5/22 bump -
Trends from the past few weeks are holding pretty steady, but there's some interesting movement within the trends...
Headlines & Hot Takes:
- R2MFD2....this bullet header is a repeat from last week...but absolutely deserves to remain the same. I mentioned last week I expected R2, riding the Chaze craze, to eventually get to #6 most used and pass DM / EP / Savage / EP...but I didn't think it would be in just one week! Yes, R2 is now the SIXTH most used character for rank 1 usage. Let me list of few of the incredibly strong characters R2 has passed already: Dooku, Vader, Wedge, Boba, Sith Assassin, Savage Opress, Kylo, EP and.....yes yes...he's even passed Maul! R2's usage # is now up to 27% and there's plenty of upside - R2 should push in to that elite 40%+ usage bracket. Huge gamechanger handed out for free. Impressive!
- The Gaping Chasm: There's a huge gap opening up from the top 5 most used characters. The 5th most used character, Chirrut, has 45% usage. The 6th drops all the way to 27% - which is R2. Now, R2 is tied to Chaze / GK, etc. and is definitely going up - so if you exclude R2 the next character is EP at 26%. EP and all the DS characters immediately below him are trending down - so this gap will only widen over time. Right now, with all the characters we have in the game, arena is honing in on a core 6 with everyone else getting pushed to the side: DN, Chaze, R2, GK, and Rex. It's interesting because while R2 has allowed more comps to get wins and be viable - increasing variety along with Rex by removing Maul - at the very upper elite portion of the game R2 has actually helped create this gap by making GK / Rex / Chaze / lightside that much stronger.
- GK has actually made a sizable move in the last week - the unlocks / build rates obviously are still happening on this noble Jedi. There may be substantial upside for GK still - he was 51% usage last week and is now up to 56%, opening up some distance now from the #3 Rex. I figured GK was fairly universally owned / built for rank 1s at this point, but apparently that's not the case. He will push in to historically elite territory by getting over 60% if that happens.
- Rex leader - this guy should be the first member in the Arena Hall of Fame right? Rex leader is now up to 46% usage - that's increased from 42% last week - so a very sizable move. Does Rex, even as old as he is ... still have ownership / usage upside? Are some still unlocking him in the rank 1 realm? Didn't expect him to keep pushing upward after Maul declined. Hard to argue that Rex's leader isn't the greatest arena leader created in the history of GoH. Doesn't even seem close.
- Pure dark side teams look to be in lots of trouble. The gap that's opening up is coming at the expense of the better DS characters and DN is largely there just because of GK / Chaze and hide the Nihilis, which is really mainly possible through the LS spam taunters Baze & GK. Let's see exactly how Tarkin's kit plays out, but pure DS teams are on the ropes. Will they fall like Frazier or bounce off Rope-A-Dope Ali-style?
Arena Leaders:
- zDM continues his hard slide, now down to 25% usage from 28% last week - still think this goes <10% at some point in the near future
- Rex! As noted above - still gaining share! Nothing can stop the Rex train!
- Wedge is still your #3 most used leader, but has stalled on the 8% number for the past week. He's fighting for best leader on the R2 / GK / Chaze squads with Jyn, GK, and DN among others, so maybe he parks around this 8% number for some time. QGJ, DN, and GK have all at least hit the 5% mark.
Rank 1 Squad Comp
- 3x Cleanse + DN is still far and away the #1 overall comp at 305 counts / 75%...the counts are down from last week, but the % is up? :) I'm paying more attention to the relative counts and the change in counts vs. the percent as it seems to make little sense. So counts are actually down on this comp from last week, but it's still far out and ahead of #2 squad with just 80 counts
- REX-led squads make up all of the top 3 builds
- First Maul squad is 4th at 65 counts - that's down from 85 counts last week - a 24% drop in one week! Ouch.
- R2 impact: 5 of the 10 most popular individual builds have R2 in the team - huge impact from R2
Character Usage
- DN still far and away #1 used character at 75% - his support has held above 75% for months now
- GK is actually trending up - didn't expect that - moving from 51 to 56% usage. There must be a material amount of folks that didn't have him built / unlocked - maybe this continues to go up? Not sure.
- CHAZE - as expected, the dynamic duo continue to gain usage and are up to 46/45% compared to 44/43% last week. Very consistently they are gaining 2 percentage points in usage per week. This number has potential to go much higher, but is just restrained to the extent more players can readily farm / build the duo, but this usage rate I would expect to get over 50% easily with legit upside even after 50%.
- Rex is 3rd highest usage at 48%
- Your top 5 is DN / GK / Rex / Chaze
- Your 6-10 are R2!!!!! (27%), EP (26%), Maul (26%), Kylo (25%), Savage (20%)
