My IGN is "calc1223" and fortunately we are both on NA (I will not be on during the week, however, as I have work). Thanks for the tips! As for your warning, I am very much the same way. We can see just how bad the two of us are (I will play Petal to show off my guide: Petal Guide)(Yes, shameless self-advertising). I also have some tips for your guide to get some more attention I will share in-game. See you in the fold!

Coming to think of it, getting trapped inside a gauntlet with a very tanky Ardan and high DPS crystal Koshka is a really, really, bad way to die. I can't think of any good counter other than offering kitty paws to wipe the floor. That said, I've been on the receiving end of an Ardan and Krul (which I guess is somewhat comparable) plenty of times because I have ****py luck in solo-queue, but I've found that one can survive if you focus solely on the Ardan and no one else. There are really only three ways Koshka makes a successful escape:

• You manage to grab upwards of three stacks of your passive, and you run like the wind. The enemy is unable to catch you because they're not a specific combination of say, a Ringo/Adagio with Frostburn and Journey Boots.
• You pounce to a distant mob and obtain "shelter" either by jumping over a wall (which is buggy these days) or by ending up behind an allied turret.
• Your teammates cover for you by stunning/killing the enemy. This works well if they're a SAW or Catherine, though I find that in the case of the former the SAW ends up being the one that sacrifices themselves.

I guess what I'm heading towards is that for the times when I have had a Crucible and I activated it to get past the gauntlet boundary, none of the three conditions above were met and I ended up getting gunned down by the enemy. This is especially true if you happen to be right at the epicenter when Ardan activates the gauntlet, because no matter how quickly you run to the edge, Ardan can get there faster than you by virtue of his passive buff and skill set. Instead I figure that if I'm going down, I want to make sure I can take out as much of the enemy HP as possible to make things easier for my teammates. If at all, from the madness that tends to ensue inside the gauntlet, I load up on four or five stacks along with my Aftershock and Alternating Current passives such that the moment I respawn, I head right out and swipe them all to death.

I might eventually add a section or two about changing the build to react to the enemy. The current approach is somewhat statistical, in the sense that it accounts for the most common-case, my play-style (which I've rudely imposed on everyone reading this guide) and the time taken for opponents to reach a certain level of capability. For example, I think if one were to go for the Aegis instead of a Metal Jacket, then one would have three Reflex Blocks, which sounds OP just writing about it. Combine that with the move boost from Travel/Journey Boots, and I can see a very specific "get-your-***-out-of-there" case, e.g. if you're the last man standing with the enemy at full power and the Kraken is ready. You would activate the first Reflex Block to get out of the gauntlet, immediately activate the second to prevent any stuns from the enemy attempting to stop you, activate the speed boost because your fingers are in the area, run like hell, and leave the last Reflex Block for "chasers" like Ringo's ultimate.

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My IGN is 'Astrianna' and I'm on NA. I'd love to play too. I must add the caveat that my writing probably sounds better than my play...

Wow! Thanks for the explanation! You should write a whole new guide on when to get Reflex Block. ;) Never thought of it like that before (being not very good at Koshka myself). I notice some instances you have forgotten. Ardan's gauntlet seems like a good reason to get a Reflex block, while facing an enemy Koshka, you can get stranded from your team with her ultimate (why not block it when it's pretty easy to?). After reading your guide, would you mind if I ask for your IGN and your server? I would love to play with you and see Tankoshka in action.

Thank you for the compliments! I've actually tried reflex block a number of times but I eventually moved away from it in favor of just having higher HP and more vigilance on the part of the player. Reflex block really only makes a difference for Taka's X-Retsu, Glaive's Afterburn and Celeste's Solar Storm (call these three 'Category 1'). Notice that I exclude Krul's From Hell's Heart, Catherine Blast Tremor, and Ringo's Hellfire Brew (we'll group this into 'Category 2'), all of whom have "blockable" ultimate skills, as well as , Skaarf's Dragon Breath and Adagio's Verse of Judgment (call these three 'Category 3').

Category 1 is so named because if the player knows what they're doing, there's no way to escape from the skill being cast. If Celeste gets you at point blank range with a maxed out Solar Storm, you receive the full brunt of all five hits. Similarly, if a Glaive "preloads" their Afterburn and dashes out of the bushes to stun you, you're just... going to get stunned. Now in theory for the former, if your timing is right, you could activate Reflex Block and nullify some of the damage from the hit. However, this only makes a difference if you're the last person standing in your team and trying to flee from the battle, in which case you've messed up, because as a Koshka you should try to avoid being the last person standing. In the other "better" case where the enemy just decides to throw one at you, you're better off pouncing to them and wiping them out. In fact the irony is that if you get it right, the instance when you pounce to Celeste can cause you to avoid the stars. Alternatively, I've found that since you should have built two Dragonheart by the time you venture into the lane (and by the time your enemy Glaive/Celeste/Taka) reaches Lvl 6, you can take the hit or the resulting gank without losing so much HP that you become an easy target. I don't really have a 100% convincing way to explain it, but my understanding is that if you farm right and get the edge over the enemy, you avoid being stuck in a sticky situation where the enemy consistently screws you over with their ultimates. A last note on Taka --- reflex block works in theory, but is kind of useless because it's also very difficult to predict when Taka is going to spring an attack on you. If you're in the middle of a fight in the lane trying to dance around the turret while picking on the enemy laner, you're not going to hit the button on the bottom left hand corner of your device in time to block a Taka that pops out of the bushes.

For Category 2, Krul, Ringo and Catherine's moves suffer from a telegraphing problem. That is, you can see them from a mile away. Krul's ultimate travels in a straight line, so if you're careful you can just walk in a perpendicular direction by a tiny distance (or pounce to another enemy) and they just wasted their ultimate on you. This takes practice, but can be done with relative ease once you know to watch for it. The only time this does not work is when Krul does this from the bushes, in which case you wouldn't have been able to block it anyway. Catherine's move is kind of interesting, because the hitbox for the move, based on my observations, starts a very small distance away from Catherine herself. In other words, if you spot her using this move, pounce to her, and even if she does silence you, you've already executed a single skill, which allows the effects of your Aftershock to activate, followed by the effects of Alternating Current. Those two hits will take out a sizable chunk of Catherine's HP while keeping you alive long enough to use the rest of your skills. That's the beauty of this build. Lastly, Ringo's skill is a little more unique because you just. can't. run away from it. I have a bad habit of instinctively running in the opposite direction even though it makes absolutely no difference. Instead what you should do is directly go to Ringo and start whacking the **** out of them, because their HP is never going to exceed your DPS based on this build. A good Ringo will kite you, but many complacent Ringo's will prepare to chase you down after firing Hellfire Brew, and not expect you to come to them. In addition, unless the Ringo has a lot of stacks from Tension Bow already lined up, you should be able to tough it out with your additional HP.

The third category is the easiest of all. Adagio announces to the whole map that he's going to cast his ultimate, and in the instant when he does, he can't move. This makes him a perfect stun target --- no more ultimate. Skarrf is somewhat similar to Ringo, except that it has the potential to do a lot more damage because of the sustained duration. However you can stun them easily as well rather than trying to run, and Skarrfs are very thin HP wise.

All in all, I think a Reflex Block would work depending on the player's style, in which case for the build above you would swap out one of the Oakheart for Reflex Block before eventually building up to Crucible all the same. However based on the games I've played across all skill levels, I've never had a solid case where activating Reflex Block (or the lack thereof) has flat out saved me. It's a consequence of the fact that the enemy's builds at Lvl 6 cannot hope to deal enough damage to put a dent in the HP you have, and by the time they've upgraded enough that they can do it, you will have your Crucible. Rather it was always the case that if I chose my fights very wisely (e.g. by patiently waiting in the bush, even going as far as to let all the enemies bust a turret right in front of me) I come out of it much better and push the team forward.

Excellent guide! Thanks for creating a detailed Tankoshka guide. I appreciate the time put into writing a long guide. I'm wondering why you don't do a Reflex Block.