2017-11-23
Electronic Arts

Power comes in many forms. Sometimes you need a lightsaber, and sometimes you need a hulking, ferocious beast with razor-sharp claws and fangs. If the latter happens to sound more fun, you'll want to get your hands on the savage Wampa!

A native to the ice planet of Hoth, the intimidating Wampa is a surprisingly stealthy predator, considering its bulky frame. While he had disagreement with Commander Luke Skywalker, the addition of the Wampa to the holotable means that you can choose to have them fight side-by-side!

Territory Wars, the first Guild vs Guild competitive event in Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes, is almost here. And with the Territory Wars update comes one of the most exciting characters yet, the powerful Wampa.

Furthermore, two additional characters, Colonel Starck & Imperial Probe Droid, will soon be available to add to your collection as well. If the ice planet of Hoth, featured in Star Wars™: The Empire Strikes Back™, is your idea of an attractive weekend getaway, you'll love what's in store.

Wampa

Wampas are large, furry predators that stalk their prey under the cover of snowfall. One of these beasts attacked Luke Skywalker outside Echo Base, and devoured the tauntaun he was riding.

The Wampa's abilities exude incredible strength and are flavorful to his actions in Star Wars™: The Empire Strikes Back, including improved damage against Rebel characters. He pairs especially well with characters that can inflict multiple DOT (damage over time) debuffs, such as Darth Vader and Darth Sidious.

Wampa is also exceedingly resilient, being able to grant himself Protection Up and has a high chance of Counter Attacks. His abilities are versatile and combo well with many squads, giving lots of flexibility in how you want to play with him.

Basic Ability: Womp!
Final Text: Deal Physical damage to target enemy and inflict Damage Over Time for 2 turns. If the target was Exposed or Staggered, Stun them for 1 turn. If the target was debuffed, gain 20% Turn Meter. If Wampa isn't debuffed, gain 20% Turn Meter. This attack can't be Evaded. This attack has +100% Offense against Rebel targets.

Developer Note: This ability is acutely reflective of how the Wampa attacked Luke Skywalker, so we gave him increased damage against Rebels and characters that would likely be negatively affected by the brutal conditions of Hoth.

Special Ability 1: Icebreaker
Final Text: Dispel all debuffs on Wampa. Deal Physical damage to all enemies and Daze them for 2 turns. Wampa gains Protection Up (150%) until the next time this ability is used, which can't be Dispelled or prevented. (Cooldown 5)

Developer Note: Being a creature that thrives in harsh climates, it was ideal to give him the power to shrug off negative effects and gain extra protection against whatever environment he's in.

Special Ability 2: Furious Foe
Final Text: Inflict Healing Immunity on all enemies for 2 turns, which can't be Evaded. Wampa gains 35% Accuracy, 35% Critical Chance, and 35% Offense (stacking) for the rest of the encounter. Wampa gains 15% Turn Meter for each defeated ally and each active enemy. This ability starts on cooldown. (Cooldown 4)

Unique Ability 1: Howling Rage
Final Text: While Wampa has Protection Up, it has +20% Counter Chance, +50% Offense, and +50% Tenacity.

Unique Ability 2: Cornered Beast
Final Text: Wampa has +50% Counter Chance. Wampa has +10% Counter Chance, +5% Health Steal and +5% Offense for each Damage Over Time effect on each enemy.

Colonel Starck

An officer of the Galactic Empire and commander of the AT-AT, Blizzard 4, serving under General Veers at the battle of Hoth. His character shards well be obtainable in a Cantina node.

Colonel Starck will be the new essential addition to an Imperial Trooper squad, lead by General Veers. His Unique ability allows all Imperial Troopers to hit much harder and remove a significant amount of Turn Meter from enemies.

He can even pair well with other Empire characters, including Emperor Palpatine and Gar Saxon, granting boosts to all their Critical Chance and Critical Damage bonuses.

Basic: Debilitating Shot
Final Text: Deal Physical damage to target enemy and inflict Defense Down for 2 turns. If the target was already debuffed, deal double damage.

Special 1: Scan All Wavelengths
Final Text: Empire allies gain Critical Chance Up and Critical Damage Up for 3 turns. Starck gains 5% Turn Meter for each Empire ally and each Rebel enemy. (Cooldown 3)

Developer Note: As Colonel Starck was at the battle of Hoth, we wanted to make him more powerful against Rebel characters. And as he served under General Veers, we wanted him to bolster Empire allies, especially those with the Imperial Trooper tag, which Veers has.

Special 2: Blizzard Four Barrage 
Final Text: Deal Physical damage to all enemies with a 50% chance to Stagger them. Dispel all buffs on the primary target. For each active Imperial Trooper ally, deal 10% more damage and reduce the cooldown of this ability by 1.

Developer Note: Being the commander of an AT-AT, it makes sense that he can call in the assistance of the big guns.

Unique: Imperial Intelligence
Final Text: At the end of his turn, Starck recovers 7% Health and 3% Protection, and removes 1% Turn Meter from all enemies for each active Empire ally (doubled for Imperial Trooper allies). While Starck is active, Imperial Troopers allies have +50 Armor Penetration.

+Imperial Probe Droid +

Equipped with an array of sensors and telemetry hardware, this reconnaissance probot will quickly complete its mission and, if necessary, self-destruct to obscure the mission protocols. His character shards will be earned through nodes in Territory Battles (darkside).

Imperial Probe Droid is the first ground character able to inflict the Target Lock debuff. It's also the first character with the ability to self-destruct: removing it from battle but also dealing tons of damage to all enemies.

While the Imperial Probe Droid pairs best with Droid and Empire characters, his abilities are versatile enough to find effective combinations with both Dark Side and Light Side characters.

Basic: Precision Blasters
Final Text: Deal Physical damage to target enemy with an 80% chance to Expose them for 2 turns

Special 1: Detect
Final Text: Dispel all buffs on all enemies with a 75% chance to inflict Target Lock for 2 turns. Then, remove 5% Turn Meter from Target Locked enemies. This attack can't be Evaded. (Cooldown 4)

Special 2: Self-Destruct
Final Text: Imperial Probe Droid instantly defeats itself and can't be Revived. Deal massive damage to target enemy. Deal Physical damage to enemies, equal to 30% of their Max Health. Expose all Target Locked enemies for 2 turns. This attack can't be Evaded. While Imperial Probe Droid has full Health, or has no active allies, this ability cannot be activated (cooldown of this ability is set to 1 and can't be reduced)

Developer Note: we knew from the beginning that this had to be part of Imperial Probe Droid's kit, as it blew itself up in front of Han Solo and Chewbacca. As this is the first character that can remove itself from combat, there was a lot of balancing required in weighing the trade-off of the droid self-destructing in relation to the amount of damage the explosion deals. We can't wait to see how players will use this.

Unique: Imperial Logistics
Final Text: Imperial Probe Droid has +50% Max Health. At the end of each Droid ally turn, at the end of each Empire ally turn, and at the end of each Rebel enemy turn, Imperial Probe Droid gains 3% Turn Meter. While Imperial Probe Droid is active Target Locked enemies can't gain buffs, and have -25% Evasion.