New Player's Guide to General Arena Strategy - Part I

INTRODUCTION

I decided to write this guide on general Arena strategy because I couldn't seem to find one in these forums. All the guides that I see are mainly for the traditional MOBA mode of Conquest. I like the Arena the most because it is fast and furious fighting in its most pure form aside from Joust, Assault, or Domination. So I thought I'd write this guide to help the somewhat new players who may be a bit confused about what to do in the Arena.

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***** HOW TO PLAY ARENA *****

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NOOB TIPS

(I) **** God-character composition - usually you can't go wrong with one of each kind of god in the team of five: hunter, warrior, mage, guardian, and assassin. Although you could replace the assassin with another mage or hunter type to make it three hunters/mages, a warrior, and a guardian. Many times you don't even need a guardian because this isn't an MMO boss raid. You could actually very well get away with three hunters/assassins and two warriors. But other than that, no matter what composition you have as far as the god types go, try to have a three-two or two-three balance between magic and physical gods. You don't want the team to be all magical or all physical - that would create bad balance problems. Also, it seems to me that it's better to have three ranged and two melee in the composition rather than two or less ranged and the rest melee. I could be wrong on that last point, but maybe my fellow forum members could clarify on this?

(II) **** The object of Arena is to reduce the other team's tickets from 500 to zero before they reduce yours to zero. There are three main ways of doing this: killing an enemy god reduces their tickets by five, killing an enemy minion reduces their tickets by one, and letting your minion through the enemy's portal also reduces their tickets by one. The fourth way which does not happen very often because it is very difficult to do is to kill one of their enemy gryphons (you know, that statue at one of the enemy team's entrances that shoots death rays at you when you get too close) which will reduce the enemy tickets by fifteen. Yet a fifth way with the new Arena map is to get your team's siege engine through the enemy portal - it reduces the enemy team's tickets by ten or so, not sure about this yet (clarify this in the comments below?).

EDIT: Each siege engine reduces the enemy's ticket count by fifteen it it makes it through the enemy's portal. Also, friendly siege engines are generated for every ten enemy gods killed. If you have ever wondered why some arena matches have a lot of siege engines and some don't, just look at the number of gods killed. If your team kills thirty gods, you will have three friendly siege engines and three chances to reduce the enemy's ticket count by fifteen. Vice versa for the other team. -- March 23, 2014 Sunday --

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BASIC STRATEGY

(1) **** Each team's minions will pulse in waves of seven minions: one relatively tough centurion, three melee fighters, and three ranged archers. They will alternate between the left and right entrances. The first wave will come out of one side, then the other side. I think the timing is about thirty seconds between waves, but don't quote me one this! (Maybe a fellow forum member can clarify this in the comments.) The way the minions of both sides pulse out from their respective bases is always toward the center of the Arena. In fact, if no god interfered, both streams of minions would meet and battle at the center of the Arena and they would both equally eliminate each other with neither side ever really getting an advantage. So the team that controls the center and keeps the enemy minions cleared out before they can reach the center is the team that will win the game. I guarantee you that if you make this your focus, you will find that killing the other team's enemy gods will be a LOT easier to do.

(2) **** In the Arena itself, each side has two entrances/exits and a portal at their base. The portal is at the center and the entrances/exits have one on either side of the portal. The object of Arena is not just to kill the other gods, but to keep your backyard and portal clear of their minions. The way to do this is to start killing the enemy minions at the Arena's center before they have a chance to enter your end zone. If your team can kill the enemy minions faster than they can kill your minions, and your team does this consistently the whole game, it's almost a guaranteed win for your team even if they score more god kills. I'm not kidding! I will say it again: the team that consistently kills the enemy minions faster throughout the game and keeps them out of their backyard will almost always win the game. I cannot stress this enough! If you remember nothing else from this guide, remember this: kill the enemy minions as fast as you possibly can and kill them consistently. If you can clear out their minions faster than they can clear yours, you'll find that killing the enemy gods to be a LOT easier because your minions will help you. The corollary to killing their minions faster than they kill yours is to do this CONSISTENTLY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME!

If you can consistently kill their minions faster than they kill yours throughout the entire game to the point where you can pretty much kill their minions almost as they come out of the portal, you got it made in the shade! Of course this can't last the entire game because all the gods have to return to base every now and then to replenish health and mana, and upgrade their gear as they level. Which leads me to the next major Arena strategy tip.

(3) **** Never NEVER never NEVER never NEVER, did I say NEVER, ever EVER have a situation where the whole team goes back to base at the same time to gear up or replenish health/mana. Always ALWAYS always ALWAYS have at least two fellow gods running around in the Arena at ALL times even if nothing else than to keep the enemy minions in check. It's even better to have three in the Arena at all times. Only two at a time should be going to the back for health/mana and gear replenishment at the same time. The three remaining ones in the Arena should just sort of fall back (but only if they have to) and keep the enemy minions cleared out as best as they can until their teammates come back to the battle field. The strategy to all of this is to rotate out all the gods a maximum of two at a time returning to base for replenishment and gear upgrades,.

(4) **** Always stay grouped up, preferably around the center of the Arena field. Staying grouped up enables you to nullify the likes of Loki, Bakasura, Bastet, and other similar type gods where they like to catch the alone and the unwary. When you are grouped up and one of their assassins starts attacking one of you, the others can hammer him or her right off the bat. Focus fire is always great for killing off enemy gods, but especially in this case. The only exception to this is if Hades, Ares, Bacchus, or some other such god with a deadly AOE ultimate starts running towards the group. Then, if you can, run away from them and towards your minions if you can. Always run to another god or your minions if you are being chased and you are low on health. Never run toward empty space - that is a certain death sentence and five tickets off your team's ticket count - not good.

Now I'm not saying that the team has to constantly have a group hug the whole match, but they should always try to be aware of where their teammates are and try to stay within sight distance of each other. I've lost count of the times that a fellow god has been killed because they wandered away from their fellow teammates to chase something they shouldn't, myself included. Yes, it's tempting to chase that other god when he or she is down to one third health, but make sure there is another fellow teammate that can help you with the chase. So again - always stay grouped up, even if only loosely, for the common defense. "Divided we fall, together we stand" is not just an idle saying. It is a timeless truth that has stood the test of eons and millennia.

(5) **** Yes, I'm going to repeat the "kill their minions at all costs" mantra again. KILL THEIR MINIONS AT ALL COSTS!! All the time, if you can, don't even let them get past the center area of the Arena. Once they get into your end zone of the Arena, it's very hard to fight them off and prevent them from getting into the portal. If they start to leak into your backyard, clear them out FAST!! Here's what happens when you don't - if you start to attack the enemy gods behind them, their minions will attack you. So not only are you fighting the enemy gods, you are fighting their minions. When comes to a god versus another god and about three or four of his or her minions, guess who's usually going to win? That's right - the god with the minions on his or her side. For your information, the enemy minions can actually block your path. While you can run through friendly minions, you can't run through the enemy's minions. Just remember that and act accordingly. What can happen is that an enemy god will pin you against his or her minions, you are trapped, and you are in a word - dead. Very dead and very frustrated.

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This guide is getting a bit long-winded, but I will keep it up to date. There's a few more strategy tips I could list, but I'll let that wait for another day in another thread. Until then, see you in the Arena! Isis - you go gurl!! :-)

https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/pffft-minions-a-general-guide-to-arena-3707

but feel free anyway. More guides isn't a bad thing.

Thanks for the referral to that other guide, Raventhor. If only the forums here had a search function, I would've found it. But that guide and mine said a lot of pretty similar things.

Yep!
And yeah trust me, we've wanted a search function for a while now. It would help us both find forum posts, and easily find people's profile. Right now the only way to access someone's profile is to find where they commented and click their name. There's no easy way to do it. I think it's in the works, however. Smitefire just doesn't have a lot of engineers(?) to add in more site functions.

Anyway, yeah, you make many good points that wouldn't be bad by any means in a guide.