They're working on improvements for arena... it's not going to magically reverse things to where they were some months ago, but hopefully it will at least make it more realistic for new players to get into silver and eventually gold, without crazy pulls. 

Battle Pass 2 will eventually come - last time around, they had problems with people getting randomly banned for purchasing it, which needless to say created enough of a mess that they really, really can't afford a repeat. From what I understand that's the main reason for the long delay. 

As for tomes, the new 3v3 'bazaar' will apparently offer tomes for sale, but not clear yet how viable that will be realistically. At the moment, by far the best way of getting tomes, other than one-time rewards from campaign, faction wars and events, is the Clan Boss. How far are you on CB? 

L9753 said:

They're working on improvements for arena... it's not going to magically reverse things to where they were some months ago, but hopefully it will at least make it more realistic for new players to get into silver and eventually gold, without crazy pulls. 

Battle Pass 2 will eventually come - last time around, they had problems with people getting randomly banned for purchasing it, which needless to say created enough of a mess that they really, really can't afford a repeat. From what I understand that's the main reason for the long delay. 

As for tomes, the new 3v3 'bazaar' will apparently offer tomes for sale, but not clear yet how viable that will be realistically. At the moment, by far the best way of getting tomes, other than one-time rewards from campaign, faction wars and events, is the Clan Boss. How far are you on CB? 

Minotaur is the only option for mastery scrolls, yes, I don't think most people consider that to be a problem...? 

Good answers!

I think people should have realistic expectations with all of this.  Not sure what they are planning for arena, but I expect it will still be a major hurdle for many and not a magic elixir.  As for BP2, makes sense with what happened with the bans.  But I also suspect that plarium feels the rewards were too good for the price and we should temper our expectations.  Hopefully they are still good, but my expectation is that they will be less than prior.  They should include CATCHIP rewards that are "meh" for veterans but necessities for newbs in the free path.  An apothecary is a chicken now to most, but is a huge addition for many new accounts.  Someone like stag knight maybe too.  A top 5 epic IMO.  Lots of 5* quality gear, again whales will just sell for silver but will help close the gap a little for many.

CB is best bet for tomes, it is not everyday but they add up.

I score around 2,000K on CB hard daily.  I am stuck there until I hit a magic champ or get better gear.  I finally can clear dragon 13 but no good gear yet, that will help me move up.  Its mostly 4^ epic.  No 6^ gear yet.  Most 5* gear is for the special sets that I rarely use.   

I am about to try breaking up sets to see if the pieces can provide more value? 

What you said about champs is interesting.  I took Kael and then popped Apo a few days later.  That is still the core of my team.  I try to find a use for any epic and lego that I get.  I have 6* a few who dont deserve it but I need them for specific levels when affinity is against me.  Or they have a special skill for one dungeon.  Really glad that I have Kael for all the campaign work. 

Thanks for the input.  I will lower my expectations and expect the process to be longer and slower. 

I have been saving books.  Only Kael is booked.  I have 29 rare, 20 epic, 4 lego books.  My team is built around Kael, APO, HK, Zelotah, Lord Champfort.  Should I use 10 books on Apo?  That boost might be enough to get me a few levels higher in dungeons.  I am in the 10-14 range on most. 

I am at highest or very near highest levels on potions.  That has allowed me to ascend all active champs to full stars. 

ClosedPoly said:

I have been saving books.  Only Kael is booked.  I have 29 rare, 20 epic, 4 lego books.  My team is built around Kael, APO, HK, Zelotah, Lord Champfort.  Should I use 10 books on Apo?  That boost might be enough to get me a few levels higher in dungeons.  I am in the 10-14 range on most. 

I am at highest or very near highest levels on potions.  That has allowed me to ascend all active champs to full stars. 

Maybe I am doing a little better than I realize. 

book apo asap. lower cooldown on heal / speedup will help you greatly. when you get to higher CB you will swim in rare books (i have like 130 unused rare books now while 2 key NM CB) - that is after getting coldheart and immediately maxing her skills on the spot (lv1 fully booked entered 12-6 as trainee)

apo is viable everywhere (maybe not so much in late arena now - i have reached g2 with apo / tayrel / kael / spirithost but it was about 8-10 months ago.

i managed to complete dragon 20 with apo, tayrel and forgot who else but nothing fancy (took like 7min per run but wins).

apo is no longer in my FK20 team since i have pulled better ones for the job, but he certainly was in the team around FK17.

hell ... my apo was able to go 1vs1 against mino 15 (waves needed clearing by other champs, but when apo reached last stage ... it was win)

speed is the key for apo (followed by def/hp) - make him as fast as possible while still having a bit of suitability and see him keeping your team moving and healed. 

BOOK APO.  You will not get much 6star gear from D13, that is OK.  You really need to think at a macro level with gear.  What are the total stats that you get.  You can have 3 6 star Rare Speed sets on Apo and the gear would be 100% WRONG -- Every Single Piece! 

If you do not understand this.  Pause.  Think about what you are trying to do with Apo.  Fast as possible right?  If the 5 non-boot pieces have no speed in substats then they are not for him, obviously if you don't have speed on the boots thats a problem.  

Each artifact is only contributing the set bonus to your base speed.  

So +7 I think.  

So the 3 sets give you +42, assuming no speed boots.

ClosedPoly said:

I score around 2,000K on CB hard daily.  I am stuck there until I hit a magic champ or get better gear.  I finally can clear dragon 13 but no good gear yet, that will help me move up.  Its mostly 4^ epic.  No 6^ gear yet.  Most 5* gear is for the special sets that I rarely use.   

Wait, 2 million daily? You mean 2 million per key, right? But that still seems lower than it could be if you have a maxed Kael... 

For comparison, my f2p alt does an average of 3 million per key on the hard CB with Kael (maxed and fully booked), Warmaiden (50, partially booked), FB (50, not booked), Apo (50, partially booked) and Spirithost (40, not booked). Kael on his own does over 2 million, most of the rest is from FB. 

Maybe share your CB team and your roster again, surely you can do better even with your current champions and gear. 

And KS is right - book Apo fully, or at least until you get all the cooldown reductions on his A2 and A3. Apo is a top three rare all the way to the endgame, absolutely worth your rare books. 

I consider Arena broken, even if the mechanics are working as intended.

Should it be difficult? Sure.

But there is a big difference between difficult and impossible when it comes to newer accounts having to contend with those that have obviously been around a lot longer or spent a ton of cash to boost up.

Even if Plarium intends for Arena to be an unofficial paywall, they need to do something to push that into the higher ranks so that there is some room for the newer accounts to be competitive.

I really think that long term they will make more money that way. A person has a lot more incentive to spend money (even if it's in smaller doses) if they have been rewarded for their playtime by making steady progress than by getting a few measly brackets up and realize that they could spend hundreds of dollars and still be fairly helpless for a while. Any rational person (especially if they work for their money) would make that kind of value analysis and come to the conclusion very quickly that spending that kind of cash for what amounts to at best some new champs to grind/gear up (and at worst a bunch of crap pulls) is a loser's game and will probably not stick around very long.

I would have already dropped more cash on this game if arena wasn't in its current state. I'll never whale out, but I make a good living and certainly have some disposable income I could be spending. 

Instead, I'm trying to be patient and enjoy the aspects of the game that I can to give Plarium a chance to pull their heads out of the sand and do something. I can't say how long that patience will last, but eventually it won't be worth my time to play this game if the developers allow such a fundamental aspect of it to remain functionally broken.

If it were a case of just getting better, well, I'm doing that. The problem is that the competition is getting harder and harder at lower arena ranks faster than I can realistically improve my team. I think we are probably a few weeks out from Bronze 1 being full of end-game level teams (Not saying good teams, just ones that people without months of account building stand even the slightest chance against). I'm already seeing this in Bronze 3&4. If you think that's a good thing you need to get your head checked.

BOOK APO.  You will not get much 6star gear from D13, that is OK.  You really need to think at a macro level with gear.  What are the total stats that you get.  You can have 3 6 star Rare Speed sets on Apo and the gear would be 100% WRONG -- Every Single Piece! 

If you do not understand this.  Pause.  Think about what you are trying to do with Apo.  Fast as possible right?  If the 5 non-boot pieces have no speed in substats then they are not for him, obviously if you don't have speed on the boots thats a problem.  

Each artifact is only contributing the set bonus to your base speed.  

So +7 I think.  

So the 3 sets give you +42, assuming no speed boots.

Now filter your artifacts with substat speed.  If you find 5 pieces with 10+ speed and Daze boots with 40 speed, hmmm      

Speed is a bit slow. I would emphasize def% and hp% over cr and cd. The cr is good for the crit heal, but the cd doesn't impact that at all. And as nice as the crit heal is I would prioritize for apo

Speed

Def

Hp

Resist 

CR