You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
So you are saying people arent geared enough? I had problems on day 1 with G9 and G10. People had g12 toons getting flat lined. Empire teams getting wiped out. I personally seen Fracture cleansed off. How are you dismissing valid problems like this?
No one is saying people aren't good enough - way to jump to an argumentative extreme - but these are new and complicated enemies that require certain tactics. It's new content that takes time to adapt. First Order for example is not a great matchup since they lack AB / +1 CD skills. It's hard to just brute force kill these rebels because their specials are insane and if you're eating a bunch of Strafes you're going to get murked even with G12 zeta'd teams...my post is an attempt to help and provide guidance - maybe considering other's successful experiences as well would be beneficial. That DK team I posed that routed wave 5 is a pretty F2P / low spend friendly team. DK being the hardest farm of course...DV team can remove MT just fine and put in DN instead and that's very F2P friendly. There's options.
I am not doubting that you are wrong - the videos you posted you have very strong DS teams, certainly not f2p - but that is the point of this game...growth & development of your roster and teams.
But when people have gear level 10-12 teams with zetas getting wiped out on the 1st phase of 2* requirement missions - something is very wrong with the game design.
When these rebels are cleansing debuffs that are not meant to be cleansed - like plague and fracture - something is wrong.
So as much as you wanted to help by posting these end-game videos at the 5* level of DSTB, you are not really adding anything to the overall point.
Not to mention Kozi already posted and confirmed that they didn't get this right judging the reaction of the entire playerbase (except you), and will be fixing this after this current DSTB runs its course. They cannot fix anything while it is still running.
So everyone just needs to be patient, accept the rewards granted when this thing ends and look forward to the revised version when the Dev team have tweaked these issues.
Well, FYI it isn't just me - the interwebz overstates the % of people unhappy with things relative to the % of people just fine with things. I know quite a few people that like the TBs difficulty level generally. The scaling seems off on the first waves I agree for 2*, but if you think I'm the only one that means you're just seeking out venues with like-minded players..
Also...don't pull the woe-is-me F2P "end game guy" comment here...I have in that thread a wave 3 DK squad, where DK is just gear 11 and has no zeta. See the third screen shot in the post below. Team includes: TFP (many F2P have), Tarkin (same), DT (same) and Snowtrooper (harder to farm, but still a 2 year old launch character and he could be subbed for a number of toons). That's a ZERO zeta squad my friend with 2/5 of the team at just G11. That's far from a maxed out end game team. I think you're so focused on your argument that you're blocking out any evidence to the contrary.
Hahah - I said the "except you" comment because you are the only person I have seen on this entire post that seems to be defending DSTBs - you could take this as a compliment - I would have. I guess your ego is easily damaged.
Secondly your videos show multiple teams including such rare toons as a maxed MT.
Sorry to offend you by thinking you were of the end game calibur - clearly I was wrong Noob.
You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
Finally truth about Maul and FO in DsTB....thx:). I had enought of complaints about maxed teams getting destroyed and they shouldnt couse they are maxed. What kind of logic is that?
You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
I hear what you are saying. I use a full jedi team in LSTBs and do just fine with them in the first few phases. Especially in the 2* requirement missions.
This just was not the case in DSTBs with multiple zetas!
I understand what you are saying that the early phases of DSTBs difficulty off and it is - no arguments there.
I also do not argue that finer and more rare toons will be required for the likes of later phases such as 5* - 7* phases, but I know I am not there yet. What hope do I or does anyone have when we get wiped out at the 2* level - its demoralizing to say the least and needs to be fixed - that is my point.
At this stage I couldn't really care less about the difficulty level in the late phases because it doesn't affect me yet. I know harder farms and stronger toons will be required for that and I will be working on my DS toons to prepare for that. But the difficulty is off and needs readjusted.
Sorry about my last - post, didn't mean to sound harsh. We are all entitled to our own opinion
The missing key for him is that a 5* G7 phoenix squad does better than a 7* G11 First Order squad. That PS could go through the first few phases of lightside. That FO squad is only good for platoons.
So you are saying people arent geared enough? I had problems on day 1 with G9 and G10. People had g12 toons getting flat lined. Empire teams getting wiped out. I personally seen Fracture cleansed off. How are you dismissing valid problems like this?
No one is saying people aren't good enough - way to jump to an argumentative extreme - but these are new and complicated enemies that require certain tactics. It's new content that takes time to adapt. First Order for example is not a great matchup since they lack AB / +1 CD skills. It's hard to just brute force kill these rebels because their specials are insane and if you're eating a bunch of Strafes you're going to get murked even with G12 zeta'd teams...my post is an attempt to help and provide guidance - maybe considering other's successful experiences as well would be beneficial. That DK team I posed that routed wave 5 is a pretty F2P / low spend friendly team. DK being the hardest farm of course...DV team can remove MT just fine and put in DN instead and that's very F2P friendly. There's options.
I am not doubting that you are wrong - the videos you posted you have very strong DS teams, certainly not f2p - but that is the point of this game...growth & development of your roster and teams.
But when people have gear level 10-12 teams with zetas getting wiped out on the 1st phase of 2* requirement missions - something is very wrong with the game design.
When these rebels are cleansing debuffs that are not meant to be cleansed - like plague and fracture - something is wrong.
So as much as you wanted to help by posting these end-game videos at the 5* level of DSTB, you are not really adding anything to the overall point.
Not to mention Kozi already posted and confirmed that they didn't get this right judging the reaction of the entire playerbase (except you), and will be fixing this after this current DSTB runs its course. They cannot fix anything while it is still running.
So everyone just needs to be patient, accept the rewards granted when this thing ends and look forward to the revised version when the Dev team have tweaked these issues.
Well, FYI it isn't just me - the interwebz overstates the % of people unhappy with things relative to the % of people just fine with things. I know quite a few people that like the TBs difficulty level generally. The scaling seems off on the first waves I agree for 2*, but if you think I'm the only one that means you're just seeking out venues with like-minded players..
Also...don't pull the woe-is-me F2P "end game guy" comment here...I have in that thread a wave 3 DK squad, where DK is just gear 11 and has no zeta. See the third screen shot in the post below. Team includes: TFP (many F2P have), Tarkin (same), DT (same) and Snowtrooper (harder to farm, but still a 2 year old launch character and he could be subbed for a number of toons). That's a ZERO zeta squad my friend with 2/5 of the team at just G11. That's far from a maxed out end game team. I think you're so focused on your argument that you're blocking out any evidence to the contrary.
Hahah - I said the "except you" comment because you are the only person I have seen on this entire post that seems to be defending DSTBs - you could take this as a compliment - I would have. I guess your ego is easily damaged.
Secondly your videos show multiple teams including such rare toons as a maxed MT.
Sorry to offend you by thinking you were of the end game calibur - clearly I was wrong Noob.
Again you miss the message - not defending DS TB at all - even agreed the early round scaling was off. I don't work for CG...I'm just trying to help players that actually want help and guidance rather than simply ask for and wait for CG to nerf the content.
If you read the post at all I also noted that MT isn't needed there at all an in early stages in fact she's not very good because plague was quickly healed away and I suggested replacing her with DN.
Ego or no ego - you're end game comment had the intent of dismissing my information so I dispute it on that basis alone. Now you call me a noob So mean!
You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
I hear what you are saying. I use a full jedi team in LSTBs and do just fine with them in the first few phases. Especially in the 2* requirement missions.
This just was not the case in DSTBs with multiple zetas!
I understand what you are saying that the early phases of DSTBs difficulty off and it is - no arguments there.
I also do not argue that finer and more rare toons will be required for the likes of later phases such as 5* - 7* phases, but I know I am not there yet. What hope do I or does anyone have when we get wiped out at the 2* level - its demoralizing to say the least and needs to be fixed - that is my point.
At this stage I couldn't really care less about the difficulty level in the late phases because it doesn't affect me yet. I know harder farms and stronger toons will be required for that and I will be working on my DS toons to prepare for that. But the difficulty is off and needs readjusted.
Sorry about my last - post, didn't mean to sound harsh. We are all entitled to our own opinion
Good post here... I took no offense and could sense joking around a bit. I do hope they scaled down the 2 and 3* day 1/2 difficulty somewhat. There's no way <level 85 2* toons can get past those enemies.
I want to preface this with Dark side TB was one of my most anticipated game modes (given I am darkside heavy) and turned out to be one of the most disappointing game modes. I suspect an internal deadline was selected a while ago and despite the game environment not being adequately prepared in time for DS TB, DS TB was released as scheduled anyways.
The pros:
1. Finally get to use DS! Mechanically speaking, DS is much more interesting than LS. LS is all about hitting as hard and fast as possible and little else a lot of times - big crits, big damage. Dark side tends to have more mechanics to manage to reach victory in terms of debuffs, dots, plague, cooldown increases, detonators, etc.
2. Selected factions of empire, troopers, and bounty hunters all felt decent for flavor - bounty hunters hunting wampas is great.
The cons:
1. Even with the waterfall of new darkside characters, we still have 15 less DS toons than LS toons. And mind you, most people do not have the last 7-8 dark side toons that were just released/spoiled so the gap between LS and DS for most is more to the order of 20-25 less toons. This results in platoons being much more demanding and featuring less variety. The odds are very very high for a single toon to show up 10 times in one day and wreck a guild's ability to finish any platoon that day. Similarly, a player on average has potentially 4-5 less possible squads he/she can form - and this is made even worse by having to donate such a few number to the non-varied platoons. For some of the days featuring a special mission each player is required to have 20 characters in order to enter all 4 missions. With only 15-20 darkside toons remaining after that it is very very difficult to actually fill platoons AND still have teams leftover to play with.
tl:dr There are not enough acquirable DS characters to spread across platoons as well as 4 combat missions a day.
2. I don't feel a lot of thought was given when designing the enemies' kits. Every single enemy seems like a hard counter to everything the required darkside factions are supposed to be trying to accomplish.
- Bounty Hunters: Cannot heal, recover protection, or cleanse. Aside from Boba's rocket, they cannot dispel. The team thrives on thermal detonators, and TM gain. Their Wampa adversaries however, can easily cleanse the thermal detonators and take no damage, gain massive protection up which BH cannot remove, counterattack which BH lacks daze to prevent, applies daze to stop TM and assists which BH cannot cleanse, and does massive damage which BH cannot heal. In later BH missions, the rebels regularly cleanse all detonators and healing immunity and then heal back to full HP. The rebels taunt which BH has no answer for. You are forcing a faction that is missing all of the necessary tools to fight against an enemy that has all the answers.
- G12, Zeta'd characters: cannot successfully play against the rebel enemies. When my g10-11 characters failed combat missions I chalked it up to needing g12 and additional zetas. Cool, room to grow. I'm sure the developers tested with maxxed toons anyways right? Wrong? I guess? I then began running into combat missions where a full g12, zeta'd Thrawn, DT, DK, Shore, Storm (with g12 pieces) was not enough to complete. In a single enemy turn a 120k shoretrooper could vanish in a flurry of attacks and assists. Similarly, g12 zeta'd Talzin, Assaj, Daka, Acolyte, Zombie (tried Talia in here too for the heals one day) seems to struggle all day. You end your turn with all of your characters standing at full hp, and several enemies stunned. And then a moment later, all enemies are cured of debuffs, all return to 100% hp and shrug off plague, the aerial bombardment lands and removes all protection, and then the enemies take turns calling assists until all 5 toons are dead - with 0 opportunity for player input in between. Given that these 10 toons are maxxed and zeta'd the reality is there is no way to improve them. No upgrades to get to make them stronger - they simply are not enough to push through. Perhaps that is fine, use different team compositions right? Unfortunately we are then back to Con #1 and there not being enough toons on DS to begin with. If I rule out half of them as not strong enough when g12 and zeta'd and every player needs to use the same 3-4 compositions to win - how do we ever fill the platoons requiring those 20 toons?
3. Why the paywall? I don't get it. Our guild missed the majority of platoons starting day 4 and didn't even bother the last 2 days now. Why is Kylo unmasked, mother talzin, zombie, spirit, and SF tie pilot required in the platoons? I don't recall Veteran Han or Veteran Chewie being added on light side days after their release? My guess is because of problem #1 again and there not being enough toons - however that is awful reasoning. It's just coming across as an enormous paywall especially considering 3 of those 5 toons will not be coming to a node and are event-only starting after the first of the year. No one can actively do anything about these characters short of swiping credit cards. Finally - 7 star capital ship on day 6? What? Literally not possible without buying the bundles - the events have not run enough times.
4. Finally, the actual reward payout scale. Why is it less rewards for higher stars? Light side features the blue gear box starting at 33 stars while darkside who apparently by design is "next-level, hard-mode" does not begin featuring the same blue gear box reward until 37 stars. I don't understand the scaling? Increased difficulty yields less?
The culmination of all of the above ends up meaning this to me: Previously we did roughly 1 TB a week and earned X amount of currency and g12 gear. Now, a guild MUST alternate between the TBs - and with the darkside being more difficult and less rewarding, in a given month players walk away with less currency and g12 gear than before - and a whole lot more headache and frustration.
I agree totally. This by far is the biggest disappointment in the game. I was able to complete ls tb missions g8 to g11 toons. In ds I can barely get past the 1st 2 rounds.
Yeah, the difficulty alone is not the issue. It can be more difficult - but then should be a tier thing like the raids. If your guild is ready to fight impossible odds, then you can choose to graduate tiers for higher rewards. As it stands, every other week you are locked into a slaughterhouse with worse payouts. DS TB either needs to be reworked to be a counterpart to LS in difficulty and payouts or it needs to be a choice guilds can make when they are ready for a challenge (reward scale still needs to be addressed for that though - you get more "stuff" for less stars in LS as it stands).
It's currently better for a guild's members to do only LS TBs all month than to ever step foot into DS. Players earn more currency and gear that way!
You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
I ran a Zthrawn lead and still got pounded in phase 1
Yeah, the difficulty alone is not the issue. It can be more difficult - but then should be a tier thing like the raids. If your guild is ready to fight impossible odds, then you can choose to graduate tiers for higher rewards. As it stands, every other week you are locked into a slaughterhouse with worse payouts. DS TB either needs to be reworked to be a counterpart to LS in difficulty and payouts or it needs to be a choice guilds can make when they are ready for a challenge (reward scale still needs to be addressed for that though - you get more "stuff" for less stars in LS as it stands).
It's currently better for a guild's members to do only LS TBs all month than to ever step foot into DS. Players earn more currency and gear that way!
On your team mentioned above -- for Troopers you want to use Veers and Snow. That arena-viable comp isn't optimal here. Veers and Snow are > DK / DT behind Thrawn. The Snow aoe is bonkers.
DK's lead is so valuable you don't want to waste him behind Thrawn.
You have plenty of horsepower / toon power to be successful in these TBs.
Is your guild disabling or at least damaging strafe at all?
You also have some leads that just aren't good here that needed developed. OP I see you mentioned FO and Maul leads and then had success with MT...that's similar to LS. I have a zeta on Cody and a strong Clone team that solos P4 of the HAAT, but they get their rears handed to them in LS TB much after wave 4. I do agree the star scaling is off, but references to specific teams not working is a situation even in LS TB. Full Jedi teams do not do well in LS TB either. It's not always about taking your best geared team and having it work - you have to find out what works first. Maul as a lead isn't good here and FO is limited as well.
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
I ran a Zthrawn lead and still got pounded in phase 1
The rest of the comp makes a big difference though. What was your full team?
DK's lead is so valuable you don't want to waste him behind Thrawn.
Ability block strategy isn't actually very usefull in the last phase it this TB, because of the insane platoon requirements. If you can't disable the rebel supply chain ability then in P6 rebels have 60% chance to dispel all debuffs from themself at the start of their turn.
DK's lead is so valuable you don't want to waste him behind Thrawn.
Ability block strategy isn't actually very usefull in the last phase it this TB, because of the insane platoon requirements. If you can't disable the rebel supply chain ability then in P6 rebels have 60% chance to dispel all debuffs from themself at the start of their turn.
That's where you bring in DT or DN to increase cooldowns to help fill the gap.
@Mewingloki Thank you for the best post on this thread. I've read about 90% of comments, and I didn't want to rehash any of the complaints and arguments along the way. I came back here to see what others think of the 7* capital ship requirement, and found your post. Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a well-written assessment. It should be required reading before anyone else posts because you say it all.
This is the big problem with late-game material in any video game. There is a low percentage of the player base (which usually seems much larger because they are the most active in the forums) who believes they should be able to clear all content on day one...sometimes even within hours. If they are not able to accomplish that, they will say “unbalanced,” “impossible” and “unfair.”
Good late-game material should take a considerable amount of time and effort or else it’s simply unappealing and boring content.
We should like the challenge and expect future content to be even more difficult. This is what makes games enjoyable to play...not pressing auto and collecting rewards.
Your point is well made for those complaining that their g9 FO squad can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle, but when people are using 5 g12 zeta characters and can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle on day 2, I think the notion of liking “the challenge” is flawed.
If the requirements to beat these battles are not currently available in the game to anyone, then the game mode is unfair.
Your point is well made for those complaining that their g9 FO squad can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle, but when people are using 5 g12 zeta characters and can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle on day 2, I think the notion of liking “the challenge” is flawed.
If the requirements to beat these battles are not currently available in the game to anyone, then the game mode is unfair.
I understand your point but I believe the Devs factored teams like this into their decision. I don’t believe they expected (or wanted) guilds to get 45 stars on the LS TB only 3-4 weeks in. It seemed as though it was originally planned to be a accomplishment that took multiple months (with 7 star HR soldier and Hoth Han required just to farm ROLO).
My assumption is the Devs are trying to make DS TBs difficult enough to where even the top guilds and players will struggle to earn max stars. Again, I believe this should be looked at as a good thing that helps keep interest in the game.
So f2p has to suffer because there are whales. I love it.
My guild couldnt fullfill platoons in phase 5 and six. Couse of that every Cms was much harder. I think that without special buffs and abilities for rebels last phase would easier to finish CMs. I dont have Shore and Krenic 7 stars yet so hard to judge also. But Rebels were hitting a lot. 30k crits. I used Storm(g12) in one combat and I think if he would be g11, it wouldnt be possible to clear 3rd wave. He absorbed a lot of dmg. 4 wave was too much.
the thing i find the most crazy is all the p2p toons in platoons. If youve just spent a far bit of cash getting the newest toons, they want you to dump them in a platoon and not actually use them? insane.
There are many people who think the difficulty is reasonable.
We just got spoiled with a way too easy lightside tb.
Think back to haat.
It was super hard when it 1st came out.
My guild was taking 10 days to do the normal.
But we figured out the teams that worked and grew our rosters and now half the guilds in the game have haat on farm.
Give yourself time to build " the right teams "
P.S.
Expect a drastic increase in lightside tb difficulty
There are many people who think the difficulty is reasonable.
We just got spoiled with a way too easy lightside tb.
Think back to haat.
It was super hard when it 1st came out.
My guild was taking 10 days to do the normal.
But we figured out the teams that worked and grew our rosters and now half the guilds in the game have haat on farm.
Give yourself time to build " the right teams "
P.S.
Expect a drastic increase in lightside tb difficulty
I see your point on HAAT, but people were still capable of doing decent damage to the tank with G11 Lvl 85 toons when it initially launched. Those who were struggling were trying HAAT with inferior toons, say g8 or g9.
There are dozens of reports of people sending in an entirely g12 team, with zetas, and getting totally rinsed - in phase 2. Now there might be a better combination of toons to tackle combat missions with, but if 5 toons who are at the max currently available power can't finish a 4 wave battle on day 2, something is broken.
the thing i find the most crazy is all the p2p toons in platoons. If youve just spent a far bit of cash getting the newest toons, they want you to dump them in a platoon and not actually use them? insane.
That's a huge complaint by many and a disincentive to actually spend on those units.
Replies
DV
DK
Thrawn
MT
EP
Veers in Troopers
...all viable leads.
Hahah - I said the "except you" comment because you are the only person I have seen on this entire post that seems to be defending DSTBs - you could take this as a compliment - I would have. I guess your ego is easily damaged.
Secondly your videos show multiple teams including such rare toons as a maxed MT.
Sorry to offend you by thinking you were of the end game calibur - clearly I was wrong Noob.
Finally truth about Maul and FO in DsTB....thx:). I had enought of complaints about maxed teams getting destroyed and they shouldnt couse they are maxed. What kind of logic is that?
I hear what you are saying. I use a full jedi team in LSTBs and do just fine with them in the first few phases. Especially in the 2* requirement missions.
This just was not the case in DSTBs with multiple zetas!
I understand what you are saying that the early phases of DSTBs difficulty off and it is - no arguments there.
I also do not argue that finer and more rare toons will be required for the likes of later phases such as 5* - 7* phases, but I know I am not there yet. What hope do I or does anyone have when we get wiped out at the 2* level - its demoralizing to say the least and needs to be fixed - that is my point.
At this stage I couldn't really care less about the difficulty level in the late phases because it doesn't affect me yet. I know harder farms and stronger toons will be required for that and I will be working on my DS toons to prepare for that. But the difficulty is off and needs readjusted.
Sorry about my last - post, didn't mean to sound harsh. We are all entitled to our own opinion
Again you miss the message - not defending DS TB at all - even agreed the early round scaling was off. I don't work for CG...I'm just trying to help players that actually want help and guidance rather than simply ask for and wait for CG to nerf the content.
If you read the post at all I also noted that MT isn't needed there at all an in early stages in fact she's not very good because plague was quickly healed away and I suggested replacing her with DN.
Ego or no ego - you're end game comment had the intent of dismissing my information so I dispute it on that basis alone. Now you call me a noob
Good post here... I took no offense and could sense joking around a bit. I do hope they scaled down the 2 and 3* day 1/2 difficulty somewhat. There's no way <level 85 2* toons can get past those enemies.
The pros:
1. Finally get to use DS! Mechanically speaking, DS is much more interesting than LS. LS is all about hitting as hard and fast as possible and little else a lot of times - big crits, big damage. Dark side tends to have more mechanics to manage to reach victory in terms of debuffs, dots, plague, cooldown increases, detonators, etc.
2. Selected factions of empire, troopers, and bounty hunters all felt decent for flavor - bounty hunters hunting wampas is great.
The cons:
1. Even with the waterfall of new darkside characters, we still have 15 less DS toons than LS toons. And mind you, most people do not have the last 7-8 dark side toons that were just released/spoiled so the gap between LS and DS for most is more to the order of 20-25 less toons. This results in platoons being much more demanding and featuring less variety. The odds are very very high for a single toon to show up 10 times in one day and wreck a guild's ability to finish any platoon that day. Similarly, a player on average has potentially 4-5 less possible squads he/she can form - and this is made even worse by having to donate such a few number to the non-varied platoons. For some of the days featuring a special mission each player is required to have 20 characters in order to enter all 4 missions. With only 15-20 darkside toons remaining after that it is very very difficult to actually fill platoons AND still have teams leftover to play with.
tl:dr There are not enough acquirable DS characters to spread across platoons as well as 4 combat missions a day.
2. I don't feel a lot of thought was given when designing the enemies' kits. Every single enemy seems like a hard counter to everything the required darkside factions are supposed to be trying to accomplish.
- Bounty Hunters: Cannot heal, recover protection, or cleanse. Aside from Boba's rocket, they cannot dispel. The team thrives on thermal detonators, and TM gain. Their Wampa adversaries however, can easily cleanse the thermal detonators and take no damage, gain massive protection up which BH cannot remove, counterattack which BH lacks daze to prevent, applies daze to stop TM and assists which BH cannot cleanse, and does massive damage which BH cannot heal. In later BH missions, the rebels regularly cleanse all detonators and healing immunity and then heal back to full HP. The rebels taunt which BH has no answer for. You are forcing a faction that is missing all of the necessary tools to fight against an enemy that has all the answers.
- G12, Zeta'd characters: cannot successfully play against the rebel enemies. When my g10-11 characters failed combat missions I chalked it up to needing g12 and additional zetas. Cool, room to grow. I'm sure the developers tested with maxxed toons anyways right? Wrong? I guess? I then began running into combat missions where a full g12, zeta'd Thrawn, DT, DK, Shore, Storm (with g12 pieces) was not enough to complete. In a single enemy turn a 120k shoretrooper could vanish in a flurry of attacks and assists. Similarly, g12 zeta'd Talzin, Assaj, Daka, Acolyte, Zombie (tried Talia in here too for the heals one day) seems to struggle all day. You end your turn with all of your characters standing at full hp, and several enemies stunned. And then a moment later, all enemies are cured of debuffs, all return to 100% hp and shrug off plague, the aerial bombardment lands and removes all protection, and then the enemies take turns calling assists until all 5 toons are dead - with 0 opportunity for player input in between. Given that these 10 toons are maxxed and zeta'd the reality is there is no way to improve them. No upgrades to get to make them stronger - they simply are not enough to push through. Perhaps that is fine, use different team compositions right? Unfortunately we are then back to Con #1 and there not being enough toons on DS to begin with. If I rule out half of them as not strong enough when g12 and zeta'd and every player needs to use the same 3-4 compositions to win - how do we ever fill the platoons requiring those 20 toons?
3. Why the paywall? I don't get it. Our guild missed the majority of platoons starting day 4 and didn't even bother the last 2 days now. Why is Kylo unmasked, mother talzin, zombie, spirit, and SF tie pilot required in the platoons? I don't recall Veteran Han or Veteran Chewie being added on light side days after their release? My guess is because of problem #1 again and there not being enough toons - however that is awful reasoning. It's just coming across as an enormous paywall especially considering 3 of those 5 toons will not be coming to a node and are event-only starting after the first of the year. No one can actively do anything about these characters short of swiping credit cards. Finally - 7 star capital ship on day 6? What? Literally not possible without buying the bundles - the events have not run enough times.
4. Finally, the actual reward payout scale. Why is it less rewards for higher stars? Light side features the blue gear box starting at 33 stars while darkside who apparently by design is "next-level, hard-mode" does not begin featuring the same blue gear box reward until 37 stars. I don't understand the scaling? Increased difficulty yields less?
The culmination of all of the above ends up meaning this to me: Previously we did roughly 1 TB a week and earned X amount of currency and g12 gear. Now, a guild MUST alternate between the TBs - and with the darkside being more difficult and less rewarding, in a given month players walk away with less currency and g12 gear than before - and a whole lot more headache and frustration.
It's currently better for a guild's members to do only LS TBs all month than to ever step foot into DS. Players earn more currency and gear that way!
I ran a Zthrawn lead and still got pounded in phase 1
On your team mentioned above -- for Troopers you want to use Veers and Snow. That arena-viable comp isn't optimal here. Veers and Snow are > DK / DT behind Thrawn. The Snow aoe is bonkers.
DK's lead is so valuable you don't want to waste him behind Thrawn.
You have plenty of horsepower / toon power to be successful in these TBs.
Is your guild disabling or at least damaging strafe at all?
The rest of the comp makes a big difference though. What was your full team?
Ability block strategy isn't actually very usefull in the last phase it this TB, because of the insane platoon requirements. If you can't disable the rebel supply chain ability then in P6 rebels have 60% chance to dispel all debuffs from themself at the start of their turn.
That's where you bring in DT or DN to increase cooldowns to help fill the gap.
Your point is well made for those complaining that their g9 FO squad can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle, but when people are using 5 g12 zeta characters and can’t finish all 4 waves of a battle on day 2, I think the notion of liking “the challenge” is flawed.
If the requirements to beat these battles are not currently available in the game to anyone, then the game mode is unfair.
So f2p has to suffer because there are whales. I love it.
We just got spoiled with a way too easy lightside tb.
Think back to haat.
It was super hard when it 1st came out.
My guild was taking 10 days to do the normal.
But we figured out the teams that worked and grew our rosters and now half the guilds in the game have haat on farm.
Give yourself time to build " the right teams "
P.S.
Expect a drastic increase in lightside tb difficulty
I see your point on HAAT, but people were still capable of doing decent damage to the tank with G11 Lvl 85 toons when it initially launched. Those who were struggling were trying HAAT with inferior toons, say g8 or g9.
There are dozens of reports of people sending in an entirely g12 team, with zetas, and getting totally rinsed - in phase 2. Now there might be a better combination of toons to tackle combat missions with, but if 5 toons who are at the max currently available power can't finish a 4 wave battle on day 2, something is broken.
That's a huge complaint by many and a disincentive to actually spend on those units.