Hello !
First of all, little presentation to understand more my point of view. I’m a mid-tier player, quite dedicated but not an hardcore player, playing since around 2 year I think. I’m level 800 in a guild ranked ~270 and in bracket #20 in GW, where I became the GM. So I’m really in the middle of the gate, not a newcomer and not a veteran. I own very nearly every single troop, except Mythics ones that I never had the chance to drop from a chest (yes, even after 800 levels 
), and half or more of those troops are ascended to mythic. Around 90 of them are full trait, and most of my kingdoms are 5-stars. Enough to win PvP most of the time, no matter the opponent team (if no bad luck btw) as well as GW with monocolor teams.
So now I’m currently in chase for Souls (still need 900k) and traitstones, not really to make better teams (most of useful troops are already maxed), but more to power more my kingdoms and for the collection.
And to finish, I mostly play GoW for the team creation aspect (I love to change team, even for less effective ones, to avoid routine) and for the “puzzle” aspect. I don’t like “non-brain” farming and grinding , even if it makes me non-competitive. I play for the game, not for the win.
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Sooooooooo, arena !
Like everyone I suppose, I played arena during my very first levels. And it was interesting because you have the opportunity to use troops you don’t own at that time, and learn new troops and skill. And if lucky, you can see some nice combinations that give ideas for your team creation. But Arena is really time consuming (I was happy when I learned I can leave Arena between 2 fights, without losing progression 
), and when you start, there is so much to do … So between quest lines, PvP to get #1, TS farming and now GW, hard to play Arena 
I had some spare times those 2 last days. And I was a little bored of GoW because there’s no GW since 2 weeks and I really love this aspect of the game, because in the bracket we are, there’s a lot of different teams to fight (we are not in the Psion/Famine/Famine/… routine at that level). I was bored of PvP because of that aspect (same 2 or 3 teams to fight). I was bored of farming TS even if I need a lot (start, cast Elspeth, cast bombot, cast bombot, restart, …). Treasure hunt and challenges, I don’t play this. So after maybe 600 levels, I retried Arena !
And I have to say that now I really enjoy that Here are some reasons :
- You always play with a different team, no routine! And btw you have to think and create a team at every session, choosing best weapon for hero.
- You never know who you gonna fight, you can’t even scout team. But this is always different (just a preponderant weapon occurring : the Runic Blade)
- You have that little “stress” of losing, like in GW, so you have to play wisely and not like a robot
- This is the only mode where there is a kind of equality between people : all troops at the same level, with no trait.
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So, it corresponds in many aspects to what I’m looking for with playing GoW. But in the same time, I know I won’t play it very much from now (no more spare time 
). Why ? Because even it is very nice with some aspects, there’s some defects. Here what I don’t like, with some propositions.
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Time consumption : fighting with unleveled untraited troops in a non-optimized team is fun (for me at least
) but not really efficient. So fights are loooooong, compared to classic ones. We all have a lot to do, between TS and gold farming, GW and soon™ dungeons. I don’t see how to make fight faster, so maybe reduce the round to 6 instead of 8 fights ? (Disclaimer : I play on mobile, so no x4 for me. An arena is around 30 or 40 min, with team creation. Maybe it will be better with the speed-up, I don’t know) -
Rewards : Some rewards are OK : 30 trophies and 5 keys are nice. Souls : a bit lower that what you can get with specifically farming it, but this is normal (I win 3k with an arena, I could gather around 5 or 6k during this time for example). It could be a bit more but this is OK for me. Gold : not really important I think. What is lacking the most (for me, this could be bias) is traitstones. And this is why I’ll stop arena to re-do TS farming to enhance my troops. I think that some TS should be added to final reward. I don’t know, maybe 5-8 random TS or 1-2 guarantee Arcanic TS for example. And maybe a bit of glory too
To resume, for me, the balance between time spent and rewards is broken and this is why people don’t play so much arena, while this is probably the funniest part of the game. Those propositions are not meant to be cumulative ! (but if so, it ould be perfect ) We could get same rewards for less time, or more rewards for same time. This is just my vision to make Arena a bit more attractive, the goal is not to make Arena the place where you can get all-in-one (souls, TS, etc.). We could also add those aspects :
- Week boost should not apply in Arena, to keep this place neutral and equal. But with the 10 % instead of 25 % it will be less problematic
- When picking troops, we should see which one we already choosed. Sometimes, when I get to UR one, I forgot which common I picked, and don’t remember color for example.
- Make an event based on Arena maybe ?
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So here’s the end of this long post (that may not be read by devs, I know this also ) If you think about other improvements, feel free to add your own vision in reply !
Have a nice day and luck in your game !
