Set 7: Defiance Rising (2024)

Hmm, this is an odd one. I guess it’s nice to have a LS option again.

For the level 3 bonuses, I guess the stacking crit damage is good for anyone with an AOE, liked Dash, Chewpio, JML, GAS, etc. The debuff damage one could be good for anyone with a lot of debuffs. Dash would work with that one, too. Maybe Old Ben with his AOE or JTR and C-3PO? Could be interesting. The other ones don’t jump out at me.

The level 6 droid bonuses really don’t do that much for me. Really, it’s just BB-8 and the Rebel droids for me. I never geared up IG-11, L3, or 50R-T, etc. Maybe the TM gain on debuffs? The target ally bonus could work with R2 on a JTR team. At that point, I’d probably just go with a Resistance bonus over droid.

The level 6 smuggler bonuses just make me think that scoundrels get way too many faction bonuses. The stacking crit damage with TM could be nice. I wonder if the TM on debuff dispelled counts hitting an exposed enemy. That could be pretty crazy for a CLS team.

Resistance level 6 is not bad. You figure there are only 2 or 3 teams at most. I guess it’s either retribution or the stacking stats when you target an ally. Maybe the latter for Rey? Retribution might be better.

The Chewpio level 9 looks nice. I’m not sure I want to take him to R7. Then again, I guess R7 is inevitable for most characters. That’s probably going to be the one I go for. The other I don’t have geared or the bonuses don’t seem that great.

50R-T sounds like that will make her team a real pain to deal with. Sana sounds really good. It is a real shame that I don’t have ST Han or Cara geared. Vandor Chewie is kidn of scary. I’m guessing that’s going to require something like Nihilus or OG Mando to deal with. Even Rose sounds like she could be decent. My guild might go for that one.

I've always felt like datacrons were a sneaky way to pressure players into investing more gear into characters then they'd like.

Chewpio is the only character from this list I'd consider taking to R7 right now.

Yeah, I kind of did that with TIE Pilot and Aayla. Though TIE Pilot does help boost his ship and Aayla is an okay Jedi fill-in. Then again, with the ROTE TB, R7 has become the standard for a lot of character to use them. Even on that list, I’m pretty sure Qi’ra, Young Han, and Vandor Chewie are needed for specific CMs.

For Chewpio specifically, I think it’s actually not a bad thing. You figure, depending on which GLs you have, Raid Han would already be R8, C-3PO would be R7, and Chewie would be R6. CLS and Chewpio would be R5. You’re talking a few relic levels and suddenly that team is TB-ready.

But I do feel like this and the last set were easily skippable for most people. You figure not a lot of new people are doing Rey, so Resistance would be out for them. The scoundrels and most fo the droids you have to go out of your way to have at G13 outside of Chewpio.

If CG wanted to pressure more players to R7 characters, they should pick ones that a lot of people have already. It’s a whole lot easier to get someone to go from R5 to R7 than to gear someone up from nothing. Not to mention they overlap a lot. You’ll often have 2 or 3 characters that are normally on the same team have a level 9, which makes it so there’s no real incentive to do more than the one you’ll use. It was like that with the Inquisitors last time. 1 or 2 (if you really want 3v3) and that’s it.

Well, I got the Chewpio Datacron and tried it out against a Jabba team. For a little context, I have CLS and Chewie at R6, Chewpio and C-3PO at R7, and Han at R8. This is my Datacron:

The Jabba team I went against had a 323 speed Boushh. Jabba was R8, Krrsantan was R7, Embo R6, and R5 for Boushh and Skiff Lando. Not an insanely modded team, but decent. I was able to win pretty easily without losing anyone. There was a moment where they focused down Chewie and I can close to losing him, but I think I would still have won without him. There is also a race to Jabba’s ultimate at the end. I beat it, but I could see how a faster Jabba (it was 510) could get there in time.

The first half is rough. You can’t attack out of turn with deadly bluff, so the first three turns for each character is just trying to get through it. Stun Boushh first so she won’t get called in at first. As soon as you get deadly bluff off, you start building steam and then just bulldoze through them. The team had the Datacron that revived the tank, so I went through Krrsantan 3 times. The level 6 was the scoundrel ability block and it had +40% health as a stat.

I am kind of limited on what I can test against, since my arena doesn’t have a lot of variety. But Jabba is a pretty big team nowadays. The only other main non-GL counter I can think of is Aphra. Without the Datacron, I don’t think Inquisitors work anymore. And a lot of people have the CLS team, so it’s one that is in close reach for a lot of people, if they get the Datacron. ‘If’ being the operative word here. There are 6 droid options, so it might take a couple tries.

The level 3 and 6 options don’t seem super important to it all working. I didn’t notice a ton of target lock. I think the other level 6 bonuses like retribution, 2% TM, or the target other allies could all be useful. For the level 3 ones, I think the stacking crit damage or the health/protection recovery with buffs would also work. I wouldn’t worry too much about the stats, but armor penetration is probably the best, since all the characters do physical damage.

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