Metal Gamin Errata

[FertileSpade]

IMO the changes to metal gamin are very reasonable for a 4ss model. I think there are at least a few more models that need to get hit with the cuddle bat. The game rules & mechanics are very well balanced but there are some models that slipped through the evaluation process and are OP for their points cost. Stitched I'm looking at you!

[D_acolyte]

Well consider this, I just bought Mei Feng, a pack of Metal Gamin and a Rail Golem ... I am mainly ten Thunders player.  Now hear me out. 

We have no cheap constructs in faction besides the Railworkers and one effigy... the only way to get more Railworkers is to buy a second pack of Mei... so they basically cost 45 for 3 more. Now what makes Mei Unique is her chaining especially railwalk... We have no Construct Henchman in Ten thunders, we have nothing besides emberling that drops scrap...

If I can not play a lot of cheap constructs. Mei just has nothing special... I have no fatties I can jump off.. for some reason Fire gamin are not foundry... so how I am supposed to play her now. 

 

I find Mai is fine with 2-3 construct and komainu are 5ss construct if I recall which is the same cost as a railworker, I think that the loss of hard to kill does hurt but the change brings it in line with other 4 ss models. They are still armor 2, so a damaging 6 hit will kill him outright. If you want to do that go for it as it means it is not elsewhere.

Edited November 5, 2015 by D_acolyte

[RarerMonsters]

Hey guys, in my opinion now metal gamin are weak! If before they were a good option for most arcanist's crews, and also for Mei even if she is not picked as arcanist. Now they are weak, no damage, armor +2 still strong but not if u summon them with mechanical rider, and why they deserve to lose their hard to kill???
I gues that now rail worker is much more strong. even if u don't use Mei u can use the rail worker 5 points istead of 4 but he hits hard and he has hardo to kill.
They become an horrible choise for being summoned by mech rider, someone can tell me in an arcanist crew when i should use them and why?

You expect Mech rider summons not to die easily? Honestly riders are becoming one of the worst crutches seeing regular play... it's why I can't stand powerful "cycle" models.

Vs Rail Workers... yeah, Rail Workers are probably slightly better if you don't face constructs (hence +1 SS cost) but Gamin are EXCELLENT offensively if your opponent does have constructs, since Magnetism is an excellent attack and mobility source.

[paxmiles]

Surprised the CA action is still 8. 4 or 5 would be more appropriate for a model of that cost. Especially as a zero action.

Edited November 5, 2015 by paxmiles

[paxmiles]

Well now people will stop looking at me funny when my mech rider summons fire gamin.  For some reason I always got a funny look doing that right up until the gamin started shooting things.

Yeah, those Fire Gamin have awesome shooting. Plus a higher walk.

[Postmortem]

Fine with it.

They needed a tweak, maybe not such a resounding cuddle, but whatever.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

Ok I've been stewing on this for a day. Here are my thoughts. Keep in mind I'm fairly new with a limited amount of models to my name.

1. This feels like a step too far. As many have said, the PoM works more like it was probably intended, but taking out HtK too just sort of makes them the weakest Gamin to me.

2. If summoning was truly the cause for so much fuss, why not affect the summoner instead or add a "When summoned..." ability to them?

3. From what I hear in my own meta and on these boards, Metal Gamin were not near the top of the list of overpowered pieces. Maybe I missed something.

4. I'm very subjective in this whole thing. My first crew was Ironsides and my first box after that were metal gamin. They became my scheme runners getting pushed around by the Captain to help make up for their tiny legs. No one ever complained that they were overpowered in my games but all of a sudden I now have to shelve them for something else because they just aren't worth it anymore.

[Shadowdragon]

How are Metal Gamin now "not worth it any more", to the point were you shelve them and never look at them again? For 4SS models they are still damn good. So they lost HtK, boohoo, get over it. I say good on Wyrd for finally bringing the Metal Gamin down to something that's actually appropriate for a 4SS model.

[solkan]

I'm just trying to imagine a card with the added text "When summoned, this model loses the Hard to Kill ability."  If anything, I'd think that's the sort of targeted cuddling that would start the cuddle riots. 

Edited November 6, 2015 by solkan

[Bengt]

My thoughts about this.

PoM on other models have always been very niche, too restrictive to keep up in anything but a few situations.

Their melee was much too strong with essentially 3/4/5 without condition removal/immunity. Now it's a bit weak compared to other 4 pointers.

Magnetism is still strong, but obviously situational.

I can't really see them being hired by anyone but Hoffman for the cheap Ca 8. If you have prior knowledge that the opponent will bring constructs they are still good hires, but I don't know if that should be considered in balancing.

They are still good summons if there are lots of construct around.

I would like to see the bodyguard duty being more useful at the expense of other abilities, so I suggest:

Make PoM significantly easier to keep on a model, a few alternatives:

PoM lasting until their next activation or leaving play instead of until out of range.

Increase the range significantly, so that the models can walk next to each other on their respective activations without it dropping.

The Gamin may push like a Mannequin to a PoM model walking, give it slow at the start of its activation if PoM is up.

Significantly lower their melee bonus, perhaps burning +1 on moderate and severe if PoM.

Lower Ca of Magnetism.

[Flint]

They were slow, pretty bad on offensive but at least resilient. Now it's gone. But it seems that 4ss cost justifies making them useless.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Flint

[MagicGis]

 

...

If I can not play a lot of cheap constructs. Mei just has nothing special... I have no fatties I can jump off.. for some reason Fire gamin are not foundry... so how I am supposed to play her now. 

I think we all regulary play against armor ignoring... if I bring Mei my opponent stacks it...

If your opponent brings anti-armored anti-construct tech you should expect your 4 ss constructs to die. That's just how it is.
And your opponent can't bring this against Mei Feng, they can only pick against your Faction.

first few games that already clear. Now I can either buy another Mei Pack for Railworkers... I can give up her signature playstyle (aka how she was supposed to be played) or I can accept that perdita now with ease kills 8 points of Gamin a turn, leaving me with immobile teleport spots as well. 

Gamin are 4ss minions, Perdita can kill two of pretty much any 4 ss minion per turn. The difference is that they have an excellent attack (Magnetism, which is fantastic at getting through armored constructs and producing great mobility)

They still benefit from free Df stance and Mei Feng can vent steam to make it difficult for shooty minions to drop them easily.

They will basically never use Metal protection now which would be ok, dmg cuddle and less def was necessary. But without hard to kill they simply do nothing besides dropping a scrap... thats it.

That's enough. If you're trying to build Mei's Rail network then the scrap off a 4ss they had to spend resources killing is enough to expect. Again, 4ss

They have no dmg, they have no ability...since even if you dont play for railwalk placing it checks always not end of turn. They can´t tank nothing since they will just be oneshot by everything from perdita, Levi, or even Hans. 

You need a 4 damage ignoring armor or a 6 damage not ignoring armor. Not even most masters can get that reliably without spending cards to cheat. And, again, 4ss. Cheap minions die when Masters look at them.

Now Mei was not the most competitive to begin with but the most fun... now I basically handycap myself whenever I wanna play her Ten thunders as intended (jumping Kung fu Master).

 

I think you're expecting too much out of Railwalk. That is an option to improve Mei's abilties but it's not the be all end all of using her well. Playing with her I rarely chain railwalks more than one or two turns, most times once you're in the thick of things you're better off charging and you generally only need railwalk to escape bad situations or get to a scheme marker. At that point, having dropped an upfield scrap is enough.

It's a huge cuddle no doubt, but I still see Metal Gamin being one of the best picks for a Mei Feng list at their cost and I think further play will only remove the brainless quality of exploiting Protection of Metal.

I regularly play and win with 10T Mei Feng with zero or one Metal Gamin.  I feel like the above is a pretty strong overreaction.  Rail Workers are still fantastic for the cost, and you really don't need more than three or so constructs on the table with Mei to make her work.  Metal Gamin were (and still are) nice, but consider other options that will accentuate her abilities that aren't necessarily constructs.   Take the opportunity to try out lists that aren't so construct heavy.  For example, putting in a shooting base with Mei is a great combo that causes your opponents to come to you a bit and then get jumped on.

 

Edit:  Also, everything RarerMonsters said, especially "I think you're expecting too much out of Railwalk. That is an option to improve Mei's abilties but it's not the be all end all of using her well. Playing with her I rarely chain railwalks more than one or two turns, most times once you're in the thick of things you're better off charging and you generally only need railwalk to escape bad situations or get to a scheme marker. At that point, having dropped an upfield scrap is enough."

I regularly play and win with 10T Mei Feng with zero or one Metal Gamin.  I feel like the above is a pretty strong overreaction.  Rail Workers are still fantastic for the cost, and you really don't need more than three or so constructs on the table with Mei to make her work.  Metal Gamin were (and still are) nice, but consider other options that will accentuate her abilities that aren't necessarily constructs.   Take the opportunity to try out lists that aren't so construct heavy.  For example, putting in a shooting base with Mei is a great combo that causes your opponents to come to you a bit and then get jumped on.

 

Edit:  Also, everything RarerMonsters said, especially "I think you're expecting too much out of Railwalk. That is an option to improve Mei's abilties but it's not the be all end all of using her well. Playing with her I rarely chain railwalks more than one or two turns, most times once you're in the thick of things you're better off charging and you generally only need railwalk to escape bad situations or get to a scheme marker. At that point, having dropped an upfield scrap is 

 

Sry will use your post as a good example. 

Some people here seem to miss my point. 

Sure you could play ten thunders Mei non construct heavy. But that has nothing to do with fluff theme or original design of the master. 

It is also not what I and most likely many others bought the master for... If i wanna play a mobile assasin piece I play Misaki that is her style no need for a second master like that in faction. Placing this 6 inches instead of walk stalking is not a big enough difference for me. 

 

I bought Mei to have infiltration of some usable theme relevant constructs and a playable theme that looks coherent on the table. 

 

This has been largely hampered. And no there are no other options... Railworkers are not in a single box... komi are fitting but also unreleased, even mech porkchops are unreleased and borderline to being in theme ... sparks also unreleased. Railgolem is nice but a bit expensive to spam as teleport spots. 

There simply is no option ok fine effigy.

Also it is simply bad balancing and business practice. Fixing typos to remove unintended use like Metal protection is fine... even if its weird that mei builds the very thing she created in a way his ability is basically never active in her team. 

But removing complete abilities that are still in the pdf books you sell for good money and on the cards in your boxes can easily lead to people making purchases for the wrong reasons invalidating their buy. If i buy an army book i expect the general information to be correct ... wording fixes fine but complete abilities... this is no unintentional abuse like metal protection the model was designed and tested like that. As a customer I can not agree with this. As a salesperson myself I find it bordering on false advertisement.

Again I didnt say there are no other ways to play Mei I say it is a huge cuddle to her theme that is highly unwaranted since she is not a problem. It is also way over the top since hard to kill has nothing to do with the metal protection abuse we can all agree needed to go.

Also I would have rather traded armor 2 away... in theory it is the best defence in game in practice it is not..  people have tons of armor ignore I play guild outcast and gremlins all week and they have tons of options to trivially remove 4 hp armor 2 in one ap... even from range... often with levi perdita etc even without tailoring the crew for it... in that case they also dont turn into upfield markers but half way to centerline markers especially in flank deployment...

If you do something like that fo something else for Mei for example give Fire Gamin foundry... no big power shift expanding on her burn subtheme. Yes they die fast but they bring something new to the crew 3 railworkers as tanky teleport spots a few fire gamin for different purposes would be nice. Also a single pack would be available. Better than metal gamin that give not much to the theme anymore as long as it doesnt at least check their skill end of activation...

Also wyrd please playtest in a way that limits your bugfixes to changing wordings to remove unwanted interactions not removing complete skills... makes me really worry about upcoming releases.

 

[MagicGis]

I also think if they wanna do a cuddle in addition to the fix it is highly questionable to hit hard to kill instead of the Ca8?

Does that mean wyrd thinks that Hoffman interaction is ok and balanced? For 4 points? Intentional?

Just give Metal protection an end of turn check in addition to no metal gamin or give them back htk and lower the Ca and accept this went too far and/or hit the wrong ability... Also still Fire Gamin for Mei?

 

[Math Mathonwy]

3. From what I hear in my own meta and on these boards, Metal Gamin were not near the top of the list of overpowered pieces. Maybe I missed something.

They most certainly were but since they are low-cost, they obviously don't wreck games the way a really high-costed (or Master) overpowered piece would.

[mythicFOX]

I don't subscribe to the very binary view of the world that states every model is either OP or useless.  These changes move the model from being significantly ahead of the power curve to being in line with the power curve.  

I've had the opportunity to play a couple of games with the post errata rules, and haven't found the Metal Gamin to be useless at all.  They're a choice now, along with Fire/Ice Gamin, Molemen, and the Effigy. 

 

[Math Mathonwy]

I've had the opportunity to play a couple of games with the post errata rules, and haven't found the Metal Gamin to be useless at all.  They're a choice now, along with Fire/Ice Gamin, Molemen, and the Effigy. 

Out of interest, did you hire them or only Summon them? Also, did you get PoM to work?

[Luca 2.0]

After all comments i can say that now gamin cost 4 for a more balanced model, not anymore OP! not anymore an auto include for some OBJ. Their magnetism is totally situational. The gamin is still good... but i won't use 4 SS for this model when i can use a rail worke or something else.

Maybe i'm wrong but 4 ss for a slow model if  you don't decide to damage your construct or your opponent has constructs, a model that didn't hit hard anymore, lost HTK. Yes he is still good but in my opinions now i watch for other options before him.

Someone said that rail workers are a waste of resource if you use more than one of them.

It depends: you can also hit without discarding a card, they are more resilient than a gamin and they hit hard, sometimes when u have bad cards to discard or when u need, you can hit harder. One is ok, Two can  be still ok, maybe only 3 are too much. Just my opinion:)

Edited November 6, 2015 by Luca 2.0

[mythicFOX]

I've had the opportunity to play a couple of games with the post errata rules, and haven't found the Metal Gamin to be useless at all.  They're a choice now, along with Fire/Ice Gamin, Molemen, and the Effigy. 

Out of interest, did you hire them or only Summon them? Also, did you get PoM to work?

I've both hired one* and summoned them from Mech Rider. They didn't set the world on fire but did the job I brought them into the game to do.  I've also summoned Ice Gamin (into a non-Tina crew) and found those to be effective choices (one more wound with one less Df and Armor).

I didn't make use of PoM, as it wasn't the correct line of play at the time.

*It's rare I'd hire more than one copy of any model, especially as I'd take one MG and the Effigy over two MG pre errata.

[mythicFOX]

<mod hat>

I've removed a comment above because it crossed the line from refuting another posters argument to attacking the poster.

Disagree all you want, but be nice to each other.

Thanks.

</mod hat>

[Patzer]

 

Sure you could play ten thunders Mei non construct heavy. But that has nothing to do with fluff theme or original design of the master. 

It is also not what I and most likely many others bought the master for... If i wanna play a mobile assasin piece I play Misaki that is her style no need for a second master like that in faction. Placing this 6 inches instead of walk stalking is not a big enough difference for me. 

I bought Mei to have infiltration of some usable theme relevant constructs and a playable theme that looks coherent on the table. 

This has been largely hampered. And no there are no other options... Railworkers are not in a single box... komi are fitting but also unreleased, even mech porkchops are unreleased and borderline to being in theme ... sparks also unreleased. Railgolem is nice but a bit expensive to spam as teleport spots. 

There simply is no option ok fine effigy.

Also it is simply bad balancing and business practice. Fixing typos to remove unintended use like Metal protection is fine... even if its weird that mei builds the very thing she created in a way his ability is basically never active in her team. 

But removing complete abilities that are still in the pdf books you sell for good money and on the cards in your boxes can easily lead to people making purchases for the wrong reasons invalidating their buy. If i buy an army book i expect the general information to be correct ... wording fixes fine but complete abilities... this is no unintentional abuse like metal protection the model was designed and tested like that. As a customer I can not agree with this. As a salesperson myself I find it bordering on false advertisement.

Again I didnt say there are no other ways to play Mei I say it is a huge cuddle to her theme that is highly unwaranted since she is not a problem. It is also way over the top since hard to kill has nothing to do with the metal protection abuse we can all agree needed to go.

Also I would have rather traded armor 2 away... in theory it is the best defence in game in practice it is not..  people have tons of armor ignore I play guild outcast and gremlins all week and they have tons of options to trivially remove 4 hp armor 2 in one ap... even from range... often with levi perdita etc even without tailoring the crew for it... in that case they also dont turn into upfield markers but half way to centerline markers especially in flank deployment...

If you do something like that fo something else for Mei for example give Fire Gamin foundry... no big power shift expanding on her burn subtheme. Yes they die fast but they bring something new to the crew 3 railworkers as tanky teleport spots a few fire gamin for different purposes would be nice. Also a single pack would be available. Better than metal gamin that give not much to the theme anymore as long as it doesnt at least check their skill end of activation...

Also wyrd please playtest in a way that limits your bugfixes to changing wordings to remove unwanted interactions not removing complete skills... makes me really worry about upcoming releases.

One thing your are pointing out is really cleaver and something Wyrd should look into; update the PDF books you can purchase if there are an errata. Granted that might be a viable thing to do, but it is a great idea nevertheless. 

While I don't agree with you that it is "false advertisement" I do think there should be information in the books that states that models/rules are subject to be changed; in the worst cases. And point players to the website where they can find the FAQ. Again, I think you are pointing out a viable issue. 

However, lets say some kind of interaction wasn't thought of during play test by any player-developer, it slips out, and comes from an ability on a model. I don't think it is a stretch to remove that ability. Rather it is for the best of the game. Removing abilities is at times just as viable as correcting wording. The result is the same, the model acts a little differently. Overall, I think Wyrd and all of the playtester try and do their best to get models balanced from the get go.

On the whole playing "in theme". I guess that is kind of up you to decide what is. If you don't feel Sparks, Mech Pork, are fitting to Mei's theme then there isn't that much to it. You think that Fire Gamins fits her theme, but others might not since they aren't Foundry for example. It comes down to taste and preferences really. Many might think that running Yin with Mei is in theme since both are part of the Thunders while other will have a hard time making that work on a thematic level. 

Finally, I still think the Metal Gamin have their place. Armor +2 is a sturdy defense against a lot of opponents. And they can still boost defenses, which is nice too. If you don't think they are viable option anymore then it might come down to play style, and or a choice on your part to play less "in-theme" lists and play more "competitive". Since the way I look at it, playing in theme rarely is the best way of building the strongest lists. 

[r4st4f4n]

I find a cuddle strike ok. Less the way it's been done.

All of a sudden MG needed to lose:

• Hard to Kill
• The possibility of using their Rg3' PoM on themselves, spending 1Ap and raising Df by 1 until EoG
• The possibility of having auto-Burning +2 on their Ml4 Rg1' Attack Action
• The possibility of using PoM upon a friendly Metal Gamin

And stop. They're balanced.

I'm not satisfied at all.
I don't question they were over the top. They were. But they aren't done as they're now. +1 on their Ml Attack, to make it usable, a slightly better Rg on PoM to make it usable, now that it actually can only target other models, +1Wk, +1Wd. Whatever minimal improvement, to give them back something to be good at, and not just make this Errata look like "A ton of cuts to this model, as it was the main game breaker that slipped through the Beta by now".

Is the problem Mech Rider summoning them for free? Fix that darn summoning. It WILL get an Errata, because it WILL. And it can stand one.
I don't want to see this backfire again and again. Has a Mei Feng hired MG spam Crew ever been mentioned? No. Why? Why has a 8Wds Hard to Wound Ca8 luring 5ss Rotten Belles one, instead?
A more measured cuddle was quite enough, for their thematic, hired use with the slow moving Rail Crew. Fixing an imbalance by over-aggressing an element different from the main problem is a poor choice, IMO.
I'd like to recall the first Beta when the Rail Crew, again, lost every efficient way to put the Burning Condition -they benefit from- on other models, just because of the Rail Golem. And just to see 6x more effective models with this power showing up, inevitably, a bit later in Wave 2.

I hope that the matter will be dealt with in a better way, because I'm no MG hooligan, I'd just like to see better solutions being developed when this kind of issues get addressed.

[Spike0738]

 

 While I don't agree with you that it is "false advertisement" I do think there should be information in the books that states that models/rules are subject to be changed; in the worst cases. And point players to the website where they can find the FAQ. Again, I think you are pointing out a viable issue. 

Do people understand that this game had 2 previous editions?? 1st, 1.5 and now m2e. 

How much more does a game have to do, to explain that it is ever growing and expanding? Please tell me what miniature game you've ever played, doesn't update at least once or twice during your time playing the game. Every single game on the market right now has an FAQ and Errata section. This isn't some Wyrd tactic to screw over gamers and money grab. This is an attempt to further balance the game. They are making strides and playtesting ALL THE TIME to do this. 

If anyone really feels that a game releases, and it's never changed cause it's "perfect" the first time around, you're lying to yourself. I think the real problem here is that people need to educate themselves in how the system works and learn why these changes are made. 

This is the first change of many. Stop crying that other changes haven't been made, because I guarantee more are comingg. Stop using other models as an excuse why these shouldn't have been changed. It's irrelevant and wrong... Come into Chat sometime and talk to one of the playtesters who spend countless hours working through things and finding viable solutions. 

Edited November 6, 2015 by Spike0738

[Math Mathonwy]

 Some people here seem to miss my point. 

Sure you could play ten thunders Mei non construct heavy. But that has nothing to do with fluff theme or original design of the master. 

It is also not what I and most likely many others bought the master for... If i wanna play a mobile assasin piece I play Misaki that is her style no need for a second master like that in faction. Placing this 6 inches instead of walk stalking is not a big enough difference for me. 

 

I bought Mei to have infiltration of some usable theme relevant constructs and a playable theme that looks coherent on the table. 

1) I don't understand how Metal Gamin look especially coherent in theme to Mei. They don't have any sort of railway theme to them. One is randomly a metal lizard!

2) You are talking as if they are an unequivocally bad choice now. They aren't overpowered anymore but I don't think that they turned useless, either.

This has been largely hampered. And no there are no other options... Railworkers are not in a single box...

Taking more than three Railworkes would not work at all as they severely eat into each others' resources. You'd be much better off taking Metal Gamin after the second Railworker.

komi are fitting but also unreleased,

They are scheduled for release next month.

even mech porkchops are unreleased and borderline to being in theme ... sparks also unreleased. Railgolem is nice but a bit expensive to spam as teleport spots.

Emissary is another good option once it's released.

But I do agree with you that currently the TT Construct pool is limited. Help is on the way but I can understand the frustration. Still, I suggest you keep using the Metal Gamin for the time being. They are not horrible at all except against Armor ignoring stuff but most Constructs have that weakness and Metal Gamin are at least cheap.

But one more thing: how many Railwork spots do you need? Effigy, two Railworkers, Emberling Scrap and a Metal Gamin seems plenty to me. I don't think that it is necessarily a good idea to overload on Constructs with Mei since her synergy with them is rather limited, after all.

But removing complete abilities that are still in the pdf books you sell for good money and on the cards in your boxes can easily lead to people making purchases for the wrong reasons invalidating their buy. If i buy an army book i expect the general information to be correct ... wording fixes fine but complete abilities... this is no unintentional abuse like metal protection the model was designed and tested like that. As a customer I can not agree with this. As a salesperson myself I find it bordering on false advertisement.

I think that accusations of false advertising are taking it a bit far but incorporating errata into the PDF books would indeed be a good idea.

Also I would have rather traded armor 2 away... in theory it is the best defence in game in practice it is not..  people have tons of armor ignore I play guild outcast and gremlins all week and they have tons of options to trivially remove 4 hp armor 2 in one ap... even from range... often with levi perdita etc even without tailoring the crew for it... in that case they also dont turn into upfield markers but half way to centerline markers especially in flank deployment...

I think you're slightly over-selling the amount of anti-armor available. Also, not many can kill a Metal Gamin with much certainty with one AP. You usually need to at least Focus and I'd much rather that the Thinking Luck Ophelia Severe one-shotting my Gamin than hitting Mei or the Rail Golem or whatever. Of course if your most common opponents play mostly Levi and Perdita, that sorta sucks but OTOH Mei is a pretty good counter to both of those Masters so it's not all that bleak.

[dgraz]

(Obligatory PC disclaimer: This isn't directed at anyone in particular, this is a general statement)

Anyone that relied on Metal Gamin so much that now they're upset and saying they're worthless are doing themselves a serious disservice. You have developed a crutch......my advice would be to try out different models, you may be surprised at how well they work. If you're stuck in MG mode then you're hurting yourself as a player.......you'd be a much better player if you broaden your model pool experience.

[RarerMonsters]

Updating PDFs would be an unearthly hassle people don't seem to fully recognize. I really hope that we have some option for getting updated cards but frankly this is still the best option.

 

Any other game system would either just compensate by releasing a new op model for each faction that you HAVE to buy in order to make the old OP stuff irrelevant (PP) or force you to buy unrelated products in order to get the upgraded rules for the stuff they didn't balance the first time (FFG)

I hugely prefer a company which makes difficult rules tweaks in the interest of an ongoing playable game vs a company which lets problems fester in interest of not ruffling feathers.

 

Also, Metal Gamin and Rail Workers are still totally playable, and Mei is still a competitive master bringing in other faction resources. I really can't sympathize with insisting that you want to only play a narrow single aspect of a master you consider fluffy AND also wanting to be on the same competitive tier as people who are willing to be versatile.