Based on the last spoiler update, they are clearly working on some kind of raid mode, as well.
Seeing how bad Arena is on console now, I can only imagine how bad it is on PC/Mobile. Arena needs a band-aid solution that makes it playable again, and it needs it with the next update if it can’t be done sooner. Then they can work on whatever kind of overhaul they want to do.
A little ditty 'bout the arena player and Dawnbringer
Two antagonists facing off in the arena heartland
Dawnbringer he’s already top of his class: a sweeping star
The player still trying to debutante that barrier…
DB he says:
“Hey, player run off out of here…
Let me do what I please”
Saying oh yeah:The arena goes on, long after the thrill of playing there is gone…
The player he sits back, collects his thoughts for a moment;
Scratches his head, and does his best before getting whipped again…
Well, now then, there, player; we ought to run off to???
“Oh yeah, the arena goes on, long after the thrill of playing there is gone”
Oh yeah
The player says: “the arena goes on, long after the thrill of playing there is gone”
Oh, let it cascade and cascade again [always in DB’s favour of course]
Let the developers come and save our souls because we ain’t collecting any there… [Optimistic: the arena currently being hell]
Holdin’ out with nothing against DB as long as we can
Hopin’ change is comin’ round real soon
Make us arena competitive again
Well I can’t take the arena seriously with DB [ and apologies for butchering a great song-but hey DB butchers us basically on any arena run]
DB as a defensive option wrecks, undermines and trashes the arena experience.
I probably lose 1 in 20 Arena runs on console and I don’t have Dawnbringer. I honestly don’t see it very often.
I only see 1-2 dawnbringer per run on iOS. And since I have it I’ll occasionally lose 1 match but never the full run thus far. shrug guess I’m just lucky.
I don’t do enough to have any kind of a representative sample, but my last few runs have had at least 4 (averaging between 5 and 6) Dawnbringer’s out of 8 or 9 battles. My wife gets similar results, but again, small sample.
Any player entering the arena consistently: results in a disproportionate rate of confrontations with DB.
Yeah, I can appreciate I’ve just been very lucky. I have a habit of always checking what weapon the hero has so if it does pop up I can do my best to prepare for it.
Are you saying you can scout in Arena, or just that you pay attention once the battle starts so you don’t get unexpectedly team-wiped. Because if you can scout, I’d like to know how!
Nah, sorry, the latter. First thing I do when the battle starts is check the hero.
I’m actually keeping track of this myself now, but like you say it’s going to be a small sample. But maybe if we all post our ‘small samples’ we can combine them to get a better model.
@Aelthwyn did an awesome job researching DB in arena. It was November and the situation was already dire. I suggest to take those data as starting point for the discussion here.
I used to play arena often and really enjoy it. But once I started running into Dawnbringer I stopped. I regard it as one of those play modes that’s only playable if you can get that weapon. It really sucks, I enjoyed the mode, but there’s a pattern where devs make particular things overpowered(Dawnbringer, Queen Mab) and then neglect to fix it very quickly so I’m used to altering the way I play based on that(I now use a Queen Mab team as my chief PvP team). I’ve focused on soul grinding teams outside of arena. It would be a nice surprise though if they do end up rebalancing the weapon.
Thanks. I am currently collecting new data to update it.
Yeah, right now I’m trying to keep this fire burning.
But until the past week I hadn’t played an arena game for at least a month. I’ve played 10-15 Arenas. 3 made it to 8 wins, 1 of those was particularly strong and beat 3 Dawnbringers. Notes:
At this point I get way more out of PvP or Explore in terms of rewards, so I play that a lot more. Arena’s where I go if I get tired of the grind. But it’s more fun when it feels like there’s half a chance I can drive a mediocre team to victory. I think I prefer the grind at this point.
At least it’s still more fun than treasure hunt.
Great stat gathering on the arena. It got me to do a quick 100 match sample over a couple of days [18/19 Jan] in which DB was an opponent 29 times in 100 arena matches. There were 2 runs of 8 without facing DB. So those players saying they are not seeing it as much-it does happen. The average though is 2/3 DB’s in a run of 8 or 9 matches.[DB will get you] Twice though DB was an opponent 4 out of 8 matches. Take the time to add your DB arena stats in this forum.
And just occasionally you get lucky against DB- thanks Night Terror and your one single life stat.I don’t know if anyone knows how the matchmaking table works in Arena, so could everyone also mention their platform and level? These things may have significant impacts on matchups. And if there are other factors that might reasonably come into play, let’s think about those, too.
I just don’t bother with arena anymore and haven’t done so for such a long time. The only exception is when it is a task, luckily that does not come up very often. Arena badly needs a rework and has done for some time in my opinion and I am sure a lot would agree. Arena use to offer a nice alternative until it became overridden by Dawnbringer. Dawnbringer is beatable but you definitely need luck on your side in those battles. As I have commented before, 4 picked troops rather than 3 and a hero would be a much better setup for arena.
Well, it seems new game modes etc announced, but not a mention of fixing Arena or Dawnbringer…
I’ve collected no data to support this, but I sometimes have the feeling that whatever I run into, either in arena or PvP, depends a lot on the time/day of the week… I’d say that the larger the available opponent pool is (perhaps Monday for PvP, and weekends for arena), the lower the chance of running into the endgamers grinding arena/PvP for trophies, and thus the less encounters you get with DB or meta defenses. Do you see any kind of trend in the data you have collected, @Aelthwyn?
They did mention “lots of new weapons” and “weapons in soulforge might rotate”.
It’s possible there’s a Dawnbringer-killer in the works. Not the cleanest of solutions, but it is “a solution”.
Either way, it sounds like the 3.3 patch is very, very big. It’s a whole laundry list of “the fires that are being put out instead of Arena”. I’m not going to stop griping about Arena, but there are so many good things coming I can sort of sigh and say, “I get why Arena didn’t make this list.”
One can accept fate without being happy about it 
