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I actually don't agree that the level of rarity is a balance issue, nor does it alone change how to approach an arena match any more than any other class. The fact that some of Mage's best cards are Basic quality just means they are predictable. Predictability is a drawback in Arena.
My Youtube Channel // The Arena Junky Series
Ahrmin on Twitch
So being able to predict he has 10 fire balls and you literally can not win is a drawback for the mage?
Wow - that opening - they might as well have been playing constructed:
Mana Wyrm
Pint Size Summoner + Mirror Image
Arcane Missile + Arcane Intellect
Frostbolt + Mana Wyrm
Ice Lance
Frost Nova
GG
I dunno man, I've always had more luck playing Rogue than Mage in Arena. But maybe that's because I strictly never get any Fireballs och Flamestrikes. Rogue feels more flexible even without some of the signature cards.
And yet another random post of a smartass who discovered Shamans have mechanics to stop Mages. Really? Did you discover that alone? EVERY SINGLE CLASS has mechanics to beat Mages. Nobody is arguing Mages are unbeatable, and nobody is asking how to beat them. Read the freaking first post.
The argument is that they have a higher likelyhood to have their powerful cards because of the fact that they are basic.
Your presentation of the question is more than a little dishonest. How many times have you seen a draft or faced a mage that has 10 fireballs? More to the point, you're misrepresenting what I said. Based on my experience, when I have a very good chance to know an opponent's play one or two turns in advance, I'm able to make decisions that are in my favor rather than my opponent's.
@Ramrod/Tarcrist: I agree that value is extremely important in Arena,but I'm not seeing where I claimed predictability is the biggest factor, either. All I'm saying is that if you're playing a mage, and you're going into Turn 7, your best move is typically going to be one that doesn't play into Flamestrike. Similarly, if you're going into turn 4 and you have the choice of three minions you want to play, you're not going to play one that has 4-6 health unless you have a better option when it gets hit with FIreball. You can almost force a Mage to not get value for his cards by predicting his next plays. You see high level players do this most of the time, although they typically do not discuss or announce it.
My Youtube Channel // The Arena Junky Series
Ahrmin on Twitch
If you want to touch Mage rarity on cards you would need to do same with other classes. Fireball and Flamestrike are bad? How about endless 2-for-1 Truesilvers and Flamestrike earlier game brother - Consecration. Or maybe swipe into swipe into swipe into swipe? All changing mage would do is to make other class move to top (mainly Paladin and Druid).
About 2 times now, actually, though it was more like 7 fire balls. The fact is you predict a flame strike on turn 7, so you dont play much, they flame strike, hit you for 6. You play minions, they flame strike... and hit you for 6. Being able to predict these things doesnt suddenly make flame strike or fire ball go from being a VERY top end quality card to a lesser quality card.
You should probably go play the lottery. I've never played a mage who ever had a chance to cast more than 4 fireballs, and that one was time.
Regardless, I'm not saying it makes the card less of a good card. In fact, I'm saying that those cards are of such high caliber and are usually such great value that you can almost assume every mage will always have them and be right most of the time. Therefore, in the majority of cases, you can accurately predict what your opponent can do and play around that. I'm not saying you will always have the answer, but it's also not like a mage fireballing your Yeti is going to come as any surprise when it ultimately happens.
If you don't understand that being able to accurately predict your opponent's moves is an amazing tool in any strategy game, then I'm not sure anything I explain will matter.
My Youtube Channel // The Arena Junky Series
Ahrmin on Twitch
I once played a mage that played 5 Flamestrikes back to back. I went from extremely dominant board position to great board position to good board position to losing the game. It IS a very rare occurrence though.
Yet another poor example, based on a pure-bashing attitude. Every class has very strong cards. As a matter of fact, every class NEEDS to have very strong cards. Truesilver and Concecration are easily two of the best Paladin cards. But that's about it. There are no other basic cards that come close to the potential value and utility. Same thing goes for Swipe on Druids. How many does the Mage have?
The Mage has 4 incredibly strong spells (Frostbolt, Fireball, Flamestrike and Polymorph), that are incredibly versatile, usable at pretty much every point in the game apart from FS. The argument is based on the fact the cards are drafted way too often, making it very difficult to dodge. If you combine that with Water Elemental and a hero power that direct the board or the hero, you have yourself a potentially unfair match from the get-go. And we're not even talking about non-basics, like Blizzard, Pyroblast and Secrets.
It's only natural that people present best/worst-case scenarios to justify their points like "I never draft more than one Flamestrike, Mage sucks" and "I faced a 10 Fireball Mage, this game is broken". We're talking about the average, general experience. If you watch streams from popular arena players, like Kripp, Ek0p, Trump and Hafu, they will all tell you Mage is the hardest class to beat in Arena, because of how hard it is to dodge all their weapons. I respect the heck out of Kripp for refusing to play Mage in Arena until some sort of balance change (did I mention changing the rarity of cards would solve this?) is implemented.
So i just played against a mage in arena that had Faceless manipulator, ysera, 2 fireballs, 2 flamestrikes, and stormrage.
WTF!!!
So i decided to join the club for one arena run. No surprise what the results were.
just finished my run. I should feel pretty proud that i did so well but i can't because it feels like bullying really.
Special for you ^_^
1. 5 fireballs. Only 1 flamestrike though :(
2. Opening hand. Kept it for lolz
3. Waiting for my 5th fireball for ultimate pew pew
Was really fun arena run
EU
Pissy!
Every time I play against a mage, I feel like I'm fighting uphill. I look at my moves, my deck, my mulligan strats... I go over every decision. And in the end, nothing matters, there is hardly ever anything I could have done different, as I inevitably lose.
Every time I play as a mage, I feel like I'm almost cheating, like I have just turned on a god-mode cheat.
I'm a pretty good player. As a non-hardcore guy who works a normal job an plays maybe around 10 hours a week tops, I've gotten up to rank 3.2 on the ladder. I have three 12 win runs in arena. I'm not an expert in this game by any means, but even an average non-hardcore player like me can see that mages are incredibly overpowered in arena.
I'm frankly stunned that anyone sees it any differently. I know the numbers from hearthstats and other trackers show only a small percentage increase of mage winning percentages, but I've had so many games snowball into an avalanche either for or against me, it just doesn't seem logical that people don't see how OP mages are.
The thing about those numbers? Most of the classes played are Mages and Paladin's. So ya, the win difference is minor, but that's because even mages have to play against other mages. With a new tracker I got, out of 107 games (60/47), I've played 25% as mage, 28% as paladin and faced 25% mage and 17% paladin.
Obviously those aren't statistically significant numbers, but they do show a trend... one in which the majority of the classes played in arena are Mages/Paladin's and Personally I think that's a HUGE issue. No one class should have such dominance, and with mages being a fairly easy fix (change flamestrike to rare) that really only leaves paladins (their problems is they trade so damn well... and no one card controls the swing of a game).
Not sure what stating the obvious adds?
?!?
Last arena try - I didn't win a single game, 0-3! Guess what class my opponents were? Mages. 3 in a row. Not my lucky day.