Im in Gold I myself, I dont even use a speed lead for my defense or even when i fight speed teams, (not meaning to undermine anybody's speed ratings whatsoever) but i do use a champion in my hybrid style arean team that usually goes first, with just 266 speed.

 Id say about 60%- 70% of the teams I fight my champ goes first.

I have found more success just letting them go first then using a slow nuker myself that hopefully survives everything. 

I would say try using different lead champions like HP  auraor shield set HP champ to protect your team... usually you can wipe an all attack team with just one AoE lol its just surving until your turn is whats tricky. 

I would by all means keep the speed gear you have on your champs currently, even with a defensive/resist /go second team kind of setup speed is still very important you just can breathe easier knowing your team's success isn't singularly dependent on going  first EVERY time.

I don't hate the idea of decoupling or perhaps lessening requirements for the progression missions as it pertains to anything arena.

However, I don't see there being anything wrong with the top 1k or whatever players it ends up being - Plat/Gold IV - in arena basically being a bloodbath. We're talking a tiny fraction of the player base. It shouldn't be easy, theoretically. It will be interesting to see what adding Gold V and making Plat arena 500 players does to the current situation, too.

I thought Plat was already limite to 500 players??

Nope, looks to be 300, but if I remember correctly that is planned along with Gold V arena. 

I'm  struggling  too,  something  has  changed  for  sure.  3  months  ago  i  was  solid  Gold  IV  ...  now  I've  dropped  to  Gold  II !!!  ....  The  only  thing  i  can  think  of  is  that  as  i  6  star  and  level  characters ,  and  gear  them  for  faction  wars  etc,  my  power  goes  up  regardless  of  the  fact  that  most  of  the  characters  i'm  building  will  NEVER  GET  USED  IN  THE  ARENA.  The  system  is  ridiculous.  Heroes  need  Arena  ratings  (  maybe  not  the  user  generated  ones  !  )  and  your  opponents  be  based  off  of  that.

Things did seem to get a bit harder 2 weeks ago.  I'm not struggling to stay in G4 so much, but I'm not getting the 800/900 gold medals/week I was getting 3 weks ago.  I think asking plarium to give you a player arena rating is asking a bit much.  How do they know which champs you will or will not use in arena?  Players come up with all kinds of strategies.  And I realize this will not go over well, but there already is an arena rating.  The tiers show what your rating is.  If i'm in G4 and you are in G2 I'm doing better than you.  Personally, I think arena points is as good as it's going to get.  It directly measures how much a player participates as well as there wins and losses.  If I hardly playor win in arena why should team or player power match me with someone who plays and winds arena all the time?  Other than arena points, the only usfull rating I see is the win rate from great hall.  All these other ratings...player/team power, user ratings, content creater tier lists, are all artificial.

I  dont  mean  that  Plarium  should  rate  my  individual  characters  lol,  but  exactly  like  the  player  rating  that  gets  given  ..  ie.  Each  character  has  a  rating  for  arena  def  and  arena  atk  and  these  are  a  driver  for  who  you  play  against.

Thats the thing with an almost entirely AI content type of game including a provisional and highly conditional pvp mode, the baseline for players meeting X criteria placing them in Y tier fluctuates so rapidly and theres the issue (?) Of the amount of player base that is at any point in time, active, and/or has a team that, because of a comparatively lower overall player power rating, as well as other criteria such as total champs, other content progress and win/loss %, appear to be an outlier among the majority player base.

For instance, I unfortunately made the mistake of gearing way too many rank 4 champs that I wasnt even using for anything just so they would have power ratings (😑😑 I know, pointless lol) and my overall power rating skyrocketed, well at the time I was still learning things - you could say this is true even presently as I play - to a point where I was being matched with players for tournaments and arena with the same ratings and I was competing with players whom im sure have a year or more play time under their belt while I was probably 3-4 measly months in. 

Yea, missed out on a lot of relentless gear and other goodies because of this, that is to say that currently My power rating more so reflects my actual builds and aptitude in general, although not perfect.

Thats the good thing about this game, it lets you fix your mistakes save for skill tomes and great hall upgrades.

I do not have any answers or good ideas but when something is spouse to be fun turns into a full time job there is an issue IMO.

Right now after reset on my main account i have been knock down 150ish points, sorry I know all the defenders will say just farm better gear put up a better defense yes yes i know but it still does not make it FUN and games should be FUN IMO.

I really don't understand that argument, Minin. Why are you surprised that if your defense team is sub-standard, it would be difficult to maintain your rank?

If you don't find it fun to fight back into your previous rank, you have two pretty easy choices. Either "GIT GUD", or accept being at a lower rank.

PS - if you put just about any arbiter + speedbooster on your defense team, you should see relatively few arena defense fights.

I dropped a tier this morning as well for a few fights.  That's typical.  Occasionally 150 pt knock down happens to me as well.  It really doesn't take away from the fun of the game so much as make me want to struggle harder.  It can be very frustrating so in that sense, yes, fun suffers (we all like beating the hell out of the competition).  Bottom line agreed, if you are lacking fun, motivation, or whatever; then is the game worth playing?

Something Spang said, yes the rapid, provisional, and conditional fluctuations;  Before you even said this I was pondering regarding just the competitive basis.  E.g. if you are invited to a competition (wimbeldon, masters, etc.)  you obviously have a better chance of winning if there are only 10 invities as opposed to 30.  The competitivness at any given time may be a significnat factor in arena difficulty.  Players, for sorts of reason, may slack off or increase play time.  E.g. I'm not saying it's so, but see no evidence to contradicte, that merely the holidays may have led many people to slack off, drop out, spend more time with family, just played the minimum; and are not back in to it, and with a break in the game are back in a strong way.  Does this effect the current percieved difficulties in arena?  I can't say so by any means, but I can't dismiss it either.

like I said.

Different points of view and we will not meet in the middle.

I know what needs to be done and understand whats going on, I JUST DO NOT THINK IT IS FUN! this is my point so please stop telling me to GET GUD! I know that.

PS I do have ARB and STILL get hit a ton.

I agree that games should be fun, because well, that's the point of games. However when you add anything that's competitive with other people, I think that changes the equation a bit, no? 

We have the increase in players that will be in G4/G5/Plat coming up, which should help alleviate some of the downward pressure on players. 

However, I don't think arena as a whole should be easy, or made simpler. I can however buy the argument as it pertains to the mission chain, but in the end I don't think Arbiter should be easy to get, either. I just think that chain might be the thing that really discourages a lot of players.

A lot of players enjoy the competitive aspect of arena, often ones who are low or no spend. Some people genuinely enjoy that grind, and there's plenty of other content in Raid for those who don't. 

I specifically said Arb + second speed booster. Make sure you set up your defense team to look scary - arb + deacon + serris + nuker or w/e, so that people just don't try fighting you.

My point though is, if you don't find it fun, then just don't bother trying? Like, what's the middle ground you're hoping for? That it'll be easy to stay at your current rank without needing to put any effort into building teams that'll let you stay there?

Biggest problem with arena is the fail to load match that happens more frequently than ever on mobile counting as auto loss. This goes for tag as well. If you do not load in the match should not count period.

i

While I love arguing in circles ( come from a family of laywers 😁 ) I am not sure there is much point to this but here it goes

I know what you said and fully understand it.

I do not have a nuker scarey enough to have people avoid me 😀recently got Magnar but a work in progess.

As to avoiding the Arena would love to but, it is in both daily quests and the Great Hall improves the rest of the game so Arena can not be avoided IMO

If Arena is so great why do we not see alot of thread proclaiming how Awesome it is?

I am going to start a thread "Arena is Great & Tag is Awesome" :)

It really comes down to the casual/f2p expectations that do not align with Plarium business goals in any way.  They do not care if you are stuck on Arbiter or Ramantu missions, or if you want more GH progress.  You can spend more time or money or be happy with less progress.  Pretty simple.  Lowering the bar has ZERO chance of increasing revenue.  

People will argue the game will die without the casual player, this could not be further from the truth.  Increasing player satisfaction in the f2p segment could quadruple our spending from 0 to 0.  

Keeping new players spending is important though.  The bandaid solution of bots to allow newer players to get to gold wasn't great though, and now there are just way too many veteran accounts.  Whether the matchmaking logic allows them to progress in classic arena or not I have no idea.  But if longer term f2p are impacted this (probably?), Plarium doesn't give a shit.

that's a really good example, they don't care about ftp - they want the Whales kept happy which is why there seems more and more end game content and new players, new players will spend in most cases until they realise how pointless it is to spend unless you spend thousands or tens of thousands like whales

I imagine most mid to end game don't spend much so again won't be any priority for Plarium

Not sure I am liking this nicer Trips 😀

Yes I understand but it does not mean i won't still complain about it 😋

Once  again,  The  thread  gets  derailed  by  an  OP  who  refuses  to  take  responsibility for  their  own  actions.

1st  The  OP  -  Blames  the  game  for  their  lack  of  farming.

The  OP  says  everyone else  has  insane  gear.

Well  if  they  want  insane  gear  why  not  farm  like  the  rest  of  the  players  in  game?

2nd  The  OP  -  Copies  an  inferior  Arena  set  up.

The  OP  tries  to  create  a  Speed  Nuking  Team,  but  only  has  270  speed.

The  OP  knowingly  acknowledges  the  enemy  is  at  300.

Why  try  to  beat  an  enemy  with  inferior  speed  team?

3rd  The  OP  -  Refuses  to  try  other  set  ups  to  win

Stubborness  +  the  OP  unwillingness to  try  different  strategies.

Why  is  the  OP  unable  to  get  to  Gold  4?

Is  it  because of  Plarium?  

No,  it  is  because the  OP  refuses  to  take  responsibility for  their  actions.

All  I  see  are  excuses  and  more  excuses.

I  tried  to  help  the  OP.

It  fell  on  deaf  ears.