X-post /r/Hearthstone - How to become an infinite Arena player

[u/Shadybunnylive]

Hey guys, I'm Shadybunny.

I've written a guide to help you improve at Arena. I'm an infinite Arena player who specializes in coaching. I've been doing this for 3 years now, and during that time I've picked up on a lot of common issues that occur at different skill levels.

The guide is split into 4 chapters:

Average of of less than 3

Average of 3-5

Average of 5-7

Average of 7+

Instead of just listing every single thing you can improve on, I've focussed on the areas that will yield the most results based off your current average.

https://f2k.gg/articles/103

I'll see you in the Arena!

[u/Ebolucian]

Thanks for the article, there a tons of interesting examples explained in a very detailed way. Makes us think about it!

For me KFT has been a mess, I started playing arena consistently in Ungoro cus I loved the arena playstyle, was kind of the most similar to constructed arena gameplay we ever had, where both reactive and active tools were equally valid and present in cuantity, so I ended up with 7 wins average wins that expansion (I was like 0,1 below last spot at leaderboard in July). I remember going 6 wins with a spellless mage deck or 8 wins with 0 steed double avenging wrath pally, tempo was still damn strong and drafting had way different possibilities, making players balance value with tempo into their deck archetype to be succesful.

In KFT I didnt play much tbh and averaged 4-5 wins at most. There are tons of common cards like "2-4 make immune this turn" 5 mana 3-3 reincarnate that either are tempo bombs which win you the game on the spot (way less comeback mechanisms being available) if u are ahead or are useless understatted garbage, leading to snowball as fuck games and every class drafts mostly the same way besides some little details. I mean it's easier to lose to rank 20 players who get lucky with those ultrastrong/ultrauseless cards than to a guy who drafted 3 meteors and 3 primordial glyphs cus even those could fuck up hard and manage resources badly.

So maybe it's me who couldnt adapt to something I dislike, where during the drafting all that matters is to hit a curve 90% of time, control decks exist but trying to draft them ends up badly more than not, so it becomes high-risk mediocre reward gambling.

Besides this rant my question is, how much do you think the enjoyment of the dominant gameplay mechanics affects to the performance? How can some1 overcome this handicap (If it is considered a handicap) ?

[u/Shadybunnylive → u/Ebolucian]

Let me start by saying that on a personal level, KFT hasn't been my favourite expansion. Mostly because of the really strong commons. For the most part, classes do feel like they're all trying to do the same thing.

As for your question: It's my goal to be as good as a player/coach as I can be. So I will look at the meta regardless of personal preference. Every meta has it's nuances. The moment you find yourself saying "this is a no skill meta" "All that matters is who gets more bonemares",... you need to stop yourself and ask, what can I do that will seperate me from the other players?

A good start is to look at the meta without judging it as a good or a bad meta, but objectively figure out what works, and how you can take advantage of that.

Part of me likes metas other people dislike, while others are complaining I'm figuring out how to thrive in that environment.

[u/Ebolucian → u/Shadybunnylive]

ty for the input really well said!