Arena challenges - lvl 22 tank constantly buttsexed by Nightmare

Hey guys,

So as the title says, I can't get past Nightmare (lvl 9) with my level 22 War Tank. I assume I will at some point but the amount of bullshit that this represents is too much for me to not vent my frustration on the forums.
Before you all ask about my build, I'll let you know that my dude currently stands at a 4 KDR and has won the Gauntlet several times with KDs of 50:5, 38:2 and the such. He's pretty good at his job and few glads manage to even get past the grey numbers when trying to attack him.
Yet that level 9 scrub taps into the orange fonts like my glad was made of Styrofoam and melted butter. Now I get that arena challenges are meant to be, well, perhaps more challenging than your average same-level glad but this is plain ridiculous. I'm not posting into bug report because I haven't been around enough to get a feel of how the numbers works but I'm quite curious to know how that Nightmare, who I defeated easily with level 8 unoptimized glads can smash my lvl 22 tank with his pinkie.

Please enlighten me. Cheers !

Hi.

If You have good Master of Arms skill You may try any weapon to do this challenge instead of Your main choice. Even a grey weapon from the Armory will works Ok.
You could try to change strategy too to Parry-something instead of Tank (Axes&Maces wielded by Nightmare are good to penetrate armor, so, You may try to use "riposte" style instead of tank absorption option).
I could suggest to use Parry-Lunge/Slash with average-length Blade (Rapier/Long sword) + Shield at middle Activity (6-7). // I just wrote post about strange effects related to defensive combos like this.

// Btw, there's a chance that low tiers of the Arena Challenges represents the gladiators which are use "old skill tree". It means, these gladiators , perhaps, are able to use "impossible builds". I.e., You may have mismatch between these challenges and Your game experience...