The Armanz Controversy has DIVIDED the RAID Community 

Someone picked 2 Armanz in live arena against me, I countered by picking the leave button.

There are a lot of useless old legendary champions. They should just buff/rework some of them to be a viable counter to Armanz.

Great video, Ash! Stoked to talk Armanz with you! Also that clip of the party scene with Tormin/Polymorph etc legit had me crying laughing 😂 Kudos to your editor on a job well done there!

I usually pick mithrala when I see Armanz and it works most of the times. I don't think he needs to be nerfed. I think Plarium will make more champions to counter him. Like maybe a champion with a passive that counters turn meter stealing and stuff like that

Armanz helped me to finally beat doom tower hard as well.

I finally built my Armanz and put him in live arena. People ban him over my Yumeko... food for thought.

As a low spender, Armanz made possible for me to reach silver 3 in tag team arena. It opened me the higher levels of Doom Tower hard.

Nerfing him would hurt those running Doom Tower, who are relying on him.

i didnt get him, i was off from raid, im so upset, this guy is a monster

Leave him alone... remember what happened when they nerfed Siphi and Rotos? Pepperidge Farms Remembers! Yes, he can be a pain in the backside, but there are counters to him, accessable counters too. I use him in Hard DT where I was struggling to get past certain floors (Looking at you Mortu/Skytouched), nerf himm and I'm back to pulling my hair out trying to beat RNG.

I can beat almost any team but any team with Armanz I try to avoid. I ban him every time, no matter what. Every time. He is so OP>

Armanz helped me finish DTH. I am a very low spender and he provides resources for me to grow my account. I think he is an addition for newer players (if they could finish the fusion) to help grow the account. He is not only a pvp-mon, he can be used basically anywhere (kinda like Geo). One way to nerf Armanz would be to increase cooldown on A2 with 1 turn. That way, the endless loop can be broken. Noteworthy is also to bring force mons with high-ish res as the spells can weak hit. Bruiser comps is almost a must.

How do you think we feel when we go against a Rotos, or Taras. Now the field is a bit more level.

For me, Armanz has helped make battles in Classic and Silver LA quicker as there is now a counter to UDK and Stoneskin. I would be upset if they nerfed him without nerfing UDK and really nerfing Stoneskin.

I dont have Armanz, I just dont play live arena, I dont have the meta champs to compete.

If they aren't going to nerf Taras, Marichka, UDK, Yumeko, or Trunda. They better not nerf Armanz. People just need to stop crying, and just figure out a counter to him.

I made a video with some (I think) good opinions. None of the previous “OP” champs were “nerfed” but instead insane new champions were brought in to counter them. Think UDK > rotos. We also have the new fusion coming with an intercept buff, which is a hard counter as well. There are so many areas of the game to be improved, I hardly think focusing one champions is fruitful

As a basically a F2P guy, I went for Armanz. It allows me to complete with whales, as long as I’m faster, I win.. doesn’t matter what they spent. What Palarium is doing is making these crazy champs that are a new breed. Having all these summon events for all the OG top tier champs so it makes them worthless and sets a stage to start selling the new breed.. like mythical, faction guards, and champs ,like Armanz

No NERF for Armanz the Magnificent…… unless you nerf Taras, Maricka and Yumeko first, for low spenders and free to play players he opens up a lot more options and content faster than they would otherwise have been available to them. The real problem is that Whales, Krakens and Leviathans can’t spend their money to get past Armanz. The arena has gotten faster and higher resistance teams are now being used. Taras can be countered with Armanz. Mithrala Lifebane teams are back in areas. Do I like the affect of Armanz and polymorph on the arena? No. I do however think that Armanz is necessary for the current state of the game.

I'm a ftp player and I've been playing for 2 years and I've only done 4 fusions, armanz being one of them. It took so much time and resources to get him and if he was nerfed it put such a sour taste in my mouth to the point that I wouldn't go for any future fusions. Yes he's a nightmare to face in the arena but that's why I went for him.

Before Armanz, I couldn't farm Doom Tower hard - always got stuck on the Rotos/Siphi waves. Now I can advance, so I'm a fan.

I wish I have him, but rejoined the game after a long break halfway through his fusion, so no WuKong and no Armanz, live arena is painful.

For the love of god do not nerf him, after all this effort. Ban his sheep skill from the Arena or Ban him completely from Arena or something similar but I need him for PvE

Ash, I’m a big fan but the emo bangs in your watcher of realms ad was just too much😂

Constantly have to go against wu kong, UDK, and stone skin. Is even worse then Armanz in my opinion.

I have 3 accounts. Before Armanz i couldn't get into gold arena in any of them and i was stuck behind the Arbiter Affinty bonus missions because i hated Arena so much. Now all my accounts are in high gold arena and i can finally progress in the game. He saved me from almost giving the game up.

Raid's strategy for fixing OP heroes has always been single directional: pest control. When you have a pest introduce a predator.

Leorius is a good counter for Armanz because he cant be stunned when his A2 is not on cool down. The only problem is how many people are lucky enough to have that particular void legendary? Are there any other champs immune to stun? Plarium will probably add some more over time to avoid having to nerf Armanz.

There's a live arena? I wouldn't know, i'm way to busy just trying to do dailies and prep for fusions. Wait, there's a sand devils too? Damn, lol, oh look, what's this shoguns grove thingy? and would you look at that, here's a iron twin tower in dungeons, too bad it costs so much or I might be able to squeeze it in at the end of the night after hydra which takes an hour and a half...........but for real i guess i just don't care because i will never play in that level of arena, gold live or plat, because i won't spend that amount of money, but i will say i like this toon in doom tower. He takes that grind and makes it easier to accomplish so i can move on which is a huge help.

*PLARIUM:* _Dance puppets, dance...._ _...I mean dance, SHEEPS DANCE lol_

I don't do live arena, but any time I see Armanz I just add Hoskarul to the team and usually it's a cake walk after that. If he can't infinite stun, he's killable.

My experience in gold 3 live, armamz is picked and banned 100% of the time. The main problem is the turnmeter steal on his a2 pretty much guarantees he goes twice. Then he needs to only take one more turn to do it again, while your team needs one turn to burn off the stun. And now he’s ready to stun you again.

One of the key things a game like this needs is reasons for people to pull more shards. And like it or not armanz does that. As soon as there is a counter champion for armanz released in the shards whales will go crazy to pull it. And that keeps the cycle going. If all the Wales have all the top champs and there's no reason for them to pull more shards the game will die.

Did Osama put a super tooper reference in the video? Give that man another raise lol.

I think that very soon we're gonna start seeing people getting Horsey, who's just about the perfect Jack counter, and all the screams will shift to "enfeeble breaks arena. NERF!"

I'm an FTP player and gave up all my resources to get Armanz via fusion. So don't even think about touching Armanz. If Raid do, that will be my last day in Raid.

Ok, well, is op outside of arena or just really good? Now with that question out of the way, maybe it's arena that is stupid? (Esp live arena - i don't have 15 minutes to battle slow people)

I just started playing. I do not have Armanz or Sun Wu. I am currently Gold 1 in live arena. It is a hard decision on who to ban. Arbiter, Armanz, Sun Wu, Mithrala, Hirama,... none of which I have.

No nerf needed. Learn better counterplay (robust counterplay options are currently present).

I would also argue that every meta has had a counter either discovered after introduction or has been later added to the game. If one exists, someone with a creative mind will find it, and if it does not exist yet, chances are high it will be added and someone will discover it. I wish I had a creative mind, find something that works if you do, and make creating that counter to the meta the fun part.

Armanz is the great equalizer, allows low spenders to stay somewhat competitive. Of course the krakens hate him because he occasionnally counters their Star Sage Galathir and +4 Taras/Marichka. I love him, I get to give the filthy mythical spammers a taste of their own medecine once in a while. Dont nerf Armanz, nerf all the Mythicals instead.

The people who hate Armanz are usually the people who didnt do the fusion 😂

Armanz was my first fusion ever. I'm so happy with this guy. He helped me in so many places in PvE. I missed the Gnut fusion so I'm happy that I have another great champ for PvE now. The day they nerv Armanz will be the final day for me in Raid. As a F2P player it is hard to get hands on good champs. Yes, he is painfull in Arena but also an account changer in PvE for me.

TBH Armanz makes me farming great hall so much more enjoyable. Got my first affinity to 10 because of this man. I have actually started playing LA because he will let me compete. Love him or hate him he gets newer players into arena in all levels.

Hes the reason I was able to beat hard doom tower finally. His wave control is unprecedented. I understand this bleeds to pvp which is an area I care little about but for pve he's in every wave based team I run almost. Let's me focus on building a team for the boss more than the waves. If there is a nerf it needs to be for pvp content only

I hope they dont touch him and leave him the way he is

Arman brought me to gold 1 of tag team arena, thank you Plarium.

he has made TTA worse...so thats impressive

Nah, Drock. I need Armanz left alone. He's helped me win some more matches in the dreaded Tag Arena.

Simple fix. Change his skill for arena. Instead of stealing the turn meter, it only depletes it. Then he isn't taking an immediate second turn.

I would say : Whale prefer picking first. Strategist prefer pick number 2-3.

Only my opinion, and I haven't tried it in Live Arena yet. I counter Armanz with Acelin the Stalwart. From his passive - 1 Faction ally: Allies under [Shield] buffs are immune to [Stun], [Freeze], [Sleep], [Provoke], [Fear], [True Fear], and [Petrification] debuff. It doesn't help with [Polymorph] but it shuts down Armanz' aoe [Stun] which I find counters him enough for me.

Ban Armanz if you don't want to face him. There are a lot of champs that need a buff rather than nerf.

There is always a counter

Add a new live arena 2 piece set: 1 turn immunity buff (2/3 turn with more sets) and reduce tm reduction effects 30%. This avoids a nerf, as well as any fomo of balancing him with a new legendary/fusion to counter.

It feels like Plarium is looking to have player base build resistance teams. Because there's currently NO RESIST META... Champions like Borogar, Mithrala, Oella, etc. that are resistance heavy are the only chance against Armanz unless you're faster and lock out or bomb or stun lock him, active skill lock him. Most of the time he's in SS and Polymorph so it's a total gamble to bomb him and the average player doesn't have 400+ speed champs plus the resistance champs NEVER HAVE AURAS with Speed... There needs to be an update to resistance champs, making them have faster speed as a base stat and or higher resistance auras or base resistance auras. The kits they have are so basic and also don't do much damage or provide the team with better utility. I hope they consider making better resistance champs if they never nerf Armanz.

I LOVE armanz he single handedly allowed me to climb live and classic and 3v3 arena, and is super helpful for climbing doom tower

I would far rather pick 2nd in Arena. Ban their 1st pick Armanz, or... build a counter team to him and ban one of their other picks to disrupt whatever they've tried to construct as a comp.

Haha! I was going to mention that big Urogrim nerf, but someone else did that for me, thanks so much for that. Urogrim wasn’t so ridiculously OP but they did him dirty which I’m obviously still doesn’t sit well with me.

As you said, Plarium wants the PVP meta to evolve constantly (=> in order to sell more). That's why they release new OP champions. But PvP is a Rock Paper Scissors game. Atm Armanz is super strong because players have not adapted yet. But there are a lot of ways to counter Armanz : Speed+Lockout, Full Stoneskin team, double DPS in Stoneskin, Sheep, Force champions (Harima, Mikage, ...). Play him and you 'll see : he destroys teams that are not prepared for him but struggles against those who are.

He has been such a huge help for classic arena. I don’t have my hall maxed and he is allowing me to take on fights I wouldn’t normally. (Looking at you UDK) I really hope they don’t nerf 😅

I don't mind Armanz as much as Yumiko, Basher, Warlord and Krixia.

I have mine sitting there at five star because I don't have the gear He needs. It feels pointless to build him unless you can surpass 300 speed and accuracy 8:47 your editor has a crazy amount of knowledge of little Clips like this BTW yes you are og af I'm just editing this comment as I watch the video if that wasn't clear; I didn't get Udk, Ninja, Wukong, Deliana, or Artak 13:29 pandering lol

He hasn't been a problem for me anywhere. If I go fist in arena, dealing with Armanz is easy. He's awesome in PvE. I really don't see the problem.

When a kraken or whale thinks a champion should be nerfed it absolutely shouldn't be. People at the top of the leader boards want to maintain their advantage, and disruptive champions relevel the playing field and require everyone to develop new strategies.

I must be in the wrong arena. I never see him.

I have a pretty good regular Arena team with a 6 star blessed Marishka & Lady Mikage. When I went against a single Armanz, I never got a turn. He stunned everyone, turned the only active player into a sheep and just kept smacking away until everyone was dead. hmmmm We will probably figure out a way around him at some point, but it might take awhile. Maybe they could limit the stun effect, so at least one player can try to attack him.

Urogrim was NOT a fusion, nerfing a fusion is a bad thing.

JUST BAN him from pvp . No nerf

2:37 Ash with your hair falling like that you look like a My Chemical Romance enjoyer from early high school lol! Love the vid dude, can't wait for the BPD collab. I just don't even try to fight Armanz teams in arena anymore so I think I'm with him lol.

What's worse is I have Krixia which would be a counter but is useless against him cause of affinity -_- not lucky enough to have a warlord...

No nerf. The game will evolve

Nope. We united: Leave Armanz alone!

My strategy for a team w/Armanz is to move to another opponent.

I'm still pissed that I got so close.

I use the two Armanz strategy in Live Arena, you can't ban both of them.

Nerd him? They should buff him.ake his skills unresistable, That man should not need accuracy!!!

There is no nerf to him directly that would change his pick rates that also wouldnt change him to vault status even in other areas of the game. The better solution would be changes to sheep (making it cleansable) and adding more counter champs like have one with a Staltus like passive that reflects stuns and is immune to turn meter steel. Having passive counters makes it not just a question of out speeding. You mentioned the resources for going for him but also dont forget the titan event that most did right after which is basically another fusion in itself.

I like Armanz. He gives free to play players a chance against some previously unbeatable teams.

Ok, first….who didn’t know Armanz was going to be a nasty champ? Second, almost everyone had the chance to fuse Armanz. You had the chance, if you were too lazy, that’s on you.

To be honest, I don't like PvP. I'm still at the bottom of Silver 2 in live arena and do a couple of battles a week. Recently in live arena - someone got first pick and selected Armanz, I picked Armanz and Warlord. His last pick was Arbiter (his only reviver). My last 2 were both Arbiters (ban one, I still have one). My ban was Arbiter (no revive, no speed lead & banner) and his ban was Armanz. So I would have lapped him with double Arbiters and locked him out with Warlord. After the ban phase, he left the battle. One advantage to Armanz in PvE in Doom Tower: Dark Fae - now easy, Double Mortu-Macaab - now a lot easier. Faction Wars - a lot easier. I don't expect them to nerf Armanz.

As a FTP, I love Armanz. Gives me a fighting chance in arenas. Sorry ash I don’t live PVP. I’ve been a PVE preferred player for years.

Armanz is one of the best things to happen to this game. Case in point. Most people have to learn and make the correct counter measures. If counter measures can't be taken. Palarium must create the counter measure character or characters to keep moving foward

I've been playing for about 3 years. And I'm stuck behind a HUGE pay wall and or power creep. if it wasn't for the years and hours I've put into the game, I would quit.

I regret not going for the Armanz fusion (I was resource starved) but he seems very essential to many portions of the game. While I hate facing him in any arena, I just go with my fastest, more resistant champions. There is no need to nerf him or anything. I console myself with the fact that you can pull him from shards still 😢.

The difference between end-game and mid game players is gear. Very rarely does a champion alone cause this many issues in the game, and I'm all for it. Because at the end of the day. No matter what champions you pick. It will no doubt come down to who has the most speed, accuracy, and survivability.

A proper nerf would be either turning his a2 from "Steals all the Turn Meter of each target" into "Decreases the Turn Meter of each target". That or introduce us more champs immune to having turn meter stolen (not exactly decreased, but stolen) and letting them grant themselves a turn when someone tries. Generally I am against Nerfs, but that a2 into an a3 is a problem. Maybe don't let him put Sheep on people who are asleep? Still makes him OP, as he can stun and then strip any stoneskin. I do have Armanz and I sadly have to use him a lot, but I find running Siphi + Rotos is my best counter to him (Siphi in stoneskin) with a secondary reviver or a Spirit affinity champion (since he will always target a spirit affinity champ with the a3).

I'm an early game player and don't have an Armanz. But I have battled him in Silver 1 and 2 tier classic arena four times. He soloed my entire team each time without me even taking a turn. Because of that reason, I avoid him and Sun Wukong anytime I see them in the arena.

When you read the boards, the bigger issue is the drop rates for the shards. If it says you get a 25 or 50% chance to get a specific hero you get a dozen of that specific type of shard and never get the hero. That should be mathematically nearly impossible but more folks than not have experienced this. Ive had over 2 dozen sacred and void shards and have yet to geta lego or even an epic beyond the free ones I have gotten (Shaman, Chronicler Adelyn, and Deacon Armstrong.)

11:07 That plarium nerf meme should be included in the hall of fame 😂😂

His A2 is effectively on a 2 turn cooldown because he automatically gets to go again after stealing everyone's turn meter.

Though I'm a low-spender at best, I'm not upset with Armanz the Magnificent at all. It was nice to build teams around him. I can see where some players would be upset. But, for my account, he's brought way more positives than negatives, so I'm in the camp of "Keep Him As He Is". And as far as the Arena goes, just use Force Champions, Riho Bone(r)spear, and/or Deflection Gear.

Without Armanz i wound't be able to do so many parts/stages of the game i personally believe he shouldn't be nerfed as he enabled hard doom tower and live arena for me and many other ftp and low spenders in the game, he is literally the reason why ftp players can compete with krakens in the game, as well as allowing the gap between krakens and ftp players to not be as big.

Managed to finish 2 hard doom tower rotations for the first time in more than 2 years, thanks to Armanz. For my account he is a must for those floors above 100. Also he helps me farm my great hall, I attack teams which I wouldn't have normally before, so I don't have to farm one man defences. I don't really do live arena, I won some fights with him on my team, also lost some. I understand the first pick issue in gold, but me being in bronze, it doesn't concern me, and I don't see myself in gold anytime soon, not spending in game. Build higher resist force champions to counter him. Build champs in stone skin, he doesn't always strip the buffs.

Armanz was intended to reintroduce the speed meta back to the arena. The speed meta actually benefit krakens more than ftp and increases gear pack spending, which is almost exclusively done by krakens. Other metas allowed way more diversity in the arena which we saw for the majority of the player base. You rarely see the same team comp in arena like we did when the speed meta was at its apex. Now that we are back in the speed meta, krakens will take over since they can spend more on resources to get better gear and gear upgrades. It also encourages the farming of high end dungeons like sand devil that the majority of player dont bother with.

I feel the same about SWK but I was on a break from raid so I don't have him...and now I have a great counter to him with Fenax. But if I had him I wouldn't want him to be nerfed. I have Armanz & feel the same way. He's helped me progress in 3v3 & I should finally get to gold 1 for the Ramantu missions. If everyone has him it's not the worst thing. Meta will change eventually.

For a free to play player like myself (apart from a little spending here and there for fun) who has been playing for around 1.5 years, I play Raid a good bit, but I don't ever accomplish fusions. It amazes me how so many people are able to succeed at acquiring these champions so consistently. That being said, It hasn't bothered me all that much. Granted, I haven't played in Live Arena in a while, and I'm only in Silver I or II (if I remember correctly). But Classic and 3v3 aren't totally ruined, as there are plenty of other teams that don't feature Armanz that I can defeat. I am even able to beat his solo teams with a Pharsalas and Wukong combo. Wukong dies, and Pharsalas puts True Fear on Armanz. It's a nearly endless cycle of awesomeness. If they don't nerf him, I can live with it. I've found him not to be quite as unfair as I originally expected.

I agree he's a disruptive champion and overpowered for sure. He is however overpowered on the positive side because he finally paced up the slow and annoying meta we had before thanks to Tarichka and UDK. The best way to diminish his power is by introducing strong champion counters to him, but who still maintain the current pace of Live Arena we have at the moment.

ASH what the hell was that hair In your sponsor video 😂 your killin me

Great vid but can't get over the fringe! how did you see anything?