I've decided to update this thread as the release of Felneus and Duelmex have really changed the mechanics of the Arena. When I first started out playing the game, the key to winning in the Arena was to build a mono element squad and make use of their 50% damage boost leader skill. This was good for a while but people seem to be shifting towards using Felneus or Duelmex as a leader and using other units that have either a fast BB refill rate or a high hit count. Hit count is a frequently overlooked stat in this game. It's important because the higher your hit count, the more BC/HC is going to drop each turn. Combining high hitting units with Felneus' or Deulmex's leader skills (greatly increased the drop rate of BC) means that you're going to fill or almost fill your Brave Burst gauges on the first turn. If you can pop off a Brave Burst or two on the second turn, then the chances are that you're going to wipe out the opponent's entire squad during that turn. One of the most effective squad's to use this method is using Felneus and 4 Gun Goddess Serin's. Gun Goddess Serin's normal attack has 14 hits, and her Brave Burst is a 16 hit AOE attack. I've fought a few players that use this squad and I almost always lose to them as they fill their BB gauge's so quickly. If you're going to use a squad that relies on wiping the opponent out quickly with a Brave Burst, then it's most definitely worth leveling your units Brave Burst to BBLv 10. Increasing your unit's BBLv means that it's going to hit more damage and has a better chance of wiping your opponent's squad out. If you don't have Felneus or Duelmex, you can still build an effective Arena squad. My second choice to Felneus and Duelmex would be using Gaia King Lugina as your leader. His leader skill gives your entire squad a 50% ATK and DEF boost for the first two turns. This doesn't stack with Muramasa's, so it's better to equip permanent stat boosting Spheres like Medulla Gem's and Sacred Jewel's. As his leader skill benefits your entire squad regardless of element, it's a good idea to just use your best units in a Lugina squad. If you don't have Lugina either, then sticking to the original method of building a squad to utilize the +50% ATK leader skill is your best bet. This can either be a mono element squad or a rainbow squad that uses one of the rainbow leaders (Michele, Zelban, Lodin, Tiara etc). When building mono element squad's, most people try to build either a Dark or a Light element squad because their only weakness is also their strength. The other four elements all have a vulnerability, while Light and Dark's weaknesses pretty much cancel one another out. That being said, there's nothing wrong with building a mono elemental team for one of the other elements like Fire or Water, just try to watch your opponents leader when entering the Arena as this will give you an idea of what the primary element for their squad is. Regarding unit's typing, I'd always aim for units with either high HP or high ATK. This makes Anima, Breaker and Lord types the best in the Arena. Lord units stats raise evenly as you level, Anima's HP is increased while REC is decreased and Breaker's attack is increased while DEF is reduced. During the early Arena ranks, Muramasa is probably the best Sphere to equip to your units. It gives a +50% ATK boost for the first two turns. As you progress through the ranks and get more Spheres, I'd recommend using Medulla Gem's, Sacred Jewel's or Angelic Foil's.
If i may add, you should also check the Brave Burst type. It is advised to have a squad with 4 AoE BB, and 1 instant healing. Why? Because BB with only one target is not very effective in Arena. In Quest it is useful, but not in PvP. The reason is, no matter how strong your BB is, if it only hits one target, it will only hit one target, while the enemy has 5 unit. At most, you'd only kill one with this BB, not to forget the AI's tendency to do overkill (your unit could unleash that BB to one unit that's already critical, or even dead). Sure, the debuff is tempting, but the unit that got debuffed won't live quite long to see you use that to your advantage (or worse, survived the debuff). The only debuff i approve is injured. It'll make your opponent's damage output lower, therefore giving you more advantages. Weaken's not pretty useful, since after getting hit with BB, that unit would die, or at most, survived with less than half HP, which won't survive if your barrage of attacks went to him/her. Sick is pretty much useless, both in dungeon and PvP. Poison wasn't very effective, but could work, with reason same as weaken and the initial reason. Why instant healing and not gradual healing like Phoenix? Well as stated above, the arena round mostly won't last more than 5 rounds, and the chance of the healer's BB gauge is full within the first turn is pretty low. Not to forget the chance of your healer went down first. Unless your Phoenix is God Phoenix, i don't really think it'll be effective, since by the time your healer activated his/her brave burst, the enemy would also had their unit's BB gauge full. This is just purely my opinion, since i've encountered several opponent with gradual healer, and they either didn't live long enough to had their units healed, or they lost after the first turn the BB is activated. Also take notes how long does your healer takes to fully charge his/her BB gauge. Higher units tends to have larger BB gauge, so it's longer to charge. For your leader skill, you could also take the 'Authority' set. It'll help charging the brave burst. 'Loving' set could also help, but only with the right spheres (HC doesn't drop often in Arena). 'Flash' set doesn't help much as i expected, because AI doesn't really make your unit do focused hits often, and if your units doesn't have the similar time-frame for executing attack (Like Lodaga and Commander Mega, that has quite the delay to attack, or Lava and Athena, that has delay within their attack, or like Atro and Galant, who hits only once), it'll be harder to get SPARK.
Any tips to make our hero a bit smarter for using their BB lol and sometimes they made me so frustated when they just hitting the same char although they already died
If your brave burst is max lvl will it use it more often in the arena, or will it just be a more powerful version of its brave burst?
Yeah, just stronger BB. Currently, there's no way to enhance your Arena AI. Although i do find several difference in AI behavior between different unit. Like, how the Lich in my party directly uses it's BB when available (also noticed it on several battle, but Lich isn't that popular in Arena), while my Galant tends to wait for certain condition to unleash his BB (Not just my Galant). Several times as well, i found each of my unit of party 1 attack different unit, not ganging, while the other time, i found my unit of party 2 ganging on one. It MIGHT just have some connection between each unit type. This is just me talking though. Confirmation needed. I do hear that Alma always use her BB when available. On the other news, Healer isn't really a necessity in the Arena. It all depends on your enemy. If your enemy has completely different element (Like fire and thunder), then it might be necessary. If your enemy is on the weaker side (Like, you're water and the enemy's fire), then you don't need a healer. If you couldn't decide, bring a healer. Also, do learn how to predict your opponent's lineup just by seeing the Leader. In the arena, Leader Skill mostly decide who will win and who will lose. Before starting the battle, see your opponent's leader first, and find out about the leader's leader skill. Mostly it'll go like this: 'Element Power' set (25%/50% Attack boost): Either mono, or has a lot of unit of that element. Be wary though, since it's not always the case 'Power' set (10%/15% attack boost): High chance of rainbow unit, or at least 2 unit of same element 'Ares' set (BB fill rate): BB spammer, if possible. Try to finish quickly. 'Loving' set (HC effectiveness): Long-term fighter, or tanker. Other set: I dunno, doesn't really encounter those types often to make assumption. Of course it's not an exact guide, so don't follow it 100%. Again, try to predict your opponent's squad.
I don't think you should have a healer in a arena fight just focus on how much damage you can deal and if your units can take a hit or two Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Completely agree, even taking a decent healer like God Phoenix into the Arena usually leads to a disadvantage. Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
I have seen a few full light/dark/earth/fire teams,and I usually get wrecked when I use my multi colored power team. Looks like 1 element team is the way to go.
Not absolutely mono squad will survive in the arena. I've 3 dark, 1 earth and 1 thunder for my squad, and i almost become a saint in the arena. And sometimes i beat mono squad especially alice squad with ease..
I take a rainbow team and I have actually never lost to a mono squad. If I lose, it's generally to other rainbow squads that have more water based types on their team as I have too many fire types on my team right now and need to work on that. Also, now that they've released units that add 50% to ANY element, I think rainbow teams will become stronger.
Until those +50% boost for rainbow units come out, mono squads have too much of an advantage. Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Is it better to use a leader like Alma or Aem or a unit which increases atk by 50%? I think that with a rainbow squad, it's definitely better to use a leader skill that increases BB fill rate, but what about a mono squad? Right now my arena squad is Hero Alma(O), God Knight Will(A), Rameldria(O), Thunder God Eze(G), and Fire King Vargas(A). Even though it's predominantly light, I'm using Alma so that their BB gauge fills faster. This gives me a big advantage as all of my unit's BB attack all opposing units. However, I have a Holy Knight Will(A), and a Sunshine Luna(B) that i'm not using, so would 50% atk increase of a mono squad be better than a BB gauge increase to a team that can attack all units if they use their BB?