"Hard to master": which is hardest?

[Trixter]

Hello there!

As a potential greenmlin player I want to ask: which two masters is most difficult to use in competitive tournament? And why?

[Eorek]

I'd say somer is easy to play. But really hard to master. He can do so much, and learning how to properly use all his different abilities takes time.

He' way more than just 3 boomstick shots a turn(even though he'd still preform well if that is how you play him).

[Four_N_Six]

First I'd probably say Wong.  He seems straight forward enough, but people get caught up on his AoE damage and ignore better targets or scheme manipulation because they're trying to just get off that big boom.

Outside of him, probably Brewmaster, since nobody seems to have really gotten a handle on how to make him tournament competitive reliably.

[Math Mathonwy]

I think that Mah is pretty tricky in that using her as a little green Lady Justice ends usually in a disaster. Especially if you try to use her thematic crew with her!

And the same goes for Brewmaster - if you do what you're supposed to do with him he is pretty lousy. And I means supposed based on his abilities and his theme force. If you focus on something else entirely (Hangover, Pick Your Poison, and almost no Tri-Chi models) he is... well, still the weakest Gremlin Master but not hopeless. A bit like Marcus was in first edition where, if you abandoned the beast angle completely, he was pretty OK.

[codingCaptor]

The way you've asked the question will really coincide with a tier list pretty easily.   After all, Mah tucket will perform really poorly without mastering her, since she's just at a lower power level than other masters.

But to try and get at the spirit of your question, I'd say Brewmaster and Zoraida are probably the most complicated gremlin masters.  Gremlins has a lot of tools for killing your opponents models.  Like, a lot.   That's our primary thing.  We deal damage.  We kill ourselves for it.   But we deal damage.  (Unless you're Ulix who just kinda sits around with his pigs not dying.)

Zoraida and Brewmaster are control masters.   They're about preventing your opponent from doing things.    But in gremlins, the tools they have to control the board is "More murder!"   So they end up working at odds with the rest of the factions models.   It's not a complete incompatibility, Wyrd wouldn't design like that.   But it takes approaching problems from a different perspective, and takes a lot more effort to understand/learn/use than simply "Aim at opponent, murder."

[dancater]

Complicated question because, as with any multi-option game, there is a power curve on the masters and crews.  This means that there is a difference between playing the best master and playing the master the best.  

So are you asking which masters are the hardest to get the 'best' out of them, the hardest to play to an optimal level....

or

Which master when played well will get you the best results, a combination of playing well being necessary to get exceptional results.

Personally I think the "weakest" and least well regarded masters on the power tier for Grems are Mah Tucket and Zoraida.  Both are potentially good but hard to play with not obvious crew/synergy chhoices and even played very well they have weaknesses and match up combinations which will make them really struggle.  

So toughest master to play (skill) and get good results (power) with would I'd say be Mah.

For powerful masters Grems have a collection, Wong and Somer are superb and Zipp is getting some its new and fresh love.  But concentrating on Wong and Somer as masters with some developed knowledge.  I'd say both are powerful and have an obvious schtick (Wong glowy and AoE and Somer Summons and Boomstick) but to master both you need to understand when to play in the strength and when to diversify (which is basically true for every Malifaux master).  

I am inclined to say the toughest to play (skill) and dominate consistently (power) with would be Wong, he is more reliant on opponents choices (bunching up) and more fragile and without the summons this is also true for his crew.  But when you 'get' him, well trust the glow!

[Omenbringer]

On 3/23/2017 at 5:27 AM, Eorek said:

I'd say somer is easy to play. But really hard to master. He can do so much, and learning how to properly use all his different abilities takes time.

He' way more than just 3 boomstick shots a turn(even though he'd still preform well if that is how you play him).

I would agree with this. I have been playing Som'er from very near the start of the game and I still find neat and new things I can do with him (and most don't require new models either). He is great for competitive play because of his versatility (both for you and your opponent...so many options to prepare for), but very difficult to master.

[Trixter]

Thanks for answers guys!