What's the best way to take my game to the next level?

hardvig
73 posts Member
Hi guys
I am a little bit tired of being mediocre at this game and now that I'm pushing 2.5m GP I thought I'd ask:

How does one take the game to the next level?

Maybe you can answer my question without any background info, but here goes:
I started out playing without a guide about 1.5 year ago and just played around for a while and level'ed up some chars I thought would be good bc of their role in the SW universe (Mace anyone?).
After a while I read some guides and I o got more focused.
Today I'm in a spot where I have a lot of good chars but don't really feel like I'm getting a lot of use out of them...
GA is scary as I actually have to think about what I do... Every time it's 5v5 I usually end up placing really bad teams to save my good teams (sith, JKR, FO) for offense, but then my opponent walks all over my defense and I mess up on defense, and I end up losing...
In STR/HAAT I don't contribute much bc I don't know what to do and in TW I'm scared to TM load so I usually stay in the background...
My mods are something else... I've got what I'd argue are 'OK' mods on my sith and JKR teams, but the rest are pretty 'meh' on account of a mix of bad luck and not knowing what to look for in mods...

Where (and how) did you start your journey towards greatness?

Replies

  • hardvig wrote: »
    Hi guys
    I am a little bit tired of being mediocre at this game and now that I'm pushing 2.5m GP I thought I'd ask:

    How does one take the game to the next level?

    Maybe you can answer my question without any background info, but here goes:
    I started out playing without a guide about 1.5 year ago and just played around for a while and level'ed up some chars I thought would be good bc of their role in the SW universe (Mace anyone?).
    After a while I read some guides and I o got more focused.
    Today I'm in a spot where I have a lot of good chars but don't really feel like I'm getting a lot of use out of them...
    GA is scary as I actually have to think about what I do... Every time it's 5v5 I usually end up placing really bad teams to save my good teams (sith, JKR, FO) for offense, but then my opponent walks all over my defense and I mess up on defense, and I end up losing...
    In STR/HAAT I don't contribute much bc I don't know what to do and in TW I'm scared to TM load so I usually stay in the background...
    My mods are something else... I've got what I'd argue are 'OK' mods on my sith and JKR teams, but the rest are pretty 'meh' on account of a mix of bad luck and not knowing what to look for in mods...

    Where (and how) did you start your journey towards greatness?

    vgp52s9pklrm.gif
  • Huatimus
    3669 posts Member
    Personally I would go all in on Fleet right now. The best payout in Fleet is 400 Crystals which is close enough to the 500 possible from Squad Arena. Additionally the Fleet Currency you get buys you Zeta materials which typically cannot be bought by Crystals so I would say that currently Fleet Arena has the best payout in game.

    Considering that the best fleet squads right now generally have both Han's Mil.F and Houndstooth. The pilots needed are Chewbacca and Bounty Hunters (Bossk) to unlock Chewbacca, I'd work on bringing those 2 pilots and required ships to max. If you're currently already using JKR, you should be able to just float along in Squad Arena for a while more. Hoard a lot of resources (crystals, gear, zeta mats) and once a new big meta wave hits and you have enough resources to go all in, maximize that squad on day 1 and push for the top of squad arena. Every now and then even on 3 year old shards, you'll randomly see some unknown guy who was outside of top 50 for years who went all in on the latest meta and is now vying for top 5 spots in Squad.
  • hardvig
    73 posts Member
    Huatimus wrote: »
    Personally I would go all in on Fleet right now. The best payout in Fleet is 400 Crystals which is close enough to the 500 possible from Squad Arena. Additionally the Fleet Currency you get buys you Zeta materials which typically cannot be bought by Crystals so I would say that currently Fleet Arena has the best payout in game.

    Considering that the best fleet squads right now generally have both Han's Mil.F and Houndstooth. The pilots needed are Chewbacca and Bounty Hunters (Bossk) to unlock Chewbacca, I'd work on bringing those 2 pilots and required ships to max. If you're currently already using JKR, you should be able to just float along in Squad Arena for a while more. Hoard a lot of resources (crystals, gear, zeta mats) and once a new big meta wave hits and you have enough resources to go all in, maximize that squad on day 1 and push for the top of squad arena. Every now and then even on 3 year old shards, you'll randomly see some unknown guy who was outside of top 50 for years who went all in on the latest meta and is now vying for top 5 spots in Squad.

    Very good points :) I'm currently farming BH ships to unlock **** :)

    In arena I am hovering about 150-100 depending on luck and a little bit of skill
    In fleet I'm usually around #50 :)

    But that's all about how to better my roster - what about actually getting better at playing?
    How does one go about that?
  • VonZant
    3843 posts Member
    edited May 2019
    I'm not super-pro, but at least understand the game somewhat. To get better at playing there are a few things:

    Read the abilities of your toons. Then do it again and again. Ive been playing for too long and like theorycrafting and know a lot of the abilities by memory and still learn something new and forget something old every day. This game is crazy deep for a "simple" mobile game.

    Watch videos. Not just the gamechanger guys but others too. You get better by watching others even if they are making a mistake. I really like Endall Biell (?) And @Bulldog1205 TW videos because they explain what they are doing and why. Its just like anything else and more exposure makes you better.

    Come to the board and ask questions. Or at least read the posts where the rest of us argue crazily about stuff. Its actually possible to learn here.

    IMHO, of course. Good luck.
    Post edited by VonZant on
  • CoastalJames
    2971 posts Member
    edited May 2019
    hardvig wrote: »
    How does one take the game to the next level?

    Are you prepared to spend money? Lots of money? If so then it's easy.

    If not, then it's a long, slow grind. And forever playing catch-up...and being aware that you will hit a glass ceiling, and appreciating that there's a point that you won't be able to progress past.

    Not a criticism - just reality :)






    Post edited by CoastalJames on
  • kello_511
    1648 posts Member
    1. Focus on mods.
    Spend 3x50 crystal refreshes on mod energy daily. Use that to farm mods or to buy slicing materials (maybe a combination of both).
    That will be key.

    2. Pay attention
    When you lose a GA or TW battle, make sure you know why you lost. Did one of their toons have a unique mod set that threw you off? Did you choose your counter poorly? Was there a key toon in there who stopped you? You need to know where and why you are failing so you know how to proceed. The answer is sometimes “just rng” - but if you find yourself blaming a lot of lost battles on that, then I’d be willing to bet that there is another factor at play.

    3. Play
    Along with #2, don’t sit back and watch others fight. You need to get your hands dirty and use your toons in order to figure it out. Usually when I build a new team, I’ll spend a week or so using them in GW and manually playing each battle. It helps to get familiar with all of the abilities and synergies that the team has. Don’t be afraid of losing ga or tw battles. Ask questions and then give it a try. Just pay attention to the battle so you know how it all plays out. Record them if you need to, then review it and critique yourself and ask smart guild mates to critique them as well.
  • Krjstoff
    633 posts Member
    Create a profile on www.swgoh.gg (if you haven't already got one) and post your link in here.

    That'll make it much more easy for others to suggest how to improve your game.

  • Kai_Mulai
    683 posts Member
    A lot of good suggestions here. Theorycrafting outside the top of arena favors the analytical and the experimenters. Most teams in the game have established counters, so choosing your team is more than half the strategy. The rest is about attack order and mods. Always check the speed of the opposing team before attacking. Faster teams win more. And for finding which counter to use for each team, that’s part of why you are in a guild. Your fellow guild members should be sharing what works for them and answering questions. If your guild is not helpful or does not use Discord or a similar third-party communication app, then you should switch to one that does. (shameless plug: there’s an opening in my guild if you’re interested. Send me a private message for more info)

    Raids also favor certain specific teams. At over 2 million GP, I’m assuming you can already solo or sim the rancor. The easiest solo team for HAAT is Rey, Luke, Finn, BB-8, C-3PO. And the best teams for HSTR by phase are: Rey, Finn, BB-8, R2D2, C-3PO for phase 1; Jedi Revan, Bastila, Jolee, & both Yodas for phase 2; and Nightsisters for the last 2 phases.
  • Jarvind
    3920 posts Member
    First, it would help to see your swgoh.gg profile to see what you're working with.
    hardvig wrote: »
    Today I'm in a spot where I have a lot of good chars but don't really feel like I'm getting a lot of use out of them...

    This isn't actually that unusual. You hit a certain point where even some of your "good" teams sit on the bench a lot. Fortunately Grand Arena has alleviated that issue somewhat.
    hardvig wrote: »
    GA is scary as I actually have to think about what I do... Every time it's 5v5 I usually end up placing really bad teams to save my good teams (sith, JKR, FO) for offense, but then my opponent walks all over my defense and I mess up on defense, and I end up losing...

    People mostly use variations on the same teams in GA, so you need to figure out what counters what - it's not enough to just have "good characters." Nightsisters are a good example - even with trash mods, a Nightsister team under zeta Talzin with a strong zombie will absolutely demolish 90% of teams you can throw at it. The easiest counter to them is Imperial Troopers - G10 troopers can walk all over a G12 NS team assuming Starck can outspeed Talzin - but a couple of others can work.

    What I would not do is what a lot of people seem to do, which is spend hours and hours agonizing over what to place on defense based on their opponent's roster. There's no way to know what they're going to put on D and what they'll leave for attack, so no matter how much you "analyze" it's still a crapshoot. Placing weaker defenses and going for the full clear is a solid strategy actually, as most people play way too conservatively and put all their best teams on D.

    You've got Jedi Revan, so if your opponent doesn't have him it may be worth leaving him on D, as it's unlikely they will be able to clear him without a Revan of their own and you can effectively defend two territories with a single team.
    hardvig wrote: »
    In STR/HAAT I don't contribute much bc I don't know what to do and in TW I'm scared to TM load so I usually stay in the background...

    In TW, if you're going to lose you can retreat out of the match. You'll put up an L and lose whatever team you attacked with, but the enemy team will revert back to their default state as if the match had never happened, so no TM loading. Other than that, you can always wait for your teammates to pick off the stronger teams and go after the dregs until you're more confident in what you can beat. Or you could just put down lots of defenses and contribute that way.

    For raids there are lots of established teams that work well. If you don't have Jedi Training Rey yet, a Resistance team under her works great for pretty much everything - they can potentially solo all of HAAT, and can do great damage on any phase of the Sith raid. C3P0 is probably needed for the full tank solo, but she'll do solid damage without him regardless. Jedi Revan can likewise tear up just about anything.
    hardvig wrote: »
    My mods are something else... I've got what I'd argue are 'OK' mods on my sith and JKR teams, but the rest are pretty 'meh' on account of a mix of bad luck and not knowing what to look for in mods...

    Speed speed speed speed.

    Seriously, for 95% of characters, the only thing that really matters is speed, and the amount you want is always "more." Crit Chance/Damage sets for heavy hitters (sometimes offense over CD, I'll let some hardcore theorycrafter tell you which is better in what situation), health/defense for tanks, speed/whatever for everyone else. If a mod doesn't have a speed secondary, it usually isn't worth keeping unless it rolls a huge amount of another useful stat like flat offense.
    u58t4vkrvnrz.png



  • hardvig wrote: »
    In STR/HAAT I don't contribute much bc I don't know what to do and in TW I'm scared to TM load so I usually stay in the background...
    My mods are something else... I've got what I'd argue are 'OK' mods on my sith and JKR teams, but the rest are pretty 'meh' on account of a mix of bad luck and not knowing what to look for in mods...
    For STR, if you’ve got JKR use that team as a start. In P2 in HSTR, JKR can score around 8Mish, which is enough to contribute even if you don’t do anything in any of the other phases.
    For mods, a lot of times players think they have “decent” mods and then get crushed on GA because their mods were not any good. What I look for in mods is speed secondaries, with primaries and sets that work well with whatever particular toon I’m trying to improve. As a rule, I go with protection primaries for tanks, critical damage/offense for attackers, and potency for anyone that needs to land debuffs, and speed arrows for everyone.
    The longest farm in the game is good mods, specifically ones with good speed secondaries. Good=teens at a minimum, 20+ for those speed critical toons (DR, JKR, etc). Those take a long time to find, and are very RNG dependent. You can’t control that part, but you can improve your odds. Firstly, I refresh mod energy 3x per day. Then I only level up mods with speed secondaries. Depending on how many credits you have, this may mean partially leveling mods that aren’t showing speed yet, or not at all. I usually will level up purple mods to 3 to see if they hit speed, and blue mods to 6 if they have a primary or secondary that I need. Then, if they hit multiple times and they aren’t gold, I’ll potentially splice them, but only if they have a chance to be great. I.e. I won’t splice a purple mod with +9 speed (since it only has one chance to hit speed, and at best will be 15), but I will splice a green mod with the same speed (since it has 3 more chances). As you replace mediocre mods on your arena team, you can trickle those down to your other teams to make them more useful for GA. Generally, a “good” team in GA is only as good as its mods. For example, my troopers have mediocre mods/gear (around +60-70 speed on average), but they can destroy teams with much better gear if they have really slow mods.
  • Kai_Mulai
    683 posts Member
    I agree that verbal descriptors for mods are not useful. Whether your mods are “fair”, “decent”, “good”, or “god mods” are going to vary from player to player. Instead, it’s much more useful to use numbers.
    But I disagree that no speed is high enough. Since arena, TW, & GA are competitive, your mods are fast enough if they make your characters faster than others that you face.
    It’s also helpful to remember that if you are regularly farming and slicing mods, on average, you should expect to get 1/4 as many 15+ speed mods as you have 10+ speed mods, and 1/4 as many 20+ speed mods as you have 15+ speed mods. Variations on this are just down to luck.
  • hardvig
    73 posts Member
    Thank you guys so much for the very informative posts!

    I'll be getting C3P0 next time around and I have allocated energy specifically for gearing up toons, so I don't just expand my roster, but also gear these toons up. After all what good is JTR, BB-8, Chewie, OGHan etc. if they are not geared.

    My Nightsis'es are becoming better by the day and my imp. troops are almost all at 7* :) so I think I have a pretty good foundation - now I just need to learn how to use it all :D
  • If you have JKR team, for GA, before setting your defenses, look at your opponents roster. If they dont have JKR or DR, then set your JKR on defense. You will win more often due to them not being able to beat your JKR. Also, place your JKR in front of fleet ( when it is that layout ), put your worst fleet team on defense, saving your best fleet for offense.
  • TVF
    36526 posts Member
    hardvig wrote: »
    How does one take the game to the next level?

    Are you prepared to spend money? Lots of money? If so then it's easy.

    If not, then it's a long, slow grind. And forever playing catch-up...and being aware that you will hit a glass ceiling, and appreciating that there's a point that you won't be able to progress past.

    Not a criticism - just reality :)






    Not really though. If you are smart about your choices, and maybe with a little luck, you can compete with anyone and spend little to no money.
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • Kai_Mulai
    683 posts Member
    edited May 2019
    If you have JKR team, for GA, before setting your defenses, look at your opponents roster. If they dont have JKR or DR, then set your JKR on defense. You will win more often due to them not being able to beat your JKR. Also, place your JKR in front of fleet ( when it is that layout ), put your worst fleet team on defense, saving your best fleet for offense.
    I hate when opponents do that! And even though I now have a JKR team, I don’t put them on defense if my opponents don’t have Revan. It just seems like a really cheap move to me.
  • TVF
    36526 posts Member
    edited May 2019
    A strategic move to increase your odds is not cheap, it's strategy.
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • hardvig wrote: »
    Hi guys
    I am a little bit tired of being mediocre at this game and now that I'm pushing 2.5m GP I thought I'd ask:

    How does one take the game to the next level?

    Maybe you can answer my question without any background info, but here goes:
    I started out playing without a guide about 1.5 year ago and just played around for a while and level'ed up some chars I thought would be good bc of their role in the SW universe (Mace anyone?).
    After a while I read some guides and I o got more focused.
    Today I'm in a spot where I have a lot of good chars but don't really feel like I'm getting a lot of use out of them...
    GA is scary as I actually have to think about what I do... Every time it's 5v5 I usually end up placing really bad teams to save my good teams (sith, JKR, FO) for offense, but then my opponent walks all over my defense and I mess up on defense, and I end up losing...
    In STR/HAAT I don't contribute much bc I don't know what to do and in TW I'm scared to TM load so I usually stay in the background...
    My mods are something else... I've got what I'd argue are 'OK' mods on my sith and JKR teams, but the rest are pretty 'meh' on account of a mix of bad luck and not knowing what to look for in mods...

    Where (and how) did you start your journey towards greatness?

    Spend lots of money
  • TVF
    36526 posts Member
    That's one way, sure.
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • Buy crystals
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