Dark Side Tank/Healer

So my best team is mostly dark side (arena). That said, I'm much further on the light side of things (pve), simply because I haven't found viable options for the subject.

I don't know if I'm just missing something, but for me the essence of a tank is that they DRAW damage to them as well as possess the ability to handle it. Similarly, a healer (generally) responds to dmg through healing, and survives it mostly due to a tank taking the brunt of it.

That being said, the dark side of things seems woefully lacking in this regard. I believe the Royal Guard gets a taunt or chance of a taunt eventually, but that's a lot of investment and takes awhile to get to. Talia isn't too shabby, but is the only healer I'm aware of that takes dmg to heal, but not a deal breaker. Next up, so far as I know, is Daka, but once again the price of entry is high. Further, I don't know if I simply haven't encountered a well geared Daka or what, but her survivability seems terrible when I face her in arena or have deigned to use her in pve (I hardly ever do any more).

Oppress seems more than capable of absorbing dmg, but with no way to force him to take it, what's the point? Stormtrooper is the same as Daka IMO with a pretty steep entry price for the sake of a taunt.

I like the idea of the light side and dark side being different play styles, but for me the difference is very limiting for the PVE side of things. Maybe a new threat mechanic to force dark side tanks to get attacked? Maybe every time they crit it activates a taunt, but can't happen back to back, or only lasts one turn? Or is it simply not an issue others are having?

Replies

  • Otar
    252 posts Member
    I believe it's a issue we all have/had... Just go for the steep price for Daka and when the stuns and revives start to land, you will forget the steep part...
  • They dont need to change the game for it, future release characters aside. Darkside is all about damage and debilitation. You cant play it like Lightside. This is a good thing.
    "There is no 'try'." - Master Yoda
  • Pilot wrote: »
    They dont need to change the game for it, future release characters aside. Darkside is all about damage and debilitation. You cant play it like Lightside. This is a good thing.

    I agree with the different playstyle, but seem to have more trouble moving past some levels. May just be the need to level up more first. But a simple taunt mechanic through dmg or crits doesn't require a major game change nor a great change in play style imo, and keeps that difference bw the two sides.
  • Barrok
    1753 posts Member
    Pilot wrote: »
    They dont need to change the game for it, future release characters aside. Darkside is all about damage and debilitation. You cant play it like Lightside. This is a good thing.

    It's only a good thing when comparing the differences between the two sides. It plays out horribly in reality though.

    I can just borrow a barriss from one of my allies, and take my lvl 45's into a lvl 55 area on the light side, and still get 3 stars.

    On the dark side I can take my lvl 55 guys with a lvl 55 borrow, and get wrecked. Even if I succeed it can be only 1 star.

    This shows how much of a game changer the light sides healers offer (mostly barriss).

  • I think dark side is stronger for pvp as it is only one round and you just have to win without caring how many towns survive and with how much help.

    Light side is better for three round battles and GW where you need everyone to survive for three stars and their health to carry over in the case of GW.

    I do much prefer my dark side characters, light side battles just feel like a bit of a slog with slow single target damage and healing.
  • MackemSLAM wrote: »
    I think dark side is stronger for pvp as it is only one round and you just have to win without caring how many towns survive and with how much help.

    Light side is better for three round battles and GW where you need everyone to survive for three stars and their health to carry over in the case of GW.

    I do much prefer my dark side characters, light side battles just feel like a bit of a slog with slow single target damage and healing.

    I agree completely. I will often not use sim tickets on low level DS battles when grinding for gear,because Darth Maul is basically a sim ticket in character form! That said I really struggle getting three stars in the higher levels of DS stages. I never seem to be able to keep everyone alive. If I use Talia she dies. If I go pure damage the AI always seems to focus someone down. When I borrow Daka she has always been underwhelming. The DS needs the equivalent of chewie, free tank with taunt and self heal, or Luminara, easily farmable via GW with good heals that heal the healer as well.
  • Im waiting for Revan to come be the dark side healer with Drain Storm that steals life from all enemies and heals allies, and Force Tornado to deal aoe damage.
  • I am gonna suggest one that seems to be frequently overlooked. Greedo. I beefed him up just because I thought he was cool, but he really started to kick butt at about 5*. Now at 6* with plenty of gear and his abilities maxed out, he survives many attacks, his frequent double-tap can virtually off a guy in one attack, and when he gets low on health, toss a thermal as a goodbye birdie. I still keep him in my Arena squad and my top GW squad.
  • hhooo
    656 posts Member
    Pilot wrote: »
    They dont need to change the game for it, future release characters aside. Darkside is all about damage and debilitation. You cant play it like Lightside. This is a good thing.

    If Tarkin had any potency at all this could be a legit playstyle =/
  • RG is an empire only healer, and it proves very useful at times. Kylo can absorb immense damage and deal it out just as quickly. With kylo, rg, and oppress on your squad, you already have more health and protection than all 5 opponents combined. Add daka for the occasional heal or save, and phasma for the synergy and leader ability (and high health pool), and you have s tough to beat team. Not the highest damage dealing compared to bugs or bots, but they can hold their own.
  • LastJedi
    3047 posts Member
    edited May 2016
    I just finished ds 7 normal tonight with no healer. 3 stars.

    I finished the last two battles today. Fiiinalllly. Been 3 weeks since i made any progress with my droid team.

    So i mixed it up and used:
    Dooku l, GS, ig88, ig100, RG for stun. I borrowed savage and assaj. Assaj was slightly better, i think, for these battles due to her aoe.

    Having two counterattackers was great for all the aoe. Ig88 held on with his steal, even he is only g8. Therebwas a tense moment with the final 5555 boss, but he only countered 25 to 30% of the time. Maybe i was lucky.

    I hope hard nodes are not too rough. I havent got around to getting daka yet. And i left talia behind a long ways back.

  • Jabberwocky
    1809 posts Member
    Get Daka ASAP, I still run her on my arena team and take first on my hard launch server against level 80 gear 10 teams more often than not.

    Talia is also good for DS PvE missions but needs to be geared / abilities upgraded.
    Ally Code: 945-699-762
  • LastJedi wrote: »
    I just finished ds 7 normal tonight with no healer. 3 stars.

    I finished the last two battles today. Fiiinalllly. Been 3 weeks since i made any progress with my droid team.

    So i mixed it up and used:
    Dooku l, GS, ig88, ig100, RG for stun. I borrowed savage and assaj. Assaj was slightly better, i think, for these battles due to her aoe.

    Having two counterattackers was great for all the aoe. Ig88 held on with his steal, even he is only g8. Therebwas a tense moment with the final 5555 boss, but he only countered 25 to 30% of the time. Maybe i was lucky.

    I hope hard nodes are not too rough. I havent got around to getting daka yet. And i left talia behind a long ways back.

    Talia needs to be reworked. Perhaps health up for two turns or 100% turn meter gain after using water of life. As it stands now, she's just too high risk to have in the lineup. Ventress was really good when she was able to group heal... Maybe a little too good. But the advantage of most DS characters is their self healing ability. It's not much, but it does make a difference.
  • int3ns1fy
    210 posts Member
    Whiskey wrote: »
    So my best team is mostly dark side (arena). That said, I'm much further on the light side of things (pve), simply because I haven't found viable options for the subject.

    I don't know if I'm just missing something, but for me the essence of a tank is that they DRAW damage to them as well as possess the ability to handle it. Similarly, a healer (generally) responds to dmg through healing, and survives it mostly due to a tank taking the brunt of it.

    That being said, the dark side of things seems woefully lacking in this regard. I believe the Royal Guard gets a taunt or chance of a taunt eventually, but that's a lot of investment and takes awhile to get to. Talia isn't too shabby, but is the only healer I'm aware of that takes dmg to heal, but not a deal breaker. Next up, so far as I know, is Daka, but once again the price of entry is high. Further, I don't know if I simply haven't encountered a well geared Daka or what, but her survivability seems terrible when I face her in arena or have deigned to use her in pve (I hardly ever do any more).

    Oppress seems more than capable of absorbing dmg, but with no way to force him to take it, what's the point? Stormtrooper is the same as Daka IMO with a pretty steep entry price for the sake of a taunt.

    I like the idea of the light side and dark side being different play styles, but for me the difference is very limiting for the PVE side of things. Maybe a new threat mechanic to force dark side tanks to get attacked? Maybe every time they crit it activates a taunt, but can't happen back to back, or only lasts one turn? Or is it simply not an issue others are having?

    There's definitely a lot less diversity on the dark side, which makes the table missions a lot harder. Unfortunately, even though it's a lot of investment you have to farm RG. It's an absolutely essential character. Same for Daka - though she's primarily essential because of her stunning ability, rather than as a healer (her heal sucks). When you get to the more difficult missions, CC is absolutely more important than healing. You will never be able to out-heal all the incoming damage, which makes preventing that damage from ever taking place critical.

    The combination of Phasma(L)/RG/Daka/GS/86 works well for DS missions, and isn't *that* hard to obtain. For times when you need some extra healing, you can swap GS or 86 out for Talia.

    The other issue with DS missions is that you'll pretty much never see tanks up for borrowing, due to their lack of leader abilities. At least for LS missions you can usually find a Chewie (and more and more ST Hans these days), because he has a leader ability. The whole character borrowing thing needs to be overhauled - the way it should work is that you specify what kind of character you want (tank/healer/DPS), and then the game will let you pick from any of your allies' toons that match. Limiting it to leaders was an extremely silly decision.
  • Why can't they just give us that Stormtrooper who throws that healing ball in the air? lol
    He's already in the game!
  • RG is an empire only healer, and it proves very useful at times.

    Tank as well.

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