Hearthpwn

Don't think Mage is still the best arena class. With my current arena stats after Knights of the Frozen Thrones release, my rogue runs seemed to be slightly higher than mage. Mage lacks minions due to heavy spell removal demand and deck drafting priority, makes it lacking in behind. Besides there isn't much great mage arena cards to catch up with current meta. 

My avg. arena wins with all classes:

Mage: 7

Paladin: 6.5

Rogue: 8.2

Hunter: 5.4

Druid: 4.6

Warlock: 4.1

Priest: 5.7

Shaman: 3.7

Warrior 4.1

I don't have any stats, but for the past 2 weeks I've been getting a legendary card in almost every draft. And I'm also noticing more Mage and Priest at 7+ wins and less Paladins and Druids. To me it feels like there have been some hidden tweaks to the legend offering rate and maybe some class card drop rates. I still have a 7+ win average, but the meta has felt very weird to me lately.

My tier list at the start of the expansion
Tier 1: Rogue, Paladin
Tier 2: Druid, Hunter, Warlock
Tier 3: Mage, Priest
Tier 4: Shaman, Warrior

My tier list before patch 9.1
Tier 1: Rogue, Druid
Tier 2: Warlock
Tier 3: Paladin, Mage, Priest
Tier 4: Warrior, Hunter, Shaman

I am gonna also talk with the data of mine that only contains after KoFT. First of all Avg wins for this data is 6,39 and total arena game played is 48. By the way my list is created with win rates.

My list from begining of KoFT to now;
More Than %65   : Druid, Paladin, Warlock
%55-65 Win Rate : Mage,Priest,Rogue
%50-55 Win Rate : Shaman, Hunter
Less Than %50     : Warrior

I can easily say that Druid is insane atm in arena. And also if u picked Stonehill Defender and Spikeridged Steed while playing with Paladin that means you have more than 7 wins easily. 

My list after playing countless game in arena

• 1. Mage
• 2. Warlock
• 3. Rogue
• 4. Paladin
• 5. Druid
• 6. Priest
• 7. Hunter
• 8. Shaman
• 9. Warrior

By tier List

1. Mage, Warlock, Rogue
2. Paladin, Druid
3. Priest, Hunter, Shaman
4. Warrior

Good Tier

Rouge, Paladin

Bad Tier

Everything else.

Here is my experience this arena.  So far I have gone 12 Wins 10x:

1)Rogue: (Most consistent by far of the classes) (12 wins 1x, a few times stopped at 11)

2)Warlock (12 Wins 6x) /2) Mage (12 Wins 2x) : 

Both classes I think are high variance, especially Warlock.  Have gotten 12 wins 6x with Warlock but also had 2x 0-3 this expansion and 1 or 2 1-3.  Often your early game is good enough and you roll people or you don't get good early game options or keep facing hunters and just get stomped.  

Mage: Also high vaiance. Some drafts you have 3x Fireball, other drafts you are only given 2 spells the entire time and 1 is like breath of sindragosa.   Both classes also have amazing DK's in arena, although not required since all of my 12 win runs this expansion were without the Hero.  Best Hero result I've had is 11.

4) Priest:  Priest has some pretty good cards but need to make sure you get some early game/taunts/board clears or is easy to fall too far behind.

5)Paladin: Can have insane high roll drafts (like the opponent I played at 7-1 today who in just 1/2 his deck had 2x Trusilver, Consecration, 2x Spikeridged, Ragnaros Lightlord, etc) but can also fall flat.

6) Shaman/ 6) Druid.  Shaman can have great elemental synergy drafts and flooding the board makes great targets for scalebane and bonemare.  Druid I always get screwed when I draft, you rely on drafting a few power cards and if you do not get them are screwed.  Even if you do some of the power cards can be super hard countered.  Have stopped playing Druid.  Also, Druids are not seen very much at high wins in my experience.

8) Hunter/9) Warrior.  2 Classes I refuse to draft.  Both are pretty rare but sometimes see a decent amount of hunters at relatively high wins.  If you see a high win warrior then pray because their deck is likely out of this world.

It takes a month or two for meta to settle, and also Arena meta. 

At the moment of this writing poll shows 

Mage 41.5% of Users - 742 votes
Rogue 21.6% of Users - 386 votes

But if the new poll would be released now, I think the result will be very different.   

It looks like it's currently:

Tier 1: Rogue
Tier 2: Warlock, Paladin
Tier 3: Druid
Tier 4: Mage
Tier 5: Priest, Hunter, Shaman
Tier 6: Warrior

Source: current state at hsreplay.net 

Quote from mladena »

Tier 1: Rogue*
Tier 2: Warlock, Paladin
Tier 3: Druid
Tier 4: Mage
Tier 5: Priest, Hunter, Shaman*
Tier 6: Warrior

FTFY

Quote from Caddage >>

Quote from mladena »

Tier 1: Rogue*
Tier 2: Warlock, Paladin
Tier 3: Druid
Tier 4: Mage
Tier 5: Priest, Hunter, Shaman*
Tier 6: Warrior

FTFY

Heh, took a stab at arena as a Warrior last night since I had the 50-card quest.  Knew it was a bottom-half tier class, but didn't realize it was the worst.  Got 6 wins, wasn't even that good of a deck (no removal, only 2 weapons + Molten Blade, only Slam for "fast" damage other than weapons).  Must have annoyed the opponents to lose to a Warrior.

Personally, I don't understand why priest is given such a bad rep in arena. It's true they might not be as aggressive in a format that requires tempo, but that's why drafting is key. I believe with good drafting, every hero is good. I am a priest player myself, and I avg 7 in arena with it (I have reached 12 before). The selection of certain minions and key spells will propel you past your opponent and using the hero power will sustain your minions longer and give you advantage in board presence and trading. As long as you draft a decent, midrange mana curve and have 6-10 key spells that control board and steal cards, you are all set to soar well above the 3-win average that so many players are having a tough time consistently crossing.

Quote from lifeisgood >>

Personally, I don't understand why priest is given such a bad rep in arena. It's true they might not be as aggressive in a format that requires tempo, but that's why drafting is key. I believe with good drafting, every hero is good. I am a priest player myself, and I avg 7 in arena with it (I have reached 12 before). The selection of certain minions and key spells will propel you past your opponent and using the hero power will sustain your minions longer and give you advantage in board presence and trading. As long as you draft a decent, midrange mana curve and have 6-10 key spells that control board and steal cards, you are all set to soar well above the 3-win average that so many players are having a tough time consistently crossing.

Quote from Zashiki >>

In terms of play rate Priest is overrepresented at the moment for what it can actually accomplish as the third most popular class according to my statistics even before Rogue, which I can't quite understand as Rogue is significantly stronger and more consistent than Priest. Mage currently falls almost in the same category like Priest imo, but is less of a one trick pony than Priest since Mage can play for tempo and even aggro. It's still a considerably weaker class than in previous metas but nonetheless remains one of the most popular class picks.

Quote from MCFUser65958 >>

Zashiki thank you for your insightful post, for an average casual arena player like me it's great to read this type of stuff from a top player. Btw I may be wrong but isn't there a bias in analysing WR by opponent, for instance you will only encounter good hunter decks after 7 wins, whereas you can still run into average rogue decks, just because the class is stronger. So for a top player like you who often goes beyond 7 wins wouldn't that pump the hunter vs WR beyond it's actual "worth" as a class pick?

Anyway, I'm not expecting you to give out your drafting strategies but I was wondering if maybe you could shed some light an a question I have. When I go beyond 7 wins (which is not that often) sometimes I run into very strong cards obviously, but other times I just run into what I would call "pockets of synergy", 3-4 cards that are pretty poor individually but combined (most of the time over multiple turns) have a devastating effect. Some of these cards are so bad that I would never pick even if I already had 1-2 cards that synergise with them, my rationale being that if I drew them in the wrong order I would just sit there with dead cards in hand, and 3 losses is not a large enough buffer for that. Anyway, without expecting a detailed answer, I'm just curious if you do draft such "pockets of synergy" yourself, maybe when you're feeling the current draft is too average? Or do you almost go for a safer approach, hoping you would draw some swing cards before the end, and if not just limiting your losses? Thanks in advance.

1. You have no elementals in your deck and you have an option to pick Servant of Kalimos: Servant of Kalimos is super powerful card, if u can activate it, but below average 5-drop on its own ... BUT ... a 4/5 for 5 is not end of the world and is often worth picking up for the potential insane value. Same would be with Blazecaller for example.
2. You have 5 deathrattles in your deck and you have an option to pick Play Dead: 5 deathrattles aint much, even if they r like Bone Drakes and such, to warrant picking up Play Dead imho, since on its own, the card is a dead card and a horrible topdeck. You would need like 10 deathrattle and mby not even then it would be a good idea to get it, since most of these deathrattles would be shitty (=not worth an extra card), like Harvest Golem or Infested Wolf for example.
3. You have 2 dragons in your deck and you have an option to pick Netherspite Historian: Netherspite Historian is one of the cards i hate the most, when it works, cause this is the exact situation that usually happens ... your opponent has like 1-2 dragons in the deck, which is not enough to make it work consistently, but when it does work, its nuts, even more broken in priest, where u can pretty consistently get Drakonid Operative, that will trigger off the dragon in your hand as well givin u another card. So to sum this one up ... with 2 dragons already, this would still be yolo in my opinion, id like to have at least 3-4 dragons (which is not easy to draft in KFT) before gettin historian, but it is a gamble that could prove very very much worth it, but might not ... this is the fringe situation and probably the exact one u are asking about, i suppose it boils down to personal preference in this case and mby a little bit to if your class has class cards with extra synergy to the card u want to draft, so there is a greater chance such cards will be offered to you.

So the general rule is, if the card is ok on its own, but amazing when the synergy goes of, it is often times worth it. If the card is pretty much crap, but the synergy it can provide could be a game changer, it depends on number of factors: your personal preference, past experiences, what is your class, how deep in the draft are you etc.

Hope i answered your question at least to some degree, even if it wasnt aimed at me :)

Quote from SaltGiant >>

Zashiki thank you for your insightful post, for an average casual arena player like me it's great to read this type of stuff from a top player. Btw I may be wrong but isn't there a bias in analysing WR by opponent, for instance you will only encounter good hunter decks after 7 wins, whereas you can still run into average rogue decks, just because the class is stronger. So for a top player like you who often goes beyond 7 wins wouldn't that pump the hunter vs WR beyond it's actual "worth" as a class pick?

Anyway, I'm not expecting you to give out your drafting strategies but I was wondering if maybe you could shed some light an a question I have. When I go beyond 7 wins (which is not that often) sometimes I run into very strong cards obviously, but other times I just run into what I would call "pockets of synergy", 3-4 cards that are pretty poor individually but combined (most of the time over multiple turns) have a devastating effect. Some of these cards are so bad that I would never pick even if I already had 1-2 cards that synergise with them, my rationale being that if I drew them in the wrong order I would just sit there with dead cards in hand, and 3 losses is not a large enough buffer for that. Anyway, without expecting a detailed answer, I'm just curious if you do draft such "pockets of synergy" yourself, maybe when you're feeling the current draft is too average? Or do you almost go for a safer approach, hoping you would draw some swing cards before the end, and if not just limiting your losses? Thanks in advance.

Quote from Zashiki >>

 

What you can do to learn this and what I would personally recommend: Whenever you're unsure whether you have made the right pick, remember or write down your other two options, then compare how good these two other options would have possibly fit into your deck strategy at the end of the draft and during games and how it would have affected them if you had drafted those instead. You will gradually get a feeling of "what works" and what does not in arena, for example when you have drafted too much removal as a Hunter and are missing threats to close out the game in the late game or when it's a classic "curve vs value" pick. In the end there isn't a clear-cut answer to your question unfortunately since it's always a matter of context concerning class, offering boni, drafted cards, point in time of the draft option etc.

Quote from Boozor »

1) Everyone has their own internal judgement of how valuable each card is worth. Factors like stats, cost, effects, playstyle, experience, synergies all factor into how valuable a card is. The tricky part is that everyone has slightly differing weights for each. Make sure you have a solid reason for choosing the cards you are choosing.

This. As an example, I'll use Mana Wraith. Heartharena scores it 55 (average), and other tierlists list it anywhere from "below average" to "bad." But in the right deck, it can be a major disruption for your opponent without slowing you down at all. My first 12-win run I picked Mana Wraith at pick #10 because it had been used against me to great effect, and I was able to return the favor that run. It's important to note that it requires smart play; there were a couple games where I kept Mana Wraith along with Muster for Battle or Rallying Blade or Seal of Champions so I could maintain tempo, but there were others where I pitched it back because the rest of my hand were minions and it would have slowed my development as well.

Imagine the best case scenario for picking a card, then imagine worst case scenario. Evaluate the odds of each situation as best you can, and then ask yourself if the risk is worth the reward. A slight loss of tempo as a worst case vs a potentially game-changing best case is usually worth it. An amazing (but unlikely) best case vs an unplayable card worst case usually isn't. The more you play, the more you'll get a feel for which risks are worth it. Have fun!

Currently experiencing a different meta post-dual class.

Druid/Rogue/Priest/Warlock all have over 50% win rate while Mage/Paladin/Hunter is around 49%. Shaman and Warrior is still clearly trash but Shaman isn't as terrible.

No idea what kind of microadjustment happened to Priest but it's a rather major shift in the meta imo.

Quote from TachiiDerp >>

Currently experiencing a different meta post-dual class.

Druid/Rogue/Priest/Warlock all have over 50% win rate while Mage/Paladin/Hunter is around 49%. Shaman and Warrior is still clearly trash but Shaman isn't as terrible.

No idea what kind of microadjustment happened to Priest but it's a rather major shift in the meta imo.

Quote from TachiiDerp >>

Currently experiencing a different meta post-dual class.

Druid/Rogue/Priest/Warlock all have over 50% win rate while Mage/Paladin/Hunter is around 49%. Shaman and Warrior is still clearly trash but Shaman isn't as terrible.

No idea what kind of microadjustment happened to Priest but it's a rather major shift in the meta imo.