Will you continue playing the arena in the third season?

[BINH]

after the update; opponents’ teams r so weak; it’s a bit boring

[Jim151]

Another nester made a comment – elsewhere – about opponents’ arena power ranks/scores following the update… and I’m in agreement. Much lower power ranks/scores in general; and a much higher frequency of more lowly ranked/scored opponents. Is everyone else observing this new trend or..!?

Well, I’m just one data point, but I got my butt kicked yesterday while accomplishing only 1 objective. In addition to losing every coin flip, one opponent was so strong (and lucky with the hourglass emblem) that he knocked out all 3 of my birds on his first turn, and knocked out my banner before they revived. I forget his exact power ranking, but it was more than 950.

[angryde]

@jim151 OK, wow, so NOT the new norm then… damn. Commiserations, dude! As usual, I seem to have lucked out. I joined this week’s league very late in the peace… and the bottom 3x positions on my board were/are peopled by dummies. Perhaps I’ll be slaughtered next week… like the proverbial pig. Lulz.

[Jim151]

@jim151 OK, wow, so NOT the new norm then… damn. Commiserations, dude! As usual, I seem to have lucked out. I joined this weeks league very late in the peace… and the bottom 3x positions on my board are peopled by dummy identities. Perhaps I’ll be slaughtered next week… like the proverbial pig. Lulz.

I’m still in first place, thanks to a lot of bringing earlier in the week, but I’ve lost all my margin for error. The objective which killed me yesterday was “Win 2 battles without knocking out any enemies birds.” That one took me 6 tries and cost me 2 losses. My go to team for that is Marksmen, samurai, and cannoneer. but I kept getting opponents who would use cupcake trap or devotion on the banner and had to give in a knock out a bird. By the time I was able to revert to my normal venom team, I had 2 losses and then ran into the buzz saw i described above.

[Jim151]

OK, just played today’s objectives, and aside from the first team I faced, power rating of about 875, all the rest were way weaker than average. Most in the mid 700’s, none higher than about 810, some in the 600’s.

[MVNLA2]

I’ve certainly see lots of 900+ teams since the update. I might be willing to say that there seem to be more of the weaker teams, but I’ve always gotten an occasional really weak team.

[LondoJowo]

Most of my opponents have been in the upper 800s and lower 900s. Had a couple that were in the 1000s with Red’s new weapon set and were at level 49. Good thing they have been dumber than a box of rocks computer generated teams as I have beat them no matter who won the coin toss.

[angryde]

@jim151 See, I love the “Win X-Number of Battles Without Knocking-Out an Opponent’s Bird” objective. SUPER easy with the “Venomous” Team. However, catch me on a “Knock-Out Three Birds with One Attack Three Times” day and… different story. It often leaves me a traumatized mess on the bathroom floor… sobbing in frustration like a little girl. Re: an overall reduction in Opponents’ power rank/score… yeah, still finding it much easier. Consistently easier. I used to run into a 900+ team every ten battles. Now, I’m lucky if it’s one in 25! And MANY, like 15/25 are sub-800! Some are sub-700!

[MVNLA2]

I think I already posted this, but don’t remember where:
I have been taking screenshots of almost all of the teams I battle. I don’t have enough to be statistically significant since the update, but saying that the opponents are easier is a real stretch.
I haven’t been keeping track of the teams I pass up, but I am still seeing plenty of 900+ teams, and other teams that I reject.

[Jim151]

I had to really grind out a promotion from Gold to Platinum this afternoon, and most of the teams were pretty weak. But now playing in Platinum, they are on average the toughest I have ever seen, most in the 900’s, and the weakest being in the high 800’s. But in the last couple of hours of the Gold league today, most were in the 600’s and 700’s. I was able to goof around and play bird combos I normally avoid.

[angryde]

@mvnla2 @londojowo @jim151 yeah, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such an easy run. I’m not sure if this has ANY bearing on the current discussion… but I’m always sure to log-in very, very late on the first day of any new ‘arena week.’ I only leave myself enough time to complete the objectives and grind-out a few thousand points… if that. This was based on the advice of a fellow nester, who’d mentioned that opponents/boards were more of a cake-walk the longer you leave them..? Purely anecdotal, of course. I’ve no idea whether or not the game mechanics support either his advice or my observations/experiences re: power ranks and the like.

[KerrAvon]

@angryde Last week was the easiest time I have ever had in Diamond. I had started 12 h after the start time, which is my normal habit. I assume I had a ghost leaderboard.

My leaderboard had players at levels 30-35, mostly with wooden banners. I am at level 21. At the end of the week, only 2 people other than myself had points. One player completed one set of objectives and the second looked like they played a single battle. I completed 4 sets of objectives. I had the T’bird and Sea Dog objectives for 2 days and I took a day off. I ended up with around 30,000 points. I’ll try to do the same this week.

The opponents I had yesterday were all pretty easy – I haven’t played today. The arena values were all lower than normal, and most birds did not have complete weapon sets.

[angryde]

@kerravon Hey, mate, I just realized that you’re Australian! I’m an Aussie ex-pat living in Hamburg, Germany :P Yeah, I joined this week’s board about 12 hours in – breaking my own rule – and seem to have 6x ghosts. We’ll see how it all shakes down. The scores in (my) Gold league last week were atrocious… I came in second with only 60000 trophies. Deffo an easy run.

[KerrAvon]

@angryde Do you have normal leaderboard this week? Mine is full of similar level players (19-25), most with diamond frames. However, everyone (apart from me) has a score of 0. Either none of them have working versions of the game, or there is a problem synchronising/updating scores from the Rovio database – which has occurred several times in the past.

[angryde]

@kerravon Hey, Chief, yeah my board is quite dodgey. 6 x players who’ve registered no score (zero), only 2 x other diamond frame folks (excluding myself), and a bunch of other mixed framers. The scores are very low. I’m on 30,000, #2 is on 19,000, and the other (5x) are between 10,000 and 12,000. Never seen a distribution quite like it. Weird.

[KerrAvon]

@angryde That definitely sounds like a “ghost” leaderboard. But it will be hard to tell this week, with all the problems people are having just playing the game.

Everyone else on my leaderboard still has a score of zero. I am guessing the numbers will slowly update over the rest of the week.

Yes, it was a bit of a shock when the Adelaide coach died. They just canceled the Adelaide v Geelong game and gave them half points each. I am sure it will take some time for the Adelaide players to get over it and be able to play consistently.

The timing for the Ashes is pretty good for me – starts at around 8pm. But yes, for you it is during the daytime when you are at work. So I guess streaming is your best option. It looks like the rest of the series will be interesting. England slaughtered us in the first game, but then we slaughtered them in the second. We have the momentum now, and hopefully we can keep that going.

[MVNLA2]

I started this week on Mon 1.5 hrs before the end of the first day. I intended to start 1/2 hr earlier, but backing up my device, updating the IOS, and re-installing Epic took longer than I anticipated. Just barely made the 1st days objectives, which for me had no overlap.
Anyway, so far this leaderboard (Platinum) looks much more reasonable. I’ve now done 3 sets of objectives and I’m in 1st (definition of reasonable ; ) ). I’m at 23.6K, 2nd is at 21.9, 3rd at 21.8, 4th at 17.1. However some of those top 4 don’t seem to have finished all their objectives today. 12th is at 9.2k, and it looks like the rest may have given up, although they have non-zero scores.

[Anonymous]

Somewhat off topic but the trophy for the end of this season is a Bomb trophy. My season 1 trophy glitched and showed Bomb instead of Red :D.

[MVNLA2]

Well, I’m still hanging around the top 3 in my platinum league this week, but for Tues / Wed objectives, the game has crashed during a battle 3 times, losing me 3 banners. That is severely limiting the amount of grinding I can do. I suppose it is limiting others also.
Game has also crashed at other times, even in the arena, but not during a battle, so I didn’t lose a banner.

[angryde]

@mvnla2 I’m really glad to read that you’re still getting some enjoyment out of the game – despite you very understandable frustrations :-/

I’m certainly benefiting from folks’ arena issues… I have to admit. I’m free and clear in first place in my platinum league with 43,000 – second is way back on 25,000 and the rest are completely out of it.

I’ll admit to feeling some Schadenfreude – shameful joy – as much as it pains me to admit it. I’ve had my issues with Rovio games – I lost all my progress on AB Go about a year back – so I guess I’m just glad to have dodged a/the bullet for once!

[WhiteAsIce]

The only reason why I hate the arena is losing the coin toss all the time. Last week, I recorded 25 consecutive lost coin tosses. Daily achievements now take me over an hour because of lost matches.

[Bubbley]

The Arena leagues are certainly odd this week but I wouldn’t be surprised if the leagues update to show players with scores. It has happened before. I have a player in my league with zero but I know he is active because I meet him frequently and his Samurai has a a shiny new pair of set items. So even if he is having problems he is playing this week and should have a score ghost or not.

[Enderi]

My opponents have been tough. I’ve had to skip several fights because I would have been obliterated. I think my arena score is like 650. I’ve been getting matched with people in the 800’s. Still winning my league though.

[MVNLA2]

I’ve had a good run of weak opponents and first starts yesterday and today. I thought everyone who said the opponents were weaker earlier in the week were disillusioned.

[angryde]

I had an easy week in the platinum league. Finished first on 82,000 with second at 54,000. Clean board.