Every major faction has a "Chaze."
Yes. Chaze has lots of utility between them. But right now every major faction has a legit support base for their main attackers and leader, with tons of arena viable combos.
Empire:
They have Thrawn/Shoretrooper combo. Also Deathtrooper. If you aren't going against double taunts DT's dispel isn't as needed, but he does so many amazing things he is situationally a must have for Empire. Here we have an AoE dispeller, the best single target dispel (unavoidable+devastating irresistible debuff) in the game (fracture) , deathmark (another insane debuff), AoE cooldown increase that is irresistible in certain situations, a daze/stun double tap, irresistible debuffs, a pretaunt that heals, gives crit immunity, and TM boosts besides the TM from Thrawn.
2-3 of these toons mixed in with several combinations of Empire leaders are arena viable for #1. Krennic, Zader, Thrawn, and Tarkin are all capable arena leaders, each adding powerful and unique mechanics. And don't forget EP, or Veers+Troopers are very fun in many parts of the game too. Every single Empire toon is usable somewhere.
Sith:
They have the Assassin/Trooper combo, and also Savage. Here we have a VERY tanky autotaunt character with multiple triggers for his autotaunt, and a counter attack, one of the fastest team TM boosters in the game who can hide/self buff, and kill some characters from full health/protection by bypassing protection, and one of the deadliest self healing/self buffing/self cleaning/team cleansers who cleanses passively (can't be ability blocked), with an unavoidable instakill in the right situations. This is a VERY deadly group compared to some of the other support bases, however they have a little less utility compared to some of the others. There is an obvious reason for that.
The Sith leaders/DPS they support are very powerful, and have tons of utility already. Nihilus has the irresistible cooldown increase, and dispel on basic. Palpatine and Dooku have shock, and stun. And they have crazy powerful leaders. EP and Zader of course pull double duty as Empire, so we'll focus on the other two. Nihilus lead gives huge healing, negates the crit bonuses that make Zarriss/Kenobi or Rex led so good. He gives a massive offense bump to Sith. Dooku and Savage become horrors under his lead. And Zaul is so powerful he forced the meta to where it is now. Mods being equal, it is impossible to outspeed a Zaul lead SA giving his whole team first turn advantage. He's still the #2 leader among top teams. The novel where his leader ability is make just about any Sith combo under his lead a viable #1 contender. Every single Sith character is arena viable in some combination. Some get drastically stronger depending on which leader you choose. They have some amazing raid teams. And thanks to EP/Zader there are some fun Empire/Sith crossover options.
Jedi+R2:
These guys have Kenobi/Zarriss/R2: Hopefully I don't have to explain all the utility these two have to support a team, and keep them alive to do their thing. Plenty of buffs, heals, and an autotaunt there. No dispeller, but a couple of your best Jedi options (QGJ, Ezra) have dispels, and Anakin has a buff block. There is only one viable Jedi arena lead, and that's zQGJ (Kenobi can lead some mixed meta squads). But at least they have one, and it's quite powerful. The foresight to start saves your back side against some of the super fast arena teams.
Most likely your zQGJ team will run Kenobi with R2, or Kenobi with Yoda, but Kenobi/Zarriss is viable support for a number of teams. And you have a few choices for 4th and 5th. Aayla, Ani, and Ezra are best. So there is some flexibility here with different comps. Raids additionally make IGD very good. But there are several really terrible Jedi that aren't usable for anything. And your choice of leaders is very limited. However they are an arena viable faction that does surprisingly well defensively with good mods. The will be getting a faction pass, so hopefully that will expand their functionality, and add some additional viable leads. Mace is at the top of my list.
Rebels:
We all know the Chaze combo. And yeah they do a lot. But after reading the above I don't think they're stronger/have more utility than the taunt/cleanse/dispel support base toons for the other major factions. Especially since the toons they support in their own faction often have less utility. They are mostly low health/high damage attackers. Mainly Wedge and Jyn are the only viable leaders. No dispels. No heals outside of Ackbar (which is situational). No TM boosts (outside of STHan who you would probably pull if you have Baze to tank). They need Chaze to fill a lot of gaps. They are good no doubt, but they have weaknesses. I remember running Boba lead/Lando/Ani against the Rex lead, Chaze, Wiggs teams when that first became a thing. Two Lando AoEs, and one from Ani after they killed my tank, and everyone on their team but Baze went from full health/protection to dead.
And we still didn't touch on Resistance and FO. Both of them are complete factions that have one awesome lead, with a taunt, a dispeller, a cleanse, TM boosts, big damage, buffs, and debuffs. Both can have varying degrees of success in arena, and raids (Resistance clearly has the edge).
RIght now I think we're as balanced as we've ever been. People don't need to run Chaze to win, or hold on defense. I still don't. Anybody who thinks we're getting more unbalanced wasn't here when 95% of leader were Dooku. Rex, Boba, Kenobi, zQGJ, Zader, Thrawn, Wedge, zFinn, Jyn, Zaul, Nihilus and Tarkin are all viable to some extent as leads of a variety of teams that don't all need Chaze. Some work better than others against different teams. All can be beaten. All have weaknesses.
To add to this balance we are still waiting on the Jedi faction pass, a Bounty Hunter faction pass, a Seperatist faction pass, and all of the new Resistance/FO toons we'll surely get this winter. I like where we're at, and where we're headed. Feel free to disagree.
Empire:
They have Thrawn/Shoretrooper combo. Also Deathtrooper. If you aren't going against double taunts DT's dispel isn't as needed, but he does so many amazing things he is situationally a must have for Empire. Here we have an AoE dispeller, the best single target dispel (unavoidable+devastating irresistible debuff) in the game (fracture) , deathmark (another insane debuff), AoE cooldown increase that is irresistible in certain situations, a daze/stun double tap, irresistible debuffs, a pretaunt that heals, gives crit immunity, and TM boosts besides the TM from Thrawn.
2-3 of these toons mixed in with several combinations of Empire leaders are arena viable for #1. Krennic, Zader, Thrawn, and Tarkin are all capable arena leaders, each adding powerful and unique mechanics. And don't forget EP, or Veers+Troopers are very fun in many parts of the game too. Every single Empire toon is usable somewhere.
Sith:
They have the Assassin/Trooper combo, and also Savage. Here we have a VERY tanky autotaunt character with multiple triggers for his autotaunt, and a counter attack, one of the fastest team TM boosters in the game who can hide/self buff, and kill some characters from full health/protection by bypassing protection, and one of the deadliest self healing/self buffing/self cleaning/team cleansers who cleanses passively (can't be ability blocked), with an unavoidable instakill in the right situations. This is a VERY deadly group compared to some of the other support bases, however they have a little less utility compared to some of the others. There is an obvious reason for that.
The Sith leaders/DPS they support are very powerful, and have tons of utility already. Nihilus has the irresistible cooldown increase, and dispel on basic. Palpatine and Dooku have shock, and stun. And they have crazy powerful leaders. EP and Zader of course pull double duty as Empire, so we'll focus on the other two. Nihilus lead gives huge healing, negates the crit bonuses that make Zarriss/Kenobi or Rex led so good. He gives a massive offense bump to Sith. Dooku and Savage become horrors under his lead. And Zaul is so powerful he forced the meta to where it is now. Mods being equal, it is impossible to outspeed a Zaul lead SA giving his whole team first turn advantage. He's still the #2 leader among top teams. The novel where his leader ability is make just about any Sith combo under his lead a viable #1 contender. Every single Sith character is arena viable in some combination. Some get drastically stronger depending on which leader you choose. They have some amazing raid teams. And thanks to EP/Zader there are some fun Empire/Sith crossover options.
Jedi+R2:
These guys have Kenobi/Zarriss/R2: Hopefully I don't have to explain all the utility these two have to support a team, and keep them alive to do their thing. Plenty of buffs, heals, and an autotaunt there. No dispeller, but a couple of your best Jedi options (QGJ, Ezra) have dispels, and Anakin has a buff block. There is only one viable Jedi arena lead, and that's zQGJ (Kenobi can lead some mixed meta squads). But at least they have one, and it's quite powerful. The foresight to start saves your back side against some of the super fast arena teams.
Most likely your zQGJ team will run Kenobi with R2, or Kenobi with Yoda, but Kenobi/Zarriss is viable support for a number of teams. And you have a few choices for 4th and 5th. Aayla, Ani, and Ezra are best. So there is some flexibility here with different comps. Raids additionally make IGD very good. But there are several really terrible Jedi that aren't usable for anything. And your choice of leaders is very limited. However they are an arena viable faction that does surprisingly well defensively with good mods. The will be getting a faction pass, so hopefully that will expand their functionality, and add some additional viable leads. Mace is at the top of my list.
Rebels:
We all know the Chaze combo. And yeah they do a lot. But after reading the above I don't think they're stronger/have more utility than the taunt/cleanse/dispel support base toons for the other major factions. Especially since the toons they support in their own faction often have less utility. They are mostly low health/high damage attackers. Mainly Wedge and Jyn are the only viable leaders. No dispels. No heals outside of Ackbar (which is situational). No TM boosts (outside of STHan who you would probably pull if you have Baze to tank). They need Chaze to fill a lot of gaps. They are good no doubt, but they have weaknesses. I remember running Boba lead/Lando/Ani against the Rex lead, Chaze, Wiggs teams when that first became a thing. Two Lando AoEs, and one from Ani after they killed my tank, and everyone on their team but Baze went from full health/protection to dead.
And we still didn't touch on Resistance and FO. Both of them are complete factions that have one awesome lead, with a taunt, a dispeller, a cleanse, TM boosts, big damage, buffs, and debuffs. Both can have varying degrees of success in arena, and raids (Resistance clearly has the edge).
RIght now I think we're as balanced as we've ever been. People don't need to run Chaze to win, or hold on defense. I still don't. Anybody who thinks we're getting more unbalanced wasn't here when 95% of leader were Dooku. Rex, Boba, Kenobi, zQGJ, Zader, Thrawn, Wedge, zFinn, Jyn, Zaul, Nihilus and Tarkin are all viable to some extent as leads of a variety of teams that don't all need Chaze. Some work better than others against different teams. All can be beaten. All have weaknesses.
To add to this balance we are still waiting on the Jedi faction pass, a Bounty Hunter faction pass, a Seperatist faction pass, and all of the new Resistance/FO toons we'll surely get this winter. I like where we're at, and where we're headed. Feel free to disagree.
