Board 8 > Hypothetical Mercs Topic, S2 Topic 3: My Greatest Creation

(+) Yeah! (+)

Teemo I buy as a utility-based 2/week, give him some items for character upgrades that contribute stuff and he'd be solid as a utility stun guy. He's only a pointbreaker in practice, but that's all he needs to be and he does it in a non-ineffectual manner.

I'd take him over non-dreamy Luigi at least, who is my barometer of "does this guy deserve to be a 2/week". And I'm a guy with high Mario respect in general.
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Hey at least it's a new build
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Luigi crushes Teemo !
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Teemo anti-hype:
https://youtu.be/5-mT9D4fdgQ?t=240
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yarr
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Lopen posted...

The problem with Teemo is his attacks and appearance are so visually unimpressive. Hard to really sell his blow darts doing much despite their damage numbers because they're little darts fired by a tiny dude. And despite his HP totals you're inclined to think that like Dan Hibiki could just punt him and win.

Imo he's a well deserved 1/week but I think League of Legends characters should generally be avoided with very few exceptions because there's no real scale you can respect in that game. I think Ashe is one of the only ones I'd support being back because her canon power level about matches up with her eyeball test power level.

I feel like most of them are about the power level you'd expect. Like, Lucian is a strong 3/week, Sion is a solid 3/week, you get the idea. There's some outliers but not that many. The trick is to make sure a character who's being included has at least one or two modern cinematics to draw from so that their portrayal is consistent. If they have some written fluff, even better.

(Also, gonna sit down and write some analysis today, hopefully. Gimme a bit!)
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It's tiiiiiime

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Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Mercs Edition, Pt. Great Revival

Ike

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101968072/Ike

I once talked to Lopen about why we didn't see more damaging abilities. He said 'too basic', IIRC, but there's a bit more to it than that, I think - I think he saw the effect Ike had and didn't want too much more of it in the game. See, the thing with mercs is that it tilts super hard towards glassy characters because good game design generally dictates a player be much more damaging and fragile than the enemies he fights (so as to keep fights from being slogs and retain high levels of tension), and most of our mercs are player characters because they get the most showings. This means only a small group of mercenaries can withstand unblockable damaging abilities...which means they're ghetto KOs, but with 2 or 3 week CDs, instead of the 4 weeks they should usually have by default. Thus you get a 3/week like Ike, who isn't really cut out to be a 4, getting pushed up an upkeep tier on the basis of how powerful his default ability is. Add the combos Only See People enables and he's kinda made. He doesn't really need further changes, but I feel like this is a good time to open discussion on the subject of beef. We kinda need a better spread of tanky vs glassy mercs. People need to have options for opting into tankiness for their teams instead of being forced to go full glass because that's all that is on offer below 5/week and usually 6/week (6/week mercs generally being distinguished from 5s not by offensive firepower but by being able to actually take a hit).

Should He Stay?: Yes. No changes.

Inkling

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106119021/Inkling

I don't get why Inkling didn't get a note in his/her build saying enemies counted as octos for the purposes of them taking damage from Inkling's weaponry. It seems like such an obvious gimme, and the lack of it made Inkling into maybe the worst combat merc, period. I feel like Lanky Kong is probably more useful than her. Stay Fresh WAS a pretty strong ability (it's ghetto antipaydown), but sort of unreliable, and You're A Kid Now was straight up hot garbage. Why DOESN'T it 14-year-old-ify the minds of the opposition? Literally all it does is make them smaller and a bit physically weaker, which is so unreliable it's not worth investing anything into. A bad upgrade ability only helped worsen Inkling's position. This merc just needs a huge rework IMO - Splatoon is so beloved s/he deserves a place in the game, but s/he should, y'know, do something.

Should S/he Stay?: Yes, but only with a full rework to not be trash.

Isaac

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102458023/Isaac

One of the better 'mercs monster' builds, I think. Isaac being in his dad form gives him the extra hype of more years of experience, and his allotment of djinni and summon access gives him a wide bag of tricks. He's super customizable too, and even his abilities reflect that. They're variable, and knowing how to use them properly was part of why Eddv made his cinderella run. I don't get why his equipment isn't specific, though. With weapon unleashes being a thing, this build really needs to specify what weaponry Isaac has. Tisiphone Edge is not the same as Excalibur is not the same as Sol Blade, y'know? Beyond that though, I think the build was a successful experiment. We CAN give characters more unique combat skills. Good work on the admins' part here.

Should He Stay?: Yep!
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Ivy

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102130945/Ivy%20Valentine

This is one of the biggest misses of this entire run so Imma just cut the crap here: Ivy sucks. Nobody really cares about her, her base ability was bleh (doing 50% of a merc's HP is bad because most mercs are glass. It doesn't meaningfully matter except for a select number of dudes and you really don't wanna field Ivy against them because they're mid or high tier), and her upgraded ability (the main reason to buy her) wasn't too good either. If you really want her back, straight up give her the TR daily ability she had and something about TJF because that's what she's known for, but I don't think we need her. Would sooner have Siegfried, Cervantes or someone else if we really need another Soul Calibur rep after Tira and Nightmare. She's boring and gets no combat respect.

Should She Stay?: No

Jacky Bryant

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106972446/Jacky%20Bryant

By contrast, here's a weak fighting game character done right. Jacky sucked in a fight...so he got a really cheap pricetag and a great ability that strongly disabled an enemy merc if it went off. And you didn't have to roster him for it! He's kind of a filler merc, but I feel like everybody liked him and he worked well enough, so I don't see a reason to dislike him. Solid work by...Luis I think?

Should He Stay?: Yes, but only if we have room for him.

Jaesa Willsaam

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110119057/Jaesa%20Willsaam

Nobody cares about Jaesa. She's good for showing us what Summon Suffering done right might look like, but that's about it. If you want a second SW merc (you should want it) add Kyle Katarn to go with Revan.

Should She Stay?: No.
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Jaina Proudmoore

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102241495/Jaina%20Proudmoore

I feel like Jaina was wasted on Tom's team - WoW mercs kinda require knowing what the fuck they do to sell them because their lore is trash due to blizzard writing and I didn't get the impression he did. It felt like Jaina was kinda...there? Her abilities weren't that good either - Polymorph being random really kills it (duration so short too, ack), and Flamestrike was kinda hard to use because it was SoB. If it was prebattle I could see using it in lowbie to wipe out the ability slaves, but not when all the good shit is gonna resolve ahead of time. No point.

Should She Stay?: Yeah, I guess. But uhh...give her better abilities, kthx.

Jigglypuff

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102176638/Jigglypuff

Not much to say about Jiggles. Overpriced but good ability slave, that's about it. Anybody want some pie?

Should S/he Stay?: Sure, why not? Sleep should probably be 2 week CD by default tho. Merc too weak for 3 week CD.

Jeigan

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108800674/Jeigan

One of the skillier and strongest mercs in the game, IMO. I feel like Skyridge didn't use him very well, but MAN, those abilities! Paydown cost reduction, super potent antipaydown, and KO defense. What's not to love? Yeah, the EXP penalty stings, but infra is more powerful than EXP. Managed properly, he would've been an enormous asset for sure. Great build.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Just balance-check him, I feel he might be a bit TOO STRONG, y'know?

Jill Valentine

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101948026/Jill%20Valentine

This is where I post 'just use FFD's STARS build', right

Oh, I gotta talk about the merc a bit more? Ehh...ok, sure.

Anyway...Jill kinda sucked. I still don't get why the admin team doubled down so hard on the battlesuit gimmick. It was very clear she was not gonna get respect from it - Wesker is one of our weaker 5s, so Jill, being sensibly inferior, would straight up not be one. Her abilities sucked too, being messy and hard to use. I'm kinda not sure how you're supposed to take advantage of them besides 'build a team of melee powerhouses and pop the Incident ability to clean house'. It's...kinda all it seems good for? Just a real bust, tbqh. Jill should stay in the game, but needs a total rework or, *cough* being part of a group merc.

Should She Stay?: Yes, but this build shouldn't.
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One thing I will whine about regarding Isaac is his cooldowns were too long for the concept that he was, essentially, a combo piece.

And two of his trigger powers (Mercury and Venus) were so extremely tricky to use that they verged on useless - mainly because there were VERY few single ally targeting abilities in the game which made using them rather difficult.

That said his mars combo was bonkers and I never regretted bankrupting myself for him.

Jacky Bryant was the most fun legally allowed for the cost of 1 upkeep and a discount coupon no one else used.
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Damaging abilities are fun (hi M3 Ryu and the endless stupid debates about which game his Hadoken was from)
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DeathChicken posted...

Damaging abilities are fun (hi M3 Ryu and the endless stupid debates about which game his Hadoken was from)

I like em too. I just think we kinda underrecharge them relative to their practical effect a bit.
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They should probably do a little bit more than Striders damaging abil.

That got NO respect except as a fire delivery vehicle!
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Eddv posted...

They should probably do a little bit more than Striders damaging abil.

That got NO respect except as a fire delivery vehicle!

Still don't get why they didn't just give him Ragnarok

That would get Actual, Real Respect to burst dudes
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Android 21 for mercs
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GANON1025 posted...

Android 21 for mercs

Speaking of potential new releases

Do you guys think it would be possible to release Dingo Egret (Piloting Jehuty), from Zone of the Enders 2? I watched the AGDQ 2017 speedrun of it just a couple days ago and it reminded me just how swag that game is.
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I should really play the first one one of these days.
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Well I should
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