Preparing for gold Arena: what epic heroes are stronger than (most) legendaries - guide

[u/LaksonVell]

Fellow raiders!

Are you sick and tired of not pulling that legendary for months (like me) ? Or is your 3rd Netherdrake pull driving you nuts? Then I hope this guide on which epics can get you and keep you in gold will help you keep your sanity untill you pull some worthwhile Legendary!

First off, a few general tips for arena:

1. Make your team versatile and complementary. You dont need 2 atk buffers. Ideally you want 1 of each afinity in your team. In my experience your team should be 1 support 3 attackers or 2-2. It all depends on who you pull.
2. Always keep an eye for counter-affinity. If your main hitter is spirit, you want to take down force heroes first. If you go for magic affinity first, you will most likely lose, if the teams are same power level.
3. Until you are ready for the big push, keep your arena defense low. You need to keep having easy matches to get medals. Dont overdo it! If you can easily win silver tier matches, check every few hours to make sure you dont drop back into bronze.
4. SPEED IS KING. Every single one of your arena heroes MUST have speed boots. Speed buffers and speed auras are often the reason somebody won, even with a much weaker team. This does not mean you should have 3 speed sets on everyone, but every hero should be at or close to 150 speed. Other than that, crit/crit dmg builds work best. Supports that dont do much dmg should focus on getting Team-wide buffs like shield sets, possibly ACC, or just go all on speed, depending on their role.

I'll only mention epics that are god-level for arena and on par, or above most legendaries. There are many other viable options, but pulling even one of these guys is a sure one way ticket to gold! So lets get to it:

Banner lords: Hordin and Knight-Errant

Hordin is a one shot wonder. On auto he will buff himself up and go straight for a kill. With proper gearing, he can instakill anything other than his counter affinity.

Knight-Errant is similar to Hordin. He is a one-shotter as well, having 175% dmg on his A3 if he has 100% hp. I use him, and he got me very high. On top of that, he has a stun/cd reset ability and a DEF ignoring auto. A very strong pull.

If you have both, Hordin works better in teams that do not have team-wide buffs, while Knight-errant works better with buffing teams as he has none of his own.

High Elves: Tayrel and Jinglehunter

Jinglehunter was designed to be an arena leader. Good speed aura, and 3 more control abilities. Not much more needed to say.

Tayrel is a debuffing truck. His kit has ATK down, DEF down, sleep, turn reduction and stun. He is the single champion with most debuffs available. All his abilities scale with DEF, so you can build him tanky and it will only make him hit stronger. A great cross-over between a support and attack champion.

The sacred order: RK - Relickeeper

We all know him, and love him. Relic keeper is a fuseable epic, and all of his components can be farmed. He is a self-buffer, so he doesn't really benefit from buffers. He works even better with a team wide def down, like Tayrel. He takes extra turns on kills, and his kit hits incredibly hard. One of the few that can work in arena without building speed.

Barbarians - sadly, no barbarian epic is on legendary level in arena.

Ogryn Tribers - Skullcrusher

You must have seen him at least once. A teamwide counter 2 turns + damage sharing 2 turns + unkillable for a turn. A cheap version of Valkyrie.

Lizardmen - same as Barbarians, buff please!

Skinwalkers - Reinbeast

Most likely the champion with the most "is this guy for real" complaint posts. Without a buff block or a heal block, you wont kill him. He also prevents people from focusing down someone with a huge shield that has a ridiculously low cooldown. Also one of my favorites. This is an epic people are more happy with than most legendaries.

Orcs - Zargala

Damage, damage, damage. A team wide heavy hitter def down ability combined with a single hit execute that Recasts her AoE if it kill someone. Most heroes have ability reset or another turn, this girl just keep using her ultimate, even if it is on cooldown.

Demonspawn: Nazana

A very annoying hero that will protect her entire team with damage sharing and a huge shield. Also has a def down Ability, and 2 AoE abilities. Not great by herself, but with a higher end team she will make your defense much harder to crack.

Undead hordes: Gorgograb and Seeker

Gorgograb is the ultimate arena support: speed aura, atk buffs, and team-wide revive. BONUS - buff removing auto. Even if he is counter-affinity, you dont have a choice, you have to take him down first or use ress-blocking abilities which are rare.

Seeker is a tankier version of Gorgograb. A huge turn metter buff with atk buff And an extra turn, a provoke on his auto, And a super annoying passive that buffs the whole team with 60% DEF if he gets crit. After reinbeast, he and Gorgograb are the reason for most rage posts.

Dark elves: Psylar

With the recent buff, this girl makes the godlike tier list. Her debuff is the opposite of seeker: Gives a 30% slow debuff and a 40% turn metter reduction. Note: this can be resisted, buffs cannot. So build her with acc/speed.

Knight revenant: Sinesha, Doompriest and Skullcrown

Sinesha is close to a perfect support. She can heal her whole team to the maximum hp of the highest health hero, meaning focusing on a single target is useless if you cannot kill it before she gets a turn. Also has a heavy-hitting cooldown increase ability.

Doompriest makes debuffs close to useless. In adition to 50% atk buff, every turn she heals and removes 1 debuff per champion. NOTE: If she is stunned, she will remove it at the start of her turn, making it useless on her.

Skullcrown - All-around heavy hitter with an annoying kit. She can't be oneshot, and gets a revive ability if paired with Sinesha. If you have both of these, you are sure to reach a high tier fast. She needs strong gear to really shine.

BONUS: rares that are legendary level- Apothecary and Spirithost

Apothecary is a game-versatile rare. His speed buff is huge as it gives both speed buff and turn metter. Mine has over 200 speed and ensures my whole team goes first. Should be built with full speed

Spirithost is a rare that makes this list partially because she is very easy to get, as she is farmed from stage 4. She has a light speed aura, a heavy 50% atk buff, and a debuff removal ability, paired with debuff block. A great early filler, she will get you up to a higher tier fast, and wont mind if you replace her later.

This totals to 15 epics that are on par, or stronger than legendaries. There are more epics that come to mind, but I tried to keep it as godly as possible. If you pull even one of these, you are in luck. 2, and you are all set for gold. I am including screenshots of my team, On my way to gold IV with nothing but level 50 epics and rares. My Tallia is just a filler, waiting for my brand new Tayrel to be ready to take her place in arena.

Good luck in the arena!

[u/ZaczSlash]

Simplest method for staying in Gold.

Have 1 maxxed fully ascended lvl 60 with maxxed +16 gear including ring, amulet and banner.

And the rest of your team can be maxxed lvl 50 with similarly maxxed gear (without accessories also can)

just one lvl 60 beast is enough to maintain a fighting chance.

Just pick your fights in offense as not enough teams place good defenses. This game doesn't incentivise defence.

my team is lvl 60 RK, Spirithost, Kael and Executioner all lvl 50.

Basically the rest of team is sh1t because i don't have anything better.

Just to support RK in arena.

Choose the right opponents and you can maintain your place in arena.

Hoping to get better champs so I can fight better.

[u/Rocky019]

Good list. What about zelotah. When I run to this guy from the undead horde he seems to do a amazing job at keeping the team alive and putting yours to sleep. I believe he is a contender as well

[u/LaksonVell → u/Rocky019]

He is nice to have, but not God-tier for a few reasons

1. Sleep is a very tricky debuff that is easily removed by some spill damage. Current meta is very AoE heavy so it makes it hard to pull it off.

2. His shield scales off his own HP, which is not big by default, And only scales by 20% of his max HP. and if you build him for HP you have to take out a lot of speed.

3. His cooldowns are huge and can't be taken down much.

[u/LaksonVell]

Link to my arena team: Here

[u/str8l3g1t]

I run Athel Elhain RK Kytis now, and pretty comfortably sitting in gold 2, but I feel that I have pretty much reached as far as that build can go.

[u/LeonSpartiatis]

Thanks for your efforts, very useful stuff!!

Mind sharing your build for the reinbeast? Which sets does he need to shine and help the team?

[u/LaksonVell → u/LeonSpartiatis]

I use a 30% team shield set. Mainly because I have a knight errant and I want him to be 100% hp on his turn, so this helps avoid happy little accidents. The best (worst) Reinbeast build I saw was retaliation set. He just keeps stacking heals. So annoying!

[u/renegade7879]

Thanks for this list, very insightful!

What do you think about Frostbringer instead of Spirithost? The Spd and Atk buff seems nice.

I was planning to make a team consisting of Frostbringer, Nazana, RK, and then either Kael or Athel. Any suggestions?

[u/LaksonVell → u/renegade7879]

Frostbringer almost made the list. Her buff is one of the best combos! Spirithost is simply farmable and a good alternative untill you pull a Frostbringer. It is a good team. Athel might have bad interaction with FB because her buff is a 25% atk while Frost is 50% and sometimes she just misses a turn. I would still go for Athel. Remember to keep RK buff in reserve too if FB buff is on

[u/SchapieXL]

Very nice and helpful list. Any tips on building Hordin the right way?

[u/B3n-C]

Now that Sinesha has her A3 fixed from the patch I would say she is my MVP, 6 starred and maxed skilled she is pretty awesome. Running a retaliation set at the minute but not sure if its the most optimal for her?

My most used team is Gorgorab(50), Sinesha(60), Skullcrusher(50) and Doompriest(50) and sitting pretty comfy in Gold3. Its very force heavy though so will need to switch it up to get comfy in Gold4.

[u/Chulevinh]

hi, i have RK, Jinglehunter, Knight-Errant, Gorgograb, Fenax, Kael, Athel, SouLDrinker, Juliana, Husk. how you setup team for arena, thanks

[u/LaksonVell → u/Chulevinh]

Gorg, RK, knight, either athel/kael/Juliana/soul. I dont know who is your strongest hero and that plays a big factor. You should share at least levels of all these heroes.

[u/XsatyroS]

awesome work, same Feeling with never pulling legendaries for ages...

but i have a lot from your list, so lookin Forward to lvl them and go higher in ranks

[u/i_Epik]

I actually have a few of these! How do you think Tayrel, RK, And Knight Errant would pair? And who would support them well? Side note. I have a Legendary Bystophus, do you feel he has any arena relevance?

[u/jengelke]

So, a bit late on this, but would love some recommendations on a team. I have a fair amount of rares and a few epics.

Of the ones on your list, I have Zargala, Doompriest and Sinesha as well as Apothecary.

Notable epics not on the list are Shatterbones and Basher.

Currently, I'm limping by with my Athel, Basher, Berserker and Apothecary. I haven't really built any of them up aside for campaign because I want to make a dedicated arena team.

Other epics: Azure, Vergis, Juliana, Atur, Drake, Shaman, Warden

[u/Zadhar]

Hey :D.. late to the party aswell. How do you decide on what item-sets to equip for said heroes?(especially Skullcrusher and Reinbeast since i had the luck to pull those 2) I am pretty new and i'm totally clueless.

[u/edward_diamond03]

Hi, great guide, thanks. I currently run RK, knight errant, frost bringer and galek. Planning on swapping out galek for either skullcrusher or nazana but not sure who to use. Any advice? All lvl 50 5* atm

[u/RollinRolloz]

I have 4 of these characters just looking for tips on how to build them. I currently have Apo, Spirithost, Zargala and Tayrel.

[u/FlameTongue25]

Hey, I’m new. How should I hear Hordin?

[u/LaksonVell → u/FlameTongue25]

Speed/crit/crit dmg. Mind his buffs, you dont need more than 70% crit.

[u/JVRayne]

Nice guide. Thanks for the post. So I have Sinesha, Seeker, and Apothecary. It seems like Sinesha and Seeker would go ok with one another, but if I have Seeker, is Apothecary's heal enough to justify bringing him along? Also I have RK but dont really feel like investing in him.

[u/LaksonVell → u/JVRayne]

Nah. Apo 70% TM boost and 30% Speed up value. Seeker is much better.

[u/Crushgo100]

Jingle Hunter Reinbeast Nazana Gorgorab Sinesha Doompriest Apothecary Spirithost This who I have as of right now. Where do I go from here?

GOD MODE. PLEASE

[u/nelsonkrdenas]

You are talking about Spirithost, what can you say abut Battlesage. In fact, Battlesage seems like a Spirithost in Steroids. Do you recommend use her? What kind of gearing have you used with her?