Nerf Wedge's Leadership already

Dude Wiggs is already becoming obsolete in arena. With more toons able to reach gear level 11, it's becoming harder to one shot toons. Not to mention as they continue to introduce characters like Shoretrooper (heard of him? He makes crit based rebel teams near useless) the game will balance out over time. Wedges lead is strong, but it's far from being the only viable arena squad setup. Try investing in some Empire characters or maybe some better mods. No team is unbeatable.

Maybe we're on different servers, but literally all but 3 teams in the top 20 on my server are Wiggs. You're right in that it's impossible to one shot a character. It is definitely quite possible to three shot them, though (i.e., Biggs, Wedge and a random assist with no damage penalty?) Throw in the turn meter gain on STHan taunting and you can only get a few shots off before the rest of the team starts 2 - 3 shotting your characters while healing themselves to full.

Shoretrooper, who's that? Sounds like a cool toon....Oh right, he's that new Empire tank that you can farm from those nodes... wait... that's right, you can't farm him right now unless you're dropping absurd amounts of cash into this game.

So barring an Empire team full of special event, crystal or achievement based-characters (I'm assuming you're going off of the cookie cutter EP(L), Vader and RG, though it sounds like you favor the presently-unfarmable Shoretrooper. I could be wrong), Wedge's heal in his leadership ability needs to be curtailed or removed.

"FlyingOyster;796724" wrote:
Maybe we're on different servers, but literally all but 3 teams in the top 20 on my server are Wiggs. You're right in that it's impossible to one shot a character. It is definitely quite possible to three shot them, though (i.e., Biggs, Wedge and a random assist with no damage penalty?) Throw in the turn meter gain on STHan taunting and you can only get a few shots off before the rest of the team starts 2 - 3 shotting your characters while healing themselves to full.

Shoretrooper, who's that? Sounds like a cool toon....Oh right, he's that new Empire tank that you can farm from those nodes... wait... that's right, you can't farm him right now unless you're dropping absurd amounts of cash into this game.

So barring an Empire team full of special event, crystal or achievement based-characters (I'm assuming you're going off of the cookie cutter EP(L), Vader and RG, though it sounds like you favor the presently-unfarmable Shoretrooper. I could be wrong), Wedge's heal in his leadership ability needs to be curtailed or removed.

Ok first off, if the healing aspect of Wedge's lead is what's bothering you that much, you probably want to upgrade your dps options. Healing hasn't been a relevant factor in arena since darth sidious was considered meta. An inconvenience, yes, but it shouldn't be a game changer.

Yeah I know Shoretrooper is currently unfarmable, my point is they will keep adding characters like him and eventually make him farmable to balance out the meta. Look at how quick they made B2 and Wedge farmable, for example.

You don't need a full empire team but toons like Palp ( lots of rebels to farm so not terribly difficult to unlock) and TFP (cantina nodes) or Fett (lots of players use him as lead on my shard now) can make a huge difference. Also jedi/clone counter teams are great against rebel teams due to the large amount of AOEs.

You make some good points, but I think you're both underselling the potency of the healing/turn meter combo that is given, as well as overselling the ease of getting Palpatine.

Yes, there are plenty of rebel toons to farm and, unsurprisingly, the Wiggs build in question would be a great way to get Palp.

Problem is, this December will be the first time there's been an Emperor's demise event since August and the event itself is described by the developers as "extremely rare." So to say that it is a simple task and/or easy counter is simply inaccurate. In fact, it only furthers the point that the Wiggs build is imbalanced when the "simplest" counter requires having a 7* character that is the fourth most difficult to acquire in the game, depending on who you ask. (Gen. Kenobi, Grievous and raid Han Solo being the only ones ahead of him).

As to healing not being a relevant part since Sidious was meta, I don't buy it for one minute. Healing Immunity is always applied to an individual target (unless its from Grievous, in which case, see my earlier point). Furthermore, with regards to the meta, the only toons in circulation that really apply it are JKA or IG-88.

Personally, I would love it if Clones were a solid counter to this, but they are not; I know from experience. While they have excellent turn meter synergy and decent self-healing with an omega'd Echo, there is simply not enough damage output to take down a Wiggs team before a storm of crits has said team completely healed up, and I would argue that the Double Down + Red Squadron strike combo presents a far more dangerous AOE setup than anything provided by clones/Jedi, especially since both have the potential to recover full health and half turn meter with each use. Combine that with the high speed of this build and you have your second double down much sooner than later and with almost twice the damage.

Meanwhile, the taunting STHan is soaking up enough damage and, by design, giving everyone else on his team enough turn meter that if you, the attacking player, haven't one-shotted the defenders (made all-but-impossible with tier 11 gear, as you pointed out), you're going to have one turn for every two the Wiggs team gets.

Shoretrooper synergy with this particular team also shines for very similar reasons: the inability to target real threats until your buff cleanser can have a go, whereupon his taunt returns with team-wide crit avoidance and, unless you brought Sun Fac.

The ability to counter this team is extremely low. High-speed, high damage with absurd recovery on both health and turn meter (more extreme when you consider the fact that not one of the characters is a support or healer), and the strongest assist punch in the game (again, no damage reduction on any of the assisting characters) is just too much.

You are correct that it is not impossible to beat this team, but I never said that it was; I stated that it is hilariously imbalanced. When one build dominates the vast majority of the other builds, with its only counter requiring extremely rare, very specific characters, then, by definition, there is no way it can be considered balanced. The sheer number of these teams in the top 50 speaks only proves that further. It needs adjustment, plain and simple.

I don't have a problem taking them down. I pumped up my Lumi's Potency and she shuts down ST Han and Rey kills Wedge fast enough while Leia is still getting in the shadows. IDK.

My real issues that they made these two Secondary pilots so effing good. I mean, compare them in game to the Jedi Master's or Sith and it's pretty pathetic. It's an aesthetic complaint, ultimately, but c'mon. If the Wiggs combo and it's effectiveness happened to have come from Ahsoka and Anakin, and they changed the flavor to match, I bet you wouldn't see half so many people with issues over it.

I think much perspective was lost with Wiggs.

It's not Wedge's leader ability, the dispairty is caused by people that have 12+ speed on each non-arrow Mod, the issue is Mods.

Truth - you can make a mid power toon great that way

"PremierVenoth;813251" wrote:
Truth - you can make a mid power toon great that way

There's no doubt that characters like Biggs, Wedge, Jin, and the Chaze duo are awesome, but if you can't get those characters to a certain speed then they're average.

To give some perspective, I run a 5pip modded 7star clone team with more than a few speed bonuses as a part of each one's loadout for roughly a 39.5k power level. I have lost to a number of Wiggs teams in the 34k range with, literally, no speed mods and mostly 1 - 2pip mods.

Despite this, the rebel team invariably goes first, Biggs uses his ridiculous 3assist, 75% crit bonus attack which, unless it's directed at Five (which, of course, is never the case) wipes out either a dps clone or the only dispeller in the squad.

So, invariably, I lose the ability to return enough firepower to kill either Wiggs or Lando before their next piece of crit round (when they immediately heal to full) or I'm faced with a taunting StHan that cannot be dispelled.

This shouldn't happen. Literally, there is no way to describe this as "balanced." Wiggs badly needs a nerf; either the healing component needs to be removed, or Biggs' absurd 3-person-assist-with-crit-and-NO-damage-reduction ability needs to be retooled.

On my server, this pair dominates the Arena ladder all the way through the top 50 (the only exception on my server being myself and a handful of Droid teams). 46/50 in PVP meta is basically the definition of balance.

I would love for a dev to justify this, but as this truth is self-evident, I seriously doubt anyone from CG has the spine to address it. I challenge you to prove me wrong, EA.

"FlyingOyster;834231" wrote:
To give some perspective, I run a 5pip modded 7star clone team with more than a few speed bonuses as a part of each one's loadout for roughly a 39.5k power level. I have lost to a number of Wiggs teams in the 34k range with, literally, no speed mods and mostly 1 - 2pip mods.

Despite this, the rebel team invariably goes first, Biggs uses his ridiculous 3assist, 75% crit bonus attack which, unless it's directed at Five (which, of course, is never the case) wipes out either a dps clone or the only dispeller in the squad.

So, invariably, I lose the ability to return enough firepower to kill either Wiggs or Lando before their next piece of crit round (when they immediately heal to full) or I'm faced with a taunting StHan that cannot be dispelled.

This shouldn't happen. Literally, there is no way to describe this as "balanced." Wiggs badly needs a nerf; either the healing component needs to be removed, or Biggs' absurd 3-person-assist-with-crit-and-NO-damage-reduction ability needs to be retooled.

On my server, this pair dominates the Arena ladder all the way through the top 50 (the only exception on my server being myself and a handful of Droid teams). 46/50 in PVP meta is basically the definition of balance.

I would love for a dev to justify this, but as this truth is self-evident, I seriously doubt anyone from CG has the spine to address it. I challenge you to prove me wrong, EA.

Part of the problem is you're using Clones and they just don't work in the meta. Even if their Biggs didn't go first is your Cody going to kill somebody with his assist, probably not? I have the Clones and went down this road a few months ago, there's no hope for them unless you have Cody and 5's zeta'd and perhaps General Kenobi. Unfortunately not everything is meta competitive. The other part of the problem is secondary speed stats just further exaggerate the disparity.