Server Patch this Week for Missing Cards in Arena
Arena is bugged! A bug has been discovered internally which unflagged cards so they wouldn't appear in drafts. The Hearthstone team is ready to get a fix in place sometime this week if everything goes right.
Quote from Dean AyalaThere are 12 cards missing from arena. This was a bug that has been fixed internally and will go out with a server patch sometime this week (unless something goes wrong). Whether or not something is 'draftable' is a checkbox in our editor. Very late in KFT development, when we published any change to a card that checkbox would become unchecked due to an editor bug. This has also been fixed so it should no longer occur.
They probably weren't design iterations. Usually the changes that happen this late are rarity changes or word spacing changes to make the text boxes look a bit better. (Source)
Synergy Feedback
In the most recent patch notes, Blizzard stated there was a change to the Arena which made it more likely for the first two cards in a draft to include synergy-based cards. This has been met with some resistance from the community and the Hearthstone team is appreciative of the feedback. Dean also clarified that offering bonuses for individual cards should all be the same as they were prior to the patch.
Quote from Dean AyalaOffering bonus should be the same as stated in previous patch notes. I'll look into it this morning, though we did test before we launched to make sure it was the same bonus Un'Goro had when it launched.
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As far as synergy picks go, it's only been a few days and we're still gathering feedback from here, our official forums, internally, and from our best arena players. We'll continue to monitor that and make whatever changes are necessary. We've been making small changes to the drafting process for quite some time now and will continue to do so. Appreciate all the feedback!
Ben Brode on Test Subjects
All of today's Arena discussion from the Hearthstone team stems from a post on reddit created by Adwcta, a high-end Arena player, stating that Arena should "not [be] a public test server" and that players don't deserve to be "experimented on with severely underdeveloped ideas". Ben Brode put light on the issue.
- Everything that gets added to Hearthstone is iterated on through community feedback. Let your voice be heard!
- The team does consult with high-end players on changes and those players always have access to speak with them about issues.
- They believe mixing up the Arena experience is a good thing.
- Synergy Picks can help make players feel more clever during the drafting phase.
- "We consider Arena, and hell, the entire game, to be a collaboration with the community."
So, really when you look at it, Arena players aren't being singled out; it happens to all types of players! Ben's quotes from today can be found below.
Personally, I think it's a pretty cool thing to be able to help shape the game through community feedback, and with Team 5 being willing to actually make crazy changes, it makes me trust in the long-term of the game. Yes, game balance reactions have arguably been slow, but it's never felt like they've been an enemy.
Quote from Ben BrodeWe do not deserve to be experimented on with severely underdeveloped ideas. Arena players deserve better.
With every new thing we add to the game, we learn from community feedback, and iterate. Community feedback is a critical part of the process, and the idea that we should only release perfect things that require no feedback is unrealistic.
We believe mixing the Arena experience up more frequently is better than leaving a single rule-set in place forever.
Regarding "synergy picks", one of the areas we think Arena is weak right now is the ability for players to feel really clever during the Arena drafting process. Often you pick cards that are individually powerful, but taking a card that is powerful given other cards you might see is very risky.
We've been experimenting with different prototypes to try and bring this level of gameplay to Arena, including paper printouts of Hearthstone cards so we can test without needing engineers to go in and change the whole system before we find out if a change is even fun.
It's been difficult to provide the ability for players to chase synergies (and to feel clever by doing so), while maintaining the "anything can happen" feel that makes Arena awesome. This was a first foray, and the community feedback will feed into our next iteration. We consider Arena, and hell, the entire game, to be a collaboration with the community.
I come to reddit every day. I love reading about and discussing Hearthstone, the development process, and how we can make things better together. I don't want our communities to have a "players vs developers" vibe. I want to work with players to make the game we all love to play even better.
Feedback is critical, but when it's delivered in a way that pits us against each other as factions, it is damaging. Let's work together!
Furthermore, we know for an absolute fact that they have historically consulted well known Constructed players on big changes to constructed, so why isn't this done for Arena /u/IksarHS ?
While I understand Constructed Standard is Hearthstone's flagship format, the introduction of the Arena leaderboard seemed to suggest you were granting Arena parity with Constructed. Changes like these though, without: A) Any announcement prior to the change (Can you imagine if Standard had just suddenly rolled in with the WOTOG patch? Or the mass of nerfs?) or; B) Consultation, suggests this strive for parity is going backwards.We do. Adwcta and Merps both know they can contact us directly and talk through changes or issues, we have done so in the past. We also talk with Kripp, Hafu, and some of the people in the Chinese community who are also very passionate about arena. (Source - Dean Ayala)
DK have end up being really powerful indeed. Unfortunately if you happen to go against someone lucky enough to have drafted one, you win chances become quite slim.. I feel like DKs had a really bad impact in Arena.
Synergy is crap. First pick, 1 deathrattle, 1 dragon, 1 elemental. Took the dragon. Second pick, no dragons. Rest of the deck, only 1 dragon, which requires a dragon in hand to activate. Thanks for the awesome deck Blizzard!
On mobile i cant use the dk of the druid
I've noticed that when I was drafting a recent arena deck, I got a lot of choices for cards that interact with secrets, but literally 0 choices for any secrets at all! If you make arena so that synergy is more likely, at least add the one actual card type needed for this pool to it!
i've played some arena games, and noticed that there is no comparation beetwen legendarys and DK, DK card has too much value on any arena game, would be nice if you made any balance about it
While I do agree ADWCTA on a lot of points, he comes off so arrogant and entitled that it feels bad to be on the same side as him.
I see that a little in his post, but if you listen to their show or watch their stream I think he presents criticism in a very fair and measured way.
I think it's actually worse on his show. He states his opinions as fact (no matter how little evidence he has to back it up), and then repeats his points over and over for 20+ minutes.
One recent example that was particularly egregious, after only the first 4-5 cards were revealed, somehow he had gotten it into his head that the power creep was over and this expansion would have very little in the way of powerful cards. If he just stated this opinion and moved on it would've been fine -- no matter how premature it was to come to that type of conclusion -- but instead he just assumed that was an absolute fact, and spent a huge chunk of the show afterward talking about how this massive downgrade in power (that never happened) would affect arena's future.
That was his initial prediction...my comment was about the way he presents his criticism. Different things. And, to be fair...they are usually pretty on point with predictions as well.
Kind of explains my shitty drafts since day one of KFT... I don't even remember how many arenas I have played with sub par cards and terrible epic cards. I thought I was just unlucky I wasn't seeing any of the missing cards in the set.I wanted to go back to ungoro arena as soon as possible!
Hopefully they will give us some form of compensation pro-rated to the amount of Arena drafts made like they did with the pity timer...
Ladies and Gentleman, Reason 500 why Blizzard needs to document changes in patch notes. They do it for all of their other games! Each and every single one will have a large list of changes, even if they are just a 5% tweak here and there. Every single thing that goes out live should be documented and told to the players. I'm not saying we need to know how x works or something that deep, I'm literally saying that if they change card texts or if they change the chances to draft cards, we need to know what those changes are. After we have useful patchnotes maybe we can start talking about ptr.
To start off I am very happy that they are taking arena into consideration with constant tweaks and changes. However, I have to side with ADWCTA. It should not be done on an arena run that you have paid for with gold you have had to grind to earn. I'm sure they feel we would be too confused by an arena option when you start a run that is a test realm type of option. It could be free or like 50 g to enter that tells you up from that they are trying some tweaks and the rewards will not be 300-400 g for 12 wins. For incentive to players give them the pack still for playing so that the player has something to show for being a guinea pig. This would be a win-win for Blizzard. The player gets to have fun with a new arena experience while Blizzard data to aid in their decision making.
Just to reiterate. I should not have to wonder if I am being ripped off spending my hard earned gold by bugs or card rate drops. Team 5 works for a big enough company that acting as if they have no way to test changes other than on live servers is bogus. And if they want to do it anyways make sure the player is aware of the fact and offer incentives to take part in the testing. Anyways Team 5 keep up the good work and please do keep experimenting with new ideas.
I can see this slipping through the cracks of a poor indie development company like blizzard. Very reasonable.
I still don't know why I got refunded in one region and not the other, I do the same in both regions
You just never know what you're gonna get in arena...
Played Warlock in Arena yesterday and got offered a Treachery. Synergy picks need to go trough the roof before that's an acceptable choice. Would love it if blizzard does a playability pass for arena cards before the new set releases next time. Would much rather be offered a Sense Demons or something.
Wut?
But you didn't. Or this post would not be there. Sooo. You're a liar?!
EDIT: removed the part of the quote I was NOT talking about.
"They can contact us directly" doesn't mean Blizzard has to reach out to them first.
But they didn't say it was coming until after it was live? So ... How would they have contacted Blizz about it?
Oh, you're referring to the other part of the quote - which I wasn't. I've removed that from my quote.