Arena Discussion Thread (inc. Assault)

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Had a funny occurrence doing the daily matches for feathers. Had an enemy Sheena proc Aether for 0 damage. My Draug has 50 base Def, plus the Close Defense 3 Seal (mainly for the Res against M!Grimas), then he got the S-support bonus from my own Sheena being adjacent while sitting on a Def tile. Needing to maneuver around meant no Rally Def/Spd on him, but it really didn't matter in the end.

[Humanoid]

Figures that the first time I'm ever likely going to stay in T20 will also be the first time in months that I don't pick up a defense win. That's a net loss of 400 feathers, which I guess goes to show why I haven't generally pushed hard for it. On the off-chance I make it to T21 I guess it'd be a net win, will find out soon enough. Either way it's going to remain a one-off, and I will gladly resume my stress-free T19.5 life thereafter.

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

the first time in months that I don't pick up a defense win.

Same here.

The same team got me 4 wins last week. Changed Valter for 4* Silvia yesterday, to no avail so far. 

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Had a funny occurrence doing the daily matches for feathers. Had an enemy Sheena proc Aether for 0 damage. My Draug has 50 base Def, plus the Close Defense 3 Seal (mainly for the Res against M!Grimas), then he got the S-support bonus from my own Sheena being adjacent while sitting on a Def tile. Needing to maneuver around meant no Rally Def/Spd on him, but it really didn't matter in the end.

This reminds me of the one time an Ayra hit my Nowi with Regnal Astra for zero damage.

 

6 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Figures that the first time I'm ever likely going to stay in T20 will also be the first time in months that I don't pick up a defense win. That's a net loss of 400 feathers, which I guess goes to show why I haven't generally pushed hard for it.

You can try a last-ditch non-bonus team built for cancer performance and see if that gets you something. A win at half points is still better than nothing at all.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

• T21 score of 3698 - #3571 (/1575)
• AA score of 5230 - #2104

Low-effort regular Arena this week, since I tried hard enough the other two weeks in T21 to get a feel for how scores will fall and I have zero chance of staying on any week that is outside of water season with Fjorm as a bonus. That opportunity might be coming up soon, but maybe not, since it'll be totally wasted if it comes in during a week where I'm getting back into T21. Ah, well.

AA was also not surprising. With fire season in full swing and no legendary Hector +10 of my own (nor a fire team to hang with him), top 1000 is an impossibility. Next time water rolls around, I'll probably try to fish a little with Fjorm to see if I can get a decent score that will stay top 1000. Odds are I won't be able to get back in until I can (maybe) +10 her in December, though.

[Alkaid]

Looks like I barely squeaked by to stay in both tier 21 and top 3k AA. Arena rank of 1,180~ and AA rank of 2,800~.

I sized up how the scoring looked and decided to use a couple fire blessings to get the boost with Legendary Marth to stay in the tier. Just in case crowns are actually worth something good later, I figured this is one of the only opportunities I'll have to grab one on consecutive weeks just by switching some blessings around, so I took the risk and traded some blessings for the crown. I'll probably switch my core back to water for next week and see if Fjorm as the bonus will manage 2 more consecutive weeks. However, since more people will have merged Fjorms and use of Duel skills increases by the day, it may not happen. Still netted one more crown than I would have, at least.

2800-ish in AA is dangerously close to dropping out of top 3k, so I guess having a Cavalry unit as my 4th member isn't going to cut it soon. Unfortunately, the game refuses to give me more copies of units for my other flier/infantry projects so there's not much I can do about it. I refused to dump resources into making any +10 dragons or armors for the sake of scoring, but I guess that turned out to be a good thing in the long run since now Duel skills are becoming a thing anyway. I have no highly merged red fliers or green infantry I want to merge for now, though, so I'll have to wait for other ones to come out.

I'm also growing sick of CYL Hector and Ephraim already. They're on 9/10 teams for me now. Even bulkier than the previous common armors with higher damage too. I'm not looking forward to fighting them with Fjorm as a bonus unit at all. At least L.Marth had enough killing ability to muscle through Hector. Fjorm might need a lot of chipping help from the rest of my team to kill Ephraim.

Oh, and I took a few pictures during my AA spamming today.
 

Spoiler

They all have about the same build besides each one having a different wave skill. All +10 of course. Obviously, Alm was unleashed and tore up 44 dragons worth of evil waifu.

Yep, it's started. Until we get Duel Cavalrys, though, teams with her are actually easier to fight than if it were just another bulky armor march team.

Just a somewhat-thematic encounter one match. My Garon's just bare-minimum built, but it's enough to deal with a relatively weak +10 dragon like F.Kana.

 

[Johann]

19 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

Why wouldn’t they keep it up? They have been announcing these on twitter since release, why not have it for the international audience right in the game as well? Wait and see, of course, but I don’t see the reason for them to not keep doing these announcements in the future.

Only because, as @mampfoid stated, it's almost entirely new units, 7 of which are 5* exclusive from brand new banners. Consider also how often new characters are revealed a day or two before Arena changes, so it's less likely we'd see them so far ahead of time. I mean I'd love it if they told us as soon as possible, but I don't think it's something they'll be so generous about.

[LordFrigid]

Offense score of 3785 (T21) remains in T21, combining with a defense score of 626 for max rewards.

Another week of Saber, who picked up 15 KOs. Earth week meant I could use Wary Fighter armors to soften up the more annoying enemies. Using Fjorm for the next couple seasons should be...interesting. She may be well merged enough that I can afford to run Elise for Pain+ & heal support, but I’m keeping that as a last resort option. Hopefully just sticking Bonfire on her will get the job done.

[Tybrosion]

47 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

I'm not looking forward to fighting them with Fjorm as a bonus unit at all. At least L.Marth had enough killing ability to muscle through Hector. Fjorm might need a lot of chipping help from the rest of my team to kill Ephraim.

That’s why I just went and did this.

Spoiler

Unfortunately, I have to wait until Arena reopens since I’m three stones short of being able to refine it.

I feel like this investment will be worth my while as long as she remains a bonus unit regular. And as bonus, it gave me an excuse to burn a book of Est. But on the other hand, I’ve now probably doomed myself to a Silas in my next pull from Nohrian Dusk.

[Alkaid]

9 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

That’s why I just went and did this.

  Hide contents

Unfortunately, I have to wait until Arena reopens since I’m three stones short of being able to refine it.

I feel like this investment will be worth my while as long as she remains a bonus unit regular. And as bonus, it gave me an excuse to burn a book of Est. But on the other hand, I’ve now probably doomed myself to a Silas in my next pull from Nohrian Dusk.

That's definitely a good idea. I'm pretty stingy about using resources just for arena's sake, so I'll have to see how badly things go first. I just realized it's going to suck fighting all these Dual skill Lewyns with her too. Fjorm's not going to kill him on her own except maybe with an offensive special charged and he'll be more annoying to corral and chip at than Ephraim.

If only blessings weren't a thing I could just use Laegjarn for this season..

[Tybrosion]

7 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

That's definitely a good idea. I'm pretty stingy about using resources just for arena's sake, so I'll have to see how badly things go first. I just realized it's going to suck fighting all these Dual skill Lewyns with her too. Fjorm's not going to kill him on her own except maybe with an offensive special charged and he'll be more annoying to corral and chip at than Ephraim.

If only blessings weren't a thing I could just use Laegjarn for this season..

I only have the three freebies, so I am essentially forced to use Fjorm these next two weeks anyways. If a Duel skill existed for Ethlyn, I’d immediately dump Fjorm in favor of her.

And yeah, the G Duel Infantry spam really isn’t going to be fun. 

[Vaximillian]

I might be forced to say fuck it and forget about the bonus kills altogether this fortnight, haha.

[Zeo]

As long as I can stay in T20 these next 2 weeks, I don't really care about not making T21. Killing Armors with Fjorm is simply not going to happen and burning 20k feathers so I can make... 500-1000 more feathers for the next two weeks makes literally no sense. I'm going to miss that extra orb. But oh well, not worth it.

[Humanoid]

Woke up to find I'm in T21, so 3715 was enough this week, guess the concept of the high-week, low-week is pretty much gone now. Happy to see my effort wasn't wasted, and I can tick that one off the bucket list.

It's not something I'll likely be able to repeat, nor something I care to repeat given how painful the process was, but I'm satisfied with having done it. The extra reward also more than cancels out the lack of a defense win, and as a bonus I squeezed into the top 10k in AA at exactly rank 9700.

The bonus units and my blessing setup for the next couple weeks pretty much guarantees back-to-back demotions down to T19 but that's just a return to the status quo, can't really complain.

[mampfoid]

5 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

That’s why I just went and did this.

I also hope she'll remain in the Askir rotation, even if it's hard to make her kill everything and probably book III will change something. 

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

Woke up to find I'm in T21,

Congrats, enjoy the crown! 

Didn't get a defense win either. First time in months. 

[ChickenBits]

I was demoted to tier 19 this week because I forgot to build up my Anna. I hate any arena season involving her because she can't leave a dent on anything that isn't blue and requires far too much support. I did get a lot of defense wins this week and I only set up my defense team yesterday, I think I got 10 wins. Next three weeks are gonna be annoying as well since blessings means I'll have to run Fjorm and there's so many tanky greens in arena. Laegjarn would be a lot more fun to use, especially with tactics, but it wasn't meant to be.

[Humanoid]

5 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Congrats, enjoy the crown! 

Cheers. Just looked at the seasons calendar and the next time we'll even have a fire legendary hero is March next year, so that's my next window of opportunity. Obviously not something I can bank on given that I'd have to be lucky enough to pull the hero for that month, and they have to have good killing power. And by then, the scores will likely have inflated enough such that my dual-mage setup might no longer be good enough to get there.

It might theoretically be possible to go back up next month, but it'd require luck not just pulling the new Earth legendary, but also two copies of Nowi, one of Tiki, and the expenditure of 120k feathers to +10 them both. Yeah.... not happening.

[daisy jane]

oooh, i promoted!! I'm level 17 now!
that was a nice surprise. (I got demoted a round or two ago). 

[Vaximillian]

Okay, this wasn’t too bad, actually:

Fjorm killed 3/4 in every battle except a single green each time. Two Myrrhs, two Faes, and a Merric.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

So, Fjorm isn't really that bad to get kills with. Granted, mine is a +Atk +7, but honestly, decent enough support (Ardent Service+, which can be replaced by a Hone Atk 3; Drive Atk 2 Seal; and Fjorm's base Atk/Def Bond 3), she still chews through most enemies. She can also survive combat with Sheena +10s, but doesn't do enough damage on her own to get the kill (running into the problem of Draug murdering any green, but seeing as how that's my out for if Fjorm is having issues...).

Consider that, with this same support (though Fury 3 instead of Atk/Def Bond), Anna and Sharena both had more issues securing kills. Alfonse is probably about the only nearly equal comparison, but he requires his Brazens to activate before he really makes headway, whereas Fjorm just starts murdering stuff from the outset.

[Alkaid]

6 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Granted, mine is a +Atk +7

I have a feeling my unmerged neutral Fjorm is going to have a bit more trouble. I luckily haven't had to use Anna or Sharena as bonuses yet, but Alfonse pretty well and I didn't even have double brazen for him at the time of his season.

I also completely forgot this first week of the new season isn't water blessing time yet, so I guess I'll actually use Laegjarn this first round. No way I can stay in 21 without Fjorm+water blessings working. I suppose my blessing switching was a waste after all.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Neutral +0 Fjorm would still have 50 base Atk after Arena bonuses. Add in the Hone Atk 3, Drive Atk 2 Seal and Atk/Def Bond and she's got 62. That should one-round anything red and 3HKO blues at worst. Greens are going to have to be softened up, but that's not really new news for most bonus units. 62 Atk should still be able to easily muscle a killing blow in off an opponent dropped to 20-25%.

For comparison, single-Brazen Alfonse would have 62 Atk before buffs (68 after; 74 if he's initiating). Fury 3 Sharena gets 61 and Fury 3 Anna gets 58.

Actually, come to think of it, I think Fjorm's biggest asset is her mixed bulk. After Arena bonuses, it makes her pseudo-armourish. This lets her skirmish with that Atk and repeatedly bait things into fighting on her terms, whereas Sharena and Anna rather quickly bleed out—especially with Fury 3 in play. Alfonse kind of has this going for him on just the Def side of things (his encounters with M!Grima are always a bit gross for me). I think if Sharena or Anna could reliably sustain baiting in 2-3 opponents per match, they'd probably also manage.

EDIT: Oh, and something to consider that I had in my back pocket in case things went sour, but didn't end up using, is neutral Fjorm's Res hits a monstrous 38 after Arena bonus. If she runs Def Ploy, she should be able to augment her own damage against nearly anything.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[twinbladex]

I got a score of 3,725 with my team of +10 merged F!Corrin, Fae, and A!Tiki along with an unmerged Fjorm. I’m unsure if that will bring me up to tier 21. Sheena, Myrrh, F!Kana, and green Hectors were too difficult for my Fjorm to get kills with so I missed out on some bonus points.

[mampfoid]

Silas doesn't work for me. He tanks and kills all physical units so far, but dragons, even blues are difficult to deal with. I have to take out ranged units with the other team members, because Silas can't one-round them, but also doesn't survive two hits on EP. The other thing is, trenches are making it even harder.

Switching to Fjorm who scores higher. 

/Edit: Whom did I meet on fight 3? Gunnthrá, Hebindi, BH!Ephraim & Jaffar. 

Edited September 25, 2018 by mampfoid

[MonkeyCheez3K]

6 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Woke up to find I'm in T21, so 3715 was enough this week, guess the concept of the high-week, low-week is pretty much gone now.

If anything, last season was "low-effort" climb into 21. I've seen you talk about "high-week" before and I assume you mean you'll need a higher score to climb with that term?

Following the logic of the very first transition into 21 (when T21 was introduced) having the highest scorers going up, leaving the easier climb due to weaker competition on the second week, "hard" and "easy" climbs switched every week (even if it isn't that clear-cut), meaning last season was an easy climb. That's the reason why I deliberately choose that week for 20,5 climbing and every other week for demoting; it saves a lot of nerves.