Strategy


 * Monster Counts
 * Hero Ratings
 * Getting Skills Up (reference starter 1* team here also) (feed 1x vs 9x misinformation)
 * Defense Alignment
 * On offense (both PvE and PvP) hero positioning only matters for two things
 * Heroes that have skills that affect adjacent allies like Halvor
 * When in Auto Run, hero skills are used from left to right if multiple skills are available at once
 * PvP defense - So, first off, there isn't a one-strategy-fits-all. There are so many team possibilities already and each team lineup has its own nuances to consider.  These are just some general guidelines, other strategies might be great depending on your team and what heroes you have access to.  Most of these strategies are based on the general concepts of how many gem columns can attack a hero throughout the fight and that receiving gem damage boosts mana (and therefore ability use speed).  One other thing, since defensive teams don’t need to match gems to gain mana, it can work to put multiple heroes with the same color in your team.  It is probably better generally to have a full rainbow team, but sometimes you gotta work with what you have and if your only good tank and only good attack up buffer are the same color then it is probably best to run them both on your arena defense team.
 * Center Position
 * This is the most important position to get right as it is likely to be the first one targeted as there is initially 3 columns of gems that can hit that position. This position is usually reserved for tanks or healers. Tanks are great here as they can take more damage and shield squishier heroes. Healers can be great as long as they can take a couple hits, because gem damage causes their skills to charge quicker and they can (hopefully) heal the team before anyone goes down. Some heroes are specifically designed for center arena defense position (like Halvard or Evangeline who give defense up only to themselves).  My suggestion would be to either use these heroes in center or bench them, don’t use them in the off-center position or the edge it is just a waste and almost any star-equivalent hero is better than a center-focused one not in the center.  Additionally, with the absence of a tank or power healer, fast attackers are probably your next best bet (like Arik, Kawa,or Amethyst)  since it is likely they can get ability ready and do some decent damage before they are taken down.
 * In the beginning, with heroes 3* and less, there aren’t really any ideal heroes for the center position (except for Crag, he’s amazing for it). So, if you don’t have Crag just use either your healer or the hero with the best defensive stats.
 * Edge Position
 * So, it would spatially make sense to do the off-center position next. However, when you’re planning a team, this is probably the next important position.  The position is ideal for high damage dealers, glass cannon type heroes, or just ones that are squishy and have poor defensive stats (either due to being not leveled up yet or just having bad stats).  This is the most protected position on the team, so this is where you want to put those that need that protection.  Heroes like Kawa are perfect here as she hits pretty hard and is very fast so her ability will activate while it is still relevant even if she isn’t attacked at all.
 * Since this is the most protected position, it is the least attacked and therefore these heroes will charge their abilities the slowest relative to the rest of the team. I have seen people put Rala or Baz’uka here and I think that is a mistake.  Yes, they do fill the sniper-type hero archetype but their speed is too detrimental to put them in this position.  By the time they get their ability ready, it is likely far too late to make a difference since most people will just ignore them until the end.  This may change in the future if we get heroes the boost mana of allies significantly.
 * Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of healers here too which I think is a mistake unless the healer has poor defensive stats relative to the rest of the team. They likely won’t get their heal ready until you’ve lost 1-2 heroes and it is usually too late to matter at that point.  I’ve seen Angelica here sometimes and she can be really hard to take down but I usually just ignore her til the end, so sure it can take a bit but if she’s only healing herself or one other ally, I’ve usually still got 3+ heroes so her survivability just prolongs the inevitable win.  She’s probably better for the center of off-center position where it is more likely that she will actually affect the outcome of the fight.
 * Off-center Position
 * I can’t think of a better descriptor right now, so I’m calling this the off-center position, the position between center and the edge positions. This position is for heroes that aren’t tanks but have a little more survivability than your squishy heroes (e.g. Babajide or Nixie who self-heal), or simply where you put your remaining heroes that don’t fit into center or edge positions.  Ideally, they are the opposite color as their associated edge position (aka if your edge hero is purple, you should put your yellow hero next to them) to make it trickier for the offensive player to make ideal gem color matches since horizontal yellow gem matches against the edge purple hero will also hit the yellow hero next to them and give the yellow hero tons of mana.  Obviously, it doesn’t work quite as well for red, green, and blue heroes but it’s something.  There is a lot to consider with your team makeup for this position sometimes as Babajide can be ideal for this spot, unless you have Hono in center then you probably want Babajide on the edge since he can heal himself and doesn’t need the adjacent healing from Hono.
 * Tournament Scoring
 * Charging Mana
 * Getting Started (1* team, 4* issues, 5* strengths, skip 2* ... more advice than team? buildings here or separate?)
 * Recruiting (use of 1 Tavern, 2 Taverns, 3 Taverns...negatives for color-specific, quick, rare...cheap advantages if have 4* 5*)