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New Outcast Player - Is Parker competitive?


Sanik

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I have been playing Acanists pretty extensively, and now looking for extending out of the faction and, Parker, just by the looks of him cought my attention

 

But I am also a pretty competitive game player (and so is my venue, which hosts a tournament bi-weekly) and wondering if Parker is competitive enough. Parker has a pretty high win percentage on Logfaux, but based on what I read so far from this forum, most people play/recommend either Levi or Hamelin. 

 

That being said, is Parker good enough to compete with Levi or Hamelin? if I want to win, despite the fact that I think Parker looks way coller, should I just buy into either Levi or Hamelin? It would be great if you could share your Parker list as well ;)

Thanks for the help in advance guys 

PS: my venue only does one-master tourney. We have to choose one master for the entire tournament so "it depends on strat and skims" argument wouldn't fly in my veune. I am curious if Parker truly is as good as logfaux makes him look like

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Sanik said:

PS: my venue only does one-master tourney.

Events like this are few and far between, but from what I've heard and seen, it would suit Parker more than most of his fellow Outcast masters.

Usually you'd pick the best specialist master for the particular game, and Outcasts are full of specialist masters. But picking a specialist master for 3 rounds? You're going to find some really tough matchups. 

Parker is enough of a generalist that he can do ok in almost any game type, so honestly, this event structure is probably where he shines most. 

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Yeah, honestly he's a solid generalist. If your venue is 'pick one Master and stick with it".. as was said, that's arguably where he'd shine the most. He can shoot decently (he doesn't hit immensely hard, but he hits decently well with the built in :+fate), he's decently resilient (especially at range and especially with his new Wave 5 upgrade), and his Totem is a cheap, decently effective healer. His entire thematic crew is fairly quick and he's no exception, and his upgrades (and Mad Dog) let him deal with terrain both creating and ignoring.

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I have to agree with @Azrrael.  In gg18 and with new upgrades he probably will be better than now, but still he'll be probably slightly less powerful than Levi or Hamelin. He requires too much resources to work while his "free" AP are not as good as two free Levi's activations or crazy number of activations, Obeys and Pipes that Hamelin has.  Also, he is not as tough as either of these two masters. 

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In a fixed master event playing parker may lose you some games that you would have won as Levi/hamilin. But it probably would also win you some games that you would have lost as those.  

The exact difference between the win ratios will depend on your opponents and on you.  Do they match your play style and are you happy to purchase more and more models (Levi has the largest hiring pool out there, and whilst you don't need to own all of it to do well, you may find you want a lot of it to truely maximise your advantages). Some people find the Hamlin style very tedious to play, and so they will get poor results with him for example. Or you might find his games take longer (Not always true, but often the case) and sio you won't get to the end of games with him, which will impact the numebr of VPs you can get, which will lower you overall placing on tiebreakers. 

Honestly, I think that your results among the 3 masters would probably be fairly similar unless a style really clicks with you or is hated by you.

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I have found that our true generalists are Jack Daw and Viks. Levi lacks in control, Hamelin and Parker lack in survival and murderizing, Schill lacks in everything pre-Broken Promises (and will be the best master for positioning strats once the update hits)

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As far as i know, hamelin/Viks are the two powerhouses of outcast.

But this doesnt mean parker isnt competitiv. Hes not as good as viks or hamelin but definitely not brewmaster or yan lo tier.

If you need to pick the very best of outcast, pick hamelin. 

If your ok with playing an average master (not underaverage) whos looks you like, pick parker.

Btw. i'd consider tara to be outcasts best generalist. Her supporting isn't chained to any keywords (opening up which models she could pick and support effectively). and being fast and mobile removes many downsides of some of the best outcast models.

And she can be hell of offensive master besides the old kiljoy bomb you could experiment with like lazarus shoots 8x into the enemy deployment zone turn one or bishop flurries 4x gor 12 attacks turn one :P

 

 

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Yeah... don't see what levi can bring to the table besides 3 additional activations and a hiring pool not really needed in outcast.
If i want to kill stuff i dont hire levi anymore.  i  hire jack oro viks... even hamelin and tara gets to kill stuff better right  now.

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Don't understand why Leve's so underrated now. 

 

I mean, yes. He can't hurt himself three times to get autofocus, but he keeps having his :+fate damage trigger, and his abominations can provide him with enough cards to discard. So he's not as easy to play as before, but I see him far of being less killy than Viks or Jacky. 

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I know a guy from Moscow, who are in the top of Russian community(and this one is huge and competitive as hell, especially in Moscow). He is like top 3 player in Russia and he is Leve main.
He runs very combo oriented lists most of the time and hits like a truck)
So, no, Levi is fine. It is more about preferences and understanding.

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Unfortunately Leve's damage track is built around him getting all those positives flips, but now he doesn't, so his damage track is very lackluster. Since damage is pretty much all he does, he's left fairly weak in comparison with masters like the Viks, or "bigger they are" Jack.

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I've played Parker a lot. Playing Parker feels like trying to write an essay using a broken keyboard. Some of the keys are mixed up, and you have to use alt codes for some of the punctuation. You CAN definitely write the essay, but it takes ages, there's loads of hoops to jump through, it's super frustrating and sometimes you just can't write the words you want.


Essentially, Parker has a lot going on, a lot of moving parts, and needs a lot of resources to make those parts move together. After thinking about how you want his activation to go, executing it and it all going off even then it feels like not a lot happened... He IS fun to play, but almost everything he does is expensive, ineffectual or inefficient.

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1 hour ago, apes-ma said:

I've played Parker a lot. Playing Parker feels like trying to write an essay using a broken keyboard. Some of the keys are mixed up, and you have to use alt codes for some of the punctuation. You CAN definitely write the essay, but it takes ages, there's loads of hoops to jump through, it's super frustrating and sometimes you just can't write the words you want.


Essentially, Parker has a lot going on, a lot of moving parts, and needs a lot of resources to make those parts move together. After thinking about how you want his activation to go, executing it and it all going off even then it feels like not a lot happened... He IS fun to play, but almost everything he does is expensive, ineffectual or inefficient.

I don't get how Parker needs a lot of resources. Over quite a few games with Parker now I have never found this to be the case, I find that he is quite efficient at ordering his crew around and then causing a massive resource drain for your opponent with his Hands in the Air attack. 

Parker brings soul stone generation and lots of card draw for you and lots of card and soul stone discards for your opponent. 

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1 hour ago, PositronMike said:

I don't get how Parker needs a lot of resources. Over quite a few games with Parker now I have never found this to be the case, I find that he is quite efficient at ordering his crew around and then causing a massive resource drain for your opponent with his Hands in the Air attack. 

Parker brings soul stone generation and lots of card draw for you and lots of card and soul stone discards for your opponent. 

He requires 4+ Masks to do both of his (0). Attaching upgrades requires enemy scheme markers or soulstones. His push needs 8+ to work. He generates soulstones, but only from enemy scheme markers. Until now, he had to be close to them to get "free" upgrades, but Emissary fixes few problems for him.

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2 hours ago, Cedar said:

He requires 4+ Masks to do both of his (0). Attaching upgrades requires enemy scheme markers or soulstones. His push needs 8+ to work. He generates soulstones, but only from enemy scheme markers. Until now, he had to be close to them to get "free" upgrades, but Emissary fixes few problems for him.

@PositronMike Exactly this! Parker CAN generate a lot of resources, sure. The problem is that all of the bits and pieces that contribute to that are too fiddly. He generates a siulstone but IF you're in position to use an enemy marker, which is likely turn two or three. He CAN push your models around but needing an 8 each time puts too much pressure on your hand to focus on. He CAN obey (ish) but at very short range, and if it's not a bandit you have to lose a stone or drop the upgrade. He CAN cause trouble with hands in the air, but it's just until end of turn so he has to go early, and then you end up eating soulstones to keep him alive, after spending a bunch of effort to generate the soulstones. He CAN do all the things you've said, but the circumstances need to be SO so specific that it's only worthwhile if you have fun playing Parker (which I do! Don't get me wrong, he's just definitely not close to being a competitive master).

The emissary helps to alleviate the problem of being near enemy scheme markers early, but, in true Parker style, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it work, and also take the Emissary tax (I don't think the emissary is THAT good with Parker. I wish the conflux also gave the mask to his attack, since then he'd fill the role of a big spendy bandit that supports Parker and is an outlet for the 'obeys').

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Parker doesn't play like most masters in out casts he is very much a support/disruption masted. The key for him is to use his shooting attacks to make the opponent drop scheme markers and then have him pick them up to cycle upgrades. His hail of bullets can block your opponent and makes it harder to hit your crew. He pushes his crew and can generate extra attacks for key models and cycle cads or stones as needed. With his discard to puch 5 upgrade he's mobile as well. The key is knowing which upgrade to burn and replace it with as when you discard the upgrade you get the stone back to add it back or get a new one even if there are no enemy scheme markers handy (though with enough drop its, it will not be an issue)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I genuinely feel that Parker is capable of being competitive. But I think it requires a different kind of thinking to most other outcast masters and indeed other faction's masters. 

Most masters have a set way to play them (or several), a kind of "this is how you play...such and such". I don't think (or at least the way I play him) Parker does this, or if he does it doesn't work very well. What he excels at is messing with other crews method of playing, making it difficult for them to play the way they want to. Every turn you figure out what the opponent wants to do, and usually there is a way for Parker to screw with it. 

In no way am I saying that Parker is top tier outcasts. But, I think when played properly he can give any master a hard time.

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Played properly even Cross7 can give hard time >.>
But i have to quote some podcast i heard "even if parker had all his upgrades at once and didnt  have to swwap them, discard soulstones for his actions, would he be as good as Viks hamelin or tara?" and sadly its no.

His abilities are way too expensive in high cards and niche to compete with other masters abilities. Being able to give another model a free shoot IF the opponent doesnt drop a soulstone... is still weaker than n obey or being fast and getting another attack without the opponent being able to cherry pick. Being able to give another model he opportunity to interact is still weaker than an obey or being  fast and getting the same stuff done this way.  Even if you hit the red sppot with parker... its still not much better than a simplle obey or getting fast with the difference that parker demands higher cards, is less resilient and need to jump through a lot of hoops to do his actions. The one thing safiing his neck is the "hesniche and shines in scheme heavy pools" thats the one thng he does good. he can at scheme markers as if they  were cookies and can place enemy scheme markers ear other enemy shememarkers to create big deny-zones on the table. Parker can spam the centerline with yur own cheme marker to  a point ur not more able to score claim jump because schememarkers near other scheme markers near you dont counnt and you cand pick them up by yourself. theres no interact to pick up friendy schememarkers.
He can really mess ths way but thats... the scheme-marker-heavy pools-niche.

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1 minute ago, DXXXVIII said:


He can really mess ths way but thats... the scheme-marker-heavy pools-niche.

In scheme marker heavy pool Hamelin is still better option, as Infectious Melodies can give fast to your free minions which can double walk and place a marker. What s more, Rat Kings have very good (0) action (place base-to-base with scheme marker then remove it) and denying claim jump is easier with rat than with Drop it! trigger.

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59 minutes ago, Cedar said:

In scheme marker heavy pool Hamelin is still better option, as Infectious Melodies can give fast to your free minions which can double walk and place a marker. What s more, Rat Kings have very good (0) action (place base-to-base with scheme marker then remove it) and denying claim jump is easier with rat than with Drop it! trigger.

Lets be honest... Parker's never the best pick. Even when played into his niche. BUT he's less bad at the pools hes good at ;)

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