Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
I'm not certain how they can actually 'hotfix' it the easiest try would be giving you like 30-something tickets where you use 1 everytime you click battle but this would also hamper the retreat option that is there. I sometimes retreat as many as 3 times in a battle so that I can regain my CDs.
Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
I'm not certain how they can actually 'hotfix' it the easiest try would be giving you like 30-something tickets where you use 1 everytime you click battle but this would also hamper the retreat option that is there. I sometimes retreat as many as 3 times in a battle so that I can regain my CDs.
They'd just have to change the order of operations. As it is now, the game saves before you enter a GW battle. They'd need to make it instead save after every attack. What that would do to the game's performance, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that's the way it would have to be resolved.
Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
I'm not certain how they can actually 'hotfix' it the easiest try would be giving you like 30-something tickets where you use 1 everytime you click battle but this would also hamper the retreat option that is there. I sometimes retreat as many as 3 times in a battle so that I can regain my CDs.
They'd just have to change the order of operations. As it is now, the game saves before you enter a GW battle. They'd need to make it instead save after every attack. What that would do to the game's performance, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that's the way it would have to be resolved.
So what you're saying that the game creates a sort-of like a cache each time an action is taken? I don't think that is doable, I have no knowledge regarding the network systems but in hindsight this would hamper the performance immensely wouldn't it?
They could also limit your tries per battle to 5 and that should be 90% of the time enough for people to swap in-out toons for CD manipulation and whatnot.
On the left of the screen is a 'Settings' tool icon. Click that and then select retreat. As long as there has been a turn or two it should be clickable.
On the left of the screen is a 'Settings' tool icon. Click that and then select retreat. As long as there has been a turn or two it should be clickable.
Any action taken by your opponents allows you to retreat, whether they heal, taunt, buff, debuff or simply attack.
Retreat is an intended feature, evident by how the game limits your use of it. Until you have maxed out everything team (and maybe even then), you're going to have to retreat to make it.
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
I'm not certain how they can actually 'hotfix' it the easiest try would be giving you like 30-something tickets where you use 1 everytime you click battle but this would also hamper the retreat option that is there. I sometimes retreat as many as 3 times in a battle so that I can regain my CDs.
They'd just have to change the order of operations. As it is now, the game saves before you enter a GW battle. They'd need to make it instead save after every attack. What that would do to the game's performance, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that's the way it would have to be resolved.
So what you're saying that the game creates a sort-of like a cache each time an action is taken? I don't think that is doable, I have no knowledge regarding the network systems but in hindsight this would hamper the performance immensely wouldn't it?
They could also limit your tries per battle to 5 and that should be 90% of the time enough for people to swap in-out toons for CD manipulation and whatnot.
Well, ideally it'd be communicating with a server, where the actual saving would be done. Saving data client side opens the door for all kinds of unsavory business. MMO's already do this, but I have no idea how EA/CG has set up the stuff behind the scenes. Hence, why I said I have no idea what it would do to performance. You'd think it'd only be dependent on the EU's local latency, though. Best case scenario, they wouldn't even notice.
A per-battle limit on tries would be a quick and dirty way of doing it, but it could end up screwing people that didn't even know you could force close, which isn't exactly optimal. With how much complaining goes on about GW already, they might not want to end up implementing "fixes" that make it even more impossible to farm.
Haha I hope they don't do anything to GW in terms of removing retreat etc. The previous app game I played didn't have that option and I quit after that, finding it a painful chore to play. GW is hard enough as of now.
What they could do is to make the algorithm more logical, or create save points where we can restart from there, but perhaps risk the chance of facing harder teams.
Okay, for those claiming that you Are breezing through, one or more of the following must be true:
(1) you have invested hundreds of dollars in the game;
(2) you haven't hit the upper 50s yet; or
(3) you're lying.
I say this as a FTP player who:
Is consistently top 20, sometimes top 10, in arena;
Did great in GW in my 40s, decently in the low to mid 50s (ie, I was still completing it about half the time);
Has a very strong team for a FTP player;
Knows all the tricks and uses them;
Has (again for FTP) fast heroes who can get early shots.
And yesterday and today I've run into teams which absolutely shredded me before I could do basically anything. Teams against which there is no defense except a stronger lineup. Which, as a FTP player, it will take weeks to assemble.
This is seriously souring me on the game. May end up quitting.
(1) None. FTP.
(2) Yeah, level 53.
(3) Nope.
This is my team:
Captain Phasma (LEADER) Level 52, 3*. Gear Lvl V. Onslaught - 4, Victory March - 5, Fusillade - 5, Fire at Will - 4
First Order TIE Pilot Level 53, 2*. Gear Lvl VI. Double Tap - 5, Gun Down - 4, Keen Eye - 4
First Order Stormtrooper Level 47, 2*. Gear Lvl IV. Hindering Shot - 3, The Order Relentless - 1, Return Fire - 4
They'd just have to change the order of operations. As it is now, the game saves before you enter a GW battle. They'd need to make it instead save after every attack. What that would do to the game's performance, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that's the way it would have to be resolved.
You're making this sound far simpler than it actually would be. The game is designed to not have to "phone home" between every attack. Changing this is major surgery.
It will also lead to a LOT of unhappy campers, because it will slow the game down dramatically and also lead to far more dropped sessions.
There are other ways they can deal with force-closing but that would be among the most difficult.
Okay, for those claiming that you Are breezing through, one or more of the following must be true:
(1) you have invested hundreds of dollars in the game;
(2) you haven't hit the upper 50s yet; or
(3) you're lying.
I say this as a FTP player who:
Is consistently top 20, sometimes top 10, in arena;
Did great in GW in my 40s, decently in the low to mid 50s (ie, I was still completing it about half the time);
Has a very strong team for a FTP player;
Knows all the tricks and uses them;
Has (again for FTP) fast heroes who can get early shots.
And yesterday and today I've run into teams which absolutely shredded me before I could do basically anything. Teams against which there is no defense except a stronger lineup. Which, as a FTP player, it will take weeks to assemble.
This is seriously souring me on the game. May end up quitting.
(1) None. FTP.
(2) Yeah, level 53.
(3) Nope.
This is my team:
Captain Phasma (LEADER) Level 52, 3*. Gear Lvl V. Onslaught - 4, Victory March - 5, Fusillade - 5, Fire at Will - 4
First Order TIE Pilot Level 53, 2*. Gear Lvl VI. Double Tap - 5, Gun Down - 4, Keen Eye - 4
First Order Stormtrooper Level 47, 2*. Gear Lvl IV. Hindering Shot - 3, The Order Relentless - 1, Return Fire - 4
Old Daka Level 45, 4*. Gear Lvl IV. Insightful Blow - 3, Chant of Resurrection - 2, Serve Again -2
And if anyone's wounded or dead:
Royal Guard Level 50, 1*. Force Pike - 3, Imperial Phalanx - 3, Unyielding Defender - 5
I have not spent a cent in this game, I'm a level 53 FTP player and I don't have much difficulty yet. Maybe later, but not for now.
Two points; one, there seems to be a significant difference between 53 and 58. I wasn't exactly breezing at 53, but completing it more often than not, and getting very close when I didn't. It was only at 57 and 58 that things got real tough, and that may have been partly bad luck.
But also the fact that some of your heroes are under leveled may actually be benefitting you by giving you easier opponents. Not sure how opponents are calculated, but you may be getting the type of opponents that a fully leveled player gets in the high 40s. And it was a breeze at that level.
Query: are you using the forced shutdown exploit? I am not. Some (many? Most?) of the people breezing through are using it.
@Heronmar
I've had a similar feeling sometimes. Also, had teams that looked scary and folded like wet noodles. I feel like its a combination of synergy, rng (a hit or miss on stun/ability block can make a huge swing especially early in a battle), and ability levels of the opponent. Also, gear level VI could be VI with 5/6 slots for VII, which I would perceive to be easier than seeing that purple ring around the portrait.
Two points; one, there seems to be a significant difference between 53 and 58. I wasn't exactly breezing at 53, but completing it more often than not, and getting very close when I didn't. It was only at 57 and 58 that things got real tough, and that may have been partly bad luck.
But also the fact that some of your heroes are under leveled may actually be benefitting you by giving you easier opponents. Not sure how opponents are calculated, but you may be getting the type of opponents that a fully leveled player gets in the high 40s. And it was a breeze at that level.
Query: are you using the forced shutdown exploit? I am not. Some (many? Most?) of the people breezing through are using it.
If that guy above is using that lineup at 58 there's no way he's making it past the 3rd purple node. Even with the exploit.
I'm still making it through reasonably unscathed at 58. There have been a couple days in the past week where my C team or even part of my B team get wasted along with a member or two of my A team (Chewy usually). It definitely requires management.
I have not used the force exploit. IMHO Galactic War is the best part of the game right now since Arena I only get a few battles a day. It's fun playing different and harder lineups. Silly to ruin it with the exploit.
@Heronmar
I've had a similar feeling sometimes. Also, had teams that looked scary and folded like wet noodles. I feel like its a combination of synergy, rng (a hit or miss on stun/ability block can make a huge swing especially early in a battle), and ability levels of the opponent. Also, gear level VI could be VI with 5/6 slots for VII, which I would perceive to be easier than seeing that purple ring around the portrait.
I've thought about that but it simply didn't add up, all those guys were Gear7 (purple portraits), now as a comparison the last battle was:
6*Lumi (L), 5* Chewie, 5* JC, 4* Biggs, 5* Talia. Everyone to their highest gear so 7 for all except JC who was 8. Now this last team was also level 60, so possibly higher power level but it just seems mind-boggling. It always seem my difficulty level goes like this,
Hardest to easiest (not counting pre-8 ones as they are cakewalks)
Battle 8
Battle 10
Battle 11
Battle 12
Battle 9
FWIW I still have a hypothesis that the GW teams you face are determined by your top 5 char power against teams that have similar top 5 char power. However their power is based on what it was when they finished a node while their team is what they finished (or started) GW. That would explain why there are occasionally lvl60 purple death squads against lvl45 players. They just finished a node with a lower level squad so their power was near a well equipped lvl45 squad but the game drew from their starting/end game squad which is normally going to be an A team.
If its doing it by power level then someone who doesn't a highly leveled/geared arena team might end up with an easier path in GW. Someone, particularly a big spender, who is lower level but has a really high power arena squad is going to get screwed much more frequently.
Lorenzo, do you heal up your entire squad and made sure you had the healing cooldown reset before you move to the next stage? This is a very important to do especially before the 8th stage where the difficulty spikes.
I do that when I can - which is most of the time - but sometimes it isn't feasible, usually when hitting one of the meat grinder teams. It's true that failing to do so is usually fatal.
FWIW, so far today (8 battles) it's a cakewalk again, and #9 looks easy as well. Of course 10-12 are often the toughest. Difference makers? Mainly luck - weaker opposing teams. One strategy change - lumi as leader, which is working out quite well. JC got his 5th * as well as the ability upgrade that reduces his healing cool down to 2. That has helped and should help more going forward. Some of my secondary heroes also got gear upgrades, but of those only boba has been used so far.
A couple more points. Another minor change which has helped has been killing Sid first. I had been killing lumi first. But those aren't generally the problematic teams anyway. The tough teams are the geared and leveled teams with some of the better attack oriented PTP heroes (usually with good synergies). I still am highly skeptical that FTP players are easily beating those kind of teams, especially when they are back to back.
(As an aside, those kind of teams are beatable by FTP teams - but generally not without losing heroes or at least ending the battle with not fully healed heroes.)
I do that when I can - which is most of the time - but sometimes it isn't feasible, usually when hitting one of the meat grinder teams. It's true that failing to do so is usually fatal.
FWIW, so far today (8 battles) it's a cakewalk again, and #9 looks easy as well. Of course 10-12 are often the toughest. Difference makers? Mainly luck - weaker opposing teams. One strategy change - lumi as leader, which is working out quite well. JC got his 5th * as well as the ability upgrade that reduces his healing cool down to 2. That has helped and should help more going forward. Some of my secondary heroes also got gear upgrades, but of those only boba has been used so far.
A couple more points. Another minor change which has helped has been killing Sid first. I had been killing lumi first. But those aren't generally the problematic teams anyway. The tough teams are the geared and leveled teams with some of the better attack oriented PTP heroes (usually with good synergies). I still am highly skeptical that FTP players are easily beating those kind of teams, especially when they are back to back.
(As an aside, those kind of teams are beatable by FTP teams - but generally not without losing heroes or at least ending the battle with not fully healed heroes.)
I think there are some CD priorities to easily complete GW. For me Poggle buff is the most important, I don't use him at all pre-8 and always make sure that I have it at the start of each battle following that.
Next are heals, I always have my Daka heal ready to go as her superior speed will make sure that my toons will survive an onslaught even if they went into the battle with 60%.
The rest of the healers, JC, Talia and Ewok Elder I rotate their heals and battle 8 onwards I always leave their lowest DPS alive to have my healers chip at him even if it is a Sid. Also if I took out 2 of opposing DPS and my DPS is 75%+ hp, I will sub him out if the opposing toons are low-hp toons (i.e. Sid, IG88) because my DPS will kill them and I will not have enough turns to get my heals off CD.
The number 1 rule of thumb is heals>>>>dps, you might be able to get through a whole GW with just your healers left but you'll not survive two battles back to back if you don't have healers.
I only spent 4.99 on a crystal pack, I am almost 56, and I win 95% of my GW's.
I am sure this has already been mentioned as a tip, but whenever I face a chewy team or a team with a low damage tank I wait until it's just him, bring back whichever characters need to be healed, and heal up.
I apply the same concept to healers that have their heal on cool down, aka Lumi. I bring her in at the very end with 2-3 low hitting toons, chip away at Chewie, and finish him off when her heal is ready to go. This way, I start the next match fresh and prepared for anything (except not killing a 6+ star Tie Order pilot before it's his turn and having him 1-shot my Lumi or Sid)
FWIW, I cleared it easily today. And 90% of the difference was luck - I hit I think 4 level 60 teams, but 3 were cookie cutter FTP teams and the 4th poorly constructed. None of the meatgrinder teams.
I will say two things: maybe I just had really bad luck yesterday and the day before (in terms of opponents), and the one strategy change (lumi leader) and one significant upgrade (reduced cool down for JC's heal) did make a noticeable difference.
So I completed GW for the 5th time today (out of 9 tries) I am level 53 and just started playing a bit over a week ago. I have probably sank nearly $100 into crystals as they are addictive as hell and 9.99 here and there is all too easy to justify. Those crystals I used mainly for energy/cantina resets to grind gear.
I did not know there were forums until I found this post on looking for GW strategies, I also did not know about the retreat option and just used my lower level 40's characters as fodder to soften up a sidious or lumi and then let them die and finish off with my Main squad.
Thats usually Chewy ( 4 star only gear lvl 6 so far), 4 star sid ( half way to 5 and 1 more item until gear 7), JC 5* g7 ( my lumi is only 4 g6 but i swap the two of them often), then I throw in Daka as a backup heal and control she is 4* and also 1 piece of equip from g7. For the 5th slot I change it up based on who I am fighting. Usually either Maul, Luke, or Ima depending on if its Jedi, Droid, or random that I want to assassinate. I decided to buy myself a 4 pack of cards this morning and got rey and cad, Rey seems worthwhile as a suicide squad member but is cad worth grinding up?
I have a 2* first order tie pilot, after seeing a video of him going off in DPS is he worth grinding up or is the low star roll too much of an impedance?
So I completed GW for the 5th time today (out of 9 tries) I am level 53 and just started playing a bit over a week ago. I have probably sank nearly $100 into crystals as they are addictive as hell and 9.99 here and there is all too easy to justify. Those crystals I used mainly for energy/cantina resets to grind gear.
I did not know there were forums until I found this post on looking for GW strategies, I also did not know about the retreat option and just used my lower level 40's characters as fodder to soften up a sidious or lumi and then let them die and finish off with my Main squad.
Thats usually Chewy ( 4 star only gear lvl 6 so far), 4 star sid ( half way to 5 and 1 more item until gear 7), JC 5* g7 ( my lumi is only 4 g6 but i swap the two of them often), then I throw in Daka as a backup heal and control she is 4* and also 1 piece of equip from g7. For the 5th slot I change it up based on who I am fighting. Usually either Maul, Luke, or Ima depending on if its Jedi, Droid, or random that I want to assassinate. I decided to buy myself a 4 pack of cards this morning and got rey and cad, Rey seems worthwhile as a suicide squad member but is cad worth grinding up?
I have a 2* first order tie pilot, after seeing a video of him going off in DPS is he worth grinding up or is the low star roll too much of an impedance?
First off.. Welcome to the forum!
It's a pretty cool place, just blow off anything that pertains to P2P and F2P or Nerfs!
The FOTP is *very* sqishy at lower level, he is a long term project, but very worth it IMO. Cad Banehas a great stun with very nice damage that sticks about 90% of the time.. He double shoots and crits a lot, has great anti Jedi skills.
So I completed GW for the 5th time today (out of 9 tries) I am level 53 and just started playing a bit over a week ago. I have probably sank nearly $100 into crystals as they are addictive as hell and 9.99 here and there is all too easy to justify. Those crystals I used mainly for energy/cantina resets to grind gear.
I did not know there were forums until I found this post on looking for GW strategies, I also did not know about the retreat option and just used my lower level 40's characters as fodder to soften up a sidious or lumi and then let them die and finish off with my Main squad.
Thats usually Chewy ( 4 star only gear lvl 6 so far), 4 star sid ( half way to 5 and 1 more item until gear 7), JC 5* g7 ( my lumi is only 4 g6 but i swap the two of them often), then I throw in Daka as a backup heal and control she is 4* and also 1 piece of equip from g7. For the 5th slot I change it up based on who I am fighting. Usually either Maul, Luke, or Ima depending on if its Jedi, Droid, or random that I want to assassinate. I decided to buy myself a 4 pack of cards this morning and got rey and cad, Rey seems worthwhile as a suicide squad member but is cad worth grinding up?
I have a 2* first order tie pilot, after seeing a video of him going off in DPS is he worth grinding up or is the low star roll too much of an impedance?
Tie Pilot isn't as viable until 4+ stars and at least tier 6 gear. However, even at 2 stars and tier 6 gear, he has been extremely useful to me in GW.
With regards to your Rey comment, she is no suicide squad member. I would get her gear up. I hear amazing things about her.
Okay, for those claiming that you Are breezing through, one or more of the following must be true:
(1) you have invested hundreds of dollars in the game;
(2) you haven't hit the upper 50s yet; or
(3) you're lying.
I say this as a FTP player who:
Is consistently top 20, sometimes top 10, in arena;
Did great in GW in my 40s, decently in the low to mid 50s (ie, I was still completing it about half the time);
Has a very strong team for a FTP player;
Knows all the tricks and uses them;
Has (again for FTP) fast heroes who can get early shots.
And yesterday and today I've run into teams which absolutely shredded me before I could do basically anything. Teams against which there is no defense except a stronger lineup. Which, as a FTP player, it will take weeks to assemble.
This is seriously souring me on the game. May end up quitting.
(1) None. FTP.
(2) Yeah, level 53.
(3) Nope.
This is my team:
Captain Phasma (LEADER) Level 52, 3*. Gear Lvl V. Onslaught - 4, Victory March - 5, Fusillade - 5, Fire at Will - 4
First Order TIE Pilot Level 53, 2*. Gear Lvl VI. Double Tap - 5, Gun Down - 4, Keen Eye - 4
First Order Stormtrooper Level 47, 2*. Gear Lvl IV. Hindering Shot - 3, The Order Relentless - 1, Return Fire - 4
Replies
Force closing is almost definitely not intended to work like it does as-is, and we should all expect a hotfix for it any day now.
I'm not certain how they can actually 'hotfix' it the easiest try would be giving you like 30-something tickets where you use 1 everytime you click battle but this would also hamper the retreat option that is there. I sometimes retreat as many as 3 times in a battle so that I can regain my CDs.
They'd just have to change the order of operations. As it is now, the game saves before you enter a GW battle. They'd need to make it instead save after every attack. What that would do to the game's performance, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that's the way it would have to be resolved.
So what you're saying that the game creates a sort-of like a cache each time an action is taken? I don't think that is doable, I have no knowledge regarding the network systems but in hindsight this would hamper the performance immensely wouldn't it?
They could also limit your tries per battle to 5 and that should be 90% of the time enough for people to swap in-out toons for CD manipulation and whatnot.
Any action taken by your opponents allows you to retreat, whether they heal, taunt, buff, debuff or simply attack.
Well, ideally it'd be communicating with a server, where the actual saving would be done. Saving data client side opens the door for all kinds of unsavory business. MMO's already do this, but I have no idea how EA/CG has set up the stuff behind the scenes. Hence, why I said I have no idea what it would do to performance. You'd think it'd only be dependent on the EU's local latency, though. Best case scenario, they wouldn't even notice.
A per-battle limit on tries would be a quick and dirty way of doing it, but it could end up screwing people that didn't even know you could force close, which isn't exactly optimal. With how much complaining goes on about GW already, they might not want to end up implementing "fixes" that make it even more impossible to farm.
What they could do is to make the algorithm more logical, or create save points where we can restart from there, but perhaps risk the chance of facing harder teams.
(1) None. FTP.
(2) Yeah, level 53.
(3) Nope.
This is my team:
And if anyone's wounded or dead:
I have not spent a cent in this game, I'm a level 53 FTP player and I don't have much difficulty yet. Maybe later, but not for now.
Thanks
You're making this sound far simpler than it actually would be. The game is designed to not have to "phone home" between every attack. Changing this is major surgery.
It will also lead to a LOT of unhappy campers, because it will slow the game down dramatically and also lead to far more dropped sessions.
There are other ways they can deal with force-closing but that would be among the most difficult.
Two points; one, there seems to be a significant difference between 53 and 58. I wasn't exactly breezing at 53, but completing it more often than not, and getting very close when I didn't. It was only at 57 and 58 that things got real tough, and that may have been partly bad luck.
But also the fact that some of your heroes are under leveled may actually be benefitting you by giving you easier opponents. Not sure how opponents are calculated, but you may be getting the type of opponents that a fully leveled player gets in the high 40s. And it was a breeze at that level.
Query: are you using the forced shutdown exploit? I am not. Some (many? Most?) of the people breezing through are using it.
Today was a 6* Dooku (L), 6* Kylo, 5* Vader, 6* Sid and 6* Lumi, not a hard team to beat by any measure but the hardest one out of the 12.
I've had a similar feeling sometimes. Also, had teams that looked scary and folded like wet noodles. I feel like its a combination of synergy, rng (a hit or miss on stun/ability block can make a huge swing especially early in a battle), and ability levels of the opponent. Also, gear level VI could be VI with 5/6 slots for VII, which I would perceive to be easier than seeing that purple ring around the portrait.
If that guy above is using that lineup at 58 there's no way he's making it past the 3rd purple node. Even with the exploit.
I'm still making it through reasonably unscathed at 58. There have been a couple days in the past week where my C team or even part of my B team get wasted along with a member or two of my A team (Chewy usually). It definitely requires management.
I have not used the force exploit. IMHO Galactic War is the best part of the game right now since Arena I only get a few battles a day. It's fun playing different and harder lineups. Silly to ruin it with the exploit.
I've thought about that but it simply didn't add up, all those guys were Gear7 (purple portraits), now as a comparison the last battle was:
6*Lumi (L), 5* Chewie, 5* JC, 4* Biggs, 5* Talia. Everyone to their highest gear so 7 for all except JC who was 8. Now this last team was also level 60, so possibly higher power level but it just seems mind-boggling. It always seem my difficulty level goes like this,
Hardest to easiest (not counting pre-8 ones as they are cakewalks)
Battle 8
Battle 10
Battle 11
Battle 12
Battle 9
Don't know if I should feel happy or not.
If its doing it by power level then someone who doesn't a highly leveled/geared arena team might end up with an easier path in GW. Someone, particularly a big spender, who is lower level but has a really high power arena squad is going to get screwed much more frequently.
FWIW, so far today (8 battles) it's a cakewalk again, and #9 looks easy as well. Of course 10-12 are often the toughest. Difference makers? Mainly luck - weaker opposing teams. One strategy change - lumi as leader, which is working out quite well. JC got his 5th * as well as the ability upgrade that reduces his healing cool down to 2. That has helped and should help more going forward. Some of my secondary heroes also got gear upgrades, but of those only boba has been used so far.
A couple more points. Another minor change which has helped has been killing Sid first. I had been killing lumi first. But those aren't generally the problematic teams anyway. The tough teams are the geared and leveled teams with some of the better attack oriented PTP heroes (usually with good synergies). I still am highly skeptical that FTP players are easily beating those kind of teams, especially when they are back to back.
(As an aside, those kind of teams are beatable by FTP teams - but generally not without losing heroes or at least ending the battle with not fully healed heroes.)
I think there are some CD priorities to easily complete GW. For me Poggle buff is the most important, I don't use him at all pre-8 and always make sure that I have it at the start of each battle following that.
Next are heals, I always have my Daka heal ready to go as her superior speed will make sure that my toons will survive an onslaught even if they went into the battle with 60%.
The rest of the healers, JC, Talia and Ewok Elder I rotate their heals and battle 8 onwards I always leave their lowest DPS alive to have my healers chip at him even if it is a Sid. Also if I took out 2 of opposing DPS and my DPS is 75%+ hp, I will sub him out if the opposing toons are low-hp toons (i.e. Sid, IG88) because my DPS will kill them and I will not have enough turns to get my heals off CD.
The number 1 rule of thumb is heals>>>>dps, you might be able to get through a whole GW with just your healers left but you'll not survive two battles back to back if you don't have healers.
I am sure this has already been mentioned as a tip, but whenever I face a chewy team or a team with a low damage tank I wait until it's just him, bring back whichever characters need to be healed, and heal up.
I apply the same concept to healers that have their heal on cool down, aka Lumi. I bring her in at the very end with 2-3 low hitting toons, chip away at Chewie, and finish him off when her heal is ready to go. This way, I start the next match fresh and prepared for anything (except not killing a 6+ star Tie Order pilot before it's his turn and having him 1-shot my Lumi or Sid)
FWIW, I cleared it easily today. And 90% of the difference was luck - I hit I think 4 level 60 teams, but 3 were cookie cutter FTP teams and the 4th poorly constructed. None of the meatgrinder teams.
I will say two things: maybe I just had really bad luck yesterday and the day before (in terms of opponents), and the one strategy change (lumi leader) and one significant upgrade (reduced cool down for JC's heal) did make a noticeable difference.
I did not know there were forums until I found this post on looking for GW strategies, I also did not know about the retreat option and just used my lower level 40's characters as fodder to soften up a sidious or lumi and then let them die and finish off with my Main squad.
Thats usually Chewy ( 4 star only gear lvl 6 so far), 4 star sid ( half way to 5 and 1 more item until gear 7), JC 5* g7 ( my lumi is only 4 g6 but i swap the two of them often), then I throw in Daka as a backup heal and control she is 4* and also 1 piece of equip from g7. For the 5th slot I change it up based on who I am fighting. Usually either Maul, Luke, or Ima depending on if its Jedi, Droid, or random that I want to assassinate. I decided to buy myself a 4 pack of cards this morning and got rey and cad, Rey seems worthwhile as a suicide squad member but is cad worth grinding up?
I have a 2* first order tie pilot, after seeing a video of him going off in DPS is he worth grinding up or is the low star roll too much of an impedance?
First off.. Welcome to the forum!
It's a pretty cool place, just blow off anything that pertains to P2P and F2P or Nerfs!
The FOTP is *very* sqishy at lower level, he is a long term project, but very worth it IMO. Cad Banehas a great stun with very nice damage that sticks about 90% of the time.. He double shoots and crits a lot, has great anti Jedi skills.
Hell, what's bad about him?
He can't be farmed.
Tie Pilot isn't as viable until 4+ stars and at least tier 6 gear. However, even at 2 stars and tier 6 gear, he has been extremely useful to me in GW.
With regards to your Rey comment, she is no suicide squad member. I would get her gear up. I hear amazing things about her.
Hmm that seems under levelled for level 53 with only one 4* but he hasn't had any difficulty clearing GW.
Perhaps it is indeed based on your TOP 5 power level. If so, those who focus on building only a few toons will suffer more.