Post by RIP TEF on Apr 13, 2007 23:35:22 GMT -5
Note that the armor and weapons of your opponents in the Arena are leveled, i.e. at high levels you will be facing opponents with glass or daedric weapons and armor, rather than those described here, which are low level. A detailed description of the gear used by Arena opponents can be found at Arena Combatants.
Pit Dog Matches
Man with a sword and shield. No problems.
Woman with the same.
Man with bow and arrows. Not really any harder than the others. For ranged characters (particularly ranged spellcasters), this is the easiest fight in the arena because you can simply dodge his attacks while blasting him apart.
Brawler Matches
Your first real fight is against a battlemage. He uses frost magic, and can heal himself. You should do fine, though.
Two Bosmer: One's an archer with an elven bow and the other is a warrior with a dwarven claymore. Despite all this, they're actually easier to fight than the previous battlemage. The warrior with the claymore will do a good job of positioning herself behind you so that your back is exposed to the archer. A repeatable strategy I discovered was to run around a bit which generally resulted in the archer positioning herself in the center of the arena. At that point, run down into the entry tunnel and get your back against the door. This will enable you to fight the warrior with the claymore without suffering arrow damage. A good bow (bow of frost, shock, etc.) and a single arrow can kill the archer if you sneak back up the entry tunnel and surprise shoot the archer.
Crazy Khajiit with a big axe. He has a lot of health, and can heal himself. Not a problem if you're prepared. If you don't have a lot of HP, I suggest bringing a shield and some health potions.
Bloodletter Matches
Your first opponent as a Bloodletter is a male Redguard who can use either a sword or a mace, along with a shield. Your standard match. (He tends to run back and forth though, sometimes making it difficult to hit him)
This opponent is decked out in heavy armor, including a shield. She uses a short sword, though. She's rather fast, but if you're a mage, the tactic's still the same: run, fireball, run, fireball…
This Dunmer is a bit annoying. He has fire resistance, so fireballs don't work, can hit ranged with his bow or melee with a longsword. He doesn't have much health, though—rush him and he'll die to either touch spells or your weapon.
Myrmidon Matches
The Blademaster will warn you about this Bosmer's dagger. And it's not bad, really, but he has low hp. The guy is fast, though.
Not much of a challenge. An Altmer with a light shield, light raiment, cap and a longsword, with little health.
A fast Orc with a silver battleaxe. and a heavy raiment. A lot of health.
Warrior Matches
A fast, heavily armored Nord female with a silver longsword and a mithril shield. It's as easy/difficult as the last Orc - just don't use cold spells.
And now for something completely different: a spellcasting Altmer female with a silver longsword. Close up is the easiest way to go, although she does have nasty touch spells. She also has one spell which will break your weilded weapon.
Here's a tougher one. A very fast female Orc in a heavy raiment with a two-handed glass warhammer.She knows how to dish out damage and stun, so stay out of reach. I suggest for the longsword guys out there to try to keep your distance from her by being close enough to just hit her with the tip of your blade, that way you can keep your distance, don't even try to block, she will just stagger you.
Gladiator Matches
Three Argonians: Two unarmed and one with a shortsword. In melee, the unarmed ones will eat up your fatigue and you'll barely be able to get a hit in. And if you want to go ranged: these guys are the fastest I've seen in the arena, like speed 80+ or something. Take out the unarmed ones first. Even if you're a melee character: don't stand still or you'll get killed. See the above "Three toughest" for more.
This Khajiit uses an Elven longsword. It hurts. Also, he's fast. He's quite good at blocking too. Apart from that, not much different from any other sword-and-shield opponent.
Now here is an annoying fight. A Breton with tons and tons of health, very fast and even though he has no shield, his damage factor really makes up for that with his Elven Longsword. If you can stay ahead of him while running, use hit-and-run, otherwise, learn to block.
Hero Matches
Ah, getting close to the title now. The first opponent is a former Blade (don't you just hate traitors?) with an Akaviri Katana (not a longsword -- better!) and standard heavy Blades armor with a shield. Not as tough as the last fight, but dangerous for the unprepared.
The most annoying match for mages. A breeze for everyone else. A Master of Destruction with a shield that makes him just about immune to magic. His weakness? He deals very little damage.
The final match against the Yellow Team! You fight against the Yellow Team Champion, an archer and a mage (the latter two are low level). See above "Three toughest". You also get to fight alongside the infamous Porkchop, the blue team boar. Be careful, Porkchop might just attack you if you hit him. Also, if you use invisibility right before the match starts, Porkchop will kill all of the fighters for you.
Champion Match
Become the Grand Champion!!! You have to fight the Gray Prince. See Three Especially Difficult Fights.
Note - When you beat The Gray Prince and talk to his coach you will gain 10 fame points!
Remember that this match can be won without taking any damage by completing the Origin of the Gray Prince quest, and also if you do not let him talk to you when entering the arena you will also not gain infamy points (this can be done by long range attacks while going further down your own tunnel.
There is a glitch that sometimes will not let you leave the Arena after killing The Gray Prince and looting his body.
Instead of the long range/tunnel method, those with a high/maxed Destruction skill and access to a spellmaking altar can kill the Gray Prince in one hit to avoid infamy- his HP is not very high. Include in your spell a 1 sec Paralyze to knock him down and allow the spell's damage to occur over 3-4 seconds.
Your Retirement
After you kill The Gray Prince, go talk to the battle matron. She'll start talking about arranging weekly fights against varying creatures, and you may choose between 1-3 to fight at once once a week. You of course get more money for more critters killed (Note that the time you take killing the creatures also matters to how much you will get paid. For example if you kill one lion fast enough it can earn you more money than killing 2 lions slower.), but try not to die because you were overconfident. In these matches, you can fight with whatever weapons/armor you feel like. It is unknown whether or not these fights are randomized, but since this is a recurring event even if they aren't, we likely won't be making strategies for them.
At level 5 or lower you choose between 1 boar, 1 boar + 1 wolf, or 2 wolves + 1 goblin skirmisher.
At levels 6-8 you can fight 1 goblin berserker, 2 trolls or 2 goblin berserkers + 1 troll.
At levels 9-11 you fight either 1 lion, 2 lions, or 2 lions + 1 spriggan.
At levels 12-14 you fight 1 bear, 2 minotaurs, or 1 bear + 2 minotaurs.
At levels 15-17 you fight 1 ogre, 2 ogres or 2 ogres + 1 land dreugh.
At level 18 and higher you fight 1-3 minotaur lords. The minotaur lords can (allegedly) be killed with ranged weapons from the tunnel because they are too large to go through the gate. If you don't kill the minotaur lords fast enough using this method, then one or all of them might be transported into the tunnel with you. This is assumed to be a glitch, however, it is consistent in the game.
Pit Dog Matches
Man with a sword and shield. No problems.
Woman with the same.
Man with bow and arrows. Not really any harder than the others. For ranged characters (particularly ranged spellcasters), this is the easiest fight in the arena because you can simply dodge his attacks while blasting him apart.
Brawler Matches
Your first real fight is against a battlemage. He uses frost magic, and can heal himself. You should do fine, though.
Two Bosmer: One's an archer with an elven bow and the other is a warrior with a dwarven claymore. Despite all this, they're actually easier to fight than the previous battlemage. The warrior with the claymore will do a good job of positioning herself behind you so that your back is exposed to the archer. A repeatable strategy I discovered was to run around a bit which generally resulted in the archer positioning herself in the center of the arena. At that point, run down into the entry tunnel and get your back against the door. This will enable you to fight the warrior with the claymore without suffering arrow damage. A good bow (bow of frost, shock, etc.) and a single arrow can kill the archer if you sneak back up the entry tunnel and surprise shoot the archer.
Crazy Khajiit with a big axe. He has a lot of health, and can heal himself. Not a problem if you're prepared. If you don't have a lot of HP, I suggest bringing a shield and some health potions.
Bloodletter Matches
Your first opponent as a Bloodletter is a male Redguard who can use either a sword or a mace, along with a shield. Your standard match. (He tends to run back and forth though, sometimes making it difficult to hit him)
This opponent is decked out in heavy armor, including a shield. She uses a short sword, though. She's rather fast, but if you're a mage, the tactic's still the same: run, fireball, run, fireball…
This Dunmer is a bit annoying. He has fire resistance, so fireballs don't work, can hit ranged with his bow or melee with a longsword. He doesn't have much health, though—rush him and he'll die to either touch spells or your weapon.
Myrmidon Matches
The Blademaster will warn you about this Bosmer's dagger. And it's not bad, really, but he has low hp. The guy is fast, though.
Not much of a challenge. An Altmer with a light shield, light raiment, cap and a longsword, with little health.
A fast Orc with a silver battleaxe. and a heavy raiment. A lot of health.
Warrior Matches
A fast, heavily armored Nord female with a silver longsword and a mithril shield. It's as easy/difficult as the last Orc - just don't use cold spells.
And now for something completely different: a spellcasting Altmer female with a silver longsword. Close up is the easiest way to go, although she does have nasty touch spells. She also has one spell which will break your weilded weapon.
Here's a tougher one. A very fast female Orc in a heavy raiment with a two-handed glass warhammer.She knows how to dish out damage and stun, so stay out of reach. I suggest for the longsword guys out there to try to keep your distance from her by being close enough to just hit her with the tip of your blade, that way you can keep your distance, don't even try to block, she will just stagger you.
Gladiator Matches
Three Argonians: Two unarmed and one with a shortsword. In melee, the unarmed ones will eat up your fatigue and you'll barely be able to get a hit in. And if you want to go ranged: these guys are the fastest I've seen in the arena, like speed 80+ or something. Take out the unarmed ones first. Even if you're a melee character: don't stand still or you'll get killed. See the above "Three toughest" for more.
This Khajiit uses an Elven longsword. It hurts. Also, he's fast. He's quite good at blocking too. Apart from that, not much different from any other sword-and-shield opponent.
Now here is an annoying fight. A Breton with tons and tons of health, very fast and even though he has no shield, his damage factor really makes up for that with his Elven Longsword. If you can stay ahead of him while running, use hit-and-run, otherwise, learn to block.
Hero Matches
Ah, getting close to the title now. The first opponent is a former Blade (don't you just hate traitors?) with an Akaviri Katana (not a longsword -- better!) and standard heavy Blades armor with a shield. Not as tough as the last fight, but dangerous for the unprepared.
The most annoying match for mages. A breeze for everyone else. A Master of Destruction with a shield that makes him just about immune to magic. His weakness? He deals very little damage.
The final match against the Yellow Team! You fight against the Yellow Team Champion, an archer and a mage (the latter two are low level). See above "Three toughest". You also get to fight alongside the infamous Porkchop, the blue team boar. Be careful, Porkchop might just attack you if you hit him. Also, if you use invisibility right before the match starts, Porkchop will kill all of the fighters for you.
Champion Match
Become the Grand Champion!!! You have to fight the Gray Prince. See Three Especially Difficult Fights.
Note - When you beat The Gray Prince and talk to his coach you will gain 10 fame points!
Remember that this match can be won without taking any damage by completing the Origin of the Gray Prince quest, and also if you do not let him talk to you when entering the arena you will also not gain infamy points (this can be done by long range attacks while going further down your own tunnel.
There is a glitch that sometimes will not let you leave the Arena after killing The Gray Prince and looting his body.
Instead of the long range/tunnel method, those with a high/maxed Destruction skill and access to a spellmaking altar can kill the Gray Prince in one hit to avoid infamy- his HP is not very high. Include in your spell a 1 sec Paralyze to knock him down and allow the spell's damage to occur over 3-4 seconds.
Your Retirement
After you kill The Gray Prince, go talk to the battle matron. She'll start talking about arranging weekly fights against varying creatures, and you may choose between 1-3 to fight at once once a week. You of course get more money for more critters killed (Note that the time you take killing the creatures also matters to how much you will get paid. For example if you kill one lion fast enough it can earn you more money than killing 2 lions slower.), but try not to die because you were overconfident. In these matches, you can fight with whatever weapons/armor you feel like. It is unknown whether or not these fights are randomized, but since this is a recurring event even if they aren't, we likely won't be making strategies for them.
At level 5 or lower you choose between 1 boar, 1 boar + 1 wolf, or 2 wolves + 1 goblin skirmisher.
At levels 6-8 you can fight 1 goblin berserker, 2 trolls or 2 goblin berserkers + 1 troll.
At levels 9-11 you fight either 1 lion, 2 lions, or 2 lions + 1 spriggan.
At levels 12-14 you fight 1 bear, 2 minotaurs, or 1 bear + 2 minotaurs.
At levels 15-17 you fight 1 ogre, 2 ogres or 2 ogres + 1 land dreugh.
At level 18 and higher you fight 1-3 minotaur lords. The minotaur lords can (allegedly) be killed with ranged weapons from the tunnel because they are too large to go through the gate. If you don't kill the minotaur lords fast enough using this method, then one or all of them might be transported into the tunnel with you. This is assumed to be a glitch, however, it is consistent in the game.