I just tried PBS Stealth Elf in the story mode. I have a pretty speculative post here, but hear me out.
I just don't think that she seems S-Tier worthy. Her damage barely increases from Forest Ninja, which is a better path this game IMO and that isn't good for S-Tier in my opinion either. Anyway, I'm not posting here to speculate about Stealth Elf's ranking since I haven't even touched PBS in PVP so my thought on her should be taken with a shaker of salt, but the tiers themselves.
There are way too many "S and A tier characters" available in these first waves. It's... Suspicious? Gluttonous? Preemptive? I can't quite put a word on it.
Anyway, with all these clearly powerful characters, unless older characters simply don't match up to them(which doesn't seem to be the case, many have buffs), I think we're going to have to do very, very serious revision work. What makes a character "truly broken" or "very solid" in SF?
Just some thinking. I just find it odd that so many "powerful" characters have been released. With all of them that seem to qualify as "powerful", ehh. I've also noticed all of my matches in SF are much more quickly-paced, which can't be a coincidence.
Haha I was just in a speculative mood. I still think we're going to have to at least skim over all the characters to really think about what constitutes placement in a tier. I just find it odd that there are so many "powerful" characters- it would make tiers very large if we are thinking the right way with how we've evaluated them so far. Though, that wouldn't be shocking either, considering the amount of new figures, and how VV made things more balanced.
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By the way, I disagree on BoTB Pop Fizz moving to A-Tier as well. I haven't really tested him for one long session, but have tested him in several shorter ones. At best, I think he will go up to B, at worst, down to D- in general, while he does have a damage buff, don't forget other characters have some pretty big ones too. Frankly, BoTB Pop Fizz hasn't had any revisions really big enough to move him up two tiers.
He still can't do anything while he transitions in and out of Beast Form, his regular form is still just the standard lobber, he isn't notably faster, and his damage within Beast Form is actually not that exciting (though not terrible) by SF standards. He's still just a glorified meleeist that requires setup, but unlike Sprocket who does as well, doesn't have a great payoff for doing so, and isn't any good unless you do set up.
To compare them: Operator Sprocket should set up when she's able to, and does have several of the weaknesses Pop Fizz has, but for setting up, she gains the bonus of covering the field with her turrets which do deal good damage over time. More importantly, she's still fairly solid without needing to sit down and get the turrets up to support her-
mine spam, plus some fairly nice melee attacks. Pop Fizz just isn't very good unless you go into Beast Form, slow, clunky, and not a great damage dealer, and when you actually do change into the beast then he still isn't spectacular(and his liability is on a timer).
Basically, Pop Fizz would be a fairly good character, but because he's on that horrible timer, he's a sitting duck while he changes(wether to or from beast, so you lose time if you run out of beast power too)- he's also just not that agile, and he's too fussy to set up during a heated battle, in this game his damage is outclassed by a lot of characters and a serious opponent is going to attack you without mercy while he transitions and avoid attacks when they have to- and that's not too difficult because of his mediocre speed... the problem with Pop Fizz comes more from several issues that mix together, not one big problem. He just ends up being a standard, though interesting, meleeist that unnessicarily requires so much focus just to maintain his attack form.
This list ranks characters on how OBJECTIVELY powerful they are. Any character can be as good as an A-Tier in the right hands, but the S-Tier will basically always be better in the hands of an opponent with equal skill at using an S-Tier character. Sprocket is my best character, but I know that my dad- and most players in general- won't be able to use her as well because I've used her for a really long time and learned her skills. I guarantee if I did the same with the oh so broken Bumble Blast, used him, learned how to use his skills the best ways possible, I could sweep the floor with a clone of myself using Sprocket. You
can learn how to use a character to their fullest to have something like a C-Tier character you can use as well as the average player would use an A-Tier, but some Skylanders have attacks that are naturally more powerful and have a better damage/ease of use ratio. And basically, that's how tiers work, whatever is most "naturally powerful" gets placed higher up. That's why, for example, Stealth Elf was rated so high in SA: other characters can deal the same damage, but none made it as EASY as she did.
TL; DR Pop Fizz requires too much skill with him to really be as good as A-Tier, using an A-Tier with the same kind of focus pretty much always kills him, A-Tiers are just easier to use and deal better damage which is why they are rated higher
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One last thing, I think Sprocket should be a B-Tier now. She just isn't the very solid damage dealer she used to be, it's the little touches like the nerf to setting up a turret, and the fact her melee damage hasn't increased much to compensate for the general buff-ups of SF, that make me think this. I'm not sure if they're big enough(still need to read the older reasonings!
), but again, with the "powerful" characters running around, I see her ranking taking a hit soon because to use her at her strongest she really needs a lot of focus. Her mines got a really big boost, but I just don't think that alone is enough to keep her up, it's a great attack, but she shouldn't just have that one attack. The turret change, I think that's really kind of a kicker, because I think the turrets were what kept her A-Tier... Without them, I think she's more or a solid B-Tier, she doesn't NEED setup to be used like I said, but without turrets she isn't as good as the typical A-Tier. Maybe the increased damage of them offsets it? Maybe mines
are just good enough now that those make up for her downsides? Maybe it's not as bad as I make it out to be and I'm just sensitive to it
? If anyone else tests her, or has an opinion on that, please let me know.
Edit: Actually, after looking at the only really long post about Sprocket in the Giants thread(it's post #472), I think she will end up in B-Tier. It's mainly because of shifting around her that will probably happen, to be honest- Sprocket herself hasn't gotten notably worse, it's just that other Skylanders in similar spots will probably have been given more important buffs, which will raise the standard for A-Tier. Her only really good buff is to her mines, besides her Wow Pow, which requires some skill to use effectively. Her other attacks aren't suddenly bad, and she is a solid character overall, but I can see her getting knocked down in SF for sure since a lot of characters can achieve similar damage now. She
is definitely a very good-ranking B-Tier if she goes there, though, and she still has her advantage of field-coverage, but she's still slow and still has those nerfs. I think if other A-Tier characters have some general, notable improvements or some more agile new characters make it there, she will drop. It's probably better to wait until we can be sure about those before moving her.
I saved a list of S and A tier characters and I'll start testing them today. (Addendum: I've decided to level everyone from S up first and finish their quests instead, may as well get the grind out of the way and test everyone at max capacity)
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because he looks sooooo damn awesome and a total badass. But after reading your comment about him being terrible for PvP, I was shocked. No offense, but I really hope you're just missing something with him. PLEASE tell me he's better than that. Anybody, Anybody at all!! Please be worng, Please be wrong, Please be wrong, Please be wrong
- want these swappers the most
I'm happy I can help.
darkspyro
net