GAC Strategy

= Know YOUR roster = YOUR (deliberately shouting!) roster matters, NOT a hypothetical one assuming the best team compositions for each faction, which you may see from streamers.

There are two types of roster, which greatly influence a reliable GAC strategy.
 * Top heavy: high relics on a smaller number of characters/teams. Built for Squad arena, Raids, TBs, not foremost for GAC.
 * Broad: lower or no relics on a wide number of characters/teams. Ideal for GAC as matchups are based on GP of top N number of toons.

More thoughts about strategy for different roster compositions: https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/comment/1925221/#Comment_1925221

Top heavy

 * Full clear is absolute priority. Aim is to win on efficiency. Because you have high relics, you should be able to undersize many teams.
 * Setting offense/defense is pretty straightforward: reserve for offense enough teams to beat opponent's defense (+1/2 for mistakes), and then put remaining best teams on defense (mix it up from match to match though!).
 * Defense should consist of cheesy, unusual and banner-stealing teams. Do not expect any holds, but you may get lucky.
 * Strong offense - Tiers:
 * A 33%-50%
 * B 33%-50%
 * C 0-33%
 * Defense tiers:
 * A 0%
 * B 0-33%
 * C 66%-100%

Broad

 * Can afford a heavier defense, as you have a broad roster of ideal counters for offense. 'Ideal' means good mechanics with lower gear, can 'punch-up' tiers - e.g. RJT is an ideal B tier counter to many A teams
 * Can two-shot teams on offense, because you have the depth and can assume that opponent will stumble on your defense to offset two-shotting
 * Strong/medium offense - Tiers:
 * A 33%
 * B 33%-50%
 * C 33%-50%
 * Defense tiers:
 * A 0-33%
 * B 33%-66%
 * C 33%-66%

Tiers
There is no official Tier list, and some of these ratings are debatable. The Tier list is only to help you analyse your own roster, weigh up offsense/defense for GAC, and assumes ideal team compositions and consistent gear levels. In regard to offense/defense, keep in mind that sometimes are inherently preferably for offense/defense due to banner recovery, or lack thereof (see other section of this page for details).

Videos:
 * Top 10 Squads in SWGoH (non-GL edition) - 4 August 2021 - covers A-B teams, re: above table

= Approach =
 * 1) Scout opponent using swgoh.gg and DSR bot and write list of their best teams. DSR bot just gives you a guide of their overall strength
 * 2) Check GAC history and see what teams they usually use for defense. Add a note next to their best teams to indicate that this best team is usually used. Of course, there is no guarantee that they will use the same defense (but there is a good chance!), but it can help you prioritise counters in the next step.
 * 3) Reserve counters to their best teams for offense. Optionally, create a tab for these (copy from one tab to another to save time) and add a description of the enemy team, so that if/when you see those teams on defense, you can just click on them and fight.
 * 4) Put best defense teams split between front territories. 'Make them pay' to see the back character territory
 * 5) Use as much cheese and unconventional as possible in defense. Try to trap the bottom territory, e.g. opponent burns Traya on Mon Mothma on front, with Geos hidden in back

If little chance of winning, consider sneaky tactics like B teams on front, otherwise best defence on front If no chance of winning, throw down shit for defence and keep the best for offence

= Top tips =
 * For matches with ships, many players put a single hard-to-beat team on their backwall, so try to see the non-ship-side backwall before taking out the ship-side frontwall
 * Many players wait for their opponent to take a turn, so you can panic them by planning your attack ahead of time, but waiting for the last moment to attack too
 * Scout opponent and come up with defence teams they don't have good counters too. Or if deliberately sacrificing, teams they have good counters too
 * Use DSR Bot, e.g. ,ga 816345254 865936716
 * Come up with unusual defence teams where possible, as opponent more likely to underkill/overkill
 * Don't wait until the last hour or two to attack. Need to take relaxed time to consider offence otherwise you'll make silly mistakes
 * General strategy:
 * A good strategy is to look at opponents roster and pick their defensive teams based on those commonly used.
 * Then reserve offensive team to counter them (hard or soft counter) then organise defence
 * Have to determine which offensive team will go against which of their enemy teams. e.g. Empire could go against BH (soft counter) or something less hard (Phoenix or Rogue One - Hard counters)
 * Game is won on offence, especially at higher level. Not uncommon for both teams to full clear or nearly						Analdt says this too

= Gaming GAC divisions and rounds =
 * Avoid being promoted to next league by not collecting feats until the next round starts. It's possible (not confirmed) that even losing one of your matches in first round may result in better overall outcome (in some circumstances)
 * Unconfirmed speculation: join later in the sign-up period for easier matchups: https://youtu.be/mzP7RdkHwyo?t=2169

= Mods =
 * Fastest mods should go on defense teams, as need less speed with manual control
 * Mod for speed and check your opponent speeds on key characters like BSF and Bossk

= Offense and Defense =

Offense
Videos:
 * GAC Q&A - 60 x 100; what teams are max banner (60 or 54) options close to 100% of the time?

Burner teams

 * When is it a good idea to burn a team?

Undersize teams

 * CLS Trio
 * Sith Triumvirate
 * JKR/GMY/Jolee and Bastilla/Ezra/Jedi tank - sometimes switch GMY with Ezra if don't need the offense with JKR
 * Other 3v3 teams

Defense

 * Place teams that strip banners, especially those with aoe. e.g. Nightsisters MT
 * Fastest mods should go on defense teams, as need less speed with manual control

The best defensive teams are generally the best teams overall (the best offensive teams are not necessarily the 'best teams' however). Also considered good for defense are those teams that:
 * may lose but still strip banners, either by going under protection (e.g. Nightsisters) or blowing 1 or more characters up (GG)
 * are played relatively well by the AI (AKA O.P) (or have such a simplistic kit that the AI can't do that bad - e.g. Geos, Clonetroopers)
 * are NOT needed for specific counter (e.g. Traya would NOT be a good defense team as a good counter team)
 * team with toons that can one-shot (Spy, Han Solo)
 * Guaranteed out-speeds or outgears - which is situational
 * teams that can put out buff immunity to prevent health/protection regen -
 * teams with aoe

It is assumed that the team will be defeated, but it will still take away decent banners.

Teams:
 * Nightsisters - go under protection to strip banners
 * Greivous - may lose but will take out members of other team
 * Geos - simple kit played well by AI
 * Clonetroopers (Rex lead best) - simple kit played well by AI
 * FO with Sith Trooper nuke - may lose but will take out members of other team

Videos:
 * GAC - Defense Planning - How I Get Most Results With Least Time

= Articles = Best Offensive/Defensive Teams for Maximizing GAC Banners

= Scouting = Articles:
 * Scouting

Videos:
 * SCOUTING A MID-LEVEL PLAYER IN GAC
 * Comprehensively scout your opponent in 10 minutes!

= General info =

Meta teams

 * GAC Meta
 * 5v5 GAC META REPORT - Based on the analysis of 2.7 million battles - Part 1/3: Defensive meta

Matchup tools

 * Grand Arena Manager Tool (Google Sheets)
 * SWGoH Squad Builder Spreadsheet
 * GAC Battle Calculator

Scoring
For 8v8 - scoring: Grand Arena Championships

Team planning
https://wiki.swgoh.help/wiki/Grand_Arena_Championships

Budget teams
Vid: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryreTdIyhJY BEST Cheap Teams For Grand Arena! 1 Zeta/Low Gear]
 * Clones - 1/2 Zetas on Shaak Ti
 * Geos - 1/2 Zetas on GBA
 * Empire - 1 Zeta on Vader
 * Bounty Hunter - 1/2 Zetas on Bossk
 * First Order - 1/2 Zetas on KRU/Hux
 * Nest - Zeta optional, but helpful
 * Wampa - Omicron optional, but helpful

= Articles =
 * GaC let's talk strategy
 * How to reach Kyber League

= Videos =
 * TOP 6 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM 5v5 EXPANDED DIVISIONS (featuring SoloBass15)
 * Grand Arena Strategy - Bitcoin
 * 5 tips to improve your ranking in GAC
 * Grand Arena Strategy - from Calvin Awesome
 * Grand Arena Strategy - from Bitcoin
 * Grand arena 5v5 defense strategy - standard vs experimental defense
 * GAC strategy on how I set my defense
 * GAC Methods How I Prepare for My Grand Arena Matchups
 * Grand Arena HACKS Everyone Should Know!! WIN MORE GACs