FTP rank #1 - what went right?
TLDR - I'm totally FTP and I genuinely don't understand how I have suddenly been able to make rank 2 (yesterday) and rank 1 (today) in the arena at payout time using exactly the same team and strategy that hasn't been particularly competitive for several months! The only change is the recent update and reaching level 72 - is this why I am now competing? If so, how/why exactly?
(Sorry for long post below!)
Background:
I'm fully FTP and been playing since Jan 1st.
Started off around 50s in the Arena for first few weeks but quickly dropped to around 150-200 for a couple of months while concentrating on building up my GW squad.
Over the past month I have been upgrading my main arena squad to be more competitive but I usually typically bounce around somewhere between 20 and 50. I occasionally spend 50 crystals if I am near a threshold (i.e. close to enough to make top 20, or if I feel I might drop below top 50) but otherwise just relying on my 5 battles a day without being really competitive. My team has always been weak on defense (given how much I drop overnight) and so-so on offense (usually win about 3 or 4 battles out of the 5 normal ones each day).
Squad:
My squad is limited by the FTP availability of characters:
Dooku (L), Sidious, Daka, Lumi, and Phasma (all level 72, gear 8, 7* except Daka who is 6*).
Dooku lead for obvious reasons. Daka and Lumi for heals/resurrects and stuns / high damage FB. Phasma is there for the victory march TM manipulation, while Sidious is still very useful for his dodge and AOE when he has offense up (as is Phasma). I don't have the options of any high DPS characters (only have 5* QGJ and GS, all others are much lower).
Recent Success!
Incredibly yesterday I won every single battle (5 + 5 from a crystal refresh) to move from 51 to rank 1, but dropped to rank 2 for payout.
Then I started today at 22, climbed to number 8 early on winning every battle. Then followed up with a single refresh, winning 2 more battles to get to rank 1 with 3 battles left and 30 minutes to payout. I have to admit that I then played negative and blocked to achieve rank 1 at payout. I managed to outmanoeuvre several (presumed) whales (most in my top 10 are level 73, with one 74) to get top ranking.
Receiving 450 and 500 crystals compared to my usual 100-150 has certainly helped me consolidate my team and get plenty more farming done today!
What went right?
What I am really wondering is what suddenly went right for me over the past 2 days?
I certainly selected my arena battles carefully (avoiding the high DPS or RG teams where possible, but those I couldn't avoid I still managed to beat). I had a bit of luck in some battles (but nothing over the top) and I don't think it is just down to RNG effects (most of the teams I beat had Dooku leads and all the dodges and offense up shenanigans were pretty even for both teams).
The only difference that has changed recently compared to my usual (non-competitive) arena team is the recent update and moving to level 72. I have a feeling that this seems to have allowed my team to hang around a bit more in each battle particularly when going against the DPS teams (several times I found toons surviving with a sliver of health when I expected them to be one-shotted) and on the other hand they all also seem to perhaps cause just a bit more damage than I'm used to (particularly with offense up from Dooku) to punish opponents just a bit more.
Is this a case of the updates and higher level availability balancing the field so that FTP players such as me can truly compete? If so, why exactly is my team now more competitive (at least on offense) when other teams have also presumably improved with the level increase?
Or is it just a case of RNG luck that I have made the most of and need to enjoy while it lasts?
Finally, I am interested to see how this team will be affected by the tuning changes coming next week. As FTP, I have to stick with the team I have even if it is (once again) not competitive!
(Sorry for long post below!)
Background:
I'm fully FTP and been playing since Jan 1st.
Started off around 50s in the Arena for first few weeks but quickly dropped to around 150-200 for a couple of months while concentrating on building up my GW squad.
Over the past month I have been upgrading my main arena squad to be more competitive but I usually typically bounce around somewhere between 20 and 50. I occasionally spend 50 crystals if I am near a threshold (i.e. close to enough to make top 20, or if I feel I might drop below top 50) but otherwise just relying on my 5 battles a day without being really competitive. My team has always been weak on defense (given how much I drop overnight) and so-so on offense (usually win about 3 or 4 battles out of the 5 normal ones each day).
Squad:
My squad is limited by the FTP availability of characters:
Dooku (L), Sidious, Daka, Lumi, and Phasma (all level 72, gear 8, 7* except Daka who is 6*).
Dooku lead for obvious reasons. Daka and Lumi for heals/resurrects and stuns / high damage FB. Phasma is there for the victory march TM manipulation, while Sidious is still very useful for his dodge and AOE when he has offense up (as is Phasma). I don't have the options of any high DPS characters (only have 5* QGJ and GS, all others are much lower).
Recent Success!
Incredibly yesterday I won every single battle (5 + 5 from a crystal refresh) to move from 51 to rank 1, but dropped to rank 2 for payout.
Then I started today at 22, climbed to number 8 early on winning every battle. Then followed up with a single refresh, winning 2 more battles to get to rank 1 with 3 battles left and 30 minutes to payout. I have to admit that I then played negative and blocked to achieve rank 1 at payout. I managed to outmanoeuvre several (presumed) whales (most in my top 10 are level 73, with one 74) to get top ranking.
Receiving 450 and 500 crystals compared to my usual 100-150 has certainly helped me consolidate my team and get plenty more farming done today!
What went right?
What I am really wondering is what suddenly went right for me over the past 2 days?
I certainly selected my arena battles carefully (avoiding the high DPS or RG teams where possible, but those I couldn't avoid I still managed to beat). I had a bit of luck in some battles (but nothing over the top) and I don't think it is just down to RNG effects (most of the teams I beat had Dooku leads and all the dodges and offense up shenanigans were pretty even for both teams).
The only difference that has changed recently compared to my usual (non-competitive) arena team is the recent update and moving to level 72. I have a feeling that this seems to have allowed my team to hang around a bit more in each battle particularly when going against the DPS teams (several times I found toons surviving with a sliver of health when I expected them to be one-shotted) and on the other hand they all also seem to perhaps cause just a bit more damage than I'm used to (particularly with offense up from Dooku) to punish opponents just a bit more.
Is this a case of the updates and higher level availability balancing the field so that FTP players such as me can truly compete? If so, why exactly is my team now more competitive (at least on offense) when other teams have also presumably improved with the level increase?
Or is it just a case of RNG luck that I have made the most of and need to enjoy while it lasts?
Finally, I am interested to see how this team will be affected by the tuning changes coming next week. As FTP, I have to stick with the team I have even if it is (once again) not competitive!
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Replies
You have a solid team (though a big underpowered, it would seem) and maybe your server is still somewhat young?
I'm F2P as well but my best rank so far has been 50. I don't spend crystals on arena refresh and don't yet have any guys actually to 7* (I have the shards for 5 of them but I'm choosing not upgrade them until I can get QGJ there in a few days as I like to see big power swings all at once; I may then start pushing for higher ranks though I'm not sure how much higher I'll be able to get with a Jedi team).
I run that team 7* one month ago. , but defintely not able to hit top 1 with that team. Maybe you just lucky..
I have Phasma(L), Daka, Lumi, Sid, Dooku
I completely agree about the team being underpowered - I need to get a big hitter in there and am working on QGJ and GS to get them better developed.
The server is mature(ish) I think - everyone in the top 200 is pretty much level 71-72 and all the top 20 run the meta teams (high DPS with RG or similar). This is why I am surprised my team is suddenly competitive!
If I can offer any advice about maximising arena performance as a FTP I would suggest the following:
- upgrade your main team as much as possible. The biggest change in arena stability I had was when I upgraded my main team to having 7* rather than 6*. I could still win battles with 6* toons, but I would get attacked much more (I used to drop from under 50 to outside 200 in a single night).
- if you get into the top 100 use your 50 crystal refresh! You would be very unlucky to not get the 50 back at payout and might be able to climb into an even higher paying rank.
- It sounds strange, but a high rank is easier to maintain than a mid to low rank. This is because if you are in top 10 only a few people can actually attack you (range between 11 and 15). If you are in the 50s then you can be targeted by a much wider range of people (something like 50-65). This is why it is worth spending the crystals for some extra battles to push up to a higher rank (most teams in my top 200 are roughly the same power and I suspect anyone can beat anyone - it is the extra battles and ease of maintaining higher ranks that really differentiate teams).
I suspect that at least part of my success is due to the offense up bonus my weaker toons get when they get the dodges from Dooku's leader bonus. I find this is much more useful than Phasma's occasional additional attack bonus. With offense up, my L72 Sid seems to now hit really hard, particularly his AOE which has won me at least a couple of battles.
Not sure about that. If your'e able to hit the 100's you get 100 crystals. If you hit 100-51, you get 125. Using 50 crystals while in the very low 100 or high 90's would get you -25 to -50 crystals, depending on where you land. You'd need to go from 101 to 49 in order to break even, something that's not very doable on a single refresh. It's obviously worth doing if you're starting to make the big push, but no so much if you're only trying to farm crystals.
The fixed payout times are the worst part of this game and makes it absolutely family-unfriendly.
Right. But I was more responding to your "Top 100" comment. I took that as just having cracked 100 (somewhere in the 90's). A run of 5 fights from the 90's will land you in the mid-to low 50's, just missing the mark for more crystals. It's basically where I've been stuck for a couple of weeks (though not really making a push, either). I'll basically finish in the 60's and wake up to being in the 90's or very low 100's. I'll do my 5 and win and end up roughly in the same spot.
Now, if I wanted to refresh while in my 60's, I could then likely crack that 50's barrier and break even on the crystals for the day. I'll likely do this in a week once I get to 100 shards with QGJ and then just 7* my entire team in 1 go (I'm currently sitting at 26,100 power with my squad at level 72, 6*, just a notch under currently available full gear). Getting 5 guys to 7* will probably shoot me a couple of k in power, if not more.
However, I get the feeling there is more to it than that. I have been running exactly the same team for several weeks using the same strategy about how I choose battles and spend crystals and so on. At best I have held my own against much stronger teams up until the past 2 days where I seem to be having much more success and the team seem to be performing better. Maybe it is purely coincidental but this success corresponds exactly to when I ranked them all to L72.
How long have you been playing? I've been playing since Feb. 1st and currently have 6 7* characters at level 72 with another 4 that'll be there in a few weeks. I'm 100% F2P.
Are you trying to level all your characters at the same time? That would be a huge problem. In fact, you buying 1-2 packs a week is a pretty big waste of money. You're getting a ton of characters but the resources are far to limited to keep them all leveled unless you start spending way more on credits and droids. You'd honestly be better off buying crystals instead of packs and using the crystals to farm by refreshing Cantina and regular energy.
Yah I was thinking about the refresh thing a couple days ago. I will give that a try for a week and see how well it does for me. Thx
Oh BTW I have been playing since the end of December or there about. First couple months though I wasn't playing more than 1 or 2 times a week. I started getting into it probably in the middle of February.
I am currently #10 with a bullet in an all Jedi team. Dont buy the hype.
QGJ(L) on offense, Luminara(L) on defense, no Barriss allowed in arena.
It's really the only way to advance yourself. There's no other option. You can't buy shards or equipment outright so you have to farm it. And the only way to keep farming is to keep refreshing which requires crystals.
Though don't go to crazy on refreshes. The costs keep increasing (doubling) with each refresh until the reset at the end of the day. I'd say for best value, don't refresh Cantina more than twice (100 first time, 200 second) and regular energy than 3 times (50 the first two times, 100 the third). Crystal costs after that just get stupid high and you'll be dropping a lot of cash to keep doing it.
I'm just running my GW team in arena: QGJ (L), Lumi, JC, Eeth, Sid. It's easy to win with but soft on defense.
Arena update for today:
It seems my RNG luck ran out today - I finished rank13th at payout with a record of 5 wins and 5 defeats from 10 battles. Some crazy randomness was going on today - e.g. the opponent's Stormtrooper Han resurrecting 5 times in a row from Daka's passive. When things like that happen there is no chance and it is impossible to then get up the ranks any further. Still a good solid position though considering the strength of the teams around me.
First, let me congratulate you with the 1st place.
About what went right, its simple. Devs "overfixed" one of the characters you were developing. One of those characters that most of the ppl find booooooring and squishy. They fixed it so hard that 9 of top 10 squads in my server are Doku leadered.
I think most of the players will agree with me that the current doku dodge rating is broken and need to be fixed. Once i gets fixed, maybe things change again.
BTW i'm also a F2P player, and my arena team is Sid(leader) GS, RP, Lumi and Old Daka. I visit top 5 from time to time, and hopefully devs broke something the way i get to number one by myself too
Talk what? Sheet? Pull your head out and take the hater hat off bro.
@Dario, your comment made me cringe...
Yeah, that too. After all, Dooku can't win the game by himself, whatever anyone says.
But yeah - 'part of a team' ( De Niro, Untouchables, '87).