A discussion on Leader Abilities
I have been looking at the character leader abilities for a few days now, and it seems like this could be an area for great improvement. I have seen numerous threads expressing unhappiness that we consistently see the same leaders again and again in the arena. This is most likely due to the fact that a relatively small number of characters have useful leader abilities for the players' team lineups.
This is meant to open up a discussion on what you like and don’t like about leader abilities and how they could be changed to improve game play, and maybe to serve as a guide for new players trying to decide which characters to unlock.
Disclaimer - I have no interest in datamining or speculating about what may happen in the future. This is about what is available in the game today.
I categorized the leader abilities and this is what I found:
Out of 75 Characters (including Magmatrooper), 46 have leader abilities
26 LS
20 DS
13 Jedi
6 Scoundrel
5 Rebel
5 Sith
3 Droid
3 Empire
3 Nightsister
2 Resistance
2 Clone
1 Geonosian
1 First Order
1 Tusken
1 Jawa
1 Ewok
3 Named characters don’t have leader abilities: Biggs, Rey, and Kylo Ren.
No generic Characters have leader abilities.
Don't try to do the math above - it won't work out. Darth Vader has two classes, Sith and Empire.
1 unlocks at 5 stars (yoda)
21 unlock at 4 stars
19 unlock at 3 stars
5 unlock at 2 stars (Ahsoka, Greedo, Princess Leia, Qui Gon Jinn, and Teebo)
There are 76 total leader ability benefits, meaning that some provide 2 distinct benefits to allies, such as Barriss, who in addition to providing allies with additional health, also heals each team member for a percentage of her max health at the beginning of each turn.
Of those leader ability benefits, 56 are persistent, meaning they are always in effect, such as Barriss' increase in max health or for offensive and defensive buffs, both of which Finn provides.
15 leader ability benefits are situational, meaning they are triggered by some event. Dathcha is a good example of this: "Whenever an ally damages a droid, there is a 50% chance to inflict Defense Down for two turns."
4 leader ability benefits are conditional. Plo Koon, Stormtrooper Han and Nute Gunray provide their leader abilities when specific conditions are met. For example, Stormtrooper Han: "All allies gain 30 defense while above 50% health and 25% Offense while below 50% health (Level 1). Nute Gunray provides Stealthed allies +35% Critical Chance (Level 1).
1 Ability is conditional and situational: Nute Gunray's Stealthed allies gain Turn meter on a critical hit.
Here is where I think it is most interesting and probably has the most room for improvement.
Of the Leader ability benefits:
33 apply to same-class allies only (20 Characters)
23 apply to all allies
13 are tiered, meaning they provide a benefit to same-class allies and a lesser benefit to all other allies
2 apply to same class and one other class (Ahsoka to Jedi and Nightsisters and Poggle to droids and Geonosians)
2 apply to other class only (Lobot to droids)
2 apply to enemies (Grievous)
1 applies to self (Ahsoka)
I didn't count Geonosian Soldier, but its unique Hive Tactics: "Geonosian allies gain 5% critical chance" acts exactly like a leader ability without having to be in the leader position.
I also didn't count Grievous' Tactical Retreat which will cause an ally to taunt and give that ally 100% turn meter when GG falls below 50% health.
I think this shows why many of the same leaders like Sid, Phasma, and Luminara are so ubiquitous at some levels - they have strong leader abilities that apply to all allies, giving a lot of flexibility when a player wants to make a change to a squad. Even the tiered abilities work well, and though they incentivize making same-class squads, they don't penalize heavily for adding other class characters.
Class-only leaders are useful in some cases (droid and Jedi teams), but in many other cases, we aren't seeing much use out of potentially great characters. If Akbar provided speed up to all allies across the board or even tiered, he would be used a lot more. You'll see Boba Fett in the lead occasionally, but not Greedo, unless a scoundrel only event pops up, because most leader abilities aren't worth it if they only apply to half of the team.
As is, the leader abilities don't follow cannon in any way and relegate many characters to the bench or cannon fodder in GW. It seems to me that the leader ability category is one that suffered from lack of refinement before the game launched and is now stuck in a way that most of them seem somewhat ambiguously assigned.
I would like to see more tiered, conditional, and situational leader abilities and maybe abilities that are more accurate to the characters we all know and love.
If you've stuck with me until now, thanks for reading. You constructive comments are appreciated.
This is meant to open up a discussion on what you like and don’t like about leader abilities and how they could be changed to improve game play, and maybe to serve as a guide for new players trying to decide which characters to unlock.
Disclaimer - I have no interest in datamining or speculating about what may happen in the future. This is about what is available in the game today.
I categorized the leader abilities and this is what I found:
Out of 75 Characters (including Magmatrooper), 46 have leader abilities
26 LS
20 DS
13 Jedi
6 Scoundrel
5 Rebel
5 Sith
3 Droid
3 Empire
3 Nightsister
2 Resistance
2 Clone
1 Geonosian
1 First Order
1 Tusken
1 Jawa
1 Ewok
3 Named characters don’t have leader abilities: Biggs, Rey, and Kylo Ren.
No generic Characters have leader abilities.
Don't try to do the math above - it won't work out. Darth Vader has two classes, Sith and Empire.
1 unlocks at 5 stars (yoda)
21 unlock at 4 stars
19 unlock at 3 stars
5 unlock at 2 stars (Ahsoka, Greedo, Princess Leia, Qui Gon Jinn, and Teebo)
There are 76 total leader ability benefits, meaning that some provide 2 distinct benefits to allies, such as Barriss, who in addition to providing allies with additional health, also heals each team member for a percentage of her max health at the beginning of each turn.
Of those leader ability benefits, 56 are persistent, meaning they are always in effect, such as Barriss' increase in max health or for offensive and defensive buffs, both of which Finn provides.
15 leader ability benefits are situational, meaning they are triggered by some event. Dathcha is a good example of this: "Whenever an ally damages a droid, there is a 50% chance to inflict Defense Down for two turns."
4 leader ability benefits are conditional. Plo Koon, Stormtrooper Han and Nute Gunray provide their leader abilities when specific conditions are met. For example, Stormtrooper Han: "All allies gain 30 defense while above 50% health and 25% Offense while below 50% health (Level 1). Nute Gunray provides Stealthed allies +35% Critical Chance (Level 1).
1 Ability is conditional and situational: Nute Gunray's Stealthed allies gain Turn meter on a critical hit.
Here is where I think it is most interesting and probably has the most room for improvement.
Of the Leader ability benefits:
33 apply to same-class allies only (20 Characters)
23 apply to all allies
13 are tiered, meaning they provide a benefit to same-class allies and a lesser benefit to all other allies
2 apply to same class and one other class (Ahsoka to Jedi and Nightsisters and Poggle to droids and Geonosians)
2 apply to other class only (Lobot to droids)
2 apply to enemies (Grievous)
1 applies to self (Ahsoka)
I didn't count Geonosian Soldier, but its unique Hive Tactics: "Geonosian allies gain 5% critical chance" acts exactly like a leader ability without having to be in the leader position.
I also didn't count Grievous' Tactical Retreat which will cause an ally to taunt and give that ally 100% turn meter when GG falls below 50% health.
I think this shows why many of the same leaders like Sid, Phasma, and Luminara are so ubiquitous at some levels - they have strong leader abilities that apply to all allies, giving a lot of flexibility when a player wants to make a change to a squad. Even the tiered abilities work well, and though they incentivize making same-class squads, they don't penalize heavily for adding other class characters.
Class-only leaders are useful in some cases (droid and Jedi teams), but in many other cases, we aren't seeing much use out of potentially great characters. If Akbar provided speed up to all allies across the board or even tiered, he would be used a lot more. You'll see Boba Fett in the lead occasionally, but not Greedo, unless a scoundrel only event pops up, because most leader abilities aren't worth it if they only apply to half of the team.
As is, the leader abilities don't follow cannon in any way and relegate many characters to the bench or cannon fodder in GW. It seems to me that the leader ability category is one that suffered from lack of refinement before the game launched and is now stuck in a way that most of them seem somewhat ambiguously assigned.
I would like to see more tiered, conditional, and situational leader abilities and maybe abilities that are more accurate to the characters we all know and love.
If you've stuck with me until now, thanks for reading. You constructive comments are appreciated.
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Replies
I'm sure many with me feel the dilemma of not having enough decent leaders to choose from. Also, some of the more interesting leadership skills (such as Dooku) are presently broken. I also heard that Old Ben is similarly broken, but don't quote me on that since I don't have an official statement anywhere.
I say, the easiest toon to unlock with a very good kit becomes available.