Source
r/gwent•
isi_23

Arena is probably more skill based than we thought

Discussion

Originally I was quite skeptical and thought it would be totally RND based. But to my surprise I'm actually able to keep much more consistent winrate in Arena than in constructed. Last season I struggled to keep 60% winrate, but so far I have 70% winrate in Arena out of 243 games.

I think coin flip is smaller issue, because there are no spies, you can dry pass first round. Also number of golds does not matter as much as I thought, I was able to won once with only 4 golds.

Posted Mar 3, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

723
soI_omnibus_lucetTomfoolery! Enough!•

wait u already have 243 arena games?

10
isi_23OPScoia'tael•

Yeah, I was surprised too, when I checked my Gwentup stats. But I was playing nearly non-stop since release.

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soI_omnibus_lucetTomfoolery! Enough!•

damn son

ever got to 9 wins?

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isi_23OPScoia'tael•

Of course, I think nearly 10 times. I would say one third of my drafts I get 9 wins.

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soI_omnibus_lucetTomfoolery! Enough!•

oh, i guess you are a good player then. i have a hard time with arena. what was your mmr last season?

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nmls87Don't make me laugh!•

Did you buy the ticket or use ores?

1
xiaopixieDon't make me laugh!•

absolutely correct, i had a similar post, golds dont matter that much and the variance is way smaller than expected. A lot of the midwinter update content was prepared for this, without the update, arena would be a joke.

6
lmao_lizardmanLots of prior experience – worked with idiots my whole life.•

Golds dont matter sure, but you get a ton of silvers instead which are way better than bronzes. Its the bronze count that matters imo

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xiaopixieDon't make me laugh!•

Kinda true, the tutors for items are realky great. Bronzes are a little worse. I suggest using all your bronzes round one when on red.

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EvilmealI shall do as you command.•

I don't think Arena is very skill intesive just because you can't really predict anything at all, there are some basic strategies but nothing that you should look out for in general I think. Coin flip abuse is even more prevelant in Arena just because you can't really mitigate going first. If you are going first in Arena you are in a huge disadvantage, even more so than in the normal game mode. I like Arena however just because there really isn't much you can predict and its a breath of fresh air.

5
xiaopixieDon't make me laugh!•

Coinflip is a huge issue, there are things u can play around that would make you lose the game, like succubus, you dont have to know their deck to counter what they are doing, its mostly about playing tempo, to your decks strength, and when to pass, it isnt skill intensive yet but still skill required.

3
BryndlesonSkellige•

coinflip abuse is more prevelant

Wrong. R1 drypass blue coin works fine in arena, you can't generally be punished for it because they can't bleed you with spies in R2.

2
[deleted]•

[removed]

1
banana__man_Monsters•

How often do u open pass on blue coin ?

3
DeusAK47Don't make me laugh!•

100% of the time, unless you have a very unusual deck with an enormous amount of carryover, an obscenely strong R3, or a horribly weak long round. Honestly have never drafted a deck where I’ve been even remotely close to considering playing on blue coin.

5
isi_23OPScoia'tael•

I would say most of time, like 95% of times, but not always. Like you said, if your deck sucks in long rounds and you have some high tempo play, you can go for round one. There some powerfull cards like Ghouls, Shani, Carateker and Cahir, that could be quite problematic if first two rounds end with dry pass by either player.

4
DeusAK47Don't make me laugh!•

Ya, as blue coin you’re playing for shorter round 3, last say in round 3, and setting up carryover, but risking going a card down in round 3. So I think the risk/reward is generally pretty unbalanced.

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sirloathingTomfoolery! Enough!•

The one deck I had that had to play into blue was an Unseen Elder deck with Cahir. Elder already wants to play into blue, having Elder as a secured last play is worth all of your resources. On top of that Cahir needs your leader played r1. This ofc was the exception.

I agree that 98% of Arena decks want to pass r1.

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DeusAK47Don't make me laugh!•

Yup makes sense to me! I saw a streamer that somehow drafted Letho Regis that played into blue too, for the same reasons.

1
sirloathingTomfoolery! Enough!•

I just went 9-2 with a play into blue coin deck. It had a stack of golds as far as the eye could see but the only weather clears I saw (and took) all draft were Summoning Circle and Shupe. This meant I could tempo people but would struggle against weather in long rounds so had to play three medium length rounds to win. Passing before grow cards, weather or AOE silvers could get value.

1
xiaopixieDon't make me laugh!•

People dont realize that you dont need to play around everything, and you dont need to know what they could play, just play around plays that could lose you the game such as saving removal for succubus when you have a 30pt card, or not aligning all your 20pts units for scorch, or playing all on three rows when you dont have clear sky

3
FluffyBunbunKittensScoia'tael•

I'm around the same number of games, though with a few less 9 wins. Biggest single culprit for that would be that I only sometimes pass r1, just because I don't enjoy the game boiling down to single long rounds.

Completely agreeing that the number of golds is not THAT impactful. I've had same results with 11 gold deck vs a 3 gold deck, though my latest 9-0 win was with a 12-7-7 composition.

1
DeusAK47Don't make me laugh!•

I guarantee your win rate is inflated opponents not dry passing. Since there’s minimal carryover and no Spies, if opponent isn’t drypassing you basically cannot lose on red coin and OFTEN they play a card in R2 when you drypass blue coin. I went 9 wins with a 15 bronze 4 gold deck because I CONSTANTLY was one card up in R3 because of retards not drypassing.

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