By popular demand: Suggested adjustment of Darth Maul
So I posted this suggestion in another thread and received a lot of positive feedback, as well as requests to post it here too. Maul is one of the more iconized characters, and revamping this toon has been a popular subject. So, here goes.
I just want to add a short comment about my reasoning behind this, and it's the content of what I've come to underunderrated after taking part in a lot of threads about Maul on the message boards.
The way I see it, Maul is an incredibly offensive character that can quickly become overpowered if not handled carefully. That means, it may be better to introduce circumstantial changes (such as tweaking Nightsister leader skills) to increase his potential usefulness in a closed context, rather than buff the toon itself.
That said, Maul just lacks too much survivability today, and his unique skill makes his power scale weirdly during battle, making him the strongest by the end, when the battle is almost over, and the weakest in the beginning, when he's exposed to the biggest threat.
Today, Nightsister teams tend to get shoehorned into one specific build. The addition of the two Zabrak brothers would hopefully provide some diversity to Nightsister teams.
I don't think I'm necessarily providing the best possible solution here, but maybe a piece of the puzzle.
My suggestion: Give Maul a resurrection on death chance, just like Boba Fett. Because unlike Boba, Maul actually pulled it off. He's the true definition of die hard.
This would also give him a limited synergy with old Daka, and thus make him more viable on a Nightsister team. Which fits well with his lore.
Finally: Make all leader skills targeting Nightsisters simply target Dathomirians as a whole. This would give us a very interesting possibility to run a team with Nightsisters plus Maul and Savage. For instance, a Ventress led team with Maul and Savage would give a speed boost to three of the slowest toons in the game, and tie them all together nicely in a way that fits the lore.
I just want to add a short comment about my reasoning behind this, and it's the content of what I've come to underunderrated after taking part in a lot of threads about Maul on the message boards.
The way I see it, Maul is an incredibly offensive character that can quickly become overpowered if not handled carefully. That means, it may be better to introduce circumstantial changes (such as tweaking Nightsister leader skills) to increase his potential usefulness in a closed context, rather than buff the toon itself.
That said, Maul just lacks too much survivability today, and his unique skill makes his power scale weirdly during battle, making him the strongest by the end, when the battle is almost over, and the weakest in the beginning, when he's exposed to the biggest threat.
Today, Nightsister teams tend to get shoehorned into one specific build. The addition of the two Zabrak brothers would hopefully provide some diversity to Nightsister teams.
I don't think I'm necessarily providing the best possible solution here, but maybe a piece of the puzzle.
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Replies
Thing is that right now survivability is the only weak point for Maul, but Fortitude may change that a lot. Not to mention he is slower so he may get a damage increase as well with the new changes. I do agree with you if we are talking about Maul in the current gameplay, but until we see him at lvl 80 end game I don't think anything should be done with him. Not to mention I have seen people use him right now and he has been super devastating. Like Anakin, overall lackluster but can be super devastating on offense if pared with the right team. I'm sure we would see a lot more Maul's out there if he was farmable.
Do you realize how lucky you were by having Maul assist QGJ, which made him deal 75% more damage which made him kill Lumi and get buffs and more turns. I hope you realize that is pretty rare to see.
Yeah, of course he can land an 11k crit with Offense Up on a Jedi and get a doble turn or triple turn. Unfortunately, most times you will wait forever, seeing some toons have 2 turns before him, and he will badly fail when he was supposed to shine.
And if you get to attack a non-Jedi, please tell me how useful is a supposed super offensive toon that deals 3.8k damage on a crit with Offense Up. Jedi Knight DPS levels.
The "supposed" Jedi killing machine is a mediocre toon that fails more often than works, and it's completely embarrassing against non-Jedis. He is totally irrelevant in winning a fight, there is no reason to use him.
If they ever fix his leadership and make it gain 25-30% turn meter on Evade, maybe even switch the Unique ability so he gets the Evade buff first, so he gets more TM the more he Evades, then maybe. Just maybe.
So far I like the suggestions of OP, Nightsister synergies could work but I also think he really needs a nice polishing on his Health and Speed, and the damage he does to non-Jedis.
Great post! And I sympathize with a lot of the things you say. My general impression is that Maul either delivers, or doesn't. He's either the absolute king of the hill, winning your battles single-handedly for you, or mediocre - repeatedly falling just shy of enough damage to fell a toon and gain another turn. His performance is just way too unstable at the moment.
I will say, when paired with a taunt he lasts long enough to make a significant difference on those Jedi teams.
A NS synergy might add a new dynamic without changing the toons mechanics / power much.
But being a sith, are you suggesting he has synergies with both?
Yep, just like for instance Poggle the Lesser has synergies with both droids and Geonosians.
This is totally ignoring Maul (and some other characters) terrible survivability. Maul has the lowest health and the lowest protection in the game, capping out, at max gear, at 17,000 combined. Multiple characters get over 50,000 HP+protection (and are faster). This discrepancy is also simply too big to ignore.
Are the developers implying that Princess Leia and some random Ewoks / Jawas and Mob Enforcers are more sturdy than the infamous Darth Maul?