Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[azurrys]

Just now, Ice Dragon said:

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

Good god, I would NOT want to meet that in the arena. Their movement reach would be too ridiculous to dodge around. I can't think of any way you can get out of that without casualties.

And to make it worse... maybe a team of 4 5-star Reinhardts with Death Blow 3, Goad Cavalry, and Reposition/Shove/Smite. Or 3 of those and a Dancer. Either way, it all sounds terrifying. /shudders

[Ice Dragon]

18 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

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.

Since it seems that Lloyd is coming with his final chapter Regal Blade based on the datamines, I'm actually quite willing to bet that Linus will come with a Tomahawk, considering the devs seem to want to give as many characters axes as they can reasonably defend (and then some; I'm looking at you, Narcian).

 

14 minutes ago, azurrys said:

Good god, I would NOT want to meet that in the arena. Their movement reach would be too ridiculous to dodge around. I can't think of any way you can get out of that without casualties.

And to make it worse... maybe a team of 4 5-star Reinhardts with Death Blow 3, Goad Cavalry, and Reposition/Shove/Smite. Or 3 of those and a Dancer. Either way, it all sounds terrifying. /shudders

Repositioning skills would probably cause the AI to separate their army since they seem to want to do it as often as they can. A Dancer probably won't be able to keep up.

Galeforce and Quick Riposte are significantly more threatening.

The worst part is because Reinhardt has such a low stat total, it'll be lower-stat-total teams that end up fighting this team, making for every easy defense wins. Heck, even a team of vanilla Reinhardts would be devastating.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ice Dragon

[Fei Mao]

57 minutes 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.

Same as you, I really hate dealing with them sometimes, so stressful facing them on a no death run since I don't have the proper tools to counter them efficiently.

[azurrys]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Repositioning skills would probably cause the AI to separate their army since they seem to want to do it as often as they can. A Dancer probably won't be able to keep up.

Galeforce and Quick Riposte are significantly more threatening.

The worst part is because Reinhardt has such a low stat total, it'll be lower-stat-total teams that end up fighting this team, making for every easy defense wins. Heck, even a team of vanilla Reinhardts would be devastating.

Hmm, yeah, good point. Galeforce I'm not totally sold on since I've never actually had an enemy live long enough to trigger it, but Quick Riposte would be devastating--probably even scarier than Vantage on him. And yeah, a full-Reinhardt team would be terrifying in way too many ways, vanilla or not. If only I had that many Reinhardts, I'd try it out.

[Othin]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Since it seems that Lloyd is coming with his final chapter Regal Blade based on the datamines, I'm actually quite willing to bet that Linus will come with a Tomahawk, considering the devs seem to want to give as many characters axes as they can reasonably defend (and then some; I'm looking at you, Narcian).

I'm sure Linus will have some axe, but the Tomahawk seems like an odd weapon to include in this game. It'd have to have built-in Distant Counter to make any sense, and that doesn't seem like something they'd include on a regular weapon. So far it's only been built into Lightning Breath and 5* personal ultimate weapons, while a Tomahawk available as a regular 3* weapon would be possible to pass to any axe user. If Lloyd has Regal Blade, my guess is that Linus gets his dad's Basilikos.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Othin

[LordFrigid]

Just had the opportunity to do a pilot run for Team Dragon and...it's really, really fun. As @Ice Dragon mentioned, lots of Triangle Adept is the way to go, though I'm running less Lightning Breath and tossed Ninian into the mix. Team is:

• +Atk/-Res F!Corrin with Dark Breath+, Triangle Adept 1 (working on it), Swordbreaker 3, Hone Atk 3, Swap, and Draconic Aura
• +Def/-Atk Fae with Light Breath+, Triangle Adept 2 (I ran out of Roys to offer as tribute), Renewal 3, Threaten Atk 1, Draw Back, and Chilling Wind
• +Atk/-Spd Tiki (Naga's Voice) with Lightning Breath+, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 2, Hone Spd 1, Reciprocal Aid, and Bonfire
• +Res/-Spd Ninian with Light Breath+, [nothing in the A slot], Wings of Mercy 3, Fortify Def 2, Dance (duh), [no proc]

I'm kinda regretting my decision to go with Wings of Mercy 3 over Fortify Dragons now. tbh I figured "eh, I'm not going to be able to run a Dragon team anytime soon, riiiight?". Above everything else...I think I'm really enjoying the fact that I can give increased use to F!Corrin, at least for the rest of this season and next. She was my first 5* promotion, but team comp reasons have forced me to leave her off of the "scoring" arena team. tbh...she's still not on it, because as fun as the team is, it's not hitting high 4500 - low 4600 anytime soon, but oh well.

As far as actual strategy...it's pretty straightforward. Drop Tiki in front of Takumi, Axes (0 damage from Hector...come at me), and swords not named Falchion for auto-win + full Bonfire charge. Steal someone's HP afterward (preferably Ninian or Fae, the former for obvious reasons and the latter because she has Renewal, so she really doesn't care). Drop Corrin in front of Falchions and lances, if Fae's not around. Have Ninian dance like there's no tomorrow...let's see...what else... Hope there aren't too many mages. Yeah I think that's about it.

[Othin]

Finally pulled off a deathless win this week for 4,562 points, which is currently ranked 2,393. I think I'm solidly in the top 5k for the first time, and that's certainly the best score I've ever gotten so far, so I'm really happy with this. Had some intense battles with Nino and Tharja on the way to this.

[Ryuke]

@eclipse been thinking of that... but ... DONE ... 200 pts is better than 0pts. (Though... its 3x Green + Olivia... because... I wanted to maximize the 5* potential...)

@Ryu Yuki Thanks... yeah adding assits mean I have to change my offensive stategies. I guess I will have to rely on Distant Counter... which sadly I only have 2 of (Nowi/Hector)... Waiting for Ryoma...

@Xekr -- Hmmm. Drag back on mage might work. But I like the idea of 2 melee/glass cannon magic. I was training my Hector/Tharja for that.. (on top of my finished Tharja/Ephraim( - atk Nowi)).

@Ice Dragon -- I have been thinking ... if the meta is still Red Heavy... Lately I have to deal with alot of blue units. Seems like Blue heavy. However. The # of 5* units I have is ... 3 red/2 blue/3 green.  I can filler my red with (Palla, Olivia) ... meanwhile for blue is (Ursula,??) ... and for green is (Fred, Narcian, Cecilia) ... yeah.. I seem to have alot more heavier green team. But right now I built a Green Team of (Hawkeye, Raven, Hector + Olivia) ... The last time I got a defence win.. Raven was on the team. and I am pretty sure its because Brave Axe is what catches people off guard... Hector is new... so I am unsure. Hawkeye is really the green filler. (hey.. he has good res/def)) 

4x Takumi is really easy. Kagero is really effective. however.. when I faces Kagero.. she tend to be very easy because of her low hp. (I know offensively shes a beast).
 

 

@azurrys yeah... same. I dont really like Linde. I need to get Ephraim in range to one shot Linde. but Linde is easier to get in range to one shot ephraim because MAGIC. MRobin is easier cause Tharja can deal 2/3 of his damage.

I pretty much rely on Tharja... but if people uses Linde and Robin... Tharja is really a joke to them.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ryuke

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Score of 4478:

• Ground Zero (10PM PST Mar 25) - #8740
• 16 Hours Later - #9807

It's actually taking this score longer to fall out of top 10k than I thought. Still probably gonna need to gain 10+ more points to finish there. I've started running Azama instead of Ursula. It's not great, but it's 7 more BST. The loss of damage output means the team stuggles more against defense teams with refreshers, but does a little better in closer maps where I can start immediately kiting. There is Azama also having massive Def, so he can emergency tank something physical, but his Spd is low enough that who he can get away with doing that without getting doubled to death is fairly limited.

[Alfred Kamon]

4626, ranked 573rd.

All of my units are regular 5* lvl40s... just gave Fury to two of them.

I've been facing some pretty disgusting teams filled with lvl 40+10s, but oh well. It was fun, seemed like playing Lunatic+.

Try out Nowi, guys. She's OP.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Alfred Kamon

[azurrys]

11 hours ago, Ryuke said:

 

@azurrys yeah... same. I dont really like Linde. I need to get Ephraim in range to one shot Linde. but Linde is easier to get in range to one shot ephraim because MAGIC. MRobin is easier cause Tharja can deal 2/3 of his damage.

I pretty much rely on Tharja... but if people uses Linde and Robin... Tharja is really a joke to them.

I feel you so hard (except re: Ephraim because I'm still waiting for him). Maybe you can try out a ranged Linde counter if she's giving you too much trouble? I run Klein on my offence team and he's perfect, since his Brave Bow lets him kill Linde before she moves a muscle. My main problem is that she tends to hide behind someone else and I can't reach her to kill her. I've had to deal with way too fucking many Nino-Linde stacks. Though speaking of which, Nino should make an excellent Linde counter too.

M!Robin is annoying when he's +RES, because then my Reinhardt can't one-round him. I think Tharja can deal with him if she baits him first, since he can't one-shot or double her, but that means she'll take a hefty enough hit that anyone else can poke her to death afterwards. I can't wait to get Death Blow on Reinhardt so he can one-round +RES M!Robin and neutral Linde (my +ATK Reinhardt is 1 HP off from one-rounding her--so close yet so far!). Since I'm running Karel this season for the bonus, the blues are extra bothersome with 2 reds and no greens on my team.

Gotta agree that Tharja is really reliable though, aside from those few pesky blues. My MVP Reinhardt would be roadkill without her to deal with all things green.

[MaskedAmpharos]

Yay I got a new high score before the end of the season :D I shall update what the rank is once the server updates.

Unfortunately, a score of 4584 probably won't be enough to get me into top 1k, but at the very least there should be little risk of me getting kicked out of top 5k.

EDIT: Rank is 1625. Looks like I won't be falling out of top 5k, but I also won't be making it into top 1k again this season :/

Edited March 27, 2017 by MaskedAmpharos

[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
3/27: 4,136 Rank: 63,904

I was trying out a new team and replaced Abel  with a 5* Felicia with inherited Poison Strike 3 and Reposition. It was fun, but I kept running into Vantage Takumis at matches 4+ and I had no one that could cleanly 1 round him so I lost everytime, had to take out Poison Strike to lower my matchups. Unfortunately I wasn't able to improve my score but at least I got two defense wins before the season ended.

#forever Rank 50,000+

Edited March 27, 2017 by Fei Mao

[Dual Dragons]

3/22/2017 - offense 4,454; rank 3,426 (1:22AM PST) [deathless] [team #1]
3/22/2017 - offense 4,454; rank 5,756 (11:28PM PST) [deathless] [team #1]
3/23/2017 - offense 4,500; rank 3,636 (1:05AM PST) [deathless] [team #2]
3/24/2017 - offense 4,500; rank 5,691 (8:48PM PST) [deathless] [team #2]
3/27/2017 - offense 4,500; rank 8,042 (3:27AM PST) [deathless] [team #2]

Team #1:

Team: (all Level 40) +Atk/-Spd Ninian (163), +Res/-HP Ryoma (173; +Vantage 2), +Atk/-Spd M!Robin (159; +Swordbreaker 3), +Spd/-HP Camilla (161)
BST: 656

 

Team #2:

Team: (all Level 40) +Atk/-Spd Ninian (163), +Res/-HP Ryoma (173; +Vantage 2), neutral Sharena (177; +Threaten Spd 3), +Spd/-HP Camilla (161)
BST: 674

Minerva's looking more healthy by each map. There should be another week at least of Ninian. Can't wait to slot Minerva in to the team. Now just to inherit skills onto her...

Starting to slip closer to that 10K border. Oh well.

[Raven]

I can't seem to get a deathless run with my Hector, Gunter, Ursula, and Jagen. Even if I did get a deathless run, I can't get above a score of 4,400 since I'm being pitted against teams of about 620-630 BST.

I wonder if replacing Jagen and Gunter with Nino/Eirika/Takumi/Robin-M and returning Ursula's Blarwolf from Blarblade would actually make much of a difference.

[Korath88]

Just fell out of the top 5k by a few hundred ranks. I guess top 10k will have to do.

[pianime94]

Trying to run a high BST vanilla team with a Lucius is certainly a bad move to do on my part. Skill inheritance team everywhere.

I'll have to lower it a bit next time.

[Elieson]

My 4,491 with a single unit death has me at Rank=9,347. I'm not worried about passing beyond the 10k-30k bracket but sure am gonna miss those 500 feathers if another 555 people push me out of the 4-digit bracket in the next 7 hours 

 

Feeling: <Anxious>

[Korath88]

2 minutes ago, Elieson said:

My 4,491 with a single unit death has me at Rank=9,347. I'm not worried about passing beyond the 10k-30k bracket but sure am gonna miss those 500 feathers if another 555 people push me out of the 4-digit bracket in the next 7 hours 

 

Feeling: <Anxious>

My 4,524 is ranked 5,806. That's 3541 ranks across 33 points. The top 10k is ridiculously competitive.

[Elieson]

1 minute ago, Korath88 said:

My 4,524 is ranked 5,806. That's 3541 ranks across 33 points. The top 10k is ridiculously competitive.

I'm afraid to hit the +10 echelon of arena battling. 

[Vaximillian]

Rank 26,180 with a score of 4,364. As long as I don't fall out of top 30k by tomorrow's rewards distributiob, I'm fine.

I'm too traumatised by Takumis, Hectors, male Robins, and Lindes to try and push any harder.

[Korath88]

8 minutes ago, Elieson said:

I'm afraid to hit the +10 echelon of arena battling. 

From what I've seen on YouTube, +10 teams end up fighting the same 2-3 teams over and over again. See here: 

That being said, if you get a deathless run, you'd outrank me and secure a spot in the top 10k, maybe even the top 5k.

[Kiran]

Sigh...got pushed out of the top 10k with a score of 4,484. Currently ranked 10,055. Its hard getting a higher score when your BST is being pulled down by having a 4* as a bonus unit. 

[MaskedAmpharos]

16 minutes ago, Korath88 said:

From what I've seen on YouTube, +10 teams end up fighting the same 2-3 teams over and over again. See here: 

That being said, if you get a deathless run, you'd outrank me and secure a spot in the top 10k, maybe even the top 5k.

That video's for if your own units are all +10 though.

I can personally confirm that you don't need a single one of your units to be over +1 to run into teams of 2-3 +10s fairly consistently in Arena. 

[Elieson]

5 minutes ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

I can personally confirm that you don't need a single one of your units to be over +1 to run into teams of 2-3 +10s fairly consistently in Arena. 

It's mainly, the fact that high quality units often run lower stats (brave users) so a +10 Reinhardt would offset his naturally lower BST, propelling him into the range of normal 175+ units