Thrawn basic - don't understand?

Just tried this ingame. It doesn't make sense:

1. Thrawn hits with basic. Gives speed up.
2. Target takes a turn with Speed up on him. Can use all abilities.
3. At the end of the target's turn, he loses Speed Up and gains ability block.
4. The target's next turn, it is ability blocked (unless Thrawn hits him with basic again, in which case it's stunned).

This seems overly difficult to use, and impossible for the AI to get right. You need to calculate the opponent's cooldowns, so the speed up comes only when they can use their basic, or you need to combo it with another toon that can AB, so Thrawn dishes out stuns instead of Speed Up (TFP? Snowtrooper? Vader? Or even Boba?). Moreover, it doesn't support the idea (which I thought was central to the ability and philosophy of Thrawn's special tactics) of evading cleanses, quite the opposite! There's a full cycle of turns allowing for cleansing the AB before it actually becomes relevant to the target.

@CG_Kozispoon is this really the way it was intended? Or was Speed Up supposed to drop off at the start of the opponent's turn?

Um, you guys haven't played this game ever? ALL buffs ALWAYS expire at the end of the character's turn, never at the start of it...

"Omeah;c-1133212" wrote:
Um, you guys haven't played this game ever? ALL buffs ALWAYS expire at the end of the character's turn, never at the start of it...

Darth Maul's stealth doesn't. It expires at the beginning of the turn and gives advantage. Meanwhile Teebo's stealth from Scramble Tactics expires at the end of a turn. So it's not obvious at all. Buffs can expire at the beginning of turn when CG feels like it. It looks like that should be the case here... yet it isn't.

"Acrofales;c-1133230" wrote:

"Omeah;c-1133212" wrote:
Um, you guys haven't played this game ever? ALL buffs ALWAYS expire at the end of the character's turn, never at the start of it...

Darth Maul's stealth doesn't. It expires at the beginning of the turn and gives advantage. Meanwhile Teebo's stealth from Scramble Tactics expires at the end of a turn. So it's not obvious at all. Buffs can expire at the beginning of turn when CG feels like it. It looks like that should be the case here... yet it isn't.

Additionally, if they wanted to avoid confusion they could have simply made it a differently named buff with the same effect.

Call it "Rushed" or something (fits better with Thrawn's theme to boot) and then have that specific buff always expire on turn start.

Boom, no confusion, more effective, better fitting with theme.

"Acrofales;c-1133230" wrote:

"Omeah;c-1133212" wrote:
Um, you guys haven't played this game ever? ALL buffs ALWAYS expire at the end of the character's turn, never at the start of it...

Darth Maul's stealth doesn't. It expires at the beginning of the turn and gives advantage. Meanwhile Teebo's stealth from Scramble Tactics expires at the end of a turn. So it's not obvious at all. Buffs can expire at the beginning of turn when CG feels like it. It looks like that should be the case here... yet it isn't.

My bad, there's ONE exception, which is a zeta leader buff. Yeah, now I understand how confusing it is

"Acrofales;c-1133204" wrote:
Just tried this ingame. It doesn't make sense:

1. Thrawn hits with basic. Gives speed up.
2. Target takes a turn with Speed up on him. Can use all abilities.
3. At the end of the target's turn, he loses Speed Up and gains ability block.
4. The target's next turn, it is ability blocked (unless Thrawn hits him with basic again, in which case it's stunned).

This seems overly difficult to use, and impossible for the AI to get right. You need to calculate the opponent's cooldowns, so the speed up comes only when they can use their basic, or you need to combo it with another toon that can AB, so Thrawn dishes out stuns instead of Speed Up (TFP? Snowtrooper? Vader? Or even Boba?). Moreover, it doesn't support the idea (which I thought was central to the ability and philosophy of Thrawn's special tactics) of evading cleanses, quite the opposite! There's a full cycle of turns allowing for cleansing the AB before it actually becomes relevant to the target.

@CG_Kozispoon is this really the way it was intended? Or was Speed Up supposed to drop off at the start of the opponent's turn?

Agreed
I don't see any point in ab coming after the turn too

Here's an example how this ability should be used
Turn 1: Nihilus CD increase
Turn 1: Thrawn basic that ability blocks turn 2.

The delayed ability block allows you to shut down a character for two turns instead of stacking ability block with nihilus's CD increase in the same turn.

When I reading Thrawn's abilities my first thought on the basic was if you hit a taunting tank with it the speed up will make his taunt expire sooner.

Still trying to figure out the ability block. The fact that it applies speed up first, then switches to ability block that "can't be resisted" means I think you'd be able to apply ability block through tenacity up. Say Rex opens with cleanse/tenacity up, you hit GK with Thrawn's basic and he'll end up ability blocked even though he has tenacity up. I don't know, I don't have him so I haven't been able to try anything yet.

Making his kit complicated fits his lore but means the AI will be terrible with him.

"kristian1311;c-1133265" wrote:
When I reading Thrawn's abilities my first thought on the basic was if you hit a taunting tank with it the speed up will make his taunt expire sooner.

Still trying to figure out the ability block. The fact that it applies speed up first, then switches to ability block that "can't be resisted" means I think you'd be able to apply ability block through tenacity up. Say Rex opens with cleanse/tenacity up, you hit GK with Thrawn's basic and he'll end up ability blocked even though he has tenacity up. I don't know, I don't have him so I haven't been able to try anything yet.

Making his kit complicated fits his lore but means the AI will be terrible with him.

That's exactly how it works

You pretty much need a PhD in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes Studies to understand how Thrawn's supposed to work..