attack right after use, it pairs perfectly with Razor proc with weaving that boosted basic in your combo right in between Dynamic Punch and your following move. And with how high he boosts his own Attack stat, that proc gets *meaty*. The extra little 2.1% of crit is always greatly appreciated as well, this item really has everything Machamp could want.

Scope Lens *Cross Chop Only*:
This item is a specific pick on Cross Chop builds. Cross Chop is capable of critting itself, and has a 5% increased crit rate. Combined with Razor (which is core anyway), Scope brings Cross Chop’s crit chance to 33.1%, which means Chop has a 1 in 3 chance of being a crit. Getting a crit at a crucial time can mean the difference between your target living or dying when it NEEDS to die, so this greatly helps this build be a lot less RNG and more reliable overall. There is also a fair amount of basic attacking happening on Chop builds, and Scope boosts that output considerably.

Weakness Policy :
This item is more geared to benefitting Close Combat builds (again playing off that 413% ratio), however the stat buffs it gives value to Chop to some degree as well. This is the best option to making your Close Combat combos as chonky as possible, allowing the 12% attack buff to stack with all your other attack buffs at the same time. Machamp doesn’t have the greatest bulk to take a ton of hits to stack this up ALL the time, but generally a few opportunities is all he needs to do his damage and carry on.

Charging Charm :
This is a more niche item pick that has been experimented with that seems to be having good results thus far. The idea here is to lurk and move around to constantly charge the item up, and look for high value squishy picks whenever it’s at 100. With the attack buff of Dynamic Punch, the proc on Charm is actually VERY large, and assist with assassinating things in one combo very neatly. It is a bit more restrictive in gameplay and take some consciousness of exactly when and where to jump in, but the payoff can be explosive especially for how Machamp likes to play.

About Cross Chop vs Close Combat :
So you’re never going to completely grief by picking one of these over the other in any situation, they are close enough together in effectiveness where you’ll do your job well on both…however that is not to say that proper decision making can’t make your life easier into certain matchups.

Cross Chop, in tandem with Dynamic Punch, is supreme mobility and positioning that even the most slippery snakes struggle to slither safely somewhere as swiftly. This pick, along with improving your alliteration, will let you extend your effective range of engagement onto important backliners and mages, achieve better flank angles in teamfights, and the *potential* for Chop to crit also puts a lot more instant pressure on them to not be able to react to. Pick this for squishy comps that don’t have a lot of peel.

Close Combat benefits from 1) being a lot simpler and less mechanically intensive to handle and 2) not relying on chance for damage output. Machamp’s base crit chance is pretty low until level 9, so that 7-9 phase is usually pretty rough for Chop, whereas your attack buffs from Dynamic Punch, Guts, and Weight will always contribute towards Combat’s damage no matter what. The on-demand Unstoppable also really helps into things like Buzzwole, Surfpump Blastoise, and mages like Ninetales that like to throw out their CC moves as soon as they or you get close. Chugging right through their CC attempts while unloading some chunky damage really helps brute force through these matchups. It also contests Altaria spawns a bit better since a DynaPunch > boosted > Combat combo clears all the little Swablus instantly.

CROSSCHOP BUG IS FIXED. The crit buff is now just 5% extra flat crit, but hey a fix is a fix. Now I won’t say me initially discovering the bug and then sending 3 support tickets to Timi the past 3 patches was the WHOLE reason this move got fixed but…I fixed Cross Chop. You’re welcome.

Funni crits. You trade the consistent dmg and unstoppable of Close Combat in exchange for great mobility and *potentially* big crit burst. But like…don’t pick it solely for the crits, that’s just gravy on top and hoping for them will just leave you in tears. Consider this just a full mobility chase-down build. Not as expectably reliable as Dyna-Combat, but can blow up squishies and much harder to react to. Works better into high mobility comps.

A Bulk Up-boosted Karate Chop is one of the strongest single hit farm securing moves in the game (pre-4), so if you are losing secures you need to find a new role.
Early game:
After taking a couple of bunnies while walking to lane, use the bushes to hide your advance towards the goal. Right before dunking, Karate Chop that topside enemy Bunny, and THEN dunk your first stack. Once your scoring animation is done, you’ll have Bulk up ready, and that top Bunny will already be around 60% health. Smack is with 1 or 2 basics while under Bulk Up, and then Karate Chop again to secure it. Go ahead and dunk that, and you have 2 stacks almost guaranteed. You can try to go for the bottom side Bunny after this if the enemies aren’t diligent, but don’t go crazy for it. Try to get 2 or 3 stacks by first Regi.

Comboing with Cross Chop is slightly different than with Combat.  With Combat you want to condense your actions as quickly as possible in the DynaPunch > boosted > Combat window to ensure all hits of the Combat connect, while with Chop you have some extra wiggle room of when to use that second move depending on what’s going on.

You obviously always initiate with DynaPunch, the instant nature of the jump and stun and the follow buff is just the best possible starter for any combo. However if you remember previously, Cross Chop is a mobility option first and foremost, then a damage tool, so a good thing to do after DynaPunching in is to hold your Cross Chop to see how the target reacts to your engage, and THEN using it reactively to where they go after. Not only does this help you stick on them for more uptime and cut their escapes off, but you also get the benefit of an extra Razor Claw proc due to staggering your cooldown usages.

You won’t ALWAYS want to do your combo this way, like if you have a VERY small window of time to jump on a squishy and need to make a play ASAP then you will basically be doing the Combat combo route and just doing Chop immediately after the boosted with no delay. This is to fish for a big lucky crit, which if successful will likely kill or almost kill your squishy target, and if not you’ve just created space for yourself to exit in the process with the dash anyway.

9 times outta 10 when you DynaPunch into them and then Cross Chop THRU their body behind them, their peanut brain will short circuit and they’ll whiff all their skillshots on you while you continue to beat them down with basic attacks. Following up your combo with more autos is ONLY safe in these cases where their cooldowns were blown and they have no way to retaliate…otherwise you really shouldn’t be sticking around.

MACHAMP HAS NO SUSTAIN OR BULK STOP PRETENDING YOU’RE A TANK.
You have no form of shielding, heals, or dmg reduction (outside of ult) so you WILL get popped very easily for an allrounder. He is a very hit-and-run playstyle that revolves around his cd’s, if you don’t have em don’t fight for the love of pectoral muscles. You’re basically sharking around looking for pick-offs.

Cross Chop+ also makes Champ scale even harder, since it gives +80 permanent attack (almost an entire additional free atkweight!) Combining that with your own weight, you’re walking around with +170 extra attack…and on a character like Machamp that goes a LONGGGGG way. One of the best + moves in the game, no cap. Keep in mind Machamp is able to stack this + effect up quicker in groups, so if you can find an Altaria group each basic attack with give you 4 Chop+ stacks (one for each target hit).

About Submission:
SubChamp is played more as a facilitator role rather than the team’s star carry, identifying priority targets and making it your job to not let them play the game. It is great for punishing overextensions and poor enemy positioning (just be aware that running thru a team to get the backline makes you overextend yourself, plan out your approaches before committing them!).
Ejecting while you have Sub running is a fantastic way of surprise grabbing someone even if they AREN’T out of position, and making them be out of position. It’s pretty essential for when you juuuust can’t quite reach the target out of your fingertips. The difference between grabbing and not grabbing can also mean the difference between winning and not winning that teamfight.
The playstyle does make Machamp have to stay in a battle for a while and spam autos a lot to make a living (which he greatly struggles with), so Dyna will still be overall more useful of a move.

Your standard stacking solo top build, if you can’t stack why are you playing this character.

A Bulk Up-boosted Karate Chop is one of the strongest single hit farm securing moves in the game (pre-4), so if you are losing secures you need to find a new role.
Early game:
After taking a couple of bunnies while walking to lane, use the bushes to hide your advance towards the goal. Right before dunking, Karate Chop that topside enemy Bunny, and THEN dunk your first stack. Once your scoring animation is done, you’ll have Bulk up ready, and that top Bunny will already be around 60% health. Smack is with 1 or 2 basics while under Bulk Up, and then Karate Chop again to secure it. Go ahead and dunk that, and you have 2 stacks almost guaranteed. You can try to go for the bottom side Bunny after this if the enemies aren’t diligent, but don’t go crazy for it. Try to get 2 or 3 stacks by first Regi.

Once you hit level 5 you can start popping ppl with your bread n butter combo of Dynamic Punch > boosted auto > Karate Chop. After 7 it becomes DP > boosted > Close Combat of course, which is an immense amount of damage that not many characters can handle outside of tanks.

Please don’t ignore the Unstoppable that Close Combat gives. Anticipate incoming cc and completely bypass it. Yes you have a combo and need both moves to do it, but it’s ok to use Combat by itself if you know something is coming.

Dynamic Punch can go over walls, and *can be extended by pressing Eject mid-air* as you jump forward for surprise stuns and kills where enemies think they’re out of your range. Learn this if you plan to use Champ seriously, it’s invaluable. Eject also helps position yourself to get the fattest Unite possible in teamfights which is like 80% of the reason you pick Machamp anyway.

Favourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined MACHAMP is strong against. MACHAMP will generally be able to shut down these opponents playstyle's or have the advantage in a one on one fight.

MEW

SYLVEON

GARDEVOIR

DURALUDON

CRAMORANT

DECIDUEYE

Unfavourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined MACHAMP is weak against. These Pokémon will have the upper hand in a fight or be able to exploit MACHAMP's weaknesses.

LAPRAS

GOODRA

MEWTWO X

SCIZOR

GARCHOMP

SLOWBRO