Plugging in SA

Billcarson66

I need some advice on a squad chanegeup. I place top 50 daily, but due to a work shift change, I will not be able to fight during my payout hour. I need to climb higher and hold better. I will be able to do my last battle about 5 hours before my payout. I usually never fall out of the top 50 except for PVP guild activity day. My squad is here:
https://swgoh.gg/u/billcarson66/

I plan on buying a vault and gearing my SA as high as that will allow. I will be able to get her speed in the 230-240 range, which won't beat the zaul's in my shard, but will ensure I go before all the Rex and Wiggs teams I face.

EP is the squishiest on the squad, but his group stun is useful. He benefits greatly from my Zader lead.

Boba gains nothing from Zader lead, but wrecks the Chaze I face. I love him. He can chip away at others while Baze taunts. He has as much health as Ep, but gets two lives.

DN is a beast. I don't think I should remove him. He can only be countered by their DN as those aforementioned Rex and Wiggs squads don't have Boba.

Shore...I'm leaning on replacing him. He never gets his heal off and does pathetic damage...but he keeps everybody alive in round one. At this point, I may be better off putting in SIT anyways as I will go first and have enough sith to proc his taunt ant retribution.

I'm thinking my best two options are:
Vader, EP, SA, DN, SIT
Vader, Boba, SA, DN, SiT

My shore is geared higher than SIT, so that route will cause an additional problem. I am gonna be on this schedule for the next 4 months, so I really need this to work. My guild is starting heroic pit this weekend and I also need to keep farming my AAT teams. If my arena rank slips daily, it will add up quick.

I am open to all suggestions. I know I have a tough road ahead as everything is beatable on D.

Billcarson66

@WompWompRat If you have time, I feel you are the right person to weigh in on this.

WompWompRat

SA is definitely a toon that's critical on a Sith team. I personally find her extremely useful in ZDN teams to help them keep pace with Zaul (as best as possible) ... but really she has great synergy with ST because her special circumvents protection ... it's honestly best used with a Zavage tho since he's the one that can one shot someone below 50% health so the SA/ST combo really gels well with that ...

If you have a fast EP - it might be even worth leading with him as SA will help get him out front. For me as someone who runs sith teams up the wazoo .. SA is an integral part of that ... along with ST

Billcarson66

@WompWompRat I'm definitely putting her in. I'm nowhere near unlocking SO. SiT would require an additional vault to gear for arena. Assuming both of them are out, who would you replace to edge higher/fall less? Is SIT that much better than shore? I'm kinda partial to my Zader lead as he is my favorite character, but I may not have a choice if I can't fight in my payout hour.

Jobi_Wan_Ken0bi

It seems like the characters with the least complicated kit hold the best on defense. Of the two setups you listed, I'd lean toward leaving EP in on defense instead of Boba. The AI sometimes doesn't use Boba's execute to it's fullest. For example, using it on the wrong character (maybe an enemy Savage dispelled the status effects of the AI's target), or using it too soon, before a stunned Vader was able to throw his dots.

Your squad looks like a solid DN lead team as it is. Some people hate on putting Vader under a DN lead, but I find it works well. I tried the Zader lead thing and it was too much of a speed game for me. As F2P, I can't get my hands good enough speed mods to compete that way.

Also, if this helps, I stumbled onto a change to my DN team the other day that gained me 50 ranks in arena. For your squad, the moves would be to put DN in as lead and replace Vader with your Rex (looks like you have him at gear 10 so he's good enough for how you will use him). And use Palp instead of Boba.

Use all your good speed mods on SA and Rex. Get SA blazing fast to get SiT's taunt out right away (to save your Rex from getting killed right away), and to get the TM bonus. Then get Rex as fast as you can and use his tenacity up out of the gate. Keep your SiT as slow as possible so he can hang on to that tenacity up. It's key for his survival that he doesn't get stunned or dazed or anything.

This setup has been holding great overnight for me. On offense, I go after any teams that bank on negative status effects...Vader, Palp, DN, Zaul or any dark side team, really. Plus DN naturally work well against Rex teams because of the no crits thing.

This setup banks on Rex getting his tenacity up move out, so where it can struggle is if an opposing Boba gets ability block off, or if you have a stupid strong AoE opponent that can kill your Rex without actually targeting him.

If you try this out, let me know how it works for you!

evanbio

Put your tank away. zVader, EP, SA, Boba, DN. SA is going to speed zVader, EP, and DN up pretty well. Boba is there for the AB. Or, as someone else mentioned, go with DN lead. Though with a DN lead, I definitely recommend a cleanser. I use GK for that.

WompWompRat

Billcarson66 wrote: »

@WompWompRat I'm definitely putting her in. I'm nowhere near unlocking SO. SiT would require an additional vault to gear for arena. Assuming both of them are out, who would you replace to edge higher/fall less? Is SIT that much better than shore? I'm kinda partial to my Zader lead as he is my favorite character, but I may not have a choice if I can't fight in my payout hour.

ST is much better than shore with Sith toons because they will run their specials and basically keep ST taunting all the time. He's incredibly annoying to deal with. I honestly think it's hard to fun a full sith team to its potential without SA (TM + one shot + stun) and ST (constant taunting, retribution) than running any substitutes.

Billcarson66

evanbio wrote: »

Put your tank away. zVader, EP, SA, Boba, DN. SA is going to speed zVader, EP, and DN up pretty well. Boba is there for the AB. Or, as someone else mentioned, go with DN lead. Though with a DN lead, I definitely recommend a cleanser. I use GK for that.

No kenobi for me. Maybe by next spring as my guild plans to do our first HAAT around Christmas.
I figured shore was kind of a waste if I go first. I have the gear to take him to 10, but have held off for that very reason.

Boba is just so useful in my shard. There are 3 kenobi's there now, and I imagine a lot more are gonna be coming. R2, Thrawn, Fulcrum....my top 50 are gonna be changing(dec/Jan '17 shard), so who knows what I'll be seeing. I would just like to be able to climb to the 20's possibly 15-20 and hopefully only fall about 20 spots during the 5 hours or so I'll be sleeping before/during my payout.