Hearthstone Arena Starter Guide

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Arena starter guide for Hearthstone.

[Guest NedKelly]

What a nice guide. Helped me a lot. Thank You. Looking forward to new articles about the arena mode.

[Vlad 411]

What a nice guide. Helped me a lot. Thank You. Looking forward to new articles about the arena mode.

Thank you! We have a lot more Hearthstone guides (for Arena and Constructed) in the works right now. With a bit of luck, we'll have quite a few out soon.

[Guest Hearthstoned]

This was very helpfull! especially the part about rewards 

[Guest Calio]

Thanks for the guide, it was really helpful

[Roided 3]

I have 2 questions in regards to creating an arena deck.

 

1) Does hearthstone almost nudge you into playing a particular style when building your deck? For example, if i pick war and i get some middle ground minions to start (maybe harvest golem, slam, fiery war axe), sometimes then ill see brawl come up in the next 3 out of 6 turns. Is hearthstone basically telling me, go control deck for this one, or is it truly random, or do they offer cards for either playstyle (agro vs control)?

 

2) This question kinda stems from the first. If I then pick a card that keeps coming up, does that have any impact on the next choices i get? For example, if i just pick brawl the first time it comes up, do i have the same chance i could keep seeing it come up again or will the cards that come in the future vary more to provide me with better deck construction? Lets pretend I dont take brawl the first time hoping more agro based cards may come. Then i see brawl come a couple more times. Im then basically feeling like i only have 2 cards to choose from instead of 3. I guess im just feeling should i take the hints hearthstone is giving me or are the cards truly random? If they are truly random, would sucking it up and taking brawl the first time it comes allow other cards to come later or am i screwed seeing brawl come 5 times for choices?

[Vlad 411]

I have 2 questions in regards to creating an arena deck.

 

1) Does hearthstone almost nudge you into playing a particular style when building your deck? For example, if i pick war and i get some middle ground minions to start (maybe harvest golem, slam, fiery war axe), sometimes then ill see brawl come up in the next 3 out of 6 turns. Is hearthstone basically telling me, go control deck for this one, or is it truly random, or do they offer cards for either playstyle (agro vs control)?

 

2) This question kinda stems from the first. If I then pick a card that keeps coming up, does that have any impact on the next choices i get? For example, if i just pick brawl the first time it comes up, do i have the same chance i could keep seeing it come up again or will the cards that come in the future vary more to provide me with better deck construction? Lets pretend I dont take brawl the first time hoping more agro based cards may come. Then i see brawl come a couple more times. Im then basically feeling like i only have 2 cards to choose from instead of 3. I guess im just feeling should i take the hints hearthstone is giving me or are the cards truly random? If they are truly random, would sucking it up and taking brawl the first time it comes allow other cards to come later or am i screwed seeing brawl come 5 times for choices?

 

1) I don't think so. I am very confident in saying that it is literally purely random. The only non-random thing I've seen in the Arena draft is that the 30th pick will always be from Rare or better cards.

 

2) Again, it's all random. So, the cards you choose in no way whatsoever influence the card choices you'll get afterwards.

 

You can picture that the entire set of 90 cards you choose from is defined as soon as you pick the class, and it's just that you get to see them one at a time.

[Roided 3]

Thats what i figured just have seen alot of the same card come up when trying to create an arena deck. Example of how this worked out for the person I played against the other day. I went war and opponent was a priest. Guy hit me with 4 mind blasts by turn 6. i think i made it to turn 7. Thought that was a fair deck he was playing lol. He prob had even more in his deck.

[Guest Gdogg88]

See I found out that if a card keeps coming up, you can have more than 2.  I have had 3 arcane explosions I believe.  My deck didn't last long and died 3x in a row.  Yet I find if you pick the card 2x you wont see it again.  So if you like a spell like slam, pick it 2x as soon as you can and you probably wont ever see it again in the 30 choices.

[Guest Valen]

^{Has anyone else noticed that dust is no longer being given a lower tiers of wins in the arena?}

[drumsmani 47]

^{Has anyone else noticed that dust is no longer being given a lower tiers of wins in the arena?}

 

Must be just RNG. I got dust recently from a fail 1-win druid arena.

[Darb 40]

Since this is the Arena starter guide, I thought I would share my experience as a fairly new player. I've been playing hearthstone for just over 2 months now. I was at first reluctant to try arena, as I didn't want to spend 150 gold for a pack that I could otherwise purchase for just 100 gold. I wanted some reasonable assurance that I could make a good return on the extra 50 gold spent. So I spent my first two months in Play Mode, doing the daily quests to slowly accumulate gold while at the same time gaining experience and sharpening my skills.

 

I started playing arena recently and have so far seen good success. I have completed three runs with results as follows: 8 wins (Mage), 5 wins (Rogue), and 2 wins (Druid). I have also started a fourth arena run, again with Druid, and have thus far won 4 games with 1 loss. As long as you win 4 games you have made a return on the extra 50 gold, and I've been able to do that for 3 of my first 4 runs. Not to mention that the 8-win run more than makes up for the 2-win run (at least in my mind). The key reasons for my success, I believe, are two-fold:

• I use the Icy Veins Arena guides. When going through the draft I look up the card rankings/tiers under each class to help me determine each card's value. These are very helpful for me since, as a new player, I don't have much experience playing a lot of cards and therefore have trouble ascertaining the true value of some unfamiliar cards.
• Experience. Although my own experience is limited, I can't help but feel that many of my Arena wins have come as a result of my past experience (or my opponent's apparent lack of experience). I'm slowly learning when to play certain cards, when to be aggressive versus conservative, when to anticipate board clears, etc. This point is encouraging to me as I anticipate even greater success as I gain more experience.

So if you're brand new to the game and you're not sure if you should play Arena or Play Mode, I would suggest trying Play Mode for a while until you're comfortable with the game. But don't stay there too long because Arena is really fun!!!  When you decide to switch to Arena, use the awesome card ranking spreadsheets provided by Icy Veins. They'll help you learn card value from those who truly have a lot of experience.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Darb

[Darb 40]

Here's another useful tidbit. I didn't realize when I first started playing that you can achieve the daily quests while doing Arena. I thought you had to do Play Mode to earn the gold from the daily quests, and that Arena was completely separate. I was wrong! All the games you do in Arena will also earn you the daily quests. If your quest is to win 2 games with Mage or Hunter, for example, you can pick either of those heroes in Arena (assuming the choice is offered) and if you win 2 games you will earn the 40 gold for that quest, in addition to whatever Arena awards you win. Any of the hero-neutral quests, of course, can be achieved regardless of which hero you pick. So as far as earning gold goes, I view Arena as superior to grinding it out in Play Mode for two main reasons:

• It is more gold efficient. Assuming you can, on average, win 4 or more wins per Arena run you are using your gold more efficiently than simply buying packs.
• It is more time efficient. Not only are you earning at minimum a pack and some gold for the arena run, you can also cross off your daily quests from your to-do list at the same time. On the contrary, you cannot earn the awards unique to Arena in Play Mode.  So especially if it's difficult for you to find time for Hearthstone every day, you are maximizing your time spent by playing Arena. I also find it easier to win consistently in Arena since it puts you on a more level playing field. You don't have to face players with far superior cards. This means you can often achieve the daily quest faster in Arena than in Play Mode.

Hearthstone isn't just about efficiency, of course. It's mostly about having fun. I enjoy the challenge of Ranked as well as the challenge of Arena, so I like to mix it up.

 

Hopefully someone out there finds this helpful. I wish I had known from the beginning that I could earn my daily quests in Arena. 

[Scionyde 0]

What Darb said.  I think it's essential for newbies like us to play Arena in that it'll expose you to a wider range of cards than Constructed.  I found it extremely helpful to have the Arena Guide and especially the Class Tier List open when drafting.  Also, you could have your opponent's tier list open during a match to get a better understanding of what he/she is trying to do.

[Guest marvis]

What I see is, when I payed gold I get not that good card but when I pay cash I get very good card. How can this be when its random. Or is there a different. ☺

[Oltier 471]

What I see is, when I payed gold I get not that good card but when I pay cash I get very good card. How can this be when its random. Or is there a different. ☺

It's pure luck.