Beginners Guide - It's all about the tables

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Keaven
1099 posts Member
edited October 2016
Intro - In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

As a starting player you want to know what choices to make that you wont regret later. In this game it does depend on what experience you want as to the best/fastest way to achieve it. For example there is no dominant squad in PVP at the highest levels (although there are meta trends that emerge from time to time), so you will need a bit of variety and a main hit squad that appeals to you by the time you have progressed far enough.

It is better to understand the choices so that you can make informed decisions and not waist time or resources early, which will help you in the long run. The best way to do that is to understand the Holotables and what value they will have in your game.

For advice on what choices to make, check out the farming guide: https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/5353/f2p-hero-farming-guide

If just starting your game, or using this guide to begin again for maximum efficiency, it is possible, and encouraged to stim to the top of your arena leaderboard the day you create your account so you can gain the benefits of the higher arena rank award crystals and get an early advantage over those in your arena.

If you are already struggling to keep up in your arena, a slower approach will be required without the extra crystals earned for top 5 ranks.

If you are falling further behind, and wish to be ranking higher you may find more enjoyment in restarting a new game and following an efficient min max strategy.

To spend or not to spend...

The earlier you can decide if you like the game enough to spend money the better, because the earlier you spend it the greater the reward.

At a bare minimum for fans of the game I would recommend spending (even small amounts) on crystals exclusively for energy refills as this is currently the most efficient way to increase table payouts by accelerating your early game.

PvP is currently focused on the Arena table and is what I refer to as the end game. Setting up your other tables well will give you the best Arena performance.

If you have decided to not spend a cent, then as tempting as it may be, you will be wasting any crystals you use on chromium packs, even if you get a Hero you can farm later, because the acceleration will not be as efficient as energy refills in the long term, and free/farmed Bronzium packs will likely get you better drops over time anyway.

Exclusive chromium Heroes will just fall by the wayside, potentially sucking up gear and ability mats that you would be better off using on stronger late game Heroes you are able to promote fully, and although the other bundles can provide a bit of a boost, they are not providing much more than a weeks grinding can achieve.

If you are considering spending for a crystal vault or more and don't want to waste money, feel free to send me a pm and I can assist in what will boost your game progress as efficiently as possible depending on your budget.

Heroes are addictive as Heroines

Your decisions will all be based around what squads you want which are used on different holotables.

Your focus should start with maximising the payouts of all the tables primarily which will assist most in the long run, and from there you can focus on other squads, remembering you will ultimately need more than one Arena squad, so there are many different paths to the end game as a result.

This progression can be quite swift, especially if you want to spend money to accelerate your growth (less than a week).

Because the current end game is based around effective Arena squads, keep that in mind as you maximise your payouts on the other tables. If you acquire a Hero earlier than expected which is known to be useful in endgame it can be more efficient to shift time and resources into them sooner rather than later.

You will have several key squads for each table and they should be prioritised as follows:
  1. Galactic War Squad
  2. Challenge Squads
  3. Cantina/Mod Squad
  4. L&D Squads
  5. Arena Squad
  6. Event Squads
  7. Mod Challenge Squads
  8. Raid Squad

Once you have reached end game, very little is needed to improve squads other than your arena and raid squads, however challenge squads should not be sacrificed for arena squads unless you can rank in the top 10, which may require spending money to do early.

Your key squads and Heroes can be shared across multiple tables, however I have prioritised them based on the value of the payouts from the tables. Some tables will only require limited squad upgrades to achieve the best payouts, and therefore will not need you to max out squad members. Key Heroes that are used in multiple squads across different tables become the focus of your upgrading.

As you progress luck may go your way with Bronzium packs or monthly awards that can improve your squads, so depending how much time and energy you have spent on existing Heroes, it may be more efficient to leave one behind. For example, better to start upgrading a Hero that can fit into 3 squads, if you have 2/3 Heroes currently filling those positions.

If you get a new Hero, even though it may be a better end game Hero, remember it will still take a lot of time and energy to max them out, so you may slow yourself down a lot to switch focus from a Hero you have already put a lot of time and energy into, even though you may replace them entirely once you have maxed stronger/rarer/newer Heroes out.

It's better to have key teams with maxed out heroes before you start focusing on new ones, because it will be much easier at that stage and your previously spent time and energy has got your tables paying out their maximum, and at later levels you cannot sustain upgrading too many Heroes towards level cap.

Hitting the tables

Light/Dark Side Battles Holotable
Payouts:
  1. Gear
  2. Hero Shards
  3. XP

This is where your adventure will begin and the majority of your farming will take place. Here you are restricted to light/dark side squad members so for the sake of progression it will be important for you to maintain a roster of 5 key Heroes for each side.

Every time you want to change your squad it will slow you down to promote and upgrade them beyond your existing squad members (more-so past level 40) so this is where choices can start affecting your game.

Your squad choices for this table wont have a huge impact until after you reach level 40, so levelling or upgrading Heroes much before this point wont hold you back too far if you sub them out of your squads as you progress, but it's still ideal to focus at any point on specific Heroes for specific reasons, and those that you will continue to use when maxed out are better options.

Preserving sims early by playing easy battles on auto is very helpful if you have the time, as it is not till late game you may need fewer sims per day than you will earn.

Upgrading Heroes for these L&D tables should never prioritise other tables, because you will always have plenty to farm, and quick progression here will not benefit you if you have not been upgrading your squads along the way. There will always be the temptation to just blast through the levels, but that will not give you any advantage and will slow you down overall.

The main payouts for this table is gear and Hero shards, and farming these will be your primary source of XP once daily awards level out.

The most significant items you will farm from this table is gear. This has the greatest impact on the power of your squads over promotions, levels, and ability upgrades. Your primary focus using energy should be to ensure that the members of your key squads have the maximum gear equipped for their level restrictions, and any gear not yet able to be equipped is ready for them once reaching the required level.

Gear requirements is the best way to determine how far you should be progressed on the L&D table.

Once you have equipped all the gear you are able for your key heroes you should progress to the levels needed to farm any gear you can next equip.

If there is no gear currently needed then use your energy for Hero shards by progressing through the hard levels of light/dark. As hard missions are limited to 3 per day you should initially focus on shards to promote your key Heroes as quickly as possible to maximise your payouts on all tables.

Once you have achieved this balance (like energy use) you may then want to focus on using excess energy for shards of the most difficult Heroes to promote, because they will take a long time to 7☆ as their shards are exclusively available through this table, so the earlier you can fully promote these Heroes the greater advantage you will have if these heroes turn out to be much stronger in future updates.

While farming lower levels you can maximise your ally points and bronzium packs by auto playing battles with borrowed squad members from your allies rather than using sim tickets, remember you can still pull farmable 4☆ Heroes from Bronzium packs.

Having top level allies from level 17 onwards will greatly improve your ability to clear the stages in this table without having to heavily focus on upgrading heroes you aren't using for other tables.

Once you have reached level cap it is more efficient to save crystals for getting gear in shipments than to refresh energy for more than 50 crystals.


Squad Arena Holotable - level 8
Payouts:
  1. Crystals
  2. Hero Shards
  3. Credits

Currently this is the only table with decent payouts for crystals (especially at high ranks), however the tokens used for Hero shards are the most valuable awards for early progression if you are not able to maintain top 10 ranking.

When you beat an opponent you will swap positions. The higher you go the fewer ranks you can progress with each battle.

In my most recent alt account I spawned at rank 2121 and it took 33 battles to reach rank 1 (level 38) which was achieved in under 18hrs from account creation, and included one activity reset at midnight.

Arenas will keep adding adding players when they create their game (with a number of AI bots) till about 15K ranks, before a new arena opens, which you can start around the 1K rank if one of the first players to spawn.

Arenas used to take less than a day to fill, but now will typically take 3 days or so, but this advantage early players will have is not insurmountable with a focused strategy whether f2p or not.

Although it will take more battles to reach the top ten if you spawn latter in an arena, you can hit much further ahead so it can still be done within 24hrs if you have the hours to grind it in the first day.

This is the table which will be the toughest, and your main focus at end game. Here is where you will test the synergies of your Heroes to best rank and defend position.

Getting in contact with others in your arena to cooperate is mutually beneficial and helps all of you maximise your arena rewards, I also find this the most enjoyable part of the game rather than ranking solo, so even if you don't cooperate with everyone you contact having a group chat in an external chat app such as Line will improve your gameplay and enjoyment.

Search for your arena mates IGN or guild through google, and on this forum to make contact, and if you can't find them start a topic like this one I made for an alt account:

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/64492/looking-for-black-antilles3584-avery-puccio-spqrz-j13h6-viperpv

Your defensive team is the team you have used in your last arena attack, whether you won or lost. It will use your Heroes current power levels, so if you have upgraded your Arena squad members since your last battle your defence will be stronger.

I will not go deep into Arena squad strategies here, as it is vast and will largely come down to which flavour you prefer and your arenas meta.

You will want to rank as high as you can as quickly as you can to maximise your daily rewards.

Every member of your arena will receive rank rewards at 6pm local time so depending on how many in your timezone, will determine how much competition you have to rank.

Trying to maintain 1st rank outside of your award time will only cost you unnecessary battles and refreshes, and likely cause others trying to rank at different times to target you more.

Ranking in the top 10 regularly will allow you to purchase over 2 shipments of shards per day which will help keep you ranking high until the slower grinders in your arena hit max upgrades.

Any rank under 5,000 will net you enough for one shipment per day including the 200 awarded from daily bonus.

Early on you should spend crystals to progress as far as you can, as the earlier you raise your rank the higher the payout of the table and the fewer people that can reach you to gain rank from your position.

If you can crack the top ten, be aware of what ranks can snipe you at any point so that you can position yourself smartly to reduce the chances of being sniped out. A well timed win in this part of the rankings can pay for the cost of refreshing battles or stimming cooldown, so keep 50 crystals minimum at all times for this so you don't get caught out.

Shipments strategies are all grouped together at the bottom of the guide.


Challenges Holotable - level 14
Payout:
  1. Ability Mats
  2. Gear
  3. Credits

Each day will present a certain number of challenges available for that day with 3/5 attempts at each, as you progress in level harder stages for each challenge will unlock yielding higher payouts, so you will want to be able to beat the highest levels of all challenges every day to maximise the awards.

Some challenges will have class restrictions, such as tank and attacker, so you will do well to fill a squad with enough of these Heroes to gain the rewards when they come up, and using Heroes you can later max out in end game will be most efficient.

You only need to level non key squad members to a point you can 3☆ the stages to then sim. Try not to waste ability mats on these Heroes at this stage unless they are key squad members for other tables as well. These should be Heroes that can assist in Galactic Wars, and L&D battles also.

Guilds - level 15
Payouts
  1. Gear
  2. Shards
  3. Credits

Guilds are potentially the most enjoyable aspect of the game with a good guild community.

As soon as you are able find a guild to start earning coins for raiding, and currency to spend at the shop.

It is easy enough to join any guild, but you will get the maximum benefit of finding a good guild suitable to your level on the forums, and initially use guilds to try and get in contact with as many people in your arena to work together as possible.

What is most important in a guild is regular coin banking for most frequent raids, as raid loot is the greatest rewards gained from guilds, and includes exclusive gear for heroes not able to be obtained other than from shipments for high crystal costs.

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/66128/beginners-raid-guide

The higher tier raid your guild is able to defeat the better as rewards for bottom ranks in a TVII heroic raid are better than all but top 4 ranks in a TVI raid, plus award Han Solo shards.

To this end you will only want to stay in your initial guild until you promote your first 7☆ Hero before you join a guild/division that are already clearing heroic raids, and looking for weaker players join to provide heroic loot.

The tiers for guild activity rewards involving spending energy are not worth the crystals required to achieve them, so if your guild is asking you to use more energy than you would otherwise be doing, find a new guild.

Once you are maintaining good ranking in the arena with fully upgraded squads, your next focus should be to developing specific raid squads to improve your raid rankings and heroic loot.

I am the Overseer and Academy division leader in Fear The Boot. We are the oldest guild established during the soft lauch beta test server, and have over 600 members across 11 heroic divisions, with guild reset times and raid schedules to suit players from all regions of the world, using one simple rule to make sure no one misses out on loot from any raid.

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/62528/24hr-ffa-raid-rule-one-rule-to-ring-them-all

We are continually growing and looking for new players keen to learn and benefit from our experience, so click the link below if you are interested.

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/61161/ftb-alliance-guild-mergers-we-want-you


Events Holotable - level 20
Payouts:
  1. Credits
  2. Training Droids
  3. Hero Shards

https://swgoh.gg/db/events/

There are a few events that cycle through, but none more important than the credit heist event, which at it's highest tier can award as much as 20M credits.

So the next most important squad to build after you can rank 1st in arena for payout is a scoundrel squad for this event. This squad will also help for the regular training droid event, and crit chance mod challenges.

There are heroes exclusive to events, however it is unwise to try to get these early before you can complete the highest tiers at the expense of your arena ranking. Better to have patience for these heroes to use them at 7☆ later.


Squad Cantina Battles Holotable - level 28
Payouts
  1. Ability Mats
  2. Hero Shards
  3. XP

This will be one of the simpler tables to manage and a great resource for Hero shards.

The energy costs increase at level 3, and the increased payout in Cantina Credits is only marginal, so initially it will be more efficient to farm shards in the first two levels until you have promoted the Heroes you are using there to 7☆ before progressing.

Spending cantina energy will also be your primary source for ability mats. So another good place to use energy refills as both payout items are high value.

I recommend at least two refills per day until you 7☆ your first Cantina shipment Hero.


Galactic War Holotable - level 40
Payouts
  1. Hero Shards
  2. Ability Mats
  3. Credits

Your primary focus once you start the game should be to get to level 40 to unlock this table as quickly as possible, which can be in as few as three days.

The technique for reducing loses is fairly simple, if not arduous at lower levels when facing tough opponents, and having an expanded roster from your challenges will also assist as well.

The main point to remember is that retreating and replaying a battle will have the same result unless you perform different actions due to the way the RNG works, such as using a different ability, or altering your squad composition.

Having a variety of healers will assist greatly here, particularly if you are focusing on damage in the arena, as these types of heroes can do well for a few matches but will fall quickly as their HP is typically low.

You can soften up enemies with weaker teams first in order for the opponent to burn specials and put on cooldown for your primary squad.

Turn meter is also kept for subsequent battles so having Heroes gain some turn meter in early easier battles for using later on can be of benefit too if required.

The addition of protection and mods has made this table quite difficult if you do not have a deep roster, top geared squads, and healers.

The disparity between lower level squads is now much greater also, so new accounts rising will have a very tough time winning, particularly as you encounter opponents with protection and mods when your Heroes are not yet high enough in level.

This is your primary source for credits which you will particularly need to stockpile from level 40 to 50 when the mod table opens.


Mod Battles/Challenges - level 50
Payouts
  1. Mods
  2. Ability Mats
  3. Shards

Mods are a way of customising your heroes and whilst there are many possibilities you will find ways to best mod specific Heroes as you accumulate more high quality and tier mods.

Initially you will want to kit out your key squads with basic mods which aren't as expensive to upgrade as the highest mk mods you can farm from challenges.

Once you have basic low mk sets you will want to acquire some standard mods of the highest mk in HP or Defensive sets to boost your heroes while you can develope the squads to farm the highest mk mods in other sets.

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/54577/mod-cons

Shipments

You should make every credit purchase of gear you have less than 100 of because your energy which you would use to farm these items is valued higher than the credit costs.

Anything for crystals is up to your judgement, if in doubt it's probably not worth it.

Once you have hit level cap gear from here is cheaper on average in crystals than the equivalent refreshes costing 100 or more to farm.


Arena/Cantina/GW/Guild/Mod Shipments

There a few schools of thought regarding what shards are best to start purchasing from arena shipments. I think it matters less who you chose, so long as you have a plan and synergies in mind.

What will make the greatest impact sooner is finding a good squad to max out first before adding new characters to your roster.

Once you have the roster you need to dominate the Holotables, you should then focus on individual Heroes all the way to 7☆ before starting the next, or finishing off an older Hero you needed earlier in the game but didn't need to complete.

Don't underestimate the time it will take to fully upgrade all their gear, so spreading yourself thin will leave you more vulnerable as other grinders rise the Arena rankings with a more efficient and focussed strategy.

If you have few Heroes and are struggling to clear the highest levels of challenges available to you, you are not maximising the payouts of that table, which in the long run will slow you down as the equipment and credits you can win there can save you days of farming, so the longer you are not maximising it the further behind you will slide.

It is better to build up strong (enough) teams to complete all challenges first, as this will ultimately get you your end game maxed out heroes quicker. Just make sure you stop putting resources into squads once you are getting max payouts.

Most players will go straight to certain Heroes which for one will make their Arena Squad predictable, so Heroes that can counter the obvious choices can do better, however the best options will always be the Heroes you have already managed to acquire, so long as they are not known to be underpowered.

Of course it may well be that based on the Heroes you have the most common option is the best.

There are a couple of very good heroes found in guild shipments which would be best to focus on before gear, however this is where it is important to be in a heroic guild to gain raid loot fast enough to maintain your arena squad power.

Although mod shipment prices seem high if you find rare mods here the cost is likely less than refresh costs to farm them in challenges, however quantity is more important than quality initially.

Once you have enough mod sets you can start to improve them by saving for rare mods here, as well as slowly farming them from challenges using 100 crystal refreshes.

May the force be with you.
Profile: Keaven
Guild: Fear The Boot
Post edited by Keaven on

Replies

  • Excellent, thanks for taking the time to put it all together.
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    HeiZhenZhu wrote: »
    Excellent, thanks for taking the time to put it all together.
    Your welcome.

    Hopefully we can get some feedback from other players to see what thw general consensus is.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Excellent guide, though I think you're selling Sid a bit short. Aside from his value in the Arena, progressing in the Dark Side campaign is also pretty decently boosted by getting him. Particularly if you didn't get the Dark side starter pack, your starting DS squad is frankly pretty gimpy compared to the light side ones. Sid will be an upgrade on pretty much everyone's early DS team.
  • Good guide, but I'd say not specific enough with strategies/approaches for a true "beginner" guide like WhipIt's offering. I do see and understand your slightly different philosophy here, but I think it will be more understandable/approachable to complete newbies if you use examples based on what (standard) viable paths most people follow in the 1-40 grind.

    Being just shy of 40 now, reading both this guide and the other one gives me a little perspective.

    Obviously, both guides do complement one another, so perhaps that is the right answer. :)
    SWGoH Ally Code: 988-869-147 GM of [Elite Casual]
    May the Force be with you.
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    Excellent guide, though I think you're selling Sid a bit short. Aside from his value in the Arena, progressing in the Dark Side campaign is also pretty decently boosted by getting him. Particularly if you didn't get the Dark side starter pack, your starting DS squad is frankly pretty gimpy compared to the light side ones. Sid will be an upgrade on pretty much everyone's early DS team.
    I'm not selling him short at all. He's a must have character, but he slows your game down if hes the first you choose.

    In the example you use of DS campaign you can have IG-88 and Greedo together sooner than Sid which will benefit you faster in DS if you needed.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    scootle wrote: »
    Good guide, but I'd say not specific enough with strategies/approaches for a true "beginner" guide like WhipIt's offering. I do see and understand your slightly different philosophy here, but I think it will be more understandable/approachable to complete newbies if you use examples based on what (standard) viable paths most people follow in the 1-40 grind.

    Being just shy of 40 now, reading both this guide and the other one gives me a little perspective.

    Obviously, both guides do complement one another, so perhaps that is the right answer. :)
    Thanks.

    Yeah definitely know what you mean there. It took a while to type so it's my plan to update with an example when I get the chance.

    That will go into more depth about exact choices beginners will have to face.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • WhipiT
    591 posts Member
    edited December 2015
    Great guide man! Some really good information and thanks for taking the time to write it out. I would have to strongly disagree about Darth not being your first unlock for two reasons. First if we are talking about non spenders the early farmable characters have all the tools you need to advance through the game. But if you look at Chewie, Talias, Jawas and Consulars stats two things jump out at you. There DPS compared to there Chrono Counterparts is low. Even lower is there base crit. None of these characters have abilities that buffs there crit. But once you add Darth with his +12% crit and 20% crit damage to your starter team its a considerable and noticeable DPS increase. No other easily farmed shard can offer you that.

    Second if you want to advance in arena rankings and garner more rewards ( a free players main source of crystals) Darth's healing immunity is a necessity. Without it focus firing one character in a healer heavy team is like spitting in the wind. As soon as you unload there healers are able to heal your target thus rendering your damage and turn a waste. With the immunity the only savior of your focused fired target would be Barriss equalization heal. And even in that case its a 4 turn recharge while Darths healing immunity is on a much shorter timer.

    Now different variables could change ones choice on first arena unlock. But they all revolve around Chrono Characters and building a team around a rare character or building a synergized team like say for instance a droid team. If you wanted to build a droid team obviously you would unlock IG-88. But for all other situations Darth in my opinion is the obvious choice.

  • Great guide! Thank you for sharing.

    Could you give us some more potential "end game value" heroes?


    Jedi Consular? Boba Fett? Teebo??
  • Great guide Keaven

    And thanks for the good input WhipiT
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    WhipiT wrote: »
    Great guide man! Some really good information and thanks for taking the time to write it out. I would have to strongly disagree about Darth not being your first unlock...
    Thanks.

    And the point I was making in the guide by using Sidous as an example, was that the most common choices are not always the best. Sometimes they are. In the case where no good Heroes are drawn from Bronzium, I would recommend the standard shipment farming Heroes.

    Was not saying that Sidous should not be the first Arena Shipment Hero to farm.

    It should be considered first because the majority of people will simply recommend Sidous, Daka, and Luminara from shipments at the start regardless of any other good possible synergies a player may already have with other Heroes in their register.

    Nothing wrong with the reasons you have given for the path you chose, but it's not the only way which has merits so that is important to acknowledge I think.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    Great guide! Thank you for sharing.

    Could you give us some more potential "end game value" heroes?


    Jedi Consular? Boba Fett? Teebo??
    I'll be doing a separate topic about Heroes specifically and Arena meta and strategies.

    In a nutshell I'm sure there are many Heroes valuable in the end game that are overlooked because they were too lacking in something while players were growing their teams, so they never found out.

    Until a Hero has been fully promoted, upgraded, and put in a synergised team, I don't think it's fair to rule out any possibility.

    Based on raw abilities and stats it does not look like any Hero is simply a better version of another Hero, they are all unique enough to possibly find a practical use.

    Personally, I'm looking forward to making some risky choices early about who to focus on so at least I'll have a unique PvP squad. Will be setting up a staple team first so that I wont fall too far behind if my choices don't work out.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Sticky
    bump............
  • scootle wrote: »
    Good guide, but I'd say not specific enough with strategies/approaches for a true "beginner" guide like WhipIt's offering.

    WhipiT recommended spending on the game (while the title is for those on a budget he wrote "Invest some money into the game.") and is recommendations were towards loooong term acquiring of heroes no one can get unless buying packs :expressionless:

    I find this guide better tbh, just my opinion, because it addresses more the strategies and the long term mindset to approach on each table. Kinda like people who want to lose weight and go for hardcore diets (WhipiT approach), this guide has more of the bibes of "how to eat well for the rest of your life".

    Here's my take on sidious/lumi as someone not buying chromium packs (but willing to spend 5$ on small offers if any are offered in the future):

    I was stuck forever on 4/5 dark side heroes. Sidious is a good choice for me in arena even though he is squishie, he shines with my free resistance trooper I got because of the debuffs he applies to the opponent, something I was lacking and which Sid provides a-plenty. I don't mind that he dies early either. It's for a good cause.

    Lumi or Daka I need them for healer challenge upper tiers. I have a feeling one will never have too many healers for the galactic war table; my Talia and Consular are heavily taxed there and don't recharge quickly enough for me.
    ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ ︵ DOE
  • Thank you, op and respondents, for the valuable information. :)
  • scootle
    237 posts Member
    edited December 2015
    I'm only just dinging L40 now, so please keep that in mind.

    I disagree that WhipIt's guide assumes you spend alot of money... I think his approach was to emphasize that if you were to spend money at all (since he did it for us all... :), spend it on crystal recharges to speed up the efficiency of your grind. Crystals spent on recharges are always well spent if you try to keep in mind not spending past the 200 crystal barrier on recharges (my opinion).

    I am with you in regards to spending small amounts ($4.99) at a time... I sit on a huge promo balance on my Google Play account, but I can't imagine dropping $25+ in one transaction on a game like this. So far, the intro deal with Dooku seemed reasonable as a entry cost to support the devs... and I followed that with the $4.99 weeklong crystal delivery which seemed to be good value (300+7*125=1175 total for $5).

    Other than that, I have no real premium characters... I scored a Teebo from a lucky Bronzium pack, but he's barely useful at this point (stealth seems worthless) and I took him out of my lineups. He may be useful as I get further into Galactic War for his buff removal, which seems to be his only saving grace.

    For Arena grinding, Chewie (4* now)/Talia/Consular/Jawa/Dooku seem solid if you keep them geared and leveled to the max, but I've only gotten to the sub-400 bracket so far. Grinding with this group to get Darth Sidious since on this server, every squad up top has DS and/or Luminara showing.

    For Light Side grinding, I run Chewie/Consular/Jawa/Ewok Scout/Clone Sgt because that's all I have. Teebo sucks, as already mentioned.

    Dark Side grinding is Dooku/Talia/First Order Stormtrooper/Royal Guard/Snowtrooper since I have no further options there. I forget exactly, but I know I pulled at least one or two of those from Bronzium packs along the way.

    As for table grinding, I've decided to pursue shipments for:

    Arena: Darth Sidious
    Cantina: Old Daka
    Galactic War: Luminara

    DS/LS Hard modes I just hit 3x daily on every battle with shards for Consular/Talia/Dooku/Fives when I have the energy to spare. I might hit the Chewie shards too, but not sure yet if he's worth the time/expense.

    What is lacking so far in my research is a good recommendation how to wisely spend ability shards for each character... e.g. which abilities to prioritize upgrading first due to unlocks along the way at higher levels. Like I just recently found out about the Level 3 bonus to the Consular basic attack that offers 25% chance to -1 cooldowns. That seems pretty solid. Likewise, Chewie offers a chance to reduce a target's turn meter with his basic attack as well.

    Please keep up the great work guys... this is good stuff! Thanks!
    SWGoH Ally Code: 988-869-147 GM of [Elite Casual]
    May the Force be with you.
  • I thought it was all about the gear, about the gear, no table.
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    As I get further I'll add some specifics about which characters fit the most squad positions.

    Of course this is all likely to change a fair bit as time goes on and new Heroes are added, so I left out these specifics for a reason.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Thanks this is really helpful. Now i know where to go even though i'm already level fourty-one my team is very lacking.
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    RangersX wrote: »
    Thanks this is really helpful. Now i know where to go even though i'm already level fourty-one my team is very lacking.
    In what way are they lacking?
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • Very nice guide and helpful. I like that you spoke of arena shipments. I didnt ulock sid first and it hepled alot on the challenges and tables instead of waiting for sid.
  • Pls delete Talia from this guide. You made me waste tons of resources.
  • The_Doctor wrote: »
    Pls delete Talia from this guide. You made me waste tons of resources.

    You'll have a hard time completing the Dark Side Tables without Talia, particularly when you're just starting out. She's worth leveling into the 35-40 range, at the very least, and that consumes a tiny wedge of resources for a whole lot of early utility.
    You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.
  • The whole char list here is just plain wrong. You should farm chew till you can get to cantina 3. Then consular. You aint getting far with Talia anyhow. Waste of a char. Other advices are actually good, but telling people to farm one stars and granted loss on defense is bad.
  • Not.getting far on the dark side table without talia. So less shade on her please.
    467-325-146
    Pretty good collection of characters so far and GROWING
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    edited December 2015
    The_Doctor wrote: »
    The whole char list here is just plain wrong. You should farm chew till you can get to cantina 3. Then consular. You aint getting far with Talia anyhow. Waste of a char. Other advices are actually good, but telling people to farm one stars and granted loss on defense is bad.
    The decisions on who to farm on Cantina initially will vary depending where someone wishes to go, so I have removed the section listing the 8 energy heroes.

    I still recommend promoting to 7☆ heroes on the 8 energy nodes you want before moving up as they will be much faster which will help in the long run.

    @CG_AaronNemoyten has mentioned in a previous topic that gear drop rates are lower for higher tier gear, and I suspect the same is for Hero shards as well based on my experience so far.

    I will leave hero preferences and tech tree options for another topic, but Talia, Consular, and Chewie are all tier 2 heroes that should be replaced further down the track (although they still fit in specific squads).

    I'm pumping Geonosian Soldier on an alt f2p account and he is a beast. At 3☆ is faster than my 4☆ Sid, and hits much harder. Also assist attacks every second turn and gains turn meter on crit, so I'm sure there are reasons to chose any hero, but this guide is less about where to go and more about how to do it.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • great guide...thanks very much.
    btw, i already farmed these :

    Arena: Darth Sidious
    Cantina: (still wondering ... may be get asoka to 3 stars first)
    Galactic War: Luminara

    is it better leveling up Sid and Luminara to 7 stars first or start farming another heroes?
  • is it better leveling up Sid and Luminara to 7 stars first or start farming another heroes?

    Both to 7*
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    edited December 2015
    great guide...thanks very much.
    btw, i already farmed these :

    Arena: Darth Sidious
    Cantina: (still wondering ... may be get asoka to 3 stars first)
    Galactic War: Luminara

    is it better leveling up Sid and Luminara to 7 stars first or start farming another heroes?
    Not necessarily, although that is a good option. Whatever you chose from here on in you should plan and stick to though if you want good results.

    Those heroes will help a great deal in Galaxy Wars and Challenges at their starting star levels and will also help you hold decent arena rankings if you want to diverge from there.

    For example, I have created a f2p account to test these strategies and I unlocked Sid, Lumi, and have done a complete switch in order to fast track a droid team.

    I am now working on promoting the following team whilst ranking top five in the arena without spending a dime:

    Plasma (leaving at 3☆ while building the team, although gearing and ability upgrading)
    Poggle
    Geonisian Soldier
    IG-88
    IG-86

    Will replace Plasma with HK after IG-88 is 7☆ from Arena shipments.

    My current team is fully geared and only a few ability upgrades for:
    Level 46
    3☆ Plasma
    4☆ Sid
    3☆ Luminara
    4☆ Geonosian Soldier
    4☆ Talia

    I wanted to test if this would be viable and so far it's working although I don't know how far I will slide before I get the team decently ranked. Already have GS fully geared at 4☆, and most of IG-88's Gear with Poggle and IG-88 1 day from activation. This account will be the subject of another topic though.
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
  • SnSgu
    6 posts Member
    edited January 2016
    Great info! Thanks! Much to ask ale the not consideration and I love this album thread!
    I've been trying to figure out how to use auto play - can't find it, where do I click?
  • Keaven
    1099 posts Member
    Autoplay is a button on the top left under the menu icon during a battle and can be useful during missions where you are overpowered, but is not helpful in arena matches unless there is one opponent hero left.

    So having activated Poggle I can see that an early droid team is not very viable and should be left until an initial team has been maxed so I am switching back to:

    Phasma
    Genosian Soldier
    Sidous
    Daka
    Luminara

    I will be upgrading Phasma before Lumi as I want to be able to switch to Droids at level 60 ASAP
    Profile: Keaven
    Guild: Fear The Boot
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