[quote=jen'ari]
What squad types do you see that can be competitive for each faction?

I think OR SITH and REPUBLIC are the melee factions that HAvE to be melee based factions.

OR should have all sorts of competitive squads. Bastila should go well with them. covenant, Army of Light, and NOMI should all have there own melee based squads.
REVAN and NOMI should have one or two "synergy pieces" that work well with them. FOr instance Ulic for Nomi or Thon for Nomi.

SITH should literally have all sorts of competitive squads, it should be decently free to build with.
Bane, Sidious, Revan, and Exar Kun being the four biggest names imo that need a very competitive piece.
Maybe a few "thematic melee squads" A good Krayt with his hands.
But really Sith need a lot of help.
They need offensive movement and easy defense (illusion, lightsaber defense, etc)

REPUBLIC it just needs to get away from Cin Drallig really. He has done well, but makes it so hard to design lower than his cost pieces. There really needs to be a viable YODA, and ANAKIN designed that can be competitive. So much defense capabilities in the faction have sucked out some offense from the jedi. Need to design around those things as well. They will need a bit more piece with Triple attack or a bit more melee based damage.

What soft counters do you think need to be designed so melee can be competitive?
I think Out activate needs an easy soft counter in fringe. I think if someone is going to run 20 activation at least they have earned the activation control, but the squads in NR and Rebel that utilize Dodonna when running 11 pieces and still out activating is cheap. Double Agent special ability already exists, just throw it on a cheap tech piece.

Booming Voice needs a hard counter in one Faction that would benefit the most from it. Maybe even put it in NR or Imperials. Imperials might need it to help move away from Booming Voice.

With Bastila stopping CE's and Another faction with booming voice hate it might see it being used a lot less.

I think that is all for now. lower Swap squads and out activate squads would make melee more competitive.

What do you see as the "unique" characteristic of the melee characters of that faction?

I think Separatists, Rebels, Imperials, and Mandos are the 4 factions that should not be fully melee based as the top priority.

NR still relies on Han right now to be competitive, which is awesome. But where is the Jedi Order? where is the Luke, Kyp, Jacen, Mara squad that is competitive?

Separatists should have a competitive Dooku

Republic NEEDS, it is essential, a competitive "no kybuck" Yoda and Anakin.

OR and SITH just need better pieces

But I think the uniqueness of OR should be gritty, high HP, decent damage, jedi

Sith should be jacks of all trades with fun and easy to use force powers. It should be the "user friendly" faction.
Can live while running in and can go to town.

NR should be the Jedi with other abilities (grenades) and with shooter friends. I think besides Han, the faction should have melee force users with tech that have decent abilities to aid them. with some purely melee builds

Republic should be based around the Council. The Troopers should be built with the vision of helping the jedi. So jedi companion's really. But these have to be the competitive versions not just thematic.

Vong should stay Unique melee

I guess the distinction I want to make is competitive.

I am talking, can be played at gencon type squads.
So plageuis is not a take to gencon piece right now. Neither is bane.
They need movement.

Revan and caedus seem to be the only real gencon sith threats right now. And caedus is used for mines, not really melee that much.

Same goes with the republic troopers, they need to be competitively built with melee.
I would love to play an army of rex, Cody, Anakin, and obiwan with tech. That would be a blast to play.
We have the 33 point rex that does not see competitive play any more because he has no one to play with.

I do see those things in the game, just not as the focus of the faction.

Republic have two tier 1 options right now, neither of which won because imperials and rebels kind of run the show.
Those are kybuck and cin drallig.
With kybuck having a few different potential builds

Ya and about imperials, I think we are in the same boat. I played sidious, Mastermind and Lothal in a regional and it did well in that reginal (not a top tier regional so it's hard to tell where it stands in a competitive tier) but ya soft counters on other things could help those two be where they need to be.

But Imperials is still about commanders and big weapons and numbers. Which it would be.
I do wish there was a new, usable Tarkin so we can see the three. Tarkin, sidious, Vader on a competitive squad

http://www.bloomilk.com/Custom/18857/jedi-master--shaak-ti


Needs a little tweaking but the core of this character is the type of stuff needed to make melee competitive

Yes... amazing such fun memories when Jedi could go where they wanted, how they wanted and land damage on someone.

almost perfection.

The speed and movement damage is brilliant. Stealth is brilliant so you do not have to rely on R2-D2 say against Vindicated.

This is one perfect model for a sneaky distance strike example.


Now if you would be so kind as to give us an example of a NR piece that has Special Abilities outside its force powers we can be rolling.
Think upgrade Kyle Katarn, Jedi battlemaster

On a unique, I agree.

i think it is a fun variant and powerful for a unique. have to be careful in Rebels and OR b/c of the +4 +10 pop, but I would love to see a Darth Maul with it or even a melee Mando with it could be a ton of fun.