Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[GuiltyLove]

Just now, Bartozio said:

Honestly though, as DehNutCase said, it's not to bad when you're using units who are good at counter killing.

meh I'll see what I can do. I have trouble separating at times. The enemy dancer makes it super hard for me :/

[DehNutCase]

13 minutes ago, Bartozio said:

I actually kinda like that map. Reminds me of the time I was up against a dragon team+Linde and the enemy managed to seperate me instead of the other way around. Good times, good times...

Honestly though, as DehNutCase said, it's not to bad when you're using units who are good at counter killing.

I'm actually talking about offensive teams---even my 'bulky' units don't reliably last 1 round vs. most teams. AI still prefers to go after the person you overkill by double their hp pool than the closest ORKO (everyone), however, so it's very easy to just send 1 unit each top & bottom and just deal with the enemy team after they've separated.

[XRay]

29 minutes ago, Bartozio said:

You really are pure evil aren't you? I like it!

I prefer to think of myself as a nightmarish teacher. I am giving players with lower Arena scores suggestions on how to build a defense team so they can emulate it and get defense wins consistently. There is nothing better than being terrorized by experiencing Reinhardt Emblem first hand to truly appreciate how amazing he is.

[Roflolxp54]

Got a 5th defense win, this time from a player who owns an Olwen that has LnD2, Desperation 3, and Luna. I wonder what is my team doing! xD

[Alkaid]

What the hell. I check my defenses today and now I have 5. Nani?? I really gotta chalk it up to map rotation I guess, as this is the same team I usually use + low level bonus unit every week, and I usually just get 1 defense. I feel like the maps this week are among the easier ones for attacking, but I sure won't complain.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Tier 20 score of 4910 (no deaths; no surrenders; Summer Corrin, Nowi +5, Eirika 5*, Nino +6; 696, 702, 702, 704, 706, 696, 704):

• Aug 3 12:45AM PT - #1111 (/2729 to stay)
• Aug 3 3:35PM PT - #1372 (/2758 to stay)

Somewhat sharp drop without much of a threshold increase. I doubt there'll be a problem, but still eyebrow raising. Good thing I maintained my concentration on the good streak, as when I was just practicing some more (since the streak had low scores) to earn the Gauntlet flags, ran into a Bride Cordelia that acted a bit oddly. Normally, they're super easy to bait with Summer Corrin, but she decided Nowi was a juicier target instead? Pretty sure both were doubled (Firesweep variant) and Summer Corrin not only has lower Def but flier vulnerability. Guess I need to pay a bit more attention to raw stats. Anyway, long story short, instead of going up, she went right because reasons and it was the bridge map with the square in the middle, so it was kind of inevitable that someone was going to die once she did that.

No additional defenses.

[LordFrigid]

New score of 5054 (T20) is currently rank 249.

Teams faced:

Spoiler

Interestingly, the 6th match was the toughest/most fun of the bunch, which struck me as odd, because teams with Reinhardt are usually free for Nino. It was on that lovely map with the bridge and 4 defensive tiles in the center. I was preeetty sure enemy Azura would move before Mathilda, but just to make sure she didn't get to Nino I moved Celica to bait her to the path below the bridge. Then, Azura decided to make my life hard by sitting on a defensive tile, and Nino couldn't 2HKO her 'cause Shield Pulse + Aegis. The story of the battle was basically getting Azura off that tile while not getting horribly killed by Mathilda and Cordelia, and I'm happy to have managed it in the end.

Edit: Shoot, just realized that both Leos' titles abbreviate to "SP". The one on team 1 is the "Seashore's Prince" version.

Highest Def score is 584 (out of heck if I know how many).

Edited August 4, 2017 by LordFrigid

[Astellius]

21 hours ago, Alkaid said:

What the hell. I check my defenses today and now I have 5. Nani?? I really gotta chalk it up to map rotation I guess, as this is the same team I usually use + low level bonus unit every week, and I usually just get 1 defense. I feel like the maps this week are among the easier ones for attacking, but I sure won't complain.

There's also the voting gauntlet quests! I'm sure that has something to do with it, since people have to play in the arena much more than usual.

On 8/1/2017 at 9:53 PM, GuiltyLove said:

I wish I could get defense wins more often. These are almost like a myth for me! I even put my flier team on defense this week! I have Catria, Palla, S. Camilla, and S. Elise. I wish I had S. Corrin...

In addition to what's been said already, I thought I would add a couple of things that have worked for me. First, fielding a dancer can really help, since dancers make the AI much more unpredictable. I know I hate facing dancers in the arena, their presence has ruined a ton of deathless runs for me.

Second is a variation on the "naked" teams. Instead of stripping all the skills, you could strip a number of non-essential skills while leaving the most important skills on. For example, Reinhardt doesn't need an Assist, Special, or B-passive to be a menace, but he does need Death Blow 3 (and a cav buff if he's running in a Horse Emblem team). Also, you can equip lower levels of breaker skills and Quick Riposte, since they all function the same if the character is at 100% HP.

[LordFrigid]

Update for 5054 (T20):

5pm PDT 8/3: 249

5pm PDT 8/4: 271

Teams faced detailed in the previous post. Highest def score is now 586.

[Vaximillian]

No defence wins yet.

what is this i don’t even

[mcsilas]

23 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

No defence wins yet.

what is this i don’t even

Same :(

Are cavalry dancer teams easy to bait or something? 

[Hilda]

5 hours ago, mcsilas said:

Same :(

Are cavalry dancer teams easy to bait or something? 

The current Map cicle isnt in favour for Cavalry Defense Teams.

[Roflolxp54]

6 defense wins this week. And the defeated players have rather meta lead units, many of which have full skill slots (Delthea, Azura, Julia, Lukas, Olwen, Nino).

Highest score is 582 (from 3 of the players).

Edited August 5, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[Infinite Dreams]

Daaaaaaamn it, I was SO close to finishing a higher streak (had a few 700+ wins in it) and I lost a person on the last fight.  I was fishing for battles over 696 too, so I pretty much just wasted 5-10 (?) crests... Feeling pretty bummed right now, but I think I'm going to call it quits.  Just not meant to be this time. 

Offense score still at 4872.    Almost certainly going to be demoted back to Tier 19.  (I'm rank 2509/9376 and 2812 get to stay.)

Team: Reinhardt +2, Hector +1, Olivia +1, and Summer Corrin +1.  15+ defense wins?  I lost count after 10.

[Vaximillian]

Thank you, based Berkut:

[MrSmokestack]

14 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Thank you, based Berkut:

Why he would surrender to such peasants like ourselves is beyond me.

[GuiltyLove]

31 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Why he would surrender to such peasants like ourselves is beyond me.

I dunno. I got a Berkut in gauntlet and he almost got ORKO'd by a Lucina... He's a weak nobleman! 

[XRay]

5 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Why he would surrender to such peasants like ourselves is beyond me.

That is because Berkut is the closest thing to being a peasant out of all of them, so he did the right thing in acknowledging his inferiority. He is hardly a man, let alone a royal, if he cannot even conquer a bunch of spoiled Zofians after years of training in Rigel.

Anna is a Goddess. Calling her a peasant is blasphemy.

If Reinhardt was a peasant, sword lords would not prostrate themselves before him. Alm, Chrom, Ryoma, and Xander all bow down to Reinhardt despite being royalty; Sanaki's and Zephiel's imperial standing gives them no exceptions either. The only nobility that can make Reinhardt cry for mommy is Hector and Camilla.

Lilina is the daughter of Hector, Reinhardt's bane.

Not only is Soren the son of dragons and the most powerful dragon rider, he is also Reinhardt's bane.

These four people are as far away from peasantry as possible, unlike Berkut who cannot even beat a mob of villagers from Ram.

[MrSmokestack]

23 minutes ago, XRay said:

That is because Berkut is the closest thing to being a peasant out of all of them, so he did the right thing in acknowledging his inferiority. He is hardly a man, let alone a royal, if he cannot even conquer a bunch of spoiled Zofians after years of training in Rigel.

Anna is a Goddess. Calling her a peasant is blasphemy.

If Reinhardt was a peasant, sword lords would not prostrate themselves before him. Alm, Chrom, Ryoma, and Xander all bow down to Reinhardt despite being royalty; Sanaki's and Zephiel's imperial standing gives them no exceptions either. The only nobility that can make Reinhardt cry for mommy is Hector and Camilla.

Lilina is the daughter of Hector, Reinhardt's bane.

Not only is Soren the son of dragons and the most powerful dragon rider, he is also Reinhardt's bane.

These four people are as far away from peasantry as possible, unlike Berkut who cannot even beat a mob of villagers from Ram.

I meant "ourselves" as in the players, but I'll take this too.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, MrSmokestack said:

I meant "ourselves" as in the players, but I'll take this too.

I would not call ourselves peasants either. We personally saved Elibe once, Archanea/Ylisse twice, world of Fates thrice, and now we are saving Askr. We guided heroes to victory across the battlefields of war and romance. If "peasants" like us can save the world seven times, that makes Berkut less than his own shit he poops out. At least his own feces did not lose Rigel to a teenager.

Edited August 5, 2017 by XRay

[Zeo]

Arena questions.

1. Do bonus units affect arena teams? I have 3 defense wins but they are all 280+ points. All of my wins from older seasons were 480+. I don't feel like they all had bonus units but I could be mistaken.

2. Can defense teams be cheesed or no? Like putting 3 level 1s on a team and then one level 40?

3. What's a good 3 man composition for a team where you don't have a built up bonus unit (assuming you need one.) I know mono colors are a thing but I'm not sure I have the units for that. (Nino/Soren/Cherche? lolno)

[Ice Dragon]

49 minutes ago, Zeo said:

Arena questions.

1. Do bonus units affect arena teams? I have 3 defense wins but they are all 280+ points. All of my wins from older seasons were 480+. I don't feel like they all had bonus units but I could be mistaken.

2. Can defense teams be cheesed or no? Like putting 3 level 1s on a team and then one level 40?

3. What's a good 3 man composition for a team where you don't have a built up bonus unit (assuming you need one.) I know mono colors are a thing but I'm not sure I have the units for that. (Nino/Soren/Cherche? lolno)

1. Yes. Having a bonus hero on your defense team doubles the score of each defense win.
2. Yes, if you don't mind the fact that the level-1 units are significantly reducing the worth of your team. You'll get a lot of wins, but none of the wins will be worth a large number of points.
3. Cavalry mages, cavalry in general, single-color blue, single-color green, Distant Counter units, glass cannons, Vantage, Brave archers, Firesweep archers.

[Zeo]

10 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

1. Yes. Having a bonus hero on your defense team doubles the score of each defense win.
2. Yes, if you don't mind the fact that the level-1 units are significantly reducing the worth of your team. You'll get a lot of wins, but none of the wins will be worth a large number of points.
3. Cavalry mages, cavalry in general, single-color blue, single-color green, Distant Counter units, glass cannons, Vantage, Brave archers, Firesweep archers.

1. Ok. How are Raven tomes for Defense? Like Quick Riposte Robin?
2. Ok, but something like 3 level 40s led by a level 30 Anna should net me a decent number? At least around 400?
3. My Defense team was QR Reposition Lukas, Vantage Xander with QP, Olivia with WoM and Delthea for the boost + Drawback. I got 3 wins that way. Swapping out Lukas for Anna seems like it could be a decent idea. Or should I just do something like Slap Vantage on Camus and replace Xander with him and then reds go in to see a team of blues?

Always nice to get some wisdom from the resident Sage.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Zeo

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Zeo said:

1. Ok. How are Raven tomes for Defense? Like Quick Riposte Robin?
2. Ok, but something like a level 30 Anna should net me a decent number? At least around 400?
3. My Defense team was QR Reposition Lukas, Vantage Xander with QP, Olivia with WoM and Delthea for the boost + Drawback. I got 3 wins that way. Swapping out Lukas for Anna seems like it could be a decent idea. Or should I just do something like Slap Vantage on Camus and replace Xander with him and then reds go in to see a team of blues?

Always nice to get some wisdom from the resident Sage.

1. Litrraven on its own is okay, but not great simply due to being a relatively weak weapon. The main issue is that most players use Triangle Adept with Litrraven, and Triangle Adept is generally not a good defense team skill due to being easy to circumvent.
2. No one knows how arena scores are definitively calculated. The best you can do for now is put her there and see, but generally any bonus unit is better than no bonus unit at all.
3. Try putting Anna in for now and see what happens.

[Zeo]

9 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

1. Litrraven on its own is okay, but not great simply due to being a relatively weak weapon. The main issue is that most players use Triangle Adept with Litrraven, and Triangle Adept is generally not a good defense team skill due to being easy to circumvent.
2. No one knows how arena scores are definitively calculated. The best you can do for now is put her there and see, but generally any bonus unit is better than no bonus unit at all.
3. Try putting Anna in for now and see what happens.

1. Then no Raven.
2. Ok.
3. Fine. My team is Anna/Xander/Olivia/Delthea. I'll swap Xander or Olivia out for Vantage Camus if no new wins come before the next season starts.