Yep, she has to rely on raw burst to do anything, and will often be at -3 to -9 against the other skimrishers (mimetism/odd + cover + surprise potentially) and has 1W and no shock immunity so a single mine yeets her off the board. Can't do objectives, can't fight at range, can't bring a big gun to a link....but can get on roofs! wow...
She just falls short hard of what makes Dart great and that's what kills her. Pricepoint is harsh but not even the issue. I'd pay 40 points for her if she would be doing what she seems to be built for. Right now she is a 16" 0SWC C+ Skirmisher. FD1 hurts that a bit, but is workable. Real Camo BS13 and enough punch is also nice, similar to a ZC in output. BUT she's more expensive than any common TO Skirmisher (tied with a Dasyus) and doesn't have an edge on them (MSV1, Mines, X-Visor, MMSL2, NWI/Dogged etc). Dart has 2 Shock immune wounds, which means she can walk into a Mine or Chainrifle on rooftops or eat a crit. Also gets her MSV and Mines/EM Nades of her own. All in all some really nice synergy with C+ and FD2. Within the death perimeter of 8" Uma can't compare. She often can't fight there at all and B4 SMGs aren't much of an Upgrade compared to the MSV1. The longer +3 Range of the Breaker and the extra B is probably better than the MSV1 at straight up killing. But that's forgetting we're fighting Skirmishers and not getting a -3 on Discovers is massively important when fighting Camo. Looking at the Nomad gal I can just guess how that could happen. First impression was that the Defiance characters are supposed to be mostly flavour like i.e. Kanuf. But then we have a super efficient WIP14 Maestro SMG Hacker that brings a 6 point Order Monkey on top. WTF. What Uma should have been is a Breaker Marksmanrifle+2SMGs and then either X-Visor, MSV1 or MMS L2 at just shy of 40 points. Instead we got the good old shitty concept that fucked Combi+LSG troops like Bolts and the Uhlan since forever. Paying way too many points for guns with redundant rangebands. Slapped on top of another timeless classic terrible base platform, Elite MI. ARM3, PH11, CC15, BTS3 results in a terribly expensive baseline platform. On the plus side she got 4-4. That feature I like. Although it probably made her even more expensive. Also pretty sure she will perform better in her Defiance role. Assuming her different guns allow for tactical options at multiple ranges.
And here we get another useless profile witn an awesome miniature. Well, at least we can use her in Defiance, right?
I'm fully expecting her to be available in NCA; her fluff was sure to mention that she's working with the Hexahedron.
NCA might actually be desperate enough for midfiled presence to run her. Real Camo, C+ and FD1 could be enough leverage over a Locust to reach viability. Then again you can just buy 3-4 Orders for her pricepoint and solve the problem that way.
Given the tables I usually play at I'd definitely give her a try in NCA. Maybe in Varuna as well. In other sectorials Dart is obviously better. I'm also curious about her linkability, because she might be a decent pointman in a right unit.
So we're down to One Bolt in a "Bolt Core?" Uma, Black Friar, Aquila, Machinist and Bolt. No comment on how effective a fireteam that is.
It wasn't long ago that people where begging to have ANY flavor in the bolt link to make them viable... now we are all like... stop putting stuff in our bolt link!
Kinda prohibitively expensive as a pointman next to something like a Kamau/Orc HMG. B5 in 8" isn't all that valueable if you can just put a BS21 CSU at the job for 1/3 of the points. And for NCA 20 points extra gets you a much superior Aquila FTO. New Bolts are also worth running all of a sudden, so you're less happy to replace them just because their Combi+LSG sucks.
Carlos also stated in the video today that the profiles are subject to change, so it's possible that Uma will get some sort of change before she gets added to Army.
I think it's a mixed bag situation. ORC is more resilient, but not as good from up close. Aquila is a nice choice, but also more expensive. But she's definitely more niche than I'd like.
PanO's never lacked the ability to gunfight well at 0-16 inches. I think it's actually a faction signature. We may lack warbands, we may be light on direct template weapons, cheap CC or shotguns... But we can light a target up with Combi Rifles better than anything. So when I see characters that specialize in that rangeband, it feels redundant. It feels especially redundant if they're in a link team, where a 10 point Fusilier or Regular is already quite good at that close rangeband. Granted, Uma's going to be better at this than a Fusilier, but is it worth three and a half Fusiliers to gain? Hmm.
Being in NCA and able to link in any fireteam changes her up a bit. Combined with aida NCA starts getting a more reliable midfield game. Albiet one built more for active than reactive. And she actually pairs nicely into bolts. They want to push up close and she adds to their general toolkit without overlapping much. Giving them a high burst in close threat as opposed to relying solely on shotgun modifiers. Its also worth noting. Outside of jazz, and Cadin being the 5th wulver, these characters are all more style than crunch. Useable for sure and adding some interesting things where they are available. But not stand out.
Isn't that a good thing in the end ? Am I alone in a feeling that actually we might have a bit "too many" characters who are either breaking the faction paradigms a tad bit too much or are on the other hand almost completly irrelevant to the game ?
Didnt say it was a bad thing. In NCA i dont mind Uma. She has some things she can do that are unique within that sectorial but isnt overbearing.
It's probably the most fitting place for her because everyone else wouldn't look twice. She also gets to piggyback off of the bonkers order counts NCA is capable of generating with high efficiency. I dont think I could swap out a drop bear caddy for her in a link, but I might run her with a fusilier fireteam on overwatch.
