- At the start of Shadow Arena - aim to land in areas that are close to the first ring (not the edge of the map). It will differ from time to time, the main point is to not land on the edge and not in the center, this way you'll have plenty of time to loot stuff at the beginning of the match, which is the most important part of your game.
There is also a strategy to land near the entrance to the cave and then after a small amount of loot head straight to the mobs in the cave, but I'm not doing it and I surely won't recommend that to beginners. - After landing - search for the class you know how to play with, or have at least some experience with. If you're completely new to the game I'd recommend to train, using skills of the classes that you would like to learn, with Premium characters (Click HERE to learn more about Premium characters).
In the previous month if you weren't playing with Warrior or Mystic you were pretty much done for good. This season on the other hand there was a whole lot of balancing done and it's a fairer game for all classes now, but I won't lie - Warrior is still kinda OP even after his shield nerf and Mystic/Striker are still quite a pain to stand against. That said - most likely they will be nerfed again, so I'd not recommend to start learning only those classes for the new players, but it's up to you really. Just make sure to learn at least few classes, not just single one, as it may be ridiculously hard to find your most preferred class sometimes. - After selecting the class your main goal is to find HP potions, skills and some good defense.
You might be missing some skills till the very end of the game, but usually you will find enough, if you're not running around like a headless chicken. This might not be the case for you, but for whatever reason I usually get ridiculous amounts of weapons, while lacking armor, sometimes I end up running till like 10 people remaining with missing gloves or boots
Honestly - this stage of the game is extremely dependent on your luck, so in my case if I get at least few blue grade things I'll be happy. To increase your chances - look around, some areas have a dense population of mobs, so try to collect and kill packs of mobs instead of going 1 by 1.
Also at this early stage, in case you've obtained some damage-dealing skills for your class and at least some weapon/armor - try to look around you for some lucky player shouting from the happiness of looting yellow grade item, if you're as unlucky as I am - other players is the source for your yellow grade items, not mobs, just make sure to attack only players that look almost naked to you. If that player seems like he knows what he's doing - just walk/run away, don't spend your time trying to chase or fight for an endless amount of time (noobs with yellow grade items should be a bit harder to kill than mobs).
- After ~30 players remaining - your strategy depends on your gear and skills. If you have some blue/yellow grade gear and some descent skills set - try to engage in combat with half-naked players, you have a higher chance to drop HP potions and yellow items from them than mobs, but in case you're the half-naked player - try to avoid unnecessary combat.
Beware that at this stage of the game there are a lot of players that will try to join your fight, either from the range or when one of you die, so make sure to look around before engaging in any fights with other players - you don't want to kill someone and die instantly after that giving 3rd party both of your loots. - After ~15 players remaining - your strategy depends on your gear and skills. If you have some blue/yellow grade gear and some descent skills set - try to avoid unnecessary combat, unless you got a tower buff on you, at this stage the circle is usually small but the amount of players is still descent, so it's like a brawler game really, try to engage and you'll have like 5 players onto you, just try to secure your top 10 spot for rewards. That said, if there's only 1 half-naked player around - go ahead and get yourself some gear/potions. You might also want to look for "hiding" players and get some HP potions from them
If you're half-naked - your only goal at this point is to reach top 10 and not engage in combat, try to get something yellow from mobs, maybe you'll be lucky, or simply hide.
If you feel yourself strong enough you might want to look for the bosses, just make sure that there aren't like 5 players around preparing to jump onto you - After ~10 players remaining - die whenever you feel like in case you have no gear. If you have some blue/yellow gear on you - play safe:
- If you have few speed potions - use them, this will help you to escape and/or finish other players.
- Make sure to stay at full health before engaging in combat - you should've collected some HP potions until now.
- Try to stay away from fights with more than 2 other players.
- If you see that someone killed the other person - engage immediately, don't let him loot and kill the wounded player = loot both.
- Place traps underneath you and stay near them, so in case someone tries to jump onto you - they'll be stunned, engage immediately.
- Throw your remaining slowing and stunning grenades around, you won't have any time to use them in an actual fight, but if there's no one around you and since the circle is small - you'll slow/stun someone, which will help you to control the situation.
- Be extremely cautions while looting other players.
- After ~3-5 players remaining - don't let your eyes off the other players, do not engage unless one of them is killing the other one, just let them engage you. Be careful using any traps/grenades at this point (I would even say to forget about grenades; traps are still useful though). If you have some loot of the freshly-killed player underneath you - it's actually a good way to lure other players onto you, simply start picking it up, just make sure that you're ready for an attack and start fighting instead of looting, when you notice someone reaching for you.
- After 2 players remaining - in case you can't see anyone around you - simply spam your AoE skills, there's some Ninja/Kunoichi hiding somewhere close to you
![=D =D](./images/smilies/003.gif)
Learn few classes, follow the basics, learn how to stand against other classes, the rest is just practice, practice and again practice (even though that I don't play a whole lot of Shadow Arena, I've played this game long enough to know how PvP works).
And the final TIP: if you like Shadow Arena and want to play it all the time - make sure to buy Blessing of Kamasilve off the Marketplace, as it will significantly boost your income from the arena.
P.S. This guide was written by an unlucky player with a high ping/latency that rarely plays Shadow Arena
![*ROFL* *ROFL*](./images/smilies/012.gif)
![*BUNNY* *BUNNY*](./images/smilies/479.gif)