Make sure you bring tanky people to the arena...

[Anacybele]

Because it seems like every opponent character will get at least one critical attack, at least in intermediate battles or above (this didn't happen when I did beginner, which I started off with because I didn't have a real strong team yet). It's pretty unfair. My characters never critical, only activate their skills.

I've still managed to win six in a row, but if I didn't have my Freddy (and Draug to a lesser extent) to tank the hell out of just about everything, I doubt I'd have won any intermediate battles due to all those critical hits. This is why I recommend tanks for the arena. High def like Freddy, or high res like...I dunno, maybe Olivia since hers is pretty good for me. Her dance was also helpful, because I've been having her dance Freddy to two attacks per turn since he also hits like a freakin' truck. So bringing one of them can help too. But a healer won't be able to do anything when these critical attacks can OHKO, so I wouldn't bother with them.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Anacybele

[Avestus]

Hmmm... what do you mean by critical? I've played 13 games on advanced and never noticed anything other than opponents just using their skills. As far as I know, there is no "critical" mechanics in the game. It's just that some skills have low countdowns and each action (hitting something or being hit) is one tick. So if someone attacks you with brave axe, gets return fire and then doubles you - he will most likely activate his skill in single attack. And there can be other similar cases. Or did you mean something else?

Btw, overall for arena team setup offense >>> defense, since you can effectively rally your units and bait enemy with cannon fodder when absolutely needed. Though in most cases just carefully moving your units is enough to deal with enemy team one by one.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Avestus

[Anacybele]

Uh, what do you mean what do I mean? A critical is a critical. Does more damage than usual. :/

And I can tell that they're critical attacks because they're always colored red while Frederick's New Moon skill is purplish blue. Same with Anna's Night Sky. Skills are purplish blue while critical attacks are red as far as I can see. And the latter always does a lot more damage than either of the skills I mentioned.

[Junkhead]

^

Never saw a critical as of yet, just skills. Also seems like dodging is outright non-existent. 

I've only tried intermediate so far, and I could win 4 in a row without much of an issue (and my peeps were averaging lvl. 6-7)

[Avestus]

11 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Uh, what do you mean what do I mean? A critical is a critical. Does more damage than usual. :/

And I can tell that they're critical attacks because they're always colored red while Frederick's New Moon skill is purplish blue. Same with Anna's Night Sky. Skills are purplish blue while critical attacks are red as far as I can see. And the latter always does a lot more damage than either of the skills I mentioned.

Well, i play with animations off but what you say is pretty strange, since critical hit mechanics isn't mentioned anywhere. Btw, not all skills should necessarily be purplish. There are some nasty passive skills or weapons that can give some damage boost and stuff. Do you remember which units pulled of this "critical attacks"?

[Anacybele]

Just now, Avestus said:

Well, i play with animations off but what you say is pretty strange, since critical hit mechanics isn't mentioned anywhere. Btw, not all skills should necessarily be purplish. There are some nasty passive skills or weapons that can give some damage boost and stuff. Do you remember which units pulled of this "critical attacks"?

A lot of them. Camilla, some Myrms, some Pegs...

[Junkhead]

I've literally never seen this happen. You're crazy.

[carefreejules]

I don't think I've encountered a critical hit either :o I only ever see skills activating. 

Isn't getting a critical hit based on luck and skill in a regular Fire Emblem game anyway? Neither of those stats are part of the game. 

Edited February 4, 2017 by carefreejules

[Junkhead]

4 minutes ago, carefreejules said:

sn't getting a critical hit based on luck and skill in a regular Fire Emblem game anyway? Neither of those stats are part of the game. 

i literally just realise this

[carefreejules]

The only 'red' overlay that I see is when my units have been hit with an attack that drops their health to less than half way or have been defeated in general.

That's about it.

Edited February 4, 2017 by carefreejules

[Truthblade]

People don't crit here, only activate skill. A lot of RNG stuff in battles are gone.

[randybutternubz]

You don't really need tanks to beat arena, just go by the weapon triangle it makes the difference even if they initiate on you, won 7 in a row advanced with 1 Red Tome 1 Green Flyer 1 Blue Flyer 1 Archer.

[Dai]

Ana, there's literally no crits in this game. It's all about skill, here. Skill, and timing on some of those skills.

[FangXV]

Those purple (what are they called?) skills might be it. Also, some weapons deal bonus damage to certain enemy types (Arrows -> Pegasus Knights, Falchion > Dragons, etc.).

[Pikappa93]

Like others said, there's no critical mechanic in the game. Maybe what you saw was some sort of supereffective damage? Such as Falchion against dragon units. It could also be that the increased damage you saw was the result of stat debuffs (daggers, etc).

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

You probably saw them activate their Active Skill, such as Night Sky or Luna.

Personally, I think tanking gets you nowhere in the Arena. Enemy phase baiting is often disadvantageous, because of the lack of freedom in positioning and the abundance of ridiculous skill combinations and weapons. I've had the most success by having one super strong unit (mine is Lucina), then using fast units (mounts/fliers) that have Brave weapons or Triangle-boosting weapons (Sapphire Lance, etc.) to eliminate anything that is problematic for your juggernaut to fight. Your juggernaut then becomes a win condition, basically. Of course, depending on the enemy team's lineup, which unit to keep as your win condition could change.

On the topic of tanks, I think they should have put the Venge weapons from Fates in the game, so that some units can abuse enemy phase. As of now, Brave weapons have no real counter other than "don't let them hit you first". I don't think they're extremely broken though, so the Venge weapons shouldn't be too overwhelming.

[Anacybele]

I just said I won six in a row though, simply by Freddy tanking, so it does get you somewhere... And every time I went more aggressive instead of defensive in any fight, I got my ass whooped or almost whooped. I always did much better playing more defensively. That's kind of always been my style anyway. I'm a fan of tanks and just kinda letting the enemy come to me and get squashed.

I guess I'm wrong about crits, but these characters still activated their skills an awful lot. Freddy sorta does too, but he doesn't do nearly as much damage and his attack is very high.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Anacybele

[Junkhead]

I can see that, yeah. For example, Wendy was the single most important unit against Hana's brigade on HM. Taking it slow, I really managed. Now that I think about it, Fredward also adds like 3 mobility to the equation, which is badass.

[Jave]

36 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I guess I'm wrong about crits, but these characters still activated their skills an awful lot. Freddy sorta does too, but he doesn't do nearly as much damage and his attack is very high.

That's because in this game Skills activate by count in which the unit did an Attack/Defense action (i.e. a Unit attacks three times, the fourth will activate the skill). If you upgrade these skills, they take less actions to activate, so if a unit is doubling a lot and has the skills at max upgrade, they will be activating them every other turn.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Jave said:

That's because in this game Skills activate by count in which the unit did an Attack/Defense action (i.e. a Unit attacks three times, the fourth will activate the skill). If you upgrade these skills, they take less actions to activate, so if a unit is doubling a lot and has the skills at max upgrade, they will be activating them every other turn.

Oh. Wow, I certainly have things to learn about this game...

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

49 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I just said I won six in a row though, simply by Freddy tanking, so it does get you somewhere... And every time I went more aggressive instead of defensive in any fight, I got my ass whooped or almost whooped. I always did much better playing more defensively. That's kind of always been my style anyway. I'm a fan of tanks and just kinda letting the enemy come to me and get squashed.

I guess I'm wrong about crits, but these characters still activated their skills an awful lot. Freddy sorta does too, but he doesn't do nearly as much damage and his attack is very high.

What's the level and defenses of your Freddy? Whenever I try defensive play, I end up getting cornered easily, and it all just goes to shit.

[Anacybele]

7 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

What's the level and defenses of your Freddy? Whenever I try defensive play, I end up getting cornered easily, and it all just goes to shit.

Let me see...

21 def, 6 res. Surprisingly, he deals with magic fairly well anyway.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Let me see...

21 def, 6 res. Surprisingly, he deals with magic fairly well anyway.

My Camilla has 22 Def and 24 Res, but often times she just gets doubled and dies against units similar in level. She only has 29 HP, so there's a limit to her tanking capability. I suppose Freddy has more HP?

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

My Camilla has 22 Def and 24 Res, but often times she just gets doubled and dies against units similar in level. She only has 29 HP, so there's a limit to her tanking capability. I suppose Freddy has more HP?

Actually, he just has 30 HP, so only one point more. He can often double though and doesn't get doubled much in return. I think he did get a little speed blessed though. He has 14 speed.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Anacybele

[Dr. Tarrasque]

There are no critical hits. It's just skills. If the skill cooldown on a unit is currently at 1 when you're viewing the battle data before going in and they're double attacking you, they WILL activate the skill on the second attack which is why it seems like there's critical hits. There's no indication of this other than the HP result in the battle data.