Lurker > KanzarisKelshen

swordz9 posted...

Are they really so close? I literally never see any girls in GameStop aside from the one who works there

Yep! Turns out as gaming becomes more mainstream and approachable and doesn't require you to hang out with awful nerds, girls play more games.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

I mean if you were going for "The Boss also has Wesker's displayed powers as of RE5" you could have just gone "The Boss also has Wesker's displayed powers as of RE5"

Nah the idea was to give her Wesker's general Weskery things he show from entries that happen before RE5. The afterimage speeds, huge strength, durability to survive explosions and so on.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

SmartMuffin posted...

and also wrong because these days gamers are basically evenly split between men and women

You think that ratio holds with PUBG specifically? Don't be ridiculous.

I think if you want to prove the audience skews heavily male you should post sources. Until proven otherwise, what we know is true (the 58-42 split) holds.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Man why do I have 22 characters

What kind of humongous jank-ass team did I build
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

SmartMuffin posted...

for no reason

It's not "for no reason." It's because men (who probably comprise 90% of the playerbase) find it visually appealing. And even among the small minority of female players, most of those won't find it particularly terrible or uncomfortable (because, as you say, most women AREN'T, in fact, radical feminists)

This is argumentum ad populum

and also wrong because these days gamers are basically evenly split between men and women

https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/

Does 42% of the playerbase's opinion not matter because 58% enjoys it? Is that really the argument you wanna make?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

SmartMuffin posted...

I mean what are they asking for beyond "I'd rather not play as a woman with her underwear wedged so far up her asscrack she'd need spelunkers to get it out."?

Well, since you asked, what they are asking for is the complete elimination of any and all displays of male hetero-sexuality from the public sphere.

How is a woman having cameltoe a display of male sexuality of any stripe? If anything it'd be the elimination of (needless) female sexuality, one would think.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Match writeup is ready: https://pastebin.com/KPJ42rx4

@FFDragon Is this sufficiently clear on what the effects on The Boss are, in particular? We decided to go with giving The Boss the pre-RE5 Wesker boosts so as to make the writeup more elegant, since he's plenty superhuman in Code: Veronica and others. If not, how would you amend it to be clear it's the Wesker boost?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Also with regards to retro plan

I think the fairest thing to do is have Tom roll if I declare it (maybe a d50? That's probably more options than it has), then Lopen can pull out a plan option from the admin board based on the result. That way the result is least prone to tampering (since I fully trust all parties involved here to not do anything silly). That or we roll with how the plan worked in rumble? I forget how that worked.

And lastly

-Wrex hasn't targeted anybody before because that was a different timeline

This might be the ultimate mercs line, just saying

I love it to bits
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

What drak said is correct

If zerg are off CD I can generate something, I think

I'll send in my cuts tonight probably, gimme a bit to look at my team and think about how I wanna go about this
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Match is a lil bit delayed because of edits to the mutant team's writeups. Plan is to get it up tonight or tomorrow, so expect a link to be posted here soon!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Delete drac replace with mercury steam drac, fixes all issues

(not even once tbqh)
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Right, HoDes is a crossover game so it's a bit like Smash but more serious. Ecclesia is kind of a wonky game to pull durability from though - he's basically immune to everything Shanoa throws out that ain't Dominus. Taken seriously that makes him too beefy for 5/week.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

That seems like a plan to me. The IK for Dizzy is 'real' but just as much of an outlier as Majin DT Dante. No reason to keep shit that overcentralizes the merc. Leave the IKs to the other GGers who don't suffer mental nerfing.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

Oh I mean I knew about I-No throwing Dizzy from the ship obviously but that clearly wasn't FULL POWER DIZZY

I don't remember I-No ever beating that

Oh shoot, sorry, was unclear there - afaik I-No has never fought Dizzy while she's going all-out, no, just that she's beaten her repeatedly when she's being her usual pacifist self. Sol's the only one who has clean wins over her at full power because he always gets called in to deal with that, whether it's evil alternate timeline Dizzy or the normal one possessed by Necro. It means she has a bit of variance in her top end, but I think you can nip that in the bud by giving her a passive that makes her immune to anything that would alter her mindset to make her angry (hell, can even keep the Ultra Pacifist name too). Take that away and I think she's a pretty consistent high 5/week or low 6.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

Losing to Sol doesn't matter because Sol doesn't lose

I-No fair enough-- I don't remember this happening but if it did then uhhh...

Funny that

Sol actually jobs out to Ky in the epilogue to Revelator. Like, while not holding back to like 1% as usual. I'll see if I can find the cutscene but it's pretty neat stuff. Apparently the gear cells transfer did wonders for good ol holy swordboy.

(And yeah, I-no takes Dizzy down in a bunch of endings and more importantly her bodying Dizzy kickstarts GGXX. To quote the GG wiki: "A few months after the events of Guilty Gear X, Dizzy was on the deck of the Mayship when she was suddenly knocked off by I-No. She fell 20,000 feet and the impact knocked her unconscious, giving Necro the freedom to possess her.")
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

As I understand it it's meant to be 'the wesker powerup, flat out, but on a person who's much more impressive than him at baseline'. I may be wrong though, my focus was more on picking a set of decent but not stupid good mercs for the other team.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Also re: IKs, I don't think hers is unbelievable for sure. Sin's and Slayer's I'd doubt, hers not so much. Too much lore around her mother literally destroying a country by herself to doubt it imo
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I actually don't think dizzy's problem is undefined top end - she's lost to Sol repeatedly at every level of power (including ruthless evil full power) and more importantly I-No, whom I'd take over exactly no 6s even in boss mode. The problem is the gulf between angry dizzy and happy dizzy is HUGE. If you take it away I think voter respect stabilizes decently.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

About that exhibition match, BTW - Nova's getting a new build. No more HotS as a primary source for her! BEHOLD!

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Nova Terra is as she appears in Nova: Covert Ops, equipped with all weapons seen therein as well as <CustomVisor>, <CustomArmor>, <CustomGadget1>, <CustomGadget2> and Holo Decoy. She may also use the Precision Strike and Crippling Shot abilities, as seen in Heroes of the Storm.

Customization: Nova may select one visor, one armor, and two gadgets to bring with her to battle every week.

Visors:

Ghost Visor
Rangefinder Oculus

Armor:

Tactical Stealth Suit
Turbojet Jumpsuit
Apollo Suit
Phase Reactor Suit

Gadgets:

Pulse Grenade
Flashbang Grenade
Stim Infusion
Ionic Forcefield

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For today's match, Nova brings Ghost Visor, Tactical Stealth Suit, Ionic Forcefield and Flashbang Grenades. That's all I need to do so I am Done. Excited to see how Terra, Terra and Winchester stack up against some boosted weaker mercs.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I don't take either one over Arthas by contrast, and I'm a huge GG mark

...OK, Sol can win if he's going at full power, but the only way he does that is if we get an ability that says 'the character is completely unnerfed' applied to him or the like. Sol going nuclear should be as rare a sight as Archer popping UBW or Dante getting serious from the get-go.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

That's partly why I didn't just put Dizzy down as a yes. The gap between 'peak performance' Dizzy where she's made coldly logical and ruthless about winning and normal old Dizzy is really large to a degree that is kind of worrisome. A high tier merc shouldn't jump two spots higher in upkeep just by removing their mental blocks. Like Dante with unnerfed mindset doesn't get THAT much better like Dizzy does.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

FFDragon posted...

also re: dizzy

maybe I should have said "worst merc to read arguments for matches they are in" since they are on two opposite ends of the spectrum

OK, that I can see and I get where you're coming from. What's your cutoff for 'bad but I can still take this' then? I can see the argument for not accepting mercs who are a certain level of painful to debate.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Sally
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I'll have you know my vote was 100% serious, bubbled and blown up O&S got no chance
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Nanis23 posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

God, there are so many edgy opinions in this topic. I feel a compulsion to share my own now!

Darth Vader is not an interesting character. Grand Admiral Thrawn is a far more enticing and interesting villain than any Sith.

Is Star Wars lore outside of the main movies really that good?

It runs the gamut from trash to excellent, so yeah, depends where you look.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

FFDragon posted...

i object to dizzy fwiw

most unfun merc to fight against imo

Can I get a bit of detail on this one? I don't think you crossed paths with her ever in M4 and the draft game so I'm curious as to the reasoning here.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Dragonslayer Ornstein & Executioner Smough

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104265207/Dragon%20Slayer%20Ornstein%20and%20Executioner%20Smough

These guys. These fuckin guys. I don't think anybody turned out to be a bigger respect bust than O&S. I actually wanna hear the reasoning for why they got placed at 5/week, because I don't know. They just seem so...slow, really, that I can't imagine somebody putting them there except by going 'a 3/week and another 3/week...that's 6/week but that's too high...I know, 5/week! That works out!'. Turns out they were more like low-end 2/weeks by themselves, which sucked. Their abilities weren't great either - due to their low respect, Vale of Broken Dreams was very weak, and I had to actively yell at the admins to fix Darkmoon Blade Covenant when it would've benefitted me that it stay broken because it had wonky wording. At least their upgrade ability was solid, but that was the only one that worked outta the box.

Should They Stay?: I'd say no. I think Artorias + Soul of Cinder from DS3 are a better set of reps for Dark Souls.

Draven

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101947762/Draven

WELCOME TO THE LEEEEEAGUE OF DRAAAAAAAVEN

Draven was never going to do anything as a battle merc. If you haven't seen it in a while, his only cutscene showing is getting punked by a smoke grenade and then oneshotted by a knifecat messily. His abilities were good and fun, but he was way too costly for doing jack shit in a fight and he should be re-priced accordingly. I'd probably make his base ability a daily - and maybe look at Kamek's CE build for inspiration, as well.

Should He Stay?: He's a gamefaqs champion. Of course. Just make him worth the slot.

Dr. Light

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102241621/Dr%20Light

A merc so broken he nearly got nerfed postpurchase after his remake. I had to go to Eddv's max on Dr. Light and it was still totally worth it - without it, I wouldn't have made the run I did. Given my team was middling at best, that's a surefire sign shit was busted. His concept is cool though, he just needs to be made balanced. I think the best way to do so is to make his upgrades time-delayed - your trade time and the gold of buying light and paying his upkeep in exchange for free EXP. I'll have to dredge up the convo I had with Lopen about it, there were some solid ideas there.

Should He Stay?: Yeah. Fun concept, just has to be balanced.

Dr. Mog

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102458461/Dr%20Mog

Probably the one purchase from Tom I just flat out could not agree with, in any way shape or form. Record Synergy is not a 5 week CD ability, and his base is really bad too. This is a bad merc and while someone riffing on the nonsense of gachas is neat, we can probably do better than this.

Should He Stay?: No. Let's try again with someone else IMO.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Doomguy

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106119012/Doomguy

It's funny how the most Kanzaris build ever is one I didn't make. Referencing an old as hell PC property? Check. Enormously complex but elegant wall of abilities? Check. High powered? Check. DOOM? Check, check and check. I'm biased as hell and not even gonna try to hide it - I think Doomguy is Lopen's masterpiece. It's a build I don't think anyone but me was interested in in M4, but I care a lot about it and I think he deserves major props for it. Good shit.

Discussing Doomguy is weird. I know how he works perfectly and to me he's very simple. To everyone else, he's an impenetrable wall of arcane bullshit and I think my communication skills aren't up to the task of piercing through it. The best thing I can say is he's a KO team's lynchpin, that he was hidden antipaydown, and that if you bothered to invest in it, his BFG was a powerful as hell boost in battle worth. This is a build I think needs exactly zero function changes - at most, just make him a bit clearer for the people who ain't technical minded, but that's all. The only question is, what do we do with Doomguy himself? Doom 4 came out since Mercs ended and it was mindblowing - and it was a kind of continuity reboot whose Doomguy was very similar but severely buffed in terms of hype and weaponry. Like, look at this for a sec:

...Yeah. Put that on a Master Chief-like combat suit that lets him fly a bit and gives him infinite ammo and it's kinda scary. It begs the question of whether we should keep Doomguy and give the Doom Slayer (which is how Doom 2016's Doomguy is called) his own build or not. I think that's best overall - they're distinct enough we can afford two of them.

Should He Stay?: Yup.

Dracula

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102458308/Dracula

Drac's a mess to argue about because he's so ????. All his real losses at full power come from facing a weapon that is specifically built to kill him and gets huge bonuses to doing so - and most people don't think any Belmonts are above 3/week level (unless you buy into 'Julius is building-busting strong', which I myself am pretty unsure about), so it all ends up resting on the Vampire Killer instead of them being good. The end result is you kind of get an uncertain durability for Dracula being 'pretty tanky', and that's kind of his main selling point because his attacks are a little disrespected against on-tier foes. This doesn't mean he shouldn't be here - I just wish we had something solid to evaluate him with. It's like the problem Dante had but inherently unfixable. His abilities were very good at least - some would say 'too good' but I'm not one of them. Sure, one's a possession, but it's a fairly limited one on a long CD, which is fine...and Soul Steal turned out to be a pretty large hype powerup for him, too, giving him an extra life and a nice big strength boost.

Should He Stay?: Yep. Don't think he needs changes, even, at least not to anything that isn't his battle writeup.

Dragonborn

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105169002/Dragonborn

DBorn had two respect settings: you're into TES lore and he's a crazy 5 with his utility toolbox (that's me) or you're not and his lack of cutscene showings makes you think of him as Ramza-level with more tools (that's Drak and a bunch of other people). I feel like something should be done to help level his respect a bit, but damned if I know what. His abilities were very on-point - funny, memetic, and useful, as well as quite powerful. I respect them a bunch.

Should He Stay?: If we don't have a new TES before Mercs comes back then sure.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

rip I died last night

let's finish the backlog then go get some breakfast and do the stuff for today
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

ExThaNemesis posted...

I haven't watched Rogue One yet, but from what I hear it's the only good SW movie we've had since Episode VI.

Rogue One and Ep7 both commit the same sin, which is that they don't bother to fucking do anything for the first chunk of the movie. For TFA it's about 30 minutes. For Rogue One, it's the entire first act until you see a hologram pop up. Straight up, I think if you watch Rogue One you should fastforward until you see a hologram, then stop, rewind back a tiny bit and watch the movie and it'd come out much stronger for it.

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On the topic of lightsaber fights, BTW: I really didn't like a lot of stuff about TFA, but I'll say that I really enjoyed the lightsaber duel even with Rey's second wind being total bullshit. It felt...strong. Weighty, if that makes any sense? They took advantage of the inexperience of the combatants on all sides to create something that was powerful and deliberate in terms of choreography and I liked it a lot.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Of course Zelda wins, meh

Absolutely shoulda been Mario tbqh
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I approve of this
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Too generic is my best guess. But that's fixable by letting the Arisen transform into the Seneschal as second stage
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Coming up, a high powered mercs review!

Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Mercs 4 Edition

Diablo

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102414793/Diablo

Diablo was such a weird merc. Half the time he was kinda there. The other half people respected him real strongly, and it wasn't consistent with who was voting that day either. I still don't have a good gauge on his battle worth besides him being a 6 - the sheer lack of feats he has makes him highly volatile. His abilities were good, though I feel like they should probably be swapped around? Black Soulstone/Apocalypse is effectively not an ability for like the first ten weeks of combat or something like that, maybe more. Mercs should always have usable abilities off the bat unless it's balancing an extra bullshit battle writeup or passive.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Well known, strong, well liked. Might as well.

Dizzy

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/107880122/Dizzy

What a weird high-power merc pick for Guilty Gear. Dizzy isn't hard to parse at all, and her feats are pretty good, but it's odd that she got in and Sol Badguy didn't. She's a lil low on cutscene showings, and her passive was a bit hard to work around, too. Her abilities were very good at least, thankfully, so she had that to fall back on in case of trouble. Respect for her varied - Luis thought she could beat a billion Arwings, I think it's Eddv who just thinks she's kinda there, but in general people thought she was a beefy midrange sorta-mage. It all worked out in the end, except we missed out on best boy.

Should She Stay?: Probably. I don't think anyone really objects to her inclusion?

Donkey Kong

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101947786/Donkey%20Kong

DK might be one of the top 5 mercs hurt most by the lack of a power curve. He's a force if strong ranged options ain't there, but when 3/weeks are dime a dozen and paydowns exist...yeah. I made a build for him that gives him Strong Kong as a way to let him get in and gain more time with it active if you field a bunch of Kongs, as well as buffing him if you bring in monkey pals. That feels like a pretty good way to fix him, as well as giving him Donkey Konga/Jungle Beat feats and making clear he's as he appears in the DKC series. He's almost there, just needs a bit of tuning to thrive in a no-curve world.

Should He Stay?: Yes.

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Gotta run now. The remaining 7 writeups when I get home.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Mr Lasastryke posted...

yeah, i do think people tend to overrate RotJ because of the luke/vader/palpatine stuff. it's like how people act like up is a masterpiece just because the first 10 minutes are so good.

To be fair, 'the ending is executed masterfully' is absolutely something that can redeem an otherwise mediocre work. It's the most important part of a story for a reason.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I can respect that

It takes a lot of media spin to twist the hand gestures of Ocelot around
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

Also I loved Epoch. I had to weigh in Draftmerx the inevitably of weird Crono disrespect (and it happened) versus the hilarity of getting to do stuff like force Sol Badguy back into the game. Of course I go with hilarity

Solo Badguy too good

But yeah like, the problem is Epoch is not balanceable for earlygame and Crono is pretty much a forced w1-w5 inclusion. 'I get an extra man' is broken good and super strong even if you restrict picks to M3 onward, and then the fact previous mercs games had wonky-ass balancing and bizarre upkeep decisions compounds the issue. Maybe something that is a time-based unlock? It's way less abusive 15-20 weeks into the game than 5.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

You'd think Crash was good, and then you realize anyone can throw any old worthless weekly ability at him and now he's on recharge. 'Oops'

fixable by making him intercept rechargeables only imo

yeah sure 'every other week' shit can shut him down still but at that point there's an actual cost incurred
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Death

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102175906/Death

Death probably needs to be a 3/week. He got like, no respect at all in M4 which sucked, but he'd do better in a lower tier where his super beefiness is more impressive. His abilities were good at least, if overcosted, so no need for changes there. He's pretty memorable, so worth keeping, just needs some polish.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Drac would be sad without his buddy.

Deathwing

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103965139/Deathwing

Hour of Twilight might be the flashiest ability in M4, which automatically gets Deathwing some props. 'maybe KO the entire enemy team with 75% chances' is a real attention grabber, and his Cataclysm was pretty strong too. He wasn't a merc you could just slap on any team and make work, but when he shined, he really shined. Pity scare never really got to show him off properly.

Should He Stay?: Yeah. Needs no changes.

Dekar

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105380607/Dekar

Lufia is a super old and dead series, and while Dekar is a fan favorite, his skills are kind of generic and he lacks remarkable showings. He's like the definition of a slot filler to me - good, but unexceptional in all areas, abilities included. You could combo his Blastmaster with some other mercs, but it was kind of a hassle...it feels like any amount of effort you could put into him was probably better spent elsewhere. Oh well.

Should He Stay?: Honestly, probably no. There's enough cool mercs clamoring for representation who have greater relevance than him. I don't think we'll need too many fillers like Dekar in future games.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Dante (DMC)

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/90769588/Dante

Uuuugh, Dante. I've got a pretty love-hate relationship with him. On one hand, he defines the 7/week tier well and is something of a face for the more high-octane, zanier kind of Mercenaries I prefer. On the other, his battle writeup literally makes him unquantifiable by removing his durability completely and giving him a weirdass timebased restricted access to DT, his base ability is horrifically broken, and his nerf passive is so meaningless as to be nonexistent...oh, and people go braindead when he's around and just vote for him automatically unless you have another 7 to counter him. He absolutely has to come back (especially if the rumorzone pans out and we get DMC5 announcements on Dec 7th, tomorrow), but he needs a shitload of work. We saw in Draftmerx that it's at least hypothetically possible to give Dante his regen and still have him lose, and I think giving him DT 'as seen in the gameplay' for duration, recharge methods and effects is fair, but how to give him an interesting nerf passive is anyone's guess. Too Easy applies to all tiers? Something about spending the opening bits of combat grandstanding instead of doing anything useful? I don't know. In spite of being a sharply defined character, making abilities for Dante fucking sucks. Party Getting Crazy can stay, it just needs to only double roster slots IMO - that's useful enough on its own without stupid ability defense. And Jackpot is very much on point. If one piece of the current build is worth keeping, it's that one.

Should He Stay?: Yes, but oy vey the idea of reworking him gives me a headache.

Donte (DmC)

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110076850/Dante%20(DmC)

Donte was incredibly slept on during M4. I get why, but I still think people made a huge mistake not buying him. He's a 6/week in the same vein Raiden MGR is a 6/week - a gatekeeper for the highest upkeep tier and a true combat beast. His abilities are much, much more interesting than OG Dante's, as well - they needed work (Fuck You needs -1 or -2 CD and maybe the ability to hit prebattles too as an upgrade, his passive needs to just make him targetable by all negative abilities or immune to beneficial effects instead of both), but the amount of crazy shenanigans you could pull off with them was amazing. He should also have gotten his cutscene DT, too, though maybe limited to gameplay durations - it's basically an actually-cutscened-out Quicksilver Style from DMC3 and thus gives him a very unique tool OG Dante doesn't quite get. Regardless though, he was an excellent concept, and I think he deserves a place on the roster - we never have enough high tier mercs and he's a very serviceable one.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Just needs some tuneups.

Dark Samus

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105380619/Dark%20Samus

Damus is...weird. If you have my respect for her she's the single tankiest merc in the game and a very good offensive fighter on top. If you don't respect her, Phazon is basically a mild poison status effect and thus not very impressive, and in consequence, Damus is a flop. She has a new game coming probably (Metroid Primes always have her as a major boss), so we'll see if she's better defined there. Hopefully she'll be less of a headache than she was in M4 and especially draftmerx. Oh, and her terrain needs to be replaced by one she, like, actually was in. It's dumb to slap a random place for her to fight in like that.

Should She Stay?: Depends on what MP4 gives her.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Another day, another set of reviews!

Should They Stay or Should They Go? Mercs 4 Edition

Crash Bandicoot

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105168810/Crash%20Bandicoot

Crash speaks for himself, really. Worthless in a fight, amazing ability defense in Spin, neat little tricks you can pull off with Mascot. He's not forgotten either. What more is there to say?.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Wow, that was easy!

Creeper

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101947645/Creeper

Creeper could afford to be a little cheaper, but as far as laser-focused mercs, he's really good at what he does. Want to dunk on a terrain that will eat your soul? Creeper's your boy. Aggressive Mining Tactics buys back his upkeep and bid if you get a lil bit lucky too. What's not to like here? I'd just lower his EXP cost on mining tactics a bit and he's good to go.

Should He Stay?: Sure. Cute merc with a nice ability from a culturally resonant game.

Crono

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101945467/Crono

Epoch was a mistake. There, I said it: Even before it was remade and upgraded, JC had an enormous advantage early on by getting an extra merc, and the fact it could 'tier break' was even worse. There's no real reason not to give Crono a Dual Tech/Triple Tech ability that combines named attacks from him and his allies into some kind of funky new move, tbqh. It's simple, clean and obvious, and also all he really needs. His Character Upgrade should probably give him Life as well as triple techs, but beyond that, not much more needs to be done here. Just give him Dual Techs and we're good.

Should He Stay?: Yes, but Epoch shouldn't. Too stupid and gamebreaking.

Dan Hibiki

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102241603/Dan%20Hibiki

The main man himself. Unlimited Dan Works probably can't stay for next mercs because it only made sense in the context of M4, but it's still amazing and I'm glad we had it for a brief time. Beyond that, Dan is very straightforward - Taunt is amazing, Little Girls Tie Bows is pretty good, and he's super beloved. Next!

Should He Stay?: Naturally.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Best to say 'which blocks any offensive magic but otherwise functions as it does in the game' imo. Voters can translate speed based turn based spellblock to fmv fighting imo
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

I'd like to see Clem as a (probably cheap) battle merc. As of Walking Dead 3 she's certainly competent at making stuff dead

That so? I wonder about that. Maybe make her an assist PS? cause like, I feel she's very good as she is now, but adding a cheap addon for 'she comes with' isn't a terrible idea.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Corrin

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110118001/Corrin

Out of the whole Week 41 bunch, Corrin is probably the most mistimed release. There's no time to get value out of Branch of Fates when you desperately need to unlock new power every week to not die, and a 4/week with solid but not amazing battle worth wasn't wowing anyone. Unlike Ike, I think Corrin is an Actual 4 instead of a 3 in disguise, but s/he needs to come out earlier to be worth a damn. Of course, it's debatable if s/he will - new FEs are coming out every year these days, and Fates might very well be old and forgotten by the time a new Mercs rolls around.

Should She Stay?: Maybe. Abilities are solid, build is OK, but is there lasting appeal here?

Corvo Attano

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104462230/Corvo%20Attano

Pure random abilities are bad. They are SUPER BAD. Nobody bought Corvo and for good reason - Assassin/Vigilante needed to be Pool of 5 at most, not some full random nonsense. You wouldn't think a merc with a preselected possession AND a KO could be unappealing, and yet here we are. If you needed proof good base abilities are everything, Corvo is probably the best piece of evidence you can find. Not even good ability combos with Algus could've saved him.

Should He Stay?: Yes, but fix Assassin/Vig ffs. Dishonored is well-liked, he can stay if his abilities don't suck. Not entirely sure he's a 4/week (his combat looks kinda underwhelming?) but stealth mercs are hard to gauge.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Class 7

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109308859/Class%20VII

Trails blew UP since Mercs 4. Nobody knew these games all that well back then, but now, it's almost as much of a Board 8 staple as Final Fantasy or Tales. We may or may not want to bring Class 7 back though - thing is that while the concept of 'THE WHOLE CLASS' as a 6/week is neat, Rean Schwarzer has too many good feats to not be his own boy in a new game of mercs, and the same goes for the Class' instructor Sara Valestein. 'Everybody in the cast except the MC and best girl' is kind of a weird merc to make. I think it might still be worth doing, but I could see arguments against it as well. Regardless though, they need new abilities and a slightly better writeup. The one we got right now is kinda garbage, tbqh.

Should They Stay?: Maybe. Need opinions here.

Clementine

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110119426/Clementine

Clem was a really good PS, she just came out too late. Two distinct abilities you can make great use of, just not broken strong which is what was needed out of a Week 41 merc. Release her week 10 or so and I guarantee she gets bought. No need for changes IMO, and a good Walking Dead merc as well.

Should She Stay?: Yes.

Cloud Strife

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101945284/Cloud%20Strife

Cloud is...weird. His respect varies wildly depending on whether he has access to a movie and noncanon games or not, and not everyone is super receptive to those. More recent games (Dissidia, FF13 series, FF15) have shown that the limit-break-spamming, acrobatic wuxia hero from Advent Children is how Cloud was always intended to work, but if you don't look at the trend it's a bit of a hard sell to swallow because gameplay mechanics just...didn't jive with it *at all*. FF7 Remake should put disagreements about AC to rest, thankfully, and the rest of his build is very solid. I think we can slot his remade build into any future game with few changes, and he's a valuable and strong character.

Shoud He Stay?: Noble Nine is auto-include. No further comments needed.

Commander Shepard

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101948071/Commander%20Shepard

Shepard's Citadel was a stroke of genius, and I feel pretty confident nobody could anticipate just how much of an effect it'd have on the game. A lot of the rest of her build was wonky (straight up, I don't think she should have Stasis again - Gravy never really bothered using her highly variable customization because Stasis was just that overwhelming, which fucking sucks), including an incredibly terrible upgrade ability, but it didn't matter. Citadel was so good it erased all ill will one could have towards the build.

Should She Stay?: Yes but touch up her battle writeup with some bans and specifications and give her a better upgrade abil. We can do better than that.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Let's wrap up for today with the 10 builds I should actually be commenting if I had kept to the schedule.

Chris Redfield

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102130915/Chris%20Redfield

Subtle important thing worth noting about M4 builds: as a direct reaction to Mercs 3 spamming us with generic gunners whom nobody gave a shit about (Challenge you to tell me who Matthias Nilsson or Captain Scott Mitchell or Bishop are without googling, I fucking dare you), M4 featured a teeny tiny amount of gunners compared to mages and especially meleers. Out of the 'four classes' of Mercenaries (which are, IMO, Melee, Mage, Gunner and Psychic), Gunners were by far the least represented one relative to their popularity and ubiquitousness in gaming. This meant that almost every gunner we got stood out...but it also meant that those that didn't were really obviously bad. Chris was one of those guys. When would you possibly want him over Doomguy, Bill Rizer or Marcus Fenix, looking only at battle worth? Never? Yeah, thought so. He was stuck in the same upkeep bracket as them, but really didn't belong. Add to that that his abilities were bad (seriously, CHRIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS is a random-target ability. As a base. If we learned one thing from M4 early build design, it's that random-targeting abilities are not kosher without some kind of way to rig the pool of targets baked in), and it was all over for him. FFD came up with a STARS build that could be pretty good as a 4 or 6/week group merc. I think that one's worth trying out, TBQH. We don't really need solo Chris I don't think.

Should He Stay?: Yes, but as a group merc component.

Chrom

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104099515/Chrom

Chrom is a generic 3/week sworddude, but his abilities are unique, flavorful and fitting, including an amazing hidden passive. For this alone he deserves a place IMO, only maybe replaceable if you think a newer FE MC should take the spot. Versatile, balanced, fun, and reasonably beloved, there's no reason he couldn't come back for next Mercs.

Should He Stay?: Yes unless you're replacing him with a newer MC.

Chun-Li

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105380445/Chun-Li

Few mercs scream 'build a team around me' like Chun does. Elite Training's parameter boosts are wonderful, which makes it all the more a pity she wasn't released week 1. Definitely should be a first week release next game - I don't think she needs any changes (except Gomen Ne is kind of a weird ability - it makes ability disabling harder and why is she stealing Dan's taunting thunder? Normally I wouldn't care about this but they're same-series, jeeze), and she's one of the world's most famous female videogame characters. Solid inclusion in any Mercs for sure.

Should She Stay?: Yup!

Claire Redfield

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103965137/Claire%20Redfield

Claire is even worse off than Chris in terms of battle worth. The only real reason to even talk about her beyond 'see my Chris analysis' is Protester Power. I think the ability was a mistake because something that can fuck people over in a different pool is just...really bad. There's no counterplay available there. I think it could be balanced by making it only work on Claire's own match, but the question is, do we want her back when we have Leon, Wesker, Barry, Chris, Jill and Rebecca spread out across three different mercs, assuming we do the STARS consolidation plan? That's a lot of generic gunners (plus Wesker) and Claire isn't as fancy a shooter or quippy and memorable as her RE2 costar Leon. I feel like we can probably skip on her and put in someone cooler in her place. Nemesis T-Type, maybe?

Should She Stay?: Probably not. Too much McGunner DNA.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

Yeah I think Celes is a LOT more interesting if you strip vanish and give her a defined runic in battle (maybe you don't really need to define it but I think mechanically it's kinda ambiguous how it works in real time so standardizing it in some way like "she may still defend herself but may not take offensive actions while using runic" would be helpful I think)

But not my build, and from a point in the game where I wasn't QCing them either-- blame Jeezy for not dying.

Yeah I think 'she can use Runic in battle to block all offensive spells, but may not attack' would work

Maybe you can get more specific if you want but it's a good starting base IMO
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

CATS

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102176827/CATS

Lopen should be proud of this build. Some wording issues aside, CATS is one of his finest designs. Versatile, strong but not overwhelming, his remade version was a complete slam dunk. I have nothing to say here, except I would buy him in a heartbeat in a new game. Good work!

Should He Stay?: Yes. All your mercs are belong to CATS!

Celes Chere

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102370819/Celes%20Chere

Can we just take a second to talk about how bugfuck stupid it is that Celes' Runic is an ability and not a battle trait? Here is a character with an unique, distinct niche in a fight (antimage caster)...so let's take that away and leave you with a super generic 3/week made interesting only because of Vanish. Not having Runic as a thing Celes could just do made her nothing more than a Vanish bot, and honestly it was a shameful decision. Any new build should just bite the bullet, give her a proper Opera ability as a base and then maybe something about suicidal tendencies or being distrusted or whatever on upgrade. Just give her in-battle Runic ffs, don't strip away unique abilities from characters!

Should She Stay?: Maybe, but combat Runic is a sine qua non condition for it. There's room for her but not as a generic castergal.

Charizard

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031843/Charizard

Let's get this out of the way: All pokemon should have a specific anime episode, movie or OVA picked out for them and baked into their writeup. Pokemon respect off the games is stupid variable and it's dumb to add a character that's intended to be taken seriously but has...pokedex lore as their primary source of respect. Give them something a leader can actually hype, christ.

Anyway...battle respect being raw ass (unforgivable for a cool firebreathing dragon) aside, Charizard's abilities were neat. Won't Obey should be pool of 5 random (maybe 3 on upgrade?), Mega Evolution is theoretically a solid respect boost, and lighting a terrain on fire is great strategic fodder - just ask Eddv about it. Nothing bad with them. He's well known, he's well-liked, he just needs a bone thrown at him to make him not be a trap as far as respect goes, IMO.

Should He Stay?: Yes, with the caveat above about giving him some animated feats.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Carmen Sandiego

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102131116/Carmen%20Sandiego

Carmen is a merc that is theoretically devastating against very specific mercs and trash garbage against most. It's not a great look for her, and Rogues Gallery being super costly doesn't help matters either. She's very cool but...she needs work. Her abilities ain't quite there yet. She's worth working on, though.

Oh, and the Altered Beast Guy reference in her upgrade ability? Top tier. Pro work by the admins.

Should She Stay?: Yes, but with a redesign. Very iconic PS that needs love.

Carmilla

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102514192/Carmilla

Now here's a PS who knows what she's doing. Carmilla has three different effects and all are powerful: Make a merc obsessed with winning so mental-nerfed characters (like Travis Touchdown for ex) perform at theoretical potential, buff them up with a power boost, and invert abilities to allow for fun ability combos. Winsome stuff all around. Mask of Infamy is kind of gravy on top and I'd have to see it in practice to tell if it's good or trash, but honestly just Carmilla's bases are enough to make her worthwhile. I almost got her and am sad I didn't - Dark Sora would be an insane wrecking machine, dont'cha think?

Should She Stay?: Yes, totally.

Catherine

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102131149/Catherine

From a sexy vampire to a sexy demon, how odd. Catherine's upgrade ability is...iffy. I think you could argue friendly fire from it, but it'd be a hard sell and I wish it had language that hinted it more strongly to make it more legitimate. As is, it doesn't seem worth the investment. Her base ability doesn't quite help you win a match but it's a powerful political tool anyway, and a roaring fuck you that discourages people being mean to you - a good thing for the savvy political-minded Mercs leader. I think with a better upgrade ability, Catherine would be just fine - a couple spite mercs add spice to the proceedings of this fucked up game, neh?

Should She Stay?: Yeah, I think so.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Let's clean up the backlog and get up to date.

Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Mercs 4 Edition

Brad Armstrong

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110118331/Brad%20Armstrong

A merc who was never ever going to get any respect. Brad is like Ryu SF lite (super duper lite), but without any awesome feats. Gaining 3x strength isn't good if you're gonna get wasted by any gunner, and Joyless Run, while conceptually awesome, had the drawback of 'you can't dodge the withdrawal no matter what', making what coulda been an awesome buff worthless without extra ability backup. You could fix him, but why bother? He's a Nobody (get it? ho ho ho, I'm so clever).

Should He Stay?: No. Not enough material to be a good ability slave and that's what he needs to be.

Bub

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102032194/Bub

Speaking of! Look who's here, the quintessential lil abilitybro. Bub is cool. We need more Bubs.

Should He Stay?: Of course.

Cadence

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102786754/Cadence

Our third ability slave in a row. Cadence is interesting because nobody buys her to do jack shit in a fight, but her ability can pretty much autowin things for you if you can work it properly. Scare noticed, but...never got the combo off. So did Arti. I wonder if there just weren't enough appropriate stunning abilities to make Cadence good? Absolutetion was...kinda maybe decent, but I feel like a character who dies to stray AoE isn't the best carrier for a revival effect that only works if they're alive.

Should She Stay?: Maybe? Momentum Mori is a good ability, but I don't know if we really wanna keep Cadence. Is she iconic enough?

Captain Falcon

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031933/Captain%20Falcon

The guy with maybe the single sharpest respect divide in the game. Either you took Falcon to do some neat shit or you went 'SMASH IS TOYS' and he did nothing. I err on the side of him doing something (he has very nice feats in the F-Zero anime, for the record) but yeah, not that many people agree. Giving him F-Zero anime feats explicitly might be a neat experiment because it could very well fix Falcon's respect issues and it'd make him less dependent on Smash, and he's so well-known and beloved it's a crying shame not to have him, but it depends on how willing people are to take nongame sources seriously. As far as his abilities go, they're kind of on point but honestly...PAWNCH should be preselected from the get-go without any ability upgrades necessary. It's dumb that a weak merc has RNG on his abilities. His terrain is pretty good too, and lends itself to ability combos, but I heard grumbling about it. Should Big Blue come back? I'm not sure.

Should He Stay?: Probably. Needs some battleworth help tho, or much stronger abilities.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.