Well he's also a pilot that's great to have. Don't follow the meta. All teams have a counter team so you need to build them all regardless. He eats Jedi for breakfast for example.
Well he's also a pilot that's great to have. Don't follow the meta. All teams have a counter team so you need to build them all regardless. He eats Jedi for breakfast for example.
That's a good point. Right now I'm building Rogue 1 and Sith under Nihilis. Both will be awesome squads and can counter each other's counter.
zMaul beats Rex cleanse teams and Rex beats zMaul. In fact if you ask most zMaul users they'll probably tell you they'd rather fight Rex then another Maul team. So to say the Maul meta is dying? Ok cool but he's still viable lol. I've run Rex and Maul and prefer Maul. Also Maul teams are Sith specific so not everyone cares for Sith whereas with Rex you have more diversity and can run different combos. So yes he should be used more then Maul.
I just got him to zeta about a month ago then zeta savage on saturday...i went from average 400 to 500 ranks in arena to rank 15 yesterday. He is a game changer that got me on his own to below 100... savage dropped me even more. Get him. I fight r2 teams and win.. they beat me too but that's supposed to happen
Great character. There are a couple of good tank raid teams that use him. Awesome ship. He hacks through GW, and DS battles. And he's good in arena still even though Rex has pushed him out of the top spot. He's worthy of farming even if starting from scratch right now IMHO.
Since zDM and Rex a few months ago squared off I've been keeping an eye on the GG report for leaders and also looking at my shard - Nov '15 shard and it tends to move 6+ weeks ahead trend-wise of the GG report. zDM has been tanking on GG and is down to 32% usage - this is down from near 50% only a month or so ago. Looking at my top 20 right now, only 1 zDM is being used:
Rex: 6
DN: 6
Wedge: 3 (yes R2 has made Wiggs very much viable again with Chaze)
zBarriss: 1
zDV: 1 (my squad right now)
GK: 1
zDM: 1
zJinn: 1
There's another shoe to drop on zDM besides Rex that's not yet reflected in the gg report and that's the sizable impact of R2 being widespread and built.
Arena-wise zDM is just at the beginning stages of almost being irrelevant. I expect the usage on GG for zDM to continue below 20% in the next few weeks and to the point where he's considered to be a 2nd / 3rd tier leader not too long from now. So if you're farming him with the idea of being top 20 arena, yes I think you're going to be disappointed when you have it all up and built. As others have noted though, he is money in Gal War and also has an elite ship ... and he has raid value as well. AOE dispel is a great skill to have.
The issue is with Rex / GK / Chaze / R2 now all so heavily in the meta all his primary skills are just neutralized to such a great degree. Unless you severely outmod your opponent a zDM squad is going to struggle against good R2 / cleanse teams. Their raw stat output for damage health is just so much better overall and without dodge or the ability to control with debuffs it's just a stat battle and Sith have nothing to fall back on.
Since zDM and Rex a few months ago squared off I've been keeping an eye on the GG report for leaders and also looking at my shard - Nov '15 shard and it tends to move 6+ weeks ahead trend-wise of the GG report. zDM has been tanking on GG and is down to 32% usage - this is down from near 50% only a month or so ago. Looking at my top 20 right now, only 1 zDM is being used:
Rex: 6
DN: 6
Wedge: 3 (yes R2 has made Wiggs very much viable again with Chaze)
zBarriss: 1
zDV: 1 (my squad right now)
GK: 1
zDM: 1
zJinn: 1
There's another shoe to drop on zDM besides Rex that's not yet reflected in the gg report and that's the sizable impact of R2 being widespread and built.
Arena-wise zDM is just at the beginning stages of almost being irrelevant. I expect the usage on GG for zDM to continue below 20% in the next few weeks and to the point where he's considered to be a 2nd / 3rd tier leader not too long from now. So if you're farming him with the idea of being top 20 arena, yes I think you're going to be disappointed when you have it all up and built. As others have noted though, he is money in Gal War and also has an elite ship ... and he has raid value as well. AOE dispel is a great skill to have.
The issue is with Rex / GK / Chaze / R2 now all so heavily in the meta all his primary skills are just neutralized to such a great degree. Unless you severely outmod your opponent a zDM squad is going to struggle against good R2 / cleanse teams. Their raw stat output for damage health is just so much better overall and without dodge or the ability to control with debuffs it's just a stat battle and Sith have nothing to fall back on.
How is Maul at the beginning stages of being irrelevant? I run Maul and am sitting at #1 as I write this. 7 Maul squads in my top 20. Every shard is different so you can't base data solely on your shard. Are you seeing less Maul? Yeah I'm sure, but that's only because more squads are viable and we have a lot more diversity now, not that he's irrelevant. From experience on my shard I can beat any team. Rex cleanse teams are so easy to beat with my Sith, Jedi, FO, R1, Empire, etc.. I can beat them all. Other Maul teams are the only ones I struggle against. Can they beat me too? Yes! And that's what's so great. So many different viable squads! It's great!
He's pretty powerful (could be argued overpowered) with zeta/gear xi with his sith buddies. Even if the meta changes I don't see how he would not still be kicking as for long as time with his zeta leader, and Nihilus, Sith Assassin, Sith Trooper, zeta Savage hanging around. It's not going to be a zeta you regret. Zeta the Jedi Killer.
Maul is still good, even against R2. I don't have any problems at all. DH reduces TM anyway and usually AI uses his def ability first (my experience). When he burns, half of the enemy team is already dead or you instakill him with DN even before that happens. zSavage does clean the debuff anyways, I guess. Also not many people use R2 yet. I don't see that the Maul meta is over yet to be honest.
Also he's great in GW and pretty easy to gear when I remember correctly. Beside that he's easy to farm. So yeah, I would get him.
As I see it zMaul is sticking around for a very long time. Lots of people believe Jedi Luke will at some point come out this year, plus maybe a few more Jedi zetas. Guess who the big counter to these stronger Jedi teams will be?
Since zDM and Rex a few months ago squared off I've been keeping an eye on the GG report for leaders and also looking at my shard - Nov '15 shard and it tends to move 6+ weeks ahead trend-wise of the GG report. zDM has been tanking on GG and is down to 32% usage - this is down from near 50% only a month or so ago. Looking at my top 20 right now, only 1 zDM is being used:
Rex: 6
DN: 6
Wedge: 3 (yes R2 has made Wiggs very much viable again with Chaze)
zBarriss: 1
zDV: 1 (my squad right now)
GK: 1
zDM: 1
zJinn: 1
There's another shoe to drop on zDM besides Rex that's not yet reflected in the gg report and that's the sizable impact of R2 being widespread and built.
Arena-wise zDM is just at the beginning stages of almost being irrelevant. I expect the usage on GG for zDM to continue below 20% in the next few weeks and to the point where he's considered to be a 2nd / 3rd tier leader not too long from now. So if you're farming him with the idea of being top 20 arena, yes I think you're going to be disappointed when you have it all up and built. As others have noted though, he is money in Gal War and also has an elite ship ... and he has raid value as well. AOE dispel is a great skill to have.
The issue is with Rex / GK / Chaze / R2 now all so heavily in the meta all his primary skills are just neutralized to such a great degree. Unless you severely outmod your opponent a zDM squad is going to struggle against good R2 / cleanse teams. Their raw stat output for damage health is just so much better overall and without dodge or the ability to control with debuffs it's just a stat battle and Sith have nothing to fall back on.
How is Maul at the beginning stages of being irrelevant? I run Maul and am sitting at #1 as I write this. 7 Maul squads in my top 20. Every shard is different so you can't base data solely on your shard. Are you seeing less Maul? Yeah I'm sure, but that's only because more squads are viable and we have a lot more diversity now, not that he's irrelevant. From experience on my shard I can beat any team. Rex cleanse teams are so easy to beat with my Sith, Jedi, FO, R1, Empire, etc.. I can beat them all. Other Maul teams are the only ones I struggle against. Can they beat me too? Yes! And that's what's so great. So many different viable squads! It's great!
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I've always had a leaderboard that was advanced relative to what I see and hear from most players and what is reflected on the GG site. Very competitive. Even vs. other veteran player shards, we tend to have teams hit 1-2 weeks ahead of even those and from looking at GG it's about 6-8 weeks ahead of that general population and trend shifts. We are down to just 1 DM in the top 25! 0 in the top 10! - and the "Wall of Maul" that used to occupy the top 10 and 20 has now been pushed out to the 30s range. Ranks 28-33 are all DM, then there are 8 more DM from rank 37-50. That is the 2nd shoe to drop I speak of - that only recently happend to that severe degree once R2 hit the streets in force. Actually the convergence of a few things is pushing zDM out more and more: GK ownership rate and arena-ready geared is increasing over time and ownership rate of Chaze is going up over time. Throw an R2 bomb in there and it's perfect anti-Maul storm.
On a relatively even mod basis a zDM team is going to have issues winning on offense vs. a well-built R2+Chaze squad. This isn't just my team either or a solo analysis - multiple veteran Nov '15 players with well-built rosters are indicating similar feedback....and the leaderboard usage speaks for itself.
You all are correct though - each LB is different - but eventually all leaderboards migrate, just takes some longer than others. Having been a LB that was once around 70-80% Maul in the top 10 / 20 at one point and gone through the 3x cleanse team cycle with Rex, Maul's best days are way behind him.
i'm still farming him. he's at that g8 hill and 6* for me right now. i'd say he's worth it but that's based on my playing style and goals in the game. i'm not competitive and i don't chase the meta. i'm also a very patient person.
i've been running sith since day one. jedi and sith are all i use in this game. so i got him to go under a nihilus lead. if it weren't for nihilus i would have never farmed him. i have a different dream team i'm still working at.
I run rex(l), Chaze, GK and zR2 and walk through sith/Zaul teams with multiple zetad and max gear. Occasionally one with Zaul, SA, SiT, Zavage and zDN can beat me but it's not often.
Zaul will still be relevant but maybe just not meta. Not everyone can farm/pay for Chaze and DN and even fewer in newer shards have GK.
i'm still farming him. he's at that g8 hill and 6* for me right now. i'd say he's worth it but that's based on my playing style and goals in the game. i'm not competitive and i don't chase the meta. i'm also a very patient person.
i've been running sith since day one. jedi and sith are all i use in this game. so i got him to go under a nihilus lead. if it weren't for nihilus i would have never farmed him. i have a different dream team i'm still working at.
You bring up a significant point. Maul doesn't HAVE to be leader. He is definitely best used as leader. His low base speed really benefits from the TM boost. But every single Sith in the game is viable in some squad combo. And Sith have 4-5 viable leaders. Zaul, Zader and Nihilus lead squads are all capable of placing first with the right Sith teams at the moment. And EP lead was old meta, and is still great. Just not the flavor of the month. Even Zid has a very useful universal leader ability similar to Boba that has extra bonuses for Sith.
If someone was so inclined they could farm all the Sith, and would be able to switch them around with different leaders, or lineups depending on their opponent. There is not a single bad Sith character right now. The faction pass they got was just outstanding work.
So if you are pinning all your hopes on Zaul lead for being assured a #1 arena spot months from now I'd say you might be disappointed. But if you like Sith, and want a great character from a great faction that you will find multiple uses for in, and out of arena then go for it.
Since zDM and Rex a few months ago squared off I've been keeping an eye on the GG report for leaders and also looking at my shard - Nov '15 shard and it tends to move 6+ weeks ahead trend-wise of the GG report. zDM has been tanking on GG and is down to 32% usage - this is down from near 50% only a month or so ago. Looking at my top 20 right now, only 1 zDM is being used:
Rex: 6
DN: 6
Wedge: 3 (yes R2 has made Wiggs very much viable again with Chaze)
zBarriss: 1
zDV: 1 (my squad right now)
GK: 1
zDM: 1
zJinn: 1
There's another shoe to drop on zDM besides Rex that's not yet reflected in the gg report and that's the sizable impact of R2 being widespread and built.
Arena-wise zDM is just at the beginning stages of almost being irrelevant. I expect the usage on GG for zDM to continue below 20% in the next few weeks and to the point where he's considered to be a 2nd / 3rd tier leader not too long from now. So if you're farming him with the idea of being top 20 arena, yes I think you're going to be disappointed when you have it all up and built. As others have noted though, he is money in Gal War and also has an elite ship ... and he has raid value as well. AOE dispel is a great skill to have.
The issue is with Rex / GK / Chaze / R2 now all so heavily in the meta all his primary skills are just neutralized to such a great degree. Unless you severely outmod your opponent a zDM squad is going to struggle against good R2 / cleanse teams. Their raw stat output for damage health is just so much better overall and without dodge or the ability to control with debuffs it's just a stat battle and Sith have nothing to fall back on.
I think this is very on-point with my thoughts here. Although my shard still has Mauls at the top, the irrelevance has begun and I have been contemplating in evolving this "sinking ship" to a Darth Nihilus-led team. It is at the planning stage at the moment as I have to figure out the best characters for each role versus the current and soon-to-be-gone meta.
Maul to Nih transition isn't that hard since several common toons, so I would farm maul. Giving maul a zeta is another question, and depends on your LB and the mods you have
I've been watching who stays in the top 12-14 (3 step to first) and there's only 2. A maxed triple cleanse team and a zaul w SiT and GK. Both with very high mod stats to back their team.
All the others drop farther including some very good zQGJ+R2, Rex, zaul 4 zeta + SA and R1 teams.
So a really question to ask yourself is who else you going to get?
Right now everyone easily beats everyone, even the whales and people w high speed mods. I don't think that will change for a very long time if ever. The toons get more complex but the "AI" stays the same "dumb bot loop" so doesn't utilize the potential on defense.
Replies
That's a good point. Right now I'm building Rogue 1 and Sith under Nihilis. Both will be awesome squads and can counter each other's counter.
or just how long will he be viable.
Edit - usually.
Rex: 6
DN: 6
Wedge: 3 (yes R2 has made Wiggs very much viable again with Chaze)
zBarriss: 1
zDV: 1 (my squad right now)
GK: 1
zDM: 1
zJinn: 1
There's another shoe to drop on zDM besides Rex that's not yet reflected in the gg report and that's the sizable impact of R2 being widespread and built.
Arena-wise zDM is just at the beginning stages of almost being irrelevant. I expect the usage on GG for zDM to continue below 20% in the next few weeks and to the point where he's considered to be a 2nd / 3rd tier leader not too long from now. So if you're farming him with the idea of being top 20 arena, yes I think you're going to be disappointed when you have it all up and built. As others have noted though, he is money in Gal War and also has an elite ship ... and he has raid value as well. AOE dispel is a great skill to have.
The issue is with Rex / GK / Chaze / R2 now all so heavily in the meta all his primary skills are just neutralized to such a great degree. Unless you severely outmod your opponent a zDM squad is going to struggle against good R2 / cleanse teams. Their raw stat output for damage health is just so much better overall and without dodge or the ability to control with debuffs it's just a stat battle and Sith have nothing to fall back on.
You will not regret him the same way nobody regrets farming Wiggs.
How is Maul at the beginning stages of being irrelevant? I run Maul and am sitting at #1 as I write this. 7 Maul squads in my top 20. Every shard is different so you can't base data solely on your shard. Are you seeing less Maul? Yeah I'm sure, but that's only because more squads are viable and we have a lot more diversity now, not that he's irrelevant. From experience on my shard I can beat any team. Rex cleanse teams are so easy to beat with my Sith, Jedi, FO, R1, Empire, etc.. I can beat them all. Other Maul teams are the only ones I struggle against. Can they beat me too? Yes! And that's what's so great. So many different viable squads! It's great!
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Also he's great in GW and pretty easy to gear when I remember correctly. Beside that he's easy to farm. So yeah, I would get him.
The zaul meta is ending, because other teams are viable now, but:
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I've always had a leaderboard that was advanced relative to what I see and hear from most players and what is reflected on the GG site. Very competitive. Even vs. other veteran player shards, we tend to have teams hit 1-2 weeks ahead of even those and from looking at GG it's about 6-8 weeks ahead of that general population and trend shifts. We are down to just 1 DM in the top 25! 0 in the top 10! - and the "Wall of Maul" that used to occupy the top 10 and 20 has now been pushed out to the 30s range. Ranks 28-33 are all DM, then there are 8 more DM from rank 37-50. That is the 2nd shoe to drop I speak of - that only recently happend to that severe degree once R2 hit the streets in force. Actually the convergence of a few things is pushing zDM out more and more: GK ownership rate and arena-ready geared is increasing over time and ownership rate of Chaze is going up over time. Throw an R2 bomb in there and it's perfect anti-Maul storm.
On a relatively even mod basis a zDM team is going to have issues winning on offense vs. a well-built R2+Chaze squad. This isn't just my team either or a solo analysis - multiple veteran Nov '15 players with well-built rosters are indicating similar feedback....and the leaderboard usage speaks for itself.
You all are correct though - each LB is different - but eventually all leaderboards migrate, just takes some longer than others. Having been a LB that was once around 70-80% Maul in the top 10 / 20 at one point and gone through the 3x cleanse team cycle with Rex, Maul's best days are way behind him.
i've been running sith since day one. jedi and sith are all i use in this game. so i got him to go under a nihilus lead. if it weren't for nihilus i would have never farmed him. i have a different dream team i'm still working at.
Zaul will still be relevant but maybe just not meta. Not everyone can farm/pay for Chaze and DN and even fewer in newer shards have GK.
You bring up a significant point. Maul doesn't HAVE to be leader. He is definitely best used as leader. His low base speed really benefits from the TM boost. But every single Sith in the game is viable in some squad combo. And Sith have 4-5 viable leaders. Zaul, Zader and Nihilus lead squads are all capable of placing first with the right Sith teams at the moment. And EP lead was old meta, and is still great. Just not the flavor of the month. Even Zid has a very useful universal leader ability similar to Boba that has extra bonuses for Sith.
If someone was so inclined they could farm all the Sith, and would be able to switch them around with different leaders, or lineups depending on their opponent. There is not a single bad Sith character right now. The faction pass they got was just outstanding work.
So if you are pinning all your hopes on Zaul lead for being assured a #1 arena spot months from now I'd say you might be disappointed. But if you like Sith, and want a great character from a great faction that you will find multiple uses for in, and out of arena then go for it.
What kind of team can do this
I think your "big damage" probably isn't in line w other people's' interpretation.
I think this is very on-point with my thoughts here. Although my shard still has Mauls at the top, the irrelevance has begun and I have been contemplating in evolving this "sinking ship" to a Darth Nihilus-led team. It is at the planning stage at the moment as I have to figure out the best characters for each role versus the current and soon-to-be-gone meta.
All the others drop farther including some very good zQGJ+R2, Rex, zaul 4 zeta + SA and R1 teams.
So a really question to ask yourself is who else you going to get?
Right now everyone easily beats everyone, even the whales and people w high speed mods. I don't think that will change for a very long time if ever. The toons get more complex but the "AI" stays the same "dumb bot loop" so doesn't utilize the potential on defense.