Those two factions also get to hide High bts 2w hackers (both variants) in fireteams that WILL come across the table and gut your army where hacking is the only real defense against it. If the Hacking faction is unable to do something slightly similar at least with one less durable character hacker its kinda dumb.
She also has the major positive of making CJC a Hacking powerhouse. It used to be that CJC just wasn't that great at hacking: best Repeater coverage, worst Hackers (in Nomads). That's no longer true by a LONG SHOT *cries in Custodier* It's actually interesting to compare her with Mary Problems: given the way KHDs and HD+s function now, you're much better off with a HD+ with Upgrade(Trinity) then a KHD+HD. Aside: we're actually just seeing the results of the problems that across 4 "Nomad" factions we have 4 S2, 1W female Uber-hacker characters. 2 of them being Mercs makes life better in Vanilla, but ultimately differentiating those profiles is hard.
Zoe, Mary, Jazz but are you counting Valerya or Uhahu in that 4? I'd think both count if you're including Starco. And that's before getting to Custodiers (inc Hexxer) and Interventors (inc Morgana) who fit in the same space. Talk about a Trope, not that I don't love it anyhow.
The big things the Custodiers still have going are their stronger Carbonite options and their resistance to being shot, as well as their Sectorial's extra Pitcher access (good grief Moderators are awesome now). Most players aren't likely to bring their Hacking lists out against Nomads anymore, not with ALEPH and CA lacking the forward Repeater coverage to put up a fight on Turn 1, but they are going to be bringing lots of AD and sneaky assassins. Mimetism -6 plus new cover rules goes a long way to saving a Custodier from anything short of a Fiday, and a few Moderators body-blocking with their weirdly great CC have a solid shot of stopping those, too. By comparison, Jazz is totally reliant on lucky crits or very safe positioning to rescue her from those same threats in Corregidor, and if she wants a Pitcher down she has to expose herself to potential Hidden Deployment ambushes from almost every faction- or have the equally-pricey Valerya do it. I mostly just wish Jazz was counts-as-Wildcat instead of Wildcard, or had an Oblivion upgrade instead of a buffed Trinity. She's nothing too unbearable by herself, even with Nomad repeater nets and backup, she's just got the Kamau problem of being able to get crazy Fireteam bonuses for a lower price than most would consider reasonable which blows the cost-to-benefit out of proportion. In Vanilla I'd take an Interventor over Jazz every time, because those things are awesome at Hacking since KHDs can't really touch them at all without getting in ZoC- and they're only 5-6 points pricier than Jazz!
I finally got my OG Hellcat HMG (the female one with the impossibly fiddly wings) after it sat at my brother's place in the UK for years and only fielded it last year.
How the hell did I forget Tsyklons exist? Bah, they're expensive anyway. We don't need some fancy toaster stealing the jobs of good honest labourers on Bakunin! Why did we even secede from ALEPH in the first place if we're going to let automation do all the fighting anyway!? (four hour philosophical rant about niche political ideology commences)
In reading this discussion, it occurred to me that Camo Hackers are in important thing, especially the KHD ones. The Sombra appears attractive, but you're likely to use it in midfield and expose yourself. The Intruder KHD however is likely to use a Repeater and not have to worry too much about revealing itself. WIP14 and Surprise makes it more effective than Jazz in taking out enemy Hackers.
Depends on the Hacker; Interventors and the KoJ have such high BTS when under Firewall that Trinity is as ineffective as trying to take down a Marut with a Combi Rifle. The extra Damage on Jazz's version (among others) actually helps here, although Mary Problems is easily the best. The Sombra can excel in situations where multiple enemy Hackers must be fought, since it has good BTS and NWI it stands a fair chance of winning a protracted fight with an enemy Hacking field. The Bandit is a fair choice for dealing with light opposition, since it's quite cheap and its BTS may save it from a stray Trinity shot.
I think the thing about Jazz is like You probably won't win the game because of Jazz, and your opponent won't lose because of her. She's good, but ultimately she's good because she's efficient, she does all your hacking and costs fuck all, and she's linkable. I think that she's probably a bit too lean, if she had a combi or something she'd be a bit more a choice to include, but eh. I think she's probably fine. Like she's crazy good, but she isn't remotely meta defining or adjusting, she's just really good.
