Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Getting a Good Start in SWGoH: Part 2 -- Hoarding

If you've recently started this game and looking into starter guides, you're probably past level 28 and I can't help you that much -- unless you want to consider restarting. As long as you're struggling in the hundreds or thousands in arena, and haven't put too much time or money into the game, I'd highly recommend a restart, following this guide. Keep playing your original account because that will be somewhat enjoyable and you'll learn a lot about the game, but give the new account a serious try, and you might find you enjoy it a lot more, especially with the experience you've gained from the first one.

The short version is that you can hoard resources by staying at level 27 (before you unlock arena), and then enter into an arena shard with a head start. Arena shards are groups of 20,000 players that reach level 28 around the same time. After 20,000 players have entered one shard, the next one opens. This can take several days, and even a 1 day head start will put you too far behind to catch up in arena before level 85. You can spend anywhere from a couple weeks to a few months to get a good head start. It's boring, but will make the game much more fun when you get there as you'll be able to compete in arena from level 28 through 85 (otherwise you might have a hard time every breaking top 100).

Start a new account and pick a time zone that works well for you -- otherwise you will have to do arena around 6pm, depending on daylight savings. Additionally, if you live in a major time zone, like Eastern, Central, or Pacific in the US, you might want to consider setting your time zone to the ocean (or mountain time). You also might want your payout later at night or earlier in the day -- however, make sure you can regularly collect lunchtime energy (6 hours before your payout time).
Level it however you would to about level 20, then stop. From there, I would recommend only leveling using the train a hero mission up to 27 -- this will generate tickets, which you will really need at level 28, it will save you a very large pile of crystals (30c per 20 tickets).

I would recommend logging in twice a day, once for the 'noon' energy, and once for 'evening' energy.  Be very careful about collecting this energy -- it's easy to accidentally finish a quest, which could push you into level 28. The first free energy of the day gives you cantina and regular, while the later one gives you just regular. You can log in a third time for additional regular energy, which adds up, but is hardly necessary. During this time, you should also do the challenges, check shipments, and get a free Bronzium draw. This will take you a couple minutes per day. I would recommend getting a full month's worth of daily logins before entering a game -- the crystals from these give you a significant head start. Additionally, you will get a lot of credits, training droids, ability mats, and challenge and shipment gear that will help you for a very long time.

Once you get to a point where you're ready to go to level 28, create a couple more accounts, and level them straight to 27. If you can get a couple friends to hoard resources with you, you probably all only need to make one extra account. Use whatever crystals you have to rush to level 27 -- you won't be using these accounts past that point. From my testing, arena shards generally reset every 2-5 days, at 20,000 account, so try pushing the first one over to 28 asap. If they enter in the 1st-1000th place, now is the time to join your hoarded account. Between 1000-5000, you can consider joining then, but I'd recommend waiting until you can get better placement -- not that it matters too much. Beyond 5000, you can decide how patient you want to be, with the extra stuff you've saved, you should be able to reach top 20 after a couple days of climbing, but if you've given it a month or two of saving, why not wait a couple more days for a fresh arena shard? Keep making alts and pushing them to level 28 until you can get into a new arena shard.

From there, spend all your cantina/regular energy on the faction you want (see my other faction post), and level as fast as you can. From here, I'd highly recommend spending 3x cantina and 3x regular refreshes until you reach level 50 -- this is a huge breaking point because of mods.

Getting a Good Start in SWGoH: Part 1 -- Starter Factions

Important: regardless of the faction you go, you will need a handful of scoundrels for credit heists -- Boba Fett is all but required for this and is farmable from the Cantina store and a couple hard nodes. Lando and Stormtrooper Han also help with this.

1) Phoenix
This is the de facto starter team. They have great synergy and you get access to them early: Hera and Ezra from the first two Cantina zones, Chopper from Cantina store, Zeb from GW at level 40, and Kanan from arena. They are rebels and get EP later on, and two are Jedi, which help you get GMY. They are effective in early arena, but you will have to transition away from them at some point.

2) Nightsisters
This is a new one I've been working on, and have kept me reaching top 20 through level 50 (beyond that the whales are too good to beat right now). Similar to Phoenix, they are all in easy reach: Daka from Cantina store, Acolyte from cantina, Talia from starter, hard, and cantina, and Asajj from Arena. Until I'm able to save up 2000 crystals to buy Zombie shards, I'm running Royal Guard as the 5th. This is a strong early and late arena comp -- and once I also acquire Talzin, will likely keep me in the top 5 until people build end game teams. While I'm currently struggling against higher star/level/gear Phoenix, I easily beat similar comps. They also help you get Talzin and Zombie/Spirit shards from events later.

3) First Order
These guys take a little longer to get rolling -- Kylo Ren Unmasked unlocks from the third cantina zone, while Kylo Ren and Executioner are also in Cantina. Officer is in the Cantina Store, Phasma is in the GW store, and FOST and FOTP are hard farms (but unlock easily). I would start with KRU to 5*, then work on Executioner. Start out with KRU (L), Phasma, Officer, and then add in additional FO units as you unlock them. Since Phoenix don't have heal immunity, and don't hit particularly hard (except Ezra), KRU is able to heal through them pretty easily with his unique, and you can counter Phoenix by level 50 or so.

Monday, June 11, 2018

How to attack in Territory War

Well, with any luck, you've set up a pretty decent defense, and it's time to pivot into offense. The most important thing to remember is to cancel an attack if you haven't killed someone. This means either retreating or force quitting if it looks like things are bad. If you force quit, the opponent will not be attackable for about 5 minutes, but you'll save your friends the trouble of a TM stacked opponent.
The following comps, when used right (and with a little RNG) can take out your opponents' top end teams:
JTR, BB8, R2, +2 (GK, Chopper, Scav Rey, etc.)
Finn, RT, Poe, +2 (RP, Holdo, Rose, Scav Rey)
Nute, Acolyte, Zombie, a low power attacker, +1
AV, Daka, Talia, Talzin, +1 (Spirit, Initiate, or tank)
Rex, Wampa, +3 (dispels, tanks, etc)
UKRFOTP, FOE, Kylo, +1 (FOST, FOO, etc)
Thrawn, DK, DT, Shore, Storm (or zVeers lead if you encounter NS with weak zombie).

When played properly, zJTR can take out many EzPz teams, but not all. However, if you do go after someone that is too strong, you can at least take out a tank and EP, which makes it much easier for the next person. I wouldn't recommend going against SiT unless you bring someone who can land buff immunity -- B2 is very good for both clearing taunt and placing BI.

zFinn, RT, Poe, are pretty good against opposing UKR comps, as well as GK/zBarriss comps that don't have HY. You can also make a hole in some CLS comps, but I'd recommend caution here -- it works best if they have a non-rebel tank so that you can prevent CLS's TM gain while you start to pick up steam. Against any comp, you need Poe to be the fastest so that he can get the expose train going.

Nute, Acolyte, Zombie +2 are a pretty well known trick. They can snipe some low aoe comps, for example CLS, Han, R2, GK, Old Ben. The trick is to get stealth on Acolyte, and then she'll never die. Make sure to kill anyone with light AOE early just in case they get a few hits off early. This is shut down by any comp with aoe dispel (like baze) or very strong aoe (like Wedge + R2). It can also be used against some JTR comps, but be careful because R2 can get a lot of turns and his fire dmg can stack up. If you use a weak attacker as your 4th, it will usually attract Han's opening shot, giving your Acolyte a chance to stealth. I'd recommend running Acolyte fast and with high CC to give her the best chance of pulling through. This comp is also very weak to zBarriss, as you just won't be able to kill anyone.

zzAV + zTalzin is generally all you need to handle a top of the line JTR comp. The above trick plus this comp makes Nightsisters a 2 for 1 on offense, and another reason I don't like JTR on defense (easy counter). Similarly, Nightsisters with a weak zombie are an easy target for zVeers comps. Once you land Plague from Talzin, BB8 will spread it to everyone else. If you have zzTalzin (L), this works even better. If you run out of JTR comps to beat, they are quite versatile -- easily handling CLS comps and most Rex/Wampa comps, as well as able to poke a hole in a strong EzPz wall -- as long as they aren't running Shoretrooper you should be able to get enough Plague going to finish a couple people off.

Rex, Wampa, +3 is very good on both O and D. On O, look for CLS or EzPz comps. If you go after Nightsisters, make sure to bring some healing. Enfys Nest slots into this comp very well, and I tend to bring some combination of tanks, dispellers, and cleansers to round it out. Boba is a great addition to this team as well.

A good First Order comp can either be used to poke a hole in (or kill) any of the best meta teams. Strong healing, dispels, and high damage output makes for a pretty strong offensive comp.

Additional notes:
If you see a lone CLS, I'd recommend Teebo (L) ewoks...at G8-10 they can handle a G12 zetaed CLS. Scout, Teebo, and Chirpa's special do a solid job of keeping CLS's TM low, while EE keeps everyone alive, and one of the new guys tags along.
If you see a lone zSavage, I'd recommend Spirit. As long as she has some speed, Savage will just miss her every time, while she whittles away his health. Alternatively, a Poggle lead, GSpy, Rebel Officer Leia team up to one-shot a zSavage. Get a hit in with everyone to stack some buffs on Savage, use Poggle's ability, followed by ROLO's multi-hit, then GSpy's special to OHKO. It's like Boba's execute but on a character that doesn't need much in the way of gear, stars, or omegas (G7-8, level 80, no omegas works).
Lobot (L), IPD, + tanks: you can sometimes manage to kill an EP or another leader with this comp. Lobot is there to make IPD faster, that's it. You can replace him or whatever. +health/defense/etc as lead is fine too. It's finicky and won't always work, but if you get 50 guildmates to try it, some of them will manage to disable a leader. Geared IPD is not required, but the more gear it has, the more likely it will survive to blow up later. Real important: IPD needs to be injured to explode, and needs to have at least one ally still alive.
If you're having a hard time breaking into a heavy empire EzPz comp, consider ROLO (L), Wiggs, +2 rebels (OB, STH, etc.). Someone like Ezra who can cleanse taunt is really good too. Get some damage on EP, then use Wiggs to kill him. If you bring STH, your team will get a ton of TM really fast between ROLO's lead and STH's taunt.

How to defend in Territory War

June 2018
With a Territory War around the corner, I wanted to post some helpful advice for winning -- these tips are aimed at guilds in the 100m to 140m brackets. Above or below, these strategies will need to be adapted. Also, SUPER IMPORTANT, if a battle starts to go sideways, retreat or force quit if you haven't taken anyone out. Even if you take some people low on health, they might have an opportunity to recover. Since they start with full TM, you might have a hard time taking them out. There are some exceptions to this, but generally it's better to restart and lose your team 5 points than to make an unkillable, TM loaded team.
We will have to start with a board and an easy way to reference them, we've got Fleets 1 and 2, Top 1 through 4 (squads only), and Bottom 1 through 4. 
I've seen a lot of guilds try to use trap builds, and every single time, it's been a bad idea. Instead, I would recommend rock solid squads in T1 and B1. While squad power is a pretty bad system for judging squads, you don't want anything less than 90k in those territories (I'm assuming you're in the 110m+ range for guild GP). There are two squads that perform best here:
1) CLS, Han Solo, Chirrut, Baze, Captain Han Solo

2) EP, Sion, DN, SiT, Vader

There are a lot of variations to each comp, but these are the ideal squads for TW (unless you have Traya to sub for Vader). For the CLS squad, you really need CLS's ibat zeta and Han Solo's zeta, and the other zetas all improve your team. EP's leader zeta and Sion's zeta are both essential, while the others are just important. I would recommend a mixed front (e.g. 10-15 CLS and EP squads in each T1 and B1).
Proper modding is critical to success for these squads. CLS: healthy dose of speed, but I'd recommend a CD set with CD triangle, and CC, Potency, or health secondary set. Prot circle and either prot or offense square. Han Solo wants similar mods, but he can lose some speed to improve his CC and offense secondaries -- I run him around 200 speed. Baze just wants lots of health, and needs no speed. 40k+ health is recommended. Chirrut wants health and speed -- extra damage is good but not necessary. Captain Han Solo also wants health and speed. While this team is no longer top of the line (thanks EzPz), if it goes undefeated in one round, your opponents will have to throw a lot at it to finish it off. Also, these comps have a nasty way of eating up your opponents resources for later phases.
EzPz: EP wants high speed and high offense -- your choice of sets. CD is not recommended because he has low special CC. CC, Potency, and health are all great secondary sets. He usually doesn't need a potency cross (due to his leader), but it isn't bad for him either. I like to run offense/cc sets, with cc triangle. Sion wants speed and/or health. DN needs speed and whatever comes with it. He does decent special damage, but speed trumps all else. SiT wants tons of prot with as much flat def as you can load on him. Vader I would run with speed/cc sets, and CD tri. Lots of speed, any CC you can give him is good.
You're probably already asking: Why don't we want all the CLS in one zone, and all the EP in another? There are a lot of good ways to run the front defense, but most guilds take a few minutes to look at the front territories before deciding a path. Giving them less information means they don't know what's behind those territories.
The next territory you should care about is T3, because no matter what route your opponents choose, if they make it through two territories, they will find this one. A good opponent will make it here regardless of your front wall. I would start by filling in with any remaining 90k+ CLS/EP squads. By the third wall, these comps will be even more brutal to face. From there, anything else that's hard to kill (see T2/B2).
T2/B2: These are both important territories to hold down. If you still have any EP/CLS squads left, I would mix them top and bot. From there, I would look into any FO squads your guild might have -- primarily zzMatt (Kylo), zFOST, FOE, zBarriss, Kylo Ren. The second squad I like here is zMaul. Yeah, he's a million years out of date, but he still eats up some valuable resources from your opponents. I wouldn't put zetas here on priority, but there's a decent chance some members used those zetas in the early days -- zSavage, SA, Dooku, zSid, and Marauder are all good choices here. Finally, fill in with your Phoenix squads. These guys hit up a notch on defense, and will just wear down some not terrible units your opponents have. Another squad I really like is zzThrawn, DT, DK, Shore, Storm. Thrawn is super valuable on offense, but this squad is a hell-comp later on in a match.
B3, T4, and B4 can all be filler -- but I'd recommend using some  teams with strong synergy, like Phoenix, just to wear your opponent out a little bit. You need to save some offensive strength, you'll see I haven't mentioned JTR or NS, who are both excellent on defense, but I think you're better off saving them for your opponents' CLS/EzPz/JTR walls.

Welcome to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

I started playing SWGoH in December, 2015, and have been obsessed with this game since day 1. While I'm pretty far from a whale, I have spent money on this game -- but I don't think you have to. I will post useful tips for improving your game here, which translates into better payouts and whatnot. I make top payouts daily, frequently require no refreshes to make top 5, and never need more than one refresh to make top 5. You can see my swgoh.gg profile here:
I started with a small community of gamers, built them into an effective raiding guild, joined Team Instinct (twice), and returned to my community twice. As of June, 2018, our guild is on a 10+ TW winning streak (with around 120m in May, we finished in rank 69 on the leaderboards)


Getting a Good Start in SWGoH: Part 2 -- Hoarding

If you've recently started this game and looking into starter guides, you're probably past level 28 and I can't help you that mu...