I wanted to try the last hero that I have not seen much in campaign play so I selected Davith in a JR campaign started recently (finished first four missions). The rest of the party: we have Rapid Fire Vinto, Squad Cohesion Ko-Tun (eventually goal is Self Sufficient with DXR-6), DMMHY Onar vs Hutt Mercs. For XP upgrades on Davith, I've picked up Falling Leaf and plan to get Fell Swoop followed by Blindside. Our thought is that we have two strong single target damage dealers and it would be nice to have a second multi-target hero (in Davith).

So, I'm looking for suggestions on itemization for a multi-target cleave build. Originally, I was debating between Electrostaff + Extended Haft (one of my favorite combos) but decided it might be better to go with the slightly cheaper BD-1 + Balanced Hilt + Weighted Head (we have four heroes who we plan to buy weapons for). However, my concern is whether Davith can generate enough surges to reliable trigger Fell Swoop on his first attack and also be able to Cleave 2 every attack if desired. We do have Squad Coehsion Ko-Tun in the party so surge tokens should be available. However, in hindsight, I'm wondering if I should have gone with the slightly more expensive Electrostaff build which can very reliably Cleave 2 and deal higher single target damage with the three dice (four with Falling Leaf). Note - it is too late to pick up an Extended Haft at this point since we are out of Tier 1.

A few questions to answer:

• Will the BD-1 + Balanced Hilt + Weighted Head reliably be able to generate enough surges
• Would Force Pike + Weighted Head be a better option?
• Would it be better to go with a single target build and just rely on doing multi-target damage with three strong attacks?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

In general, has anyone had any success with Weighted Head on Electrostaff? Obviously Electrostaff doesn't have a lot of surge options (it also doesn't generate a lot of surges (25% for two surges not adjusting for defense) so it doesn't seem like a natural pairing. In fact, what attachments have people found useful for the Electrostaff? Personally, I'm a big fan of the Extended Haft for greater Cleave radius - which, like stated above, is not an option for me in this campaign. Maybe the Balanced Hilt on an Electrostaff is an okay option?

The key for Davith here is balancing using surges for Cleave against also triggering Fell Swoop once per activation.

Funny thing, we're also playing Davith, Ko-Tun, Vinto, and Onar in our current campaign and they seem a very potent combo. We're (re-)playing the Bespin Gambit, though, so it is a shorter one with a faster progression and we're playing against Reactive Defences.

Our Davith has gone with his 3XP lightsaber (for which he's gotten the Balanced Hilt), so he is sort of locked into his weapon now and I don't think that the Weighted Head would work for him. He is truely swimming in surges (from Hidden + Balanced Hilt + Surge power token + YYG), but he has to spend no less than 7 surges before he runs out of possibilities, so I suspect his next modification is more likely to be something adding other utility, such as Extended Haft or the Focusing Beam.

....honestly, playing Onar myself, I would be very tempted to pick up the Electrostaff should it become available. It's such a great weapon and since no one else in the group are making use of melee weapon upgrades, he might free up more options for Vinto and To-kun by going melee.

Balanced Hilt needs to come off for Extended Haft though, both are Balance mods.

ahh yes, I guess he will make do with only that one mod otherwise.

I guess some of the Impact modifications might work on Davith, but he's running pretty well with his own lightsaber, balanced hilt, and his reward and XP cards. Hard hitting with two-three 2-3 dice attacks per activation.

I think that Shrouded Lightsaber could work fairly well with Weighted Head.

Electrostaff + weighted head could also work but requires falling leaf to be really effective.

Weighted Head + Hilt does not work since they are the same category.

I also would not try to make both weighted head + fell swoop work.

But to be completely honest, if you already had 2+ single target heroes, I would not have taken Davith in the first place and would have gone for Shyla/Gaarkhan.

13 hours ago, Deadwolf said:

I think that Shrouded Lightsaber could work fairly well with Weighted Head.

Electrostaff + weighted head could also work but requires falling leaf to be really effective.

Weighted Head + Hilt does not work since they are the same category.

I also would not try to make both weighted head + fell swoop work.

But to be completely honest, if you already had 2+ single target heroes, I would not have taken Davith in the first place and would have gone for Shyla/Gaarkhan.

Thanks for the advice.

First of all, good point on Weighted Head and Balanced Hilt - I never noticed that Weighted Head was a balance mod. Regarding Shrouded Lightsaber, I have debated going that route since we have 4 heroes that need weapons to be effective (at least since Ko-Tun is going for Self Sufficient). Although, it does mean that Davith likely can't get Embody the Force if he gets the 3xp Lightsaber. Also, I did get Falling Leaf in anticipation of the need for the extra surges from a surge heavy die. Regarding hero selection, I'm definitely aware that we did force Davith a bit - I had not seen him much in campaign play and also wanted to stay away from the more powerful heroes since our Imperial player is a first time IP.

At this point, I think I'm narrowing it down to either Shrouded Lightsaber or Electrostaff. I already have a Balanced Hilt so could keep that and either get High Impact Guard for the Shrouded Lightsaber (in combination with Balanced Hilt) or use the Balanced Hilt with the Electrostaff to guarantee enough surges to reliably be able to use Fell Swoop and/or trigger the +2 damage surge. However, waiting for the Electrostaff is quite a long time to forgo an upgrade (3 more missions from where we are at now assuming it comes up in the first Tier 3 item draw).

On 2/25/2018 at 12:22 PM, machfalcon said:

Thanks for the advice.

First of all, good point on Weighted Head and Balanced Hilt - I never noticed that Weighted Head was a balance mod. Regarding Shrouded Lightsaber, I have debated going that route since we have 4 heroes that need weapons to be effective (at least since Ko-Tun is going for Self Sufficient). Although, it does mean that Davith likely can't get Embody the Force if he gets the 3xp Lightsaber. Also, I did get Falling Leaf in anticipation of the need for the extra surges from a surge heavy die. Regarding hero selection, I'm definitely aware that we did force Davith a bit - I had not seen him much in campaign play and also wanted to stay away from the more powerful heroes since our Imperial player is a first time IP.

At this point, I think I'm narrowing it down to either Shrouded Lightsaber or Electrostaff. I already have a Balanced Hilt so could keep that and either get High Impact Guard for the Shrouded Lightsaber (in combination with Balanced Hilt) or use the Balanced Hilt with the Electrostaff to guarantee enough surges to reliably be able to use Fell Swoop and/or trigger the +2 damage surge. However, waiting for the Electrostaff is quite a long time to forgo an upgrade (3 more missions from where we are at now assuming it comes up in the first Tier 3 item draw).

Shrouded Lightsaber w/ balanced Hilt + high impact guard is really powerful, especially with Falling Leaf and also works well with Fell Swoop. I was initially down on getting Shrouded Lightsaber on Davith but is now my preferred build.

On 3/3/2018 at 2:26 PM, Deadwolf said:

Shrouded Lightsaber w/ balanced Hilt + high impact guard is really powerful, especially with Falling Leaf and also works well with Fell Swoop. I was initially down on getting Shrouded Lightsaber on Davith but is now my preferred build.

When spending surges on raw damage, this might be the most powerful single melee attack available to the Heroes. The only issues being that you can't pull it off twice in one activation (though with the holocron you can get pretty close) and the lack of cleave. If you're on a budget, it seems totally worth it.