Powercreep and the game - is it time to review it?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The single worst mechanic of the game is Tenacity Up. If that could get reworked to be "it increases tenacity; roll vs potency" versus the current "resist all debuffs" then the game would be much more balanced. Dark side characters are useless in arena today because most teams rely on debuffs. EP is a useless toon against most of the previous meta because of this. Maybe now he'll get some love now that it's a rebel meta, but all the opposing team needs is a fast Rex.

CLS is a fun toon but his release really broke a fairly stable multi-team meta going on in Arena.

I for one disagree with you. We are talking about Luke Skywalker here, post-Yoda training (think Bespin Luke) which is not long before he kills the Rancor in ROTJ. So canon-wise, Non-Jedi Luke being able to solo the Rancor makes sense.

As a developer myself, I can tell you that avoiding power creep is impossible. If you don't release increasingly powerful toons, or toons that do something unique, players will lose interest.

Now, let's take a look at what is required to get Luke (who unlocks at 7*)...5 7* Empire (to get 7* R2) and 7* ANH characters (including the aforementioned R2).

And IF you were to use EP to get 7* R2, then that's even MORE characters at 7* and a decent gear level to unlock him.

So if you think about all the investment (time/money/etc.) to get CLS, then having him be so powerful makes perfect sense.

I do not have CLS but am working towards him. As someone who doesn't have CLS, I have zero problem with others who put in the effort to get him being able to accomplish great things.

Also, think about it this way: CLS is a way to save time on things like the Rancor (with the proper investment) which is also a bonus and something the devs have said they wanted to figure out how to do.

He is an end-game character, the main character of the three original movies, one of the most iconic characters in filmography and should most definitely have end-game power. Which he does...in spades...lol

I would not expect new, non-legendary characters, to have similar power. I would expect a Bespin Vader (should he release) to be more powerful since he kicked the crap out of CLS, but otherwise, until we get Jedi Luke I wouldn't expect to see anyone else come into the game anytime soon that can knock him off that throne.

powercreep is necessary to keep the game interesting.

I understand your concern, but you have several points where your analysis is, at least in my opinion, a little flawed.

First and foremost being, raids always get easier over time. People have been soloing Rancor in particular for a long while, so a character who is particularly good at doing that specific thing isn't game-breaking in any regard. After all, does it really matter if someone solos with a zVader squad and someone else solos with Luke? They both soloed. They're both in the same drawing for the same rewards. Nerfing toons across the board to suddenly make Rancor harder wouldn't sit well with a lot of players and for good reason. Many of us have been doing that content for a long time. I don't want it to be harder or take more time (that second part being the critical portion). If I'm gonna spend more time in game I want new content.

Secondly, nerfing stats across the board doesn't make mods mean more as you contend, at least not all of them, since ultimately it makes all the percentage based mods mean less. This puts hefty limiters on what's a good mod and what is mostly garbage. This would put even more of a premium on speed secondaries, and that's not a direction I'd like to see the game go.

In the end I'd much rather see the addition of another raid than the type of balance pass you are suggesting. That would allow for more challenging content without pushing us backwards on what we've already spent months doing.

Humm, good points here. Certainly something to think about.
However, the rancor solo is the least of my concerns, it is the fact that CLS is everywhere and knowing how CG works, they will probably release a counter to him that will be equally or more powerful than CLS, like Bespin Vader for instance. And that trend isn't good in my eyes. But good points, I certainly didn't expect to have the first 3 posts against what I'm saying.

Also, I have to thank the mod that moved this into a session on the forums that nobody checks, nice way to bury it.
If you could move this back to general discussion, which it truly is - I'm not giving feedback, I'm asking for opinions - I would be very thankful.

I'm glad other people took the time to give a more lenghty response.
The only discussion that we could have is how much (or how fast(?)) powercreep is optimal . I think anyone who's against powercreep alltogether is fooling himself. It's pretty similar to discussions about balance.

The counter character concern is a pretty valid concern. The reality in the recent meta is that synergies often aren't powerful enough to outperform just throwing fotm characters together and forming a nonsensical superteam. I mean, Rex/Kenobi/Nihilus/Chaze or some variation has been top tier for.... how long now? And frankly that team makes no sense. The irony there being that Luke is shifting the meta towards synergy teams again with his powerful rebel leadership, but who's to say your Bespin Vader wouldn't just be thrown in there with him regardless just like Nihilus/Kenobi were thrown in with Chaze...

That's a tough walnut to crack. I wouldn't mind making synergies more important, or flat out penalizing mixed ls/ds teams in arena, but I know a lot of people are adamantly against that so...

"leef;c-1257856" wrote:
I'm glad other people took the time to give a more lenghty response.
The only discussion that we could have is how much (or how fast(?)) powercreep is optimal . I think anyone who's against powercreep alltogether is fooling himself. It's pretty similar to discussions about balance.

Thanks bud.
I mean, I understand the "logic" behind powercreep - which is to generate revenue -, but I also know that eventually we will reach a wall that is either get the new toons or get left behind.
This is why I feel it's a good topic to discuss, that's all.
I do appreciate the responses so far, it's good to share different points of view.

"fascizio;c-1257860" wrote:
The counter character concern is a pretty valid concern. The reality in the recent meta is that synergies often aren't powerful enough to outperform just throwing fotm characters together and forming a nonsensical superteam. I mean, Rex/Kenobi/Nihilus/Chaze or some variation has been top tier for.... how long now? And frankly that team makes no sense. The irony there being that Luke is shifting the meta towards synergy teams again with his powerful rebel leadership, but who's to say your Bespin Vader wouldn't just be thrown in there with him regardless just like Nihilus/Kenobi were thrown in with Chaze...

That's a tough walnut to crack. I wouldn't mind making synergies more important, or flat out penalizing mixed ls/ds teams in arena, but I know a lot of people are adamantly against that so...

Spot on man.