Without GS, the initial level 60 Ackbar fleet loses one of its main assist synergy ships. TFP could be an equivalent cantina node farmed pilot, but does swapping the Tie Fighter in, and Geo Solder's ship out, potentially create the loss of early fleet dominance?
"Ackbar: Sticking with the assist synergy, Geonosian Soldier is almost an auto-include. With up to 25% chance (doubled for Separatists) to assist automatically, Soldier sees a lot of protection up throughout the battle. He also has a strong assist attack of his own. Another great choice is Jedi Consular, whose special ability enables a select ally to assist; this opens up a lot of possibilities. You can choose Sun Fac for the target lock on his basic, activating/healing Biggs. You can choose Biggs when he's actively taunting to grant him up to 90% protection up. You can even use it on Soldier for maximum damage and some bonus turn meter reduction. This leaves one spot on the starting team. This is a flexible pick, keeping with Ackbar's theme of versatility. Ahsoka is great to help get around taunts. Boba is a solid damage dealer (though he lacks any direct synergy with Ackbar, using his Seismic Charge twice in combination with Master Plan is a devastating turn for your opponent to suffer through). Wedge lacks the same damage output but has some synergy with assists due to his turn meter gain when activating outside of battle. (Biggs/Sun Fac/Geonosian Soldier/Jedi Consular/Ahsoka)"
I run the following five starter ships in my Ackbar fleet, and since level 60, have yet to be knocked out of top 10 fleet arena: Biggs, Sun Fac, Ahsoka, JC, GS. This fleet feels strong, in that I can afford to make a mistake or two, and still recover and win.
How much of that is due to the presence of GS? Hard to say.
Thank you for this. Yes, this guide is build on the section in Mageducky's fleet guide. You are right with the assist synergies. But other than JC, you can't choose the ally to assist GS. If he calls Biggs or SF, it's both great but if he calls Ahsoka or JC, it's meh. So a bit RNG. Well I'll keep GS in the guide because of the (maybe) faster 8x 5* ship requirement of the zeta challenge.
Has anyone else rerolled recently, and actually moved forward into arena battles? I did a couple of days ago, with a one-month-old energy hoarding account, and the result was depressing. The top 50 of my new arena shard is packed full of other players who have hoarded energy, got a good first chromium pull, AND spent lots of money. There are several Chaze + DN teams, many imperial trooper teams, shoretroopers, DN + Vader sith teams, etc. It's crazy.
I'm hoping this is just an unlucky shard, because if this game is moving in the direction of "you must hoard AND pay $$$ to be competitive", us F2P guys are out of luck.
Has anyone else rerolled recently, and actually moved forward into arena battles? I did a couple of days ago, with a one-month-old energy hoarding account, and the result was depressing. The top 50 of my new arena shard is packed full of other players who have hoarded energy, got a good first chromium pull, AND spent lots of money. There are several Chaze + DN teams, many imperial trooper teams, shoretroopers, DN + Vader sith teams, etc. It's crazy.
I'm hoping this is just an unlucky shard, because if this game is moving in the direction of "you must hoard AND pay $$$ to be competitive", us F2P guys are out of luck.
i mean this thread is public and the hoarding strategy is well known so...no matter what you're going to run into this.
I guess the obvious question is did you scout out your pvp arena server ahead of time and make sure you landed on a fresh day 1 server? Thats a pretty important part of all this tbh.
I guess the obvious question is did you scout out your pvp arena server ahead of time and make sure you landed on a fresh day 1 server? Thats a pretty important part of all this tbh.
Could you clarify? How does the fresh day 1 thing matter, if there are 30+ players on your shard willing to pay for 3-5* Chaze (or other strong toon packs), right from day 1? Even if they land a few thousand spots down in the arena ranks, it's only a matter of days before the claw their way to the top, and then sit there .. pushing out the F2P guys.
I guess the obvious question is did you scout out your pvp arena server ahead of time and make sure you landed on a fresh day 1 server? Thats a pretty important part of all this tbh.
Could you clarify? How does the fresh day 1 thing matter, if there are 30+ players on your shard willing to pay for 3-5* Chaze (or other strong toon packs), right from day 1? Even if they land a few thousand spots down in the arena ranks, it's only a matter of days before the claw their way to the top, and then sit there .. pushing out the F2P guys.
If there are that many people shelling out 4k crystals to get baze early, you're right it will be difficult. iirc the 80 crystal/shard characters dont show up until a specific account level has been achieved, in the crystal shop, so you may have a short period of respite without too many Baze's running amok at the top of your server.
That being said, being on a day 1 server and landing pole position payouts will help tremendously, even if its only for days. Nothing is stopping you from saving crystals for the first month or so, to buy your own baze. A few days, week, whatever at #1 will help a ton with that.
I also question how many people will have the full Chaze combo so early. Baze is not nearly as monstrous without his blind counterpart.
With enough of a gear/level advantage, even Chaze can be beaten by non-chaze rebel setups.
Anyway what im trying to say is any little advantage will help you vs the people trying to pay their way to the top, early on. There will likely be a period where you fall behind, but should catch up again down the road.
Has anyone else rerolled recently, and actually moved forward into arena battles? I did a couple of days ago, with a one-month-old energy hoarding account, and the result was depressing. The top 50 of my new arena shard is packed full of other players who have hoarded energy, got a good first chromium pull, AND spent lots of money. There are several Chaze + DN teams, many imperial trooper teams, shoretroopers, DN + Vader sith teams, etc. It's crazy.
I'm hoping this is just an unlucky shard, because if this game is moving in the direction of "you must hoard AND pay $$$ to be competitive", us F2P guys are out of luck.
A month ago top-50 of my shard was full of whales with 5-7* RogueOne or Sith (Nihilus+Trooper+SA/Dooku, sometimes with Chaze) teams from lvl45, only 5-10 f2p players with little lvl advantage and teams from this guide could fight for top-20 spots, some days top-5. Hardest part is when they buy all those mod packs and become unbeatable for some days/weeks so you literrally can't win a single battle.
If there are that many people shelling out 4k crystals to get baze early, you're right it will be difficult. iirc the 80 crystal/shard characters dont show up until a specific account level has been achieved, in the crystal shop, so you may have a short period of respite without too many Baze's running amok at the top of your server.
So that we have a more quantifiable perspective on this, I did a quick tally of the top 50 in my arena. This shard is 5 days old, as of today (May 16th).
11 are DN ST SA based Sith teams.
9 are Chirrut and Baze based, with both at least 4*.
16 are Veers Deathtrooper Shoretrooper.
13 are assorted F2P.
The top 20 spots are clearly locked down by those who paid. All the F2P guys are in the 21-50 bracket.
I saved about 3000 energy before entering this shard, and I have a 1-2 level advantage over the guys in the 21-50 bracket. Everyone above that was clearly also hoarding lots of energy.
If there are that many people shelling out 4k crystals to get baze early, you're right it will be difficult. iirc the 80 crystal/shard characters dont show up until a specific account level has been achieved, in the crystal shop, so you may have a short period of respite without too many Baze's running amok at the top of your server.
So that we have a more quantifiable perspective on this, I did a quick tally of the top 50 in my arena. This shard is 5 days old, as of today (May 16th).
11 are DN ST SA based Sith teams.
9 are Chirrut and Baze based, with both at least 4*.
16 are Veers Deathtrooper Shoretrooper.
13 are assorted F2P.
The top 20 spots are clearly locked down by those who paid. All the F2P guys are in the 21-50 bracket.
I saved about 3000 energy before entering this shard, and I have a 1-2 level advantage over the guys in the 21-50 bracket. Everyone above that was clearly also hoarding lots of energy.
Fun how arms races work, isn't it.
Whales can afford to spend crystals on energy refreshes. Btw how Veers&troopers teams are doing at arena? Viable?
Let me correct something. I mentioned that ships with lvl1 g1 pilots already seem to be strong if the ship is lvl85. This is actually a bug. If you look at an opponent ship you will see your own ship and toon instead of the opponent's.
In this case I looked at the opponent's Fives and saw my own Fives instead, that was why I saw a lvl1 g1 pilot...
Let me correct something. I mentioned that ships with lvl1 g1 pilots already seem to be strong if the ship is lvl85. This is actually a bug. If you look at an opponent ship you will see your own ship and toon instead of the opponent's.
In this case I looked at the opponent's Fives and saw my own Fives instead, that was why I saw a lvl1 g1 pilot...
Yes, It's a bug when view fleet inventory of other people.
I guess the obvious question is did you scout out your pvp arena server ahead of time and make sure you landed on a fresh day 1 server? Thats a pretty important part of all this tbh.
Could you clarify? How does the fresh day 1 thing matter, if there are 30+ players on your shard willing to pay for 3-5* Chaze (or other strong toon packs), right from day 1? Even if they land a few thousand spots down in the arena ranks, it's only a matter of days before the claw their way to the top, and then sit there .. pushing out the F2P guys.
Has anyone else rerolled recently, and actually moved forward into arena battles? I did a couple of days ago, with a one-month-old energy hoarding account, and the result was depressing. The top 50 of my new arena shard is packed full of other players who have hoarded energy, got a good first chromium pull, AND spent lots of money. There are several Chaze + DN teams, many imperial trooper teams, shoretroopers, DN + Vader sith teams, etc. It's crazy.
I'm hoping this is just an unlucky shard, because if this game is moving in the direction of "you must hoard AND pay $$$ to be competitive", us F2P guys are out of luck.
I think you got very unlucky, but also you did not follow all the advices.
If you hoard energy for a month and then just enter the shard blindly without spying, that could be the logic result.
I entered a shard yesterday, just to see what is going on and to see what you described (not a hoarding account). I landed on place 16621 in the arena. It seemed that the shard was allready opened for 4-5 days, based on the amount of succesful arena fights from the first 50 (30+). The level range in the top 50 is about 39-44)
In this shard, there are about 6 heavy payers with more than 40 toons, but only two of them seem to know what they are doing...
3rd place in that arena shard is a f2p with a baze unlocked (if you look at his inventory, you can see, that he has only the starting toons + lando and baze.
There are some guys who have only bought the Veers combo - this seems not to be competitive, as they are behind teams which only have a lando...
Some guys from the top 50 only bought the shore trooper (the others are only starting toons)
Some have only lando and are in front of them.
Outside the top 20, there are a lot Chewie lead teams whith basic starting toons - no payers.
As the game is designed for making money, players who know what they are doing AND pay thousands of dollars will allways be on top (like in any other game).
In this particular arena shard, if you would have played your cards well, you could be 3rd in arena as a f2p player and be able to stay in the top 20.
Interesting to note the shard makeup here @Apotheosis - much like my own hoarding account shard.
I hoarded about 4000 energy and shy of 1000 cantina before accidentally going over L28 in late March.
Even then, with spending most of that energy in first 2-3 days I was at least 2-3 levels behind the guys in top end of the arena, most of which had toons like Nihilus and Chaze already. I entered arena around 5000 but was was able to keep top20 after 2 days and for first few weeks and now can just keep 30-50 most days, and hold just in the top15 ships after hitting top2 first few days (L71 currently on that account). In hindsight I am kind of glad I activated it when I did, as I was able to get a 5* yoda and now a 6* EP on that account, which is not too bad for a 2month old account I think.
Most of top20 in arena are clearly big spenders with loads of toons and now at 4-5 levels ahead of me, and I have been refreshing cantina and normal energy every day. Arena packed with Rex leads, Nihilus-Trooper--SA sith squads and full Rogue1 teams. Even in the ship arena the top 15 pretty much bought Slave 1 and Kylo ship packs to get ahead.
I am going to start another hoarding account on my upcoming new phone, which I will let hoard for much longer to have more energy to burn through.
I agree with others that being able to nab top 5 for first 2 weeks would be ideal. If you can then also keep up with the spenders' leveling via own hoarded energy, that would keep you in the lead a bit longer.
I've read this (and some previous 'let's hoard') guides. While some info in this guide is quite useful, do not expect to be an alfa dog as ftp in a new shard. You'll face spenders, that can open all chars in a game at day 1 (except GK, GG and Han Solo), and 7starred half of roster at day 5. Yes, some of them will make fun mistakes and make B2 a leader of imperial troopers, but they will learn every day, or just copy meta squads.
My story - with 2k cantina and 8k standart energy I've started in a relatively fresh shard (I was about 4000 in arena rating), in a hours I was in a top 20, and this is maximum that I can achieve. Full 7* Imperial troopers, R1 squads or Wiggs+Chaze+DN\Rex or full Sith squads make an impenetrable wall between me and crystals. Top 5 have advantage in chars, levels and gears, top 20 have advantage only in chars and gear.
Yes, some of whales already loose an interest in such wallet competition, or just understand that this game eat not only money but bunch of time too, but I can see only top50 people and no one can predict how much p2w people just scramble for better place on the sun.
Hi, Raw! It's me again. Since we have only a month difference from the time each of us started, I like to see what you've done and your points about some stuff.
First of all, second zeta:
I'm using a Rex (L) + DN + Boba + SF + Zylo (already unlocked Baze and geared him to G10 and now gearing Chirrut too. They will go in the place of Boba and SF in maybe a week) and finally managed to reach rank 1 (I was just able to do that because the full R1 Squad was #1 during my payout, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it, my shard is super whale heavy (the #1 is a Zaul+Zavage+ZDN+7*SA)). The thing is, I'm getting my second zeta this weekend, who should receive it? I was thinking about Zader (to solo Rancor and p2 of hAAT), but I'm afraid they will keep fixing his TM Reduction on Rancor (it's still broken) and he'll lose his value. What are your thoughts about that?
And what about farming toons after you 7* the main ones:
- I've been farming CD mods for weeks now, and don't know if I should go for B2, Dooku, JC/Barriss (for my 5th 7* Jedi) or someone else or just keep farming mods
- From Cantina Store: Already 7* Fives, Ahsoka, Boba and QGJ, and 5* Poe/JS, now I'm working on Bistan, just because
- Arena token: Already 7* Savage, Sidious, AA and STH. IG-88 is at 6* and Tarkin/Windu/Nebit are at 5*, thinking about going for Leia and then finishing IG-88
- GW: Just focusing on ships, but since I have all of them at 6*, was thinking at maybe going for Phasma (already have her at 5*, would use at Rancor) or Teebo (already at 5*, would use at p3 of hAAT). Could also go for Magmatropper (for Rancor)
What I have seen in previous run is that some specific toons from first and only chromium pull can allow f2p players to be competitive and hit #1 almost every day at least untill lvl60: Wedge (don't know how but some dude made it! or... it's an old-old ios account with hoarded energy for like 5-6 months?) / JKA / Old Ben. Not sure about JKA / Old Ben but Wedge and hoarded energy together could be the key to crystal chest in a long run. Or at some point whales will buy gear and kick you down the chart, life can be tough)
The thing is, I'm getting my second zeta this weekend, who should receive it? I was thinking about Zader (to solo Rancor and p2 of hAAT), but I'm afraid they will keep fixing his TM Reduction on Rancor (it's still broken) and he'll lose his value. What are your thoughts about that?
hi again and gz for your #1!
According to my guild mates the bug fix is live today and zader rancor solo would not run on auto anymore.
Please consider that there are currently teams with meta potential that require 80 or more zeta mats (zQGJ zzYoda zzR2D2 JKA GK would even require 100), so just save them. I also do, however since I already have a 7* Barriss, I would like to try it on her maybe. But ppl say GK (lead) Zarris is not very good.
And what about farming toons after you 7* the main ones:
- I've been farming CD mods for weeks now, and don't know if I should go for B2, Dooku, JC/Barriss (for my 5th 7* Jedi) or someone else or just keep farming mods
- no B2, because you have SF
- no Dooku because Nihilus lead is not that good
- no JC because it's enough if you farm him with normal energy
- no Barriss because you can also farm her with energy
So keep going with these CD mods.
- From Cantina Store: Already 7* Fives, Ahsoka, Boba and QGJ, and 5* Poe/JS, now I'm working on Bistan
Maybe FOO. I decided to go for a 7* JS for a possible raid team with clones but meh... clones are too expensive for me now. So I bought shards of chars I already have at 7* to get some DN in the shard shop
- Arena token: Already 7* Savage, Sidious, AA and STH. IG-88 is at 6* and Tarkin/Windu/Nebit are at 5*, thinking about going for Leia and then finishing IG-88
I currently go for Nebit 7* and Mace 7* but have not gear for them. I also bought Ackbar shards last week to profit from those DN shard store offer.
- GW: Just focusing on ships, but since I have all of them at 6*, was thinking at maybe going for Phasma (already have her at 5*, would use at Rancor) or Teebo (already at 5*, would use at p3 of hAAT). Could also go for Magmatropper (for Rancor)
A 7* Biggs Xwing is really needed. Biggs XWING is the heart of all fleet teams.
I also bought surplus Biggs (char) shards for DN. Phasma, Teebo and Magma Trooper (do you have a 7* R2D2?) are solid options but I can't remotely think about gearing them.
I have enough chars atm (7* JKA, 7* Fives, Chaze etc.) that I can't gear. Just today spent 2000 crystals to gear my DN to g11, and next week I can start gearing GK. Still Boba and SF want their g11. There is no point in having 30 toons at g8, I'd rather have 5 at g11.
Thanks for the answers!
Yes, after the new fix I saw it's even harder to solo it, which means I'll hold my zetas for a while.
I'm going for a 7* Biggs' XWings, it's the only one that I'm really focusing on. And for those DN shards, mine is at 4*, and to get the next 65 shards I'll need 867 shards of toons that I already have. Focusing almost only in shards for DN, I'll need almost a month of grindind to do that and I don't think he'll stay a month in the Shard Shop, that's why I won't farm him.
And yes, I have plenty of 7* toons at g1 and lvl1, but since I don't really have a better way to spend, I might keep going for Bistan and Leia or Windu (when I finally change to Endurance) and Teebo (I can use him a p3 team for hAAT). No, I have a 5* R2D2, wasn't able to get the 5th one to 7* in time...
Is it worth it to wait for more days or to go into a shard that is at about 6k? About how many more days till next shard roughly?
Going into the shard late is huge disadvantage bcs leaders are some levels away from you and it's gonna be that way untill level cap. Not sure about speed the particular shard fills but it's around 2,5k - 4k players a day, weekends seem to be most busy. However spy accounts are definitely needed to be accurate and not to fall into 19k+ slots with top-50 around lvl45-50.
Just reached 85. Should I keep doing 2 refreshes of each (Cantina and regular energy) ?
Only 3x normal energy
Why no refreshes for cantina energy? I'd like to stop 2x cantina refresh honestly since I'm Lv 85 too, but haven't found a good reason yet.
Edit: I've been sitting #1 in arena for a week, can you give me some advice on how to spend my crystals?
too many good cantina characters to stop cantina refreshes prematurely, tbh. I wouldnt stop cantina refreshes until i had most of the good characters from Cantina Energy/Tokens
Just reached 85. Should I keep doing 2 refreshes of each (Cantina and regular energy) ?
Only 3x normal energy
Why no refreshes for cantina energy? I'd like to stop 2x cantina refresh honestly since I'm Lv 85 too, but haven't found a good reason yet.
Edit: I've been sitting #1 in arena for a week, can you give me some advice on how to spend my crystals?
too many good cantina characters to stop cantina refreshes prematurely, tbh. I wouldnt stop cantina refreshes until i had most of the good characters from Cantina Energy/Tokens
I have the good characters maxed already, so cantina token is no longer needed. Therefore, still good to refresh cantina energy?
At that point, no probably not. Theres always mod farming, though. Its up to you if farming mods is worth the refreshes, though. Very hit and miss there.
Then again an extra 200 crystals saved per day towards Baze, DN or hard to obtain gear? hmmmm...
At that point, no probably not. Theres always mod farming, though. Its up to you if farming mods is worth the refreshes, though. Very hit and miss there.
Then again an extra 200 crystals saved per day towards Baze, DN or hard to obtain gear? hmmmm...
I can't imagine you have all good Cantina toons already, there simply are too many. Even Chirpa is great for hAAT phase 3 for example.
Isn't there a case to be made for buying Baze shards, to try and place higher in squad arena, instead of chasing after raid performance?
Interesting question. Let's suppose you buy Baze to 4* which I think may be Arena viable to some degree (gearing him is another matter, I just got him to gear 10, what a pain). For 80 shards you'll need 6400 crystals, which could be used for 64 Cantina refreshes. Translated to shards for Chirpa that's 640 sims, resulting in a mean of about 213 shards for him. The sacrifice is more than those shards though, as there are 2.88M credits, 768K ship credits, 168 more shards in Cantina store, up to 76.8K guild tickets (if you are short of 600 per day), and a lot of purple ability mats as side benefits.
So it's really up to you if this is worth for Baze (actually the answer might amazingly be yes, along with Chirrut this is the biggest bromance ever seen).
With the Tarkin rework, and the endgame goal of switching to a Tarkin fleet, it seems like Tarkin isn't an "optional" character any more. Maybe list him as a mandatory 7* goal, after IG-88 5* and Windu 5*?
What would you suggest for Cantina store, after Ahsoka and QGJ are both 7*?
I assume you listed Chief Nebit as optional, for the Crit Dmg mod challenge? Maybe expand on this topic more fully: 'Aim for 5 Jawas for the Crit Damage mod challenge. Farm JE from guild store, Jawa from cantina 2D, Jawa Scavenger from cantina store, Dathcha from GW store or cantina 2G, Chief Nebit from arena store.'
What stars and gear level do we need for the jawa team, to 3* the crit damage mod challenge?
Just reached 85. Should I keep doing 2 refreshes of each (Cantina and regular energy) ?
Only 3x normal energy
Why no refreshes for cantina energy? I'd like to stop 2x cantina refresh honestly since I'm Lv 85 too, but haven't found a good reason yet.
Edit: I've been sitting #1 in arena for a week, can you give me some advice on how to spend my crystals?
I will have GK ready in two days and made a list what gear he would need. I bought some full gear pieces (1x stun cuffs, 1x stun guns) for him. Still need some carbantis, then I am done.
Also I bought some gear for my DN g11.
Other than that I bought some Baze shards but I will also wait to start gearing Chaze until I can insta g11 them both.
Other than DN and Baze I don't see the need for char shards atm. B2 would be nice to have but since I already have SF I would not pay the gear. I 'd rather gear Chaze and R2D2 before. I finish my RG farm for the AAT, FOTP for my fleet and start with resistance trooper. But there won't be gear for these in the next month.
I can't imagine you have all good Cantina toons already, there simply are too many. Even Chirpa is great for hAAT phase 3 for example.
Isn't there a case to be made for buying Baze shards, to try and place higher in squad arena, instead of chasing after raid performance?
I use PalpaTIE and also get my 200k+. I would consider Chirpa a waste. The gear drops in raids are not so different that you would 'feel' it if you score 200k or 400k.
Replies
Thank you for this. Yes, this guide is build on the section in Mageducky's fleet guide. You are right with the assist synergies. But other than JC, you can't choose the ally to assist GS. If he calls Biggs or SF, it's both great but if he calls Ahsoka or JC, it's meh. So a bit RNG. Well I'll keep GS in the guide because of the (maybe) faster 8x 5* ship requirement of the zeta challenge.
I'm hoping this is just an unlucky shard, because if this game is moving in the direction of "you must hoard AND pay $$$ to be competitive", us F2P guys are out of luck.
i mean this thread is public and the hoarding strategy is well known so...no matter what you're going to run into this.
I guess the obvious question is did you scout out your pvp arena server ahead of time and make sure you landed on a fresh day 1 server? Thats a pretty important part of all this tbh.
Could you clarify? How does the fresh day 1 thing matter, if there are 30+ players on your shard willing to pay for 3-5* Chaze (or other strong toon packs), right from day 1? Even if they land a few thousand spots down in the arena ranks, it's only a matter of days before the claw their way to the top, and then sit there .. pushing out the F2P guys.
If there are that many people shelling out 4k crystals to get baze early, you're right it will be difficult. iirc the 80 crystal/shard characters dont show up until a specific account level has been achieved, in the crystal shop, so you may have a short period of respite without too many Baze's running amok at the top of your server.
That being said, being on a day 1 server and landing pole position payouts will help tremendously, even if its only for days. Nothing is stopping you from saving crystals for the first month or so, to buy your own baze. A few days, week, whatever at #1 will help a ton with that.
I also question how many people will have the full Chaze combo so early. Baze is not nearly as monstrous without his blind counterpart.
With enough of a gear/level advantage, even Chaze can be beaten by non-chaze rebel setups.
Anyway what im trying to say is any little advantage will help you vs the people trying to pay their way to the top, early on. There will likely be a period where you fall behind, but should catch up again down the road.
A month ago top-50 of my shard was full of whales with 5-7* RogueOne or Sith (Nihilus+Trooper+SA/Dooku, sometimes with Chaze) teams from lvl45, only 5-10 f2p players with little lvl advantage and teams from this guide could fight for top-20 spots, some days top-5. Hardest part is when they buy all those mod packs and become unbeatable for some days/weeks so you literrally can't win a single battle.
So that we have a more quantifiable perspective on this, I did a quick tally of the top 50 in my arena. This shard is 5 days old, as of today (May 16th).
The top 20 spots are clearly locked down by those who paid. All the F2P guys are in the 21-50 bracket.
I saved about 3000 energy before entering this shard, and I have a 1-2 level advantage over the guys in the 21-50 bracket. Everyone above that was clearly also hoarding lots of energy.
Fun how arms races work, isn't it.
Whales can afford to spend crystals on energy refreshes. Btw how Veers&troopers teams are doing at arena? Viable?
In this case I looked at the opponent's Fives and saw my own Fives instead, that was why I saw a lvl1 g1 pilot...
Yes, It's a bug when view fleet inventory of other people.
I think you got very unlucky, but also you did not follow all the advices.
If you hoard energy for a month and then just enter the shard blindly without spying, that could be the logic result.
I entered a shard yesterday, just to see what is going on and to see what you described (not a hoarding account). I landed on place 16621 in the arena. It seemed that the shard was allready opened for 4-5 days, based on the amount of succesful arena fights from the first 50 (30+). The level range in the top 50 is about 39-44)
In this shard, there are about 6 heavy payers with more than 40 toons, but only two of them seem to know what they are doing...
3rd place in that arena shard is a f2p with a baze unlocked (if you look at his inventory, you can see, that he has only the starting toons + lando and baze.
There are some guys who have only bought the Veers combo - this seems not to be competitive, as they are behind teams which only have a lando...
Some guys from the top 50 only bought the shore trooper (the others are only starting toons)
Some have only lando and are in front of them.
Outside the top 20, there are a lot Chewie lead teams whith basic starting toons - no payers.
As the game is designed for making money, players who know what they are doing AND pay thousands of dollars will allways be on top (like in any other game).
In this particular arena shard, if you would have played your cards well, you could be 3rd in arena as a f2p player and be able to stay in the top 20.
I hoarded about 4000 energy and shy of 1000 cantina before accidentally going over L28 in late March.
Even then, with spending most of that energy in first 2-3 days I was at least 2-3 levels behind the guys in top end of the arena, most of which had toons like Nihilus and Chaze already. I entered arena around 5000 but was was able to keep top20 after 2 days and for first few weeks and now can just keep 30-50 most days, and hold just in the top15 ships after hitting top2 first few days (L71 currently on that account). In hindsight I am kind of glad I activated it when I did, as I was able to get a 5* yoda and now a 6* EP on that account, which is not too bad for a 2month old account I think.
Most of top20 in arena are clearly big spenders with loads of toons and now at 4-5 levels ahead of me, and I have been refreshing cantina and normal energy every day. Arena packed with Rex leads, Nihilus-Trooper--SA sith squads and full Rogue1 teams. Even in the ship arena the top 15 pretty much bought Slave 1 and Kylo ship packs to get ahead.
I am going to start another hoarding account on my upcoming new phone, which I will let hoard for much longer to have more energy to burn through.
I agree with others that being able to nab top 5 for first 2 weeks would be ideal. If you can then also keep up with the spenders' leveling via own hoarded energy, that would keep you in the lead a bit longer.
My story - with 2k cantina and 8k standart energy I've started in a relatively fresh shard (I was about 4000 in arena rating), in a hours I was in a top 20, and this is maximum that I can achieve. Full 7* Imperial troopers, R1 squads or Wiggs+Chaze+DN\Rex or full Sith squads make an impenetrable wall between me and crystals. Top 5 have advantage in chars, levels and gears, top 20 have advantage only in chars and gear.
Yes, some of whales already loose an interest in such wallet competition, or just understand that this game eat not only money but bunch of time too, but I can see only top50 people and no one can predict how much p2w people just scramble for better place on the sun.
First of all, second zeta:
I'm using a Rex (L) + DN + Boba + SF + Zylo (already unlocked Baze and geared him to G10 and now gearing Chirrut too. They will go in the place of Boba and SF in maybe a week) and finally managed to reach rank 1 (I was just able to do that because the full R1 Squad was #1 during my payout, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it, my shard is super whale heavy (the #1 is a Zaul+Zavage+ZDN+7*SA)). The thing is, I'm getting my second zeta this weekend, who should receive it? I was thinking about Zader (to solo Rancor and p2 of hAAT), but I'm afraid they will keep fixing his TM Reduction on Rancor (it's still broken) and he'll lose his value. What are your thoughts about that?
And what about farming toons after you 7* the main ones:
- I've been farming CD mods for weeks now, and don't know if I should go for B2, Dooku, JC/Barriss (for my 5th 7* Jedi) or someone else or just keep farming mods
- From Cantina Store: Already 7* Fives, Ahsoka, Boba and QGJ, and 5* Poe/JS, now I'm working on Bistan, just because
- Arena token: Already 7* Savage, Sidious, AA and STH. IG-88 is at 6* and Tarkin/Windu/Nebit are at 5*, thinking about going for Leia and then finishing IG-88
- GW: Just focusing on ships, but since I have all of them at 6*, was thinking at maybe going for Phasma (already have her at 5*, would use at Rancor) or Teebo (already at 5*, would use at p3 of hAAT). Could also go for Magmatropper (for Rancor)
What are your thoughts about those options?
According to my guild mates the bug fix is live today and zader rancor solo would not run on auto anymore.
Please consider that there are currently teams with meta potential that require 80 or more zeta mats (zQGJ zzYoda zzR2D2 JKA GK would even require 100), so just save them. I also do, however since I already have a 7* Barriss, I would like to try it on her maybe. But ppl say GK (lead) Zarris is not very good.
- no B2, because you have SF
- no Dooku because Nihilus lead is not that good
- no JC because it's enough if you farm him with normal energy
- no Barriss because you can also farm her with energy
So keep going with these CD mods.
Maybe FOO. I decided to go for a 7* JS for a possible raid team with clones but meh... clones are too expensive for me now. So I bought shards of chars I already have at 7* to get some DN in the shard shop
I currently go for Nebit 7* and Mace 7* but have not gear for them. I also bought Ackbar shards last week to profit from those DN shard store offer.
A 7* Biggs Xwing is really needed. Biggs XWING is the heart of all fleet teams.
I also bought surplus Biggs (char) shards for DN. Phasma, Teebo and Magma Trooper (do you have a 7* R2D2?) are solid options but I can't remotely think about gearing them.
I have enough chars atm (7* JKA, 7* Fives, Chaze etc.) that I can't gear. Just today spent 2000 crystals to gear my DN to g11, and next week I can start gearing GK. Still Boba and SF want their g11. There is no point in having 30 toons at g8, I'd rather have 5 at g11.
Yes, after the new fix I saw it's even harder to solo it, which means I'll hold my zetas for a while.
I'm going for a 7* Biggs' XWings, it's the only one that I'm really focusing on. And for those DN shards, mine is at 4*, and to get the next 65 shards I'll need 867 shards of toons that I already have. Focusing almost only in shards for DN, I'll need almost a month of grindind to do that and I don't think he'll stay a month in the Shard Shop, that's why I won't farm him.
And yes, I have plenty of 7* toons at g1 and lvl1, but since I don't really have a better way to spend, I might keep going for Bistan and Leia or Windu (when I finally change to Endurance) and Teebo (I can use him a p3 team for hAAT). No, I have a 5* R2D2, wasn't able to get the 5th one to 7* in time...
Going into the shard late is huge disadvantage bcs leaders are some levels away from you and it's gonna be that way untill level cap. Not sure about speed the particular shard fills but it's around 2,5k - 4k players a day, weekends seem to be most busy. However spy accounts are definitely needed to be accurate and not to fall into 19k+ slots with top-50 around lvl45-50.
Why no refreshes for cantina energy? I'd like to stop 2x cantina refresh honestly since I'm Lv 85 too, but haven't found a good reason yet.
Edit: I've been sitting #1 in arena for a week, can you give me some advice on how to spend my crystals?
too many good cantina characters to stop cantina refreshes prematurely, tbh. I wouldnt stop cantina refreshes until i had most of the good characters from Cantina Energy/Tokens
I have the good characters maxed already, so cantina token is no longer needed. Therefore, still good to refresh cantina energy?
Then again an extra 200 crystals saved per day towards Baze, DN or hard to obtain gear? hmmmm...
Couldnt agree more!
Isn't there a case to be made for buying Baze shards, to try and place higher in squad arena, instead of chasing after raid performance?
Interesting question. Let's suppose you buy Baze to 4* which I think may be Arena viable to some degree (gearing him is another matter, I just got him to gear 10, what a pain). For 80 shards you'll need 6400 crystals, which could be used for 64 Cantina refreshes. Translated to shards for Chirpa that's 640 sims, resulting in a mean of about 213 shards for him. The sacrifice is more than those shards though, as there are 2.88M credits, 768K ship credits, 168 more shards in Cantina store, up to 76.8K guild tickets (if you are short of 600 per day), and a lot of purple ability mats as side benefits.
So it's really up to you if this is worth for Baze (actually the answer might amazingly be yes, along with Chirrut this is the biggest bromance ever seen).
@Raw
With the Tarkin rework, and the endgame goal of switching to a Tarkin fleet, it seems like Tarkin isn't an "optional" character any more. Maybe list him as a mandatory 7* goal, after IG-88 5* and Windu 5*?
What would you suggest for Cantina store, after Ahsoka and QGJ are both 7*?
I assume you listed Chief Nebit as optional, for the Crit Dmg mod challenge? Maybe expand on this topic more fully: 'Aim for 5 Jawas for the Crit Damage mod challenge. Farm JE from guild store, Jawa from cantina 2D, Jawa Scavenger from cantina store, Dathcha from GW store or cantina 2G, Chief Nebit from arena store.'
What stars and gear level do we need for the jawa team, to 3* the crit damage mod challenge?
I will have GK ready in two days and made a list what gear he would need. I bought some full gear pieces (1x stun cuffs, 1x stun guns) for him. Still need some carbantis, then I am done.
Also I bought some gear for my DN g11.
Other than that I bought some Baze shards but I will also wait to start gearing Chaze until I can insta g11 them both.
Other than DN and Baze I don't see the need for char shards atm. B2 would be nice to have but since I already have SF I would not pay the gear. I 'd rather gear Chaze and R2D2 before. I finish my RG farm for the AAT, FOTP for my fleet and start with resistance trooper. But there won't be gear for these in the next month.
I use PalpaTIE and also get my 200k+. I would consider Chirpa a waste. The gear drops in raids are not so different that you would 'feel' it if you score 200k or 400k.