Help for Asajj
Following up on EA_Jesses's call for characters in need of help. I've been waiting for Asajj to get a buff forever. Just a bit more speed and a bit more wallop to her Endless Wrath and she would be a very useful character.
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However, I think her whole kit is a bit weird. I don't know why she isn't one of the fastest characters in the game, rather than the 3rd slowest. Given that the whole "Slower characters will generally see a damage increase" thing was as bold faced as lies can come, I can't see why popping an additional 50 speed on her would hurt anything. She'd still be worse than Rey, Leia, and probably GS, but she'd be good.
Xio
I do agree she needs to be improved though. Rather than adding speed, I'd like to see some kind of turn meter addition based on enemy buffs they receive, so that she can be useful more than once every 4 turns. To play off her AE, maybe do something like "add 15% turn meter for every enemy Asajj attacks that has a buff." Or maybe a passive that resets the dispells skill cooldown any time an enemy taunts. How awesome would that be as an RG counter?
Also, her basic attack needs a boost because she is so slow.
They aren't ever going to make her fast. I realize that this conflicts with the source material, but the character wouldn't have to be buffed: she'd have to be completely changed. What I'd like to see is enough speed at the low end (when she's not the leader) to put her into the 90s - anywhere between 91 & 96 or 97 would be good, but it has to be at least 91 for reasons I've written about elsewhere.
Further, I think her leadership ability should benefit more characters, to allow for more mixed teams. For instance, dropping 2 or 4 points off the speed boost wouldn't hurt it too much for NS characters, and then you could add in improvements to the turn-meter penalty.
Currently, only NS allies cause a penalty of 10% turn meter upon causing damage. Why not
1. have only NS characters get the speed boost, but have all allies have the 25% chance to remove turn meter? (This would be free - it would be a buff to her character rather than something traded for a nerf elsewhere.)
2. Even better? Any time 10% TM is removed, the character that removed it gains 10% TM. (This would be in place of one or two of the speed bumps Ventress currently gets.) This might be for NightSisters only, or it might be for all Allies, or it might be only for non-NS allies. My original thinking was all allies, since other allies still don't get the speed bump that NS allies get. But any of those 3 options could be justified, and game balance concerns might ultimately determine which of the 3 is chosen.
3. Ventress worked with Jedi and Sith, and for a long time she was a bounty hunter. She's got a history in the source material of working with many people who are very different. That experience not only justifies having a leadership skill that benefits non-NS allies (as I've proposed above), but also it gives a basis in the source material for allowing Ventress to benefit from any leadership ability, even faction specific ones. So you could have a team with 3 Jedi + Ventress + GS or whomever. If you have QGJ leading, Ventress gets the speed boost. Lando is your leader? Ventress gets the speed/crit boost.
Ventress becomes viable on a lot more teams that way, without boosting her power too much. She's worked with so many StarWars characters, we should see her on many more diverse teams, with very different allies. As it is, all the NS leader abilities are NS specific, and we don't get to see her shine except with NS teams only.
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A final, minor suggestion? If she really does need a boost, I think it should be on the Rampage.
A rampage builds, but it's also continuous: it feeds off itself. Her rampage can do that...but only if she actually strikes a finishing blow. Otherwise, her rampage might be back on her next turn, but only if OTHER characters strike a finishing blow in between. Her rampage doesn't feed off itself, it feeds off the success of other characters.
To make it a real rampage, (and only if she's in need of a real boost), add 1 or more of the following 3 things to Rampage:
a) If she crits while she has 2x CritUp, she gains OffenseUp for a full turn (not just her next attack).
b) If she crits at any time, she has the same chance to gain TM that she gets when someone dies. If she crits on a finishing blow, the RNG activates twice: once for the crit, once for the finishing blow. It's possible for both to fail, but it's possible for both to succeed as well, giving her twice the TM gain.
c) If she strikes a finishing blow while she has OffenseUp, she gains Advantage for one full turn.
Note that her rampage activates even if an ally dies. That's fine, but as I said, a rampage should feed off itself. All of the above are ways in which her rampage power feeds off her own actions, rather than simply whether someone else strikes a finishing blow on anyone, ally or enemy.
I was inspired by Lando, who has a lucky streak power where his AoE refresh is reset and gets a damage boost if the AoE causes at least 2 crits. Even so, these powers are different and can easily help justify the slow wind-up that Ventress has, because after a few turns she can really become a monster.
Though I love Ventress, and use her extensively and run a NS team with her as leader so that I can get the best use out of her, I do recognize that right now she's niche: use her as leader in a NS team or don't use her at all is the message most players get. And, frankly, my playing her as leader is consistent with that. I don't think she's OP, even though I think she holds her own.
But people have been clamoring for a better and in particular a more versatile Ventress for a while now, a Ventress that could be added to other teams than just NS teams.
The combo of an improved Rampage, a leadership skill that allows non-NS allies to participate in TM manipulation, and an "infiltrator" ability that allows her to benefit from all leadership abilities would make her more versatile and give players a chance to use her more.
Who's the most popular dispeller in the game? QGJ. When does he go in the turn order? Oh, right after Rey and Leia? Hm.
Really not buying that Asajj wouldn't just be a lot better if she were a lot faster. The best dps characters are the fastest ones, the best dispel is the fastest one, why wouldn't Assaj, who does damage and dispels, not be strictly better with more speed?
Not only that, currently she is so slow that characters like Rey, GS, QGJ and Leia take only two or three turn cycles to completely lap Asajj and take a full extra turn! No one who gets a full turn fewer than the most common characters will ever be reasonable in Arena, let alone the worst AI in the game.
This is how you wind up with a slower-than-dirt Asajj.
Her AI is appalling. I was hurt that the recent mini fix to a newly added character (Echo) was to adjust his AI, when Asajj's has been malfunctioning for 6 months! She dispels herself. She does her Strike Fear even when she doesn't need a heal and no one on the other team had any buffs!
I love to use her because I find her cleaning abilities essential. She's on my arena team but I drop 100+ ranks a night because I'm an easy target.
I'm hesitant to even mention her in the feedback section because all she ever gets is nerfed. She's been nerfed 3 times! It's time to give her some love.
+1000
She should really only debuff when it will affect more than 1/3 of the remaining enemy characters, or to remove a Taunt.
Her health steal combined with her damage is good enough that she's usually in almost the same place attacking regularly as she would be by using her dispel (especially when nothing is active).
She should also be less likely to dispel when she's got her offense up, because that's just wasteful of her single action.
Teams with Rey, Leia, RG. If you could get RG to taunt. She would then go and gets to Dispel. STH taunt, RG taunt, Rey Foresight, Leia stealth.
At G10 with Asajj lead she will tie a Max STH for speed which would be a coin toss of who goes first and for teams with lower speed STH she would go before.
Has made me rethink my strategy with her.
AI use of her does need work.
Keep her speed on the low end, I agree, but it could do with a slight increase to around mid-high 90s, maybe 100.
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This. So. Much. This.
Especially with her already low health pool, what's the harm in making her a stealthy character. I'd say make the stealth on her passive ability ONLY proc when an ENEMY is killed, since she doesn't "assassinate" her allies. Just give her Offense/Crit up on ally death (as sort of an induced rage effect like Anakin's) without stealth when an ally dies. I'd also have to suggest a % chance to gain turn meter on her basic attack along with the stun. And the stun % chance needs to go up. She makes so few attacks, where's the harm in actually giving her stun at least a 50% rate. Especially with her low 40% potency and the amount of tenacity every other character is running around with now.
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It is 98 at g10, 126 when she is leader.
Making stealth only proc on enemy death would still make her awful on defense. And stun should honestly be around RG levels is she's going to be so slow.
I'd prefer removing the stun and putting a speed up or foresight buff on her basic.
1. We're talking about Ventress here. Her allies were certainly very afraid that she might kill them, so I don't know what you're talking about. There was a Clone Wars episode where her mission was specifically to rescue Nute Gunray if she thought she could...and kill him if she thought she couldn't: either way was okay. So she went in with a dual mission: assassinate and/or rescue her ally. That's in direct contradiction to what you're saying.
2. Just because you gain stealth on allies' deaths doesn't mean you're trying to assassinate them: using the momentary distraction as attention is focussed on a dying toon to lose yourself in the chaos of battle is still a maneuver aimed at killing your enemies **EVEN IF** if was your ally's death that gave you the opportunity
3. hhooo is right: only on enemy death wouldn't be enough.
4. I prefer that only stealth be triggered on death...and the OffenseUP and CritUP functions be triggered on Stealth (so Death => Stealth => OffenseUP, but not Death => Stealth & OffenseUP).
If she gets more speed at a lower level (apparently she gets a 98 at gear10, but that's way too late in the game. She should be @91 by level 50 at the latest and 98 by level 60-64. You can't get g10 by level 60), she shouldn't get the TM bump. I prefer the modest speed increase at mid levels that replaces but does not add to her gear10 speed increase to a TM bump that speeds her up late in the game AND adds to the g10 increase.
As for the stun, I've LONG thought she needed a better stun. But in keeping with the Assassin theme, and because things are so much more exciting and satisfying when they all come together at once, I'd recommend leaving the stun chance where it is normally, but making the Stun chance 100% on a critical.
Finally, "Strike Fear" is good, but way too situational. I go through many battles without ever using it. Why? Well, the heal in SF is actually not any better than what you get with HealthSteal from her basic, and a lot worse than the healing you get from her AoE (EndlessWrath). So if I want to dispel, but she's dangerously low on health, sometimes I have to do the AoE simply because it heals more. Also, if she's got her Rampage up, I don't want to waste it, and taking half the max health from a taunting toon is often better than just dispelling the taunt. Finally, I might want to dispel a taunt or other power-up, but if my opponent has a toon ready to one-shot (or "last-shot") one or more of my toons, killing that toon might be more important than the dispel, as good as the dispel can be.
I'd like Strike Fear to add a TenacityDOWN to opponents who didn't have a buff to dispel, or to opponents who did have a buff successfully dispelled, or something.
100% stun on crit with a method of delivering TenacityDOWN would be good.
Also, as bad as her AI is, Ventress is a good toon under player control. I'm worried about boosting her too much.
That makes me think that the NightSisterAcolyte that's so bad should take over the TenacityDOWN function instead, or maybe the NightSisterInitiate should do it, but by trading away her DoT for the TenacityDOWN.
In the new game with so many effects being resisted, giving either NSA (who is currently terrible) or NSI (who is currently fine, but far from over-powered and could take a boost without having any balance problems at all) a TenacityDOWN effect would give the NightSisters more love, love they deserve.
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As a complete side-issue, the other team that really needs love is Scoundrels. If we're going to add some tenacity down? Give it to one of the NightSisters & one or two of the Scoundrels & NOBODY ELSE.
agreed.
nah. She does good damage. Pair her with a NS that inflicts TenacityDOWN, or give her PotencyUP during rampage and then, if you're going to increase the rate at all, boost it ONLY on a critical hit - either to 100% or give her current rate +50% on a crit (which would be what? I don't remember)
The NS don't generally buff themselves. Ventress is the exception, so you could make another exception for her basic, but I still note that the NS's are much more into inflicting negatives than accruing positives. Leave it a stun.
Absolutely. And if we're gonna be adding more big time stun characters, it needs to be on light side.
The point he makes about making her good because she's different (not just another one of the 5 toons people use) is exactly why I'd like to see something like decreased dispell cooldown when an enemy taunts. Or adding TM based on how many targets Asajj attacks that have a buff.
I really hope we get some creative new abilities, not just more of the same.
You made some great suggestions for how to re-work her abilities. As you know from my other Asajj thread, her Strike Fear could be retooled extensively to make her far more effective of a team support role character, and actually make that ability far more attractive.
Bottom line: Asajj needs some love!
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