probably dropped on purpose for some easy wins 

Well, I have not noticed that there are many ez wins at lower levels.  Also getting back to where you were is not so ez.

It seems that the whole game has turned hard like gold.

Once the bots go folk tend to protect their current tier, so defences will be proper teams and tougher

Your thread was closed because it had devolved into insults ... I don't know if this one will fare any better, but I'll repost what I posted there - which is to say, I don't consider this to be a "real" problem. The whales will always win. I personally have only rarely even seen a +2, let alone a team full of +4s, so I consider that (for now) to be a problem for the whales to fight amongst themselves over.

Kramaswarmy is correct, that is precisely why the last post was closed. Challenge the content/ideas in the game, not people. 

Earlier in the week is a lot more competitive now, so I think we're more likely to run into teams that will end up in high Gold IV/Plat by end of week. That said I've been spending early to mid week in high G3/low G4 lately and by the time I make it back to the 3k-3.1k range, I don't really see teams like the one forrest posted. However, I would be interested in seeing and hearing what you guys are experiencing by end of week, versus the beginning.

Yep I'm not saying it's the norm, but could it be in time?

I think you're correct, it seems to be competitive all the time now, of course there never were bot teams 😂 but now whatever they were has gone folk are defending their tier from reset so battles appear tougher if you don't rerally have a G4, or team appropriate to the tier you are in

Arena has been more competitive for 3 or 4 weeks now.  Initiiall I did see a few empowered champs but haven't in a while.  Early week is always the worst.  It took me most of the day yesterday to get back into G4.  And I'm still being very carefull who I pick on as I'm just at 3000 now.  Before I would be around 3200 or 3300 and have only a single bandit on defense.

Going to be worse with G5 being added (when?) I think.  We are going to have plenty of topics that "I was G4 pushing plat, I should be G5".  I am eagerly curious as to what the G5 impact will be.

I think the whales benefit most by the unseen improvement with faction guardians, most of the +X I see in classic or tag I would avoid regardless.  Those I do attack, I win at the same rate.  At least I think I do.

It's going to be interesting to say the least.

I think the anger could be worse, but in theory Plat/G5 should alleviate the downward push some. 

For you or anyone who was in Gold IV/Plat before arena got easier in the summer (I think it was then.), how does this compare to the last time arena was tougher? 

I've been in G4 forever.  I still dip my toe in Plat by accident (then I put solo defense in), but have never attempted to stay because I would have zero chance.  My classic team is still designed to speed farm weaker (bots and bot-feeders) teams.  I have a "slow" arbiter (prob 340?), my team is not speed tuned (can get cut it on).  Use genbo as nuker just for skullcrown and swift parry.  Sometimes I get a page where I fight all 10, sometimes I skip 5 tormin/hege teams.  My win rate is probably 85%ish since a loss doesn't really matter I just get in and out.  My tokens often go unused.

I still get full pages of level 50-70 players occassionaly, I don't see the level 40 bots at all.  So for me it is pretty easy still, but my guess it has gotten harder and will continue to do so and eventually get to where it was at some point.  Or bots can reintroduced to the pool.  Yes, I still believe they were bots, not a "player segement".... lol.

Arena has been more competitive for a couple months now, in my experience. It has been brutal.

I think it depends on where you normally sit. If you are are a 3700+ person, arena has been hard and getting fast again for a while. If you sit at 2900-3200, if has taken longer for that to trickle down. I think it is now across the entirety of Gold 4.

I can't see Gold 5 doing anything but helping spread that speed out a bit more. It moves all the worst teams up into Gold 5 and allows folks to more easily get into Gold 4, and complete their missions, without needing a 330 arbiter at a minimum.

To answer the first question. I don't see many empowered champs until I reach Plat, or are trying to get the last 100 points or so to get there.

If I see a +1 here or there, like Trips, I can usually get it not too much problem.

Like you said yourself Forrest, that player has obviously dropped a bunch to farm some wins. I think I could probably still beat such a team. It's going to be quite slow, with super high resists, and I will put in a team meant to fight it rather than my regular one.

But, more likely, I will just leave it. Why fight that team for 5 minutes when I can just ignore it, fight the other teams on the page, maybe grab some tea or check the forums, then click refresh for free?

ive come  across teams occassionally with all 4 champs +4 empowered and think cool lets try it out i was pleasantly surprised that they are still beatable even with 200 000 player power difference between my team and theirs. 

i still take on teams for the fun of the battle i lose more to lower power teams than higher lol 

I saw a 650k power team in classic yesterday, and gave it a try for fun as well.

I was not as successful as you

650k would be a whole thing. I feel like 450-500k is doable though. 0_0

yeahi got ripped apart by a similiar to your quoted opponent power was yep they knew what they were doing lol