Arena 1 vs Arena 2

[eydarr]

Arena 1 took most of my castle age time, I had to focus most of my stamina and play time into ranking up. Arena two just feels boring.

I love war. Since it has been implemented I have been focusing on getting geared up as much as possible. I thought war was great and was really enjoying it already. So yesterday when I saw that arena 2 was going to focus on it, I was thrilled!

Yet now I am just bored. There is only two ways of getting arena points, waiting or paying for them. Invades, duels and monsters is just a small bonus. Even if you were to pay for Arena points, you get around 20 battles before your out again.

I love war, I find it much more interesting than dueling and invading. Yet arena 1 was just plain more fun for me so far.

I know it has just begun. I understand that tokens even the playing field for pure PvPers who have little stamina and felt arena 1 was more inclined for high stamina players who chained weak targets. But at least I could sit down and play for a good 30 min before being out of stamina. Arena 2 has little excitement due to the meager time I get to jump in and do anything.

[Bloodrayne]

I agree, drop the tokens for stamina, up the exp. Or if they keep the tokens do a way with AT refills and make it a fair fight for all. But will they?

[smokeytripod]

i dont mind the new arena as much now....only thing that annoys me is cc players can just buy arena tokens....and im not much of a fan of the reinfocement for more token storage....just keep em at like 150 and a timer of 5mins for 1 so it charges like stam n all tht

[eydarr]

The only argument against buying tokens is this.

. People could buy stamina refills for arena 1. But it is true that at least you got full stamina refill upon leveling up. Either way in the end it didn't effect me getting in the top 5%.

[Bloodrayne]

I'm seeing nothing but brawlers lol! I have a friend who is level 759 and is vanguard and he has over 1,600pts already!!! He could only finish Hero in last arena! I made legend and I was a low level legend with limited stamina but this time I think its out of my reach! Goodluck to you all, I'll collect my crap helm at the end of it! just a real shame that the playing feel is nowhere near fair!!!

[Darwin_was_right]

The only argument against buying tokens is this.

. People could buy stamina refills for arena 1. But it is true that at least you got full stamina refill upon leveling up. Either way in the end it didn't effect me getting in the top 5%.

I like that argument, you should get an Arena Token refill on level up as well

[imoutofnames]

I didn't really like wasting all my stamina for about a month on the Arena last time but this is WAY worse. Sure PvPers with lowish stam complained. But I would like to believe a good majority of them made it to Legend. (Me being a mixed class making it to Legend) This on the other hand is just terrible. Why didn't the devs just give everyone 1 arena point for free with a recharge time of 1 second after the arena ends so it guarantees all CC people the highest status.

It is practically what they are doing now. Thank god I am a defensive build so most people my level will bounce off. At least I may stand somewhat of a chance at ranking up. I feel sorry for the glass cannons without a CC to use. All their points will be lost just as fast as they can gain them.


Bring back stam usage please. At least with that people can get high ranks based off of their accounts ability and not their credit cards spending ability.

EDIT: I think we all know and understand there is no way to stop a credit card player from gaining an advantage and we have to accept that but it should NOT be the only way to succeed.

[Str8up-FUBAR]

I would say that even though people could CC stamina in arena 1 there were many people who had small amounts that needed to to survive ... with this format these guys can just pay for advantage beyond everyone else since unlike stamina we do not have the luxury of having 500 vs the next guy who may have 50 ... I think there should be a refill at level ups but I also feel like there should be a limit of how many cc refills one can buy for this format ... maybe 5 or 10 max ...

[adam ahman]

Bring back stam usage please. At least with that people can get high rank based off of their accounts ability and not their credit cards spending ability
.
I agree to the 10th power!!! And I'm one who uses a "cc"!

[TDG]

The only argument against buying tokens is this.

. People could buy stamina refills for arena 1. But it is true that at least you got full stamina refill upon leveling up. Either way in the end it didn't effect me getting in the top 5%.

Thats true. CC users win no matter what happens =/

[Kerowyn]

Also agree with Adam and the above. And also a CC user. Who has no plans to refill Arena Tokens from the Oracle. Sorry, that's just a step too far for me.

When a game, any game, starts being designed more around the generation of income than it is around enjoyment and playability, I'm going to start losing interest. I can't help it. I play games because I enjoy them, and when I stop enjoying them, I stop playing. This isn't enjoyable, even for someone who has the means to take full advantage of it.

Because it's not a fair advantage. Any general I have from an Alpha chest that I used purchased FP to get, a day-1 newbie could also luck out and get with their initial 20FP. Any drops I've gotten from a monster that I FP-refilled to kill, someone who did 1/3rd the damage I did could also get (and frequently does get - overkill on a monster definitely doesn't guarantee good drops, at all). Any level or rank I've reached while refilling with FP, anyone else can also reach in time. But this - this, not everyone can do. Nor should they have to. In this, time and patience will not achieve what cash can achieve, because there isn't the time.

And it does not seem fair to me, at all.

[Amanojaku]

Also agree with Adam and the above. And also a CC user. Who has no plans to refill Arena Tokens from the Oracle. Sorry, that's just a step too far for me.

When a game, any game, starts being designed more around the generation of income than it is around enjoyment and playability, I'm going to start losing interest. I can't help it. I play games because I enjoy them, and when I stop enjoying them, I stop playing. This isn't enjoyable, even for someone who has the means to take full advantage of it.

Because it's not a fair advantage. Any general I have from an Alpha chest that I used purchased FP to get, a day-1 newbie could also luck out and get with their initial 20FP. Any drops I've gotten from a monster that I FP-refilled to kill, someone who did 1/3rd the damage I did could also get (and frequently does get - overkill on a monster definitely doesn't guarantee good drops, at all). Any level or rank I've reached while refilling with FP, anyone else can also reach in time. But this - this, not everyone can do. Nor should they have to. In this, time and patience will not achieve what cash can achieve, because there isn't the time.

And it does not seem fair to me, at all.

I approve of this post!

[hetejorn]

LOL, I just lost 6x 15 Arena Points... I had only 5 left... How's that possible?!

[smokeytripod]

Also agree with Adam and the above. And also a CC user. Who has no plans to refill Arena Tokens from the Oracle. Sorry, that's just a step too far for me.

When a game, any game, starts being designed more around the generation of income than it is around enjoyment and playability, I'm going to start losing interest. I can't help it. I play games because I enjoy them, and when I stop enjoying them, I stop playing. This isn't enjoyable, even for someone who has the means to take full advantage of it.

Because it's not a fair advantage. Any general I have from an Alpha chest that I used purchased FP to get, a day-1 newbie could also luck out and get with their initial 20FP. Any drops I've gotten from a monster that I FP-refilled to kill, someone who did 1/3rd the damage I did could also get (and frequently does get - overkill on a monster definitely doesn't guarantee good drops, at all). Any level or rank I've reached while refilling with FP, anyone else can also reach in time. But this - this, not everyone can do. Nor should they have to. In this, time and patience will not achieve what cash can achieve, because there isn't the time.

And it does not seem fair to me, at all.

+1 to that

[chefjamesscott]

YIKES

I can see right now I am in deep trouble with this version of arena

Getting worked over hard by people and constantly at 0 points will be interesting to see if I get anything out of this meatslugging fest

[H-Slayer]

I feel sorry for the glass cannons without a CC to use. All their points will be lost just as fast as they can gain them.

Someone who feels bad for glass cannons? With the ability to hide and take out the only weakness of a glass cannon (in PVP), I am glad to see that there is something the devs did to take that away.

As for CC users, they are like a necessary evil. Without them there would be no game. With them there isn't balance. Not the best of choices, but that's what we have.

I figure an unbalanced game is better than no game at all. And if you feel that no game is better, there is the option of not playing.

[H-Slayer]

YIKES

I can see right now I am in deep trouble with this version of arena

Getting worked over hard by people and constantly at 0 points will be interesting to see if I get anything out of this meatslugging fest

You already got a 15/15 helmet. Victory!

But seriously, let it die down for a few days and get different ranks out instead of people just randomly attacking and I'm sure you will be able to get some decent gear.

[chipbourg]

I have run through 2 sets of stamina when I leveled, I have not recieved a single token drop, is antone else in the same boat, and what is going on.

[eydarr]

Someone who feels bad for glass cannons? With the ability to hide and take out the only weakness of a glass cannon (in PVP), I am glad to see that there is something the devs did to take that away.

As for CC users, they are like a necessary evil. Without them there would be no game. With them there isn't balance. Not the best of choices, but that's what we have.

I figure an unbalanced game is better than no game at all. And if you feel that no game is better, there is the option of not playing.

I am still not seeing how glass cannons are at that much of a disadvantage.

At the very least they can change their war council from the middle spot to a 3 point slot. A net 2 point loss isn't that much of a disadvantage.

[eydarr]

I just wanted to also mention that.

When deciding if I wanted to waste all of my stamina for a month to get the best equipment from Arena 1, I had to compare it against what I could get spending stamina against monsters. In the end I decided that monsters will always be around and the arena rewards might never come back. Luckily, the arena dates were shortened and by the end I had so many points I could go back to monster hunting for the last week. When compared to Arena 2, Tokens cost nothing. I am sure many people will spend nothing and still end up getting in the top 5%. So this arena will get them a few extra exp, and a few new items at no cost to them.

I am sure this is how the Devs are viewing it. Arena 2 has no real net loss to the player yet many possible rewards for playing. And figured most people will enter and play for that fact alone. It goes both ways I guess. I do see their point on why that did it this way. It seems like they did listen to the players a bit on arena 1. Maybe they will fix this by arena 3.

Make it so you can't chain the same person more than 5 times. Make getting token points quicker. Take away the ability to purchase them. Or more of an elimination style event.

After a certain amount losses you are kicked out. You can not chain at all.

[Kennyli.nz]

The majority of the CA players are not cc based. Therefore, pure pvp build and monster hunter build can still compete for the top rewards.

The end of day, CA still need money to run, so cc players should get some sort of advantage in arena. Because in battle they have not match for the pure pvp players.

[Jehann]

The majority of the CA players are not cc based. Therefore, pure pvp build and monster hunter build can still compete for the top rewards.

The end of day, CA still need money to run, so cc players should get some sort of advantage in arena. Because in battle they have not match for the pure pvp players.

Have you seen the APs needed for each rank just since the Arena opened? I've won every battle so far, and I'm still a Brawler, with well under 1000 APs and no hope of catching up at this point.

They may as well just sell the top prizes directly for FPs. It would be more honest.

[mydragoon]

i'm a regular & average player. i dun use CC. i did stupid things (wasted) with FPs. i'm still learning...

but i'm happy with this new Arena... why?

i dun have 1000s of stamina points (of course one can argue that regen time is the same). so in the previous one, i easily lose out -- especially the last few minutes when everyone starts to then rake up more Arena points. i saw my rank drop 1-2 levels in the last 5mins during Arena 1.

with Arena 2, yes... CC players will win coz they probably have the best generals. but i'm not sure how many CC players there are...

also, there's always one slot for yourself... if you're confident with your own build and placed yourself in the 5pts slot... well, that's 5pts in hand already.

i think Arena 2 is quite fair. the number of attacks you get is about the same for everyone -- 'about' because when u lose a battle in arena, you lose some arena tokens (i find this to be not so good -- imagine someone getting perpetually chained -- does that mean he or she will have 0 tokens all the time?!?).

i've not really fully understood the mechanics yet... like how many tokens can we keep, lose, etc... but i think its fun. :)

plus... 501 armies can't just steamroll their way through... thought that is what i used to do back in Arena 1. it was 90% of the time a win when u just invade. :)

[revdjweb]

i don't mind that people can buy token refills from the oracle. that just means won't feel an ounce of remorse when i arena chain some player who clearly earned their top tier status through money rather than merit.
it's only a game. if someone wants to spend real money to try to get a virtual reward so be it. i don't feel that it reflects upon anything i am doing in castle age as a player who only buys fps once in a blue moon.
so far i have done about 150 single stamina duels since the arena began and three times it has rewarded me with an extra token so the drop rate is very appropriately low, maybe even 1 in a 100 low (and i've just been fortunate).

[Jehann]

From the Arena rank sticky:

My friend is a cc player doesn't want his name stated but he is a hero with 1,375 points

Still think you can keep up without purchasing tokens?

[mydragoon]

Have you seen the APs needed for each rank just since the Arena opened? I've won every battle so far, and I'm still a Brawler, with well under 1000 APs and no hope of catching up at this point.

They may as well just sell the top prizes directly for FPs. It would be more honest.

i think things will start to normalise after 2-3 days... like in Arena 1, during the first 24 hours, it was hard to see... but after a while, you start to see rise in ranks. after all, all the rankings are based on the % of participants... so whether its 1000 or 10000, if everyone's getting about the same, then its based on %. but of course CC players may start to go up faster and higher than others since they would have purchased good generals and lots of Arena Tokens.

then again, do you think top 2% of the arena participants will all be CC players? or you think there's even 2% of arena participants who are CC players?

[RAUKO]

...and here We are.
Devs listened to forum once again.
"We don't want stamina builds to go easy to top rank in next Arena." "Limit stam usage."
Is it better? Oh yes. Now no stat is important.

[Slaytanic]

Oh well so the Castle Age devs figured out how to make money from the Arena. I'll just duke it out and take the free stuff whatever level I end up. I was legend last time, this time probably not. I'm not spending any money on tokens.

[mydragoon]

Oh well so the Castle Age devs figured out how to make money from the Arena. I'll just duke it out and take the free stuff whatever level I end up. I was legend last time, this time probably not. I'm not spending any money on tokens.

well... devs have to sometimes make money... if all players are like us (at least me -- i never spend any $), then they'd have to close CA soon.

so, once in a while, we need to also appreciate the CC players who help keep the game alive. and one way to reward them -- let them win in Arena. :)

[Cakes]

I think a bunch of us Arena 1 Legends will be unable/unwilling to upgrade it to Arena 2 CC Legends :p

[jcoultas]

How are we supposed to add people as reinforcements and what do we gain from it? Every time I try it to add people it sends me to the invite page with no further instructions.

[chefjamesscott]

I think a bunch of us Arena 1 Legends will be unable/unwilling to upgrade it to Arena 2 CC Legends :p

yeh no doubt :cool:

I am over the initial blow me thoughts about this arena format

Will just have to duke it out as best possible, can't believe the amount of gold I lost by forgetting to bank it :eek: over 2 mill per loss hahahahhaha

[mydragoon]

I think a bunch of us Arena 1 Legends will be unable/unwilling to upgrade it to Arena 2 CC Legends :p

to me... the minute you sign up for Arena, you already win something for free. i dun have to do anything and i still get something. so, either way... i'm ok.

[Drake1000]

I think a bunch of us Arena 1 Legends will be unable/unwilling to upgrade it to Arena 2 CC Legends :p

got ot agree with you, I got ledgend last time because I could invade, but this new arena favours the Chest Heroes too much for me to keep up, so I know i won't be getting top rank this time around (not unless I get a lot of FP and find a high rank target I can pound, neither of which I'm expecting to happen)

[Kerowyn]

The majority of the CA players are not cc based. Therefore, pure pvp build and monster hunter build can still compete for the top rewards.

The end of day, CA still need money to run, so cc players should get some sort of advantage in arena. Because in battle they have not match for the pure pvp players.
Wanna bet? I'm a CC player. My battle list since the start of the Arena this afternoon has been nothing but level 200-300 players. Highest I have seen so far level-wise has been about 353.

I'm level 626 as of a little while ago. That means I've got 1365 more skill points, at the minimum, than the highest-level player I've yet seen on any of my lists has. And that is only what I have on them via levels, it's not taking into account that I've also finished all my demi-prayers, and have finished all but the Ivory City quests and a couple of Kingdom quests thru level 4.

At least right now, the saving grace that any lower-level player in my list has is that I'm not refilling Arena Tokens, and don't plan to because I feel it's too unfair an advantage. So none of them are getting hit more than once (and I would not be hitting them at all, except that they're all the list will give me to hit). But I definitely could be hitting them as often as I wished, by visiting the Oracle and refilling my tokens repeatedly.

And leaving the level disparity aside - what you're not realizing about the Arena is that your rank is only based on the total points you have, vs what other people have. It's not a set figure like BP and PvP ranks. Even if my list was purely people my level and above, all I'd need to do is find a few I can beat, and chain them relentlessly by refilling my tokens. I don't have to compete with any 'true PvP builds' to rank up, I just have to get more total points than others do. And as we saw from the first Arena, you can build up a massive point disparity by refilling, that no 'true' PvP build could possibly hope to catch up with unless they're also refilling, or getting an equal number of defensive wins. And since people don't tend to chain others when they're losing to them, it's not nearly as easy to get as many defensive wins as someone refilling can get from active attack victories.

It was that refilling that we (or at least, I) thought the tokens were going to address. But if you can refill them as well, the refillers now have a huge advantage over anyone who isn't refilling. Right now, with no refill and no tokens earned from any monster battles or PvP, I have 15 wins, zero losses, and 375 total points. Hero level is already nearly 1k above that. So, even with zero losses, I'm still just at Brawler and already 1000 points behind...not because I can't win battles, but only because I haven't taken any refills.

It does matter, a lot. And unless they change it, you'll see for yourself how much - especially if you're in that 200-400 level range. Most of the serious CC players are going to outlevel you by enough that your build will be irrelevant, same as my build is to anyone I outlevel by that much, or who outlevels me by that much (unless they have just put everything into energy for fast leveling).

[Kerowyn]

then again, do you think top 2% of the arena participants will all be CC players? or you think there's even 2% of arena participants who are CC players?
I think the top 10% will be CC players. Pretty much anyone over level 500 right now is going to be a CC player, unless they have dumped every stat point into energy and have also been playing for at least a year (and I'm not sure you could do it even then, without ever having taken refills).

[milk1620]

I just wanted to also mention that.

When deciding if I wanted to waste all of my stamina for a month to get the best equipment from Arena 1, I had to compare it against what I could get spending stamina against monsters. In the end I decided that monsters will always be around and the arena rewards might never come back. Luckily, the arena dates were shortened and by the end I had so many points I could go back to monster hunting for the last week. When compared to Arena 2, Tokens cost nothing. I am sure many people will spend nothing and still end up getting in the top 5%. So this arena will get them a few extra exp, and a few new items at no cost to them.

I am sure this is how the Devs are viewing it. Arena 2 has no real net loss to the player yet many possible rewards for playing. And figured most people will enter and play for that fact alone. It goes both ways I guess. I do see their point on why that did it this way. It seems like they did listen to the players a bit on arena 1. Maybe they will fix this by arena 3.

Make it so you can't chain the same person more than 5 times. Make getting token points quicker. Take away the ability to purchase them. Or more of an elimination style event.

After a certain amount losses you are kicked out. You can not chain at all.

Very well said!

[Iswald]

In arena 1, a CC player could have 500, 1000 or more stamina which could be easily refilled by the oracle. In arena 2, the token limit drops that significantly. The highest token amount I've read so far is only 190. So, in order to benefit as much as the first time around, CC players will have to spend more real money.

Also, even if you are level 1000 vs a level 500 player, that primarily only affects just one slot. Yes? The other six depend upon which generals and equipment you've managed to collect. When war was first introduced, there was one player who beat me in the 5 pt slot, yet still lost because my generals beat his.

There were many duelists the first time around who did well attacking, yet they were utterly crushed by even weak player who had large armies. Now we are all fighting with the same number of heroes and equipment.

There are ways to improve the arena still, but it does seem more balanced this time.

[mydragoon]

There are ways to improve the arena still, but it does seem more balanced this time.
yup, i think its more balanced but still i think CC players have advantage in the sense that they may have better generals to choose from. i'd think CC players have ALL the generals that can be had in the game.

and if these CC players had done many rounds of stamina refills to attack monsters and gather loots, then very likely they'll have good gears.

but other than that... any average players... it's mainly strategy now....
* where are you placing your generals?
* will you put yourself on the 5pts slot?
* depending on what generals you have, some may not be useful when you're attacking...

so many variations. and yes, i prefer Arena 2 over Arena 1. In Arena 1, i noticed its mostly the ones with the largest army (501) that does very well.

[x3froggi]

I'm level 179. And all i see are level 200+ heros/gladiators. All below 200 are all brawlers. Giving me crap APs. I'm a gladiator now.

[Iswald]

yup, i think its more balanced but still i think CC players have advantage in the sense that they may have better generals to choose from. i'd think CC players have ALL the generals that can be had in the game.

and if these CC players had done many rounds of stamina refills to attack monsters and gather loots, then very likely they'll have good gears.


Indeed. I saw a level 256 or so vanguard with what looked like all the heroes. Also saw that he had good equipment to go with it. I suppose if people are willing to buy an alpha vanguard rank, there's not much to be done about it (having seen similar behavior in other games.)


but other than that... any average players... it's mainly strategy now....
* where are you placing your generals?
* will you put yourself on the 5pts slot?
* depending on what generals you have, some may not be useful when you're attacking...

so many variations. and yes, i prefer Arena 2 over Arena 1. In Arena 1, i noticed its mostly the ones with the largest army (501) that does very well.

It's been suggested, since war was introduced, that the heroes are less important than the equipment. In War of the Red Plains, there may be a multiplier for the heroes. Is that likely for standard war combats?

[Iswald]

I'm level 179. And all i see are level 200+ heros/gladiators. All below 200 are all brawlers. Giving me crap APs. I'm a gladiator now.

So why are you attacking brawlers when there are heroes and gladiators to fight? I have some time, so I'm patiently waiting for larger targets to come along. The level isn't as important as you seem to think.

In the first round of the arena, you were given a list of players with half of those much lower in level than you and the other have much higher in level. The lower levels were pretty much all brawlers while the upper levels had a variety from brawler up to legend. The only people I could attack for points were those with 75 - 125 more levels than I had.

You should try battling with those who have a higher level, you could be surprised that you are able to beat many of them. Even at the start of this second arena, with everyone at brawler, I went through the list looking for those who were higher level than I to attack. It seemed much more sporting that way. So far, I haven't lost. I'm certain that will change. :) Kind of sad, though, if you can only win against lower level players... :(

[x3froggi]

I attacked a lot of gladiators. Kept on losing. It's not easy.

[Deltamon]

Haha, well atleast this time the Arena actually feels somewhat more like an Arena.. Seeing that I managed to lose actually an 2 ranks higher guy who was 30 levels lower than me and managed to beat me..

And bit later I found a 40 level higher Hero who I easily beated..

So there's still chance for both of those: Weak credit card warriors who get grinded by rest of us.. And the genuinely strong guys just ranking up bit slower ^^

Well so far I'm enjoying the Arena way more than the season I, and very thankful for the 5 minute timer with 150 max, seeing that my energy is also 150.. ^^

But hey, it's a very good strategy from the game Dev's to actually make the Arena Tokens separate system (forcing CC warriors to support the game more, I might buy some refils later too :P), so the powerlevelers don't have so much advantage over the PvP'ers, like in the last season..

[Deltamon]

I attacked a lot of gladiators. Kept on losing. It's not easy.

And yes, definetly the quality of players is lot higher than in the Season I.. I'm a PvP'er focused player, and I'm loving the fact that it's WAR based system, even if I still don't have the quite top gear, but atleast I'm not the worst neither.. + I always get free 5 points from myself there ^^