Anyone built a set of gear purely for arena?

[Kardinaal]

I’m working on a set of gear especially for the arena. For now it’s a test version with just single craft gear to check some stuff out.

So I was wondering if there are others that have built a full lvl 77 set for arena?

[CarnivorousDeathParrot.2]

No and never will.
The arena is boring even when you win.

[Kristoff]

True. It was cool at first, and now I just play to use up tickets for the free stuff.

[Pleiades]

This setup is purely to rule the Arena

[Kristoff]

Your setup is challenging to beat, but I've done it a few times. Sometimes, though, the AI hides your character completely offscreen and attacks with impunity, which I think is something the devs should address, because there's simply no way to defeat it when it does that. Happened to me at least once.

[bojck]

problem is, you can't actually rule the arena, because your AI will always lose against players who know what they're doing

[Kristoff]

In my case, the AI has, at times, beaten opponents I don't think I could have personally defeated. Or maybe it was a connection glitch where the match automatically defaulted in my favor? That's happened to me too. Really frustrating when it does.

[bojck]

yeah that's annoying, especially when you have a high rating and lose a lot... doesn't happen too often for me, at least it didn't when I played.

Pleiades, if you're a bounty hunter the AI couldn't do much against mages with mediocre gear, dunno if it's better this version. The AI can't kite, and BH's just too weak to facetank everything...

[Kristoff]

bojck The AI seems to kite sometimes. Not sure if it's intentional or by random chance, though. Once in a while I'll get a BH that hides offscreen and spams traps or snipes from a distance, or one that keeps running away while shooting at me.

[Kardinaal]

Well my first draft is done, and apparently the ai does a better job than I do, especially vs hunters. I think it’s cause the ai knows exactly when the opponent is within devastate range, which is the skill I use to close distance and do a bunch of damage after. The range is quite far, but manually operating it is hard, cast too soon and it doesn’t do a thing.

so in general, if the ai doesn’t do a good job at your current build, maybe change the build for something more ai friendly. If you need to chain 5 skills to do damage, the ai is gonna mess up for shure.

so I specifically went for skills I know the ai will use efficiently (being deadly throw, shield block and devastate).

[Kristoff]

I find that the AI casts faster and more accurately than I do. Many times, I have to swipe the screen multiple times before my ability executes. And I know that it registered because the symbol and the ability name showed up on the screen. It just didn't take effect for whatever reason. And I know it isn't the GCD because many of these are my first cast of the match. I've lost a lot of winnable fights due to this glitch or whatever it is.

I also find that AI-friendly builds aren't necessarily the best ones for me to use when I'm controlling the character, especially if quick and precise casting of abilities is required.

[Kardinaal]

Went up in rank to about 500th place, best I could do with lvl 74 weapon and shield. Now leave it there for a week and see how the AI treats the build. If the AI can more or less keep my rank I will build a full 77 set (allthough it might take me a year or so).

[Kristoff]

Good luck! I've gotten all my characters into the top 100, then I lose a bunch of fights and have to revenge-match my way back up since I can't maintain high rankings for multiple characters with just the free tickets.

[Kristoff]

For me, the rewards just aren't worth the resources I have to spend. And after a while, it's just a bunch of never-ending revenge matches. You beat them, they come back and beat you, and so on ad infinitum. Sometimes I just let it go, then maybe I'll fight them again if they come up in a future round. I'm happy to just use whatever I have lying around. My jewelry isn't Arena-optimized either. Just stuff left over from builds that no longer work. Plus, the devs are still tweaking it, so who knows what will work a month from now? You CT a bunch of 77 gear, and then suddenly it's useless. Sure, I'll craft something now and then if I want to test an idea out, but it's not my main priority.

By the way, Splendor , is this you? If so, I finally met another one of my mentors in honorable battle. Thanks for the cool fight!

[Kristoff]

Another reason the Arena isn't my favorite part of the game is that I'm not really into PvP. I think that we have what is, for the most part, a nice, welcoming community here, so I'm not completely comfortable going up against people that I consider friends. I would much prefer a feature that allowed cooperative play, but I doubt that this will happen since the game is client-side and not server-side, which has its own pros and cons.

[Kardinaal]

I’ve seen Travis mention a few times over the last month things like “arena needs his own round of balances before we add rankings and rewards”, and he is very careful about what he says. This leads me to believe those balance changes are actually planned and will come relatively soonish. Once the arena is balanced, this will open up possibilities for more real pvp modes, where you don’t play the AI. Think duals between ingame friends, maybe even “log on at that time for a tournament”,…

Arena in it’s current form won’t be true pvp, matchmaking in games is hard, and waiting for an hour for another high level player to come online and gets matched up isn’t fun. This game doesn’t have the player base for that kind of thing. But tournaments (where interested players meet up at a certain time so you have opponents ready to fight) don’t have those complex matchmaking issues, so that might be possible.

And let’s be honest, it will take me months to build a full 77 set (also push set comes first), so they have time to get their ducks in a row. You could say I’m rolling the dice hoping for more interesting forms of pvp down the road, and I wanna be ready if/when they come.

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

I’ve seen Travis mention a few times over the last month things like “arena needs his own round of balances before we add rankings and rewards”, and he is very careful about what he says.

True.

This leads me to believe those balance changes are actually planned and will come relatively soonish.

Yes and no. The devs plan to balance the Arena, but those changes are not in the works and won't come "soonish".

Once the arena is balanced, this will open up possibilities for more real pvp modes, where you don’t play the AI. Think duals between ingame friends, maybe even “log on at that time for a tournament”

Eternium will never have real-time PvP. This would require the game to be moved entirely server-side, making offline play impossible. Too much code would have to be rewritten to make this a viable option. Maybe in a sequel, though...someday.

[Kristoff]

bojck I finally got to challenge your mage!

A big "Thank you!" to you and Romme for all the video tutorials. I'd never have made it this far without your assistance.

[Kristoff]

Congratulations on your Arena win, bojck ! Hope it was a fun fight.

[bojck]

haha thanks : ) Yeah it was fun, hadn't played in quite a while... I'm curious to see some of Kinnu's SCR or Arcanist builds there, not sure which one he 'left' in the arena

[Kristoff]

bojck And who is Kinnu, by the way? Hegemony mentioned him recently, but I don't think I've ever come across him. Is he still active?

[Kardinaal]

Maybe it’s my own (lack of) gaming prowess, but my build actually went up in levels to around 400th place just from the ai playing it (from 500, best I managed myself). Think it’s due to the ai handling devastate teleporting way better than I do.

So for a first test it’s definately a success. Final version will probably have low amounts of dodge and parry as well for more damage mitigation.

[Kristoff]

Nice! Good luck, Kardinaal !

[Kristoff]

bojck Is this the Kinnu you were looking for?

They just attacked my warrior.

[bojck]

yup, he also a toon with arcanist gear that went up to 2700 rating! I'm not playing the arena anymore, been pushing with bounty hunter recently

[Kristoff]

bojck Yeah, I need to start my season push too. I'm so behind! Been too busy with all my family getting sick.

Good luck!

[eliel77]

Can I win points without actually playing?
people challenge my AI char and if they loose I get those points?

[Kardinaal]

Yes you gain points if the AI wins. For me the equilibrium of win/loss of the AI keeps me at around spot 600, 700 on weekends.