New balance issue: On-death abilities almost useless since update
A battle that used to last maybe four-five actions per character can now last easily double that. I believe that this is a good thing since it allows for more strategy to enter play during a battle.
But there is a problem. Skills that activate on character deaths will be active for a much smaller percentage of the whole battle when the toons are harder to kill and the battles thus last longer. For toons like Snowtrooper and Ventress, who need to score a kill with their AOE to gain their on-kill benefits, this latest update seems downright unforgiving, as AOE's have been toned down a lot. It's harder than ever to activate their respective benefits.
The same goes for Maul. With extremely low speed, health and protection stats, his only real selling point is his 100% turn meter gain on a kill. With all abilities doing less damage and Maul acting relatively rarely due to his poor speed, it's a rare thing to hit that sweet spot where an opponent goes into low health at exactly the moment when Maul is coming up next to claim the kill - and you can't just leave enemies around waiting for Maul to go, with the risk of health steal, heals, turn meter manipulation, assists and so on. You usually need to go for the kill as soon as possible, making it extremely hard to reserve certain kills for later.
At moderate health, even Jedi often survive Maul nowadays, where before the update he could be a machine, one-shotting several Jedi in a row. But even back then, nobody would use him since he's so extremely easy to kill.
Other characters with on-death abilities include Anakin, Boba Fett (a measly 30% turn meter gain if he manages to kill anybody with his very weak basic attack), Vader, Tusken Shaman, Nightsister Acolyte (gives great benefits on a killing blow but has unreliable attack power, so just like with Maul it's hard to hit that situation where an enemy toon is at low health exactly when Acolyte gets to go) and of course Savage Oppress. Some of these have abilities that work better than others. But the common denominator is that you don't see many of them around in the Arena.
A whole genre of abilities has been put at a disadvantage and I can't see that the characters with these abilities haven't been balanced to account for it. As a result, many fan favourites like Ventress, Boba Fett and Anakin are warming the benches. I believe that this needs to be addressed.
tl;dr - On death abilities suck now and they need to be rebalanced.
But there is a problem. Skills that activate on character deaths will be active for a much smaller percentage of the whole battle when the toons are harder to kill and the battles thus last longer. For toons like Snowtrooper and Ventress, who need to score a kill with their AOE to gain their on-kill benefits, this latest update seems downright unforgiving, as AOE's have been toned down a lot. It's harder than ever to activate their respective benefits.
The same goes for Maul. With extremely low speed, health and protection stats, his only real selling point is his 100% turn meter gain on a kill. With all abilities doing less damage and Maul acting relatively rarely due to his poor speed, it's a rare thing to hit that sweet spot where an opponent goes into low health at exactly the moment when Maul is coming up next to claim the kill - and you can't just leave enemies around waiting for Maul to go, with the risk of health steal, heals, turn meter manipulation, assists and so on. You usually need to go for the kill as soon as possible, making it extremely hard to reserve certain kills for later.
At moderate health, even Jedi often survive Maul nowadays, where before the update he could be a machine, one-shotting several Jedi in a row. But even back then, nobody would use him since he's so extremely easy to kill.
Other characters with on-death abilities include Anakin, Boba Fett (a measly 30% turn meter gain if he manages to kill anybody with his very weak basic attack), Vader, Tusken Shaman, Nightsister Acolyte (gives great benefits on a killing blow but has unreliable attack power, so just like with Maul it's hard to hit that situation where an enemy toon is at low health exactly when Acolyte gets to go) and of course Savage Oppress. Some of these have abilities that work better than others. But the common denominator is that you don't see many of them around in the Arena.
A whole genre of abilities has been put at a disadvantage and I can't see that the characters with these abilities haven't been balanced to account for it. As a result, many fan favourites like Ventress, Boba Fett and Anakin are warming the benches. I believe that this needs to be addressed.
tl;dr - On death abilities suck now and they need to be rebalanced.
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Replies
I believe in balancing toons and creating several different, viable concepts with different strengths and weaknesses. A tanky team can be good, but so should a team that focuses on multiple attacks, turn manipulation, buff bonanza, chain stuns, AoE spamming, crit fests, counter attackers and debuffers. They should all fit into different, viable styles of play, and shouldn't be "above or below average" per se. Here I am identifying a strategy that just doesn't work anymore - the on-death abilities.
Good thing he got a nice boost of protection to prevent him from being able to die...
– Yoda
I'd also like to point out how utterly useless a character like Maul will be in the Raids, where the opportunity to deal killing strikes to enemies is even more rare.
Personally, i'd avoided toons with upon death abilities even prior to this update, but, you're right, their viability has significantly worsened with longer exchanges. Maul is probably the worse case scenario because, as you say, he is always the first target. Savage, arguably, is the only one who isn't entirely let down by the extra health simply because he is the last to go. That said, for a slow toon, he still hits way too weak IMO.
I'd be surprised if they weren't going to work on tweaks like this at some point, once guilds have settled down. Time will tell