New player needs advice and help

Brad107

Hi, I downloaded swgoh years ago (then recently redownloaded) and messed around until level ~40 before getting serious and deciding to do a bit of research. I really enjoy the grind and experience this game provides and realized there is a lot more to uncover. I started investing in Phoenix for the last 19 levels (currently am level 59). I am making some steady progress but still feel I need more help because I don't really know how to continue growing my squad (Pheonix and just profile in general). I am new to this whole scene and just saw the Phoenix was a good start so any info about where to go/what decisions to make from here would be greatly appreciated. I am also f2p, and looking for a good, active guild for beginners if anyone has any suggestions. Thank you for reading and any suggestions you may have.

profile: https://swgoh.gg/p/948444192/

Shadowmaster4

Phoenix is a great starting point. The hard part is picking an easy dark side team to go with them so you can have full farming access early on. Key teams you can lock down are Separatists (Nute Gunray, Count Dooku, Geonosians, Droids) or Nightsisters, although neither of them hits full strength until at least level 80 or so when you can farm some of the characters. Probably the easiest where you're at would be Empire, because with Phoenix you can get Emperor Palpatine and Grand Admiral Thrawn, and by the mid to upper 60's you should have a respectable Vader.

Once you have a light and dark side team to sweep levels with as you unlock them, you can pretty much look for a passion project in the Journey Guide, a key legendary to work towards early. Some good ones based on your potential roster are obviously EP and Thrawn, but also r2d2 with the Empire squad, Yoda with Jedi (since you've already got Ezra and Kanan), and Padme once you hit level 85 to do her event (since Separatists are what she needs, mainly the Geos).

Once you've got both teams and a good long-term goal, just have at it. Always look for ways to improve modding and if you get bored, put in some gear farming for mid-tier toons so you can win Galactic War easier if needed.

Brad107

Thank you shadow master, do you have any advice for the ships? And should I start doing empire stuff before finishing Phoenix or put all my eggs in Phoenix basket first?

Shadowmaster4

Personally, since you already have the Phoenix moving along, I'd get a rebel fleet going. It's still semi-meta at high levels of arena, so it'll be useful well into your future in the game. You'll need Wedge, Biggs, Bistan and the rest of the Rogue One crew, and Phoenix. Eventually you'll need Han and Chewie but that's harder.

As for right now, putting some eggs into the Empire basket would be beneficial because you can push for more nodes to farm gear and shards in on the Dark Side missions. You don't have to get them crazy high, and push comes to shove you can just borrow an ally toon to win any mission you're stuck on, but you should strike something close to a balance before you go all in on the Phoenix. Once your dark side team is functional enough to beat new Dark Side nodes as you unlock them, then you can put all your eggs in the Phoenix basket.

Although, for the record, this is all just suggestions. Never should you take "prescribed play" from other players, it takes a lot of the fun away. That's why I always recommend a passion project or long term goal. So you can still pick how you play!

Brad107

Okay thank you, there’s a lot going on it’s quite overwhelming. Like mods and gear I barely know where to start. And being f2p I don’t have a ton of energy so I have to optimize all the free energy I get.

Shadowmaster4

Ideally, to make things easier for a while, mod farming should be limited to simming the health mod challenges that you can get the highest mods from. So I think at your level, maybe a 3 dot mod farm for health only wouldn't be half bad. Keeping a focus there should eliminate the stress of modding for a while cuz you'll always have solid health mods for your level, and health mods are always useful.

Being F2P is difficult, but I run an F2P account so I know the drill
Picking a long term goal, as daunting as it seems, is exactly the way to get it done and cut down the stress to make it more fun. For example, if you really want Jedi Knight Revan, bookmark the toons needed to unlock him. You can slowly but surely work towards it (this is where your empire team is useful, two of the needed toons come from high Dark Side hard nodes). And you'll only need to gear up around 5 toons on average for any legendary. It really helps focus your gameplay.

Ships on the other hand are a hot mess, because the meta changes entirely depending on how old the arena shard is and what level you're at and honestly all three of the starter capital ships are pretty bad

Brad107

Okay makes sense. I have some 4 dot mods and I try to give chopper protection while giving kanan and zeb and Hera health. I have Ezra crit damage. Mix of 4 and 3 dot mostly. Idk if that’s good at all lmao though.

Shadowmaster4

At the end of the day, that setup is good but your goal should always be 5 dot mods and eventually slice them up to 6 dots. But you've got the general gist that the character's roles should pretty much determine modding structure.

Brad107

Okay cool thank you.

Old_Ben12345

@Brad107

Shadowmaster said it well. You are on the right track. Just pick a goal/pick teams to farm and stay focused and you're golden.
A Rebel fleet is amazing, plus, if you go the Phoenix->Empire->CLS route, you will get Han and Chewy for a Rebel team with commander luke. Then, you just need the Mil Falcon and you're all set.