Ok, I have enjoyed the Arena levels, but in cases where I, and anyone else, fell, the Arena battle bouts seem rough, which is natural, considering the bouts get longer and tougher each time we win them.
So, anyone who's been through them, could you specify which gear & weapons are essential to surviving their bouts, themes included?
This discussion post may be also for those who haven't experienced these levels yet. Thoughts?
Yes, but just to be sure, it's essential to know which gear & weapons are best to survive against the status' themes' monsters. For instance, what is needed to survive Slimy Showdown's monsters, & Beastly Brawl's monsters?
I've spent hours setting up level & mission loadout guide pages, you know, so, the least anyone can do to help out is to provide information to fill the pages in.
Each player has their own play style. I guess I can tell you what works for me.
Combuster/Acheron is usually with me, mainly for torrents that show up, especially if they are rockets.
Also I bring either Dark Briar Barrage or Dark Retribution with me, to kill many monsters fast. I sometimes run these two bombs only depending on level. Sometimes I'm too lazy to aim. DR can kill torrents real fast.
If you get a curse vial save it for final wave of third room, stand in the middle to get all mob gathered there and throw it at them. You can do the same with poison vials on gremlin heavy levels because menders are annoying and poison will reverse the effect of their healing.
Gear choice for arenas is really whatever weapon you enjoy the most. Arenas are nice in that they are very simple and just throw a bunch of enemies at you in predictable patterns, so almost anything can perform pretty well (except maybe the old iron slug, but thankfully the new one is fantastic against crowds)
I personally use bombs a lot in arenas, particularly Dark Briar Barrage and Nitronome, as their large coverage of space makes it easy to hit a lot of enemies at once thanks to the arena's relatively small size.
Some arenas have enemies that are more difficult to beat with bombs (Greavers), so for these I would bring a sword with a wide swing arc and decent knockback, such as flourish or sudaruska.
Of course, if you have friends who also have bombs, then you can just stack them on top of each other and murder everything that dares to come into range.
Generally speaking, arenas have a few preset challenges for you to focus on. I build my loadouts to handle these 3 things in this order-
1.) The 12 elite + 2 menders wave (last wave)
2.) The 8 turret wave
3.) The spam waves
To solve the 12 elites, you have to look at which elites they'll be. If it's a gremlin or construct or slime or beast arena, it'll most likely be mecha knights, thwackers or demos, but you really don't know which of those 3 it'll be because it's sort of random like that, so you really have to just bring a good shadow item or mix of haze bombs. Examples include-
-Ash of Agni + Venom Veiler
-Dark Retribution
-Grim repeater or other varied shadow/elemental guns, especially mixmaster
-Shadow/normal/elemental tortofists
-Acheron or Obsidian Edge
-Vortex bombs paired with acheron/slug/winter grave/whatever
Of course if it's undead or fiend you'll want to prepare for grievers, which are more limiting on what solves them easily, but the gist of it is to just hide under dark briar barrage
-Dark Briar Barrage- Video
-Blitz needle
-Flourishes
The turret wave is going to be either construct, slime or undead, and so is answered with elementa. To tell which it's most likely to be use your imagination- beast/slime = slime, undead/fiend = undead, construct/gremlin = construct. I believe there is a chance that on say, a gremlin arena, you could encounter slime turrets, which is why I recommend just going with elemental damage. Examples of how to solve this include-
-Elemental handguns, all work
-Elemental swords, mostly warmaster rocket hammer and brandishes
-Dark retribution, if you're betting on no howlitzers
-Ash of Agni can also take out turrets, though is slow.
Lastly, you can bring a tech for the spam waves that come before it. This is just whatever weapon you have room for. Noteable techs include-
-Torpor Tantrum (when not against construct)
-Various swords, which can assassinate menders
-Voltaic Tempest
And that's about it.
That's starting to go well. Now, what Helmets, Armor, and Shields do you strongly suggest in certain Battle Arena themes, along with Battle Sprites & Trinkets?
Well to begin with, I wrote a guide about choosing armor- http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/116352
To paraphrase it, "just get chaos". It even starts out defensive as magic cloak, then when you get the skills to pay the bills lets you trade in (one half at a time) your defenses for lovely offense bonuses.
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As for trinkets- penta heart trinkets or "pentas" are the current OP trinket that's easily accessible to you. If you stack those, you will win. If you have a vitapod that's like +6 already you may wish to go for either ctr if you don't have that maxed, damage if you don't have that maxed, or ASI. It's really dependent on your build, as there are "ASI weapons" and "CTR weapons"- blitz needs ctr; warmaster rocket hammer needs asi. It's an obvious difference, and all of them benefit from damage.
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As for shields, there are basically 3 shields in the game.
Omega shell = standard = good everywhere
Specialized shield = better than standard = better than omega shell against what it defends against, worse otherwise
Swift strike buckler/Barb thorn shield = trade your shield for MOAR OFFENSES GO GO GO
Optimally, you will craft swiftstrike first, then omega shell for when the going gets tougher because defensive shields are REAALLLL nice and then you'll branch out to every other shield in the game, depending on what you want a nicer shield for. If you're smart though, you'll just keep omega and go for weapons and never branch out. This is the most efficient route.
If you use swords mainly you can go for barb thorn in place of omega shell.
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As for battle sprites, you probably can't just pull one of those out of thin air to join you, but when you have time to-
Seraphynx = generate hearts = INFINITE POWER
Maskeraith = kill menders on final waves easily, amplify power (someday) and hide = INCREDIBLY GOOD
Drakon = spam the fireball or damage things in a crowd or (someday) buff the team = YOU CAN USE THIS IF YOU WANT
As for their perk, it's best to go for either status if you're negative on that and can become not negative, or more health because the game isn't balanced around health gains very well and those are flat out over powered.
Status themes will always be consistent. You won't find Freeze monsters in a Thunderfist Arena. Do keep in mind, however, that Slimy Showdown Arenas seem to spawn a lot of Mechaknights, and Beastly Brawls tend to contain fair amounts of Gremlins. Beyond that, gear selection is just down to picking the correct defensive gear and the right weapons for the monsters you'll be facing.