The problem with him is that you can't easily star him up. He's a perfectly good 4-star character, but not going to be useful for Arena or GW at 4-stars.
Vader, Rey, RG are the shards I'll actually buy in the shop if I see them. They are my long term projects and any little bit helps. And considering all the Arena shipment characters are garbage, I'm happy to use my 40,000+ credits on converting to shard shop currency.
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I have faced him a couple times in GW even at 4* and geared he does pretty good dmg. I am 4 shards from unlocking him and will likely toss him on my b or c GW squad. His AoE is pretty useful for gw or the regular missions.
I'd advise against gearing him up unless you have Empire allies to take advantage of his leader buff. I geared him and leveled him and loved it, but quickly realized he's easy to kill when against 6 and 7 * attackers. If you PVP against other teams with 7* toons, Vader needs to be carried big time.
The one thing I like is using his culling blade on someone with a lot of DoTs on, when Vader hits you with culling blade AND crits, you'll easily see a 8-12k hit! But, he needs to survive long enough to get that in.
He's a pain to FACE in GW because his AoE and the damage over time it inflicts can screw you up beyond just the one battle. That impact doesn't matter to the AI team you're facing, so not as helpful to have him on your team.
Keep working on Vader eventually he will be best toon in game or least top 5, few shards away from 5 star,but have him geared at level 7 purple holds his own, by like earlier poster says he doesn't last long against 7 star toons, but what 4 star cheaper does though? My advice gear him slowly, and keep him on your bench and jus keep grinding for his shards which is getting crazy to get lately. I'm dying to finish him for my all sith team he is my last one to get up to par.
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The one thing I like is using his culling blade on someone with a lot of DoTs on, when Vader hits you with culling blade AND crits, you'll easily see a 8-12k hit! But, he needs to survive long enough to get that in.
... You could farm him.
... If he was faster.