Review of Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle. What are your thoughts on it?
First Order is my primary team, so I was pretty excited when the opportunity came up to purchase a pack that would unlock Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle at 4 stars. I've had some time now to use it for a bit, and there are some things that I like about it and some things that I just don't get...
First of all I love the fact that it's primary attack provides protection up, I think that's probably my favorite part of it's kit by far. I also enjoy the massive amount of native health and protection it gets but it's speed seems awful (Zeal of the First Order partially offsets that) and it's damage output seems to be about average. Also, aside from it's primary attack, I'm not sure that I'm entirely sold on it's other abilities either. It's entirely possible that I'm not using them right, or perhaps they just perform better at a higher level, but as it stands right now I find myself rarely using anything other than his basic attack.
Here are my thoughts...
Zeal of the First Order: The extra turn meter it gives to FO Tie is great, I have no complaints there. The extra speed from this passive is also very welcomed, but it seems barely enough to compensate for the ships already abysmal speed, and only applies while the ship has protection remaining... after it's protection is gone the ship just kind of sits there like a beached whale while all of the other ships fight circles around it. The chance to counter attack (once shields are down) initially seemed liked it should provide this ship with a huge advantage (especially since it gets protection up when it attacks) but I found that at a 20-30% chance to proc, you'll realistically only see this happen once (maybe twice if you're lucky) during a battle, and that's if it happens at all.
Advanced Jamming Array: The ability to remove all buffs from another target is always useful, but it has a 4 turn cooldown, and at the speed that this ship moves that means that you'll probably get a chance to use this ability only once or twice during a battle. Due to the high frequency that other ships tend to regain or give out taunts, if that's what you choose to remove, there's a good chance that they'll have it back up again before this ship can even take another turn. Regardless, the ability to remove buffs isn't common so I'll take it where I can get it, my biggest issue with this ability is that instead of including a much needed attack with the dispel (like Ahsoka's much more frequent and useful buff cleanse), this ability instead attempts to remove turn meter and apply healing immunity to the target. However, since this ship has 0% potency, that actually occurs so infrequently that I tend to forget it even has that potential. What this all boils down to is that the vast majority of the time, I find that the opportunity to cleanse buffs from a single target (with a very small chance to debuff as well) doesn't tend to outweigh the opportunity to actually deal some damage and regain shields. So I've found that in many of my battles this ability sees little use.
Surprise Raid: The effectiveness of this ability seems dependent on the other ships that you bring with you into battle. I imagine it could be really good in certain situations. I just haven't found it particularly useful yet. First you spend 100% of your turn meter (on an already slow ship) to fill another allies turn meter. Chances are pretty high that the turn meter of the ally that you want to target won't be empty. Which means that your really spending 100% turn meter to give another ally (on average) lets say somewhere around 60% turn meter. On top of that, if you cast it on a faster ship (most of them) who's turn meter already fills faster then Kylo's ship as it is, then the trade off becomes even less efficient. Granted you also give that ally advantage and reduce their cool downs by 1, and that's pretty significant, but it comes at the cost of 25%-50% of their shield which further limits the potential allies you might want to cast it on, making this a rather situational ability. If you've found a really good use for this ability, I'd love to hear it.
Lastly we have Strike Team: Target ally loses all Turn Meter, then all other allies gain 15-23% turn meter, plus 25% of the Turn Meter that ally lost (double for First Order allies). If Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle targets itself, First Order allies gain Advantage for 2 turns. - Now I think this is the ability that confuses me most of all. It seems like it would be great with a lot of First Order allies, but since the only other First Order ship available is FO Tie, it doesn't seem very effective at all. If it targets itself then you've now expended 100% of it's turn meter (to use the action), and then all other allies gain only the basic 15-23% (since the extra 25% of 0% comes out to 0%), and then Kylo's Vessel and FO Tie both get advantage. Now let's say that you have all 5 ships in play at the point that you cast it, since Kylo doesn't give himself any turn meter when he casts this on himself, you're expending 100% turn meter and only getting back a net gain of 60%-92% turn meter split between your other 4 ships, plus advantage on 1 (or 2 if FO Tie is present). If you have any less then 5 ships in play, or if any of them already have full turn meter (or close to it) then you're getting back even less then that. Unless I'm missing something, that seems like a terrible exchange. Now if you cast this ability on another target (such as FO Tie who's high speed will allow it to recharge the lost turn meter rather quickly), then suddenly it seems like it makes quite a bit of a difference. But at that point you're now draining 100% of Kylo Ren's turn meter to use the action AND draining whatever turn meter your ally had. As long as you have 5 ships in play the targeted allies turn meter loss is offset by the fact that 4 other allies (which includes Kylo's ship) each gained 25% of it, but the 100% turn meter that Kylo's ship initially expends to use the ability in the first place isn't recovered by the 15-23% the designated 4 allies also receive (which would once more include Kylo's command vessel in this case). So if the ally that you cast this on has 100% turn meter, then you're expending 200% turn meter to get 160%-192% back, and that's ONLY if you actually have 5 ships in play and none of them are near full already.
In other words, the only time this ability seems like it would ever really be beneficial is when you have all 5 ships in play at a point where they can actually absorb the extra turn meter, and even then, only if you're able to take advantage of the (doubled for First Order allies) effect. And by the way, could someone explain that part to me? It's not very clear. Does that mean that First Order allies gain 50% of the targeted allies lost turn meter, or does that mean that all allies gain 50% of the turn meter lost by a targeted First Order ally (which in this case would only apply if you were targeting First Order Tie)?
Now the REAL kick in the pants is that because all of these abilities are highly situational, this ship seems to perform VERY poorly under AI control. On numerous occasions I've seen the AI waste an entire turn casting Strike Team on itself when it had no allies present. Or even worse, wasting the turns of two ships by casting it on another ally when it and Kylo's vessel are the only ships left. It's kind of sad to watch sometimes. It's like watching tanks in arena waste a turn to cast taunt when they're the only toon left. =(
Anyway, those have been my thoughts so far. Even with all of that though, I still love the ship because of the sheer amount of damage it can absorb. Even if I use it for little more then an auto-basic-attacking tank, it's still fun to watch it outlast everything else in my fleet. Like Kylo Ren in area, it often times will end up as my only unit remaining and then some how, miraculously pull out a win. I'm also just about to unlock Scimitar, and I'm really hoping that this ship will prove to be the perfect target for 'Slip Through'. We'll see...
If you've had any experience with Kylo's Shuttle I'd love to hear your thoughts
(Sorry for the long post)
First of all I love the fact that it's primary attack provides protection up, I think that's probably my favorite part of it's kit by far. I also enjoy the massive amount of native health and protection it gets but it's speed seems awful (Zeal of the First Order partially offsets that) and it's damage output seems to be about average. Also, aside from it's primary attack, I'm not sure that I'm entirely sold on it's other abilities either. It's entirely possible that I'm not using them right, or perhaps they just perform better at a higher level, but as it stands right now I find myself rarely using anything other than his basic attack.
Here are my thoughts...
Zeal of the First Order: The extra turn meter it gives to FO Tie is great, I have no complaints there. The extra speed from this passive is also very welcomed, but it seems barely enough to compensate for the ships already abysmal speed, and only applies while the ship has protection remaining... after it's protection is gone the ship just kind of sits there like a beached whale while all of the other ships fight circles around it. The chance to counter attack (once shields are down) initially seemed liked it should provide this ship with a huge advantage (especially since it gets protection up when it attacks) but I found that at a 20-30% chance to proc, you'll realistically only see this happen once (maybe twice if you're lucky) during a battle, and that's if it happens at all.
Advanced Jamming Array: The ability to remove all buffs from another target is always useful, but it has a 4 turn cooldown, and at the speed that this ship moves that means that you'll probably get a chance to use this ability only once or twice during a battle. Due to the high frequency that other ships tend to regain or give out taunts, if that's what you choose to remove, there's a good chance that they'll have it back up again before this ship can even take another turn. Regardless, the ability to remove buffs isn't common so I'll take it where I can get it, my biggest issue with this ability is that instead of including a much needed attack with the dispel (like Ahsoka's much more frequent and useful buff cleanse), this ability instead attempts to remove turn meter and apply healing immunity to the target. However, since this ship has 0% potency, that actually occurs so infrequently that I tend to forget it even has that potential. What this all boils down to is that the vast majority of the time, I find that the opportunity to cleanse buffs from a single target (with a very small chance to debuff as well) doesn't tend to outweigh the opportunity to actually deal some damage and regain shields. So I've found that in many of my battles this ability sees little use.
Surprise Raid: The effectiveness of this ability seems dependent on the other ships that you bring with you into battle. I imagine it could be really good in certain situations. I just haven't found it particularly useful yet. First you spend 100% of your turn meter (on an already slow ship) to fill another allies turn meter. Chances are pretty high that the turn meter of the ally that you want to target won't be empty. Which means that your really spending 100% turn meter to give another ally (on average) lets say somewhere around 60% turn meter. On top of that, if you cast it on a faster ship (most of them) who's turn meter already fills faster then Kylo's ship as it is, then the trade off becomes even less efficient. Granted you also give that ally advantage and reduce their cool downs by 1, and that's pretty significant, but it comes at the cost of 25%-50% of their shield which further limits the potential allies you might want to cast it on, making this a rather situational ability. If you've found a really good use for this ability, I'd love to hear it.
Lastly we have Strike Team: Target ally loses all Turn Meter, then all other allies gain 15-23% turn meter, plus 25% of the Turn Meter that ally lost (double for First Order allies). If Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle targets itself, First Order allies gain Advantage for 2 turns. - Now I think this is the ability that confuses me most of all. It seems like it would be great with a lot of First Order allies, but since the only other First Order ship available is FO Tie, it doesn't seem very effective at all. If it targets itself then you've now expended 100% of it's turn meter (to use the action), and then all other allies gain only the basic 15-23% (since the extra 25% of 0% comes out to 0%), and then Kylo's Vessel and FO Tie both get advantage. Now let's say that you have all 5 ships in play at the point that you cast it, since Kylo doesn't give himself any turn meter when he casts this on himself, you're expending 100% turn meter and only getting back a net gain of 60%-92% turn meter split between your other 4 ships, plus advantage on 1 (or 2 if FO Tie is present). If you have any less then 5 ships in play, or if any of them already have full turn meter (or close to it) then you're getting back even less then that. Unless I'm missing something, that seems like a terrible exchange. Now if you cast this ability on another target (such as FO Tie who's high speed will allow it to recharge the lost turn meter rather quickly), then suddenly it seems like it makes quite a bit of a difference. But at that point you're now draining 100% of Kylo Ren's turn meter to use the action AND draining whatever turn meter your ally had. As long as you have 5 ships in play the targeted allies turn meter loss is offset by the fact that 4 other allies (which includes Kylo's ship) each gained 25% of it, but the 100% turn meter that Kylo's ship initially expends to use the ability in the first place isn't recovered by the 15-23% the designated 4 allies also receive (which would once more include Kylo's command vessel in this case). So if the ally that you cast this on has 100% turn meter, then you're expending 200% turn meter to get 160%-192% back, and that's ONLY if you actually have 5 ships in play and none of them are near full already.
In other words, the only time this ability seems like it would ever really be beneficial is when you have all 5 ships in play at a point where they can actually absorb the extra turn meter, and even then, only if you're able to take advantage of the (doubled for First Order allies) effect. And by the way, could someone explain that part to me? It's not very clear. Does that mean that First Order allies gain 50% of the targeted allies lost turn meter, or does that mean that all allies gain 50% of the turn meter lost by a targeted First Order ally (which in this case would only apply if you were targeting First Order Tie)?
Now the REAL kick in the pants is that because all of these abilities are highly situational, this ship seems to perform VERY poorly under AI control. On numerous occasions I've seen the AI waste an entire turn casting Strike Team on itself when it had no allies present. Or even worse, wasting the turns of two ships by casting it on another ally when it and Kylo's vessel are the only ships left. It's kind of sad to watch sometimes. It's like watching tanks in arena waste a turn to cast taunt when they're the only toon left. =(
Anyway, those have been my thoughts so far. Even with all of that though, I still love the ship because of the sheer amount of damage it can absorb. Even if I use it for little more then an auto-basic-attacking tank, it's still fun to watch it outlast everything else in my fleet. Like Kylo Ren in area, it often times will end up as my only unit remaining and then some how, miraculously pull out a win. I'm also just about to unlock Scimitar, and I'm really hoping that this ship will prove to be the perfect target for 'Slip Through'. We'll see...
If you've had any experience with Kylo's Shuttle I'd love to hear your thoughts
(Sorry for the long post)
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I really appreciate the long post and the thought you put into it.
I really wish it was farmable though. I run full FO for arena so the crew power would already be maxed.
Everything you've said is bang on. Which sucks considering it's luxury 3 pilot ship. The only real benefit I see is using him in conjunction with scimitar to gain prot and feed Fotp TM.
Thanks for the post.
If Biggs is hurting badly, using surprise raid on Consular fighter is also good if it has guarded assault available. Biggs will live to fight another turn.
The shuttle is worth it for those two abilities alone since using each of them just once is enough to give you a large advantage. I regularly take out opponents who out power me by 5-10k while only losing 2-3 ships out of 7.
I meant to say 11 gear
His best ability, by far, is the surprise raid. I use it on his first move as long as he isn't ability blocked, and I almost always use use it to Boba or fives. It effectively reduces their cooldowns by 2. Once from the ability, and once more because they are taking a turn immediately.
Boba, a lot of the time, will have already lost his protection. If it is Boba's second turn, he gets to land another target lock on someone. If it's his third turn, then he gets to drop his seismic detonator. It's not uncommon for my Boba to use his detonator twice in a battle!
For fives, I've gotten in the habit of using his special on his first turn. He either gets to decimate two targets, or land TL on one. I use kylo's special on fives if the enemy biggs is Target Locked and taunting(he usually is). So fives get his special cooled down, and he dispels the taunt. Then it's usually Mace's turn, and I get to maximize his aoe. Also, I save kylo's actual dispel for his next turn; either another taunt from biggs, maul's retribution.
Zeal of the first order is the cherry on top. 25% turn meter to fotp! Between that and fotp getting TM when a target locked enemy is attacked, fotp gets a ton of extra moves. If mace's aoe is on cooldown, I'll make kylo taunt with crit immunity- he goes down pretty quick, but fotp get's extra turns out of it.
I wish I could farm him, but he's plenty viable at four stars. He has about the same amount of survivability as wedge, fotp, vader, ahsoka, JC, maul, boba, etc. He is surprisingly useful on my target lock team.