So... I don't hate the raiders arena anymore...

Supraliminal

Stacks of shields through the roof because I always do 2 rotations in these things (for the arena crystals, obviously nothing else useful). Two rotations (probably one plus another round of r2+ 4*s not even a second rotation) currently gets non top 10 reward in this maligned arena) is all it took... so yeah plenty of shields. Started the day really annoyed at how the good expensive featured items are always on a work day. Of COURSE I can't go for 60k times 2 that's not happening. So... just pop a bountiful shield, check in 3 hours later to use tickets and what do you know... easy 2.5k t2 alpha shards. While at work, not even shirking duties or breaking a sweat. Slogging through 120k shards in a day while losing battles throughout the process would have been WAY more painful. Also... much easier than 2.5k shards in alpha arena too.

When you see "Raider's Arena" ignore what your eyes are telling you, it's really "ticket to easy mode expensive featured raid shop item at a later date arena". Suddenly I won't groan over it anymore. Of course having discovered that, this is probably the week they replace it.

KillMasterC

I chose to pay for tickets. In case you didn't try it, with paid tickets you get bigger fishes, especially the Q-base which are rich in chips but sloppy in bot/mod pairing. I was at 44k chips and the next paid ticket gave me a 17k chip base, just what I need to get 60k.

Grinding that Arena in cozy mode still requires several hours of work, waiting for ticket to be recharged under shield takes another several hours. Paying 50 energons saves all the trouble. Maybe it's just me. I can wait for all the featured bots to hit normal pool and try my luck with PBC shards, but I can't stand waiting for the tickets, LOL.

Drake6401

I might pull one later but I'm fine right now. May use energon for one or two raids as well. Worth doing for sure. Shields do some in handy for days like this though.