It undoubtedly took very little time – the tracking system was already made for Vaults. All they had to do was track Arena wins (something they already do for the arena system itself) instead of gnomes killed, and change the rewards. No effort required.
3 Likes
Worst event ever. What a waste of time. It is better to skip it in my opinion especially with these sorry rewards and this stupid setup to draft your troops. I will never do any Arena any time soon if it is stay the same.
3 Likes
the scaling for rewards is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. As much as I want the writs… it’s not even close to worth the time to get far enough in to get 60 considering I don’t need gem keys, event keys, or shards.
Best thing you could do to somewhat improve this event in my opinion is take the reward tiers out completely and make a shop where you can spend your earned valor on gem keys, event keys, shards, writs, or orbs with a set price for each resource.
17 Likes
Rewards are the redeeming quality of the event. No, I don’t think they’re wonderful, all I mean is - they make this process painless to skip, miss, ignore and feel no regrets.
Should the rewards get buffed (without any actual changes to the Arena mode (including event) itself to better gameplay experience), stream of frustration and negativity - quite safe to assume - would follow making our today’s complaints a child’s play.
Nothing compares to you are forcing me to do this [insert expletive] thing.
3 Likes
+1 for this. Makes more sense than the current reward tier system.
The peasants do not require choices! They require a 100 hours of work for a bowl of cabbage water!
Edit: Honestly I was convinced this would have sigils and some kind of way to buy power increases.
One thing they can’t say anymore is this game is not pay to win. VIP 4 is literally paying for a win.
6 Likes
Unpopular opinion: I actually really like having a reason to grind Arena.
I’ve decided I like the mode, and I’ll make a devil’s advocate case below for why I don’t think this Arena of Valor is the worst event despite having the worst rewards.
Why I like the mode in one general thesis:
In a fairly-streamlined manner, I am forced to switch things up and keep teams fresh.
That’s it. If that’s the feedback that gets collated in the “Pros” column, it’s that.
This thesis does not happen for other events, where it’s just a matter choosing what the optimal choice is given the restrictions. I ask myself questions like, “Can I use [Insert Tesla, Queen Beetrix, Doomed Weapon here]?” And if the answer is Yes, the team-building goes no further for as long as my sigils (or play session) last.
Bounty has a META + plug-in-Captain. Each World Event has a META. Delves, Class Events, and even Explore has, what amount to, METAs, and often they are the same METAs as what are found elsewhere, in other modes, with maybe a few tweaks or two (that are usually just me thinking, “Ah, man, I can’t use [Insert that troop I like, King Gobtruffle, say, or my second Empowered Converter usually used to fill him]).
That’s why people complain that every mode feels the same: because, in a way, they are. And not just because scoring doesn’t vary, or because restrictions don’t actually limit choices enough to alter how players play — we’ve seen changing either tends not to be the sort of thing players actually want. But I digress.
Arena does have an optimal choice-pattern BUT it is not overly-present because it is obfuscated (and therefore hard to choose, which is bad; see below) AND changed every 6 fights (which is good — there are multiple “Bests” and a player MUST alter his or her BEST being used every so often).
Overall, I like being forced to play with different teams, and I’m never going to force myself to do so in another mode if it means having slower battles, fewer tokens, etc… This is why stricter restrictions DON’T work on the “make player play with troops they don’t usually choose” front, but Arena, often, DOES, because I can use my go-to AoE Queen Bee and Vanya Soulmourn in this week’s World Event, but I don’t even have a guaranteed AoE option in an Arena run. See the difference? I hope so. I don’t feel like I’m explaining it well, but maybe a tangent will help…
The only other mode that makes a player redraft teams again and again is Guild Wars, and this ONLY happens at the top, where offenses NEED to be constantly altered to directly counter defenses. THAT — more than the 1500 gems, I would argue — is why the people who like Wars like Wars (and why the people who play in top guilds for the 1500 gems only tend NOT to like Wars).
The problem is, Wars does both teambuilding/drafting and turn-by-turn choices better: they’re strategic, and at the highest levels of competition slow, which is why enthusiasts love it and detractors hate it. It’s not for the grinders. It’s for the people willing to take 4 hours to complete a pure-faction at 500 in a delve at Pure-Hoard 100.
But Arena is sort of trying to do the same thing, I think, but in the middle as a less-hardcore version—and, uniquely, as a sort of “training wheels” version where it’s way harder to choose poorly (in Wars, the world is your oyster and you can construct a truly awful team if you don’t know what you’re doing. Arena saves you from that by having very few very-bad options, and because synergy isn’t really a priority, which I think is a shame, but in this way Arena becomes a tutorial for Wars).
Arena is not all that strategic (each choice amounts to: does it do damage? Okay! Then that’s the one I pick) but it is still slow, which is the worst of both worlds—this is at the root, I think, of why strategists are mad that team-building isn’t really being supported, and grinders are mad that the battles are slow and the reward payouts per-unit-time are terrible (which, to be fair, I think strategists are also mad about, but are probably just slightly less perturbed about it).
Also, as an incidental tangent to my already-a-tangent: I also like playing with the underused troops. In any other context, they are bad. But when facing only themselves, it can be fun participating in the Littles-Bracket, like playing Charmander vs. Cyndaquil rather than Charizard vs. Typhlosion. Imagine a “Mythics only” Wars, or a “No Mythics or Legendaries” Wars. This is (sort of) trying to be that. A fun idea — but only if done well, and not for everyone, regardless.
Ahem
Tangent(s) over…
Back to the main thrust of the argument…
I have critiques about the drafting system and the “freshness,” too; I am not some sort of “wholly satisfied customer.” If you’re looking for that, don’t point to me — I’m getting my two chaos orbs, and then I’m out (and I’d wager that’s farther than many will go).
…I definitely do have critiques for both, despite defending them each just now, as I think my frequent caveats demonstrate. But if you will indulge me further (you really are a glutton for punishment if you’ve read this far, but thank you if so; it means a lot to be heard)…
For one (and there will only be one here, as I’ve already overstayed my welcome, though I will expound more in a future post, if pressed), the drafting could do with some serious improvement. The best idea I’d like to spend some words promoting here is to draft all 4 troops at once: resize the rows so that they can all be seen at the same time, “click one from each row” instruction written at the top, gray-out the rest of the row when a selection has been made. Simple. Feeds two birds with one scone, too, as it allows people to plan synergies better, knowing how their choices would complement one another, AND plan around what will likely be their best card on the team—the Epic—which is supposedly “the point” of the mode: Team-Building.
At the danger of making Arena-METAs similar to the ones I railed against above, I think that’s the best change that could be made to “solve” the problem that is blind-drafting from low-rarity to high-rarity. That danger realized would be bad.
But it wouldn’t be inevitable if the system were done well, and all that would require is having large enough pools that a player couldn’t/wouldn’t just use the same really-good-troop over and over. Or hey — here’s an idea — if really good, OP selections weren’t as common as they seem to be: Actual Troops that break the Arena list
Maybe some would pay 1k gold after seeing a bad draft screen. Over and over. But I doubt it, and feel like anyone willing to pay such a tax is already doing so.
Make it harder to be stuck with a bad team, and fewer people will quit-out. Make it harder to sweep with a single troop and no team will be too tough to overcome.
Anyway, if the reason to play the event is the rewards, then the reason to grind very quickly diminishes because rewards very quickly get stuck behind dozens of battles. Therefore: so does the enjoyment of said grind, if it was ever there in the first place (like in my case). Maybe there will be enough of these things that 12% of an Imperial per-event is actually 1 Imperial a month. It remains to be seen — if it so happens to be this way, then I’m more-okay with it even though I still think that’s too stingy. If it’s not the case, and the inadverdant nerf to other events mentioned by Schu (spelling? Sorry), then I’m going to be upset.
That’s a problem if the goal is to get people to like playing Arena rather than just play it enough for the low-hanging fruit and then participate no longer (if they even bothered to participate in the first place).
Also as a final thing the entire event is very poorly explained in-game, but what else is new 
Tl;dr for the dev(s) collating feedback:
PROS
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Building a new team every 6 battles keeps gameplay fresh and fun
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Playing with low-rarity troops only makes for interesting match-ups rarely seen in the mid-or-endgame
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The mode serves (potentially) as a tutorial for other parts of the game requiring deep thought, like Guild Wars and level 500 Pure Faction battles
CONS
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The rewards per-run and per Valor lap are terrible unless there are to be very frequent occurrences of the latter (the former could do with a gold buff at the very least)
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Team-drafting is done blindly and therefore lacks a strategic element that could be easily had
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Certain troops currently included in the draft pools risk being OverPowered to the point they become the only reasonable choice to make, if presented with them
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Having no hero XP is a “cost” problem that is not addressed with some other “benefit” reward, like tokens or more diamonds or something could be
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Stunning focused troops are much less useful, and shouldn’t be here if that’s all they do. Same with Curse.
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The event is not explained well at all in-game. Luther would have been nice to see.
21 Likes
It would help if the troop selection did not constantly offer me troops that stun!!! Pointless when the enemy dont have traits!
4 Likes
If you hated the event before, wait until you see this fun math trick (Disclaimer, I do enjoy the new arena, but the arena event is…). Also, the gold values are based on my 103% bonus.
From this handy-dandy table it would take each person 2.5 hours of 9 perfect arena runs to get 60 writs (+27 glory keys, 81k gold, souls, and the other arena event rewards)
The cost of 59 writs from epic green tasks is 1.2mil gold. With a gold team, I earn 6.2k per explore 12 match, or about 31-37k every 10 mins. So by myself, it would take me 6.5h of play to earn 1.2mil, but 3 people in a guild playing for the same 2.5h, would earn enough to give 59 writs to everyone in the guild (+ gem keys, 50 emeralds and whatever else first 5 epic green tasks give), while each farmers earns medals. And for a guild of 10 active players with gold team, they can farm the 1.2mil gold in less than 40 minutes each.
Obviously, this doesn’t help guilds that usually complete all tasks. Just thought it was an interesting time-investment comparison.
4 Likes
If it wasn’t for the forum I’d have had no idea that an arena event was active. On mobile the was a notification for the pet rescue but nothing about the arena event.
Also since I’m now at work I guess I won’t be partaking in this event at all. It’s hard not to be critical of the recent update and changes. This event is so buried that I’d be surprised most of the players who don’t access tge forum even know it’s happening.
It’s not like there’s a space where the regular arena tab is that it could be placed in. Good job devs good job.
4 Likes
I have no problems winning in Arena (gotta pick your troops right and order them right), and really like the new arena changes. Plus the extra three chances per day at being able to purchase pets is great.
I agree the event rewards are extremely disappointing though. Even more so that they are hidden behind the bad pet event. For me, those are the worst. Especially because they have no replay value.
Arena is waste of time, just remove it from the game please.
1 Like
I am guessing that the devs were told by the publishers that they couldn’t offer any decent rewards in another free event besides Vault.
2 Likes
They should have implemented a global leaderboard for overall total valor earned where the top 1000 players or whatever all earn different rewards for their final placement.
4 Likes
Depressed. That’s exactly how I feel.
The rewards are too good to pass up. I suffered through 3 arenas. Now I just feel hopeless. I know that my life is now worst because of this arena event and I don’t know how to get out of this funk. I feel forced to play this mode for the writs.
Life feels so hopeless. I’m struggling to gather enough motivation to get out of my chair to refill my drink. This arena event is like a negative energy vortex that has me sucked in. It really has me thinking about how pointless life is.
You feel like you’re making progress in the game and then it’s taken from you. All of it. All your traits. All your levels. All your weapons. All your classes. Even your ability to select the team or know what all your options are is taken from you. You are helpless, weakened, and with no control.
I got to get my head right.
I guess War Games was right. The only way to win is not to play. I suppose it’s an apt metaphor considering my next book about a renewed cold war.
11 Likes
Thank you for you post! You covered it all and I think you speak for many of us.
These 2 points are what bothers me the most.
They advertised this as a change to alleviate the imbalance of weapons. They wanted players to be more creative, and a general freshen up of the mode.
However it did none of that. We have all played it enough to where we see a certain troop show up and immediately draft it. Why? Because we know said troop will carry all 5-6 wins handily. How is that balanced?
I love team building, it was the single thing that drew me to this game in the first place. I honestly like no hero in arena. The problem is there are troops that are probably even more OP than the weapons we could formerly bring in.
I hate to be so blunt, but their balance stance is complete horse 
Arena could have been amazing with even a small amount of heart put into it. They have none of that. This dev team is one excuse after another and one failure after the next. When does it end?
There are a lot of people of who paid these devs money and expect more. Some will say “just leave” or “don’t play that mode” that is tired and as lazy as the devs.
There are some positives in every update and its hard not to feel like they are solely put in just so they can say well we added this, why all the fuss about that?
What I see happening next is this being the house that all that deed and book groundwork was for. They’ll expect us to accept daily deals and 60 writs from Arena runs as a fix to the ration system in place now.
4 Likes
Great post!
Wanted to comment about this point.
As someone that used to like Guild Wars (and doesn’t care for it much anymore), Empowered converter troops (and Leprechaun) have drove me up a wall.
I love being absolutely deadlocked by a starting board in which I can’t do anything, which then the AI gets a free cast and proceeds to kill me before I can do anything. Its even better when I bring a counter troop and I still can’t do anything.
Empowered converter troops (and Leprechaun) take a lot of the strategy away from Guild Wars and focuses on fast instant filling or counter-empowered gameplay instead. Yawn, in both regards.
At least in the past, they had to earn their 7 mana Ragnagord explosion into a Famine death bomb.
12 Likes
If you dont do pet rescue, you don’t even know its running
5 Likes
I would definitely recommend talking to a trusted someone about this! Coming from someone with diagnosed depression, I really encourage you to take a step back and grab a loved one to help you look at this in a healthy way. Games shouldn’t cause this amount of stress, and if they do it’s dangerous to keep playing and not get some sort of help.
Best wishes to you, and feel free to hmu if there’s anything you need.
5 Likes
Its an insult to players time, the only thing that would make arena palatable is if the rewards can be gained all the time not just one day.
2 Likes