I just managed to complete GW! It was so frustrating and time consuming but I tried retreating and reorganizing my team time and time again and it finally worked! I just used various configurations of my A team, Ima, JC, Sid, Luminara & Barriss. I always kept Ima as leader because of his counter chance and just moved the others about. I couldn't believe how in one match I get totally knackered but then sail through fully healed for the next match just because I moved my team around!
From round 6 my opponents started to become seemingly unbeatable as they where all at least 4 levels above me with better gear but after 2 or 3 tough matches I made it to the last round and just hammered them. I'm amazed I won today and should feel happy and all fuzzy inside but I just feel dirty and tainted by this whole GW travesty!
All I know is I haven't cleared GW one time since the update. I use to be able to clear at least a few times a week, but now I can't do it all.
There's a new "strategy" with GW now. You have to throw a group of your low level peons at the enemy so they alpha strike your weak team. Then bring your A team for the win.
All you hear from the devs now is chirping crickets. It's ok. Sad they ruined the game for me. Happy to save my 50 a week. Uprising gets that money now.
Just chiming in & repeating something I said in another thread. I am a Level 51 FtP player, my best character is a level 46 Barriss still 4*. I have won several GWs without retreating once. Now I get that it gets harder to win as a FtP player the higher in level you go, but IMO the force-close option is borderline cheating. I have never used that as an escape and I never will. If I lose, I lose. It's a game.
That said, I would like to see these changes made to the GW system:
1) Retreat is still an option; however, retreating from a battle will lower the rewards possible to be gained from that battle. And you can only retreat once per battle.
2) Add in an option to refresh the opponent you are facing. This can only be done before you start fighting - once you engage, you cannot retreat & refresh. Also, cap the number of refreshes you can do in every war. I'd say 5, but that is an arbitrary number. If you restart GW, then that number resets as well.
3) If circumstances occur where your game/device locks up (or your force-close) and you must restart, you should have the option to rejoin the current battle for up to 30 minutes, and after that it is a loss. And when you rejoin - NOTHING has changed. Health, turn meter, etc are all exactly where they were. Basically, the fight was paused.
Again - this is just my opinions and ideas. Feel free to agree or disagree, it makes no difference to me. But it seems that people are very bent out of shape over this, and I say that is too bad. If you chose to spend money on the game and don't like what they did to change things, then I am sorry that you feel like you wasted your money. But change happens, and we don't always like it. Adjust your strategy and the way you spend that money, and suddenly this change will not be as bad as you think.
Just chiming in & repeating something I said in another thread. I am a Level 51 FtP player, my best character is a level 46 Barriss still 4*. I have won several GWs without retreating once. Now I get that it gets harder to win as a FtP player the higher in level you go, but IMO the force-close option is borderline cheating. I have never used that as an escape and I never will. If I lose, I lose. It's a game.
That said, I would like to see these changes made to the GW system:
1) Retreat is still an option; however, retreating from a battle will lower the rewards possible to be gained from that battle. And you can only retreat once per battle.
2) Add in an option to refresh the opponent you are facing. This can only be done before you start fighting - once you engage, you cannot retreat & refresh. Also, cap the number of refreshes you can do in every war. I'd say 5, but that is an arbitrary number. If you restart GW, then that number resets as well.
3) If circumstances occur where your game/device locks up (or your force-close) and you must restart, you should have the option to rejoin the current battle for up to 30 minutes, and after that it is a loss. And when you rejoin - NOTHING has changed. Health, turn meter, etc are all exactly where they were. Basically, the fight was paused.
Again - this is just my opinions and ideas. Feel free to agree or disagree, it makes no difference to me. But it seems that people are very bent out of shape over this, and I say that is too bad. If you chose to spend money on the game and don't like what they did to change things, then I am sorry that you feel like you wasted your money. But change happens, and we don't always like it. Adjust your strategy and the way you spend that money, and suddenly this change will not be as bad as you think.
How many GW's have you won? What's your arena rank?
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
Wait, so you're 51, with a highest character that is only 4* and level 46 (implying that other characters are even worse than that) and you "win every day"???
What are the average teams in duels 7 through 12 you're facing? Composed of 5 low star low-forties?
I don't have my tablet in front of me - I do not play when I am not at home - but I am 3 battles in on todays GW and (if I recall) the next opponent was all 36s. On average, I'd estimate the last few battles are around level 50, usually 4-5 *s. Some lower, some higher. All my toons are level 45-46, and geared up as high as they can at that level. But I am patient, careful, and take time to look at all my options before I jump in.
I'll be honest - I don't too closely at the levels/*s/etc. I look mostly at what toons I am facing and planning my strategy based on experience. And I win. It is not rocket science. There is some randomness (of course) and yes, sometimes I barely hang on for the win. But I win.
Wait, so you're 51, with a highest character that is only 4* and level 46 (implying that other characters are even worse than that) and you "win every day"???
What are the average teams in duels 7 through 12 you're facing? Composed of 5 low star low-forties?
I've been doing GW on my account (lvl 66, top-10 arena, hard launch, level 70 leaders, ftp) and my son's account (lvl 45, ~2k arena, 1mo old account, level 70 leaders, ftp).
My top team is all 6*/7* max gear max level and I have about 5 aux GW/arena members that are level 60 and and level 6 gear.
I used to win GW ~90% of the time using only the old retreat function (force closed literally one match). I have not failed GW since the retreat function was replaced with the force close button. However it does take longer since I am less willing to risk not having my team mostly intact and skills charged at the end of a match. I have to shoot for perfection. This is due to facing teams similar to my GW team as well as very high synergy arena style teams starting from the 3rd node in GW. Typically see multiple Qui Gon, Leia, Phasma FO synergy w/Dooku Daka, etc. teams. Thankfully more healer teams as well but even healer teams tend to require a retreat to beat perfectly mostly due to Sid/Kylo anti-heal or the Dooku/Daka RNG dependent stuns.
On my son's account, which has no 4-star toons (he just likes collecting characters many of whom are terrible like Ashoka), I have had no problems completing and rarely if ever have to retreat. I've faced two matches in ~5 GWs where it was necessary to sub out my A team and put in a B team.
It's pretty clear that power and arena ranking factor heavily into the matchmaking. I am not planning on leveling or gearing my son's best toons as long as he can remain in the top-2500 and instead spreading out the love across all the characters. I also don't plan on starring up anyone past 4 stars. For the most part I think that'll be enough to get through the majority of levels.
I agree with one if the poster in that the old version was tedious - this version, I think, makes you come up with a better strategy to defeat whichever team you are facing.
I think you need a pretty deep bench to win, but that should be the case.
I think you need a pretty deep bench to win, but that should be the case.
Actually, you don't really need a deep bench. For the last few hardest battles you can throw in all of your lowest level heroes in to absorb that first round of special attacks. After they get wiped out just walk in the battle again with your A-team and hit them with all of your special attacks. I have about 12 level 64, purple gear heroes but only the ones with maxed gear and close to maxed ability mats hold up in the last few battles. In that case I really only have 6-7 characters that are worthy of GW and they carry me through every battle. The deep bench is non-existent because we actually level up faster than we can equip a "deep bench." Your looking at 700k credits to level up your core 5 heroes each player level. 100k-1m to rank up a hero. Even the gear gets fairly expensive in the VII-IX levels. It's impossible to keep up a deep bench at least until we hit the level cap again.
Ever since I won my first galactic war, they changed the whole even to preset rewards instead of random and the opponents chosen are always higher level so no mater how much money I spend to upgrade my top characters it's impossible!
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
By battle 8 I'm facing teams with nothing below 6*. Usually at least three 7*
I've still never completed a GW, its source of daily frustration for me. Its not fun. It's a chore. Get my 400 crystals for one pack of shards, and thats about all I can manage
This GW change totally sucks. Lucky are you who are on a new server and get to fight evenly matched opponents. It's stupid that a team lower level and power than me, win the majority of matches.
As an example, in the match I just finished, this one 4 person team beat my best team and 6 of my remaining 60+ characters. There is no parity whatsoever and it's total ****, it should be a challenge, but not impossible. I couldn't beat that team if I spent $1000. All you are doing is driving people away and I'm hoping to see a decent change soon.
I am LVl 64. I have spent money on the game. GW was the most fun part before the update because you could use strategy and sub your guys in and out. Now it Sucks! Just spend tons of time over and over again until you get it right. Big mistake that has made me play less. It was much more fun and challenging the way it use to be!
I'm sure my points have already been made, but there are so many posts I haven't yet had time to read.
Basically for me this change has destroyed my enjoyment of this mode, made it just a grind.
Before the change I had to evaluate each battle going in, even with the retreat there would still be damage to my characters and I had to hope I'd be able to heal them before the ai got them. I would have to plan my replacements and when to cycle them in. Most days I could finish, unless the ai had a good turn, but i would often get to my third and fourth string, finishing with one decent character standing. It was fun and sometimes frustrating, but it was nice to have a reason to level up weaker characters.
Now I have found that all that is unnecessary. I either make it through with my my first string intact, maybe one down, or I don't make it at all. I have my strongest characters on my first string, they work fairly well together, I have noticed replacing some of them to tailor to the challenge only ever weakens my team and wrecks my results. When I lose a key character I retreat, get them back and repeat the battle to where it started going bad then change the one attack to reset the rng. Rinse and repeat until I make it through, or very occasionally get stuck by two or three maxed out fights in a row. Changing the line up has never made a bit of difference, so i realized my best characters were always the best strategy, period. GW has lost every drop of fun it once had. On the plus side I can plan my shard progression much more accurately, and it is easier now. I get 15 shards 6 days a week and on the seventh i get 10 or 15.
TL:dr The change to GW killed the fun element to GW,and seriously took away from the game, but made it easier to get through and less engaging.
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
There could be another factor other than Arena Rank, Power of top 5 and recent clears of the GW at work in the matchmaking. If not I don't see how GW is so hard and I've not been outside top-20 in the arena as far as I can remember, often not bouncing outside top-10. My top 5 characters should be around 25k power and I have cleared the GW every day since they changed retreat and pretty much every day since I started using a good squad for it.
I have never used more than 9 characters in a single GW since the change, often go around on ~7 as the last two are a significant downgrade in stars/level/gear.
Spend resources on a good team for the Galactic War instead of expecting it to be cleared by your favorite characters.
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
There could be another factor other than Arena Rank, Power of top 5 and recent clears of the GW at work in the matchmaking. If not I don't see how GW is so hard and I've not been outside top-20 in the arena as far as I can remember, often not bouncing outside top-10. My top 5 characters should be around 25k power and I have cleared the GW every day since they changed retreat and pretty much every day since I started using a good squad for it.
I have never used more than 9 characters in a single GW since the change, often go around on ~7 as the last two are a significant downgrade in stars/level/gear.
Spend resources on a good team for the Galactic War instead of expecting it to be cleared by your favorite characters.
1st recent clear of GW doesn't influence the way. I am sure of this (https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/6557/galactic-war-retreat-backfired-immensely#latest see my last post)
2nd i don't think is even possibile use only 9 char now, because now i'm seeing more and more single target dps focused.. then, no matter how many healers you have, you lose at least 2 or 3 chars in those battles.. just like in arena.. and you can't do nothing..
1st recent clear of GW doesn't influence the way. I am sure of this (https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/6557/galactic-war-retreat-backfired-immensely#latest see my last post)
2nd i don't think is even possibile use only 9 char now, because now i'm seeing more and more single target dps focused.. then, no matter how many healers you have, you lose at least 2 or 3 chars in those battles.. just like in arena.. and you can't do nothing..[/quote]
I haven't used more than 6 characters pretty much since the change. I used to go through my bench, but now when the ai takes out 2 of my team I retreat and attack someone else until the rng doesn't favor the ai. haven't had to use my bench really at all. and my first string is 2-7* 2-6* 1-5*, all lvl 64 facing all 7* 64 lvl teams on the last 2-3 fights.
The change is starting to make sense, now. The business model was upside down. The more money you spend, the less money you HAD to spend. The $10/week guys were getting high enough up in arena rank, getting 200 - 300 crystals/day. This is in addition to 100+ crystals from daily activities, GW, achievements, 1st time bonus, etc. Add to that 400 - 1200 (3x) free currency to buy shards from GW, Arena, and SC. This is more than enough for even F2P to relatively quickly raise a descent stable. They could do 2 refreshes of energy and 1 of SA daily (or more), only using shards they got that day for free. A change was necessary to monetize the F2P and small-pay player base.
I can hear the brainstorm session now:
Everyone wants a high Arena rank to get more crystals, and GW is a joke to finish. Why not make it the better you do in Arena, the harder it is in GW?
Players will have 2 choices: Either let their rank fall to nothing in arena so they can complete GW, but then they'll have to buy crystals, because they won't be getting as many free ones...Or, face more and more difficult teams, and they'll have to spend more money upgrading/staring their characters, just to keep up.
The more they spend, the worse it gets.
Brilliant!
And once every few months, we can introduce a must have character that will break all teams, so the cycle starts over again.
Maybe it's a tin foil hat theory...maybe it's how it went down. Currently, I'm averaging 5 GW completions per week. If it goes down further than that, I'm seriously considering letting my rank fall into the 100 - 200 range on purpose. So, I'll get 25 - 50 less crystals and Arena currency per day, but I'll complete GW EVERYDAY. Then I can troll forum threads, telling people to stop complaining because I've completed GW 50 days in a row.
I have beaten GW once and that was right before last big patch. Now I rarely get past 6th fight. Today i had all purple lvl 60 to 64 opponents with sid, jc, lum, dooku and chewwie.
Guys I am pretty sure arena rank has nothing to do with it...
So I have a top 20 account with 23k power(f2p)...and I use like at most 4 retreats a day (so like today I retreated once, and I probably didn't need to) recently to complete it with usually the same 6 guys (and sometimes a couple of suicide squads on round 9/10 because I dont want to have to deal with Poe taunt into instant assist death).
I also have a newer f2p account that has been top 5 every day (except first day, it didnt give me enough free crystals to boost my 5 arena battles enough times to get there from 3k). My power on that account is t particularly high, I am at like 8.5k whilst the other guys who make top 5 are 10k+. I have only just got to 40 but I have only had to retreat one single time since unlocking it and felt in basically no danger at all whilst clearing it.
Then there is my brothers account and he asks me to do his GW from time to time..his account is like top 100 only and has 21k power or so..fights the same kind of opponents as my main, if not a little harder and he is only 63 my main is 65 and I have to retreat on his far more often than mine using the same tactics (the difference being he has daka instead of ewok elder and resistance pilot instead of ahsoka, but the resistance pilot is actually what carries it through lol, doing way more work than my ahsoka). It really feels like he gets consistently harder opponents on his account, even though my top 5 have higher power and both other accounts are higher rank and it is not because his team is weak, it is probably viewed as a stronger lineup than mine is. So maybe it is just random and he has been getting unlucky but if it was based on rank then He should usually have an easier time, not almost always worse and we have been levelling at similar speeds, his has bee harder opponents from level 50 onwards at least.
But yeah in my experience arena rank seems to make no difference. If I had to guess it is based on your whole roster power or how many characters you have unlocked or something, because I have like 9 people now max level with purple gear (6 of them 6*+) and whilst I start fighting 7* epic teams from node 7 onwards it is apparently not the same kind of unbeatable death people mention here with their much larger rosters of high starred and geared people. My team is not a particularly optimal one, it is not op in any way and whilst I do meet a fair few high dps teams I almost always end first try with full health and at least 1 heal ready with another no more than 1 turn away. I use 6*ahsoka lead with 7* lumi /night sister initiate 6*jc and 4* ewok elder. Occasionally I sub in my 7* asajj.
One tip I would say, when I see a Poe/Sid/qgj/gs kind of team I usually don't send my A team in first to try it. I have found the best way to deal with it seems to be sending in like my level 58 royal guard with a load of level 1s or something similar. If you send in just level 1s then Sid aoes first and all dead but if you send in all level 58s you just wasting people and they might last multiple turns letting CDs come back up and sending in a guy alone just gets him auto attacked down. By sending in the one 58 you get Sid's aoe, Poe then taunts and usually qgj uses his assist attack. Sending in your main team with all those things on cooldown means you can usually survive and burst out qgj and the other biggest threat (usually fotp or Sid for me if they have no healer) before losing more than one person (as long as they don't focus elder losing people is not really an issue) and from there you can just outheal the damage, keep your people topped off (jc heals so **** often) and finish with mostly basic attacks and trying not to use lumi heal. You are fighting a Poe so there is at most 2 dps, if they don't have a heal at all, which should not be enough to kill a team of healers.
If they do have a healer it can often be a good idea to hit both the healer and the other last target at the same time dropping both their health, so enemy heals for maximum value before dying and you get additional turns for your heal CD.
I saw the analogy above of a child placing blocks in holes at random until the find the right ones...it is a good analogy... My little cousin actually was playing with them the other day and yes at first when he was younger he used to put them in at random until they worked out. Now, even though he is still very young, he almost always puts them in correctly first try. he did not need more than 2 tries for a single shape the whole time he played with it (which was t very long I will admit he completed it 3? Times then moved on, much quicker than trying shapes randomly until it worked). The same is true for GW, yes you can just randomly press buttons and reset it until eventually you get it correct... But you can also learn from picking the random options until you can choose the correct (or in this case best) choices the majority of the time. Imagine if you were given that block game now...would you go "this is just a stupid rng game, I just randomly put a shape in a space until I get the space that fits my shape"'or would you go "this is a square, I should probably put this in the square space"...
Think about it.
I guess that's part of the problem @Wispsi . According to EA, the only thing that has changed is the retreat/force close function, while it is obvious something else has changed which is giving OP opponents to some and powder puff teams to others. So, we speculate on what affects the selection. They don't have to give us the exact algorithm, just tell us how it works and we can plan our A-team, B-team, bench, arena, etc. accordingly.
As long as their is silence, people will continue to try and figure out what is REALLY going on. These threads will continue, and people will boast how it's ruining the game, and conversely, how it's still a cake walk.
As an example, in the match I just finished, this one 4 person team beat my best team and 6 of my remaining 60+ characters. There is no parity whatsoever and it's total ****, it should be a challenge, but not impossible. I couldn't beat that team if I spent $1000. All you are doing is driving people away and I'm hoping to see a decent change soon.
Honestly, I only play the arena once in a while, usually just muck around enough to get the daily. I'm usually around 2000, but I've been lower.
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
There could be another factor other than Arena Rank, Power of top 5 and recent clears of the GW at work in the matchmaking. If not I don't see how GW is so hard and I've not been outside top-20 in the arena as far as I can remember, often not bouncing outside top-10. My top 5 characters should be around 25k power and I have cleared the GW every day since they changed retreat and pretty much every day since I started using a good squad for it.
I have never used more than 9 characters in a single GW since the change, often go around on ~7 as the last two are a significant downgrade in stars/level/gear.
Spend resources on a good team for the Galactic War instead of expecting it to be cleared by your favorite characters.
Devs have said that the only two things that are important for GW matchmaking are Arena rank and power level.
Furthermore, I have 9 characters above 60, including 7* Daka, JC, and Lumi. It doesn't matter. Starting halfway through, I'm getting matches with 7* Reys, QGJs, and Poes. The only way to win is to throw in a sacrificial lamb team to soak up all their cooldowns and then save scum until my dps doesn't all get taken out in the first round. It's possible to win, and I have won every GW since the change, but it's really tedious and frustrating.
Why does the devs make changes to GW but didn't clarify what constitutes the opponents we face? It is speculations after speculations.
I am leaning more not towards arena rank, but the power of the team you field in arena. Naturally, the lower the power, the harder it is for you to keep your arena rank.
Recently, I have been fielding my team B squad in arena and hover around 100-200. My GW has been much easier the past 4-5 days, no longer facing full 6-7* from node 7 onwards. Of course the full 6-7* squads still appear but in later battles, and I do not see any old ben, leia, qgj these 4-5 days. I will collect more statistics before confirming this theory.
Replies
why? are you not thinking strategy or is Auto making your team hit random opponents?
Where is the Yoda!
I hate gw but dont touch anything else please, just add more modes to play and stop messing up the good parts of the game.
From round 6 my opponents started to become seemingly unbeatable as they where all at least 4 levels above me with better gear but after 2 or 3 tough matches I made it to the last round and just hammered them. I'm amazed I won today and should feel happy and all fuzzy inside but I just feel dirty and tainted by this whole GW travesty!
There's a new "strategy" with GW now. You have to throw a group of your low level peons at the enemy so they alpha strike your weak team. Then bring your A team for the win.
It's really a brilliant design.
I have zero faith that CG could improve anything at this point. Everytime they seem to change something it sucks enjoyment out of the game.
The original functionality of GW retreats, although unintended, actually made it enjoyable and a lot less repetitive.
Now I'm afraid they'll just take the lazy aproach and remove any function for retreats and leave it impossibly difficult.
Guild: Fear The Boot
That said, I would like to see these changes made to the GW system:
1) Retreat is still an option; however, retreating from a battle will lower the rewards possible to be gained from that battle. And you can only retreat once per battle.
2) Add in an option to refresh the opponent you are facing. This can only be done before you start fighting - once you engage, you cannot retreat & refresh. Also, cap the number of refreshes you can do in every war. I'd say 5, but that is an arbitrary number. If you restart GW, then that number resets as well.
3) If circumstances occur where your game/device locks up (or your force-close) and you must restart, you should have the option to rejoin the current battle for up to 30 minutes, and after that it is a loss. And when you rejoin - NOTHING has changed. Health, turn meter, etc are all exactly where they were. Basically, the fight was paused.
Again - this is just my opinions and ideas. Feel free to agree or disagree, it makes no difference to me. But it seems that people are very bent out of shape over this, and I say that is too bad. If you chose to spend money on the game and don't like what they did to change things, then I am sorry that you feel like you wasted your money. But change happens, and we don't always like it. Adjust your strategy and the way you spend that money, and suddenly this change will not be as bad as you think.
How many GW's have you won? What's your arena rank?
I win GWs every day - and I NEVER retreat. I've lost a couple of times, but only in the beginning before the changes.
Wait, so you're 51, with a highest character that is only 4* and level 46 (implying that other characters are even worse than that) and you "win every day"???
What are the average teams in duels 7 through 12 you're facing? Composed of 5 low star low-forties?
I'll be honest - I don't too closely at the levels/*s/etc. I look mostly at what toons I am facing and planning my strategy based on experience. And I win. It is not rocket science. There is some randomness (of course) and yes, sometimes I barely hang on for the win. But I win.
I've been doing GW on my account (lvl 66, top-10 arena, hard launch, level 70 leaders, ftp) and my son's account (lvl 45, ~2k arena, 1mo old account, level 70 leaders, ftp).
My top team is all 6*/7* max gear max level and I have about 5 aux GW/arena members that are level 60 and and level 6 gear.
I used to win GW ~90% of the time using only the old retreat function (force closed literally one match). I have not failed GW since the retreat function was replaced with the force close button. However it does take longer since I am less willing to risk not having my team mostly intact and skills charged at the end of a match. I have to shoot for perfection. This is due to facing teams similar to my GW team as well as very high synergy arena style teams starting from the 3rd node in GW. Typically see multiple Qui Gon, Leia, Phasma FO synergy w/Dooku Daka, etc. teams. Thankfully more healer teams as well but even healer teams tend to require a retreat to beat perfectly mostly due to Sid/Kylo anti-heal or the Dooku/Daka RNG dependent stuns.
On my son's account, which has no 4-star toons (he just likes collecting characters many of whom are terrible like Ashoka), I have had no problems completing and rarely if ever have to retreat. I've faced two matches in ~5 GWs where it was necessary to sub out my A team and put in a B team.
It's pretty clear that power and arena ranking factor heavily into the matchmaking. I am not planning on leveling or gearing my son's best toons as long as he can remain in the top-2500 and instead spreading out the love across all the characters. I also don't plan on starring up anyone past 4 stars. For the most part I think that'll be enough to get through the majority of levels.
I agree with one if the poster in that the old version was tedious - this version, I think, makes you come up with a better strategy to defeat whichever team you are facing.
I think you need a pretty deep bench to win, but that should be the case.
The GW matchmaking algorithm only looks at two things - your arena ranking and the power of your top 5 characters. Thus, you're being faced with 12 pushover teams. For someone higher up on the arena ladder, it's much more difficult.
You don't have to face the same challenges that those higher ranked/leveled do, and so you're able to beat GW with relative ease. Therefore, you've based your opinion on information that is irrelevant. Once you're further along, and have a 7* team at the level cap, you won't have the same ease, and won't be able to complete GW with anything close to the same regularity.
I've still never completed a GW, its source of daily frustration for me. Its not fun. It's a chore. Get my 400 crystals for one pack of shards, and thats about all I can manage
Basically for me this change has destroyed my enjoyment of this mode, made it just a grind.
Before the change I had to evaluate each battle going in, even with the retreat there would still be damage to my characters and I had to hope I'd be able to heal them before the ai got them. I would have to plan my replacements and when to cycle them in. Most days I could finish, unless the ai had a good turn, but i would often get to my third and fourth string, finishing with one decent character standing. It was fun and sometimes frustrating, but it was nice to have a reason to level up weaker characters.
Now I have found that all that is unnecessary. I either make it through with my my first string intact, maybe one down, or I don't make it at all. I have my strongest characters on my first string, they work fairly well together, I have noticed replacing some of them to tailor to the challenge only ever weakens my team and wrecks my results. When I lose a key character I retreat, get them back and repeat the battle to where it started going bad then change the one attack to reset the rng. Rinse and repeat until I make it through, or very occasionally get stuck by two or three maxed out fights in a row. Changing the line up has never made a bit of difference, so i realized my best characters were always the best strategy, period. GW has lost every drop of fun it once had. On the plus side I can plan my shard progression much more accurately, and it is easier now. I get 15 shards 6 days a week and on the seventh i get 10 or 15.
TL:dr The change to GW killed the fun element to GW,and seriously took away from the game, but made it easier to get through and less engaging.
There could be another factor other than Arena Rank, Power of top 5 and recent clears of the GW at work in the matchmaking. If not I don't see how GW is so hard and I've not been outside top-20 in the arena as far as I can remember, often not bouncing outside top-10. My top 5 characters should be around 25k power and I have cleared the GW every day since they changed retreat and pretty much every day since I started using a good squad for it.
I have never used more than 9 characters in a single GW since the change, often go around on ~7 as the last two are a significant downgrade in stars/level/gear.
Spend resources on a good team for the Galactic War instead of expecting it to be cleared by your favorite characters.
1st recent clear of GW doesn't influence the way. I am sure of this (https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/6557/galactic-war-retreat-backfired-immensely#latest see my last post)
2nd i don't think is even possibile use only 9 char now, because now i'm seeing more and more single target dps focused.. then, no matter how many healers you have, you lose at least 2 or 3 chars in those battles.. just like in arena.. and you can't do nothing..
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1st recent clear of GW doesn't influence the way. I am sure of this (https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/6557/galactic-war-retreat-backfired-immensely#latest see my last post)
2nd i don't think is even possibile use only 9 char now, because now i'm seeing more and more single target dps focused.. then, no matter how many healers you have, you lose at least 2 or 3 chars in those battles.. just like in arena.. and you can't do nothing..[/quote]
I haven't used more than 6 characters pretty much since the change. I used to go through my bench, but now when the ai takes out 2 of my team I retreat and attack someone else until the rng doesn't favor the ai. haven't had to use my bench really at all. and my first string is 2-7* 2-6* 1-5*, all lvl 64 facing all 7* 64 lvl teams on the last 2-3 fights.
I can hear the brainstorm session now:
Maybe it's a tin foil hat theory...maybe it's how it went down. Currently, I'm averaging 5 GW completions per week. If it goes down further than that, I'm seriously considering letting my rank fall into the 100 - 200 range on purpose. So, I'll get 25 - 50 less crystals and Arena currency per day, but I'll complete GW EVERYDAY. Then I can troll forum threads, telling people to stop complaining because I've completed GW 50 days in a row.
So I have a top 20 account with 23k power(f2p)...and I use like at most 4 retreats a day (so like today I retreated once, and I probably didn't need to) recently to complete it with usually the same 6 guys (and sometimes a couple of suicide squads on round 9/10 because I dont want to have to deal with Poe taunt into instant assist death).
I also have a newer f2p account that has been top 5 every day (except first day, it didnt give me enough free crystals to boost my 5 arena battles enough times to get there from 3k). My power on that account is t particularly high, I am at like 8.5k whilst the other guys who make top 5 are 10k+. I have only just got to 40 but I have only had to retreat one single time since unlocking it and felt in basically no danger at all whilst clearing it.
Then there is my brothers account and he asks me to do his GW from time to time..his account is like top 100 only and has 21k power or so..fights the same kind of opponents as my main, if not a little harder and he is only 63 my main is 65 and I have to retreat on his far more often than mine using the same tactics (the difference being he has daka instead of ewok elder and resistance pilot instead of ahsoka, but the resistance pilot is actually what carries it through lol, doing way more work than my ahsoka). It really feels like he gets consistently harder opponents on his account, even though my top 5 have higher power and both other accounts are higher rank and it is not because his team is weak, it is probably viewed as a stronger lineup than mine is. So maybe it is just random and he has been getting unlucky but if it was based on rank then He should usually have an easier time, not almost always worse and we have been levelling at similar speeds, his has bee harder opponents from level 50 onwards at least.
But yeah in my experience arena rank seems to make no difference. If I had to guess it is based on your whole roster power or how many characters you have unlocked or something, because I have like 9 people now max level with purple gear (6 of them 6*+) and whilst I start fighting 7* epic teams from node 7 onwards it is apparently not the same kind of unbeatable death people mention here with their much larger rosters of high starred and geared people. My team is not a particularly optimal one, it is not op in any way and whilst I do meet a fair few high dps teams I almost always end first try with full health and at least 1 heal ready with another no more than 1 turn away. I use 6*ahsoka lead with 7* lumi /night sister initiate 6*jc and 4* ewok elder. Occasionally I sub in my 7* asajj.
One tip I would say, when I see a Poe/Sid/qgj/gs kind of team I usually don't send my A team in first to try it. I have found the best way to deal with it seems to be sending in like my level 58 royal guard with a load of level 1s or something similar. If you send in just level 1s then Sid aoes first and all dead but if you send in all level 58s you just wasting people and they might last multiple turns letting CDs come back up and sending in a guy alone just gets him auto attacked down. By sending in the one 58 you get Sid's aoe, Poe then taunts and usually qgj uses his assist attack. Sending in your main team with all those things on cooldown means you can usually survive and burst out qgj and the other biggest threat (usually fotp or Sid for me if they have no healer) before losing more than one person (as long as they don't focus elder losing people is not really an issue) and from there you can just outheal the damage, keep your people topped off (jc heals so **** often) and finish with mostly basic attacks and trying not to use lumi heal. You are fighting a Poe so there is at most 2 dps, if they don't have a heal at all, which should not be enough to kill a team of healers.
If they do have a healer it can often be a good idea to hit both the healer and the other last target at the same time dropping both their health, so enemy heals for maximum value before dying and you get additional turns for your heal CD.
I saw the analogy above of a child placing blocks in holes at random until the find the right ones...it is a good analogy... My little cousin actually was playing with them the other day and yes at first when he was younger he used to put them in at random until they worked out. Now, even though he is still very young, he almost always puts them in correctly first try. he did not need more than 2 tries for a single shape the whole time he played with it (which was t very long I will admit he completed it 3? Times then moved on, much quicker than trying shapes randomly until it worked). The same is true for GW, yes you can just randomly press buttons and reset it until eventually you get it correct... But you can also learn from picking the random options until you can choose the correct (or in this case best) choices the majority of the time. Imagine if you were given that block game now...would you go "this is just a stupid rng game, I just randomly put a shape in a space until I get the space that fits my shape"'or would you go "this is a square, I should probably put this in the square space"...
Think about it.
As long as their is silence, people will continue to try and figure out what is REALLY going on. These threads will continue, and people will boast how it's ruining the game, and conversely, how it's still a cake walk.
I have completed
Devs have said that the only two things that are important for GW matchmaking are Arena rank and power level.
Furthermore, I have 9 characters above 60, including 7* Daka, JC, and Lumi. It doesn't matter. Starting halfway through, I'm getting matches with 7* Reys, QGJs, and Poes. The only way to win is to throw in a sacrificial lamb team to soak up all their cooldowns and then save scum until my dps doesn't all get taken out in the first round. It's possible to win, and I have won every GW since the change, but it's really tedious and frustrating.
I am leaning more not towards arena rank, but the power of the team you field in arena. Naturally, the lower the power, the harder it is for you to keep your arena rank.
Recently, I have been fielding my team B squad in arena and hover around 100-200. My GW has been much easier the past 4-5 days, no longer facing full 6-7* from node 7 onwards. Of course the full 6-7* squads still appear but in later battles, and I do not see any old ben, leia, qgj these 4-5 days. I will collect more statistics before confirming this theory.