Arena Team Compositions

This guide only contains information on example Arena team compositions.
For general Arena information, click here.
For Arena mechanics, click here. Read this guide to better understand the reasoning behind the team compositions below and their positioning.
For Special Arena Team Compositions, click here.

TL;DR

I’ve come to realize nobody really reads what I write.

This team has the best match ups in the current meta. If you want to know why, read the guide. If you want replacement unit suggestions, read the guide. If you still don’t understand, read the Arena mechanics guide.

January 12 Patch Meta Changes

2 major changes have been introduced with the January 12 patch which has completely changed the meta: Noise has been nerfed out of meta, and Jackal was released.

Jackal has ridiculously high energy generation in Arena. She is a 355 base energy clip RL, generates energy from her Skill 1, has a damage share for herself and 2 highest ATK allies, and this damage share also triggers her Skill 1 for more energy. Each separate hit onto her or the damage share allies count towards her Skill 1; Shotgun pellets also count as separate hits, meaning Shotguns trigger her Skill 1 with every shot as they are 10 hits per shot.

In Special Arena, you can simply choose to avoid the opponent Jackal, but this is not good for the Rookie Arena meta. Unless you have enough CP on the enemy player to tank their Burst 3 and live mostly intact, it seems impossible to win against a Jackal team without your own Jackal.

Jackal is looking even more oppressive than Noise used to be. At least Noise had some possible counters that didn’t require your own Noise. If you don’t have Jackal, you can replace Jackal with Pepper, Neon or Rapunzel and add more Shotguns; just know that you will not be able to win against enemy Jackal teams. I will try to give non-Jackal examples where possible, but as always, if you don’t have the example unit(s) use the substitutions available to you in your roster.

Introduction

TL;DR Arena Mechanics:

• Jackal, Clip Shotguns, Anis, Centi, Noah, and Harran have the highest energy generation.
• P1 and P5 are the most likely positions to be targeted. P2 and P4 will receive any splash damage from RL, and targeting my be reset onto them if P1/P5 is a RL or SR.

The below recommended Arena team compositions are ordered left to right as P1, P2, P3, P4, P5. The actual teams are not listed in any particular order.

Archetypes

Here I will explain the main archetypes and concepts important to team compositions in Arena.

Nuke (High AoE Damage Burst)

This is the current meta strategy. By using a high damage AoE burst, referred to in this guide as “Nukes”, it is possible to kill the squishier enemy attackers to interrupt and prevent their burst chain, then finish off the remaining enemy units (or simply survive until time-out on defense).

The current meta Nukers are Scarlet, Harran and Privaty. Scarlet is the strongest option as she is able to stack her attack buffs in Arena, but Harran has better energy generation. When paired with Jackal however, Scarlet is able to compete with Harran’s energy generation through Jackal’s Skill 2. Privaty has the lowest energy generation of the three and lowest damage, but provides a 3 second stun which can buy valuable time to kill off enemy units. However, she has fallen out of favour after Noise’s nerf and Jackal’s release, since Jackal’s damage share is still active during stun.

Anne provides the strongest attack buff possible for this strategy and some healing and a resurrection if needed. Poli also provides a strong attack buff along with a shield to defend against possible enemy Nukers. Pepper grants Scarlet an additional stack of her Skill 1, along with good energy generation and healing.

Fast (Speed, Energy Generation)

As you can probably tell by the Nuke archetype above, speed is of the essence in Arena. By bursting first, it is possible to kill the enemy Nuker or other key units in the enemy burst chain to interrupt and prevent their Nuke. Teams that fill the burst guage bar (10,000 energy) before 5 seconds will be referred to in this guide as “Fast”.

Jackal is key for this strategy due to her ridiculous burst energy generation; it is literally impossible to out-speed an enemy Jackal with any decent energy support team mates. However, this strategy can be used without Jackal against non-Jackal teams.

Noah is another key unit as she can negate enemy burst damage with her burst invulnerability if you don’t quite have the energy generation to kill the enemy Nuker before they cast their burst, but are still able to reach your Burst 2 before their Burst 3. Noah also provides good energy generation.

Drake and all Clip Reload Shotguns have the highest energy generation after Jackal. However, they are countered by an enemy Jackal as they help Jackal generate more energy, resulting in only a measly 730 net energy gain over 5 seconds.

Anis and Centi also have high energy generation, and are not countered by Jackal thanks to their low rate of fire.

Stall (Defense Only)

Since all time-out draws result in a win for the defending player, it is a viable strategy to attempt to stall towards time-out when playing defense rather than aiming to kill all enemy units.

This strategy is less popular now after Noise’s nerf, who was a staple in Stall teams. Using Fast Nuke Teams is the safer strategy, as even Stall teams are easily one-shot by strong Nukers. Stall is only recommended if you have higher CP than your opponents and can guarantee surviving through their bursts. However, it is still possible to field Stall teams using a combination of the recommended units below.

Note that while Emma is a strong Staller, especially with Jackal, she practically guarantees any enemy Jackal without MG will burst first due to her high rate of fire. Therefore, Emma is NOT strong in this meta.

When using Jackal with Emma, Emma must be the second highest ATK unit on your team for their synergy to work.

Meta Teams

Below are the current meta team archetypes with example variations.

Jackal Fast Nuke

This team is likely to be what defines the new Rookie Arena meta. This team is oppressive on both Attack and Defense. With its ridiculous burst energy generation speed, it is guaranteed to strike first, killing enemy units to interrupt their burst chain to prevent them from reaching burst 3 and full burst mode. When playing defence, killing the dangerous squishier Nukers to only leave their tanks alive is a viable strategy, so you can choose to forgo more damage for more speed.

The Anne variation is the highest damage option, and so good for Attack where you are running against the clock. When playing against an enemy defending Fast Nuke, she can be replaced with Poli to have a shield for the enemy Nuke, if you are able to match the opponent’s speed.

The Noah variation is best into enemy Fast Nuke Teams. If you are able to match the enemy’s speed, you will be able to have Noah’s invulnerability up for the opponent’s Nuke.

The Product 23 variation is THE fastest Nuke Team possible for Arena. However, this still does not out-speed enemy Jackal teams enough to kill the enemy Nuker before they burst, because of the way Jackal’s Skill 1 works against SG. Product 23 can be replaced with Viper when she releases.

Drake and Pepper can be replaced with Maiden, Centi, or any other source of energy generation and damage, but they are the best options.

Jackal Counter Nuke

The only possible way to out-speed an enemy Jackal Nuke team and kill their Scarlet before their Nuke casts by bringing Jackal, Scarlet, and three RL/SR.

Jackal + Privaty seems to be the most consistent team against Jackal + Scarlet. Since Scarlet’s burst has a delay, when timed correctly, Privaty is able to stun Scarlet and hopefully kill her and other high damage enemy units before her burst damage goes through. It is also a viable strategy to use a more defensive team to heal to full before her burst damage goes through to tank the hit, then win by attrition. It is also possible to use Harran or Maiden + Pepper and aim to kill Scarlet before she casts burst, but as this requires shotgun(s) and casting B3 before the enemy, it is more difficult to execute.

When playing Jackal + Scarlet vs Jackal + Scarlet, if the enemy team has fast energy generation, you need Noah to be able to counter their Nuke, as Scarlet’s burst has a delay and will not go through before the enemy Scarlet casts their own burst.

Note that the no Jackal counter only works against Jackal + Scarlet thanks to Scarlet’s burst having a delay.

Shotgun Nuke (No Jackal Nuke)

This is the classic Shotgun team that was dominating before Jackal’s release. Although countered hard by Jackal, this team is still strong into other match-ups.

Scarlet can be replaced with Harran or Privaty. Noah can be replaced with Anne, Poli, Anis, Centi. Pepper can be replaced with Neon, Rapunzel, Noise, Emma.

Stall Defense

Since the defender will always win a time out draw, the Stall team is the “safe” choice and can be difficult to beat for the attacker. However, due to no strong tanks in this meta, I do not recommend this team currently.

Since Noise was nerfed and Emma is also weak into enemy Jackals, Jackal + Noah is the new recommendation. It is not recommended to run both Emma + Noah with Jackal as you will want Emma to be your second highest ATK (your first being your B3) and Noah will taunt aggro off of your Emma while not generating energy from Jackal’s Skill 1.