The long-awaited Arena revamp is almost here and Blizzard posted some juicy details! Coming in Patch 32.4, the mode will be split in two versions – and neither of them will look like the current Arena. While the patch date wasn’t explicitly confirmed, we know that a new Arena season will start on June 2 (next Monday), so that’s almost surely when the patch drops.
The first season will also offer a fully curated list of cards for each class (instead of a list of specific, draftble expansions, devs hand-picked available cards for each class – they might be from any expansion). I wouldn’t necessarily expect it for every season, but it should be a great way to launch the mode.
Two Arena modes will be “The Arena” and “The Underground”. Arena button is getting moved back to the main menu (replacing Tavern Brawl, which gets relegated to “Modes” section).
The Arena costs 1 Tavern Ticket (150 Gold) to enter. It will be a more casual format with skill-based matchmaking – it means that if you’re a new player or you haven’t been performing very well, the game will try to pair you against people with a roughly similar track record. The Arena ends at 5 wins or 2 losses. Notably, if you reach 5 wins, the rewards will be 2x Card Pack + Tavern Ticket, so you will get your run refunded and two packs for free.
The Underground costs 2 Tavern Tickets (300 Gold) to enter. It’s a more competitive version, where players are matched mostly based on their current score (just like the current Arena). The Underground runs last until 12 wins or 3 losses and offer greater rewards. Starting at 6 wins, there’s an increasing chance (from 5% to 13%) to win “Crowd’s Favor” jackpot (2000 Gold). Sadly there are no guaranteed Gold rewards from 6 wins onwards, so you willl have to get lucky and hit the jackpot.
Interestingly, in The Underground, rewards for 12-2, 12-1 and 12-0 are slightly different (they get progressively better). Hitting a 12 wins mark (no matter how many losses) for the first time will also give players a new Spectral Ner’zhul skin. Just like with The Arena, Tavern Tickets are among possible rewards – at 5 wins you get one Ticket back, while starting from 7 wins you get two Tickets back (so if you go 7+, your run gets refunded). The risk is greater than in the current Arena, but don’t worry – even if you go 0-3, you still get two card packs for your efforts.
Re-draft on loss is a new feature offered only by The Underground. When you lose a match, you draft 5 extra cards, and then you can replace up to 5 cards from your deck with the newly picked ones. Or not – if you think that your deck is already perfect or you didn’t like what you drafted, you can continue with your current deck. Since you can lose 2 times and still keep going, you will have up to 2 chances during your run to re-draft.
Another new addition are “Legendary Groups”. Your first pick of each draft will still be a Legendary card, but now it comes with a curated bucket of 3 cards that synergize with it. Picking the Legendary will also add those 3 cards to your deck immediately. It makes the value of Legendaries that relied on some specific synergies that you might not have gotten before much stronger. Since the buckets are manually picked by the devs, it also offers some balance opportunity.
Check out the official blog post below:
Welcome to the new Arena! The original Hearthstone draft experience is getting a huge update soon, in Patch 32.4.
Step Into the Arena… Earn Your Way Into the Underground
Arena is our premium drafting mode, where you can flex your deckbuilding abilities and card knowledge in the ultimate test of skill. In patch 32.4 Arena Mode is being split into two sections: The Arena and The Underground. The Arena features a revamped drafting experience, new rewards, and quicker runs. It’s great for newer players and for those who most enjoy the drafting part of the experience. The Underground, on the other hand, is a more difficult mode not for the faint of heart! You’ll have to earn your way to The Underground. It has longer runs, bigger rewards, and the new ability to Re-Draft on Loss. This is where Arena veterans will feel at home. There are a lot of exciting new features to cover, so we’ll get into the specifics of each mode in the following sections.
Arena Landing Page
The Arena uses skill-based matchmaking to ensure players are paired up with someone at a similar experience level. The Underground throws caution to the wind and pits you against players of any and all skill levels! Going forward, the leaderboard will only be for The Underground, but legacy scores for the previous version of Arena will still be available online.
With this update, Arena is being moved back to the main menu and Tavern Brawl is being moved into the Modes button.
New Arena Drafting Speeds Up Runs and Spices Up Legendaries
The new version of The Arena costs one Taven Ticket to enter and will end after five wins or two losses. Rewards now include packs from recent expansions and for those that reach five wins, a Tavern Ticket. That’s right: if you do well, you’ll earn your next run!
To make the drafting process smoother, we’ve added a new feature to the start of the drafting process of both modes called Legendary Groups. The Legendary card you choose is bundled with three additional cards that complement your choice and set the tone for your deck. Your Arena drafts will now start off with a stronger foundation of four cards with solid synergy!
We’ve also built a brand-new Arena staging area called the Ready Up screen, where you can view your deck list, mana curve, win/loss record, and current reward tier. You’ll always know where you’re at in your Arena run, even when you take breaks between games.
Survive the Underground and Be Greatly Rewarded
Underground Landing Page
For those who crave a challenge and want to test their drafting mettle, step into The Underground! Once you’ve proven yourself by winning seven cumulative games in The Arena, you will unlock The Underground, where there’s higher difficulty, higher risks, and higher rewards.
The Underground requires two Tavern Tickets to enter and with the bigger entry fee comes the chance to earn bigger rewards. Go big or go home!
Deliver a strong performance that makes the crowd go wild! Runs in The Underground end after 12 wins or three losses. Just like with The Arena, the more matches you win, the more rewards you’ll earn, but surviving in the Underground comes with extra perks. If you make a deep run with six wins or more, you’ll have a chance to earn the Crowd’s Favor—an extra bonus reward of 2000 gold! The more games you win, the higher your odds of taking it home. Those who reach the maximum 12 wins will earn a Spectral Ner’zhul Hearthstone Hero Skin and more!
Expect the unexpected! Adding to the danger and excitement of the Underground is the skill-blind matchmaking system. Both The Arena and the Underground match players based on current run performance, but where The Arena pairs you with a player of similar skill rating, The Underground pits you against players of any and all skill levels!
Re-Work Your Deck, Then Re-Enter the Fight!
The new Re-Draft on Loss feature allows you to modify your deck with freshly drafted cards every time you take a loss in The Underground. After losing a match, you’ll be given the opportunity to draft five new cards and re-edit your deck. Fine-tune your strategy and keep your run alive!
Arena Updates
On June 2, all Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will start. The new season will feature curated lists of cards for each class, with cards coming from any expansion. Cards from the Into the Emerald Dream expansion and The Embers of the World Tree Mini-set will be included in the card pool.
Keep up with all of the latest Hearthstone news and content on the Hearthstone website and social media . Good luck, have fun, and we’ll see you in the Tavern!
A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.
Everything about that doesn’t want me to play more arena.
I barely play Arena, mostly right after a new expansion launched.
The fact that they think it’s a good idea to continue and lock a skin behind high wins is already a huge mistake.
Not like this was heavily criticized when they tried this shit the first time with the Crimson Sai DK skin for a Heroic Tavern Brawl.
Removal of gold in regular arena is also bad, not to mention this Legendary groups reminding me of the dungeon run/duels nightmare.
I’m not sure how arena mains will value this overhaul, but for me most of it looks bad.
I’m really concerned about this custom card pool. Their ability to keep things balanced is awful, and now they just added another card pool to keep balanced…
With short arena runs, balancing would need to come ALOT faster than it already is, to keep things fun and even. But based on past balancing history/speed, I don’t see that happening.
I wonder if you should start a new arena run and keep it open until the revamp hits. Can we expect to get rewards and a tavern ticket like in the past when a new arena season started?
I don’t think it was confirmed yet, but I plan to keep a run going. I assume it should work like it always did. Not sure if we’ll get the regular Arena or Undeground rewards though.
Everything about that doesn’t want me to play more arena.
I barely play Arena, mostly right after a new expansion launched.
The fact that they think it’s a good idea to continue and lock a skin behind high wins is already a huge mistake.
Not like this was heavily criticized when they tried this shit the first time with the Crimson Sai DK skin for a Heroic Tavern Brawl.
Removal of gold in regular arena is also bad, not to mention this Legendary groups reminding me of the dungeon run/duels nightmare.
I’m not sure how arena mains will value this overhaul, but for me most of it looks bad.
So… Tickets my 60 tickets just drop half their potential max value? And practically no more gold?
I’m really concerned about this custom card pool. Their ability to keep things balanced is awful, and now they just added another card pool to keep balanced…
With short arena runs, balancing would need to come ALOT faster than it already is, to keep things fun and even. But based on past balancing history/speed, I don’t see that happening.
I wonder if you should start a new arena run and keep it open until the revamp hits. Can we expect to get rewards and a tavern ticket like in the past when a new arena season started?
I’d say worth the risk. Worst case you will just get a TT. Probably will only get the arena version rewards as you need 7 wins to unlock underground.
I don’t think it was confirmed yet, but I plan to keep a run going. I assume it should work like it always did. Not sure if we’ll get the regular Arena or Undeground rewards though.