Gauntleteers
Team Zero
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in Ready Room
Outside of the 'big 4' (still waiting for Guinan to drop) who is likely to fill an important slot most frequently?
Not gone after Kahless as yet, is he worth it? One fleet member threatens to airlock him at least a couple of times a week. Captain Bev, accidentally bought her, but not progressed her (don't see her as an opponent very often).
Used the skirmish to move Boothby and Surak to L100, can probably do one or two more in the time left.
2nd copies of Locutus/ Armus/ Gary 7?
Is there someone that could be sitting there in my crew at L10 that turns out a 25/45/65 crit a couple of times a month?
Not gone after Kahless as yet, is he worth it? One fleet member threatens to airlock him at least a couple of times a week. Captain Bev, accidentally bought her, but not progressed her (don't see her as an opponent very often).
Used the skirmish to move Boothby and Surak to L100, can probably do one or two more in the time left.
2nd copies of Locutus/ Armus/ Gary 7?
Is there someone that could be sitting there in my crew at L10 that turns out a 25/45/65 crit a couple of times a month?
0
Comments
I fall on the side of Kahless not being worth the Honor, myself.
I do have multiple copies of Armus, Locutus, and Guinan, but really only use the 2nd copies when they get a 65% trait bonus (currently Guinan is pulling double duty due to that).
I also tend to go with my powerhouse crew in Gauntlet over going deep with lesser proficiency crew who have those trait bonuses, unless they're pretty near the top of that proficiency list anyway. But if you don't believe in that strategy, a few crew do seem to match traits more often than others — some examples being Obsidian Order Garak and GoE Troi.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
CMD:
Often used: Kahless (yes I would suggest to go for him if you have the honor), Away team Number One
Less used: Mirror Picard, Marshal of France Q (Prince Bashir, Interfaced Barclay)
DIP:
Often used: Locutus, Guinan
Less used: Gowron (Mambo Picard)
ENG:
Often used: Caretaker
Less used: Assimilated LaForge
SEC:
Gary Seven/Away team Michael Burnham/Gangster Spock (depends on crit/featured skill)
MED: (I don't have defensive Phlox, he would be possibly my go to guy)
Often used: Twillight T'Pol, Sulan
Less used: Mirror Phlox, Garland
SCI:
Often used: Armus,Away Team Number One,Boothby,Gary Seven (depends on features Skill)
Less used: Seven of Nine, Commander Ari bn Bern,Surak
I've added Gangster Spock, Admiral Nechayev, Mambo Picard, Away Team Number One and Bem to my 'to do' list, as and when I have the time.
The closest thing to a third auto-include is Defensive Phlox, I'd say I run him about 90-95% of the time, only benching him when Sulan gets a crit bonus or during a Guinan Gauntlet.
Armus isn't necessarily bad, but he is definitely less useful than Caretaker and Locutus, and Armus is also regularly dominated by Away Team Number One and Gary Seven, who both see crit bonuses more often than Armus does.
I do not use my Kahless as often as I used to, but he still gets used, I believe if you drop 100K Honor on him it will probably be worth it, just be warned that his mins are really low so expect him to lose more often than you think he should.
I used to use both Surak and Boothby all the time, but I haven't really used either since I finally got my Locutus; Locutus even on a 5% crit is still good against both Surak and Boothby when they have a 25%.
Other than that, the only other crew that i use occasionally are Seven of Nine, Gowron, Admiral Nacheyev, and Gunshow Picard, but all of those at this point are very rare.
Assimilated La Forge
Conflicted Sisko
Emotion Chip Data
Gary Seven
Interfaced La Forge
Mambo Picard
Revolutionary Damar
Sulan
Survivalist Kirk
Most of them are only used in ENG Gauntlets. I have Enabran Tain, but I favor Revolutionary Damar because his min is so much higher than Tain's. I plan around getting weak rolls, rather than pin my hopes on getting high ones. If you get a behold with any of these and you don't have any of them, go with Gary Seven and give him your next four citations. But if you already have him, my next highest recommendation is Sulan. That dude has been critical for me for years.
Historically, Guinan, Armus, Gangster Spock, Sulan, and Mirror Phlox played key roles. They were replaced by Locutus, Gary Seven, and Defensive Phlox.
For more context:
I have all the gauntlet exclusives immortalized (Caretaker & Armus x2), so I've almost completely stopped playing for streaks or rank. My focus is getting merits, so I'm largely on auto-pilot when selecting crew. I can finish anywhere from 1-30 in most gauntlets without really trying to aim for rank. 1-5 might require a little more investment in strategy, but I usually don't care about overall rank.
Every now and then I might change things up either out of boredom or because I'm participating in a fleet gauntlet. Then I might consider primary skill and crits when choosing crew. For instance, if Mirror Picard gets a 25% crit but Kahless does not and SCI is the primary skill, I may choose Armus instead of Kahless or Gary Seven.
Meta game decisions quickly get complex and is dependent on who you have available and what you expect others to bring. Gauntlets closer to reset time tend to have more competitive players, so that can also change up who to expect.
I've never brought a dupe to gauntlet, but that probably has a lot to do with having so many options. I'd also prefer to have max skill coverage and bringing a dupe would make that even more difficult.
For reference, here are some of the other high prof crew I have:
CMD:
Mirror Picard, Admiral Nechayev (occasional use, meta/crit dependent)
Revolutionary Damar, Interfaced Barclay (rare use, meta/crit dependent)
DIP:
Gowron, Mambo Picard, Guinan (occasional use, meta/crit dependent)
Abraham Lincoln (rare use, meta/crit dependent)
ENG:
This is really all Caretaker, all the time. Before I had Caretaker, I think I used Augment Riker or Mirror La Forge primarily. Both are long since frozen.
I got Tempted Data about six months ago and have used him in 1, maybe 2 gauntlets. I might also rarely bring Assimilated La Forge meta/crit dependent. Never used Okona, One, or Etana Jol.
SEC:
Gangster Spock (occasional use, meta/crit dependent)
Mirror Shukar, Mirror Intendant Kira (rare use, meta/crit dependent)
MED:
Sulan, Captain Beverly Picard (rare use, meta/crit dependent)
Mirror Phlox is frozen - a crew slot is more useful to me at this point.
I haven't used Alternate Future T'Pol yet.
I've tried out Goddess of Empathy Troi at 65% crit, but I don't really like using two skill crew. Her second prof is so low I tend to effectively consider her a one skill crew.
In the way, way back, Sulan was an all star, with Alternate Future Bashir and Dark Ages McCoy seeing regular use.
SCI:
Armus, Surak (some occasional use, meta/crit dependent)
Seven of Nine, The Keeper, Boothby Replicant, Survivalist Kirk, Trelane (extremely rare use, meta/crit dependent)
Chaotica and Benny Russell used to get regular use in the early days of gauntlet.
Potential Gauntlet crew I haven't leveled: Ari bn Bem, Species 8472 Invader. Neither pick up crits often enough to prioritize leveling. In general terms of looking at unleveled crew for gauntlet, I will scroll down to bottom of the list and take a look at who has two traits for crits. I leveled Obsidian Order Garak because of this, then quickly realized he was crap even at 65% crit.
Missing potential Gauntlet crew: Away Team Number One, North Star Tucker, Enabran Tain. It might be nice to have Number One for occasional use, but the other two are only best of the worst behold options.
Regarding the honor hall exclusives specifically--
I bought Kahless early on, so he's more than made up his value in usage for me. It should also be noted he's a top 50 Voyager who you can't get from begolds. So not only gauntlet worthy, but voyage worthy and won't show up as an immortalized option in the portal. His skill set is common, but he's an all star in my book. Klingon trait also gets him some (increasingly rare) event work.
Captain Bev was a more recent purchase and was more for getting another MED/CMD voyager. I cited her outright for that purpose. I wouldn't buy her primarily for gauntlet usage unless she would have become my new top MED option.
Lots of advice/text etc. to read through, plenty good ... but really the only thing you really need is time.
- Just play a steady number of rounds a day and you'll get top 10 spots no problem.
Background
I dislike gauntlet and so don't play regularly, but recently I decided that I wanted to hit the Locutus achievement by the end of the year ... after crunching some numbers it means I have to play around 26 rounds A DAY to get Locutus on December 31st, 2020.
I've been tracking that number and it is slowly going down because I usually make 28-30 rounds.
Since I've started, the main side "benefit" has been end ranking ... don't think I've been outside of the Top 10 since ... my last 3 results have been 1st, 4th, 4th and I'm currently in 2nd with an excellent outlook for another top 10 finish ... even though my bonus crew are very limited (Antaak gets 65% in this MED gauntlet ... I didn't bring him along) it all comes down to the volume of rounds I manage to get in (not using Dil and only limited Merit refreshes).
Basically, I'm doing what @Bylo Band did a while ago to get Locutus, but I'm doing it the "cheapo" method.
I'm aware that my squad has good crew, but it really does have it's weaknesses (e.g. CMD).
I picked Phlox a long time ago for his then voyage benefit to my squad (that has since passed) and he could easily be replaced by many of the names mentioned above, many of whom I've used in the past when I was playing 5-10 rounds a day and altering my set-up based on skill/traits.
So, all I care about is making sure I play 26+ rounds a day, doesn't matter if a round is for 10 or 200 trophies, if I can win it I go for it. Sometimes I hit good streaks (30+ wins) but other times I'm stranded at 15 and then I just tank the remainer to get 4 extra rounds in.
My Squad
Each and every time, no matter the skill or bonus traits.
Locutus
Bartender Guinan
The Caretaker
Armus
Defensive Phlox.
Conclusion
- Would other crew work? Sure.
- Am I happy with my current run of results? Sure, I even picked up 550 Honor in extra stars for Guinan and Armus from loot boxes.
- Do I need other crew? Not really, top 10 is my goal each gauntlet ... if my goal was to win each one then maybe. All I know is I'm not picking any crew in a 5* behold because of their "gauntlet usefulness" ... events, voyages and collections have my preference.
- Am I lazy? Yes, I don't like the Gauntlet so I just pick the same crew over and over ... I know the strengths, weaknesses etc. and when to reroll ... I can't be bothered making balanced assessments each time I have to pick crew ... e.g. who should I switch out for Away Team Burnham in this SCI gauntlet? etc. etc.
EDIT ... just in case anyone wanted proof ... here's me and my squad, out of the running for the current gauntlet (MED - Klingon, Geneticist, Desperate) after 40 rounds today and 25 yesterday ... will I make top 10? maybe, sure why not, I figure most match-ups vs my crew in this gauntlet will be 50/50s? Am I happy with the results? Yes, with this crew I did the best I could. On to the next one ...
EDIT 2 ... yes, top 10 (loot boxes only contained 3* components) ... no one even took on my crew in the last 3+ hrs (same gauntlet score at end), so even though I didn't have the top bonus crew around, no one went for that 50/50 (and succeeded).
Yes, gauntlet would be boring if everyone sent the same 5 crew out each time, so I'm happy there are those who strategise ... but, if you're lazy (like me) and can't be bothered much, this is not a bad solution because the results are fairly decent, if you put the rounds in.
Up next ENG - Civilian, Cyberneticist, Explorer.
too expensive for limited use.