A symbol of the empire

When talking about Empire, first thoughts are the imperial march, Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and Tie Fighters (and star destroyers, and...well this is Star Wars). Quoting Starwars Databank :

The TIE fighter was the unforgettable symbol of the Imperial fleet.

Tie Fighters are a symbol of the Empire in the movies : the distinctive noise, and the inevitable death of its pilot, spinning after losing a wing, or failing to dodge an asteroid.

Tomorrow, the Tie Fighter Pilot will join the ranks of the empire characters available for Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. You want to collect this guy, because he's part of the symbol. Moreover, with ships coming to the game, well, having pilots seems legit.

Thanks to some datamining, we have raw information about this character. Let's take a look !

Abilities package

The TIE Fighter Pilot is an attacker. For the abilities details, I let you check swgoh.gg (cf. link on the name).

In a few words, he is :

A glasscanon, low HP, nice damage and an Area of Effect ability (AoE : hitting all ennemies)

Fast, sharing the fastest base speed from the game with Rey and Princess Leia

A decent support character : his AoE has 80% chance to inflit buff immunity. That's important with the current state of the game, more on that later on. He can block abilities to his main target too. Powerful...

Resilient : 35% chance to gain foresight (equals 100% chance to dodge the next attack) for each debuffed enemies. It's huge because he'll debuff a lot !

...not a leader

Interesting stats

Potency

Fully maxed, without mod, the TIE Fighter Pilot has 51% potency. He's ranked 4th at the time of writing.

That means that his debuffs have very good chances of landing. Being fast, he can really mess with the opponents team from the beginning of the fight, while boosting his damage and survivability.

Speed

As stated above, he's one of the 3 characters with a base speed of 164. With mods around, he can become really fast.

Defensive stats : glass-level

30% tenacity, 10% health steal : that's average.

Low HP (10,319), Low Protection (9,922) : he will be targeted early on by the opponent's team...

You'll need tanks to use him correctly

Personal synergies

The TIE Fighter Pilot reveals an interesting "burst damage" synergy :

an AOE that inflicts Debuff to the whole team, and block abilities for his main target (sorry ST Han, no taunt... Too bad Lando, you'll have to wait a little before calling your red-lazer-rain) He can gain turn meter for every enemy debuffed at the end of his turn... 5x 10%, half a turn meter after the very first turn. Being fast, he'll play quickly again He has 35% chance per enemy debuffed to gain foresight. You need 3 debuffed enemy to be protected from one attack. His base attack deals 35% more damage for each debuffed enemies.

This one deserves an entire paragraph

Each. Debuffed. Enemies. Worth it ?

The TIE Fighter Pilot hit with his basic within a range of 3,859 to 4,265, maxed without mods. That's an average of 4,062.

Stick to the plan : you AoE the ennemy's team.

Thanks to your potency, they're all debuffed.

Now comes the next turn, let's shoot somebody.

35% of the base damage is : 1,421.7

5 ennemies debuffed gives us : 7,108.5

Without a critical hit, that's around 11,170 damage.

Still without mods, if it's a critical hit : you'll deal around 16,755 damage.

It's different to IG-88's unique ability, giving "only" +20% damage for each enemy with a debuff, but IG-88 has a permanent critical damage bonus, as well as a unique that works on his AoE too.

But, the TIE Fighter Pilot ain't a droid. He'll fit in other teams. Especially with the new Empire characters released (Emperor Palpatine, ShoreTrooper).

Menace level : Priority target

With his ability block, and buff immunity : the TIE Fighter Pilot will impact all the enemy squad members.

Many teams are relying on buffs to hit harder, faster (stronger).

The TIE Pilot will hurt them badly. Let's recap :

no buffs for the enemy's squad,

a hard hitting character,

...with a low health/protection pool

He'll probably be removed as soon as possible.

Only with Palpatine on his side can he have some relief (Palpatine has to be removed quickly too).

Gearing

You can level the TIE Fighter Pilot up to Gear 10, requiring 3 raid gear items ( 1 MK5 Fusion Furnace, 1 MK6 Nubian Design Tech, 1 MK 7 Nubian Security Scanner).

That's average.

He has also average needs of purple gear. That's not the easiest character to gear, but not the worst too..

However, he stops at GL10, which means you'll need more gear in the future...

Empire Synergies

Emperor Palpatine

Debuffs : Shock, Stuns : Good for TIE Fighter Pilot's basic attack

Potency bonus on leader skill : more chance to debuff equals more damage on basic attack : 51% base + 32% leader bonus without mods. It's huge

Turn meter bonus on leader skill : 20% turn meter when a debuff is applied : that simply means you play twice in a row.

Synergy level : Excellent

Grand Moff Tarkin

+28 speed if Tarkin's the leader

Debuffs : Offense down, speed down on all ennemies : useful debuffs to improve TIE fighter's damage

an AoE that reduces turn meter : another day to live for the TIE Fighter pilot.

Synergy level : worth testing !

Darth Vader

Vader without Tie Fighters', is like a Jedi without a lightsaber... Well, that's for the lore, in game what do we have...

Debuffs : ability block, speed down, damage over time : very interesting !

As a leader : 30% offense and 10% turn meter when damaging an ennemy. Nice : more damage, and turn meter options on the AoE ability

Synergy level : worth testing !

General Veers

AoE with ability block : debuff for the basic atack

As a leader : 30% offense (hey, that means we can reach 20K on crits for a full debuffed team ! That's the same with Vader by the way)

and that's all... Veers can gain bonuses for himself, mostly if enemies are dying. That can be useful in Galactic War, but not really in arena...

Synergy level : for fun only

Other non leaders

Royal Guard

He stuns : that's a debuff, and an opponent that cannot hurt your team. And he can protect the pilot with his surprise taunts !

Teammate Synergy level : good buddy

Shoretrooper

He taunts. He taunts right from the start. Even before the battle starts. He taunts in the morning. He taunts at night, he taunts in the afternoon. When he taunts he makes TIE Fighter Pilot feel all right. He taunts in time of peace, and taunts in time of war. He taunts before he taunts ! And then he taunts once more.

He inflicts a single target debuff, and has a lot of health, which is nice when taunting.

Teammate Synergy level : good buddy

Magmatrooper

No debuffs, no taunt. Dealing damage is TIE Fighter Pilot's job.

Teammate Synergy level : none

Snowtrooper

No debuffs, no taunt. If a unit is defeated, grants 15% turn meter to allies. Chances are that the dead unit will be the TIE Fighter Pilot.

Teammate Synergy level : very low

Stormtrooper

He taunts ! But he's slow...

If the Stormtrooper can trigger his taunt before the TIE Fighter Pilot is focused, that's a relief.

However most arena teams are including a character able to dispel. This dispels aims to remove any taunt in the way of damage dealers.

Teammate Synergy level : low

Other synergies

B2 : Multiple debuffs, dispels and blocks enemy buffs too. He can't taunt, but crippling down the team, while boosting the TIE Fighter Pilot's damage is worth considering

: Multiple debuffs, dispels and blocks enemy buffs too. He can't taunt, but crippling down the team, while boosting the TIE Fighter Pilot's damage is worth considering Boba Fett : Ok, this guy's not ready for arena play. But on the paper : there's an AoE with debuffs, and a leader ability giving a bonus on critical damage and critical chance.

: Ok, this guy's not ready for arena play. But on the paper : there's an AoE with debuffs, and a leader ability giving a bonus on critical damage and critical chance. Darth Sidious : Not really worth it, but he's a second choice leader with critical chance and damage bonus. He's landing many debuffs too.

: Not really worth it, but he's a second choice leader with critical chance and damage bonus. He's landing many debuffs too. Sun Fac : interesting, but requires a heavy wallet. Out of the scope of this article

Conclusion

The Empire lacks character of this kind. The kind which can deal massive damage.

Everyone played Rey and/or Princess Leia because there were not many replacements. It's hard to say if he will share their spot.

With the release of Emperor Palpatine, and more Darth Vader shards available, he totally fits in an Empire squad. Bring the Royal Guard, and the ShoreTrooper or Grand Moff Tarkin, and you can start something. I'm pretty sure we'll see this guy in arena teams (as soon as he becomes farmable that is).

Thanks to Lizsen (from the official forum), and Ivan_Ivanov_Ivansky (from reddit) for your input, I missed a lot there !

