Arena Guide by Xypherior

Here a Guide to help you learn how to raise your Arena League standard









1) Team Structure:
There are commonly 2 Types of Team structures in Arena league.
Double Tank (More commonly appears in EU)
2 Guardians
2 Bruisers (Or Xbalanque)
1 Mage (Preferably with Strong lane clear)
Double Mage (The dominant NA meta)
1 Guardian
2 Bruisers (Or Xbalanque)
2 Mages

2) God Tier Lists, (List of the best gods)
Mages : Poseidon, Ao Kuang, Scylla, Freya, Zeus, Chang'e
Hunters: Xbalanque, Art
Bruisers: Wukong, Guan, Tyr, Odin, Ares
Guardians: Athena, Bacchus, Ymir
Assassins: Bastet, Nemesis

Notes: Ares is under bruiser as he's best played as a bruiser rather than a tank.
Nemesis is under assassin because lets not kid ourselves. She's an assassin.

3) Roles:

Guardians: Set up the kills, This should be your main engagement maker. Start with blink if you're Ares/Ymir and setup your cc. You're here to take the blows whilst your team is doing the main source of damage.

Hunters: You're the heavy late game damage dealer. Chances are you're going to be doing the most damage in the game. You're not the tankiest of characters so make sure you don't put yourself into a position you're not going to be able to get out of.

Warriors: You bring additional tankiness and damage along with CC to the fight, You can be used to set up kills or secure them.

Assassins: You're the burst damage generally your end game player damage won't be as high as the Mages or Hunters but chances are you're going to have a lot of kills, why? You secure or burst. Get in get out. You're the squishy character.

Mages: Lane clear, you're the best at clearing the minions, in my opinion minions > kills. get those last hits, you miss 5 last hits and thats the equivalent of a kill. Stay on top of it, you're also going to do a lot of damage in team fights.

4) Starting:
The most common start is to clear the left side of buffs. Let your main lane clear take the blue buff and let him go clear the main set of minions whilst the other players secure the rest of the buffs.Another start is to have 1 member distract the minions at your opponents base, whilst your minions walk past into the other teams portal, however this start is risking because minions do a lot of damage and if you're seen by the other team they can easily kill you.

5) Positioning:
Keep either an offensive/balanced positioning meaning push the enemy back/fight around the middle. If you're pressured to back of your base all the time you're going to have a harder time stopping the minions from entering your portal. Guardians should stay at the front of the team so it doesn't leave other (less tanky) team mates vulnerable for the other tank to engage on. You shouldn't chase kills to the other side of the map, you're going to be caught out of position and before it 5 of the enemy team will be on you. Don't collect buffs on your own/when your team is pushed back. The other team will notice you're out of position and focus you down.

6) When to engage:
Your Guardian should be looking for members who are out of position on the other team. That's when you engage, when you see a target cc him then burst him down. Then pull back to heal up and regroup. Don't overextend after you win a team fight don't stick about at the enemy base waiting for them to respawn. They will likely be stronger and have more health than you. Go back to base and heal up. Or the 4-0 you just got may turn into a 4-2.

7) When to back:
When everyone is at full health and an engagement is about to start, now is not the time to go back to base to get a level 2 on your item. Be ready for your Guardian to announce [VAA] to attack. You should back After an engagement or when nothing major is happening and you can finish off an item (T3)

8) LAST HITS!:
More important than anything in Arena is make sure you last hit the creeps. Going in popping a Ao tornado at level 3 Isn't going to clear the wave and is going to deny you points. LAST HITS WIN GAMES.

I hope this helps a few of you in your attempt to get better at Arena!

-Xypherior

Omg! Please, change the font. My eyes hurt reading it (like seriously, it's hard for me).

Dammu wrote:Omg! Please, change the font. My eyes hurt reading it (like seriously, it's hard for me).

A bit better now :p

Specific builds depend who you are up against and your style of play, so I will never go into that.
Also because I know I'm not the best. But I'm good enough to give some advice if needed.

Dammu wrote:Because it was written for Arena League, it doesnt always work that well, but it has really good basic stuff in it. As I have experience, casual arena has more chaos in it. In league it was more organized (atleast when top players were involved).

But some additions and thoughts to Arena Guide by Dammu (almost as good as Xypherior in Arena League):

1-3)
Assassins: If you check closely, neither of the structures have assassins in it. And that's for a reason. In high-skilled arena game, all assassins can do is die. Arena is basicly a constant teamfight. and melee gods have to have sustain to survive. Yes, assassins get lot of kills sometimes, but mostly they are useless finisher, that would've happened with out their involvment anyway. That said, some assassins actually are quite good in Arena if played well: Nemesis, Bastet (good poke, escape and cats to disturb enemy), Thor (mobility, that rift/wall from 2). But in the end I would recommend to have 2x warriors or warrior+hunter as physicals instead.

Support: The more CC you have, the better. Try to get CDR(max it, if it works with overall build) to use it even more. CC can save your teammates or get some kills. And that's the main reason why Ares is not support. What can he do to save his low-healt mage from enemies who are chasing? Nothing. Ymir can freeze or wall, Athena can taunt or ult, Bacchus can jump or stun etc.
Can write about Ymir more if somebody thinks it's needed. I mainly played him in League (so much that teammates requested for me to play him).

Hunters: Not so great in teamfights, but useful to have to deal physical damage from a distance. Should be careful in early game. Late game can pick out squishies who are bady positioned (away from a teamfight - like KKK stays at a distance, hunters can pick them out and remove them from a figh).
Best hunter in Arena: Xbalanque, but all others are decent aswell.

Warriors: Helps support with his sustain. Support can also die fast if all damages is focused on him/her. So sustainable warrior can jump in get some of the focus on himself. Would be good with some CC aswell. As I dont play warriors at all, I cant really give in-depth tips for them.

Mages: 2 mages: one with GOOD wave-clear (KKK, Pos etc) and the other one can be whatever. One of the mages has to always his one eye on minions. If you play KKK and minions get through when you're alive - it's your fault. Also, be sure to get last hits. Useless to deal damage to minions and let enemy minions kill'em - no tickets.
With mages it's also good to have some CDR. Because arena is so fast-paced, you need your skills ready as soon as possible. 2 more krakens during the whole game can be the difference from loss to win.

Specific builds depend who you are up against and your style of play, so I will never go into that.
Also because I know I'm not the best. But I'm good enough to give some advice if needed.

Those are really great words of wisdom from "Dammu" for all who wish to play Arena 'ranked style'. I agree with you that most assassins are their to finish already dead enemies, kind of 'KS' in ranked play. Amongst hunters, yes Xbalanque has perhaps the best late game and effectiveness throughout the game. Note that this guide by Xypherior was posted on official forums and reddit(not sure) long back when some of the recent OP gods were not released. 

Another point I would like to highlight is the fact that in casual arena whenever I play with a party their are always minions reaching our portal. Nobody cares about them even if they do, they don't do it properly. Don't Expect an Ares, Bacchus or Sobek to clear whole waves (Ymir can be an exception though). That's why its not good for players in a team to die in heaps, double or triple kills.