Advice on Arena Team

OGREtheTroll

I've been running the same arena team for a few months and I usually end up in between 50-100. But I can feel things slipping so it might be time to try something new.

The team has been Jyn (with zeta lead), Cassian, K2, Wedge, Biggs. I first used this as a counter to all the Darth Nihilus/Dooku teams at the time and it worked well. But now most of the teams I see are Wiggs teams, and at the top are the Rex and Maul teams. Its also a very effective GW team, sometimes switching leadership to Wedge if I need heals, but usually K2 soaks up all the damage and regenerates protection via Zyn.

I have Vader with Zeta lead, thats my only other Zeta. I'm close to another one though. I just unlocked the 7* R2 too.

My other strongest characters would be Boba, Palpatine, ST Han, Lando, TFP, and QGJ. Heres my swgoh characters https://swgoh.gg/u/melenos/collection/

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Speedokillz

I would consider saving resources for the next meta, which will probably include these new Rebels. With the Rebel re-works, you'll surely find something that clicks... even in the Old Ben strategy thread, the Devs mentioned him as perfect with Jyn while Princess Leia could be a great high damage alternative to Wedge/Biggs allowing you to fee up a spot for another rebel.

ExarTheKun

Yeah. Rebels will pick up with the new releases.

My suggestion is that you work on your mods. They aren't bad, but rebels shine with lots of speed and damage. Try to pull a few 11+ speed secondaries. Right now you are sitting on some mediocre mods. Check the top five guys on your shards for their mods. I think you will see why you are starting to fall out.

Also, examine the mods of those around you and of another R1 squad that is doing well. You will get an idea of what you need to catch up.

Speedokillz

Very true, @ExarTheKun ... When I slipped, it was because I still had too many 3dot mods. Leveled up some 5dots and right back in it.

OGREtheTroll

Yeah I know I need to do some serious mod farming. But I've spent all my cantina energy getting RG to 7* for the R2 event and now I'm farming Old Ben. Ugh. My gear levels need some work too.

I'm on a Feb 17 shard, so most of us have only recently gotten to max level and started adding Zetas. My big problem atm is I'm weak against Wiggs led teams (they get the first shot with Biggs so I'm usually out Jyn or Cassian), and teams with Chaze are basically immune to anything I try to do to them. I can switch to a Wedge lead to get the speed boost for Wiggs, but that loses the Jyn exposes.

Was thinking of a Zader, Palpatine, TFP team with maybe R2 and Jyn. Not sure if thered be enough speed though. But if they get going I think they could do some damage and keep other teams on lockdown.

Speedokillz

Well from my experience, if you really want to do well in Arena it is important to go with what has proven to perform well and stick to it. Mods will ultimately decide how high your team climbs after you establish your best team.

I would recommend that you take a look at the meta report ( https://swgoh.gg/meta-report/ ), click on 1-100 and squads. Go down the list to see what squads you have the toons to and you will then know that squad's potential.

The only problem is that this is probably going to shift wildly very soon after our new content, characters, and reworks go live... which is why I'll stick to my original thought to save resources

ExarTheKun

zVader takes a lot more speed than rebels to be effective. Also, Wedge lead doesn't boost your rebels speed. So if you are facing a faster Biggs, it's strictly mods.

It sounds like you are farming for Commander Luke. He will help you team a lot, but you are also hitting a gear crunch. How is your guild doing? You really need to be in an HAAT guild at this point in the game to stay competitive. A lot of them only require that you spend 600 energy per day. Even if you hit each raid for 0 damage, the rewards will be a big help.

I think you should stick with rebels if you think you can unlock CLS. If you want to run Empire, Thrawn is pretty key right now, along with DeathTrooper and ShoreTrooper. Without those guys, it will be an uphill battle constantly.

OGREtheTroll

Speedo...thats sage advice. I'm just looking at what I can work out with what I have atm.

Exar...right, I confused his leadership with his unique. (the unique is called Red LEADER after all lol). My big problem with those teams is the TM boost from his leadership, especially with STH and my constantly countering K2. If Han gets his taunt off I just feed them TM like its nothing.

I'm doubtful I can get the team together for CLS in time but I'm trying. Old Ben was the sticking point At least I'll have them if they bring it back sometime soon. Once I see a spot to stop farming shards I'm gonna dump a couple weeks worth of cantina energy into mod farming.

I had my main speed mods on Jyn and Cassian, but I've done some reworking and got Biggs and Wedge faster now.

My guild takes 3 weeks to finish a 6* AAT raid. We do a lvl 4 or 5 Rancor raid every few days which I can basically solo with Jyn. When I suggest we do a higher lvl raid then the lower levels complain they can't participate?! I like the people in the guild but we end up with a lot of deadweight.

ExarTheKun

@OGREtheTroll I suggest a merger. Cut out the lower level players and join another nearly HAAT ready guild with you heavy hitters.

Don't feel bad for the lower level guys. They will find homes in other guilds. A few determined ones will end up in HAAT guilds and just meet the 600 energy requirements. That should actually be better for them than what you guys are currently doing. Everyone wins in the end.

Speedokillz

Well, I had to decide about 3 month ago to do this very thing. I liked our core group, but many guild members were very much casual while I was playing a little more competitively. Doing 1 Rancor (T6) per week and a nAAT every 15-20 days was not enough for me.

Don't feel bad... it is just a game about having fun. I gotta tell you that it is super fun slaying 3-4 heroic rancors and 3 heroic tanks a week, 7* shards for Han Solo, unlocked GK, millions of credits and guild currency to boot.

OGREtheTroll

ok an update. Still with the same guild. I think I've convinced them that just participating in higher tier raids gives better rewards than ranking high in lower tier raids, so hopefully we'll be moving toward a heroid rancor soon.

I've switched my arena team to Wedge lead, Biggs, Jyn, R2 (with Combat Analysis Zeta), and STHan. Orginally it was Jyn lead (with zeta lead ability), Wiggs, K2, and Cassian, which worked very well against the Nihilus/Dooku teams that were plaguing my shard. Been farming mods for the past week and got a couple decent secondary speed mods and thats jumped my speed, especially on Wiggs, over most enemy characters. Still have some abilities to boost on R2, and working towards second Zeta for him, but I'll have him at gear 10 and maxed abilities within a week or two. Back into the top 100 in arena and looking to break top 50. Don't know that this team has a way of dealing with Chaze, but it has been deadly against the Nihilus, Wiggs, and Empire teams I've faced so far. Basically Biggs goes first, takes out enemy Wedge if there, Jyn drops AoE and gives Han TM, Han taunts, R2 Stealths everyone but Han. Enemies attack Han and feed TM to everyone else. Seems to be a little stronger on defense than the K2 team; I might run some auto battles to see how the team plays out on D. But so far so good!

ExarTheKun

Sounds like everything is really paying off. I like the new team structure a lot more than your original Jyn lead. One thing to consider is possibly replacing Jyn with Ezra down the road. His dispell and assist are pretty valuable against tanks. He hits a lot harder than Jyn. You can call in Wedge for a ton of damage since his assist is targeted. Jyns AOE is kind of a liability vs Rex teams. You will need a dispeller at some point, and he seems like the obvious choice.

Just something to consider. If auto taunters are your main problem right now.

ExarTheKun

Also, prepare for the next CLS event. You will need him for your rebels one day

OGREtheTroll

Right on. I'm almost done maxing Leia in arena shop, and I think I'll spend another week farming mods and then back to farming Ben who I was just able to unlock before the CLS event ran out. Ben might actually work better in my team in place of STHan, or even Leia/Ben in place of Jyn/STHan. Although Jyn's stun and TM removal are pretty potent, coupled with R2s stun its a lot of crowd control. In any event I'll have the CLS team ready to go within a month tops.

Next on the agenda after that is Phoenix squad (already farming chopper and zeb) for whenever the Thrawn event comes back, and Thrawn seems to be a primary counter to Chaze. I can definitely see the benefit of Ezra's dispell for a rebel team, and if he gets called on the Biggs assist and his basic double taps...

And if I can get the guild doing the higher tier raids I can stop spending all my guild credits on gear and start farming Rex who I could desperately use...

ExarTheKun

Yeah. Rex is a great lead for rebels. Sounds like you have a good plan going forward. I hope you continue to climb the leaderboard.

OGREtheTroll

Thanks. Just took down a better geared Zaul team on offense, but it was sloppy. My Biggs went first, but since they were all crit immune from stealth there was no sense in doing the big blast so I just pop shotted someone. But then his Nihilus went due to the Zaul TM boost, force drained the crew, and that threw everything off. And of course his Nihilus made my STHan irrelevant. But R2 and Jyn saved the day with stuns and burning and revives. And the R2 cleanse on crit took care of a lot of those debuffs from vader and EP.