Why do people make weak defensive teams in the Arena?

[Firehead]

I often end up battling weak defensive teams in the Arena. I understand some of them are just 1 person teams where the player just doesn’t have a defensive team set up. And then sometimes there’s other teams that are weak because some people like to give their team a “theme”, and so that limits the power and abilities of some teams. But then there’s people who set up weak teams seemingly intentionally. I’ve battled a lot of people with very powerful offensive teams, but they have defensive teams that are like blatantly weak, like they set it up that way on purpose. I’ve been trying to figure out why this is for a long time now. I wondered if there is some reason for this? I wondered why anybody would intentionally set up a team that is easy to beat. The only thing I could really think of is maybe to draw in teams weaker than yours, so that you can then get some easy wins with your offensive team on revenge battles. But then I don’t see how that would work because wouldn’t that sort of counteract the work you put in yourself? Wouldn’t it be more like breaking even?

I don’t know. Like I said, I’ve been wondering why people do this, and it didn’t occur to me until now to actually ask and see what this is about.

[Azile]

To passively "derank" without spending SoW, so that a day later, they can power rank up earning IC and arena wins at a fast pace. If you rank up to top 100 which is quite easy with a solid team (I do this using autoplay even), the battles start getting way harder and even the ones you do win, can take a lot longer. If I want to "derank", then I need to purposely lose over and over. But that costs SoW. Instead I set my defense to a lone Eddie and it will derank me from people attacking very fast over night and I can earn IC the next day very fast again.

During an Arena event, you will see this even more as there are additional rewards to be had.

I think this might help you understand more clearly the logic here?

[Brickster]

Azile is right. Also, during these arena events it's nice to help each other out "giving away" free wins so the grind isn't as bad.

[Maiden]

During arena events, it´s easier and faster to work with weak defenses. If you set up a weak defense and only reply to those who also got a weak defense as well you can speed up the event a lot. Working weak defenses against weak defenses it's a win-win situation. But again at some point, you reach top 100 and less than 1% uses weak defenses there.

Once you are in top 100/50 as Azile said battles you might win take longer than usual so you have to invest a lot of time. With a weak defense and a strong offense you could complete your daily battle with no problem, and by the end of the week rank up quite easily with a few more victories. Plus, a lot of people are not carried to be really high at arena. Around 3k or 3,5k, it's more than ok for a lot of ppl with solid teams.

[Muzzleloader]

If you run a weak defense you can actually gain rank if you properly run them. Lets say each lose you lose 7 points, and each win you gain 12 points. If you can revenge and win you will actually gain rank, then when you cant revenge anymore for the day set a strong defense. With 20 easy wins you earn IC with little time spent and can potentially gain rank.

Some only want to stay at a certain rank for the rewards, so setting a weak defense you can moderate your rank and still earn IC.

[zzzoron]

This. And because PvP is not really fun for me with all the bugs. I'm with weak defense the whole time and for the fun of others try to theme it.

[HuckFinn150]

I'm the same way. I've been a weak defence since November. I reach the level I'm happy with and only battle other weak defences. I always end around 3300 points.

[MuzakMaker]

Once you've got a meta worthy attack team, defense becomes kind of irrelevant. Plus once you start reaching the point where you need rank and Victory points the extra rewards don't really make it worthwhile unless you're top 3 and really all the gets you is bragging rights(well, if you didn't have your clan boost you) and a talisman set that will only be limited released in a few weeks/months and won't see a wide release until later.

Arena events (which we just finished), yeah, weak teams help everybody else, even the more selfish players who use it to take advantage w/out weakening their teams.

[Thejester]

honestly i do it to help others to reach the goals of the event. I don't care to downgrade my rank, I never tried to lose a match by purpouse.
It's a game and if I can help somone I do even if i am in the top25.
It seems many people don't have a life outside of this game and take it too seriously.

[Hank93]

I don't sit playing Arena all day, and with a weak defense I have a group of around 10 people that fight me back with weak defenses too. We all rank up, and can sit at the 3-3.5K range without any effort every week. Unless you can sit on it and get to the topranks, there's no point in setting a defense to earn you wins or to scare players from attacking you.

[Firehead]

Wow I had no idea it was that elaborate. I also didn’t realize part of the reason was to help out fellow players.

So now that you guys have explained that, maybe I could get your advice. My main objective in the arena (when I decide to be active outside of the 1 daily arena battle challenge) is always just to finish each with as high of a score as I can. But after reading what you guys have said, I am considering doing the weaker defensive team now also. But if I do, could this significantly bring down the score and rank I finish with? Or is finishing with the same (or close to the same) score and rank something I could still manage to do as I would without an intentionally weak defensive team.

I typically finish at the top of the Warlord tiers or the bottom of the King tiers, of that is of any significance to my question.

[HuckFinn150]

I make warlord one every week. Also, as I said. I only return battle weak defence that attack my weak defence

[Muzzleloader]

Firehead, do you have enough SoW to do all the gauntlet battles per season and still play arena. If you put up a weak defense and do 20 battles a day its possible to rank higher than having a strong defense. I know you are going for the ranked rewards, but earning the IC can be important until you max your relics. You have to balance your weekly rewards to earning IC.

You can always run a weak defense for the early part of the week, then put a strong defense to remain at the rank you want at the end of the week.