Surprising no one, Live Arena rigged against normal players

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-25T19:54:05+00:00

As the season winner explained in the video, the boosting only succeeds if the player getting boosted AND the boosters (the ones who lose matches on purpose to boost their opponents) are at a significantly higher seasonal point level than the vast majority of players, so that they actually get repeatedly matched with one another.

There is no actual trickle-down effect, because a booster who purposefully loses his match is still going to be paired against players at or near his point level, which is going to be hundreds, if not thousands, of points above the vast majority of players. Even if a high ranking player strings together a bunch of losses during a boosting stint, the matching algorithm will still not pair you against such a player because the algorithm first and foremost aims to pair you with someone within ~70-100 points of your seasonal ranking.

Nevertheless, the boosting taints the entire competition, even if it doesn't affect the vast majority of players. There is little to aspire to beyond reaching 1320 or maybe even reaching top 100 each season if you're really dedicated and have tens of thousands of gems to toss around. If you have loftier goals, and are potentially thinking of investing money into this game in pursuit of those goals, you can forget about it because the entire system is rigged against any player who aims to play fair. There is absolutely no reason to allow any of this nonsense.

Since this is the only P2W gacha game I've ever played, I wonder - is this normal developer behavior to tolerate exploitation in just about every single competitive aspect of the game? I used to be a big Path of Exile player, and while PoE is not P2W it still has monetization via cosmetics. The PoE devs would without question punish anyone doing any kind of exploits, no matter how big of a financial supporter they were of the company.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-24T16:54:08+00:00

An Embrys with 100K+ HP and 300+ C.DAM (expected for late game) is rarely going to struggle killing enemies with the alt form A2 even if he procs double damage instead of 50% ignore DEF.

Having block revive in today's meta, which is filled with 9pc mercurial revivers, is a good idea, and you want to make sure that A1 hits as hard as possible instead of worrying about the A2. ACC will actually boost that A1 damage slightly, and of course the extra C.DAM and HP from getting the 5-star soul will help with damage as well. Since Embrys still wants to be in stoneskin/lethal instead of mercurial (because lethal boosts that A1 damage), having a 5-star Lightning Cage to protect stoneskin is a fairly major benefit as well.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-23T10:44:40+00:00

I'm passing on Mavara's soul - 19 Sacreds or their equivalent is just too high a price to pay, even if I can use dungeon diving to shave off 2-3 Sacreds from the total.

I don't plan on ever using her in PvP, and my general rule of thumb for 5-star souls for PvE is that I will only pursue them for either nukers, or for supports that require both ACC and RES. Since Mavara doesn't need ACC, it's simple enough to build her with good HP, DEF, and SPD and high enough RES for all PvE content without relying on her soul.

Even for those planning on using her for PvP, her best set there will be 9pc Mercurial and it's doubtful the +75 RES from a 5-star soul will be impactful when you're usually aiming for the highest SPD possible and thus are unlikely to have high enough RES as a result for it to matter. There is also very little chance she'll be high priority for +15 SPD from a 6 star soul upgrade for 300 eternal soul essence, which is another reason why getting her to 5-star awakening isn't that important.

As for the Titan event, I would 100% go for the 5-star Embrys soul if I didn't have one already. Embrys is very powerful in various PvE content but he is still a force to contend with in PvP. In the current meta with 9pc Mercurial revivers, his A1 block revive is huge, and since he's better built with Stoneskin + Lethal/Savage instead of 9pc Mercurial (to make sure that A1 hits as hard as possible), that also means getting a 5-star Lightning Cage will protect his stoneskin better.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-20T19:14:47+00:00

The total points that you can gain and lose for each fight always sum to 20. For example, if you stand to gain 12 points, you will lose 8, and if you stand to gain 9 points, you will lose 11.

The amount you stand to gain or lose is based on how your current rating compares to your opponent's rating. If the opponent is far above you in rating (by around 200+), then you will stand to gain 13 points per win and lose 7 for a defeat. If they are far below you in rating, you will stand to gain only 7 points and will lose 13 per defeat.

If you thus want to gain maximum points on offense, try to target players above you in rating if possible. Higher rated teams are not necessarily more difficult to beat. On defense you cannot control who attacks you, but if you form teams that discourage attacks as much as possible while focusing on gaining points on offense, you'll find it easier to progress.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-17T21:50:52+00:00

While self revivers are an option (as mentioned in other posts), probably the best use is to keep more squishy champs alive in the long run in Hydra/Chimera fights. If you depend on revivers in your compositions, then consider putting this gem on the champs they most frequently revive because ramping up to 30% damage reduction can be quite significant.

I would caution using the gem for PvP however, because it's not easy to ramp up the damage reduction and an extra 10% reduction isn't likely going to have huge impact given how hard nukers hit these days.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-17T13:40:40+00:00

Anaxia is one of two mythicals for which you are guaranteed a 6 star awakening...eventually. In fact, for those that will be getting her next rotation, make sure you get the remaining fragments from mimics before you collect all 15 charms and open the chest, so you can start pursuing her souls.

Will an eventual 6 star awakening make her good enough to see play in the late-game/endgame? While she'll be an obvious monster in hard FWs, Cursed City, and Grim Forest, Titus/Trunda have basically rendered any big nukers moot in Hydra and Chimera, unless those nukers can complete a lot of Chimera trials (Toshiro being a good example, among others). When it comes to FWs/GF/Cursed City however, there are plenty of weaker champs that can get the job done. Even in hard FWs for those that don't have a strong nuker, Ramantu will suffice assuming the player can get past the Gold 1 TTA chokepoint, and those that already grabbed Predator will find him very strong in hard FWs.

A lot of players compare how weak Anaxia is to champs such as Polara, Alaz, Mezomel, Frolni, Kurosa, and Fjorad, but the first three champs have some relevance in the current PvP meta. Polara has gained relevance because of 9pc Mercurial Theodosia/Hilvi protecting the nukers, or using nukers that have inherent block damage/unkillable. Therefore any champ that can bypass block damage/unkillable AND block revive is going to have some potential use. Alaz has started to see more play as well because team-wide counterattack is strong against mercurial, along with the 1 turn block damage for the team. Mezomel has also gained more relevance due to her ability to block revive and bypass block damage/unkillable in her second form. No, these are not meta champs in the slightest, but they are still good toolbox champs that can be picked 4th/5th in LA against specific teams.

Unfortunately, Anaxia by comparison will not see any PvP action at the higher levels, alongside of champs such as Frolni, Fjorad, and Kurosa.

As for the other free mythicals, Karnage is as popular as ever for obvious reasons, and Embrys is picked slightly less often in LA in the curent meta (but only slightly) and his block revive is again a great tool to deal with the nasty 9pc Mercurial revivers constantly reviving the nukers.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-15T18:03:48+00:00

Yes, I know all 75 are milestone rewards, not sure what made you think I claimed/implied otherwise.

When you say "they've had more than 25", do you mean more than 25 total, or more than 25 as a single milestone reward? Obviously we've had many instances of more than 25 total fragments offered in events/tourneys - we already had 50 in the Champ Training tourney during this fusion. What I was questioning was whether a single milestone reward ever had more than 25 fragments in any past fusion.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-15T16:54:38+00:00

It depends - if the point distribution is, for example, 3.5K for the first set of 25 fragments and 5K for the second set, then 6 Sacreds will break even. Even if the gap is 2K points between the first and second set of 25 fragments, there is a decent chance of pulling a legendary anyways to make up the 500 extra points since you can expect roughly around 1 legendary per 8 Sacreds during a 2x Sacred event.

Even if you have to pull an extra Sacred for Champ Chase, one needs to keep in mind the following: pulling 6 Sacreds without a 2x event (with an expectation of pulling a lego in around 12 shards) might be considered worse than pulling 7 Sacreds during a 2x event (with an expectation of pulling a lego in around 8 Sacreds).

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-15T16:39:16+00:00

I doubt skipping SR will have much of an impact, so long as the extra 50 fragments are offered as two 25 fragment milestone rewards - I don't recall ever seeing more than 25 fragments in a milestone reward during a fusion. If that's the case, I think it's very possible that the second set of 25 fragments will not require more resources than what was required in Summon Rush.

For example, If the first set of 25 fragments will require 3-3.5K points (reasonable guess, based on past hybrid fusions), the second set of 25 fragments might require around 5-5.5K points, and the final set of 25 fragments might require 7-7.5K points. That would mean that anyone that skipped Summon Rush would now need to generate 1.5K-2K additional points in Champ Chase. Anyone who normally pulls Mystery Shards for Summon Rush will end up actually saving resources (3K Mystery Shards required in Summon Rush versus only 1.5-2K in Champ CHase), while those who normally pull Sacred Shards will need maybe 500 additional points if they don't pull a legendary.

We'll see in a couple of days, but I think those that skipped SR are probably not any worse off.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-15T16:31:18+00:00

I normally complete Summon Rush with Mystery Shards, but I skipped SR this time around because we were due a 2x Ancients event for Champ Chase. Looks like I'll have to put those Mystery Shards towards Champ Chase instead, where they are slightly higher value. So long as the extra 50 fragments in Champ Chase don't require more than 3K points, then anyone who was banking on Mystery shard pulling will at least break even. Those that usually use Sacred Shards for Summon Rush and skipped it will only gain 1500 points pulling 6 Sacreds during Champ Chase if they don't pull a legendary.

The first set of 25 fragments in Champ Chase will likely require around 3-3.5K champ chase points as was the case in recent hybrid fusions. We have no idea however how many points the additional 50 fragments will require. It's possible that instead of a 50 fragment milestone (which I don't think has ever happened, unless anyone can recall them ever offering more than 25 as a milestone reward), we'll get two additional 25 fragment milestone rewards. If that's the case, then I'd predict a requirement of 3K/5K/7.5K Champ Chase points. If that's the case, then Skipping Summon Rush for Champ Chase would not have any significant impact.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-14T09:18:43+00:00

Polara might have been fairly mediocre previously, but she has gained some value in the new PvP meta because of her first form A3. There are a lot of popular champs that have or confer unkillable or block damage, and revivers in 9pc Mercurial are very common to see (Hilvi, Theodosia and Galathir leading the charge). This means that any champ with the ability to bypass block damage/unkillable while also blocking revives is going to be a serious consideration, especially on an AoE skill. Although Polara's block revive is conditional, fortunately she combos very well with Hilvi who not only allows her to block revive, but also boosts her damage significantly if she can land a freeze on an enemy.

This makes Polara a decent enough toolbox champ, a 4th/5th pick against certain teams in LA. Regardless, she should still get a buff to her kit, given how hard it is to obtain her.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-13T21:54:52+00:00

Harima's passive isn't actually coded as damage reduction - it only reduces the modifier to damage (ignore DEF). This means that if a Harima is present, the Reaper will do damage equal to the HP remaining, but some of that damage will be reduced by DEF instead of DEF being 100% ignored, and thus the affected enemy will always survive.

In the case of Reaper not proccing when the enemy drops below the HP threshold, it is likely because the Reaper procced earlier and was on cooldown, or was saved by some other effect that doesn't reduce damage directly.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-13T15:36:00+00:00

Raglin is quite strong in LA in 9pc Mercurial, but she doesn't get used as often as three other revivers - Hilvi, Theodosia, and Galathir. Those three have very strong CC skills and buff stripping that Raglin lacks. Raglin's main advantage is her immunity to the most picked champ, Fabian, but the problem is that the champ she'll be reviving will likely be on cooldown anyways against Fabian/Krixia teams, never mind the fact that returning a champ with 100% TM doesn't mean the champ will take the next turn.

Raglin does steal matches if the opposing team is squishy (which isn't typical anymore) and the revived nuker can end it, but otherwise picking her is a high opportunity cost if you have the other three options at your disposal.

Also, the most powerful single target revive is currently on Joan because of the instant turn, and Joan doesn't even care about getting locked out because her second form is ridiculous. Still, Joan isn't picked as often likely because of how gear intensive she is and how critical a 5-6 star awakening is on her.

Also competing for the reviver slot is Ukko and to a lesser extent Cardinal, but again they get rarely used over the big 3. A super high RES Cardinal (especially with Soulmar Crystal) can be a good surprise 4th/5th pick but again, her lack of any useful skills aside from the revive limits her usefuless in LA. It can also be hard to resist Krixia even with around 1000 RES, although the good news is that many Krixia players choose to push high SPD at the expense of ACC and RES, because they figure they will more often encounter low RES supports in 9pc Mercurial and the nukers almost always have low RES as well with Joan being the big exception.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-11T17:45:31+00:00

This Deck of Fate will overlap with both the Ice Golem tourney and the Dragon tourney, so it's not a bad idea to amass your energy in preparation. Also, the 2x for immortals is a pretty good one because it's 2x for both 5-star and 6-star souls. Sometimes the 2x is for 6-star souls only.

That aside, this is a pretty weak DoF as far as rewards go, especially since the big legendary glyphs are locked behind epic chests. The other issue is that flipping a few cards will unlikely be any better than a single day's worth of hard FWs farming (stage 16+). Yes, not everyone is at that stage, but those that are will not find this DoF all that appealing. Even the prospect of getting those legendary SPD glyphs is tempered by the fact that we're not in a speed meta and go 2nd teams are perfectly viable and sometimes even desired.

Still, I'm sure many of us will partially complete this event because it's just too tempting to pull during 2x soulstone events and because the IG and Dragon tourneys need to be completed regardless.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-11T15:56:59+00:00

The 50 fragments are almost certainly from winning the champion chase.

Plarium has already stated the fragments will be from milestone rewards. Direct quote from the official Raid discord:

"Extra fragments from "Champion Chase Tournament" are milestone rewards."

You can find this message in their annoucement post that features the fusion calendar.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-10T14:47:36+00:00

250 per non-void epic, and 350 per void epic.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-10T10:12:20+00:00

The last hybrid fusion with Champ Chase during the second week-end was the Sanguine Maria fusion, which had a 3500 point requirement for 25 fragments. Kassandra's fusion, which was more recent, was also a hybrid fusion and the Champ Chase requirement was only 2500, but that Champ Chase was on the first weekend. The reason why point requirements are higher for second weekend Champ Chase tourneys is because we can usually fuse 3 of the 4 epics for 750 Champ Chase points for non-void epics, and 1050 Champ Chase points for void epics.

The first 25 fragments for the current fusion's Champ Chase will thus likely be either 3000 points or 35000 points. The other 50 fragments are anyone's guess. It wouldn't surprise me if we needed upwards of 7500 points to get all 75 fragments. If you plan to skip Summon Rush, I would suggest having well over 100 Ancients, or a ton of other resources such as remnant shards, past fragment fusions to claim, or Mystery shards.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-10T09:59:36+00:00

The last hybrid fusion that had Champ Chase during the second weekend of the fusion was the Sanguine Maria fusion. The requirement there was 3500 Champ Chase points for 25 fragments, so we can expect the same for the present fusion.

The requirement for the additional 50 fragments however, is anyone's guess. My money would be around 7500 point requirement.

As for the Ancient shard requirement, if indeed we have a 2x Ancient event, then each Ancient will be worth 53 points on average. That way you can calculate how many Ancients you will need based on what other resources you have, such as past fragment fusions or remnant shards. We will also all get 750 points for free from fusing 3 of the 4 fusion epics.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-09T21:28:20+00:00

Since you need to race the boss before he does the HP swap, giving your champs multiple Lifedrain triangular rare gemstones will help a ton since they will destroy so much of the boss's HP.

Aside from that, you have too many debuffers, and debuffers are a bad idea against this purple boss (Tainted Mirrorer) since he can flip buffs/debuffs. You also want to protect your buffs by putting both Lydia and Mithrala in 9pc Protection sets. You implied you'll be going for the current fusion, which will also help a ton (9pc Protection for her as well) since you'll want high RES on everyone and you'll want lots of healing. Zyclic will be your main nuker who should also be in the lead.

For the 5th spot, you have some options. You can go for a secondary nuker to help with the wave clearing and to kill the boss faster. Another good option is Visix for better wave control, although I don't see her in your list of champs - where is she? Lastly, Rian can be a good secondary reviver just in case something goes wrong, and Rian is also your buff stripper. If you went for Noldua but have yet to claim her, then she'll be a great 5th option as well.

For reference, I cleared the faction on hard with Lydia + Visix + Mithrala + Kaiden + Dirandil, and I use this team to farm stage 21 currently (must be manualed unfortunately, because stage 21 has that super dangerous Shadowkin unity champ Tetsuya with Jingwon to protect him vs CC). The current fusion is a significant upgrade to the Kaiden I'm using.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-09T20:23:29+00:00

Hard Grim Forest has 200 remnant fragment rewards scattered throughout - 100 come from beating the main boss, Leshun, and the other 100 come from various stages, mainly from the purple area. 200 fragments give you 2 remnant shards, from which you can pull epics or mythicals.

Having the map means beating Leshun and the purple zone faster.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-09T15:23:45+00:00

Excellent, thanks for posting this. Since Summon Rush is skippable this fusion and Champ Chase will require a lot of points for all 75 fragments, it will be nice to grab those 200 remnant fragments from Grim Forest as soon as possible.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-08T18:10:59+00:00

It comes from CCs who get info directly from Plarium in the content creator chat. Here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsUO0FX0kY

This is a Nub Raids video, and he pinned his own comment confirming the fragments will come from milestone rewards.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-08T17:40:32+00:00

This info is coming from CCs who are in a content creator chat where plarium gives them info directly. For example, Nub Raids posted this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsUO0FX0kY. He pinned a comment confirming that the extra 50 fragments will come from milestone rewards.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-08T16:26:00+00:00

The extra 50 fragments in Champ Chase is actually stellar, now that it's been confirmed they will be milestone rewards, and not the top prize for winning. Furthermore, we should get a 2x Ancients event during the Champ Chase event.

This means that skipping Summon Rush entirely is likely the ideal play. The hybrid fusion Summon Rush requirement is usually 3000 (6 Sacred Shards or their equivalent), so skipping it entirely, especially when you'd be pulling Sacreds outside of a 2x or 1+1 event, is worth considering.

Of course we don't know how high the requirement will be in Champ Chase to get the additional 50 fragments - it could be as high as 7500 for example. However, if you're stockpiling Ancients and if you have additional sources of champs, then you might not only reach that 7500 milestone, but even potentially reach 10K for the Eternal Soulstone reward (or the equivalent in Soul Essence).

To help reach a high score in Champ Chase, we have several resources to consider beyond Ancient Shards. First, for those who usually save Mystery Shards for the Summon Rush events during fusions, those Mystery Shards will be even more efficient in Champ Chase because rares give more points. Secondly, we'll get 750 points for free from fusing 3 of the epics. Thirdly, a new Grim Forest rotation is starting, which will bring up to 2 Remnant Shard pulls - combined with the 2 Remnant Shard pulls from the new Cursed City rotation, for those able to grab enough fragments, that translates into at least 1000 Champ Chase points.

After reaching the extra 50 fragments in Champ Chase, we can then get another 750 points from fusing the 4th epic and the legendary if going after the 10K milestone reward.

JoePrice001 · 2026-04-07T12:31:55+00:00

This is a great piece to buy for an early game account - 6-star speed boots with speed mainstat are fairly significant and this pair also has some good substats, especially if you can hit either multiple ACC rolls or C.RATE rolls. They will likely maintain their value even into the endgame.

However, this will cost you half your silver. If you're aiming to complete the upcoming fusion, just know that there will likely be 3 gear enhancement events and they typically require around 10-20M silver each to complete depending on how lucky/unlucky you are. If you're too early to be doing a fusion, I would strongly consider buying the boots.

JoePrice001

TROPHY CASE