Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[LordFrigid]

After completing my high-score run earlier this week, I decided to relax a little by treating myself to some battles of "watch Julia mop the floor with everything", because Julia.

I happened across a team that I think @Zeo might appreciate:

Spoiler

Just 13 more copies and a Wind Blessing to complete the team...

 

[Vaximillian]

@LordFrigid It looks like Matthew is holding the symbol of the blessing on his palm.

[Ice Dragon]

It's really weird having to actually fight with my armors again.

Ephraim is only +4 because this banner really did not like me at all, but he wiped the floor with everything except Zelgius. He did manage to take one Zelgius down by standing on a fortification tile, but all of the other ones either had no fortification tiles on the map or were holding Armorsmashers.

Tier 21

Score: 3,812 (750-756, 16 bonus kills)
Rank: 199 (out of 4,234, cutoff at 1,270)
Defense: 313 (8 wins)

+10 Zelgius [+Atk, -HP] (Alondite, Rally Def/Res, Black Luna, Steady Breath, Warp Powder, Armor March 3, Drive Atk 2) [Fire]
+10 Dark Hardin [+Atk, -Spd] (Gradivus, Rally Def/Res, Aether, Steady Breath, Bold Fighter, Ward Armor, Quick Riposte 3) [Fire]
+4 Brave Ephraim [+Atk, -Def] (Garm, Swap, Aether, Distant Counter, Special Fighter 3, Armor March 3, Close Def 3) [Fire]
+10 Legendary Hector [+Atk, -Res] (Thunder Armads, Swap, Aether, Distant Counter, Vengeful Fighter 3, Ostia's Pulse, Drive Def 2)

 

I forgot to switch out my defense team. Oops.

[Zeo]

@LordFrigid Now that's dedication.

Now tell me how you wiped the floor with them without even trying.

@mampfoid Yeah, inflation will only get worse over time. Considering Nino. With Fae I can build her now, but she won't be +10'ed for a long time. Whereas I'm not planning on staying in T21, I just want to get that crown once. To say I did if you know what I mean.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Zeo

[mampfoid]

@Zeo I know exactly what you mean, same goal here.

I guess it would be impossible to stay in tier 21 without a merged bonus unit, a merged Legendary unit with corresponding blessings or an armored core. 

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Decided to tryhard AA for once. Its weirdly fun

[LordFrigid]

6 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

It looks like Matthew is holding the symbol of the blessing on his palm.

Huh...it does. I hadn't even noticed.

3 hours ago, Zeo said:

Now that's dedication.

Now tell me how you wiped the floor with them without even trying.

 

6 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

"watch Julia mop the floor with everything", because Julia.

^ That, basically. She's running a "Ploy 'n Destroy" set (+Spd, Fury, Desperation, Spd Ploy, Atk Ploy), and there's a decent amount of Spd-boosting support on the team (Ally support with Tana, Drive Spd on Celica), so she just picked them off as they approached.

[Alexmender]

I don't know why I forgot Lute was part of the bonus rotation this week. I did my first run with Veronica and ended with a score of 3,715 which obviously is only enough to mantain tier 20. I decided to try with Lute and ended with a score of 3,724 which is a lot better, maybe it'll get me to tier 21. Veronica is fun to use but the lack of offensive specials really hurts her because my team doesn't have movement assists to help her in case an enemy survives. Lute just Iceberg bombs everything and with her huge Res she can debuff every single armor unit so even greens fall to her once she reaches the Desperation range.

[mampfoid]

@Alexmender Wow, nearly the same score here (3,721, missing only 1 bonus kill). It'll be pretty close, currently I'm 2,802th of 3,545 in the emerge group. 

[Johann]

Strongly considering giving Sharena a Slaying Spear+, I'm so sick of Bold Fighter

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Early assessment, since I'll be out and I know if I go, "Oh, I'll just grab a screenshot around that time.", I'll totally forget.

• T20 score of 3733 - #1826 (/3643)
• AA score of 5254 - #1196

Well, with noticeable Gwendolyn-driven score improvements comes... no improvement in ranking. Yay. Also, a nearly full set of +10 budget armours is garbage to play with against the current meta. No way am I emptying my wallet to build all the 5*-exclusive super armours with Bold Fighter, though, so I guess I'll just have to suffer through it.

[Zeo]

@LordFrigid @mampfoid I did it... I went from 355 crests to 285 (not all actual tries, mostly fishing for high scoring matches, but I capped out at 3,726, my highest score ever. I'm rank 2,604 now and sitting comfortably in the ascension pool. If I don't make great summoner at this point then I give up. This was a hard fought win.

In order to get Brave Hector to kill everything I gave Matthew Rally DEF/RES, Windsweep 3, Savage Blow 3 and ATK Smoke 3, Nino got Rally DEF/RES, Spur DEF/RES and Drive ATK 2 and Lukas had Reposition (very important) and dual Drive DEF 2's. Hector also ran the Close DEF 3 seal. You'd think that would make him invincible but Magic, Dragons and powerful green armors made for a hard time. This was done over the course of days. Proud of myself. 

Now for AA. Mampfoid's score was 5197 I think?, but let's see if I can get close. Only have a little time to do it.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Zeo

[mampfoid]

@Zeo Wow, great score, congrats! Meanwhile my score dropped close to the bottom of the ascension pool. 3,305th of 3,652. 

AA is easier if you win match one and get some high matchups. Of course you need enough units with blessings of the corresponding season. 

Good luck! 

/Edit: funnily I got nearly the same rank in AA, dropped out of top 3k. 

Edited September 3, 2018 by mampfoid

[Zeo]

@mampfoid I clocked at 5,131. Admittedly not in your league but my Chrom's got a lot of merges to go still. It's a record for me though so that's cool. Also I wasn't optimal with the blessing unit choices, time is short so I was just trying to get finished. I'm content with just getting great summoner.

[mampfoid]

@Zeo Congrats on your new AA high. You are nearly there. That's more than my score from 3 weeks ago.

You got very similar merges, my starter team is +10 flier, +10 flier, +8 infantry and +6 infantry. You are at 10/10/9/4 Infantry, one ranged? Nearly the same. 

Edited September 3, 2018 by mampfoid

[Johann]

1 hour ago, Zeo said:

@LordFrigid @mampfoid I did it... I went from 355 crests to 285 (not all actual tries, mostly fishing for high scoring matches, but I capped out at 3,726, my highest score ever. I'm rank 2,604 now and sitting comfortably in the ascension pool. If I don't make great summoner at this point then I give up. This was a hard fought win.

In order to get Brave Hector to kill everything I gave Matthew Rally DEF/RES, Windsweep 3, Savage Blow 3 and ATK Smoke 3, Nino got Rally DEF/RES, Spur DEF/RES and Drive ATK 2 and Lukas had Reposition (very important) and dual Drive DEF 2's. Hector also ran the Close DEF 3 seal. You'd think that would make him invincible but Magic, Dragons and powerful green armors made for a hard time. This was done over the course of days. Proud of myself. 

Now for AA. Mampfoid's score was 5197 I think?, but let's see if I can get close. Only have a little time to do it.

Congrats on making it up to T21! I'm a bit envious of your Matthew, if just for these situations. Going all out with buffs/debuffs to get all those kills has been... a challenge to say the least. I dunno about you, but I had to pass on teams that had an armor or dragon in their lead because I was sure they'd be packing a Bold Fighter Grima. Did you ever had Matthew bait enemies (particularly greens) to weaken them for Hector? I had to do a bit of this myself to get kills with Sharena.

I imagine I'll have a low effort week next week since Sharena probably won't be enough to maintain T21

[mampfoid]

I'd like to know my exact ranking, but I'm going to sleep soon. 

[Zeo]

@mampfoid 2 ranged units actually, which dips my score a bit from BST, but regardless everyone wasn't quite as optimized as they could have been. I could have tacked on a couple more Double Rallies and Drives for extra score, but that would have made the starting map harder and I didn't have time for trial and error. I imagine I could cap out around 5140-60 probably. Maybe 70s if I run all the right blessings.

[DLNarshen]

Season 83 Results:

Score: 3,742
Defense: 614
Rank: Tier 20 --> Great Summoner

For his bonus week cycle, Narcian gets his summoner support back, as well as a brand new toy -- Slaying Hammer.  Normally Narcian does not have to contend with anything he doesn't have the advantage over, but with the new bonus-kill system he needs something a little extra.  With Goad, Drive Spd, and ally support from Shanna, he can even double and kill Zelgius.  Naturally, the myriad of other armors found at my score range fall with relative ease.  The real troublemaker was Tiki -- both the adult and young summer seasonal.  Presumably the regular young version as well, but I never encountered her.  With all the buffs Narcian receives it's doable, and Renewal comes in handy.  Thankfully red units were not too prevalent for me this week, allowing Narcian to get 20/20 kills.  Whether my score will be enough to stay in GS next week or not, I aim to repeat the feat.  

Arena Assault:

Rank: 3,175

My first run failed in the 7th match when I mistakenly assumed my Axebreaker Alfonse could deal with a Bold Fighter L!Hector on the counter.  Guess not. 

Previous Season Results:

Spoiler

Season 12: 4,678 | 284 | 25,513
Season 13: 4,740 | 0 | 19,082
Season 14: 4,794 | 289 | 6,331
-----------------
1.3.0 Update
-----------------
Season 15: 4,820 | 576 | 15 --> 17
Season 16: 4,788 | 568 | 17 --> 16
Season 17: 4,719 | 568 | 16 --> 17
Season 18: 4,776 | 0 | 17 --> 18
Season 19: 4,780 | 0 | 18 --> 17
Season 20: 4,796 | 578 | 17 --> 18
Season 21: 4,806 | 594 | 18 --> 19
Season 22: 4,792 | 560 | 19 --> 18
Season 23: 4,836 | 288 | 18 --> 19
Season 24: 4,828 | 288 | 19 --> 20
Season 25: 4,838 | 582 | 20 --> 19
Season 26: 4,822 | 578 | 19 --> 20
Season 27: 4,808 | 580 | 20 -->19
Season 28: 4,792 | 580 | 19 --> 18
Season 29: 4,830 | 582 | 18 --> 19
Season 30: 4,822 | 582 | 19 --> 20
Season 31: 4,806 | 584 | 20 --> 19
Season 32: 4,820 | 584 | 19 --> 20
Season 33: 4,812 | 582 | 20 --> 19
Season 34: 4,836 | 582 | 19 --> 20
Season 35: 4,822 | 582 | 20 --> 19
Season 36: 4,838 | 578 | 19 --> 20
Season 37: 4,788 | 580 | 20 --> 19
Season 38: 4,854 | 580 | 19 --> 20
Season 39: 4,830 | 582 | 20 --> 19
Season 40: 4,908 | 0 | 19 --> 20
Season 41: 4,920 | 580 | 20 --> 19
Season 42: 4,922 | 580 | 19 --> 20
Season 43: 4,914 | 582 | 20 --> 19
Season 44: 4,966 | 582 | 19 --> 20
Season 45: 5,006 | 600 | 20 --> 20
Season 46: 5,016 | 600 | 20 --> 20
Season 47: 4,976 | 596 | 20 --> 19
Season 48: 4,972 | 596 | 19 --> 20
Season 49: 4,988 | 600 | 20 --> 19
Season 50: 4,984 | 598 | 19 --> 20
Season 51: 5012 | 604 | 20 --> 19
Season 52: 4,990 | 598 | 19 --> 20
Season 53: 4,848 | 600 | 20 --> 19
Season 54: 4,994 | 602 | 19 --> 20
Season 55: 5,002 | 600 | 20 --> 19
Season 56: 5,050 | 606 | 19 --> 20
Season 57: 5,016 | 608 | 20 --> 19
Season 58: 5,014 | 608 | 19 --> 20
Season 59: 5,052 | 608 | 20 --> 20
Season 60: 5,064 | 612 | 20 --> 20
Season 61: 5,066 | 618 | 20 --> 20
Season 62: 5,088 | 614 | 20 --> 20
Season 63: 5,100 | 610 | 20 --> 20
Season 64: 5,070 | 610 | 20 --> 20
Season 65: 5,068 | 618 | 20 --> 20
Season 66: 5,086 | 309 | 20 --> 20
----------------
2.5.0 Update
----------------
Season 67: 3,642 | 606 | 20 --> 20
Season 68: 3,648 | 614 | 20 --> 20
Season 69: 3,646 | 612 | 20 --> 20
Season 70: 3,668 | 604 | 20 --> 20
Season 71: 3,672 | 618 | 20 --> 20
Season 72: 3,654 | 312 | 20 --> 20
Season 73: 3,658 | 307 | 20 --> 20
Season 74: 3,652 | 616 | 20 --> 20
Season 75: 3,654 | 614 | 20 --> 20
Season 76: 3,654 | 0 | 20 --> 20
Season 77: 3,682 | 616 | 20 --> 20
Season 78: 3,674 | 614 | 20 -- > 20
Season 79: 3,672 | 305 | 20 --> 20
Season 80: 3,678 | 608 | 20 --> 20
----------------
2.8.0 Update
----------------
Season 81: 3,720 | 606 | 20 --> GS
Season 82: 3,681 | 612 | GS --> 20

 

[Alkaid]

Got my second crown and maintained top 3k in AA again, so pretty good week. I don't remember if I posted about it before, but I was really surprised how easy it was to get the bonus kills with Veronica. She did better than I expected, and without any Reposition assistance either.

Also, I forgot about the arena's 5 orbs today from tier 21, so I used them on legendary banner as my last chance. 2 colorless orbs.. did I pick the right one for my Spring Kagero?.. 3* Wrys, whoops.

[MonkeyCheez3K]

I feel something has gone terribly wrong now that I enjoy AA more than regular Arena. It's such a weird sensation and it worries me. Also downgrading my favorite units to bystanders is beyond annoying to me. Yeah, guess I hate the new Arena.

Also hope they'll make the crown on Feh permanent, swapping it in and out every week is stupid since I'm merely 20,5 atm. Personally, I'd rather not have it at all right now.

[LordFrigid]

Offense score of 3788 (T21) remains in T21, combining with a defense score of 624 for max rewards.

Ephraim got fed 20 KOs after I got tired of having Hector try to do it. I’ll probably be doing that again next week.

~

@Zeo congrats! Enjoy that crown.

@mampfoid unless my friends list is lying to me, I believe you made it as well? If so, congrats to you too!

[Alexmender]

Not bad, I reached tier 21 which makes me happy. AA is the usual. Funnily enough I got like 8 Def wins while trying to do some LHB clears which meant I wasn't using optimal skills but they seemed to caught people off-guard.

[mampfoid]

@LordFrigid Yep, I did it! Thanks. :-) 

@MonkeyCheez3K It's really annoying to let the bonus unit do all kills because the favs become nannies/butlers. I think half would have been enough to make people think how to integrate the bonus unit better.

No idea what happens with FEHs crown if you don't play arena for a week. If you don't play you don't get rewards, but you also shouldn't get demoted at least. 

@Zeo Ah yes, forgot about Nino. Congrats to your first crown and overall new highscores! 

Edited September 4, 2018 by mampfoid

[MonkeyCheez3K]

26 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

It's really annoying to let the bonus unit do all kills because the favs become nannies/butlers. I think half would have been enough to make people think how to integrate the bonus unit better.

No idea what happens with FEHs crown if you don't play arena for a week. If you don't play you don't get rewards, but you also shouldn't get demoted at least.

Well, I can't do that, even if the crown would stay that way; I still want the rewards, orbs are just too tasty, and a nice amount of feathers is always nice.

With that said, I did deliberately stay in T20 this week to get into the "easier" group to climb back up into T21, the fishing had become increasingly annoying without additional merges, so I'll try this out to ease my frustration. Even if I have many crests, burning them too quickly might cause problems in the future if I am not cautious. We'll see whether that was a dumb move on my part.