Bomb's new Gladiator Set nerfed?

[Pointless]

Although you could argue that Navigator, as advertised, procs in essence at the same 33% rate as Scissors (as bringing the Banner down to 50% should take twice as long as KOing it from half), the huge differences are that Scissors can apply an additional 40% AoE for Bomb only, while Navigator would give 100% bonus to all damage sources in the team. To say these sets would be on par is ridiculous. Scissors, even nerfed way back, is Bomb’s best set, and to have Navigator so clearly outperform it makes the latter overpowered by definition.
If the cause of anger is as @bubbley suggests, then take it up with Rovio, but the new set does not need more than 30% to be effective.

[GrauGeist]

All I know is that Sweet Witch beats Gladiator SeaDog hands down; healing for +7,000 each turn, she is way more crutch than Gladiator ever will be.

[cosmo2503]

Hi everyone, I am back into game after I missed several seasons in Arena. I have all set items for Arena and my bird too.
I have to ask one utterly stupid question for you who play game all time and have developed special terminology and abrreviations that I don’t quite understand, for start I wonder what do you mean by “sweet witch”?
My other question is which sets are the best to max out?

[Jadedbacon]

@cosmo2503 Sweet Witch means the Witch class with the Honey set (set bonus called “Sweet”). It gives you a ton of survivability in Arena as the Witch is able to heal the Banner for 6-7k each turn. This will (most of the time) make you unkillable unless your opponent gets extremely lucky.

Best sets to max out? Let’s start with the easiest: (I’ve bolded my personal selection)

Banner:
Emblems: Ressurection, Chronos, Vengeful, Retalliate (I don’t use it, but I see a lot of people using it)
Valiant Set – Just get it, even with it nerfed it’s still really good
The other sets are still viable if you run a composition that really synergizes with the banner set bonus.

Red:
Classes: Paladin/Samurai… maybe Stone Guard
Dragonbreath – If you prefer to AoE your opponents
Banner Breaker/Masamune – If you prefer/need strong single target damage against the banner
Titan’s – Only if you want to run some kinda Stun setup with Matilda/Nightmare and Frost Savage

Chuck:
Classes: Wizard/Thunderbird… maybe Rainbird if you want to run Venomous
Twin Lightning – If you prefer to AoE your opponents
Sonic/Reset – Can prevent your opponents from reviving, I’ve been trying it for awhile and it doesn’t appear to work that often, but your mileage may vary
Mana – Works wonders against any Venomous or any team with annoying negative effects like princess, frost savage, etc

Matilda:
Classes: Witch… maybe Druid if you want to run Venomous or Bard if you want to run a Stun setup, although personally if I wanted to run a stun setup I’d just keep the Witch and give her Doom/Nightmare, the healing is too good to pass up
Honey/Sweet – Makes Matilda better at what she does best – Healing
Forest – Only really useable if your opponent is also running Witch or some other strong healing effect
Doom/Nightmare – Only really useable if your running a stun heavy group like Samurai/Titans and Frost Savage or using the Blues

Bomb:
Classes: Sea Dog/Captain… maybe Frost Savage if you want to run some stun setup
Scissors – If you prefer to AoE your opponents
Gladiators – Despite not being as strong as advertised, still 30% increased damage is nothing terrible
Finishers – Can finish off the banner, although watch out if the target your hitting has any form of damage reduction, then the effect will not finish off the target

Blues:
Classes: Really… anything, they’re that good – My recommendation is Spies, if using Marksman you need to bring other classes that capitalize on the extra damage (Samurai, Stone Guard, etc)
Beep Beep – If you prefer to AoE your opponents
Artillery Strike – If you prefer strong single target damage
Shadow Step – The 10% avoidance seems to be able to trigger off of an AoE attack that also hits Blues. If that happens, the whole attack is negated and none of your birds take damage. Should note though, any bonus damage (like Dragon, Twin Lightning) will still go through

There’s talk that the Blues next set will provide a bonus to win the coin toss even if you lose it. The coin toss is one of my biggest gripes so that’s one I’ll keep an eye out for.

[Bubbley]

@cosmo2503 welcome back. Glad you are still around. Sweet Witch means the Witch using the honey spoon and jar set.

As for which sets to max out that depends very much on how you play. I assume you have the Valiant banner. It’s certainly the easiest to win with. I played many weeks very successfully against it using the Blazing Eye. So either of those two.

I have maxed Scissors, Mana and Twin Lightening, Dragon Breath, Hammers, Honey set and Ying Yang but you don’t really need to max Ying Yang I needed it when I didn’t have Valiant. For the Blues the Ballister is the best set if you have Valiant if not the Reborn.

I find that I win almost every battle. Reset is the only thing that beats me. If I lose the toss sometimes it’s impossible to get off the ground. I have the Reset set but I prefer Mana it protects against most nasty things.

Good luck.

[Suzy]

I’m only in my third season and up until today only had a couple of sets. Today I did very well in the 5x and now have 9 sets so thank you @jadedbacon and @Bubbley for the useful information you both provided, it will help me a lot.

Can I ask what AoE means please also proc. I expect when you tell me it will be obvious.

[Jadedbacon]

@suzyq No problem. AoE means Area of Effect, commonly used when talking about an attack that hits multiple targets, like most of Chucks attacks, or Spies. This also applies to healing/support abilities like Matilda’s Rage ability, or stuff like the Frost Savages Frost Barrier.

Procs refers to an effect triggering off of a %. Stuff like Chain Attack, Critical Strike, BedTime, Dragon’s Breath, Chronos, Ressurection. These are all abilities that have a % chance of triggering. When it triggers, people tend to call those ‘procs’

Hope this helps!

Good luck on your season and congrats on the new sets!

[Suzy]

Yes that did help. Thank you @jadedbacon

[GrauGeist]

@suzyq – “proc” is shorthand for “process”, as in “process a triggered effect”.

@cosmo2503 – @jaredbacon basically nailed it. FWIW, I run:

Banners = Time Jump Valiant
Red = Masamune Samurai
Chuck = Lightning Wizard
Matty = Sweet Witch
Bomb = Gladiator SeaDog
Blues = BEEP! Spies

The only change-up is if I’m trying to KO birds attacking my banner (Spiky Spike, Archmage, Rogues). Otherwise, it’s just mix-and-match.

Options-wise, I’d be consider:
Banners = Resilient Angry/Blessed/Blazing
Red = Dragon Samurai
Chuck = Mana/Reset Wizard
Matty = (nothing – Sweet Witch is the only playable version)
Bomb = Scissors SeaDog
Blues = Artillery Spies

If it’s not on the list, I’m probably not even considering it. For example, Blessed Bard isn’t bad, but if I want to DPS, I’m probably taking Chuck / Bomb / Blues instead of Matty. Sure, I keep the items, in case the meta changes, but basically no intent to use, much less enchant.

[cosmo2503]

@jadedbacon, @bubbley, @graugeist thank you guys very much on these valuable advices.

[GrimmJow]

I don’t understand. In final, what this set really gets ?
For me, when the opposite banner unless 50 %, it is only Bomb who makes more damages.

[Suzy]

Thank you @graugeist

[GrauGeist]

@grimmjow – it’s for everyone, and I assume Retaliate also does +50%.