Re: Why the heroes were the most unbalanced thing in the game
1) I agree that one shorting infantry is a garbage gameplay aspect. At the same time the whole of large scale gameplay is so broken that if some heroes couldn’t do this they’d get melted quickly due to volume. On a lot of maps it’s very easy for a hero to get overwhelmed from all sides and just killed. Toss in the broken enforcers (which I think are worse) and you’ve got a grand bad time. IMO the Devs could have put themselves in a position to better balance characters by making fewer game objectives and reducing the match size. In an effort to make up for the size of mob squads they broke the characters power wise.
2) Ok I have to tell you this is 100% not correct. Most blaster users have an enormously OP attribute; dodge immunity. For the entirety of the dodge animation (plus a small window before and after) blaster users are immune from saber strikes and ability affects. Because of the high speed of blaster users dodge combined with the high dodge recharge rate blasters can essentially spam dodging+shot+dodge and see saber strikes being avoided. It’s a part of common sense gameplay that a blaster user NOT fire at a saber user holding block and standing directly in front of them. A blaster user wants to keep moving so as to avoid deflected shots and melt the saber users stamina. Hann, Chewie, Bosk, & Iden have huge DPS paired with crowd control and un-blockable abilities, a 3-part attribute combo that should never exist. Leia deals massive damage output but doesn’t have the crowd control but since she benefits from dodge immunity it almost doesn’t matter. Lando doesn’t have the damage output and is the easiest of the blaster heroes with dodge immunity to kill since his damage output isn’t as high; his stun duration is his biggest benefit. Finn is by far the weakest blaster hero in the game and is only good for glitch stacking his Big Deal buff on his squad mates (so long as they protect him). Phasma doe NOT have dodge immunity and that’s due to the stun droid, however, when the Devs installed the 3 second post stun immunity for all her opponents they made her incredibly weak versus every other blaster user in the game. Phasma can be good but only in the right hands with an experienced player who knows where, on each map, to place that stun droid. Casually using Phasma sees her killed easily.
Blaster heroes are broken in this game. Combining damage output, crowed control, potential unblockables, plus dodge immunity and you’ve got Han, Chewie, Leia, Iden, & Bosk and over powered.
3) the damage of passion strike and its cool down were adjusted to nerf if. It’s a heavy ability against infantry but not against heroes; they can dodge it easily. Depending on the amount of input lag in a particular game passionate strike has a tendency to be quai unreliable.
4) Idens Alt fire is disgusting and broken. I suggested long ago that it should either not do splash damage or if so it should damage her as well. It shouldn’t be a free damage splash. If they were going to keep it like this her TL-50 damage value per bolt should be significantly reduced.
5) I agree saber blocking is too heavily used but what you’re describing here is easily overcome by many blaster users. Chewies bolts can’t be blocked, neither can idens Alt, Bosks grenades, or Fetts rockets. Those who’s shots can be deflected can still see the blaster user either moving constantly to avoid the deflection and using their shots to drain the saber users stam OR they can pair the combo of shoot+dodge to avoid any damage. Plus, blaster heat discharge is WAY faster than any saber heroes stamina regen. The one thing a blaster user should never do is continue to shoot whole standing in front of a blocking saber user; that’s suicide and a gameplay tactic that would be punished even in a balanced game. Nobody should do that. Some saber users like Dooku have a very wide deflection spread that’s unlikely to reflect back at the blaster user. About half of the saber heroes in the game have accurate blaster deflection while the other half doesn’t.
6) yeah both of these aspects are bad. Some stuns are far too long given the damage output the character has and the rag doll is pretty bad too. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of occasions where the input stack bugs and causes characters to end up “stunned” as it works to resolve the input affects and character movements. That’s one of the worst mechanics the game has.
7) I agree saber damage output is not balanced; not by a long shot, but, blaster DPS now for many blasters is far higher than saber users. Dooku has the highest DPS of any saber user (not necessarily damage output but DPS), however, that’s only when two abilities are active at once. .. one they wear off Dooku is relatively easy to kill. Im not saying he’s balanced but he’s not in a constant state of broken. Chewie, Hann, & Leia have both ridiculously high DPS and damage output and in the case of Hann & Chewie they have multiple in-blockable abilities; very few saber users can say that. Keep in mind that a lot of blaster users regularly lean on dodge immunity and because all of their dodge recharges is so high they can avoid damage.
8) BB-9 was just bad design from the beginning .. really bad. And the buff they gave him wasn’t all that good .. BB-9 is no match for a BB-8. BB-9 is like the Finn of the dark side, he needs a team mate to cover and support him for him to stay alive, otherwise he’ll get melted even though he is definitely annoying.
9) I agree with a good portion of this, because, although blaster users DO have dodge immunity, Dooku is one of the few characters that can have a combined swing speed plus damage output whereby that small window between dodge charges can see him dealing lots of damage. Generally, a blaster user that’s used to leaning on dodge will prevent themselves from getting hit from behind and if it’s a Hann or Chewie they can use one of their multiple crowd control abilities while Dooku is using Expose Weakness & Duelist to derail he attack. Dooku has the best chance of any saber user of getting high damage strikes in on constantly dodging blasters. IMO to address this you defiantly need to address the entirety of the game imbalance, it’s like a house of cards. Dooku is the only dark side villain to be able to really melt a blaster user while on the light side both Luke and Rey can do it, however, not to the degree Dooku can. Dooku also needs to be carful in that if he doesn’t kill the blaster users while both of his abilities are active he’ll likely be killed.
10) Stamina is way too high on Luke, & Kenobi on the light side and Dooku on the dark side. Their high stam plus regen os broken. In the case of Kenobi he can pair his already high stam with cards and have such a high value that no one player can deplete it. If he’s getting meled he can just lean on defensive rush, which sees him immune from almost all damage, while his stam regens. He’s basically a wall. Luke has such a high speed + stam combo he literally bugs the game mechanics and lands damage.
11) Vader is absolutely the most broken villain, by far. As for the games most broken character, for me, it’s hard to pick between Vader or Luke. Yeah, Vader has rage and gets damage buffs and health, but, his strikes are blockable and his stam depletes rather quickly, even with rage. Choke is crazy easy to avoid and saber throw damage was nerfed. As for Luke, his movement and mobility is incredibly fast, his abilities are instant, and his AOE’s can be very large. Luke’s strike rate plus movement rate sees the game recognizing strikes from Luke at a far greater rate than anyone else. And because his mobility is so high Luke often ignores ability effects. Luke is a spam fest that’s rewarded for being one.
some of your issues are spot on while a couple really require a different gameplay approach, mainly blaster users.
