The Arena mode of Hearthstone will be heavily revamped with the next update. New cards and better rules will provide more fun.
The Arena mode in Hearthstone is a double-edged sword for many players. While some gamers love this mode because of the high RNG factor and the sometimes absurd combinations of cards (8 Fireballs in the same deck), others shy away from the Arena for the same reasons.
To make the Arena even more exciting and interesting, players at BlizzCon 2017 could vote on special cards that are extremely powerful and will only appear in the Arena. With the next update (Patch 10.4), there will be 9 new Arena cards – one for each class.
The developers are aware that these cards are extremely powerful and can heavily influence gameplay in the Arena – but that was exactly the idea behind these cards.
However, these new cards will not remain active forever. With the launch of the next expansion, likely in April, the cards will be removed from the Arena again. This is apparently intended as a test to see how the cards and ideas resonate with players.
New Rules for Creating Arena Decks
But there are more changes to the Arena. Blizzard is revamping the card selection system offered when creating an Arena deck.
In the future, players will no longer necessarily be offered cards of the same rarity, but rather of a similar “power level”. For example, when creating a Mage deck, one may be presented with a Fireball (common) along with a Leyline Manipulator (rare) and a Ancient Dragon (epic). The decision here is not so simple and is meant to feel more significant.
One exception to this rule is the legendary cards. These will still be offered in a set of 3, but care will also be taken that the 3 legendary cards are of similar strength.
Cortyn says: Honestly, I am consistently positively surprised by the planned changes to the Arena. The Arena is my favorite mode and all too often there were “clear” decisions with the offered cards, where only one card was truly solid. The fact that the decisions are now becoming more meaningful also has another positive effect: The uncontrollable RNG decreases a bit. Because if you have three relatively equal cards to choose from, you can make a stronger decision about the deck than someone who is only offered one solid card.
What do you think of the Arena changes? A clever move by Blizzard? Or should one not tinker too much with the Arena?
By the way, players will soon receive free card packs because there were some issues last week.
