I agree the Sith need help. Yes, they have received some nice pieces, but they still need more. Which is why the Sith in Set 14 are doing more to help Sith competitively than the 8th Cortex does for Vong. They actually let you build something better than was previously possible.

The 8th cortex is just making Unique Vong an option, but not necessarily "more powerful" than the other Vong builds.
While the Sith center around their Uniques, the few Vong Uniques are outclassed by powerful NU characters. For the longest time building with Unique Vong didn't even hold a candle to spamming Warriors and Scouts. We've seen a lot of OP & NPEs squads come from spamming NUs. It lead to the Vong being errata by the BC and being largely ignored by designers. However, some players still want to run the purple and they are due for some love and attention.

The Sith got 13 new characters in the previous three V-sets, mostly aimed at competitive play.
The Vong got 5 characters . . . all themed pieces or having synergies for Uniques.

Sith in V-Sets 11, 12, 13, 14
Unique: 3, 2, 1, 1 = 7
Non U : 3, 3, 1, 1 = 8

Vong in V-Sets 11, 12, 13, 14
Unique: 0, 0, 0, 1 = 1
Non U : 2, 2, 1, 3 = 8

The 8th Cortex will lets you play new Vong characters from recent sets with many previously unused Vong Uniques.
Hopefully, it's something fresh and enjoyable that entertains those wanting to run Vong for a good long while.

No. I would say probably a 9.

Yes, I have seen Sith make the Top 8 in GenCon. But most of the time, I see them with an auto loss. Because of all the Ysalmari in almost every faction. Their Booming Voice piece is terrible... And I fought tooth and nail to have Booming Voice removed from him. Because now were stuck with the " well for 20 you can do this " argument.

And I may have just missed it... But I don't think I've heard anyone on here campaign for the Vong? I've seen people Defend the Vong. But, and again I could have missed it, but never "Lets give them more options, and more stuff."

I openly admit I know nothing about the faction, or the Vong race in general. So this could be just the most flavorful faction we have, and I would be none the wiser. But I am hard pressed to believe the Vong are.

Jacen Solo has Vong Sense, Do you not think if Darth Bane would have been around during that time that he would have Vong Sense as well? What about Yoda? What about Obi? What about Anakin? What about Palpatine? What about any of the Ancient Sith Lords, or powerful Jedi Masters? Do you see where I am going with this? I don't understand how just because a faction existed at a very small point in the Star Wars timeline, that all other Force Users who were not alive during that time all of a sudden have no answer to them. It irks me that their main gimmick is solely based on when they are introduced in the Star Wars Lore.

And I have stated I am willing to look at Darth Baras and try and figure something out with him, as I am sure he is good, I just feel for 40 points, and what he hands out, its not that great compared to other factions. Plageuis is very good.... But he is a 60 point piece who can do 80 damage... IF he starts adjacent to you. Absorb Energy seems good, but, again, every faction who shoots has Ysalmari. His CE is fun, it can be Disrupted, which is prominent in all Factions without Ysalmari. It just seems every faction has an answer to shut his tricks down. Dun Moch Style is the absolute best thing in the world for him. Negating Djem So and Makashi/Parry, thats an amazing ability. But.... once he gets based by a Force User, he has nothing. He will die fast. And then, you've spent 60 points on nothing.

I get he can withstand some shots from people. And it does slow down the Blast Bug craze, and the Lah Chargers. But his damage is not good. You have to spend another 13 points to give him +10 damage.

The Sith need a way to maximize their damage output, while still moving like all the other factions can.

The real question then becomes why do you feel that way?

From what I've seen the Vong faction as a whole seems more prone to terrible design choices. There is an old saying, "There is more than one way to skin a Tauntuan". The quick and dirty way isn't always the best...

+1 but I will add vong are just a bad group from wotc as well. Force immunity should never have existed in the form it does now anyways. Shaper was a bad idea, etc.

Vong are just hard to design for.

And Donny my issue isn't so much the now its the later. This will cause issues for design in this faction from now on and its a pretty big issue

This is why I love Sub-Factions. I think every character with a subfaction tag should only be able to benefit from abilities and CE of other characters with the exact same Sub- Faction. That would limit the amount of intereactions certain characters can receive.

Who likes ART?

No - I read it right.


Every character with a subfaction tag only synergizing with other subfaction members is way over the top.

Oh i get what you mean.

thinking about it.
For me, I don;t think every subfaction should HAVE to synergize with only their subfaction, but I do think that when subfactions only synergize with themselves you can make some seriously fun builds.

The thing is that designing is already moving to designing with the purpose of playing the pieces together already. Look at new Ahsoka, her ce auto makes you want to play with Kanan.
Han Solo, CL is begging to throw WA in there.
Baze Malbus, you are going to want that +2 +2, better play with Imwe.
We are even getting random (don't make sense) rival SA's to ensure that some pieces are not played with others.

but I will attest to the fact that when designing while limited to a subfaction it makes for more fun even if there is less freedom in the squad building options.

p.s. if the game does create designed subfactions than having themed wars/tournies/events is a ton of fun as well. Imperial Knights vs. Krayt and his hands

Which could be fun for new players as well. easy squad building and themed

Part of the fun is finding things on your own. If subfactions only play with each other, part of that is taken away. For example, General Leia's boosts only work in a Resistance-pure squad, but there no Rival on any of the Resistance pieces. You can look for ways to use Han and Chewie somewhere else or boost Rey with Maz Kanata. They're probably best with Leia, but the pieces are there to find new synergies.