Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes: Content Update 4/11/2018

Here are the update notes for todays 4/11/2018 Content Update!

RAID REWARDS REBALANCE
The Sith Triumvirate Raid rewards have been rebalanced. An outline of the reward rebalance can be found in this post:
Dev Blog – Sith Triumvirate Raid Rewards – 4/2/18

NOTE: With the flattening of raid rewards, top ranking players (particularly in the Heroic) may see lower drop rates of fully crafted gear pieces, and (for some ranks) lower aggregate numbers of direct gear salvage drops. This has been offset by several factors, including:

• Increase in quality of complete piece AND salvage drops
• Higher payout of Guild Event Tokens and Guild Currency
  • We are closely monitoring the ability of the current Stores to effectively sink this currency on the gear and shards players need. In the coming weeks, we will be significantly expanding these stores to provide what players need the most, and with more convenience.
• Greater benefit for the overall guild – this will correspond quickly to your guild’s ability to complete raids faster / with less difficulty.

We will be monitoring player feedback AND the effects of these changes to ensure this benefits players as intended.

EVENTS

Assault Battles Update
With this release we are updating three of our Assault Battle events (Forest Moon, Military Might, & Ground War) with a pass on consistency, clarity, and balance. In addition, we are adding Mythic tiers to these events. We are doing this to ensure that all events of a category (in this case, Assault Battles) have a similar level of predictability and challenge, as well as a unified style and appearance. Please note that Assault Battle Mythic tiers are intended to be the pinnacle of challenge in the Event system, and may be adjusted over time to ensure this experience remains such.

Forest Moon:

• Updated event Description.
• Updated all Mission descriptions.
• Updated the Defend bonus ability with several bugfixes. Defend will now do the following:
  • Immediately grant the activating unit a heal equal to 20% of their maximum Health.
  • Grant +80% Defense (Armor & Suppression) for 3 turns. (Was 2 turns)
  • Grant +100% Critical Avoidance for 3 turns. (Was 2 turns, and did not always apply correctly.)
  • The active bonuses from Defend will now persist between encounters. (Was: expire on encounter end)
• Added Mythic Tier.
  • Unlocks when the Bonus Tier has been completed.
  • As with all “Mythic” things, expect this tier to be something familiar yet different from the standard experience.
  • Assault Battle Mythic tiers are tuned for fully maxed out characters (G12, L85, Excellent 5-dot Mods).

Military Might:
(NOTE: This event is not scheduled for April)

• Updated event Description.
• Updated all Mission descriptions.
• Updated the Counterwatch bonus ability. Counterwatch will now do the following:
  • Grant a Heal Over Time effect.
  • Grant +50% bonus offense (Counterwatch was already doing this, but the ability description was inaccurate.)
  • Grant the activating character Retribution for 2 turns.
  • While the Retribution effect is active, if the character attacks out of turn they have a 50% chance to call an assist. (New)
  • Updated ability description to clarify what is actually being granted. (Was: incorrectly stated it was granting “double damage” when in fact was only granting a 50% offense increase)
  • Context: The introduction of Commander Luke Skywalker has made this ability less useful then initially conceived. By adding the chance to call an assist, this both makes the ability more useful, but also synergizes nicely with Luke and his leader ability (should players bring him as the leader). The offense bonus was already present, but as the first and oldest “bonus ability” there were some messaging problems in the old description. This bonus ability will now be a more fun and rewarding part of the play experience for this event.
• Added Bonus Tier.
  • Unlocks when T2 has been completed.
• Added Mythic Tier.
  • Unlocks when the Bonus Tier has been completed.
  • As with all “Mythic” things, expect this tier to be something familiar yet different from the standard experience.
  • Assault Battle Mythic tiers are tuned for fully maxed out characters (G12, L85, Excellent 5-dot Mods).

Ground War:

• Changed event allowed units to: Jedi, Ewoks, Ugnaught (was: Resistance, Ewoks, Ugnaught)
  • Context: We are making this change because in each of the other Assault Battles there is a faction which makes sense from a lore perspective and a faction which is just for fun/challenge. Ground War was an outlier by asking users to bring the Resistance to battle Separatists.
• Updated event Description.
• Updated all Mission descriptions.
• The Overcharge buff granted by Shield Droids will now also apply to B1 Battledroids. (Was: B2 Battledroids, IG-100, Nute Gunray, and Count Dooku only)
• Updated descriptions for all 5 ranks of Overcharge to clearly state which version is active and how much bonus protection is being granted. (Was: shared description across all 5 ranks)
• Replaced “Stand Aside” bonus ability with a new bonus ability “Moment of Glory”
  • Moment of Glory: Gain an immediate turn with the following benefits: Offense Up, Speed Up, Critical Chance Up, Critical Damage Up, Health Steal Up, Defense Penetration Up, and Potency Up. Activating this ability puts all allies instances of this power on cooldown.
  • Context: While mechanically interesting, the old Stand Aside bonus ability wasn’t very useful and we found most players weren’t willing to sacrifice the turns of their allies in order to power up a single character for a few turns. It was additionally difficult to find a clear use for this ability in the Mythic tier, where enemies are extremely healthy and powerful and losing 4 character’s turns wasn’t a satisfying experience. Moment of Glory retains the unique feel of “powering up” a single character (or multiple, if clever you are) without penalizing the other characters which we feel creates a more fun and interesting play experience.
• Added Bonus Tier.
  • Unlocks when T2 has been completed.
• Added Mythic Tier.
  • Unlocks when the Bonus Tier has been completed.
  • As with all “Mythic” things, expect this tier to be something familiar yet different from the standard experience.
  • Assault Battle Mythic tiers are tuned for fully maxed out characters (G12, L85, Excellent 5-dot Mods).
• Overhauled repeat play rewards to be in-line with other Assault Battle events.

Grand Master Yoda:

• Grand Master Yoda can now copy the “Overcharge” buff from Assault Battle Ground War. For performance reasons, any rank of the Overcharge buff copied will be converted into the 300% version. Note that this effect persists between encounters, as it is a special effect found only in an event.
• Context: Switching the Ground War event to use Jedi opens up many interesting possible squad configurations, and it makes sense that the Grand Master should be able to copy the signature buff from this event for a bit of added fun.

Mythic Events:

• Artist of War Mythic Event has been added. This event will only appear for users who have completed the Artist of War Legendary event Tier 7.

Endor Escalation:

• In Tier 1 the health of the AT-ST in this event has been reduced to 200,000 (was: 300,000)
• In Tier 2 the health of the AT-ST has been reduced to 1,000,000 (was: 2,000,000)
• Context: We’re happy with the level of challenge taking on such an iconic vehicle has but we’re reducing the total overall health to make the event quicker to complete.

Artist of War (Mythic Event)
The battle between Thrawn and Phoenix squadron has come to a head and only one side can prevail.

• Date the event begins: April 14th
• Minimum Lvl Requirements: 85
• Character Requirements: Phoenix Squadron, Empire Squadron, Grand Admiral Thrawn

Artist of War and Chimaera (Legendary Events)

• Date the event begins: April 12th
• Character Requirements: Phoenix Squadron

NOTE: The Chimaera event is allowing players to enter with fewer than originally intended units due to a bug with how the mandatory units are being counted. However, because the event will be changed to conform with an upcoming update to ships, we are leaving the event as-is for this instance.

REWORKS
Darth Traya Ability Name Change</b>
Swapped names for Darth Traya’s Unique and Leader abilities to better align her abilities with Sion and Nihilus naming conventions.

SHARD SHUFFLE
NOTE: Starting with the characters mentioned below, to make room for characters that are coming into the game, we are starting by removing characters that have 1 or more duplicate nodes. In every case, we will be leaving the “easier farm” node for those characters. We will also be providing guidance on our additional plans to manage this process, and ensure that farming routines are minimally disrupted, before the next round of characters hit the board.

The following characters are now farmable in the following locations:

Wicket