I finally get why you guys talk about having a dedicated Arena team. I'd already switched to Claire lead for Arena because her LS steamrolls, but it sounds like Raaga should be removed altogether. That AI is terrible.
Yea, Raaga is one of those units that is boss as all hell anywhere outside the Arena, but damn near worthless inside the arena. Type 5's/6's shouldn't even be considered for Arena use. Types 1-4 all useable (but unit order based on type matters a LOT and you have 100% control of unit attack order in the arena as opposed to random'ish auto-battle anywhere else.), with Type 3 being amongst the most preferable type as you can put them anywhere in the order and they remain very effective.
On a related note, evidence is now overwhelming that I need to take some time to learn this game. Since I started again my activities have been dedicated but single-minded. In order: get some decent summons, level campaign, work on squad, level campaign, prepare for maxwell, level campaign, etc. I've had too much to do to catch up in a short time, and I've done all of it. But my spheres are shit, my progression needs work and I haven't learned much.
Honestly though, that is one of the great things about this game - always a ton of stuff to delve into and personal theory-craft your unique set of units vs each bit of content...damn near too much sometime.
I'll share one of the things I did a while back that helped me out a lot. It takes some work and is however an exercise that appealed to the Nerd in me lol.
I bought 5x8 Index cards (tried smaller, but anything smaller than 5x8 was too small for my purposes.) The Index cards I bought were the standard pack of White and the 5-color pack (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple). You can probably see where this is going: One color for each element type, already color-coded to match the game.
Red = Fire
Blue = Water
Green = Earth
Yellow = Thunder
White = Light
Purple = Dark
On the top line of each Card I listed the units Name followed by the Unit # and on the right hand side of the top line a note about the units focus (i.e. "Mitigator" "Healer" "Single Target" "Elemental Buffer" "BC/HC buffer" etc., etc., etc.....just a quick note to identify the units primary focus)
Skip a line then I put Hitcount, Dropcheck and BB and SBB cost. (as all of these can be important in comparing units)
Below that I would list Leadership skills, Extra Skills, Brave Burst info, Super Brave Burst info, (UBB info optional depending on if you want it there or not, I've never seen a units UBB being a deciding factor in a decision)....in some cases any notes of import in any room left at the bottom.
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This let me wrap my head around my roster in a way that put everything in order for me....For example, for the Arena I could organize each elemental type by Dropcheck only first, then start eliminating things like Bad Arena AI typing or take out all the mitigators/healers/Single Target BB/SBB'ers...then you can make direct comparisons of what is left.
If you were building a Rainbow squad (which I've done for Quaid), you already have the best cream-of-the-crop for each elemental type and instead of looking at your whole roster you are only looking at the best-of-the-best for your specific purposes (for instance arena AI type and dropcheck potential.)
Or if you were looking at, say adding a BC buffer to a group you can just pluck out all your BC buffers and quickly be able to eliminate any that don't fit your criteria and compare those that remain based on the stats and information that matter most to the units.
Once you boil it all down you almost don't even have to make the decisions because the best-of-the-best of your own roster becomes objectively obvious. You decide what kind of group you want to build, then the group damn near custom-builds itself.
Edit: In the past the information I'd put on the card was the units Star-ranking and info as-is, but this was a mistake. Now for me the only thing that matters is what the unit looks like at it's maximum star rank, if my best unit for what I need isn't ranked up yet, then that just becomes my next mission, but for my purposes all that matters is what it will look like when it is done, not what it looks like now.
Also, any sphere work really elevated my game. I still don't really have a good way to evaluate the hundred-bajillion or so spheres in the game, but short-hand for me at least is that I can't possibly go wrong with Malice Jewels and Sol Creators, so for now I'm working on those.
