Arena: Shaak Clones or Padme?
So, I'm planning on making a new account, which will probably involve a Hyperdrive Bundle. With that bundle, I'd be able to farm up Arc Trooper relatively quickly, and a few thousand crystals can get ...
Forum Discussion
I don't have stats on this, but my best guess is that Shaak is better when it can counter-attack, but since JKR's Strategic Advantage prevents counterattacks, Padmé is probably better against them. It's a narrow thing, however, since Echo has an AoE dispel, which can be hugely important and effective against Revan.
Think about this:
The Shaak squad needs fewer zetas to work.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with the game (just because you're starting a new account doesn't mean you don't have an older one), so forgive me if this is all information you already have, but zetas are going to be hard to come by early on.
Both Padmé and Shaak TI squads need 2 zetas just to be minimally viable, but really significantly more than that to work as intended. The difference is that with a Shaak Ti squad 3 zetas is plenty (that gives you both of Shaak Ti's zetas + 5s sacrifice zeta). More zetas is gravy, but 3 is good for Shaak. Meanwhile Threepio can't do much for you without 2 zetas of his own, so the Padmé squad doesn't work as intended without 4-5 zetas. You can go without Threepio, of course (and at the beginning, you will have to) but then you run into other problems: Ahsoka, for instance, adds a bunch of assists with her zeta, enough to put her on par with Echo's AoE dispel, but Echo doesn't need a zeta to get that job done. Remember that getting GK is going to take a long time - there's no way around the HAAT slow-farm requirement there. Threepio's event is going to require at least one ewok zeta, and if you don't want to waste g11 finishers on your ewoks, you'll need 2 or 3 zetas total on your ewoks just to unlock Threepio at 7*. Again, this is a zeta tax that the Clones just don't face. So you're likely going to be using CloneWars Chewbacca in your early-version Padmé squad, and that's not bad, he does surprisingly well there, but it is gear you're spending on a character you will later retire - so that's a gear tax. You may very well also run Barriss, and again, that's not a bad character for this squad, but Padmé, Anakin, Ahsoka, CWC, Barriss is simply an inferior squad and you can't get GK or Threepio right away. So there's that gear tax again - plus a zeta tax if you want to make Barriss work.
Add to this that the gear requirements for Padmé are worse than the gear requirements for Shaak Ti and I think if the purpose is to gear up a viable Arena squad quickly that you'll be better off with Shaak.
Success will probably be better in the short run, slightly worse in the long run, but you avoid steep zeta and gear taxes that can hurt an early player account.
Again, I don't have data on your original question - which one is harder for Bastila and JKR squads to beat - but I hope these additional thoughts are helpful in putting together your ideas about which is nonetheless the better squad for you.
Think about this:
The Shaak squad needs fewer zetas to work.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with the game (just because you're starting a new account doesn't mean you don't have an older one), so forgive me if this is all information you already have, but zetas are going to be hard to come by early on.
Both Padmé and Shaak TI squads need 2 zetas just to be minimally viable, but really significantly more than that to work as intended. The difference is that with a Shaak Ti squad 3 zetas is plenty (that gives you both of Shaak Ti's zetas + 5s sacrifice zeta). More zetas is gravy, but 3 is good for Shaak. Meanwhile Threepio can't do much for you without 2 zetas of his own, so the Padmé squad doesn't work as intended without 4-5 zetas. You can go without Threepio, of course (and at the beginning, you will have to) but then you run into other problems: Ahsoka, for instance, adds a bunch of assists with her zeta, enough to put her on par with Echo's AoE dispel, but Echo doesn't need a zeta to get that job done. Remember that getting GK is going to take a long time - there's no way around the HAAT slow-farm requirement there. Threepio's event is going to require at least one ewok zeta, and if you don't want to waste g11 finishers on your ewoks, you'll need 2 or 3 zetas total on your ewoks just to unlock Threepio at 7*. Again, this is a zeta tax that the Clones just don't face. So you're likely going to be using CloneWars Chewbacca in your early-version Padmé squad, and that's not bad, he does surprisingly well there, but it is gear you're spending on a character you will later retire - so that's a gear tax. You may very well also run Barriss, and again, that's not a bad character for this squad, but Padmé, Anakin, Ahsoka, CWC, Barriss is simply an inferior squad and you can't get GK or Threepio right away. So there's that gear tax again - plus a zeta tax if you want to make Barriss work.
Add to this that the gear requirements for Padmé are worse than the gear requirements for Shaak Ti and I think if the purpose is to gear up a viable Arena squad quickly that you'll be better off with Shaak.
Success will probably be better in the short run, slightly worse in the long run, but you avoid steep zeta and gear taxes that can hurt an early player account.
Again, I don't have data on your original question - which one is harder for Bastila and JKR squads to beat - but I hope these additional thoughts are helpful in putting together your ideas about which is nonetheless the better squad for you.
