I suck @ Arena, please advise

[Erlink]

I've been playing this game since launch. Apart from a rather long break maybe a year ago, I've been playing casually doing dailies and such. Highest rank ever is 4, but playing casually I usually end up around rank 12.

Spent money on a bunch of card packs the first week, but since then I've only collected gold and dusted Cards.

With my average Arena winrate I should probably just buy packs with gold, but that's kinda boring.

I tried following a list ranking the cards' Worth just to see if I got a better deck out of Arena by allways picking the best Cards, but it did not really help that much.

So what are the most important pointers?
How should one pick to Counter the fact that you cannot really create a wholesome deck? Avoid synergy Cards, maybe Allways og for damage? Or maybe minions that can take a hit?

What are Your best tips?

[Taalyn]

Arena is always about board control. Never just go face. Look for sticky minions. Drafting combo cards is nice but risky.

[FobManX]

Try to build low curve decks(i.e. lots of 2 and 3 drops, some 4, very few 5+). Most arena games are won just by having early board control and steamrolling.

[Nikkaszal]

Three things win Arena games

1) Efficiency
2) Card Draw
3) Curve

You want your deck to be as efficient as possible. Because the nature of Arena makes burst combos unreliable, 90% of your games will be won by taking control of the board and holding it through advantageous trades. The arena lists you've probably looked at cover this; the top tier minions are the ones that will almost always 2-or-3-for-1.

This leads into point two - draw. You want to prioritise controlling the board over hitting face. Know why? Because your deck should have a solid amount of card draw and you will outlast your opponent as he starts topdecking. If someone has board control and cards, and the other person has no cards, then unless they pull out an absolute miracle it's usually GG. Cards like Tomb Spider and Jewelled Scarab are good for this.

Third, curve. You should have multiple options for every single turn of mana, with priority on your opening turns. Remember, you want to establish control immediately and then hang onto it. A powerful 1-2-3 curve is like 75% of an Arena match. Have a couple of big late minions - you WILL need them but don't go nuts and draft eg 5 x Krakens or... that 7/7 divine shield mech, fuck I've forgotten its name right now... just because they are shit-hot Arena minions.

Above all... practise practise practise. Arena is a totally different beast to Ranked and takes a lot of getting used to.

[TheWorkingTitle]

Your draft is the most important part, followed closely by efficient trading.

Drafting a well curved deck is crucial, because even if the card quality is lacking, you can still out-tempo or control the board if you have enough options readily available.

I suggest watching a streamer like Kripp play arena. Listen to his reasonings for drafting certain cards, why he makes certain trades, and how consciously aware he is of his opponents cards in hand and what turn it is.

Arena isn't nearly as black and white as Ladder. There's much more gambling and predicting involved. That acumen comes with experience.


Some general tips:

- Multiple smaller minions are tougher to clear (usually) than 1 large minion.
- Play around board clears when possible
- Make the safe play (unless the greedy play is your only chance of winning).
- Look a turn or two ahead in regards to your potential plays.
- Download deck tracker


Stay with it and analyze your plays. You'll learn what works and what doesn't and eventually you'll win enough games per run to be net positive compared to buying packs outright with gold. GL!

[Erlink]

Thanks a lot. I'll try a couple of rounds now and see if I'm able to turn it into something useful

[Deleted]

If you don't see it as a sign of weakness, there are several apps both online and for the desktop that help you in drafting. It's been a while since I've used them, so can't name any but I'm sure a google search will come up with a few. Usually they help you store your decks, which helps to analyze them later and see, e.g. why a particular deck was so successful.

They are not so much a straight up follow it and get the perfect deck -type apps but rather help in learning the decision making while drafting, which you can later use even after you abandon the app itself.

[Blueobelisk]

Okay I'm gonna tell you the secret of winning arena. Use this power responsibly.

Try your hardest to be lucky and get good cards in your draft. Also try your hardest to be lucky and face people who did not get good cards in their draft.

If you can master that you're on your way to 12 wins every time.

[Nikkaszal]

Okay I'm gonna tell you the secret of winning arena. Use this power responsibly.

Try your hardest to be lucky and get good cards in your draft. Also try your hardest to be lucky and face people who did not get good cards in their draft.

If you can master that you're on your way to 12 wins every time.

Funnily enough, this is the exact opposite of what is needed to win in Arena. Luck is a small part. Smart draft, good curve and efficient play is what separates the good from the bad.

[Mormolyce]

Try out an Arena addon (or use HearthArena manually, which is slower), that'll give you a good idea of which cards work and why.

[Erlink]

I tried two runs now. One With a Priest and one With a Shaman. The first went shit, the second went better (5 wins), but still a way to og.

I play a lot on iPad or a Samsung phone, so AddOns have a Limited use for me, but I will probably check it out later.

But I think I have learnt a thing or two just by playing and being mindfull of Your tips, so thanks for that. Most of it wasn't News to me, but getting some confirmation that Your ideas isn't too far off also helps noticing what errors you make and what are good Choices (if that made any sense).

[Nikkaszal]

Priest and Shaman are two fairly crap classes for Arena though. Priest has very few solid minions that can be played "vanilla" (eg don't need to be combod with anything to get max effect. Water Elemental is one of the best examples) and poor removal for Arena. Shaman, on the other hand, has way too much of its core tied up in common/rare/epic to be effective. Its only truly usable weapon is an epic. Its board clear is rare. Feral Spirit is rare. ALL of its nuke spells are common or better. This reduces the chance you'll draft them over, say, a mage who gets Fbolt/Fball/Fstrike all as basics with a higher draft chance.

Mage, Paladin, Druid and Warlock are the most effective Arena classes. As mentioned above, Mage gets most of its good shit from basics which is why they always seem to have six billion fireballs and flamestrikes when you face them. Druids get insane minions with KotG, DotC and the Ancients, as well as solid minion buffs to improve trades. Paladins have a lot of tools to keep their minions sticking to the board with divine shield/BOK etc. Warlocks draw cards forever, and draw wins games.

The other classes are a crapshoot.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

Priest and Shaman are two fairly crap classes for Arena though. Priest has very few solid minions that can be played "vanilla" (eg don't need to be combod with anything to get max effect. Water Elemental is one of the best examples) and poor removal for Arena. Shaman, on the other hand, has way too much of its core tied up in common/rare/epic to be effective. Its only truly usable weapon is an epic. Its board clear is rare. Feral Spirit is rare. ALL of its nuke spells are common or better. This reduces the chance you'll draft them over, say, a mage who gets Fbolt/Fball/Fstrike all as basics with a higher draft chance.

Mage, Paladin, Druid and Warlock are the most effective Arena classes. As mentioned above, Mage gets most of its good shit from basics which is why they always seem to have six billion fireballs and flamestrikes when you face them. Druids get insane minions with KotG, DotC and the Ancients, as well as solid minion buffs to improve trades. Paladins have a lot of tools to keep their minions sticking to the board with divine shield/BOK etc. Warlocks draw cards forever, and draw wins games.

The other classes are a crapshoot.

But currently warrior and rogue are the strongest classes, no? That's what top arena players such as Hafu have been saying lately.

[camplify]

My advice is to use something like heartharena and to only play the best 3 classes - Rogue, Paladin and mage.

[Mormolyce]

I'd say Rogue, Mage and Hunter are solid picks especially if you're not an expert at Arena.

You'll get some 1-2 win runs regardless of how good you get, don't get discouraged!

I don't know if there are any arena apps for phones, but you can use Heartharena directly for a few drafts to give you an idea of what cards to look for. You'll quickly get the idea and will be able to guess its picks anyway.

[HotLikeWasabi]

A faster curve can help win some earlier matches.

[camplify]

A faster curve can help win some earlier matches.

Yeah, having more one drops than your opponent can get you easily to 7 wins.

[haxartus]

Every time I do like 3 wins, it's because I choose value over curve and end up with like 10 4-drops or something like that.
Every time I do like +9 wins it's because I pick a good, low curve and still have ways to deal with large minions from the opponent.
Of course, having a low curve is a bit tricky, for example, you need draw, and you need to play around board clears. One board clear and it's over. If you constantly trade 2 to 1 it's also over, so you need efficient removal or buffs that make your small minions strong enough to trade with things like North Sea Kraken. Talking about North Sea Kraken, if you see one, pick it. There are some high value high mana minions that are just too good to not pick, but don't get too many of them.