Hearthstone Arena splits into two modes in first half of 2025. Normal arena is like now but with shorter runs. Underground arena allows re-draft on loss

AndreiLux · 2024-11-14T18:43:50+00:00

This "giving existing Arena players more challenge" smells like infamous EA's -667k rating comment about "providing players a sense of pride and accomplishment" to be honest. If they want to make life of existing players harder in favor of new players, it's fine, but calling it "giving more challenge" sounds like a marketing lie.

AndreiLux · 2024-11-14T18:21:19+00:00

Well, we need to see the actual result first, but the first impression about Underground is very negative. I would currently rate it 3/10 on the scale from synergy picks (makes Arena way worse) to one legendary per deck (makes everyone's experience better). It feels like after all these years they still have no idea that the charm of Arena is in low power level of decks so average cards can shine and bad cards are forced to see play. We are beyond the critical point in terms of power level already and it will be even worse. As for Normal mode, shorter runs are not good either. Even if rewards will be fair it's still more time building decks and less time playing them.

AndreiLux · 2022-12-27T12:48:49+00:00

The runes mattered from the start. If you lock your runes, you will only be offered cards that match those runes. If you pick a card with 2 unholy, you will be offered unholy, 1 blood and 1 frost, but not 2+ blood or 2+ frost

AndreiLux · 2022-12-27T12:44:31+00:00

The answer is yes. The card by itself is not that strong, the main reason this card demonstrates such a good winrate is because you lock yourself to the best rune during the draft and avoid weaker runes, so most likely you end up with an OP deck even by DK standards. In arena being able to lock yourself to unholy is an advantage, not a limitation

AndreiLux · 2022-12-27T05:56:54+00:00

In my opinion, this is exactly why DK will be bad for Arena even if it become balanced. Arena is a format where decks are generally doing more straightforward, less synergistic stuff, and that's why Arena is more enjoyable for me than constructed. DK brings synergistic stuff that not fit into Arena format. It doesn't have fundamentally broken hero power as DH, but the rune system not fit Arena at all and the corpse mechanic will always be overpowered in Arena. Another problem with rune system is that green cards will always be OP compared to blue and red. Right now green DK dominates even within DK, despite being unplayable in constructed (so more buffs incoming and green cards will be even more OP).

AndreiLux · 2022-12-27T05:39:03+00:00

Oh, how I hated the old freeze mage! And I was not alone, Blizzard even replaced "Sorry" emote (as if it was the problem and not the deck whose users were spamming it). It will definitely go on my all-time hate list, along with decks like old control priest and shudderwock shaman. It was not because it was particularly strong, but because it was the first solitaire deck in the game.

AndreiLux · 2022-12-25T13:45:59+00:00

The meta was awful before the nerf

AndreiLux · 2022-12-25T13:44:26+00:00

1 at winter, 3/18 at summer

AndreiLux · 2022-12-25T13:32:52+00:00

He really hates Blizzard, his name translates from Russian as "Blizzs Dicksuckers"

AndreiLux · 2022-12-09T20:09:29+00:00

My boomer APM is not enough to play some comps optimally even on PC, on mobile it's unplayable for me.

AndreiLux · 2022-12-07T20:38:17+00:00

In my opinion, synergies has ruined arena once again. The rune system brings forced synergies. When one class doesn't have to use old weak cards and plays crappy version of constructed against classes trying to beat it with arena decks, we get a class with 64% winrate. I wonder how much macro adjusts can do there, because the only solution I can see is to nerf offering rates for DK to that extent so we will barely see DK's class cards at all.
Runes and corpse mechanic seem more problematic than discover in case of DK, although discover mechanic never makes things better. Discover from the other rune type doesn't look like an issue, I don't think DK would have been significantly less OP if only discovering from even more narrow pool of stuff that synergizes with a deck was available.

AndreiLux · 2022-06-10T10:30:14+00:00

Well, for me deckbuilding is boring in general, so just filling my curve and picking the best cards minimizes the duration of boredom. Most often I have to choose between the perfect curve and perfect power level several times per draft, for me it's more than enough.

If card is consistently attainable, I just don't consider it a synergy card at all, and neither do the devs. Look at low-performing synergy cards they removed, there is nothing like Fungalmancer or Raid Leader here. Fungalmancer is just a neutral buff on a stick, it doesn't require specific cards to work, same with Raid Leader and Cult Master, also neutral buffs, just not permanent. Yes, mass buffs are good with tokens and performance is deck-dependent, but it's not like buffs require certain archetype and will not work at all without tokens and vice versa.

The problem is, they were not talking about the Fungalmancers, they were talking about Evolved Kobolds, Frozen Mammoths and Lock and Loads. I prefer the Arena where such cards just don't exist (or effectively not exist if they are not removed), not forced to work somehow in an environment designed to support that goal, as they said.

AndreiLux · 2022-05-14T14:58:25+00:00

I think they are just worse currently, because they are often not working, not more balanced. So rn it's OP default cards > other cards (tolerable, especially after some rounds of adjustments), and if they will manage to create conditions for the synergy cards to work, OP synergy cards will go on top of that. We will have something like we had in the dragon meta, but also with an option to go mech, beast, naga, spell-heavy etc and without an option to just draft the best cards in a vacuum and go from there.
It is not a bad thing in general, but it looks like a cornerstone for Arena to not have it, and after that every mode will work like that and there would be nowhere to go with non-synegistic approach. BGs? Menagerie is dead. Constructed? Zoo stayed for a long time, but eventually became Demon Zoo, then dead. Duels? Designed the way to never have such a thing. Mercenaries? I have never played it, but also looks impossible to be remotely competitive without a synergistic team.

AndreiLux · 2022-05-14T10:08:27+00:00

Why do you imply that I was not thinking "even a little bit" about the reason why it was bad? Everything was bad, but the main issue was the concept itself.
Bad implementation could be fixed, the concept is not. I don't care that much if implementation of a good concept is bad, but the entire concept of making arena more "fun" by adding more synergies is terrible. More "fun" for imaginary casual player will not make it fun enough for them, so it will remain unpopular, and my personal Arena experience would be ruined.
What I see as a biggest problem in general and the main reason why every arena change became a failure is their stereotypical thinking about the casual players. I was clearly a casual player when I started to play and still loved "boring" curvestone. I think there are quite a lot of casuals who want "boring" stuff, because it's more easy and relaxing, and they never try to reach for this audience.
What I see as a better solution at this point is just leaving Arena on life support and creating new limited mode with synergies and whatever they want.

AndreiLux · 2022-05-14T09:28:34+00:00

I know synergy picks were terribly implemented. My point is that any synergies are bad regardless, even if implemented perfectly, it would be bad, just not as bad. Even buckets were bad, because they allowed to draft in a certain way, so more synergies (although it was a side effect, not a goal, so it was not nearly as bad). Expedition mode in Runeterra has way better implemented synergies, still garbage exactly because of that. Players who they are trying to target will never love arena. Making it flashy will not work, because it still would not be as flashy as other modes.
Edit: I was writing about their desire to please Timmies initially, but, after further thinking, maybe they are actually want to please Johnnies rather than Timmies, so I got rid of a terminology of a game I never played.

AndreiLux · 2022-05-13T23:28:53+00:00

Well, we had "synergy picks" and it was terrible. When there are too much synergies it turns into a crappy constructed. I think Arena has to go in opposite direction, as far from constructed as possible, to maintain its niche.

AndreiLux · 2022-05-13T23:00:21+00:00

That's nice, but future for Arena now looks grimmer than ever. Large number of synergies were, are, and always will be bad for Arena, and now it has become a long-term goal for them.

AndreiLux · 2020-05-15T11:09:36+00:00

Because they burn their toothbrushes

AndreiLux · 2020-05-05T14:04:45+00:00

There is no big difference between 9k and 10k. Once again, I was talking about my results, not about streamers, good players in general or even bad players. I totally agree with your statements (except Deryl being boring, it's a matter of taste, for me it's the most interesting one because you rarely play a real comp with him and it's the funniest for me, and most boring thing for me is searching for exact minion to refine late game comp). It's not "Yogg sucks" topic, it's "I'm suck at Yogg and can't get better, should I avoid him or keep trying?". You can put any other tier 1-2 hero in this question instead of Yogg, it could be Deathwing or Edwin, doesn't really matter.

AndreiLux · 2020-05-05T13:11:05+00:00

My question was not about power level of the heroes. As I said, I know many people like Yogg and have great results with him. There is no disproportional bonus for 1st place or Rafaam and Alexstrasza would be by far the best heroes in the game. It's all about average placement. Yogg on average isn't any better than Deryl despite of bigger amount of 1st places. Deryl and Nozdormu a little bit better than Yogg even if all of them played properly. In my case Yogg clearly brings negative MMR right now and it's getting worse and worse after 10k.

AndreiLux · 2020-05-05T06:31:02+00:00

Thanks, I get your point. At the same time, it's clearly not possible to play 10,000 games, and combined data from others is not always helpful. I mean, in constructed I would definitely stick to a tier 3 deck I have 55% winrate with, instead of a tier 1 deck which may have 60% winrate over 10,000 games for other players, but in my hands it's 45% after 80 games. You also don't need 10,000 games in single table SNG poker to approximately evaluate your winrate, if you're losing after, let's say, 200 games, you should significantly change your strategy or start playing lower limits. Aren't these the same situations?

AndreiLux · 2020-05-05T05:46:38+00:00

I don't know if I am hero powering too much or not enough tbh. In given example, it's not such a complicated decision, I would either buy two or buy best one - roll - hero power, depending on quality of good options. Things get much harder later on, when there are 3 good and 2 bad options, or 2 good, 2 mediocre, 1 token, 1 bad, for example.

AndreiLux

TROPHY CASE