FIRST THINGS FIRST, TRIPLE HEALTH
The moment you step into the arena, your health stat is tripled (including the health boost that is a primary enchant on any armour). This is not necessarily obvious, and it has a variety of repercussions.
One of these is that while the total health you have has tripled, the game definition of "critical health" remains tied to your base health. This means that all of the secondary enchants on your gear that are beneficial to health, which kick in when your health is low, are largely ineffective, as are health potions. They're not completely useless, but their effect is drastically reduced.
HIGH BLOCK
Another difference between the PVE game and Arena is that you and your opponents can both hold high block a little bit longer. This can be quite significant because you're expecting the shield or weapon to drop. In addition, stuns lasts longer in the arena than in the game.
SECONDARY ENCHANTMENTS RULE ARENA
The secondary enchants on your weapons and armour, which are less important in the main game, are far more important in the arena. Secondary enchants can be useful in PVE, but they're not essential, whereas in the arena they are critical and the main difference between each player’s gear.
In the PVE part of the game, elemental resists are essential and usually your equipment loadouts are set up with different elemental resist sets and weapons to match against the enemies you can run into. However, in the arena your opponents will usually have loadouts for different elemental attacks. If you choose the wrong elemental resist, you will lose quickly. When players first go into the arena, this is a common mistake. In order to protect yourself against elemental damage in the arena, the best option is to use the Resist Elements spell (RE), which protects against all the elements at the same time. In the arena, elemental resist armour pieces should be used sparingly, for some opponents that always attack with the same element.
There are a variety of armour strategies, and many include some elemental resist, but this will be discussed in depth in the armour and character build sections.
You need to be aware the odds are extremely low of enchanting top quality weapons, which is the most important facet of your character in the arena. The best way to get the top quality weapons is from the Sigil store, which is why you should be saving all your Sigils until level 45 or above, when these super weapons become available.
Without doubt the most important perk is Enchantment Synergy (ES). This perk multiplies all matching enchantments by up to 25% (ES5). This can increase your health, damage and defences, effectively strengthening every aspect of your character, hence its importance.
For example, if you have 2 (or more) pieces of armour enchanted for peerless health, they will get multiplied with the ES factor, if they have a matched secondary, for example Slash resist, that will get multiplied by the ES factor. If you have 2 rings (or neck/weapon/gauntlets) with the same elemental enchant, that will get multiplied by the ES factor, similarly if the have the same secondary, for example Physical Damage on Condition (PDOC), that will get multiplied. The same is true for ALL main enchants and ALL secondaries if you have 2 or more of the same. This can increase your health by 25%, your elemental damage by 25%, you damage bonuses by 25%, resistances by 25%, shorten condition by 25%, etc.
For 2 items this is significant boost, but once you start to get 3 or 4, it really starts to add up to a lot. That is why the higher level players do so much damage so quickly. For example, if a character has 4 x PDOC and 4 x EDIR, 3 health enchanted armour and double residence secondaries, this means they can do more than double the normal physical AND elemental damage, their health is over 3000 in the arena, and although armour is rated at 1000, but with resistances is the equivalent to 1400.
REPAIRING GEAR
In the PVE game, gear can break during a fight and it looses its functionally. You can pause mid-fight and swap gear. However, in the arena, you cannot pause the fight and swap gear, so gear that breaks during a match remains 'intact' and retains all its functionally (main attributes and secondary attributes). You can repair at the end of a match, assuming you have 1 smithy not busy (tempering or crafting) in your town. If both of your smithies are busy you will need to return to town and wait until they are free before you can repair, or rush their task using green gems. If you fail to repair before another match, your gear looses all functionality. For example, armour will have no AR rating, the primary enchantment is not counted and the secondaries are not active. Even though these attributes are magical enchantments and not related to the physical status, they become inactive.
ENCHANTMENT SYNERGY (ES) IS #1
Another thing you should be aware of is the secondary and primary enchant values stack together and use the Enchantment Synergy (ES) perk as a multiplier. If you have two of the same type of enchant, it will more than double because of the multiplier from the Enchantment Synergy perk. This is the single most important perk of all the perks and skill points. It multiplies almost everything! Anything that is enchanted the same on your weapons, jewellery and armour is affected. That's all the enchants on you armour (physical, health, spell, shorten, elemental resist etc). Also, the attacking enchants on you weapons and jewellery. So, it increases your health, it increases your armour and increases your damage.
With 2 skill points assigned to ES, which is the maximum you can add (and the last one unlocks at level 50), you will increase every matched enchanted item by 10%. However, if you add a necklace with ES 4, this increases to 20% and 25% for ES 5.
So, it is absolutely critical that your necklace has Enhancement Synergy as one of its primary perks. In fact, you should only be enchanting necklaces with ES 4 or ES 5 and discard or sell all others. You can buy emerald necklaces with ES 4 from your enchanter or your guildmate's enchanters, but bear in mind, only about 1 in 9 necklaces has the ES perk. You can craft faerite necks which can have ES 4 or 5, but again the same odds of 1 in 9 apply, as do double imbuement necks from the Sigil store. Expect to be enchanting necklaces indefinitely. After 3 years, the only thing I actively enchant every week is necklaces.
You should use your Sigils for weapons and shield first, then armour pieces, before considering jewellery. Remember even with double imbuement Sigil gear, the odds of getting great secondary enchants are still low, so expect to be enchanting on a regular basis. Everyone thinks they have such bad luck enchanting. Actually, everyone has the same ‘bad’ luck. The odds are just extremely low, so you must be persistent. The good news is, when you do get a great gear, you get to keep it forever.
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So, you're ready to start in the arena?
How do you start the first round? Well, the last thing you should do is stand there, using a 1000 yard stare, looking at your opponent and waiting for your buttons to light up. If you do this, your opponents will soon work out what you're doing, and you'll find a large hunk of dragonbone smacks you in the face. This is the worst option you can choose.
At the very least, if you want to wait until your buttons light up, you should block. The other alternative is you can swing quickly, then you can use your buttons, like casting Resist Elements. You'll also see some people do a little jig, tapping the block and the swing multiple times, to confuse the opponent, so it is harder to predict what they're going to do.
Another common trick is it a delayed block. Wait and do nothing for half a second and your opponent thinks you're doing the 1000 yards stare then you tap block, catching them unawares when they're trying to slip in a quick swing.
Of course, it all depends on what your opponent's going to do as well. They'll be looking to do the similar things you are. Plus, it's important to mix it up because if you do the same thing every time, you'll become predictable, and your opponents will take advantage. Remember you are fighting humans, not bots or AI, so they are unique and unpredictable.
Now with the fight started. Your objective, obviously, is to overwhelm your opponent. This can be done by doing more damage than them, but in the majority of cases, it involves one of you stunning the other, or both. This can be done by using spells such as Paralyze or Ice Spike and blocking at the right time to stun your opponent. Another option is Guardbreaker (GB), when your opponent blocks. You have options and can try a variety of tactics. In most cases, whoever wins the fight probably got the most stuns. So, it's an important aspect of the game.
One of the arena legends, Tarryorange359/Sir Losealot, once said, "the most powerful offensive item in Blades is the block button."
There is a lot happening on the screen during a match. What do all the numbers mean?
It is a good idea to record matches and view later, as during a match you won't have time to look at everything happening and it happens so fast. Plus if you are looking at too many screen numbers you will get distracted and your opponent will chop you down!
The resist numbers show physical and elemental secondary resistances, but does not show spell resist or shorten. If you see 2 types of physical resistance it is reasonable to assume they have turtle style armour and a third physical resist for the missing damage type not showing, as only the top 2 resistances are shown on the setup splash screen. If they are showing no numbers here, they may well have spell resist or shorten secondaries, especially if they are a higher level character.
All weapons can deal extra damage by performing specific actions.
To make a critical hit, you need to release your weapon just right when the circle on your screen is full.
For combo attacks, you need to attack the enemy from alternating sides. The first attack deals normal damage, and every subsequent attack will be faster and deal extra damage. The combo is interrupted when the enemy performs a high block, you are stunned or paralyzed, you attack from the same side twice, or when you stop the attack.
Critical hits and combo attacks can be used together and are cumulative. The different weapon classes have different specialties. Heavy weapons are better in critical hits, but don't have good combo attacks. Light weapons are the opposite with great combo attacks and weak critical hits. As the name says, versatile weapons are in-between the two.
Note, high ping and lag can delay the hit circle animation on your screen. Criticals should be practiced with Staki and you should focus on the timing, Do NOT look at the circle in the ARENA, your timing should be from muscle memory, not watching the screen. as the screen animations may not be showing accurate timing.
The following table shows the damage increases:
It can be frustrating to keep matching with higher players when you first enter the arena. Unfortunately, this is simply due to the low number of players in the early levels, and the exponential levelling system. You can be tempted to concede matches to save gear damage or an annoying defeat. Remember, even when you lose, you will earn more gold than the cost of repairs.
Then you notice your arena score on screen hasn’t changed! You have found a new trick!!! If you concede, you don’t lose arena points, Woo Hoo, a secret cheat. No, you haven’t found a cheat, it is a deceptive error in the game arena screen, and although your score hasn’t updated on that main arena screen, unfortunately, you have lost the points, it is just not showing the change until you next match is played, then it will update both the last points and the new ones. You can check this before your next match by going to your guild and check the points your character has, and it be a different value than what is showing in your arena match waiting screen.
Conceding achieves nothing and should be avoided. Yes, it can be annoying when you know you are going to lose, but use it as a learning experience, try new things, watch carefully what your superior opponent does, how they do it, what they do, when, what gear the have etc. One of the most important experiences I ever had when learning this game was matching a level 100 opponent (Muscle) when I was new in the arena. We were both 2 handers with a similar style, but during the third defeat in a row, I noted he was doing 600 damage per hit, and the most I could achieve was 350. This got me scratching my head trying to work out how he could do some much damage. I soon worked out that PDOC was the difference, and I started to work towards that, as I had previously ignored that secondary enchantment and this revelation led to me reaching the top 100.
One of the best moves is called the Attack Cancel. Where you hold you weapon up like you are going to swing, then drop your weapon and block. Your opponent thinks you're about to swing, so they swing, and you high block and they stun themselves. This is a really important move, and you should learn it, though it takes practice. Head into town and practice with Heinrick Sevenswords or Staki.
The basic principle is you hold up your weapon as if you are going to swing and wait, then swipe down and you attack circle is canceled, allowing you to block. The idea is that your opponent believes you are going to swing, because they see your raised weapon, Therefore they swing at you (as you shield is lowered due to your raised weapon) but they swing into your block and get stunned.
Below is graphic from the player Strider showing how to drag down you attack and cancel that attack.
An alternative way of doing this is swiping to middle of the screen as it allows the weapon charge circle to go back to red as the game thinks you are trying to swing from other side. When it goes to red, it’s the same as if you didn’t charge up the swing (like a jig), so you can let go and do other things, such as blocking. Here is video showing this with Staki.
Notice the circle is yellow, and then the attack is cancelled, so this performs an attack cancel. Going across the middle and to the other side and even going back and forth doesn’t really change what you look like to the opponent
Another video example below from the player Yoshisan shows how to attack cancel on a screen where you can see his thumbs and he explains the technique he uses. In addition, included at the end is a heavy weapon user example from Zehir using a different technique.
Above are effectively 4 slightly different ways to attack cancel (down and out -Strider, slide to middle - Tarryorange, high up, straight down - Yoshisan, low slide up and down - Zehir) and it does not matter which way you do it.
Practice it with Staki and find the method that works best for you. This will take some time to get good at, but it is worth the effect
Another thing you should be aware of is that some animations take longer than the action. For example, with the Guardbreaker (GB) stamina skill. When they swing at you with GB, you decide to swing so you don't get stunned. However, you immediately get stunned by their block.
Now you are scratching your head. How did they block so fast while they appeared to be swinging? The simple reality is that the game animation takes too long. The actual GB swing is over but the animation is still playing on your screen and your opponent can block, but you don't see it. This happens on a few animations such as Skull Crusher and Indomitable Smash, so just be aware.
Fair warning: Accidental use of this animation lag happens, no biggie. However, repeated use/abuse of these anomalies is viewed by most players in the arena to be a form of cheating.
For detailed discussions on in the Arena Strategies you are best to join Discord and discuss with experienced players.
Sometimes for no obvious reason your character suddenly seems to be taking more damage or hitting with far less damage. This can start randomly, or often people notice this if, when they are in the arena, they change loadouts, WITHOUT repairing first. Even though you do the repair afterwards, it seems like the game is treating your gear like it is still unrepaired. A similar issue can occur if the game times out and you crash back to the fouyer, for example because you were ‘waiting for opponent’ and they cancel.
There are several ‘character reset’ tricks, mostly from Bethesda’s help tickets that have been shared and many find these work well. It appears that ‘resetting’ your character’s cached data in the Bethesda server, clears these errors.
1. Die in a job. This is the most common solution, as the most people report success. Enter a daily job, let the first enemy kill you, leave the job. When you return to town close the game, without interacting with anyone, then restart the game.
2. Clear Challenges. Remove/cancel all 4 challenges and reboot game.
3. Airplane mode. Disconnect your game from the server by entering Airplane mode on your phone (disconnect Wi-Fi and mobile data). Wait 10+ seconds and turn data back on.
4. Clear cache. Stop the game, clear the games cache files and restart.
5. Reset loadouts. Clear all loadouts, so there is no gear in any sections. Restart the game, recreate your loadouts.
6. Clear data. Stop the game, clear the games cache and data files and restart. Note you will have to download the game data again and log back in. The login button appears during the splash screen animation when the Thalmor warrior appears.
7. Uninstall the game and reinstall. Note you will have to download the game data again and log back in. the login button appears during the splash screen animation when the Thalmor warrior appears.
Many people like to restart their phone with any of these fixes above, some don’t. If you are experiencing problems, try some of these and when you find one that helps, use that as needed.