Arena Season 6

[Chulimanga]

It heavily depends on when you enter the league. The later the better. All the top score hunters are entering at the beginning.

[datguygamer]

Eh, doesn’t matter to me in the slightest. Currently leading my board at 38K. Ain’t nobody stopping me from reaching my Gold League.

[GrauGeist]

I kinda wonder if maybe the strategy would be skip until Monday afternoon, skipping the entire first day. Has anybody tried that?

[Bubbley]

@graugeist it was tried in season one I believe. Not to achieve an easier league rather one without cheaters who were everywhere at that time. It didn’t work but certainly many people used it to try for a easier league. I think that there is some idea that that tactic no longer works. I don’t know. I have observed that the league sometimes changes during the week if there are a few players with zero. I think the general conclusion was that poeple get slotted in to fill the leagues.

[Pointless]

It used to be possible to join a league with only minutes left in a week and scoring a few points to place first and thereby ensure an easy promotion. This has been changed, and although joining a league late in the first day (or even in subsequent days) will typically place you in a bracket without the hardcore grinders and/or cheaters, it is, as @bubbley suggests, a risky proposition, as often non-active players are substituted out for scoring players. I have seen shifts of 4 or more places happen almost immediately due to this, and unless you are able to keep up with all objectives throughout the week and grind, the week will be for naught. On the flip side, I have also joined a week late and missed daily objectives due to lack of internet connectivity and remained grouped in a lower scoring bracket and thus advanced almost by default. I don’t think there is any rhyme or reason to this (at least none that I have figured out), so I have been playing it safe by completing all objectives everyday and grinding when needed.

[GrauGeist]

Thanks, guys. That would be pretty awful to have the tactic blow up on you by getting slotted in a hardcore league for an inactive player, starting a full day behind the pack.

[MVNLA2]

@graugeist — I’m not “really” playing the arena, just playing for shards, but maybe I should stop altogether.
Anyway, I joined Tues ~2pm PST (after the daily objectives had changed), so I missed Sun and Mon objectives. I have been hoping to get in an easy enough leaderboard that I can advance from wood league without grinding. At the moment I am 11th with 1000 pts; 10th has 5575, and 1st through 3rd are all at >16K. So obviously, I’ve been put on a leaderboard where at least several people joined the first day. Everyone below me has 0 pts.

[GrauGeist]

Ouch. 2 Days back is going to be painful to catch up on.

Still, thanks for the data point.

[mich]

@graugeist I’ve seen both scenarios – joining late to find an extremely competetive board of players that have all started on the first day, as well as boards with only one or two semi-active players, and taking first place with around 10 to 15k. I have only once been demoted because of joining late (from Diamond to Platinum) – usually even on an active board, one star is feasible if you join late.

[JJAtelier]

There have been multiple instances where suddenly a hard grinder enters my league out of no where mid through the week and the inactive ones just dissipated.

Typically that hard grinder is ahead of me and this just wrecks your mentality knowing you were in top 3 and now that 3-Stars is almost out of reach. A real bummer but at least promotions aren’t always a cakewalk.

[Jim151]

How does anyone grind in the arena anymore? After the first 4-5 battles of the new day, where it’s critical to get your objectives, all the other opponents are 1450+ power, usually with Valiant. I lose those battles 2/3 of the time, and the wins are lucky to be 2 stars. Frequently a win gets me 15 snouts. If making my daily objectives every day don’t get me enough to advance, I’m not advancing, no matter how hard I try.

[GrauGeist]

@jim151 – if you have a good power team, you can grind. Although, you will have to spend a fair few games against Piggy when the opponent is really tough.

[Jim151]

I do, and I know that. Seems pointless to me. I’ve been doing that since my post, still lost 2 battles, and picked up 250 points, and am now a mere 1,500 out of third place. 6 more hours to go!!

[GrauGeist]

OK, just checking. I deal with the same issues, and I dislike how we’re penalized by having superior gear. Rovio really ought to simply match within League level, regardless of power, level, or mastery. If you’re level 30/5, too bad.

[JJAtelier]

@graugeist

“If you’re level 30/5, too bad”

That creates another problem. You really believe matching new players against veterans in the same league (I.e. Wood) with up to date kit is a fair way to make our Arena sweeps more convenient? The average player who only just got into arena would likely quit if that matchmaking is flipped onto their side since no one wants start Arena with that kind of discrepancy.

Granted there have been some instances where the systems matches me against the odd bird team with a 200 point deficit being much inferior in power to mine. But I don’t think that should be the norm.

[GrauGeist]

Newbies shouldn’t really be jumping into Arena.

I disagree with them getting promoted because only have to fight other newbies.

[JJAtelier]

So from what I can tell,

You seem to be implying noobies deserve nothing more than a wood trophy for being new to the game?

[GrauGeist]

Pretty much. I don’t expect a junior varsity high school team to complete with a NFL championship squad. The JV team will be curbstomped into the ground by the pros, and they won’t ever get past the first round. Heck, that JV team would be demolished by a D3 college team, the difference in power and speed and weight is so great between boys and men.

[Pointless]

OK, to use your analogy: there is a reason NFL teams play against other NFL teams. It’s called fair competition. The sets and enchantments available to us as 50/12 players give us enough of an advantage in Arena, even against similar (or overpowering to an extent) teams simply due to the AI. If you can’t win consistently against these opponents, then you need to revisit the strategy room and rewatch some tape. Everyone, regardless of level and equipment deserves the same opportunity.

[GrauGeist]

Except, they’re in the “same” league. And the sets, etc. available to a 50/12 player mean that we only play against other 50/12 players – there is no advantage to having a better team, which defeats the point of improving your stuff.

[JJAtelier]

“there is no advantage to having a better team, which defeats the point of improving your stuff.”

Sounds pretty moot at this point.

I don’t quite seem to understand your mentality. You make it seem only long term players or people who have to mindlessly grind to level 50/12 should deserve to be competing in Arena.

Arena from what I can tell has always accommodated the egalitarian notion. Hence the Arena rating system. The level/mastery and gear quality shouldn’t have to equate to the league your in since everybody needs to start from somewhere.

If you worked hard to roll all those sets and enchant them then honestly you deserve to be placed against an equally rated player who invested the same amount resources.

[Pointless]

I’ll start by stating the extremely evident: This is never going to happen. If Rovio lumped everyone together in Wood, then n00bs would be slaughtered, give up on Arena at least, if not the entire game, and would therefore not purchase anything.
There is definitely an advantage to being maxed 50/12, as you never encounter teams that much better than you, if at all. These Arena threads are full with posts about battles vs much better teams which I never encounter simply because they can’t currently be any better. This is a luxury not everyone enjoys. I do not ever lose (not being boastful, just stating the truth) as I know how to counter anything thrown at me, which is something again that is a definitive advantage to being 50/12 and the experience gained from the progression.
Why should a 30/5 be deprived of this opportunity to learn the ropes and advance as opposed to facing unwinnable situations?

[Suikyo]

If everyone regardless of level, is placed in the same league, high level teams will need to keep fighting so many low level teams. The points on the leaderboards will be so high. This would be an everyone-loses-game because time spent on arena battles would be an important factor for teams to get those top places.

[Pointless]

@suikyo it already is the only factor in finishing at or near the top.

[datguygamer]

So 30 more hrs till I am in the Gold League. 6 items left till my Silver League is 100% complete and I’ll get 3 of them tomorrow.