No, not so many. Very few players can afford Dawnbringer.
So many more would be happy to see them disappear along with their suffocating meta. They have made high-level PVP the boringest thing after looking at drying paint, and now they are ruining Arena too.
Among veteran end game players that’s not the case and if so few players have obtained the weapon what is the point in this thread? PvP rewards based on an 80-90% winrate. Is someone saying that the arena winrate is less? I have virtually blacklisted pvp for weeks. I don’t think I’ve seen note than one dawnbringer in arena per run.
The problem is that while very few people bring Dawnbringer to the Arena, they usually win so the game use their teams as opponents.
So the Drawnbringer team wins again and again and ir reused more and more.
And while few real players enter the arena with Dawnbringer, it’s not unusual to face Dawnbringer teams once or twice in one single run. Which means you lost the whole run, because of those ghost teams that haunt Arena after the real player departed.
EDIT: in fact no one suggest to take away Dawnbringer. What is being questioned here is the mechanism of Arena that leaves you facing Dawnbringer with a stick - and a stick you didn’t chose, either.
Oh, from the outcry here, I’d assumed the situation on PC/Mobile was worse than console, where I see a Dawnbringer maybe once every 2nd arena run (in a small sample).
I’ve meet it twice in a run. Rarely I have a run without meeting one. It’s disproportionated… How many Dawnbringers are out there?
For that, I have no idea. I’m pretty end-game on console, but only have about 400,000 extra souls. On PC/Mobile, there are a lot of players who have been playing for a year longer than the console game existed, so there will be proportionately more there than I see on PS4. I just assumed there were A LOT more Dawnbringers on PC/Mobile than console, such that Arena was flooded with them.
2 per run is probably manageable most of the time, but it leaves almost no room for error. If it got to 3 or more, it would be extremely discouraging.
In Arena you cannot count on traited troops to stun or silence Dawnbringer. If you meet a team with Dawnbringer and two/three yellow troops, there’s very little you can do. Anyway Arena is supposed to be based on doing the best with very little, not on hoping not to face the Doomsday Stick with your band of Peasants.
PS: doing an Arena run right now. I’m facing my second Dawnbringer in 4 battles. I’ve got Reaver, Dwarf Lord and Rakshanin. Does it look good to you?
I think that Dawnbringer should absolutely be allowed on offense. If I spend 1.3 million souls then I want to be able to decimate my opponents with it.
@lyya and @Ashasekayi: The Hero is able to select their weapon for two reasons, imho.
1. Because it is the Hero entering the Arena and he is going to bring his best tool. (RPG reason)
2. Because this gives the player the opportunity to fill in the holes in the team from the random draw, ie color type, or create a synergy if none exist in the troops already. (Game Mechanic reason)
The problem, as I see it, simply lies in the fact that the teams you face are selected from other winning player teams. Before I make my next statement let me remind everyone: ARENA IS NOT PVP!! NOT PVP!!
So, if instead, the defense teams were merely generated by the comp out of the 3 random troops and a random hero weapon, then I believe that would solve ALL of the issues.
Absolutely.
This run I met three (3) Dawnbringers. The last one killed everyone on first hit. I lost.
I do an average of 10 runs a week atm and I think the most I’ve ran into since its release is three during a run, once. Average is one per run and depending on troop selection its not really a big deal. Some of the troops now as opposed to a year ago make a huge difference. Tbh I think mantacles and runic blade had a much longer run with more of an impact.
Runic Blade is overwhelmingly positive for the player and easy to overcome if you run into it on defence. It’s the only thing that has saved me against Dawnbringer so far.
I just think they need to nip this in the bud before it becomes an epidemic and makes Arena unplayable. As much as Manacles or Runic Blade are overpowered in Arena, they aren’t a (near) death sentence to face.
I have been taking notes for a while of which weapon my opponents in arena are using. I will gather a few more and post my figures in a few days.
For the moment Runic blade is still the weapon that is the most used by far, which is a pity as ome other weapons are very good too. Only a few long time players of a few top guilds have Dawnbringer, but more and more people are crafting it.
Although I often meet only one Dawnbringer per run, I have encountered as many as 4 in one run last night. That is enough to ruin the results of anyone, whereas arena was supposed to be a place where all players were more or less on an equal foot.
Runic blade and Dawnbringers are not the only answers to Dawnbringers. Some weapons and some troops can help a lot. But it requires a little skill and a lot of luck, it is true.
Do you have some specific suggestions?
Let’s be frank. Arena is not about “let me play with my toys, dammit!”
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for, “I paid 1.3m for a Dawnbringer, I want to use it.” The arena’s not the place where you get to use every toy you paid for. It’s a place where, as a challenge, you have to use untraited, low-level troops.
The main problem right now is there are a few upper-crust weapons are on the same power level as troops that have been intentionally excluded from arena because they are too powerful even untraited/underleveled. The only answer to them is having one and hoping your team goes off faster.
On offense, these weapons aren’t so big a deal. They “lessen the challenge” but that’s an argument for different people to go get tangled in. I get why you want Dawnbringer on offense: it makes arena better autopilot grinding than PvP or Explore. I think you should get this.
But on defense, these weapons are like the Kraken/Wisp problem in PvP everyone’s so fond of bitching about. I face back-to-back Dawnbringers frequently, and they’re usually 3-4 of the matches I face. Everything I could say about why this is bad is exactly the same as the discussions that have been going on in PvP/GW about Wisp/Kraken.
The major difference is in PvP, you can (and people do) skip teams you don’t like. It’s still borked at the high levels because there are SO MANY Wisp/Kraken teams you might not find another. That’s bullshit. The devs are sort of trying to fix it, and players are rightfully pissed.
This is the definition of “a broken mechanic”, though. Broken mechanics exist when you have choices, but one choice is so much better than the others you would never choose something else. If you have Dawnbringer, there’s absolutely no reason to use a different weapon in arena. If you don’t have Dawnbringer, the only advice is “save up souls and get Dawnbringer.”
That’s broken. I don’t care if it benefits you. It hurts the game.
LoL at ‘Nip in the bud’. 
Considering they just released an update 2 weeks ago, and a hotfix a few days ago and this was not in either. Everyone is probably looking at about 3 Months (or there abouts) IF they are going to make some change. This thread is already a month and a half old…
I don’t play Arena except for Tasks but it sounds unbalanced to me too, so I hope something is done at some point. But in unfortunately it will probably get worse before the December/January Update.
That would require a detailed post and I have a busy schedule for this weekend.
But I can do it next week.
OK. I only play Arena for daily tasks and as an occasional change of pace, but I’m sure others would appreciate any help they can get!
Armored Boar, Lava Elemental, and Obsidian Golem have spells which deal crazy damage to the first enemy. If one or more skulls is destroyed as part of their spell, the skull(s) will remove the barrier and the spell’s damage will go through.
Pride Hunter’s spell damages and silences the first enemy.
Mushroom has a chance to turn the enemy hero into a mushroom.
Web reduces Dawnbringer’s damage to 2 + (2*yellow allies). Spider Queen webs, drains mana, and reduces armor. Frostling webs and freezes.
The Spider Totem (orbspinner class weapon) deals damage, webs, and drains mana.
Sword of Heroes is a very good weapon in general because it can put out a lot of damage very quickly. Arena teams get the Broken Banner, so any blue gem match will meet Sword of Heroes’ 4 mana cost.
Pan’s Lute drains mana from the first and last enemies, and gives all allies 1 magic. If two or three of your troops have damage spells, this can be a useful and fun choice of weapon.
Oh, I understand why hero is used in Arena. It never made sense to me that legendary and mythic weapons were allowed.
Yeah, I think the obvious move is to limit it to Epic weapons or below.