Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Xaos Steel Wing]

You may recall that earlier I was complaining about Arena being suddenly flooded with merged enemy teams.

I did some experimenting. I tried taking some inherited skills off my units until I was getting enemies with a score of 680-682.

Surely I won't be facing merged units at the score? Nope, still facing teams with mostly +1 and +2 merges... A couple weeks ago, seeing more than maybe one +1 at that score is unheard of.

I think I can safely say that the merge level of enemies you face in the arena has steadily gone up over time. Scores at which you previously never saw merged units at seem to be mostly +1s and +2s now, and higher scores where I'd see mostly +1s to +3s are now fully +3 to +5 teams.

Basically, no matter how I configure my team, the enemies I face seem to be stronger than they were weeks in the past even at the same point scores.

Maybe its because the algorithm is meant to give you enemies slightly stronger than your team, and over time there are more and more of these merged teams, whereas previously there were less of them and you were more likely to get a team on the same level as your team.

So the strength of my team is staying constant (four 5*s with full inheritance but no merges - and I can't really improve on that without gacha luck), but I'm facing more and more difficult teams with more merges. And it DOES make a difference, as sometimes that extra few points of attack/speed/defence DO make the difference for the outcome of a combat.

 

I took it a step further. I tried replacing one of my 5*s with a level 40 4* unit with no inherited skills (Nino, if it matters).

At that point, I'm facing teams with a score of 676 to 684, but there's very few merged units and many enemies don't even have inherited skills.

Thins are MUCH easier at this point to go deathless, and so I could easily get a score in the mid 4700s. Which should be more than enough to promote from the tier 17 to 18.

So what I could do is use this "weaker" team to secure an easy deathless run early on in the week, then use a stronger to team later to see if I can improve.

It's a bit counter-intuitive but it almost seems as if it's easier to advance at this point using a weaker team than a stronger one.

In the end, you only need enough score to be in the top segment of your tier. And as more and more people are in the higher tiers, I think that would only get easier. There is absolutely no difference whether you are ranked #1, #5000, #10,000, or #15,000 - as long as you are in the top segment for your tier that's what matters.

Last week I think I was around rank 5000 with 1 death in tier 16 and the top 15,000 or so advanced I think. 1 death and I was still way above the cutoff.

While it may be a lot tougher in rank 19-20, it seems that at rank 16-17-18 it's really not that hard to advance and you hardly need a merged or even fully 5* or even deathless run...

I'm interested in how well my score with a 4* unit on my team holds up towards the end of the season.

Edited June 8, 2017 by Xaos Steel Wing

[DehNutCase]

Huh... Didn't realize before, but this defensive map rotation is bloody easy compared to the double wall (and all destructible) bullshit that was last season.

 

Got my deathless without even trying this week. Pity 4.8k isn't enough for T20, most likely, but I don't care enough to stack Aethers etc. for score.

[Kiran]

Got my deathless streak of 4788 rank 2092. It's a bit low but expected since Sharena is still vanilla. Hopefully it'll be enough to bump me up to tier 19. Honestly, this was relaxing after doing the tempest trials.

[Hawk King]

9 hours ago, Xaos Steel Wing said:

You may recall that earlier I was complaining about Arena being suddenly flooded with merged enemy teams.

I have always faced teams with many more merges than my own. Before and after the update. Before the Hero Fest banner, my team had zero merges but teams I faced always had a total of like +4 or more. Even now, with 2 merged units for a total of +3, I face teams that are like +12 or more.

Hell, just after skill inheritance was introduced, My team with Zero merges was matched up against a hacked team of all +10s. I know it was hacked because one of the enemies was a +10 Michalis.

 

Out of curiosity, What is your team right now? And did you change the units on your team in the past few weeks?

[Rafiel's Aria]

All right! First deathless streak of the week with a score of 4,754. That gets me rank 4,804 in tier 18. I know that'll drop easily, and I'm not sure I can get much higher than that either without being super selective about my match-ups. ...or maybe getting Olivia a special. 

I just got 20k feathers from the lovely new event/HM grinding... I should just focus on making Camus great for the next season. I know it. 

[LordFrigid]

Update for 5082 (T20):

6am PDT 6/6: 75

6am PDT 6/7: 131

6am PDT 6/8: 172

Teams faced detailed in the previous post. Cutoff is 186...definitely going to need that high-point-hunt run. I decided to accept a few 726s as well...we'll see how that goes, I guess.

Def score is still 586 (total of 12).

 

[Othin]

Got a score of 4,846 and a rank of 888 in Tier 18! Well within the 6,223 threshold for advancing to 19, although I still need a defense win.

Apparently I forgot to give Camus a seal, so that's probably why my score didn't have as noticeable of an improvement over Reinhardt as I expected. I can try to get a second deathless run to fix that, but at this point, it doesn't seem especially relevant.

[Locke087]

Edit: I posted this to the wrong thread somehow... That was meant to be about the tempest trail. 

So on subject I haven't my deathless run yet. It doesn't look like I'll be getting it this week I have one more shot at it at least but I'll probably be dropping a rank which is fine I'll just pick up like next week.

Edited June 8, 2017 by Locke087

[MrSmokestack]

On 6/7/2017 at 9:24 AM, MrSmokestack said:

Just did my deathless run for this week at 4,814 points. That puts me at Rank 772 in Tier 19. I also have a defense win worth 576 points.

I won't hold my breath for Tier 20, though. It's still pretty early.

Ranking Update~

Currently ranked 1,397, inching ever closer to the 1,865 cutoff. Also got two more defense wins, one of which netted me a score of 582.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Tier 18 score of 4834 (no deaths; 1 surrender; Nowi +1, Sharena 5*, Eirika, Nino +3; 690, 694, 690, 692, 688, 690, 690):

• Jun 7 2:45AM PT - #536 (/5900 to Tier 19)
• Jun 7 3:00PM PT - #733 (/6104 to Tier 19)
• Jun 8 3:45PM PT - #1272 (/6260 to Tier 19)

Well, there's that huge drop I was expecting. Surprisingly, the threshold didn't inflate too much, though, so I guess a good portion of those might be people trying for their deathless streaks with crests. I wonder if Tempest eating everyone's stamina makes people more inclined to do Arena for a change of scenery. >.>

No additional defenses, which is perhaps a little worrying for prospective wins next week. Eh, one thing at a time, I guess, especially since we're in the middle of an event and it's barely halfway through the week.

[SniperGYS]

Looks that I'm staying in my Tier for now and today was a good day in the Arena: Another vantage!Hector fall before he was able to do anything

 

I like when this happens...

Just hope I keep winning to try to increase my points and see if I can go up another Tier

Edited June 8, 2017 by SniperGYS

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

So, threw a few orbs at the Tempest banner and, uncharacteristically of my luck, I ended up with another 5* Nowi just 4 or 5 pulls into the session. Decided to call it there and go home with merge instead of pushing for me. As a result, my next Arena score had her promote to +2 for the last three matches. Might just be luck, but the merge seemed to really push me into matches worth higher points despite me experimenting a bit by trading out my Vantage 3 for Quick Riposte 2 (since it's been helping me so much in Tempest). Of note is I apparently fought Okigen's team (or possibly a pretender? The leader was a Hector +3). In the final match, I had a bit of a scare with a Firesweep+ Bridelia. She decided to buff and Ike who had moved laterally and then Azura danced her. Had it been a Brave Bow+, I would've lost Nino.

Tier 18 score of 4846  (no deaths, no surrenders; Nowi +1/+2, Sharena, 5*, Eirika, Nino +3; 690, 690, 690, 688, 696, 698, 694):

• Jun 9 12:30AM - #1027 (/6290 to Tier 19)

[Fruity Insanity]

Perfect run get. (Bless my Triangle Adept Nino.)

Tier 20, 4 orbs, and 6400 feathers here I come.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Fruity Insanity

[Chromatone]

Looks like i did it yaaaaaay!  I just played casualy and it worked out, new record! I also had used 22k feathers to give ike QR 3, worth it, handy in the trials too :) no defense yet, doh.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Chromatone

[Vaximillian]

My current run ended at 4,707 points with two deaths. Got a defence win worth 285 because I derped and forgot to include Sharena on the defence team.

[Arcanite]

18 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

My current run ended at 4,707 points with two deaths. Got a defence win worth 285 because I derped and forgot to include Sharena on the defence team.

Now I have the higher score and no defense win...... this simply won't do! ;)

 

4,778 gets me to rank 4,427 in tier 18, and the promotion cut off for tier 19 is 6,299.... I don't think I'm gonna make it XD

[LordFrigid]

My 726/8 fishing was rudely interrupted when I made a very foolish positioning error and got poor Caeda KO'd by a Nino...a bit of skill swapping (Vantage → Wings on Hector & the like), and ~5 crests later (so much for trying to save the June quest ones lol), 728/30 fishing nets a score of 5106 (T20). Current rank is 133, with the cutoff at 189. Still a bit of a nail-biter, but with my absolute max (while still maintaining a usable team) only 4 points higher...it'll have to do.

Teams faced:

Spoiler

Highest Def score is still 586.

[Hawk King]

I got a score of 4858 in tier 19 which is on the lowish end of what I can potentially get, and it is good for rank #351. I'm definitely moving to Tier 20, and I'm pretty optimistic about actually being able to stay there for at least one week. All i have to do is cherry pick for higher scores and I can get a score of 4880-4900.

 

@LordFrigid @Ice Dragon What percentage of Tier 20 gets to stay? Is it the top 35% like it is for moving up in Tier 19?

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Hawk King said:

What percentage of Tier 20 gets to stay? Is it the top 35% like it is for moving up in Tier 19?

30%.

The top 3 tiers go down by 5% per tier with 40% going up to 19, 35% going up to 20, and 30% staying at 20.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[Thor Odinson]

Would a score of somewhere in the 4810s get me to tier 20, or should I even bother at this point? I can get that if I filter out anything below 686, but trying to figure out if it's worth the crests.

[Hawk King]

13 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

30%.

The top 3 tiers go down by 5% per tier. with 40% going up to 19, 35% going up to 20, and 30% staying at 20.

Ah ok. Thank you.

 

Rounding up because in the event of ties, more people tend to make the cutoffs than what it actually says.

With 200 people staying in Tier 20 and 1900 moving in that makes ~

2100 in Tier 20 next week. So the top ~610 will stay. The 200 Tier 20 people will obviously outscore me, but I have been in the top 400 for Tier 18 and Tier 19, so with a good score I should be able to make the Top 600 and stay in Tier 20 for at least one week.

 

Man, that screw-up has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me.

7 minutes ago, Thor Odinson said:

Would a score of somewhere in the 4810s get me to tier 20, or should I even bother at this point? I can get that if I filter out anything below 686, but trying to figure out if it's worth the crests.

Someone had 4830 and that puts them at 903 right now. I don't think 4810 will be enough to make it. I would save the crests if I were you.

 

edit - MrSmokestack's score of 4814 was ranked 1400, but that was 20 hrs ago. Ask him where he is at now.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Hawk King

[ignis_z]

4780 deathless, tier 18. Not enough for 19 im in 4513... Cant do more. 682 per win...

Edited June 9, 2017 by ignis_z

[salinea]

yet another Reinhardt, Olwen, Cecilia, Xander team cost me one death on my second run through (i had one death for stupid reason in my first one too). Given the tier i'm at, i have no expectation of ever being able to go up so there's no real pressure but it's still annoying...

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Tier 18 score of 4846  (no deaths, no surrenders; Nowi +1/+2, Sharena, 5*, Eirika, Nino +3; 690, 690, 690, 688, 696, 698, 694):

• Jun 9 12:30AM - #1027 (/6290 to Tier 19)
• Jun 9 3:00PM - #1200 (/6322 to Tier 19)

Still no extra defense wins. Not sure whether to chalk that up to defensive tiles making things easier or the fact that half the day my skill/seal setup is misaligned since I swap them around for Tempest Trials.

[Roflolxp54]

Hmm... no defense wins so far for this week...

Edited June 10, 2017 by Roflolxp54