Or possibly not even that, their methodology wasn't made clear. I trust the German fans who did their own analysis by scraping the its data more; I wish they'd do that again.
Depends on what you want in the fireteam, you're not necessarily going to have a Zuyong or Shang Ji with a tinbot in that fireteam, particularly Haris configurations. For example, the only way to back these two up in a Haris with both NCO and a Tinbot is to pick one of the Tai Sheng options. 2 1 SHÀNG JÍ (Tactical Awareness) Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38) CHIEF JEONG K1 Combi Rifle, AP Mines, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) 1.5 SWC | 67 Points
Just to temper expectations, just keep in mind we don't know if that fireteam is legal. Counting as a Shang Ji means she'll count as a Shang Ji for comp bonuses, not that she necessarily will be a wildcard or even what fireteams she can go in.
True. When I saw SJ, I took it as also being a wildcard. If not she can still follow behind. But Jing Qo IS a wildcard. I think a duo of the two could be good. Or a haris of JQ, Bixie, and Ye Mao spitfire.
Regarding IA I think the most important part about her is that she brings msv2 on a solid profile. In combination with super jump and climbing plus she will be very useful at hunting camo infiltrators hiding on rooftops (looking at you ariadna).
Also C+ is part of her A! kit as is MSV. You can see from her art in the cards that she's using the C+ cables you see on O-12 units Attack on Titan style If you look at her thigh armour you can see that's probably what those two things that are sticking out are on her Infinity version, C+ gear.
Simply from the fact she counts as a Shang-Ji we know she'll at the minimum be able to team up with Shang-Ji, Jujaks and Ye Mao in WBA and Shang-Ji, Zuyong, Rui Shi, and the very extensive list of IA wildcards in IA.
I will gladly test her in vanilla. She might make me play IA again. But holy hell for WB she is amazing. Even if she will be limited to "White banner fireteams" only there is so much good here. Finally NCO and linkable MSV2 in WB. All of that on super mobile HI that can shoot, melee and push buttons. Part of me doesnt even want her to get promoted to wildcard. Putting her in shaolin haris world be an absolutem autoinclude and I don't want this.
Okay. I always thought, that lines on the card artwork indicated jump-movement but anyway I wish she will be a little cheaper. I would try her in WB - she will be the first character/mini with NCO there and now it makes a little bit more sense to get the new DF box with Gao ... but happiness is short, because together they will eat up too many points :-( Maybe I try her with Jujak Spitfire and Ye Mao (Hacker or Engineer) or even Tian KHD. In IA I would go with two Zuyongs: HMG TA and Tinbot TA.
If anything, I think she might under-pay a bit when I compare her to the Hulang. She definitely doesn't need to go down in points.
I started to think that she's a great team up with Jing Qo but then realized she's much better! Only a point difference in CC and no AP, But a E/M CCW does a half BTS save and has the ability to immobilize. The only thing bad is that it's not Anti-Material. Also add Shock immune, Climb+ AND Super Jump, 2W, NCO, MSV2, better BTS, better Dodge too. Finally, a specialist that can does something beyond hitting a button. For only 5pts more!
So, on the subject of Qiang Gao: Dude's in a bit of a pickle. He's overpriced and kind of just not very good, and he competes with our metal messiah. No matter what you do with him as he is, with his gun, he'll always be compared to Shang Jisus because they occupy such similar space. If you make him better than Shang Jisus, he'll be stupidly overpowered. If you do anything less, he'll be redundant and pointless (as he is now). The best way to fix this? His gun. Now, I've not played Defiance, and I'm not super caught up on its lore. But I do know that he gets access to another weapon type. I also know that his present gun is a unique design that, while it shares a lot of similarities with the standard Yu Jing HMG, carries enough customizations that you could reason it away in a lot of different ways. So the Solution? Heavy Shotgun (+2B) A high calibre, belt fed automatic shotgun. Now he's occupying a completely different design space from Shang Jisus, he's able to make good use of his ECM and Veteran rules, and it'd help cut his cost a bit, too.
I agree. Even +1B would be fine, honestly, as otherwise he's B5 in a fireteam with the HSG. Also, give him his Automedikit from his Defiance kit. And as someone who's played a lot of Defiance, that Heavy Shotgun gets a lot of work done.
The +2B is based on the idea of his gun in his model being a customized bastard shotgun/HMG. As for getting up to B5 in a fireteam... I see no problem with that.
Maybe a couple of points but not more than three. Most of her stuff is fairly cheap and one of the biggest disadvantages compared to other HI that Hulang has is the MOV distribution that offers no comparable cost reduction. Well, that and losing the Invincible "tag" with Raveneye. Heavy Shotgun alternative load-out is a good idea I think, whether with or without +B. I do think that making him a viable LT alternative to Daoying is the key though. As someone wrote on the Discord, Strategos 1 would accomplish this (and at the same time putting a nail in the coffin around Sun Tze V1's coffin). I don't think the ECM is all that relevant as long as it's on him personally and not a Tinbot.
BTW any idea when Bixie will be added to army? Does any one remember when they added Fiddler last year?
I don't recall, but I'm finding Army-generated lists appearing as early as 29th September. This would mean she got added the week before the start of ITS 13 so we're probably 6 to 8 weeks away from Bixie at the moment.
She will be added to the Army the same day the new ITS season starts. Date still pending to be confirmed.
Regarding CC I see Jing a nose lenght forward. Her weapon is made for killing armoured things. Half ARM and two rolls, will bring usual high ARM S5 HI down easy. Even TAGs are down to 4 or 5 ARM and had to roll twice. While E/M can completly disable HI/TAG/REM they are still standing. The vulnarability to shock is a big downside of Jing. I would like that. The HSG is the starting weapon of him in Defiance. The possiblity to make an alternative profile of would be nice option and would make him even playabel ;-) Sadly the sculpt with HMG is already set, according to the renders.
Regarding Gao: that awesome looking belt feeding mechanism warrants at least a +1 burst on his HMG :).