I just want to preface this with ;
I adore most of this game. But I struggle immensely to enjoy both styles of the Arena.
The event has really forced me to have to interact with it, when I normally avoid the activity as it frustrates me.
FOMO and all making me kind of need to play it has only exasperated that frustration.

I am posting this to see is I am alone in that, and figure out what I'm missing, so thank you if you decide to share your thoughts here. Means a lot.

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While trying to do the normal arena to get an achievement, I encountered some bugs, so I recorded it. [warning I swear a couple times on accident lol and got ramble-y]
While doing so that frustration kicked in and I ended up ranting a bit, so it got kind of long, now I am unsure about putting it on the bug reports forum.
So instead you can find it here, if I need to I can share it on the other forum, maybe edited down-.

If you would rather not watch ; Tldw ;
I find the arena confusing and aggravating, and this event making me play it on repeat to grind tickets in my limited free-time only worsens those feelings,
to put it to better words I feel like I'm watching two AIs play chess against each other with pieces I chose , that only get upgraded if RNG allows it , and that's it, its just up to the dice gods or RNG whether more of my time will be taken by this or not, rather than some skill. This feeling is less bad in Iceruns' arena, as I'm not pressured by a round specific timer, but at the same time, I am still on a timer. The event as a whole's timer. Each day goes by that I haven't made progress feels like a waste, but when I do play its like a chore.

Even when I am winning , it rings hollow to me because it feels like I just got 'lucky' that round.

So I ask, what exactly am I missing? I would love to enjoy this minigame, especially if its gonna repeat like this on each seasonal event.
and am I the only one who feels that way about the arena? or the combat as a whole?

Thank you for reading- i hope this didnt come off as harsh, I am just burnt out and frustrated. Gonna try and cool off with a different game.

I'm going to put this up front, because I get into a long ramble about how I play Arena and try to make it work for me. I enjoy playing in Arena games with bots, because I enjoy the strategy involved. I like that I have to work with what I have, and it pushes me to try new team comps that I might not have otherwise considered. Sometimes a model I never thought was very good has turned out to be, in fact, very good simply because I typically don't go for that synergy. No game is the same, and when I can get a team going that has really good synergy and consistently wins in two to three rounds, it feels very good. I find it better than Gauntlet, because I can switch out models between rounds. And there's a definitive end point to Arena, where Gauntlet sometimes feels like a guaranteed loss and I just choose where I step away.

That being said, I can absolutely see where people might not enjoy Arena. Despite getting a lot of enjoyment out of it now, I didn't always like it. I struggled with figuring out how to play it, how to place consistently, and in general, feeling like I was just stuck. Your frustration is definitely valid, because I shared it for a long while.

You're not wrong, RNG plays heavily into Arena and in what it gives you as a selection. I've heard from others that in regular Arena, everyone shares the same pool, which can make it harder to get the pieces you need to upgrade. That's why I tend to prefer to play against bots.

Arena is definitely a game where I feel like you need a good understanding of how synergy works, and what abilities each model possesses. Thankfully, hovering over the icons beneath the synergy will tell you what the passive, active, and special abilities are for each model. You can hover over the synergy on the left side (at least it's that way on desktop) to see what bonus each level grants. The best ones so far seem to be Tactician and either Assailant or Rogue (you want to try to commit to either Assailant or Rogue). With Icerun Arena, this isn't always feasible.

So often, I've had to make do with what I feel are subpar models because that's all the Arena shop will give me - particularly Icerun Arena. I had a game where I very nearly lost, and this would have been a first for me since I first tried Arena out and had no clue what I was doing whatsoever.

In Icerun Arena, my main priority for models is the KS Krane. Even when it's not upgraded, it's still a very good one to have on your team. I pray for the day when we get an ability/synergy dupe for the Krane, but that is neither here nor there. Bracchus with the Krane is a good combination, if available. Snowloon is a good stand-in for the Krane. I will also go for the Alpine Deer, the Algeel, the Grimalkin, the Macauco, the Teufel, and/or the Gaudrey. All but the Teufel have Pack Mentality so if you have multiples of one of those listed, then they will deal an extra 10% damage. The Algeel hits hard, and isn't squishy, and the Teufel hits multiple targets while the Alpine Deer does with its special. The Macauco has a Tactician synergy which can help if you need to build on that.

Additional good models to get if the above aren't available - Kit, Jocol, Thrasher, Stork, Crystalapin, Furmus, and Rockbreaker Ox. The Torcine isn't bad if RNG is still being a pain, neither is the Mullvad.

BUT the biggest thing that will help is to get the models that you can upgrade to 3 star. In many cases the higher upgrades will trump lower upgrades, and it's rare for Arena bots to fully upgrade their teams. And emphasis having as many models on your team as you can over having them upgraded. You will lose to a team of lower grade models if they have 5 if your 2 or 3 fully upgraded models are against it.

RNG will still be a pain, though. It has been to me, giving me a lot of close calls where luck was the only reason I managed to not lose.

Sorry this turned out to be such a ramble... >.>

So, before I say anything else: I only found out halfway through the event you can skip to the end of battles with F5, so at least the painfully slow battles are avoidable. Especially great since I have only one screen, and the battle pauses when you switch to a different tab...

I used to despise the arena until I found a combo that works almost all the time. If you combine pack mentality with assailant you'll win a lot. Check the first little thumbnail (wolf head) in the row of three on the profile. Look for one that says pack mentality. If you can find pack mentality with 2 red assailant symbols at the top of the profile you're golden. One assailant works, too. Fill your team with as many of these darlings as you can. I've won with low stars of these fellows against three star enemies sometimes.

I think what makes the icerun arena worse in a way is that we just have to do SO MANY TASKS and they're not easily done 'naturally' but instead just combining stuff just to combine stuff to get the task done. Like I will wait at the last round just to spend my 100+ paws combining stuff to complete the task (especially the combine 60)
If we could do these with natural play and have them complete at the same time as the other arena tasks, it wouldn't be so bad.

And then there's the fact that the only tasks we have are the arena and campaign and they're basically the same 'mechanic'. I think these events should also include profession work so it's not SO mind numbing.

To @Delotha

Thank you for sharing, and thank all of you for the tips, waking up to read this definitely helped, the tips are very appreciated.
I feel a lot less like I'm crazy for feeling this way-

No need to apologize, I rambled in my original post too , lol.

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To @Dragora

yes, thank you. I find that they pause incredibly annoying, basically forcing me to watch. So thank you.
it's nice to know I'm not the only one who doesn't like it-

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To @Mystic

Thank you for the tips! Icerun arena has sorta helped me notice those two do work pretty well, I'll definitely try that combo more.

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To @Coop7011

YES, EXACTLY -
It basically forces you to focus on the one mechanic-
I would love if i could substitute ticket grinding with other activities.

I play in the same fashion as Dragora, and I think it also helps that there was a similar game when I played Hearthstone, though the methods and abilities were much clearer there than they are here.

In this thread I am finding out other people actually read the abilities of the units.... tbh I just try to put two units with toughness/dodge chance at the front and then scramble to make as many synergies as possible lol, all while refreshing the page to skip every battle

Honestly doing this and rushing to get my units to 3-star usually results in guaranteed win but yes it is very grindy, I'm definitely annoyed with the arena missions that can't be done in one game >_<

arena is like the game dota auto chess so youre totally right saying it seems like the computer is playing chess with the pieces you pick lol

To @WitchyWriter

Totally agree, regular arena is a nightmare, I've given up on getting the exclusives from it.
I've never played hearthstone, so I'm unfamiliar with it, but I guess that's why I've never been drawn into it lol.

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To @lilliful

lmao that's what I used to do, now I'm just following what ppl have offered to me as tips over time.

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To @Vyler

Glad my weird analogy made some sense lol.
Ive watched it lose in some dumb ways and man , i have no idea how else to describe it -