Arena Season 7

[datguygamer]

@pointless Hehe, yeah. I had a good chuckle after I understood that you and @dallasreds were talking about something that was beyond me. :P

Btw, what do you think of Elite Stone Guard?

[ShapokoManbeast]

@poptimus
I used to hang out with friends and we nicknamed using a combo of first and last names(this works pretty well with any last name with 2 syllables or more, although I don’t know about other languages) my full name is Shane Poholko, thus Shapoko. Adding the Manbeast was my idea and it kind of stuck. It is a reference to WWE’s Rhino who had a macho name,but to make him sound even tougher they started introducing him as Rhino the Manbeast which I thought was pretty funny.

I was playing on an iPhone 5c and the c definitely stood for cheap. So it definitely could’ve been my device. When it stopped charging after 2 years I lost all my games on it as I didn’t have anything backed up. Fortunately with epic and AB Star Wars 2 I could use my Rovio account to get them back and just never tried to get transformers back due to my experience. I will try it again though, thanks. That is definitely a game that helps to borrow others powerful birds.

[Pointless]

@datguygamer I am not a fan of most of Red’s Classes to be honest. Beyond Paladin and Samurai, I find very little use for them (although there are specific Levels that do require others to 3-Star on the way through the game).
ESG is one of them, damage is OK, but Samurai’s is better. I find (E)Paladin to be the best (as most do, I think). Of course I do play Power almost exclusively, so defensive buffs aren’t really my thing. Just kill, kill, kill :)

[RedYoshi45]

@shapokomanbeast
Older stuff is often better ;)
Didn’t really listen to much of NIN either… but I do like the early era and Year Zero.
The only band I have all albums of… is System of a Down. (And Scars on Broadway, on that note – although they only released a single album.)

[KennyMcC]

@pointless
Yeah I use Paladin aprox. 95% of all Red classes. Samurai 4% and 1% is for the rest of Red classes :) It is some days ago when I had arena task to win 5 battles with SG. I use Underdog emblem very much, so I thought which bird/class to pick with SG. I decided for Skulkers. Skulkers set negative effect on one or all opponents so this brings extra dmg for SG :) Isnt it great :D

[Pointless]

ESG has his uses, I just think it detracts from an overall Team when you are choosing Birds to compensate for a weakness, rather than ones that will add to the overall effectiveness. I dislike the SG/Princess Objective, as I find that’s what you have to do. ESG’s Curse is also next to useless in Arena, especially considering the number of Valiants you face.

[ShapokoManbeast]

@smwforever45
Scars on Broadway? I will have to give them a listen. System of a Down was so good. Have they ever released anything since the double album hypnotize/mesmerize? Chop suey always gets me going. They had an interview after the double album was released(they probably had many) I can’t remember if it was in Rolling Stones or not and they are super interesting dudes.

@kennymcc,@pointless
Stoneguard is useless for me too,especially if I lose the coin flip. I know some people like samurai but I think with all the Bomb w/finisher sets at max enchantment dealing up to 12000 damage to banners at less than 50% I see in the arena, that Paladin is a must for me. May not apply to you @pointless since I know you make quick work of your opponents.

[Pointless]

@shapokomanbeast that is the name of the game, right? :D
I usually use Paladin as well, for the reason you allude to, as if I run into some bad luck at the beginning of the Battle, the Finisher Set becomes very dangerous. That’s about the only time I will buff with Red, to protect the Banner. EPaladin is also very useful in keeping ESeaDog healthy.

[ShapokoManbeast]

@pointless
Haha too true, I used to use paladin, wizard, and skulkers to make quick work of opponents back when the coin flip was more favourable, but I can see how Sea Dog would be valuable especially with a chuck rage and time jump. My problem with ESea Dog has always been with his loss of power and I can see how Paladin would come in handy. Truly though, I think having the finisher set at 65% chance of dealing big damage is a game changer, and will try it once I get my enchantment up on that set. Do you use that set or another?

My problem with time jump is it’s low percentage rate. I think procs such as these favor the opponent more because Rovio doesn’t care if you win 9 battles against a time jump opponent whose proc doesn’t work as long as in the 10th battle it goes off at 50% instead of 10%. I know that you usually use it though so you must have success with it. I did try it for 10 battles when I got it a couple months ago and just wasn’t taken with it. Like I said I will have to give it another try when I get the finisher set enchanted a bit more.

[Pointless]

@shapokomanbeast I see you’ve been readimg these Forums :)
Yes I do use Chrono Crest almost exclusively when playing my Power Team, as I find one proc can change the Battle immediately. I can, and regularly do, win in two turns if I win the toss and have one timely TJ.
As far as ESeaDog is concerned, I find the talk of his reduced damage somewhat an exaggeration, as if he is targeted by the opposition, he is usually KOd, and is often back up in two turns at full health, ready to wreak havoc (I use Valiant, obviously).
I do have an L62 Finisher, but I have not as yet Enchanted either piece. I am short on resources (although not Shards), so I am being careful in what to Enchant. I do have an L62/E10 Scissors, which has been serving me quite well, so I am no real hurry to change, although I do think Finisher possibly the better option. I may just burn some Snouts to get there one of these days.

[ShapokoManbeast]

@pointless
You would know better than me for sure? My problem might be my bird selection, but if I go into battle with a Paladin, Wizard, Sea Dog lineup(all things being equal) and I lose the coin flip, then they destroy my wizard since the majority of the time they attack the weaker opponent. Then because of the opponents valiant banner my Sea Dog deals only triple digit damage. This being said having the full enchantment for Sea Dog is probably a big advantage for you. I have tried it before but I would admit I wasn’t that patient with this combo of birds. Perhaps I will try it a bit more rather than rushing to an uninformed decision?

[RedYoshi45]

@shapokomanbeast
Yeah! I discovered them looking for new System of a Down content, they’re a band formed by Daron and John while SoaD was on hiatus… the album is great but not the same as SoaD ;)

Unfortunately, Mezmerize/Hypnotize has been their last record so far… although I keep hearing band members (mainly Serj and Daron) saying there will be new content. I really hope they’ll get together to make new stuff :)

If you want you can also check out Serj’s solo work. His first solo album comes quite close to what SoaD did, but he lost the focus on the albums after that… plus he’s got a heap of other things to do now also :P

On topic: Paladin is a must for me. While Samurai does a bit more damage and has a better shield, I just like the fact that Paladin can heal and shield an ally completely.
I’m always on the lookout for new, better strategies though… since I don’t want my battles to take forever, which they kinda do right now. I win most of the time (thanks to Witch)… but I’d like to just blast through quickly. I hope my Sea Dog grows up quickly… He’s at M5 currently, I keep using him in all the friendship gate battles and a few Chronicle Cave battles so he levels up a bit quicker.

[KennyMcC]

@shapokomant
Have u watched my video with UnderDog emblem strategy :)?

[ShapokoManbeast]

@smwforever45
Yeah I think I heard one song of Serj’s solo stuff and really liked it but for some reason never followed up on it(as I said I am ancient and never did iTunes back then?). I quickly googled system of a down during our conversation and it had quoted Serj saying a couple days ago that current civilization as we know it is at an end lol he is an intense dude. I’m sure you will like Sea Dog, as I said to @pointless I don’t think I ever gave him a fair chance and didn’t get enough into the strategy of him to use him enough. That’s part of the problem with the arena for me is that it makes me lazy with strategizing and I just use whatever is simplest for me to accumulate wins. I am also very lazy at changing banners and emblems from battle to battle which is why I primarily use Paladin,Tbird,Witch(I will always switch to wizard if lightning bird is an opponent)and a vengeful/valiant banner which gives me the most leeway for a 3 star win. However,@pointless makes a great point that you can do too much “buffing”(not sure I’m using that right) and thus defeats the purpose of putting up points in the arena as efficiently as possible. I do find though that Witch has a great critical strike even with my sets at 4 enchantment that she deals 4100 damage. I imagine her fully enchanted sets are even more powerful though when it comes to racking up damage as quickly as possible Sea Dog is hard to beat with his bonus attacks combined with Chuck’s rage. I find that I prepare for the worst possible scenario because as much as I’ve spent on this game and as loose as I am with it, I absolutely detest spending 20 lucky coins to get another 3 strikes(and have only done so 3 or 4 times since the arena started). Not saying it’s the best strategy, but since employing it,the only time I’ve lost 3 battles in a day is due to game freezes.

[ShapokoManbeast]

@kennymcc
No I haven’t can you send me a link?
P.S. It better not link me to Rick Astley’s “never gonna give you up” video lol ?

[Pointless]

LMAO. Rick-Rolled! That’d be hilarious :D

Obviously a Power Team approach is dependent on having maxed Birds and Sets (hence the “Power” moniker) and is high risk/high reward. I do lose more often with this setup than my safe bet of Wizard/Witch/ Capt’n, but as @smwforever45 has said, these Battles take significantly longer. I have decided a while ago that, once the daily Objectives are complete, the best bang for my Arena minutes is the quicker Power approach, even counting the often 2-Star wins.

[KennyMcC]

@shapokomant
Here it is :)

[RedYoshi45]

I just saw what Sea Dog with TJ can do. I faced one as an opponent, twice. Nearly lost both times…
Afterwards, I lost against a really stupid combo. Paladin, Wizard w/Reset, Witch, and Rage Shield on the banner, combined with an AI that was more intelligent than usual and actually used Witch’s ability on the banner. Together with Reset triggering all the time, I had no chance even with Witch. X-X

What just made it worse was the fact I had to play with Treasure Hunters due to an objective I got…

@shapokomanbeast
I like “Empty Walls” and “Cornucopia” quite a lot ;)

That is very true, actually… With all the terror and hatred and refugee stuff and Trump stuff and whatever else, it’s definitely not the world I’ve grown up in…

[ShapokoManbeast]

@pointless
Yeah I agree with you about the risk reward thing and to be honest the odds of the 175 trophy being on the third star is probably low enough to justify that. I did just finish my daily objectives using the Paladin/Wizard/Sea Dog lineup and am coming around to it. I also did 15 minutes of warmup before in which I lost 2 battles but I wasn’t playing smartly. I know for you it probably doesn’t require much strategy anymore since you are so used to Sea Dog but there are some subtleties you do have to use if you lose the coin flip and are not used to using Sea Dog.

Some thoughts on the finisher set,though I am sure once you get an opponent to under 50% it is game over? My hocus pocus is at 6 enchantment and my might is at 5 enchantment. Even with the lower enchantment I still have a 65% chance of dealing 8068 damage to any opponent under 50%. Here is where it gets interesting and where better minds than mine will be able to calculate what the game is doing with this set. Most of the time the damage dealt is actually 7805 however you get big jumps in power surges where the Al doesn’t calculate for critical damage but extra damage is dealt. For instance one battle I dealt 10085 damage to the banner with one bomb hit. When I got 10% more health and attack for the next battle I registered 11018 damage. I also had one battle in which my first attack was 7805 but the next attack was 9887. Then when I used ETbird to increase the power by 25%,I dealt 12106 damage and over 15000 damage on the final shot. Again not sure how they get the numbers but since all the banners I faced with ESea DogM14 were Valiant except for 1(I also used Valiant for all these battles) I don’t see where they are getting the damage unless it’s all related to the bonus and critical damage dealt through the Valiant banner.

At any rate I highly recommend the finisher set though it doesn’t deal as much extra additional damage to other opponents as the scissor set.

@kennymcc
Thanks for the video. That is impressive and makes me wish I hadn’t thrown away my underdog emblems awhile back. Just to show you how slow I am it never occurred to me kennymcc stood for Kenny McCormick. That’s funny because whenever I play ABE and encounter cheaters I always think back to the World of Warcraft South Park episode when one of the WOW employees asks:”How do you kill that, which has no life?” Always cheers me up?

[ShapokoManbeast]

@smwforever45
It is true that people have gone crazy. Though I don’t live in the U.S we are aware of the current events there and the recent shootings have been horrific. That combined with the fact that Trump could become president is just mind blowing.

The digital revolution has many benefits but also has many downfalls sadly

[RedYoshi45]

@shapokomanbeast
It’s mainly digitalisation that got us to where we are today. Terrorism, for example, was surely a LOT harder to organise before billions of people got access to the Internet.

I agree, it’s brought a lot of good things to us… but unfortunately also a lot of bad things. And right now we’re seeing these bad things.

[Dallasreds]

@pixelyzed

@pointless
I cut my guitar teeth on Clapton starting in the middle 70’S. Master guitarist IMO.
ya’ll are probably younger than me and had different influences. Should we change the thread name to guitar guitarist season 7 ? HA

@suzyq (which reminds me of Creedence Clearwater Revival every time ) is still keeplng up w the vulagarly named opponent in our league. May the force be w her!

[ShapokoManbeast]

@smwforever45
Well said

[RedYoshi45]

@dallasreds
LOL I had the same thought as you.
Don’t forget Suzi Quatro, though.

[Dallasreds]

@smwforever45

I remember Suzy Quatro but CCR was on the radio a lot when I was a child and was an influence to me. I had all of their albums and their complete guitar song book. I am surprised you were exposed to them as you much younger then me.

To all
FYI SG by Gibson stood for SOLID BODY GUITAR starting in the 60s at least.
Stone guard was not invented by then !