Never Tell Me The Odds! Rebels in the Arena! (Wall of text and videos)
March 13, 2016 6:17AM
edited March 2016
The inevitable era of the Speed Demon team has arrived. Our fight for diversity looks futile as we scroll down the ranks only to see QGJ filling up the top 20 spots. Are we pressurized to make that switch too? Is there no hope?..Hmm..but wait..what's that?..Admiral Ackbar? The Admiral Ackbar? What's this player thinking? I don't know where this player got their delusions from but that player is clearly a laser brain..right?...
Fear not and Never tell me the odds!
Inspired by @warmonkey1024 's analysis of his Anti-Meta Clone Squad, I have decided to share with you, my thoughts on the viability of the roles the Rebels can play in the current Speed Meta, but before I begin, it is important for us to remember this simple concept: Anything and Everything, works on Offense and nothing works on Defense. It is just a matter of whether someone attacks your team or not. Simple as that. Now with that in mind, you should not be restricted by the meta to stop you from working towards whatever squads you want to build just because everybody else is running the norm.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been hard farming the gears needed to make the Rebels decent and viable for my arena. The Rebels were not easy to gear up at all. In fact Ackbar is one of the hardest characters to hyper max in terms of abilities and gears. Farming the gears needed to hyper max Ackbar, made it look like farming 50 Purples were easy for other toons... In fact, I'm still a little short on his 50 Eyeballs and Hairdryers which should effectively give him a +40-ish Armor...but..yeah.. we all know that armor and defense are kinda pointless and overrated, especially so with all these inflated damages flying everywhere.
Don’t get it twisted though, Speed is still king and the Rebel Synergy isn’t exactly Meta, at the same time, neither is it Anti-Meta. Rebels still make use of Speed Leader Abilities. In this case, Admiral Ackbar’s and they also benefit a lot from all the turn meter gain that they can conjure and in that sense, they are able to move around a lot more, for as long as they are alive. Their firepower and viability however do not match the caliber of those to QGJ, GS and Rey lineups, but what they lack in Damage and HP, they make it up for their decent Speed and Turn Meter Control.
There are currently 8 Rebels in the game, 2 Chromium Exclusive and 6 FTP, however not all of them are good enough for PVP in my opinion and as a result I have only hyper maxed out 4. Each character in this post will be ranked from 1-10 in four areas: Damage, Endurance, Utility and Leadership so let's begin.
--
Admiral Ackbar
Damage: 3
Endurance: 4
Utility: 4
Leadership: 9
Admiral Ackbar might look good on paper with his heal infused dispel and 100% turn meter boost but do not be fooled by that. His essence is his Speed Leader Ability, Rebel Coordination, which grants +23 Speed to Leia and HRS making them, the two of the fastest characters in the game besides GMY w/ QGJ lead.
His basic does not scratch the enemy at all and Ackbar might not even get to live pass the 1st turn to use his special abilities which is a waste especially when his max armor is 177. His downfall is his 11k HP which basically puts a target on his back for Rey, GS and QGJ and for that reason alone, I gave him a 4 for Utility and Endurance.
Depending on your Arena, his Dispel may or may not work for you. Here, in the soft launch server, everyone copies everyone with their QGJ leads, so there’s not much dispel action happening but up against Sid, Phasma and HK, his dispel is to be desired and in Galactic War, it’s a totally different ball game. IMO, his 3rd Ability which gives 100% turn meter to a random ally is nice but it can be frustrating when it procs on a character that already has a full turn meter bar. This could be a possible bug and I hope the devs would look into it. However if his 3rd ability procs on Leia or HRS who has just finished their turn then it’s gg from there.
Princess Leia
Damage: 8
Endurance: 8
Utility: 7
Leadership: N.A
Despite needing 100 Hairdryers, Princess Leia’s gear requirements was ironically easy as compared to Ackbar. Princess Leia has gone through a lot. Call it what you want, a bug fix, a nerf, whatever but she’s still as deadly as ever especially when she cloaks. As of now, Leia is the fastest character in the game when paired with Ackbar. She immediately cloaks and will strike undetected. Leia doesn’t play. Her damage hurts and she’s capable of dismantling your foes fast.
The primary attacker on my Rebel team. I gave her 8 for Survivability because against non aoe teams, she will last. The only thing about Leia is that she is pay to get but FTP Players need not worry as she’s replaceable with any other speed DPS out there but if you’re strictly looking for a rebel attacker then go for Luke or Biggs.
Hoth Rebel Scout
Damage: 8
Endurance: 6
Utility: 8
Leadership: N.A
HRS is my secondary attacker. He immediately strikes after GMY (unless of course GMY removes his turn meter) and I’ve had instances where he was able to take QGJ out in 1 turn. First by his Crit + Stun and 100% turn meter gain from crit where HRS delivered the finishing blow. I don’t expect HRS to survive after that turn against teams with more than 1 DPS but if I can take down one of their DPS with me, then that’s more than I could ask for to be honest.
Stormtrooper Han
Damage: 4
Endurance: 7
Utility: 8
Leadership: N.A
The easiest to gear and max, STH’s utility comes from his obvious taunt and turn meter manipulation. Despite being a tank with a taunt and a decent armor of 186, Han’s downside is his abysmal 11k HP. Only in SWGOH will you be able to find attackers with more HP than tanks.
You must compare his HP to Geonosian Soldier who is an attacker. Han stands on 11k HP, 186 Armor and does mediocre damage whereas Geonosian Soldier stands on 12k HP, 188 Armor and does 8k+ Damage on Crit so if this isn’t evidence of damage disproportion in the game then I don’t know what is. If you compare Han to any other viable tanks, excluding Stormtrooper-1, he has the lowest HP in the game. Very unfortunate but I hope the developers would do something about this.
Anyway, despite his current setbacks, I still decided to run Han in this squad as the primary tank because with his boosted 144 Speed, he is able to move before Rey, Poe, Poggle and so on. At the same time, Han gives a 30% Turn Meter Boost to all allies when he taunts and this could enable a lot of things to happen which could then, turn the tide of the match into your favor. I will elaborate more on this with the next character. In any case, the next wave of attacks that come after his taunt would only mean more turn meter gain for everyone else in your squad.
Old Ben(The only non Rebel)
Damage: 6
Endurance: 9
Utility: 9
Leadership: N.A
Old Ben, yup. Everything about Old Ben screams Nope or Ugh, whenever your enemy faces him. Psychologically, people tend to avoid teams with Ben because why bother go thru all that trouble right?
With so much damage everywhere, Ben comes in handy to pacify the situation. Couple him with Han and you get, total turn meter control. A 144 Speed Han will not only taunt before Poe, Rey and Poggle (tried and tested by yours truly) but will also give Old Ben a 30% Turn Meter Boost. This is essential and deadly because it immediately enables him to conjure his debuff. With your enemy’s damage halved, Han will effectively live longer, allowing Leia and HRS to mop the floor. All of this will fail if GMY uses his Battle Meditation of course.
One of the many great substitutes for Ben for FTP Players would be Phasma. With a 30% Turn Meter Boost from Han, your Phasma will immediately move after. This would effectively mean more turn meter boost for you.
--
Phew okay, enough of that, let’s watch some videos.
Watch them as many times as you like and we can talk about attack choices and so on.
Rebels against Speed Meta – 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2EzcPSs5yY
Rebels against Speed Meta – 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkOQPA388Q
Rebels against Speed Meta – 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQCqJOxmT5k
Rebels against Sidious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opta8X-ptjs
GW Fun – 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3aMZCaAD_4
In conclusion, The Rebels are fun and refreshing to play around with. They are just as viable as QGJ lead teams, Resistance, First Order and so on so forth. Just because most players at the top are running QGJ lead does not effectively mean theirs is superior. QGJ is convenient, easy to farm and efficient to all players. The idea here is, as long as you can win, the concept of anything works on offense and nothing works on defense is valid.
Oh, and in case you were wondering if I have fought against teams with Royal Guard or Rey then fret not because I have. I just need to record them in my next battles. All of these rebels are hyper maxed with the exception of Ackbar who still has 2 gear slots left to fill and yet he is still viable. All in all, the Rebels are no pushover and granted they do not have the same damage output as GS or Rey, but they still pack a punch and will guarantee you victories.
Also 8 Rebels? pfft yeah right, more of them will arrive in the future for sure.
The moral of this story is, if you can and you want to, then go ahead and work towards that dream squad of yours. Even if it means having a Teebo lead Ewok Squad or a squad with just a bunch of your favorite misfits grouped together in one. The goal is for you to know your team more than the opponent knows yours. I hope this post will inspire more players to build whatever teams they want to build and not build them base on whatever the Meta is at the moment. Diversity for the win, let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Disclaimer: Zarazi here, I can’t seem to log into my old EA account..um.. I’m not really sure why. Edit: Also how do you do that page breaker thingy?
Fear not and Never tell me the odds!
Inspired by @warmonkey1024 's analysis of his Anti-Meta Clone Squad, I have decided to share with you, my thoughts on the viability of the roles the Rebels can play in the current Speed Meta, but before I begin, it is important for us to remember this simple concept: Anything and Everything, works on Offense and nothing works on Defense. It is just a matter of whether someone attacks your team or not. Simple as that. Now with that in mind, you should not be restricted by the meta to stop you from working towards whatever squads you want to build just because everybody else is running the norm.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been hard farming the gears needed to make the Rebels decent and viable for my arena. The Rebels were not easy to gear up at all. In fact Ackbar is one of the hardest characters to hyper max in terms of abilities and gears. Farming the gears needed to hyper max Ackbar, made it look like farming 50 Purples were easy for other toons... In fact, I'm still a little short on his 50 Eyeballs and Hairdryers which should effectively give him a +40-ish Armor...but..yeah.. we all know that armor and defense are kinda pointless and overrated, especially so with all these inflated damages flying everywhere.
Don’t get it twisted though, Speed is still king and the Rebel Synergy isn’t exactly Meta, at the same time, neither is it Anti-Meta. Rebels still make use of Speed Leader Abilities. In this case, Admiral Ackbar’s and they also benefit a lot from all the turn meter gain that they can conjure and in that sense, they are able to move around a lot more, for as long as they are alive. Their firepower and viability however do not match the caliber of those to QGJ, GS and Rey lineups, but what they lack in Damage and HP, they make it up for their decent Speed and Turn Meter Control.
There are currently 8 Rebels in the game, 2 Chromium Exclusive and 6 FTP, however not all of them are good enough for PVP in my opinion and as a result I have only hyper maxed out 4. Each character in this post will be ranked from 1-10 in four areas: Damage, Endurance, Utility and Leadership so let's begin.
--
Admiral Ackbar
Damage: 3
Endurance: 4
Utility: 4
Leadership: 9
Admiral Ackbar might look good on paper with his heal infused dispel and 100% turn meter boost but do not be fooled by that. His essence is his Speed Leader Ability, Rebel Coordination, which grants +23 Speed to Leia and HRS making them, the two of the fastest characters in the game besides GMY w/ QGJ lead.
His basic does not scratch the enemy at all and Ackbar might not even get to live pass the 1st turn to use his special abilities which is a waste especially when his max armor is 177. His downfall is his 11k HP which basically puts a target on his back for Rey, GS and QGJ and for that reason alone, I gave him a 4 for Utility and Endurance.
Depending on your Arena, his Dispel may or may not work for you. Here, in the soft launch server, everyone copies everyone with their QGJ leads, so there’s not much dispel action happening but up against Sid, Phasma and HK, his dispel is to be desired and in Galactic War, it’s a totally different ball game. IMO, his 3rd Ability which gives 100% turn meter to a random ally is nice but it can be frustrating when it procs on a character that already has a full turn meter bar. This could be a possible bug and I hope the devs would look into it. However if his 3rd ability procs on Leia or HRS who has just finished their turn then it’s gg from there.
Princess Leia
Damage: 8
Endurance: 8
Utility: 7
Leadership: N.A
Despite needing 100 Hairdryers, Princess Leia’s gear requirements was ironically easy as compared to Ackbar. Princess Leia has gone through a lot. Call it what you want, a bug fix, a nerf, whatever but she’s still as deadly as ever especially when she cloaks. As of now, Leia is the fastest character in the game when paired with Ackbar. She immediately cloaks and will strike undetected. Leia doesn’t play. Her damage hurts and she’s capable of dismantling your foes fast.
The primary attacker on my Rebel team. I gave her 8 for Survivability because against non aoe teams, she will last. The only thing about Leia is that she is pay to get but FTP Players need not worry as she’s replaceable with any other speed DPS out there but if you’re strictly looking for a rebel attacker then go for Luke or Biggs.
Hoth Rebel Scout
Damage: 8
Endurance: 6
Utility: 8
Leadership: N.A
HRS is my secondary attacker. He immediately strikes after GMY (unless of course GMY removes his turn meter) and I’ve had instances where he was able to take QGJ out in 1 turn. First by his Crit + Stun and 100% turn meter gain from crit where HRS delivered the finishing blow. I don’t expect HRS to survive after that turn against teams with more than 1 DPS but if I can take down one of their DPS with me, then that’s more than I could ask for to be honest.
Stormtrooper Han
Damage: 4
Endurance: 7
Utility: 8
Leadership: N.A
The easiest to gear and max, STH’s utility comes from his obvious taunt and turn meter manipulation. Despite being a tank with a taunt and a decent armor of 186, Han’s downside is his abysmal 11k HP. Only in SWGOH will you be able to find attackers with more HP than tanks.
You must compare his HP to Geonosian Soldier who is an attacker. Han stands on 11k HP, 186 Armor and does mediocre damage whereas Geonosian Soldier stands on 12k HP, 188 Armor and does 8k+ Damage on Crit so if this isn’t evidence of damage disproportion in the game then I don’t know what is. If you compare Han to any other viable tanks, excluding Stormtrooper-1, he has the lowest HP in the game. Very unfortunate but I hope the developers would do something about this.
Anyway, despite his current setbacks, I still decided to run Han in this squad as the primary tank because with his boosted 144 Speed, he is able to move before Rey, Poe, Poggle and so on. At the same time, Han gives a 30% Turn Meter Boost to all allies when he taunts and this could enable a lot of things to happen which could then, turn the tide of the match into your favor. I will elaborate more on this with the next character. In any case, the next wave of attacks that come after his taunt would only mean more turn meter gain for everyone else in your squad.
Old Ben(The only non Rebel)
Damage: 6
Endurance: 9
Utility: 9
Leadership: N.A
Old Ben, yup. Everything about Old Ben screams Nope or Ugh, whenever your enemy faces him. Psychologically, people tend to avoid teams with Ben because why bother go thru all that trouble right?
With so much damage everywhere, Ben comes in handy to pacify the situation. Couple him with Han and you get, total turn meter control. A 144 Speed Han will not only taunt before Poe, Rey and Poggle (tried and tested by yours truly) but will also give Old Ben a 30% Turn Meter Boost. This is essential and deadly because it immediately enables him to conjure his debuff. With your enemy’s damage halved, Han will effectively live longer, allowing Leia and HRS to mop the floor. All of this will fail if GMY uses his Battle Meditation of course.
One of the many great substitutes for Ben for FTP Players would be Phasma. With a 30% Turn Meter Boost from Han, your Phasma will immediately move after. This would effectively mean more turn meter boost for you.
--
Phew okay, enough of that, let’s watch some videos.
Watch them as many times as you like and we can talk about attack choices and so on.
Rebels against Speed Meta – 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2EzcPSs5yYRebels against Speed Meta – 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkOQPA388QRebels against Speed Meta – 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQCqJOxmT5kRebels against Sidious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opta8X-ptjsGW Fun – 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3aMZCaAD_4In conclusion, The Rebels are fun and refreshing to play around with. They are just as viable as QGJ lead teams, Resistance, First Order and so on so forth. Just because most players at the top are running QGJ lead does not effectively mean theirs is superior. QGJ is convenient, easy to farm and efficient to all players. The idea here is, as long as you can win, the concept of anything works on offense and nothing works on defense is valid.
Oh, and in case you were wondering if I have fought against teams with Royal Guard or Rey then fret not because I have. I just need to record them in my next battles. All of these rebels are hyper maxed with the exception of Ackbar who still has 2 gear slots left to fill and yet he is still viable. All in all, the Rebels are no pushover and granted they do not have the same damage output as GS or Rey, but they still pack a punch and will guarantee you victories.
Also 8 Rebels? pfft yeah right, more of them will arrive in the future for sure.
The moral of this story is, if you can and you want to, then go ahead and work towards that dream squad of yours. Even if it means having a Teebo lead Ewok Squad or a squad with just a bunch of your favorite misfits grouped together in one. The goal is for you to know your team more than the opponent knows yours. I hope this post will inspire more players to build whatever teams they want to build and not build them base on whatever the Meta is at the moment. Diversity for the win, let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Disclaimer: Zarazi here, I can’t seem to log into my old EA account..um.. I’m not really sure why. Edit: Also how do you do that page breaker thingy?
Post edited by Shaakti on
0
Replies
And for the rebel line up, I just tried it out with my not hyper maxed out Rebel squad and it does seem like it can hold its ground against speed meta teams. I would love to see how future rebel characters play into the rebel squad though, because I think right now, Han is the weakest link in the squad.
Go you!
Nah, what are you saying, I was inspired by you!
I get what you mean too! If they'd also make Magmatrooper farmable, Tarkin coupled with Magmatrooper would only mean trouble.
Very nice to find another Rebel here. Definitely. People target you for fun but hey, you can always target them back too. GS sounds good, I would put GS in my line up but I'm sticking to the Rebels for now. As for Ben, he can easily be swapped out for many other toons, Phasma for the turn meter boost or speed down, now that's deadly. Oh and don't forget, HK-47, it also has an AOE that can debuff and cripple your foes especially if they're running mostly Jedis, like QGJ, Lumi and Yoda etc.
You could have just wrote that instead of the wall of text :P
Yes. Extra points awarded for thematic teams.
Never tell me the odds!
Rey and Biggs are exposed to the likes of QGJ and GS. On the bright side, Biggs has a very interesting unique ability tho. I have ever faced a maxed out Biggs in Galactic War once and he attacked 3 times after surviving 3 Critical Hits back to back. It was cool beans.
And here is a video of my clone squad facing off with the rebels:
Fun battle.
Love it!
Thanks yall! I'm definitely waiting for that Rebel Luke too
Okay, with that on board what about an assist team Ackbar(L),Han,Biggs,GS,HRS?
I have a friend who's running a resistance squad and it shreds. With the right tanks like RG and Poe, Rey and Resistance Pilot are well protected.
Hey @bleeaauuh ! Glad to see you, Zarazi here. Looking forward to that line up. More diversity is never a bad thing
Looks pretty solid imo.
Removed the part where it says Old Ben is chromium exclusive because in the next update he will be shifted over to Cantina! Massive news!