Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Really though when discussing offense vs defense in this game the biggest question is if you consider reactive unit to be offensive or defensive

 

To put it simply Defensive unit in a sense that Take Hits forever DOESN'T work in this game because of the inevitable Skill proc and WTD being ridiculous and in the end your goal is always to kill your opponent. Lukas isn't really good because he took 0 damage, but rather because he took 0 damage while hitting pretty hard in return

But if its Tanky slow unit who can take hits and bait enemies, this is significantly more viable than one thinks. Advantage of this type of units is that with a properly executed baiting, you can use the first match up to charge up special gauge which gave them a fairly consistent 2 for 1 trades, sometimes even a 2 for 1 disadvantageous trades, and the numerous amount of B slots can be used to customize it to what you need. Hector, QR Michalis, Eldigan, and Xander is arguably this kind of unit. Nowi and Tiki too. Killer Weapon unit can be built into this

 

They are more specialized but so is most build in this game that isn't Reinhardt and Bladetomes

[MaskedAmpharos]

Oh yeah, I never posted my Arena rank/score.

Currently rank 695 with a score of 4816 (having to use Ike instead of Ryoma +3 is definitely hurting my score). It'll definitely drop below top 1k by the week's end though.

Probably going to keep trying to roll for higher scores. 

I've already secured a couple of defense wins though, so that's nice. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[Clogon]

I tried theory crafting Henry. -SPD/+DEF using Close Counter and QR can tank all but 17 neutral enemies. Only 2 of them are not blue (Liliana and Sanaki). This allows him to charge up Ignis and deal 34+28 damage on his turn killing many of the survivors.

[Elieson]

I wish you could + the Askrio. It sucks having Sharena be so good yet so unusuable in maximum meta :/

[ignis_z]

Cant defender nothing any sugerence?

Nino ninia Gordin Lilina Azura all full biffed but nothing omg.

[MrSmokestack]

4 minutes ago, ignis_z said:

Cant defender nothing any sugerence?

Nino ninia Gordin Lilina Azura all full biffed but nothing omg.

Need help making an arena defense?

Color-stack blue or run dancers. High movement can make your opponent misplay into the AI's dancer range. Make sure neither dancer is set as the lead on your defense team though, since some people skip over those units when looking for players to be matched against.

[Fei Mao]

The arena has been pretty tough lately for me with all the strong Reinhardt teams that I've been facing, hopefully my 4* Cecilia with TA could solve th problem.

@Korath88@MrSmokestack@Elieson@MaskedAmpharos and anyone else that gave their opinion. Thanks, was very interesting to see the opinions/points made about the 900+ upvoted list on the subreddit.


 

7 hours ago, Arcanite said:

PSA

THIS IS ALMOST THE SAME TIER LIST AS THE WIKI

Anything you say about this, applies to that also!

GamePress got this list from the wiki so really they're "Information" is the same!

Ohh that's interesting, I didn't notice the similarities.

 

Spoiler

Whelp

 

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, Hilda said:

1. I am not talking about Arena Defense Team

2. Hector Nowi and Ike have Counter Weapons/Skills that allow them to counter at any range they are attacked. Which covers some of their weakpoints. Effy can cover her weakpoint (SPD) with wary fighter and brave lance (also she is a bit squishy for a tank). Lastly Ephraim barely made it to high tier and that only because of his moderate Atk stat and his niche Weapon/built allowing him to give 3 buffs to close allies, his sister Eirika made it higher on the tierlist, even tough she has much lower Attack then him. Why? well she has 10 more SPD and the same niche Weapon.

Lets look at Sheena, she has fantastic high def and high res. Built a defensiv playing Team (not Arena Defense Team) around her and tell me how your Arena Adventure went.

 

@Ice Dragon: I am really eager to try a defensiv Team in the Arena, so if you have any suggestion on the Team composition and the skills they should run you are welcomed to share them. I am looking for a built that can take alot of hits, wittle the Enemy slowly down without any Close/Distant Counter Skill as an A-Slot.

My old team before the bonus hero set changed was the following (adding in skills I meant to add, but haven't gotten around to and haven't had the need to):

Sophia [+Atk, -Spd] (Raudhrraven+, Dragon Fang, Triangle Adept 3, G Tomebreaker 3, Fortify Res 3)
Nowi [+Atk, -Res] (Lightning Breath+, Rally Defense, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 3, Fortify Dragons, S Attack +1)
Ninian [+Atk, -Res] (Lightning Breath+, Dance, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 3, Fortify Dragons, S HP +3)
Julia [=] (Naga, Resistance +3, Quick Riposte 3, Breath of Life 3)

Sophia has the mixed bulk to shrug off anything green or colorless that isn't Cherche with a Brave Axe+ and an offensive special skill. Rally Defense from Nowi helps, but it's usually more reliable to use Ninian as bait, then intercept with a danced double attack against axes. G Tomebreaker is a necessity to hold up against Gronnblade Spring Camilla.

Nowi can tank any red, lance, or colorless unit, especially after a buff from Ninian's Fortify Dragons, and kill on the counterattack. Attack +1 on the passive S slot allows her to one-hit kill every relevant Lucina build if both combatants are +10 (not necessary at lower merge levels or if the Lucina is at a lower merge level than Nowi).

Julia can tank any blue tome, including Reinhardt and Olwen, and kill on the counterattack. Ninian can tank a single hit from nearly anything that doesn't hit more than once in an emergency, even green units (even an unbuffed Spring Camilla).

The goal of the team is to quickly eliminate opposing ranged attackers on the counterattack, then move in to sweep the remaining physical units with powerful Triangle-Adept-boosted offenses.

 

One of my proposed teams is my Wall of Fire and Sharp Things (pick 4):

Zephiel [=] (Eckesachs/Wo Dao+, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)
Gwendolyn [+Atk, -Spd] (Killer Lance+, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)
Sheena [+Atk, -Spd] (Killer Axe+, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)
Draug [+Atk, -Res/-Spd] (Wo Dao+, Swap, Moonbow, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)
Effie [+Res, -Spd] (Killer Lance+, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)
Hector [+Spd/+Atk, -???] (Armads, Swap, Bonfire/Moonbow, Distant Counter, Vantage 3, Ward Armor/Goad Armor)

This team is meant to stack Ward Armor (preferably) or Goad Armor and use Swap to rearrange unit positions to force the AI to target units at neutral weapon triangle or at disadvantage.

Even with their lower 30 base Atk, Gwendolyn and Sheena have no trouble breaking through most enemies at neutral weapon triangle or at advantage due to Bonfire (24 damage on Sheena with 3 stacks of Ward Armor) or can run with a full Goad Armor team for a massive +12 Atk and +12 Spd boost (-Spd Gwendolyn has a respectable 33 Spd with 3 stacks of Goad Armor) to demolish opponents on the counterattack at the cost of losing some bulk.

 

The point of defensive characters is not to tank hits endlessly. They are designed to work by either killing the opponent on the counterattack with a guaranteed Bonfire or Iceberg activation if necessary or by safely taking little damage on enemy phase so that you can lure out the opponent so that they are out of position and easy pickings for the following player phase.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[Taim Meich]

14 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Need help making an arena defense?

Color-stack blue or run dancers. High movement can make your opponent misplay into the AI's dancer range. Make sure neither dancer is set as the lead on your defense team though, since some people skip over those units when looking for players to be matched against.

What about a green unit as a lead to bait, then two blues and a dancer? Ideally two blue mages, but I guess two close range blues would do, no?

Edited May 2, 2017 by Taim Meich

[MrSmokestack]

6 minutes ago, Taim Meich said:

What about a green unit as a lead to bait, then two blues and a dancer? Idelly two blue mages, but I guess two close range blues would do, no?

Ranged everything in general is a pain to play against. Take as many as humanly possible.

Depends on the green used to bait. Nino is a dead giveaway while Fae would just seem suspicious. Soren maybe?

My ideal defense team is Reinhardt / Reinhardt / Reinhardt / Azura pretty much what you suggested, otherwise.

Edited May 2, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Razputin13]

2 hours ago, JSND said:

Honestly the list of low tier in this game can be summed up into:

- Henry

RUDE. I've run Henry since week 1 (better counter to Takumi than Robin, and he countered Hector as well back when those two were THE meta), and he's never let me down. It's only a day into the season, but this is my one-death (one attempt) run score and team.

Spoiler

Plus, I've never NOT had a season with 10 successful Defenses with at least 250 score.

 

I tried theory crafting Henry. -SPD/+DEF using Close Counter and QR can tank all but 17 neutral enemies. Only 2 of them are not blue (Liliana and Sanaki). This allows him to charge up Ignis and deal 34+28 damage on his turn killing many of the survivors.

I basically did this, except Swordbreaker fits better with my team's strategy, being better defensively. Here's my Henry:

Spoiler

 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Razputin13

[Taim Meich]

1 minute ago, MrSmokestack said:

Ranged everything in general is a pain to play against. Take as many as humanly possible.

Depends on the green used to bait. Nino is a dead giveaway while Fae would just seem suspicious. Soren maybe?

My ideal defense team is Reinhardt / Reinhardt / Reinhardt / Azura is pretty much what you suggested, otherwise.

Hum, I'll go Soren/Ephraim/Tharja/Olivia, then, while I wait for a decent blue mage to be summoned. I could field Effie but the AI is awful at using armors, she'd end up being left behind and then killed easily when the rest of the team died. Also with the exact same order I posted the team, I'd maximize the chances of Ephraim buffing Tharja to +14 attack and then Olivia sending her to murder something.

I could try for Linde in this banner, since I don't have any decent blue mage (or... at all, I don't remember if I ended up sacrificing my Odin), but I don't want one so desperately, and all my orbs are going for the glorious lord of axes.

[Cute Chao]

I'm finally getting defense wins again with a team of Ryoma / Reinhardt / Azura / Bunny!Camilla. I think the last one really tipped the edge, as I've been trying all sorts of last slot combos while keeping the first slots pretty much the same. If I can be bothered sp grinding, I might swap Azura for WoM Ninian, but then again... I might not. If it's working. I'll leave it lol

[MrSmokestack]

Just now, Taim Meich said:

Hum, I'll go Soren/Ephraim/Tharja/Olivia, then, while I wait for a decent blue mage to be summoned. I could field Effie but the AI is awful at using armors, she'd end up being left behind and then killed easily when the rest of the team died. Also with the exact same order I posted the team, I'd maximize the chances of Ephraim buffing Tharja to +14 attack and then Olivia sending her to murder something.

I could try for Linde in this banner, since I don't have any decent blue mage (or... at all, I don't remember if I ended up sacrificing my Odin), but I don't want one so desperately, and all my orbs are going for the glorious lord of axes.

Sounds like a plan. Good luck pulling the Ostian General, by the way 50-->15 orbs rip me. If you want Linde, don't pull on the Xander focus, since Cordelia can mess up your 5* rate if you hunt blue. Otherwise, go for it.

[Taim Meich]

Just now, MrSmokestack said:

Sounds like a plan. Good luck pulling the Ostian General, by the way 50-->15 orbs rip me. If you want Linde, don't pull on the Xander focus, since Cordelia can mess up your 5* rate if you hunt blue. Otherwise, go for it.

I'm summoning each time I have 17 orbs (in case I see 4 green orbs, which I believe is the maximum in a single summoning session), and still no luck. If no extra unexpected orbs come our way before friday, I'll have enough for 5 summons more, assuming 5 orbs per summoning session. I could get lucky and get more greens in one session, or I could be unlucky and get no greens, but that's a decent estimation.

Good luck fellow Hector fan ;_;

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

2 minutes ago, Taim Meich said:

I'm summoning each time I have 17 orbs (in case I see 4 green orbs, which I believe is the maximum in a single summoning session), and still no luck. If no extra unexpected orbs come our way before friday, I'll have enough for 5 summons more, assuming 5 orbs per summoning session. I could get lucky and get more greens in one session, or I could be unlucky and get no greens, but that's a decent estimation.

Good luck fellow Hector fan ;_;

You can get five orbs of the same colour. I got a quintuple red when sniping for Ike. I thought it was pretty amazing and that maybe my luck had turned around.

Spoiler

They were all 3* pulls.

 

[Taim Meich]

2 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

You can get five orbs of the same colour. I got a quintuple red when sniping for Ike. I thought it was pretty amazing and that maybe my luck had turned around.

  Reveal hidden contents

They were all 3* pulls.

 

Oh! Thanks for the heads-up! I'll save for 20, then. And, ouch at your spoiler >_<

[LordFrigid]

4930 points:

5pm PDT 5/2: 184

I'm kinda curious as to how the score jumped +10 from last week's max when the only real difference is using Ike instead of Sharena. She's got 1 base stat point on him...could be that he has Swordbreaker 3 while I was running QR 2 on Sharena, I guess. Other than that, both their skill sets are maxed out. I suppose it could also be that I just got luckier with the teams I was drawing, but I wouldn't have expected a whole +10 from that.

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, LordFrigid said:

4930 points:

5pm PDT 5/2: 184

I'm kinda curious as to how the score jumped +10 from last week's max when the only real difference is using Ike instead of Sharena. She's got 1 base stat point on him...could be that he has Swordbreaker 3 while I was running QR 2 on Sharena, I guess. Other than that, both their skill sets are maxed out. I suppose it could also be that I just got luckier with the teams I was drawing, but I wouldn't have expected a whole +10 from that.

+1 point per match on average over 7 matches is already +7 points.

[mcsilas]

59 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

You can get five orbs of the same colour. I got a quintuple red when sniping for Ike. I thought it was pretty amazing and that maybe my luck had turned around.

  Reveal hidden contents

They were all 3* pulls.

 

This is exactly why i was scared at a full 5 blue summon session while hunting for Azura with less than 10 orbs left. 2 were already 3 stars so I said nope and left.

At least I got Minerva first try and Hector not too long after! The best axe users in and the ones I really wanted for do long!

As for this arena, i've been using Hana to replace Lyn/Lucina to varying success. i guess i'll have to find a Brave Sword fodder now (i guess i have Draug but i need to feather him up a bit.)

actually i have a 4 star Ogma that i could feather to 5 star to feed Hana Brave Sword+, but i'm always hesitant of using 20k feathers for inheritance. Would Hana have good long term use with it? (my only good sword user in the Ogma account is Lucina and i'm planning to upgrade Xander soon. Not sure about Zephiel yet)

 

[LordFrigid]

46 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

+1 point per match on average over 7 matches is already +7 points.

Hm...true enough. I guess I just wasn't expecting it.

[MaskedAmpharos]

2 hours ago, Cute Chao said:

I'm finally getting defense wins again with a team of Ryoma / Reinhardt / Azura / Bunny!Camilla. I think the last one really tipped the edge, as I've been trying all sorts of last slot combos while keeping the first slots pretty much the same. If I can be bothered sp grinding, I might swap Azura for WoM Ninian, but then again... I might not. If it's working. I'll leave it lol

Hey that's almost exactly my defense team :D

I run Ninian over Azura and Julia over Camilla though (and currently Ike over Ryoma but solely bc I want Ike as my rep), but otherwise it's the same. 

[Rafiel's Aria]

Oooh...yikes. This Arena season is going to be rough. I had my first defeat in almost 4 seasons. Of the bonus units, I have everyone except the Tellius peeps. Clarine was the only one had trained up, so I thought having a healer would be nice, but she doesn't really offer that much for my team as she is, even at 4 stars. Sharena was only 3 stars, but at least she provided buffs.

I may switch to Felicia for debuffs. I just got a 3 star +ATK Hana, so she's definitely a viable option.I'll just have to spend the day grinding. 

[Roflolxp54]

Got my 4001+ Offense score. It was pretty rough because of those broken wall maps I keep getting put in.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Roflolxp54

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

5 hours ago, Razputin13 said:

RUDE. I've run Henry since week 1 (better counter to Takumi than Robin, and he countered Hector as well back when those two were THE meta), and he's never let me down. It's only a day into the season, but this is my one-death (one attempt) run score and team.

  Reveal hidden contents

Plus, I've never NOT had a season with 10 successful Defenses with at least 250 score.

 

I basically did this, except Swordbreaker fits better with my team's strategy, being better defensively. Here's my Henry:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Henry is really separated there because his chasis is so weird and hes "regarded" as low tier