Commander Focus #35: Jones

[Anakin]

Jones

Endless Tide

Single attack, deals 188% S-ATK damage and activates shields for all friendly ships. Each shield's HP equals to 500% S-ATK of Jones, lasting for two rounds.

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Hello, Commanders.

In this week handbook we are going to discuss about commander Jones. The concept of Jones is not bad, even if repetitive. He can give individual shields for all his allies like Geoffrey, but at least this time Tap didn't make it to be a fixed value, so Jones can (or could, maybe) last longer than the blonde protector. This is a very positive thing about the pirate and that is the first problem also. Jones' shield is based on his s-atk attribute, so that means he needs to be very good equipped to be worth to use. We can see a very strong Jones in DKK fleet. I've seen him in action very few times with my main account, but I've faced him a few times with fristert's account. With Anakin account I normally avoided him to fire his shield, but with fristert he normally fires his shield and stay alone (shouldn't him protect the others? :P ) in the battle field before he dies (not always, but in most of the battles I've watched).
In my opinion Jones is not a bad commander, but he is not famous and more used, because Tap released a crazy protector before him and you all know I'm talking about Raksha. The big difference here is that Raksha doesn't need too much things to be a good commander in the field. I'm not trying to say that you can just put anything in Raksha and beat everybody, but the 70% damage reduction is crazy even if Raksha is not very well equipped. And the second and, in my opinion, the most important factor about Raksha's advantage is that he can make the fleet invisible.
Ok, let's try to expand this concept: now a day we have a lot of ways to remove Raksha's damage reduction, so, kill him is not so hard as once it was. In this perspective Jones is a bigger tanker, as even without the shield that may be removed he has better attributes, although, if Jones fleet is attacked by a debuffer everybody in the fire line will be hit, when in Raksha's team, even if he is debuffed his team will be invisible. So, in my opinion, in most of the cases Raksha will give a better protection to the team.
I saw this in Drakoxa's team. He is not a fan of protectors, but he is still using Raksha, because of his tactical importance. The most important here is that before Raksha he was using Jones and he confirmed my thoughts.
Another problem with protectors is Kit. She can be a pain for them, but with so many Galaxy Lords in the game it is hard to know when the enemy will try to sustain the hit and counter with a protector as first hit. Kit is a problem, but use her early can be a problem. And another thing, now a days we have Jackie, Krill, Knous and Hebert as must haves, so is Kit a good option for a standard formation like the ones we normally use to defend? I think because of this protectors gained an indirect buff, but the problem is still there for them.
This time the handbook was not long, but I'd like to read even more opinions. What do you think about Jones? Is he a must have? Do you have him? Have problems against him? Please, join the discussion and maybe help me to figure more about this hard to kill protector.

See you in the Galaxy!

[JLeroux]

Thanks for this look as Jones and in all honesty I didn't really see why to get Raksha or Jones but unfortunately (or perhaps some will so fortunately) I gotten both somehow free or at very low price from the Celestial portal events. You will perhaps say nice, but even now I don't use either of them and I have been wondering if I should use Raksha which seems to have the most value over any other if my commander (like Cynthia)? I don't like to play defense, so I play more to try and kill as quick as possible (when possible).

Doesn't Raksha you problems? Yes he does at times, and frankly more often with players of lower force who fire first while if they fire second it typically is going in my favor... And Jones, well I only came across him a few times and I can recall only once that I lost but that Jones was quite high augmented.

[Nachteule]

For me Jones and his ship are among the coolest by graphical design. But with all the Accu rechargers life is hard for Protectors... The current threats for fleet are mass destruction like Galaxy Lord, Rick, Brian and mass debuffing like Azrael, Cynthia, Knous... in both cases I prefer Raksha.

Without practical experience I guess it's also easier to equip your fleet with Raksha. Raksha needs your best defensive stuff and you can still give your best offensive weapons to your best killers. With Jones you have to put as much as you can into his attack capability and probably weaken your attackers.

[Pablitus]

I have used Jones and every day I like it more, I see Jones JDJ and I can understand its hardness