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I just started really gettin' in to PvP. I think it's fun despite the...erm, clunkiness? Of it.
What are the best arm and leg units to match up with the shine rear unit?
Also...advice for how to play bow in arena, whenever I get stuck with this weapon I tend to just be dead weight, and it seems the PA choice is final nemesis which sorta made me eye roll a little bit...
Bow is actually pretty good, but it's probably the hardest weapon to use. Normal shots hit for 20%~35% of your opponent's health for hit, and if you favor sneak attacks, charge shot kills instantly at close range. Last Nemesis is good for disrupting targets and keeping them on their toes, but if you're lucky enough to get someone to move close to you, it's basically hitscan at medium to close range. Don't ever try to contest Rifle, since if they see you, they'll just murder you with One Point or Piercing Shell. Everything else is fair game, especially Jet Boots, since you can ice a pesky Gran Wave user with a properly-timed charge shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zipzo
One extra note is that Last Nemesis has the longest range of any Ranged attack in Arena, so if you use keyboard/mouse setup, you can go TPS and try sniping people with it. It's definitely difficult, but you can pull off some neat trick plays if you manage it.
Just addition, pay attention to this, it has range so don't shoot from end to end. Pretty much half the map.Quote:
Originally Posted by Altiea
Extra addition, the hitbox of hit is actually really bad horizontally, but fairly big vertically. What that means is that you should aim at their heads since it will also catch them jumping. aiming at body can miss jumpers, or even collide with ground too early due to how hitboxes don't always correspond to model. (damn you mini rappies and Toros/Kuros)Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveCZ
Also while charge shot is good for sneak attacks, if you mainly play bow the sniping way, it's incredibly useful as an anti-flank since unlike normal shot it also flinches. Just take a peek around you for the people that might be fed up with your sniper shenanigans and charge a shot just as a deterrent if you see someone coming around the corner (it's a fairly good one since a charge shot is insta-kill if you use it on a boots user, so the guy that might have thought it is a good idea to gran-wave/strike gust you has to think twice. It's also fairly good damage against sword, although you probably won't win this duel due to it not insta-killing them until lv3 bow)
Guess what, this thread's coming back from the dead due to the new update!
With this update, SEGA is making the jump to a faster, more chaotic Battle Arena meta. The Sword and Rifle weapons have been removed in favor of the new Partizan and Twin Machineguns. Some existing tools have also seen buffs to their utility. This is just going to be a quickie overview, so don't expect too much.
Partizan is the new replacement for Sword, and comes armed with the Assault Buster PA. Fast and light, the Partizan has many qualities of its predecessor: High HP, a Guard, and a powerful kill button PA. The lattermost option is the aforementioned Assault Buster, upon which the player charges up and stabs forward with the Partizan. Assault Buster is many things, most of which take the good and bad qualities of Nova Strike and Rising Edge and add them up. Assault Buster has very, very high damage, on par with Nova Strike, but won't score OHKOs against other Partizan wielders unless it's a JA. It has great reach, on par with Rising Edge, but almost no vertical or horizontal hitbox otherwise, meaning that hitting moving targets is suddenly a lot more difficult. This is compounded with Assault Buster's brief moment of startup, which makes it impossible to rush in face-first into an enemy and expect to kill them. It overall feels significantly more balanced than Sword, but it's still just the early days, so we'll see where it goes.
Twin Machineguns is the new replacement for Assault Rifle. Where Assault Rifle was a solid ranged support weapon, TMGs swaps it out for a high damage, high velocity ranged offense weapon. TMGs may honestly be the real game changer here. Their claim to fame is their Photon Art, Satellite Aim, which functions very differently to its main game counterpart. Unlike the main game, Satellite Aim is a long-range ganking PA that hits for 80~90 damage per tick and stunlocks on hit; compounded with a full PP bar, you can send even a Partizan wielder from 550 to 0 in just a few clicks before they can even react. It doesn't have knockback though, and chaining your Sat Aims is a bit clunkier than normal, not to mention the fact that you are unable to move while shooting, which opens you up to a flanked enemy attack. In addition, access to Stylish Roll gives them solid aerial mobility, despite nerfs to duration and i-frames. This allows them to stay on the run even in the heat of combat.
Bow received a pretty major buff by way of buffed charge speeds and vastly increased range on its normal shots, which now pushes it from a melee punisher to a full-on ranged support, taking Assault Rifle's place. Boosted charge speed on normal means you can now safely toss out charge shots with less of a chance of getting murdered while your charge is unloaded, and it's now a reliable option for guarding rainbow due to high damage on hit and ability of charge shot to hit 20 meters in front of you (you can now cover the length of mid in Volcanoes with your charge shots, for instance).
WOOOO
Nice overview. You might add the fact that Final Nemesis saw a noticeable startup and recovery reduction, making it more efficient at killing people while staying alive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Altiea
This thread is back from the dead just in time for the new Battle Arena update! As usual, quickie overview, but it should be enough to cover the basics.
First, let's deal with the elephant in the room: the new map! Forest: Rain is a new take on the Forest map with a few new gimmicks! While the layout is somewhat similar to Forest, there is a stream of water running across the left side of each Union's side of the field, right next to the spawn point. This is handy for getting back into the action after a respawn, or taking your enemies by surprise if you're on the opposing side of the map. The other major gimmick is the killer lightning strikes! At specific time intervals, a large lightning marker will appear beneath the feet of specific players, although it is much more likely to target players with high amounts of points. After a certain time, the lightning will stop tracking, and in a few seconds, a big bolt of lightning strikes the area indicated by the marker. Anyone standing in it dies instantly! Either stay away from your teammates if you have it, or try to lure unwitting enemies into getting hit by it. If you don't have the lightning, stay away from the people who do. Forest: Rain also has a few minor changes to geography, like the much shorter platform on the left side of the stage and one of the blocks in center getting edited.
Dual Blades are one of the two new melee weapons. Ironically, the way people handle them, they're treated less like melee weapons with a ranged backup option and more like ranged weapons with a melee backup option. Dual Blades have two tools at their disposal. Immortal Dove is their Photon Art, which has different behavior depending on whether you're on the ground or in the air. Using the air version drops you to the ground for one hit of high damage, while using the ground version does two hits and is slower, but has horizontal reach. It performs decently well, and can eat around 80%+ of your opponent's HP on hit. However, Dual Blades' claim to fame is actually their Weapon Action, Photon Blades. At the cost of some PP, you'll fire a salvo of four or six Photon Blades at the target. While they don't do a lot of damage individually, it adds up quickly, and you can pick off unfortunate targets by just rapid-firing Blades at your foes. It helps that the glide action when used while moving can be used to escape a sticky situation.
Twin Daggers is the second melee weapon introduced in this update. Twin Daggers are astonishingly good; they are the only melee weapon to use the buffed Step from the main game, and their normal and Step Attacks stagger on hit; get in point blank range of your enemy, and you can pretty much normal attack them to death as long as no one comes to help your target. The powered up Step also means you can chain Step Attack to move quickly out of dangerous spots faster than running. TDs have a Photon Art, Symphonic Drive, which is also fairly good and is reminiscent of Jet Boots' Gran Wave. By using the PA, you will close in on your target, hit them, and then kick off for a second hit. Both hits have hitstop, and the second hit staggers, making it a good tool to stop your foes in their tracks if you can take them by surprise. It also does an enormous amount of damage; you can kill a Partizan user in two Symphonic Drives, which is good because it has a rather hefty 40 PP cost on use. Be wary, however, since your approach can be blocked by a Partizan's Guard, who will gladly return the favor with an Assault Buster to the face.
Talis is the new Tech weapon, replacing Rods. Deceptively simple on the outside, Talis is a bag of tricks. Talis knows one Technique, Na Grants, which creates a field of light that hits foes repeatedly. It has some hitstop, but no stagger, which balances the fact that it can do around 40%~60% of your opponent's HP per hit. The Talis card itself can be thrown much farther than in the main game, and it has a longer JA timing window to compensate; used deftly, Talis can be used for area denial, field control, and all around support. If you're ever in a pinch, you can also cast Na Grants on yourself to hit any pesky Partizan or Twin Dagger users coming after you.
Since the updates hit, how many people have been actually playing this mode? Is it still a ghost town?
I mean, it's never been very active after the mode initially dropped, but it's not like it's ever totally dead. There'll usually be at least enough people to consistently match, although you'll usually match with the same people.Quote:
Originally Posted by NightfallG