Advice for a returning player

Replies

  • Additionally, my guild is running DS genosis and alternating between LS Genosis and Hoth until we get good enough in Genosis. For DS Genosis, the special missions, i still need to gear up sun fac a bit to hit the 16.5K minimum requirement to use him (and get Wat shards), so I'd think at the very least I want him to reach that point.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    edited March 2021
    With the launch of conquest I have an additional motivation to move to gearing another team. My geo team is basically the only one I've been able to use in that mode. It got me through Sector 1, but I only cleared 1 battle with a different team, which is not optimal for that mode. at the same time, i know that on the current gear level my Geos will only take me so far...
  • I'm impressed with getting sector 1 cleared with mostly 1 team. Since it takes 5 hours to recover from a single fight, you can only get in 4-5 fights in a day at full stamina. Must have been hard.
  • Just looked at your profile. I like the trajectory you're on in Arena.

    Also, at 1.2Mgp doing Conquest at all is suppposed to be near-impossible. I think they said it was a 2M gp minimum, but they must mean that as a soft minimum, meaning the event is unlocked for you before that, but you shouldn't expect to accomplish anything. And yet here you are! Accomplishing things! I'd be very proud of getting through sector 1 if I were you.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    edited March 2021
    Thank you @MasterSeedy!
    It has been tough but yeah, I'm pretty satisfied with my Conquest progress and I'll be ok if I finish with the first reward box only.
    What do you think about my question on which team(s) I should gear up? (The last post on the previous page)
  • I'll look at your inventory again, but Bastila & JKR are both good leaders that can help vs. a lot of squads so I'll definitely be thinking about them.

    Okay, I'll go take a serious look instead of speculating more.
  • The top 4 are

    Palp
    Tarkin
    Padmé
    JKA

    Any order is fine for them. Tarkin helps in Fleets as well and is generally your first Fleet Commander, especially when running Geos (I was actually surprised to see your Geos running under Ackbar), so that helps him rank high. Palpatine 's zeta is a completely transformative one for the entire Empire faction (and a good number of Sith function well under it, too). So, of course, he's way up there. Padmé requires 2 zetas to really transform the GR, but when she gets them, it's as big a deal as Palp's lead. The downside is double the zeta cost, but the up side is that you actually have enough GR toons to put together in a full squad at good gear. It might cost twice the zeta mats to transform the GR faction, but you actually have a pretty beefy GR faction right now, while your Empire faction might do a lot better, but they're in such poor shape that transforming them from pitiful into average may not help you as much as GR transforming from mediocre to very good - certainly good enough to get a fair number of Conquest wins.

    JKA, of course, has Jedi synergy, GR synergy, and a great ship, so with his multiple uses he's worth the gear even if he's not a transformative leader. So, yeah, you can do the gear in any order that seems best for you, but all 4 can help a ton in Conquest and just generally. (Tarkin won't help in conquest much until you get Palp's lead zeta, but he helps your fleet in the meantime.)

    Next few toons?

    Kanan & Thrawn for pure gear
    Bastila, Ezra & Old Ben for gear + shards

    When you can, get MagmaTrooper to 7 stars. You don't have to gear him, but he's a GW store farm, which means he's incredibly quick. It takes just 11 days to max him out from nothing (and you already have him unlocked, so maybe a day less than that).

    With Palp's zeta, Vader can basically solo the R2 event, but you have to have 5x 5* Empire toons to unlock and 5x 7* Empire toons to get R2 at 7*. All you have to do is bring Magma to 5* (about 4-5 days from whenever you start) and you can unlock R2 and start giving him gear.

    In the meantime if you get Ben to 7*, you can have CLS quite quickly, and then your CLS faction will also be of use in Conquest.

    So, big question: have you got zeta mats on farm yet?

    It looks like you should already have the zeta challenge beaten & 3-starred. If that's the case, I would temporarily switch GW purchases to this:
    • Minimum 2000 GW tokens in the bank to purchase Sun Fac's ship ONLY. Never dip below 2000 unless it's to buy Sun Fac's Starfighter.
    • Magmatrooper with anything over 2k shards.

    You should have R2 unlocked in 5-7 days. In 15 days or less you should have Magma up to 7* and just waiting for one more empire toon (possibly Thrawn) to boost r2 to 6 and then 7 stars.

    Then transition back to this:
    • Minimum 2000 GW tokens in the bank to purchase Sun Fac's ship ONLY. Never dip below 2000 unless it's to buy Sun Fac's Starfighter.
    • Anything over 2k:
    1. Imperial TIE Fighter
    2. Geonosian Spy's ship
    3. Geonosian Soldier's Ship

    When you're running short of currency, make sure you do those last 3 ships in that priority until all of them hit 7*.

    Imp TIE is a rare ship in the GW store, but you don't want to use more important currencies to buy it elsewhere when you could buy it there with just a little planning ahead.

    It looks like you're getting discouraged with the rarity of certain farms & thus deciding not to bother (this is what I concluded from looking at how poorly you're doing picking up Sun Fac blueprints). But the truth is that if things are rare, that means you have to prioritize them MORE highly just to make sure you have currency available for them when they show up.

    Now, Imp TIE is not a more important priority than Geo Spy & Geo Soldier's ships are for you, but once the Geo Starfighters hit 7-stars, then Imp TIE should go even higher on your priority list since you'll be using Tarkin's Executrix. Of course, you can't go higher than 2nd, but what you can do is this:
    1. Keep a bank of 3,000 GW tokens.
    2. Never go below 3,000 for anything other than Imp TIE or Sun Fac's ship.
    3. Never go below 2,000 for anything other than Sun Fac's ship
    4. Anything over 3,000 tokens you can spend on your next GW purchases.

    We can talk about what those priorities should be if you haven't already got a plan for that, but you won't need them for several weeks yet since just Magma is going to take a couple weeks and then finishing the 2 easy Geo Starfighters will take a couple weeks more.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    I'm actually done with magma, I had most of the shards already, so I'm one step ahead! I'll just level up and gear up my toons and I should have R2 and CLS soon, even if only at 5*.
    If I understand correctly, I should stop gearing my Geos now and move to these other teams, Empire and GR? I almost have enough zeta mats for my second zeta ever and was planning on giving it to GBA too, but given this i might give it to palp instead and work on those imperials. As I said before, at the very least I'll gear up Sun Fac to hit 16.5K and then maybe focus solely on giving my imperials a fighting chance. I still need a lot of Sabine shards to get 7* thrawn and that could take me a few weeks, but I can start gearing him and the rest of the imperials. I wanst using tarkins ship because I have him poorly geared but that should be fixed soon, I'll transition over to him.
    I can start to work on padme and GR when I get two more zetas after zetaing Vader's Merciless MMassacre.
    Does that sound reasonable?
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    Actually, I'm thinking that I want to take your other suggestion first, while I'm done with my Phoenix shards. I'll put my next to zetas on Padme and gear her up a bit as well as JKA to have this decent Light-side squad. Once I have enough Sabine Shards for 7* Tarkin I should quickly 7* him, Magmatrooper, R2, and CLS.
  • I'll put my next to zetas on Padme and gear her up a bit as well as JKA to have this decent Light-side squad. Once I have enough Sabine Shards for 7* Tarkin I should quickly 7* him, Magmatrooper, R2, and CLS.

    That sounds great (except for the obvious typo swapping Tarkin for Thrawn).
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    I've already started to pump up my GR, gave the first zeta to Padme and should get the next one in about three weeks. I'm giving most of my gear to Padme and JKA, leaving Sun Fac as a priority as well as I want him to cross the 16.5K GP threshold. Stun guns are a real bottleneck, but I guess that's not news to anyone.
    One question, why is it that with Geo ships (and other scattered ships here and there) Tarkin is the best Fleet Commander? I still haven't switched to him as I'm not gearing him yet, and I still don't have enough 5* Dark Side ships to promote Executrix to 6*, I'm still working on it. He has much lower GP than Ackbar's ship for me. Should I switch to him nevertheless?
  • why is it that with Geo ships (and other scattered ships here and there) Tarkin is the best Fleet Commander?

    As I understand it, it's the fast start and ability block of Tarkin + the offense bonus for inflicting debuffs + TM jump on 1st special.

    But Home1 has abilities that benefit the Geos when attacking out of turn, and they do attack out of turn, so that's not a bad form of synergy either. I haven't actually practiced this with 2 different cap ships of the same pilot gear to check how it really affects winning percentage. Rather, I did not pursue Geos until Malevolence became available because in the early game there was nothing for Geo to do, but many of my Rebels had things for which they needed to be geared up (Thrawn Phoenix & Rogue 1 missions in Hoth TB, CLS was an arena team back then, etc.). Then they introduced Geo TB and the Malevolence at nearly the same time, so there was no real reason for me to experiment with my low-gear Geos under other cap ships.

    So I pass on the bit about Tarkin being the best commander for Geos because that's what other people have said, and I haven no reason to disbelieve them.

    But if you don't have the gear on Tarkin and if Ackbar is working for you, I wouldn't worry about it. You should do what works for you.

  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    Hello again!
    I'va made a lot of progress in the past few weeks. I now have Padme with the two Zetas and a decent GR squad. Still, they aren't very strong (G10 Padme, G11 the rest) and I find myself still using the Geo squad in the Arena.
    I am close to my next Zeta, and as outlined in the plan above, I was planning on using it on Emperor Palpatine to really help my Empire squad.
    However, I feel like I'm starting to spread myself too thin. I'm making progress and increasing the amount of "good" squads I have, but I'm not really improving much in what is my "main" or "go-to" squad. On the past Conquest event (you may have seen my post about it) I got stuck in Sector 2 right at the beginning, I was unable to beat any of the opposing squads (and due to poor RNG I had little options to choose from in terms of opponents). So, if possible, now I want to improve a single squad, and could use your advice on which I should choose.
    These are all the teams I have been putting some gear on lately:
    • Geos, mainly the 3 pilots as they are still my main Fleet squad and am working towards Malevolence. No relics yet, and only 2 G12. I'm not putting much gear into GBA and Poggle anymore.
    • GR, mainly Padme and JKA to help them catch up to the rest of my Jedis. I was thinking on starting to put some gear into R2 as well, I already have the shards to level him up to 7*, and that would help me unlock CLS. Right now the 3 toons here are GMY, GKA, Ahsoka, Windu, and Padme.
    • Imperials, mainly EP so that he's useful once I give him a Zeta, and Thrawn, bringing him up to speed to be able to use him in this squad with Tarkin and Vader as well. I used Magmatrooper to unlock R2 (easy) but when forming a squad (for GAC, for example) I'd fill in the 5th spot with Darth Sidious using EP lead. Not the best, I know, but the best I've got.
    Squads that should be ready sometime soon:
    • I'm currently finishing Kylo Unmasked in Cantina nodes and after him I'll move to Chief Chirpa, I already have all the shards for the rest of the Ewoks except Wicket. So, Ewok Squad should be ready soon if I spend some crystals on Cantina Energy.
    • Rebels, as I could unlock CLS fairly soon. My 7* Raid Han is in poor shape. I'm still a long ways away from Chewie, as I need Bossk and Jango who I'm slowly farming from Hard nodes.
    • Bounty hunters once Bossk and Jango are done
    • JKR squad, only Bastilla is ready here. Jolee is about halfway there, and with Bastilla done I'd start farming Zaalbar both from Fleet energy and Hard nodes so it shouldn't take so long. I'd get T3 and Mission from Cantina after Chirpa (or maybe sneaking in First Order Executioner here before them to complete a FO squad).

    As an aside, the 6 ships I'm currently using in Fleet arena are the 3 Geos, Ahsoka, Vader, and Biggs. Bad synergy here, I know. I could start working on Anakin's ship once I finish on the Geo ships 7*. Also, Ghost is coming along from Fleet tokens. Hounds Tooth, Vulture, Hyena are also being farmed but still pretty weak. I haven't spent ship credits upgrading them as I know they wouldn't be too strong just yet.

    So, my main question would be, which squad should I focus on? If the answer to that is not the Empire squad, would it make sense to put my next Zeta into someone else (maybe JKA, GMY, GBA, Ahsoka, etc)? Or, should I continue on my current trend on slowly but surely improving many squads, that can help me perform better in GAC and maybe in Conquest?

    https://swgoh.gg/p/975918932/

    Thanks for the advice!
  • MasterSeedy
    4992 posts Member
    edited April 2021
    Padmé is your best bet for seeing improvements in Squad Arena.

    Your best 2 toons for immediate benefit, however, are Geo Spy and Vader. Spy requires some of the same gear as Padmé (she requires a stun gun and Spy requires 2 right now)

    As a result, I would make Padmé your #1 priority and Vader #2 since they don't need conflicting gear. Padmé needs one Mk5 Stun Gun at g11, but Vader doesn't need any. Nor does JKA. Ackbar & Thrawn also have to be priorities. So here is my near-term gear priority list for you:
    1. R2 => g8+5
    2. CLS => g7 or g8 if g8 seems easy to get
    3. Padmé => g12
    4. Vader => g12
    5. Tarkin => g10
    6. Ackbar => g11
    7. Spy => g12
    8. Anakin => g12
    9. Thrawn => g11
    10. Ackbar => g12

    R2 should be 7* now. You qualify for the 7* version of his event, and even without Palp's zeta your AoE stun should be able to win the battle for you. Now, you won't get a good result with the AoE stun every time, but you can replay the event over and over, so just try a few times and you should be able to promote R2 to 7* today - or this week, at least.

    Moreover, once you have R2 at 7* and g8, you should have CLS. Everything else you need for CLS is already in place except for the Omega on Farmboy's first special ("Bullseye"). Give farm boy that one Omega and r2 g8/7* and you have CLS. (Okay, you MIGHT need to get Old Ben to g8, but I think he can do it at g7 where you have him if you just pay some cash to switch mods around. Give him the fastest speed possible, with 2nd consideration being Tenacity and 3rd consideration being survivability - Health, Protection & defense.)

    I would still let CLS languish on gear for a bit though. g7 is enough for now since you don't yet have all the other toons that make him fearsome as a leader. Also because he won't come into his own without zetas -- at least 2 -- which probably aren't worth it until his whole team can make use of them.

    Remember that Padmé and Vader are using different gear to get to g12 than R2 and CLS are using to get to their goals. You should be able to work on R2, Padmé and Vader all at once, and CLS, Padmé & Vader at once after unlocking CLS.

    I would also try subbing Padmé's squad for your Arena offense at least a couple times per day. See if that goes better than Geos, and if it does, make the switch permanent and start looking at how you can shift your best mods away from Geos and onto your Padmé squad.

    As for zetas, however, I still think that Palp's leadership is the next priority. Then Vader's Merciless Massacre. Then you can start worrying about JKA & GMY (who deserve a zeta each) and CLS. Yes, your empire squad isn't exactly ready for prime time, but that one Palp zeta makes more of a difference than any other zeta you could add right now. Conquest is sexy and I know you want to do better, but there are other game modes as well, and having an extra squad is always important. Even in Conquest. (You can, for example, use Padmé or Geos to get ahead one more node in Conquest then use Palp to go back to Sector 1 to work on feats while Padmé's stamina refreshes - to get the most out of conquest, you always need a bare minimum of 2 squads since it takes only 3 hours to get enough energy to try another battle, but 5 hours to recover the stamina from your last one). But even 2 good squads isn't enough since specific teams require specific counters. Since a Palp-led team has very different strengths and weaknesses from a Padmé or Geo squad, I like bringing it along as quickly as you can. That's also part of why I have Tarkin & Thrawn on your gear priorities list.

    One big concern I have is that you don't have General Kenobi unlocked yet. You should be getting more than 10 shards per week of GK right now, since you're with a guild that should be simming HAAT. Is your guild not using the Sim function? Your Padmé squad won't reach its potential without GK.

    Now, even with all this set out, you're still lacking a 5th Empire or Sith toon to go with Palp. I see your Bastila (Fallen) is only 2*. Are there any shards you've saved up but not used to promote her? She is an excellent 5th and IIRC uses few or no Mk5 stun guns.

    So where is Bastila in your farming plans, and what Empire toons are you farming right now. You need to figure out a plan for that 5th toon now so you know what direction you're headed.

    Re: Fleet:
    You've still got a bank of GW tokens to use only on Sun Fac, right? His ship will be much more useful at 7* than he is at 5* where you have him now. And I trust you're still putting GW Tokens into finishing GeoSoldier's Starfighter as well.


  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    Thank you, as always, MasterSeedy.

    I'll definitely take this into consideration and gear up my toons following this list, I think you make a lot of sense.
    I currently have 90/145 shards for GK, as I haven't been in this guild simming HAAT for so long, but I should have him unlocked in a couple of weeks. How does he fit in this suggested gearing list? He'll be 5* initially, so not that useful, but I know he's important in this squad. Mace (his substitute) just doesn't cut it.

    Unfortunately I only have 47/25 Bastilla Fallen shards now, but I'll definitely move her up in my own farming priority list (I know that's what you had initially proposed, sorry!) and hopefully she'll be good enough to substitute Darth Sidious in the Empire/Sith squad soon. The only other imperials that I have that could potentially be but in there are Royal Guard and Snowtrooper (got a lot of their shards from Bronziums) and Magmatrooper, but Bastilla is probably better than either of them. I also have all the shards I need for Savage, is it worth it gearing him?

    Regarding the GW tokens, yeah, I have a lot banked and mostly only using it for the Geo Ships. Geo Soldier's ship should be completed soon (88/100). I'll also start buying Imperial TIE whenever he comes up, but my TIE fighter Pilot isn't that strong, so I doubt that ship will end up getting much use.

    Thanks for the advice on the Zetas, I'll Zeta EP and Vader before moving back to my GR Zetas.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    I hadn't seen your comments about R2 and CLS, and yes, I have all R2 shards. I'll level him up to the level you mention, as well as CLS after I've unlocked him, and probably forget a bit about him until I get Chewbacca and C3PO.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    What will prevent me from reaching G8 on R2 now are the Mk3 Sienar Holo Projectors (he needs 2). It might take me some time to get them, as I only buy them from Credits shipments when they show up (they don't drop from any of the nodes I'm farming now). He's now stuck at G6 until I get those. Should I also get all the Omegas on him?

  • I currently have 90/145 shards for GK, as I haven't been in this guild simming HAAT for so long, but I should have him unlocked in a couple of weeks. How does he fit in this suggested gearing list? He'll be 5* initially, so not that useful, but I know he's important in this squad. Mace (his substitute) just doesn't cut it.

    I would use Fives as the substitute, not Mace. (Padmé, JKA, Ahsoka, + GMY & Fives, the last two of whom will be rotated out when possible, but are just fine for now)

    As for GK's fit in the gear priorities, I would just post again here so I can see where you're at with the rest of them before I give any advice on that. Priorites can change with new situations, and you definitely want GK to move up quickly. From g7 to g9 he uses a LOT of carbantis & Mk5 Stun guns, but once you hit g10+0 you're almost done with Carbantis and completely done with Mk5 Stun Guns (at least until g12+3, some of that right-hand g12 gear will use carbantis or stun guns as a component and I didn't check that).

    The upshot of that is that you can't just take him up to a useful gear level like g9 and then leave him there for a while, like you would if all his StunGun needs and most of his Carbanti needs were above g9+3.

    Because of this distribution, you're either going to leave him at g7+4 or you're going straight up to g11+5, one or the other. His gear list just doesn't allow for much middle ground.

    And he's important to this squad even before he becomes as tanky as he later gets because he has that AoE cleanse + retribution - and the enemy really doesn't want you to get retribution on JKA. So I'll look at how your Fleet is coming together & whether you're moving up ranks & such (which would indicate that maybe we can put off adding gear to Ackbar and/or Tarkin) at that point, plus generally assess how much progress you've been able to make in the next 2.5 to 3 weeks and that will give me a better feel for how soon you really need GK done and how much it will hold you back to leave other toons undone. Then I can make a recommendation from there.
    The only other imperials that I have that could potentially be but in there are Royal Guard and Snowtrooper (got a lot of their shards from Bronziums) and Magmatrooper, but Bastilla is probably better than either of them. I also have all the shards I need for Savage, is it worth it gearing him?

    As I remember, Snow is light on the Stun Gun requirement. Let me check that.

    Yep, Snow requires no Stun Guns through g11+5. Magma is the same. I think bringing Magma or Snow up to g9+0 would be a useful intermediate step that would help the squad some without sacrificing too much necessary gear. That would require only 50 carbantis for Magma, +100 Stun Cuffs which can be had for Guild Tokens. Any Carbantis spent are sad, but still you can get to g9 without too much sacrifice.

    Snow is about the same, but needs 50 fewer Stun Cuffs (and needs the Carbantis at g8 instead of at g7, but the number is still the same).

    If I were you, I'd put in a g9 Snow or Magma until you can get Bastila (Fallen) up to 5*/g9 or better.

    Also, when you put Bastila (Fallen) in, make sure you give her the best speed mods you can get outside of your Arena team. There are different ways to mod B(F) that are all valid, but when she's weak enough that she might be taken out before she gets a turn, you need to speed her up so that she gets that turn. One good AoE debuff from Bastila is worth a LOT of TM to the rest of the squad when running Palp lead.
    I have all R2 shards. I'll level him up to the level you mention, as well as CLS after I've unlocked him, and probably forget a bit about him until I get Chewbacca and C3PO.

    Exactly right. Or at least until you finish all the gear priorities you already have. He can still do some damage with your Princess Leia counterattacking from stealth vs. AoEs, and you'll get Han Solo long before Chewbacca. Although CLS really needs debuffers to get the most out of him, and he certainly needs zetas, if you've got your Arena squad up to 5x g12 then they won't be competing for gear with your up and coming squads.

    So even before Chewie, if you have

    5xg12 Arena
    All zetas you intend to place on Arena toons done
    5xg10 Empire/Sith Palp squad with g12 Vader
    Palp zeta, Merciless Massacre zeta

    Then if you don't have all the shards ready for your Bounty Hunters to go for Chewie, you can give some gear & zetas to CLS even though you don't have Chewie yet.

    I assume you know that you're going for Bossk, Dengar & Jango for your Chewie event squad.

    Okay, then. Good hunting. I hope to hear good news in a couple weeks!
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    I can give you some good news right now, with the right mods I was able to unlock CLS now even with a G6 R2! Because of this, I will remove him from the priority list from the time being and focus on the other ones.

    I'll replace Mace with Fives in my Padme Squad, that should help things along. I'll let you know once I've unlocked GK and see what we do then!

    Thanks for the advice on Magma and Snow, I'll give some gear to them to make them useful. Are they better than Darth Sidious, for the time being?

    I already have a (low gear) Raid Han. For the Chewie event I was actually going for Bossk, Jango, Boba, Cad Bane, IG88, as I haven't really worked on Dengar yet. Still, It sounds like with this I'll be busy for a couple of weeks, so I'll reach back then.
  • For the Chewie event I was actually going for Bossk, Jango, Boba, Cad Bane, IG88, as I haven't really worked on Dengar yet.

    Dengar is actually crucial, and can get away with lower gear than the others. He prevents enemy stealth while he is under stealth. Since he should get hit right away by an AoE, this means that R2's first move will be wasted.

    The problem is that if you can't prevent the stealth, then R2 can keep forcing you to attack people you don't want to attack. It's vital to kill Chewie first in that event... which you can't do if Chewie is stealthed by R2.

    Now, it's possible to simply replay the event over and over and over until through RNG r2 decides not to stealth Chewbacca before you can kill him, but I think that's going to be farm more frustrating for you than just replacing IG-88 with Dengar. Fortunately Dengar is a Guild Store farm. You can get him pretty quickly, and since his role is just to sit there under stealth to prevent r2's stealth, you can get away with low gear. You might even get away with g8 on him, I'm not sure. He still needs enough health/prot to survive the AoEs that get thrown your way, but that's all. He doesn't even have to take a turn, although when you knock a few enemies out his Thermal detonator attack inflicts 5 detonators on random targets and becomes pretty deadly when they all (or most of them) land on one toon. When there are fewer enemies, that's more likely, so hold on to that attack for later in the battle. Other than that, his turns really don't matter.
    Are they (Snow & Magma) better than Darth Sidious, for the time being?

    I think so. Sid is so ridiculously squishy. He does throw out the debuts, but Snow gives empire allies TM when they kill someone (which is essentially what Sid will do, since the most likely moment for those debuffs to expire is when Vader kills someone) and if you load him up with Crit Chance mods he can use his AoE every turn, bypassing taunts and generally creating a lot of havoc.

    Meanwhile Magma doesn't give TM, but he takes TM away from enemies with his AoE.

    The strength of the Palp squad is TM manipulation and both Magma and Snow provide methods to do that, so they'll both contribute to the core power of a Palp-led team. Ideally they would also throw more debuffs around, but since Sidius dies so quickly, they're ultimately more useful than he is.

    That said, your Magma is only g7 right now, so it's possible that Sid can be useful for another week or two. I just wouldn't invest in him. The other two toons have more potential starting a couple weeks from now when you get one or both to g9, and in the longer run Bastila (Fallen) is insanely better than Sid.

    By the time you ave to give up BF to your Revan squad you'll have even more choices for the Palp squad. Range Trooper (for protection recovery), Piett (for insane synergy with Vader), Gideon (more TM manipulation + debuffs) are all at least better than what you have now, and Piett is even better than BF on a Palp team.

    Sid today, Snow/Magma soon, BF in 6 to 10 weeks, is a good general strategy, with lots of time to find a good option to replace BF by the time she leaves the squad.
    I already have a (low gear) Raid Han.

    You can hang back on his gear right now, but remember that after you get to the point where you have a zeta to spare for him, getting a first shot off with automatic stun can be incredibly useful even if you don't have your CLS squad together by that point. He's not entirely plug-and-play, but there are times when getting that first stun is worth throwing him in to a non-synergy squad even if RH did nothing else the whole battle.

    I'm not saying prioritize his gear or his zeta because a functioning Empire squad and an improved Arena squad are both more important, but he should definitely be zeta'd soon after those priorities are taken care of (Bossk is another strong candidate for next zeta after GR &Empire).
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    R2 => g8+5 Not quite done but CLS has been unlocked
    CLS => g7 or g8 if g8 seems easy to getDone at G7, some pieces away from G8 but I won't do them right now
    Padmé => g12
    Vader => g12 (Already advanced to G10, some common requirements with Padme now so may delay further gearing).
    Tarkin => g10
    Ackbar => g11
    Spy => g12
    Anakin => g12
    Thrawn => g11
    Ackbar => g12

    Because of the gear I've been giving Tarkin lately, his capital ship is almost as powerful as Ackbar's one now. Because of this, I think I will take Ackbar our of this list so he doesn't take gear from other characters who are of more use to me.

    Does this make sense?
  • Sure. That makes sense. But then you're in a situation where you have to push hard to max out the Executrix's abilities, and Prestige does not come in quickly.

    Also there's no healing from Executrix, so just remember that. It's not bad, because you have other abilities and should be able to take enemies out more quickly, but it's a different style of play that you should be ready for.

    So if you're going to make the switch, stop investing in Home1 prestige right now, keep barreling ahead with Tarkin, and pay close attention when you start using him as your Fleet Commander so that you can get a feel for how the rhythm of the battle has changed. Adjusting your instincts will be important.

    Also, your fleet commander has to be g11 **minimum**. So even if you take Ackbar off the list, you aren't going to make gearing any easier. Because now instead of taking Tarkin from g9 => g10 and Ackbar from g10 => g11, you just have to take Tarkin from g9 => g11.

    I am not saying that's a bad plan!!!!! I'm just saying that you should be ready to take Tarkin's gear higher than we first planned.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    Got it, yeah, that makes sense. I just think that it's a more worthwhile investment, given that he has a spot in my Empire squad and Ackbar currently sees some use in GAC as the leader of a rebel squad, but he should be replaced by CLS sometime anyways.

    I'll keep the Prestige requirement in mind, but I'm not too worried about it because I've finished everything I wanted to get from the Arena store, so now I am exclusively buying prestige. Hopefully that's enough.

    I'll adjust the plan and change Tarkin's gear goal to G11.
  • I just think that it's a more worthwhile investment, given that he has a spot in my Empire squad and Ackbar currently sees some use in GAC as the leader of a rebel squad, but he should be replaced by CLS sometime anyways.

    Yeah. This is good thinking. Tarkin gets much more use outside of Executrix than Ackbar gets outside of Home 1.

  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    edited April 2021
    https://swgoh.gg/p/975918932/
    Hey MasterSeedy and everyone! I wanted to provide a general update on my progress and ask for a few pointers.
    • I've made great progress on the gearing priorities suggested. My GR team has become my main Arena team (even though in raw power my Geos still rank higher) and my Empire team has seen some use now that Vader has his zeta and has been geared up a bit. Out of those gearing priorities, I still have to increase Geo Spy and JKA's level by one, and my Thrawn is still at G7. I still got stuck in Sector 2 this conquest on two squads that I don't think I can beat, but the Feats will grant me the second chest.
    • Since my last update I unlocked 5* Hermit Yoda, 7* Griveous, jumpstarted a FO squad to get me BB8 (using this week's accelerated shards to get FOExecutioner to round up that squad with Phasma, both Kylos, and FOO, FOExecutioner should be done soon), and got all shards to 7* my Ewok squad (Chirpa, Scout, Elder, Logray, Paploo). May 4th will also help me unlock 5* General Kenobi. Other characters that I have all shards to 7* right now (might not be relevant, but listing them as you can't see them in .gg): Greedo, Snowtrooper, Savage, K2SO, Hoth Scout, Cassian, Daka, Rex, Asajj, Clone sargeant, Datchcha.
    • I'm close to finishing all the BH I need for Chewie, as Bossk is at 42/100, Jango at 88/100, and Dengar at 235/305.
    • My fleet is doing much better, but once I 7* my last ship in my main squad, Sun Fac, I don't know how to keep improving. I am (very slowly) farming Malevolence, and HT is at 69/65 so I could upgrade it to 5* now, and Hyena is at 48/65.
    • Current regular energy farms: Bossk, Jango, Hyena Bomber, Jolee, BSF, Vulture, Veers, Wicket (for the gear, replaced by Holdo while her drops are doubled), Sabine. I'd like to add the 2 ships I need for the Millenium Falcon to this list, too (Xanadu and IG). I can probably do so once I finish the JKR requirements. Jolee is at 140/65, and Zaalbar I am currently only farming from Fleet nodes.
    • Current fleet energy farms: Sun Fac (soon to be completed), Slave 1, Zaalbar. Anakin's ship is next in line. I'd also like to get started on B1 Battle Droid soon to round up my separatist droids if I'm getting Droideka with XB.
    • Cantina farm: FOExecutioner. Next in line are either the OR toons if the rest are completed (T3, Mission), or the JTR toons if they are not (Veteran Han and Chewie).
    • Aside from buying Dengar Shards, I've been buying some gear from the Guild store. It really helped me reach my current gear level on several chars. Next in line are Finn, Stark, and Echo.
    • I'm buying uncompleted ships when they pop up in Galactic War shop, but I'm also using it to buy completed ships and get more excess shards.
    • In Fleet store I'm getting Slave1, Ghost, Phantom.

    Some lingering questions that I have:
    • Should I continue on this track? What should come after the current prioritized gearing list? Should I try to push for my first relic now? Maybe Padme or Vader?
    • Where should my next Zeta go? Options: JKA, GMY, Chirpa (I know I'll need it eventually if I want to get C3PO), Bossk (I know I'll need it if I want to get Chewbacca).
    • Is there anything I should do different to take advantage of May 4th double drops, aside from buying as much energy as possible?
    • Is it too soon to have a GL in my crosshairs? SLKR seems the most easily-achievable. Another closer target could be GAS.
    • Does anything else I've said so far stand out as wrong?
    Post edited by Zumwan on
  • Hey Zumwan, going to give a few of my thoughts here. Overall I was in a very similar situation to you, getting lots of shards for all the teams I was wanting to build, but not really being to gear the teams I had to the proper gear levels. So, I switched gears so to speak.
    Zumwan wrote: »
    Should I continue on this track? What should come after the current prioritized gearing list? Should I try to push for my first relic now? Maybe Padme or Vader?
    I would slow down on the character farming and switch to farming needed gear. Looks like you have 9 hard node farms going on and that's too much. I'd probably just keep farming Bossk, Jango, Hyena, Vulture to focus on solidifying your fleet (and those are all long farms).

    Vader is a great first relic, but I notice you are lacking a 5th character for a Empire/Sith team at the moment, so I'd lean going with a GR character to relic, and that should be JKA. He is your main DD for squad, and you want him high relic to destroy people (Padme is probably the 4th character I'd relic on that team).
    [quote[Where should my next Zeta go? Options: JKA, GMY, Chirpa (I know I'll need it eventually if I want to get C3PO), Bossk (I know I'll need it if I want to get Chewbacca).[/quote]
    I'd probably go JKA here for arena, and then after that Bossk (which will help both your HT in fleet and eventually to get Chewbacca). I wouldn't put it on Chirpa until all your ewoks are fully geared for that event (more on this below)
    Is there anything I should do different to take advantage of May 4th double drops, aside from buying as much energy as possible?
    Again, I wouldn't farm 9 hard nodes with this energy, take advantage of the double drops for much needed gear. Stun Guns, Carbantis, Stun Cuffs, g13 gear pieces. Find which nodes you'll want to farm so you are ready. Keep in mind using a 100 crystal refresh on normal / fleet energy is essentially like a 50c refresh due to double drops. I'd use all 50 and 100 refreshes on both normal and fleet energy (wouldn't use refreshes on Cantina those day to conserve your crystals0
    Is it too soon to have a GL in my crosshairs? SLKR seems the most easily-achievable. Another closer target could be GAS.
    I would say yes it's too early. I would focus on getting your teams you have now geared and relic'd up. Geos are probably fine where they are, but focus on Padme's team and your Empire team (still need that 5th). See what it is like to start relic'ing characters and it will give you a feel for how going for SLKR will be.


    Okay back to Ewoks / Chewbacca / etc.
    I would put your ewoks on hold for now. You have most of them to 7* or close, but don't put gear into them until you get your existing Padme team higher (Padme, JKA, Ahsoka, GMY and GK soon). Then you can circle back to them if you want.
    The same goes for BH other than gearing Bossk as you need him for fleet. I'll post below what gear levels on BH I was able to get7* Chewie with, but unless you have immediate need for the CLS team you should prioritize gearing your Padme team.

    That being said, when you get around to these 2 teams, I'd lean going BH first as they are more useful overall, and will let you have the core 3 for CLS + a solid BH team for GAC, whereas Ewoks will get you 1 great character to plug in, but not a great team for GAC.
  • Here is what I beat the 7* Chewbacca event with a couple weeks ago.

    itia8slmh4gi.png

    As you can see, it's quite low gear overall with g12 Bossk, g11 Boba and the rest g8 or even g7!
    It took some tries, but I just focused on modding to get Bossk fast and eventually got it. Only Bossk had the zeta, no Omegas on any other characters, just level 7 abilities.
  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    edited May 2021
    That sounds like a plan, thank you @Intimmydation!

    I think it makes sense going for a Relic JKA. With focus it shouldn't take me that long. I'll put on pause the gearing of Geo Spy and Thrawn (that are missing from the Gearing priorities @MasterSeedy prepared for me).

    For May 4th and 5th I'll stop farming that many Hard nodes and farm some that give me the gear I need for JKA. Aside from the 4 nodes you mention, I don't want to abandon BSF as that's also a long farm for me and the one that will eventually fill in the 5th spot in the Empire/Sith squad. After those dates I'll also add Jolee to my rotation (to stay on track for JKR, plus his node also drops Carbantis), but for now I may pause my farms on Veers, Wicket, Sabine.

    Once I get all the shards I need for the BH team, that shouldn't take long, I'll gear them up, especially Bossk. I feel like I want to take everyone at least up to G8 to get their Payouts, seems like a big plus from G7.

    Does this make sense?

    Also, once I get GK at 5*, does it make sense to start gearing him up? I hear he's an expensive character to gear, and I wouldn't want him to take away valuable gear if he's still not going to be usable in my main squad (replacing Fives) until he's at 6* or 7*.

    Thank you again!
  • Zumwan wrote: »
    For May 4th and 5th I'll stop farming that many Hard nodes and farm some that give me the gear I need for JKA. Aside from the 4 nodes you mention, I don't want to abandon BSF as that's also a long farm for me and the one that will eventually fill in the 5th spot in the Empire/Sith squad. After those dates I'll also add Jolee to my rotation (to stay on track for JKR, plus his node also drops Carbantis), but for now I may pause my farms on Veers, Wicket, Sabine.
    Makes sense to keep farming BSF if she will be your 5th on that squad, she's a great character and I wish I had her. Though you may also check out the recent changes as they made Moff Gideon more farmable as well.
    Once I get all the shards I need for the BH team, that shouldn't take long, I'll gear them up, especially Bossk. I feel like I want to take everyone at least up to G8 to get their Payouts, seems like a big plus from G7.

    Does this make sense?
    Yep, just wouldn't take them too much further than g8 if you don't have to, except for Bossk and Boba. Get them to where you need to unlock Chewbacca at 7*. Depends on which 5 BH you will use, but if you use the standard 5 for the event I posted, really Dengar and Cad don't have much use after so wouldn't invest too much in them. Jango can still be great.
    Also, once I get GK at 5*, does it make sense to start gearing him up? I hear he's an expensive character to gear, and I wouldn't want him to take away valuable gear if he's still not going to be usable in my main squad (replacing Fives) until he's at 6* or 7*.

    I think it's worth it to gear him even at 5*, he is a strong tank and you will want him anyway. You can use this site which I think is the best for gearing toons. You can link your ally code so it knows where you currently stand and then you can put the targeted gear level and it will show what you need (of course it doesn't know the gear you have in inventory, but at least you'll know what you are after).
    https://gear.swgohevents.com/

  • Zumwan
    354 posts Member
    Thanks for the advice, really making progress here. I'm very close to G13 in JKA, relic to come after. Farming gear on May 4th and 5th really helped me complete a few G12 pieces.

    As he is my first relic, I imagine I'll have enough materials to increase a few relic levels, but given that this is new to me I can't really know for sure. Should I upgrade JKA as much as I can or should I save some materials?

    I'm a bit torn on who I should gear next, I know GMY is very useful in many squads like JKR and my current Padme squad, but at the same time I want to gear Geo Spy and Sun Face because they are my pilots in my main fleet and to make the Wat mission easier next time around (although I was able to clear it las week, but barely). Decisions, decisions. Bossk is also up there in my priority list, as you also advised he could be my next zeta (I've already gave JKA his). There's also Thrawn that, until I can give him two sets of Carabantis, he's not that useful in GAC and Conquest (although we get a two week break from conquest)
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