Yeah, I have no intention of playing the mode outside of the event, except when required by Campaigns 
That’s the context for my post — its a rewards-aren’t-worth-it problem, not a gameplay problem, for me.
And I think people who straight-up don’t like the bare-bones, random-draft style of gameplay are/were never going to like a rework of the Arena unless that rework is basically not the Arena anymore, but is/was its own new thing entirely 
I play it often as is. I wanted to see it instead of 8 battles, have unlimited and progressively get harder. I like drafting teams, then finding a weapon that works with that team.
These devs are the fun police, if anyone is actually having fun doing something, they just take it slam it on the ground and say, we fixed it.
Arena + Horde Mode = Potentially fun
I’d like to see the option to play this happen at some point… +1
FIGHTING in Arena?
(in ancient Rome) a person, often a slave or captive, who was armed with a sword or other weapon and compelled to fight to the death in a public arena against another person or a wild animal, for the entertainment of the spectators.
So Devs think Arena is a place without Hero’s and Weapons ??
Old Arena meets the definition of Arena. Remove Hero and Weapons and no Arena.
5.2 Is off-track. 
Yep as @TheIdleOne mentioned it’s counter productive to play a mode that offers so little utility.
I mean on vault weekend you can use it to maximise gains in several areas, tokens, vk, gold, souls, class Xp even combining all of them. Then cash in VK for rewards - I got 5 major blue for 72 VK when I got Heart of Rage. I’d need 20 minor blue on an arena weekend just to match orbs…
If they make it so if feels like you can get some writs without bashing your head for hours… however I don’t see much fun regardless…
If the arena event has fixed (every 50 valor) rewards, then it will be worth playing. Since it will take MUCH longer to finish matches, trying to hardcore farm rewards will depend on how much 5-hour energy you can guzzle in 4 hours.
If the event has scaling rewards (50 valor, then 100 valor, then 150 valor) then don’t even bother having the event. It will be a huge failure.
Arena with no class xp, less rewards, longer playing time? Pass. Rename it Minion Deathmatch if you want. No hero, it’s not Arena.
Even with linear rewards at 50 valor this might be a huge failure. I’m having some doubts player will still reliable win all fights, there’s no longer the hero around to bail you out if things go south. Let’s say players will average out on three wins, that would be 10 valor instead of 50 for each run. Grindy.
Excluding the hero and weapons from arena is completely stupid in my opinion… The arena is pretty slow as it is and removing the ability to use your hero and weapon will slow it down dramatically.
I already think the game has too much content and you need to consider the removal of older events prior to adding new ones.
Not everyone has unlimited spare time at their disposal, and the game already requires a lot of spare time (if you want to keep up), and constantly bolting on new content is causing burnout for many players… Thank god I am not a new player to the game nowadays.
Take care
I like to think I prefer the wait and see approach, but what I’m reading for the Arena rework and the number of times we’ve given feedback and heard “We’ll review the data and adjust the numbers as we go” only to see nothing happening does not inspire confidence.
Removing the hero is probably a good and necessary step but keeping the format as it is will mean obnoxiously long battles without extra class xp and the Arena event progression means it will probably be ignored by 99% of the players past the first or second reward cycle meaning this is still no fix for the game mode OR a valid source of deeds.
The fact that update after update we see the features we’re supposed to want to try become endless boring slogs * cough * World Events * cough * does not bode well, at least for my Gems playtime.
Honestly, scrap 5.2 of everything but the improvement of removing the slowdown when looking at troops and the devs would probably be lauded as heroes.
This is very true.
Without hero weapons, the effectiveness of gimmick troops that cause consternation will be there in arena, especially if they allow Epic rarity. That adds the likes of Gluttony, Gorbil, Glutmaw and more summoners. Probably worse troops than that.
Even now there’s Sloth.
Good luck if that’s on the enemy team without a good hero weapon. I had it on my final arena run for campaign, and it went to over 100 life. It took 20-25 minutes to beat it. I only did as I had a summoner of Revenants and Anointed Ones.
Friendly reminder that Raids, Invasion, and most Empowered troops are Epic Rarity… And will mostly be useless in this new arena.
Want the arena to be fun and worthwhile?
Mythic, Legendary, Epic, and Ultra Rare troops. One of each.
You know… How normal teams in GoW can/do get built on a daily basis.
It’ll give those that don’t own the troops the ability to play with them temporarily.
And yes I’m aware that it would require more time to code. Which means cost more money. Well I’m going to unravel some earth shattering business advice… “It takes money to make money”.
Just caught this and OMG.
Outside of the dwarf lady, which of those is even remotely useful let a lone borderline OP in the arena. 
First 3 That come to mind…Toadsqueezer, Sharptooth, and Wild Knight.
Actually in general, Goblins would be even more annoying. Fizzbang and Nobend, despite their randomness could be really annoying to deal with especially if you could pair them with others.
Yeah Moira as a walking Doomed Club has the potential to being the worst, but I can see many annoying/frustrating troops being added with the changes.
Queen of the Epic Rarity.
So as long she’s not OP. None others can be.
(Even without her traits)
Im not a frequent writer here and I rarely express my opinions on the updates or where this game is going. I feel now is the time to do so.
After 3 something years in this game i feel like im reaching the end of the line. I have all troops, max kingdom lvl, all classes @ 100 , delves at 60000 and so on. The hunt is over. Grinding for medals is now the thing that keeps me coming back ( aside from GW). Problem is i feel more and more that its not worth it.
All game modes except Delves (faction only) are to easy, their is no feeling of accomplishment. Updates feel rushed and disconnected from what the players want.
I personally dont care for the latest one as i didnt play arena before, and will surely not play it after the update. Rewards are just ridiculous. Someday i will realise that i will never be able to medal all troops, and that will probably be my last day in GoW.
If Underworld here means delve troops, then some of the epic or lower troops can be pretty powerful in Arena. I wouldn’t mind having a Gargoyle, Water Elemental, or even Horned Asp in an arena team.
Cloudstalker has an upper limit on its damage range that makes it quite dangerous to level 15 troops. Heck, Corpse Mare can steal a ton of life if it hits the correct row—again, compared to level 15 with no kingdom or guild boosts.
I really hope I’m wrong but it sounds like they actually made Arena worse while at the same time implementing events to make us play it anyways.
You would be quite surprised how many troops considered to be “trash-tier” are actually quite overpowered in the Arena.
Case in point, off of the top of my head, one of the largest offenders from beta, the Lapina Warrior.
So… scaling down the damage to something like 6 or 8, that alone seems powerful enough alone given that the ability hits two troops with max ~20ish armor + life.
But then, look at the rest of the ability and things go haywire.
– Targetable row and column. The player can target skulls and doomskulls for bonus damage.
– Knockback can be useful to move casters to the top of the team.
– Then there’s the boost ratio. +4 damage for every green destroyed in the row and column, times 2 troops.
– Then there’s the Destroy Gems effect. And yellow and blue destroyed would partially refill the troop if it’s at the top of the team.
As Cleveland would say on Family Guy, “Ooh, that’s nasty.”
Each cast is pretty much a guaranteed 2-troop kill. For that matter, many of the low rarity “Do A, then B” troops that have been released lately fall into similar situations.
And then, there’s the newer status effects over the last two years. Enchant is in play now. Curse, Bleed, and so on. Many forgettable troops are suddenly very good simply on the power of these status effects effects alone. (Example: Elven Bard enchanting and providing half mana for the Lapina Warrior mentioned above).
IMO, the Arena does not hold up well against modern power creep. Which is why the devs are manually approving/disapproving troops for the Arena draft pool.
EDIT: I want to say Lasher was another machine of death on beta because of its 6 attacks per cast.
I DIED at, “Oh, that’s nasty”