This may not be as big an issue on more mature shards, but I’m in a November shard where most are in the low 80s approaching 85 and just now getting zetas. Since no one in that recent a shard has JTR or even CLS, Empire teams are now ubiquitous in the top 20 of the arena. They destroy NS, and there is no real counter to them available once Palp gets his leader ability zeta. The problem is, this has made arena stale because whoever has the fastest Vader always wins. Go first, Force Crush, Cull, allies get 100 percent turn meter, game over.This feeds into a larger issue that I’m sure has been discussed as nauseum, but speed is seemingly the only stat that matters in arena, particularly with all the turn meter manipulation abilities. This game is in desperate need of some counter mechanics to speed. Passive abilities that punish toons who take frequent turns, abilities that boost evasion or other important stats scaling with opponent speed. Something. As it stands, it appears my shard will be “fastest Vader wins” for a few months. It’s a problem with the mature meta as well. This game desperately needs different ways to win to keep things from getting so stale.

Same story different characters.

"SoonerJBD;d-159426" wrote:This may not be as big an issue on more mature shards, but I’m in a November shard where most are in the low 80s approaching 85 and just now getting zetas. Since no one in that recent a shard has JTR or even CLS, Empire teams are now ubiquitous in the top 20 of the arena. They destroy NS, and there is no real counter to them available once Palp gets his leader ability zeta. The problem is, this has made arena stale because whoever has the fastest Vader always wins. Go first, Force Crush, Cull, allies get 100 percent turn meter, game over.This feeds into a larger issue that I’m sure has been discussed as nauseum, but speed is seemingly the only stat that matters in arena, particularly with all the turn meter manipulation abilities. This game is in desperate need of some counter mechanics to speed. Passive abilities that punish toons who take frequent turns, abilities that boost evasion or other important stats scaling with opponent speed. Something. As it stands, it appears my shard will be “fastest Vader wins” for a few months. It’s a problem with the mature meta as well. This game desperately needs different ways to win to keep things from getting so stale.Use rex lead mate.

"SoonerJBD;d-159426" wrote:The problem is, this has made arena stale because whoever has the fastest Vader always wins. Go first, Force Crush, Cull, allies get 100 percent turn meter, game over.You can still win if the other Vader goes first. I did yesterday, a few times. Yay for bad AI!This feeds into a larger issue that I’m sure has been discussed as nauseum, but speed is seemingly the only stat that matters in arena. Yes, speed is the most important, but speed alone does not win. I mean, TFP was supposed to be the chosen one, but he is mostly a nomad in search of a real home.Passive abilities that punish toons who take frequent turns ...Wouldn't that be something? Take massive damage just for taking a turn. Something like an undispellable Thermal Detonator stack, applied similar to Nihilus' Health Down debuff. Oh, you want to take a turn? Here's an automatic time bomb. If any stack reaches 3, all stacks on all enemy characters explode for double damage, ignoring protection. Slowest team wins. The only winning move is not to play.

Hahaha I can't wait for the upcoming Slow Meta.

Turn meter manipulation actually IS the counter mechanic to speed. Punishing characters that take frequent turns is something already present on the team you are running. Boosting evasion also exists - zMaul was meta for a while and many of us were miserable because evasion is awful.

Speed problem | EA Forums

PiffGuru12
7 years ago
"Mobewan;c-1466564" wrote:
@Liath
There is no counter to speed.
If you have two turn manipulation teams, the faster tram wins.
If you have two evasion trams, the faster team wins.

I would argue that plague is the anti speed. If I get plague on the enemy team and they go over and over then they are just killing them selves. Its happened to me many times using RJT vs NS.
Of course like anything else there are ways to deal with it, and it also does rely on getting that plague off in the first place which if the other team is really that much faster you may not be able to.
But Im just playing devils advocate here cause I agree, speed is king and will continue to be. I always found it interesting that in anime/manga you see the strongest people are considered the strongest most of the time based on how fast they are. The small skinny fast guy is gonna own the slow lumbering giant most of the time.
mobewan0527
7 years ago
@PiffGuru
I see your points about plague, and that you need to change up your team and strategy to deal with it.

My point to Lief is that speed isnt a strategy, it's a necessity to have a tough team, no matter what team you run. Some teams are more forgiving, but the faster they become, the tougher your team becomes.
BMDean
7 years ago
"Kiritoismyname;c-1466575" wrote:

Use rex lead mate.

Assuming an Empire squad is properly modded, Rex will never go first against Vader. He can’t get his ability off before Palp AOE stun.
BMDean
7 years ago
"EPMAN;c-1466579" wrote:
FO with Zylo lead can win against NS and Zader teams. They are even easy to farm for F2P

Zylo doesn’t have a leadership ability? Do you mean Kylo Unmasked? I’ve been running them, and they cannot match a Palp squad. Vader always goes first, Force Crush, Cull, and the entire Empire squad gets 100 percent turn meter. AOE Palp stun, Shoretrooper taunt and group crit immunity, Thrawn shatter. You will lost half your squad before you even get a turn.
BMDean
7 years ago
Regarding Plague, Palp squads have ended Nightsisters. There were several in my shard running them before the rework. They have all abandoned.

"TVF;c-1466592" wrote:
Hahaha I can't wait for the upcoming Slow Meta.

This is the real problem. People just seem willing to accept the game’s crappy balancing. A properly balanced game should give you multiple options for squad makeup as long as gear is at comparable levels.

The underlying problem is that when speed is the only stat that matters and squads aren’t properly balanced, everyone has to chase the same squad, and it’s just a question of who has that extra point of speed.

In a shard like mine, where no one was high enough to get JTR, there is literally no counter to Palp/Vader. So now everyone is running them and it’s gotten stale and boring. If you are in a more mature shard where JTR beats Palp and Palp beats NS and NS can beat JTR, you at least have some variety.
Player_8tu4qpm9
7 years ago
problem is that mods are imbalanced. the when comparing the secondary stats to each other, speed obviously provides a larger benefit than other secondaries.

that's should be the main purpose of 6 and 7 star mods, if they are to introduce them.

if the developers are to address this "issue", then they should increase speed by a small amount for 6 and 7 star mods while increasing the other secondary stats by a large amount e.g. maybe the highest speed secondary being 35 and other secondaries increasing to something like 17-18% protection or offense or something for 7 star mods.

while i don't know what the exact balance for the trade off of each secondary stats will be, this may be in the right direction
daddyngo007
7 years ago
Speed wins my friend
GoesDark
7 years ago
Han solo is anti fast character with his shoot first
Waquira
7 years ago
"SoonerJBD;c-1468105" wrote:
"Kiritoismyname;c-1466575" wrote:

Use rex lead mate.

Assuming an Empire squad is properly modded, Rex will never go first against Vader. He can’t get his ability off before Palp AOE stun.

Rex lead will still feed TM to your team when they are criticaly hit.

How do you fare in LS territory battles? ROLO lead is great against empire. TM when getting debuffed and foresight when damaged by empire enemies.
Waquira
7 years ago
"SoonerJBD;c-1468115" wrote:

This is the real problem. People just seem willing to accept the game’s **** balancing. A properly balanced game should give you multiple options for squad makeup as long as gear is at comparable levels.

There ARE multiple options. In fact I have rarely seen so many options as right now.

Furthermore, there are a variety of business models. This game is not based on balancing the various characters, but instead on letting power creep making it necessary to always farm/buy the new/reworked toons that are going to be the new shiny thing. And the game providers do quite well at this.