Best Fleet

I'm sorry, do you mean what's the best starting 3? Because 3x Geos, Vulture, Hyena, & IG-2000 are all well known as necessary for the best Mal fleet.

The only real difference is the one free reinforcement spot. If you don't care about splitting up other fleets - for instance in Fleet Arena, not GAC or TW - then Cassian for AoE dispel + extra single dispel, Plo Kool for AoE heal & cleanse, Mil Falc for AoE foresight and AoE attack, or even Ebon Hawk for AoE dispel + immunity to target lock are all good choices. Which one depends more on which ships you have available, which pilots you have geared, and most importantly which enemy you face.

So vulture hyena geo spy and sun fac are must haves?

What makes Hyena such a great tank is the insane level of defense on that ship.

Since you hardly ever get all your reinforcements out anyway, most 7th ships will do nothing for your squad, but Geo Soldier gives Hyena that extra boost. He gives great help to one of your most important ships without even entering the battle.

You don't have to upgrade Soldier or the ship if you don't want to, but having the last ship in your reinforcement chain give you crucial bonuses even when it never has a chance to make it onto the battlefield? That's better than putting the Falcon in that slot.

Therefore I respectfully disagree with your assessment.

Tie Bomber is my favourite 4th slot ship for fleet arena. Aoe dispell, burning, extra taunt... Don't always need it, but it's great when a battle goes south due to rng.

Huh. I hadn't noticed that it has an AoE dispel. That does make it a good candidate. Mine's only 6 stars, but you're making me think about speeding up the farm.

Can I branch off the original question?
Does this "best" fleet change depending on which fleet you are facing? For example you want this fleet against negotiator, this fleet against a malevolence mirror match, etc? Or only the strategy changes?

Negotiator vs Malevolence and vice-versa is generally easier and more fun than a mirror match.

"MasterSeedy;c-2200715" wrote:


What makes Hyena such a great tank is the insane level of defense on that ship.

Since you hardly ever get all your reinforcements out anyway, most 7th ships will do nothing for your squad, but Geo Soldier gives Hyena that extra boost. He gives great help to one of your most important ships without even entering the battle.

You don't have to upgrade Soldier or the ship if you don't want to, but having the last ship in your reinforcement chain give you crucial bonuses even when it never has a chance to make it onto the battlefield? That's better than putting the Falcon in that slot.

Therefore I respectfully disagree with your assessment.

Soldier counts without being on the field? You sure about that? Do you have anything that states that because I really want to know if it’s true.

Soldier does count without being on the field. I don't have a quote for you, but in the past they've distinguished between "allies" and allies that were "fielded (entered the battle, whether or not they were killed)" or "active (entered the battle and have not yet been killed)".

I could look around for a quote, but you can also experiment with this yourself. After fleet payout, if you have 2x attempts left, you can play a battle with your starting 3 separatists (including Hyena) and then zero reinforcements (or only non-separatist reinforcements).

First put the speed on 1x so you can see everything well enough to remember or take notes. (It's best if you can put it on 1x speed during your earlier runs so you don't miss any attacks at the beginning of the battle that comes before your first move).

Then start the fight, but pay attention to the damage you take in those opening volleys before your first reinforcement.

Now deliberately lose.

Put your separatist reinforcements back into your fleet.

Make sure you're still on 1x speed.

Try again with the same starting 3 against the same opponent.

Watch how the damage vs. Hyena is different.

Because Hyena doesn't have the healing capabilities of Rebel Y-Wing, Hound's Tooth, or Biggs, you really need all of that bonus defense.

@Old_Ben12345

Does this "best" fleet change depending on which fleet you are facing? For example you want this fleet against negotiator, this fleet against a malevolence mirror match, etc? Or only the strategy changes?

Against Malevolence you need the ability to dispel enemy buffs.

Against Nego it's more helpful to cleanse the debuffs on your own fleet.

So, yes. Plo is better against Nego. A dispel ship is better against Mal.

Of course both are useful, so if you don't have IG-88 at a good gear tier then your IG-2000 can maybe be replaced (it's not a separatist ship, so it's not as crucial, although it does trigger that +10% tenacity & some healing benefits... but the healing benefits are based on IG-2000's reinforcement ability and only occur when it's active.

So you could, if you wanted, keep both Plo and a dispel ship in your reinforcements & go with your 5 Separatists + Mal + those two.

Still, IG-2000 does help both Hyena & Vulture. Without IG-2000 you have no healing at all. With IG-2000 in play you have pretty minor healing, but it's better than nothing:



What's even better about this ability (especially since Hyena is probably dead by the time you reinforce with IG-2000) is the bonus offense which is going to apply to every single Vulture droid.

Nice, huh?

So you can add other ships, but unless your IG-88 is low gear, I'd use 5 seps + IG-88 + either cleanser or dispeller, depending on your opponent (for overnight defense, I like Plo's heal/cleanse, since the AI is less likely to use a dispel at the perfect moment).