The Lumen Arena

PvP in Lumenfall is opt-in. Nobody can hurt you unless you agreed to fight: a duel you accepted, or a match you queued for. There is no ganking in the open world. You can fight in duels or in the Lumen Arena.

Duels

A duel is a friendly 90 second spar. A ring of light rises around you, a 3-2-1 countdown plays, and everyone nearby can watch.

• Both heroes must be level 20 or higher.
• Stand close to them, tap their card and choose Duel. They have 20 seconds to accept.
• You win by a knockout or, when the bell rings, by having more HP left. Within a hair of each other it is a draw.
• Nobody dies and nobody loses EXP. The loser drops to 1 HP, and both of you are healed back afterward.
• Step out of the ring for a few seconds and you forfeit. No potions during a duel.

You cannot duel during a challenge run or while you are in the arena queue.

Entering the arena

You can queue from anywhere in the world. Open the Arena from the menu, pick a mode and press QUEUE. Or talk to an Arena Herald in town:

You need level 30. You are matched with heroes in your level group (30 to 59, or 60 and up). When a match is found, press ACCEPT within 12 seconds. If you turn down or miss three of these within an hour, the queue locks for 5 minutes.

If too few heroes are queued, Mirages (phantom heroes woven from lumens) fill the empty slots after about 40 seconds. They wear a MIRAGE tag, and rating changes in a match with Mirages are halved.

The three modes

Matches are played in the Dawnlight Colosseum, The Tidewash Ring and the Starfall Sanctum. A party leader can queue a whole party into Star Clash.

Inside a match

• A 5 second countdown starts every match. After a respawn you have a moment of protection that ends the instant you attack.
• Arena orbs appear in Star Clash and Lumen Brawl: first after about 20 seconds, then every 30. Touch one to heal 35 percent of your HP, gain +25 percent damage for 12 seconds, or gain extra speed for 10 seconds.
• You get 3 potions per match (per life in Clash and Brawl), and they heal half as much as normal. Heals from skills are halved too.
• Mounts and AUTO are off. Soul Burst is on only in Lumen Brawl.
• Kills earn banners: FIRST BLOOD, DOUBLE KILL and onward, RADIANT at 3 kills without dying, UNSTOPPABLE at 5 and STARFALL at 7. Ending a streak of 3 or more is a SHUTDOWN.
• Damaging a victim in the last 10 seconds before the knockout earns an assist. The MVP has the best mix of kills, assists, damage and healing.

If you lose your connection you have a minute to come back. Leaving a live match on purpose is a loss and makes you a deserter: a queue lock of 3 minutes the first time in a day, 10 the second and 30 after that.

Fairness rules

• A single blow can never take more than 10 percent of a target's maximum HP.
• Break Free: if you are launched, stunned or knocked for about two seconds, or take 8 hits in a row without touching the ground, a burst of light frees you and you cannot be hurt for a moment. No endless combos.
• Hard crowd control wears off sooner each time: after a stun, the next one on the same hero lasts half as long, then a quarter, then does not work for a while. Slows, burns and weakening effects last less on players.
• In a 1 v 1, each class is tuned a little so no path dominates.
• Beating the same hero in 1 v 1 counts for rating only 4 times a day.

Rating and tiers

You start at 1000. Your first 5 matches in a ranked mode (placement games) move your rating faster. Each ranked mode keeps its own rating. The ladder shows the top 100 heroes of the season in each ranked mode. See Rankings.

A season lasts a few months, and the Arena window shows the time left. When it ends, your peak tier pays its Glory and title to your mailbox, and your rating falls halfway back toward 1000. See The Mailbox.

Glory

Every match pays EXP, more for a win, and Arena Glory.

• Your first win of each day pays +60 Glory and bonus EXP. The Arena window shows a "FIRST WIN READY" star.
• You can earn up to 1200 Glory a week. The week turns on Monday.

Spend Glory with Quartermaster Vantor in Dawnhollow. The item itself says to spend it before the season turns.

He also sells potions, Ward Starstones, Prism of Revelation and Starluck Charms.