Ezra vs Sabine

"CoastalJames;c-1639402" wrote:

"crzydroid;c-1639336" wrote:
Ezra's a little overrated. Not a bad toon, but Sabine works about as well in a Phoenix team. Unless you really need an extra buff removal or assist from Zeb, you aren't missing much in Phoenix without him.

Genuine question - really?

Ezra is the heaviest hitter in Phoenix.

This is obviously in the context of Sabine being the replacement.

Their damage output is actually fairly comparable if Ezra can pull slightly ahead, and you can factor in his assists, but that's vs. her armor shred and the expose on her AoE(benefits everyone).

Another thing that benefits everyone is their uniques: Ezra's 10% stacking (limit 40%) offense at end of turn and Sabine's 25% cd and cc (every turn). I ran some numbers giving everyone 10% cc from mods and 186% crit chance, except for Ezra and Sabine, whom I gave an extra 15% cc and 216% cd (Kanan I actually gave more cc assuming you want his offense down to not be resisted, and only 150% cd as a tank). After the first 5 turns, average damage with Sabine on the team was higher than with Ezra's unique, with the numbers for Ezra ranging between about 93-99% of the damage with Sabine. Depending on the character, the breaking point seemed to be around 9-10 turns. After 20 turns, the damage by the others with Ezra was only 4-12% more than with Sabine--and that 12% figure was for Hera, who had the least offense anyway. Assuming she used her basic every time, that's only 23,000 more damage before mitigation over the course of those 20 turns (though honestly, she would probably also be calling assists).

As for the characters themselves, that's a little tricky depending on how you split up their use of specials, and how much tm the enemy has to trigger Sabine's extra hits, but it is possible to have Sabine doing more damage after the first few turns. You can factor in whether Ezra is gaining tm or the assists plus bonus damage, but again, balancing this against Armor Shred and an extra expose.

My point is, that in situations where you use Phoenix (TB, Secrets and Shadows, Thrawn event) I've found in practice you can do just as well with Sabine over Ezra at similar gear and mod levels, which is why I say you're not missing much without him. It's also why I say he's a little overrated--while not a bad toon, people act as though you absolutely MUST include him in a Phoenix comp, and it's simply not true. I've had no problems beating any of the three PvE modes mentioned above without Ezra.

Obviously, though, the best situation would be if Hera's leadership also included a line that let you use a 6-person team if they are all Phoenix. : )