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Some cards have been removed from the draft in Hearthstone Arena for balance purposes

Hearthstone

Blizzard have been tweaking Arena mode in Hearthstone to try give it more of an identity. The first stage of this process requires removing a bunch of cards from the draft. 

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Before this change, the Mage and the Rogue classes have been the most played, with Paladin just below that, and all the other classes in a tier beneath Paladin. To make the other classes more tempting, a bunch of cards have been stripped from their draft, giving players more chance to get better cards at the start.

“So what are some ways we can address Arena balance?” Blizzard asked in a blog post. “Tools that we have available immediately involve removing cards from Arena completely – C’Thun-synergy cards and Purify are examples of this.

“We’d like to avoid removing strong spells and weapons from the Arena, because they add to a lot of the unpredictability and excitement surrounding the possibilities outside the current board state. We’d also like to avoid removing iconic cards, since they are generally versatile and familiar tools to veteran and new Arena players alike. Additionally, we can remove lower-performing cards in order to make room for a class’ more commonly utilised cards to show up more often in your Arena draft.”

With those points in mind, here’s what’s been removed:

Mage

  • Forgotten Torch
  • Snowchugger
  • Faceless Summoner

Rogue

  • Goblin Auto Barber
  • Undercity Valiant

Paladin

– No changes

Shaman

  • Vitality Totem
  • Dust Devil
  • Totemic Might
  • Ancestral Healing
  • Dunemaul Shaman
  • Windspeaker

Warlock

  • Anima Golem
  • Sacrificial Pact
  • Curse of Rafaam
  • Sense Demons
  • Void Crusher
  • Reliquary Seeker
  • Succubus

Druid

  • Savagery
  • Poison Seeds
  • Soul of the Forest
  • Mark of Nature
  • Tree of Life
  • Astral Communion

Warrior

  • Warsong Commander
  • Bolster
  • Charge
  • Bouncing Blade
  • Axe Flinger
  • Rampage
  • Ogre Warmaul

Hunter

  • Starving Buzzard
  • Call Pet
  • Timber Wolf
  • Cobra Shot
  • Lock and Load
  • Dart Trap
  • Snipe

Priest

  • Mind Blast
  • Shadowbomber
  • Lightwell
  • Power Word: Glory
  • Confuse
  • Convert
  • Inner Fire

Blizzard are also looking at other ways to balance Arena, possibly by adjusting the rate that individual cards show up in your draft depending on a designer input value.

Drafting by card rarity is another discussion they’re having, but they need to look into adjusting the ‘weights’ of the cards first.