Out of all the Open classes, Super Battle Droids are the ones I see the least played. This honestly makes it hard to judge the balance of the class, because I don't know if SBDs are underpowered or not. All I know is that I've never seen a team get carried by an SBD player, so I doubt they are overpowered, but sometimes they do good in tight corridors. SBDs seem underplayed because they lack diversity in playstyles and don't have enough tools to stay interesting to the average player. In those ways the class reminds me a lot of the Heavy class in Team Fortress 2 which is that game's least popular class too that also shares a very similar play style of being a defensive tank gunner.
SBDs just can't do as much, they can't jump, they can't kick, they can't roll, they can't grab, they can't crouch walk. Playing as them feels like playing in a straitjacket. When looking for ideas to add to a class, looking at canon often helps... but not really in SBD's case. This is because abilities some SBDs in canon have like rockets and jetpacks have too much overlap with Mandolorians. Mandos would be a lot less unique if SBDs could use jetpack and rockets, so it wouldn't make sense from a gameplay perspective to add those abilities to SBDs even if it makes canon sense. Looking at Battlefront doesn't help either because they were really uncreative with SBDs as well, the B2s in that game have abilities like overload which temporarily increases fire rate and fortify which temporarily increases health. Neither of these would be fitting for MB2 either.
There's one last place to look, and that's FA. FA SBDs have two variants with unique abilities. First is the Grapple SBD, on paper sounds fun but it's really just a really basic wild melee swing. In it's current FA implementation Grapple SBD is somehow even a more braindead version than melee wookie, which isn't very fun. Plus you can't even grapple with the grapple arms. I had a fun moment recently where as a melee wookie I 1v2 sith by doing the reverse kata'd on a sith who thought he was sneakily approaching me from behind. These are the few rare moments where being a melee wookie feels intelligent, and grapple droid won't even have those rare moments.
The second FA variant has Laser Cannons. This is an alternate fire mode that needs to charge up, and on fire releases a projectile which is basically a blob, but it pulls from the SBD's regular ammo. This... is probably the best candidate for open implementation. It's unique in the sense that no imp open class has a blob. Even though it can be used more frequently, it's arguably weaker than a clone blob because the start up time gives the opponent time to react. Plus the SBD needs to switch back and forth between firing modes, meaning it takes slightly more technical skill to follow up on successful blobs. The big question here is how many points should it cost? I think 8 points would be a good starting point for testing in open, then adjust after testing.
One thing that always kinda bothered me about playing SBDs is that because they can't roll, if you catch on fire I don't think there's much you can do. Not to mention, only Imp classes like Commander and Mando can even set enemies on fire, so if you die to fire as an SBD it's always friendly-fire which just adds insult to injury. So instead of giving SBDs roll, basically change SBDs so if they catch on fire they have a VERY short after burn and some noticeable fire damage resistance. Don't make it completely immune to direct fire because then you'd have cheese where SBDs ask commanders to intentionally throw fire grenades on SBDs to protect them. However, give them enough fire resist to live through a terrible nade throw by a teammate.
edit: (Apparently you can put yourself out by going into low-power mode. I still think some passive fire resistance would be a fitting buff for SBDs, and upon second thought I don't think the firenade cheese strat could be abused too badly, especially after the fire nade nerf and considering the fact that rebs have a similar strat of sticking pulse nades to wookies)
I'm pretty sure the devs have toyed with the idea of making SBD's more mobile with running and jumping, and while that might fix some things, personally I think it sort of destroys the personality of the class. Even though SBDs are clunky they are SUPPOSED to be clunky, they are giant chunky droids. I don't like the idea of SBDs being able to jump for the same reason I don't like the idea of SBDs having rocket launchers. Keep the class identity intact, and I think laser cannons and fire resistance would do as such.
Yes, this was definately a long-winded post.
TLDRs out there I think SBDs in open should have Laser Cannons for roughly 8+ points and fire resistance by default. I think SBDs should not have jetpacks, rockets, grapple arms, or jumping.
I doubt the devs will take this post that seriously, and the MB2 community is definately the change-resistant type, but despite that an SBD update is still more likely than a TF2 Heavy update.
SBDs just can't do as much, they can't jump, they can't kick, they can't roll, they can't grab, they can't crouch walk. Playing as them feels like playing in a straitjacket. When looking for ideas to add to a class, looking at canon often helps... but not really in SBD's case. This is because abilities some SBDs in canon have like rockets and jetpacks have too much overlap with Mandolorians. Mandos would be a lot less unique if SBDs could use jetpack and rockets, so it wouldn't make sense from a gameplay perspective to add those abilities to SBDs even if it makes canon sense. Looking at Battlefront doesn't help either because they were really uncreative with SBDs as well, the B2s in that game have abilities like overload which temporarily increases fire rate and fortify which temporarily increases health. Neither of these would be fitting for MB2 either.
There's one last place to look, and that's FA. FA SBDs have two variants with unique abilities. First is the Grapple SBD, on paper sounds fun but it's really just a really basic wild melee swing. In it's current FA implementation Grapple SBD is somehow even a more braindead version than melee wookie, which isn't very fun. Plus you can't even grapple with the grapple arms. I had a fun moment recently where as a melee wookie I 1v2 sith by doing the reverse kata'd on a sith who thought he was sneakily approaching me from behind. These are the few rare moments where being a melee wookie feels intelligent, and grapple droid won't even have those rare moments.
The second FA variant has Laser Cannons. This is an alternate fire mode that needs to charge up, and on fire releases a projectile which is basically a blob, but it pulls from the SBD's regular ammo. This... is probably the best candidate for open implementation. It's unique in the sense that no imp open class has a blob. Even though it can be used more frequently, it's arguably weaker than a clone blob because the start up time gives the opponent time to react. Plus the SBD needs to switch back and forth between firing modes, meaning it takes slightly more technical skill to follow up on successful blobs. The big question here is how many points should it cost? I think 8 points would be a good starting point for testing in open, then adjust after testing.
One thing that always kinda bothered me about playing SBDs is that because they can't roll, if you catch on fire I don't think there's much you can do. Not to mention, only Imp classes like Commander and Mando can even set enemies on fire, so if you die to fire as an SBD it's always friendly-fire which just adds insult to injury. So instead of giving SBDs roll, basically change SBDs so if they catch on fire they have a VERY short after burn and some noticeable fire damage resistance. Don't make it completely immune to direct fire because then you'd have cheese where SBDs ask commanders to intentionally throw fire grenades on SBDs to protect them. However, give them enough fire resist to live through a terrible nade throw by a teammate.
edit: (Apparently you can put yourself out by going into low-power mode. I still think some passive fire resistance would be a fitting buff for SBDs, and upon second thought I don't think the firenade cheese strat could be abused too badly, especially after the fire nade nerf and considering the fact that rebs have a similar strat of sticking pulse nades to wookies)
I'm pretty sure the devs have toyed with the idea of making SBD's more mobile with running and jumping, and while that might fix some things, personally I think it sort of destroys the personality of the class. Even though SBDs are clunky they are SUPPOSED to be clunky, they are giant chunky droids. I don't like the idea of SBDs being able to jump for the same reason I don't like the idea of SBDs having rocket launchers. Keep the class identity intact, and I think laser cannons and fire resistance would do as such.
Yes, this was definately a long-winded post.
TLDRs out there I think SBDs in open should have Laser Cannons for roughly 8+ points and fire resistance by default. I think SBDs should not have jetpacks, rockets, grapple arms, or jumping.
I doubt the devs will take this post that seriously, and the MB2 community is definately the change-resistant type, but despite that an SBD update is still more likely than a TF2 Heavy update.
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