mage and shaman are busted as all hell with the new cards

So is Hunter. The three cost targetable freezing trap and the infinite wolf are superpowered

Whats the best class for arena now ?

I haven't played arena in forever but these threads are pretty dead, just ask in the main Hearthstone thread.

Best class is Warlock. Rogue was nerfed a few days ago - it had nearly a 60% winrate, so it was beyond busted (due to EVIL Miscreant). Warrior is back to being dumpster tier.

Here's a catch-all strat currently: The more lackeys you have in your deck, the more wins you'll get.

On another note, fellow 2+2er forthelulz and I have been grinding arena hard, and have finished in the top 25 the past few months. We average around 7.5 wins, the #1 finish in a given month squeezes beyond 9 (which is obviously terrific, but also super lucky).

Also, Hunter is currently quite strong, which is unusual since it normally is kinda weak, but it is the only class with a good matchup vs warlock.

These cards are busted ATM:
1 - Chow. It's back in rotation but is always vs the top rated echelon of cards, so it's hard to acquire.
2 - Hogsteed. This is the best 2 drop in the game, you generally get offered a bunch, and should almost always take it.
3 - Faceless Rager. Very strong card!

~

5 - Dalaran Crusader. Strongest drop you can make on 5.
6 - Eccentric Scribe. Take it over nearly anything

Thanks for the quick summary, Bobbo. Since you're going over strong neutral minions, what is your opinion on Proud Defender? And would you say that Haunted Creeper is the second best 2-drop?

I hope that those lackeys will be banned from arena soon, but that's probably not gonna happen.

those 2 minions are tier 1 for sure. proud defender is way more polarized because from ahead it's just a stegadon or w/e, which was a below average 4 drop. but it has its upside.

creeper is better when you have token synergy or the like, i like taking them in most classes when you need a ping or can buff the 1/1 aftermath or can sac a 1/1 (like in warlock with the lackey card)

its funny, its a card that used to be OP way back in naxx, and now its just like, sure, it's decent/good.

What did I do so right to deserve this?

This thread deserves a bump, because arena is (and probably always will be) the best game mode in Hearthstone. Moreover, I want to share my observations on the current meta and hear some opinions.

But let me start with some bragging. I've been doing really well lately - both Descent of Dragons and the previous wild meta. I had 27 runs in a row where I got 5 wins or more (just broke the streak last week with a 4-3 run). My average amount of wins in DoD is currently 7.16 over 19 runs. In Saviors of Uldum it was 6.59 and before that it used to be below 6.

One reason for this improvement is probably me picking the best performing class slightly more often, instead of just the class I feel like playing. But I also suspect that arena has gotten softer since Battlegrounds was introduced. Any thoughts on that? Or maybe this meta favors a certain playing style? Or is it less of a tempo meta than before, where you just automatically lost when you missed your 2-drop?

Arena is also my favourite mode and this meta has been good except now that poacher is back after the recent nerf patch it's aids again.

I haven't played much arena in years, but did do a draft together with bobbo and forthelulz a few weeks ago. Cruised to 12-0 with a dragon paladin so not sure if arena is softer or not, but did watch redbeard's stream for a few hours one day and seemed a bit soft.

Picking the strong classes will do a lot for your average wins I think. When I was streaming I was slowly losing gold when I played a lot of warrior and priest so yeah, paladin has always and probably always will be strong in arena so play that :-).

Right now mage is so strong its broken and Twin Tyrant needs to be removed from arena its more of a problem then Mind Control Technician ever was.

Paladin is stronger than Mage at the moment. Getting TT'd sucks and the card is OP as ****, but at least the RNG is not as strong as with MCT.

I know that's what HS replay says but my own experience says Mage by a mile. Flame Strike and Poly are as good as ever and the Dragon synergy between Azure explorer and Arcane breath is great.

I must admit I had a good Mage run earlier this week. It contained all the cards you just mentioned except Arcane Breath, but it did have a Rolling Fireball and an Arcane Explosion. Azure Explorer + Arcane Explosion = nuts. 12 wins was the result.

So yesterday I did my first arena run in the new meta and got to 11 wins. The deck wasn't great, but I went first most games and that always helps when you're a Warlock.

Anyway, I picked Sacrificial Pact against the advice of HearthArena and didn't regret it. Of course it's far from a great card, but given the amount of demons in the meta I'd say it's underrated. I ended up using the card a couple of times.

Went 12-0 in my first arena with Demon Hunter. Demon Hunter is seriously oped in Arena even after the nerfs. Coifang Warlord should be a 10 cost card and even then should be nerfed to a 7/5 and a 5/7 deathrattle. Hulking Overfiend saved my ass numerous times as a board clear. Skull of Gul'dan is another oped card if you can get to outcast.

Ok, Bobbo was right. Demon Hunter in Arena is pure aids and needs to be nerfed significantly. I had a couple of runs were I got obliterated in the early game, mostly by Battlefiend but there a couple more busted cards that fit in an aggro deck. It just takes the fun out of Arena.

Is arena way more insane right now? I can't tell if I'm bad, unlucky or both.

Yesterday this guy went turn 4 4/1 rush draw a rush. Turn 5 4/1 rush draw a rush. Turn 6 zixor + copy its death rattle on the 5/2 rush and kills it off. Turn 7 rhino + draw a beast give it +3/+3. Turn 8 4 8/8 chargers....

This was at 4-1.

Today at 3-1 I'm way way way ahead. My opponent curves into dragon queen off the top on 9. Then metamorphosis.... I stabilize with a 7/9 taunt up at 8 hp and they have kayn to go around the taunt and kill me.

Is the card pool just super limited right now with rotation? I haven't played arena in a long time.

I just picked Zephrys early on in an Arena draft when my deck was still clean. And yet I ended up with one duplicate:

I still had 4 Arena tickets from the pre-purchase. I entered the draft and picked Demon Hunter. I thought the deck seemed like a good aggro deck, but I don't know how to evaluate Arena decks. I played two frustrating games and retired the deck rather than spend any more time in that mode.

If I really need dust at some point, I'm going to cash in those other three ticks. That's 3 packs and 120 dust, waiting to be converted.

Are y'all still playing Arena? Today I managed to pull of a 12-1 run with Warlock. I drafted Magtheridon, which usually is a pretty bad card, but thanks to two Hellfires it actually won me several games.

Generally speaking though I hate the current meta. There are too many potential swings and the card quality in the two most recent sets is ridiculous.

What is the proper picking strategy? I don't use heartharena or any deck tracker plug ins. It takes the fun out of it if an algorithm is making the decisions for you.

I thought it was something like "Picks 1-10 go on quality only, picks 11-20 consider curve/synergy, picks 21-30 heavily consider curve/synergy" but it seems that quality is by far the most important factor.

My recent 12 win deck I thought was going to be bad because I mostly picked 2 and 3 drops and eschewed some other cards that would've been better for my curve (or so I thought) and I ended up going the distance.

I am on a new account though so they handicap you for the first few runs by trying to match you with other new accounts and/or giving you a +1 loss handicap when matchmaking.

I remember that guideline. I do pay more attention to curving out as the draft progresses, but without sticking to those three phases. For example, if I've been having trouble getting enough 3-drops in a given meta, I might take an average 3-drop over a good 5-drop well before pick 11.

I think drafting discover cards is important nowadays. They can really turn games around, especially in Arena.