Some interesting news came in this evening from Hearthstone's Dean Ayala regarding the future of the Arena. Although Dean did not have definitive plans to share about the game mode, he did express his thoughts on the format which should be of interest for players who enjoy the Arena and are a great community discussion starter.
- Dean would like to rebuild the Arena game mode.
- The core problem is that there is no matchmaking in Arena based on skill. Dean could see a future where it changes.
- Changing to a "matchmaking by skill" formula would mean that rewards would have to be changed too.
- He thinks that most Arena players would be unhappy with a change and would hate to alienate them from the mode.
- To see success and growth in Arena, large changes like this might be needed though.
Keep in mind that Dean is not saying they are going to be changing the Arena, but he has certainly opened an interesting can of worms for the Arena crowd. While we're not ready to comment on it quite yet, it remains a great question for the community!
If you regularly partake in the Arena, how do you feel about Dean's suggestions? Let us know in the comments below!
Quote From Dean Ayala Any plans on rebuild the Arena gamemode? (like the draft system /reward/etc) ?
I really want to. Arena has this core problem of not being a matchmade mode and it hurts any new player trying to join. The rewards system forces our hand here a bit but I could see a future where we change rewards and just matchmake players by skill. (Source)
It's actually at the forefront of my mind. The worry is that I think most current arena players would be unhappy, and you hate to alienate passionate users of a feature. In order to see growth and success, it might be a change we have to make. (Source)
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 12 - Day 2 [Finished]](dark-beyond-reveals-day-2-thumb.webp)
Comments
Im one of those people who play mostly arena. Gotta first give a big shoutout to the devs for giving exp for playing things other than standard. Before you got the 10 Gold for 3 wins but there was no extra reward in arena for playing a lot and now im actually getting exp for playing arena and it feels great.
Having mmr for arena seems hard though and i dont see the point. There's some chance queues would take forever and there is already a divider with hos many wins you have.
And enjoying the new meta. Welcome in. We reward with exp now just like standard ;)
Skill-based matchmaking makes ZERO sense for Arena. He's right that such a change would greatly annoy existing Arena players.
It's OK to have a mode that doesn't pamper new players. If they absolutely must do it, I would hope they just add a casual Arena mode with no rewards beyond XP. That might actually be a fun compromise, but it would further dilute the queue, and I'm not sure Arena has enough players to keep queue times reasonable if they split it like that.
Say goodbye to 7+ wins if they ever implement this. Arena should be about adapting and keeeping general skill sharp, both in deckbuilding and playing, which in turn rewards you. Adding mmr to it would kill the rewarding part, as your results will mainly come from draft luck.
The main issue I'm having with Arena lately is how heavily rng and card generation warped it, which brings so much frustration. I remember times when I could get a rogue deck with trash draft to high wins just with good gameplan and plays, since power level was so much lower, resources/power plays limited. Those runs and games were my most fun memories, and today I almost don't play at all.
Arena is my favorite mode - and I'm mediocre at it! It's always refreshing finding different decks to play with and against, with different cards, ones that we don't see in constructed. But the mode needs a big change, it has been stalled for a long time. I don't know what could attract players or even make it better though. I also don't know how it could be more interesting from the point of view of rewards while being properly monetized by Blizzard.
I'd be down for this. I just get murdered every time I wander in Arena.
I really liked arena when I first started. With no card collection to speak of, spending 300 gold on 2 arena runs was a better return than spending it on 3 packs. I still remember my first ever 12 run fondly :)
Now, I dip into it occasionally, but I usually just find I've drafted a mediocre deck and not played it that well. And the packs have much less value. So, with my overall interest waning, I just go there with my free tickets. Didn't even realise I could use them for heroic duels until yesterday.
Agreed that it needs a change, but as he notes, implementing skill-based matchmaking kills the rewards structure of Arena. That's the problem with Heroic Duels: rankings punish you for playing well. Every match you win decreases your chances of winning the next. Which is fine . . . unless rewards are results-based. And there must be rewards, because otherwise there's no incentive to try or play the mode.
There are plenty of other available methods for making Arena more inviting to newbies, fortunately. Keeping the cards you draft, implementing mutators, more forgiving rewards, rollovers into your next run, more free tickets, more help and tooltips, official guides, etc. I can only hope that they turn to these solutions instead.
I hope that they do because, as a 'better' player, non-skill-based matchmaking is refreshing. Ranked play is exciting, but tiring. Booting up an Arena run and seeing my opponent misplay or beating someone easily reminds me that the hours I've put into Hearthstone haven't (sort of) been wasted.
So, if they do implement SBMM, I'd like to see non-SBMM elsewhere. Even if just for casual events, like Tavern Brawls, because even though reaching Legend puts you in the tippy top percentiles of the game, ranked gameplay doesn't remind players of that. Skillbased matchmaking fundamentally can't remind players how skilled they've become - by design, you're always average. If you're a newbie, you have goals. If you're experienced, you're fulfilled. But if you're average, welp, being average sucks.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Arena is mostly skill-based already as bad players have stopped playing. I have never understood why people are so afraid of losing gold in Arena. Even at 0 wins, you get a pack and 10-15 extra gold or dust back. Yes, that is a net loss, but hopefully, you learned something during your run such that you can do better next time. As soon as you average 2 wins (which implies you also win 4 occasionally) it's already a better investment than spending it directly on packs. And if you keep playing you'll notice you're getting better and better until you manage to get on the leaderboard one day.
Well put. The KO system is great and allows noticeable personal progression. Winning more games is 10x more rewarding than having a higher MMR rating.
I realize that this comes at a cost - The vast majority of people have little success in arena. Every 8th run ends in a 0-3! That’s why I don’t understand the pricing of it. They should reduce the cost by 100 gold and take out the pack from the prize pool
I don't know who downvoted this post, but this guy is right. Skillbased matchmaking won't help Arena.
Yeah, no. SBMM ruins everything.
Change the matchmaking to be by skill. Sure. And then wait 10 minutes for a game anything higher than 4 wins at low levels.
That reward thing by skill level is probably impossible to implement. Since its easy to tank one's MMR, the lower MMR rewards would likely be bad. And if its bad then no one would want to play arena.
If it got more players playing, it would likely be a huge win for the mode and would help with possible problems skill-based matchmaking would bring.
Personally, I think they should go the route of "Heroic" Arena and regular, with no rewards for the normal offering like they do for Duels. It can be a very intimidating mode so that alone doesn't make me want to possibly waste gold on it, especially if all I'm gonna get back out of it is a card back that isn't really worth anything to me at this point. It also would mean they didn't have to give out tickets when they want to do special Arena events like dual-class arena for Halloween since they can just run that in the free mode as well. Turn the heroic arena into something more like heroic brawl with more kickass rewards with a higher cost to enter and leave that at the wins-losses matchmaking.
If they were to do more monetization through cosmetics, making Arena free seems like a way better way to earn money. Then again, I don't have access to the data they do so I could be completely wrong on this.
Like someone said last night on The Angry Chicken's 400th episode, I'd rather just draft Magic the Gathering anyway because its better than what Arena is.
The problem is they've diluted the arena playerbase with duels. Duels and arena are very similar. (anyone who claims otherwise is ....well needs to re-evaluate). They both have 'draft' similar styles. They both provide performance based rewards (more wins=more rewards). The difference is that arena is purely random draft with single draft cards. Duels is semi-crafted with bucket rewards after every game and imbalanced treasures.
Both systems have their flaws. I feel like arena would do better with the bucket draft system from the start (no starter deck like duels though). And I feel like duels would do better by I dunno. limiting the starter deck? Duels seems insanely hard to balance, and they dont appear to be providing the mode with much love at the moment.