I like that message from Josh_k, hope he would't mind me quoting it
Palpatine is very good on offense when properly controlled. I have found that most palpatine teams, especially with vader, run out of puff quickly especially vs heavy tank set ups. They need toons like lando (or dispels) who can effectively push through that wall. At the end of the day palpatine is really only as effective as the the team he is supporting.
Same reason Phasma is, despite good dmg, they both have multiple ways of affecting the outcome without either tanking or dealing damage. There are three main types of characterse in this game, attackers, tanks and supports. He has an aoe stun, a buff blocker, and can give his team offense up. Also his leader is great.
Another way of looking at it is that Palpatine was rarely ever getting his hands dirty personally. He had minions for that. He doesn't do 20k damage, or absorb 70k damage. He is the mastermind who influences things behind the scenes.
As has been mentioned that type of toon who influences battle without being a direct killer/meat shield themselves is called "support" class. Just ignore the subservient connotation of that word so we don't have to create a new class called "mastermind" which is completely identical in every way to support toons, but is given to toons we think of as higher ranking. It's just semantics, and not the biggest thing that doesn't make sense here. (See the stick that out DPS's lazer swords)
Palpatine is a support because he D buff the entire team and give turn meter and health to your team. He stuns whole enemy team and can't prevent taunt. Yea he should be a support character. Oh and gives O up. So yea he is fine where he is at.
Just like yoda. Yoda buffs whole team and can give tenacity. A support
Between the choices of Attacker, Tank, and Support, it is not crazy that the guy that worked behind the scenes orchestrating a galactic war and overthrowing of the government is considered a Support character. That and his in game abilities clearly make him so.
To those talking about his kits, I think the OP was actually talking about why he was designed as a support character and not as an attacker. We've had some good answers to that above, like him never getting his hands dirty and being a mastermind, but I also think he was designed as a support character as they're generally more fun at first. They usually have great kits and you want to test this and that with different squads. If he was an attacker, it'd be much more straight forward, but now with him being a support character we have people testing out stun teams, Vader/RG teams etc.
Team Steroid Council Member - "A wise leader knows when to follow"
Replies
Why does Rey's staff do more damage than a lightsaber?
Stop looking for logic in character design.
I dont know it sure looked like Red sticks shot out of StarKiller base and blew up those planets. So clearly sticks are the true weapon of star wars.
Palpatine is very good on offense when properly controlled. I have found that most palpatine teams, especially with vader, run out of puff quickly especially vs heavy tank set ups. They need toons like lando (or dispels) who can effectively push through that wall. At the end of the day palpatine is really only as effective as the the team he is supporting.
Wow... that must be one stinky BM
As has been mentioned that type of toon who influences battle without being a direct killer/meat shield themselves is called "support" class. Just ignore the subservient connotation of that word so we don't have to create a new class called "mastermind" which is completely identical in every way to support toons, but is given to toons we think of as higher ranking. It's just semantics, and not the biggest thing that doesn't make sense here. (See the stick that out DPS's lazer swords)
LOL! My gutter mind was right there with you.
Just like yoda. Yoda buffs whole team and can give tenacity. A support