Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Ice Dragon]

On a side note, I've been seeing a lot of Selena in the arena today. Do people still not know that bonus heroes don't matter for your defense line-up or are people just that lazy to not make separate teams?

[DehNutCase]

16 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

On a side note, I've been seeing a lot of Selena in the arena today. Do people still not know that bonus heroes don't matter for your defense line-up or are people just that lazy to not make separate teams?

I'm usually one of the lazy people, only swapped to using 2 teams recently. Might even go back to only using slot 1 for my arena teams once I need the team slots, too.

 

Edit: It's not like having an optimal defense team even matters, if your core is good enough usually you get a couple wins per season regardless.

Edited April 8, 2017 by DehNutCase

[Fei Mao]

@Ice Dragon Probably the latter, or maybe they're hoping that Selena's reposition skill might mess someone up. Also, congrats on your new score, very nice.

[Roflolxp54]

Whew, finally got an Arena offense score of over 4001; got 4197, not deathless. A lot of trouble this week (may have something to do with Michalis having a higher BST than Ursula does).

Got 2 defenses total from the following team leaders: Narcian and Ryoma.

So yay, 3K feathers at the very least!

Edited April 8, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[MaskedAmpharos]

Update: score of 4642 (really don't think I'm getting any higher in the near future) has me at rank 548. 

My rank is decreasing slower than I expected. Maybe this means I'll actually stay in top 1k this season? :O

[Ice Dragon]

Okay, I got really, really bored waiting for the Voting Gauntlet cooldown to go away and decided to see just how high of an arena score I could get with the usual team. I ended up picking only fights worth 660 points or more.

Ended up with a score of 4,634, which is now my new personal record. Waiting for the hour to update rank.

 

I am now seriously considering merging a Sophia (going to need a base with a better nature, though, preferably [+Atk, -Spd]) for serious arena use because she's been doing so well. What is this world coming to?

It's just going to be annoying when the bonus heroes change and I have to switch up my team again. I'm really liking this team.

[BANRYU]

9 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Okay, I got really, really bored waiting for the Voting Gauntlet cooldown to go away and decided to see just how high of an arena score I could get with the usual team. I ended up picking only fights worth 660 points or more.

Ended up with a score of 4,634, which is now my new personal record. Waiting for the hour to update rank.

 

I am now seriously considering merging a Sophia (going to need a base with a better nature, though, preferably [+Atk, -Spd]) for serious arena use because she's been doing so well. What is this world coming to?

It's just going to be annoying when the bonus heroes change and I have to switch up my team again. I'm really liking this team.

What's your team setup and Sophia build if you don't mind my asking?

[DehNutCase]

16 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Okay, I got really, really bored waiting for the Voting Gauntlet cooldown to go away and decided to see just how high of an arena score I could get with the usual team. I ended up picking only fights worth 660 points or more.

Ended up with a score of 4,634, which is now my new personal record. Waiting for the hour to update rank.

 

I am now seriously considering merging a Sophia (going to need a base with a better nature, though, preferably [+Atk, -Spd]) for serious arena use because she's been doing so well. What is this world coming to?

It's just going to be annoying when the bonus heroes change and I have to switch up my team again. I'm really liking this team.

Sophia does have very well distributed stats, all things considered. Lowest speed in the game means that she has the fewest stat points 'wasted.' Speed more than 10 below the person you're fighting doesn't matter at all (and 10 is only if you're fighting someone with a brave weapon).

It helps that green is the weakest physical color---Minerva has the best offenses at 31/33, compared to Cordelia's 35/35 and Lucina's 34/36 or Hana's 35/36. Colorless has Kagero at 35/32, Gaius at 29/36, or Takumi at 32/33.

Edit: Oh wait, they have Raven at 34/35, how did I miss him?

Nevermind everything I wrote, I guess---but then again, no one uses Raven. Although now that I know his stats, I'll be looking for one.

Edited April 8, 2017 by DehNutCase

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

What's your team setup and Sophia build if you don't mind my asking?

Parentheses are changes relative to vanilla:

5-star +0 Sophia [=] (Triangle Adept 3)
5-star +10 Robin (M) [+Spd, -Res] (Close Counter, Quick Riposte 3)
5-star +10 Ninian [+Spd, -Res] (vanilla, Fortify Dragons)
5-star +9 Julia [=] (vanilla)

 

Rank updated: 667.

[BANRYU]

@Ice Dragon Ahh gotcha, pretty straightforward so far then. You gonna be shooting for the ol' Raven Adept build? Yeah she might well be the best Raudrraven user of the bunch, she's got better defense for tanking arrows/poison daggers than any other red mage except Henry, but much better offense than him. I wasn't sure about her being able to stand out at first but it seems like a pretty promising niche for her. 

Edited April 8, 2017 by BANRYU

[Alfred Kamon]

40 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

 

Update: score of 4642 (really don't think I'm getting any higher in the near future) has me at rank 548.

 

Damn man, you got me.

I scored 4640, ranking #581.

...It's impressive that you lose 40 positions with only 2 points of difference anyway, wow. ò_o

8 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

5-star +0 Sophia [=] (Triangle Adept 3)
5-star +10 Robin (M) [+Spd, -Res] (Close Counter, Quick Riposte 3)
5-star +10 Ninian [+Spd, -Res] (vanilla, Fortify Dragons)
5-star +9 Julia [=] (vanilla)

 

Rank updated: 667.

Congrats for your ranking.

That really seems like a full mage team haha. What are the units that are giving you the most trouble?

[eclipse]

15 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Nevermind everything I wrote, I guess---but then again, no one uses Raven. Although now that I know his stats, I'll be looking for one.

If mine wasn't -Spd, he'd see a lot more use.  I think this particular one will need Life and Death and a Killer Axe to truly shine, but that's 60,000 feathers.

Anyway, slightly bumped my arena score up to 4,383, which is enough for 22,420.

[MaskedAmpharos]

1 minute ago, Alfred Kamon said:

Damn man, you got me.

I scored 4640, ranking #581.

...It's impressive that you lose 40 positions with only 2 points of difference anyway, wow. ò_o

Oh wow, I didn't think I'd actually beat you. I remember seeing your posts in previous seasons, and you're usually a little bit above me, I think.

And yeah, Arena is brutal. That's a lot for only 2 points .__.

[Alfred Kamon]

17 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Oh wow, I didn't think I'd actually beat you. I remember seeing your posts in previous seasons, and you're usually a little bit above me, I think.

Really? :) You've made great improvements to your team, then! I got 10 extra BST on mine by changing Ninian for Spring Xander with Fury, therefore I also get more points now. If you were scoring less than me before, that either means that you've improved your BST significantly, or that the matchmaking put you against highly valued players.

22 minutes ago, eclipse said:

If mine wasn't -Spd, he'd see a lot more use.  I think this particular one will need Life and Death and a Killer Axe to truly shine, but that's 60,000 feathers.

Anyway, slightly bumped my arena score up to 4,383, which is enough for 22,420.

Congrats, eclipse.

Raven is pretty good anyway, but since Atk and Spd are his best stats, you should probably wait for one with a better nature instead of investing 60k feathers on that one. not that you really wanted to do that, I think

Edited April 8, 2017 by Alfred Kamon

[Ice Dragon]

4 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

@Ice Dragon Ahh gotcha, pretty straightforward build then. You gonna be shooting for the ol' Raven Adept build? Yeah she might well be the best Raudrraven user of the bunch, she's got better defense for tanking arrows/poison daggers than any other red mage except Henry, but much better offense than him. I wasn't sure about her being able to stand out at first but it seems like a pretty promising niche for her. 

If I ever get around to it, she'll be running Raudhrraven+ so that she can hold the fort if I ever need to sub out Robin. There isn't really anything I absolutely need her to double attack since I can usually get Ninian in position to dance for her, so I'll probably just leave her passive B skill empty for the time being.

She might end up with Swordbreaker because I have way too many Abels taking up space and it helps give her something else to do since she literally doesn't care about taking hits from green units.

I'm also tossing around the idea of putting one of Noontime, Sol, or Aether on her mostly for kicks since Dragon Fang is plenty useful as it charges really fast when half the teams I fight have Nino on it.

 

7 minutes ago, Alfred Kamon said:

Congrats for your ranking.

That really seems like a full mage team haha. What are the units that are giving you the most trouble?

Thanks!

I think Tharja is the only legitimate threat for my team right now. Ninian needs Triangle Adept to tank boosted Tharja, and I don't have a donor yet.

I figure Horse Emblem would cause me trouble, but my team's stat total appears to be too high to ever be matched against such a team.

Other than that, I think I'm least well prepared to handle a mono-blue team because I don't have a green tank, and Julia misses one-round kills against a fair number of key blue units like +Spd Ephraim, Fury Ephraim, and Sharena. I really should give her Death Blow.

 

Also, I will cry if I ever see my Wall of Fire and Sharp Things dream team as an arena defense team.

 

5 minutes ago, Alfred Kamon said:

Raven is pretty good anyway, but since Atk and Spd are his best stats, you should probably wait for one with a better nature instead of investing 60k feathers on that one. not that you really wanted to do that, I think

Well, when the April update hits, she'll be able to merge the upgraded Raven into a new Raven and get all of the inherited skills passed over, so it's not a complete loss.

[Ledrert]

What kind of team is that... So pitiful...

Spoiler

 

[Alfred Kamon]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I think Tharja is the only legitimate threat for my team right now. Ninian needs Triangle Adept to tank boosted Tharja, and I don't have a donor yet.

I figure Horse Emblem would cause me trouble, but my team's stat total appears to be too high to ever be matched against such a team.

Other than that, I think I'm least well prepared to handle a mono-blue team because I don't have a green tank, and Julia misses one-round kills against a fair number of key blue units like +Spd Ephraim, Fury Ephraim, and Sharena. I really should give her Death Blow.

 

Also, I will cry if I ever see my Wall of Fire and Sharp Things dream team as an arena defense team.

Yeah that makes sense. inb4 you get matched against a +10 horse emblem team

Horse Emblem is quite uncommon as of now anyway, so that doesn't really pose a threat. People are probably waiting for Xander and Camus, which are great, at least until the meta doesn't become filled with merged units. I think they missed a great opportunity to make Ephraim/Eirika the best mounted units in the game... but oh well, they still are good as infantry units.

As for Julia, I do agree with you on Death Blow. That's life-changing; I know you're waiting for the new "equippable item" mechanic before starting to invest your SP, but you should really consider that.

...What are the Wall of Fire and Sharp Things?

5 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Well, when the April update hits, she'll be able to merge the upgraded Raven into a new Raven and get all of the inherited skills passed over, so it's not a complete loss.

That's also true.

I just hope that you'll pass the learnt skills, and not the learnable skills. It'd be such a pain in the neck to collect all the SP over and over again. On that note, I wrote to the development team asking for confirmation on this point, but they said that they couldn't reveal that information, and invited me to wait for the update. Sigh.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Alfred Kamon said:

...What are the Wall of Fire and Sharp Things?

The third team here:

 

[Ryu Yuki]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

The third team here:

 

That dragon team you have there looks really sexy. By the way, congrats on your Arena Score! It's great that you've gotten a new high score. I think it might even be the same as mine from the last batch of bonus heroes. Unfortunately, after blowing absolutely everything for my second Ninian, I can only resort to Michalis this season.

[eclipse]

18 minutes ago, Alfred Kamon said:

Congrats, eclipse.

Raven is pretty good anyway, but since Atk and Spd are his best stats, you should probably wait for one with a better nature instead of investing 60k feathers on that one. not that you really wanted to do that, I think

Thanks~!

My eventual goal is to make Raven a hybrid of Alphonse/Anna, via Life and Death and Desperation.  He'll keep Sol/Threaten Defense, so that he can continuously heal himself.

It's probably not the most solid arena plan, but it looks like fun.  Parting with a 5* Hana/Minerva and Beruka/Hawkeye and Shanna (no I'm not sacrificing Navarre), not so much.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Score of 4513

• Ground Zero (6PM PST Apr 6) - #5392
• 22 Hours Later - #6588
• 34 Hours Later - #7235

Improved my score to 4562, but it's late and I'm crashing, so I'll just grab the ranking in the morning. >.>

Spring Lucina is kinda starting to be useful as a buff/debuff bot, since she still has Seal Res and Rally Speed, then I added Hone Attack 3. Had one major turning point where between Hector's Spur Atk and Spring Lucina's Rally Speed, Marth was just barely able to double and one-round a tricked-out Ryoma. Hector's also been doing lots of front-line work here. Tanked out a Spring Chrom, one-shot a Nino and a Linde, as well as one-rounding a M!Robin. One-rounded a couple Nowis (with buff help against one particularly tricked-out one, though). Overall very happy with how Hector turned out, which is a great relief since I had to bench Spring Chrom after putting a ton of work into him.

Since I've got a solid new score now, thinking of trying to break out that BBGG team over the weekend.

[DLNarshen]

Finally managed to string together a deathless run with this team.

In other words, I went seven battles without encountering a Nino, who tears this squad a new one.  A Lilina that didn't move the way I wanted gave me a scare in the last match, but this can serve as one of the few times I'm glad my Catria is +Res.  I really need to start developing a counter for Nino, Julia, and other troublesome Mages.  None of my 5*s are adept with dealing with them at all.

[shadowofchaos]

8 hours ago, Fei Mao said:

:thumbs up:

Wow, first time I saw someone use Harold on their team, any reason for using him instead of another green unit?

I don't have any other units with Emerald Axe and Lancebreaker that isn't a flier that dies to Takumi instantly.

At least until now. My Michalis finally had Iote's Shield and is on the way to level 40 (currently 28).

Edited April 8, 2017 by shadowofchaos

[Rezzy]

Well Defense Wins are crazy.  Last week, I had one.  This week I have six.

My team is pretty much the one I use for Offense, minus whichever bonus character I switch in.  Julia, Abel, Baby Tiki, Takumi.

[GuiltyLove]

I got 4185. It's my highest score to date. It wasn't deathless, but whatever. I can't wait until the arena gets updated. At least I'll get the feathers for breaking 4k!