Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Rafiel's Aria]

Alllllright. Apparently I can't break my high score of 4860, but at least I managed to hit it again I was lucky enough to get a couple of 700 battles, and I didn't chose a battle worth less than 692. If I was MORE selective, I might get an even higher score, but I'm pretty sure this is more than enough to return to tier 20. Right now I'm ranked 332 in tier 19. I've also snagged 5 defense wins. 

My Team:
Hector (+DEF -RES): Armads, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Wings of Mercy 3, Goad Armor, Quickened Pulse
Cecilia+1 (+ATK -HP): Gronnraven+, Reposition, Draconic Aura, Triangle Adept 3, Escape Route 3, Hone Cavalry, ATK+1
Reinhardt+1 (+ATK -SPD): Dire Thunder, Reposition, Moonbow, Death Blow 3, Wings of Mercy 3, Goad Cavalry, (No S-Skill because I apparently forgot to give him one...)
Xander (Neutral): Siegfried, Swap, Bonfire, Fury 3, Vantage 3, Fortify Cavalry, HP+3
 

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, GuiltyLove said:

lame

I don't want to use armors

2 hours ago, JSND said:

I mean you can go like Dragon Askr Infantry x2 if you dont want armors

Or shit like

Alfonse, Donnel, Nowi, and Fae could probably do reasonably well.

[GuiltyLove]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Alfonse, Donnel, Nowi, and Fae could probably do reasonably well.

I'm going to use Nowi once I promote her. I just have 6k feathers left to go. I really hope we get a gauntlet again! I gave her Aether today after I leveled my Chrom to 40 and heard his confession. It's just for the arena points and I don't expect to ever activate it

[LordFrigid]

Update for 5066 (T20):

5:30pm PDT 7/25: 83

5:45pm PDT 7/26: 114

5:30pm PDT 7/27: 160

Teams faced detailed in the previous post. Highest Def score is still 586 (out of 9).

I'm just messing around with team comps at this point, particularly Eirika's slot (still looking to give that to a more solid green counter, tbh); latest experiment is +Spd/-Atk (probably the best I've pulled thus far) Celica, switched over from a Life and Death build back to her built-in Distant Defense. It's working pretty well, all things considered. I definitely like how double-mage plays better.

[Alexmender]

I got a lame score of 4200 this time (not a deathless streak) but I don't really care because I'm going down to tier 19 anyways. What makes me happy is that I got 3 defense wins using Saber, Reinhardt, B!Caeda and Nowi. It seems blue spam is really works, and because everyone but Saber has reposition it's a bit hard to separate my units.

[Rezzy]

Got a rather low-balled score of 4816, since my match-ups seemed to be lower than usual today, but it puts me at rank 1835, which looks like it should be enough to go back to Rank 20 next week.  If it looks like I might be getting close to the mark, sheer probability will probably give me higher level match-ups next go round.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Tier 20 score of 4900(!) (no deaths; no surrenders; Nowi +4, Eirika 5*, Sharena 5*, Nino +6; 698, 706, 696, 698, 698, 704, 700):

• Jul 28, 1:30AM PT - #1307 (/2578 to stay)

Well, it finally happened. I guess a single extra merge (turns out I forgot I still had Hard Chain Challenge to tap into) technically put me within exactly the amount of points from last week's score of hitting this, but it wasn't really something I expected, since I figured I'd gotten lucky on a lot of rolls for that streak. Also never saw a 706 before now. Wasn't even sure I'd finish this streak near the start because I fought two Horse Emblems in the sewer map. The worst was probably the double blade in Olwen and Cecilia, with a Reinbow Pulse backing them up—and then a random Eliwood 4* +10 because why not? Their movement actually ended up a little better than I predicted. Eliwood stayed put on his first turn to rally Olwen, effectively taking himself out of the fight. Olwen got baited to her death by Nino across the far left pillar. I expected Cecilia to charged Nowi and Nino on the left, since she was either gonna get TA bonus (Nowi) or to use her G Tomebreaker (Nino). However, she decided to hang out with Rein on the right where I'd positioned Sharena and Eirika (I guess Sharena's slightly lower base Res was somehow vaguely more attractive?). This let Sharena lob Eirika at Cecilia, then Nino jaunted over and wrecked Rein without any need for buffs. Poor Eliwood was then eaten by a dragon. Still, pretty scary stuff. In all honesty, that match was probably one move away from wiping.

I'm a little surprised this only got me 1307, but I suppose it really isn't that much higher than my previous score compared to the juggernauts throwing around 5000+ at this level. It is also halfway through the season, so... I dunno. I expect the decay to be pretty slow, so I should be able to stay.

I've also secured seven defense wins, of which 582 is the highest.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi
Was so distracted I forgot to put the timestamp. >.>

[Ice Dragon]

Finished my run earlier tonight. Still too lazy to use a real bonus character, so Clarisse is still sitting there tsunning in the corner.

TIer 20

Score: 4,922 (2 deaths, I don't remember the score range)
Rank: 1,040 (out of 8,599, 12%, 20→20)
Defense: 594 (2)

Not going to bother posting my teams. I haven't changed them since last week, except that Cecilia has replaced Clarisse as my defense team lead.

Seems my defense team isn't doing so great this week. Perhaps it's too easy to maneuver around them with this map set. Maybe I should put Cancel Affinity on Cherche (maybe Minerva, too) just for shits and giggles.

 

I need to pull another Hinoka to drop Hone Fliers on Summer Corrin whenever I get around to pulling Nohrian Summer. Bleh.

[ignis_z]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Finished my run earlier tonight. Still too lazy to use a real bonus character, so Clarisse is still sitting there tsunning in the corner.

TIer 20

Score: 4,922 (2 deaths, I don't remember the score range)
Rank: 1,040 (out of 8,599, 12%, 20→20)
Defense: 594 (2)

Not going to bother posting my teams. I haven't changed them since last week, except that Cecilia has replaced Clarisse as my defense team lead.

Seems my defense team isn't doing so great this week. Perhaps it's too easy to maneuver around them with this map set. Maybe I should put Cancel Affinity on Cherche (maybe Minerva, too) just for shits and giggles.

 

I need to pull another Hinoka to drop Hone Fliers on Summer Corrin whenever I get around to pulling Nohrian Summer. Bleh.

4922 with 2 deaths? Omg what can i do for that?

[Bartozio]

14 minutes ago, ignis_z said:

4922 with 2 deaths? Omg what can i do for that?

Using 3 five star +10 units is probably a good start...

[GuiltyLove]

6 minutes ago, Bartozio said:

Using 3 five star +10 units is probably a good start...

The benefits of being rich IRL...

[ignis_z]

1 hour ago, Bartozio said:

Using 3 five star +10 units is probably a good start...

???

[Bartozio]

Just now, ignis_z said:

???

That's one of the reasons @Ice Dragon gets such high scores, unless he switched teams and is now using some strange magic for high scores I don't know about...

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Remember that his team regularly scores above 5000 with no deaths (hitting rank #1 in Tier 20 on more than one occasion, IIRC). That's generally the territory of the highest merges and inheriting stuff like Aether/Galeforce/other abnormally high-point skills in order to bump scores up.

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, ignis_z said:

4922 with 2 deaths? Omg what can i do for that?

3 hours ago, Bartozio said:

Using 3 five star +10 units is probably a good start...

Yeah. Fine, I'll post my team, dammit.

Offense team:

+0 Clarisse [=] (Clarisse's Bow, Glimmer, Poison Strike 3, Threaten Def 3)
+10 Tiki (Mystery) [+Spd, -HP] (Lightning Breath+, Reciprocal Aid, Aether, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 3, Fortify Dragons, HP +3)
+10 Nowi [+Atk, -Res] (Lightning Breath+, Reciprocal Aid, Aether, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 3, Fortify Dragons, Attack +1)
+10 Fae [+Atk, -Def] (Lightning Breath+, Reciprocal Aid, Aether, Triangle Adept 3, Quick Riposte 3, Fortify Dragons, Speed +1)

Scores for single matches tend to fall in the high 720's.

 

1 minute ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Remember that his team regularly scores above 5000 with no deaths (hitting rank #1 in Tier 20 on more than one occasion, IIRC). That's generally the territory of the highest merges and inheriting stuff like Aether/Galeforce/other abnormally high-point skills in order to bump scores up.

5,080-5,100 is a fairly typical deathless score for my teams these days. I can't hit Rank 1 (score of 5,180) without a +10 bonus unit, and those are hard to come by when I'm trying to ease off my spending by a bit (I need to funnel off some of my money to buy a Switch for next month).

[Anacybele]

Ugh, I had a really hard time this week for some reason after the past few weeks were really smooth. I didn't even win the seventh battle this time because it was hiding cavs behind an infantry lead (it wasn't an advanced battle either). I don't think people should be allowed to pull cheap moves like this, but there's no way to prevent it, so... I just hate how it was my seventh fight. That's always the worst one to lose.

So yeah, my score is low and I'm probably dropping a tier. I used the same team as last week too, and it let me get that personal high of 4,114, so I have no idea why I had so much trouble this time.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Anacybele

[Roflolxp54]

21 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Ugh, I had a really hard time this week for some reason after the past few weeks were really smooth. I didn't even win the seventh battle this time because it was hiding cavs behind an infantry lead (it wasn't an advanced battle either). I don't think people should be allowed to pull cheap moves like this, but there's no way to prevent it, so... I just hate how it was my seventh fight. That's always the worst one to lose.

A lot of people don't like the original map pool, which is this week's map rotation (especially the bridge and 2-walls maps).

Cavalry teams are very common in that score range due to cavaliers (especially mage cavaliers) not counting for a lot of points (unless fully SI'd with high SP-cost skills and heavily merged). I score in the ~4770 range deathless and I still encounter Horse Emblem teams occasionally.

So what would you prefer? Double-blind Arena RNG? (In addition to not knowing what map you'll be playing on aside from map pool, you cannot see any of the enemy team's units until you enter the map - even the lead unit cannot be seen before entering a map. Heck, even the opponent's name and tier cannot be seen if you're actively trying to avoid specific players - all you can see is the score range for defeating the opponent's team and even that can be blocked out to prevent fishing.)

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Roflolxp54 said:

A lot of people don't like the original map pool, which is this week's map rotation (especially the bridge and 2-walls maps).

Cavalry teams are very common in that score range due to cavaliers (especially mage cavaliers) not counting for a lot of points (unless fully SI'd with high SP-cost skills and heavily merged). I score in the ~4770 range deathless and I still encounter Horse Emblem teams occasionally.

So what would you prefer? Double-blind Arena RNG? (In addition to not knowing what map you'll be playing on aside from map pool, you cannot see any of the enemy team's units until you enter the map - even the lead unit cannot be seen before entering a map. Heck, even the opponent's name and tier cannot be seen if you're actively trying to avoid specific players - all you can see is the score range for defeating the opponent's team and even that can be blocked out to prevent fishing.)

I see.

I don't know what I'd prefer, honestly. On one hand, double blind RNG would make people be unable to hide sneaky crap, but on the other, they could then just put full Horse Emblem teams instead of making three of them horses and one an infantry to hide them, which is even harder to beat.

So there's really no solution here which is why we can't prevent people from using such strategies. Just have to deal with it and find ways around them.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Note that that 4900 I scored involved me fighting a full team of Horse Emblem and a team that was 3 horses plus Azura. Aside from that, teams will often deploy two horses for mini-Horse Emblem alongside a couple whatever (that same streak saw an Eirika, Ninian, Titania and blade Cecilia on the same team). And if not a pair of horses, Rein's pretty much everywhere. Honestly, I'd say I still see 2+ horses about 50% of the time and of the remaining 50%, Rein's still there half the time. Wherever this magical cut-off for horse-heavy teams happens to be, I have yet to reach it.

[Ice Dragon]

59 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Wherever this magical cut-off for horse-heavy teams happens to be, I have yet to reach it.

It's around 728.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Tier 20 score of 4900(!) (no deaths; no surrenders; Nowi +4, Eirika 5*, Sharena 5*, Nino +6; 698, 706, 696, 698, 698, 704, 700):

• Jul 28, 1:30AM PT - #1307 (/2578 to stay)
• Jul 29, 6:55PM PT - #1673 (/2634 to stay)

Definitely not used to seeing such a slow decay. Guess thing means I'll have to seriously gear up my Summer Corrin so she doesn't drag down the next few attempts to stay.

Up to eleven defense wins.

[Xaos Steel Wing]

I'm getting bored of the Arena.

I finally hit Tier 20 but there's no way I'm staying there. The max score I could possible get is around 4820. I don't think that's nearly enough.

I've gotten about as far as I can get with no merges.

So at this point I'll probably be bouncing between tier 19 and tier 20 with scores of 4810-4820 indefinitely.

So I'm basically bored of the arena. There's no motivation to try anymore beyond a half-hearted effort to get the 4000 point score. I've gotten as far as I can; the only thing higher is being able to stay in tier 20 and that's not happening unless I put ridiculous amounts of money into the game (which I won't) or my luck is incredible and I summon 10 Ninos or something (the odds of which are infinitesimally small).

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Well, if you pull green a lot, the odds of getting 10 Ninos is actually pretty good, especially compared to most other things people run. Raising the ~220k feathers to promote them all, though... well, let's just say I'm still working on that myself and barely further than halfway.

[Bartozio]

I almost forgot how much I hate that two walls map...

I haven't been able to improve my first score of 4810, but since I'm still ranked around 3.6k in tier 19 (cut off is around 6k), it seems like I'll promote anyway. I also finally managed to get a defence win, so I'm all good for this week. Now lets hope I can manage next week as well.

[Vaximillian]

aww yiss

motha fuckin defence points