Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Otorio]

Currently running a triple brave weapon team this season.

1. 5* Hector

2. 5* Gordin

3. 5* Reinhardt

4. 4* Hana with a Brave Sword

These new maps are pretty nice! Finally some space to move around and actually kite the enemy without being blocked by walls/lava/forests. I definitely need to work on getting used to these terrain bonuses though. Standing on those things with a tanky unit just wrecks the enemy offense.

Edited May 9, 2017 by Otorio

[Jedrus Lilac]

8 hours ago, ignis_z said:

Mmm yesterday i was at 26500 in Coliseum, i just enter and 50060 and 1000 feather Orly? It is bugged? I had 4655 and finidhrd 50060?!

not possible- if you finished 50060 you would have gotten 500 feathers and not 1000. 1000 you get for finishing 30000 - 50000

[LordFrigid]

Welp...I did not plan on staying up this late, but I was trying to fix some computer issues and realized "oh hey it's midnight"...so I tried some Arena matches.

All those people who wanted things to be easier...this is it LOL. These new maps are nice and roomy, with plenty of room to maneuver, bait, and basically do whatever the heck you want while the enemy team tries to get to you. And then they do get to you and smack you for a pittance of damage because terrain is balanced.

I tried as many runs as I dared with a shiny new Hector (thanks Hero Fest!) before changing back to Nino for safer points, albeit with lower scores. Current streak is 5006 points, currently Rank 21. That's gonna tank fast =P .

Edit: Apparently the trusty flier team (+Anna) already picked up a Def win good for 578. I did not realize that the Defense scores got more reward tiers added until just now...900 feathers secured =P !

Edited May 9, 2017 by LordFrigid

[predator_21476]

Man I guess my team isn't made for this new arena when I can't get a deathless run which I could do fairly easily before. I managed to get my seven wins when I switched out Eirika for Ephraim but with him being merged I've run into +6 units whens he's only +1. 4,408 is not gonna be anywhere near enough to even stay in this tier. Gonna have to work something out. Maybe upgrade a mage to 5 stars instead of Sharena. 

If anyone is wondering my team is Ike (-Res + Def), +1 Ephraim (-Spd +Def), Azura (neutral), and Julia (-Atk +Res).

[MaskedAmpharos]

Tfw you don't notice Cherche has Wings of Mercy and she just teleports out of nowhere to delete your team ;__;

[Luchi]

Finally broke 4500+ to break into 4600+ territory. Already have a defence win. Against Ike, no less. >:)

[Vaximillian]

I wonder whether the ordinary maps will eventually be rotated back in.

[Xaos Steel Wing]

1 hour ago, predator_21476 said:

Man I guess my team isn't made for this new arena when I can't get a deathless run which I could do fairly easily before. I managed to get my seven wins when I switched out Eirika for Ephraim but with him being merged I've run into +6 units whens he's only +1. 4,408 is not gonna be anywhere near enough to even stay in this tier. Gonna have to work something out. Maybe upgrade a mage to 5 stars instead of Sharena. 

If anyone is wondering my team is Ike (-Res + Def), +1 Ephraim (-Spd +Def), Azura (neutral), and Julia (-Atk +Res).

I'm running into the same issue.

I guess it's time to start levelling up that Hector I just got, he'll be an absolute beast with the new defensive terrain.

Unfortunately, hte 2x Sp even is over so it will take a while to get him all the skills I want...

[predator_21476]

5 minutes ago, Xaos Steel Wing said:

I'm running into the same issue.

I guess it's time to start levelling up that Hector I just got, he'll be an absolute beast with the new defensive terrain.

Unfortunately, hte 2x Sp even is over so it will take a while to get him all the skills I want...

What team are you using? 

[Alkaid]

Hit 4,840 with Tharja/Cordelia/B Camilla/Ike. I actually like most of the new maps. Most of them make it easier to position to bait things, even not counting the defense tile bonuses. The map with the walls on each side is cancer though. I kept getting maximum meta teams including Azura on them, and I didn't want to move up to bait stuff like Linde or Kagero with B Camilla since if the Ryoma(which they all had too) got danced she was dead. Instead, having to wait for the enemy to move up on that wall map means they'll likely end up standing on one of the many fort tiles in the middle making it a lot harder to safely pick units off before they get too close.

[Jedrus Lilac]

I guess thats because you  are choosing advanced arena .

 

How many points would you get for a deathless win?

 

[SakuraFish]

Went into the new arena with my trusty team of Titania+1, Hector, Lilina and Sharena and managed to get myself a score of 4808 which should at least be enough to not get demoted.

Spoiler

while I really like the idea of defensive terrain on the maps, I personally think that there's a little too much of it. I had immense problems to actually lure the enemies in such a way that they won't get the cover, while not ending up cornered or getting in range of unfavourable match-ups. I also couldn't really utilize the terrain myself because it would usually result in leaving a unit (usually hector or sharena) in the range of to many enemies. Though I guess thats just me not being used to this sort of playstyle yet, and I actually like the challenge. I'm probably going to burn a few crests just to get a little practice going, at least I have like 60 of them.
Highlight of my run was definitely a 690 Battle with this as a lead:

Spoiler

I severely underestimated that little b****, as she put me into major trouble by teleporting and healing up that stupid Ike Sharena failed to ORKO thanks to a fort tile. This put me into pressure quite a bit, due to needing Sharena and Lilina team up on him, while a Nino, accompanied by Ephraim started to corner me. Thankfully Titania proved to be a champ by tanking both of them on a fort tile, while killing Eph on the counter, and finishing Nino in the next PP. Map was the one with the breakable Walls on both sides and the forts in the middle.
 

I hope that they will put back the old maps into the rotation at one point, maybe by combining all old Arenamaps into the first Season and the defensive terrain ones into the second Season. While quite a few of the old maps were cancerous (Bridge, Split and Lava Map say hi), there were also quite a few good ones.

I do not like the fact though that they raised the amount of feathers for defensive wins though, as they're random enough to get already, and loosing out on even more feathers because of this just sucks. The fact that Bonusheros are required for a maximum feathers on defense doesn't help either. Well, maybe some more people get tripped by the new arena, so there's always hope I guess.

[Xaos Steel Wing]

32 minutes ago, predator_21476 said:

What team are you using? 

Eirika Sharena Soren Takumi

I'm not sure what's going wrong. Maybe I just need to figure out how to play on these new maps.

I actually almost had a deathless run but I made one horrible mistake and it ended... So there's hope yet.

Nevertheless, when I train him up I'll bring in Hector, maybe instead of Takumi.

[predator_21476]

13 minutes ago, Xaos Steel Wing said:

Eirika Sharena Soren Takumi

I'm not sure what's going wrong. Maybe I just need to figure out how to play on these new maps.

I actually almost had a deathless run but I made one horrible mistake and it ended... So there's hope yet.

Nevertheless, when I train him up I'll bring in Hector, maybe instead of Takumi.

Were both only using one green mage and with how prominent mages are that may have something to do with it. It also could just be us not really utilizing the defence terrain properly. Also my last run got destroyed by a wings of mercy Ryoma which was unfortunate and really surprising I should've paid more attention to that one.  

[Xaos Steel Wing]

16 minutes ago, predator_21476 said:

Were both only using one green mage and with how prominent mages are that may have something to do with it. It also could just be us not really utilizing the defence terrain properly. Also my last run got destroyed by a wings of mercy Ryoma which was unfortunate and really surprising I should've paid more attention to that one.  

I'm also training up my brand new Nino. I'll switch her for Soren after this week. I might even try Nino and Soren if I'm still struggling. That would make me super weak to Red mages but those seem to not be as common as blue and green mages.

A lot of it indeed is just learning the new maps and how to use defensive terrain properly. It definitely requires some different movements, as now you have to factor terrain in, and ideally how to get the AI to attack you when you are on defensive terrain and the enemy is not. I'm starting to get the hang of it but maybe I'm just making mistakes because I'm tired.

[MrSmokestack]

1 hour ago, Vaximillian said:

I wonder whether the ordinary maps will eventually be rotated back in.

The new maps will rotate with the old ones every week, so both sets will be featured in a season.

What I'm wondering whether we still have two offense rotations or if all the old maps will be on the same rotation.

[Korath88]

11 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

The new maps will rotate with the old ones every week, so both sets will be featured in a season.

What I'm wondering whether we still have two offense rotations or if all the old maps will be on the same rotation.

Actually, I think all the old maps are gone. There's another set of 5 arena maps (with forts) that are not in this season.

[Rafiel's Aria]

These maps actually took me a little while to get used to. I decided to burn some crests since I still have 60+. My first run was pretty awful. Like...really awful. I survived, but I think I had at least one (sometimes two) deaths in each round. In my second attempt, I ended up dying. (Darn you Vantage!Ryoma!) Third attempt was almost deathless, but in my 6th battle, I ended up losing two units. But my final score ended up being 4610 which isn't bad. EDIT: I think my rank within the tier is 2681 unless it just hasn't updated yet.

I have plenty of time left this season to try for over 4700. The map with the with the square in the middle, water on either side, and the long pathways around (very descriptive, I know) is kind of a pain in the butt, especially if the other team is using dancers. 

The Arena team is kind of difficult now. Originally I was running Michalis, Nino, Olivia, and Robin. Now I have to work in a bonus unit somehow... I ended up reworking my team and decided to go all red: Lucina, Sanaki, Hana, and Olivia. IDK how that'll work. Usually all red teams don't give me much trouble. I'll see how they work out during the next few days...

Edited May 9, 2017 by Rafiel's Aria

[Xaos Steel Wing]

14 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I have plenty of time left this season to try for over 4700. The map with the with the square in the middle, water on either side, and the long pathways around (very descriptive, I know) is kind of a pain in the butt, especially if the other team is using dancers. 

 

For that map, I've found if you can split your units 2 and 2 and move them on the far edges of the map on the left and right, the AI will sometimes their units to the far edge tiles too so they're not on defense tiles. You can then move onto the defense tiles and can sometimes get a situation where the AI will attack you when you're on a def tile but they aren't.

So for this map I've found hanging back and trying to maneuver the AI off the defense tiles works. This is one of the few maps I seem to be doing well on...

[Rafiel's Aria]

9 minutes ago, Xaos Steel Wing said:

For that map, I've found if you can split your units 2 and 2 and move them on the far edges of the map on the left and right, the AI will sometimes their units to the far edge tiles too so they're not on defense tiles. You can then move onto the defense tiles and can sometimes get a situation where the AI will attack you when you're on a def tile but they aren't.

So for this map I've found hanging back and trying to maneuver the AI off the defense tiles works. This is one of the few maps I seem to be doing well on...

I'll have to give that a try. During my last attempt I was trying to get a Takumi to break off, but he seemed pretty content angsting behind everyone. I ended up getting backed into a corner on one side. It's definitely going to take some practice for sure. 

[mcsilas]

Loving these fortress maps, I've fought on the one with the lake in the middle the most- perfect for splitting up teams by baiting and for Cherche to snipe and kill :D

Trying to get more points per match- I'm averaging around the 660-670 mark (so two 5 stars, Olivia and bonus unit). How much of an effect to the score is it if I give my 5 star Merric a +1 merge? Or would I get more points if I add more skills instead?

Basically I have a spare 5 star Merric and I'm not sure if its better scoring wise to merge him or give his HP+5 to my 4 star Olivia (who already has Wings of Mercy 2) so that she has another maxed skill set with Hone Attack.

For those who have merges- at what point do the scarier opponent merges come into play? +5 maybe?

[bethany81707]

I noticed Klein had a harder time deleting on the defensive tiles. Now, this might be poor play to some degree, but do you reckon the use of terrain will shake up the meta of what kinds of units are good and which are not so good?

[MrSmokestack]

26 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

I noticed Klein had a harder time deleting on the defensive tiles. Now, this might be poor play to some degree, but do you reckon the use of terrain will shake up the meta of what kinds of units are good and which are not so good?

You could always just play around the forts.

Also, taking the forts yourself can be a huge boon for any defensive units on your team like Effie, especially with Pivot. The potential for a "King of the Hill" meta is there though.

How much do the forts reduce incoming damage? 0.3x the Def / Res of the occupying unit? So +Def Effie (36) would take 10 less damage? Or 11 if it's rounded up?

1 hour ago, Korath88 said:

Actually, I think all the old maps are gone. There's another set of 5 arena maps (with forts) that are not in this season.

I personally don't want this to be the case, unless they're opting to "retire" maps as the game's lifespan goes on. Or, they're keeping two sets of rotations for each type of map, like Offense A / B and Defense A / B.

[bethany81707]

2 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

You could always just play around the forts.

Also, taking the forts yourself can be a huge boon for any defensive units on your team like Effie, especially with Pivot. The potential for a "King of the Hill" meta is there though.

How much do the forts reduce incoming damage? 0.3x the Def / Res of the occupying unit? So +Def Effie (36) would take 10 less damage? Or 11 if it's rounded up?

I personally don't want this to be the case, unless they're opting to "retire" maps as the game's lifespan goes on. Or, they're keeping two sets of rotations for each type of map, like Offense A / B and Defense A / B.

Yeah, I figured Effie and maybe Hector were getting a new lease on life. Lissa's probably more redundant now, though.

I'm pretty sure that getting Klein to work will be a matter of movement. I was just wondering if there was something new introduced by the terrain.

[Sl3w1n]

Hi there,
thanks to sitting sick at home i´m kinda bored. So i thougt i share some of my future arena plans with you guys and look for some feedback/advise.

Primarily i look for some advise to improve the score gain of my offensive arena team.

Since the arena update that changed the scoring mechanism my personal rank varied between 10500 and 17000. The last 2 weeks i´ve scored 4772 and 4776 points if i remember correctly with a per match sore between 678 and 682 (rarly 686 never seen 684).

My current arena team is:

5*Nino +1 (+SPd/-Hp)
Blade +/ Glimmer/ Deathblow 3/ Desperation 3/ Atk+ Aura/ Drawback

5*Olivia +1 (+Atk/ -Hp)
Silver blade +/ Moonbow/ Fury 3/ Wings of mercy 3/ Atk+ AUra/ Dance

5* Bunny Chrome +1 (+Spd/ -Hp)
Carrot axe +/ Dragon gaze/ +2Atk and Def/ Renewell 2/ Res+ Aura (lv. 2)/ Rally Speed

+4* filler bonus unit

[Chrome got rewnewell 3 now]

The main reason Bunnyboy is part of that team is that he´s my only 5*+1 besides Olivia and Nino which doesn´t make him the best option in terms of fighting power but in terms of score gain.
As filler i used Nabarl and Zephiel (which i´m still using) there main job was buying time and do some dmg to Lobster/ike without dying if i encounter them. Well surpise surpriese the dealing with lobster and lobster 2 part is the biggest hrudle for this team 4 of my last 5 losses (a unit dying which resulted in a surrend) where thanks to teams that had one of them. While my winrate against teams with them isn´t that much higher. I would guess out of 5 encouters i loose 2. Which hasn´t stopped this team from reliably getting a deathless run while burning 1-2 per week crests and mostly avoiding them as a lead the last 3 weeks. So while options to better deal with them would be nice my main fokus is to improve my score gain.

If the new arena update hasn´t happened i would proceed using whatever 4* is availebale while hoping that one of my few 5* is availeble. While i merge my Olivia to show the world she is the greatest swordlord out there and hope green gets meta colour number 1 ^^.
Thanks to the arena change im not sure if that would be the right aproach.
Now i´m playing with the idea to promote Sharena and Alphonse to increase my scoring potential while uping the fighting power of my team. Maybe even Anna as well.
Because as a raw free to play player that wants to hord orbs to get the next flying mage (guess where bunnyboy +1 comes from) my options to field a 5* bonus heroe are limited. While having a reliable one would be kinda nice.

What i dont like about the idea are:

1.) selecting, trainig and expirementing with new bonus heroes is kinda fun especially because my main 3 heroes for the arena are kinda set. I propably could switch out Nino or Olivia for some other 5* without losing score but that would hamper my fighting power alot and to be honest nuking whole teams still is fun ^^ even throught i´m running a Nino dancer setup since i got her (my 2 5* and the first from feathers).

2.) They lack copies and the potential to get merged so dumping feathers into them seems like a waste in the super longterm. To be fair before that gets relevant i probably stpped playing the game/ IS changed their uniquness. Doesnt change the fact i doesn´t fell completly right to my to invest into them.

3.) IS might change that they are a permanent bonus unit. The earlier that happens the more i´ll bite my ass if i promote them.

4.)When i got the luck to have anoughter 5* bonus i´ll bite my ass as well.

 

So that leads me to the question are they even wort promoting anyways?

In terms of fighting power there´s close to no doubt about Sharena and little doubt about Alphonse at least compared to a 4*. In Annas case i would guess i prever a lot of 4* reds and close to all 4* blues.
But as i said fighting power isn´t my main concern right now.
So are they worth in score gain?
Here comes the moment where i´m kinda disapointed that i havn´t kept much score of my score gain change in the past and im not sure if i´mwilling to burn crests to expirement.
From my totally lacking data i would estimate having a 5* bonus with close to decked skillset should improve my rating about 10 points compared to a close to vanilla 4*.
While merging olivia should increase the score about 1-2points.
If my estimates are close to being correct it seems like its worth it. I would like to do some more in depth math but well as i said i don´t trust my data so it seems pointless.
Which is the reason why it would be imensly helpfull if somebody could correct my data/some of you could provide some more data ^^.

 

Well as i said i´m kinda bored so i brainstormed abot setups for Sharena and Alphonse if they are worth it. While i lack expirence with
both heroes and havn´t done to much theorie crafting i would like to present what my gut feeling came up with and hopefully get some
advise wihich would be killing two birds with one stone because i can check my gut feeling and get a general direct to further my
thoughtprocess about them. So here it comes ^^.

General holes they should fill:

I want them to help killing some lobsters (you would never have thougth about that would you ^^) and provide some utility in form of buying time, tanking some hits and killing some mages while lobsters are priority number one.
Its important to note i´ve mainly got acess to lv. 2 B-skills, lv. 2 C-skills and lv. 1 specials that are expendable without a secound thought so i would like to run them because everthing else seems overkill in terms of fighting power and the feathers are for their upgrades themselves reserved if i decide to go that route. In terms of A-skills and support skills i´ve got more options.

Sharena
Fensalir/ dmg reduction from 1 space lv. 1/ Spd +3/ Escape route 2/ Def+ Aura/ Reposition

Nothing spectecular but it should get the job done without investing much. I could go with Fury 3 but i guess Spd +3 is enought and Fury seems interesting on Nino.
For the B-skill i was thinking about Blue Tomebreaker 2 as well to increase her tankiness but escape route seems like the more fun version while blue mages are not that hard to deal with thanks to dance, Nino and Chrome. While i would prefer Drawback over Reposition by a slim margin when you get a chance to make barst usefull you take it ^^.

Alphonse
Folkvangr/ Sol/ Hp +5/ Swordbreaker 2/ Spur Atk 3/ Rally Def

So while Sharena should provide some serious buff to my team Alphonse has the problem that what he´s good at can be done by Nino and Chrome in most cases.
While Olivia does so as well when she isn´t dancing around. Anyway swordbreaker and his decent bulk provide an option against both lobsters even if they run swordbreaker themselves they need serios buffs to kill him and then theres no vantage so Nino can nuke after some chipping of Alphonse.

For the time being thats it, thanks for reading my sick thougts (genius i know ^^) that far and even more thanks if you reply ^^.

PS: Other suggestions to improve my score gain would be super nice too (4*+much isn´t an option and i´m looking into changing skills to more expensive versions).111