IG-86 is better than Geo Soldier on a Poggle and Poe team
So the flavor of the month is Geonosian Soldier. Mainly due to his high HP, assist, great crit, and his awesome speed. Notice all the positive adjectives. With gear level able to hit 9 he's got the perfect storm of the best farmable attacker in the game. However now that I've got both Geo and IG-86 nearly maxed I've decided that IG-86 is better for teams with Poggle and Poe.
Huh?
The simple reason is because Geo soldier is actually TOO fast. And more gear and more HP just is not going to be enough to overcome that. Hear me out.
With Geo Soldier maxed he moves into Tier 1 speed. Which means that he will always go prior to Poggle so he will never have the offense up buff. Meanwhile IG-86 will always go a turn after meaning that he always acts in his first round with the Poggle buff.
Now with Poe and his taunt in place there are very few players that will try to shut down IG-86 on the first turn (most will focus either Poe or Poggle). So unless the team I'm facing has 5 tier 1 speed characters AND focus's IG-86 in the first turn then he will do significantly more damage than Geo on turn 1. Turn 1 is the turn where you need to really focus on maximizing your damage. I haven't gotten the pleasure of playing both of them at 7* max gear so I don't know how great of a differential the damage is but based on 6* max gear it isn't significant enough. With a poggle buff IG-86 can one-shot crit with an expose or with a good assist almost every attacker in the game. Geo can as well but he has to wait his turn to get the buff.
After turn 1 he has received the Poggle speed boost so his speed goes from 116 to 145 which is just behind Geo's 149. So while Geo will have a chance to act faster in the second round it will be just slightly. Since no arena battle goes longer than 3 rounds before it's decided (sometimes there more rounds during cleanup) the 3 turn speed up is more than an equalizer.
Note that I'm continuing to gear/level both these guys because Geo really is better in almost every other squad composition. Plus I think a Sid/Poggle/Poe/Geo/IG-86 squad is hilariously scary. However to me everything points towards the slower IG-86 as a better character in my squad.
Huh?
The simple reason is because Geo soldier is actually TOO fast. And more gear and more HP just is not going to be enough to overcome that. Hear me out.
With Geo Soldier maxed he moves into Tier 1 speed. Which means that he will always go prior to Poggle so he will never have the offense up buff. Meanwhile IG-86 will always go a turn after meaning that he always acts in his first round with the Poggle buff.
Now with Poe and his taunt in place there are very few players that will try to shut down IG-86 on the first turn (most will focus either Poe or Poggle). So unless the team I'm facing has 5 tier 1 speed characters AND focus's IG-86 in the first turn then he will do significantly more damage than Geo on turn 1. Turn 1 is the turn where you need to really focus on maximizing your damage. I haven't gotten the pleasure of playing both of them at 7* max gear so I don't know how great of a differential the damage is but based on 6* max gear it isn't significant enough. With a poggle buff IG-86 can one-shot crit with an expose or with a good assist almost every attacker in the game. Geo can as well but he has to wait his turn to get the buff.
After turn 1 he has received the Poggle speed boost so his speed goes from 116 to 145 which is just behind Geo's 149. So while Geo will have a chance to act faster in the second round it will be just slightly. Since no arena battle goes longer than 3 rounds before it's decided (sometimes there more rounds during cleanup) the 3 turn speed up is more than an equalizer.
Note that I'm continuing to gear/level both these guys because Geo really is better in almost every other squad composition. Plus I think a Sid/Poggle/Poe/Geo/IG-86 squad is hilariously scary. However to me everything points towards the slower IG-86 as a better character in my squad.
