A wise Mage who can summon lightning to attack enemies under control effects.
To learn more about Arden check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Last updated
Arden profile has been last updated at: September 18th, 2024.
To learn more about Arden check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Review
Guides
Profile
Skills
Ultimate
Force of Nature
Unlocks at level 1
Cooldown: 3s
Range: Global
Initial Energy: 200
Arden selects a tile and casts lightning strikes on all surrounding enemies within 2 tiles, dealing 160% damage and creating dark clouds that cover the area for 7s. The dark clouds will repeatedly strike the enemies below with lightning when they are under control effects, dealing 80% damage each time. An enemy can only be struck once every 2s. Arden prioritizes selecting the tile with the most surrounding enemies when casting the lightning strikes.
Unlocks at level 51: The first lightning strike deals 180% damage, and the subsequent lightning strikes after the dark cloud deal 90% damage.
Unlocks at level 111: The first lightning strike deals 190% damage, and the subsequent lightning strikes after the dark cloud deal 95% damage.
Unlocks at level 171: The first lightning strike deals 200% damage, and the subsequent lightning strikes after the dark cloud deal 100% damage.
Unlocks at level 231: The first lightning strike deals 210% damage, and the subsequent lightning strikes after the dark cloud deal 110% damage.
Skill I
Entangling Roots
Unlocks at level 11
Cooldown: 8s
Range: Global
Arden summons vines to entangle 2 closest enemies for 2s, dealing 50% damage every 1s. This skill prioritizes enemies under the dark cloud.
Unlocks at level 71: Increases damage to 55%.
Unlocks at level 131: Increases damage to 60%.
Unlocks at level 191: Increases damage to 65%.
Skill II
Gift of Nature
Unlocks at level 31
Cooldown: -
Range: Global
Arden recovers 12 Energy whenever a non-summoned enemy is controlled. This effect can be triggered once for each enemy in 2s.
Unlocks at level 91: This effect can be triggered once for each enemy in l.5s.
Unlocks at level 151: This effect can be triggered once for each enemy in ls.
Unlocks at level 211: Arden recovers 15 Energy.
Hero Focus
Hero Focus
Unlocks after reaching Legendary+
Cooldown: -
Range: 1 tile
Increases ATK by 12% during battle.
Level 2: Increases ATK by 16% during battle.
Level 3: Increases ATK by 20% during battle.
EX. Skill
Spring Thunderstorm
Unlocks after reaching Mythic+
Cooldown: -
Range: Global
Arden inflicts all enemies within the range of the dark cloud with Entangling Roots once after casting Force of Nature.
Unlocks at Ex. Weapon +5: The effect range of Arden's Ultimate is extended to 3-tile.
Unlocks at Ex. Weapon +10: The duration of Entangling Roots is increased to 3s.
Unlocks at Ex. Weapon +15: The duration of Entangling Roots is increased to 3.5s.
Enhance Force
Enhance Force
Unlocks after reaching Supreme+
Affects: Ultimate
Force of Nature's minimum thunderstrike cooldown on the same enemy is reduced by ls.
Season 2 Charm
To check the Charm's set bonus for Arden go to our Season 2 Charms guide.
Ardenimages aren't available yet. They will be added soon.
Review
Review
Arden is an A-level Mage of the Wilder faction. His kit is centered around the application and exploitation of crowd control from either himself or allies and combos especially well with units that can provide consistent sources of it to facilitate his damage.
His "Entangling Roots" ability is the main source of Crowd Control from Arden himself, inflicting entangle on the 2 closest enemies. His "Gift of Nature" passive causes him to generate Energy whenever a non-summoned enemy is affected by crowd control, allowing him to cycle it decently quickly in the right teams.
And a right team he needs because his Ultimate: "Force of Nature" rains lightning on nearby enemies, spreading dark clouds on the map that will then repeatedly strike crowd-controlled enemies. Over the full duration of this, this damage can tick up fast, especially when enemies are caught in chain cc. However, it is to be noted that not many characters early game can have this kind of crowd-control cycle.
Later during progression, however, Arden unlocks his Exclusive Weapon, granting him "Spring Thunderstorm" which inflicts Entangling Roots on all enemies in cloud range when you cast his Ultimate. This guarantees at least one strike of thunder and can be a good setup for other ally cc due to its range.
Arden is definitely an acquired taste as he needs a specific team to function, but he's a great damage dealer especially once you progress into the later stages of AFK progression.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Consistent high damage in crowd control.
Brings his own Energy generation as a Mage (who often need large amounts of Energy for their Ultimate).
Cons
Only functions properly in teams with stacked crowd control.
Needs investment (Exclusive Weapon).
Ratings
General Ratings
S+
AFK Stages
A
Battle Drill
S
PVP
C
Dream Realm (Overall)
Dream Realm Ratings
C
Skyclops
C
Croaker
C
Necrodrakon
C
Snow Stomper
C
Lone Gaze
C
Alpha Bear
C
Orson
C
Crystal Beetle
Guides
EX Investment
The EX investment information were created with the help of Seas0n, the creator of the
AFK Analytica community that supports AFK Arena and AFK Journey.
You can find their website here and their discord here.
Since the
Temporal Essence
and
Twilight Essence
are very hard to obtain, you have to be really careful with the using them to upgrade the EX weapon. And in this guide we ordered all characters by the priority when it comes to how much they need investment in their EX weapon to work well and where should you stop to get the best bang for your buck.
Why does the +8 breakpoint appear so often?
Because the raw stats you get from upgrading the EX weapon help you more than the passive in some cases. Also, to upgrade the EX from +5 to +8 you need only 30x
Temporal Essence
, while the remaining two levels require additional 45x
Temporal Essence
. So you get the best bang for your buck stopping at +8.
Color explanation:
+0 - the base investment for the character,
+5/8 - the next step that you should do when investing into that character,
+10/15 - the final step you should do when investing into that character - you can go beyond that later though once you have the Essences to spare.
