Today we look at what has perhaps become the face of
the Legacy comics, for Talon was one of the first
images released in the early teasers. I'd say
she is the body of Legacy, but Blue gives her a run
for her money. ;)
Stats for Talon are pretty average, especially for
the 56 points she costs. The 110 is a minimum
for a good Jedi. Her 20 DEF is very solid, but
her +11 attack is horrendous. Luckily she has
Loner to help her out some. The problem is
that you really dont want her isolated too much.
As good as she may be, she is not that good.
Also to help her stretch her HP, she has stealth.
It limits the shooters that can shoot her, and the
Bith Vigo can give her evade to help out.
For offense, she actually has some good options.
I have never been huge on mobile on Jedi, but there
are times where it is very helpful, especially on
Talon. She has twin attack, so that really
adds to the benefit of her mobile. She gets
her two attacks despite moving. Her force
lightning will help her take a cheap shot at a grunt
from range just like Nihl, but Talon can also move
in, lightning a bigger target, and then mobile back
out of range of the opponent. The opponent
will either have to use force points to catch up, or
move and not get their attacks that turn.
Lastly, we get what really makes her good as well as
unique - Force Bubble. I do not fully
understand where this came from in the comics (early
issue i think), but it really is a good ability.
For only once force point you reduce damage by 20 -
ANY damage - lightsabers, blasters, anything except
force immune attacks. It is block and deflect
all rolled into one. The downside is that
anything over 20 (crits, any damage over 20), you
are going to be force to take. The plus side
is that there are no saves involved. Deflect
may stop all of the damage, but you have a 50/50
chance of it working. Here it is guaranteed.
Personally, I will take the guarantee. You
havent seen me roll saves. Another reason this
is so good on Talon is because she can move in,
twin, and then mobile out. If she uses force
bubble, she will take no damage, eliminating the
danger from multiple attackers. The good thing
is that Talon also has renewal, unlike Nihl, so this
cheap damage reduction will last a very long time
and really extend her HP.
100pts: I dont think she can hang with the big
guys in 100. She is held back only by her lack
of damage output.
150pts: She may be playable here. To be
honest, i havent seen to much Sith here locally, but
she could have some impact here. Her only two
drawbacks are her low attack and her faction.
Sith really do not have a lot of synergy at this
time. You can run her with a Bith and Lumiya
for a decent stealth combo. You can run her
with Bane and she gets a quad attack, but she is
going to have a very hard time with the big defense
Jedi.
200pts: Here is where she will be at her best.
You can do the above and more. She is more of
a defensive piece with her movement and Bubble.
At 200 you can bring in some nice help to get the
damage output up. She is going to need some
testing to find some good support, but she is very
playable. Talon will only get better as the
Sith faction flushes itself out in future sets.
willis
maximus
Darth Talon
Faction: Sith
Cost: 56
HP:110
Def: 20
Att: +11
Dam: 20
SA:
Unique
Melee
Stealth
Mobile Attack
Twin Attack
Loner (+4 attack if no Allies are within 6 squares)
Force 1:
Force Renewal
Force Bubble (When this character takes damage,
reduce damage by 20)
Force Lightning 1 (Replace attacks; range 6; target
takes 20 damage)
I have to say Darth Talon is one of the more
interesting Sith pieces we have today. First
off, she has mediocre stats. Especially of
note is her pitiful +11 attack. The abilities
make up for this a bit though. Stealth gives
her decent ranged defence, not to mention a Bith
Black Sun Vigo will grant her evade (FP re-rollable
as well.) Twin is always great, especially on
a melee piece. Mobile may seem odd, but I'll
get back to that in a minute and explain. And
finally Loner . . . an ability I hate . . . will
give her a +4 attack as long as you throw her out
there, out of range of the support and CE's you may
have brought along. Considering that she
really needs Loner to help that crappy +11 attack
(which is just horrid on a 56 point piece) you might
stuggle in deciding which is better for her: Loner
or support. Anywho, on to force powers.
She only starts with one force point, which sucks.
But Force Renewal and the fact that all her powers
cost only one force point means it will be difficult
to use them all up. Force Lightning 1 isn't
anything special, but now we have access to a
"mobile lightning." Kinda cool. That's
not the main reason for the Mobile though . . . it
works best with a new force power that is unique to
Talon: Force Bubble. For one force point she
gets to negate 20 damage anytime she gets hurt from
any source. No save involved. This is
where Mobile Attack comes in. Talon can move a
couple squares and base something, twin attack, move
away to avoid a double/triple/quad that might
otherwise be coming her way, and negate the attack
of opportunity with force bubble. Pretty cool,
huh? A very nice ability, but it does
have major limitations. For one, with all the
30 damage shots and double/triple attacks in today's
game, a lot of damage will still get through.
Also, when everyone focuses on Talon, her force
points run out REALLY fast, leaving her a sitting
duck.
A lot of people debate whether she's really worth
the hefty 56 point cost. Some say absolutely.
Others, like myself, say no. My opinion is
that if a beatstick with that high a costs only has
a 40 damage output, then that damage has to at LEAST
be reliable. Since Talon will miss roughly
half her attacks without Loner, then that's not the
case with her. I dont' care if she *is* a
"finesse piece," she has too much trouble holding
her own for that high of a cost. So let's
break it down:
100pts 2/5: Here she does too little and costs
too much to hang. With only 44 points left,
you can't give her enough support to really help.
150pts 3/5: She does alright here depending on
the help she brings with her. Again, deciding
between granting her evade (Bith Vigo) or trying to
keep her Loner can cause you some pains.
Choose wisely.
200pts 3/5: About the same here. Now you
can fit in Darth Krayt to give her double twin, but
to pull it off you loose your mobility (as you have
to stand still to double) as well as, again, her
Loner bonus. If she just had a straight +15
attack, I think she'd be worth her cost. But
having to choose between getting support/commander
effects and the ability to actually hit your target
really puts a damper on Darth Talon.
