I agree, Trips. Reducing medals required in GH and adjusting the progress missions so they're less absurd would also be nice, but neither of those does anything to help people get into silver/gold as such, so the tiers need to become bigger. 

Player J said:

You people do realize rare & epic heroes can do the things I have said?

I gave a list of Legendary heroes because it is the heroes which came to my mind as I was writing.

I fight against Legendary Teams in Arena all the time.

It is easy for me to rattle off Legendary Heroes as examples because it is just the heroes I see majority of the time.

It doesn't mean you need to have a Legendary hero to have the same desired result.

And I can prove it.

Here is what I said -------> To beat Atom & Vladislav teams: 

• You just need a Classical Arena set up
• You want Speed Aura 
• You want Speed Buff 
• You want Turn Meter Filling 
• You want AOE Def Break & Weaken if Possible
• You want AOE Nuker

Full Rare Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Apothecary ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Spirithost --------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff

Warmaiden ------> AOE Def Break

Kael ----------------> AOE Nuker

Rare & Epic Mixture Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Haruspex -----------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Flesheater ---------> Increase Attack Buff

Zargala -------------> AOE Def Break

Skullcrown --------> AOE Nuker + Speed Aura

Full Epic Team - which can do the above things I have said:

High Khatun ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff 

Gorgorab ----------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff 

Stag Knight -------> AOE Def Break 

Tallia ---------------> AOE Nuker

Epic & Legendary Mixture Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Golden Reaper ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff   

Seeker -----------------> Increase Attack Buff  

Dracomorph ----------> AOE Def Break 

Lord Shazar ----------> AOE Nuker + Speed Aura

Full Legendary Team - which can do the above things I have said: 

Lyssandra ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff   

Abriter -----------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff 

Venus ------------> AOE Def Break

Big Un -----------> AOE Nuker

Another Full Legendary Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Siphi --------------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Astralith -----------> Speed Aura

Ghostborn -------> Increase Attack Buff + AOE Def Break

Trunda -----------> AOE Nuker

Oh My Gosh!

I beat the same garbage teams 

- 6 different times 

- With 6 different teams.

- With 24 different heroes.

All using the same exact set up and Player J is on Fire - Ladies & Gentlemen!

God - I love Arena!

They need to add a 3rd Arena - Faction Wars PVP Arena.

Make it happen, Plarium!

Which of these is most likely to get me to Silver and keep me there? 

Spirithost ---------> Immunity gear or Resist gear ----> SPD - RESIST - DEF - HP

Zelotah ------------> Shield gear ---------------------------> SPD - RESIST - HP - DEF

Mountain King ---> Immortal gear -----------------------> SPD - RESIST - C.RATE - C.DMG

Umbral ------------> Frost gear ----------------------------> SPD - ACC - RESIST - DEF

Full Rare Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Apothecary ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Spirithost --------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff

Warmaiden ------> AOE Def Break

Kael ----------------> AOE Nuker

Green Knight responded to my comment in a different post saying there are no limits to classic tiers other than Platinum.

Last month I was able to get to Silver 1 several times. From these brief forays I have managed to accrue 14 silver medals out of the 50 required to pass my current mission roadblock. But Bronze 4 has gotten even worse over the last month with OP teams. It got to the point where I just joined the 5 match/day win or lose club and swore off Arena otherwise. I'm enjoying the game more, though it still bugs me that my GH progression is effectively halted.

Those of you with your sights set on reaching Silver 1 are going to be sorely disappointed when you actually get there. You will have the next few missions done within a day (depending on which keeps are open) and then be stuck at getting 50 silver medals - a MUCH harder feat than just hitting Silver 1. Then later on you need to progress your GH on two missions that require a ton of silver medals. 

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but the mission chain is a pointless endeavor currently. The 2.12 arena adjustment isn't going to change that either. I don't imagine it's going to have much of an effect at all, at least not right away.

If there is one small glimmer of hope, they said that it is the first of many planned changes to Arena to try and flatten the curve in the lower ranks. How that plays out is anyone's guess, but if you enjoy the game aside from the mess that arena currently is I recommend just doing your 5 matches for the energy refill and focus on building your account. That way, if and when Plarium actually makes any effective changes to Arena, you will have the power to make progress.

So this is what gold IV looks like currently.  Before patch I was maybe 50/50 with this ridiculous team.  I have done all the refills today and won all but one.  

So this is what gold IV looks like currently.  Before patch I was maybe 50/50 with this ridiculous team.  I have done all the refills today and won all but one.  

And here is my great hall 

ClosedPoly said:

Which of these is most likely to get me to Silver and keep me there? 

Spirithost ---------> Immunity gear or Resist gear ----> SPD - RESIST - DEF - HP

Zelotah ------------> Shield gear ---------------------------> SPD - RESIST - HP - DEF

Mountain King ---> Immortal gear -----------------------> SPD - RESIST - C.RATE - C.DMG

Umbral ------------> Frost gear ----------------------------> SPD - ACC - RESIST - DEF

Full Rare Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Apothecary ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Spirithost --------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff

Warmaiden ------> AOE Def Break

Kael ----------------> AOE Nuker

Both teams should get you to Silver.

Both teams should keep you in Silver.

It all depends on how fast you can gear them + level them up.

kweidner1 said:

It is important to note my arbiter speed is 331 with no aura so add her aura it's over 400   I still get outrun.  It is not uncommon at all 

What does your 3 vs. 3 Arena Defense teams look like?

wolfi228 said:

I am must be doing something very seriously wrong in arena. I am in silver II, have been stuck there for a month. I have four legendaries, decent gear, full mastery tree on all four, and I’m getting face rolled by just rares and elites. I have 150 K team power and lose against teams with 75K team power. I’m completely lost.

your team is slow, you probably don't get a turn

The best advice I was given for arena is "Use what you have"

And I was given the same advice as what Player J suggest in building an arena team, but I see that there's so many teams set up like that,

 speed > dec defense > nuke

It's a mainstream team set up because

1. It works

2. It's easy

3. You'll almost always have the cham to set it up

But for me, since it's mainstream, then it would be better for me if I can exploit those kind of teams, their main weakness is that they're usually squishy, if you can have a chance to hit them they'll usually crumble like wet tissue. The question would be how to hit them when they can quickly hit your whole team for an insane amount of damage?

And since there's so much of these kind of teams, once I can figure out how to beat 1, I can beat loads of them hence more points.

There's 2 ways:

1. Out speed them

2. Survive their nuke

I chose route 2. Because to do route 1, everyone is doing it, and every F2P and low spender have the same resource, hence it would be harder to beat the same set up, your target if you choose route 1 is basically those who have the same set up but lower in speed or those who doesn't know about the set up.

And as I expected, it only took me less than a month to build such a team from scratch and break into and maintained silver 1.

Well as for now I won't be pushing for higher rank, because I want to build a CB team to break into Nightmare.

It is important to note my arbiter speed is 331 with no aura so add her aura it's over 400   I still get outrun.  It is not uncommon at all 

Player J said:

You people do realize rare & epic heroes can do the things I have said?

I gave a list of Legendary heroes because it is the heroes which came to my mind as I was writing.

I fight against Legendary Teams in Arena all the time.

It is easy for me to rattle off Legendary Heroes as examples because it is just the heroes I see majority of the time.

It doesn't mean you need to have a Legendary hero to have the same desired result.

And I can prove it.

Here is what I said -------> To beat Atom & Vladislav teams: 

• You just need a Classical Arena set up
• You want Speed Aura 
• You want Speed Buff 
• You want Turn Meter Filling 
• You want AOE Def Break & Weaken if Possible
• You want AOE Nuker

Full Rare Team - which can do the above things I have said:

Apothecary ------> Turn Meter Filling + Speed Buff

Spirithost --------> Speed Aura + Increase Attack Buff

Warmaiden ------> AOE Def Break

Kael ----------------> AOE Nuker

I'm sure you're absolutely right. The problem is, the Progression Missions place reaching Silver I as though it's a fairly simple task. The implication is that having a couple level 40's and a couple level 50's should be more than enough to get it done. The problem is that arena was broken and left that way for a really long time. Now Bronze is all jammed up with players with four 60th level champions on Arena defense, 100+ total team power, at least one Legendary each. 

The best solution for now is to just completely drop Arena from Progression Missions. There's really now way to gage how soon you can expect to reach any given point in arena. I'm sure when I've got more than two Legendaries to my name and lots of awesome champions, then I'm sure it'll be great fun battling in Arena. But Plarium's screw up has turned the entirety of Arena into end-game material. That means sticking it in the Progression Missions at all is a terrible idea. 

PS: I don't have Apothecary, so that's not going to help me. I don't have Kael or Athel either, but Galek should be enough to get it done. Maybe Plarium should make it possible to fuse Rare and Epic champions that are huge game changers like Apoth is. I'm not giving up yet. I am continuing to try to slog my way through Bronze. With High Katun, Warmaiden, Galek and Sandlashed/Relickeeper all level 60 with pretty good gear, you'd think I'd get there easily enough. Hasn't happened yet. We'll see if I get there. I'm not feeling particularly optimistic. 

OzzLee said:

The best advice I was given for arena is "Use what you have"

And I was given the same advice as what Player J suggest in building an arena team, but I see that there's so many teams set up like that,

 speed > dec defense > nuke

It's a mainstream team set up because

1. It works

2. It's easy

3. You'll almost always have the cham to set it up

But for me, since it's mainstream, then it would be better for me if I can exploit those kind of teams, their main weakness is that they're usually squishy, if you can have a chance to hit them they'll usually crumble like wet tissue. The question would be how to hit them when they can quickly hit your whole team for an insane amount of damage?

And since there's so much of these kind of teams, once I can figure out how to beat 1, I can beat loads of them hence more points.

There's 2 ways:

1. Out speed them

2. Survive their nuke

I chose route 2. Because to do route 1, everyone is doing it, and every F2P and low spender have the same resource, hence it would be harder to beat the same set up, your target if you choose route 1 is basically those who have the same set up but lower in speed or those who doesn't know about the set up.

And as I expected, it only took me less than a month to build such a team from scratch and break into and maintained silver 1.

Well as for now I won't be pushing for higher rank, because I want to build a CB team to break into Nightmare.

Exactly.  I got tired of losing the speed battle, so I quit trying to fight it and I built an All-Epic Arena Tank Team that is purpose-built to crush the Rare/Epic Speed-Nuke teams that you see all the time up into Gold. Combinations of Skullcrown, Gorgorab, Stag Knight, Tayrel, Zargala, Sinesha, Apothecary, Kael, Athel, Galek, Warmaiden…They are all built for Speed, Def Down & Nuke…but if you can tank the first wave, they are typically toast. 

Miscreated Monster's HP Aura and Thenasil in a Shield Set form the backbone of my team. Together, this makes my whole team durable enough to survive the Nuke Wave 90% of the time, and then it’s “Lights Out Kids, Time for the Grownups to Play”:

Thenasil (202 Speed): Oak-Skinned

Miscreated Monster (193 Speed): Lightning Storm (Team Lead for HP Aura) 

Stag Knight (191 Speed): Huntmaster

Valla (188 Speed): Crush the Wall (No need for Fortified Core because Thenasil has already boosted DEF)

Lights Out. Next?

This team was viable in Gold 3 and lower Gold 4 until the May patch when they rolled out Tag Arena. I do not know everything that went wrong w/Arena around that time, but it seems like there is a lot more to it than "increased competitiveness" because I went from Gold 4 to Gold 3 to Gold 1 in two weeks, and there is no way that that many players got that much better that quickly.  Three months later, just to stay in Gold 1/2, I field a Speed team with 3 Legos that is the best team I have ever had, but I only win about 35% of my Defense Battles and 65% of my Offense Battles.  That All-Epic Tank Team took me to Gold 3/4 in March and kept me in Gold 3/4 in April/May, but it is no longer viable in Gold 1...except for the battles where I face the Rare/Epic Speed-Nuke team.