Peni main with 260+ hours on her here. I know her ult is widely regarded as one of the worst in the game, and while sure, it’s definitely not as easy to get value out of as some of the other vanguard’s ults (Strange, Thing, etc.) I think it’s definitely stronger than Cap’s, which is similar, or Hulk’s, which in practice, also seems to be fulfilling a similar function.
With the exception of Mag, it seems like all vanguard ults essentially fall into two categories: stun or stall. The stun ults (Strange, Emma, Thor, Thing, Angela, Groot) use mass CC to stun the enemy and secure kills for the team. The stall ults (Peni, Rogue, Cap, Venom, Deadpool) grant a mix of health, shield, and speed to buy time on point and hold the objective. (You’ll notice that Hulk is not in either of these categories—technically, his ult is a mix, with an emphasis on stall since the massive health buff is usually more useful than the single-player CC opportunity he gets.)
On the whole, I do think that the stall ults are a little weaker than the stun ults—no matter who I’m playing, I panic way more for a Thing ult than I do a Venom ult. But of the stall ults, I think Peni’s is arguably the strongest. With her ult, you get:
-A speed boost
-A health boost
-Constant healing for yourself and teammates
-A knock up (technically CC, but the weakest version of it in the game, admittedly)
-7 mines
-A bunch of new spider drones
All of this lasts for 12 seconds, making it one of the longest ults in the game. Though some other stall ults allow the player to do damage throughout their ult using their primary fire, Peni’s is the only one that introduces abilities granting continuous damage throughout the ult’s duration—the drones, the mines, the knock up. Not to mention, she’s moving faster and healing herself AND her teammates the entire time this is happening. There is no other Vanguard ult that offers this much utility.
I know the retort here might be that her ult is a jack of all trades, master of none, but I would argue that you can squeeze real value out of all of its elements (the speed, the self and teammate healing, the damage) in various situations, especially if you plan your ult well.
Obviously, similar to Cap’s ult, Peni’s ult can be extremely useful for running from danger or getting onto point when you’re low on time thanks to the speed boost alone. Separately from this, though, you can create and hold space very effectively with her ult, but you do have to prep a little. Here’s what I do:
- Hide her nest near wherever you’re wanting to ult.
- Activate ult, ideally starting from nest, and run to point. If you’re not at nest when you active your ult, run to nest to make sure it connects and you get access to the drones from it during your ult.
- Cover your mine clusters with the web from your ult, throwing out new mines the entire time and knocking up enemies when you run into them.
- Once your mines are covered, stall however you need to depending on the circumstances of the game. Usually that looks like running in circles around objective for me, but sometimes I’ll retreat to my back line to give my support extra healing and protection from dive, or I’ll run deep into the enemy’s backline to take space and keep them away from the objective.
Clearly, using her ult this way requires a slightly more prep than just waiting until you’re low and chomping on the enemy vanguard the way you might as Venom, but I get value out of it every single time, and usually 1-3 kills. Obscuring her mines with the ult is key because 99% of the time the enemy team will be too busy panicking about your drones to keep track of where your mines were, and even if they are paying attention, you can use your knock up to throw enemies onto the mines.
All of that being said, I do think her ult cost is a little too high—I only ult 2-3 times per game now because you have to wait so long to get ult, and then once you have it, you have to make sure you’re prepared in order to get value from it unless you’re running away or just trying to touch point. I also think the option to cancel would be extremely useful for both her and Emma, since I’m tired of dying to Wanda’s ult because my web stun (or diamond shield, in Emma’s case) is locked when I’m ulting.
TL;DR: Peni’s ult is good, skill issue
PS: I miss Rocket team-up. Ulting this way was lethal with that second nest. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the game
Edit: A lot of people are kind of ignoring the point of the post (that Peni’s ult has a lot more value potential than what the community typically gives it credit for) because of my comparison to Cap’s ult. Fair enough, I guess. I’ve never had an issue with his ult, especially when I’m playing as Peni, because I just stun him and get him low enough that he dies or runs off point. Plus, he’s melee (mostly), and Peni generally counters melee pretty well. I’m GM2, though, so I can see how his ult might become more of a problem in higher ranks with better Caps—the team ult charge boost is a genuine advantage that makes his ult pretty unique in the roster (aside from Rogue, obviously).