Fleet Battle 5E - 3* Successful strategy! (173k effective fleet power)

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Hoood
25 posts Member
edited July 2018
Hello, for once i wont be complaining and instead provide - hopefully - a useful information.

I just now managed to beat the god forsaken, poorly designed and overall lame 5E Fleet mission(Normal) and since i know i wasnt the only one struggling with it, i decided to share my winning strategy with all of you, since its somewhat inovative i'd say - at least part of it.

Edit: After replaying the battle once, i managed to 3* it

For the successful run i needed only 4 ships all together and i have had only 7 turns with all of my ships together, so there was still enough time to continue the battle before Imperial Assault comes in. So dont worry if your damage dealer isnt as strong as mine, because there is still some space to prolong the battle a little bit.

Now to the setup

Capitol:
Home One - https://swgoh.gg/u/hoood/ships/home-one/
7* 39k Power, G11 pilot,

Dont get discouraged if you dont have 7* HomeOne or even 6* for that matter, because the only reason you need him is solely for his passive - Band Together - in order for your damage dealer to have stronger crit hits and mainly to have enough survivability through the protection recovery.
My band Together was only 6/8, which should be easily achievable: +35%Crit Dmg and 15% protection up whenever and ally attacks out of their turn, doubled for Rebels. But then again, the main reason you want that is the protection up, which is 15% even at level 1, the crit dmg boost shouldnt be needed if you have other way to compensate for the dmg.

Support:
Scimitar - https://swgoh.gg/u/hoood/ships/scimitar/
6* 27k Fleet Power G8 pilot, 83k total amount of HP and Protection

He has only 1 goal, survive the initial onslaught in order to use his Slip Through onto your damage dealer, which at first looked like it will be a hard thing to achieve, seeing as i have only 6* Scimitar, with just G8 pilot and no will to invest gear into Maul, just for one fleet battle.
In order to survive the initial strike before you even get a turn, you need to survive either:
* - 7 TF attacks and 1 Heavy Ion Cannon blast or
* - 6 TF Attacks, 1 Heavy Ion Cannon Blast and 1 Turbolaser Batteries(Exe basic)
My scimitar had just enough protection to survive 1HIC and 3 TF attacks with easy, 4TF attack 50% of the time, or if lucky and he dodges one, which still leaves 3 TF attacks for somebody else to soak. But since there is no auto taunter, you need the enemy to focus someone else before turning onto Scimitar, so what you need is actually somewhat surprising, you dont want the strongest possible fleet, but you need an "Achilles heel" in your fleet, which gets us to the next ship - the Fodder

Fodder:
5* Clone Sergeant's Arc 170 - https://swgoh.gg/u/hoood/ships/clone-sergeants-arc-170/
14.5k Fleet Power, G8 Pilot, 68k total amount of HP and Protection

His one and only goal, is to die, simply sacrifice himself for the allmighty Scimitar, while soaking as many attacks from the initial wave as possible BUT he needs to stay weak enough for the enemy to look like a good target to focus( i found out the enemy most of the time goes for the weakest ship in order to reduce the number of enemies ) which actually was harder to achieve than you might think.
I chose ARC 170 because its one of the few ships i havent upgraded much, while also having pretty good defense even at lower levels - compared to other ships

You see there is 12.5k Fleet Power difference between ARC 170 and Scimitar, but if i have raised my ARC just a 1k higher, they would suddenly stop focusing it and go back to fighting Scimitar as their first target, so i had to slowly increase and balance their powers, in order for them to have enough protection for Scimitar to survive while leaving ARC 170 to still be the priority for the enemy.
If you have stronger Scimitar than i do, i am confident you can use even stronger ARC170 - or a good enough subtitute
Possible Substitutions - pretty much anyone, who will be weaker enough than your Scimitar, while still having at least 70k total protection or more, something likeFive's ship would be good, sinceit has strong defense

Damage Dealer:
7* Tie Advanced - https://swgoh.gg/u/hoood/ships/tie-advanced-x1/
The whole strategy revolves around him almost soloing the whole battle
43k Fleet Power, G12 Pilot
Although G12 pilot but it felt like even a weaker Vader should be able to cut through enough of them for reinforcements to finish the job. The main reason for his success is his basic cant be evaded, so it doesnt matter whats the dodge chance or if the enemy has Foresight, he will go straight through, while also applying damage over time on enemies that have target lock already - which they will gain from his basic

Possible substitutions:
Bistan's U win - Same reason as Tie Advanced, his basic cant be evaded, so strong Bistan should be able to do just fine.

Tie Silencer - Didnt test, but i am fairly confident a decently strong Silencer should do just fine too, his passive will get him an insane ammounts of offense(Each time he takes damage he gets 10%TM and 15% stacking Offense - since i took 7 attacks before my dmg dealer got to have a turn, you can imagine what kind of dmg boost are we talking about here. The only problem might be, if TFs use their special and get Forsight or if they dodge your attacks a lot and since you wont be stunning anyone with your basic, he will also be applying advantage on himself - not sure if advantage works for attacks out of its own turn, but i see no reason why it should not. So he ll be critting a lot.

Biggs - if you can land target locks you have an un-killable tank with some decent dmg, providing enough resistance so that your reinforcement can finish off the remaining forces with ease

I needed SOME amount of RNG, but it wasnt the kind of RNG most people need to get 6* Admiral Ackbar.
The RNG involves:
* Executrix's Heavy Ion Cannon not ability blocking Scimitar - if he gets blocked, just restart, no point - this was probably hardest to achieve, because Exe was landing the ability block about 2/3 of the time
* Average hits from the TFs, if any of them hit your Scimitar or your Fodder extra amounts of dmg, they probably wont have enough protection for your Scimitar to survive, this was a problem only about 1/3 of the battles, on average the TFs were hitting me for around 20k to 25k dmg
* Any amount of dodges on either Scimitar or Fodder will make this battle easy, i didnt need a dodge in my last run, but if you get one, its a job half done - i tried to use my own TF for that matter, but my 25k Power TF, appeared to be too strong for the enemy to focus it, but i think if you have like 35k-40k Scimitar, you could use 25k TF to soak the dmg not through protection but through evasion.

Finally, the successful run looked like that:
1st turn - Executrix uses Heavy Ion Cannon, dealing very little dmg to all my ships and blocking ARC170( we dont care about that )
2nd turn - All 3 of the enemy TF go straight for my ARC170 leaving him barely alive at about 5% hp
3rd turn - Executrix calls in TF reinforcement
4th turn - We now have 4 TFs, one of them finishes ARC170,
5th turn - For some reason my Tie Advanced gets a turn before the other 3 TFs get their 2nd attack off, so i just hit whomever i see fit
6th turn - The other 3 TFs goes straight for Scimitar, but fails to kill him, leaving him at about 30% HP
7th turn - HomeOne uses Defiant Volley, for extra dmg, killing off one of the TFs
8th turn - Scimitar uses Slip Through on Tie Advanced, unleashing the 7th gate of hell, while giving himself stealth
9th turn - 3 TFs are forced to attack Tie Advanced, who now has retribution, so each time they attack him he attacks back, recovering 15% protection, while doing something around 30%-40% dmg to each of them, applying target lock and damage over time on enemies that already have it
10th turn - Executrix calls in another TF, so we are back to 4 TFs
11th turn - 4 TFs continue to suicied on Tie Advanced, one of them dying
12th turn - Tie Advanced uses his basic on whoever i found a good target( didnt kill anyone ) at that point we have 2 TFs with 2 DOTS at around 7% HP and 1 TF at 50% HP, no dot
13th turn - HomeOne calls in my 47k Phantom, who uses Maximum Impact on the 50% TF, killing him
14th turn - 1 TF dies to dots, the other attacks Tie Advanced, killing it
15th turn - Scimitar attacks last TF who had 5% hp left, killing him and winning the battle
BAM mission accomplished on 2*

I hope this was useful to at least some of you, i struggled so hard with this battle, with more than 500 energy wasted on it, before i got this idea.

Please excuse some of the typos and grammar mistakes, i did my best to correct them.

Let me know if my guide was any help
Peace and good fortune to all of you :)
-Hoood
Post edited by Hoood on

Replies

  • Are you saying it's poorly designed because you were able to beat it?

    Your squad is way underpowered for what is intended to be able to complete. So both kudos to you for an effective strategy, but also demerits for claiming you weren't complaining and then in the next sentence... complaining.
  • XKurareX
    478 posts Member
    Gz!

    However you lost another ship else you would have 3*. Your 2* means you lost 2 ships. 2* cant sim the node, but it shows one of the best tactic to break most of the ship encounters on attack. Ship GM doesn't mean anything, as your damage dealer was a g12 tie advanced with maxed skills and riposting all their attacks while gaining protection from home fun. Two rare ships are used to break this node before the g12 parts - everything is working as intended.

    Btw with maxed out scimitar flying in the tie advanced gets 50% extra crit chance and critical hit immunity becoming a real beast.
  • NicWester
    8928 posts Member
    Rebel_yell wrote: »
    Are you saying it's poorly designed because you were able to beat it?

    Your squad is way underpowered for what is intended to be able to complete. So both kudos to you for an effective strategy, but also demerits for claiming you weren't complaining and then in the next sentence... complaining.

    Evidently it was poorly-designed because a squad that weak was able to beat it.

    I swear, there’s folks around here who would say chess is poorly-designed because pawns only move too slowly.
    Ceterum censeo Patientia esse meliat.
  • Hoood
    25 posts Member
    edited July 2018
    I mentioned it is poorly designed, solely because of the fact they just threw 3 TFs with more of them on bench and gave 100% TM to everyone. If that doesnt reek of lack of imagination and poor design i dont know what does.

    Anyway this really wasnt meant as a complain thread, sorry i said the complain at start, just wanted to discuss strategy.

    Also yes you are right, i was wrong about the last turn, TF attacked Tie Advanced and killed him, and then Scimitar had a turn and finished off the last 5% on that TF.
    But i could replay the battle and i am sure i could save the Tie Advanced, it was more of s bad luck leaving the last one so low

    Edit: I just replayed the battle and its 3* with ease.
    Post edited by Hoood on
  • Ploosh
    565 posts Member
    Hoood wrote: »
    I mentioned it is poorly designed, solely because of the fact they just threw 3 TFs with more of them on bench and gave 100% TM to everyone. If that doesnt reek of lack of imagination and poor design i dont know what does.

    On the contrary I would say that having preloaded tm is vastly more imaginative, as 99.9% of the battles we do don't have that. I love that they've started doing that with the Mythics.

    Brings a new, creative challenge to the table that causes us to have to use new, intuitive strategy, like what your post went on to describe.
  • NicWester
    8928 posts Member
    Hoood wrote: »
    Anyway this really wasnt meant as a complain thread, sorry i said the complain at start, just wanted to discuss strategy.

    If you just wanted to discuss strategy this would have been in the strategy sub-forum from the start instead of general discussion. You wanted this to be a complaint thread and you wanted the attention. Congrats, you got it, now let's talk about how this isn't poorly-designed.

    1) It's the final regular rewards node, beyond this point nodes drop g12 components for the Bayonet, Medpack, and (most importantly) Multitool, so an increased difficulty is warranted.
    2) The way difficulty is increased in all other ship nodes is by increasing the level, hp, protection, and damage of the enemy ships. By 5-E those stats are already boosted very high, boosting them further would make the node too difficult.
    3) 100% starting turn meter gives the enemy exactly one free turn and then they have no further advantage.
    4) All TIEs turns the node into a puzzle that needs to be solved. You can try and brute force your way through it the way most people do and fail a whole bunch, or you can solve the puzzle the way you did and beat it easily.
    Ceterum censeo Patientia esse meliat.
  • Platzman
    284 posts Member
    Just a note - Bistan Basic cannot be evaded only if he is in stealth. Which he will not be.
  • NicWester wrote: »
    Hoood wrote: »
    Anyway this really wasnt meant as a complain thread, sorry i said the complain at start, just wanted to discuss strategy.

    If you just wanted to discuss strategy this would have been in the strategy sub-forum from the start instead of general discussion. You wanted this to be a complaint thread and you wanted the attention. Congrats, you got it, now let's talk about how this isn't poorly-designed.

    1) It's the final regular rewards node, beyond this point nodes drop g12 components for the Bayonet, Medpack, and (most importantly) Multitool, so an increased difficulty is warranted.
    2) The way difficulty is increased in all other ship nodes is by increasing the level, hp, protection, and damage of the enemy ships. By 5-E those stats are already boosted very high, boosting them further would make the node too difficult.
    3) 100% starting turn meter gives the enemy exactly one free turn and then they have no further advantage.
    4) All TIEs turns the node into a puzzle that needs to be solved. You can try and brute force your way through it the way most people do and fail a whole bunch, or you can solve the puzzle the way you did and beat it easily.

    ^this. There just aren't very many mechanics at the designers disposal to add difficulty. Giving the enemy the advantage via turn meter pre-load in later nodes directly effects the player's strategy and is a practical way to require a greater breadth of developed ships and strategy by the player to accomplish.
  • I tried this setup and worked so good :D
    2 stars easy!
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    That stage is rekking me. I'll try what you say
  • Ploosh wrote: »
    I love that they've started doing that with the Mythics.

    Brings a new, creative challenge to the table that causes us to have to use new, intuitive strategy, like what your post went on to describe.

    Ha. New strategy when enemy team is pre-loaded with TM and takes anywhere from 10 to 20 (BB8 Mythic) turns before you get to take your first...I call it "restart frequently and hope for better distribution of enemy targeting"
  • This worked well on one account. I even forgot to put in my 5* Ackbar and instead went with my 7* Executrix. Only managed 2 stars.

    This gave me fits on another account. Using a 7* AA and subbing in Sun Fac in place of Sarge to get the targeting correct. I'm not quite sure how the Executrix is fast enough to take two capital ship turns in a row when I'm not providing any additional TM (I was very careful to check), but it got to it's ultimate very quickly. Had a number of matches where one ship survived the ultimate only to be stunned by it. And of course, the several matches that ended with a lone Tie Fighter standing with a barely visible bit of health.

    I finally beat it (3 stars, no less), by leaving every ship out of my reinforcements but one (Slave 1). Not sure if it helped at all, or my final victory was just a matter of randomness going my way, but if anyone else is having a ton of trouble, maybe it uses opposing fleet power to set some stats (mine was 198k FWIW).

    Good luck - why this node needs to be the mini AA 6* challenge is beyond me, but here it is.
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    edited July 2018
    Passed it! It seems scimitar is the key! Specifically,
    1. The retribution and protection he grants.
    2. Every enemy reinforcement is target locked

    Means he is perfect with Biggs, and makes Slave 1 even better as a reinforcement + insant missile ability.
    Thanks peoples
  • NicWester
    8928 posts Member
    Ploosh wrote: »
    I love that they've started doing that with the Mythics.

    Brings a new, creative challenge to the table that causes us to have to use new, intuitive strategy, like what your post went on to describe.

    Ha. New strategy when enemy team is pre-loaded with TM and takes anywhere from 10 to 20 (BB8 Mythic) turns before you get to take your first...I call it "restart frequently and hope for better distribution of enemy targeting"

    Weird, I call it "Invest in my team and build them up so they survive that burst easily instead of gearing them to the bare minimum and then being upset that I need to rely on randomness in my favor."
    Ceterum censeo Patientia esse meliat.
  • Thank you for these great tips!
    Just managed to three star it first try, thanks to your strategy!
  • NicWester wrote: »
    Ploosh wrote: »
    I love that they've started doing that with the Mythics.

    Brings a new, creative challenge to the table that causes us to have to use new, intuitive strategy, like what your post went on to describe.

    Ha. New strategy when enemy team is pre-loaded with TM and takes anywhere from 10 to 20 (BB8 Mythic) turns before you get to take your first...I call it "restart frequently and hope for better distribution of enemy targeting"

    Weird, I call it "Invest in my team and build them up so they survive that burst easily instead of gearing them to the bare minimum and then being upset that I need to rely on randomness in my favor."

    @NicWester That's not strategy, it's overcoming with gear. Which is fine, they're mythic events, they should be extremely difficult and require very well developed characters to beat. My point was that there isn't much strategy required in surviving the opening salvo of mythics, where gear is clearly required, but hey thanks for pointing that out.
  • PoundpiG
    1 posts Member
    edited August 2018
    I agree that it is poorly designed. I had tried it multiple times with mostly maxed out ships and maxed pilots, and barely made a dent. The ties are way too fast and even with my ships at almost Max speed, I barely got any turns. I had been using my strongest ships, with all but a few abilities maxed, and all G12, fully maxed pilots. I normay place in the top five in arena, and it was still next to impossible. This is the only difficult normal node; all others are a cakewalk. It might be understandable if it were a hard node, but it's not. Strategy is one thing but even with the best strategy, RNG can still kill you. Take Forest Moon for example.

    Despite all the negative comments, I'd like to thank you for posting this. I was finally able to beat it with three stars to boot, so I never have to touch it again. It took me about ten tries, and I actually had to use scimitar's special on Biggs because Tie Advanced would get buff immunity and then I'd die.

    I used home one w/ G10 Snackbar, G12 Zzader and Biggs, and G10 Ahsoka for the target (didn't even lose her). Then I popped Scimitar's special on Biggs and finished it even after Tarkin's massive tie attack, and only lost Scimitar.

    Thanks so much; this strategy was very helpful!
  • Awesome strategy. I did it with scimitar, a very well geared Silencer, and the trash third ship. Since silencer is fast and can stun, it made it that much easier. His basic was crit’ing for 75k after taking damage from a round or two or tie fighters.
  • NicWester wrote: »
    Ploosh wrote: »
    I love that they've started doing that with the Mythics.

    Brings a new, creative challenge to the table that causes us to have to use new, intuitive strategy, like what your post went on to describe.

    Ha. New strategy when enemy team is pre-loaded with TM and takes anywhere from 10 to 20 (BB8 Mythic) turns before you get to take your first...I call it "restart frequently and hope for better distribution of enemy targeting"

    Weird, I call it "Invest in my team and build them up so they survive that burst easily instead of gearing them to the bare minimum and then being upset that I need to rely on randomness in my favor."

    @NicWester That's not strategy, it's overcoming with gear. Which is fine, they're mythic events, they should be extremely difficult and require very well developed characters to beat. My point was that there isn't much strategy required in surviving the opening salvo of mythics, where gear is clearly required, but hey thanks for pointing that out.

    The devs have openly said that these opening salvos are gear checks. The strategy comes in if you can survive it. Instead of having your team go in the order you set up and possibly before the entire other team (strategies around Poe and Thrawn where turn order are important come to mind here) you now have a shuffled deck.

    Even if you can survive until your turn, Mythic events are no walk in the park.
  • Great tip, worked like a charm. Used Tie Advance, Scimitar and Phantom and Slave One as reinforcement as all enemy Ties had target lock on them
  • Awesome strategy here! I haven't used Scimitar in the past, so didn't even think to use Slip Through. The only adjustment I had to make was to choose a weaker piece of fodder as my Arc was already beefed up more. Again, in line with what you presented here. Thanks!
  • This battle sucks ****
  • Thank you so much for the strategy!
    Been wasting so much energy when using Executrix :/
  • ToxicFish
    121 posts Member
    edited October 2018
    Great Strategy,
    Thanks, I forget about my other cap ships.
    Home one, scimitar, Biggs and tie reaper were my 3, Vader in reinforcements.
    Didn't get ability blocked 2nd attempt and then able to give Biggs retribution, Vader in as reinforcement and they only just got 5th tie fighter reinforced and it was all over. Reaper died in 2nd volley after dodging 2 attacks, rng still very relevant as always.

    * all my ships 7* and characters g8 - g12 gear.

    Thanks again Hoood.
  • Okay I must be incompetent because I have followed your directions to a T with my ships and pilots being a bit stronger than you described yours and I am getting blown out of the sky in no time
    " Do or do not, there is no try."
  • Strategy worked great!
    It took me 5 attempts due to the ability block on scimitar and RNG crits of tie fighters.
    Got 3* with tie advanced only on 7*

    Thanks for the strategy
  • Thank you for your recommendations for this battle. By using Home One, Biggs, Scimitar, and Tie Advanced, I was able to 3* it! Much appreciated!!!
  • I usually move to next node when I can 3 Star a previous 1 Star. But farming from a node now I’ll try to x where I’m at after but there should be recommended fleet power for each node so it’s not like wait a week c where u r at lol.
  • TVF
    36527 posts Member
    x c u r?
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • Leif wrote: »
    Thank you for your recommendations for this battle. By using Home One, Biggs, Scimitar, and Tie Advanced, I was able to 3* it! Much appreciated!!!

    Just did the same with the ARC ship instead of Biggs. Worked great. Had been away from the game for awhile and was banging my head against the wall on this ship node until I found this thread, lol. Thanks to the OP!
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