Community PVP/Arena general tips & Strategy Thread.

[Zugzwang]

Since the dev’s tips are currently limited to briefly saying which talismans work well on certain characters and which allies a featured character works well with, this thread could be to share ideas and strategies we have found in more detail.

A few things we could discuss are:

Which ally(s) is a character naturally better teamed with? Naturally meaning only due to their abilities before talismans are taken into account.

Which enemies is this character naturally better against and why?

Which are they weaker against and why?

Which talismans work well on them and why?

The ‘why’ is important since the logic behind a decision will help others decide if it will work for them if they don’t have the exact same setup. I will contribute some ideas of my own as well.

[WickermanBR]

So....
I did not seem like a great team for the defense, but I saw this combo doing a great attack this week.

Benjamin Breeg, with Energy / Warlod, his present power ability causes perfect corruption, his two abilities of the past heal, and basic, attacks all enemies. These cures give the boost to the talisman warlord. In addition, your Fury moves, ensures perfect health and perfect immunity.
Start using the basic ability of the past to ensure some power and healing, then ...

The Alchemist, with Angel and Warlord talismãs, if you get the power, use the alchemist's power ability and see only the destruction that happens, plus more healing, more buff for the warlord, and maybe even another turn for Eddie.

To complete the team, I was using the Assassin Hellraiser with Eternals, great character, remove effects, including golden ones (I usually clean with it before using eddie and the alchemist, if necessary, depends on the team you face). Although his power ability to be good, I did not use much.
And to close, I put Charlotte, with the talismans of domination and immunity, (plus a green talisman to increase her life), whenever a Counter-strike, or revenge were on the enemy team, I used it to steal the effect, and more healing.
Very good her power ability that can revive someone, the more support for Eddie's fury, and sometimes you have only Charlotte and with her you put ontime all around for kicking.

Basically this, I do not know if I was clear enough, please forgive some wrong term referring to the game.
Obviously it was not an unbeatable team, a lot of quick matches, because of all the talisman warlord buffs and the character cures, but many with Madame and Killler Prime got me a job

[Stormseye]

I spent 15minutes fighting a lone Charlotte with Domination set this weekend. A great combo really.

I am also liking Killer Prime with Nightmare. I paired him with Phantom but they kept overlapping Perfect Sleep so he may be better running it solo and have him as your last in line hitter. I had thought there was an ally or talisman that did more damage if the enemy had Permadeath on them but all I could find was Sentinel Chopper and his damage is pretty weak.

I have also been testing Cannoneer with Warlord and Mimic. Though the Physical Charge effect is still broken, he still hits pretty hard and often times gets an extra turn since his basic attack heals himself.

Great thread start Woody. Let’s keep it going.

[WickermanBR]

really good initiative.

I find it interesting to share some thoughts about what to do in the Arena, how to face certain combos with the most appropriate team and everything.

And it looks like you Stormseye, found a great combination of talismans for Killer Prime. This character is doing a lot of damage out there nowadays.

I still can not think of a significant change for my defense ... I think now I'll wait for Madam and Killer Prime.

[Stormseye]

I have eat a little crow as I had been a proponent of the belief that "Alexander Eddie is a Novelty" but I have since changed that ideal after discovering how brutal he can be with some of the new talisman sets. Particularly Domination and Warlord. Using the same formulae for Killer Prime, I have two very heavy hitters coupled with the usual blocker and cleanser. I ran a weak defense up until Wednesday night and started at rank 80 and have since climbed into the top 10 using this team.

Alexander-Domination/Warlord/Warp(yea I use Warp, don't like it? Alex and 300k damage don't care)
Killer Prime - Immunity/Warlord/Sustaining
Magus Lillith- Sustaining/Destiny
Alchemist - Angel/Immortality


Here are some more common combination characters:-


Piece of Mind Eddie - Arguably the best all around Eddie in the game. One thing to note is that the AI will 90% of the time kill a Destiny Magus Lillith if the AI goes first. This is usually done with Disturbance or Sedate on occasion. Your team needs to either be lucky or have enough defense up on the first round to not lose any members against this first attack. His Fury speaks for itself and can level the field in one move. One of his newest perks is that Disturbance is hugely successful against Killer Prime whose passive will trigger the Trap and usually stun Killer Prime for the round unless cleansed. Frenzy is my main attack though after all other members of my team have gone, you have a chance to go again and it removes Endure.

Madam - She not only has a great basic attack which can remove all blue beneficial effects EVEN if the opponent has Perfect Immunity, her passive prevents Critical Strike and Physical Charge which are the bread and butter of Killer Prime and Warlord Talisman builds. She works great with Destiny (to provide damage mitigation) and Sustaining (again to provide heals for Warlord Talismans). She also can carry Oracle talismans which are highly underrated.

Killer Prime - If you have faced him then you know he is a monster. His passive alone makes him worthy of a spot in your build. Coupled with Warlord Talismans his damage sky rockets. What is interesting about him is that most of the high end players tend to run 3 2-set talismans as opposed to the more common 2 3-set. I run Immunity/Sustaining/Warlord on mine. I can easily hit for combined 100k against all opponents when his beneficial effects are stacked from all the healing. Due to this combination of talismans he is weak to negative effects without a cleanser and if block beneficial effects is in place his damage is severely crippled.

Charlotte - "The hard-hearted-harbinger-of-haggis" She lacks nothing in terms of damage and utility. Equipped with Echo and Advantage plus a passive that stalls even the hardiest of attacks, she brings so much to the battle. Permadeath is her only real weakness. The AI knows just when to use her power move and you will find yourself facing off against a full team of revived and invincible opponents again. Though Echo is her standard set up, I have to say with Domination talismans she can be a real lifesaver for you.

Ichiyou, Shinobi Medic - Another "under the radar" ally who has shown great utility in the arena. Able to wear Destiny and Sustaining talismans, her constant stun can be a real issue if the opponent has no cleanser. In addition if PoM/DDE has freshly cleared the board her basic attack will afford your whole team invincibility for the round.

There are still lots of allies that have recently been introduced but there are many more established allies that have a great potential to bring some new synergies to the Arena. We just have to keep finding them. I think this thread could really help other players get to those higher ranks in the Arena if we share what we know. We battle against an AI not another player. The player input is knowing what the AI will do with a particular character. If you are looking to build an awesome defense with 50% hold rate, I can't help really since mine gets beat all the time. Most of my feedback is designed to be used against that AI. Some can be used on the defense side but I think most people want information on how to beat the AI using certain builds.

[madmanmeyer74]

Thanks for the great information and insight Stormseye. I don't have Killer Prime yet so I can't try your advice out with him but I will have to invest in leveling up some of my talisman sets so I can play with some of your suggestions. I wish you had written this a week or so ago as I have hit a brick wall against a team in Gauntlet on SS that is comprised of POM Eddie, Killer Prime, Ichiyou, and Mushashi. Nothing I threw at them made a dent. Oh well, there is always next Gauntlet season lol.

[rags-6094]

Nice work Stormseye, that's even good help for more senior players too!

You have covered in your character description 3/4 characters I currently run.
I have not got Killer Prime and yes he is devestating, but a good second best character is the Banchy, I don't see her used in Arena enough, I have a strategy I use against the still common HE/MLillith/Alchemist/Sekhmet or Prisoner builds.

It doesn't matter terribly who goes first, AI allows MLillith immunity first go round 75% of the time in my experience, I use Charlotte with the same talisman as Stormseye has suggested, I use her basic move to steal MLilliths immunity, then I use Banchy's basic to place perfect corruption on MLillith, this negative buff is not as good as Passive disable but it gets the job done, once MLillith has PC on her use POM's basic sedate, one punch is normally enough to kill MLillith first go round.

Even if HE revives her the destiny effects are broken and she's an easy kill from that point on, alternatively POM's Frenzy I find good as he attacks the whole team and if POM is fitted with Energy talisman you multiply the chance of collecting power 4 X.
Allowing Ichiyou a power move followed by another go after that, it is quite possible to take out MLillith and Alchemist in one turn...

[Muzzleloader]

Nice post Stormseye. The information given is impressive in the knowledge and the reasoning behind the talis picks.it shows you gave plenty of thought and time into the post.

What would be real beneficial to most of us is how to defeat the hard, duplicate teams in gauntlet with under utilized toons, to keep from using all the OPs up in the opening rounds. What are some of the lowly toons that we overlook, but can be used by equipping with the appropriate talis. Such as the last 2 events in SS, we battled 3 HE, M Lilith, Alchemist combos.

Is there any information about how much defense or MR stats reduce damage taken?

[Amarthir]

My typical arena build usually consists of

Piece of Mind or Benjamin Breeg Eddie: I'm conflicted about both since they're both incredibly useful but with Bennie I use Venom and Guard Talismans (Venom work too good with him) and with Piece of Mind I use Onslaught Angel and Mystical Sacrificial. Yeah that's a ton of health and defense right off the bat and believe me, his damage does not suffer.

Killer Prime: Total monster with Warlord and Sustaining like everyone says. I use prime Talismans for extra Perfect Immunity among my team

Madam: Oracle Talismans are always going to be what I use for her due to the combined MASSIVE heal across my team.

Charlotte: I found that using Redemption and Immunity is a good pair for her. Immunity keeps her passive from being disabled so those pesky Primordial Prisoners are a non issue since she makes the team immune to silver effects.

My 2 favorite parts about this team are the large amounts of buff removal (due to Killer Prime, Redemption and Madam) and the x4 health buff from Charlotte and Oracle Talismans. Turns out that health buff and Perfect Health do indeed stack so you can start the fight with a massive health boost.

[Stormseye]

Nice post Stormseye. The information given is impressive in the knowledge and the reasoning behind the talis picks.it shows you gave plenty of thought and time into the post.

What would be real beneficial to most of us is how to defeat the hard, duplicate teams in gauntlet with under utilized toons, to keep from using all the OPs up in the opening rounds. What are some of the lowly toons that we overlook, but can be used by equipping with the appropriate talis. Such as the last 2 events in SS, we battled 3 HE, M Lilith, Alchemist combos.

Is there any information about how much defense or MR stats reduce damage taken?

I took your advise and started searching for some older allies that can contend with these new powerhouses. The current build I have can be pieced out or played together as they each prove themselves viable in the current game state.

Benjamin Breeg - He has some great utility against Magus Lilith with Nightmares and his Revive and Grave Digger can protect you against Killer Prime’s passive. I run him with Angel and Energy. Vile’s extra turn effect will trigger often and each perfect hit will have a chance to drain power and bloster your side.
You could use Purge as well to help remove opponent beneficial effects. I use Angel because I have no cleanser in this builld.

Astra, Valkyrie Slayer - Her passive, Obstruct, prevents Curse, Doom and Mark for all allies. This puts Killer Prime into a much more manageable state since most of his damage is amplified by Curse from his passive. Her basic attack, while weak in damage, is great because it deals 3 hits to all enemies with a 25% chance to remove a benefcial effect on each HIT and stuns the target if an effect is removed. Even if the opponent has an Alchemist the AI will be forced to use it’s turn to cleanse instead of the standard Last Rites and/or Strange Alchemy. If they have no cleanse like some lf the new power damage builds, they can be locked that turn. I run with Angel and Venom. There may have been a tweak to Venom talismans as they have been performing a little better. The damage is still low but I do see more negative effects landing on enemies. Nightmare talismans would work well on her too but I do too many attacks with Benji to make that effect justified in this build. I also use Angel talismans, again for the lack of a cleanser in the build.

Icarus - though he has faded a bit from the top end, he still can be utiilzed effectively. For me he is a Destiny carrier. Damage is so overwhelming in the current high end Arena and Guantlet. You really need to have a blocker or some sort of shielding or mitigation. He can heal and land some serious burns which translate to big damage (see below). If the enemy has no Immunity, then Icarus can steal effects better and anyone else. I have Shell only because I don’t have a spare set of Sustaining to give him though that is his ideal setup for this build. You can certainly change that in Gauntlet.

Sentinel Desert Maurauder - I am sure Rags and Edsel are rolling their eyes since I preach about this ally constantly but he really is that good. Firstly he is a blocker which is always beneficial for directing damage. His basic attack is where he really shines for me. Against Magis Lillith or any blocker, he sets the round. If they have no Immunity you can Diasble Passive on them and deal damage directly to the other opponents. If they have Immunity you can try and remove it with Benji (Nightmares) or Astra (Synthesis). If you start the round against Charlotte and you hit her with his basic attack the whole team loses the Perfect Health and Immunity from her, leaving them a bit softer.

Secondly his base damage is nothing special but his addtional true damage can hit some high numbers. He really can capitalize on all the Magic Burns from Icarus even if the enemy has sheilds. I have recently hit for an extra 6 hits of 15k each.

Thirdly, while his Blocker passive is a positive, he cannot wear Destiny talismans so his only shielding is what he can wear with 3 green and 3 open slots. Enter Eternity talismans. My set is Overwhelming and thus does nothing to improve his base damage, the overall protection this set gives all allies is well worth the sacrifice. Not only does the Marauder get a random damage shield, he also gets either Immortality or Endure every turn. Hopefully they will release a Magic based set but who knows.

Benjamin Breeg - Angel or Purge plus Energy
Icarus - Destiny/Sustaining
Sentinel Desert Marauder - Eternity
Astra, Valkyrie Slayer - Angel or Purge plus Venom or Nightmare

It’s a work in progress but it is winning against FFE/Charlotte/Killer Prime/Musashi/HE/DDE builds.