Leader vs Unique abilities — blurring the line
Back in the day, the distinction between Leader and Unique abilities was pretty clear.
Leader = passive ability that affects enemies and/or allies
Examples: Grievous' anti-crit, Phasma's assist chance
Unique = passive ability that affects enemies and/or this character
Examples: STH's TM removal, RG auto-taunt, Savage's Offense+Defense Up
I can't say for sure that what was the first character to cross the line, but consider Wiggs for a moment. I understand there are counters to Wiggs and everything, and given the recent rebels to enter the fray (see what I did there) they may no longer be the strongest duo, but Wiggs are still extremely strong. And a big reason for that is Wedge's "Unique" which gives Offense and Speed, very important stats, to both himself and Biggs.
Ok, so now we have a Unique ability that affects a fellow ally, alright... fine. We've been asking for pair synergy, and here it is. (I personally think it's unbalanced, because Wedge Leader+Unique packs +90% Offense! on both him and Biggs out of the gate, that's like double damage right there, like 4 toons for the price of 2, anyway what do I know, I'm a biased droid user)
Now consider Chirrut's second Unique, Resolute Endurance: "Whenever a Rebel ally is Critically Hit they gain Heal Over Time for 2 turns. At the start of each turn, if Chirrut Imwe is alive, all allies with Heal Over Time recover 4% of their max health." This is essentially an alternative version of Chewie's leader ability, but the fact that it's a Unique allows stacking with other leader abilities!
I realize that General Kenobi was released before Chirrut, and GK's Unique also affects other allies. But it's safe to say that given the relative difficulty of Heroic AAT raid, currently there are less GK's floating around than Chirrut's at the moment (at least, I have yet to encounter GK on my shard or in GW).
What am I trying to say with all of this? I think pair synergy is fine, but right now with the recent chars being released, the separation between Leader and Unique is starting to look like separation between Church and State in the American Deep South. Basically, some of these Uniques are starting to look and function a lot like Leaders, which imho is very toxic for the game. I understand power creep and revenue everything, but devs, can we please have some semblance of balance here?
My suggestion to rework Chirrut Imwe, has move spoiler, do not open unless you have watched the movie:
Leader = passive ability that affects enemies and/or allies
Examples: Grievous' anti-crit, Phasma's assist chance
Unique = passive ability that affects enemies and/or this character
Examples: STH's TM removal, RG auto-taunt, Savage's Offense+Defense Up
I can't say for sure that what was the first character to cross the line, but consider Wiggs for a moment. I understand there are counters to Wiggs and everything, and given the recent rebels to enter the fray (see what I did there) they may no longer be the strongest duo, but Wiggs are still extremely strong. And a big reason for that is Wedge's "Unique" which gives Offense and Speed, very important stats, to both himself and Biggs.
Ok, so now we have a Unique ability that affects a fellow ally, alright... fine. We've been asking for pair synergy, and here it is. (I personally think it's unbalanced, because Wedge Leader+Unique packs +90% Offense! on both him and Biggs out of the gate, that's like double damage right there, like 4 toons for the price of 2, anyway what do I know, I'm a biased droid user)
Now consider Chirrut's second Unique, Resolute Endurance: "Whenever a Rebel ally is Critically Hit they gain Heal Over Time for 2 turns. At the start of each turn, if Chirrut Imwe is alive, all allies with Heal Over Time recover 4% of their max health." This is essentially an alternative version of Chewie's leader ability, but the fact that it's a Unique allows stacking with other leader abilities!
I realize that General Kenobi was released before Chirrut, and GK's Unique also affects other allies. But it's safe to say that given the relative difficulty of Heroic AAT raid, currently there are less GK's floating around than Chirrut's at the moment (at least, I have yet to encounter GK on my shard or in GW).
What am I trying to say with all of this? I think pair synergy is fine, but right now with the recent chars being released, the separation between Leader and Unique is starting to look like separation between Church and State in the American Deep South. Basically, some of these Uniques are starting to look and function a lot like Leaders, which imho is very toxic for the game. I understand power creep and revenue everything, but devs, can we please have some semblance of balance here?
My suggestion to rework Chirrut Imwe, has move spoiler, do not open unless you have watched the movie:
Spoiler
In the movie Chirrut dodges like crazy—he is one with the force, the force is with him. If he had been on the beaches of Normandy at D-Day, every single bullet would have missed him! To be honest, the only reason why he died on the shores of Scarif was because he stood there and chose to die—he could have easily kept on evading shots. Making him heal-over-time based does a disgrace to the most legendary dodger the Force has ever seen.
His basics and his specials should give him a reasonable chance to gain Dodge/Foresight Up, keeping the Baze assist synergy there somewhere. He should have counter chance and health steal as usual, and his (broken) Unique should be replaced by something along the lines of: whenever Chirrut dodges an attack, counter attack (maybe even +X% damage when counter attacking after dodging). This Unique is actually, well, unique because right now, a character that dodges can't counter attack!
You could also have him counter attack assists as well. Or counter attack ignoring taunt. So many options, just anything to reflect his true ninja, and not a guy who heals (literally never saw him heal someone in the movie).
His basics and his specials should give him a reasonable chance to gain Dodge/Foresight Up, keeping the Baze assist synergy there somewhere. He should have counter chance and health steal as usual, and his (broken) Unique should be replaced by something along the lines of: whenever Chirrut dodges an attack, counter attack (maybe even +X% damage when counter attacking after dodging). This Unique is actually, well, unique because right now, a character that dodges can't counter attack!
You could also have him counter attack assists as well. Or counter attack ignoring taunt. So many options, just anything to reflect his true ninja, and not a guy who heals (literally never saw him heal someone in the movie).
