To be fair, a shang-ji HMG (as represented) would be very good in IA. You could just throw it in a zhanshi team alongside your run-of-the-mill haidao sniper to kill stuff from your DZ.
There's a pretty well established track record of underperforming units getting buffed when there's an edition change. If Shang Ji are going to be a posterboy unit, I'd be shocked if they didn't get some kind of update.
So we can now confirm that the Crane Rank is actually wearing Shang Ji armour with a different helmet
Because cool guys have cool stats, and statlines are way overcosted compared to skills that effectively boost stats any time it counts. And a cool cape! Anyway, it's always been the case and I am very happy to see that it still is. Who knows, we might need to borrow a spitfire from the starter Crane one day, assuming our beyond red veil Daofeis didn't get them already...
I thought that was common knowledge already. I think there was something said aboutthat in N2 or early N3 fluff.
And I can tell all good YJ people yearns for good old Daofei's braided hair. CB you must return Dao's braids on his next sculpt!
I like the idea of the braid being an advanced CC weapon. I have a hard time attributing any other functional purpose to it, and it's pretty cool to picture the idea of a heavy-armoured kung fu master whipping and flipping and kicking all at once. Now, where this absence fits the Daofei... just look at that CC stat...
Just off the top of my head (and this is just general sci-fi mumbojumbo dumping); * Data storage * Enhanced encryption communication * Cerebral implant cooling * Ancient style status symbol (apparently in the ancient times Chinese men working on imperial mandate used long braids as status symbol, which would also explain why the Pheasant Red Fury does not have a braid as women working on imperial mandate did not have this custom/law and why Daofei does not have one because they do not work on imperial mandate) * Extended command and control nodes