Thanks Ethan. The medals will be a grind, and a slow climb to get one from level 6 to 10 but hopefully I can get to gold 3 soon as that will make things move a little quicker. I see the spider dungeon as the only other difficult missions ahead, assuming the list I saw was accurate. Which other missions do you consider road blocks?  I'll fuse relickeeper, and put in vault I guess lol, this week and then be on the last stage of missions.

At this point I'll spend less time farming food, and hitting Golem and Dragon to try and upgrade my gear. With a limited roster, gear is even more important.

I think my next 60 will be for a defensive CA arena setup. The biggest problem is no epic books left, but adding Jarl, Reinbeast or Crimson Helm to Skullcrusher, Zelotah, Gorg is what I'm going to try. I understand the speed nuke route, but that will be my backup plan.

Not sure what route to go on CB, but cant see upgrading coffinsmasher just for that right now.  

I save my shards for 2x, no luck so far in pulling a lego. The good news is when I do get 1, I'll have books :) 

Maybe I can be the first to get Arbiter without pulling a legendary champ? I currently have only 9 blue, 9 purple, 3 gold shards so the odds are I still won't have a lego in the next month or 2 :( 

Congrats on getting to last spider mission! Who is on your spider team? Can you beat 20 on auto yet, even if not 100%?

I just looked and I'm 50 gold medals away from my 2nd level 6. Then it is 3400 medals to get from 6 to 10. So I definitely need to improve my team to get to gold 3 so I can get 3 medals a pop. Not sure if my CA team approach will work past where i currently sit in gold 2.

Question, and I need to pay more attention to my battles so I can answer this myself but what order does my team CA after an AoE. I'm pretty sure it's not always the same so my guess is current turn meter and not speed? I ask because if I could tune it based on speed I would want gorg 1st to remove buff, whoever next, and zelotah last in case he places sleep. 

Currently I have Elhain who gets a solid 2x hit on anyone who attacks, but she has survivability issues obviously. If I add Jarl, I get potential heal reduction on A1 CA. Crimson Helm has decrease attack, reinbeast guarantees a heal on someone. Thinking either a shield, taunt or frost set on one of these 3. I know I'm ignoring all the advice on speed nuking, but this route is more intriguing to me. It also makes Arena less boring. The question is will I hit hard enough to win or get stuck in a stalemate?

I'm just over 80 days in, I think 2 more months is certainly reasonable to complete remaining missions with the exception of spider. I just know I am at least 2 new champs, maybe more from having the right team. So my goal is 30 days :)

On that note, I hope to get lucky and get Coldheart. But I'm saving my void shards for 2x so I actually have an even lower chance. Lol. I vote they put coldheart as event or tournament reward. Who's with me!!!

 Ohhh, a few annoying ones that consume time:

1. Leave a 5* (not 6*) for each affinity. I had to level up 4 useless heroes to 60 just to complete the mission. They don't care you have already done it.

2. I would start working on Ice + Spider auto 15 -> 17 -> 20 sooner rather than later to know what you are missing. I don't think CB is a problem, because doing 12m or 18m for a 950m mission, is all bad!  Also, the CB mission comes right at end (last one), so by then you have cleared ice 20 and spider 20 and should be in good shape!

3. I also made the mistake of prioritising attackers and tanks. Actually you need good balance (I think you have that better than I did). But my draw was awful, no speed champions (but got Martyr).

4. I don't think Rhazin was ever useful at any point in missions, but ok for arenas (I run defence). Might want to fuse him at some point.

5. I run Miscreated Monster everywhere, he is an amazing shielder at 80k health < if you ever get him, put on the 30% health shield gear. 

1. I'm somewhat prepared for this. Have a magic and spirit 60 not fully ascended. I think I'm going to do reinbeast to 60 next, I'm going to throw in my arena team I think. Or I still may 60 doompriest, as I cam use in dungeons though synergy with brawler is horrendous. That just leaves void. I have fellhound 50 (I use on FK and spider currently) and whisper 50 (I dont use at all).

2. Not as concerned about Golem, Brawler is a dream here. Spider is the issue as I've stated. Who is your spider team?

3. I have no real attackers, I think alot of very good support/defense but no superstars. I'm stuck with Elhain starter as best damage and just added Alure but really for the turn meter reduction I hope to use on FK and Spider maybe?

4. Rhazin not an option at this point. I never pulled any of the epics from shards and would only consider if I pulled at least 2 of those. I only have a few of the rares left.

5. I'd love a mistreated monster.

Ethan said:

- Upgrade defence first and attack last in great hall, because every champ needs defence, and most best champs are not attack based.

Ethan gave a lot of good advice, but I think the above statement is incorrect.

I wouldn't listen to this piece of advice.

The other stuff Ethan said seems fine.

In regard to the following Statement made by Trips:

I know I'm ignoring all the advice on speed nuking, but this route is more intriguing to me. It also makes Arena less boring. The question is will I hit hard enough to win or get stuck in a stalemate?

We are telling you to make a Speed Nuking set up because that is the best set up we see available to you.

You may want to make a Defense set up.

You have some great heroes which are often used in Defense set ups.

The issue is you don't really have a team.

You have pieces of a team.

It's not going to work the way you want it to work.

The main issue you have is your Rooster is lacking a Damage Dealer which is Defensive.

Gorgorab -------> Support - Revive

Zelotah ----------> Support - Shields + C. Heals

Skullcrusher ----> Support - Counter Attack

Crimson Helm --> Support - Provoke

Grizzled Jarl ----> Support - Block Debuffs + Increase Defense

Reinbeast -------> Support - C.Heals + Revive

The only set up you can make is a Stall team.

A Stall team which heals - shields - revives - I.E tries to keep itself alive forever

Your main win condition is to get enemy player to quit the fight from boredom or annoyance.

Long winded -  win condition is to kill the enemy team by chipping them down to death in a 2 hour fight.

If your using this team on Arena Offense, Your main win condition is unusable since enemy team will be run by AI computer.

The way for you to win is by using the Long Winded approach.

However, The Long Winded approach will fail if enemy team has any sort of healing. 

You will end up in a stale mate forever because your not doing any damage.

Why no damage? Because you have no damage dealer in your set up which is viable.

So what should you do?

You should listen to what we are saying & make a Speed Nuking Team. lol

You already have most of the team built:

• Apothecary
• Gorgorab
• Warmaiden
• Elhain
  

You just need to level up War Maiden.

War Maiden can be used in Dragon Stage 20 as well - So leveling her up isn't a waste.

• Put your Defensive set up the back burner.
• Place it on your Arena Defense.

Arena is great, but all you really need to do is reach Gold 1 to get some gold medals rolling.

I think your Speed team can do it.

Than you can drop back on your Dragon team.

I'm in Gold 2. Halfway to gold 3. I may be getting lucky, but elhain is working out in my 4th spot for now. I understand exactly what you are saying though.

Trips said:

Why the CB targets him I dont know but that is the only reason it works. 

The boss build threat, or aggro or whatewer English word is more corect here works like this (this info I found somewhere in Internet and the guy behind this is reliable enough considering his accevements in game)  After knowing this I started to observe more closely what is happening on screen and found it's more of the time accurate.

So the boss priorities during battle is this:

1. Can he oneshot someone with his current ability

2. Is champion defence based

3. Those with lowest amount of active buffs at the moment

4. Those with weak affinity

5. Those with lowest max hp owerall

6. Those with lowest hp at the moment

Trips said:

Congrats on getting to last spider mission! Who is on your spider team? Can you beat 20 on auto yet, even if not 100%?

I use this team, if you want to know: 

Arbiter, Ult Galek, Rhazin, MM and Nethril. You can do something like this with other champions, you just need Ult Galek, a force tank, someone with atk buff, someone who decreases enemies' turn meter and someone who protect Ult Galek.

Well I am no longer a true f2p. I broke down and paid 25 for the BP. I saw everything I could collect from all the levels and couldn't resist. Like a fat kid in the candy store. Wow. Sorting through all the new gear alone is crazy. I have more new good pieces than I've got from the dungeons in 3 months lol. 

There are a lot of builds for spider combos, but without cold heart, the best one I found was HP burn + negative affinity tank.

The negative affinity defence tank ideally has an A1 AOE, but if you have HP burn (I think Poison works too) it doesn't matter. You just need 1 healer to heal the tank, and 1 support to shield / cleanse.

You must have very strong turn meter / speed control. I use counter attack, but high ACC (200+) turn meter control is also ok. 

That will give you a 3-4min Spider 17-20 90% success rate.

My setup:

Tank: Inferno Baroness - A1 AOE + 5% Heal from damage (2-3k) - need 200 RES

HP Burn: Tyrant Ixlimor, but other % boss HP also work 

Turn Meter + Debuff: Matyr, or Tyrael

Healer + Speed: Apo

Support: Miscreated Monster (Shield + Ally Protect) or something else that boosts survivability 

Trips said:

Well I am no longer a true f2p. I broke down and paid 25 for the BP. I saw everything I could collect from all the levels and couldn't resist. Like a fat kid in the candy store. Wow. Sorting through all the new gear alone is crazy. I have more new good pieces than I've got from the dungeons in 3 months lol. 

This epic stag knight looks pretty solid, not sure if the lego is going to fit my roster well. I hope you all look forward to my new questions :)

Wurlim can be a Defensive Damage Dealer

So yeah - You got your Arena Team.

I was going to mention the Battle Pass, but I didn't know if you wanted to spend money.

Leader: Zelotah - Resistance Aura 70%

Enemy Goes First: Does there Nuke

1st move: Gorgorab -------------------------------> TM Filling or Revive

2nd move: Zelotah ---------------------------------> Shields + C. Heals

3rd move: Wurlim Frost King---------------------> AOE Damage Dealer

4th move: Crimson Helm -------------------------> Random Provoke

Alternatively, You could go with Skullcrusher as 4th instead of Crimson Helm

Skullcrusher will do the Counter Attack

So you do have very good options 

Side Note:

The AI plays Gorgorab very good.

The AI computer will prioritize Gorgorab turn meter filling, unless 1 of your champions have died.

The AI will do the Revive first if you have any dead heroes

So yeah - The AI plays Gorgorab like a beast!

Gear Recommendations:

Gorgorab ------------------------------> Mildly Fast --> 2 Piece Immortal - High Defense - High Resistance - Low Accuracy 

Zelotah ---------------------------------> Shield Set --> 2 Piece Immortal -  High Health - High Resistance - Low Accuracy

Wurlim Frost King -------------------> Damage ----> 2 Piece Immortal -  High Defense - High Resistance - Low Accuracy

Crimson helm -------------------------> Frost Set --> 2 Piece Immortal -  High Defense - Low Resistance - High Accuracy

Keep in mind, It can be very tough building up both ACC & RESIST.

The Banner will be ACC or RESIST.

You can only have 1 Banner on a hero.

Right?

It is best in my opinion to have your Main Supports & Main Damage Dealer with High Resist so they don't take many debuffs.

The last hero is there to be annoying.

You have them in Frost set so if they Debuffed - They can still will be useful.

You have high ACC on them so if they not Debuffed - They can do Crowd Control on enemy with skills.

Now you have a Set up for Arena which I am confident in recommending.

You think crimson over skullcrusher? I guess that's smart as the frost set is "wasted" since I'm going to use skull in CB for sure. I guess I have the same problem trying to double duty with zelotah. Maybe put shield set on wurlim until I can replace zelotah on CB team. Not optimal but a temporary situation. Got a couple weeks until I get wurlim and level him.

I'm going to focus on gear in golem and dragon until then. I don't have much decent immortal gear unfortunately. Have 2 pieces on zelotah, and was is only 4*. That comes from CB chests? I seem to only get cruel?

Thanks again all for responses, especially CB related. Even though it is not my top priority (1. dungeons for gear 2. farm arena medals 3. shard luck for new heroes), I've been soaking in all the advice and doing some research.  Even watch a few youtube videos,which I hate.  I'd much rather read something than sit thru a 15 minute video that may or may not be good.

I'm still running Skullcrusher, OB, Zelotah, Apo, Gorg mainly because they are all 60 and my tuning to CA will require significant gear changes/upgrades

Problems with team:

1. Combo of CA/speed approach, obviously not ideal

2. Speed range of team, Apo 208 / SC 120

3. Lack of WM/GS except for SC & no Lifesteal gear except Elhain (not using and no WM anyways)

Proposed solutions, all viable long term goals but requiring either significant rankup and/or masteries. I actually understand all of them now, I think.  My guess is Valdys solution most dependable on both LS gear and masteries since no healing support.

PlayerJ: Coffin Smasher, Warmaiden, Occult Brawler, Skullcrusher, Zelotah

Valdys: Crimson Helm, Grizzled Jarl, Skullcrusher, Occult Brawler and Elhain

Daering: Skullcrusher, Brawler, Whisper, Coffin Smasher, <>

Obviously I am not ready for a final solution so my goal is an improved CA team for Btrutal that I can upgrade to NM.

Thoughts on this team in turn order:

1. Doompriest (Heal/Cleanse Stun)

2. OB

3. Zelotah (Shield/Heal)

4. Grizz Jarl (DEF up, ATK down)

5. Skullcrusher 

I have no damage dealer, but think this may be best temp solution. I really like coffinsmasher skillset, but he is furtherst away from being ranked up.  But the real reason for doompriest is...Originally I didn't think I needed to remove stun because SC was targeted he would ignore it.  What I didn't realize was he does shake off the stun BUT the cooldown of his skills doesn't drop.  I think this is VERY important to keeping the CA cycle in sync with the CB.

My biggest problem is I am just way too slow right now.  Speed of above in order are 201, 176, 153, 129, 120. Hey at least I have them in correct order! At least I think that is correct order.  But I think I need all above 170 to be ahead of CB, not sure exactly what the speed threshold is.

What do you think?

You have to be faster than 170 speed to act before NM CB, so that must be your starting point, yes. But even if you line them perfectly in terms of speed, if you don't remove any mastery that mess with turn meter and buff duration, thing will start to get messy with every turn. Some of them will start to gain extra TM, they will start to cast some buff with extra duration here and there and that will make thing unpredictable. Soon after start your Doompriest will be somewhere else, not first in turn order and thus more likely will miss to remove that stun rather to clean it every time. You have to be prepared for that. :) 

But speed tuning is slow and costly business and you still have to work your way to max masteries, so maybe it is better to just run your daily keys for now, observe what happens, test different auras or maybe test some available 5* champions that you never use there. When you max your core team with T6 that's when you can decide to take more drastic decisions to reset masteries and rework your gear for speed tuning. For now it will be too much work for not that much of a gain.

People don't really use Grizzled Jarl for the Attack Down.

They use Grizzled Jarl for the Increase Defense & the Block Debuff helps counter the Stun

Grizzled Jarl Attack Down is on a 4 Turn Cool Down - it only lasts for 2 turns.

Stag Knight, while very useful with his two A2 debuts and his passive, will not provide you with 100% uptime Attack Down (also with Defense Down too, but that is not of that high priority) unless you make your group fast enough to act 3 times every 2 boss turns. Of course, assuming that his A2 is maxed and the CD is down to 3 turns. Otherwise, you either need a second champion with Attack debuff and both of them rotate their debuff or your speed must be twice as high as that of the Boss.