What is your preferred play style for Arena?

[XRay]

Yeah, what the title says! I originally wanted to create a poll that included all the relevant modes, but then I realized the poll is going to be way too long, and the poll also has a 5 questions limit so I could not make it longer even if I wanted to. I think I will do one poll/mode once or twice a month or whenever I feel like it.

The following are all the modes I want to cover. I am only including modes that need a certain level of grinding, planning, and/or investment. For this reason, I am excluding modes like Voting Gauntlets and Story Maps because they honestly pose no challenge of any sort, although I guess I can cover them after all the other modes are covered first.

PvP Modes:

Spoiler

Aether Raids

Arena
Arena Assault

Grand Conquest

PvE Modes:

Spoiler

Limited Hero Battles
Grand Hero Battles/Legendary Hero Battles/Mythic Hero Battles
Rival Domains

Chain Challenges
Squad Assault
Blessed Gardens

Allegiance Battles

Tempest Trials
Forging Bonds
Røkkr Sieges
Mjölnir's Strike
Hall of Forms

I think I will start with Arena since that was the original important end game mode.

Oh, and if you have option that is not listed above and you do not feel it belongs into one of the mentioned options, tag me and let me know so I can add it.

— — — — — — —

For me personally, I play semi competitively, maintaining my bounce between Tier 19 and Tier 20.

I either use pure Player Phase strategy or a combination of Player Phase and super tank strategy depending on the bonus unit. For Alfonse (or in this week's case with DB!Julia), I use a pure Player Phase strategy. For Anna and Sharena, I use the combo.

My core team consists of BH!Lyn, Cordelia, and Olivia. BH!Lyn is a Firesweeper. Cordelia is a Galeforcer. Olivia is a Dancer/Singer. I use Tactics buffs.

I used to run Reinhardt, but in case I want to use a cavalry bonus unit, my Tactics team would not work, so I swapped him out eventually.

Edited May 26, 2020 by XRay

[Landmaster]

I was gonna say semi-competitive, but I'm not aiming in a lower tier. I'm usually back and forth between T20 and T21, but I don't consider myself competitive since I don't kill myself trying for T21.

Most of my units are EP-Oriented as mixed tanks with M!Kana, Nowi, and Itsuki, as rotating core members. I use Raven as a Galeforcer, but considering he is my only GF unit, I didn't think it was fair to vote for it. The most PP unit otherwise is my F!Delthea as a nuke, but same as Raven, didn't feel fair to vote for that one. I did vote for Healers since I use Lachesis from time to time~

I also use Ares and Baby Marth as Vantage spammers, though Ares usually can't even run that build to score the most optimally. He's pretty much being replace with Baby Marth who serves his role better in terms of scoring.

Right now, my main core is Raven, M!Kana, Itsuki, and Baby Marth, swapping out whoever is the same color as the Bonus unit.

[Nym]

I have a very defensive playstyle in Arena.

The reason why is very simple: I found most of the maps to be too hard to try to Player Phase. Most of the time it's more simple to sit your units on the defensive titles and look for an opening to bait someone or hope for the best. Especially if they have annoying units like Legendary Azura or Legendary Chrom.

I use OG Marth (going to be replaced by Aversa once her and Flame Emperor are merged fully), Flame Emperor, the legendary hero of that season or Peony and bonus unit.

[Benice]

@XRay, for player phase, could you please add Wrath/+10 damage special? That is one of my preferred styles.

Anyhoo, the casual in the room here is usually floating around T14-16, although I did reach T19 once. I usually just use my Counter-vantage Corrin to take out anything that's not a blue blade mage/Brammimond, and for tanky foes, I use my H!Kagero with Bold fighter or Blade tome OG L'Arachel. It works pretty well most of the time.

[eclipse]

The "I do whatever my support unit says to do" option is not there.  But for everything else, it's a Brave Bow to the face (doubles on pure EP defensive teams, too).

[XRay]

13 minutes ago, Benice said:

@XRay, for player phase, could you please add Wrath/+10 damage special? That is one of my preferred styles.

That would fall under one shot raw damage nukes in my opinion. If it is meant to have a high damage output, high kill count, or something to do with ensuring kills, I would place it under raw damage nuke category.

12 minutes ago, eclipse said:

The "I do whatever my support unit says to do" option is not there.

Do you mean bonus unit? I imagine people keeping their Arena core static, unless the player is a whale with multiple core Arena teams to match seasons or something and they pick a bonus unit that matches core. I think most players also keep their bonus unit relatively static with Askr Trio being the primary bonus units.

Edited May 26, 2020 by XRay

[eclipse]

3 minutes ago, XRay said:

Do you mean bonus unit? I imagine people keeping their Arena core static, unless the player is a whale with multiple core Arena teams to match seasons or something and they pick a bonus unit that matches core. I think most players also keep their bonus unit relatively static with Askr Trio being the primary bonus units.

Yep.  My "core" is quite literally Leon.  Everything else is up in the air.

[XRay]

4 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Yep.  My "core" is quite literally Leon.  Everything else is up in the air.

But would not that still be just Player Phase unless you completely swap out his skill set for an Enemy Phase build or something?

I am not sure if I am understanding it correctly.

[eclipse]

2 minutes ago, XRay said:

But would not that still be just Player Phase unless you completely swap out his skill set for an Enemy Phase build or something?

I am not sure if I am understanding it correctly.

Most of the kills go to the bonus unit.  Leon's job is to be the insurance policy, and to ensure that I keep my rank where it is.

[Benice]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

That would fall under one shot raw damage nukes in my opinion. If it is meant to have a high damage output, high kill count, or something to do with ensuring kills, I would place it under raw damage nuke category

Ok, thank you!

[XRay]

56 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Most of the kills go to the bonus unit.  Leon's job is to be the insurance policy, and to ensure that I keep my rank where it is.

I added the "Arena Core Frequently Changes/No Static Arena Core" option to question 2. Is that more closely aligned with your playstyle?

[eclipse]

37 minutes ago, XRay said:

I added the "Arena Core Frequently Changes/No Static Arena Core" option to question 2. Is that more closely aligned with your playstyle?

Yeah, thanks.  With the boosted stats that the bonus unit gets, and the fact that the Askr trio aren't the best for scoring, I'm probably not alone.

[Humanoid]

Most of the time I'm content to stick with T19.5, in which case scoring enough to maintain it is fairly trivial: I just pick a colour-balanced team from my +10 unit lineup that complements the bonus unit, i.e. making sure there's some magic damage and enough movement assists to do easy hit and run tactics. I have 15 +10 units and all of them are live options, with nothing resembling a real core. If I can get move-type buffs then great, but mixed movement teams are fine too. Whether I go player phase or enemy phase just depends on the unit I happen to take: for example I might take Galeforce Oscar or QR Nowi as my blue option, so how I play against red units depends entirely on the skillset of the blue unit.

If I happen to have a merged bonus unit, then going up to T21 becomes a live option, but that's once every couple of months at best: it typically happens if I randomly pull 2-3 copies of the new Legendary hero of a given month. Even then I still don't really have a core, because when I tryhard for T21 my unit selection will more likely be dictated by what blessing each unit has. My scoring optimisation beyond that is pretty basic: I'll use any AoE special, Tier 1 dual-Rally and Drives, all of which I inherit from 3-4* units but nothing more.

[MagicCanonBalls]

I am semi-competitive I guess. Maintaning between 17-19.

I don't have a core static team. I would use different team for the same streak just to stir things up (especially if I have more than one bonus unit, I have managed to have 5 different teams for the same streak), as long as the score are similar. Although Niles is frequently seen and mostly on my first team. Also I am not a whale, only spent once on orbs in year 1.

[zoologicwoo]

I've played Heroes for about a year now (I *think* when I got the app it was pretty soon before the swimsuit banners were going up?), and so far I've not understood the incentive for treating Arena with much care, since it seems shallow compared to AR. So I usually blast through the mode each week with Kronya+S!Berkut combo for the participation rewards. Exceptions are when there are bonus units that I conveniently need to grind for SP on.  

[Vicious Sal]

My arena core too consists of Bolt tower (0), I could not have reached T21 without him.

 

 

I don’t have a playstyle in Arena. The only core unit I have is Reyson, and that is because of Sing and Healing on one unit. So I can stall as long as I need by running circles and getting health back or I can dance for ensuring a kill. 

 

Arena is just a short, boring match session that requires no thought. Arena Assault has the audacity to not only be boring, but annoyingly long as well. So glad suspend has been introduced.

Tl;dr I don’t really pay mich attention to Arena, just the score result.

[Xenomata]

I have four Arena units who contribute to score: Spooky Myrrh, Legendary Tiki, Legendary Azura, and Loki, all +10 merge. Azura and Loki both also hold on to their Duel skills to boost their score, while Myrrh and Tiki hold on to the highest SP skills they can have.

Azura and Loki are swapped out depending on who I choose to use as the Bonus unit. For instance right now I use Fallen M!Corrin, so I'd probably choose to use Loki due to his largely mixed nature and not really wanting to be dead, but Azura would also be a good choice for a more PP oriented build.

I don't try to maintain Tier 21 anymore. I used to, but nowadays I can't be asked to, so I just stay in Tier 19/20 since that's where the orbs are. And if I get into T21, cool.

There is one oddity to my rule, and that's if LegTiki is a bonus unit. In that case, the "bonus unit" slot is dedicated to Yune, acting as cover in case Tiki can't land a kill and putting some color-balance into my team.

[Humanoid]

That reminds me that I should probably give my Lazura an A-skill other than her stock Duel for when I use her outside the arena (which is 95% of the time). It's probably been like a year but I just never think of it ...not that I have anything better than like Fury 3 to give.

[SuperNova125]

When it comes to Arena I try to maintain T20 and maybe one day reach T21. This was the first week I stayed in T20. I always use a core team of 3 units and the necessary bonus unit. My core consists of Aversa, Fae and Flame Emperor. Aversa has her max score, Fae requires either two 300 SP skills or a personal weapon and a 300 SP skill and Flame Emperor needs the last merges (I started building him last week and he is +7 so that's impressive for me) and also a 300 SP C slot. I have an available DC and Joint Hone Spd from Duo Marth and Hector which I never use or from the codes (I am reaching Hector). However before making rash decisions I will wait for Fae's weapon. My playstyle is enemy phase oriented. I use Fae and the Flame Emperor to kill units in enemy phase Aversa for support and if the bonus unit is not so good then I feed them a kill using Aversa's help. 

[coldhand25]

Semi-competitive, I've been trying since launch to get to 21, but could never be bothered to build meta-killer units (dragon, armour or cavalry effectiveness), so I never managed to reach even 20... Nowadays I'm just trying to stay in 17-19. My core right now is Leon (as an enemy-phase DEF tank with close counter, but also as a player-phase damage dealer), Fir (as an enemy-phase RES tank with distant counter and barrier blade - she is good against both dragons and mages, as long as they are not blue), and Julia (as a RES tank, to deal with blue mages and dragons, which can destroy Fir - I also need more merges for her...). Right now I'm trying to get others to +10 so I can have more variety in my arena core, but I'm still in the process to learn everything about the current meta, before spending my feathers, fodders and orbs for units I won't be able to fully utilize - I'm pretty sure I have all my favourites that are in FEH built up enough to be useful, that's why I'm leaning more towards building meta at this point...

[Yexin]

Premise: all the units i'll be naming are +10 with their appropriate Duel skills (except for the Bonus unit of course)

my Arena team has been "BIke-Paula-Marth-Bonus unit" since at least 2 years
i've used Soren for quite some time as a Chill bot, but later on my tastes changed and i went for Tactic bots: Marth has Spd Tactic in C, Res Tactic as Sacred Seal and Rally Atk/Def+ as Assist, for a total of +6 to all stats (+8 with Falchion's refine))
Paula's main purpose is to take on strong and tanky green enemy units such as Surtr, but she also grants support with Distant Guard 3 (Sacred Seal), Chill Def 3 and Drive Spd 3 (also i love her artwork)
BIke is my beloved beast, as he can take basically everyone (yes, even a +10 Lysithea wouldn't oneround him), and his main purpose is to tank BLyn, LLeif, LChrom and basically any other cancerous ranged units the enemy team has at its disposal; he also has Close Guard 3 as Sacred Seal to support the Bonus unit
my latest addition to my Arena team is Reyson, who's a substitute Tactic bot for when the Bonus unit is an Infantry unit: he trades Sing for Rally Def/Res+ (Atk Tactic and Spd Tactic in C and Sacred Seal, my playstile doesn't require any refresher anyway), and he provides an extremely useful passive healing support for the whole team thanks to his weapon, but he obviously doesn't fight

my favorite playstile in Arena is to place the Bonus unit on a defensive tile (if present) and let him/her solo the whole enemy team thanks to all the active and passive buffs (or at least one unit in order to get the +12 points bonus, and then deal with the other enemies depending on who they are)

i usually try to stay in Tier 21/20/19, but this requires me to build/summon a new unit every 2/3 week, since i have ZERO interest in building sharena, alfonse or anna

Edited May 26, 2020 by Yexin

[Diovani Bressan]

My Arena Team changed recently. I am using OG Marth of in-combat buffs and ranged debuffs (Ruse), Reyson for healing, dance and extra movement option (guidance), and Young Marth for tanking, damage and to deal with threating foes. The 4th unit is the bonus unit.

I am usually a Tier 20.5 player, promoting in odd seasons to demote in even season. I only try to stay in Tier 21 when I have a bonus unit that can make me score well (754+ matches without the need of a lot of fishing).

For AA, I use OG Marth and Young Marth for the same reason, but I also have Aversa for debuffs and for the Guidance effect, and OG Soren for more debuffs and to deal with blue threats.

In AA, I always try to be Top 1k, which normally happens.

[Stroud]

I am around T 20.5. It really depends on the season, because I am missing on some score.

Overall I let myself from my teams. I love Gwendolyns refine, thus I play her EP of course. But overall I prefer mixed phase and player phase. Because I feel its more save.

My Athena has been a long time used Galeforcer and still will use her, I love her because along with Galeforce she also has the ability to survive some attacks. In best case it was always taking out the biggest threads on Player phase and survive the rest. Along with Leila she got the perfect partner.

Also L!Edelgard is a case which shows that I prefer Player phase. Instead of thinking to make the most of Aymr I am one of those who slapped Brave axe and Galeforce on her, smiting her into enemies if I see the opportunity and at best taking 3 out. 

I think the reason also that I am kind of bound to EP on arena for a long Time. My team consists of Sheena, Gwendolyn, Aversa and a filler unit. And these are more EP. Maybe its because I didn't change much around them, but always relying on EP their drained the fun of it a bit. Also in EP you need to be good at calculating and imagining what happens in which order. 

What revived EP for me is Repel. Those skills which control the damage a bit, I have it on Rinkah and it works a lot. Sometimes I am a bit overconfident there and don't do the calculation. Most of the time I get away with it though.

[Roflolxp54]

According to the poll, I would be considered "competitive" (I generally maintain tier 20 as tier 20.5 is no longer feasible most of the time for me without making major changes to my priorities due to scorecreep). As such, I tend to focus primarily on the enemy phase and would only player phase if it is necessary and safe to do so in Arena (ie. a buffed bonus Anna can double and KO Legend Alm with MCorrin support).

Much of my Arena core (since I don't really invest into monthly-exclusives) are pretty much hold-overs from 2018 so my playstyle reflects this.

[eclipse]

Oh, right, I guess I should explain myself.

I'm a tier 18-19 person, and can't be arsed to do more than that.  I really should get around to building another +10 nuke, so I can swap Leon out if the bonus unit is colorless.  I consider myself casual, since my strategy is to either have the bonus unit do everything, or the bonus unit sneaks in a kill and Leon shoots everything twice in the head.  When it's Leon Time, it's pure offense - that means a dancer and a stooge to help my score.  At all other times, it'll depend on the bonus unit.  I had Midori as a mini-Leon, while Edelgard had a dancer nearby so she could kill everything in a turn.