Just saw this now!
A little bit of both, ever since we got out of beta I've learned the synergies a bit more, but outside of having terrible luck with RNG, which ones do I use? Do synergy ratings affect things during campaign and gauntlet? If so wouldn't it be more viable to use pets instead of wolves?

I love arena. It is honestly my favorite part of the game. It's absolutely not pure luck. If you play often enough you will learn the strategies that consistently succeed. I rarely take less than 1st or 2nd place. That cannot be just luck. There are many guides in the guide forum that offer advice on how to do it.

I play arena in one tab and campaign/work professions/do non-LW stuff in another. It also times nicely with farming corn/rice. I can also play it while watching TV.

Yes the rewards take a long time to come to fruition--but this game as whole is supposed to be played over months or years. It needs long-term goals besides just breeding projects.

@DerpFox

arena is like pokemon to me. there is RNG involved, but it is mostly skill, working with what you've got. like rabscuttle, i usually hit top 2 in arena, even against other players. there's an arena role in the discord for a reason! we arena regulars do exist, but to play with others you usually have to synchronize queueing up. you dislike it because you don't understand it. i'm glad it's here.

@SylphOfHeart

yes, synergies work in all LW combat. you should be using companions for desireable synergies & also because they don't eat food. i typically go into campaign with 1 wolf at a time & their companion for WW hunting, this is common practice because it's the most cost effective food-wise.

for both of you:

go-to abilities in arena

if i see a creature in the shop with this, it's generally a go-to. we all have team compositions we lean towards, & it's generally the same pool of the most viable creatures.

coordinate (special)- only allies attack next turn.

intersect (special)- taunts, dodges, & counters on the next attack vs an ally. 100% chance to crit.

pack mentality (passive)- for every ally with this ability, creatures with pack mentality have their attack boosted by 10%. so if you have 2 pack mentality users, they both get a 20% attack buff. 3 is 30%, etc.

also go for anything that stuns. there are a lot of different skills that do this, like backstab which stuns a random enemy for 1 turn right from the start of the match.

if you hover over the synergies, they tell you what they do. each synergy has different levels with effects that differ depending on how many tokens you have toward that synergy. tokens are those colore circles every creature has, they count towards synergies. example:

1 tactician token gives all your creatures 5% additional dodge chance. 3 tokens increases attack of all allies by 20%. 5 tokens (max tactician) gives you 50% extra crit chance. these effects stack, so if you max out tactician, you get the extra dodge, attack, AND crit.

synergies i build for: tactician, assailant, primal (poison), & healer. the others have their uses, but they are more niche, & over-investing in them will lead to you losing consistently. protector isn't bad at all, but in arena, there is a limit on how many turns a match can last (20?). if you hit that limit, both parties lose 5 points. this means stall (super bulky teams w little offense) is not viable. it's key to have enough offense to knock out your opponent before you run out of turns.

i could keep going, but i'll leave it at that. strategizing for arena goes pretty deep; i haven't even touched on building up interest or intentionally losing for paw streaks. lemme know if anything i've detailed needs clarifying! i'm gonna go play some arena now, haha.