STR: Phase 2 Teams & Strategy

Now that you have defeated Nihilus and forced him back into the depths of Malachor V, you’re going to have to fight the lord of Pain himself, Darth Sion. With 52 million health, he’s the healthiest boss of the Sith Triumvirate raid – but he’s also the one against which you can use the biggest variety of teams.

Unlike the other raid bosses, he doesn’t stack speed whenever he receives damage; however, he is immune to turn meter reduction, and also happens to have an exceptionally high armor. Because of that, teams that work the best in phase 2 are either teams that can deal immitigable damage, or teams that have a way of reducing Sion’s armor (so that you then deal more damage to him).

It’s also important to note that phase 2 comes with a unique mechanism: Cycle of Pain, and Cycle of Suffering. Whenever a unit damages another unit, they have 50% chance to gain a stack of Cycle of Pain. When they reach 5 stacks of Cycle of Pain, these stacks get transformed into a single stack of Cycle of Suffering. Each unit gains an offensive bonus for each stack of Cycle of Pain (+20% offense per stack), or Cycle of Suffering (+150% offense), that they have, but Sion gains an offensive bonus for each stack present on ALL units (+5% per stack of Pain / +50% per stack of Suffering). These stacks can be cleansed using the unique raid ability “Soothe.”

In order to deal the most damage, in an ideal world best would be to never have to use Soothe, but the problem is that Sion will hit very hard if everyone has Cycle of Suffering. As a result, teams that work best in phase 2 will be teams that have a way to sustain / absorb a lot of damage, so that you can afford to keep Cycle of Suffering on your damage dealing units.




 

Squads That Work Well in Phase 2:

Jedi – Let’s move on to the teams that work best in phase 2. There are A LOT of teams that you can use in phase 2 (as in, that’s the phase where they will be the most efficient). The best of them all (in terms of damage) is a Jedi team led by Jedi Knight Revan. His leader ability provides protection recovery, a lot of assists, as well as a bonus in speed, offense, critical chance, and critical damage for the whole team. In short, everything you need to deal more damage. However, this character isn’t easily accessible for now, so until you manage to unlock him, you can use Bastila Shan as an alternative leader. The total damage output will be lower, but still higher than any other phase 2 team.

Regardless of the leader you choose to use, the team requires both Yodas to work. Grand Master Yoda is the damage dealer of this team, and will also help to spread buffs to the whole team. Where it gets interesting is that if he attacks a target that has less than 50% health (either the boss, if you go in when it’s below half health, or one of the side adds that you have damaged to put below half health), Grand Master Yoda will gain defense penetration up. Then, with his Battle Meditation, he will spread that buff to the whole team: everyone will be able to ignore a good portion of Sion’s armor, and will consequently hit significantly harder.

Hermit Yoda is an overall amazing support character. He makes the other Jedi stronger with his Master’s Training buff, by giving them additional offense, defense, potency, tenacity, and accuracy; and he calls them to assist. He also has a powerful team healing ability that also heals protection and grants foresight to Jedi allies if you have a zeta on it.

The last two members of the team can vary. If you are using a Revan lead, the best last two members are Bastila Shan and Jolee Bindo. They have both the Old Republic and the Jedi tags, so they will proc Revan’s leader ability twice for more bonuses; they are also very useful because of their kits. Jolee can revive fallen Jedi allies (zeta), which allows you to stack Cycles of Pain / Suffering without having to worry. He also calls assists, which allows Grand Master Yoda to move more often (and deal more damage: when a Jedi attacks out of turn under a Revan leader, they deal 35% more damage). Bastila Shan is also very useful because of the ton of buffs she can give to Grand Master Yoda, who can then spread them to the rest of the team. She also passively grants bonus turn meter to all Jedi allies at the end of each of her turns.

If you are using a Bastila lead, the best last 2 members for your team will be Ezra Bridger and General Kenobi. With a Bastila lead, all your Jedi gain 200% protection up at the beginning of the battle, and for so long as they keep it, they have increased offense. You want to keep that bonus as long as possible, and for that you’ll need a tank (General Kenobi) to absorb some of the damage. Ezra Bridger is good as a 5th in this team because of all the assists he can call. If you have him zeta’ed, he will also hit like a truck on his first special. Be sure to have defense penetration up on him as often as possible though, otherwise his damage will be significantly reduced. While a lot of Zetas are needed for this team, they have the potential to do a LOT of damage in the Heroic STR and lower tiers. More on this team in this video from GameChanger AhnaldT101.

With a Revan lead, it is best to run your team when Sion is below half health (so that Yoda will always be gaining defense penetration up when hitting Sion). With Bastila lead, however, you will deal more damage if you attack Sion when he has more than half health (Yoda can get defense penetration up by hitting the side adds; if he attacks a target that has more than half health, he gains 40% turn meter and foresight, which will allow him to move more often and get hit less often).

SWGoH - Skelturix - BeastmodeBeastmode – Another team that works very well in phase 2 of the Sith raid is the Beastmode team. This team relies on Wampa (hence the name) smashing Sion again and again. For this team, there are two possible leaders: Boba Fett, or General Kenobi. Boba Fett lead allows for a higher damage ceiling, but to work, you need very high gear levels on everyone (gear XI-XII) or you will die quickly). General Kenobi lead however, is much safer, and relies on hitting Sion a lot (with tons of assists) instead of hitting him hard.

Once you have chosen which leader you are going to use, you will need Wampa (of course) plus a couple of supporting characters. Namely, Hermit Yoda, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Sabine Wren. Hermit Yoda is here to heal everyone and call assists (on his first special, and his second as well if you chose to use Kenobi lead). Grand Admiral Thrawn is here to help the team survive by healing protection on target ally (second special), and fracturing Sion – fracture lowers his chances of countering, so that you can survive longer. Last but not least, Sabine Wren plays an essential role in that team: her fist special shreds the armor of the target for the rest of the battle. On Sion, this is especially important: after a few shreds (3-4) you will see your damage improve significantly.

The strategy with this team is quite simple: get Wampa to attack as often as possible, try to never use Soothe with him so that he always has the highest possible offense, and keep smashing Sion until he hits enrage. Escape Hermit Yoda if possible.

Mission ImpossZaalbar – Scoundrels are very effective against Sion and work very much like Beastmode. Using a Qi’Ra lead, the duo Mission Vao + Zaalbar (hence the name) is going to wreak havoc on Sion. With her zeta equipped, Mission assists whenever Zaalbar attacks an enemy (limited once per turn). Zaalbar gains retribution and taunt whenever an ally drops below full health. Zaalbar will also shred Sion’s armor for the rest of the battle if he crits on his first special.

Put together, this means Mission is going to go very often, and hit very hard (she gains offense whenever Zaalbar is damaged). Qi’Ra leadership ability will further increase Mission’s offense (and her critical damage as well if Qi’Ra’s unique is zeta’ed), and provide Zaalbar with some survivability (protection recovery on a crit).

In addition to this core trio, you will need Hermit Yoda (heals + even more assists and higher damage with Master Training) and Young Han Solo. With his zeta, Young Han Solo has a chance to be called to assist whenever a Scoundrel ally uses any ability, and with his second special he can keep Zaalbar alive by helping him to recover protection.

The strategy is quite simple with this team: keep Mission and Zaalbar alive, and watch them destroy Sion until enrage kicks in.

Sith – It is well known that the Sith are prone to fight between them to prove their worth and gain power. The Sith Triumvirate isn’t an exception: one of the teams that work best in phase 2 is a Sith team led by no one else than Darth Traya. If you do not have her yet, you can use Emperor Palpatine’s leadership. The team will have to include Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus in it; the last 2 best members are Sith Marauder (gains damage for each debuff present on the field, and Cycle of Pain / Suffering count towards that total) and Hermit Yoda (by now, you know why he’s so good).

Darth Nihilus should be able to get a few annihilates over the course of the run; each of them will deal 100,000 damage to Sion! Your Darth Sion, if he manages to apply pain to raid Sion, will deal a percentage of his health whenever he hits him, and will also force the focus on him so that the rest of your team is safe (as you may have noticed, there’s no taunting tank in this team).

Darth Traya is the best leader for this team for several reasons. Her leadership ability will damage raid Sion when he counters; it also provides sustain to the rest of the team. Combined with the bonuses granted to whoever attacks an isolated raid boss (critical damage up and health steal up), she has a great kit to battle Sion in phase 2. In addition to that, she hits very hard, especially with her saber storm special ability.

 

 

Other Teams for Phase 2:

The teams mentioned above are the most successful teams in phase 2, but there are plenty of other teams that can put some serious dent in Sion. Here are a few examples.

First Order – led by Kylo Ren (Unmasked), with Kylo Ren, First Order Stormtrooper, First Order Officer, and First Order Executioner, this team can deal between 1 and 2 million damage in heroic.

Ewoks – the murder bears can deal up to 2 million damage in heroic tier. The full team comp is Chirpa(L), Logray, Wicket, Ewok Scout, and Ewok Elder.

Snippet in SWGoH STRSnippet – Chief Chirpa lead with Logray, Wicket, Ewok Elder and Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum) – Speaking of Ewoks, EA SWGoH GameChanger DBofficial125’s early quest to find additional teams that are effective in the Sith Triumvirate Raid pays off using characters not otherwise needed in other areas of the STR. This combination of Ewoks and Fulcrum Ahsoka can put up 1.5-2 million damage in the Tier 6 version and is quite promising – see the video linked in the graphic on the right.

Phoenix – The Phoenix Squadron with at least 1-2 Zetas is a team that continues to impress more and more. Using Hera as the lead (please never admit it if you ever use any other Phoenix toon as a lead…) with Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Kanan, this team can do some serious damage to Darth Sion with the right parameters. The Zeta on Kanan’s Total Defense is key and Sabine’s Demolish is nice as well, as I have personally hit over 1 million in the past three HSTRs for my guild (over 2%). Gearing the Phoenix toons, especially Kanan, is key as you have to keep him alive as long as possible with Ezra and Sabine handling the big damage. If you want to run them, you will have to forfeit Beastmode above as Sabine is needed. With Hera Syndulla(L), Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, and Zeb, you can get up to 3.5 million damage in phase 2!

Leia Spam/Machine Gun Leia – Admiral Ackbar (lead), Grand Admiral Thrawn, Princess Leia, General Kenobi and a healer can put up over 1% in the Heroic Sith Raid, and well over 2% with the right healer. Jawa Engineer and Visas Marr work in the healer role, but the ideal healer is Hermit Yoda. The keys are maxing out Princess Leia (her Gear 12 pieces are quite valuable) and getting the most survivability out of the other characters in the lineup. Our Director of Content, LJ, has used Admiral Ackbar (lead), Grand Admiral Thrawn, Princess Leia, General Kenobi and Jawa Engineer and had success knocking off around 1.5% in p2 of the HSTR, but switching to Hermit Yoda was even more effective. Replacing a Gear 11 JE with a Gear 10 (no Zeta) HYoda boosted the score from 1.5% to 2%, but adding a Zeta to Hermit Yoda‘s Strength Flows From the Force special took it to the next level. The reduced cooldown and added Jedi Foresight and Protection gain from the Zeta was key to keeping GK alive longer which meant Leia got to “spam” Sion with more hits and thus boost the score significantly – Phase 2 HSTR runs score 1.8-2.2 million consistently with this team. Now with Gear 12+ pieces and 6-dot mods you can shoot for even higher scores. Here is our latest video on SWGoH Leia Spam with Hermit Yoda in Phase 2 of the Heroic STR and the Jawa Engineer healer video embedded below.

 

 

Bounty Hunters – With Bossk leading, you can build a team of Bounty Hunters with Boba Fett, Greedo, Dengar, and Zam Wesell or IG-88 that can net up to 1.5 million damage against Sion. A couple of versions of Bounty Hunter teams are viable in the STR as GameChanger AhnaldT101 shows us in this video. One has a Bossk lead to add survivability while the other, higher offensive options is a Boba Fett lead.

 

You can also mix the aforementioned teams together to create other good comps! For example, in the Beastmode team, you can replace Sabine and Wampa by Grand Master Yoda and Ezra Bridger for a similar total damage output. You can also replace Sith Marauder in the Traya team for Grand Master Yoda, or Leia for Wampa in the Beastmode comp… There are plenty of possible combinations, best is that you try for yourself and see what works!

 

 

NEXT: Phase 3

 

More Sith Triumvirate Raid Strategy & Teams:

 

Special thanks to SWGoH GameChanger Skelturix for his fantastic help in ensuring that this Sith Triumvirate Raid guide remains updated and in line with the latest HSTR strategies and to DBofficial125 for the Snippet content and video.

 

Last Update: 11.07.18