Not hating or anything. In fact, I feel like I am missing out. It's enjoyable enough to snowball into a victory, I will admit, but getting snowballed feels quite underwhelming, and it seems most of my games are either one or the other. Am I missing something or just oversimplifying it?
Cheers.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health. - Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
Maybe you're doing something wrong if you're consistently getting snowballed.
I enjoy arena right now (I used to hate it) because it's a lot more casual and far more relaxing than constructed. You get to play with bad cards against players of all ranks. Losing doesn't feel too bad, especially since I have good results. Although if I sucked at it I probably wouldn't enjoy it very much.
I feel like the current format rewards the better players so I like it
It is a format where skill matters... It is less about trying to snowball and more about properly executing plan of your deck while having sub optimal cards...
Like you have:
Aggro
Tempo
Midrange
Control
Attrition
And then you need to properly execute plan for the type of deck which will give you above average winrate. And during draft after 10-15 cards also need to realize which of 5 types your and start drafting to make that plan better. Heartharena can help with that by the way and in the end will even tell you which type of the deck you drafted and what the gist of that...
Arena just works out a different set of mental muscles than does constructed.
I don't stream, but you can look at people like Kripp as they are drafting their decks. It's interesting to watch him say something like "card A is clearly the best pick overall, but I'm going with card B because . . ." More often than not, he makes the right call due to some mixture of experience and intuition.
The casual arena player can be left feeling as if it's all about the card offerings, and to some extent, every individual draft is largely dependent on the card selection. However, over 30 or 300 drafts, you start to see amazing consistency in play if you have a strong grasp of tempo fundamentals and you learn to evaluate your card selections along pure tempo considerations.
It should also be noted that Arena is a great way to function as an f2p player. There's a reason all the better arena players have basically full golden collections in standard. You have to work at it a lot before you can "go infinite", but after you get to a certain level, there's no real reason to ever spend money on the game again.
It should also also be noted that, starting tomorrow, the Arena "meta" is going to be a lot more exciting, as they are no longer simply offering the standard card pool. I know they're starting out with Naxx, MSG, and at least one other wild set. Should introduce a lot more variety to the games. Free tip: Priest is best.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Maybe you're doing something wrong if you're consistently getting snowballed.
I enjoy arena right now (I used to hate it) because it's a lot more casual and far more relaxing than constructed. You get to play with bad cards against players of all ranks. Losing doesn't feel too bad, especially since I have good results. Although if I sucked at it I probably wouldn't enjoy it very much.
I feel like the current format rewards the better players so I like it
Well, I will admit I am only 5-2 in my current run, so I am far from good at it, but I wouldn't know as far as casualty goes. Maybe it's just me, but the 3 lives you get do not really make it feel casual to me.
It is a format where skill matters... It is less about trying to snowball and more about properly executing plan of your deck while having sub optimal cards...
Like you have:
Aggro
Tempo
Midrange
Control
Attrition
And then you need to properly execute plan for the type of deck which will give you above average winrate. And during draft after 10-15 cards also need to realize which of 5 types your and start drafting to make that plan better. Heartharena can help with that by the way and in the end will even tell you which type of the deck you drafted and what the gist of that...
Huh, I actually never gave that much thought while I picked my cards. True, I looked for synergies but I never quite cared much about the type of deck I was building. (Usually I just build a midrangey deck assuming I get the chance).
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health. - Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
Arena just works out a different set of mental muscles than does constructed.
I don't stream, but you can look at people like Kripp as they are drafting their decks. It's interesting to watch him say something like "card A is clearly the best pick overall, but I'm going with card B because . . ." More often than not, he makes the right call due to some mixture of experience and intuition.
The casual arena player can be left feeling as if it's all about the card offerings, and to some extent, every individual draft is largely dependent on the card selection. However, over 30 or 300 drafts, you start to see amazing consistency in play if you have a strong grasp of tempo fundamentals and you learn to evaluate your card selections along pure tempo considerations.
It should also be noted that Arena is a great way to function as an f2p player. There's a reason all the better arena players have basically full golden collections in standard. You have to work at it a lot before you can "go infinite", but after you get to a certain level, there's no real reason to ever spend money on the game again.
It should also also be noted that, starting tomorrow, the Arena "meta" is going to be a lot more exciting, as they are no longer simply offering the standard card pool. I know they're starting out with Naxx, MSG, and at least one other wild set. Should introduce a lot more variety to the games. Free tip: Priest is best.
Hmm... Maybe it's practice, then. I'll admit that the rewards made up most of the reasons why I gave the mode a try in the past.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health. - Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
For me it's the excitement of drafting, and then putting the deck you just drafted to a test. It takes a lot of skill going through a draft and picking each card carefully, thinking about possible synergies and the deck archetype you're going for.
Also, it's easy money if you get good at it.
It should get even more exciting when arena seasons start :9
I've played arena on a daily basis during... 2 years perhaps? I didn't want to grind constructed without any cards. I didn't want to pay either. So I've just played Arena. Did well enough (experience from other games helped) to perma-sustain myself with quests. I think I've had like 1k arena wins before I got 100 wins in constructed. Eventually Arena gave me gold for Adventures and more cards that I'd ever want. (currently sitting on 30k dust via wild cards disenchanted - I barely played this game in last two years, yet my collection still sustains me)
Why arena is cool?
Every run is different.
Most of the cards see play.
Much more skill-dependent. Pro players can reach 75% winrate.
At the same time, arena is stress-free and relaxing. To me, doing a "daily arena" was some sort of ritual to chill after a tough day.
Maybe you're doing something wrong if you're consistently getting snowballed.
I enjoy arena right now (I used to hate it) because it's a lot more casual and far more relaxing than constructed. You get to play with bad cards against players of all ranks. Losing doesn't feel too bad, especially since I have good results. Although if I sucked at it I probably wouldn't enjoy it very much.
I feel like the current format rewards the better players so I like it
Well, I will admit I am only 5-2 in my current run, so I am far from good at it, but I wouldn't know as far as casualty goes. Maybe it's just me, but the 3 lives you get do not really make it feel casual to me.
Because I have the choice to either play ranked and go Legend (which I have no interest in nowadays) or play Arena.
So Arena games compared to Legend grind is casual to me. It feels relaxing rather than stressful and because I have very good results @ 6+ wins average, I am enjoying it, a lot.
I mostly enjoy the drafting, more than playing out the games actually and the introduction of the bucket system did make it quite interesting. Deckbuilding is more impactful than gameplay for arena, like having the right amount of removal, AoE, card draw, 3-drops etc. in your deck. If your deck is comparatively weak you need to adopt a riskier playstyle as you will likely not be able to outvalue opponents at higher wins. And even if you don't do well, by analyzing your draft properly you can learn a lot for your future runs. For me, that is the most fun part of arena, using that experience and game knowledge to construct the best deck possible against the current meta with the cards that are offered to me.
Honestly the gameplay part usually isn't all that complex or special, play on curve and around highly picked cards and you'll do fine.
I love arena for what it is - make the best with what you get. And every time it's different (to some extent).
It is a game mode, where you can leverage your skill in all aspects of the game. Drafting, mulligan, playing even bluffing your opponent. Sure, there is a big luck element in it as in any other HS game mode, but you dont have established decks where you can rely on synergies to carry you or where you can consistently draw into your win conditions. You have to play with what you currently have and adapt. You have to know when to take a risk to play to win and not just to survive. You have to know when to trade and when to go face. Many small decisions can accumulate to great advantages, or disadvantages.
Ofc we arena players like to pat ourselves on the back thinking how well we can play the game and how skillful we are, which is true to some extent, but you can enjoy the format even if you are a casual player. You just need to think before you act and you need to realize what kind of game are you playing. The extra stuff will come with time and practice. That is the hard truth with arena, if you want to do really well, you need to put in the time, no one is gonna do that for you.
Huh, I actually never gave that much thought while I picked my cards. True, I looked for synergies but I never quite cared much about the type of deck I was building. (Usually I just build a midrangey deck assuming I get the chance).
Yeah you can build anything from Aggro to Control. It is just less consistent than Constructed decks. Just try Heartharena it is a free app so you can download it for free and it will help you with draft and then tell you which type of deck you drafted and your deck score thingy... Actually using Heartharena raised my average winrate in Arena quite significantly because my decks stopped being total garbage and actually became a proper deck that works towards goal not a random mesh mash of stuff....
Huh, I actually never gave that much thought while I picked my cards. True, I looked for synergies but I never quite cared much about the type of deck I was building. (Usually I just build a midrangey deck assuming I get the chance).
Yeah you can build anything from Aggro to Control. It is just less consistent than Constructed decks. Just try Heartharena it is a free app so you can download it for free and it will help you with draft and then tell you which type of deck you drafted and your deck score thingy... Actually using Heartharena raised my average winrate in Arena quite significantly because my decks stopped being total garbage and actually became a proper deck that works towards goal not a random mesh mash of stuff....
Heartharena is definitely good tool for beginners, but once you get a grip on drafting and know what archetypes each class is good at and what cards are offered most to support those archetypes, Heartharena no longer serves the purpose, since it often pushes you into an archetype based on what you already picked or what is currently offered - and that might not be the best way to go. Basically what im saying is, the more experience you have, the more you should rely on it instead of an app that is just based on an algorithm that cannot account for the nuances you can, is all ;-)
Huh, I actually never gave that much thought while I picked my cards. True, I looked for synergies but I never quite cared much about the type of deck I was building. (Usually I just build a midrangey deck assuming I get the chance).
Yeah you can build anything from Aggro to Control. It is just less consistent than Constructed decks. Just try Heartharena it is a free app so you can download it for free and it will help you with draft and then tell you which type of deck you drafted and your deck score thingy... Actually using Heartharena raised my average winrate in Arena quite significantly because my decks stopped being total garbage and actually became a proper deck that works towards goal not a random mesh mash of stuff....
Heartharena is definitely good tool for beginners, but once you get a grip on drafting and know what archetypes each class is good at and what cards are offered most to support those archetypes, Heartharena no longer serves the purpose, since it often pushes you into an archetype based on what you already picked or what is currently offered - and that might not be the best way to go. Basically what im saying is, the more experience you have, the more you should rely on it instead of an app that is just based on an algorithm that cannot account for the nuances you can, is all ;-)
For sure... i definitely disagree more and more with hearth arena as I go... but stuff like it giving you a list of synergies and general tier score of the card still helps, even if I do disagree sometimes with app's pick... Also I use it to track my stats... But yeah it is more of a buddy who reminds you of synergies you might have and the fact that you don't have enough 2-drops rather than you need to pick what it says...
1) Initially for F2P, it's the mode that let's you play the cards you don't have.
2) Also for F2P, it's the mode that builds your collection the fastest. You aren't constantly reminded that you can't compete because you don't have Dr Boom yet (my early experience).
3) Arena is the skill mode. Anyone can take a net deck to legend if they have the time and inclination. There are people who average 8 wins per run in Arena. It's not random, and it's not based on owning certain cards. It's a mode where you can really measure skill on an even playing field.
4) It's great to have variety in decks. You don't need to play odd Paladin for 200 hours this month. You can play 20 different decks with arena runs. This is only true up to a point, though. By the middle of each season, Arena also has its meta, and you see the same type of successful deck over and over again. Ever since witchwood, you can count on good Paladin decks to be built around Silver Sword. That does get old. We will have more frequent rotations going forward, though.
Also, arena games tend to be more fun for me. This depends on meta, of course (Karazhan arena was a disaster), but in general Arena has reasonably slow games without extremely unfair cards. In a healthy meta, both tempo and control are a legit ways to play Arena and making the decision on fly with class that can do both (e.g. Mage) is interesting.
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Could you tell me what you enjoy in Arena?
Not hating or anything. In fact, I feel like I am missing out. It's enjoyable enough to snowball into a victory, I will admit, but getting snowballed feels quite underwhelming, and it seems most of my games are either one or the other. Am I missing something or just oversimplifying it?
Cheers.
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health.
- Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
Maybe you're doing something wrong if you're consistently getting snowballed.
I enjoy arena right now (I used to hate it) because it's a lot more casual and far more relaxing than constructed. You get to play with bad cards against players of all ranks. Losing doesn't feel too bad, especially since I have good results. Although if I sucked at it I probably wouldn't enjoy it very much.
I feel like the current format rewards the better players so I like it
It is a format where skill matters... It is less about trying to snowball and more about properly executing plan of your deck while having sub optimal cards...
Like you have:
Aggro
Tempo
Midrange
Control
Attrition
And then you need to properly execute plan for the type of deck which will give you above average winrate. And during draft after 10-15 cards also need to realize which of 5 types your and start drafting to make that plan better. Heartharena can help with that by the way and in the end will even tell you which type of the deck you drafted and what the gist of that...
I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. ©Trimutius
Arena just works out a different set of mental muscles than does constructed.
I don't stream, but you can look at people like Kripp as they are drafting their decks. It's interesting to watch him say something like "card A is clearly the best pick overall, but I'm going with card B because . . ." More often than not, he makes the right call due to some mixture of experience and intuition.
The casual arena player can be left feeling as if it's all about the card offerings, and to some extent, every individual draft is largely dependent on the card selection. However, over 30 or 300 drafts, you start to see amazing consistency in play if you have a strong grasp of tempo fundamentals and you learn to evaluate your card selections along pure tempo considerations.
It should also be noted that Arena is a great way to function as an f2p player. There's a reason all the better arena players have basically full golden collections in standard. You have to work at it a lot before you can "go infinite", but after you get to a certain level, there's no real reason to ever spend money on the game again.
It should also also be noted that, starting tomorrow, the Arena "meta" is going to be a lot more exciting, as they are no longer simply offering the standard card pool. I know they're starting out with Naxx, MSG, and at least one other wild set. Should introduce a lot more variety to the games. Free tip: Priest is best.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Well, I will admit I am only 5-2 in my current run, so I am far from good at it, but I wouldn't know as far as casualty goes. Maybe it's just me, but the 3 lives you get do not really make it feel casual to me.
Huh, I actually never gave that much thought while I picked my cards. True, I looked for synergies but I never quite cared much about the type of deck I was building. (Usually I just build a midrangey deck assuming I get the chance).
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health.
- Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
Hmm... Maybe it's practice, then. I'll admit that the rewards made up most of the reasons why I gave the mode a try in the past.
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health.
- Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
For me it's the excitement of drafting, and then putting the deck you just drafted to a test. It takes a lot of skill going through a draft and picking each card carefully, thinking about possible synergies and the deck archetype you're going for.
Also, it's easy money if you get good at it.
It should get even more exciting when arena seasons start :9
Football and games.
I've played arena on a daily basis during... 2 years perhaps? I didn't want to grind constructed without any cards. I didn't want to pay either. So I've just played Arena. Did well enough (experience from other games helped) to perma-sustain myself with quests. I think I've had like 1k arena wins before I got 100 wins in constructed. Eventually Arena gave me gold for Adventures and more cards that I'd ever want. (currently sitting on 30k dust via wild cards disenchanted - I barely played this game in last two years, yet my collection still sustains me)
Why arena is cool?
Every run is different.
Most of the cards see play.
Much more skill-dependent. Pro players can reach 75% winrate.
At the same time, arena is stress-free and relaxing. To me, doing a "daily arena" was some sort of ritual to chill after a tough day.
I mostly enjoy the drafting, more than playing out the games actually and the introduction of the bucket system did make it quite interesting. Deckbuilding is more impactful than gameplay for arena, like having the right amount of removal, AoE, card draw, 3-drops etc. in your deck. If your deck is comparatively weak you need to adopt a riskier playstyle as you will likely not be able to outvalue opponents at higher wins. And even if you don't do well, by analyzing your draft properly you can learn a lot for your future runs. For me, that is the most fun part of arena, using that experience and game knowledge to construct the best deck possible against the current meta with the cards that are offered to me.
Honestly the gameplay part usually isn't all that complex or special, play on curve and around highly picked cards and you'll do fine.
Arena EU Leaderboard
I love arena for what it is - make the best with what you get. And every time it's different (to some extent).
It is a game mode, where you can leverage your skill in all aspects of the game. Drafting, mulligan, playing even bluffing your opponent. Sure, there is a big luck element in it as in any other HS game mode, but you dont have established decks where you can rely on synergies to carry you or where you can consistently draw into your win conditions. You have to play with what you currently have and adapt. You have to know when to take a risk to play to win and not just to survive. You have to know when to trade and when to go face. Many small decisions can accumulate to great advantages, or disadvantages.
Ofc we arena players like to pat ourselves on the back thinking how well we can play the game and how skillful we are, which is true to some extent, but you can enjoy the format even if you are a casual player. You just need to think before you act and you need to realize what kind of game are you playing. The extra stuff will come with time and practice. That is the hard truth with arena, if you want to do really well, you need to put in the time, no one is gonna do that for you.
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Yeah you can build anything from Aggro to Control. It is just less consistent than Constructed decks. Just try Heartharena it is a free app so you can download it for free and it will help you with draft and then tell you which type of deck you drafted and your deck score thingy... Actually using Heartharena raised my average winrate in Arena quite significantly because my decks stopped being total garbage and actually became a proper deck that works towards goal not a random mesh mash of stuff....
I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. ©Trimutius
Heartharena is definitely good tool for beginners, but once you get a grip on drafting and know what archetypes each class is good at and what cards are offered most to support those archetypes, Heartharena no longer serves the purpose, since it often pushes you into an archetype based on what you already picked or what is currently offered - and that might not be the best way to go. Basically what im saying is, the more experience you have, the more you should rely on it instead of an app that is just based on an algorithm that cannot account for the nuances you can, is all ;-)
- Click Here To Join Us On Discord! -
For sure... i definitely disagree more and more with hearth arena as I go... but stuff like it giving you a list of synergies and general tier score of the card still helps, even if I do disagree sometimes with app's pick... Also I use it to track my stats... But yeah it is more of a buddy who reminds you of synergies you might have and the fact that you don't have enough 2-drops rather than you need to pick what it says...
I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. ©Trimutius
Reasons:
1) Initially for F2P, it's the mode that let's you play the cards you don't have.
2) Also for F2P, it's the mode that builds your collection the fastest. You aren't constantly reminded that you can't compete because you don't have Dr Boom yet (my early experience).
3) Arena is the skill mode. Anyone can take a net deck to legend if they have the time and inclination. There are people who average 8 wins per run in Arena. It's not random, and it's not based on owning certain cards. It's a mode where you can really measure skill on an even playing field.
4) It's great to have variety in decks. You don't need to play odd Paladin for 200 hours this month. You can play 20 different decks with arena runs. This is only true up to a point, though. By the middle of each season, Arena also has its meta, and you see the same type of successful deck over and over again. Ever since witchwood, you can count on good Paladin decks to be built around Silver Sword. That does get old. We will have more frequent rotations going forward, though.
Also, arena games tend to be more fun for me. This depends on meta, of course (Karazhan arena was a disaster), but in general Arena has reasonably slow games without extremely unfair cards. In a healthy meta, both tempo and control are a legit ways to play Arena and making the decision on fly with class that can do both (e.g. Mage) is interesting.