Spend on leader abilities for a non-leader?

Shiverina

Bit of a noob question here - this has been a bit of a frustration to try and figure out:

TLDR: When a crew who has a leader ability is not the leader, does that crew member benefit from the leader ability level benefits? Or am I wasting ability materials leveling this ability for a crew member I am not making a leader? Does that makes sense? Am I wasting ability materials leveling the leader ability for a crew member I do not plan to make the actual squad leader.

I spend ability mats on leveling leader ability for a non-leader?

Long version:
Crew have leader abilities which are leveled up. I have determined which crew will be part of my Empire, Jedi, Sith, Rebel, etc squads of 5 members. I have also determined which crew member of those 5 will be my leader. I have spent the Ability Materials to upgrade the "Leader" ability on those intended leaders, however, for crew who will not be my leader, some have a leader ability. If I don't use them as leaders, how does the Leader ability work? Is it a waste to spend ability resources on those.

Example. Rebels. Let's say I have Oldbi-wan as the leader and I'm also using farmboy Luke and Stormtrooper Han. I obviously level Oldbi-wan's leader ability to max but what about Luke and Han for this ability? If I do level the ability and they're not the leader, do Luke or Han benefit from this ability? At present, I have leveled Luke's "A New Hope" leader ability to level 3. This is supposed to give me:
+4% Tenacity at level 2
+4% Tenacity at level 3
+10% Tenacity at level 4

If I buy level 5, I get another +4% Tenacity. Will Luke get those benefits as a non-leader? Obviously he gets them when he is the leader in addition to the rest of the squad benefit, "All allies gain 37% Tenacity."

Context: I joined in late September 2017. As of this posting, I'm lvl 79 and have 4 rows in crew manifest at 7* with level 8+ gear and about a row (ish) with lvl 4-5 mods. I'm able to self-serve most of my questions browsing the forums and google, but have not found the answer to this yet.

Thank you and sorry if TL. Wanted to be sure I was super transparent in my ask.

Dooku_for_days

You get no benefits in battle, however every increase in GP is good.

Naraic

Leader abilities don't matter if you aren't the leader. If you are using the team for PvP they can look more intimidating because their power is higher if that matters at all to you.

Nauros

The leader ability has no effect at all when the character isn't the leader. It does, however, contribute to total GP for TB and TW, so there is some reason to level it up if you have enough materials.

Imperial_CdrShepard7

The only case where I have so far spent ability mats on Leader abilities for non-intended squad leaders, it was always for pilots. And not just any pilot, but only for the guys piloting my top 7-8 starfighters or my main capital ship. In my particular case, after 3-4 months of total game time, fleets are currently my main source of daily crystals (which isn't typically the case, but I'm not good enough in Squad Arena). I saw these ability mats used for leader abilities as an investment to make those pilots and their important starfighters much stronger.

In the specific case you mentioned, Farmboy Luke. I wouldn't spend ability mats on his leadership ability as of now. If he isn't the leader. he isn't providing those benefits to the team.

Dryff

^ this. All of your pilots should have maxed out leader abilities.

Ikenstein86

I'd love to see a new toon with a leader ability that makes other toon's leader abilities work on them and only them. It would work on Revan, with a name like Charismatic leader or Leader of leaders. It could make for lots of cool compositions, like a sith team where Vader gets his DoT regen, Maul gets his stealth and TM, Savage gets his defense, and Nihilus gets his offense and health regen.

Aside frim this personal pipe dream of mine, no, there is no scenario where this benefits you, other than the raw GP increase for territory battles, ship captains, or whatever tiny bit of an intimidation factor a higher overall power rating on your squad might give you in arena.

Shiverina

Thank you all, I think for where I am in game, the ability mats will be much better spent developing other abilities and other crew. Much appreciated!!