Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Humanoid]

6 battles and the highest score observed is 700. I'm going to have to do some serious fishing if I want to go up this week. Horse Ephraim (692), Cecilia (704), Olivia (700), Fjorm (700). If only I had an Olivia for every season, she's worth 708 in Water season which tends to be my crutch in terms of scoring well.

 

EDIT: Fished out a couple 704s in a run of 700s, so I've gotten a baseline of 4908 which will be touch and go. I'll just use the remaining six days this week not taking any scores of 700 or less, and see if I can improve on that score with just the three daily fights. Likely won't actively use crests because TT will take up most of my time.

Gotta say I'm pleased with Ephraim's performance with his default kit though, even with an attack bane. First time I've really used him since I finished levelling him. He'll be fine until I get the resources for building a player phase kit.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Humanoid

[Stylish]

3 hours ago, Humanoid said:

6 battles and the highest score observed is 700. I'm going to have to do some serious fishing if I want to go up this week. Horse Ephraim (692), Cecilia (704), Olivia (700), Fjorm (700). If only I had an Olivia for every season, she's worth 708 in Water season which tends to be my crutch in terms of scoring well.

 

EDIT: Fished out a couple 704s in a run of 700s, so I've gotten a baseline of 4908 which will be touch and go. I'll just use the remaining six days this week not taking any scores of 700 or less, and see if I can improve on that score with just the three daily fights. Likely won't actively use crests because TT will take up most of my time.

Gotta say I'm pleased with Ephraim's performance with his default kit though, even with an attack bane. First time I've really used him since I finished levelling him. He'll be fine until I get the resources for building a player phase kit.

Not sure if I've been living under a rock... but what's the general consensus regarding the process of 'fishing' for a higher score?

Once you select your advanced opponent, you can't really go back from there without winning or losing right?

Furthermore, is there a way to reset your 'chain' if you encounter a low scoring opponent (without losing of course)?

[Humanoid]

19 minutes ago, Stylish said:

Not sure if I've been living under a rock... but what's the general consensus regarding the process of 'fishing' for a higher score?

Once you select your advanced opponent, you can't really go back from there without winning or losing right?

Furthermore, is there a way to reset your 'chain' if you encounter a low scoring opponent (without losing of course)?

In regular arena, you can back out before the fight starts and you keep your chain - i.e. back out when it shows you the three opponents. Just keep doing it until the advanced one is worth an amount of points you're happy with.

It gets annoying and is possibly unsustainable to get the maximum score if an appropriate enemy only shows up <10% of the time, but getting a decently high one 2-3 times in a run usually is enough for me.

 

EDIT: Needless to say, this doesn't work in Arena Assault, you just have to take the opponents as given.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Humanoid

[Korath88]

Defense win already? I'll take it.

Also, AA is making me really despise armor emblem. I still don't know what IS was smoking when they made the fighter skills.

[mampfoid]

Regular arena was relaxed, since I won't stay in Tier 20 anyway, but I got a new personal highscore in AA (5032) thanks to this guy. 

It's still a little frustrating, one of my first tries gave me 6 times in a row scores above 720, a 5050 was possible, but I lost a unit in match 5. After that I got mostly 716 match-ups. 

[Stroud]

This week got me bad in normal Arena. I used Hinoka as the Bonus unit and instead of over 5100 I only got 5068 Points (Even with fishing).
I was pretty safe in Tier 20 all the time, but this week I don't truly know about that.

Still I want to hold on to my feathers. If I am lucky enough and in the 4* Banner next month is Athena. Maybe I could succeed to get her to +10 with little luck and in one push.
At the moment I'm more into investing in my precious units instead of getting new units. As long as there is no unit I truly yearn for in any of the coming banner.

 

[Rezzy]

No Defense Wins yet.  I hope I can get at least one before the weekend.

I'm wondering if I should trade out Ignis for Aether or Galeforce on my Eldigan.  It would be better for points, and I might be on the cusp of staying in Tier 20, even with my lowest merge being +3 this week.

[Astellius]

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

This week got me bad in normal Arena. I used Hinoka as the Bonus unit and instead of over 5100 I only got 5068 Points (Even with fishing).
I was pretty safe in Tier 20 all the time, but this week I don't truly know about that.

Still I want to hold on to my feathers. If I am lucky enough and in the 4* Banner next month is Athena. Maybe I could succeed to get her to +10 with little luck and in one push.
At the moment I'm more into investing in my precious units instead of getting new units. As long as there is no unit I truly yearn for in any of the coming banner.

 

That score should be safe. I straddled the line but kept in T20 with 5,050 last week, and 5,046 the week prior. The difference between 5,050 & 5,070 is pretty significant, and there's no reason to suspect an exponential jump this week. This week also isn't Earth or Water season, which means that not everyone is guaranteed to be able to utilize blessings. My score is certain to be lower this week since I can't use blessings to bump up my score a bit. But you should be fine.

[Rafiel's Aria]

4 hours ago, Stroud said:

This week got me bad in normal Arena. I used Hinoka as the Bonus unit and instead of over 5100 I only got 5068 Points (Even with fishing).
I was pretty safe in Tier 20 all the time, but this week I don't truly know about that.

Still I want to hold on to my feathers. If I am lucky enough and in the 4* Banner next month is Athena. Maybe I could succeed to get her to +10 with little luck and in one push.
At the moment I'm more into investing in my precious units instead of getting new units. As long as there is no unit I truly yearn for in any of the coming banner.

 

Seconded! You probably don't have anything to worry about. I've been staying pretty comfortably in tier 20 with scores between 5058 and 5066. You're probably going to be closer to the lower end of the upper tier (maybe within 1000 or 1500 ranks of demoting), but I consider that pretty safe. 

 

This week, I managed an all time high score of 5070. I admittedly did a bit of fishing and ignored any matches in the teens. I ended up giving Merric a fire blessing, and just as I thought, that 40 DEF is super sweet. Running Ephraim also wasn't that bad. It's weird not havng a DC blue unit (since I've been using Nowi and Fjorm for so long), but he made a half decent wall. But I didn't waste nearly as many crests as I have in past seasons.

Even tried a few times for an AA run. Kept getting some stupid deaths, so I decided to call it quits for the night. I'll try again later. 

[Stroud]

1 hour ago, Astellius said:

That score should be safe. I straddled the line but kept in T20 with 5,050 last week, and 5,046 the week prior. The difference between 5,050 & 5,070 is pretty significant, and there's no reason to suspect an exponential jump this week. This week also isn't Earth or Water season, which means that not everyone is guaranteed to be able to utilize blessings. My score is certain to be lower this week since I can't use blessings to bump up my score a bit. But you should be fine.

This sounds reassuring, maybe it is my luck that I don't depend on blessings. I won't get the most out of it, but depending on the bonus unit it is still more solid.
The threshold around 5,050 seems to be pretty solid these last month. At least from what I read here. =o
 

 

[MonkeyCheez3K]

That recent Arena change did jack, now that I got accustomed to it. The range of my scores still goes from 718 to 730 per match and, of course, AA lowballs me most of the time, because that mode isn't boring enough and I totally want to redo it so that the rng scores maaaaybe give me a total that can stay in the top 3k. Keep the difference in coins and refining stones, but I really want more feathers right now. Losing on feathers with the exception of TT rank feathers, still hurts the most in my case.

Regular Arena doesn't really bother me as you can snipe the good scores and have way too many crests.

[Chrom-ulent]

Huh. Already three defense wins, one against a +4 Zephiel lead. I guess seeing "Chrom-ulent", leading with Chrom, tier 20, is luring players.

Won't be staying, obviously. Ain't going to be turning in 5000+ offense runs any time soon with this lack of merges.

[Alexmender]

This week is really annoying me. I HATE the boat, the wall and the rubble map and it doesn't help that this week is full of horses thanks to L!Ephraim. I'll need to change Sheena's Wary Fighter for Quick Riposte this week (time to farm some CC I guess).

[Stylish]

20 hours ago, Humanoid said:

In regular arena, you can back out before the fight starts and you keep your chain - i.e. back out when it shows you the three opponents. Just keep doing it until the advanced one is worth an amount of points you're happy with.

It gets annoying and is possibly unsustainable to get the maximum score if an appropriate enemy only shows up <10% of the time, but getting a decently high one 2-3 times in a run usually is enough for me.

 

EDIT: Needless to say, this doesn't work in Arena Assault, you just have to take the opponents as given.

Omg, thank you so much! I guess I've never ever thought about pressing that 'surrender' button thinking it was an instant forfeit.

RIP Dueling Crests...

[Nanima]

I swear some of these maps are borderline impossible to get a perfect win on when you are faced with Horse Emblem and a dancer.

[HK Motendra]

1 minute ago, Nanima said:

I swear some of these maps are borderline impossible to get a perfect win on when you are faced with Horse Emblem and a dancer.

For this reason is partly why I nearly never do advance and stick to intermediate

That being said, I find it baffling that it's allowed me to get to Tier 18, and soon to be 19, come next season, considering how little I like even playing arena

[Nanima]

28 minutes ago, Motendra said:

For this reason is partly why I nearly never do advance and stick to intermediate

That being said, I find it baffling that it's allowed me to get to Tier 18, and soon to be 19, come next season, considering how little I like even playing arena

That's pretty impressive cosidering it took me several attempts in advanced just to reach 19. Maybe I am making my own life to difficult.

Just had my third attempt at a perfect arena score ruined in the last fight by dancer-fueled Brave!Lyn. Maybe I just shouldn't accept battles with a horse unit or dancer in front anymore. But still, that doesn't protect from it and would exclude me from like 90% of battles at this point.

[Hawk King]

1 hour ago, Nanima said:

That's pretty impressive cosidering it took me several attempts in advanced just to reach 19. Maybe I am making my own life to difficult.

Just had my third attempt at a perfect arena score ruined in the last fight by dancer-fueled Brave!Lyn. Maybe I just shouldn't accept battles with a horse unit or dancer in front anymore. But still, that doesn't protect from it and would exclude me from like 90% of battles at this point.

If something is giving you trouble in the arena just change your team up so you can counter it. You should have an answer for everything.

[Nanima]

7 minutes ago, Hawk King said:

If something is giving you trouble in the arena just change your team up so you can counter it. You should have an answer for everything.

Being "prepared for anything" doesn't protect you from shitty map terrains. There is no way you can dedicate three team members to being able to survive Brave!Lyn and Reinhardt consequtively (which their high range together with a dancer often necessitates) and still have an answer for everything else you might encounter.

[Humanoid]

12 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Being "prepared for anything" doesn't protect you from shitty map terrains. There is no way you can dedicate three team members to being able to survive Brave!Lyn and Reinhardt consequtively (which their high range together with a dancer often necessitates) and still have an answer for everything else you might encounter.

It may be worth reading this AI guide to help predict their movements somewhat. In particular, figuring out how to manipulate their movement so that the horses end up out of dance range.

[Hilda]

25 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Being "prepared for anything" doesn't protect you from shitty map terrains. There is no way you can dedicate three team members to being able to survive Brave!Lyn and Reinhardt consequtively (which their high range together with a dancer often necessitates) and still have an answer for everything else you might encounter.

then you are running the wrong units. Pick 1-2 units that can kill them on counter attack. only surviving their attacks isnt enough

[Korath88]

I definitely don't regret going with +Spd -Def over +Def -HP for my LA!Hector now. Not after he tanked a hit from a DB3 Micaiah with 1HP left.

Both arena runs are done, though I didn't put any effort into my normal arena run as I can't rank up to 20 without the blessing bonus, and I only have the water and earth legendaries.

[Nanima]

14 minutes ago, Hilda said:

then you are running the wrong units. Pick 1-2 units that can kill them on counter attack. only surviving their attacks isnt enough

Soren is my designated Reinhardt killer but he generally doesn't survive Brave!Lyn. The only units I have that might be able to counterkill both of them are Fjorm and Nowi, and the latter isn't always a safe bet. I could build my Christmas Lissa for it maybe, but I never got a Hector so I can't give her Distant Counter (yes I know he is on the current banner, but I need my orbs for next week. Pulling just for utility is a luxury for a F2P like me).

@Humanoid Thanks, this may actually help.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Nanima

[Hawk King]

48 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Being "prepared for anything" doesn't protect you from shitty map terrains. There is no way you can dedicate three team members to being able to survive Brave!Lyn and Reinhardt consequtively (which their high range together with a dancer often necessitates) and still have an answer for everything else you might encounter.

I ran a build on Nowi that allowed her to deal with literally everything but green units. I supported her with Ike to cover her 1 weakness. She was my 1st +10 merge project and I built my team around her.

9 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Soren is my designated Reinhardt killer but he generally doesn't survive Brave!Lyn. The only units I have that might be able to counterkill both of them are Fjorm and Nowi, and the latter isn't always a safe bet. I could build my Christmas Lissa for it maybe, but I never got a Hector so I can't give her Distant Counter (yes I know he is on the current banner, but I need my orbs for next week. Pulling just for utility is a luxury for a F2P like me).

@Humanoid Thanks, this may actually help.

Give Soren Bowbreaker and the Deflect Missile seal (If Brave bows are common) and now he counters both Lyn and Rein. Running Spur support with whoever S -rank supports him is also advised.

[Sunsurge]

6 hours ago, Hilda said:

then you are running the wrong units. Pick 1-2 units that can kill them on counter attack. only surviving their attacks isnt enough

So true! You have to kill them on counter attack to win.

I use PA!Azura (or B!Ike-both with DC) and M!Robin (with +Def/Distant Def 3 Seal) for Reinhardt and Brave!Lyn respectively. One dance for M!Robin in range and he can both tank(literally the most damage I've seen her do is like 4) and counter kill Lyn. And the other two can easily tank Reinhardt (B!Ike is better about the counterkill, but he needs a Rally Resistance or Reinhardt with buffs/quickened pulse seal/moonbow can hurt). They're both actually my favorite people to encounter in Arena because I always kill them. Cecilia on the other hand....

Edited March 14, 2018 by Sunsurge