New player facing an OP combo? or just a poor tactician?

I'm still a new player, approaching level 50.
My best squad consists of the standard units (Chewbacca, Luke, Talia, Jedi Cons., Royal Guard), currently around power 11000.
Enjoying the game so far as it slowly unfolds (I play for free, so far), I thought I was doing decently, employing a reasonable tactics (although I'm no mastermind, and I can't remember all of the combos and weaknesses of all units). At least I typically find the in-game power estimate reasonably accurate in predicting the outcome. I took this to be an indicator that I was doing OK, at least around average.
That was until I encountered the Kanan Jarrus + Chopper combo in the Arena. In battles against those, even when all my units are several levels higher than my opponent's, AND the game's power estimate is in my favour by more than 2000 points, I get wiped out entirely before I take out one of the opponent's team. They appear to be immortal, because they can interchange their taunts and protection, so all my firepower goes into armor that comes back the next round, especially when combined with Hera Syndulla, who always seems to manage to give Chopper back up plan just when my next shot would have taken him out.

Is this combo greatly overpowered, or am I overlooking some weakness it might have?
Or am i putting too much into the in-game power estimate?

Thanks for any advice.

Replies

  • Stud3099
    601 posts Member
    edited January 2019
    In summary, those team compositions have synergy whereas yours unfortunately does not. Synergy generally works better over pure strength.

    Advice: work on a team comp with better synergy. Phoenix is the generally suggested early game comp to gear up.

    Edit: to answer one of your questions, the in-game power estimate cannot take into account the synergy of the squad. You are probably putting too much faith in the GP number. You eventually stop looking at GP much at all when choosing your arena battles.
  • Ryche
    151 posts Member
    Your putting to much into the power estimate. Like Stud3099 said, your group has no synergy.

    Work on Phoenix, its an easy farm and useful for a lot of events in game.
  • I dropped Luke and Royal Guard early. Royal Guard does not do much damage. Luke dies too easy. I got stuck at the same place and hated fighting the Phoenix team. Until I got a team of Bounty Hunters. Getting different teams helps I used Galactic March to help figure out different teams. Also kill Hera first! If in the leader spot she allows all Pheonix characters to share their unique abilities with all other Pheonix squad members. I was stuck on them a bit at level 50 I avoided the fights till I got a better crew. Some characters just work better against other and some don't. Good luck!
  • Ruark_Icefire
    856 posts Member
    edited January 2019
    Also kill Hera first! If in the leader spot she allows all Pheonix characters to share their unique abilities with all other Pheonix squad members.

    Hera doesn't need to be alive for her leader skill to work. Since she doesn't actually grant any passives she is actually the worst character to kill first imo. You should be killing the main damage dealer first either Ezra or Sabine.

    The only time killing Hera first matters is if you suicide a team to just kill her in GW. Then when you do the battle with other teams they won't have the leader skill.
  • Also kill Hera first! If in the leader spot she allows all Pheonix characters to share their unique abilities with all other Pheonix squad members.

    Hera doesn't need to be alive for her leader skill to work. Since she doesn't actually grant any passives she is actually the worst character to kill first imo. You should be killing the main damage dealer first either Ezra or Sabine.

    The only time killing Hera first matters is if you suicide a team to just kill her in GW. Then when you do the battle with other teams they won't have the leader skill.

    If hera dies, Phoenix stop sharing uniques with each other. So if you kill her you won't get mass counters, for example
  • Killing Hera first keeps her from using back up plan. So you only have to kill the rest once.
    Make Bronzium autoplay opening an option.
  • Also kill Hera first! If in the leader spot she allows all Pheonix characters to share their unique abilities with all other Pheonix squad members.

    Hera doesn't need to be alive for her leader skill to work. Since she doesn't actually grant any passives she is actually the worst character to kill first imo. You should be killing the main damage dealer first either Ezra or Sabine.

    The only time killing Hera first matters is if you suicide a team to just kill her in GW. Then when you do the battle with other teams they won't have the leader skill.

    If hera dies, Phoenix stop sharing uniques with each other. So if you kill her you won't get mass counters, for example

    Hera dying doesn't stop that. Leadership abilities stay even if the leader dies. Killing her only stops the TM gain from using specials.

    Kanan is the best one to kill first, and killing him is what stops the mass counters off of AoE attacks. With that said, he's not the easiest to kill, and killing any Phoenix member will cause a trickle down affect on the rest of the team. I usually end up killing Chopper first because he's the easiest to kill of the 2 taunters. Then, I go for Hera because she's a quick kill and then she can't use backup plan. If you can get Ezra dazed, that'll move him way up in the kill order, but I don't like going for him until Kanan is dead because his counters can be brutal.
  • If hera dies, Phoenix stop sharing uniques with each other. So if you kill her you won't get mass counters, for example

    This is inaccurate if describing the course of an individual battle, as all leader bonuses last the course of a fight, regardless of whether the leader dies in the fight. To answer the OP's question -- synergy teams will always beat teams without synergy. Clone Wars Chewbacca does provide his leader bonus to all allies, but the bonus is not particularly strong, and the team you are using doesn't synergize strongly. Phoenix are a very synergistic team, with their abilities and uniques overlapping to make them very difficult to kill.

    I'm not sure what your easiest options would be, but some of the most efficient teams to build for newer players are First Order (Kylo Ren Unmasked as lead) or Phoenix (with Hera lead). Phoenix will let you beat the Grand Admiral Thrawn and Emperor Palpatine events, giving you access to two powerful Empire characters for creating an Empire team and unlocking R2D2 for the Commander Luke Skywalker event, while First Order will give you access to BB8's event which is necessary for many raid teams and unlocking Rey (Jedi Training).
  • Put Logray on your team and apply mass Daze, then target Ezra. Phoenix is hamstrung without their counter-attacks.

    Hate to say it, but your team has taken you as far as it's going to. You have to get away from that starting five ASAP. But where? Good question if you want to compete in Squad Arena. I am on an ancient shard and there are still Nightsister teams doing quite well there. Or First Order like TempestThree mentioned. Or do Phoenix like most everyone else is doing.
  • Thanks all for the input and advice, I'll definitely look more into synergy effects. And work on getting a better squad.
    I think there is one synergy effect in my team: combining Talia's time-down effect with Guard's stun, can be quite effective in postponing attacks or effects. But clearly it's not enough anymore
  • Jarvind
    3920 posts Member
    edited January 2019
    Phoenix seems crazy overpowered when you first start running into them. Later on, their low damage output makes them pretty easy to steamroll for any decently-synergized team.

    Right now they're going to be brutal, because in addition to having no synergy, your team has only one real attacker (Luke), and not a particularly strong one.

    When I was struggling with them, I found it worked best to focus-fire Chopper from the start. He's the one providing Protection Up every time you land a hit, so when he goes down the rest become much easier to kill. After that it's probably best to take out Ezra/Sabine as they are the heavy hitters.
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  • If hera dies, Phoenix stop sharing uniques with each other. So if you kill her you won't get mass counters, for example

    This is inaccurate if describing the course of an individual battle, as all leader bonuses last the course of a fight, regardless of whether the leader dies in the fight. To answer the OP's question -- synergy teams will always beat teams without synergy. Clone Wars Chewbacca does provide his leader bonus to all allies, but the bonus is not particularly strong, and the team you are using doesn't synergize strongly. Phoenix are a very synergistic team, with their abilities and uniques overlapping to make them very difficult to kill.

    I'm not sure what your easiest options would be, but some of the most efficient teams to build for newer players are First Order (Kylo Ren Unmasked as lead) or Phoenix (with Hera lead). Phoenix will let you beat the Grand Admiral Thrawn and Emperor Palpatine events, giving you access to two powerful Empire characters for creating an Empire team and unlocking R2D2 for the Commander Luke Skywalker event, while First Order will give you access to BB8's event which is necessary for many raid teams and unlocking Rey (Jedi Training).

    Thank you. I did not realize. I mostly would only fight Phoenix in the Galactic war. So sacrificing a lesser group to take out Hera worked there. And my second attempt at their team was easier. Good advice for tips on unlocking future events. Things I sure wish I had known earlier on.
  • Also kill Hera first! If in the leader spot she allows all Pheonix characters to share their unique abilities with all other Pheonix squad members.

    Hera doesn't need to be alive for her leader skill to work. Since she doesn't actually grant any passives she is actually the worst character to kill first imo. You should be killing the main damage dealer first either Ezra or Sabine.

    The only time killing Hera first matters is if you suicide a team to just kill her in GW. Then when you do the battle with other teams they won't have the leader skill.

    Yeah I was wrong it's the turn meter she grants that is only there if she is. But that was killing me I could not get any hits in after working on sheilds for a while. And then her backup plan just would ruin things.
  • Headlong wrote: »
    Thanks all for the input and advice, I'll definitely look more into synergy effects. And work on getting a better squad.
    I think there is one synergy effect in my team: combining Talia's time-down effect with Guard's stun, can be quite effective in postponing attacks or effects. But clearly it's not enough anymore

    You should seriously consider looking up some of the "how to start" guides here on the forums and elsewhere on the interwebs - there is some gold out there and most of them will tell you to start farming phoenix as soon as possible!
  • Just wanted to chime in about fighting Phoenix. Chopper is the one to kill first, not only does it stop his unique, but every time he uses his basic he buffs a random person. That includes when he counters, when he is called to assist, and his regular turn.
  • I was in the same boat as yours. I even have shoretooper (bought them with crystal)...play for a month and almost no progress in squad arena. I create new account and start building Phoenix. now i'm content and in level 72
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