Jedi Rework

LightyLightLight · June 16, 2018 12:25AM

The meta of SWGOH is a diverse and wonderful place! From brave rebel squads to evil sith armies to cunning nightsister cults, there are many many different teams going around right now. After the recent Vader/Palp buffs, Rebel teams are no longer dominating the top 100 arena- there is now counterplay. With the addition of Mother Talzin and NS Zombie, nightsisters have also crept into top 100. Previous sith reworks have also played their role: Darth Sion appears every now and then in the regular Sith teams, and once guilds get strong enough to be able to beat the new raid Darth Traya will be huge. Phoenix squads also appear in top 100 every now and then, despite being made more as a pre-requisite for Thrawn and stronger Empire squads/fleets. With the introduction of JTR a few months ago, the Resistance faction got quite some oomph added to it, and now, all of the major, iconic factions that leave every Star Wars fan from five to 95 years old dreaming play a great role in this game. Except for one. As the meta has been swinging around and around for the past few years, one faction hasn’t been changed at all. Jedi toons are currently the least played in high levels (not including Ewoks and Jawas, who unfortunately have been dead after hitting level 65). As one of the most classic and important groups of characters in the story, I feel there should be much more emphasis on their power. Although occasionally an Old Ben or Bariss will sneak into an arena squad, really the only really relevant (rank 100+) Jedi right now is General Kenobi. Early on you will see the occasional Jedi team, but there is always an easy way to stop them. For non-zeta QGJ teams it is especially hard. Sith teams with Maul/Sidius can sweep through them within 2 turns, and for ZQGJ teams it is not much better- protection offered by perma forsight is enough to stop a one turn Maul sweep but far from enough to guarantee a win. Zariss teams are weak with the amount of healing immunity and TM manipulation seen at higher levels. What other options are there? Right- none. Although I hoped that CLS and JTR would be Jedi when they came out, I realized that no matter how much I hoped the childhood rule that “If they have a lightsaber then they are a Jedi” doesn’t apply here. So what options are there without the single strongest toons out there? I believe there are at least a few toons who deserve an upgrade to bring this faction back into the race.

1. Mace Windu. All Star Wars fans will agree here: Mace is one of the biggest, baddest Jedi out there. He’s cool! Newer players are often seen farming him in arena store. And for good reason- he is strong in low ranks, with his ability to fast-paced solo carry when left unchecked and to soak up good amounts of damage without going down. When ships were released, I hoped that this would make Mace more relevant, and in a way it did- Endurance is a great ship that helps those Tier B target-lock team players stay in arena until they can get Chimaera and Thrawn. But after a certain point Mace becomes completely irrelevant. He maxes out early, and there is no place for him in factionized teams. I believe he needs a zeta on his unique ability Shatterpoint. 45% expose chance and 25% TM on attacking an exposed enemy makes him quite strong on his own. But it’s not quite enough to make him an optimal toon, not enough to fit him into different faction teams. An zeta that would give him more offensive and defensive power, as well as assume some counterplay to Sith teams that sweep him so easily could only be welcomed. It would do wonders in restoring this dying class of toons and would, of course, encourage newer players to get a good start with an Endurance fleet team.
2. Jedi Knight Anakin. This is a much rarer toon to pick for newbies to farm. He, similarly to Mace, can be absolutely devastating when left unchecked. Clearly, however, something is lacking. Perhaps it is his lack of safety: his AoE ability leaves him in peril, to the point where a mis-timed ability could leave him in a very tight spot. Perhaps it is his relatively slow pace when targeted. Perhaps it is that he has very little synergy potential. Either way something about him needs an update. Here, as with Mace, I recommend completing his unique ability Righteous Fury with a zeta upgrade. Clearly when he gets going, he gets going. With almost limitless damage potential Anakin can be quite scary if his allies are dying. Well what if they’re not dying? That’s Anakin’s biggest weakness. If he gets targeted first and is easily shut down, he can’t proc the sweep ability: similarly to the old Old Ben, who couldn’t buff his team if he didn’t die. My idea for the Righteous Fury zeta is something that will force his allies to go down faster. You could force a taunt from the healthiest ally at start of a fight (this could even be its own ability!), you could force DoT effects onto them, anything goes. I’ve made my point there: his sweeping style is unique: something has to be done to accommodate it.
3. Aayla Secura/Ima-Gun Di/Kit Fisto. All minor characters, these are off-meta and have been for years. Their kit hasn’t changed since day 1. Each of them have a unique play style and an interesting set of abilities. Aayla has great dueling potential because of her counter chance and damage, as well as crit-stun. If you can’t disable her and she’s the last one standing, pack your bags- you won’t be able to take her out. I think that slapping a zeta onto her Superior Riposte unique could be great in strengthening her solo-carry potential. Something that could remove disables or debuffs on crit or on counter could make her really strong, and almost unstoppable unless your burst is consistent enough to just kill her within a few turns. Similarly with Ima-Gun, he needs something to amp up his counter power. His unique is okay, but it’s turn-based. 90% of teams won’t let him take that turn. I think that it needs a full rework, a change based on synergy with his counter chance. Similarly, a zeta on his leader ability would be good. Granting his team buffs or a heal on counterattack could be it, or it could be more offensive, such as applying debuffs or gaining permanent offensive stats. My favorite idea would be having a chance of applying expose on counter (70%~, resistible for a zeta). This would work well with Mace and (as I will later mention) with Kit Fisto. Any kind of synergy would work, but it definitely needs to be amped-up. As for Kit, he is the closest out of these 3 to “perfection”, so to speak. He is almost, almost there... he’s just lacking a little bit. His unique is good, but once again it needs a little buff to show enemies where it’s at. His Turn the Tide ability is quite good. The issue is, what use do Jedi toons have for potency if they don’t inflict debuffs? Exactly. I would change Kit’s basic attack to apply TM removal, so that there is a little bit more synergy with potency: and a little bit more efficiency with debuffs.
4. Quality of Life changes. Jedi are really oriented on supporting each other. What they need is a toon who is more focused on himself- a carry type character who can output a ton of damage on his own, but needs a team to tank for him. (Equivalent of Han Solo or Leia for rebels, FoTP or TFP for First Order and Empire respectively, etc). Also there should be a toon who inflicts heavy debuffs rather than buffs to allies, otherwise it’s just too easy for someone like Assajj to troll the whole team. Additionally, there are so many toons who have anti-Jedi synergy. Vader. Palpatine. Cad Bane. Maul. Sidius. Count Dooku. The list goes on and on and on...

. But who are Jedi strong against? Droids! (No comment). Jedi need some powerful anti-sith buffs. Extra tenacity, extra defense, or, double unique proc chance on someone like Mace or Aayla. Spice it up!

These are my ideas for bringing Jedi back in the meta. It’s righteous: I know the Jedi order fails, but you still have to show them respect! Thanks for reading, and may the force be with you!
~Shade