Many areas of Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes are complex and not always clear on the surface. In a live action game that has as many intricate details as this one, those who understand those mechanics will always have the upper hand. One such mechanic in SWGoH that has been an area of confusion for most players is Protection Up. While we have discussed this topic many times throughout our Best Mods for SWGoH heroes series, this does not take away from the fact that many still struggle with how Protection Up works. The team at Capital Games was kind enough to go into great detail on the Protection Up mechanic today and we wanted to ensure the community could continue to find this information long after it gets buried on the EA SWGoH forums.
Here are a few guidelines around Protection Up. These guidelines apply to all characters that use Protection Up and Bonus protection (currently found on Enfys Nest and Darth Traya). These guidelines are of course subject to change in future updates – but are accurate at the time of posting.
Rule 1: Protection Up is always based on current Max Health.
Examples:
1) If a unit has 10,000 Max Health and receives Protection Up (40%), the Protection Up will protect against 4,000 damage.
2) If a unit has 10,000 Max Health and Health Up (20%), their current Max Health is 12,000. If that unit receives Protection Up (40%), the Protection Up will protect against 4,800 damage.
Rule 2: By default, Protection Up is not intended to stack with other Protection Up from the same source (i.e. ability).
On occasion, we allow certain Protection Up to stack with others from the same source. When we decide it should stack with itself, we will call it out it in an ability’s description that its Protection Up is “(stacking)”. If an ability that provides Protection Up does not specify that it is “(stacking)”, it should not stack with itself. All Protection Up can stack with other Protection Up from different sources. There is no hard rule to why some have stacking and others do not as it is primarily determined by balance needs.
Examples:
1) When Grand Master Yoda uses Masterstroke to copy Protection Up, then uses Battle Meditation and gains Protection Up, he will have 2 Protection Up since they are generated from different sources (different Special abilities).
2) When Grand Master Yoda uses Battle Meditation, he first gains Protection Up, then grants all allies (including himself) a Protection Up because he has one. This second Protection Up replaces the first Protection Up generated by the ability because they both come from the same source and the ability does not specify that the Protection Up stacks.As a result of this, General Kenobi’s Zeta upgrade on his Unique will trigger and he will Taunt if all allies were Galactic Republic at the start of battle.
Rule 3: Protection Up from a source will replace any current Protection Up from that source on the unit unless that Protection Up stacks.
Example:
1) Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum) uses Balanced Strike and creates Protection Up (40%) on herself and another random ally that doesn’t have it. She is then attacked for less than 40% of her Max Health and counter attacks, using Balanced Strike again. She will replace the damaged Protection Up on herself with a new Protection Up (40%).
Rule 4: Protection Up will protect against damage in the order the effects were applied.
Example:
1) Grand Master Yoda uses Masterstroke and copies Protection Up, then uses Battle Meditation to grant Protection Up to all allies. While both Protection Up buffs remain on Yoda, the next time he takes damage the Protection Up created by Masterstroke will be used first. If any damage exceeds the value of the first Protection Up, it will then be applied to the Protection Up created by Battle Meditation.
