Characters Overlapping Multiple Classes

Tuftedpaper85

So there's four main character classes--attacker, healer, tank, and support. The way I've always looked at the game is that you're supposed to strategize over how you want your team to look and then decide which characters to choose from each class in order to meet that balance. The problem with the game lately is that there's really becoming little in the way of strategizing to build your team because there's so many different characters coming out who overlap across multiple classes. Take, for example, the team that I think is about to be the new ultra powerful team for high spenders:

Wedge (L)
Biggs
Chirrut
Baze
Shoretrooper

The reason why that team will be so strong is because there's no tradeoffs in using those toons. You're not accepting any risk that you're lacking in a certain character class because each class is represented multiple times. You have three attackers (wiggs, chirrut), three healers (wedge as leader, chirrut, shoretrooper), three support (chirrut, baze, shoretrooper, and two tanks. You're basically getting the equivalent of 11 characters for the price of five. You have heavy damage dealers, healers, taunters, a dispeller, a cleanser, an aoe buffer, counterers, and debuffers.

The reason why I think this issue matters is because of the power creep which makes older characters irrelevant, it reduces the need for strategically planning your team, and it contributes to a lack of diversity in arena as everybody chases after the same toons. Any thoughts?

UltimateZeus

The nerf gods are smiling at this one.

JacenRoe

You are correct about many old toons being one dimensional, and soon to be obsolete if they aren't already. I would have liked to see more modest design on some new toons, and continued buffs to underpowered old toons. But I doubt that we'll ever see that happen because $$$.

kaze0718

It is pretty much the destiny of these f2p / pay if you want games.
They need income to keep it running, keep the servers up, for the salary of developers, etc. plus they need profit to make this all worthwhile for themselves. From what they can generate that income? People who are willing to pay - but people (even the extremest of whales) are only willing to pay to acquire something that is better than what they already have / better than what other people have. For a while, they even tried differently I think - thinking about Wedge (before rework), Geonosian Spy, Tusken Shaman, even B2 to some extent, these characters provided something different / some option to certain teams and factions without jumping immediately to the top of the food chain, but I guess the financial benefits for the company were quite underwhelming.

I agree with you to some extent, they could make those steps on the top of the food chain a bit smaller and should not make them _that_ much powerful than the current options, but from a business point of view, you can't really fault them.

chezhead

one thing i don't get is why the mobile game companies don't look to the most succesful MMO of all time (warcraft) and take the cues from them to see how they should monetize the game. they made their money by getting millions to pay a monthly fee not by getting a small percentage of players to drop a lot of money.

it is a more sustainable model than the current way EA is doing it.

Tuftedpaper85

chezhead wrote: »

one thing i don't get is why the mobile game companies don't look to the most succesful MMO of all time (warcraft) and take the cues from them to see how they should monetize the game. they made their money by getting millions to pay a monthly fee not by getting a small percentage of players to drop a lot of money.

it is a more sustainable model than the current way EA is doing it.

I wish they would too. I worry about the long term health of the game because their current model discourages the smaller, more focused spenders like me from spending any money since I don't know which of my toons will be made irrelevant on their next major toon release next month. I'm not going to invest into Qui Gon Jin anymore because I believe he's going to be made irrelevant in the near future by the three tanks they've released in the past month who auto taunt while also throwing strong support buffs to the rest of the team.

danrussoa

Are mobile games supposed to last for years? I don't know. This is the only game I have played for this long, phone or otherwise. Seems to me in the era of worldwide ADD regarding technology, games probably would have a shorter lifespan now, and going forward. Could be wrong, just speculation.

theHejiN

Soon we will laugh about 5 characters that combined have the power of 11 toons, because we will have one toon who has the power of 30, while a squad has the power of 111

Achilles

... and "the chosen one" sux again ... lol
I agree, i also dont think, this helps the game. Im not even sure if it helps the income, because after adding another and another and another imbalanced character, ppl will get too annoyed and just leave the game. I am sure, "whales" would also buy balanced p2p-characters, just to have them all, its not really necessary to make them op (at least almost op).
IMO the strategy in this game was lost few months ago ... poe (flip coin who goes first wins), the dodge meta ... hit and win or miss and lose. speed meta whos st han/biggs is faster wins ... Where is there the strategy? And dont tell me Rex-lead, because Rex is p2p, he is not available to the mass in a reasonable time. right now, its all about RNG ... opponents wiggs kill your lando - lost .... opponents wiggs attack rg - win ... lol ... great strategy!!