Arena

## Explanation

Arena and Super Arena are two in-game modes that consist of a form of PvP, compared to the usual shoot-em-up style features the game has, it contains a couple of differences:

1. Instead of a team of 3 heroes, you must make a team of 6 heroes, they can be in any spot and any hero can participate.
2. There are Formations, coming in various types, you should choose a formation that suits how will your team work, and/or how do your character skills affect heroes or enemies.
3. Heroes have an Arena equivalent of their skills, their effects readable on "Arena/Super Arena Mode", below "Shooting Mode" when tapping on a hero's skill.
	* Ex: Carsiana Shocks a random enemy row in shooting mode, while in Arena, she will (usually) apply Shock to the rear line of enemies at the start of the match.

That said, both Arena and Super Arena have a rank system, calculated between your Win/Loss and the amount of points you've won/lost every match (unsure if both values are taken into account), you will obtain rubies depending on said ranking.

(WIP)

## Gameplay Features

Super/Arena follows a turn-based system, at the start of every battle, all heroes will cast their passive buffs, skills, and other things that may be specified to be cast "at the start of the battle", once this phase is done, you can see a small, sky-blue bar filling, which, once full, will let a hero attack an enemy or cast one of their skills, Attack Speed affects how fast will the bar fill and will affect the general flow of the battle.

There are some concepts to take into account:

* **Actives:** Or, in other words, skills that the character can use, be it on a % chance (Arena) or by using mana (Super Arena, where they're also gated by cooldown).
* **Passives:** Skills or effects that generally activate at the start of the battle, they may also activate between turns, after seconds pass or trigger when hitting an enemy.
* **Turns:** Every time a hero's sky-blue bar fills, a turn is given to them in order to attack/use their skills, this affects "every x turns" skills when it comes to their activation (i.e "Heal 5% HP of back row allies every 2 turns) and how much active buffs/effects will last (i.e "Increases Attack Speed by 50% for 3 turns"). In Super Arena's case, it will also determine how many turns are left for you to use a skill you previously had used (i.e "Cooldown of 4 turns").
* **Seconds:** There are some skills/effects that last in-game seconds, once said seconds pass, the skill will trigger (i.e "Heals 6% HP of front row allies every 5 seconds") or it's effect will end (i.e "Become invincible for 3 seconds"). Take into account these skills don't necessarily trigger on a character's turn, it only requires time to pass. In Arena's case, the "Tag" skills share a 17 second cooldown once cast.
* **On-Hit Effects:** Effects that occur when a hero hits/damages a character, often taken into account when trying to apply a status ailment (i.e applying freeze, burn, poison, etc), or might activate upon a successful critical hit (i.e Hina's "Gigantic Wave" skill).
* **%s:** Or, more specifically, "chance to do x/to apply x" (i.e "30% chance to deal 300% damage to enemy line" and/or "50% chance to Burn enemies"), Arena contains both these aspects, while Super Arena only contains "chance to apply x" when it comes to status ailments and the like.
* **Mana:** In Super Arena, hero skills are not only gated by a turn cooldown, but also by a mana cost (if it's not a passive skill), said costs vary among skills. There is an universal mana pool that caps at 50 Mana for your team, you start with 6 on every match, which will increase by 1 for the *first* turn a hero takes, subsequent turns the same hero takes will increase it by 2 instead for the rest of the match. Logically, if you don't have enough mana for a skill, you cannot cast it at all, mana management and knowledge of when to use your skills are key to achieve victory.

## Team Formations

Team Formations are formations of 6 heroes in many different positions, each team formation has different sets of bonuses to them and said bonuses are usually different for both the Front and the Back line, said bonuses can be leveled up the more you participate in arenas, increasing their effect progressively, there's currently a total of 6 team compositions, which are:

\*Bear in mind, "X" in certain team compositions means team members are not placed in these spots, conversely "O" means they can fill that spot.

* **Basic: (Lv. 1)** 4% Defense (Front), 2% Attack (Back). **(Lv. 10)** 40% Defense 20% Attack . **(Lv. 20)** 80% Defense, 40% Attack. **(Lv. 25)** 100% Defense, 50% Attack.

(Front): (O)(O)(O)

(Back): (O)(O)(O)

Your default team composition, gives solid stats across the board and lends you the ropes to learn about Arena and it's mechanisms, has the huge weakness of being affected by most kinds of attacks at nearly their full range potential. Recommended as an early/midgame formation, then possibly switch to any of the others below.

* **Evade: (Lv. 1)** 0.6% Evasion chance (Front), 0.4% Evasion chance (Back). **(Lv. 10)** 6% Evasion, 4% Evasion. **(Lv. 20)** 12% Evasion, 8% Evasion. (**Lv. 25)** 15% Evasion, 10% Evasion.

(Front): (O)(O)(O)

(Back): (O)(O)(O)

The bonuses seem non-existant near the beginning, but as you progress, they'll slowly become noticeable, this team formation is **only** recommended if you are going for a specific team composition (mentioned later), otherwise, unless you'd like to gamble luck, it's not entirely something you should consider. It contains the dis/advantage of either being the most broken team formation, or the most underwhelming of the available options. Only recommended as a middle/lategame formation, near the endgame if possible.

* **Defense: (Lv. 1)** 6% Defense (Front), 1% Critical Rate (Back). **(Lv. 10)** 60% Defense, 10% Critical Rate. **(Lv. 20)** 120% Defense, 20% Critical Rate. **(Lv. 25)** 150% Defense, 25% Critical Rate.

(Front): (O)(O)(O)(O)

(Back): (X)(O)(O)(X)

Critical Rate is a very important stat in the game, while only 2 of 6 of your heroes will benefit from it (and they should be your most invested offensive heroes), the benefits you can get from it are quite big. Both Defense and Critical Rate get quite the increase, and should be the default option for team compositions that rely on critical hits or overall need that extra source of critical rate to get those crits going. However, the fact that most of your heroes lie in the frontline, and that it gets a big shutdown if your back row gets defeated, can possibly drive some away from this formation. Most recommended formation except for any late/endgame plans.

* **Raid: (Lv. 1)** 5% HP (Front), 1.5% Attack Speed (Back), **(Lv. 10)** 50% HP, 15% Attack Speed. **(Lv. 20)** 100% HP, 30% Attack Speed. **(Lv. 25)** 125% HP, 37.5% Attack Speed.

(Front): (X)(O)(O)(X)

(Back): (O)(O)(O)(O)

While only two characters remain at the front line, the increase in HP can get quite impressive as you progress, especially the ones who are assigned to be the tanks and/or supports of the team, the increase in Attack Speed can mean a huge difference when it comes to outspeeding your opponent, taking turns and the like, given it's a value that can control the flow of the battle, all the better if you have characters who buff Attack Speed further or lower the enemies'. Recommended starting from the midgame.

* **Wedge: (Lv. 1)** 1..25% Counterattack Chance (Front), 3% Attack (Back), **(Lv. 10)** 12.5% Counter Chance, 30% Attack. **(Lv. 20)** 25% Counter Chance, 60% Attack. **(Lv. 25)** 37.5% Counter Chance, 75% Attack.

(Front): (O)(O)(O)(O)

(Back): (O)(X)(X)(O)

Literally the only counterattack-oriented team formation the game offers, it's strenght lying in the frontline's counters, this team formation would seem rather average, were it not for the fact there's a couple of heroes that can make it one of the most (if not the) most broken team formation in the game. Counterattacks are very hard to shut down if your team doesn't own any form of status ailment that prevents them as a whole, though, if you do, and can apply it to the frontline, it will be shut down very hard and will let you freely attack without having to worry about getting screwed over by thousands of counters at once. Not recommended if your team isn't counter-oriented or as an early/midgame formation.

* **Attack: (Lv. 1)** 5% HP (Front), 3% Attack (Back), **(Lv. 10)** 50% HP, 30% Attack. **(Lv. 20)** 100% HP, 60% Attack. **(Lv. 25)** 125% HP, 75% Attack.

(Front): (O)(X)(X)(O)

(Back): (O)(O)(O)(O)

Similar in essence to the Raid formation, except it steroids your Attack instead of your AS, it also has the advantage over most other team bonuses for being able to make splash-effect damage and cross-slice skills much less effective than usual. If pulled off with the correct team members, you can snowball really hard and oneshot enemies with sheer damage might, as the Attack bonus is pretty impressive with just a bit of investing in it. Otherwise, it gets quite crippled by outspeeding or ailments that harm AS, or both (which is not too uncommon). Recommended starting from the midgame.

## Ailments and Effects

Generally the cornerstone of most team bonuses, and one of the deciding factors that can potentially turn the flow of the match to your dis/advantage. The ones currently available are:

### Status Ailments

* **Curse:** Damage dealt decreased by 50%, damage done when doing critical hit increased by 50%. Lasts 5 seconds. Can be reduced or resisted with Light defense rune set.
* **Burn:** Damage taken increases by 25%. Lasts 5 seconds. Can be reduced or resisted with Water defense rune set.
* **Freeze:** Damage dealt decreased by 50%, damage taken increases by 12.5%, decreases Attack Speed by 25%. Lasts 5 seconds. Can be reduced or resisted with Wood defense rune set.
* **Poison:** Deals 5% of your max HP every second for 5 seconds (up to a max of 25%HP dealt). Can be reduced or resisted with Fire defense rune set.
* **Deadly Poison:** Deals 7.5% of your max HP every second for 5 seconds (up to a max of 32.5%HP dealt), decreases damage dealt by 50%.
* **Shock:** Unable to do any action for 2 seconds, this stops your attack bar from filling completely. Can be reduced or resisted with Dark defense rune set.
* **Thunderbolt:** When doing any form of action, it will be canceled and you will take 2.5% of your HP as damage. Lasts 5 seconds.
* **Restrain:** Deals 5% of your max HP every second for 5 seconds, prevents actions, if directly damaged under this ailment, it will end prematurely.
* **Melt:** Damage taken increased by 50%, reduces Attack Speed by 75%. Lasts 5 seconds.
* **Focus:** Enemy attacks are redirected towards the Focused enemy, decreases damage dealt by 50% and prevents critical hits from happening. Lasts 5 seconds.
* **Confusion:** Prevents skills and counterattacks from happening and reduces Attack Speed by 50%. Lasts 5 seconds.
* **Weakening:** The lower your HP is, the lower the damage you deal, and the higher the damage you take (escalates up to 90% for both instances). Lasts 5 seconds.

### Effects

* **Shield:** Certain skills give either row a Shield, Shields block the incoming attack and it's effects completely and cannot be ignored by anything (currently). They usually disappear after they block the next attack (Haran being an exception). (**Sources:** Haran's Tag Skill, Metheus' Tag Skill, Isabelle's Tag skill, Roco's 1st Normal Skill)
* **Dodge:** Determined by dodge rate, a successful dodge when receiving on-hit damage will completely negate the possible damage and effects you were to have, some skills ignore this effect. (**Sources:** Evade team formation, Defense Raid rune, Carlyle's 2nd Normal Skill, MIHO's 1st Normal Skill, Siege Master team bonus).
* **Counterattack:** Determined by counterattack rate, when receiving on-hit damage, you will counterattack as if it was a normal attack and can critically strike as well. Some ailments nullify this effect. (**Sources:** Wedge team formation, Defense Raid rune, Hethcock's 1st Normal Skill, Verna's 2nd Normal Skill).
* **Invincibility:** When it triggers, for the duration it may have, you cannot be defeated and you will take 0 damage from any form of damaging source. Certain things can still defeat invincible characters. (**Sources:** Zarax, Secret of Dolls team bonus).
* **Berserk:** When activated, erases current status ailments you had, become Immune to Shock and Restrain, increases Attack, Critical Attack and Attack Speed by 100%, increases Critical Rate to 100% and attacks cannot be dodged. (**Sources:** UGU-Cain's leadskill).
* **Reflect:** When receiving on-hit damage, it will be nullified, and the possible damage amount will be dealt back at it's agressor instead, it can also defeat them in the process regardless of them being under Invincibility or not. (**Sources:** Tiana's leadskill).
* **Seal:** Guaranteed KO, it cannot be dodged, countered and will still affect invincible characters. (**Sources:** Ryuuga)
* \***Protection:** When in Evade formation, limits critical damage taken to 9999 if it's higher than said amount, multi-hit attacks will still deal separate 9999 instances. (**Sources:** Tenjin's 2nd Normal Skill) (\*Not an official name, but there's no name given to this effect.)
* **\*Vantage:** Regardless of Attack Speed values, the affected allies will act first at the start of the battle on their first turn. (**Sources:** Isabelle and Verna's 1st Normal Skill) (\*Not an official name, but no name is given to this effect.)

## Team Bonuses

### **Pendragon**

* **Ancient Dragon II (AD2):** HP +100%. (Lexion, Roco, Hina, Carsiana).
* **Dragon's Barrier (DB):** -50% damage taken from Pendragon heroes. (2/3 of Ryuuga/Suzuno/Roco).
* **Dragon's Barrier II (DB2):** -30% damage taken from Pendragon heroes. (Shaolin, Nash, Tenjin)
* **Freeze Causer (FC1):** Attacks have a 10% chance to Freeze, deal 100% increased damage to Frozen enemies. (Elsys, Artheon)
* **Freeze Causer II (FC2):** Attacks have a 30% chance to Freeze, deal 200% increased damage to Frozen enemies. (Elsys, Hina, Roco)
* **Intense Immune (INI):** Immunity to Focus ailment. (Shaolin, Tenjin).
* **Master of Critical Hits (MoCH):** Critical Attack +150%. (Lexion, Hina, Elsys).
* **Respond Expert II (RE2):** +50% Defense, +150% Counterattack Damage. (Mecarn, Bella, Hina, Haran).
* **Slaughterer II (SL2):** +40% Attack Speed. (Carsiana, Lexion, Elsys, Sain).

### **Saint**

* **Burn Causer IV (BC4):** Attacks have a 20% chance to Burn, deal 200% increased damage to Burnt enemies. (Lea, Pandora).
* **Imperial Knights II (IK2):** Critical Attack +120%. (Abel, Michelle, Demian, Selena).
* **Intense Resistance (IR):** Damage taken when Focused -50%. (Hethcock, Kai).
* **Master of Counterattacks (MoC):** +100% Counterattack Damage, Counterattacks cannot be Dodged. (Pandora, Kai).
* **Melting Causer (MC):** Attacks have a 20% chance to Melt, deal 200% increased damage to Melted enemies. (3/4 of Pandora/Hethcock/Kai/Lea)
* **Shield of Light (SoL):** -50% damage taken from Chaos heroes. (2/3 of Pandora/Tiana/Setsuka).

### **Chaos**

* **Burn Causer II (BC2):** Attacks have a 10% chance to Burn, deal 150% increased damage to Burnt enemies. (Pirata, Cain, Lin, MK).
* **Curse Causer (CC1):** Attacks have a 10% chance to Curse, deal 100% increased damage to Cursed enemies. (Sweeney, Caldeen)
* **Curse Causer II (CC2):** Attacks have a 10% chance to Curse, deal 150% increased damage to Cursed enemies. (Nerphym, Bloody Mary, Caldeen, Carlyle).
* **Curse of Darkness (CoD):** Attacks have a 20% chance to Curse, deal 200% increased damage to Cursed enemies. (Metheus, Sweeney, Isabelle).
* **Intense ATK Formation (IAF1):** Attacks have a 30% chance to Focus an enemy, deal 250% increased damage to Focused enemy. (Metheus, Carlyle, Sweeney, Valentine).
* **Immunity to Confusion II (ItC2):** Immune to Confusion status. (Gryff, Elphie, AIN)
* **Natural Recovery: (NR):** Heal 15% HP every 5 seconds. (Elphie, AIN, Isabelle, Metheus)
* **Overflowing HP:** HP x2 (Valentine, Gryff, Metheus, AIN)
* **Pirates of Sky II (PoS2):** +30% Attack Speed. (Pirata, Helen).
* **Protection in the Abyss (PitA):** +1000 Critical Defense, +30% Attack Speed. (Gryff, Metheus, AIN)
* **Secret of Dolls (SoD):** When about to die, remain at 1HP and become invincible for 5 seconds, +100% Attack increase during the effect. (2/3 of Carlyle/Isabelle/Valentine).

### **Mixed**

* **Battle of Wisdom (BoW):** +100% Defense. (Carsiana, MIHO).
* **Bliss of Heaven (BoH):** +1000 Critical Defense, +30% Attack Speed. (Lexion, Roco, Tiana).
* **Bliss of Heaven II (BoH2):** +1000 Critical Defense, +30% Attack Speed. (2/3 of Ryuuga/Pandora/Lea).
* **Bliss of Heaven III (BoH3):** +1000 Critical Defense, +30% Attack Speed. (Shaolin, Carlyle, Tenjin)
* **Brothers:** +50% Attack. (Cain, Abel).
* **Burn Causer (BC1):** Attacks have 10% chance to Burn, deal 100% increased damage to Burnt enemies (Cain, Lea).
* **Burn Causer III (BC3):** Attacks have a 15% chance to Burn, deal 100% increased damage to Burnt enemies. (Ignis, Lea, Helen).
* **Chaos Bringer (CB1):** Attacks have a 30% chance to Confuse, deal 250% increased damage to Confused enemies. (Nash, Abel, Carlyle, MIHO).
* **Chaos Bringer II (CB2):** Attacks have a 15% chance to Confuse, deal 100% increased damage to Confused enemies. (MIHO, Haran, Delphino).
* **Combo Attack Formation (CAF):** 20% chance to act 2 times/-50% mana cost on Super Arena skills if chance activates (\*unsure if this is how it works) (Lexion, Tiana, Gabriel, Roco).
* **Curse Causer III (CC3):** Attacks have a 15% chance to Curse, deal 100% increased damage to Cursed enemies. (Gabriel, Delphino).
* **Clash of 3 Enemies:** +10% Critical Rate (Ignis, Sirius, Caldeen)
* **Electrocution Causer (EC1):** Attacks have 10% chance to Shock, deal 100% increased damage to Shocked enemies. (Sylvia, Rhymey).
* **Electrocution Causer II (EC2):** Attacks have 15% chance to Shock, deal 100% increased damage to Shocked enemies. (Drectan, Elin, Lexion)
* **Energy of Darkness (EoD):** Critical Attack +80% (Caldeen, Sweeney, Delphino)
* **Immunity to Confusion (ItC):** Immune to Confusion status. (Tiana, Gabriel, Lexion).
* **Intense ATK Formation (IAF1):** Attacks have a 30% chance to Focus an enemy, deal 250% increased damage to Focused enemy. (AIN, Setsuka, Cain, Pirata).
* **Intense ATK Formation III (IAF3):** Attacks have a 15% chance to Focus an enemy, deal 100% increased damage to Focused enemy. (AIN, Sweeney, Drectan).
* **Intense Defense (IntD):** Immune to Focused status, +200% Defense. (3/4 of Ryuuga/Lea/Pandora/Suzuno)
* **Poison Causer (PC1):** Attacks have 10% chance to Poison, deal 100% increased damage to Poisoned enemies. (Lucia, Metheus)
* **Poison Causer II (PC2):** Attacks have 15% chance to Poison, deal 100% increased damage to Poisoned enemies. (Minerva, Metheus, Sirius)
* **Protector:** Heal 10% HP every 3 seconds (2/3 of Gabriel/Demian/Sain).
* **Punishment of Darknes (PoD):** Deal 100% increased damage to enemies with Light attribute. (2/3 of Cain/Isabelle/Setsuka).
* **Raid Master (RM):** +30% Attack. (Setsuka, Roco).
* **Respond Expert (RE1):** +50% Defense, +100% Counterattack Damage (2/4 of Louis, Mecarn, Helen, Drectan).
* **Siege Master (SM):** x1.5 Dodge Rate. (2/3 of Abel/Nash/Shaolin).
* **Thunderbolt Causer (TC):** Attacks have 10% chance to cause Thunderbolt, deal 150% increased damage to enemies under Thunderbolt. (Shaolin, Nash, Carlyle; Tenjin)
* **Weakening Causer (WC):** Attacks have 15% chance to Weaken, deal 300% damage to Weakened enemies. (2/3 of Ryuuga/Suzuno/Gabriel).
* **Weakening Causer II (WC2):** Attacks have 20% chance to Weaken, deal 100% damage to Weakened enemies. (MIHO, Tenjin).
* **Weakness Finder (WF):** 30% chance to Weaken enemies when Counterattacking. (Hethcock, Haran, Verna).

## Team Compositions

With all the previous sections explained, not all of those things can be mixed into a 6-character team, however, if you do plan to make arenas one of your main focuses, or making your arena team as efficient as possible, it's a good idea to investigate your current possibilities, what kind of team you want, possible team bonuses, synergy between heroes, among other things, below is a list of possible team compositions you can aim for, separated in tiers from the strongest to the more average ones (\*):

(\*)Things to note:

* Ultimate Grade Up versions of characters will be abreviated as ult-forms/ult-x (i.e: ult-Lexion).
* Characters in **bold** are the leaders in the team, characters in both bold and italics are possible leaders to choose from, characters/between/these are options you can take for the slot.
* The position of your characters is important, while the teams below will be explained with characters in the front and the back lines, it doesn't have to be followed literally, you can change their position to whatever you might feel more comfortable unless recommended otherwise.
* Bear in mind the effectiveness of some characters and teamcomps might vary between both arenas, given how each of them work.

### Broken

Undeniably broken, extremely strong and nearly impossible to get around them, as there are no viable countermeasures, you are most guaranteed to face a one-sided situation with them.

* **CB1, TC, DB2, BoH2, SM, INI (Evade)**

Front: Carlyle, **Shaolin,** Nash.

Back: MIHO, Abel, Tenjin

The infamous "dodge team", Shaolin's leadskill has fantastic scaling, and will let Nash and herself deal absurd amounts of damage, you will be inflicting Confuse and Thunderbolt (two very broken ailments alone) nonstop, utterly crippling the enemy team beyond uselessness, Nash and MIHO will be your main source of Confuse, while Shaolin will be for Thunderbolt infliction, Tenjin gives Protection to the frontline, useful against any form of crits, MIHO can heal the frontline if case comes they do get damaged. INI explains itself for giving Focus immunity to the affected characters.

The only "downsides" are that the backrow is considerably weaker than the front row, and if they are prevented from Dodging or the enemy's attacks cannot be avoided, this team is substantially weaker, though, there's very few ways for this to happen, Thunderbolt and Confuse being slapped everywhere helps, too, and there is currently no way to resist Thunderbolt.

* **CB1+BoH2+SM (Evade)**

Front: Carlyle, Nash, ***Abel***

Back: ***MIHO,*** DemianVerna/Isabelle***, Minerva/***Valentine/***ult-Cain***

Alternative if Evade is still your most invested team formation, and don't have the likes of Shaolin and/or Tenjin for some reason. It's the same as the teamcomp above, in essence, a lot of the team members are potential leaders, but it boils down to what you want/what you need the most stat-wise, if Attack, Defense or some crit-rate. It still has Nash and MIHO as your main Confuse dealers, and Confuse is already known for being a very strong ailment as it is, but it's certainly not as strong, and with less bonuses than the infamous dodge team above.

However, this doesn't mean it's still not a very broken teamcomp, this used to be *the* infamous dodge team (before Shaolin and Tenjin came along) and is still very difficult to deal with. You can have Verna if you want the front row to inflict Confusion as soon as it can be, and a Valentine/Isabelle if for the SoD team bonus, or, if you actually have ult-Cain, make him the leader and let his broken leadskill steroid Valentine, Carlyle and himself.

### S Tier

Very strong teamcomps that are difficult to deal with, can almost reach Broken tier levels, but cmpared to that tier, there are actual countermeasures to them (even if scarce), and the Broken tier is still a stair higher than them for a few reasons.

* **BC4, MC, IR, MoC, BoH2, WF/IntD (Wedge)**

Front: ***Hethcock, Kai,*** Lea, ***Pandora***

Back: Verna, Haran/Suzuno/Ryuuga

You might wonder why is this team in this tier specifically, given any Wedge teams with Verna/Haran/Hethcock in them are quite strong. Not only does this specific teamcomp have a lot of possible team bonuses and advantages, but it has the unique Melt ailment, which is known for slowing down anything to a crawl and can't (currently) be resisted in nearly any way. Lea and Pandora have BC4, while the frontline has MC, this allows for the frontline (except maybe Heth) to boast of some serious damage, especially with counters. Kai's leadskill is the most recommended, since melt-infliction is frequent and can make for secure hits against Melted enemies. If going against Chaos teams (namely Dolls teams), Heth's leadskill is fantastic to mitigate a lot of incoming damage. Verna and Heth, of course, steroid the frontline and counter-rate, which is vital for the success of this teamcomp.

Countering nonstop and inflicting Burn and Melt (and potential Weaken) is far stronger than it sounds, this along with Verna, Haran and Heth's tag skill makes the frontlines' counters hurt beyond nearly impossible HP amounts, especially thanks to MoC for Kai+Pandora. IR serves for potential damage reduction, and WF for potential Weaken. If you want a more defensive approach in this tier, you can change Haran for Ryuuga, as he'll benefit from BoH2, and give IntD, which will let nearly every frontliner deal with Focus nicely, and get around SoD thanks to Seal, or Suzuno, if you wish Weakened enemy teams and a tag buff that has great synergy with the team formation, while still giving IntD.

Though, like any counter-oriented team, it's not hard to shut counterattacks down, especially in this and the higher tier, if your front line gets Shocked, Thunderbolt or Confused, you will suffer a big shutdown, we are also taking into account that your front line is capable of handling the serious damage that enemy teams may give in order to keep the counters going, since if they die too quickly, it's all for naught.

* **IAF1, CoD, SoD, PoD (Raid)**

Front: ***Isabelle,*** Metheus/Sweeney

Back: Carlyle, Valentine, Metheus/Sweeney, ***ult-Cain/***Cain

Commonly known as the "Dolls" team, IAF1 makes the involved characters make nearly secure oneshots given the damage bonus is very high, Focus isn't an ailment that can be resisted normally, CoD makes Metheus and Sweeney killing machines, it's very easy to have the enemy team under Curse thanks to Isabelle's leadskill and most of them being able to Curse naturally. This, coupled with the very broken SoD team bonus, being unkillable for 5 seconds is much, *much* scarier than it sounds, it can sometimes be game-deciding. Isabelle giving back row vantage makes snowballing all the easier.

Cain is known for being a pretty solid Arena character, but it's not until we obtain ult-Cain that this teamcomp tastes some of the Broken tier. Ult-Cain's Berserker effect is nearly every game's leadskills summed into it, multiplied by a lot, and given to any Chaos characters, while making them immune to two status ailments and erasing any previous ones, pair this with all the aforementioned aspects, and this team is extremely hard to deal with under most circumstances. It also makes all attacks undodgeable and erases status ailments when it triggers, which leads to potential turn-arounds/comebacks within the match.

However, unlike the Broken tier, there are ways to get around this, Ryuuga singlehandedly counters SoD by himself thanks to the Seal effect, being immune to Focus cripples this team more than you think, even more if you're somehow immune to Curse. Weakening severs most of the potential damage that the berserk characters can give once the effect triggers, and Thunderbolt and Melt can cripple most of their potential actions. It's that, or defeating this team before they can even reach the Berserk HP% it needs to trigger and sealing/crippling the leftover SoD users.

* **CAF, FC2, CI, MoCH, BoH (Raid)**

Front: ***Roco, Tiana***

Back: ult-Elsys, Hina, ult-Lexion, Gabriel

If you don't stumble upon a Dolls team, it's very likely you will with this one, Tiana's leadskill allows for damage given to Lexion, Roco and/or herself to be Reflected, this potentially negate skills if the damage is enough to defeat the character (unkillable or not), given the nature of being hit in order to Reflect, you'll be having the likes of Roco and Tiana with lots of HP to keep Reflecting. CAF makes the involved characters become absurd skill-spam machines, it makes for some funny interactions when it comes to skill casting, as it literally makes them cast the skill again, this means a potential double tag from Tiana (effectively two-shotting the victim unless it's invincible), Gabriel (damage reduction and Attack Speed buff), Roco (damage reduction and small shock rate bonus) or Lexion (known for his enemy team oneshots and Shocks). That, or simply double-casting skills they already did, which is still vastly strong on it's own.

FC2 and MoCH let Elsys and Hina handle teams by themselves and let Lexion's and their critical hits **hurt,** it's very easy for them to inflict Freeze and get the maximum benefits out of it, being in a Raid formation allows for easy outspeed thanks to BoH as well as a huge reduction to incoming crits to you, Roco's backrow Shields prevent potential snowballing as well. Gabriel is also a potential source of the ever-broken Confuse. CI helps wonders when it comes to dealing with the infamous dodge teams (Thunderbolt aside), if at least to negate all the potential Confuse that could be dealt.

Still, there are a few issues with this team, which can make it be either more, or less effective than other teams in this tier, reason lies in how lucky you could get with CAF, Reflects, as well as critical hits, the team formation doesn't make full use of MoCH, it's not easy to deliver critical hits if Roco isn't the leader, which is an issue for the likes of Hina and ult-Lexion, especially. But, if Tiana isn't the leader, you're losing out on the (currently) unique and absurdly strong Reflect status.

(WIP)