I'm really enjoying Arena of Solare after playing it all day for 2 days on EU (53 matches total).

Pros:

- Time to kill is perfect, it feels like my contribution to the team matters but at the same time, I can't 1v3 and carry the team solo. I know that when I mess up and die too quickly it's my fault if we lose.

- Having pots, buffs and everything else working in the background is so nice.

- UI is really nice and clean looking, great to see the damage afterward and it's nice being able to spectate and join voice. Seeing the kill feed is also great. Being able to change the location of the buff notifications though would be nice since some people have their cooldowns in that spot.

- Choice of gear is much better than it originally was. I'm still not sure about having to buy some options with Seal of Solare. But at the same time, 100 per game wasn't so bad. I had to think about what options I wanted to buy first and have now unlocked most of the options.

- Class balance doesn't feel that bad other than in a couple of cases. Even if I see "op" classes on the other team I know ultimately that they might not play well.

- The two maps are great IMO. The buffs/gimmicks seem a little strong though and tbh I don't think they need to be there. The Ollun map is the best simply because it doesn't have a gimmick.

- The arena is so addicting and fun. I'm actually sad that I can't keep playing after the schedule. I also woke up excited to play today.

Cons/Improvements:

- Haven't seen certain classes at all (Sage, Shai) but I hope classes that need it get some love in balancing. I would like for shai to have their place in the arena and do damage just like all other classes. At the same time I've seen an overwhelming amount of sorcs and ninjas.

- Hard to see the difference in subranks (Seeker of Solare IV and Seeker of Solare III for example) the only difference is the little lights on top which are hard to see on the match history

- Nit picking but the "Damage Received" should be changed to "Received Damage" to be clearer since it just shows "Damage..." It also says "My Team" under both team stats on match history but shows as "My ...".

- Having duplicates of certain classes can be annoying to deal with and feel unbalanced (eg. two sorcs on the same team, two ninjas on the same team). Please separate them in matchmaking.

- The Rank leaderboard only updates once per day (I presume at reset). Would be nice if it updated more often, every 3 hours at least. Would also be nice if there was a version were it's separated by class.

- Loot scroll gauge does not pause when you enter a match. Please fix this.

- Red karma players apparently don't work properly in the arena (can't receive or give buffs)

- The map gimmicks feel a little overpowered and annoying. Personally, I wouldn't miss them if they were gone.

- If someone dc's then they usually can't rejoin in time. I know it's not fun to wait around but maybe increasing the time a little for a dc would be a good idea.

- I'm sad I can't play for longer, I understand the reason for the schedule and think it should stay, but maybe add a couple of extra hours.

My opinion on other stuff:

- Loading screens are annoying and probably causing a lot of crashes. Getting rid of the loading screens between rounds (like in NW when you ress) would greatly improve the arena

- Trial characters can't equip the awakening weapon (but can equip all other gear), this means they can't join the arena. Not sure if it's intended or not but personally I would like to be able to join on a trial so I can try more classes without having to grind out the skill points. At the same time, I can understand why that would be intentional.

- I thought rank points were supposed to be separated by character? Pretty sure that was mentioned at Calpheon Ball.

- As well as the gear options, a preset for skill build and skill add-ons would be amazing. I have PVE addons on my class for grinding but obviously, with the arena, I need PVP skill addons. It's annoying to have to swap them for the arena. Same with skill build since I may like to grind in succession, but PVP in awakening. Just let us pre-select a saved skill preset.

- I really hope the rewards are worth it. I've enjoyed playing the last 2 days but already have a bit of FOMO from not grinding and not making any progress in the actual game. I'm hoping we get rewards per match (instead of daily/weekly quests). It shouldn't be as good as grinding but should still reward you with SOMETHING. Also really looking forward to some end-of-season rewards, hopefully, something flex worthy and collectible.

- I am missing the ability to queue with friends. Maybe duo would be ok as long as you can't have duplicate classes. Would love to be able to play with friends but I understand how it would be unfair. A separate party queue would be really nice if the arena is popular enough for two queues but unfortunately, I don't think that is possible.

I'm assuming in its beta form for the Arena we're only receiving rating points and post-match statistics for the first four matches we play? After that there are no further changes to rating or history recorded? If so I think that's a shame, it's nice - especially the match history - to see how you fared compared to others, if you're improving etc etc.

Edit: It seems it's a bug, for three matches in a row my character didn't receive any match stats or rating changes. Also sometimes in game not all players health bars are appearing on screen under their teams. 

I think it would be nice if the match statistics show automatically on the final victory/defeat screen.

AoS seems really nice, I saw most classes in matches and on my skill level all seems good if someone now how to play. 

But please PA fix game crashing. Today I got like 20 crashes during palm forest arena (after round game crashing on teleport players to base). It's almost unplayable in current state.

There are currently too many limitations when playing, for example; windows blocking the use of other windows, and always persisting on top of others. In Obsverve mode you cannot open/talk/whisper to others, you can't whisper at all to others whilst in-game/waiting. 

These things should be addressed, it's far too restrictive.

great game mode, but remove the random buff please lol

i would like to know for sure if succession has an edge due to being able to hit the 257 ap bracket.  sure feels like quite a few awakening classes are being slightly eeked out.

remove the rng buffs.

hopefully all the juicy data gives the balance team an idea of how strong or weak the classes really are poor shais.

please let us que nonstop like the degens we are.  sacrifice some servers if it needs to be done OwO