Changes comin

Now that the new Live Arena 5-win streak rewards are here, I've changed how I'm using my tokens.

Instead of playing every available match, I've been doing this:

• Win my first 5 matches (to get the streak chest)
• Then intentionally forfeit the remaining tokens
• Repeat the next day

The idea is that after securing the rewards you actually care about, lowering your rating seems to produce much easier opponents the following day, making another 5-win streak much more achievable.

For context, I've played over 9,600 Live Arena matches with roughly a 57% lifetime win rate, and a large portion of those losses are intentional forfeits. I've been using this approach for quite a while during off-seasons because it's a much more efficient use of time.

With Mythical Gemstones now tied to these streak rewards, this feels even more valuable than grinding rating for me.

On the flip side of this when FF'ing it could in turn help another player reach that 5W, Should be Win Win situation if more players do this

I spent some time testing the Queen of Hearts interaction after noticing she no longer interrupts the turn sequence the way she used to.

The short version:

TL;DR

• Queen of Hearts' behavior changed recently.
• Plarium has confirmed this was intentional, not a bug.
• The reason given was that she was "the only champion that cut in that way."
• After testing, I think the new behavior is actually less consistent with how Raid has historically resolved extra turns and passive sequencing.
• My bigger concern is that the change wasn't documented in the patch notes, making it difficult for players to know a champion they invested in had fundamentally changed.

I'm not arguing that champions should never be rebalanced.

My concern is that gameplay mechanics should remain internally consistent and significant mechanical changes should be communicated clearly.

I go through:

• before vs after behavior
• why I believe the previous interaction fit Raid's sequencing rules better
• Plarium's response
• why I think they should reconsider the change

Curious what everyone else thinks.

Do you prefer the new behavior, or should Queen of Hearts be reverted?

For anyone interested in the testing and examples, please check out the video

After my Deflection vs Mercurial testing, I kept seeing questions about things like:

• Reflect Damage
• Phantom Touch
• Lightning Cage
• HP Burn
• Blessings
• Masteries
• Passive damage effects

A few interesting findings:

✅ Reflect Damage is one of the strongest Mercurial counters, especially against multi-hit champions.

✅ Brogni can strip Mercurial stacks surprisingly fast.

✅ Quintus can remove stacks through his passive interaction.

❌ Phantom Touch doesn't remove extra Mercurial stacks.

❌ Lightning Cage doesn't work.

❌ HP Burn damage doesn't remove stacks.

❌ Most blessing/mastery/relic damage interactions don't work the way many players assume.

I also think the Harvest Jack interaction looks bugged.

Full testing video attached.

I went into testing expecting Embrys to remove 2 Mercurial stacks.

The logic seemed straightforward:

• A2 removes 1 stack and grants an extra turn
• Follow-up skill removes another stack
• Enemy should still have 1 Total Guard stack remaining

That wasn't what happened.

During testing, Embrys was consistently removing ALL 3 Mercurial stacks with a fast 6-Deflection setup—even against targets that didn't appear to have buffs available for conversion.

The result is full team Mercurial removal without needing Mythicals like Gizmak or Komidus, and without rebuilding a champion like Marius specifically for the job.

I break down the testing, show the clips, and explain why this could be a much bigger deal than I initially thought

One advantage of having two accounts in the same clan is being able to endlessly test mechanics against myself through friendly battles and custom Siege defenses. Since I don't have test server access (please subscribe), this is the next best thing.

High-level findings

1. Pure debuff placement skills

• If a skill only places a debuff (no hit), Total Guard blocks the debuff completely.
• However, 6-piece Deflection still triggers and deals one instance of damage, removing one Total Guard stack from each affected target.

2. Attack + debuff skills

• The attack is absorbed by Total Guard and removes one stack.
• The debuff is still blocked.
• Deflection then triggers and deals a separate damage instance.
• Result: one skill can remove two Total Guard stacks (one from the attack, one from Deflection).

3. Multiple debuffs vs multiple Total Guard stacks

• Example: Lydia A2 (Decrease DEF + Weaken).
• Attack removes one stack.
• Deflection removes a second stack.
• Deflection only triggers once per skill, not once per debuff.

4. Multiple debuffs vs a single Total Guard stack

• First hit removes the Total Guard stack.
• First debuff is still blocked.
• Deflection triggers.
• Any subsequent debuffs from the same skill can then land successfully.
• This includes blessing debuffs such as Smite.

5. Multi-hit champions

• Against a single Total Guard stack:
  • First hit and associated debuff are nullified.
  • Subsequent hits function normally.
• If later hits apply multiple debuffs, all of those debuffs can land.

6. Triple/quad-hit skills vs 3 Total Guard stacks

• Hit 1 removes a stack.
• Deflection removes a second stack.
• Hit 2 removes the final stack.
• The debuff attached to Hit 2 is still blocked.
• Hits 3 and 4 (and their debuffs) apply normally.

7. Passive debuffs

• Passive debuffs that trigger when attacked can activate Deflection.
• Deflection removes one Total Guard stack.
• This only occurs once per opponent turn.

For full list of findings including testing footage please see video

The mythical Double Down gemstone from Grim Forest have 10% chance to repeats A1s on hard-CC’d targets.

I finally got a second one and tested whether they actually stack

Results after 200+ runs:
• YES, Double Down gems stack
• The proc rates appear additive (10% → ~20%)
• Works on the champion’s actual turn
• Did NOT proc on counterattacks or ally attacks (****Correction Have seen an instance of it working on counterattack!****)
• Stormcaller + double Double Down on Marius is honestly kind of ridiculous

One of the craziest interactions was keeping enemies chain stunned/infeebled with repeated A1s.

I included all the testing footage, methods, limitations, and actual run data in the video in case anyone wants to verify or build around it themselves.

What champions would you abuse this on besides Marius? For those fortunate enough I think Solanar, Tekteon can be excellent as well