Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Ryu Yuki]

16 minutes ago, Ryuke said:

Still have no defence win

 

Sooooo

List all the good defensive units guys? (Or if you have a defence win... list your units)

I am literally going to mock it ... idk anymore.

Movement assists tend to be helpful. Reposition on my Nowi got me a lot of defense wins, and the poster right above you got Draw Back to work for him. Dancer(s) also consistently produce results. In general, a lot of people rely on the Danger Zone feature to tell if the enemy can reach them next turn, and Dance + Movement Assists tend to throw a lot of those predictions out the window. It's a lot easier to make mistakes and get someone killed when the enemy team has such capabilities. Otherwise, you'd want a team that's hard to play around. Close/Distant Counter makes it so that the opponent can't attack at a certain range to avoid taking any damage, and Vantage can make it hard for people to do the 'Bait on enemy phase and kill on player phase' tactic. Manaketes with the all-range breath weapon work just as fine as well.

EDIT: Also my current defense team is basically Y!Tiki / Nowi / Ryoma / Takumi, every one of them loaded with a breath weapon or skill that lets them counter at any range, and packed with Defiant Atk 3 + Vantage for good measure. It works wonders for me. 

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ryu Yuki

[Phoenix_Kensai]

Finally got my first deathless win streak, and with just about the highest BST team I could muster, too (Lyn, Tiki, Nino, and Ursula). Switching Takumi out for Nino actually worked very well, though Ursula dragged the score down a bit. 4,472 points doesn't seem bad, though.

[XeKr]

I just use my offense team for defense since I’m lazy and want to free up a team slot >_> (can’t be bothered always shifting around units for the Cav/Flier quests plus trainee teams with Clarine/Eirika/Olivia) 

The team is literally 2 melee + 2 glass cannon blue mages w/ Draw Back. Linde is Linde and Robin(M) with Life and Death 2 is Linde-lite. Eirika gives some buffs and can Drag Back into the waiting mages, Anna might teleport and catch someone off guard. 

I think the actual best defense teams have the teleport skills, because they are very hard to keep in mind. And if people use units that are hard to oneround (being naturally fast/bulky or have Wary Fighter) then other units swoop in on Wings on Mercy and crush your team. 

Or refreshers+ranged units. The Cav mages can cover the whole screen practically and can run Dire Thunder or –blade tomes for absurd damage.  

[Ice Dragon]

21 minutes ago, Ryuke said:

Still have no defence win

 

Sooooo

List all the good defensive units guys? (Or if you have a defence win... list your units)

I am literally going to mock it ... idc anymore.

As @eclipse says, all one color is actually pretty good. The best way to get at least one defense win is to pick a team that is hard for a balanced team to beat.

A typical balanced team runs 2 units of one color and 1 unit of the other two colors or 1 unit of each color. Running only one color means anywhere from 1 to 3 of your opponent's units are made ineffective. As long as the effective units on the opponent's team are not using Triangle Adept or gem weapons, your team will eventually wear out their effective units, and their remaining units won't be able to stop what's left of your team from picking them off.

I think Triangle Adept is more common among red and blue units (Roy and Sanaki have it by default, and Robin and Nowi commonly have it taught to deal with Takumi and Falchions, respectively), so an all-blue team is probably most effective.

 

Half and half can also be effective for the same reasons. Running only two colors still renders at least one of a balanced team's units less effective, making it a 4-on-3 match in your favor. It also has a higher chance of winning against teams with Triangle Adept. Red and blue is probably the most effective combination, though blue and colorless probably also works well. The AI is also less likely to split both this and the all one color team making it harder for the opponent to pick off individual units one at a time.

 

Actually, a team consisting only of copies of Klein, Gordin, and Kagero could probably just bulldoze through a lot of balanced teams.

[MaskedAmpharos]

Just ran into this monster in Arena, and I have to say I admire the amount of funding dedication it must have taken to make this happen.

Edited March 26, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[Ryu Yuki]

Just now, MaskedAmpharos said:

Just ran into this monster in Arena, and I have to say I admire the amount of funding dedication it must have taken to make this happen.

We sure this doesn't belong to @Ice Dragon...?

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ryu Yuki

[Ice Dragon]

14 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Just ran into this monster in Arena, and I have to say I admire the amount of funding dedication it must have taken to make this happen.

@Ryu Yuki

The image isn't loading for me.

My team is a +9 Julia (vanilla), +9 Lucina (vanilla), +10 Lucina (vanilla), and +10 Robin (M) (Close Counter, Quick Riposte 3) in that order.

[MaskedAmpharos]

Just now, Ice Dragon said:

@Ryu Yuki

The image isn't loading for me.

My team is a +9 Julia (vanilla), +9 Lucina (vanilla), +10 Lucina (vanilla), and +10 Robin (M) (Close Counter, Quick Riposte 3) in that order.

It's a +10 Ninian with Lightning Breath+, Dance, Fury 3, Vantage 2, Hone Spd 3 

[Ryu Yuki]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

@Ryu Yuki

The image isn't loading for me.

My team is a +9 Julia (vanilla), +9 Lucina (vanilla), +10 Lucina (vanilla), and +10 Robin (M) (Close Counter, Quick Riposte 3) in that order.

It's a 40+10 Ninian with Lightning Breath +, Dance, Fury 3, Vantage 2 and Hone Speed 3

EDIT: Ampharos beat me to the punch.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ryu Yuki

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

It's a +10 Ninian with Lightning Breath+, Dance, Fury 3, Vantage 2, Hone Spd 3 

 

2 minutes ago, Ryu Yuki said:

It's a 40+10 Ninian with Lightning Breath +, Dance, Fury 3, Vantage 2 and Hone Speed 3

I wouldn't run that build for Ninian, though. I'd almost certainly be using Triangle Adept because tanking non-reds with Ninian is rather futile with her poor Def and only slightly above average Res.

 

Also, I take pride (and self-deprecating shame) in the fact that I'm whale enough to not have to resort to Vantage 2.

[MaskedAmpharos]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

I wouldn't run that build for Ninian, though. I'd almost certainly be using Triangle Adept because tanking non-reds with Ninian is rather futile with her poor Def and only slightly above average Res.

 

Also, I take pride (and self-deprecating shame) in the fact that I'm whale enough to not have to resort to Vantage 2.

But not whale enough to have a +10 Ninian of your own? :P

EDIT: Also it's possible they have Vantage 3 unlocked and are just in the process of grinding SP. Benefit of the doubt and all that.

Edited March 26, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

But not whale enough to have a +10 Ninian of your own? :P

I actually just pulled my 11th Ninian about an hour ago. (Now I only need 3 more to hold onto to teach Fortify Dragons and maybe 1 or 2 more for good measure.)

I still need to run calcs to figure out which Ninian to use as my merge base, though. Probably [+Spd, -Res], but we'll see.

 

3 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

EDIT: Also it's possible they have Vantage 3 unlocked and are just in the process of grinding SP. Benefit of the doubt and all that.

Obviously, you just merge another 2 or 3 Ninians for the extra SP.

[MaskedAmpharos]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I actually just pulled my 11th Ninian about an hour ago. (Now I only need 3 more to hold onto to teach Fortify Dragons and maybe 1 or 2 more for good measure.)

I still need to run calcs to figure out which Ninian to use as my merge base, though. Probably [+Spd, -Res], but we'll see.

 

Obviously, you just merge another 2 or 3 Ninians for the extra SP.

I stand corrected. Wishiwashi are truly terrifying .__.

[Ryu Yuki]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I actually just pulled my 11th Ninian about an hour ago. (Now I only need 3 more to hold onto to teach Fortify Dragons and maybe 1 or 2 more for good measure.)

I still need to run calcs to figure out which Ninian to use as my merge base, though. Probably [+Spd, -Res], but we'll see.

 

Obviously, you just merge another 2 or 3 Ninians for the extra SP.

E-e-eleven...? S-surely, you have s-some to share around, r-right? I need a few extra for my manakete dream team... 

[Ice Dragon]

18 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

I stand corrected. Wishiwashi are truly terrifying .__.

Now if only I had a proper water-type move to keep my wallet from burning. Scald doesn't seem to work very well.

 

17 minutes ago, Ryu Yuki said:

E-e-eleven...? S-surely, you have s-some to share around, r-right? I need a few extra for my manakete dream team... 

If only trading were a thing (because I'm sure I have things people want so that I can get even more Ninians).

[pianime94]

Damn, just met a team with inheritance build. +Spd Ryoma with Moonbow+Vantage buffed by Eirika is a literal monster.

Can't win against that without sacrificing my units.

I'll need some Moonbow dupes.

Also my, score of 4458 placed me at 11.115 as expected. I'll see if I bother to try higher.

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by pianime94

[Fei Mao]

Team: Sharena/Ursula/Abel/Marth

3/23: 4,041 Rank: 43,304
3/24: 4,041 Rank: 57,572
3/25: 4,041 Rank: 72,000
3/26: 4,136 Rank: 58,541

Well, I improved my score a little bit, but mostly it was because I promoted Ursula to 4* and her BST dropped so I had easier matchups. I think I'm gonna replace my Marth and give Selena a try, she can tank green units due to triangle adept, has threaten speed, and reposition which would seem helpful.

Also, this reddit user made a nice combat simulator if you guys want to theory craft and stuff.

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by Fei Mao

[MediocreLee]

Should have taken screenshots in hindsight...  But I went against someone who had Distant Counters on Karel and Ninian, and Close Counter on Tharja with Takumi being the 4th character..  It was weird, but I was able to beat them.

[Vaximillian]

I wonder if I'm the only player in the whole fucking world who has no Takumi, no male Robin, or no Hector.

Every single team I face has at least one of those three.

[Okigen]

Hi guys, how does the match-up work? My team is 661 BST without fury or 673 with fury but I always get matched against 638-645 range. Is that normal?

[pianime94]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

I wonder if I'm the only player in the whole fucking world who has no Takumi, no male Robin, or no Hector.

Every single team I face has at least one of those three.

I don't have Takumi nor Hector. But I do have 4* M Robin.

For me, I mostly meet Takumi and Effie.

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, pianime94 said:

I don't have Takumi nor Hector. But I do have 4* M Robin.

For me, I mostly meet Takumi and Effie.

Anna wants a tomahawk to deal with Robin and the like. Make it happen, Nintendo/IS/whoever.

[azurrys]

3 hours ago, Ryuke said:

Still have no defence win

 

Sooooo

List all the good defensive units guys? (Or if you have a defence win... list your units)

I am literally going to mock it ... idc anymore.

Ranged units. The banes of my arena existence tend to be fast mages like Nino and Linde or Brave weapon users (especially Reinhardt, godfucking Reinhardt) because if I can't one-round them immediately, I tend to lose a unit. Also Dancers/movement assists. They open up so many more avenues for the AI's next move and/or fuck up your strategy, are incredibly irritating to take that into account and easy enough to miss or forget about. My current team is Reinhardt, Tharja, Klein and Cordelia (filler), and although I'm lacking movement assists or a decent Dancer for now I've scored a comfortable number of wins.

I really like the idea of stacking all one colour though. I'll have to try that sometime and compare...

Also, you can try switching in some slightly less common units sometimes if you have them. For the most part, I try to make sure I can counter the most common arena units. I see Takumi practically every battle so I'll always pack a Takumi counter and because of that, he's really not that threatening to me anymore. Less-common units like Abel and Peri are more likely to throw me for a loop and mess up my strategy.

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Anna wants a tomahawk to deal with Robin and the like. Make it happen, Nintendo/IS/whoever.

In the meantime, make a Hector summoning pentagram for Distant Counter.

Or hope Linus comes with his final chapter Tomahawk.

 

3 minutes ago, azurrys said:

especially Reinhardt, godfucking Reinhardt

A team of 4 5-star Reinhardts all with Death Blow 3 and Goad Cavalry would be brutal.

[Vaximillian]

5 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

In the meantime, make a Hector summoning pentagram for Distant Counter.

Or hope Linus comes with his final chapter Tomahawk.

I don't even have any merch to set up a pentagram with, welp, only starting to play the series last September.
Also, isn't Anna supposed to be aggressive, not reactive? That innate Vantage begs to differ though.

Woah, indeed. I did tag Murdock with a tomahawk in my speculation table but I never remembered that Linus also used the thing as a morph.
That'd also be nice.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Vaximillian