I'm done with Arena

Community Discussion
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Long time Arena player here (8+ years). If Blizzard doesn’t reverse the Arena changes, the mode is simply dead for me. Here’s my post from the German forum:

So, my conclusion about the new Arena, especially the Underground, after about 7 runs:

The new Arena is just no fun. Not only are the two tickets required for entry way too expensive, but the fact that you can hardly earn any direct gold anymore is a clear step backward.

But the real, major issue is the new draft system. The curated packs were supposed to ensure that there’s less draft RNG and that everyone gets to play a run with well-synergized cards. Unfortunately, the balance is completely broken, and the power level between the different classes - and even within the same class across different draft options - is far too uneven. I mean, nobody really expected the team that brought us things like “Imbue Plush” to have a great grasp on balancing, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be this bad.

This becomes especially clear with the strange decision to selectively offer some players the 0-mana card “Make a Wish”. Earlier, I lost to a Mage who simply discovered a Pyroblast for 0 mana and instantly deleted my remaining 10 HP.

Both the treasures and the Arena overall are being heavily criticized in the US forums. The opinion that the new Arena is a massive downgrade and very unfun is widely shared by the community.

The old Arena was actually great the way it was: the 150 gold entry fee was fair, the games had a great pace, and the rewards were solid. All they needed to do was get rid of barcode decks. Other than that, it turns out the balance was actually better with the RNG drafting, because no one - not even barcode decks - had such an insanely high power level.

The problem with this new power level is that there’s almost nothing you can do against these overpowered plays, because the synergies are way too strong. It’s like playing Whizbang vs Whizbang and one of you just gets the way better deck.

So Arena has become less about deckbuilding, smart plays, and skill, and more like Constructed, where you study the top decklists and try to draft the best archetype, since they’re basically handed to you in a nicely wrapped preset.

For me, Arena is dead. If Blizzard reverts the changes and simply brings back the old Arena, I’ll be back. But this new version just isn’t fun at all, and no small tweaks are going to fix it - the new Arena is fundamentally broken by design.

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It only costs me one ticket. Weird.
But I agree with everything else. Arena was my favourite mode.

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The small Arena that ends with 5 wins costs 1 ticket. If you accumulate 7 wins in total, you unlock “The Underground” which is the actual Arena where you play until you reach either 12 wins or 3 losses. That one costs 2 tickets to enter.

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Those bastards :sob:

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They killed Duels, now they killed Arena. What next?

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Wouldn’t have said it better. I truly hope they listen to the community for once and revert the change back. Otherwise even battlegrounds won’t keep me here anymore.

And I’m not even mentioning the dc / reconnect issue wildy ocurring rn lol

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Don’t forget mercenaries, classic, and connectivity.

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My only issue is just the pay more for less. Give more gold in the rewards and I’d be happy. Heck, even just make a f2p arena and call it a day.

I don’t mind the increase power level in decks tbh. Why? It makes me able to beat inbue priest and if someone has an insane play, such as turn 9 fire dragon that casts 20 mana worth of fire spells. These cards aren’t as crazy and unrecoverable with the new card system.

I haven’t played too much, but because you don’t need to win the lottery on dark gifts or discovers, you can win through being more tactical.

Most of my arena losses since rejoining has been to some god like dark gift, inbue priest with insane luck with inbues, or discover a dragon and I lose to the big firey 9 mana fire dragon.

Inbue priest also isn’t as bad due to I believe the increased card pool of inbue. I haven’t seen some OP cards like 5 mana take an enemy minion and add it to your hand bs.

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Without going into too much detail on what’s wrong the current arena, I too am done (also 8+ years/paying customer of arena tickets). The TLDR of it is I dont play standard because its all meta, ie you can guess exactly what’s in your opponents deck after a card or two. This change made arena way too curated. especially with the remove 5 cards add 5 cards and the starting sets. Second the payouts are broken. I played for the 7 win money back, anything plus was money in the bank. never cared about cards or dust. Bring the old arena back or I’m onto another card game

Oh one other thing. You’re paying so much for entry fees now that its now a big issue if your game crashes and you lose because of the crash. before i didn’t care as much, i could get 7+ wins and cover my loss

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Also I was getting gold when I end run like lower than 5 wins, now trying to hit jackpot with %5

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What is this 0 cost wish my opponent is always playing? How does everyone but me get this card?!

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Some people are luckier than you or me. For standard some people are more “skilled” than you or me. The world is literally just DNA. People like to think their success is because they are simply more hardworking etc. Even if that’s true, it’s still just DNA. We are what we are, what happens happens.

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Hearthstone team is pure trash.

I know people with rather low IQ who without a doubt could have done a much better job.

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Told you guys to stop using arena tickets :slight_smile: … The mode is pure, turbo garbo…They destroyed Arena, BG’s are a disconnect fest with an impossible situation to return to the same game session, so you waste the time playing and then lose the game instance, let’s be honest standard is , yea…there…Even Brian Kibler said that it’s pure trash, and yea, it tells a lot about your game when one of your supporters and announcers say that the mode is trash…

So yea, arena is turbo garbo, constructed is turbo turbo garbo, BG’s are unplayable because of the disconnects happening all the time loosing not only your time buy your mind…Brawl is yea, one game per week and you are done…Bottoms up there is no point in investing money in a game that has no fun or working mode.

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Lets call it for what it was… a way to extract more gold from the game and push people towards the shop. The end.

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I think they realized that people spend a lot of money on Barcode decks, so Blizzard said, “Why not sell those Barcode decks ourselves?”

Of course, they put it behind a slot machine mechanism at twice the price, so people have to enter the Arena multiple times before they get a super draft.

It’s so obvious it hurts.

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Worst blizzard update man… This arena is horrible…

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I’m looking for another card game as well… Any recommendations?

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From what I’ve heard MTG is the next logical next step if you were a HS arena player. I haven’t done my research though, never really thought I’d say goodbye to HS. If you hear any recommends I’m all ears as well.

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First time posting on these forums. I’m a long time Arena player - I’ve been playing Hearthstone since this game was in Beta. The new Arena is just completely busted. The reward structure is horrible, the cost of entry is way too high (intentionally, of course), and the gameplay is now so skewed due to the buckets. I hope Blizzard receives this feedback, because I’m done. I’m so turned off by this decision that it makes me less likely to play Hearthstone period.

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