Phoenix Strategy - Your Ticket to Thrawn - Part 2: Mods
In addition to my other guide, https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/116512/phoenix-strategy-your-ticket-to-thrawn-part-1-survive#latest , which was all about the character abilities and how to use them to survive and whittle the team down, I do anticipate the Thrawn event to need very good mods if you're shooting for 6 or 7*, especially if you're like me and only have the Phoenix characters at gear 8.
As in the other guide, I won't be considering Sabine yet, since due to her slower farm she likely will not be ready.
Let's start with one of the easier ones to mod: Kanan. He is a typical tank, and as such will want health and protection and not necessarily need speed. One might be inclined to add speed so that he can use his basic and specials more often, but (a) you can use Hera or Ezra to have Kanan assist with his basic and (b) under Hera's lead he'll be gaining a bit more TM than just his speed.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/kanan-jarrus/
A couple things to keep in mind with Kanan: the offense down from his basic is unavoidable (even through foresight) if he crits, so Kanan will like critical chance. Also, while Kanan is taunting, his tenacity is doubled. However, from his unique, he can also gain health back when he suffers a debuff. So adding a tenacity plus mod could be helpful to get him over 100% tenacity when he's taunting, or it could work against his unique. That's up to you.
Besides crit chance, lots of protection and/or health (keep in mind, Zeb's unique helps him regain protection), and I put on a crit avoidance arrow because I don't need the speed and crit avoidance can help tanks! You'll see in my mods here that I do have halfway decent speed secondaries, but keep in mind he's low gear and doesn't have his full speed yet.
Next, Ezra. I decided to mod him for multiple situations, so I doubled up on crit damage. He's an attacker, so it seemed to fit. Another way to go here (maybe THE way) would be offense, especially since, with his unique, he gains offense each turn until he has +40% offense.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/ezra-bridger/
When I do get to pair him with Sabine, though, he'll get +25% crit damage from her unique for 241% crit damage!!! And when using his Watch and Learn ability and attacking with Sabine, he'll have 100% crit chance. Power shot! Unfortunately I can't use Sabine at the higher tiers of the Thrawn event, but I still see much damage from him.
As usual from attackers, as much speed secondaries and a speed arrow as you can get. His plus mod would be great for an offense primary, but I didn't have a suitable crit chance mod with offense primary, so I went with health for survivability (and with all the unique sharing between Zeb, Kanan, and Chopper, more health can only help ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
Continuing with the easy choices, we'll do Hera next. She has a medium base speed, but she's not a tank and she's not an attacker, so we'll get a speed set on her anyways. We'll want her a little faster so she can use her specials more often. I went with health for her secondary set since she needs help in that stat, as well, to be able to survive. Hopefully Chopper and Kanan can take the heat for her, but she may need to survive a shot or two.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/hera-syndulla/
I gave her a protection triangle both because I had one spare and she needs help with that. And a tenacity plus mod to keep her free from stuns and ability blocks so she can keep helping out. The other consideration here would be a health primary on the plus. She could possibly use potency due to the expose on her basic, but I consider that more of a side effect that's a nice to have than something I specifically want to mod for.
Now the more interesting toons. Chopper is support, but also taunts. But he's also a fast toon. I skipped the speed arrow and went with protection and health on his arrow and triangle to help him survive for his taunts, but still upped his speed with a speed mod set. His taunt only lasts one turn anyways, so it's more of a move to grab the attack of an enemy that's just about to go than it is to set up a long term taunt.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/chopper/
Again I went with a tenacity plus because I had one and to free him up to taunt and cleanse buffs, but I can see health or protection going here, too. Offense is not something you want to focus on this guy, though, as he has a poor base offense.
Finally, Zeb. I'm not entirely sure where to go with this guy. He's a tank, but he does decent damage, too. He also has interesting specials that you'd like to use often, but his base speed is very low, so I wouldn't put a speed set on him. In the end, I went with plenty of health, in part because his unique helps him turn that health into more protection.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/garazeb-zeb-orrelios/
I also feel like potency is important for him, to get in his daze and then stun combo, or to strike with his stagger move. Even though he's a tank, he doesn't taunt, so he doesn't need to stay slow. Speed secondaries are also your friend.
Between these mods and the strategies I outlined in part one of this guide series, I've been able to take on teams in GW that are 20 levels and two gear tiers higher than my phoenix squad. And they continued through at least 6 or 7 GW nodes with full health and protection at the end. And I have a broken node 11 and node 12, so my other nodes are that much stronger.
Happy hunting!
As in the other guide, I won't be considering Sabine yet, since due to her slower farm she likely will not be ready.
Let's start with one of the easier ones to mod: Kanan. He is a typical tank, and as such will want health and protection and not necessarily need speed. One might be inclined to add speed so that he can use his basic and specials more often, but (a) you can use Hera or Ezra to have Kanan assist with his basic and (b) under Hera's lead he'll be gaining a bit more TM than just his speed.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/kanan-jarrus/
A couple things to keep in mind with Kanan: the offense down from his basic is unavoidable (even through foresight) if he crits, so Kanan will like critical chance. Also, while Kanan is taunting, his tenacity is doubled. However, from his unique, he can also gain health back when he suffers a debuff. So adding a tenacity plus mod could be helpful to get him over 100% tenacity when he's taunting, or it could work against his unique. That's up to you.
Besides crit chance, lots of protection and/or health (keep in mind, Zeb's unique helps him regain protection), and I put on a crit avoidance arrow because I don't need the speed and crit avoidance can help tanks! You'll see in my mods here that I do have halfway decent speed secondaries, but keep in mind he's low gear and doesn't have his full speed yet.
Next, Ezra. I decided to mod him for multiple situations, so I doubled up on crit damage. He's an attacker, so it seemed to fit. Another way to go here (maybe THE way) would be offense, especially since, with his unique, he gains offense each turn until he has +40% offense.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/ezra-bridger/
When I do get to pair him with Sabine, though, he'll get +25% crit damage from her unique for 241% crit damage!!! And when using his Watch and Learn ability and attacking with Sabine, he'll have 100% crit chance. Power shot! Unfortunately I can't use Sabine at the higher tiers of the Thrawn event, but I still see much damage from him.
As usual from attackers, as much speed secondaries and a speed arrow as you can get. His plus mod would be great for an offense primary, but I didn't have a suitable crit chance mod with offense primary, so I went with health for survivability (and with all the unique sharing between Zeb, Kanan, and Chopper, more health can only help ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
Continuing with the easy choices, we'll do Hera next. She has a medium base speed, but she's not a tank and she's not an attacker, so we'll get a speed set on her anyways. We'll want her a little faster so she can use her specials more often. I went with health for her secondary set since she needs help in that stat, as well, to be able to survive. Hopefully Chopper and Kanan can take the heat for her, but she may need to survive a shot or two.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/hera-syndulla/
I gave her a protection triangle both because I had one spare and she needs help with that. And a tenacity plus mod to keep her free from stuns and ability blocks so she can keep helping out. The other consideration here would be a health primary on the plus. She could possibly use potency due to the expose on her basic, but I consider that more of a side effect that's a nice to have than something I specifically want to mod for.
Now the more interesting toons. Chopper is support, but also taunts. But he's also a fast toon. I skipped the speed arrow and went with protection and health on his arrow and triangle to help him survive for his taunts, but still upped his speed with a speed mod set. His taunt only lasts one turn anyways, so it's more of a move to grab the attack of an enemy that's just about to go than it is to set up a long term taunt.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/chopper/
Again I went with a tenacity plus because I had one and to free him up to taunt and cleanse buffs, but I can see health or protection going here, too. Offense is not something you want to focus on this guy, though, as he has a poor base offense.
Finally, Zeb. I'm not entirely sure where to go with this guy. He's a tank, but he does decent damage, too. He also has interesting specials that you'd like to use often, but his base speed is very low, so I wouldn't put a speed set on him. In the end, I went with plenty of health, in part because his unique helps him turn that health into more protection.
https://swgoh.gg/u/dretzle/collection/garazeb-zeb-orrelios/
I also feel like potency is important for him, to get in his daze and then stun combo, or to strike with his stagger move. Even though he's a tank, he doesn't taunt, so he doesn't need to stay slow. Speed secondaries are also your friend.
Between these mods and the strategies I outlined in part one of this guide series, I've been able to take on teams in GW that are 20 levels and two gear tiers higher than my phoenix squad. And they continued through at least 6 or 7 GW nodes with full health and protection at the end. And I have a broken node 11 and node 12, so my other nodes are that much stronger.
Happy hunting!
