So it looks Director Krennic and Death Trooper look super powerful and are intended to be the next meta.
https://swgoh.gg/characters/director-krennic/https://swgoh.gg/characters/death-trooper/
They have so many powerful abilities I don't think there's any team that can totally counter them- they seem to have a way to at least partially counter any ability there is.
When I say F2P I'm talking about farmable characters. Is it possible for F2P players to use characters that we can 7* and also use in raids, or will we be forced to just use 2-4* DT/Krennic if we want to get good arena rankings?
I'm talking about a team like this:
Krennic (L)
Death Trooper
Palpatine
Shoretrooper
Tie Fighter Pilot
(It's possible that players will remove Palpatine/TFP/Shoretrooper and run Tarkin for leader if they want to get a speed boost over other Empire teams).
They will probably start with a TFP AOE (a Wiggs counterattack will bounce off Shoretrooper) that will debuff most enemies. Then a Director Krennic AOE will stagger the enemies, and a following Palpatine AOE will stun most of the enemies and remove all TM from staggered foes. Most defenders will be stunned with no turn meter, and the ones that aren't will probably have ability block due to Krennic's leader ability.
The next turn the team will come in with high damage attacks (Krennic's "Experimental Weaponry" can stun an attacker again, Deathtrooper can possibly kill someone with "Terminate", and TFP will be going wild with all the debuffed enemies). They will also be able to keep many of your characters ability blocked due to Krennic's leadership (which inflicts ability block whenever an ally crits a debuffed enemy).
The best teams I can think of are:
Maul lead
Palpatine
Boba
General Kenobi
TFP
Possible Substitutions: B2, Sun Fac, Shoretrooper, Vader
The key is Maul's lead gives Palpatine 20% turn meter to start so he can hopefully go first (after the TFPs) and stun most of the enemies. Then Boba hopefully ability blocks any remaining enemies, and Maul dazes them (preventing Death Trooper from gaining TM when Krennic is damaged). General Kenobi's provision of Critical Damage Immunity after critical hits will hopefully prevent your allies from being constantly ability blocks and if he can squeeze in a dispel at a critical moment that will be great.
But I'm not sure if this team will do enough damage to start killing characters before the Empire's ability block/ turn meter removal/ massive damage assault begins.
Another possibility is:
QGJZ (L)
General Kenobi
Zarris
Yoda
Old Ben
The idea is to get tenacity up and have Old Ben ability block to prevent initial wave of abilities. But I don't know if this team will do enough damage, so the Empire will likely recover. DT's AOE healing immunity and shock will also prevent Zarris healing.
Or a counter team:
General Kenobi (L)
Zarris
B2
Aayla
Fives
This team has a lot of ability to gain TM to recover from negative status effects and counter (But not when stunned). But Palpatine's shock & DT's daze can still deal with B2. And Palpatine's and DK's stuns can still deal with Aayla/Fives.
Replies
Maul (L)
Boba
Rex
Palpatine
GK or TFP
Maul's lead hopefully gets Palpatine to go first. Boba hopefully ability blocks any non-stunned enemies. Then Rex provides tenacity up to hopefully thwart the Empire's upcoming AOE/ability block/TMR/stun hurricane. Tenacity up from Rex also allows GK to call all allies to assit and take out a character (probably just shoretrooper) if you're using him.
Maul lead
Palpatine
Rex
Wiggs
Whenever Biggs is damaged by an Empire character he gains TM, so unless Death Trooper dazes him he'll be going constantly with the AOEs.
Rex (L)
Ventress
Wiggs
Palpatine, Shoretrooper, Fett or someone else
Idea is to dispel their Shoretrooper with Ventress and kill a character with Wiggs (mod Biggs to be slightly slower than Ventress). After their TFP AOEs he will hopefully crit a couple of your guys so that your Rex will gain TM so he can dispel and give tenacity up. If you run Palps/ Boba then you can stun/ ability block the enemies and delay their attack if TFP stuns Rex. If you run Shore then TFP won't be able to ability block Rex.
The problem is on Defense I'm guessing the AI will target Krennic, and if they have Death Trooper Zeta'd to give Krennic crit immunity you won't kill Krennic and will just give DT turn meter instead.
Rex is also not ftp(for long) , Yes you can get him now from fleet or raid tokens but it will take a while.
Overall i have already mentioned it, if krenic teams have B2 your plan can fail, your First attack (often shore) can trigger him, he jumps ahead of tfp use his AoE and now TFP will have a good Chance to AoE Ability Block like Boba, more or less "gg". Unless you outclass your opponent with mod speed TFP is still the fastest toon.(besides JE with droids).
I realize "F2P" or "farmable" toon doesn't have a precise definition. I'm calling GK farmable because many F2Ps are farming him and it is becoming increasingly easy for anyone who gets 600/600 to join an HAAT guild. But I still welcome any alternative suggestions for players who haven't started farming him.
I put the Empire teams that I think will be the most powerful in my initial post, of course there will be variations and people can suggest counters to these variations as well.
Also, droids might do well against Empire on offense, if the can take out Shoretrooper and another key toon quickly. But they have too many counters on Defense now.
I am trying to think also on my side who should be that +1 in a Wiggs, Chaze team in order to be effective against the new Empire + Deathnnic group.
Any idea so far ?
(Mine have been around a ZYoda or Rex or GK or Boba (and to a lesser extend AA) but i still wounder who is the best all around helper]
Rex or B2 maybe?
To beat the zader/tfp/ep/baze/DT team I have been using my old classic counter attack squad
Rex/aayla/5s/sf/gk
With the majority of the enemy using aoe this squad actually works very well against them.
I know your question is about krennic lead, but Rex is very good against zader.
With krennic lead the enemy will still aoe and get countered; who cares if they ability block, this team is built to counter, not use abilities(other than gk Rex).
I farmed it when hanido/wiggs was meta months ago and it's coming back to great use again!!
I think the Zaul/Palps/GK trio will probably work well. Not sure about Sun Fac (probably won't be much to dispel besides Shoretrooper) or JKA (will probably get stunned/dazed before he kills anyone).
I'm pessimitic about counter teams because I think they are too slow and they will get stunned/dazed before they can do enough damage.
I might use something like Rex (L) Palps Fett Wiggs. Their initial TFP hit can only ability block Boba or Palps, so the other will be able to inflict stuns or ability blocks. Then if their TFP cries a couple characters Rex's leadership will fill the rest of my teams turn meter (and Wiggs for sure). Hopefully having there Shoretrooper killed and most of the rest of their team stunned or ability blocked (and my team with Tenacity Up) will be enough of a head start to win. Probably not the best but I've almost got this team farmed.
I now think the best counter might be Resistance with Finn Zeta. If Poe can get his ability off with TFP ability blocking him first, the rest of the team might be able to take out a couple of enemies before the rest of his team can go. If he has a TFP with the speed and potency to reliably AB your Poe, your probably screwed anyway as I think a maxed Empire team with whale mods will be undefeatable.
I hope you're right about Zader TFP EP Boba Shore, as I have been working on this team and almost have them all G11. But I fear that Boba/Palps will only neutralize them for a little while, and the Culling Blade/Execute damage will not start killing them until well after the TMR/ability block/stun onslaught begins.
They might do well on offense, but unfortunately they get killed by almost everything else on defense these days.