QGJ and Zeta Leadership Squad
So, for those of you that haven't noticed, a new tier of abilities are unlockable for about 10 toons, and to shortcut the side conversation on acquisition, it'll take about 20 days of fleet arena points to unlock just one of these. However, some of them are quite good and I think QGJ's is especially so.
Here's his ability:
Agility Training - Level 82
+5 Speed, Jedi allies gain Offense equal to 3 times their Speed, and gain Foresight for 2 turns at the start of each encounter and whenever any unit is defeated.
This means his leadership ability nets +30 Speed and +90 Offense to all Jedi, in addition to 3x Speed more offense and the Foresight. Frankly, this is huge.
So let's look at options. QGJ is obviously a must-include, and brings a moderate amount of damage with a dispel.
What about non-jedi? Considering them is kind of rough, as they're at a pretty massive disadvantage - 30 speed, and about 450 offense, and they miss free Foresight. So with that in mind I expect tanky characters that won't miss the Foresight and main trick isn't damage.
So let's look at squads:
1) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / Ahsoka / Old Ben
This is probably the best 5x Jedi combo, but I'm not sure that the added damage of Ahsoka outweighs the TM gain STHan would give to the other 3 DPS.
2) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / Old Ben / STHan
... which is why this squad exists. STHan doesn't get the damage gain, but adds significant TM to the other DPS.
3) QGJ / JKA / Ahsoka / B2 / STHan
B2 / STHan are a popular pairing in the current meta thanks to their obvious synergy and they protect two toons that will hit like trucks. But they don't work well with foresight and don't gain anything from the lead.
4) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / EP / STHan
This team is just about letting JKA and EP having free reign to do whatever they want to the other team. Yoda's Battle Meditation improvement is probably key to make this machine work.
Here's his ability:
+5 Speed, Jedi allies gain Offense equal to 3 times their Speed, and gain Foresight for 2 turns at the start of each encounter and whenever any unit is defeated.
This means his leadership ability nets +30 Speed and +90 Offense to all Jedi, in addition to 3x Speed more offense and the Foresight. Frankly, this is huge.
So let's look at options. QGJ is obviously a must-include, and brings a moderate amount of damage with a dispel.
- JKA is almost an auto-include. He nets almost 23% Offense (depending on how mods stack with Leader abilities, I'm assuming worst-case) which means he'll be throwing out nearly as much damage as when he leads, with a 20% Speed bump and Foresight. He brings great damage and is a punishing high-priority target.
- Yoda is another power include. Being the fastest Jedi means he gets the most Offense bonus, and is a great character besides with powerful buffs. On top of that, he's been given a zeta ability that will allow Battle Meditation to grant Foresight to all allies and have 1 less turn CD.
- Ahsoka is a strong fit, but not as good as the others. The Foresight spam might mean she can basically keep her unique at full power the entire time, which means she can continue to hit hard over and over again, being a pain in the ass.
- Aayla, while normally a solid character, doesn't really fit. Her biggest scare is her strong counter-attack, which doesn't trigger every time foresight goes off. In addition, the bonus speed means that she'll be attacking even less via counter-attack. She would hit like a truck and the stun is a nice bonus, but is also hurt by having a lower speed than some of the other options.
- Old Ben is... interesting. My first thought was to discount him and go for a facepunching team, but he just may make the cut. His incredible debuff can be spammed pretty fast when he's at effectively 148 base speed - in case that doesn't mean anything to you, that's 3 speed behind Jawa Engineer. If you can manage to get 4 more speed on your mods than JE you're facing, Old Ben could effectively give you hilariously easy wins against droid teams.
- Jedi Knight Guardian actually could be viable... just kidding.
- Other Jedi - Barriss, Koth, etc, are all still trash. Kenobi would theoretically be good but let's stick with characters people have. Plo Kloon and Mace Windu are the borderline viable toons, but they're just not good enough nor do they especially benefit from QGJ's ability.
What about non-jedi? Considering them is kind of rough, as they're at a pretty massive disadvantage - 30 speed, and about 450 offense, and they miss free Foresight. So with that in mind I expect tanky characters that won't miss the Foresight and main trick isn't damage.
- STHan is the obvious first choice. He adds impressive TM gain, and pairs beautifully with Old Ben and JKA, two characters we're probably going to include in most variations of the squad. His offense isn't why he's brought and though the speed loss is regrettable, he often doesn't get much useful from leads anyways (OB and Lando being notable, but uncommon, exceptions). In addition in some cases, missing Foresight is even advantageous for him.
- B2 is an interesting alternative to STHan. It trades TM gain for AoE dispel / buff immunity debuff. However, I think it takes a hit considering that it doesn't gain anything from the lead and the Foresight spam actually counters its unique ability.
- EP is the only support toon that's worth considering. His AoE stun would pair quite nicely with the absurd speed / TM gain of this team.
- Other tanks (Sun Fac, Shore Trooper, etc) don't synergize as well.
- Other DPS toons (Lando, Wedge/Biggs, etc) lose too much from lacking the lead bonus.
So let's look at squads:
1) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / Ahsoka / Old Ben
This is probably the best 5x Jedi combo, but I'm not sure that the added damage of Ahsoka outweighs the TM gain STHan would give to the other 3 DPS.
2) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / Old Ben / STHan
... which is why this squad exists. STHan doesn't get the damage gain, but adds significant TM to the other DPS.
3) QGJ / JKA / Ahsoka / B2 / STHan
B2 / STHan are a popular pairing in the current meta thanks to their obvious synergy and they protect two toons that will hit like trucks. But they don't work well with foresight and don't gain anything from the lead.
4) QGJ / JKA / Yoda / EP / STHan
This team is just about letting JKA and EP having free reign to do whatever they want to the other team. Yoda's Battle Meditation improvement is probably key to make this machine work.
