Over the regular Celestial Guard he's: + 1 BS + 1 ARM + Shock Immunity + Number 2 + Forward Observer + Light Flamethrower + Mad Traps Now, at usual costs (and assuming Shock Immunity and #2 are both free) you have to assume Mad Traps are only 1pt for his cost to be "correct". That's... generous. 'though it's possible that, compared to the newer Dire Foes, he's considered underpowered for his cost. That would make the recent Bipandra "re-work" even more insulting and comical, but could actually be true.
In terms of ability, he lines up pretty well with the Moran. As far as power goes, Yu Jing isn't hurting for power pieces. It's for value utility pieces.
The guy running the ITS narrative stuff @HellLois has confirmed on Facebook that they are NOT gone for the rest of the season. They are also NOT getting profile changes or updates. There WILL be some kind of bonus added for them when they do come back, as part of the next "stage" of the Season 9 narrative.
Makes sense for Kusanagi and Xi, sucks for Andromeda and a few of the others. And I think a larger part of the community would have been perfectly fine with Tarik accidentally losing Fatality L2 than were fine with JSA separating
Sorry mate, there are literally dozens of FB threads on this and I'm not trawling through them all again. I have officially asked him as a WarCor if I could communicate this message more clearly and he replied in that sub-forum so if you want to know more feel free to ask a question and tag him.
I see, thanks. To be fair, it would be less hassle for everyone involved if open info was readily available at the announcements page in the first place. Probably something of the same status as ITS 9 bonuses for TAGs and LI lists.
It was always stated that they would have been banned for a short time to be back with a little improvement. How do we all read that as a major profile tweak, i'm still confused about. Because in the process i lost sight of it too...
I think some of the selections (Andromeda, Voronin) helped give people the impression that more significant changes might happen. Guard is a TERRIBLE rule.
Guard isn't terrible at all, assuming it's fairly cheap, which is a safe bet it is. Guard is stuck on profiles that aren't good in CC, but still pay for CC skill, but that's not the skill's fault. Stick Guard on a Ninja or similar and it isn't so crap any longer.
Guard seems to come with a large base. That alone is less than great. And Martial Arts is just as cheap as Guard, but better. The WORST thing about Guard though, is that it didn't need to exist at all. It's pure rules bloat.
wait ...what?!?!?! Who say nerf??? We never say nerf! You are seeing ghosts! If a ban Sun Tse v2 I have to ban the V1, because...is the same person in diferent suit xd
Oh, c'mon. This is the era of digital backups and downloadable personas for anything remotely human-like. Surely at this point you can consider bodies to be your suits if you are wealthy and robust in mind - and we are talking about one of the YJ higher-ups, specifically designed to use LHosts. :-P But anyway, if this isn't about changing profiles, then the entire MM Leader Sun point is moot.
I think the S4 base is pure happenstance, rather than part of the rule. I can see a need for a defensive Martial Arts without the Stealth stuff, but it is indeed rules bloat. Nah, no nerfs. We were secretly hoping you'd take Sun Tze and return the V2 version improved, though, but since no permanent profile changes are coming, then it's mooted.
Assuming that the reverse engineered points are correct, that is. Shock Immunity are free on Grunts and Moderators and I've only seen No.2 cost 1 point on the Wildcat, while being free on others, so I wouldn't say that it's a stretch to assume that those 2 skills are free, not really "generous". Mad Traps literally costs 2 points, so even from a pessimistic POV, he's getting a 1 point discount. That's miles away from justifying any "price hike". It doesn't need to be the new dire foes either. Aside from Ker-Nau Obvíous Powercreep and Leila PlsNerf, he doesn't really hold a candle against Lupe, Anyat or Yuriko Oda. Hell, even the infiltrating Thrasymedes can be more annoying to deal with.
Xi, for me is a must in most of my vanilla lists. I think you should consider every troop in his faction/sectorial context. Getting a cd 12 troop and madtraps for less than 20 point is gold in Yu Jing, with every troop a bit overcosted by CC. Xi Zhuang can work as the tipical DZ holder that can make change to go midfield and do stuff. Don't know but I think Leila as a troop ad less in table but more in list making ( full gulhams core on hassasins, free remotes etc). Can argue that even pheasnt or eagle agents do the same, but they are to expensive to use as simple zone protection ( and the eagle one is not specialist). Xi Zhuang is a good toolbox on vanilla and even more on ISS, not game breaking but when you are used to play it you will see his multiples roles. It aports more to his faction than most of dire foes, with the exception of ker neru or leila ( and she is mostly used as a hacker cheerleader or a D charge delivery service).
Agree with @krossaks and @Zewrath , Xi is a good acquisition for the Crane Core, those madtraps are a great defense for the closer assault wich Crane are meant for. Leila is hacker and have bonus activating consoles, and still activate others mission objetives, also have better lethal weapons . Xi does'nt have bonus but still been a specialist, and his weapons are meant to be usted un closer combat, for longer combat his flash pulse are no lethal and uses a regular combi rifle.
