Blackthorn Arena - Starting Guide (with Tips and Tricks) - Vg247

This guide contains of some useful tips and tricks for beginners.

Guide for Newbies

Starting Out

First off your First 2 Characters are key to starting a successful game. Unfortunately they are randomly chosen. In order to get a good start you will need to repeatedly start a game until you get a decent duo. Ideally you are looking for a tank and a damage dealer.

Then, when you get past the first fight go strait to the market and see if any good builds are for sale. Be sure to buy your new gladiators white equipment it is significantly better then the starting gear. You can buy a few green items like weapons, shield, or exceptionally good green armor items. I tend to focus weapon and attack speed items for my archer and equipment for my defender.

I would suggest buying a healer to maintain the Treatment Room for the healing bonus as well. Try to keep 50s-1gold for upkeep fees because if you go broke you loose the game.

A cook in the Main Hall will help with bonus to moral and hp regen.

Do not worry about getting a Smith there is nothing worth crafting as all gear can be earned or bought and to learn to craft it takes a long time and a huge investment. And honestly late game Smithy and Training Ground are better off left unmanned so you can aquire more gladiators.

Choosing Matches

Green - matches are the easiest.
Blue - you can do with aftermarket gear and a few levels.
Yellow - aren't hard but you will need a set of white/green+ gear, a few levels and a decent team build with a tank and a ranged gladiator.
Red - These are the hardest matches before Challenges
Challenges - These are the unflagged challenges on the map. These should be a goal as they offer the best rewards and coin. I play senior difficultly and ironman and start competeing in these when my guys are around level 8-12.

Venationes can have decieving level requirements and some of them can be quite hard. Rats and Spiders are the easiest. Followed by Goblins and Wolves.

Tips

You can click both the map icon or the building icon on the right side of the screen to view all the current matches.
Your first goal is to prepare a 4 man team for the summer games. They are not hard lvl 10-15 but you will want a full team with a good commander tank.
If your new watch out for choosing matches with archers they are the hardest opponents currently.

Gladiator Building

Building gladiators is tricky because the RNG creation will allow for gladiators with genre specializations that are not even usable together. Therefore you must pay close attention to genre skills.

Tips

Genre is the most important feature in a gladiator.
Dwarf is pretty much must for tank builds.
Initial weapon mastery dosen't matter as it only accounts for 1 attribute point.
Weapon masteries unlock weapon skills up to level 10. consider lvl 10 weapon skill max don't go higher.
Don't specialize in more then one weapon mastery.

Races

Elves give a speed bonus and are good for building archers or duel wielding rogues.
Dwarves are tanks bonus to defense and weight.
Humans are good for everything but heavy armor and get additional stat points.
Brutemen are situationally good for Berserker builds.

Defense Builds

Commander / Defender + Shield (Most Defense)

Tips

Dwarf is a must for weight.
Always go 1 point in Commander then max First Aid first.
2nd In Defender Tree, max Defender and Heavy Armor Expert.
3rd Max Shield max, Expert Blocker, Shield Expert, Shield Wall, Stone Line and Shield Master and -1 point in jump slash to get in front and taunt with shield knock
Focus on + Block and Endurance bonuses on items.
Focus Endurance Attribute for points some strength.

Rest is preference can make a better tank or build him like a paladin and he can buff. Tank is better.

Commander / Duelist + shield (More Offense)

Tips

Dwarf is a must for weight.
Always go 1 point in Commander then max First Aid first.
Get shield level mastered.
On Duelist you want the passive abilities.
Once shield is mastered get Expert Blocker, Shield Expert, Shield Wall, Stone Line, Shield master and 1 point in jump slash to get in front and taunt with shield knock.

Ranged

Rogue / Marksman + Ranged (Preferred Race Elf or Human)

Tips

Marksman gets its damage thru accuracy, 100 accuracy gives you +50 base damage using scout posture

Focus Ranged skill till max.
First Max Marksmen.
2nd Max Falcon Eye.
3rd Jumping Arrow (I always pause game and activate scout posture then shoot this arrow first).
Max Multishoot and Deathzone these and jumping arrow are your group killers.
Then work on Rogue, Cunning, Scout Posture and Surprise attack for your damage.

Marksman / Ranger + Ranged

Tips

Marksman gets its damage thru accuracy, 100 accuracy gives you +50 base damage using scout posture.

3 Marksman
3 Scout Posture
3 jumping arrow
3 Hunters Mark
3 Burning Arrow
3 Armor Piercing Arrow
3 Falcon Eye
3 Take the wind
3 Penetrating Missile
1 Ranged Weapon Master
3 Multi Shot
3 Death Zone
3 Execute Shot
3 Death Shot

Marksman / Commander + Ranged

Tips

Your going to run 2-3 archers and a taunt tank. Pause buff area and wipe the taunted with archers.
Look to aquiring all the group or friendly buffs for this gladiator.

Ranger / Rogue + Ranged

Tips

This is a high mobility kitting build hard to play and marksmen can destroy him.

Melee Damage Dealers

I'm not going to list all the builds because there are way too many rather I will put some tips here to help you decide what to build.

Weapon Masteries

One-hand

This is a dodge then counter build with good attack speed. Duelist is pretty much a must. Gladiator is a good choice as the Monster hunter medium armor will add lots of dodge bonuses and decent protections.

Two-hand

Your looking at building a damage dealer with good aoe and single target damage.

Shield (theory craft)

I've never tried a damage build but you could try to use shield knock with whirlwind...

Dual

This is a hard class to micro manage and can be killed easily. Early on with decent gear he can support a tank by using the rogue line to backstab enemies but you have to watch out for AOE attacks and archers will kill him fast as well.

Polearms

My favorite melee class because polearms have to most range and have the best area attacks. Great pick for a main damage dealer in the group.

Tips

Gladiator, Defender, and Rogue are the only trees that offer armor weight reduction skills. This is important especially for medium and heavy armors. Keep in mind you can use the dwarf class for the -25% in burden penalty