Hearthpwn

After getting to play quite a few Arena games over the weekend I'll be making some updates to my initial ratings.  For the most part they won't change drastically, but one card I was completely wrong about is Explore Un'Goro.  I drafted it to test it out and it was amazing! It gives you the ability to fish for whatever you might need every single turn.  Not only is it a ton of fun, but I really undervalued it initially.

One of the cards I was 100% right about is Vicious Fledgling.  There were many games where that card carried the game all by itself.  If your opponent does not have a Taunt or can't kill it immediately it is going to cause huge problems and quickly snowball out of control.

I've had very good luck drafting into a strong elementals package in multiple classes. They are almost all strong cards in the theme and there are lot's of them to be had. I don't get them every time but when I do, they make for a very consistent and powerful arena deck.

I finally got around to making more adjustments to the ratings after playing through all the classes over the last week.

UP: +2 Explore Un'Goro (2)

UP: +1 Blazecaller (1), Charged Devilsaur (2), Shadow Visions (2), Tortollan Primalist (3), Vilespine Slayer (1), Envenom Weapon (1), Free From Amber (1), Volcano (1), Stubborn Gastropod (2), and Tar Creeper (1)

DOWN: -1 Dinomancy (3), and Ravenous Pterrordax (2)

DOWN: -2 Lyra the Sunshard (4)

If you want to see the updated list you can check it out HERE.

Thanks again to everyone for their awesome feedback and support!  See you next time!

Arena is utter trash now. Before Un Goro I had usually 7-8 win runs. After 3 runs  now my score is 2-3, 2-3, 1-3. No point in doing arenas.

I have manage to get a 10, two 7s, 2 6s and a 5 but overall my results have been quite humbling. I think I need to rethink the way I draft compared to before because I often get some early synergies which could lead to an explosive deck and then I end up in a choice between expanding on the synergy or fulfilling a better curve and I usually can't help going with the former. In previous arena metas I was able to get away with this but now that seems to cost me dearly. It is still a lot of fun though and the increase in legendary and epic rates is very welcome.

One thing I noticed is that we seem (EU) to be back to an arena with no warriors. I think I have only played 1 warrior in about 15 - 20 arenas  which is a shame. I tried a warrior arena but got offered no weapons and hardly any decent spells and got destroyed.

I think I actually perform better in this expansion. I had about 5.5 average wins in MSG. Now in Un'Goro I have 6.3, including 3 9-3 runs and 2 2 10-3 runs. The arena is more dynamic than ever which is a really good thing. The quality of decks is not as terribly extreme as after 7.1, and there are more ways to achieve comebacks. This meta is really exciting :)

I'm so fucking tired of only seeing mageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemage, I thought we'd moved on from this phase. 

History repeats itself. 

If only we had separate arena drafts for mage/rogue and for anything else.

I'm so fucking tired of only seeing mageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemageroguemage

I wish I could get mageroguemagerogue...

It'd be better than magemagemagemagemage.

I try to play all of the classes equally and maintain a 6+ win average, but I can't do it this expansion.  

The gap between tier 1 and tier 3 classes is too large 

i feel like priest is in a really good spot right now, shadow visions is tons of utility and free from amber is actually very good in almost any scenario

Quote from fauxC >>

So is this just confirmation bias, or has Arena become more of  slot machine than ever in Un'Goro?

i think there always will be complaining players who didn't adapt to the meta
i was ~5 wins avg in 7.1, now i was 6.5 avg in April (~40 runs) and 6.9 in May (15 runs)
and it looks like there is a huge imbalance in classes, but actually it smoothened by low-skill (i guess now i can say these words) playerbase, which also picking wrong classes to play (i am speaking about Priest, which is 2nd class in terms of popularity vs me)

minimum 5 classes are viable - Rogue, Mage, Paladin, Warlock and Hunter (in this order, because 15% Priests is not a joke)
and Shaman, Priest and Druid are semi-viable and require both luck and skill to perform a good draft with certain archetype (Tempo\Aggro Druid and Control Shaman\Priest)

i don't think that there is a class choice, in which you want to retire. there is always a chance to build a strong deck even with non meta classes.

I don't think people understand the threat that frozen crusher is.  I think every time I've drafted the card the opponent treats it as if it's something that doesn't need to be dealt with, like it's not really a thing that will be unfrozen, fairly quickly.    I know sometimes players can't deal with an 8-8, but I swear opponents play as if it isn't really there.

Thanks Blizzard for the great Arena experience!!!

MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE MAGE

Yes mage is so much more reliable since it has so many direct damage spells...

I really liked most of un'goro initially, and in arena but as I went along i found out (along with dudes like Kripp who spoke my thoughs) that there are key cards that dominate the arena - again because they are unbalanced which of course would be an art to avoid for devs.

However I think some of these cards could have easily been avoided and I just don't understand how you miss something like that during the test phase....

The stonehill taunt minion = could seriously change early game situations and provide some discover solution
The glyph = also a possible game-changing discover
The fledgling adapt minion is heavily broken and I don't get how you miss yet another stacking effect minion which under the right circumstances can snowball so unfairly compared to most other cards that it becomes too much of a win condition.
See: tunnel trogg and mana wyrm... undertaker is less succesful.
Meteor = who the F* designed this card? Just look at something like flame lance to see the ridiculous pseudo-power creep which is awkward in constructed or otherwise unnecessary so pretty unjustified to make. What is the matter with you? If you have to make more mage spells because "that's just what mages do" make them just much more meh in terms of value... you only have to include a good spell only half the time or less to make it fair for standard probably. If you are still anxious about it make a much more niche and combo-ey card cause I am pretty tired of winning or losing just by pre-activated direct damage.

Screw the 'new users accessability' argument... teach new users to puzzle their way out of situations, not just smorc the fuck out of it. Make it a meh medium succesful strategy (keep reducing those aggro decks). Sure *some* RNG can influence the game and rarely rather than regularly it can be deciding, but reduce the game to a crapshoot = kill the game. Allow aggro smorcing to be quite successful = kill the game. Make it about medium sized combos so that at least some intelligence is needed to achieve a successful strategy.
Simplifying and randomizing too much kills the game! Save that for the brawls, buddies...

slip NL

I'm just about done with it for now...

too many broken cards... especially broken for arena of course.

On the other hand, just won with mage against a mage with 3 meteors, firelands portal, fireball, probably kabal courier.. without much disgusting plays..

What the hell happened to my dearly loved Arena? This is just insane i can't call it RNG anymore.

You either draft a insane deck yourself and go sky high, or you draft a normal deck and get crushed cause every other deck you face is perfect and go 0-3 

The quality of decks is just off the charts, the learning curve is extremely high and you get the feeling everything is rigged.

The endings of my last 3 loses... I can't deal with it. At least the last one i cant live with. That the first game he managed to draw a taunt to prevent lethal, fine, i can live with it. The second one topdecked a sheep to kill of my big minion and gain the board, fine. Well played, but the last one.... Nope, it's staged. I can't deal with it.

Both in topdeck mode, i came back from a clear loss, with only 1 health left. I managed to get the board. Next turn i have lethal. He has no minions on board and no cards.

He topdecks fucking lights justice and kills me. . . Lights justice...

I mean... Light fucking justice topdeck for lethal. WHO PLAYES THAT!!!

i'm so mad right now rofl

Light's Justice is a very good card.  Borderline premium.  Sorry to hear you've had some frustrating runs recently.

Quote from Lexiles >>

The problem is if you get unlucky you're probably dead even if you get few wins.