Pretty amusing to see CB get even more ridiculous with their profiles. Either we are witnessing the collapse into the death of balance or "throw stuff at the wall for fun since N4 will fix things anyway" She seems a tad too strong, given the availability of cadmus KHDs, Messer, etc.
Heh, I've seen people say the exact opposite. "Oh, she's hackable, she sucks now. She doesn't have a nanoscreen! She sucks". I like the profile. Probably gonna use her a lot more than the LI one. But that's just me, I just enjoy myself some powered armor. In all honesty, though, she is not more powerful than any other overcosted character in the game. 66 points puts her closer to achiles, and blondie will butcher her in most cases.
See my note on hacker availability in Shas, to say nothing of vanilla. In what cases will blondie butcher her when he's wiped out by burst 5 fat l2 crits? :D Anyways, I realised discussing balance isn't worthwhile on here, as people's experiences and local metas and how many crits they took last game cloud it.
Wait, you bring up crits and then immediately dismiss the argument because people bring up crits? Come on, mate, I've seen you be smarter than that. In all honesty, though, Achilles has the same BS and either ODD or Mimetism, which makes him better at actually winning the FTF without fishing for crits. Not to mention that MA4 is flat out better than Protheion 4, so if he gets into CC he will probably explode her in one or two orders. She IS strong, I will not deny that. And FAT is a poorly designed skill, I also agree with that. But the profile isn't more over the top than say, Cuervo, or Achilles, or Tarik. It's just another OP character in a game that has a history of OP characters.
Therein lies what I was getting at, one could say. As a sidenote, I bring up crits because with a linkable FA2 unit with native B4, how can you not argue that it is deisgned to crit fish? FOR ADDITIONAL CLARITY, that is a very different animal to having a bad game because unlinked order monkey combi rifles critted your TP unit, or your TAG, etc etc. Knowing that human psychology means such games will be remembered mroe, I think you should be able to get the point I was making about bias.
One opinion in seeing is that offensively she's no more effective than light Sheskiin, they have the same BS, a Red Fury, FAT2, and the Boarding version doesn't get nanoscreen which means she is less manoeuvrable. So you're paying a decent chunk of points and an extra whole SWC more for 3 points of ARM, Pulzar, better CC (not that light struggles against most things) and Vulnerability to hacking. Don't get me wrong, both versions are very strong profiles, but I don't know if we can consider the Boarding version a straight upgrade.
Definitely, the light version can move how she likes and maintain that -3 to enemy BS (the best bit of cover) giving you a lot more tactical flexibility. If the Boarding version wants to shoot as well as the light version she needs to be constantly hogging cover.
While this is a minor limitation, it is also the MO for practically every other model a player will use during infinity. Not to mention the 41%-ish odds of a crit when linked in the active turn making the F2F question a more complex proposition.
Basically she's just as durable when out of cover, more durable when using one, gets minor buffs in term of Protheion level and better CCW, gets more BTS - which is nice. But she costs a lot, and Shas are spending a lot of SWC already. I have a similar feelings as with Mobility Joan. Don't need her most of the time, but she has her uses. +1 for hoping they'll do something else with Fat2 in N4.
I'm not sure that giving up +1 Regular Order in exchange for gain Hacking Vulnerability and some CC buffs is worth it. But I think she looks rad, and I'm not sorry she exists.
Judging by the render and artwork, she look so much more badass awesome in HI than her LI version, that is not even out ;-)
This is a pretty long bow to draw, given BS attacks against her will be at a +3BS relative to nanoscreen sheshkiin in the open. General consensus locally among the Combined players in my area is that she's an interesting element but the 12pt cost hike is a hard pill to swallow for a profile that in many respects is a sidegrade to her current one. I've got some optimism that the heavier armour will translate well to advantage as you rack up wounds to protheion or force your way through initial ugly gunfights, but we'll see how it shakes out.
@RobertShepherd I'm with you. If the point increase of the HI version was less than ~1 regular Order, I'd consider her an interesting sidegrade. But giving up an entire Regular Order is difficult.
Good point. I think it might be countered somewhat by this version being less vulnerable to templates, especially flamethrowers.
Yeah, templates is the big one for me, and also less scared of the MML2 REMs and Spetznaz of the world. I think I would likely use the Boarding version more often if i take her at all (i generally don't) but will need to look hard at list construction, because 66/2 is a pretty big investment in a faction where everything you want to take is 25-35 and the cheap filler is irregular. And that EXP CCW is just unecessary points bloat given how rarely she'd be using it. The breaker pistol is a nice touch though, giving her a different BTS-affecting threat vector.