Points Update – Staff Reactions

Finally, we have our “post worlds” points update for Star Wars: Legion! This update also comes with a handful of errata and rules changes, which we’ll hit in the relevant section.

Just like last time, I’ve enlisted the help of our wonderful staff at The Fifth Trooper Network to get their takes on how each of the factions is effected by the update.

A full summary of the points changes is at the end of this article (credit to Avacado from the Discord).

Featured image artwork by Victor Surth.

Rebels

Lando (-10), Commander Luke (-10), Leia (-5), Cassian’s gun free. Clan Wren (-12) and Mandos (-11 in total between upgrades). Tauntauns (-5). X-34 Landspeeder guns also cut 5-6. SX-21 (-2).

Tim H: As much as I despise Rebels, they needed a little love. I am surprised to see Cassian’s gun drop when he has been very prevalent recently, but I’m not raging about it. Tauns are still scary, but the drop makes them more viable. Those Mandos needed a drop and I think it’s a good drop for now. They may need more, but I think that unit (like other Mandos, Death Troopers, anything with surging red saves) is so easy to over-tune, so best to start small.

Lucas: These changes do not address the core issue of Rebels, which is their corps. Cassian was already one of the better commanders in Rebels, so a 10 point reduction is huge for him. Echo Base also had some great point drops, and quad Tauntaun armies just got much cheaper. Mando points cuts are cool, but I don’t know if it is enough to make them good. Overall, I think Cassian or Echo Base is the way forward for competitive Rebels.

Jay: Commander Luke needed some love (which he got), but I don’t think they went far enough! I think another 5-10 points and he becomes more desirable. Also, I think Ewoks will have an impact on this faction and can easily bump them up a tier.

Austin: Rebel corps definitely seem like the weakest link in the faction, but most of their heroes just got massive buffs. I think Rebel players can rely on units like Cassain and Lando a lot more than they did before. Echo Base is my top pick for the next meta boogeyman.

Empire

Kallus (-5, rifle free, net -15), Veers (-5), Dewback Flamer and RTC (-5). Officer (+5), Boba Fett (+10), Storm HRUs (+10), Dark Trooper Heavies (+12 Combined). Operative Vader no longer usable in Blizzard Force. Guardian no longer works on Unstoppable units.

Mike: Kallus joining the ranks of the infinitely playable imperial characters is great. This update is targeting the most significant meta bruisers (Double Bounty, Dark Troopers, Blizzard) but the roster of Imperial good stuff is still extraordinarily deep in comparison to other factions. Operative Vader losing Choke is a big deal and probably will singlehandedly make it so that he is left on the bench in favor of his counterpart, as his scatter tricks get a lot worse without it. This was a step in the right direction, but I fear they have missed the mark with Dark Troopers. You are likely still going to need Impact 10+ to get past Dark Troopers at a real tournament.

Evan P: The big meta lists were all hit, but Empire will not be reeling. Boba is still great and can be paired with either Iden or perhaps now Kallus. Dark Troopers will still make you think twice about leaving Impact at home so we’ll have to see where the meta shakes out there. Thankfully, however, Blizzard is an average strength list now and may even be best with Veers.

Kyle: My favorite list got hit hard, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Blizzard was a meta freezing menace that needed to be addressed aggressively, and I think they did enough. The AT-ST version of Blizzard is still solid but it was never quite as good as the Operative Vader version, and now you have to find 25 points to accommodate the increases. Boba is still the best Bounty Hunter, he’s just fairly costed now. The points increase to Dark Troopers will force double Dark Trooper players to cut some things but it doesn’t change their gate keeping function in tournaments, which is the largest issue with them.

Evan B: The rich are still rich. The nerf to Force Choke hurts dark side users, but I don’t think enough was done to avoid having to warp your list around the Double Dark trooper lists that will float around. Blizzard is still good, just in a different light. My boy Kallus is back on the menu.

Timbo: Empire Stronk.

Separatist Alliance

Dooku (-10), Grievous (-5 and gun free, net -13), Super Tactical Droid (-5), Droideka (-5), BX Droids (-4) BX Shields (-8)

Nik: Unfortunately, I don’t foresee us clankers having any more success now than we did before. Force Choke was one of the faction’s best weapons against GAR and Empire (specifically Dark Troopers), and even with the 10 point cut on Dooku I believe the net effect is that he came out of this update far weaker than before. I don’t think the BX cuts were quite enough, as they still have very strong competition within the faction for either the shock trooper role (B2s, Black Sun or Magnaguard) or ranged damage (Spider Droid, STAPs, more E5s). Grevious got a fair bit cheaper, but I still think I’m leaving him at home.

Nick B: I was really excited until the Choke nerf happened. I love playing Force Users in this faction and a lot of the wind was let out of my sails. Dekas are still not good, maybe next time!

Kyle: Most of these points changes are pretty inconsequential, as minor cuts to units that were extremely bad. A full BX with shields and the sniper rifle is 104, which is… two points less than a rocket Magna. The Choke nerf is really rough for CIS, who relied on their force users much more than Empire with its deep competitive roster. CIS will probably be fine in the end, but they’re going still be relying on what they have already recently: B1s with E5s, STAPs, Magnas, and Cad Bane.

Mike: Who the do the voodoo? Dooku. Thats really all I see here. Dooku was already good, if not played much. Oh wait, I wrote this before the errata. Dooku is hurting here, Choke was a significant part of his ability to deal damage and everything with CIS is extraordinarily meh with this update. Still better than Rebels, but if GAR continues surging, that probably won’t last long.

Jay: Just like me, AMG hates CIS. So I am in full support of running this faction nose first into obscurity. Take that Clankers!

Galactic Republic

Rex (-5), Padme (-5), ARC Full (-6). LAAT (-5), Gnasp Gunner (-10), ISP Hardpoints (-15), Saber (-10), Saber Beam (-15)

Timbo: Padme going down is a nice change after standby was taken away from Exemplar. Overall I don’t think what you take in GAR will be that different, you just might be able to take another upgrade. My worlds list got 5 points cheaper which is fun. The vehicle decreases really help make which vehicle(s) you take with Cody a big decision now, there’s a few good options.

Mike: Basically all of GAR’s toys that don’t see play got reductions here (Flutter, ISP, Full Arcs, Saber Tank). The Full ARC points changes are interesting, though I’m not sure they are enough to make them “good;” I’ll still be playing them, and 501st is going to net around 18 points from this. Generally, not much is changing here, though I expect you’ll see some wildlings out there trying to break the meta with Beam or Flutter tech. These will almost certainly be flavor of the week lists. Kenobi and Yoda still need some help in the points department. Kenobi is still strictly worse than Anakin, and Yoda just costs too much. GAR is still the faction of Anakin gunlines. Get over it, this is MY HOUSE.

AJ: ISP and Fluttercrafts are going to be hitting the tables a lot more now with Cody.

Austin: GAR is definitely in contention for top faction in Legion. Red save gunlines that don’t have to worry about Choke anymore are real happy. Anakin is a solid backbone for any GAR army, and seeing as how he didn’t get any points increase and some of the surrounding units actually got a decrease, I think he will be seen a whole lot.

Lucas: I think Republic is the new best faction. GAR was a close second to Empire previously, but received no nerfs meaning their previously good lists are still great after these points changes.

Shadow Collective

Gar Saxon (-5), Mandos (-5), Mando Heavies (-2), Swoops (-5). Black Sun (+2), BSE Mag Det (+2).

Tue: Mandalorian armor is now cheap to produce! A lot of these changes seem like just small tunings, but it’s nice to see focus on the SC mandos. Hopefully it means that SC players feel like they have more playstyles to pick between.

Lucas: The Black Sun nerf is minor which is great, they are just a bit too points efficient and this will help put them in line. The points drops to Mandos might make them more competitive in the faction.

Kyle: I like the focus on Mandos, visually they’ve always invoked the essence of Shadow Collective for me, along with Maul himself. Maul definitely gets hit by the Choke nerf. You might be able to run him with Throw and the double saber instead, like OG CIS Maul, but I think I would rather just take Cad Bane and/or Bossk now alongside Mandos and some Pykes. The Swoop cut is welcome, though I would rather them just fix Overrun so you could use both models’ axes in the same Overrun attack.

Timbo: Mandos have some real play now. I did a whole article about making them work with old points and now they are 7 points cheaper per squad. Gar Saxon also saw a cut making the whole package better.

Neutral Upgrades

A-A5 Quad Laser (-3). Force Choke (+5) now targets the unit instead of a mini

Jay: I think that they really need to stop making changes to generic cards… well at least pulling all the levers when doing it. This is the second errata in a row where we see the collateral damage of these wholesale changes.

AJ: Choke is still going to be taken at 10 without having to think about other choices for Vader.

Nik: In the words of the great Randy Jackson, it’s gonna be a no from me dawg. A major nerf to Dooku, Maul and Asajj that the already struggling droids really didn’t need.

Kyle: This feels like the points increase Vader and SC Maul needed, but in a way that nuked one of the core identities of all Dark Side force users, most of whom were fine balance wise. I understand if this change was for play experience reasons, but I’d like to see the Dark Side force users get something back to replace the effectiveness they lost. Personally I think it’s healthy to have (limited) ways to bypass extreme defensive tech, and I think you’ll see lists that hide heavy weapon troopers behind such tech benefit a lot from this nerf, especially Dark Troopers and Clones.

Evan P: I explained the Force Choke change to my wife, who was appalled and said “the Rebels don’t get to choose who Vader chokes, what the hell!?” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Overall

Lucas: This update is definitely a move in the right direction. The main armies that are problematic were dealt with, and some under played units were buffed. I think after this update GAR is now king with Empire and SC in a close second. CIS and Rebels are still in last, despite the buffs. Rebels may have some new competitive options, but CIS was really hurt by the Force Choke changes.

AJ: Long live the Empire with these point changes. Yes, Dark Troopers have gone up in points which will mean they will lose an activation or some upgrades, but they are still strong enough to warp the meta that you need to bring Impact. Blizzard Force just has to drop all the transponders and its bid and it is still the same so I still expect it to be seen winning events. The biggest thing I was surprised about was all the Mando and ISP changes, they are great and if they did this with other underused units it would be amazing.

Austin: Double Dark Troopers and Blizzard getting hit was expected, and overall I think they handled points appropriately. Pending any future errata(s), I think this is a good start to bringing the Legion meta back into balance. I don’t think Dark Troopers and Blizzard are completely gone, but they surely have less toys to play with and less rules to bend. Nothing seems like too much of a knee jerk reaction, and while there are still a couple units that need help (Obi-Wan, Rebel Troopers, and Droidekas because they still seem underwhelming) I’m pleased to see AMG pulling the levers in small-ish increments. For those lists that needed a bigger lever pull, I think they did a good job with it.

Evan P: This meta will assuredly be more balanced. Aside from the unnecessary double whammy on Choke, all these nerfs were on point. I do wish AMG would consider using buffing errata to underperforming units like Obi-Wan and Pathfinders, such changes allowed Vader and T-47 Airspeeders to achieve a resurgence that added a lot more flavor to the meta when they happened.

Keegan: I’m mostly just impressed I was asked to contribute.

Thanks again to Avacado for the table below. Were these points on point? Let us know in the comments!