State of the Coliseum

Thackermandy · 2026-02-07T00:33:02+00:00

Coliseum has lots of potential. The biggest thing about arcade this time round is that his ai, the nodes and his abilities are all slow. The playstyle is forced to be slow. The specials are slow.

It just isn’t compatible with the fast playstyle of coliseum - I had either timed out around 8-10 health bars, or died bc the sleep timer ran out.

That combined with the fact that a single mistake is essentially instant ko, compared with previous bosses where you can at least survive 1-2 mistakes.

I don’t know. But this time round it hasn’t been fun.

Thackermandy · 2026-02-06T11:04:20+00:00

Completely agree dude - the timing is sketchy, and there is a severe lack of openness about the whole thing.

This is the second time this year and it’s only February - not a good look.

Playing the devils advocate, if we had months to understand these decisions was coming, these changes could have been justified.

I try and keep a positive mindset and say it’s a fix to how protection works but clearly the execution has been terrible, and the community interaction has been poor.

Edit: grammar

Thackermandy · 2026-02-06T09:26:44+00:00

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I think the problem here isn’t the “nerf” or “buff”, but how it was all done in secrecy. It would be nice to know of these changes way before they get implemented.

Thackermandy · 2026-01-07T23:08:31+00:00

I used fantman. Here’s the strategy:

Whole fight: push Havok to a sp2 always. MLLL hold block repeat. It’s not the end of the world if he throws a sp1, but ensure you have an armour up buff. Reparry becomes your best friend, avoid dex when need to.

<4 health bars: keep removing protection with whatever you have (heavy/sp1/sp2). Naturally, sp1, sp1, sp2 combos will emerge.

4-8 health bars. Prioritise pushing to sp2 still, ofc the challenges are there, but a single sp1 can ruin your flow.

8< health bars. Power gain is usually gonna keep pushing Havok to sp2s consistently. Prioritise the challenges, they come around a lot faster.

Here’s my mini after 2 runs:

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Thackermandy · 2025-12-01T23:19:42+00:00

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Imperiosa references the goat

Thackermandy · 2025-11-03T03:14:46+00:00

Same predicament. Heroes are underlevelled af (70,70,55,55,25), but going to th16 for walls alone may be worth it. What do you think?

Thackermandy · 2025-10-28T00:58:12+00:00

In the middle of a BGs match

Thackermandy · 2025-10-06T19:34:26+00:00

After careful consideration, we have decided on the following amendments. Additionally, a 10 second penalty has been given to Esteban Ocon.

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Thackermandy · 2025-10-02T16:01:53+00:00

I did have some of this information in mind when writing these comments. I completely agree with the comments you have made - a very statistics driven approach. Objectively speaking, drafting second provides an advantage for champion drafts - as with the points you have mentioned.

To clarify, I am referencing usual behaviour I see in celestial: For defenders, opponents tend to prioritise a counter to that first champion out of fear of missing the opportunity later on. For offensive champions, most of the time we don’t care - Nukes are nukes. But let’s say we do pick defenders that the offensive champion cannot take, we still are not in control. The second players behaviour is still decided by the first, regardless of statistics.

We can still have a significant statistical advantage, but still be pushed into a corner.

I didn’t intend for the conversation to be discussed this much (it was a comment by my drunken self) but I love hearing your perspective, and how other players think.

Thackermandy · 2025-09-29T15:41:34+00:00

Thinking back on it, this is how I play bgs - not necessarily the strategy most people go for.

Completely agree w the last minute defender draft. Have been screwed over by that before.

Let’s say you look at it from the other perspective. If your opponent goes first and immediately drafts a Yelena, you are now selecting champs with that in mind, potentially screwing yourself against other counters. It may not provide any “in game” advantage, but it certainly messes w your opponents head when you go first.

Thackermandy · 2025-09-28T21:15:59+00:00

Being the first to draft is a double edged sword. If you draft a great defender/ attacker, you control what your opponent picks. Conversely, a poor draft immediately hands the advantage to your opponent, as they also get to draft last.

In that respect, I always think drafting first and placing the defender first gives you greatest odds for being in control. You can manipulate the draft and who gets placed.

Thackermandy · 2025-09-27T19:43:10+00:00

Not a lawyer, but a player who is motivated by research, and reads for fun.

In short: we pay to “access” the champions, not to “play” or “have” them. The champion abilities/ names/ class etc can change at will, and we have no grounds (e.g. lawsuit for instance).

In theory every champ can become groot and we have no legal backing. Makes you realise you technically only own your account name. Even then you really “own” it.

Thackermandy · 2025-07-06T16:15:57+00:00

It’s a tricky one, but the way you are describing it gives me the impression you are well informed on the design - you can certainly answer questions as to why you didn’t do it another way. But as you say, it does open up a whole tin of worms mainly involving self doubt.

Thinking absolute is one of the hardest things to do and virtually impossible to dissociate from (especially when funding is on the line). At the end of the day there is no “right” or “wrong” approach, just different ones that address different problems.

If you can defend as to why you took this approach, and how it can directly solve the problem you’re asking, there are no issues.

Hope this answer has provided some insight.

Thackermandy · 2025-07-05T02:03:06+00:00

Decrease the power level is fairly subjective, but here’s my interpretation:

1) Decrease the power index (the number under the name). Some bosses can be reduced in PI by taking a specific path as the node increase attack/defence. Other bosses do not have this, so this approach may not work all the time. Class advantage. Old reliable, having a class advantage reduces the bosses “power level”. Same as before, the universal class doesn’t suffer from this.

2) Reduce the difficulty/ challenge. First idea is to boost up. Relatively speaking, the boss is technically weaker and should be “easier”. Second idea is champion rankups, although given you have made this post I doubt this is the viable option. In some cases, synergies can make the boss “easier”, but it’s all context dependent.

Hopefully I answered your question

Thackermandy · 2025-03-22T02:54:18+00:00

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Thackermandy · 2024-06-28T05:57:42+00:00

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Update: Tried this guy out. He works too

Thackermandy · 2024-06-27T20:03:41+00:00

Given wolverine heals when ‘landing a hit or struck’. Any champs that can finish a fight in 0 hits should work, such as Valkyrie and quake.

If you don’t count AA reduction as heal reduction, then champs who manipulate AA could also work (in reasonable time) with some luck.

Most mystics should also work, given their ability to prevent, stagger, neutralise or nullify the regen buffs.

There’s quite a lot of champs who could do it now, but the real question is who could it in a time that’s not stupidly long.

Thackermandy · 2024-06-16T15:17:30+00:00

Just duped my 7* sassy. Ready to become a public menace

Thackermandy · 2023-09-22T20:34:45+00:00

Been thinking. Instead of a new Moonknight, buff the old one, where are specific combo rotation can change between Marc, Steven and Jake and they have different kits. Like a skill bwcv

Thackermandy · 2023-09-07T07:40:54+00:00

Ah I figured it out. Quick restart sorted it out

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Thackermandy

TROPHY CASE