Is Life Steal Balanced?
So this is one thing that I rarely see discussed in the forums, but it does have an impact on how the game is played and I think it's a fairly obvious source of imbalance if you actually look at some of the numbers. I understand why life steal was introduced to the game and it was to make attackers who were strong but otherwise slow and squishy more viable by giving them greater survivability. However, I cant help but feel like outside of the handful of characters that this applied to (i.e. Assaj, Ahsoka, Maul, IG-88), they applied the rest of the life steal numbers outside of that group pretty haphazardly and that they eventually just got bored and started pulling numbers out of a hat. This is what I'm talking about:
Phasma (beefcake, very strong support skillset)--30% lifesteal
QGJ (fast, somewhat squishy, very very strong support skillset)--0%
Rey (very fast, squishiness mitigated by foresight, best single target attacker in game)--10%
Geonosian Soldier (very fast, decent health, very strong single target attacker)--0%
Vader (loads of health, amazing single target attack if set up well)--15%
Mob Enforcer (lots of health too, useless outside of cantina shop)--also 15%
Stormtrooper Han (taunts, comparable to normal Stormtrooper but more health and utility)--15%
Normal Stormtrooper (comparable to Stormtrooper Han but less health and utility)--0%
Fives (beefcake, same skillset at First Order Stormtrooper but more health and counters)--15%
First Order Stormtrooper (same skillset as Fives but less health and counters)--5%
Teebo (great for old raid, situational outside of it)--25%
Ugnaught (I hear he's good for new raid?)--0%
Mace Windu--0%
Plo Koon--0%
Eeth Koth--0%
Boba Fett--0%
UrorRrorWhatever--0%
Lando Calrissian--15% (I saved the most egregious example of imbalance for last). Despite having no healing abilities anywhere near his description, here's a character capable of self-healing for up to 50-60% of his max health off a move that single-handedly wrecks your entire team.
I can't help but think that outside of the implementation of protection, that this is the single biggest reason why healers aren't viable in arena anymore. When your best DPS characters are capable of throwing down a strong self heal by causing strong damage, then there's no reason to put in an AOE healer who's average to terrible outside of that one utility.
I'm not calling for a nerf on life steal; however, I do believe they should relook at some of these numbers to make things more balanced. I don't think characters should be able to heal themselves back from near dead to green health in one or two moves without having the healing part be written into their description or have self-heal be part of their utility.
Phasma (beefcake, very strong support skillset)--30% lifesteal
QGJ (fast, somewhat squishy, very very strong support skillset)--0%
Rey (very fast, squishiness mitigated by foresight, best single target attacker in game)--10%
Geonosian Soldier (very fast, decent health, very strong single target attacker)--0%
Vader (loads of health, amazing single target attack if set up well)--15%
Mob Enforcer (lots of health too, useless outside of cantina shop)--also 15%
Stormtrooper Han (taunts, comparable to normal Stormtrooper but more health and utility)--15%
Normal Stormtrooper (comparable to Stormtrooper Han but less health and utility)--0%
Fives (beefcake, same skillset at First Order Stormtrooper but more health and counters)--15%
First Order Stormtrooper (same skillset as Fives but less health and counters)--5%
Teebo (great for old raid, situational outside of it)--25%
Ugnaught (I hear he's good for new raid?)--0%
Mace Windu--0%
Plo Koon--0%
Eeth Koth--0%
Boba Fett--0%
UrorRrorWhatever--0%
Lando Calrissian--15% (I saved the most egregious example of imbalance for last). Despite having no healing abilities anywhere near his description, here's a character capable of self-healing for up to 50-60% of his max health off a move that single-handedly wrecks your entire team.
I can't help but think that outside of the implementation of protection, that this is the single biggest reason why healers aren't viable in arena anymore. When your best DPS characters are capable of throwing down a strong self heal by causing strong damage, then there's no reason to put in an AOE healer who's average to terrible outside of that one utility.
I'm not calling for a nerf on life steal; however, I do believe they should relook at some of these numbers to make things more balanced. I don't think characters should be able to heal themselves back from near dead to green health in one or two moves without having the healing part be written into their description or have self-heal be part of their utility.
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Replies
Rey does 30+k hits, landos first aoe 7k (?? Idk, i run him but i rarely pay attention), whereas a maxed out lumi can heal for what? Less than 10k?
Healers occupy a spot that could be filled with a dps toon...
Selfheal doesnt have much of an impact (even on lando which can go from barely alive to almost full hp) when the next attack to hit that character deals upwards of 15k damage
doesn't lando fit that discribtion? He is a slow and squishy attacker.
The reason you never hear complaints about health steal is because it is just as irrelevant as healing.