Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[DehNutCase]

1 hour ago, Clogon said:

I completely disagree with this statement. Every +1 will decrease the cost to rank up. Not only do you get a stronger unit (just need SI fodder to inherit the skills) but you lose out on nothing if you were going to send those extra copies home while waiting for a focus banner.

 

It is a longterm investment that evens out but rewards you with a stronger unit (which gives more arena points) immediately. The only downside is that the saved up feathers cannot be used on other units and are locked into the merged one.

Sending units home for feather tends to be the least efficient use of copies, and you only 'save' those feathers if you were going to 5* promote. And, if you were going to 5* promote, it's probably better to send home the units different from the one you are promoting for feathers, since the same unit can be promoted for 5* merges.

A 4* +10 is a short term investment, you pay 11 4* units (roughly 22k feathers), and a 5* unit (for weapon) versus a 5* +4 which is roughly 100k feathers, meaning you save 60k now in exchange for destroying 6 extra copies of a unit compared to a 5* +4 merge and locking that unit to its 4* cap. (Since you just destroyed 10 copies of the unit to save 60k feathers now.)

It's better in the short term, sure, but if you ever upgrade it, you basically sent home 10 copies for feathers, even though you could've saved them for 5* merges, SI fodder, etc. etc.

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

For a lot of people, even a 5* +4 is a pretty insane thing to own (I just have a couple +1s and I know I wasn't sure if I'd ever feel like the resource cost would be worth it to own any merges, period).

Anything that can be 4* +10'd is only a matter of feathers to 5* +4---since you obviously have copies of the unit already. A 4* +10 wants a 5* weapon anyway (or else it's only comparable to a 5* +2 in stats, and sometimes worse than 5* +1s in terms of offenses), so it's 22k (for 11 4*s) & 20k (for a 5*) versus 100k (5 5*s), which is about 60k feathers cheaper.

60k is a lot, but not exactly 'too much.' I've spend that much on L&D fodder already. (L&D 3 is +2 to 2 offensive stats at the cost of 2 defense stats and a bit of arena points compared to L&D 2, very comparable to a merge's 2 random stats----probably hp and one offensive stat for the first level, and probably 1 offensive stat and 1 defensive stat for the second level---and a bunch of arena points. Basically, if you would L&D 3 over L&D 2, you should probably merge.

[ignis_z]

4 minutes ago, Arcanite said:

Levels do determine who goes against your team, but if never defend ever, you probably just need to make a better defense team

Got Kagero Ryoma Nino Gordin with the Defense, Kagero lvl34 the others 40. Gold all, but, my cuestión is if leave Kagero in 34 for fight vs not pro players all the time hehe

[Arcanite]

4 minutes ago, ignis_z said:

Got Kagero Ryoma Nino Gordin with the Defense, Kagero lvl34 the others 40. Gold all, but, my cuestión is if leave Kagero in 34 for fight vs not pro players all the time hehe

If you don't use her much for anything else, then you can leave her at level 34. If you do need her for other things get that girl to level 40 and make a different team!

Also, I'm pretty sure you have someone better to use than Gordin btw :P

Edited May 19, 2017 by Arcanite

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

19 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

60k is a lot, but not exactly 'too much.' I've spend that much on L&D fodder already. (L&D 3 is +2 to 2 offensive stats at the cost of 2 defense stats and a bit of arena points compared to L&D 2, very comparable to a merge's 2 random stats----probably hp and one offensive stat for the first level, and probably 1 offensive stat and 1 defensive stat for the second level---and a bunch of arena points. Basically, if you would L&D 3 over L&D 2, you should probably merge.

Fair enough that it's not necessarily too much once it gets into this type of optimization, but 60k feathers is still 2 months' worth of Arena and VGs, assuming an income of roughly 5k per Arena season and 10k per VG. That's pretty sizable chunk of time, especially given that the game's only about 3.5 months old at this point. I think that's still a considerable medium-long benefit. I'm the kind of person who will go for the extreme long term, so I am merging 5*s, but had I the requisite 4*s to make a decent +10, I'd be awfully tempted.

So, good new is I got a new score. The kind of bad news is I forgot to track what the old score had before I completed. I think it was around the #3400 mark, though (Tier 17 4808). I think the new score gives me a very high chance of being safe, whereas the old one was starting to look a little iffy. I'll have one more chance to improve it without crest binging, though I won't be super concerned.

Tier 17 score of 4812 (no surrenders; 688, 686, 686, 690, 690, 688, 688; Nowi, Nino, Rein, Xander):

• May 19 12:00PM PT - #3036

 

Oh, and I got a few more defenses, bringing my count up to 7, which is the highest I've had since like March. Feels like this defense team's fairly stable, though I guess having to fit a bonus unit in is going keep me nervous with each new roster rotation. I may end up adjusting it so I have a core of three super-dickish units, just like my offense has three elite fighters, so I don't have to worry as much. I do have the potential means thanks to failing to targeted pull Ninian or Hinoka last night. Like, I want to be mad that my pity percentage got wrecked without getting either of them, but I really can't, since the off-focus pull was another +Atk Reinhardt. So, uh, yeah, my defense team might end up being Xander + 2x +AtK Reinhardt, all with Hone Cavalry, hidden behind a bonus lead. I am very sorry if I build this and someone here runs into it. >.>

[ignis_z]

1 hour ago, Arcanite said:

If you don't use her much for anything else, then you can leave her at level 34. If you do need her for other things get that girl to level 40 and make a different team!

Also, I'm pretty sure you have someone better to use than Gordin btw :P

Gordin is sl good atakin, is not good for defend? I got mmm, Lilina Ike (2 red mmm) Ninian Azura, tried to much teams only 1 Defense in 2 weeks. 

Edited May 19, 2017 by ignis_z

[Okigen]

New high score and rank #589. I may stay in top 1k for the first time! 

[Rafiel's Aria]

@LuxSpes @Arcanite I was beginning to worry that the mage team wouldn't work for me. I decided to switch out Azura for Sanaki and low and behold.... Apparently I'm just not a patient person. Sanaki, M. Robin, Nino, and Celica got me a defense score of 570. A humble score, but one worthy of 900 feathers. :3 I'll take it. Now I just have to worry about getting my offense score up. >.>

[Arcanite]

53 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

@LuxSpes @Arcanite I was beginning to worry that the mage team wouldn't work for me. I decided to switch out Azura for Sanaki and low and behold.... Apparently I'm just not a patient person. Sanaki, M. Robin, Nino, and Celica got me a defense score of 570. A humble score, but one worthy of 900 feathers. :3 I'll take it. Now I just have to worry about getting my offense score up. >.>

MAGE

TEAM

IS

BUSTED

HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

*ahem*

What's wrong with your current score? You can't tier up? Or are you getting demoted?

[Rafiel's Aria]

1 minute ago, Arcanite said:

MAGE

TEAM

IS

BUSTED

HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

*ahem*

What's wrong with your current score? You can't tier up? Or are you getting demoted?

I've used a mage team in the last like...3 GHB. I absolutely love them. :3

I'm currently ranked 19,651 in tier 16 with a score of 4,638. It's enough to stay in the same rank for now, but I haven't had much luck getting deathless runs. I was using Xander, Hector, M. Robin, and Azura at the beginning of the season and managed to get that score with....2 or 3 deaths. I think 2. I've since switched to my mage team because mages are giving me trouble more than anything else. And so far, no 7 streak. But there's still time. I don't HAVE to promote next season. I'd just like to stay in the same tier. XD

[LuxSpes]

2 hours ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

@LuxSpes @Arcanite I was beginning to worry that the mage team wouldn't work for me. I decided to switch out Azura for Sanaki and low and behold.... Apparently I'm just not a patient person. Sanaki, M. Robin, Nino, and Celica got me a defense score of 570. A humble score, but one worthy of 900 feathers. :3 I'll take it. Now I just have to worry about getting my offense score up. >.>

570 is already a pretty good score considering the minimum required to get 900 feathers is 451. The reason why I got a 578 score using an all mage team is probably because half of them are +1 merges and the other half are +2 merges.

1 hour ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I've used a mage team in the last like...3 GHB. I absolutely love them. :3

I'm currently ranked 19,651 in tier 16 with a score of 4,638. It's enough to stay in the same rank for now, but I haven't had much luck getting deathless runs. I was using Xander, Hector, M. Robin, and Azura at the beginning of the season and managed to get that score with....2 or 3 deaths. I think 2. I've since switched to my mage team because mages are giving me trouble more than anything else. And so far, no 7 streak. But there's still time. I don't HAVE to promote next season. I'd just like to stay in the same tier. XD

My personal experience in the arena showed me that I fair much better with an all mage team. When I first started, I used Lucina, Nowi, Linde and Lyn as my arena team, but the lack of range often costed me battles. However, once I got my hands on Sanaki, Nino and Azura, I pretty much got my deathless run in one try. Then the following seasons, I just switched Azura for Ninian and then Ninian for Lukas and the results were pretty much the same. Last seasons however, I switched back to using a composite team with Sanaki, Lukas, Fae and Ike, and while I did manage to get good deathless runs, it took me tons of Dueling Crests. For this week, I decided to go full mage team and not even take a dancer and it went superbly well. 

I think the reason why mages are so easy to play with is the added range and their higher res. Most of biggest threats in the current arena are mages, like Reinhardt or blade tome users in Horse or Flier emblem teams. Well my mage team completely dismantle those because they can safely bait, tank and take out those units. Then it's just a matter of kiting the remaining melee members with Draw Back until I'm the right position to nuke them. I do sometime miss having the physical melee equivalent of the bait, tank and kill that was Lukas, like when I had to leave my Def bane Linde tank an Azura, though she thankfully survived with 1 HP.

[bethany81707]

...I don't know how it happened.

[Rafiel's Aria]

40 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

570 is already a pretty good score considering the minimum required to get 900 feathers is 451. The reason why I got a 578 score using an all mage team is probably because half of them are +1 merges and the other half are +2 merges.

My personal experience in the arena showed me that I fair much better with an all mage team. When I first started, I used Lucina, Nowi, Linde and Lyn as my arena team, but the lack of range often costed me battles. However, once I got my hands on Sanaki, Nino and Azura, I pretty much got my deathless run in one try. Then the following seasons, I just switched Azura for Ninian and then Ninian for Lukas and the results were pretty much the same. Last seasons however, I switched back to using a composite team with Sanaki, Lukas, Fae and Ike, and while I did manage to get good deathless runs, it took me tons of Dueling Crests. For this week, I decided to go full mage team and not even take a dancer and it went superbly well. 

I think the reason why mages are so easy to play with is the added range and their higher res. Most of biggest threats in the current arena are mages, like Reinhardt or blade tome users in Horse or Flier emblem teams. Well my mage team completely dismantle those because they can safely bait, tank and take out those units. Then it's just a matter of kiting the remaining melee members with Draw Back until I'm the right position to nuke them. I do sometime miss having the physical melee equivalent of the bait, tank and kill that was Lukas, like when I had to leave my Def bane Linde tank an Azura, though she thankfully survived with 1 HP.

I'm probably going to stick with mage emblem for a little while and see how that works out. I'm kind of working on getting Horse Emblem. 20k feathers are going to go to Odin to give Ursula Barblade+. But even on a plain jane mage team, she'll be great. And the extra movement would be extremely helpful. I'm trying not to throw away a bazillion dueling crests, so I'll be patient and see if I can get 5 more wins today and tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

[LuxSpes]

17 minutes ago, Rafiel's Aria said:

I'm probably going to stick with mage emblem for a little while and see how that works out. I'm kind of working on getting Horse Emblem. 20k feathers are going to go to Odin to give Ursula Barblade+. But even on a plain jane mage team, she'll be great. And the extra movement would be extremely helpful. I'm trying not to throw away a bazillion dueling crests, so I'll be patient and see if I can get 5 more wins today and tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

I haven't tried Horse Mage emblem, even though i probably could considering I have all the mage cavalier. But Blarblade+ Ursula definitely will put in work, even on a team without Hone/Fortify Cavalry

And if you haven't done so already, consider giving Draw Back to your mages. It really helps when trying to outmaneuver the AI, especially if you're not using a dancer.

[Rafiel's Aria]

11 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

I haven't tried Horse Mage emblem, even though i probably could considering I have all the mage cavalier. But Blarblade+ Ursula definitely will put in work, even on a team without Hone/Fortify Cavalry

And if you haven't done so already, consider giving Draw Back to your mages. It really helps when trying to outmaneuver the AI, especially if you're not using a dancer.

Now that's a thought... Now that I think about it, Draw Back is super annoying with the AI uses it. lol I'll probably keep Ardent Sacrifice on Nino. But everyone else could probably have a ton of fun with it. Thanks!

[LuxSpes]

Just now, Rafiel's Aria said:

Now that's a thought... Now that I think about it, Draw Back is super annoying with the AI uses it. lol I'll probably keep Ardent Sacrifice on Nino. But everyone else could probably have a ton of fun with it. Thanks!

I think everyone on my team having Draw Back (excluding Linde who has Ardent Sacrifice to activate her Desperation 3) probably helped secure my defense wins. Have fun baiting mages with a full melee team if they're constantly dragging back one another.

[ignis_z]

4720 in tier 16, Ninian, Gordin , nino (5 stars) Xander 4 stars. Deathless run. Tier 16. Its possible i reach 17 hehe. But máximum points i win per Battle 672 cant do more, why cant i win more than 672 in this tier?

Edited May 20, 2017 by ignis_z

[Xaos Steel Wing]

31 minutes ago, ignis_z said:

4720 in tier 16, Ninian, Gordin , nino (5 stars) Xander 4 stars. Deathless run. Tier 16. Its possible i reach 17 hehe. But máximum points i win per Battle 672 cant do more, why cant i win more than 672 in this tier?

You need more 5* units and inherited skills to face higher rank opponents. Try putting more high level skills on your units.

Still, Im using four 5* and 4* Subaki and I'm facing teams between 680 and 690 this season in tier 17.

[ignis_z]

7 minutes ago, Xaos Steel Wing said:

You need more 5* units and inherited skills to face higher rank opponents. Try putting more high level skills on your units.

Still, Im using four 5* and 4* Subaki and I'm facing teams between 680 and 690 this season in tier 17.

Aha i inherited 2 skills on my Xander and the same points.   skills of level 2 he had no skill in those slots.. but oki ill try to put level 3 skills in all chars right?. This is my cuestión about defence team i have a Kagero level 34, the attackers then are more low and i got a Defense at last!

Edited May 20, 2017 by ignis_z

[Bartozio]

Alright, managed to improve my score to 4810 after trowing some new skills on my units.

This score now puts me at rank 3540 in tier 17. Not sure whether I'll be able to advance to tier 18, but I should at least be able to stay in this tier for a week now (and move up next week). Team was:

- Hector (inherited vantage 3 and swap)

- Ryoma (inherited vantage 2 (well 3, but not enough sp yet) and repostion)

- Reinhard (inherited DB 2 and draw back)

- Roy (vanilla)

And yay, finally broke 4,8k points. 4,9k is gonna take another while though.

[Rafiel's Aria]

Oh my gosh that was an ordeal... I ended up switching out Sanaki for Hector simply because I was realizing that I needed someone kind of beefy. I burned a LOT of dueling crests and finally managed to get a 7 streak with only one death which improved my score a bit. Right now, 4,709 gets you 15,178 in tier 16. That should be good enough to keep me in tier 16 at the very least. I'm fine with that.

It's kind of annoying seeing the same handful of units every time I start a match. Like...I swear every team has Reinhardt, Nino or Julia, Hector, Takumi, Azura, or Ryoma. >.> As much as I appreciated that S rank banner, it kind of sucks now.

[LuxSpes]

I managed to complete another deathless run using my all mage team after upgrading all their skills and it suceeded in raising my offense score from 4824 points to 4836 points.

I also managed to get a 582 defense score, which is an improvement over my previous 578 score.

This places me at rank 2120 in tier 17, which should pretty much guarantee that I ascend to rank 18 next season.

[salinea]

The trouble with climbing two ranks with a nice score last week is that now just holding is much more difficult.

My first deathless run at rank 17 with a (kinda average all things considered) score of 4776 lands me at rank 5815, in the squishy middle for now, with serious risk of dropping.

I can try to grind SP on Roy a lot to hope getting a better score average, bleh.

[Kiran]

The difference that luck makes. Got higher matchups this time. Finished another deathless run with the same team and increased my 4804 to 4812. But I think that's about the ceiling for me. The only way to get higher would probably be merging. 

[Quintessence]

Whoo got exactly 4.8K with the same team. The only difference is that Alfonse learned Luna.

[MrSmokestack]

On 5/18/2017 at 1:17 PM, MrSmokestack said:

My score of 4,796 is Rank 3,466 in T17. Hopefully it doesn't fall from top cut by the end of the week.

Bottomed out of top cut since my ranking is now 4,715, so I won't be moving to Tier 18. Got another defense win worth 572 points though.