Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Othin]

5 minutes ago, KongDude88 said:

Oh, I see. I never really understood how it works then. I was never hardcore into the Arena so I guess that's my fault for not knowing. I've been able to win all 7, I just don't use bonus units often (because I either don't have any or I own the worst of the bunch), and I don't do advance often. Thanks for the info!

Yeah, it seems to be a common misunderstanding since the game isn't super clear about it; I had the same confusion when I first played in the arena.

Using bonus units doubles your score, so even just using those would let you do way better. You should at least have the Askr trio, and if you've been doing the Grand Hero Battles, you'll have them as well, so that's at least 1-2 bonus units per season. If you're interested in getting better scores, it could be worth training some of them.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Have to be somewhere soon, so noting this an hour early.

Tier 15 score of 4812 (no surrenders; 688, 688, 688, 684, 686, 690, 688):

• May 10 7:00 PM PT - #1827
• May 11 9:30 AM PT - #2400
• May 11 3:00 PM PT - #2461
• May 12 3:00 PM PT - #3051
• May 13 2:00 PM PT - #3496

The bracket size increased about 100, so I'm still just slowly crawling backward. No new defenses, but I've got all I need, so I'm not concerned. Hope the Mon->Tues transition brings as good fortune as when the Voting Gauntlet started, since it should be extra busy with people both going for early streaks and farming for the next set of flags.

Edited May 13, 2017 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[LordFrigid]

6 hours ago, chirp said:

Depends on your idea of fun, of course. Since I have peaked with my main team, I'm spending my free crests of the season on an Pegasus squadron. Cordelia is still unfinished (no Reposition, want SPD+3 on A slot), but the other 3 units are where I want them to be. Reposition almost feels like I have an extra dancer in the squadron. Physical enemy teams pose no problem, but multiple mages with a dancer can mean I have to sacrifice a unit, so I would use this squadron only for fun, after the season is secured. And fun it has. I think I'll never tire of hurling Cordelia on unsuspecting Takumi, or watching Palla one-rounding Hector sitting on a defense tile.

Fliers on that map...R.I.P. Enemy Team lol. Yeah, I enjoy stuff like that, though tbh I enjoy putting a solid team together in general. I've got a flier team I break out on occasion as well, though I don't think Caeda is anywhere near as good at taking out Hectors on terrain as Palla is =P (haven't run the calcs, actually, so idk if she can even do it. But if he gets off, ever...).

Spoiler

I'll usually run that with a bonus unit. I've been strongly considering making switches to Reposition over Draw Back, after seeing what it did on a Cavalry core. I still don't know what A skill to put on Camilla, actually. Hinoka will be getting Death Blow eventually, but atm Caeda's set is the only one that's actually done. I should probably finish off that HM bracket at some point...

I haven't tried running Fliers on the new terrain maps, so I'll probably give that a go tomorrow.

Guess I might as well do a rank update while I'm here.

Update for 5006 (Tier 15):

• 1am PDT 5/9: 21
• 4:50 pm PDT 5/10: 177
• 4:50 pm PDT 5/11: 215
• 4:40 pm PDT 5/12: 238
• 3:05 pm PDT 5/13: 253

Very little rank decay, at least compared to streaks from before this week. I used 20k feathers 5*-ing Cecilia yesterday, and will almost certainly bump a Nino to 5* with the next 20k. I'm stuck on whether I'm going to merge into my current Nino or feed Gronnblade+ to Cecilia though. I'm kinda leaning toward the former, since Horse Emblem is more of a fun diversion for me at this point, and regular ol' Gronnblade is perfectly serviceable for the teams they face.

If they keep the trend with putting a "Battling XXX" focus unit in the Arena Bonus rotation, I hope it's Linde =P . But let's be real it's gonna be Arthur.

Edited May 13, 2017 by LordFrigid

[chirp]

22 minutes ago, LordFrigid said:

I've got a flier team I break out on occasion as well, though I don't think Caeda is anywhere near as good at taking out Hectors on terrain as Palla is =P (haven't run the calcs, actually, so idk if she can even do it. But if he gets off, ever.

According to the damage calculator, vanilla Caeda does 2 x 29 to vanilla Hector and takes 18. She can definitely do it, but she'll have to stay on the offensive after the first one. Not too difficult when you're flying a pegasus over a trudging opponent.

[MonkeyCheez3K]

4 hours ago, Otorio said:

No. You're matched up based on team strength rather than tier. One of the people who lost to my team is in Tier 3 while I'm in Tier 15.

Good to know, thanks. I definitely prefer it this way.

[LordFrigid]

1 minute ago, chirp said:

According to the damage calculator, vanilla Caeda does 2 x 29 to vanilla Hector and takes 18. She can definitely do it, but she'll have to stay on the offensive after the first one. Not too difficult when you're flying a pegasus over a trudging opponent.

I've got a Brave Sword+ on mine. Just ran the numbers, and neutral Def/HP, unmerged Hector will die exactly with Hone Fliers (specifically, this is +Atk/-Res +4 Caeda with Swift Sparrow 2). But it's honestly a non-issue, since he's probably the last enemy on the map, and it'll only take a turn or two to get him off of the tile.

[Dayni]

6 hours ago, ignis_z said:

where is the sense? 

Honestly not much, I assume I got lucky. Those I beat all had 5* lead units (Cherche, Eldigan and Klein), but I can't tell what tiers they were as I didn't get friend requests from them.

Many players likely aren't that used to the defence tile meta yet.

(Also, I think I've lost about 4 times this season alone. I have no doubt I'm not the only one)

[Exoplayer]

This week is one of the best i ever had. With 4846 it's just two points more than the last score but, well it's fine as long as i get the tier 17 reward. In defense im getting the jump from usual 2-4 now to 10+ victories. I think im gonna like the new arena system, because my average defense team check some enimies a lot better than last season. In fact i got lucky again just because i pulled recently a Minerva as L&D fodder and a Julia with finally the right IVs. Rank is 360 at 4:00 am UTC+2.

My team for anyone, who is interested.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Exoplayer

[Korath88]

My 3 swords and Dancer team has now reached 11 victories.

For those struggling to get Defence victories, I highly recommend this team comp. It makes barely any sense, but it works.

[Rafiel's Aria]

15 minutes ago, Korath88 said:

My 3 swords and Dancer team has now reached 11 victories.

For those struggling to get Defence victories, I highly recommend this team comp. It makes barely any sense, but it works.

Whoa. That's pretty great. What swords are you using if I may ask? I've switched my teams around a couple of times this season and haven't managed to get any victories. 

[Korath88]

Just now, Rafiel's Aria said:

Whoa. That's pretty great. What swords are you using if I may ask? I've switched my teams around a couple of times this season and haven't managed to get any victories. 

Ryoma, Alm and Zephiel for the bonus. Not exactly the most accessible units admittedly, but other sword units should suffice.

[Rafiel's Aria]

Just now, Korath88 said:

Ryoma, Alm and Zephiel for the bonus. Not exactly the most accessible units admittedly, but other sword units should suffice.

Did you promote Zephiel to 5 stars or keep him at 4? As a last ditch effort, I may be able to try out Xander, Zephiel and maybe Lucina or Sanaki plus Azura. I decided to promote Xander, but kept Zephiel at 4 stars. 

[Korath88]

2 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

Did you promote Zephiel to 5 stars or keep him at 4? As a last ditch effort, I may be able to try out Xander, Zephiel and maybe Lucina or Sanaki plus Azura. I decided to promote Xander, but kept Zephiel at 4 stars. 

Yeah I promoted Zephiel to 5*. Can't really afford to run a 4* as I need those feathers (and I just wanted to promote him)

Edited May 14, 2017 by Korath88

[Rafiel's Aria]

Just now, Korath88 said:

Yeah I promoted Zephiel to 5*. Can't really afford to run a 4* as I need those feathers 

That's probably been my problem this season. My bonus unit as always been 4*. Oh well. I'll just have to hope for better next season. 

[GinRei]

Surprised they haven't announced next season's bonus heroes yet.  Was kind of waiting on that to see if I had either of the two random units already promoted and in-use before feathering Xander.

[silverserpent]

Has anyone else experienced the bug of a unit without Pass or other "jumping" skill suddenly hop across a blocker to attack another unit instead of the only one in the danger zone? I'm putting this up here because I've only experienced this glitch in the Arena.

[Korath88]

8 minutes ago, GinRei said:

Surprised they haven't announced next season's bonus heroes yet.  Was kind of waiting on that to see if I had either of the two random units already promoted and in-use before feathering Xander.

I think they're extending this arena season's bonus heroes by another week due to the arena changes, and because Ike's banner lasts for 3 weeks instead of the usual 2

[GinRei]

1 minute ago, Korath88 said:

I think they're extending this arena season's bonus heroes by another week due to the arena changes, and because Ike's banner lasts for 3 weeks instead of the usual 2

Oh.  That makes sense.  Though that leaves me with no one to really level without feathering anymore...

[Othin]

Apparently my weird green-stacking team got another two wins. I think this is the most I've gotten yet, at least on a week where I was actually paying attention.

[Elieson]

IMO greenstacking is a fair way to score a win because of the KO potential against people running Reinhardts and Effies, as well as other commons that can't quite deal with Ninos and Julias (Eph, Lukas, Buncinas, etc). Scoring that one KO matters!

[Whistle]

i lose count already but it seem the best period to expect def win is when the quest is up. Got like 4-5 more when the quest reset. 

[Othin]

I expected replacing Sharena with Reinhardt on my arena team to increase scores because of his higher-point skills, but it actually seems to have decreased it.

Reinhardt: Dire Thunder (400), Draw Back (150), Blazing Thunder (300), Death Blow 2 (100), Vantage 3 (200), Goad Cavalry (200)

Sharena: Fensalir (400), Draw Back (150), Bonfire (200), Speed +3 (120), Vantage 2 (100), Spur Atk 3 (200)

Does anyone know why?

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, Othin said:

Does anyone know why?

IIRC, cavalry units get a bonus because of their lower than usual BST, as do mages. Vice versa, armoured units get a penalty.

[Othin]

57 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

IIRC, cavalry units get a bonus because of their lower than usual BST, as do mages. Vice versa, armoured units get a penalty.

That's the thing, I expected that to cancel things out so only skills would be relevant. Sharena has rating 177 while Reinhardt has 149, but removing their skills makes Sharena 158 and Reinhardt 144. If it's true that mounted units get the equivalent of +10 rating and ranged units get +5, that should make it about even between them on that count, making no apparent reason for Sharena to score more.

[Sl3w1n]

I expiremented a little bit with my teamcomp to see if i can improve it's score range.

First i swapped Spring Chrome +1 for a vanilla Hector (neutral bane/boon) so that my team looked like that:

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

4* Zephiel

Silver Blade/ Revenge/+2 Atk/Wary Fighter 3/ Hone Atk 2/ Swap

5*Hector

Armands/ Pavise/ Distant Counter/ Goat Armor

 

Which provided opponents worth:

678/ 680/ 2x 682/ 688 points 

After filling hectors b- and support skill slot with Swap and Rewnewell 3 it looked like the following interms of score:

3x680/ 2x 682/ 2x684/ 686/ 690

 

What i find interesting is that vanilla Hector gets the same results in terms of score range than my Bunny Chrome +1 while there skills have similar SP costs (Hector 1100 /Chroms 1050).

1 hour ago, Othin said:

I expected replacing Sharena with Reinhardt on my arena team to increase scores because of his higher-point skills, but it actually seems to have decreased it.

Reinhardt: Dire Thunder (400), Draw Back (150), Blazing Thunder (300), Death Blow 2 (100), Vantage 3 (200), Goad Cavalry (200)

Sharena: Fensalir (400), Draw Back (150), Bonfire (200), Speed +3 (120), Vantage 2 (100), Spur Atk 3 (200)

Does anyone know why?

It seems like raw stats are still important even trought Bunny Chrome in my example above is merged he doesn't outperform Hector. While in my case running Rawing thunder instead of glimmer on Nino hasn't changed the score range (so a skill thats 100SP more expensive doesn't gurantee a better score range throught it seems like i got better scores more often). <- i posted the numbers for the Nino skill swap on page 116 in this thread.

Edit: that i got better scores more often with glimmer Nino isn't wrong but i thought the difference would be bigger Glimmer Nino averaged 681,6 while Waring thunder Nino averaged 681,644 (and some 4s dunno how its called in english nor do i know how to implement the correct mathematical form on my mobile ^^)

Edited May 14, 2017 by Sl3w1n