RARITY levels

This is 1 of 4 different threads. Each is it's own standalone topic, but all relate to this idea. If you're interested in seeing the entire picture check out the other 3 threads:
- Some abilities are next to USELESS!
- New Content Idea: SURVIVAL
- All your toon are belong to us!

Adding new characters is great and all, but it can be overwhelming as a new player to only have 5 or so characters and see how slow getting new characters is. I myself am level 61 now with 35 characters, and even I still feel like it will take forever to get the 41 remaining characters. While this is technically good, as it means there is plenty to do, not everyone sees potential when they look at a blank slate.

I suggest allowing multiples of the basic characters. NOT all of the characters, just the ones that are not specifically named. Imagine having 5 Count Dookus... that would be ridiculous. So for example, there should only ever be 1 Qui-Gon Gin, or 1 Eeth Koth, etc... But why can't we have 2, 3, or even 4 Jedi Guardians? Or when we eventually are given access to the battle droids, why not allow us to be able to have several instead of just 1? Thus, in order to make this work, there would need to be a rarity system. I suggest having a 4-tier leveling system.

Rarity level 1 = 1 each (named characters/ really powerful)
Rarity level 2 = 2 each
Rarity level 3 = 3 each
Rarity level 4 = 4 each (very week, some shards available in normal light/dark side battles)

----------

Why do we need so many extras? Because there is more to the game than competitive player vs player. Just looking at players around level 40, there are the regular light/dark battles both normal and hard, cantina battles, challenges, events, and the Galactic War. Having access to many extra (albeit weeker) characters would be a huge boon especially to starting players, but also mid and high leveled players in all of these.

Looking at the clones, yes, the three of them make a nice set, but how many players will actually have all three of them before level 60 (even then)? Fives can be bought at the cantina, or farmed in Dark2-DHard and Light4-FHard, but Rex is only available in the data packs. Those who are willing/able to fork over tons of cash could get Rex early on, but non-paying players are left out unless they are extremely lucky with their draws.

By giving access to extra basic clones, they will allow the bonuses to be used to their full(ish) potential for new players without making them super overpowered (because they are noticeably weaker than the higher rarity level characters). But they can still be a benefit for veteran players (such as being thrown in as cannon fodder in GW). Plus there are countless other ways they could be used in future content.

Now, some characters such as the Tusken Raider actually become pretty nice once fully upgraded, and if there were say 3 of them, then they would become a little OP. To counter this, there could be something like the "Veteran Tusken Raider (lvl 1)" and then just "Tusken Raiders (lvl 4)", The Veteran would be what the Tusken Raider is now, while the non-Veteran would be a very dwarfed version, just something to make new players salivate over when they get the second or third and make them really want the better ones.

----------

The way getting a duplicate character would work, is when you have enough shards to upgrade it, you can instead chose to make a new character. All equipment and leveling and future upgrading will affect all like characters. The drawback though, is that the shard increase is unaffected. Promoting a Clone Sergeant from 3 to 4 stars takes 30 shards, and from 4 to 5 stars takes 65 shards. To make a second 3 star Clone Sergeant, one would pay the normal 30 shards as though upgrading. Then upgrading both of them to 4 stars would cost 65 shards.

The Clone Sergeant would be harder for a new player to take advantage of having multiples of. But I suggest that the super week characters, such as Clone Trooper or B1 Battle Droids be available to farm from normal level battles. These characters would be extremely week compared to other characters, but since they can potentially be upgraded more quickly, they would give new players enough of a boost to feel as though they are getting deeper into the game more quickly, and be able to fight somewhat competitively by matching the weaker characters with better ones that have abilities that benefit from having a lot of a specific type of character.

----------

Even though people would be almost guaranteed to last longer in the Galactic War (though with more losses at a time with all the weaker units) the rewards would probably not need to be adjusted, due to the fact that there will be so many more things to use the rewards for. Plus the weaker lower rarity leveled units would eventually become strictly either ability buffing units, or part of suicide teams. This would open a great opportunity to have extra Galactic War settings, such as limited to Light/Dark side characters (fight against the opposite), or having more battles before finishing it (a harder difficulty after obtaining your 30th character, or your 10th 4 star character, or something).

Then there are so many other options available for this. For example, new challenges which are limited to other specific types, such as permanent versions of the Droids vs Jawas (or at least making them reoccurring events).

Players who just like having a super strong team may not care about this, but the strategists who enjoy having a main team and then developing secondary teams would get a real kick out of this.

Also, check out my thread "New Content Idea: SURVIVAL!" to see another way they can be used really well.

Here is an example of how the Rarity system would work and its use in combat.

Poggle the Lesser (lvl 1)
Geonosian Spy (lvl 2)
Geonosian Laborer (lvl 3) – light healer, focus on Geonosians. Very fast, but very weak
Geonosian Soldier (lvl 2)
Geonosian Warrior (lvl 4)

This would create a total of 12 Geonosians (1 Poggle; 2 spys; 3 Laborers; 2 Soldiers; 4 Warriors). Upgrading and promoting Poggle would only affect him. However, Upgrading and promoting the Soldiers would affect all soldiers a player has. One drawback is that using shards to create new Soldiers stacks with the shards used to promote them. So in essence you will be spending shards as though you were promoting them up to 8 stars, except 1 of the stars would be the extra Soldier (or 10 promotions for Warriors for the extra 3). When to promote verses when to get a new Soldier or Warrior (or ______) will be one of the many strategic decisions that all players, but especially new ones, will need to make.

The rarity level 4 characters should NOT be purchasable in the standard data packs (that would dilute their value far too much) (maybe not rarity level 3 either). Rather, they should be available in the normal light side and dark side battles. So players can obtain Geonosian Warriors by farming (but only by farming) the normal battles. This will level the playing field a little between players who don’t/can’t spend lots of money to get all the characters, and make it all around simpler for beginner players to obtain new (albeit somewhat weaker) characters early on. On the other hand, players who still want to pay money still can buy crystals and energy to farm as much as they want. Having a data pack specifically designated to level 3 rarity characters might work as well, but why do that when you can farm them and get credits and gear at the same time?

In the Galactic War, a player may vie to use Poggle with droids rather than with fellow Geonosians at first, while having combinations of the remaining 12 all together. However, if Poggle outlives the majority of droids, putting Poggle in with the other Geonosians (and maybe extra droids if they don't have characters like Lobot available) would be a perfectly viable strategy in order to continue getting as much use out of the Geonosian abilities as possible. Of course many strategies can emerge from these kind of combinations, this is just one strategy.

Another example on how and WHY Rarity levels would be good.

Chief Chirpa (lvl 1)
Ewok Elder (lvl 1)
Teebo (lvl 1)
Ewok Scout (lvl 3)
Ewok Warrior (lvl 4)
Slew of other Ewoks that could be added (?)

Firstly, I personally believe the Ewok Elder is powerful enough that there should only be one, even though it is a generic name and could be justified in that there are multiple "elders". Maybe a new less powerful attacker/healer, but there shouldn't be multiples. Secondly, I'm not going to worry about EVERY possible Ewok they could add, mostly because there are so many.

So just looking at the main five, there are a total of 10 Ewoks (1 Chirpa; 1 Elder; 1 Teebo; 3 Scouts; 4 Warriors). The Elder is available in light side Hard 2-C, and Teebo is in the Galactic War rewards, so they and the Scout are all relatively easy to obtain. And I'm suggesting the Warrior be available for farming from easy levels (since it's a lvl 4 character), so a new player could without too much hassle get a team of 5 Ewoks with Teebo, the Elder, and a combination of scouts and warriors. This would allow for a decently powerful Ewok team, the Warriors almost only being there to take advantage of the other Ewok abilities (Teebo's speed boost and the scout's attack boost).

Eventually, as better Ewoks become available, such as Chief Chirpa in Cantina 5th tier, they can swap out the Warriors/Scouts for them. But the extra Warriors/Scouts would not become obsolite, they would still be very useful in the Galactic war, or in future content such as the Survival battles I suggest in another thread.

I fixed the first post into a TL;DR post. I thought the first post was summary enough before, but someone in one of the other threads helped direct me in how to fix it.

I still think this is a good idea. They could say that only one of each character is allowed in guild raids, or realize how difficult it is to get a character to have multiples of a 7 star character.

There would still be player choice in how to develop. "Do I spend these 100 shards to upgrade to 7 stars, and collect the 150(?) shards for the extra one later? Or do I use them to make this into 2 6star characters, and collect the 150 to upgrade them to 7star later?