For those of us who want to pick a few IDs to put most of our limited deck-building and skill-development time on, what are the best IDs in each faction that will never rotate?
My first pass at an answer:
HB: Engineering the Future
Jinteki: Personal Evolution
NBN: SYNC
Weyland: Gagarin
Anarch: Maxx
Criminal: Gabe
Shaper: Kate (although Kit is my favorite)
Mini: Adam
I’m not at all certain on some of those picks. What do you think?
I’m pretty sure Kate and EtF win their factions hands down.
I’m not as sure about Jinteki, though PE is probably still ‘best’, just by some margin instead of flat-out like HB/Shaper.
Weyland I feel Titan is currently the best, though with Atlas rotating that becomes murkier.
NBN has so many good ones… I think that right now, SYNC is probably the best, but Spark is a contender. Sol isn’t to be discounted either. Really, only Making News is probably not in contention.
Anarch side, MaxX is probably the best for right now, but I think Kim might be a generic ‘best’… All of them have odd powers that are only able to be defined by what packs are available, except Kim. And, to an extent, MaxX with evergreen SoT and Deja Vu.
Criminal, yeah I think Gabe has this on lock. Ken might have a shot, but Gabe’s still King.
It depends on whether or not you’re a Core 2.0 True Believer as to whether a few of those IDs will or won’t rotate. If you believe the scuttlebutt, Kate and HB might not be long for this world, instead being replaced with Chaos Theory and… Stronger Together. But that’s only if you believe the shuttlecock surrounding Core 2.0.
Also, I love that Gagarin is one of these IDs that’s like “This ID is fantastic,” when on release it was deemed completely unplayable (and it was).
I was going to argue about PE being the most powerful non-rotating Jinteki ID, but then I looked in Honor and Profit. Can’t argue with you there, buddy. Those IDs are kinda sketchy, although, maybe Tennin has a life in the future with all these sick advanceable ICE Weyland is getting. PE is weak enough right now that it might actually not be the best, but no one plays any of these IDs competitively, so it’s kinda hard to tell right now.
Other than that, it seems reasonable (again, other than the schmuttleboo with Core 2.0). If that’s a thing, than it’s probably Kit and, if Power Shutdown doesn’t get the expected errata, certainly CI. Other than that… shit, maybe actually Seidr from TD, or maybe NEXT Design? HB gets a lot weaker without ETF.
Haha. Schmuttleboo.
I think schmuttlebaloo might be a tad better.
Ooooh, good call. I think you might be right. I was trying to keep the same number of syllables as both scuttlebutt and shuttlecock, but that “ba” in there I think adds enough hilarity to override the syllabic parallelism.
I think there’s a low chance that the game will not have been killed or rebooted by the time second rotation comes around. I would treat cycle 3+ IDs as permanent at least as much (possibly more, if core 2.0 rumors are true) as core IDs.
i agree with this list except that i’d put Sol above Spark
Rebranding Team isn’t enough for Spark imo. it needs more advertisement ICE and more usable advertisements in general for the early game so it doesn’t have to rely on Rebranding Team
also, Ad Blitz is just kinda useless with it
also, if we’re including upcoming IDs, i’m predicting that Skorpios will be the best Weyland ID
it also probably pushes MaxX down a bit, and i think i’d say Noise is the best then
i don’t think TD affects any of the others. EtF and Kate still top of the class, and Steve, while awesome, is no Gabe
If TD doesn’t rotate like the other big boxes, that does affect things quite a bit. I’d agree with MaxX but she’ll always be afraid of a Skorpios meta, even with Employee Strike available. I also think Bios could be a staple ID for a long time.
Kate & ETF are obvious. Easy to use economic abilities are strong.
FFG seem committed to keeping Mushin PE a deck. Even if we lose Ronin, we get Show of Force. Breached Dome replaces Shock. Half of the archetype is in Honor & Profit. Personal Evolution will always be a good, if not super popular, ID.
All the Weyland big box IDs are actually really strong. Titan never saw much support and will lose Atlas but all it takes are a few agenda counters to make it viable with the 17 influence. Gagarin and Argus are both strong abilities, Weyland’s weak card pool is the only thing holding them back. And, in the case of Argus, waiting for Aaron to rotate 
Titan is one of my favorite IDs, but I think it’s toast when rotation hits. Searching on NRDB for neutral/weyland agendas having the string “agenda counter”:
HRI has a strong effect, but I don’t think you need to trigger it twice, generally (normally trigger it once for a big midseasons trace), and it’s a 5/3. Firmware Updates sucks, but I guess it gets a little stronger with the wonder ICE (mausolus, hortum, collossus, etc). Armored servers seems good, making servers nigh impenetrable with a handful of ETR subs.
Atlas is self-evidently amazing in Titan. Fracking is kind of weak, but it’s worth 2 points and can keep your econ pumping while you score, so it’s OK. Executive retreat has good art.
Without Atlas, Titan has to slow down significantly. Maybe new ICE will make a glacier-y build viable (with Armored Servers and Firmware Updates)?
You didn’t bother to circle Kate? My heart 
