Fives - CT 5555, Proper Strategy with Phasma ?

"Triqui;67086" wrote:
I think I'm going to expand my answer a little bit more, and make it more general. And instead of giving you a squad, I'll give you (and other readers) different options to choose from, depending your general idea.

Best way to use Fives, like any other char, is to make sure you get the most from his main abilities.

Let's start by analysing Fives, as I do with any character I want to play. He's a control character, with ton of HP, average damage overall (good for a tank, but lower than attackers), with an assist ability, a counter attack, and a slow with his basic. Good package, although not inmediately powerful, but a good working piece.

So you will get the most of him in situations were control and HP matters more (so that means GW, more than Arena). You need to be sure that his assist ability carry good attackers. That means he should be paired with strong heavy hitters like FOTP (who will deal a lot of damage in Fives turn if called as an assist), or characters with strong effects in their basic attack (for example, calling an assist with Daka may stun, while calling an assist with Luminara doesn't have any effect besides damage. That could be a hint that Daka may work better paired with him) On the other hand, his own main attack HAS a good rider effect, slow. That means that when you call an assist from HIM, you get the aditional benefit of slow. This means he'll be naturally good with extra basic attacks, such as Phasma's leadership, and other assisting characters, like QGJ, Geonosian Soldier, or IG 86.

He has high HP, and his counterattack make him a low priority target. This means he gets attacked less, unless you can convince the enemy that attacking him is a good idea. A way to do it, is pairing him with other enemies that aren't a good target. Other chars with high hp, or with counterattack, or both, for example, make it a decision of "picking your poison". If he is in a team with FO Storm Trooper, Dooku and Kylo, for example, you can't dodge the counterattack by leaving the counterattacking enemy until the end of the fight. It also means that you get extra damage from him (and extra slows) vs AOE teams. This means that if you have a good bench and your 5th spot is flexible, you could add him in your 5th spoth if you see teams leaded by Sid, or Boba, or if you know the enemy have Kylo, IG88, HK47, Vader, Maul, or other staple units with AOE skills. This is less common in high-end fights in softlaunch servers (where single target speed squads with Leia/QGJ/GS/FOTP are the bread and butter), but it's waaaay more common in younger servers, because Sid is so prevalent at the begining, and Kylo is a frequently seen toon too.

So if you want to use Fives to the most of his ability, I will try to follow this:

1) he's awesome in GW, less so in Arena
2) he's great vs teams with AOE characters, like Maul, Vader, Sid, Boba, Kylo, 88 or 47.
3) he's better paired with characters with good basic attacks that either do a lot of damage, or have good riders, like FOTP (1HKO attack), Daka (Stun), Kylo (heal inmunity), or even self buffs like Geonosian Soldier (who can get Offense Up in Fives turn, and hit reasonably hard with offense up ready)
4) he's also well paired with attackrs that call him for his basic attack, like Geonosian Soldier, GGJ, Phasma, 86, etc
5) he's not going to be targeted soon, so you could try to make the enemy pay for doing so. Other counter attacking units like Dooku, Kylo, FOST can do so. Also, he has a lot of HP, and you could try to build a team with no "weak links" that the enemy can take down fast. Some attackers like Nightsister Initiate have a lot of HP, so does Phasma, and Fives. HK47, FOST, Kylo, and/or Barris as healer can make you a squad that the lowest one has 17k hp at lvl 70, that's an option too.
6) he's not that good in a high level, whale-heavy, softlaunch server, BUT not all servers are like that, and you have to counter your own server meta, not the meta of an hypothetical server which is not your own.

With all that in mind, I'd say that:
1) Phasma goes as leader, no doubt of it.
2) fives is another staple member, as we are building a team for him. Additionally, you could use him as a 5th member and add him vs teams with AOE units like Sid or Kylo
3) you should think about which approach you want. You can focus on his tankyness and slow, or his assist ability. First choice makes you to pair him with guys like Kylo, and FO Storm Trooper (also high HP, counter attack), the second choice makes you to pair him with more glass-cannon like dudes like FO Tie Pilot. Some units are good both when called as an assist, or when calling him, like Geonosian Soldier.
4) the other 3 members could be any of these: Kylo, FO Storm Trooper, FO Tie Pilot, Daka, Luminara (if she's your best healer and you want to play one and don¡'t have Daka), Geonosian Soldier, Nightsister Initiate, IG86, Darth Sidious, Dooku, HK47, Barris. It depends on which kind of squad you want to build.

Phasma, Kylo, Fives is probably the best starting point. Add Geonosian Soldier and FOTP if you want more damage, or Geonosian Soldier and IG86/biggs if you want to double down in the assist idea to focus damage, Daka and dooku if you want more stuns and control, FOST and Barris if you want sturdiness, and options like Nightsister Initiate and HK47 for general purpose and good overall average of HP and damage.