While we have not done this in quite some time, Gaming-fans.com has offered multiple suggestions on kits and new character proposals for Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes over the years. Below, my shardmate Thadrio discuss 5 proposed new characters and their kits which would make for added enjoyment in SWGoH, something we have sorely lacked in the game for some time. Warning, mild spoilers of The Clone Wars, Season 7 are ahead.
-LJ, Gaming-fans.com Director of Content
Today we review the “Bad Batch,” Clone Force 99 from Season 7 of The Clone Wars which is airing each Friday on Disney Plus. We take a look at Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair and Echo and look at how their addition can nicely complement any roster and offer a nice counter to the Separatists.
Hunter
Light Side, Clone Force 99, Attacker
Clone Force 99 (Leader Ability):
Bad Batch Clones gain the following, applied to base stats:
- Attacker +50% Critical Damage
- Tank +50% Health and Protection
- Support +50% Speed
Other clone allies gain half that amount.
(Zeta) When all allies are Bad Batch/Clone Force 99, expose deals double damage if that enemy is a droid and/or Separatist. All exposes inflicted by Bad Batch allies can not be dispelled, but can be resisted.
Basic: Deal physical damage to target enemy, expose target on crit.
Tracker (Special 1): Cooldown of 2. Inflict marked and crit immunity down on target enemy. Then attack again (basic) and if present, call Crosshair to assist.
Plan 82 – Shockwave (Special 2): Cooldown of 3, starts on cooldown. Call all Bad Batch allies to attack target enemy and (Zeta) deal true damage to all droid enemies. This attack cannot be countered.
Heightened Senses (Unique): As long as one enemy is exposed, Hunter ignores taunt, marked and stealth.
Tech
Light Side, Clone Force 99, Support
Intel Overload (Basic): During Tech’s turn – Grant +5% speed (based on max speed) to target other ally until the end of the encounter. Out of turn – deal special damage, ignoring protection.
Setup (Special 1): Cooldown of 2. The next attack by an allied attacker deals +50% damage, and can not be evaded.
Brilliant Idea (Special 2): Cooldown of 3. Inflict offense down, defense down and speed down to all enemies. Grant Critical Chance up to allied attackers, health up to allied tanks, speed up to allied support.
Unique: When Tech gains bonus turn meter, he instead divides it evenly among all other active allies and then gains stealth for 1 turn. While in stealth, Tech cannot gain bonus turn meter, and has damage immunity which can not be dispelled.
Wrecker
Light Side, Clone Force 99, Tank
The Cavalry has Arrived (Basic): Deal physical damage to target enemy, doubled against droids. Gain taunt for 1 turn.
Sorry I Got Excited (Special 1): Cooldown of 1. Deal physical damage to all enemies, doubled against droids. This attack removes stealth from all allies and inflicts expose on all allies if able.
Happiest Day of My Life (Special 2): Cooldown of 5, starts on cooldown. Reduce all enemy’s max protection by 50% until the end of the encounter, doubled against droids. If an enemy B1 is present, remove 50 stacks of droid battalion.
Hahaha (Unique): When a dark side droid enemy gains turn meter, Wrecker gains 10% health and protection. (Zeta) The first time per ally that an enemy droid reduces a Bad Batch other ally below 50% health, Wrecker gains undispellable marked for 1 turn.
Crosshair
Light Side, Clone Force 99, Attacker
Basic: Deal physical damage to target enemy. If that enemy was already exposed, ignore the expose and inflict expose on a random enemy that is not exposed.
Bouncing Bolt (Special 1): Cooldown of 2. Blind the target enemy, then deal physical damage to target enemy and all other exposed enemies.
Ten Clicks (Special 2): Starts on cooldown (20), reduced by 1 whenever an enemy is exposed.
Deal true damage to the target enemy, ignoring protection. (Zeta) Adds “For each exposed enemy” so that it reads, For each exposed enemy, deal true damage to the target enemy, ignoring protection.
Unique: When Crosshair deals critical damage, his next attack will expose a random enemy that is not already exposed.
CT-1409 Echo (cyborg)
Light Side, Clone Force 99, Support
Basic: During Echo’s turn, grant 10% Turn meter to target other ally, doubled for Support. Out of Turn – Dispel buffs and apply tenacity down to target enemy.
Corrupted Data (Special 1): Cooldown of 3. Apply accuracy down, 50%, to all enemy’s for 2 turns, cannot be dispelled or resisted if enemy was exposed.
We Go Way Back (Special 2): Cooldown of 4. Echo salutes Rex and cleanse all allies. Then grant tenacity up and offense up to all clone allies.
Echo That (Unique 1): Whenever another clone ally uses their Basic, Echo assists.
Sabatoge the Techno Union (Unique 2): While enemy Wat Tambor is alive, he cannot gain bonus turns or turn meter, and when there is active Tech on the enemy team, the following is added:
- Medpac: The amount healed is reduced by 50%. That amount of health and protection is instead given to all oposing tanks.
- Shield Generator: This unit no longer gains dispels of its own debuffs and the protection recovery is reduced by 50%.
- Weapon Mod: Attacks by this unit only impact the targeted enemy.
Insight:
The goal here is to make a hard counter to separatist droids, but not a new meta – a team that can be beat, but has a specific place in your roster. Mostly simple kits but they tie the team together in interesting ways. It brings back the expose mechanic in a new way, linking the exposed targets to offensive abilities and opening up tremendous damage possibilities, instead of the turn meter gains/loses found in Resistance squads.
The fun all begins with Hunter. Until Hunter lands a crit, there will be no exposes on the enemy team. Hunter opens with Tracker, marks the target, crits, and exposing the target. Then crosshair assists. As long as they keep an exposed target, Hunter can use his heightened senses to find and mark any target he needs to, bringing the whole team down on one with his second special.
Crosshair doesn’t proc exposes with his basic, so as long as he keeps critting, he can spread exposes all over. Crosshair’s second special harnesses the amount of exposes on the enemy team and can pluck a weakened enemy off the map with a single shot.
Wrecker will proc expose with his basic but gains taunt in the process. There should still be enough expose going around to make Crosshair’s specials deal loads of damage. Wrecker is a bit reckless, fittingly, and with his first special can proc all exposes for good damage, especially against droids, but will also weaken his own team. This special should only be used at the right times. Wrecker is a true brute and hates droids to the core. If a droid harms a teammate, there is no way around having to attack Wrecker.
Lastly, supports. As it should be, these support characters deal no damage and solely support the clones around them (except for Tech when called to join the fight by Hunter’s second special). Echo is no longer a damage dealer, as he is now half computer. Echo feeds turn meter to his allies and assists in landing exposes by inflicting tenacity down. His special will severely reduce the chance for the enemy team to hit the Bad Batch, especially if they were already exposed. Echo’s second special is a hat tip to his old captain, cleansing the team.
As Echo drives the TM gains, Tech continually ramps up the speed of his allies. With his first special, Tech will assist his attacker buddies and make sure they hit the enemy hard. When Echo grants turn meter to Tech, Tech will instead feed the team, then go under protection until his next turn, probably working on his next brilliant idea.
Final Thoughts on the Bad Batch and the state of SWGoH:
You may be reading this and thinking, “wait, did I miss a dev post? Is that real?” Well I’m sorry, no. It’s just the hope of (at least) one player after catching up on Clone Wars and falling in love with the Bad Batch. Maybe we will get them, maybe we won’t. But I had fun brainstorming their kits. I only spent one night and the following morning on this. I discussed a few things with my guild leader (Shout out to MrWilson, IøT) as he desperately wants to see them in-game too, and decided to reach out to see if there was anything that could be done to maybe spark interest in adding this in our game. This started out as a fun exercise to throw meaningless ideas around for a new potential team but ended up making me a bit more upset about the state of the game. The fact that it took me one night of watching a cartoon tv show to come up with a kit that seems like it would be a balanced and extremely fun team to play with, just proves two things. One, I’m a genius and should work for CG (nope) or two, CG honeslty doesn’t give a s#%t and just wants to get paid no matter how boring the game is becoming. The fact that the past few events/character releases have been unforgivingly lazy, it really does have me worried for the game’s future. This community loves Star Wars to its core and to see this vehicle for potentially years of Star Wars entertainment fail would be tragic. Yes, the above kits would need to be tested and most likely balanced a bit, but if I, someone who has zero game-making experience, can put these kits together in one night… come on CG. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s been said before, that we all keep playing because we love the universe, not because we love the game. I think it’s well past time that CG corrects this and gives us a game again that we love like we did when it was first released. Community please, stand with me and let’s put some pressure on these developers to give us something that’s fun to play, not just the same thing over and over. Here’s hope for whatever they are talking about as “what we’ve been asking for.” Please, do us right, CG. Don’t make whatever that is be more junk. There is unlimited potential.
By Thadrio
Gaming-fans.com Guest Writer
