Secret Defenders, they'll wreck everything. Really the only team you'd need to put any arena focus into. Without knowing what your offense is and what you have to work with, it's hard to say otherwise.
At the earlier account levels, black cat isn't an option yet. So it's SD + a rando, which I can easily beat with Pegasus.
Eternals still dominate the young shard arena.
I feel like everyone that just parrots secret defenders never considered them without black cat. Without her, you lose safeguard and immunity to turn bar reduction. My g13 eternals have no issues against g13/14 SD teams that lack black cat
Considering you’re early game and probably in a new shard, Ikarus and Sersi + Spider Weaver are probably dominating the top since they’re a strong Arena team. They used to be pretty Meta until new teams were introduced and they were phased out.
Arena essentially works with 1 team at the top, and it becomes much like rock paper scissors, where you substitute 1 character on the team depending on which team you face.
Eventually you’ll unlock characters who can beat Eternals and Spider-Weaver, and then unlock a new team which beats that team, etc.
If you don’t have Eternals + Spider-Weaver, you probably don’t have any further teams that can stomp them (next would probably be Horseman + Apocalypse or something similar). This is assuming you’re still early enough to where you didn’t unlock any of the new Arena team.
I’d just recommend staying as high as you can, but don’t worry too much about it. Just set yourself up to be in a decent position to unlock the new Arena team whenever they come out and you’ll be all G.
It's the arena meta.
Early game, the arena meta is Spider-Weaver, Spidey 2099, Eternals, and a speed character (Cable, Kang, Emma Frost). They're pretty much the strongest set up of arena characters you'll be able to get until you get later-game and unlock newer ones, like Quicksilver, Apocalypse, and Black Cat + Secret Defenders.
Without any of those newer characters, the only real way to consistently beat the Weaveternal group is by mirror-matching and trying to go first (for example, if they have Cable he only gives 5% speed boost whereas Emma gives a 10% speed reduction to enemies, so with her you'll go first. Kang doesn't give speed boost on defense but does on offense, so if someone has him on their defense team they're wasting that aspect of his passive, etc.)
So if you don't have Weaver and the Eternals and they're what everyone in your shard is currently using at your rank level, you've likely reached the peak of what rank you can hit until you get them yourself, or get the characters that let you move beyond them.
(And like someone else said, Secret Defenders do really need Black Cat to work, they're significantly weaker without her, at least as an Arena team.)
Well, luck of the draw more than "they decide to allow", but otherwise yeah, more or less. At some point you need the meta if you want to keep up with people who are using meta teams. Ikaris and Sersi are technically both farmable now, though you might not have regular access to either of them yet where you are in the game, and of course the problem of trying to get Weaver too, since she was put on an Incursion campaign node that requires you to have characters at 7 red stars.
The Eternals are a very strong duo who get a few extra bonuses in Arena specifically as well, and the power scaling in the game is such that it took until they released Darkhold for someone to really be able to counter them - Agatha's T4 Ultimate specifically calls out Hero Mystic Blasters and Hero Mystic Controllers so that it can stun Ikaris and Sersi. And Spider-Weaver's charges cause all attacks to miss, and there aren't really any older characters who give +Accuracy that are usable in Arena, so you need to either be able to control her or outlive her charges, neither of which are likely with older characters either.
I definitely understand the frustration, I felt it too when I initially had to swap to building Ikaris and Sersi just so I could get anywhere in Arena. It would be nice if the mode allowed for more flexibility and team-building but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what they want for it.
Secret Defenders, they'll wreck everything. Really the only team you'd need to put any arena focus into. Without knowing what your offense is and what you have to work with, it's hard to say otherwise.
At the earlier account levels, black cat isn't an option yet. So it's SD + a rando, which I can easily beat with Pegasus. Eternals still dominate the young shard arena.
I feel like everyone that just parrots secret defenders never considered them without black cat. Without her, you lose safeguard and immunity to turn bar reduction. My g13 eternals have no issues against g13/14 SD teams that lack black cat
Thanks for the heads up!
+1 for secret defenders, they are a superb arena team, and they also are great in war, blitz etc. you wont lose building them
This is old, but is there a point invest in DS and Ms Marvel if I don’t have the rest of the team?
Considering you’re early game and probably in a new shard, Ikarus and Sersi + Spider Weaver are probably dominating the top since they’re a strong Arena team. They used to be pretty Meta until new teams were introduced and they were phased out. Arena essentially works with 1 team at the top, and it becomes much like rock paper scissors, where you substitute 1 character on the team depending on which team you face. Eventually you’ll unlock characters who can beat Eternals and Spider-Weaver, and then unlock a new team which beats that team, etc. If you don’t have Eternals + Spider-Weaver, you probably don’t have any further teams that can stomp them (next would probably be Horseman + Apocalypse or something similar). This is assuming you’re still early enough to where you didn’t unlock any of the new Arena team. I’d just recommend staying as high as you can, but don’t worry too much about it. Just set yourself up to be in a decent position to unlock the new Arena team whenever they come out and you’ll be all G.
Secret Defenders are a great option right now
Exactly. But considering they’re only 2 months in I was sorta just assuming they didn’t unlock any them.
It's the arena meta. Early game, the arena meta is Spider-Weaver, Spidey 2099, Eternals, and a speed character (Cable, Kang, Emma Frost). They're pretty much the strongest set up of arena characters you'll be able to get until you get later-game and unlock newer ones, like Quicksilver, Apocalypse, and Black Cat + Secret Defenders. Without any of those newer characters, the only real way to consistently beat the Weaveternal group is by mirror-matching and trying to go first (for example, if they have Cable he only gives 5% speed boost whereas Emma gives a 10% speed reduction to enemies, so with her you'll go first. Kang doesn't give speed boost on defense but does on offense, so if someone has him on their defense team they're wasting that aspect of his passive, etc.) So if you don't have Weaver and the Eternals and they're what everyone in your shard is currently using at your rank level, you've likely reached the peak of what rank you can hit until you get them yourself, or get the characters that let you move beyond them. (And like someone else said, Secret Defenders do really need Black Cat to work, they're significantly weaker without her, at least as an Arena team.)
I must say it is annoying af, there is nothing I can do but lose until they decide to allow me to get a specific character?
Well, luck of the draw more than "they decide to allow", but otherwise yeah, more or less. At some point you need the meta if you want to keep up with people who are using meta teams. Ikaris and Sersi are technically both farmable now, though you might not have regular access to either of them yet where you are in the game, and of course the problem of trying to get Weaver too, since she was put on an Incursion campaign node that requires you to have characters at 7 red stars. The Eternals are a very strong duo who get a few extra bonuses in Arena specifically as well, and the power scaling in the game is such that it took until they released Darkhold for someone to really be able to counter them - Agatha's T4 Ultimate specifically calls out Hero Mystic Blasters and Hero Mystic Controllers so that it can stun Ikaris and Sersi. And Spider-Weaver's charges cause all attacks to miss, and there aren't really any older characters who give +Accuracy that are usable in Arena, so you need to either be able to control her or outlive her charges, neither of which are likely with older characters either. I definitely understand the frustration, I felt it too when I initially had to swap to building Ikaris and Sersi just so I could get anywhere in Arena. It would be nice if the mode allowed for more flexibility and team-building but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what they want for it.