Countering Old Ben

MunchkinPrime · December 12, 2015 12:03PM

I've been managing to clear Galactic War every day so far except today when I ran up against a brick wall of a team with a 55 Old Ben. Whenever I face him his Mind Trick decelerates my team so much that I can't take anyone down and it has a really high up-time.

I tried retreating after the start of the match to get a few more turns without mind trick, then subbed cad bane in. But his resistances are so high that it's hard to get a stun or healing immunity to stick and I know I can't just leave him be as his mind trick will come back round again.

I also have this issue in Arena where any team I face with Old Ben is almost certainly going to time out, especially if there is even just one counter attack enemy along with him.

Has anyone got any tips for countering him, or come across characters that work well against his effects? Is it just a case of leave him to last and retreat any time his Mind Trick is up? Also has anyone figured out a good way of dealing with him in arena? I'm going to be able to get Barriss's unique to level 5 next level, so a 40% chance to dispell his mind trick effects on Jedi might help but that seems a bit unreliable.

WhipiT · December 12, 2015 1:19PM

Old Ben is tough at any level. Him and Lando are rare drops for a reason. The good news is he has an extemely low turn meter and at 60 if he is just 4 starred he is quite easy to deal with.

Stekcir_Leinad · December 12, 2015 1:26PM

The biggest trouble with him, if you manage to ability block him or something and nuke him down, he buffs the enemy team to high hell and back. So you need to leave him till last and cope with his effects, or take Ackbar or another cleanser and remove his debuffs right away, or nuke him fast and get Ventress or someone to try and dispelled the buffs on the enemy if and when he dies.

Skye · December 12, 2015 1:40PM

WhipiT wrote: »

Old Ben is tough at any level. Him and Lando are rare drops for a reason.

Probably cause the devs are trying to figure out if they are too powerful or not! Is my suspicion... The number of times I've faced Obi-Wan I've actually always left him last to kill because of the buff... His ability lock is annoying, but if you have two healers and self healers the lock isn't that bad...

Lando and Obi-Wan together, I've only had the misfortune of facing them both together once!!! And frankly if I ever see those two together again in their current form, I think I'd rather chop off my little fingers for fun instead!

Anyway back to Obi Wan.. as people have said your best bet is to bring people who can dispell, Barriss does it passively and somewhat unreliably.. So admiral ackbar or the Ewok Elder is your most reliable option to deal with Obi-Wan's debuffs...

If your team is high health and not full of glass cannons, you can pretty much leave him to last to defeat

Qeltar · December 12, 2015 1:53PM

How I deal with Old Ben: Dooku and Luminara.
Stun him. When the stun wears off, ability block him. In the meantime (or if this doesn't work) get your own specials off and burst down any glass cannons they have. If you can't get him all the way dead before he gets his special off, you can survive it one time, then take him out. Remember that you can retreat and regroup.

Drekulviin · December 12, 2015 2:01PM

Old Ben + Barris + Maul + Chewie + Dooku
Really annoying team lol

Darth_Allycode · December 12, 2015 2:04PM

counter him with luminara ability block or any1 with ability block

Rutank · December 12, 2015 2:15PM

MunchkinPrime wrote: »

I've been managing to clear Galactic War every day so far except today when I ran up against a brick wall of a team with a 55 Old Ben. Whenever I face him his Mind Trick decelerates my team so much that I can't take anyone down and it has a really high up-time.

I tried retreating after the start of the match to get a few more turns without mind trick, then subbed cad bane in. But his resistances are so high that it's hard to get a stun or healing immunity to stick and I know I can't just leave him be as his mind trick will come back round again.

I also have this issue in Arena where any team I face with Old Ben is almost certainly going to time out, especially if there is even just one counter attack enemy along with him.

Has anyone got any tips for countering him, or come across characters that work well against his effects? Is it just a case of leave him to last and retreat any time his Mind Trick is up? Also has anyone figured out a good way of dealing with him in arena? I'm going to be able to get Barriss's unique to level 5 next level, so a 40% chance to dispell his mind trick effects on Jedi might help but that seems a bit unreliable.

Question how do you retreat? Do you close the game out or is there a button for it I don't seem to quite see

Qeltar · December 12, 2015 2:20PM

Hit the gear button top left and the option will be there. The opponent must have taken at least one turn to see it. Be sure not to hit auto-play by mistake.

Skye · December 12, 2015 2:27PM

Another option which is little utilized is use a tenacity leader like Kitt Fisto or Luke.. this will actually help you resist debuffs.

Jabberwocky · December 12, 2015 2:28PM

Lobot clears all negative effects from all allies and they each get 5% health for each effect dispelled. Great against Old Ben and Vader.

MunchkinPrime · December 12, 2015 3:15PM

Thanks for all the replies. I have a 3* Luke in my stable so I'll level/gear/skill him up and sub him in against Old Ben. Will probably do better than my 2* Ewok Elder :P though I'll probably get around to levelling him too as another healer is always useful. Was checking the tenacity on my big hitters and a 33% swing will get most of them resisting more often than not.

m0rality · December 13, 2015 1:54AM

slow him down. Try 5s and Ventress.

drkflash3 · December 13, 2015 2:16AM

I always kills old Ben with count n that one Jedi healer who has block.... He to easy to beat on any level

JohnnySteelAlpha · December 13, 2015 2:19AM

I tested Luke vs. Old ben - got Luke leader to 33% - didn't seem to make any impact. I was going to post for the devs to make sure that the tenacity skill is functioning properly.

Also, Ackbar doesn't do a great job dispelling even when he's not ability blocked. I think both these skills need looked at closely for balance. Neg effects - esp on Ben - seem to proc at a pretty high rate. The skills that counter that however are not nearly as effective. That's painful for Ackbar for example because his dispel is just a dispel - he does no damage on it. If he's sacrificing damage it should work at a pretty high rate, not like it does currently.

Keaven · December 13, 2015 2:51AM

JohnnySteelAlpha wrote: »

I tested Luke vs. Old ben - got Luke leader to 33% - didn't seem to make any impact. I was going to post for the devs to make sure that the tenacity skill is functioning properly.

Also, Ackbar doesn't do a great job dispelling even when he's not ability blocked. I think both these skills need looked at closely for balance. Neg effects - esp on Ben - seem to proc at a pretty high rate. The skills that counter that however are not nearly as effective. That's painful for Ackbar for example because his dispel is just a dispel - he does no damage on it. If he's sacrificing damage it should work at a pretty high rate, not like it does currently.

Agreed re debuffs in general. And the problem is with Ventress, even if it was working properly (and I know it's not, because you can still heal from the buffs but they don't dispell), is that she does high damage and when her turn comes round it's usually a choice of maybe dispelling a few buffs on the enemy squad, or probably taking one out (or near enough for another Hero to finish the job). The second option is always the best one atm.

And Ben is very tough. I usually always focus on the high dps enemies first. Even Luminara's ability block does so much damage to high attackers it's almost always better used to take down their offense earlier than delay Bens mind tricks. Just depends on turn meters and whether the damage will trigger a heal anyway.

Once all their heavy hitters are down, I will focus Ben down. His death buffs don't matter on wet noodle tanks and healers like Barriss.

And Ben on a Jedi team is one thing I can deal with. He works much better on a sith team with Vader and Sidous.

Snaggletruth · March 16, 2016 11:55PM

I always pop a taunt (I use Poe) before he gets his ability block off. I then focus down others (albeit some of my toons have offence down). As the ability block only lasts one turn I can often heal Poe with lumi before he Dies.
The other options is to use dooku to stun him (most reliable stun on Jedi) straight off the bat - then focus down the most dangerous toon.
In either case I leave old Ben until last.
Haven't had a battle in arena over 1:30 for as long as I can remember, different story in GW where I don't accept casualties

Snarf_Wan · March 17, 2016 12:49AM

Yoda, anyone??? I think it's only me that uses Yoda to block all negative buffs

Macjackyl · March 17, 2016 4:22AM

I use Rex to grant tenacity to my whole team, virtually negating old Ben and other debuffers

Telaan · March 17, 2016 4:25AM

Holy necro. This post is from Dec 2015, that's why no one mentions Yoda.

Benr3600 · March 17, 2016 4:26AM

In a word...Yoda tenacity up

Castaspella · March 17, 2016 6:32AM

Telaan wrote: »

Holy necro. This post is from Dec 2015, that's why no one mentions Yoda.

Heh, funny. Obviously Yoda, he is basically a hard counter vs Ben.

bleeaauuh · March 17, 2016 6:33AM

To counter Ben use yoda tenacity up

Greg1920 · March 17, 2016 6:34AM

Do you need to counter Ben? Don't have Yoda yet, and I look for teams with Ben to attack. It's like starting 5 on 4.

Telaan · March 17, 2016 7:05AM

People are still posting suggestions to the op who wrote this thread in Dec 2015; before Old Ben received one direct nerf and two indirect nerfs, before Yoda, and before Rex.

I think the op has figured out how to counter Old Ben by now.

bleeaauuh · March 17, 2016 7:16AM

Didn't see the time it was posted

Castaspella · March 17, 2016 7:47PM

Greg1920 wrote: »

Do you need to counter Ben? Don't have Yoda yet, and I look for teams with Ben to attack. It's like starting 5 on 4.

Lowbie Bens maybe, but I doubt you base this opinion on a mature meta in the top 10. Ben hits pretty hard once fully upgraded, and I've kept him in my lineup until Yoda. Yoda is basically a hard counter on offense.

Awakened1130 · March 17, 2016 7:55PM

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Jedi Master Luke?

Oh wait this op was back in December 2015 and he wasn't an option yet.

This thread is so old - I feel like I'm posting from the future....

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Countering Old Ben

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