Given its the 3rd year anniversary, can we have a serious discussion about the state of Arena?
No, this isn't a gripe about Revan (I've got enough screenshots of me pummeling his averageness), it's about what the mode has become - a stale, unimaginative playground where you use the same team as everyone else for 3 months until CG nerf the 'meta' with a new super duper toon.
When I started, you could theoretically beat any team using a clever combination of toons. There was Dooku or OB, Phasma, Vader, QGJ. Even after protection came in to play, you could top arena with a mismatch team. But CG 'fixed' the dodge meta, and on we moved.
Next up was coin flip Poe and fast ST Han, but at least that wasn't game breaking. (The big issues there was toons with the same speed - still an issue).
Then there was the paywalled introduction of everyone's favourite, Chaze via failed tournaments. This was swiftly countered by Thrawn.
But then! There was hope! Traya came along and she was great, but beatable. We had NS, CLS made a comeback anf hell even FO had a chsnce. Arena was more than 1 team replicated over and over from 1 to 50. Revan is a step back, and I fear the same 'fix' will occur - another OP toon that stops the current meta. It's akin to a sticking plaster on a gun shot wound this approach.
So here's my thought on a solution (and I await the rebuttals
); change arena to operate in a similar fashion to a hybrid format that draws from the old Tournaments and TW. By this, you can set a defence team that cannot be the same as your attacking team. You can change the defence every 24 hours or use crystals/an arena challenge to do so. This, in my opinion, gives the opportunity for teams to shine and for toons (most of them recently released i.e Jango) to have some sort of relevance.
The way I see it working is pretty simple: if I choose to set Revan on D, that's who other players see when they are on the challenge screen. I can't attack with Revan and the 4 toons set on D, but I can use any other toons in my roster as many times as I like. Once I lock them on D they are there for 24 hours unless I pay the penalty to change. The reset for D teams can be on local payout.
I'm perhaps just rambling, but it's gone stale. Regardless of what toons you use
Replies
Your idea is interesting and creative and seems like a good way to introduce more diversity. I like it a lot.
As somebody who does not have Traya or Revan I think that at least 95% of top 100 before Revan were either Traya or Palpatine lead Sith/Empire teams and that is now diversity that is same team depending on whater you had Traya or not.
NS were nowhere near top 200 and they just made resurgence due in fact that there are Bastila and Revan teams out there.
Now I think that arena needs improvement and the first one and only one for now would be to make payout once per day per shard perhaps at the same time game is updated (daily activities) and that would make all those battles more meaningful and achievement worth something.
Now its only revan, with some traya/bastilla attempts.
And as soon as Revan comes back, the top500 will be flooded with that op char.
Making sonething ridiculously op is not the right way to make people pay.
Day1 arena: can only use characters that were available when the game launched.
Follower arena: can only use characters without leader abilities.
Rotating limited: every week a random selection of 30 or so characters are selected and only those can be used.
Each of these could have a limited crystal payout (like 100 for #1) or maybe have a cost of entry (50 crystals to join each day) with top 100 getting at least 50 crystals and higher ranks getting better payouts.
Just a thought on how it could be spiced up a bit.
I perhaps should have clarified that I was talking, from my perspective, about top 50 and above. I bet it's great up beyond that, and probably even more on younger shards where variety reigns supreme, but mines is Dec 15, and it's the same toons; meta shifts and because we all have deep benches, everyone switches.
I just think something needs to be done. Look at how many toons there is, and how many just don't work in Arena because of meta shifts. People just auto battles these days - tactics and building a squad to take on the rest is long dead.
So you're content fighting the same teams on repeat mode for 2-3 months?
Yeah, I don’t mind it.
Oh come on. Don't kid yourself. You're climb is probably the same as mine; traya, traya, revan, traya, revan. You know there's more toons in this game? Short of a complete overhaul of the other toons to make them useable, changing how arena works is the easier option. It's just boring. It's just crystal farming on easy mode
I Stealth included some monetisation. The changing of D teams costing crystals. That plays on the desire everyone has for their team to hold on defence.
The Trayas and Revans mostly stay in my top 30. I’m usually around 30-60 and face the same RJT, CLS, and Palp teams every day. As I said, I don’t mind it.
Be prepared to see the exact same thing Remaining... A Bigger Paywall...
In my Nov 2015 shard there are Traya around ~200. Granted, not all G12 and 7*, but they are becoming more common on the oldest shards well outside the top 100. And they are not abandoned accounts, they are active.
Your solution won't change much - people will figure out the "meta" defense team and BAM! you're trying to fight your way up thru a sea of them.
I wish they would - I hate arena. I reluctantly participate because there's a huge difference in progress between 150 crystals a day and 600 crystals a day. If arena stopped giving out crystals, I'd stop caring about it.
I'm in a January 2016 shard, and I second this statement
It's the worst part of the game for me, I play my 5 daily fights (sometimes 3-4) with the only reliable goal to try to stay in the top 50 with my Bastila team... in a hell of Traya and Revan.. (and many tedious mirror fights vs Bastila of course)... Nov 2015 shard
I started the game Jan 2017 so my shard isn’t quite as old as yours or the OP’s.
If something has always been a certain way, that’s a decent reason to be bored with it!
Anyway, if this forum is any indication, boredom with the arena has become a pretty prevalent attitude among the player base. CG should be thinking about ways to spice it up.
Very interesting. What if we tweaked it a bit so that no toons were ever limited, but rather certain toons got temporary bonuses kind of like last TW. One neat thing is it would change before any meta could even be figured out and established, so a little thought on the players part would actually make a difference.
Now, that's a big 'if' for obvious reasons.