Lord Vader rework to boost non-datacron Clone team
So I've seen a fair bit of discussion online about LV's effectiveness with his new DS clone squad without the Appo datacron and I must say I agree. This mainly comes down to difficulty applying Order 66. I believe the clones don't need any more buffs but Lord Vader himself needs tweaks to better lead his clones specifically. Also, in sticking with CG's desire to make him much, much harder to beat by non-GL characters, I've come up with some changes that I believe would make this team very deadly without relying on the DC to be top tier. the proposed changes are in highlighted in RED.
End of the Galactic Republic (Ultimate)
Requires at least 65% Ultimate Charge to activate.
Ultimate Charge: Lord Vader gains Ultimate Charge when he uses Dark Harbinger. If Lord Vader is the Leader, when debuffed Dark Side allies receive damage he gains 2% Ultimate Charge, increased to 3% if that ally was an Unaligned Force User. If all other allies are Dark Side Clone Troopers at the start of encounter, Lord Vader gains 3% Ultimate Charge whenever a debuffed Dark Side Clone Trooper ally takes damage.
Lord Vader gains 50% of other Dark Side allies' current Mastery (stacking) until the end of the encounter, then they lose that much. Empire and Dark Side Unaligned Force User allies don't lose Mastery from this ability.
If 100% Ultimate Charge was used, Lord Vader instead gains 75% Mastery from this ability, increased to 100% Mastery if all allies are Dark Side Clone Troopers, dispels all debuffs on himself, takes a bonus turn, reduces his cooldowns by 1, and gains Ashes of the Republic for 5 turns, which can't be copied, dispelled, or prevented.
These Mastery gains will only trigger if the character has more than 0 Mastery.
Ashes of the Republic: Lord Vader's abilities gain additional effects; enemies defeated while this is active can't be revived; Lord Vader is immune to Ability Block, Healing Immunity, and Shock; can't gain Ultimate Charge
Vindictive Storm (Basic)
Deal Physical damage to target enemy and if Lord Vader has 30 or more stacks of Underestimated, he deals damage again.
Each time this ability deals damage in the same attack, it deals 25% more damage (max 50%).
Ashes of the Republic: Deal damage again and if target enemy had Order 66, attack again.
Dark Harbinger (Special) • 3 turn cooldown
Inflict Healing Immunity for 2 turns, inflict Order 66 for 2 turns which can't be dispelled or resisted and deal Physical damage to target enemy. This ability deals 20% more Physical damage on subsequent uses (stacking, max 5 stacks).
Lord Vader gains 1% Ultimate Charge and Empire and Dark Side Unaligned Force User allies recover 0.5% Health for each stack of Underestimated.
Ashes of the Republic: This attack also deals true damage and if target already had Order 66 and all allies are Dark Side Clone Troopers, call all allies to assist.
Unshackled Emotions (Special) • 5 turn cooldown
Deal Physical damage to all enemies and inflict Daze and 4 Damage Over Time effects for 2 turns, which can't be resisted. If all allies are Dark Side Clone Troopers and there are no enemy Galactic Legends, Daze can't be dispelled for 1 turn. For each stack of Underestimated, this ability deals 2.5% more damage, and all Dark Side allies gain 1% Mastery (stacking) until the end of the encounter.
Ashes of the Republic: Inflict Ability Block for 1 turn which can't be dispelled or resisted, and increase target enemy's cooldowns by 2. If any enemies had Order 66, it is reapplied for 2 turns and if target enemy had Order 66, their cooldowns are increased by 3.
My New Empire (Lead) NO CHANGE
Twisted Prophecy (Unique)
Lord Vader is immune to Turn Meter manipulation and his attacks can't be evaded. At the start of battle he loses all Protection and gains that much Max Health, and Dark Side Unaligned Force User allies gain Speed Up and Stealth for 2 turns.
At the start of each of Lord Vader's turns, enemies are inflicted with 2 Damage Over Time effects for 2 turns, which can't be resisted. Enemies with Damage Over Time effects can't gain bonus Turn Meter. If there are no enemy Galactic Legend, whenever any stacks of Damage Over Time are dispelled on an enemy, they gain a stack of Damage Over Time, which can't be dispelled, evaded, or resisted, until the end of battle and enemies with Damage Over Time effects can't gain bonus turns.
At the start of each other character's turn Lord Vader gains 1 stack of Underestimated (max: 60), doubled for Galactic Republic and Jedi enemies.
Underestimated: Vindictive Storm, Dark Harbinger, and Unshackled Emotions gain additional effects
Reasonings
Ultimate - The reasoning for giving LV an extra 25% Mastery bonus is to give a little more bang for buck when using the full clone squad and gives more incentive to R9 them as it lets LV ramp up damage just a little quicker.
Basic - I gave Vader with AotR the ability to attack twice for 3 reasons. #1 is that it gives a more thematic tone of being a twisted version of GAS clones who still attacks twice. #2 It makes Order 66 a little more deadly of a debuff and #3, when marked by Piett, LV used to attack twice in his old squad anyway so why not carry it over and tie it to his Ult + Order 66.
Dark Harbinger - I simply removed Buff Immunity and replaced it with Order 66 since it a) does the same thing basically and b) gives a much needed extra way to apply Order 66 (especially when that DC expires). It fits thematically that the GL can apply the new debuff that his team relies on. As for calling all Clones to assist when in Ult, it makes them much more deadly, delivers on that promised damage potential and gives a lot more meaning to Vaders Ult - it becomes scary if not managed. Dazing the clones will be key to preventing this.
Unshackled Emotions - The undispellable Daze for 1 turn would help CG achieve their goal of making LV very, very hard to deal with without a non GL. Its pretty much that simple. As for when he's in Ult, reapplyng existing Order 66 simply helps the debuff stay on the field longer and increasing the targets cooldown to 3 instead of 2 is simply a neat little bonus that makes his ult that little bit more meaningful.
Twisted Prophecy - Finally, adding to the goal of making non GL counters very difficult against LV, this seals the deal and basically throws in CX-2 Omni to work against any non GL counter instead of going all the way and making all DoT's reapply like the DV lead which would be too much IMO.
I hope you all enjoy.