Arena Teams

Introduction

In the AFK Journey arena, the key to success is to know your enemy, and to tailor your team towards countering each player in your local bracket, rather than using the same team for every purpose. In this guide, we’ll go over some meta Arena team archetypes, and which maps to use them in. This guide will be updated as new characters are released and the pvp meta evolves.

Check out our Supreme Arena Guide here!

Best Supreme Arena Teams

Now let us take a look at some of the popular Team Archetypes!

Twins Core Teams

Elijah and Lailah

Any team based around providing massive amounts of haste, energy and healing to the team, greatly speeding up the casting of abilities and ultimates.

Bring The Twins. The Twins are the engine that makes the team go faster, and help make many slower characters more viable.

Choose a faction core between Graveborn, Lightbearer and Wilder.

Graveborn Core - Ludovic/Bonnie

Bring Bonnie: Aside from being a damage carry,
Bonnie also causes the enemy to take more magic damage.
Bring Ludovic:
Ludovic works perfectly in graveborn core teams, providing fast healing at the start of battles, as well as some CC in his kit.
This leaves us with two flex slots.
Bring a DPS:
Talene has been a long time favorite for this role, but the newcomer
Shemira has even higher burst damage and in exchange for less survivability, considering she needs to get her ultimate out before dying.
Bring some Utility: For our last slot, typically we want to bring someone with some utility for a specific purpose, and it will vary depending on each arena bracket and which teams you are facing. Here are some options:

Lily May: Anti-Ultimate and single target burst damage.
Cyran: Anti-Artifact and AOE instakill damage + CC.
Phraesto: Damage sponge and energy regen source.
Hugin: ATK Buff, Haste, Energy and Shields.
Callan: Protection against burst damage at the start of battle.
Harak: Big additional threat that snowballs if left alone.
Athalia: Great at sniping important backline heroes.

Lightbearer Core - Hugin/Flex

Bring Hugin:
Hugin is one of the more powerful lightbearer support units, because he has a good variety of buffs at his disposal, can protect allies, and his ultimate charges relatively quickly.
Bring Cyran or Rowan:
Cyran is a Lightbearer who has taken the pvp landscape by a storm with his ability to deny enemy artifacts, while providing a powerful AOE CC ultimate much like
Eironn, tied to his ultimate, with the possibility of immediately defeating enemies at low HP. But if Cyran proves to be too slow and you would rather provide more support for your carry,
Rowan can also be used in this slot for even more energy regen.
This leaves us with two flex slots.
Bring a DPS:
Bonnie and
Shemira both remain viable choices of DPS carry here, but we can also double down on the Lightbearer faction with
Sonja, or even bring
Odie to better take advantage of Hugin’s etched tile.
Bring some Utility: For our last slot, typically we want to bring someone with some utility, and it will vary depending on each arena bracket and which teams you are facing. Here are some options:

Lily May: Anti-Ultimate and single target burst damage.
Ludovic: Always a reliable start-of-battle healer.
Phraesto: Damage sponge and energy regen source.
Lucca: Not always viable in the high end, but can be a good choice with a team of minimal viable dupes.
Callan: Protection against burst damage at the start of battle.
Harak: Big additional threat that snowballs if left alone.
Athalia: Great at sniping important backline heroes.

Wilder Core - Lily May/Flex

Bring Lily May:
Lily May is always a constant threat, due to her ability to completely halt an enemy in their tracks by possibly cancelling their game-winning ultimate unless played around.
Bring Eironn: Aside from his signature ultimate, Eironn also provides a significant Magic DEF debuff to further support Lily May, and can also Dodge Tank. Other viable choices here are:

Damian: Provides some Haste, CC, Reliable healing, and won’t die to burst damage.
Lorsan: Niche utility by enhancing Lily May’s burst and providing some extra healing.
Faramor: ATK buff, Healing Denial and True Damage conversion.

This leaves us with two flex slots.
Bring a DPS or Support:
Bonnie and
Shemira both remain viable choices of DPS carry here, but we can also bring
Talene, or a support for more sustain.
Bring some Utility: For our last slot, typically we want to bring someone with some utility, and it will vary depending on each arena bracket and which teams you are facing. Here are some options:

Bryon/
Niru: Anti-Lily Tech for Eironn.
Ludovic: Always a reliable start-of-battle healer.
Phraesto: Damage sponge and energy regen source.
Cyran: Anti-Artifact and AOE instakill damage + CC.
Callan: Protection against burst damage at the start of battle.
Harak: Big additional threat that snowballs if left alone.
Athalia: Great at sniping important backline heroes.

Comments: This team and its variants is one of the best achievable at a reasonable budget, without using only PVP-Centric units from typical whale teams, and has good matchups against popular Talene-Tasi teams.

Eironn Nuke Team

Eironn

In this team, your strategy is to kill the enemy before they kill you, through overwhelming burst damage potential.

Bring Eironn: He is the character who comes to mind when we think about who enables the very idea of a “Nuke Team”. But only strictly necessary in the
Eironn variant.
Bring Bryon or Niru: Eironn’s biggest weakness, and most obvious counter is Lily May, which is present in many teams. The best way to counter Lily’s counter, is by using Bryon or Niru’s start-of-battle abilities to use up Lily’s counter and allow Eironn’s ultimate to go through. Can be swapped out on attack if the enemy does not have Lily May!
Bring a Tank. Or don’t: This role is optional, Eironn can be used as a Tank thanks to his high Dodge Rate allowing him to avoid damage enough that you can bring more DPS carries. Of particular interest in the Tank role, is
Ulmus, as he enables powerful synergy with Eironn’s crowd control, as long as Eironn’s ultimate is not interrupted
Bring 2 DPS carries: To capitalize on the opportunity afforded by the Eironn/Ulmus combo we want characters who synergize with CC effects, or can take advantage of the opening. Here are some options:

Arden: The classic pairing for Eironn, his ultimate charges quickly and can deal decent damage in a wide area.
Carolina: Another classic of Eironn nuke teams, dealing higher damage, but on on a tighter area than Arden.
Cyran: Anti-Artifact and AOE instakill damage + CC, can CC lock enemies alternating with Eironn.
Bonnie: High damage, Haste and ATK Debuff, and Magic damage taken debuff.
Lily May: Anti-Ultimate and single target burst damage
Alsa: Decent damage and CC support.
Harak: Big additional threat that snowballs if left alone
Athalia: Great at sniping important backline heroes.

This used to be the main meta team in the late-game arena, until

Lily May came around. With Lily May being able to counter Eironn’s entire game plan, this team is not quite as prevalent as it once was.

The Bryon/Niru strategy does help the team stay somewhat relevant, but the presence of unaffected characters is also a concern for this team’s viability.

Dionel Hypercarry

Dionel

This is technically another type of nuke team, if your

Dionel is invested enough, that is.

Bring Dionel:
Dionel is best used as a build-around unit, being the most straightforward of the Celehypos, he just deals damage, so we’ll focus on amplifying that even further.
Pick 2 Supports: More specifically, “buffers”. We want two support characters offering different Stat-boosting buffs to feed Dionel’s Intoxication stacks. Typically that means ATK, Haste and ATK SPD, but all stat-boosting buffs work.
Pick 2 from Tank/DPS/CH: This is our flex slot, we can bring pretty much anyone, either to increase the team’s damage output, or survivability.

Dunlingr in is the ideal Celestial partner for Dionel, as he allows Dionel to still do his thing while also hindering the enemy team. But he is otherwise a niche hero and does not see much use outside this particular team so think twice before going all in on Dunlingr for Dionel.
Harak is sometimes paired with Dionel as well in whale teams as Dionel helps him secure kills and snowball out of control, but it quickly becomes a very expensive team to invest in at this rate.

Some of the highest burst damage potential in the game. This team is sometimes used by whales who had the spare resources to invest in Dionel rather than the more utility-focused Celehypos. Requires very high investment up to Paragon tiers on Dionel to be competitive with other meta teams.

Not as strong on defense against near-peer attackers, Dionel’s position at the back of the team also makes him especially vulnerable to assassin teams.

Talene/Tasi Revive Stall Team

Talene

A team designed to survive against overwhelming burst damage, then strike back with a deadly counterattack.

Bring Talene:
Talene is a powerful damage dealer, enabled by healing, who can come back from the dead and deal damage in a large area, and is one of the main carries of this team.
Bring Tasi:
Tasi is another character who can revive after dying and can often solo the entire enemy team even after her own team has perished. Greatly benefits from energy regen.
Bring Bonnie: Aside from being a damage carry,
Bonnie also reduces the enemy’s Magic Damage resistance, making other damage dealers deal more damage, and is a mainstay in this team as both Talene and Tasi rely on magic damage.
Pick a Support (Optional): Any support will do, but following the revival theme,
Damian tends to be the best pick as he can just summon another cart if his first cart is destroyed, enabling Talene and Tasi to come back stronger than ever.
Ludovic is another popular choice that trades survivability for more healing and utility. But this role is optional, both characters can survive on their own with some luck, and some players drop the support slot entirely in order to bring more DPS carries.
Pick a Tank: We may want a Tank in order to buy some time for the rest of the team to do their thing.
Phraesto in particular can be a powerful choice thanks to his energy regen buffs, and ability to summon a new close at EX +15.
Thoran also works as he can revive after an initial burst. Another option is
Satrana, as she does very well against the Magic DMG meta.

This team is notorious for often surviving against the burst damage of

Dionel or

Eironn teams, and then killing them after Talene and Tasi come back from the dead, supported by Damian’s healing cart.

This immortality can still be countered by

Scarlita or more recently,

Cyran, and does not fare well in the mirror match due to ultimate order favouring the attacker.

Assassin Team

Vala

Silvina

A team geared towards fighting other burst teams by taking out priority targets before they can pose a thread. Attack Oriented.

Bring Vala:
Vala is a powerful assassin who can target one backline enemy and keep them from using their ultimate by removing their energy with her attacks, and is a staple in any assassin team.
Bring Silvina:
Silvina is often used as part of an inseparable duo with Vala, as these two combined can quickly take out the enemy backline, especially if they get to target the same enemy.
Pick 2+ DPS: As this is an Assassin Team that focuses entirely on damage, we can afford to bring all our best damage carries to take out the enemy as quickly as possible and add redundancy against enemy defenses.
Lily May and
Bonnie are among the best choices, but any DPS will do.
Pick a Support and/or Tank(Optional): One can bring a Support or Tank if we believe the enemy may still pose a threat after the initial burst and want a chance to recover, or to buy enough time to finish the job.

This team is often the best against teams that rely on a powerful main carry, such as

Dionel or

Harak, as it enables killing the enemy carry before they can do their thing.

Athalia Variant

A more whale-centric, but even more powerful version of this team runs Athalia as main carry to absolutely destroy the vast majority of defenses and work as a defensive team itself.

Bring Athalia:
Athalia is our main carry, and she excels at eliminating the enemy damage carries as quickly as possible, before cleaning up the rest.
Bring Dunlingr:
Dunlingr's disruption abilities greatly hinder the enemy team, while not being much of a problem for Athalia. In Curelock mode, the enemy cannot properly mitigate Athalia damage, and in Ultimate lock mode, Dunlingr can stop dangerous enemy ultimates, while still allowing Athalia to do her thing as she is not a very ultimate reliant hero. It is still possible to run Athalia’s assassin team without Dunlingr, of course, but Dunlingr provides great synergy.
Bring The Twins: By linking Athalia and Dunlingr, we can provide healing and energy, as well as haste, greatly speeding up our game plan even more, and giving us some extra breathing room.
This leaves us with two flex slots.
For arena defense, a good addition is a support such as
Ludovic, to provide some extra staying power.
For arena attack,
Lily May complements Athalia’s game plan very well with her massive burst damage and Ultimate-denial.
Vala or
Silvina can also work depending on the enemy team.
As for our last slot,
Cyran is always a good choice, with his Artifact denial ability, and he can also help finish off low health enemies.

Defense Examples / Meta Snapshot

Here we’ll showcase defense teams using some of the previously mentioned archetypes.

ARENA V - Special

1: Twins Core - Graveborn
2: Twins Core - Lightbearer
3: Twins Core - Wilder
4: Talene/Tasi Team
5: Eironn Nuke (Arden/Twins)

ARENA III

1: Twins Core - Graveborn
2: Twins Core - Lightbearer
3: Twins Core - Wilder
4: Athalia Team (Curelock)
5: Eironn Nuke (Arden/Twins)

ARENA IV

1: Twins Core - Graveborn
2: Twins Core - Lightbearer
3: Twins Core - Wilder
4: Eironn Nuke (Harak/Bonnie)
5: Talene/Tasi Team

Video

For more team tips, check this video:

Best teams to use in AFK Journey Arena/PVP mode - both on defense and offense.