Hearthpwn

Quote from SuperHighPants >>

Ive got a higher win-rate after the patch as the drafting is way easier and the gameplay is so simple aswell. Anybody saying its more skill based is just wrong. You draft the best card and hope for the best. The match-ups are a coinflip as mage dont beat priest, priest dont beat warlock and warrior dont beat anything.

Worst change in HS history, which says a lot.

 

Played a few more runs, not seeing much improvement.  Got a 5 and 4-win run, but also just had an 0-3, my first one ever.  I was ok with averaging 3 wins. It's not fun to average 1-2 wins like I am now.  So, I'm out.  Will be curious to see how the people who like this arena feel once more guppies like me drop out, and only the sharks are left to cannibalize themselves.

i used to average 5-10 wins and now i get like 3-5. and its not because i went second or it was a bad matchup. i just get powered out of the game by contructed decks every game when i have this ragtag group of weird arena cards

They completely broke it. The draft system is just completely wrecked. The difference in draft quality is so much bigger now that skill is not even required in the slightest.

Some people keep saying pros are doing the same... Kripp is getting repeatedly wrecked by obvious newbs on a daily basis. All of his stats are down. Watch his next arena stream, see what happens.

Arena, the only respite we had from this terrible constructed meta, is now just a worse version of it. When you play a Shaman with 5 jade lightnings, 3 storms, 3 portals, Brann and full token ramping... something is wrong. 

It's no longer fun. I'm done. 28 tries (I ragequit arena 'for good' about 10 times) at getting a decent draft offering and I got maybe 4 good ones... but still got wrecked by some newb with a more than constructed level synergy deck by game 3. I'm obviously unlucky, but this tells me that the system is broken if draft quality spans this large of a range for anyone, ever.

By the way, I watch streamers, I quit following heartharena, I read threads, still can't draft a good deck because I just don't get offered the cards others seem to (every warlock draft has been suicidelock, I've had 2 mage decks w zero spells and 3 w only bad ones, I refuse to play bullshit shaman ever so f*** that, I get Rogue without a single sap or evis or backstab, etc.)

Changes I've noticed:
- general drafts are of higher cost, so the meta slowed down a bit - the result is that we get to see some late-game, which is awesome
- there's a bit more synergy in decks, which is again a good thing (less emphasis on vacuum card value)
- more swing answers - this one is tricky, could feel like more RNG with cards offered (though this was always the case, remember, Flamestrike, Firelands and Abyssal are commons! I'm ok with not just the mage having more powerful answers), but certainly adds more thought in how you play the game out
- more legendaries - undecided if it's good or bad (some are quite OP), but it does make the game more colorful... maybe they went a bit overboard on this one (would be better if they offered e.g. one per draft, and removed the shitty ones like e.g. Zerus, so that everyone gets at least a decent one)

Overall, the games are more enjoyable for me.

Currently enjoying another personal high record hitting 7.1WR with 3 runs left. Taking advantage of the slower meta with Rogue. More than a third of my runs was with Rogue and it's averaging 9 wins/run with 10 runs. It's the only class right now that even with what I'd consider as a "bad" deck it's still able to hit highs just because of tempo gains throughout the game and how hard it punishes bad players in the hands of an experienced player.

Can I please have my old arena back?

Before, with any shitdeck I had to draft, I felt like having a chance to get a considerable amount of wins by taking risks and playing my outs, while punishing opponent for mistakes. Now, every damn opponent past 1-0 have a constructed-level deck. It's all about luck now...

I don't know why, but I can't seem to draft decent decks anymore and therefore I went 1-3, 1-3 and 0-3 in my last 3 runs... My average winrate before standard was something around 6 wins. Maybe its just because I haven't played arena in ages and i got a little bit rusty..

Is this the worst warrior draft ever?

http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/4i39yv

No weapons offered at all, chose a Silithid Swarmer early on (other choices were Ancient Watcher and Stolen Goods - which requires a taunt minion in your hand)

Update from OP:

I guess I've adjusted to the standard Arena.  Now going 2-6 wins per run. Not bad, in my humble opinion.

Just for the record...Hunter is going to be strong once Un'Goro is released.  I feel it in my bow! ;)

Quote from TachiiDerp >>

Currently enjoying another personal high record hitting 7.1WR with 3 runs left. Taking advantage of the slower meta with Rogue. More than a third of my runs was with Rogue and it's averaging 9 wins/run with 10 runs. It's the only class right now that even with what I'd consider as a "bad" deck it's still able to hit highs just because of tempo gains throughout the game and how hard it punishes bad players in the hands of an experienced player.

It's such a shame that they ruined a good Arena-formula. Decent players were easily able to get 5+-wins in Arena before the change to Standard Arena, but now you just have to be really lucking with drafting an insane deck. And don't tell me you have to be "skilled" to be good in the new Standard Arena, because good Arena players like Amaz and Kripp also go 1-3 occasionally nowadays (facing insane decks, where that would rarely happen before the change to Standard Arena). I myself had an average of 5+ wins for my Arena runs in February (30+ runs), so I considered myself a decent Arena player, but that was before the change to standard. Since the change, you have to be really lucky to draft a good deck, because that's where your Arena outcome will be decided, and even then you have to be really lucky to not encounter the most insane decks that you wouldn't even see in Ranked play. I feel it's just such a shame that they changed to Standard Arena, because they ruined a good Arena-formula and besides that "Wild" Arena used to be a lot more fun. Even Kripp, one of the best Arena players out there said he would rather not play Arena before the Ungoro release, because it's just not fun anymore and he feels like he's wasting his gold (and so do I). So Blizzard, please listen to the community, and let Arena be "Wild" again. I myself (and I believe many others) started playing Arena because they liked the game, but they didn't want to play Ranked (for various reasons), and they liked the diversity and unpredictability of Arena. Switching to Standard Arena (and a smaller card-pool) really ruined that experience for me and a lot of others, so please can you make Hearthstone (or at least Arena ;) ) great again and return Arena to the "Wild"-format? 

I only really started playing in March.  I played Hearthstone in beta and a little after it released.  I haven't played in a couple years though.  I spent some cash and played a lot of drafts when I came back.  Started off horrible but ended March at 4.1 win average over my last 30 arenas.  I started April with a 10 win run.

I really felt in a LOT of games, probably the vast majority, that every game comes down to about one turn.  It's really volatile.  The game snowballs badly.  Really badly.  Many times it felt like my opponents had answer after answer.  It was pretty insane.  However, there were many games where I was in the same position.  It doesn't feel like there are that many games where making important choices changes the outcome all that much.  Most games felt as if the outcome was decided by turn five for one player or the other.  I don't have that much experience and I certainly didn't get to play arena in it's previous state.  I'm not good or anything, but I can't imagine a casual player enjoying arena at all.  Willy nilly picking cards and throwing together a deck would likely end in decimation.  Even some of the decks I drafted that would be rated as insane got crushed pretty regularly by either a poor starting hand or someone with a crazier deck.  Of course, I made many, many, many, misplays and lost games that way too, but I don't mind losing that way.  I learned a lot doing that.  Getting answered turn after turn after turn with no chance to do anything is certainly frustrating.

Like getting hit with Firelands Portal, Siphon Soul, Blastcrystal, etc over and over again lol

This is exactly what the issue is.

I started playing around those spells and drafting way slower decks with more tempo driven decks worked out so far, its basically coming down to deck quality still instead of majority skill.

y'all know theres a thread for saltiness right?

I think Arena is really bad currently for a few Primary Reasons:

1)Insane Caliber of decks you will likely face.  The stronger the gap in deck quality, the less able better players are able to simply win due to outplaying opponents.

A few days ago I had 3 straight hunter opponents drop Turn 9 Call of the Wild, today vs my last 3 Mage opponents had a combined 5 Fire balls used against me (the games ended by turns 7-9 so not like super drawn out play all your cards games either).  You can be at 1-1 or 1-2 and still face Mages with 2x Blizzard + Flamestrike, + Ragnaros.  

2)Certain Classes that are highly RNG dependent (Paladin, Priest, Warlock).

Paladin- Almost exclusively relies upon drafting early buff cards and then being able to play them in the beginning.  Within 1-3 or so turns vs Paladin you basically know who will win based upon how many buffs they could play.

Warlock-Did you win the dice roll to go 1st? If so congrats, if not better luck next game.

Priest-Did you high roll the draft and get 4 talon priests and 3 Operatives? If so go straight to 12 wins (a few other potions for bonus points for the deck also helps).  If you were not skilled enough to draft Talon Priest (or a couple other cards) you are going to fail spectacularly.  Always fun having a card as a common in arena that basically ends matches on turn 3

Quote from Zashiki >>

There seems to be a lot of bias here, people who are doing worse now are more inclined to think it's the variance in the drafts that lowered their winrate, but then the majority of good players should have lower winrates overall now, right?...

 

 

Has nothing to do with winrate, has to do with games that are not winnable by the scope of your overall skill.

I've played 3 mages back to back with 2 flamestrikes, 2 blizzards, 2 firelands portals and 2 volcanic potions, all of which I lost by turn 2 because of going second and mana wyrm frostbolt.  

Shit isnt even fun anymore.

I dunno I'm having about as much luck as usual pre-nerf.  Not enough sample size as it's only been 3 runs, but I've managed 8 wins, 7 wins, and currently 6-0 with a Priest deck and I don't have many spells.... Nor did I in the 8 and 7-win decks.

Quote from AbusingKel >>

The skillful Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound pulling a skillful Ysera nullifying all the work I'd done controlling the board with a really mediocre Hunter deck says hello. Sure, it's not about card quality...... My best card is the 1x Savannah Highmane I skillfully drafted. lol.

In the interest of transparency, I am at work and made a few dumb mistakes b/c I wasn't paying close enough attention, but once we got there my 30 points of health mean nothing. GGWP 

where'd I put that salt thread.....