Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Major arena update: MCT Gone, Rhastakan 50% bonus, removed cards back in Arena, buckets update.

Link here, would've included in the other link if this didn't happen minutes ago.

Secondary link here to the new buckets, I'll update my spreadsheet tonight with the new buckets as well.

I'll include my card bucket thoughts later since I got work to do. Rejoice everyone.

Iksar

Posted 5 years, 5 months ago (Source)

Dragon roar top of 3rd now instead of 4th. Yay? 😅

I'm curious whether they microadjusted Warriors down or not. No mention of it in the blog post. Anyone have some annecdotes from Warrior drafts from the ground?

Our flow now is to do bucket changes, collect data for a week or two, then do a microadjustment update. There is some weirdness in the timing right now because a lot of folks are leaving for the holidays to visit family and what not, so the balance microadjustment update might not be for 3-4 weeks after this bucket update. In any case, this patch did not include adjusted microadjustments, when we do that, we'll let you know in the notes.
Iksar

Posted 5 years, 5 months ago (Source)

The only weirdness here is that when we opted to make balance changes, we didn't have time to update the blog file. We adjusted Nourish and Wild Growth down a few buckets but that isn't reflected in the notes. If any of you find any bugs outside of those two cards please let us know. We'll update the file for Wild Growth and Nourish soon (tm). Thanks!
Iksar

Posted 5 years, 5 months ago (Source)

Looking at Mage, couple weird things.

1: Just confirming, Mana Wyrm is in the 4th bucket now? It was moved to the 7th bucket after it got nerfed, and it hasn't been performing well on stats/experience, so its weird to see that it got moved that far, since most of the time it's going to be worse than a normal 2-drop

2: Icicle does not show up on the .csv, so we don't know which bucket it is in. After checking, neither does Tome of Intellect, Pilfer, or Call of the Void. Those are all the new cards introduced last expansion.

edit I'm going to keep including all odd things I see in this reply unless Iskar replies to it.

3: I don't know if this is a bug or not, but why does Keening Banshee keep on falling in terms of its bucket? It is unquestionably one of the best cards in the game if you're not playing a late-game deck, and this is universally agreed upon by all mid to high level players. Its the 5th best non-Leg Neutral card on HSreplay, so its not just confirmation bias as well. Yet, it dropped a bucket, again. I don't know if its bucket is a bug, but this is so egregiously wrong that I have to ask.

4: Just realized this, the old cards that were returned to Arena do not have buckets. I would assume most would be 7th bucketed, but its not on the .csv.

I'll check on Wyrm and the 4 classic cards you mentioned. The way our bucketing works, it's possible the bucket adjustment for Wyrm was overwritten by the new bucketing. Will have to check Giggling, too in the case. Will look at the four new cards as well.

For Banshee, buckets move based on pick rate and not win rate. I can double check, but I would guess Keening just doesn't get picked at the rate it 'should' because the average arena player reads that text box and sees it as a bigger downside than it actually is.

We'll add the new buckets for the 'old' cards next time we update the CSV. I'd like to collect everything that is off and update the file all at once.
Iksar

Posted 5 years, 5 months ago (Source)

Hey Iksar, so what are the current plans for the new expansion appearance bonus? Are you gonna remove it a month or two before the next expansion, keep it the whole time or has this not been decided yet?

Hasn't been decided yet. These changes live on the server, so if it turns out we're tired of having the bonus or players are unhappy with it for some reason we can change it pretty quickly.
Iksar

Posted 5 years, 5 months ago (Source)

Not a bug but.. Supercollider should be in the top half bucket. Not bottom half. There's actually no cards you'd pick over the first supercollider even in the top half bucket. Not sure why militia commander is up there, I rarely ever see militia commander so it cannot be picked that much.

We just use pick rate data. We could use power level data but the point is to have the perception of the power level be the same so it's an interesting pick for the average player. If you somehow have a deeper understanding of cards that are good in practice, or good for your deck, that is an advantage you have over other players.

<blockquote class="quoted">
    <div class="md"><p>Dragon roar top of 3rd now instead of 4th.   Yay?  😅</p>

<p>I'm curious whether they microadjusted Warriors down or not.   No mention of it in the blog post.   Anyone have some annecdotes from Warrior drafts from the ground?</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="md"><p>Our flow now is to do bucket changes, collect data for a week or two, then do a microadjustment update. There is some weirdness in the timing right now because a lot of folks are leaving for the holidays to visit family and what not, so the balance microadjustment update might not be for 3-4 weeks after this bucket update. In any case, this patch did not include adjusted microadjustments, when we do that, we'll let you know in the notes.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec4po35">Iksar</a>)
<hr/>

<blockquote class="quoted">
    
</blockquote>
<div class="md"><p>The only weirdness here is that when we opted to make balance changes, we didn't have time to update the blog file. We adjusted Nourish and Wild Growth down a few buckets but that isn't reflected in the notes. If any of you find any bugs outside of those two cards please let us know. We'll update the file for Wild Growth and Nourish soon (tm). Thanks!</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec4ptds">Iksar</a>)
<hr/>

<blockquote class="quoted">
    <div class="md"><p>Looking at Mage, couple weird things.</p>

<p>1: Just confirming, Mana Wyrm is in the 4th bucket now?  It was moved to the 7th bucket after it got nerfed, and it hasn't been performing well on stats/experience, so its weird to see that it got moved that far, since most of the time it's going to be worse than a normal 2-drop</p>

<p>2: Icicle does not show up on the .csv, so we don't know which bucket it is in.  After checking, neither does Tome of Intellect, Pilfer, or Call of the Void.  Those are all the new cards introduced last expansion.</p>

<p><em>edit</em> I'm going to keep including all odd things I see in this reply unless Iskar replies to it.</p>

<p>3: I don't know if this is a bug or not, but why does Keening Banshee keep on falling in terms of its bucket?  It is unquestionably one of the best cards in the game if you're not playing a late-game deck, and this is universally agreed upon by all mid to high level players.  Its the 5th best non-Leg Neutral card on HSreplay, so its not just confirmation bias as well.  Yet, it dropped a bucket, again.  I don't know if its bucket is a bug, but this is so egregiously wrong that I have to ask.</p>

<p>4: Just realized this, the old cards that were returned to Arena do not have buckets.  I would assume most would be 7th bucketed, but its not on the .csv.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="md"><p>I'll check on Wyrm and the 4 classic cards you mentioned. The way our bucketing works, it's possible the bucket adjustment for Wyrm was overwritten by the new bucketing. Will have to check Giggling, too in the case. Will look at the four new cards as well.</p>

<p>For Banshee, buckets move based on pick rate and not win rate. I can double check, but I would guess Keening just doesn't get picked at the rate it 'should' because the average arena player reads that text box and sees it as a bigger downside than it actually is.</p>

<p>We'll add the new buckets for the 'old' cards next time we update the CSV. I'd like to collect everything that is off and update the file all at once.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec56j1t">Iksar</a>)
<hr/>

<blockquote class="quoted">
    <div class="md"><p>Hey Iksar, so what are the current plans for the new expansion appearance bonus? Are you gonna remove it a month or two before the next expansion, keep it the whole time or has this not been decided yet?</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="md"><p>Hasn't been decided yet. These changes live on the server, so if it turns out we're tired of having the bonus or players are unhappy with it for some reason we can change it pretty quickly.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec56mzz">Iksar</a>)
<hr/>

<blockquote class="quoted">
    <div class="md"><p>Not a bug but.. Supercollider should be in the top half bucket. Not bottom half. There's actually no cards you'd pick over the first supercollider even in the top half bucket. Not sure why militia commander is up there, I rarely ever see militia commander so it cannot be picked that much. </p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="md"><p>We just use pick rate data. We could use power level data but the point is to have the perception of the power level be the same so it's an interesting pick for the average player. If you somehow have a deeper understanding of cards that are good in practice, or good for your deck, that is an advantage you have over other players.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec576rq">Iksar</a>)
<hr/>

<p><div class="md"><p>Our flow now is to do bucket changes, collect data for a week or two, then do a microadjustment update. There is some weirdness in the timing right now because a lot of folks are leaving for the holidays to visit family and what not, so the balance microadjustment update might not be for 3-4 weeks after this bucket update. In any case, this patch did not include adjusted microadjustments, when we do that, we'll let you know in the notes.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec4po35">Source</a>)</p>

<p><div class="md"><p>The only weirdness here is that when we opted to make balance changes, we didn't have time to update the blog file. We adjusted Nourish and Wild Growth down a few buckets but that isn't reflected in the notes. If any of you find any bugs outside of those two cards please let us know. We'll update the file for Wild Growth and Nourish soon (tm). Thanks!</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec4ptds">Source</a>)</p>

<p><div class="md"><p>I'll check on Wyrm and the 4 classic cards you mentioned. The way our bucketing works, it's possible the bucket adjustment for Wyrm was overwritten by the new bucketing. Will have to check Giggling, too in the case. Will look at the four new cards as well.</p>

<p><div class="md"><p>Hasn't been decided yet. These changes live on the server, so if it turns out we're tired of having the bonus or players are unhappy with it for some reason we can change it pretty quickly.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec56mzz">Source</a>)</p>

<p><div class="md"><p>We just use pick rate data. We could use power level data but the point is to have the perception of the power level be the same so it's an interesting pick for the average player. If you somehow have a deeper understanding of cards that are good in practice, or good for your deck, that is an advantage you have over other players.</p>
</div> (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArenaHS/comments/a7pf30/major_arena_update_mct_gone_rhastakan_50_bonus/ec576rq">Source</a>)</p>
    
    <hr/>

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Major arena update: MCT Gone, Rhastakan 50% bonus, removed cards back in Arena, buckets update.

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