With the Star Wars Rebels Phoenix Squadron being the focus of SWGoH in March 2017, the newest release from that group is Zeb Orrelios. One of the few remaining Lasat in the Galaxy, Orrelios fought in the Lasan Honor Guard against the Empire when they took over his home world. He later joined Hera Syndulla and the crew of the Ghost crew which eventually became part of the Phoenix Squadron.

For use in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, Zeb is yet another nice compliment to Hera Syndulla’s leadership ability. It is clear that each of these characters from the Phoenix Squadron has been crafted with a very clear plan and synergy.

Zeb’s basic ability, fittingly called Bash, will daze the enemy for two turns. However, if the enemy already was Dazed, Staggered or Exposed it will inflict stun on them. His special Staggering Sweep staggers the enemy for 1 turn and causes 25% more damage when the enemy does not have any debuffs. Thus, a special-basic order seems like an obvious setup to use. His other special, Honor Guard, grants Zeb and a target ally 50% protection up for 2 turns. If no debuffs exist they also get tenacity up for 2 turns or, if debuffed, they gain retribution for 2 turns. Finally, Zeb’s unique Shrug Off gives him max protection equal to +40% of his max health and he gains 15% protection at the start of every turn. If debuffed, that 15% is doubled to 30%.

Let’s again take look at the start of the Phoenix synergies. Under a Hera Syndulla lead, each Phoenix Squadron ally shares their unique ability with their fellow Phoenix allies, and when they use a special ability they gain 20% turn meter if Hera is active. Thus, from Kanan Jarrus we have a 70% counter chance for all Phoenix allies and they all recover 25% health when they suffer a debuff. Meanwhile, from Zeb we get max protection equal to +40% of max health and a 15% protection gain at the start of every turn, or if debuffed, a 30% protection gain… Thus, if I understand this correctly, a debuffed Phoenix toon would gain 25% health when they suffer a debuff and gain 30% protection to start each turn while debuffed. Wow. Just plain wow…

A quick look at mods for Zeb and right away potency and health stick out as the obvious choices. How and where we use those will be covered another day, but that is the direction I plan to go. As we continue to look ahead, these Phoenix characters are going to be awesome together. Plan to stock up and gear them up and test them and let us know if you have any tips as well!