So, why is Fear listed under Defiance?
Unlike all the other debuffs, Fear is not inflicted by any of the toons eligible for the Krayt raid. So then why is it in the list? I can see three possible answers:
1) It's possibly a subtle hint at a new raid-eligible toon that will be released.
Tuskens - These feel like they're done already.
Jawa - While they probably need the boost the most, I highly doubt that any new Jawa would include Fear in their kit.
Old Republic - I'm not familiar with who's missing but I think they're a more likely faction to get a new unit. Especially with the upcoming remake of KOTOR coming. Though again, Fear doesn't really feel faction-appropriate.
Mandalorian - A fairly logical pick of the five factions for a new unit that inflicts Fear. Though who'd it be?
Hutt Cartel - While one of the more appropriate choices for the debuff, and there are many potential characters to come for them, I still am rather skeptical we're getting a new one. Would require some very careful balancing as any new toon would have baked in synergy with a GL. Perhaps it wouldn't be achievable without making Jabba too OP. But maybe Jabba's eventual lifter (Bib Fortuna?) features Fear in some way.
Regardless of if a new toon comes for any of these factions, at the end of the day I don't really see Fear being included for any of them.
2) It's just future-proofing for future raids that will also include Defiance as a mechanic.
One of the big problems with past raids was how to handle debuffs. With the earlier raids becoming soloable/trivialized in large part thanks to the combination of tm removal mechanics with Tenacity Down. Later raids compensated by using insanely high stacking Tenacity and just straight up making the bosses immune to many debuffs, which gimped most teams that relied on them and limited what teams we could use. With Defiance I do think they've settled on a good compromise for giving these debuffs utility against a raid boss
So it makes sense that they'd reuse it. Maybe long-term we're getting a new raid where we'll use Sith Empire (4 toons that apply Fear) or Empire (Piett).
Though my gut tells me this doesn't feel right, since this would be showing an incredible amount of forethought that I'm not entirely sure they have. This would be them planning like a year in advance (I know some people predict a new raid within 6 months but IMO they'd milk the Krayt way longer than that). Even if they did plan this far ahead, they could just as easily have omitted mentioning Fear in the description until that future raid, to avoid confusion in the meantime.
3) Rather than Defiance being re-used for a new raid, we'll just be having new factions added to the Krayt Dragon raid itself at some point in the future. Maybe they add Sith Empire as an eligible faction as part of the hype around the time Leviathan is coming out. Though this would be entirely discarding the "only factions that fought a Krayt Dragon" rationale. I think, I'm not well versed in KOTOR lore.
Would they really do this? I don't know. On the one hand it doesn't quite feel right to break that "rule". On the other hand it's an easy way to refresh raid content that requires little extra work (don't have to design a whole new raid), and it makes sense that they might try to be building Leviathan hype in any way they can.
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I'm still on the fence myself. What do you think?
Relevant mechanic text for reference:
(Edited for clarity)
1) It's possibly a subtle hint at a new raid-eligible toon that will be released.
Tuskens - These feel like they're done already.
Jawa - While they probably need the boost the most, I highly doubt that any new Jawa would include Fear in their kit.
Old Republic - I'm not familiar with who's missing but I think they're a more likely faction to get a new unit. Especially with the upcoming remake of KOTOR coming. Though again, Fear doesn't really feel faction-appropriate.
Mandalorian - A fairly logical pick of the five factions for a new unit that inflicts Fear. Though who'd it be?
Hutt Cartel - While one of the more appropriate choices for the debuff, and there are many potential characters to come for them, I still am rather skeptical we're getting a new one. Would require some very careful balancing as any new toon would have baked in synergy with a GL. Perhaps it wouldn't be achievable without making Jabba too OP. But maybe Jabba's eventual lifter (Bib Fortuna?) features Fear in some way.
Regardless of if a new toon comes for any of these factions, at the end of the day I don't really see Fear being included for any of them.
2) It's just future-proofing for future raids that will also include Defiance as a mechanic.
One of the big problems with past raids was how to handle debuffs. With the earlier raids becoming soloable/trivialized in large part thanks to the combination of tm removal mechanics with Tenacity Down. Later raids compensated by using insanely high stacking Tenacity and just straight up making the bosses immune to many debuffs, which gimped most teams that relied on them and limited what teams we could use. With Defiance I do think they've settled on a good compromise for giving these debuffs utility against a raid boss
So it makes sense that they'd reuse it. Maybe long-term we're getting a new raid where we'll use Sith Empire (4 toons that apply Fear) or Empire (Piett).
Though my gut tells me this doesn't feel right, since this would be showing an incredible amount of forethought that I'm not entirely sure they have. This would be them planning like a year in advance (I know some people predict a new raid within 6 months but IMO they'd milk the Krayt way longer than that). Even if they did plan this far ahead, they could just as easily have omitted mentioning Fear in the description until that future raid, to avoid confusion in the meantime.
3) Rather than Defiance being re-used for a new raid, we'll just be having new factions added to the Krayt Dragon raid itself at some point in the future. Maybe they add Sith Empire as an eligible faction as part of the hype around the time Leviathan is coming out. Though this would be entirely discarding the "only factions that fought a Krayt Dragon" rationale. I think, I'm not well versed in KOTOR lore.
Would they really do this? I don't know. On the one hand it doesn't quite feel right to break that "rule". On the other hand it's an easy way to refresh raid content that requires little extra work (don't have to design a whole new raid), and it makes sense that they might try to be building Leviathan hype in any way they can.
-----
I'm still on the fence myself. What do you think?
Relevant mechanic text for reference:
When inflicted with the following debuffs, lose stacks of Defiance and remove those debuffs. If no stacks of Defiance are present, this unit is immune to these debuffs.
Fearsome Defiance: Lose stacks when inflicted with the following debuffs
Stun and Fear: 8 stacks
Ability Block: 6 stacks
Daze: 4 stacks
Blind: 3 stacks
Stagger: 2 stacks
Tenacity Down: 1 stack
(Edited for clarity)
