[Developer Insight - Kit Reveal]

Hi Holotable Heroes,

One of the most anticipated characters in Galaxy of Heroes, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, is coming to the game very soon! Despite his humble beginnings as a moisture farmer on Tatooine making runs to Tosche Station for power converters, we always knew Luke Skywalker was destined for greater things. His victory over Jabba the Hutt was a mere hint at the strong bond Luke shared with the Force as a Jedi Knight, a lesson the Empire would later learn firsthand during the Battle of Endor. Luke’s leader ability, Return of the Jedi, helps to restore balance to the Force by granting bonuses and dispelling negative effects from allies, while also reducing all enemies to Luke’s base Speed.

The Basics:

• Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker is a Light Side Jedi leader that relies on reducing the enemy squad’s Critical Damage and has powerful offensive capabilities
• His Special 2, Repulse, can stun the whole enemy squad and reduces their max health and protection
• Luke’s training makes him ideal to lead Jedi squads as his leader ability provides direct bonuses for Jedi, but can also lead a more general Light Side squad

Unique Attributes:

• Jedi Knight Luke’s most unique skill is his Leader Ability, Return of the Jedi, which reduces enemies speed to his base speed at the start of his turn
  • The speed reduction effect does not occur at the start of battle, only when Luke takes his first turn and then reapplied every turn he takes after that
  • Slower enemy characters will not have their speed increased
• His Basic attack, Prevailing Strike, introduces a new concept: reducing Critical Damage of his target, stacking up over time and hampering Critical Damage based squads
• Luke can apply a unique buff, Jedi’s Will, that provides +100% Counter Chance, +25% Offense, +25% Speed, and all attacks ignore Defense
• Luke provides allies with a granted ability, Heroes Arise, to all Jedi (excluding Old Republic Jedi)
  • Activating the ability dispels debuffs on all allies
  • All Jedi (again excluding Old Republic Jedi) are called to assist, are provided with Jedi’s Will, and heal their health and protection
  • This ability has a shared Cooldown across the squad and is immune to cooldown manipulation

Inspiration:

• The new event for Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker closely follows the story of The Empire Strikes Back and includes some of the most memorable confrontations on Hoth, Dagobah and Cloud City
• The designers rewatched the movie multiple times for inspiration (though we already were for the anniversary!) and to capture the most exciting combat moves
• We also looked at the Battlefront 2’s Luke Skywalker for inspiration; how they captured Luke’s iconic moves and appearance and how this would translate into Galaxy of Heroes

Strategy Tips:

• You will want Jedi with a fast base speed in order to use Heroes Arise quickly
• Heroes Arise will grant Luke 100% turn meter and allow his Leader Ability to trigger quickly while not needing high speed mods
• Repulse - Special 2, is effective for shutting down the enemy team for a turn with an AoE stun
• Use Special 1 and Heroes Arise to distribute Jedi’s Will to as many squadmates as possible
• Focus on calling Jedi Knight Luke to assist, as his Unique provides stacking Speed when he attacks out of turn

Squad Suggestions:

• Hermit Yoda has a fast base speed and support options that will allow Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker to take his turn as soon as possible
• Grand Master Yoda helps the squad by taking turns as quickly as possible to reduce the cooldown of Heroes Arise
• General Kenobi supports the squad with a strong Jedi tank that also provides dispels and taunts to keep the heat off the softer allies
• General Anakin Skywalker is one of the best Jedi faction damage dealers and pairs well with the call assist from Luke’s Special 1

FAQ:

If Jedi Knight Luke attacks out of turn and uses his Basic, does the Offense and Turn Meter from Jedi Knight's Resolve reset?

• No, this is not removed by countering or assisting out of turn. These bonuses only reset when he takes his turn and uses Prevailing Strike

Is Jedi's Will applied before or after the assist when using Special 1: Stalwart Advance?

• Jedi’s Will is applied after Jedi Knight Luke attacks and the ally assists

Does Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker reduce the enemy’s Critical Damage when attacking out of turn?

• Yes, the effects from the Basic apply when attacking out of turn

Can Heroes Arise be blocked by Ability Block?

• The cooldown for Heroes Arise will reduce when each Jedi takes a turn. This ability can be Ability Blocked, even though it's immune to cooldown manipulation

What happens when two Jedi Knight Luke’s face off against each other?

• If they are both in the leader slot, then both abilities cancel each other out
• If only one Luke is in the leader slot then this effect will still trigger

Why doesn’t Jedi Knight Luke interact with Old Republic Jedi?
We chose to exclude Old Republic Jedi for a couple reasons:

• We wanted to keep those already existing Jedi Knight Revan squads together - they have their own fun mechanics and an interesting interaction between squad members that many players use regularly
• This exception allows Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker to have his own unique strategy and mechanics to create a different style of play
• We discovered during balance testing that allowing Old Republic Jedi was detrimental to the balance that we were trying to achieve with this character

We also wanted Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker to encourage players to use the Jedi characters that we released in the past