Arena Season 9

[Putte]

Anyone but me using witch+honey to heal up that pole during the game?

[Jamairoqui]

@pointless I think maybe we are arguing two different points. Are you saying that you, playing with Just or Sky, can regularly beat Valiant teams when they are being played by the AI? Because I am talking about the reverse, where I haven’t seen a combination that when played by the AI can regularly beat a Valiant team played by me. For that case, in my experience dealing with Just and Sky, they are not a big deal. The one that protects from damage per turn (that is Justice, right?) is easily beaten using a venomous set since the DoT still gets applied even if the initial attack does no damage. And since Justice-equipped birds stay down for 3 turns, all the time, plus the “extra” turn they stay down because the DoT knocks them out on the beginning of their turn, the one-attack per turn limit is just not a huge factor. The other one, where they take no damage at the beginning of their turn after reviving (is that Sky?), that is a little trickier because you can’t even apply venom. But I don’t even care anymore which is which, when I see either, or Stoneguard for that matter, I just accept the match-up. I don’t think I’ve ever lost a battle to either.

Maybe someone will come up with a way to combine Chuck/mana with Sky or Justice and find a way so that the AI can regularly beat Valiant teams played by a human. Or Chimera will change the AI to make smarter moves. But until then, I’m not going to be using anything but a Valiant-based team.

[DD]

@sam-spargo Lucky you. I joint a day late and find myself a nearly full board with a few known cheaters.

[Nightcrawler]

@toolow my board is back to normal now

[DD]

@sam-spargo At least it looks sane, for now. :)

[Pointless]

@jamairoqui I think we are on the same page, just trying to illustrate different points. I have said before, and you obviously agree, that nothing beats Valiant, even with the introduction of the new Sets. I still use Valiant exclusively (but I don’t field Venomous).
I was only trying to say that the new Sets, especially Sky and Just, seem to be an attempt by Rovio/Chimera to re-validate the Venomous lineup, as they really do seem suited for this Team approach (although not exclusively). Whereas Valiant helped contribute to the downfall of Venomous (bonuses not really too helpful to the approach), these new Sets are definitely beneficial to a DoT Team, and an attempted resurrection.
Unfortunately, due to the high cost of Enchanting multiple Sets, many aren’t going to give these a try, regardless of their lineup, so their introduction will most likely remain a footnote.

[angryde]

@jamairoqui @pointless Fascinating analysis re: “The Demise of Venomous.” As I’m sure you both know… A classic Venomous line-up was my go-to set-up for years. Mana complicated matters — of course — but it was still a workable strategy. However — recently — I’ve been forced to abandon it: as it is/was simply too time consuming. That’s the killer. So, I switched to an underpowered-underdog team for many, many months (until that was nerfed). Now I’m using an underpowered Samurai/Banner Breaker + Wizard/Last Will + Spies/Cheater + Valiant/ Resurrection set-up. After some fiddling + fussing my opponents’ power rank stabilizes anywhere between 2800 – 3200. That’s doable and FAST. Lord knows how long I’ll get away with that… (fingers crossed) XD

[Jamairoqui]

@pointless I’ve always wanted a “training” mode for arena, where you can fight the same set of “randomly assigned” teams you would if you were grinding for points in the arena, but not have it count towards anything. Then you could experiment with different combinations and see if anything worked consistently against Valiant. I suppose fighting friends is supposed to do that, but (and I am not judging here) most of my fb friends do not field birds of the same high level I see in arena. I don’t really learn anything fighting a L45 team, and fighting the same set of L70 birds over and over doesn’t really prove anything except that given enough time you can tailor a team to beat anyone. It would be even sweeter if you could “test enchant” different sets for a short period to see which are more useful for your application, then, after deciding you weren’t all that thrilled with it, you could get back all the shards you used (I would be willing to eat the snoutling and resource cost, but losing the shards is killer).

@angryde Life has always been about evolving or going extinct. Unless you’re a cockroach. But I don’t see how your strategy would ever go obsolete. The game has to select opponents based on the strength of the team you are fielding, not the strength of the team you could field in principle. Underpowering birds to get a better matchup seems like a winner.

[Pointless]

@jamairoqui I like the idea, but it would obviously just be for fun (not really where Arena is at anymore, unfortunately). The whole Enchantment concept has quite effectively killed any remaining modicum of variety in Arena, as most of us just don’t have the available resources to Enchant multiple Sets. I personally would love some more interesting Objectives, such as “Win battles with X different Sets” (either Banner or Bird) just to shake the status quo, but most of us would get obliterated, for the reason already stated.

I see most opponents now with huge APR advantages over my preferred Team (often over 1K). Part of this is due to members of said Team not being M70, but also that I am not willing to Enchant some of these highly specific Arena-only Sets that have recently been added to the game. So while I am not trying to field an underpowered Team as @angryde and others, I am all the same, but see no difference in opposition strength.

[Suzy]

Just got the message about the daily Golden Pig and got this. It said that the Golden Pig s was in Red Giant Valley -4 and had to use a friend’s bird. Never had this graphic before

[DD]

@suzyq Red Giant Valley – 4 is behind a Friendship Gate which has to be unlocked at some point to access it. In earlier versions of the game, the current RGV-4 was a Class Trainer before it was replaced. Presumably what you see is a bug that only triggers the first time the Golden Pig landed on the new RGV-4.

[angryde]

@suzyq Well, it’s Friday here in Hamburg, Germany, and I am 4000 trophies up on 4th in my Platinum league. Diamond in Week-11..? Talk about a late run! XD

[Suzy]

@angryde

Fingers crossed even though I know you can do it. ?

[metztli013]

@angryde I’m right there with you. It’s been a tough season, and I’m really draggin’. I’m currently in 4th and need like >6000 points to make it to 3rd. More to secure a place in top 3.

Ugh and yesterday… I was so annoyed. I was into my 2nd or 3rd battle of the day, I think, and was up against a team that was around 800 power less than me, with a flippin’ time jump emblem that just kept going off. They beat me in like two rounds. RAWR! It was kind of comical, actually. All I could do was just sit there and watch as my team got destroyed, mouth wide open, rattling off a few obscenities here and there. I swore then that I’d never go up against another team with time jump lol

[angryde]

@metztli013 My Lordy, so funny! XD We’ve all been in the predicament you’ve described! I particularly liked the “mouth wide open” reference – major LOLs. XD

[DD]

@angryde Go forth, my champion! :)

@metztli013 Join the club. :) I’ve seen my team decimated because of Reset set, Resurrection, Chrono Crest, Thorn Wall, Rage of Thunder, Shock Shield etc. It was very frustrating watching my team stayed down due to Reset while my banner was reduced to pulp, or enemy birds just kept on reviving no matter how many times I knocked them down, while I was uttering “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” (all in slo’mo no less).

[Jamairoqui]

@pointless I think I ran up against a set combo that might be able to give Valiant a run for its money on a regular basis. It was:

Sky set (I think that’s the name, bird can only take damage once per turn)
Mythic Thorn Wall
Elite Thunderbird w/ mana well
Elite Witch w/ sweet set
Spies w/ hunter horn set

I was using
Valiant
Mythic Rage Shield
Wizard w/ mana well
Elite Witch w/ sweet set
Elite Tricksters w/ artillery

Naturally I lost the coin toss, but I don’t think I’ve won a toss all week. The mana well prevented using a venom-type lineup, and the mythic thorn wall dealt heavy damage whenever I attacked the banner, especially if Tricksters artillery gave its bonus damage. Plus, the enemy Thunderbird would buff every other turn and give every target a shock shield. That meant I got off one attack per resurrection of my Wizard, because the shock shield effect alone was enough, and when you combined it with the thorn wall damage it was hopeless. I could barely knock out the opposing Thunderbird because Spies kept buffing it, so the opposing TB would take one hit’s worth of then heal. Then TB would attack, or refresh the cursed shock shield. If I got lucky and knocked out Spies, its hunter horn effect would trash another of my birds.

It was awful. I don’t think I ever had more than two birds active at once, and the opposing sweet witch kept healing the opposing banner. I finally caught a break with a rage attack with my Tricksters and knocked out the witch and stunned Spies, which allowed me to heal my banner with my witch while attacking the opposing banner with Tricksters. My banner had like 200 health at the end and it felt like I had been playing that one battle for 30 minutes.

I was thinking that if you substituted in Cannoneer for TB it might work even better because Cannoneer could buff your birds so that not only would they take minimal damage, they would retaliate after each attack. Even so, the shock shield from TB was devastating when combined with the Sky set effect.

I might pass that combo by if I see it again.

[Pointless]

@jamairoqui that Set is Just..not that it matters, the bonus is the important thing :)
I have moved almost exclusively to using Capt’n/Finisher now, as an adaptation. I find the dispel very useful in countering the shields most enemy TBirds/Mages are using, so I can still hit the Banner hard. I have almost moved away from Chuck Rage as well (gasp!), as I’ll take a beating in the first few rounds until the opposition is ripe for a Bomb Chili. With Finisher this can be devastating and once the Birds are down facing Sky/Just it’s go time for some serious damage. I also still use Bones on my TBird, as this retaliation is still extremely useful, proc’ing even with a Thorn Wall KO.

[Jamairoqui]

@pointless I can see how using Captain/finisher would work (Tricksters normally fulfills the dispel function for me). And clearly in hindsight wizard was a poor choice for that team. But even with Captain/Finisher you still have the issue that as the banner health gets below half and the finisher processes, the Mythic TW is going to deal a lot of damage to your birds and banner.

I wonder though if a setup like I described above, if it were being played by a human (rather than an AI) against an AI-played, Valiant-equipped team, might do reliably well since most teams in general are not configured as you described.

[Pointless]

@jamairoqui Bomb Rage with Finisher doesn’t do as much damage as you’d expect in retaliation from Thorn Wall. Don’t get me wrong, it hurts…but I find having a Bones equipped Chuck gives the additional benefit of yet another retaliation, and with Finisher that can be another deadly hit
(I am sorry, though, I read “Skulkers” when you had written “Tricksters”, explaining my dispel comment).

I am a firm believer that AI Valiant is quite beatable, I know some, such as @bubbley went a while against it with other Sets. I just don’t have the resources to Enchant yet another Set, but perhaps I’ll try the UPUD strategy to get weaker opposition and then use an unenchanted Set to see…although I am missing the Just Tapestry (I do have complete Sky and Stone Sets).

[Bubbley]

@pointless @jamairoqui Valiant is easily beatable. I used Blazing Eye with Wizard mana, Witch Ying yang and Captain scissors. Now I would consider TB bones and Paladin with the set that fills the chilli. Can’t remember what it’s called but I have it. Battles were not speedy so when I got Valiant I switched. I used Blazing Eye for more than a season with great success.

I might even forget Chuck and use Paladin Witch Captain with above sets.

[KennyMcC]

What is the chance that this can happen :) My 2 birds got stunned by attack of enemy Rainbird and none of those 2 stunnings were resisted by Mana set :) That stunning has written 8% to proc on every target. There 40% written that the stunning is not resisted. It means 0,08*0,08*0,4*0,4 = 0,001024 -> That should be 0,1% chance :D
BTW. I have to say that enemy resurrection emblem procs almost every 2nd time (like 40-45%) for me. Enemy Valiant Banner procs almost every time (like 80-90%). My Mana set procs for me aprox. 50% in avarage.
One word for the probability system in this game: RIGGED! Yeah we know it already but I had to write it again ;)

[Pointless]

@bubbley I am glad that you replied, as it was to you which I was referring in the previous post. I remember back then when you were playing Blazing and I had Sweet, then I got Valiant and we had a few discussions over their respective merit :)

[Bubbley]

@pointless Valiant makes battles easy but not fun. I really felt I had won with Blazing Eye.

I haven’t played this season so haven’t been able to assess the new banners and I don’t know anyone who uses them. I have been very fortunate with free roll and happen to have Just and Sky sets but I have no idea how they really work. I don’t have a Blazing Eye at 72 sadly otherwise I would use it.

[angryde]

@suzyq @toolow @metztli013

Phew, peeps, I managed to hold on..!

Better late than never, eh!?

XD

p.s. thanks for all your encouragement!