Dominion Strategy Forum

Miscellaneous => Other Games => Hearthstone => Topic started by: pingpongsam on August 31, 2014, 10:35:06 am

Title: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: pingpongsam on August 31, 2014, 10:35:06 am
I don't know when it happened but it has been a few weeks at least and I keep watching for the quest that evens me back up.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: markusin on August 31, 2014, 10:40:23 am
I don't know when it happened but it has been a few weeks at least and I keep watching for the quest that evens me back up.
I've never seen a daily quest or a hidden quest that has 5 as the smallest digit and not 0 (I assume this is what you mean). That's not the case for arena rewards. Have you done any arena runs you're not remembering?
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: pingpongsam on August 31, 2014, 10:59:30 am
I don't know when it happened but it has been a few weeks at least and I keep watching for the quest that evens me back up.
I've never seen a daily quest or a hidden quest that has 5 as the smallest digit and not 0 (I assume this is what you mean). That's not the case for arena rewards. Have you done any arena runs you're not remembering?

Ah, yes, arena, which I abandoned several weeks ago as being a terrible means of acquiring cards.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: theory on September 17, 2014, 09:59:26 am
Is it really?  Arena is strictly better than buying packs if you can average 3-4 wins per run I thought -- if you consistently can't make it to 3 wins then I would imagine you should have bigger problems in ranked than not having X card.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: Awaclus on September 17, 2014, 10:16:57 am
Is it really?  Arena is strictly better than buying packs if you can average 3-4 wins per run I thought -- if you consistently can't make it to 3 wins then I would imagine you should have bigger problems in ranked than not having X card.
Well, it takes extra time though, so it's not strictly better unless you can win significantly more than that.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: pingpongsam on September 17, 2014, 10:40:26 am
Arena doesn't compare at all to constructed. I would say theory's statement is unfair. I recently watched trump's analysis on naxxramas cards and finally understood why I struggle so much with arena. The fact is I was trying to build a synergistic constructed deck from luck of the draw and that it is entirely the wrong approach to drafting in arena.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: theory on September 17, 2014, 11:03:28 am
Arena doesn't compare at all to constructed. I would say theory's statement is unfair. I recently watched trump's analysis on naxxramas cards and finally understood why I struggle so much with arena. The fact is I was trying to build a synergistic constructed deck from luck of the draw and that it is entirely the wrong approach to drafting in arena.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend.  I understand that the skills are different, but if you follow an Arena tier list while drafting (and don't try to build for synergy), don't have abysmal luck in play or draft, and still consistently get only 0-2 wins, you have a lot of room to improve in your play, much of which will improve your constructed play as well. 
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: pingpongsam on September 17, 2014, 02:31:57 pm
When I played arena I consistently hit 3-5 wins. Guess what that nets you? 1 pack of cards and a partial refund for overpaying for the pack of cards. I say if you can't hit 7 wins routinely then arena is a terrible means of acquiring cards. That said, now that my understanding of how to draft has improved I might consider trying it again.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: theory on September 17, 2014, 03:08:31 pm
When I played arena I consistently hit 3-5 wins. Guess what that nets you? 1 pack of cards and a partial refund for overpaying for the pack of cards. I say if you can't hit 7 wins routinely then arena is a terrible means of acquiring cards. That said, now that my understanding of how to draft has improved I might consider trying it again.

If you're averaging 3-5 wins then Arena is the best way to acquire cards, because it's better than the only other way of getting cards.  In other words, these are your options:

* Pay 100 for a pack
* Pay 150 for a pack and ...
0-2 wins: < 50 gold [you're overpaying for packs, this is bad]
3-6 wins: 50-150 gold [you're getting a little extra gold each time you buy a pack]
7+ wins: 150 gold [you're getting packs for free]

Of course this is skewed a little bit by the fact that you don't always get the full gold reward (sometimes you get some dust or cards instead), but in general, if you're doing better than 3 wins per run, then Arena is more gold-efficient than just buying packs.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: ycz6 on September 17, 2014, 04:00:32 pm
Arena will also give you dust, which also helps you acquire cards. I'd say even going 2-3 is usually enough to recoup your costs.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: blueblimp on September 17, 2014, 06:13:57 pm
Well, technically, working IRL to acquire money and then spending that on packs I'd imagine is a faster route than arena for many people living in developed western countries. Even at minimum wage, we're talking >5 packs per hour, whereas in arena a 7-x run is just netting you about 100 gold, or one pack's worth, and may take nearly an hour. Not that I want to imply that it's easy to just "work an extra hour", but I would claim that this calculation shows that grinding arena is a very inefficient way to acquire new packs if you don't enjoy it. (Spending that hour to _save_ $5 would also do the trick, and while it's going to depend on lifestyle whether that's possible, I assume many people have some way to do that.)
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: pingpongsam on September 17, 2014, 06:39:16 pm
Well, technically, working IRL to acquire money and then spending that on packs I'd imagine is a faster route than arena for many people living in developed western countries. Even at minimum wage, we're talking >5 packs per hour, whereas in arena a 7-x run is just netting you about 100 gold, or one pack's worth, and may take nearly an hour. Not that I want to imply that it's easy to just "work an extra hour", but I would claim that this calculation shows that grinding arena is a very inefficient way to acquire new packs if you don't enjoy it. (Spending that hour to _save_ $5 would also do the trick, and while it's going to depend on lifestyle whether that's possible, I assume many people have some way to do that.)

Well, that ignores the fact that I play to enjoy the game not to collect cards. Collecting cards just keeps the game interesting because I can try new things and perfect old ones. If all the cards were available from the start I think I would play less although I would still play.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: Hydrad on September 17, 2014, 06:53:41 pm
The one thing everyone seems to ignore is that in arena if you got 3-5 you may get 50 gold. But if you did those 3 games in constructed you would actually get 10gold just from that. So really you need 60 gold from 3-5 to be more efficient.

I still think its worth it to do arena if you want more cards though.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: ashersky on September 17, 2014, 07:10:06 pm
I stopped doing arena and went to buying packs because I didn't have the time to commit to arena (in the sense that I'd do my arena runs over two or three sittings, unless I just lost them all) and so it was taking more time to receive new cards, even if maybe I got more out of arena runs.

Now that I have almost all commons and now I'm dusting most of every pack, I'm going to go back to arena.  I need a bunch of legendaries, a lot of epics, and some rares still, but I figure the value of arena runs will be worth it.
Title: Re: How did I arrive at a gold amount that is a multiple of 5?
Post by: ycz6 on September 17, 2014, 11:26:08 pm
I just play arena because it's more fun than Ranked :P