Final Closed Beta Etherena Breakdown

With the launch of Etheria: Restart just days away, we thought we would take a peek into one of the most important parts of the game—the Arena.

In this article, we are going to break down the top 50 ranked teams in Etherena. We’ll look at what Animus everyone was using, why they were being used, and potential ways to deal with these Animus should you come up against them in the full launch.

A quick disclaimer: the top 50 which this article is based on was taken 24 hours before the actual close of the Arena. This is also only a reflection of the EU Etherena server, so there may be some differences in the exact numbers. However, this still gives us a very good indication.

Also, at the time of writing, the developers just released balance changes for a number of different Animus in the upcoming launch—so some may not be as good as they were previously.

Even if you are not the biggest fan of PvP, we would always encourage people to do the bare minimum if they can. The rewards that you can get from the different arena shops are well worth the 10–15 minutes play time per day to get them.

Not only that, but the progression rewards for reaching different ranks in Arena are very nice, allowing you to buy out the entire Arena Shops if you get high enough. No one is saying you need to push for rank 1, but you will hurt your progression by not pushing at all—especially as you will have Hyperlink charter missions to complete.

Below is a breakdown of all the heroes used in the top 50 teams of Etherena and the number of times they appeared:

• Marvell – 41
• Massiah – 22
• Freya – 21
• Kraken – 16
• Tiamat – 12
• Gray – 12
• Lily – 11
• Kloss – 7
• Lian – 7
• Sania – 6
• Helkid – 6
• Heinrich – 5
• Lingluo – 4
• Tsukiyo Mi – 4
• Rosa – 4
• Rahu – 3
• Dokidoki – 3
• Viper – 2
• Lilith – 2
• Chiaki the Echo – 2
• Victor – 2
• Dinah – 2
• Rilmocha – 2
• Borgne – 1
• Valerian – 1

Looking at the above, there is one person that clearly stands out above the rest: Marvell. Used in just over 80% of teams in the top 50 of EU Etherena and almost as popular as the next two highest combined, this shows the power he provided and also explains why he received a nerf recently.

To save this article from requiring tons of scrolling, we will be putting the above into groups. We’ll talk about how/why they fall into that category. If we feel that some Animus naturally fall into multiple groups, they will appear in both, with a brief description.

Marvell, Freya, Kraken, Lily, Kloss, Tsukiyo Mi, DokiDoki, and Chiaki the Echo

In the early days of the Arena, speed is king. Being able to go first is crucial—although slightly less so once Bulwark gear is unlocked. All the above units bring some sort of turn meter manipulation, whether it’s boosting your team or reducing the opponent’s.

If any of the above are in the team you are facing, chances are they will be one of the first to go.

• Marvell will knock your turn meter back, place [SPD-] and [Eff Res-] on you (making it easier for other debuffs to be placed). He also has a [Silence] on his second skill, but you won’t often see this happen, because chances are you are dead before it’s required.
• Kraken and Kloss do have turn meter knock back as well, although this might not be their primary role. But it’s something to consider when you see them. Kraken’s knock back is baked into his crowd control [Freeze] so you will see this often. Kloss will generally open with her skill 3 which is [DEF-] and [SPD-] but her skill 2 does have turn meter reduction.
• Freya’s passive will both increase your turn meter and knock back the opponents depending on whether you are placing buffs or debuffs.
• Lily, Tsukiyo Mi, DokiDoki and Chiaki the Echo all bring turn meter push for your team. Chiaki the Echo is a team wide 20% push forward, DokiDoki is somewhat team wide (she increases the ally with the lowest turn meter by 12%, each time targeting whoever has the current lowest, in some cases each member of the team will get boosted once). Lily and Tsukiyo Mi bring [SPD+] and have a single target turn meter push. Lily through her twin trick and Tsukiyo Mi on her ult. With Tsukiyo Mi doing 100% push when the skill is maxed.

So how do you beat all of the above? Well there are a couple of ways to get around this. The first is simply to be faster. That is easier said than done especially for free to play players or if you have had bad RnG on your rolls. But if you are able to get your abilities off before them you are putting yourself in a better position to succeed. These abilities don’t necessarily have to be crowd control but they can be protective abilities like Helkid’s sound barrier, which gives you [Immunity] and [Shield] helping you withstand the barrage of abilities that will follow. Tsukiyo Mi has AoE [Silence] which you can use to force the enemy team to only use their skill 1’s leaving you reasonably healthy. Whether you open with Tsukiyo Mi’s skill 2 or 3, if you are going first you stand a good chance.

The 2nd is Bulwark sets. Most people will make one hero super fast and the others won’t be. They are solely relying on Marvell or Kraken being able to knock your team back and control you to succeed. If they can’t do that and the rest of your team is faster than theirs, they have essentially brought a dead hero to the fight. It doesn’t need to be your entire team in Bulwark either. Towards the end of the BETA I saw this being implemented to great effect with Lingluo. She would be in Bulwark and semi fast (at least faster than the rest of your team), she would use her ultimate to cleanse any negative effects off your team and heal them. Allowing the rest of your team to continue as if there was no crowd control in the first place. There was a slow emergence of “Go 2nd” teams appearing at the end of BETA but it ended before they could take hold.

Kraken, Tiamat, Lily, Tsukiyo Mi and Lilith.

All of the above characters have some form of crowd control (CC from henceforth). Some of it you might class as “soft” CC rather than “hard” CC.

• Kraken is the obvious stand out here. His [Freeze] is what I would call “hard” CC and by that I mean completely stopping you from doing ANYTHING on your turn. [Stun] sits in a similar vein to this, for example Obol has a [Stun] on his skill 3 as well as [DoT]s which I think people might forget because he is not anywhere to be seen in the top 50.
• Tiamat brings [Taunt]. I have been going back and forth as to whether this is hard or soft CC. I am leaning towards soft because the enemy team can still do something, even if it is just the basic skill towards one target. I also think [Silence] is soft CC which is why Tsukiyo Mi is here. Lily can put enemy skills on cooldown forcing them to use the skill 1 which is similar to a [Silence] effect.
• Lilith places [Graceful Mischief] which is a 2 turn bomb effect. When it explodes it will place [Stun] on the opponent. So it’s delayed hard CC, although her skill 2 can be used to detonate one immediately.

The way you combat these is exactly the same as some of the turn meter manipulators. Either be faster and get your abilities off first or have some sort of [Immunity] / general survivability to absorb the first wave.

It’s worth mentioning that some of the above mentioned are not brought with CC as the primary role in mind but they do have it in their kit, so it’s worth remembering. These also aren’t the only heroes with control. If the bruiser meta continues we might see Animus like Rin eventually come through.

Freya, Gray, Kloss, Heinrich, Viper and Dinah.

The above could have been referred to as just “debuffers” but some of these guys are so much more than that so we have gone with an umbrella term of Offensive support.

• Freya has a unique debuff called [Nightmare]. The person under this debuff takes 15% increased damage (making it easier for your damage dealers to kill them) and also heals the attacker by 15% of the damage they deal.
• Gray, Kloss and Dinah all bring [DEF-] which does what it says on the tin. The opponents having less defense means that you will hit harder which is always a good thing. However, Dinah also brings [Vulnerable] which increases the damage taken by a further 30%. If you are able to get both of these on the opponent along with her unique [Erosion] debuff, it’s good night to the opposing team. Kloss has her unique [Hack In] and [Hacking Progress] debuffs which also increase the damage the opponents take by a % amount.
• Gray also brings [Crit Rate+] which makes it easier to build your heroes. You could also put in Rosa here, Lily or Tsukiyo Mi (I could go on) for similar reasons (Bringing Offensive buffs)
• Rounding out this group is Heinrich and Viper. I have put these here not because of the debuffs they place but because of their ability to dispel opponent buffs. Heinrich is considered best in slot for this kind of role but Viper’s passive to decrease incoming Crit Damage is INCREDIBLE. One name not mentioned that I expect to see more of in the future is Veronika. She has recently been buffed so she now spreads all buffs she has at a 100% (recently buffed from 50%) so I think we will see more of her in the future.

How do we deal with these… it’s a familiar strategy, [Immunity]. Whether it’s through Bulwark gear or heroes like Helkid providing it. If they can’t place the debuffs, in the process you increase your chances of survival. You could also try and stack Effect Resistance, but no beta has gone on longer than a couple of weeks so we do not know how viable this strategy is at this point.

Freya, Tiamat, Helkid, Lingluo, Sania, Viper and Valerian.

These animus mentioned above all bring some sort of survivability, utility, healing, or a mixture of the above.

• Freya has her [Dreamweave] buff which is labelled as a purify/cleanse. But in actual fact I see it as an [Immunity] effect. I say this because it won’t purify debuffs that are already on your animus when you gain [Dreamweave] but it will prevent the next one from being placed. She also has the built-in lifesteal effect from [Nightmare] which can provide small healing for damage dealers.
• Tiamat brings [Shield] and [HoT] (heal over time). She is very much a jack of all trades and can even be a damage dealer when she gets into her ultimate form. She also shares a % of the damage allies take so she is an incredible all-rounder.
• Helkid also has [Shield] from his skill 3 but also brings [Immunity]. Lingluo also has [Immunity] but provides healing rather than shielding. Sania is another healer with the ability to revive a fallen ally.
• Two less common heroes seen are Viper and Valerian. Viper’s passive reduces crit damage taken by 30% which is massive and severely underrated in a PvP setup. I am one of these people who completely missed this until watching her get used to great effect and banned in the Timaeuss Cup. Valerian is an interesting one—she can place [Invincibility] on one ally and equalize HP amongst all allies, the only character in game who can do this currently. She also brings a plethora of buffs from [ATK+], [SPD+], [DEF+], and [Crit Rate+]. A real versatile unit that not many people have used but I’m sure is very valuable in the right hands.

How to beat these guys? Block buffs, [Wound], or buff steal will be the 3 more common ways to deal with all these. Heinrich, Veronika, Viper, and even the new Mio will be good counters to do so. Hard CC will also work wonders if you can time it in between the [Immunity] windows.

Massiah, Lian, Rosa, Rahu, Rilmocha and Borgne.

All of the above are AoE damage dealers. Some of them bring other utility such as turn meter steal (Lian) or hard CC (Rilmocha), but the real reason these are included is to hit hard. The only stand-out here that is different is Rahu—he scales from defense, so to increase his damage you also need to increase his survivability by piling defense on him. This will make him hard to deal with, especially if he is in an Artisan shell. He also just got a buff, so I expect to see a lot more of him.

How to deal with these guys? Well generally, damage dealers are very glass-cannon (outside of Rahu). They hit hard but will shatter when sneezed upon. You can sometimes find you can kill them without having an out-and-out damage dealer on your own team—if you are built properly, that is. They will also have low resistance, so CC will keep them in check whilst you whittle them down either with your own damage dealer or using people like Tiamat and Helkid, who hit reasonably hard but can survive themselves.

Out of the 50+ heroes in the game currently, only 25 of them were used in the top 50 of EU Etherena. There are some clear standouts and it shows in the stats. Until the introduction of Bulwark gear, speed will remain king as it is in all of these games. Even after this introduction, not many people on the ladder will lean into a stall/Go second team—especially as they will have invested in a Speed team to get to where they are now.

A common team that we saw in the last beta was as follows:

Marvell, Freya, Massiah, and Kraken. This team would lead with Marvell for the knock back and [SPD-]. This would have been followed by Kraken who would place [Freeze] and knock back the turn meter even further. Both of these debuffs would then be further knocked back by the passive of Freya. Making it incredibly hard for the opposing team to recover. Freya would place [Nightmare], increasing the damage they take by 15%, and Massiah would come in last to mop up. His Skill 3 ignores 70% of the target’s defense when skilled (60% unskilled), which reduces the need of having a unit with [DEF-].

If by any chance your opponent had anyone standing after this, it was simply a clean-up job from there on out. I expect to see similar teams for the first week, even with the nerfs to Marvell’s cooldown. You only need one rotation to win in most scenarios.

Hopefully the above has shed some light on what to expect in the early days of arena in Etheria Restart.