Just for argument's sake, I want to take a look at each faction now that JA academy is just about out, including GOWK, and see how each faction looks, and I'll assume that the only truly viable squad options.

1) Old Republic: The OR is still not going to be really great, even with Academy, but it's definitely gotten better. The Exile and Nomi Sunrider add some anti-GOWK abilities, and with Lucien, Mira, Atton, the Battlemaster, and the Crusader (bringing in Malak and Revan), makes the OR a bit more viable.

2) Sith: In a GOWK environment, I think plageius has that bit of anti-GOWK, while the rest of the faction gains a good bit of survivability from him. Combining Plageius, Sion, and Holosidious makes them that much nastier.

3) Mandalorian: One of the factions that got really hurt by GOWK, but the amount of evade that exists in the game right now already hurt them a good bit.

4) Republic: Not much to say about the Republic, they have GOWK and can do GOWK v GOWK.

5) Separatist: GGDAC definitely helps, but they still have some weakness overall, but they do have one of the best anti-GOWK abilities.

6) Rebels: Quite simply they had and still have some of the best options to take down and deal with GOWK, including Disruptive, Force Push 4 (x2), and Loda for stopping the rerolls.

7) Imperial: M'Thrawn, Palpy on Throne, Vader Unleashed, Lord Vader, GAT, Sith Witch, etc. The Imps are still one of the best factions and have several viable options from several sets ago.

8) New Republic: GMLS brings in an overwhelming amount of attacks, along with Force Defense. Nevermind that they still have some of the best disruptive in the game.

9) Vong: Force Immunity helps a lot, and with one of the best Jedi Hunting mini, they can put a good amount of hurt without worrying about taking much damage from GOWK.

I've got to run now, but I'll see if I can elaborate a bit more later.

Thanks for the post.

If only it replaced attacks instead of the turn.

No she is not. She isn't even close. Nor is getting rid of his access to force points all that significant anyways. You will lose Nomi to even try it. That's not a good trade. It's actually a terrible "counter".

I have to disagree about getting rid of his ability to use force points. Yes, Soresu is still in effect, and will still be effective, but it loses it's big kick in making him unable to reroll failed saves. It brings him from, I believe, a 98.5% chance of saving against any attack to a 50%. Which is a significant drop in his ability.

The whole point of GOWK is to act as a Tank for the Republic, the guy who really can take a good deal of punishment, even if he can't really dish it out in return. He doesn't have the hitpoints or defense to do that and relies almost solely on Soresu and his ability to reroll it. Reducing Soresu in any way, either by Force Immunity, Force Defense, Force Absorb, or Sever Force reduces his overall effectiveness. In the meantime, Nomi will be open to attack, but a smart player would make sure she had enough Force Points to still be able to Block and Deflect. It becomes a trade off, the damage Nomi receives compared to the damage GOWK will now receive.

And of course, almost any good Republic player will be able to deal with Nomi and the OR figures with or without GOWK. The OR is and has been the bottom rung for the factions for a long time, and even with JA, that hasn't changed that much. But, if you were to place Sever Force in Imperial, Separatist, Rebel, New Republic, or even Sith, it would really put a hurt on GOWK.

Your very right Sithborg. Me personally i found that Lord Vader is the best counter on him. Thats my personal opinion. But at the same time with him, i feel that having to build a specific squad just to counter 1 figure isnt right. Takes the fun out of playing. Obviously everyone plays this game to have fun but at the same time we are all competitive a little bit.

People can say that they are the one eception to no being competitive but fact is we all are in someway. Nobody plays to lose. We play to win the game but to also have fun doing it. Its not fun to lose lol. So having to play a specific squad to counter 1 figure that probably 85% of the people now use is outrageous in my book. I think we should be able to play a squad we created not having to worry about if we will run into Gowk & not have a counter to him in our squad. It takes the fun out of the game to me.

There is no point is discussing the possibilities of Sever Force in other factions. I doubt Sever Force is ever going to be handed out to more than a handful, if that.

Again, the benefit of setting it up is marginal compared to what you will be paying.

I guess I'll just have to disagree with you then. Going from a 98.5% chance to save against any single attack to 50%, especially for the OR is probably one of the best options they can get. For most other factions, setting it up the way the OR would have to is probably not the best way to go about dealing with GOWK. But the OR really doesn't have much in the way of options for dealing with him.

And I seriously doubt that any other faction but the OR is going to get Sever Force, but discussing it in the context of other factions allows us to consider the viability of the ability as opposed to the viability of the faction. In other words, what happens to the ability's effectiveness if it were given the proper support.

By hypothesizing about it in the Empire, the Republic, or the Rebel Faction, we can get a better picture of whether the abilities effectiveness is a consequence of the ability itself, or the abilities surrounding it. The argument can also be made the other way around by considering what would happen if the Old Republic gained some of the abilities of the other factions.

If say, we had Revan and Nomi in a squad (yes, I know it's already possible) it becomes a bit more effective because Revan allows Nomi to move before her activation to base GOWK and with Master Tactician allows her to activate first and sever his Force.

The overall point I'm trying to make is that one of the reasons GOWK is as broken as he is, is because of his ability to reroll the saves at +4, taking that away goes a long way to beating him. I would hardly call that marginal.

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but thats a whole lot of points just to try to get someone not to use force anymore,

now, if nomi could be in a sith squad that would be awesome they have swap or you can give renewal to everyone and mettle.