"Since you are only two weeks into the game and gained a lot of experience up to that point I would honestly encourage you to start a new account and follow raws advices closely. You definitely spread too thin in levelling up too many toons and dropped in arena too far already to keep up. I did basically the same with my first account and started over to rule the world "
so you saying its beyond salvage point?
If you would pay for your disadvantage of a top100 rank instead of a top5 rank, you would need to invest 2-5 dollars each day. If you would catch up in 3 month that's roughly 200-300 dollars investment needed if you don't restart. Ofc you can also live with that rank, it would also take the pressure away to fight in the hour before payout. So depends how ambitious you are.
"Since you are only two weeks into the game and gained a lot of experience up to that point I would honestly encourage you to start a new account and follow raws advices closely. You definitely spread too thin in levelling up too many toons and dropped in arena too far already to keep up. I did basically the same with my first account and started over to rule the world "
so you saying its beyond salvage point?
Here's a key concept within this game that you might not have yet observed:
This game has one premium currency (purple crystals) and the arena is the only place to get them for free. Those crystals, spent wisely, buy you more character power and experience levels compared to others who don't get as many crystals, per day. Because the crystal reward count goes up rapidly as you approach the top 3 of your arena shard, those that mange to grab an early lead, tend to stay in the lead. And that lead only increases over time.
It really isn't much fun to "play from behind" in this game, so Raw's guide will get you ahead of the pack, right from the start of the game, and help you stay as high in the arena rankings as possible. Your account will progress more rapidly, you'll have more in-game energy to do a greater variety of things, and you'll have (imho) more fun.
This is a great guide and I commend you for your effort. Absolutely fantastic. I came upon it while in my 30's and have been following it faithfully since.
I have a few questions.
1. Regarding Cantina farming. Im currently lvl 56, I have farmed Lando to 7*, GS to 5* and TFP to 4*.
Several times you mention farming GS, but not how far we should farm him and whether we should buy his ship plans.
Should I keep farming GS to 7* or stop at 5*? Should I look to buy his ship plans at lvl 60? If yes, In what priority vs other ship plans you have listed?
2. Regarding Gear. Obviously main arena team characters gear should be as high as possible, but i wonder about other characters.
For example characters we are farming mainly for use of their ship, like Sun Fac or GS (i dont use GS in my arena team).
How high should I be upgrading these characters gear (and levels and skills) ?
3. Regarding Arena. My arena team is currently:
Lando (L), Boba, STH. I rotate in JC, Rex or Biggs as needed.
My problem atm is gear. Biggs, STH and Rex all need alot of the same gear and it will take a long time to get them all to G7. I have decided to stop upgrading Rex for now since he will be stuck at 4* for awhile anyway, and focus on STH, then Biggs and finally Rex.
I was thinking of using Ackbar instead of Rex for debuff removal, as he is easier to upgrade alongside STH and Biggs. I will likely also be using Home One as my capital ship.
What do you think? Also, how how should i upgrade Ackbars gear?
Several times you mention farming GS, but not how far we should farm him and whether we should buy his ship plans.
It was mentioned in the discussions that it would be theoretically sufficient to just unlock GS. But in fact you need to be able to manage the Tarkin 5* challenge which will probably be hard with a weak GS. But if you gear and level him, a low star GS will also do it. You can wait with the Tarkin challenge until you would also be ready to do the zeta mat challenge (8x 5* ships). I gave him 5* at first, and currently farm GS' 7th star after TFP and Kylo are ready.
However it is mentioned that you need his ship plans: "10) Farm ship plans in GW store for Biggs', Ahsoka's, Sun Fac's, JC's, TFP and GS' ships after Biggs is at 7* and you achieve lvl 60."
If yes, In what priority vs other ship plans you have listed?
You need to farm the ships mentioned equally because you want to 5* them all. Priority is TFP because it appears not as often as the others. So save 400 tokens until the end of each day.
After 5*, I suggest to prioritize Biggs and TFP. I chose Wedge and JC next and left Ahsoka, GS and SF behind (at 5*), but that's not mandatory.
2. Regarding Gear. Obviously main arena team characters gear should be as high as possible, but i wonder about other characters. For example characters we are farming mainly for use of their ship, like Sun Fac or GS (i dont use GS in my arena team). How high should I be upgrading these characters gear (and levels and skills)?
That's hard to say in general, it depends on you shard mates in the fleet arena. In my case I had to give up #1 or #2 because these were mega whales with all ships on 7* lvl85 g11 so no chance to win with lvl75 or so. On the other hand I am able to win #3 every day. So I stopped gearing Ackbar, Ahsoka, JC and GS at g8. g8 is easy to reach but g9 would require these gear pieces you will probably need on your (future) arena chars. However I just hit g9 with TFP because I put him in my fleet now instead of Ahsoka. TFP is also very valuable for raids.
3. Regarding Arena. My arena team is currently:
Lando (L), Boba, STH. I rotate in JC, Rex or Biggs as needed.
My problem atm is gear. Biggs, STH and Rex all need alot of the same gear and it will take a long time to get them all to G7. I have decided to stop upgrading Rex for now since he will be stuck at 4* for awhile anyway, and focus on STH, then Biggs and finally Rex. I was thinking of using Ackbar instead of Rex for debuff removal, as he is easier to upgrade alongside STH and Biggs. I will likely also be using Home One as my capital ship.
G8 will be totally easy to reach when you have all daily challenges unlocked and if you buy all shipments available for credits. Take care to get a good guild now. Remember a guild can generate up to 30k tickets each day. Right before guild activity reset, have a look how far your guild is away from that number. Consider a change if your guild's ticket generation is too low. With a very good guild you should be able to farm Rex at lvl60 next to SF and Maul.
In fleet store, buy every Wedge available. Save some 800 tokens so you never miss one shipment.
Once you have a 7* star Rex, continue to gear Rex. Gearing will be much faster in higher levels, then you can take him as a leader. Before that, you can go with Lando/Wedge lead.
Regarding ship arena, I am quite successful in a nearly whale-free shard (I could maintain #1 for 4 weeks now) with the following F2P setup:
Ackbar (G8), Biggs (G10), Wedge (G10), Boba (G10), TFP (G8), JC (G8)
Reinforcement: Maul (G8), Ashoka (G8) and Sun Fac (G10)
Wiggs and Boba and in my and Raws case Sun Fac is also part of your arena team for quite some time. Ackbar is nice to have for GW and rancor P1, TFP is useful for tank raid, Ashoka and JC may be used for defense mod challenges so all in all no gear got wasted here.
General strategy:
Constantly apply target lock with Boba, Biggs and TFP will lead to an endless refresh of Biggs shield. JC provides additional survivability of Biggs. If anyone dies, reinforce with Maul and start snowballing.
Kill order:
If possible, snipe out an opposing target lock applier that is squishy (e.g. Vader) or enemy Ashoka since she will hard counter your Maul reinforcement due to her ability reset. If not possible head directly for enemy Biggs. Do not attack enemy TFP since if you are as lucky as I am, you will get him evade 5 attacks in a row and feed the enemy capital ship like crazy.
Variations:
The only time I ever change my lineup is when I am up against Mace or I know my enemy has a Maul as first reinforcement. In this case I switch JC for Ashoka to dispell taunt / retribution.
So you see I do not go double-tank, since I have made the experience that it is more effective to instantly kill an enemy ship and force the opponent to fight an uphill battle. I would love to have FOTFP instead of JC to get even more target locks but since he is hard to farm I do not consider switching anytime soon.
Yes, FOTP is a months long farm so start to buy his shards early, as well pilot and in GW Store the plans. Early = after the zeta mat challenge is done
It was mentioned in the discussions that it would be theoretically sufficient to just unlock GS. But in fact you need to be able to manage the Tarkin 5* challenge which will probably be hard with a weak GS. But if you gear and level him, a low star GS will also do it. You can wait with the Tarkin challenge until you would also be ready to do the zeta mat challenge (8x 5* ships). I gave him 5* at first, and currently farm GS' 7th star after TFP and Kylo are ready.
However it is mentioned that you need his ship plans: "10) Farm ship plans in GW store for Biggs', Ahsoka's, Sun Fac's, JC's, TFP and GS' ships after Biggs is at 7* and you achieve lvl 60."
You need to farm the ships mentioned equally because you want to 5* them all. Priority is TFP because it appears not as often as the others. So save 400 tokens until the end of each day.
After 5*, I suggest to prioritize Biggs and TFP. I chose Wedge and JC next and left Ahsoka, GS and SF behind (at 5*), but that's not mandatory.
That's hard to say in general, it depends on you shard mates in the fleet arena. In my case I had to give up #1 or #2 because these were mega whales with all ships on 7* lvl85 g11 so no chance to win with lvl75 or so. On the other hand I am able to win #3 every day. So I stopped gearing Ackbar, Ahsoka, JC and GS at g8. g8 is easy to reach but g9 would require these gear pieces you will probably need on your (future) arena chars. However I just hit g9 with TFP because I put him in my fleet now instead of Ahsoka. TFP is also very valuable for raids.
G8 will be totally easy to reach when you have all daily challenges unlocked and if you buy all shipments available for credits. Take care to get a good guild now. Remember a guild can generate up to 30k tickets each day. Right before guild activity reset, have a look how far your guild is away from that number. Consider a change if your guild's ticket generation is too low. With a very good guild you should be able to farm Rex at lvl60 next to SF and Maul.
In fleet store, buy every Wedge available. Save some 800 tokens so you never miss one shipment.
Once you have a 7* star Rex, continue to gear Rex. Gearing will be much faster in higher levels, then you can take him as a leader. Before that, you can go with Lando/Wedge lead.
Thanks for the replies! Haha yea sorry I totally overlooked that bit about GS ship plans in your OP, my bad.
Hey, Raw! Was going to come here and ask if you are really going for Zylo, but just saw in your swgoh account and you already did. How is he working for you? He instead of Boba makes the team better? And are you falling too much on defense?
Btw, do you pretend to get rid of Wiggs in your Rex team in a near future or keep using it? I'm farming Kylo now (40 shards from 7* and 1 week to G10) and will Zeta him, but not too sure about the team I'd use (thinking maybe that Smithie's team with STH, DN and Boba, but don't know how it would work overall (because he uses that team to beat a specific team)) and don't know who to gear next, if I go for Wedge G11 or if switch Wiggs for something else and start gearing that...
Hey, Raw! Was going to come here and ask if you are really going for Zylo, but just saw in your swgoh account and you already did. How is he working for you? He instead of Boba makes the team better? And are you falling too much on defense?
Btw, do you pretend to get rid of Wiggs in your Rex team in a near future or keep using it? I'm farming Kylo now (40 shards from 7* and 1 week to G10) and will Zeta him, but not too sure about the team I'd use (thinking maybe that Smithie's team with STH, DN and Boba, but don't know how it would work overall (because he uses that team to beat a specific team)) and don't know who to gear next, if I go for Wedge G11 or if switch Wiggs for something else and start gearing that...
Zylo ist perfect for GW, where I had problems lately. I fall about the same as with Boba (~16), but Zylo is only g9 and will be upgraded soon. So I guess he is better. Wiggs g11 had my priority and I want to keep them as long as possible. In GW I already tested Rex (l) EP Boba Zylo SF and this was better in many cases than Wiggs, but idk about arena.
9) Farm 5-dot-health-Mods as soon as you manage the challenge. If you can't and Lando is max, farm GS.
What are 5-dot-health-Mods?
You get them from the first mod challenge tier 3 which is the easiest by far because here are no restrictions to your squad (besides having 5 toons at 5 stars).
I don't think it's been mentioned since it became available, but do you guys suggest including TIE Advanced as an always buy along with Slave 1 and Scimitar from Fleet Arena? Sometimes I feel like my Fleet Arena shards don't go very far because I'm collecting a bunch of ships and characters that I don't have/use yet (Slave 1, Scimitar, Tie Advanced, Vader, Maul, SF). Also when you suggest farming character shards for pilots, Maul & SF specifically, do you mean farm them all the way up to 7*? 5*? Just activate em?
(fyi, one problem I have is that I'm still trying to max Biggs from GW store, so I know that's stunted my ship progression as well)
I don't think it's been mentioned since it became available, but do you guys suggest including TIE Advanced as an always buy along with Slave 1 and Scimitar from Fleet Arena? Sometimes I feel like my Fleet Arena shards don't go very far because I'm collecting a bunch of ships and characters that I don't have/use yet (Slave 1, Scimitar, Tie Advanced, Vader, Maul, SF). Also when you suggest farming character shards for pilots, Maul & SF specifically, do you mean farm them all the way up to 7*? 5*? Just activate em?
(fyi, one problem I have is that I'm still trying to max Biggs from GW store, so I know that's stunted my ship progression as well)
Well, I buy every TIE advanced I can get. But I must say Vader had no use for me yet and I already bought too many shards for him. All the rewards for lvl85, for light side/dark side node 9 and future assault battles, these shards went to the shard shop. So if you don't really want a dark side team, you can slow Vader farming a little.
I will probably zeta Vader next for raids but it is not really needed. The TIE advanced together with Fives, FOTP and TFP will be a great target lock team, but this will take some time. Also Maul and SF shards you can buy via the guild store only if you don't have enough tokens. I meant to 7* them though. So I would rather get every TIE advanced x1 shards than a SF/Maul in the fleet store.
One thing I forgot to ask: In arena shop, I 7*ed STH, got Ackbar to 5*, and then IG88 to 5*. I'm planning on now pushing Ackbar up to 7* (maybe in time for Palpatine event), but I couldn't really tell what the next step ~you~ suggest is. Is it Akbar to 7? Activate Leia? Tarkin 7?
Yes, Ackbar 7*.
I bought a 7* Tarkin but that was wasted. It's not needed for the Tarkin challenge and he is irrelevant as a leader. 5* are fine so you can do the potency mods some day.
I also bought IG88 7* which is also not needed before you also have hk47 and IG86, JE and CN, where JE seems to be the slowest farm.
Leia will be needed for the raid but only after the clones are farmed, where CS is the slowest farm.
So actually no arena toon is really needed any more at this stage. I ended up buying credits for 2000 arena tokens and now farm windu because he seems to be the better leader once you have FOTP. Which is also a 5 month farm...
Thanks again to Raw for making and updating this guide. I have a bit of a cautionary tale to tell regarding guilds.
Raw suggests to "Enter a good guild early." This point is worth emphasizing. I personally joined what I thought was a good guild, but with the benefit of hindsight, wasn't. A good guild should look something like this:
The guild is has at least 45 active players.
Every member is expected to generate 600 raid tickets per day, by spending >= 600 energy per day.
The guild is able to reach Tier 7 of the daily guild activity.
The guild understands that character progress eventually gets stalled because of gear that only drops from higher tier raids. So instead of milking lower tier raids, where the fighting is easy, the guild pushes up to collect raid-only drops as soon as it becomes practical to clear those raids within 2-3 days.
If your guild isn't doing all of the above, then you should expect over time to be at a disadvantage in your squad arena, versus competitors whose guilds are doing all of the above.
Personally, my arena progress stalled once my standard team (Lando, Biggs, Wedge, Boba, STH) reached gear level 8. I realized too late that I needed raid-only drops to advance to gear 9, and my guild wasn't anywhere close to clearing a high enough rancor tier. By the time I switched clans, many of my arena competitors were gear 9, and were consistently knocking me out of the top 50.
I hope this helps others that are relatively new to this game.
Well, my shards had 2 Zauls (the ones who kept fighting for #1) and a Zader+Zarriss team (this guy has been lvl 85 since I was lvl 79, afraid to know how much he spent), but now it has 4 Zauls, a full R1 team (with crazy speed mods) and the Zader+Zarriss team. All those Zaul teams are the same: Zaul+EP+Chaze+DN (some have a faster DN and others a faster EP).
Atm I'm running Rex (L)+Wiggs+SF+Boba (just need 2 omegas to zeta Kylo and sub him in the team), my question is: What's the kill order on those Zauls teams? Pray to the RNGesus for a no-stun on my Rex, then Tenacity Up, AoEs on everybody, dispell Baze and focus on Emperor? Then go for Chirrut? (And btw, is it even possible to beat lvl 85 G11 Zaul teams with a 82 Rex(L) G10 (except for Rex who is G11) team?)
Thanks again to Raw for making and updating this guide. I have a bit of a cautionary tale to tell regarding guilds.
Raw suggests to "Enter a good guild early." This point is worth emphasizing.
I'm sort of in this boat right now. It's tough because the guild I joined is helpful to newcomers including me, but we just took a week to complete a Tier VI Rancor raid, and we've been battling the Normal AAT for a couple weeks I believe.
I guess I do need to jump ship, it's just hard choosing enjoyment from game mechanics over enjoyment from friendly guild mates...
Well, my shards had 2 Zauls (the ones who kept fighting for #1) and a Zader+Zarriss team (this guy has been lvl 85 since I was lvl 79, afraid to know how much he spent), but now it has 4 Zauls, a full R1 team (with crazy speed mods) and the Zader+Zarriss team. All those Zaul teams are the same: Zaul+EP+Chaze+DN (some have a faster DN and others a faster EP).
Atm I'm running Rex (L)+Wiggs+SF+Boba (just need 2 omegas to zeta Kylo and sub him in the team), my question is: What's the kill order on those Zauls teams? Pray to the RNGesus for a no-stun on my Rex, then Tenacity Up, AoEs on everybody, dispell Baze and focus on Emperor? Then go for Chirrut? (And btw, is it even possible to beat lvl 85 G11 Zaul teams with a 82 Rex(L) G10 (except for Rex who is G11) team?)
I think you are more experienced with these teams than I am, because we have several Nihilus leads but only a few Zaul leads. I was told to shock Baze with EP which I did today (omega on EP basic helped), I used a non Wiggs team the first time to get #1 today (Rex SF Boba EP Zylo). A strong Chaze team with good mods is probably not possible for you to beat now. I lost against only Chirrut Baze with my whole team still standing yesterday... so Boba will be needed in for an execute on Chirrut. I also think about gearing RG so I can have Rex RG SF ZYLO BOBA, but on the other hand that's a lot of gear for RG. I need her for raid however (TIEpatine) so would not be wasted. That would make up for SF's poor taunting ability.
To the kill order, if you have Zylo to stun DN that would be great. Wiggs attack on EP or Maul if not stealthed. AOE to have a lot of buffs on Chirrut (protection deleted), then execute. If Baze is lower gear. Kill him directly.
I'm wondering what other players following this guide have planned, for late game (level 85) arena squad composition. I've been keeping an eye on the swgoh.gg meta report, for squads capable of holding top 10 rank, and the Wiggs Lando Boba STH group fell of the list about three weeks ago.
Looking at the current meta report, if we apply F2P constraints, and remove all teams that depend on Nihilus, Chirrut, and Baze, then only the Jedi team remains (zQGJ + Ayla + JKA + Yoda + GK). Even that doesn't seem too practical, given the long farm for GK and the need to get into a good HAAT guild.
So what's a viable end-game plan? Hoard crystals, and buy Nihilus shards? Or hoard crystals for Baze, while buying Chirrut from fleet store? It seems that a solid transition plan should involve NOT falling out of the top 50 of arena (to keep those crystals coming) but I have no sense for how long this guide's rebel composition can stay top 50, at level 85.
I'm wondering what other players following this guide have planned, for late game (level 85) arena squad composition. I've been keeping an eye on the swgoh.gg meta report, for squads capable of holding top 10 rank, and the Wiggs Lando Boba STH group fell of the list about three weeks ago.
Looking at the current meta report, if we apply F2P constraints, and remove all teams that depend on Nihilus, Chirrut, and Baze, then only the Jedi team remains (zQGJ + Ayla + JKA + Yoda + GK). Even that doesn't seem too practical, given the long farm for GK and the need to get into a good HAAT guild.
So what's a viable end-game plan? Hoard crystals, and buy Nihilus shards? Or hoard crystals for Baze, while buying Chirrut from fleet store? It seems that a solid transition plan should involve NOT falling out of the top 50 of arena (to keep those crystals coming) but I have no sense for how long this guide's rebel composition can stay top 50, at level 85.
Thoughts?
F2p end game areana should be Rex + best you can field that win.
Ifyou can should def unlock baze from shipments. 3* baze trumps all tanks. Paired with churrit from fleet and you can cheese up the chaze.
DN is not a must as you can sub in any number of others to keep top 50.
I'm wondering what other players following this guide have planned, for late game (level 85) arena squad composition. I've been keeping an eye on the swgoh.gg meta report, for squads capable of holding top 10 rank, and the Wiggs Lando Boba STH group fell of the list about three weeks ago.
Looking at the current meta report, if we apply F2P constraints, and remove all teams that depend on Nihilus, Chirrut, and Baze, then only the Jedi team remains (zQGJ + Ayla + JKA + Yoda + GK). Even that doesn't seem too practical, given the long farm for GK and the need to get into a good HAAT guild.
So what's a viable end-game plan? Hoard crystals, and buy Nihilus shards? Or hoard crystals for Baze, while buying Chirrut from fleet store? It seems that a solid transition plan should involve NOT falling out of the top 50 of arena (to keep those crystals coming) but I have no sense for how long this guide's rebel composition can stay top 50, at level 85.
Thoughts?
Nihilus 4* is not a problem anymore. I already have been able to upgrade mine and experienced players say 4* is totally enough.
GK is a problem for most players but in my shard there is a lvl 83 g11 (!) GK already so just depends if you know the right people to bring you in a hAAT guild early.
Chaze is also possible for ftp, some guys in my shard didn't buy gear with their crystals but Chaze. Now with the fleet shop Chirrut is slow but ftp.
So the dream team Rex DN GK Chaze is possible but takes time.
I already played Rex EP Boba Zylo SF // Boba (L) Wiggs Zylo SF // Rex Wiggs STH SF // Rex Boba Zylo STH SF , so there are some combos possible.
One of the hardest guys in my shard uses Wiggs Chaze ShT (or RG), so it's not like Wiggs would be useless. But we need better tanks. Only STH and SF will not create a good wall.
I already played Rex EP Boba Zylo SF // Boba (L) Wiggs Zylo SF // Rex Wiggs STH SF // Rex Boba Zylo STH SF , so there are some combos possible.
Thanks! I hope you'll eventually make one or two optimized recommendations within your guide, and a transition plan for getting to them. I realize that the meta shifts from time to time, but within the current meta, it would be useful to have a couple of "tested and proven" endgame teams to aim for. And with an optimized path, us F2P guys might be able to catch up a bit against the P2P people who are experimenting with a few different team comps.
zMaul lead teams are very viable for f2p players. Nihilus and Sith Assassin work at 4*, especially Nihilus because he has huge protection at g11 and offense numbers are irrelevant. Besides, Sith Assassin is ok farmable in Cantina now. Sith Trooper, EP, Savage, Dooku, Sid, Kylo, Sun Fac, B2 are perfect additions, just select who you like most or who is most advanced already.
I am running zMaul, Nihilus, Assassin, Savage, zKylo which easily beats all other teams on offense. Zeta for Savage is coming in a few days, and I am gearing Sith Trooper to replace Kylo in a while. Not that it would be really necessary, but the kit of Trooper is super fun with Assassin, Savage and zeta Nihilus unique: DN unique lowers health (not protection) by 20%, Assassin and Trooper attack health, bypassing protection and Savage instakills when health is below 50% which can happen fast with the other three in action even for tanks. Only Chaze is good against this because they regenerate health at an incredibly fast rate.
Changes to 5) :
JKA out?
JKA is strong only for those who also get GK. Otherwise it's probably not worth the farm and gear. But I can't take out both IGD and JKA (see below)
FOTP in. Very long farm and member of the best pilot team (Biggs FOTP TFP TIEx1 Fives).
RG stays optional, but if you don't go for Baze and have no Kenobi, probably needed.
Dooku out
Changes to 6:
IGD out? But a fifth Jedi is needed, if I take out JKA and IGD that would not be possible (JC Ahsoka QGJ Windu IGD)?
Changes to 7:
(Added: Farm windu 5* after IG88 5*, then continue with Ackbar)
Changes to 9:
TFP instead of GS
Changes to 10:
Also buy FOTP ship plans
Changes to 11:
also buy Scimitar and TIE advanced x1 shards in fleet store
Changes to 12:
Or TIE advanced x1 and Vader
Addition:
The current top meta team is Rex (L) DN (4*), Chirrut, Baze, GK.
If you aim for that:
At about lvl80 start to buy Baze shards with crystals.
Buy every Chirrut Shards in fleet store.
Save all shard shop tokens for DN.
Look out for a hAAT guild.
Farm Baze in hard nodes.
Save gear for GK in advance, look at the gear list in swgoh.gg
@Doitsuyama
Interesting, in our arena chat we just said how we wished to have more Zauls because everyone uses Rex Chaze teams, or Nihilus lead as counter to Rex leads. Also in our guild ppl said Zaul would require very good mods (speed secondaries). I unfortunately still don't have that...
Replies
If you would pay for your disadvantage of a top100 rank instead of a top5 rank, you would need to invest 2-5 dollars each day. If you would catch up in 3 month that's roughly 200-300 dollars investment needed if you don't restart. Ofc you can also live with that rank, it would also take the pressure away to fight in the hour before payout. So depends how ambitious you are.
Here's a key concept within this game that you might not have yet observed:
This game has one premium currency (purple crystals) and the arena is the only place to get them for free. Those crystals, spent wisely, buy you more character power and experience levels compared to others who don't get as many crystals, per day. Because the crystal reward count goes up rapidly as you approach the top 3 of your arena shard, those that mange to grab an early lead, tend to stay in the lead. And that lead only increases over time.
It really isn't much fun to "play from behind" in this game, so Raw's guide will get you ahead of the pack, right from the start of the game, and help you stay as high in the arena rankings as possible. Your account will progress more rapidly, you'll have more in-game energy to do a greater variety of things, and you'll have (imho) more fun.
This is a great guide and I commend you for your effort. Absolutely fantastic. I came upon it while in my 30's and have been following it faithfully since.
I have a few questions.
1. Regarding Cantina farming. Im currently lvl 56, I have farmed Lando to 7*, GS to 5* and TFP to 4*.
Several times you mention farming GS, but not how far we should farm him and whether we should buy his ship plans.
Should I keep farming GS to 7* or stop at 5*? Should I look to buy his ship plans at lvl 60? If yes, In what priority vs other ship plans you have listed?
2. Regarding Gear. Obviously main arena team characters gear should be as high as possible, but i wonder about other characters.
For example characters we are farming mainly for use of their ship, like Sun Fac or GS (i dont use GS in my arena team).
How high should I be upgrading these characters gear (and levels and skills) ?
3. Regarding Arena. My arena team is currently:
Lando (L), Boba, STH. I rotate in JC, Rex or Biggs as needed.
My problem atm is gear. Biggs, STH and Rex all need alot of the same gear and it will take a long time to get them all to G7. I have decided to stop upgrading Rex for now since he will be stuck at 4* for awhile anyway, and focus on STH, then Biggs and finally Rex.
I was thinking of using Ackbar instead of Rex for debuff removal, as he is easier to upgrade alongside STH and Biggs. I will likely also be using Home One as my capital ship.
What do you think? Also, how how should i upgrade Ackbars gear?
Thanks!
It was mentioned in the discussions that it would be theoretically sufficient to just unlock GS. But in fact you need to be able to manage the Tarkin 5* challenge which will probably be hard with a weak GS. But if you gear and level him, a low star GS will also do it. You can wait with the Tarkin challenge until you would also be ready to do the zeta mat challenge (8x 5* ships). I gave him 5* at first, and currently farm GS' 7th star after TFP and Kylo are ready.
However it is mentioned that you need his ship plans:
"10) Farm ship plans in GW store for Biggs', Ahsoka's, Sun Fac's, JC's, TFP and GS' ships after Biggs is at 7* and you achieve lvl 60."
You need to farm the ships mentioned equally because you want to 5* them all. Priority is TFP because it appears not as often as the others. So save 400 tokens until the end of each day.
After 5*, I suggest to prioritize Biggs and TFP. I chose Wedge and JC next and left Ahsoka, GS and SF behind (at 5*), but that's not mandatory.
That's hard to say in general, it depends on you shard mates in the fleet arena. In my case I had to give up #1 or #2 because these were mega whales with all ships on 7* lvl85 g11 so no chance to win with lvl75 or so. On the other hand I am able to win #3 every day. So I stopped gearing Ackbar, Ahsoka, JC and GS at g8. g8 is easy to reach but g9 would require these gear pieces you will probably need on your (future) arena chars. However I just hit g9 with TFP because I put him in my fleet now instead of Ahsoka. TFP is also very valuable for raids.
G8 will be totally easy to reach when you have all daily challenges unlocked and if you buy all shipments available for credits. Take care to get a good guild now. Remember a guild can generate up to 30k tickets each day. Right before guild activity reset, have a look how far your guild is away from that number. Consider a change if your guild's ticket generation is too low. With a very good guild you should be able to farm Rex at lvl60 next to SF and Maul.
In fleet store, buy every Wedge available. Save some 800 tokens so you never miss one shipment.
Once you have a 7* star Rex, continue to gear Rex. Gearing will be much faster in higher levels, then you can take him as a leader. Before that, you can go with Lando/Wedge lead.
Ackbar (G8), Biggs (G10), Wedge (G10), Boba (G10), TFP (G8), JC (G8)
Reinforcement: Maul (G8), Ashoka (G8) and Sun Fac (G10)
Wiggs and Boba and in my and Raws case Sun Fac is also part of your arena team for quite some time. Ackbar is nice to have for GW and rancor P1, TFP is useful for tank raid, Ashoka and JC may be used for defense mod challenges so all in all no gear got wasted here.
General strategy:
Constantly apply target lock with Boba, Biggs and TFP will lead to an endless refresh of Biggs shield. JC provides additional survivability of Biggs. If anyone dies, reinforce with Maul and start snowballing.
Kill order:
If possible, snipe out an opposing target lock applier that is squishy (e.g. Vader) or enemy Ashoka since she will hard counter your Maul reinforcement due to her ability reset. If not possible head directly for enemy Biggs. Do not attack enemy TFP since if you are as lucky as I am, you will get him evade 5 attacks in a row and feed the enemy capital ship like crazy.
Variations:
The only time I ever change my lineup is when I am up against Mace or I know my enemy has a Maul as first reinforcement. In this case I switch JC for Ashoka to dispell taunt / retribution.
So you see I do not go double-tank, since I have made the experience that it is more effective to instantly kill an enemy ship and force the opponent to fight an uphill battle. I would love to have FOTFP instead of JC to get even more target locks but since he is hard to farm I do not consider switching anytime soon.
Thanks for the replies! Haha yea sorry I totally overlooked that bit about GS ship plans in your OP, my bad.
Anyways, thx again.
Btw, do you pretend to get rid of Wiggs in your Rex team in a near future or keep using it? I'm farming Kylo now (40 shards from 7* and 1 week to G10) and will Zeta him, but not too sure about the team I'd use (thinking maybe that Smithie's team with STH, DN and Boba, but don't know how it would work overall (because he uses that team to beat a specific team)) and don't know who to gear next, if I go for Wedge G11 or if switch Wiggs for something else and start gearing that...
Zylo ist perfect for GW, where I had problems lately. I fall about the same as with Boba (~16), but Zylo is only g9 and will be upgraded soon. So I guess he is better. Wiggs g11 had my priority and I want to keep them as long as possible. In GW I already tested Rex (l) EP Boba Zylo SF and this was better in many cases than Wiggs, but idk about arena.
What are 5-dot-health-Mods?
That means mk5 mods belonging to health set mods
(fyi, one problem I have is that I'm still trying to max Biggs from GW store, so I know that's stunted my ship progression as well)
Well, I buy every TIE advanced I can get. But I must say Vader had no use for me yet and I already bought too many shards for him. All the rewards for lvl85, for light side/dark side node 9 and future assault battles, these shards went to the shard shop. So if you don't really want a dark side team, you can slow Vader farming a little.
I will probably zeta Vader next for raids but it is not really needed. The TIE advanced together with Fives, FOTP and TFP will be a great target lock team, but this will take some time. Also Maul and SF shards you can buy via the guild store only if you don't have enough tokens. I meant to 7* them though. So I would rather get every TIE advanced x1 shards than a SF/Maul in the fleet store.
One thing I forgot to ask: In arena shop, I 7*ed STH, got Ackbar to 5*, and then IG88 to 5*. I'm planning on now pushing Ackbar up to 7* (maybe in time for Palpatine event), but I couldn't really tell what the next step ~you~ suggest is. Is it Akbar to 7? Activate Leia? Tarkin 7?
I bought a 7* Tarkin but that was wasted. It's not needed for the Tarkin challenge and he is irrelevant as a leader. 5* are fine so you can do the potency mods some day.
I also bought IG88 7* which is also not needed before you also have hk47 and IG86, JE and CN, where JE seems to be the slowest farm.
Leia will be needed for the raid but only after the clones are farmed, where CS is the slowest farm.
So actually no arena toon is really needed any more at this stage. I ended up buying credits for 2000 arena tokens and now farm windu because he seems to be the better leader once you have FOTP. Which is also a 5 month farm...
Raw suggests to "Enter a good guild early." This point is worth emphasizing. I personally joined what I thought was a good guild, but with the benefit of hindsight, wasn't. A good guild should look something like this:
If your guild isn't doing all of the above, then you should expect over time to be at a disadvantage in your squad arena, versus competitors whose guilds are doing all of the above.
Personally, my arena progress stalled once my standard team (Lando, Biggs, Wedge, Boba, STH) reached gear level 8. I realized too late that I needed raid-only drops to advance to gear 9, and my guild wasn't anywhere close to clearing a high enough rancor tier. By the time I switched clans, many of my arena competitors were gear 9, and were consistently knocking me out of the top 50.
I hope this helps others that are relatively new to this game.
Well, my shards had 2 Zauls (the ones who kept fighting for #1) and a Zader+Zarriss team (this guy has been lvl 85 since I was lvl 79, afraid to know how much he spent), but now it has 4 Zauls, a full R1 team (with crazy speed mods) and the Zader+Zarriss team. All those Zaul teams are the same: Zaul+EP+Chaze+DN (some have a faster DN and others a faster EP).
Atm I'm running Rex (L)+Wiggs+SF+Boba (just need 2 omegas to zeta Kylo and sub him in the team), my question is: What's the kill order on those Zauls teams? Pray to the RNGesus for a no-stun on my Rex, then Tenacity Up, AoEs on everybody, dispell Baze and focus on Emperor? Then go for Chirrut? (And btw, is it even possible to beat lvl 85 G11 Zaul teams with a 82 Rex(L) G10 (except for Rex who is G11) team?)
I'm sort of in this boat right now. It's tough because the guild I joined is helpful to newcomers including me, but we just took a week to complete a Tier VI Rancor raid, and we've been battling the Normal AAT for a couple weeks I believe.
I guess I do need to jump ship, it's just hard choosing enjoyment from game mechanics over enjoyment from friendly guild mates...
I think you are more experienced with these teams than I am, because we have several Nihilus leads but only a few Zaul leads. I was told to shock Baze with EP which I did today (omega on EP basic helped), I used a non Wiggs team the first time to get #1 today (Rex SF Boba EP Zylo). A strong Chaze team with good mods is probably not possible for you to beat now. I lost against only Chirrut Baze with my whole team still standing yesterday... so Boba will be needed in for an execute on Chirrut. I also think about gearing RG so I can have Rex RG SF ZYLO BOBA, but on the other hand that's a lot of gear for RG. I need her for raid however (TIEpatine) so would not be wasted. That would make up for SF's poor taunting ability.
https://swgoh.gg/meta-report/10/#squads
Looking at the current meta report, if we apply F2P constraints, and remove all teams that depend on Nihilus, Chirrut, and Baze, then only the Jedi team remains (zQGJ + Ayla + JKA + Yoda + GK). Even that doesn't seem too practical, given the long farm for GK and the need to get into a good HAAT guild.
So what's a viable end-game plan? Hoard crystals, and buy Nihilus shards? Or hoard crystals for Baze, while buying Chirrut from fleet store? It seems that a solid transition plan should involve NOT falling out of the top 50 of arena (to keep those crystals coming) but I have no sense for how long this guide's rebel composition can stay top 50, at level 85.
Thoughts?
F2p end game areana should be Rex + best you can field that win.
Ifyou can should def unlock baze from shipments. 3* baze trumps all tanks. Paired with churrit from fleet and you can cheese up the chaze.
DN is not a must as you can sub in any number of others to keep top 50.
Nihilus 4* is not a problem anymore. I already have been able to upgrade mine and experienced players say 4* is totally enough.
GK is a problem for most players but in my shard there is a lvl 83 g11 (!) GK already so just depends if you know the right people to bring you in a hAAT guild early.
Chaze is also possible for ftp, some guys in my shard didn't buy gear with their crystals but Chaze. Now with the fleet shop Chirrut is slow but ftp.
So the dream team Rex DN GK Chaze is possible but takes time.
I already played Rex EP Boba Zylo SF // Boba (L) Wiggs Zylo SF // Rex Wiggs STH SF // Rex Boba Zylo STH SF , so there are some combos possible.
One of the hardest guys in my shard uses Wiggs Chaze ShT (or RG), so it's not like Wiggs would be useless. But we need better tanks. Only STH and SF will not create a good wall.
Thanks! I hope you'll eventually make one or two optimized recommendations within your guide, and a transition plan for getting to them. I realize that the meta shifts from time to time, but within the current meta, it would be useful to have a couple of "tested and proven" endgame teams to aim for. And with an optimized path, us F2P guys might be able to catch up a bit against the P2P people who are experimenting with a few different team comps.
Would be nice.
I am running zMaul, Nihilus, Assassin, Savage, zKylo which easily beats all other teams on offense. Zeta for Savage is coming in a few days, and I am gearing Sith Trooper to replace Kylo in a while. Not that it would be really necessary, but the kit of Trooper is super fun with Assassin, Savage and zeta Nihilus unique: DN unique lowers health (not protection) by 20%, Assassin and Trooper attack health, bypassing protection and Savage instakills when health is below 50% which can happen fast with the other three in action even for tanks. Only Chaze is good against this because they regenerate health at an incredibly fast rate.
Changes to 5) :
JKA out?
JKA is strong only for those who also get GK. Otherwise it's probably not worth the farm and gear. But I can't take out both IGD and JKA (see below)
FOTP in. Very long farm and member of the best pilot team (Biggs FOTP TFP TIEx1 Fives).
RG stays optional, but if you don't go for Baze and have no Kenobi, probably needed.
Dooku out
Changes to 6:
IGD out? But a fifth Jedi is needed, if I take out JKA and IGD that would not be possible (JC Ahsoka QGJ Windu IGD)?
Changes to 7:
(Added: Farm windu 5* after IG88 5*, then continue with Ackbar)
Changes to 9:
TFP instead of GS
Changes to 10:
Also buy FOTP ship plans
Changes to 11:
also buy Scimitar and TIE advanced x1 shards in fleet store
Changes to 12:
Or TIE advanced x1 and Vader
Addition:
The current top meta team is Rex (L) DN (4*), Chirrut, Baze, GK.
If you aim for that:
At about lvl80 start to buy Baze shards with crystals.
Buy every Chirrut Shards in fleet store.
Save all shard shop tokens for DN.
Look out for a hAAT guild.
Farm Baze in hard nodes.
Save gear for GK in advance, look at the gear list in swgoh.gg
@Doitsuyama
Interesting, in our arena chat we just said how we wished to have more Zauls because everyone uses Rex Chaze teams, or Nihilus lead as counter to Rex leads. Also in our guild ppl said Zaul would require very good mods (speed secondaries). I unfortunately still don't have that...
And Kylo after TFP