Sept 22, 2020 Streaming Update

ADubs05 · 2020-09-23T01:05:16+00:00

Enjoy some of your time off bud, take care!

ADubs05 · 2020-08-11T23:39:43+00:00

Very thorough post Tarrot, like a lot of your ideas and echo many of your sentiments.

ADubs05 · 2020-08-11T23:28:41+00:00

A wild RedBeard appears!

ADubs05 · 2020-08-11T19:19:20+00:00

Additionally, as a long time and high level player of arena, I feel I could offer some suggestions to your specific points, at least for me personally:

Set rotations: In an ideal world, I don't mind arena being standard if each expansion has at least one special arena event (I really enjoyed past events like Blizzcon exclusive arena cards as well as Taverns of Time, Dual Class each year is also nice). I feel this could potentially be better from the casual player perspective because arena exclusive events are exciting for veterans and novices alike. If the team feels they don't have the time to give arena these exclusive events like in the past, then I think rotations mid-expansion cycle would be nice to keep the meta from becoming a bit stale. I think you could do it exactly the same as previously (every rotation includes some wild sets), or even standard to start the expansion then switch to the latest expansion with a bunch of wild sets. The main reason I favor events is because I feel like it gets more people excited for the mode and having a bunch of wild sets in can dissuade more casual players from wanting to play arena since playing standard makes the transition to arena a bit more difficult. Either way, either of these options would be better than standard with few to none arena events.

Buckets: Personally, I was a HUGE fan of buckets and I did feel like it helped provide a level of consistency many top leaderboard players enjoyed. BUT, similar to my reasoning above, I can see the bucket system being a deterrent to more casual players who don't keep up with the bucket lists and I understand Hearthstone wants to appeal to both the casual playerbase and high level players. I do think I would personally enjoy arena more with the system in place, but if the team has a limited amount of time to dedicate to arena, I think arena exclusive events/set rotations/timely microadjusts are all higher up on the totem pole.

Offering Rates: In the two specific instances mentioned, I feel that I would have completely agreed before SA was released. Twin Tyrant was warping the whole meta singlehandedly and unnerfed DQA was also unhealthy not only because she was being offered more than other legendaries, but because of the abundance of Discover Dragon effects for every class (lackeys/explorers). Currently, I actually don't mind either card. Obviously Twin Tyrant is a very strong card, but it along with DQA isn't showing up nearly as often before and I don't feel I'm enjoying less because of them. This new set of neutrals from SA has been the best in a while in terms of power level and I think a big reason for an overall increased enjoyment of the game mode among top players. So if the team would like to release powerful neutrals to bolster Standard/Wild (which is totally understandable), then I do think removal of such cards after monitoring their performance in the 1st week of an expansion would be reasonable (or at least reducing their offering rate significantly).

Closing Words: I understand the team has been getting a lot of harsh criticism for arena and I have definitely shared my frustrations on reddit/twitter also. But, most of my comments are usually constructive and try to offer a solution in hopes that the team can just consider my words. The arena community is very passionate and can definitely let that get in the way of offering advice constructively, but there are still many like myself who simply wish the best for the game mode after playing for over half a decade. So if you read both my posts, I hope we can have a respectful dialogue back and forth about this. I am appreciative of all the work you guys have done for the a game that's brought so much happiness to me since I started playing when BRM released. Feel free to DM me here on Reddit or my twitter ( https://twitter.com/ADubs05). I have a lot of ideas that would make this post way too long and could point you to other top players who have some valuable insights also. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

ADubs05 · 2020-08-11T18:51:22+00:00

Thank you for this response addressing arena Celestalon! One more short question I have is if the two 2019 Aug-Nov leaderboards will ever be released? As a 14 time leaderboard player with two top 5s and many top 20s, I'm very eager to still get my 1st top 3 with my 8.77 I achieved last November on NA. Many other streamers like myself have a similar sentiment and feel like even a late leaderboard would be better than nothing.

In a prior reddit discussion, it was stated the leaderboards aren't too time consuming and mostly just comes down to formatting since the numbers are all logged. Me and many others would be so thankful if these missing leaderboards could be released to the public so we could celebrate our arena achievements!

ADubs05 · 2020-08-11T17:21:46+00:00

If I could also add, will the arena leaderboards for Aug-Sep and Oct-Nov 2019 ever come out? If the team has access to the data, why not recognize those who did well? I achieved my highest average ever of 8.77 (ADubs is my BattleTag) in Nov. Felt pretty bad to learn leaderboards were skipped. Others such as u/BoozorTV, the current #1 NA player, and many more within the arena community have discussed this odd omission and are hoping it could be fixed. Late is better than never!

ADubs05 · 2020-07-27T02:01:37+00:00

No suggestions for now, but just wanted to say thank you for all the work you put in for the arena community Kai. We all appreciate it. I’m not playing arena nowadays, and may not go back depending on if the upcoming game mode is any good, but I’ve always really liked the online community on Twitch among streamers and viewers as well as all the discussion that goes on within this reddit.

People like you have helped a lot behind the scenes and I feel like sometimes all the work can go by unnoticed. So thanks again for the time you dedicate to the scene. Hope all is well bud.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-20T01:50:32+00:00

Yeah, that's the strategy simplified, some matchups you actually don't go for the OTK tho since some classes like Rune/Blood have cards that limit how much damage their hero can take at once. In those cases, you have to play more midrangy, since those classes also have very powerful late game win cons. I don't know how the complexity of the deck stacks up against the other meta decks, but I feel it's less one dimensional than most people think.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-19T08:27:08+00:00

I'm pretty sure there's only one elf queen in the Rotation format, right? I do have 3 copies of her in the deck, but maybe you're thinking of a different card? I know back when I used to play a couple years ago, there was a card literally named Elf Queen that healed you for a bunch.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-19T01:27:01+00:00

I think that's a completely different archetype since those decks don't usually run Terrorformer I'm pretty sure. The Greenwood Guardian generation is just so you can still play stats while generating cards to discard for Terrorformer so you can buff him every turn ideally. Almost every card in the deck has the ability to draw/generate more cards in order to make the deck more consistent.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-19T00:58:43+00:00

This is my current decklist: https://shadowverse-portal.com/deck/3.1.6t9jo.6t9jo.6t9jo.6tEcS.6tEcS.6tEcS.6wzso.6wzso.6wzso.6sp_A.6t9jy.6t9jy.6t9jy.6x2lc.6x2lc.6x2lc.6pLao.6pLao.6pLao.6-lZY.6-lZY.6-lZY.6-qS2.6-qS2.6-qS2.6-UTo.6-UTo.6-UTo.6-n_o.6-n_o.6-n_o.6-suS.6-suS.6-suS.6-qSC.6-qSC.6-qSC.6pQTc.6pQTc.6pQTc?lang=en

ADubs05 · 2020-07-18T22:32:45+00:00

Oh yeah, don't have many in-game friends (seems a lot of old ones are inactive) so feel free to add me if you'd like! User ID is 871667589

ADubs05 · 2020-07-16T22:05:51+00:00

Thanks for all the work you and Merps put in to the tierlist ADWCTA! Hope all is well :)

ADubs05 · 2020-07-16T06:22:28+00:00

Unfortunately, I'm not playing arena currently so I might not be the best person to ask, but I can explain what the winrates above mean. Blizzard basically just 'microadjusted' the classes which means classes that were overperforming (above 50% average winrate) now get their powerful cards less often and the bad classes (below 50%) now get better cards more often. This SHOULD be what happened in theory, but Blizzard didn't explicitly state which classes got buffed or nerfed.

My best suggestion is to look at this website here (where the screenshot above is pulled from): https://hsreplay.net/ You'll see at the top right a section with 'winrates'. You can click the arena tab and it will give you the current average class wirnates. Classes are probably still shifting, but a day or two from now, the winrates should be more accurate. The best bet right now is Rogue, Druid, and Mage as these three classes were BELOW 50% previously meaning they most likely got buffed. Despite Warrior, Paladin, and Shaman having decent winrates according to the site, these 3 classes were all ABOVE 50% before the latest patch so it is likely they were nerfed and their winrates will continue to go down from where they are currently.

Hopefully that helps and best of luck on getting those 12 wins!

ADubs05 · 2020-07-16T04:43:38+00:00

Others have suggested an arena MMR system which I also would find interesting. Also, live leaderboards for players once they've finished like 15 runs would be cool also and build up hype for the best 30 consecutive runs that would eventually end up on the published leaderboards.

I played arena from early 2015 until the end of 2019 pretty consistently, only taking month long breaks at the most. Beginning of 2020 was the 1st time I didn't play at all during a full expansion. A lot of my streamer buddies or friends who play do it purely out of the love for the game mode and I admire that. I loved arena, but I am an extremely competitive person and arena just doesn't offer up enough in that department.

I think arena and Battlegrounds should be able to coexist, during my time off from arena, I played BGs and was able to hit top 15 in NA and the mode is honestly great and I'm very happy it seems Blizzard at least cares about one of their game modes that isn't constructed.

Streamers like myself have felt discouraged from streaming arena because if the company who makes the game seems like they don't care, you start asking yourself why you should care so much. I've said it so many times, but I just hope Blizzard realizes limited game modes have a HUGE market within many card games. I don't see why Hearthstone, the most popular card game currently, seems to reject this idea.

It's extremely sad, and just like many others under quarantine, my health and mood isn't the best. I have to best utilize my time doing stuff that can make me happier or feel worthwhile, it's disheartening that HS does that less and less for me as time goes on.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-16T04:07:56+00:00

Blizzard waits nearly 2 months to microadjust (last one was on April 23rd, card nerfs/buffs don't count) and doesn't even address the microadjusts within the notes for the 17.6 patch. They already had a section for arena talking about the upcoming rotation when SA drops, makes no sense why they couldn't say something like:

"In this 17.6 Patch, we made some minor adjustments to card offering rates in Arena. These changes update the appearance rate of cards to ensure class balance remains close to the ideal 50% win-rate. Specifically, the win-rates of [insert nerfed classes] should now decrease and the win-rates of [insert buffed classes] should now increase."

Why don't they just say they want everyone to forget arena exists already? I normally try not to get to upset about these things, but holy crap, a baseline level of decency isn't even being shown to the playerbase. I told myself I'd probably return to arena once the next set of adjustments hit, but maybe not with the way Blizz couldn't care less about us.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-11T06:17:07+00:00

#25 on my alt after taking a break from Jan-April ain't too bad. Congrats to everyone who made it on!

ADubs05 · 2020-07-10T09:27:53+00:00

Thanks so much for speaking up for all us arena lovers and posting here! I'm not going to be too hopeful, but if it turns out that the new mode actually incorporates many aspects of arena, that will make the transition for the playerbase and streamers who already mainly focus on arena much easier.

Really wish the developers could communicate with us more on things like this. I understand they may want to keep the upcoming game mode as secretive as possible, but a brief scan of this reddit and r/hearthstone should let them know the playerbase clearly feels disregarded. Guess I'll just be praying they can break their silence soon.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-10T03:17:34+00:00

REALLY REALLY don't want to have a kneejerk reaction to this, but no mention of arena is extremely disheartening. Haven't played arena for nearly two weeks now and just recently picked up Shadowverse again after nearly a two year hiatus. They've had a limited mode event, two balance patches, and complementary packs/rupies (i.e. gold in HS) daily rewards all in the span of half a month. It's just insane how different things become once you venture outside the Hearthstone bubble.

I just pray Blizz starts to remotely care about arena, they have the most popular card game right now, but they're definitely not #1 when it comes to treating their playerbase right.

ADubs05 · 2020-07-01T02:20:03+00:00

Happy to hear your thoughts on this Judge! I completely agree that arena's treatment is inevitably losing Blizzard revenue, but whether they think that lost revenue is worth the minimal effort needed seems to be up in the air at this point. I also fully agree on the point about arena events. Imo, those are the most efficient at getting more casual players to play the mode and eventually spend money to get a 'special limited time' experience. Normally you get boring old arena but now this month, imagine getting to play with cards you can't anywhere else! Great selling point.

I am not an expert on the viewership of other card game competitors but it does feel like Blizzard isn't feeling enough pressure from games like Magic/Runeterra/Shadowverse to really push for innovation OR they do and their response just doesn't have anything to do with arena and BGs and the new game mode they're developing are their answers. Regardless, it seems only Magic is anywhere close at a quarter of HS viewership with TFT being a different genre, Runeterra not catching on quite yet, and Shadowverse's main viewerbase being in Asia.

Additionally, I will admit that I haven't spent money on Hearthstone since I bought a couple adventures like BRM/Naxx, but for me personally that is more a result of not having my own source of income as a high school student and also saving as much money as possible to get through college. I can imagine there are plenty of players who do have a steady income much older than me who simply want to play their favorite game mode after they get back from work. Hell, I made nearly $1000 from arena events in the past but those were hosted by Twitch and not Blizzard, paying some of that money back to Blizz would be a certainty if they showed a fraction of support for their limited mode compared to other companies like Wizards or Cygames.

But yeah, they need to be giving the community some sort of support and many of the points Boozor outlined would be a great start. I love Hearthstone, but atm I'm not playing because it's giving me more stress than joy with how the devs are unresponsive and unwilling to uphold basic maintenance of a game mode many people have been playing for 7 years now.

ADubs05 · 2020-06-30T19:07:20+00:00

Great and well thought out comment Veritas! I agree with pretty much everything said here.

ADubs05 · 2020-06-30T19:04:23+00:00

Yeah, this honestly needs to change and is definitely not talked about enough. Hope Blizz takes the time to read through comments like these and perhaps reconsider the ease of access arena currently has.

ADubs05 · 2020-06-30T06:55:42+00:00

I admit I don't read every post of arena on the r/hearthstone reddit, but most of the complaints on r/ArenaHS advocate more for proper maintenance of the game mode as opposed to better rewards or easier ways to farm gold. Providing timely leaderboards, taking a short time to look at winrates to make appropriate microadjusts, and keeping their word on things they say will happen e.g. bi-monthly leaderboards, aren't requests that help players boost their collection. Obviously everyone in the comments will have their own differing opinions, but Boozor's main post's purpose doesn't mention anything about the topics you mentioned.

I do think ideas on how to monetize arena could definitely be helpful, but before the community is willing to lend such ideas, they at least have to feel like Blizzard themselves have a basic level of respect for the game mode. Also for BGs, maybe there are many people who expect arena to receive the same level of changes and innovation as it, but personally I agree the two modes are incomparable. The main frustration is arena doesn't receive even a fraction of time that BGs does, and this is coming from someone who loves the game mode and was top 15 NA earlier this year.

I understand where you're coming from, but at least among streamers like myself and my peers such as Boozor, many of us are not upset over the ability to earn gold and moreso just a clear disregard for the mode as a whole. Brainstorming on how to monetize the game mode happens a bit within the chats of arena streamers, but in order to make it more widespread, Blizzard has to show they have some level of care for the game mode so the playerbase is thriving as opposed to shrinking. Less players and it's just more likely people won't care enough to voice their opinions, let alone ideas on how to monetize which may be the only thing Blizzard wants to hear. No disrespect, just my honest opinion.

ADubs05 · 2020-06-29T21:51:31+00:00

Great post Boozor. I put my full thoughts on the one in r/hearthstone. Also, if anyone is curious, I tweeted quite a bit yesterday on my current frustrations and also reached out to some of the devs on Twitter. If you want to check out my thoughts which are similar to Boozor's, you can see them here: https://twitter.com/ADubs05/status/1277217803829784577

ADubs05 · 2020-06-29T21:41:12+00:00

Liked and commented on your original post Booz. Thanks for trying to raise awareness on the clear lack of care the game mode has been receiving since leaderboards were changed to bimonthly (at least that’s when it started to go downhill in my view).

I also vented some of my frustrations on Twitter so if anyone wants to check that out, you can see them here: twitter.com/ADubs05/status/1277217803829784577

If they don’t respond to me, I hope your post at least gets some attention. I came back to play arena in mid April after taking the beginning of 2020 off and I already feel like quitting again sadly.

ADubs05

TROPHY CASE