#1 on my server whips my **** every time. He has all level 70
7* QGJ (lead) gear 8
7* Old Ben gear 9
7* GS gear 9
7* Leia gear 8
7* Poe gear 8
That's a beast of a team.
In the hands of the player, yes. However in the hands of the AI it's terrible (AI terrible? NO way!), easy win. I just wish Leia wouldn't go into stealth 100% of the time in defense. It makes it a quick 4 vs 5 right off the bat, especially against a AoE team.
So now I have:
QGJ (L) 5* - Lumi 7* - Old Ben 4* - Phasma 7* - GS 5* instead of
Phasma (L) - Lumi - Old Ben - GS - Sidious 7*
(all are 7 stars, purple gear, mostly 2nd level)
I like the new lineup. I just won a straight 10 Arena matches (and most were crushing 5-0 victories without heal that I would even be happy with in GW), climbing from 150 to 33.
Daka's no longer a problem, Sidious fell into "not-a-threat" bucket and so are all high DPS (with a 2-turn half-damage, I can totally deal with them!). Poggle is an annoyance though, because his offense-up buff trumps my offense-down one, but aside from that, he's quite harmless himself.
Haven't seen (or chose not to skip over) much Poe, Royal Guard, Leia or Rey yet.
I run a 7* droid team with IG-88, IG-86, and GS (he's only 5*) then I put Lumi and Daka behind them. I like teams with tanks like Poe. Low offense and the still take them out in 1 round. All my battles go the same way... Take big damage in Rd 1 as I eat all the specials, then heal with Lumi who keeps healing for 2 rounds. Once I get to Rd 2, I have a big advantage as my high damage squad takes over.
I hate playing Dooku, especially with a Phasma lead... Multiple attacks and stuns suck. QGJ teams suck too because of the speed. The key to beating my team is stopping the heal in Rd 1. If I get to Rd 2 and Lumi was blocked or stunned, then my team can be had.
Since nobody wants to lose at night all the ranks they worked hard to gain during the day, it's good to have a team that also performs well on the defensive side. And of course, the best way to do that is to deter other players from fighting your team in the first place.
When I look for an opponent, I'm looking at factors such as character levels, team power and individual characters.
There are the obvious factors "the more the harder": gear, stars, level, power in more or less that order).
Previously, I used power a lot more: when my team was 15 - 20k, I was looking for the highest rank I could snatch with a team with at most 1k power above me. I got surprisingly easy wins against teams 2-3k above me, and got shredded by teams 2-3k below me (just when I thought I had spotted the sweet hidden gem of an easy win )
Later on (I'm now at 23k, top 200), I realized that power doesn't mean that much. Some characters that are not that much of a threat still have a huge power number (and conversely). I have a Royal Guard (who doesn't do damage at all) that has more power than a FO Pilot, and a Talia that's on par with my Geonosian Soldier who does twice the damage at least.
And then, most importantly, the roster: what's the fear factor of each of the 5 bad guys, their leader, and possible synergies.
So I made a list of some characters I meet often, and their relative fear factor, which includes a mix of objective stats and subjective factors: their real battle strength, my familiarity with them (better the evil you know), my own psychological apprehension based on personal history, what I read about them, etc.
I set aside Luminara, Sidious and Phasma because they're so ubiquitous: at least one of them will make it in every team, if not 2 or 3. My own team has all 3 of them.
Let's start with the good end of the stick: low fear-factor, if I see one or more of them, I'll very likely pick that team:
Barriss Offee. She won't hurt, and I will ability-block her at the right time.
Chewbacca. He won't hurt, he'll taunt too late, and when he does, I'll pause for heal / buff, or just plain kill him in one round.
Talia. Doesn't hurt much either, she'll hang out there until I think it's time to finish her off and that won't take long, she doesn't handle damage well.
Jedi Consular. Either there is no Luminara on that team and their healing capacity is not great, or he's there in addition to Luminara and that's really a GW team, with reduced attack. In both cases, good for me.
Ahsoka Tano. Slow, weak, she's an easy kill and I can handle one round of damage if it ever happens. Sure she evades, but nothing in comparison of Sidious.
Asajj Ventress. Not sure why, she's never given me a hard time I guess. Just make sure to kill/block her before I apply buffs.
Boba Fett. Mildly annoying ability block that usually lands too late to be really that annoying, then just a mild tank. I'll probably have to kill him twice or more, but who cares?
Now on to the neutral zone: those guys need special care, but are otherwise not incredibly scary:
FO Pilot. Dreadful damage, but his average speed and low health mean that I should be able to take him down quickly and take at most one hit from him. More dangerous with Phasma as leader or other assists, or a good taunt.
IG-86: Similar as above, sometimes lost in a team without droid synergies and not such a threat then.
Luke: I'll have to soak quite a large damage on first round, but that's about it.
Kylo Ren: His anti-heal is annoying, but his damage is just average. Handle with care though: make sure to finish him when he becomes yellow.
Darth Vador: His signature move is too complex for the AI to handle properly, so it's easy to hinder somehow (by either killing or blocking him).
Old Ben: His group ability block and offense down at the end of round one is certainly something I'd rather avoid, but that I can perhaps survive.
Qui-Gon-Jinn: As leader, that depends on how many other Jedis will hit fast. On his own, he's a little too fragile to be a such a strong threat.
And now onto the dreadful few, the ones that make me think twice, and opt for an alternative if available:
Poe of course, as my only hope to handle him is to put my weaker QGJ in the lead, and lose other useful leader abilities (assist or evade)
Daka. I can handle the revive and heal, and if I focus I can bring her down in a few attacks. But an opening double stun as she does quite often, on her own or worse, on an even quicker assist of the opening attack, means game over even before my first move.
Yoda. That's mostly fear of the unknown, haven't fought him much. He looks like he would evade about all of my attacks (foresight).
IG-88. I've faced a team of Sidious - Poe - IG-88 (in GW): Sidious and Poe make sure that each of my guys has a debuff, then IG-88 crits on all of them, and does something like 8k damage on each of them (yep, total 40k damage): On the 3rd attack, I was left with 1 guy standing in the red.
Oppress. Before the last nerf, I used to see him as just a low-threat fat meek tank. I since learned the hard way that he's not that meek anymore.
Dooku. I can't match his speed, so there are chances he'll stun someone(s), possibly call an assist (if lead with Phasma) that could wreak more havoc before I can even do anything.
Now if you kept reading so far, here's a little question:
Which of these team you'd avoid more:
@Tiggus What about Poggle? Such a massive factor for me when choosing opponents, even though I run him myself... I know first hand just how much that offensd up hurts. He has a lot of health is reasonably fast and ability blocks on basic attack. Poggle flags big avoid signs for me. Apart from Poggle I'd then say daka, she is so annoying with multiple stun capabilities and auto reviving an all with full turn meter.
Here's a f2p smoker.
6* rey
7* fotp 7* rp
7* gs
7* poe
You have a seven star Ru Paul?!?!? Awesome.
Seriously, wth is "rp"??
And who would lead this team?
In game name: Lucas Gregory FORMER PLAYER - - - -"Whale blah grump poooop." - Ouchie
In game guild: TNR Uprising I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
@Tiggus What about Poggle? Such a massive factor for me when choosing opponents, even though I run him myself... I know first hand just how much that offensd up hurts. He has a lot of health is reasonably fast and ability blocks on basic attack. Poggle flags big avoid signs for me. Apart from Poggle I'd then say daka, she is so annoying with multiple stun capabilities and auto reviving an all with full turn meter.
@MaceMazer Yes I agree, would definitely put him in the high-threat bucket, mostly for that offense up thing. But it really depends who's with him too... usually folks that have more than enough offense already, but sometimes I see something like Sidious - Poggle - Daka - Phasma - Lumi then I don't care so much: By the time the dreaded offense up shows, Daka is gone, everybody else but Lumi will do manageable damage, and Poggle himself is sort of a deadweight (even if one that takes time to kill).
Is there anyone out there to counter the offense up? Unlike advantage, hitting the guy twice won't remove it, right?
In arena I run: (all level 70 max gear)
Dooku 7* (leader) evasion and offense up is huge
Lumi 7*
Sid 7*
QGJ 7*
Poggle 6*
Reaches between top 20-10 each day and normally ends up 35-50 the next day.
Looks like a sharp drop.
How many ranks can you jump in 1 battle at that stage? Like 5-6 no? Well, as long as it takes 5 battles to come back up where you were, I guess that's ok.
I would suggest trying other leaders. I've read Dooku's evasion as leader is bugged, I see him in many teams but almost never as leader.
The only team i fear, QGJ (L), FOTP, Rey, GS, Dooku. just way too fast and way to much damage.
... But QGJ's bonus doesn't even apply to anyone (else). Not a single Jedi worth putting in that mix? Like to replace FOTP who isn't that fast himself and easy to take down in that team.
I wish one could easily (and successfully) oppose a team of tanks + healer to that one, that would soak up damage, survive and win on attrition. Probably not feasible right now though.
Since nobody wants to lose at night all the ranks they worked hard to gain during the day, it's good to have a team that also performs well on the defensive side. And of course, the best way to do that is to deter other players from fighting your team in the first place.
When I look for an opponent, I'm looking at factors such as character levels, team power and individual characters.
There are the obvious factors "the more the harder": gear, stars, level, power in more or less that order).
Previously, I used power a lot more: when my team was 15 - 20k, I was looking for the highest rank I could snatch with a team with at most 1k power above me. I got surprisingly easy wins against teams 2-3k above me, and got shredded by teams 2-3k below me (just when I thought I had spotted the sweet hidden gem of an easy win )
Later on (I'm now at 23k, top 200), I realized that power doesn't mean that much. Some characters that are not that much of a threat still have a huge power number (and conversely). I have a Royal Guard (who doesn't do damage at all) that has more power than a FO Pilot, and a Talia that's on par with my Geonosian Soldier who does twice the damage at least.
And then, most importantly, the roster: what's the fear factor of each of the 5 bad guys, their leader, and possible synergies.
So I made a list of some characters I meet often, and their relative fear factor, which includes a mix of objective stats and subjective factors: their real battle strength, my familiarity with them (better the evil you know), my own psychological apprehension based on personal history, what I read about them, etc.
I set aside Luminara, Sidious and Phasma because they're so ubiquitous: at least one of them will make it in every team, if not 2 or 3. My own team has all 3 of them.
Let's start with the good end of the stick: low fear-factor, if I see one or more of them, I'll very likely pick that team:
Barriss Offee. She won't hurt, and I will ability-block her at the right time.
Chewbacca. He won't hurt, he'll taunt too late, and when he does, I'll pause for heal / buff, or just plain kill him in one round.
Talia. Doesn't hurt much either, she'll hang out there until I think it's time to finish her off and that won't take long, she doesn't handle damage well.
Jedi Consular. Either there is no Luminara on that team and their healing capacity is not great, or he's there in addition to Luminara and that's really a GW team, with reduced attack. In both cases, good for me.
Ahsoka Tano. Slow, weak, she's an easy kill and I can handle one round of damage if it ever happens. Sure she evades, but nothing in comparison of Sidious.
Asajj Ventress. Not sure why, she's never given me a hard time I guess. Just make sure to kill/block her before I apply buffs.
Boba Fett. Mildly annoying ability block that usually lands too late to be really that annoying, then just a mild tank. I'll probably have to kill him twice or more, but who cares?
Now on to the neutral zone: those guys need special care, but are otherwise not incredibly scary:
FO Pilot. Dreadful damage, but his average speed and low health mean that I should be able to take him down quickly and take at most one hit from him. More dangerous with Phasma as leader or other assists, or a good taunt.
IG-86: Similar as above, sometimes lost in a team without droid synergies and not such a threat then.
Luke: I'll have to soak quite a large damage on first round, but that's about it.
Kylo Ren: His anti-heal is annoying, but his damage is just average. Handle with care though: make sure to finish him when he becomes yellow.
Darth Vador: His signature move is too complex for the AI to handle properly, so it's easy to hinder somehow (by either killing or blocking him).
Old Ben: His group ability block and offense down at the end of round one is certainly something I'd rather avoid, but that I can perhaps survive.
Qui-Gon-Jinn: As leader, that depends on how many other Jedis will hit fast. On his own, he's a little too fragile to be a such a strong threat.
And now onto the dreadful few, the ones that make me think twice, and opt for an alternative if available:
Poe of course, as my only hope to handle him is to put my weaker QGJ in the lead, and lose other useful leader abilities (assist or evade)
Daka. I can handle the revive and heal, and if I focus I can bring her down in a few attacks. But an opening double stun as she does quite often, on her own or worse, on an even quicker assist of the opening attack, means game over even before my first move.
Yoda. That's mostly fear of the unknown, haven't fought him much. He looks like he would evade about all of my attacks (foresight).
IG-88. I've faced a team of Sidious - Poe - IG-88 (in GW): Sidious and Poe make sure that each of my guys has a debuff, then IG-88 crits on all of them, and does something like 8k damage on each of them (yep, total 40k damage): On the 3rd attack, I was left with 1 guy standing in the red.
Oppress. Before the last nerf, I used to see him as just a low-threat fat meek tank. I since learned the hard way that he's not that meek anymore.
Dooku. I can't match his speed, so there are chances he'll stun someone(s), possibly call an assist (if lead with Phasma) that could wreak more havoc before I can even do anything.
Now if you kept reading so far, here's a little question:
Which of these team you'd avoid more:
Good post but I will disagree with your list. 86 and QGJ neutral? I'm guessing you do not see them maxed out. I run both, QGJ is the only Jedi I run too, yet still as lead. I'm on a Late Nov Shard with whales. I finish up top regularly. I was attacked twoice before payout, still finished #1.
Poe is not dreadful at all in arena
88 not buffed by Poggle and hidden behind Poe(if he even lives for a Poe taunt) is nothing at all but a 1 shot kill, even maxed.
Yoda? Come on I see that lil green bugger maxed a lot. He is weak and easy to kill. Sometimes I leave him since turn 1 is his special attack, turn 2 he buffs. I then use my QGJ to debuff and Offense Up my team. Yoda helps me more than hurts me when I attack.
Opress? No again. His HP is high, his buff on damage is touchy, but he is not dreadful.
If you see Vader on your arena you are on a not so competitive one or quite low. Never see him.
None on your top list have any business in arena except Ventress but only as lead if Daka is there.
Ren at 7* buffed by Poggle is dreadful he hits very hard then. You are forced to focus that huge HP down fast.
Honestly on those teams you mentioned I'd target them as easy wins, to be honest. The last one is the toughest, but it is not really. My Max Dooku would nearly kill QGJ with the stun, Max GS is the only real threat there, and my QGJ, Sid, and GS can end that fast.
The 2nd from bottom I assume is all 7* gear 8, 9 for GS. That one if Phasma were lead could give a decent fight.
It depends on what you run though. I run an all 7* max gear(except my QGJ only 80/100) QGJ(L) Sid, Dooku,GS,86 and I've yet to hit a build that gives me real issue. I'll be honest I target the hardest looking builds to test myself against, to learn how to beat them. I do not mind loosing to learn to beat them, and/or to get new ideas of things to try, though from 5-6 it is all business,,lol.
Great post though I like the assessment and it will help many out.
@DarthMasterShawn Thanks for your reply. You're right, I'm on an old server (November), but only in the top-100 or so (I am ftp). The whole top-200 are level-70 players and all except 2 have level-7 leaders (mostly Phasma and Sidious, a few QGJ at the top and a few Barriss, HK-47,...)
So yes, it's great to read about your experience at the top of the ladder.
After more encounters with Opress, I agree he's not that dreadful, I just learned to not start him until I'm ready to finish him (e.g. not AoE on him).
I've now met a few Yodas and he never really gave me trouble. He's a funny little thing, does all kind of magic tricks, but he also dies easily when I want him to. Again, it's just a matter of learning to go easy on the buffs when he's still alive (and not blocked).
I have fought lots of Ren, but I only really lost because of him once (let him attack me when he was yellow)
So my personal recent bad encounters were with: Daka (double-stun on first turn), Dooku (same), Phasma (give an almost whole turn for free to other team, right after turn 1), IG-88 (deadly AoE when all my team had something red on them), Poe (mostly expose + IG-88, see just before) and lately Poggle (not him in person, but his freakin offense buff)
I haven't had the chance (?) to fight (or enough to have a strong opinion): Leia, Rey, new-Royal Guard.
IG-86 hasn't given me too much trouble so far. But I'd like him to be more troublesome, as I can easily farm him, and actually seriously consider doing it (competing with Resistance Pilot, Poggle and ... Teebo? for my Galactic tokens).
I now run QGJ as lead and like that a lot. Reminds me a bit of when Neo learns to master time in the Matrix (well, until I find another team that also has an accelerator I guess).
I dunno about other people's ladders, but the only fear factor I've seen is due to how you play the arena than whatever team you have...
If you retaliate like close to immediately after being attacked.. close to every time... then people will learn to avoid you... sometimes it will come down to who is prepared to blink first though.. not often... it depends on the player... There was one guy where we literally spent an hour re-attacking each other until he gave up. He probably would have kept going if he hadn't had to do three hops before getting to me.
Pretty much most people in my ladder know when the other players are "active" and "inactive" certainly within the top 30 places anyway... So most of the time we avoid each other if we know they are climbing around the same time.. Outside of that there is no way to stop people from attacking you regardless of what team you put up.. Especially as you climb further up you are encountering people with deeper and more developed rosters, thus they have the people to combat any combination possible
In my ladder there is no real fear factor anywhere... even people using Phasma as lead with a stun lock team containing Dooku and Old Daka gets attacked often, no idea why for others, but for me.. I do it cause to show there is no team I won't attack... Speed teams with QGJ or Akbar get attacked equally often if not more.
Probably the closest team I seen people occasionally avoid is an assist heavy team containing both QGJ and Geo Soldier with Phasma leading combined with Rey and the FOTP.. The chance for both the fast moving QGJ and Geo to actually call either FOTP or Rey on both assists is often enough to put people off attacking them if they don't have a high health team
Former crazy person of the guild "Shard Awakens"... *quit game 13th July 2016*
Game used to be fun when it wasn't a grind... if I wanted a grind I would have went and played old school Everquest or some Korean MMO!
How is Savage in Arena nowadays? I'm yet to come across him so far.
A bad idea generally, give how common QGJ and (to a lesser extent) Yoda are... his buff on hit leaves him highly exploitable by these two characters.. You are essentially going to make it a lot harder for yourself if you come up against one or both of these two in the Arena.
Former crazy person of the guild "Shard Awakens"... *quit game 13th July 2016*
Game used to be fun when it wasn't a grind... if I wanted a grind I would have went and played old school Everquest or some Korean MMO!
@DarthMasterShawn Thanks for your reply. You're right, I'm on an old server (November), but only in the top-100 or so (I am ftp). The whole top-200 are level-70 players and all except 2 have level-7 leaders (mostly Phasma and Sidious, a few QGJ at the top and a few Barriss, HK-47,...)
So yes, it's great to read about your experience at the top of the ladder.
After more encounters with Opress, I agree he's not that dreadful, I just learned to not start him until I'm ready to finish him (e.g. not AoE on him).
I've now met a few Yodas and he never really gave me trouble. He's a funny little thing, does all kind of magic tricks, but he also dies easily when I want him to. Again, it's just a matter of learning to go easy on the buffs when he's still alive (and not blocked).
I have fought lots of Ren, but I only really lost because of him once (let him attack me when he was yellow)
So my personal recent bad encounters were with: Daka (double-stun on first turn), Dooku (same), Phasma (give an almost whole turn for free to other team, right after turn 1), IG-88 (deadly AoE when all my team had something red on them), Poe (mostly expose + IG-88, see just before) and lately Poggle (not him in person, but his freakin offense buff)
I haven't had the chance (?) to fight (or enough to have a strong opinion): Leia, Rey, new-Royal Guard.
IG-86 hasn't given me too much trouble so far. But I'd like him to be more troublesome, as I can easily farm him, and actually seriously consider doing it (competing with Resistance Pilot, Poggle and ... Teebo? for my Galactic tokens).
I now run QGJ as lead and like that a lot. Reminds me a bit of when Neo learns to master time in the Matrix (well, until I find another team that also has an accelerator I guess).
Daka for me is most annoying. I had her just yesterday revive all 3 I had killed forcing me to kill them again.
On the right non droid team 86 is great. The speed is slow, but my other 4 are fast, 2 of which call for assist, if he is called by GS or QGJ it is death. My thing with 88,(I have him abilities all 6, 6* gear 8) is he needs the poggle buff to be deadly, where 88 max level hits steady over 4.5k every turn for me. I get an occasional non crit in the mid 3000's
That old Hag Daka though I hate fighting her just for the fact I know I'm actually fighting 6-8 not 5 due to her revive. On the builds she is on in my bracket if I focus on her first I will die because she is always with QGJ and at least 1 cannon. QGJ gets rolling you die. His HP may be low but Harmonous is great, and Humbling will make his whole team awesome while removing your taunt, offense up, Resistence, or Advantage. I can't tell you how many times facing RG, Poe, han, Phasma he has turned the tide for me. Give GS and 86 Offense up and people die fast.
There was helpful information in this thread, so let me summarize / give back some.
I now wake up within the top-50, and just missed the top-20 (at 21) today, up from having to climb my way back into the top-200 every day, 20 days ago.
My team is now QGJ (6*, L), GS (6*), Phasma (7*), Lumi (7*), Old Ben (4*), all gear VIII.
With a power of 25k, I'm the light-weight in my server (all teams around me are about 33 - 35*, 26-27k, the whole top-200 has 6-7*/purple gear leaders) and despite that, I don't fall that much every night, so I guess I at least partially did something right (patiently hoarding those 20-long and 50-long pieces of gear is probably one of them, ditching Sidous for a less-starred but better-fit QGJ was another), but more precisely:
Re-invest all crystals into gear: 2 energy refreshes (2 x 50 crystals)
... and shards: 1 cantina refresh (used at 100% of GS shards and QGJ shards from shipments) (100 crystals)
I normally just fight my 5 Arena battles a day. If I win all 5 hands-down, then I pay 50 crystals to advance some more. I noticed that it's easier to maintain rank at a higher rank, since only 6 players in the world can challenge you, as opposed to more than 20 at a lower rank.
Don't use Sidious just because you happen to have him at 7*. He's a total nightmare in GW, but a piece of cake in Arena (unless you synegize around him, e.g. critical boost or debuff + IG-88). Same with other guys such as Jedi consular, Chewbacca and Talia of course.
Know your opponents: Target Sidious with your non-Jedi, don't let Yoda or Ventress steal your buffs, learn how much down you can bring an enemy before his next healer will trigger, don't let Ren attack you when he's in the red, always debuff Rey, try not to hit Han when he's taunting (hit him before, and/or heal or do something else when he is), don't damage Opress as a side-effect (e.g. area attack), know who to kill and who to ability-block/stun when facing multiple high-damage killers,...
Know your own guys: Use QGJ's humbling blow to gain offense up (= on a toon that has a buff, but that will neither evade or die), trigger Lumi's heal early (since it will go on for 2 more turns), know how best to use Phasma's specials and attack (e.g. her base attack is miserable; with advantage it's much better),...
Against Dooku: Never attack him unless it's for the kill. Wait for the best moment (GS offense up with assist, or try to stun him when his TM is low,... I personally use Old Ben to attack him: I don't really care him getting some damage, as he's just as useful dead as alive).
Daka / healers: make them heal, that's one turn they're not hitting you. Then make them heal with the least possible effect (e.g. kill someone just before Daka's turn, you'll spare a stun; with the right use of stun / ability-block / damage, you can avoid Lumi's force blast, or at least avoid it a second time; same for Jedi Consular; make sure they heal only themselves, then hit them hard)
Phasma: her Victory March can easily become exactly that, as it means about an extra full turn. Make sure that's not happening too early, and there are not too many people to benefit from it. She's easily stunned.
And finally, who's topping the high-priority kill list:
QGJ - IG-88, IG-86, Rey, GS, Poe (if you make it before he taunts), the Pilots, Leia
Who's next:
Daka, Sidious (don't leave him until you have only Jedi left alive, that's a very bad idea), Phasma if you can avoid her special, Dooku, Ren, Yoda (not that annoying, just don't let him do all his tricks)
And who can be left for dessert:
Sidious (if you don't run Jedi), Old Ben, Poggle, Ackbar, the healers, Phasma (without advantage), Ventress
Replies
In the hands of the player, yes. However in the hands of the AI it's terrible (AI terrible? NO way!), easy win. I just wish Leia wouldn't go into stealth 100% of the time in defense. It makes it a quick 4 vs 5 right off the bat, especially against a AoE team.
I like the new lineup. I just won a straight 10 Arena matches (and most were crushing 5-0 victories without heal that I would even be happy with in GW), climbing from 150 to 33.
Daka's no longer a problem, Sidious fell into "not-a-threat" bucket and so are all high DPS (with a 2-turn half-damage, I can totally deal with them!). Poggle is an annoyance though, because his offense-up buff trumps my offense-down one, but aside from that, he's quite harmless himself.
Haven't seen (or chose not to skip over) much Poe, Royal Guard, Leia or Rey yet.
Now let's see how much of it I'll lose at night
I hate playing Dooku, especially with a Phasma lead... Multiple attacks and stuns suck. QGJ teams suck too because of the speed. The key to beating my team is stopping the heal in Rd 1. If I get to Rd 2 and Lumi was blocked or stunned, then my team can be had.
@Tiggus What about Poggle? Such a massive factor for me when choosing opponents, even though I run him myself... I know first hand just how much that offensd up hurts. He has a lot of health is reasonably fast and ability blocks on basic attack. Poggle flags big avoid signs for me. Apart from Poggle I'd then say daka, she is so annoying with multiple stun capabilities and auto reviving an all with full turn meter.
6* rey
7* fotp
7* rp
7* gs
7* poe
Seriously, wth is "rp"??
And who would lead this team?
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
Dooku 7* (leader) evasion and offense up is huge
Lumi 7*
Sid 7*
QGJ 7*
Poggle 6*
Reaches between top 20-10 each day and normally ends up 35-50 the next day.
Rp=resistance pilot haaaayyyy
Poe lead
@MaceMazer Yes I agree, would definitely put him in the high-threat bucket, mostly for that offense up thing. But it really depends who's with him too... usually folks that have more than enough offense already, but sometimes I see something like Sidious - Poggle - Daka - Phasma - Lumi then I don't care so much: By the time the dreaded offense up shows, Daka is gone, everybody else but Lumi will do manageable damage, and Poggle himself is sort of a deadweight (even if one that takes time to kill).
Is there anyone out there to counter the offense up? Unlike advantage, hitting the guy twice won't remove it, right?
Looks like a sharp drop.
How many ranks can you jump in 1 battle at that stage? Like 5-6 no? Well, as long as it takes 5 battles to come back up where you were, I guess that's ok.
I would suggest trying other leaders. I've read Dooku's evasion as leader is bugged, I see him in many teams but almost never as leader.
... But QGJ's bonus doesn't even apply to anyone (else). Not a single Jedi worth putting in that mix? Like to replace FOTP who isn't that fast himself and easy to take down in that team.
I wish one could easily (and successfully) oppose a team of tanks + healer to that one, that would soak up damage, survive and win on attrition. Probably not feasible right now though.
Good post but I will disagree with your list. 86 and QGJ neutral? I'm guessing you do not see them maxed out. I run both, QGJ is the only Jedi I run too, yet still as lead. I'm on a Late Nov Shard with whales. I finish up top regularly. I was attacked twoice before payout, still finished #1.
Poe is not dreadful at all in arena
88 not buffed by Poggle and hidden behind Poe(if he even lives for a Poe taunt) is nothing at all but a 1 shot kill, even maxed.
Yoda? Come on I see that lil green bugger maxed a lot. He is weak and easy to kill. Sometimes I leave him since turn 1 is his special attack, turn 2 he buffs. I then use my QGJ to debuff and Offense Up my team. Yoda helps me more than hurts me when I attack.
Opress? No again. His HP is high, his buff on damage is touchy, but he is not dreadful.
If you see Vader on your arena you are on a not so competitive one or quite low. Never see him.
None on your top list have any business in arena except Ventress but only as lead if Daka is there.
Ren at 7* buffed by Poggle is dreadful he hits very hard then. You are forced to focus that huge HP down fast.
Honestly on those teams you mentioned I'd target them as easy wins, to be honest. The last one is the toughest, but it is not really. My Max Dooku would nearly kill QGJ with the stun, Max GS is the only real threat there, and my QGJ, Sid, and GS can end that fast.
The 2nd from bottom I assume is all 7* gear 8, 9 for GS. That one if Phasma were lead could give a decent fight.
It depends on what you run though. I run an all 7* max gear(except my QGJ only 80/100) QGJ(L) Sid, Dooku,GS,86 and I've yet to hit a build that gives me real issue. I'll be honest I target the hardest looking builds to test myself against, to learn how to beat them. I do not mind loosing to learn to beat them, and/or to get new ideas of things to try, though from 5-6 it is all business,,lol.
Great post though I like the assessment and it will help many out.
That is an annoying team I face that team as well. It took a few trials to learn to beat it.
So yes, it's great to read about your experience at the top of the ladder.
After more encounters with Opress, I agree he's not that dreadful, I just learned to not start him until I'm ready to finish him (e.g. not AoE on him).
I've now met a few Yodas and he never really gave me trouble. He's a funny little thing, does all kind of magic tricks, but he also dies easily when I want him to. Again, it's just a matter of learning to go easy on the buffs when he's still alive (and not blocked).
I have fought lots of Ren, but I only really lost because of him once (let him attack me when he was yellow)
So my personal recent bad encounters were with: Daka (double-stun on first turn), Dooku (same), Phasma (give an almost whole turn for free to other team, right after turn 1), IG-88 (deadly AoE when all my team had something red on them), Poe (mostly expose + IG-88, see just before) and lately Poggle (not him in person, but his freakin offense buff)
I haven't had the chance (?) to fight (or enough to have a strong opinion): Leia, Rey, new-Royal Guard.
IG-86 hasn't given me too much trouble so far. But I'd like him to be more troublesome, as I can easily farm him, and actually seriously consider doing it (competing with Resistance Pilot, Poggle and ... Teebo? for my Galactic tokens).
I now run QGJ as lead and like that a lot. Reminds me a bit of when Neo learns to master time in the Matrix (well, until I find another team that also has an accelerator I guess).
If you retaliate like close to immediately after being attacked.. close to every time... then people will learn to avoid you... sometimes it will come down to who is prepared to blink first though.. not often... it depends on the player... There was one guy where we literally spent an hour re-attacking each other until he gave up. He probably would have kept going if he hadn't had to do three hops before getting to me.
Pretty much most people in my ladder know when the other players are "active" and "inactive" certainly within the top 30 places anyway... So most of the time we avoid each other if we know they are climbing around the same time.. Outside of that there is no way to stop people from attacking you regardless of what team you put up.. Especially as you climb further up you are encountering people with deeper and more developed rosters, thus they have the people to combat any combination possible
In my ladder there is no real fear factor anywhere... even people using Phasma as lead with a stun lock team containing Dooku and Old Daka gets attacked often, no idea why for others, but for me.. I do it cause to show there is no team I won't attack... Speed teams with QGJ or Akbar get attacked equally often if not more.
Probably the closest team I seen people occasionally avoid is an assist heavy team containing both QGJ and Geo Soldier with Phasma leading combined with Rey and the FOTP.. The chance for both the fast moving QGJ and Geo to actually call either FOTP or Rey on both assists is often enough to put people off attacking them if they don't have a high health team
Game used to be fun when it wasn't a grind... if I wanted a grind I would have went and played old school Everquest or some Korean MMO!
A bad idea generally, give how common QGJ and (to a lesser extent) Yoda are... his buff on hit leaves him highly exploitable by these two characters.. You are essentially going to make it a lot harder for yourself if you come up against one or both of these two in the Arena.
Game used to be fun when it wasn't a grind... if I wanted a grind I would have went and played old school Everquest or some Korean MMO!
+1000 very tough on def because procs seem to spam when AI controlled
Daka for me is most annoying. I had her just yesterday revive all 3 I had killed forcing me to kill them again.
On the right non droid team 86 is great. The speed is slow, but my other 4 are fast, 2 of which call for assist, if he is called by GS or QGJ it is death. My thing with 88,(I have him abilities all 6, 6* gear 8) is he needs the poggle buff to be deadly, where 88 max level hits steady over 4.5k every turn for me. I get an occasional non crit in the mid 3000's
That old Hag Daka though I hate fighting her just for the fact I know I'm actually fighting 6-8 not 5 due to her revive. On the builds she is on in my bracket if I focus on her first I will die because she is always with QGJ and at least 1 cannon. QGJ gets rolling you die. His HP may be low but Harmonous is great, and Humbling will make his whole team awesome while removing your taunt, offense up, Resistence, or Advantage. I can't tell you how many times facing RG, Poe, han, Phasma he has turned the tide for me. Give GS and 86 Offense up and people die fast.
If you have Rey above 5*, I'm not attacking you
If you want to counter Rey just put a red box on her (anything works) and she is not that great at all..
The classic droid/poggle/Poe team is what I'm hoping to build towards and what I fear.
HK47/86/88/Poggle/Poe
HK47/86/88/Poggle/GS
Poggle/86/88/GS/Poe
I now wake up within the top-50, and just missed the top-20 (at 21) today, up from having to climb my way back into the top-200 every day, 20 days ago.
My team is now QGJ (6*, L), GS (6*), Phasma (7*), Lumi (7*), Old Ben (4*), all gear VIII.
With a power of 25k, I'm the light-weight in my server (all teams around me are about 33 - 35*, 26-27k, the whole top-200 has 6-7*/purple gear leaders) and despite that, I don't fall that much every night, so I guess I at least partially did something right (patiently hoarding those 20-long and 50-long pieces of gear is probably one of them, ditching Sidous for a less-starred but better-fit QGJ was another), but more precisely:
And finally, who's topping the high-priority kill list:
QGJ - IG-88, IG-86, Rey, GS, Poe (if you make it before he taunts), the Pilots, Leia
Who's next:
Daka, Sidious (don't leave him until you have only Jedi left alive, that's a very bad idea), Phasma if you can avoid her special, Dooku, Ren, Yoda (not that annoying, just don't let him do all his tricks)
And who can be left for dessert:
Sidious (if you don't run Jedi), Old Ben, Poggle, Ackbar, the healers, Phasma (without advantage), Ventress