Hearthstone Arena Basics Guide

Hearthstone Arena Basics Guide by HearthProHS

Hey guys, HearthProHS here and today I have for you a guide to the basics of Hearthstone Arena.

A little about me:

• I have hit rank 1 legend
• Proof: http://i.imgur.com/cyOvOXV.png
• I have over 300 wins in constructed and casual and almost 100 arena wins.
• I’ve gotten offers to be on all the top teams like Tempo Storm, Curse, Meet Your Maker, and TSM. I turned down the offers because I am starting my own team, so look out for that soon.

So, a lot of people add me on Hearthstone and tell me to get cancer and die, but some players add me and ask me how I got so good at arena. Well, today I am going to explain that to you.

I regularly get 4-5 wins in arena and have an overall win rate of 47-52%. I accomplish this by knowing how to draft and play good arena deck.

Before you draft a good arena deck you have to learn the fundamentals of arena play. Now, to win Hearthstone you need to get your opponent’s health to zero. The best way to accomplish this is through quick damage to your opponent and combos that deal HUGE amounts of damage.

Don’t bother trading. You can leave that to your opponent while you are pummeling their face. We are trying to deal as much damage as possible as quickly as possible.

Don’t worry about mana. It’s not important. If you don’t use all of it, it’s not a big deal. Your thought every turn should be, “How can I do as much damage as possible to their face?” This is what wins you games.

Because of this style of play, cards like Sinister Strike and Mind Blast and anything with charge should be top picks. Cards like Stonetusk Boar, Bluegill Warrior, and Wolfrider are the picks you should always be looking for.

Buff cards are also a top priority in arena. A Bluegill Warrior by itself is only 2 points of face damage on turn 2, but combo that with 2 Blessing of Mights the following turn and that’s 10 points of damage by turn 3. Cards to look out for are Cold Blood, Blessing of Kings, Rockbiter Weapon, Windfury, Bestial Wrath, Power Overwhelming, Charge, and Rampage. Anything that allows your minions to attack for more.

You’re probably asking, “How do I prioritize whether to pick a minion over a buff?” Luckily for you I have came up with a simple way to figure this out every time without fail. Let’s say your choices are between Chillwind Yeti, Blessing of Kings, and Wolfrider, which do you choose. First, we can eliminate the Yeti. It doesn’t have charge so we aren’t bothering with it. So, it’s between Wolfrider and Blessing of Kings. This is where my trick comes in.

First you figure out how much damage each represents:

• Wolfrider = 3
• Blessing of Kings = 4

Second, you pick which one represents more damage which is Blessing of Kings. We can prove this with a mathematical equation:

• 4 > 3

If you aren’t good with Algebra, don’t worry. Through practice you’ll get better at it.

Now, let’s talk about what to do if your choices don’t contain a buff to do more damage or a charge minion. What you are looking for in these situations are taunts. Minions like Shieldbearer, Silverback Patriarch, and Mogushan Warden are going to keep all your minions alive. This is important to slow your opponent down from trading with your chargers while they are playing their slow minions like Harvest Golem and Chillwind Yeti.

The next thing I would like to talk about is a more advanced topic. If you aren’t familiar with the topics I’ve just gone over then you may not be ready for this next part. I’m talking of course about combos. Combos are a combination of cards that have synergy and powerful effects. Combos are great in arena because they can output a lot of damage and your opponent almost never sees them coming.

A good example of a combo is one that not a lot of people know about and has a lot of synergy with the type of decks we will be drafting. It’s the Divine Spirit/Inner Fire Priest combo. You’re probably saying to yourself,”Huh?” Don’t worry, I’ll explain. Divine Spirit doubles a minions health. “HearthPro, that doesn’t do damage, why would we ever pick that?” And you’d be correct, but because of the power of combos, this card is AMAZING. If you double the health of your Mogushan Warden then it will make it even harder for the opponents to trade with your chargers. But, this is where things get really good, slap an Inner Fire on your Mogushan Warden that you just gave 14 health and now he has 14 attack to go along with it. You pretty much win the game from there. Your opponent won’t even believe what just happened.

Here’s a quick summary of card to look out for by class.

Druid:

• Naturalize – Gets rid of those annoying taunters.
• Moonfire – Free damage!
• Innervate – Get out more chargers faster.
• Mark of Nature – 4 damage on your chargers or 4 more health on your Mogushan.
• Bite – 4 damage to their face for 4 mana. Not bad.

Hunter:

• Arcane Shot – Great on turn 1 to get the damage rolling.
• Bestial Wrath – Your beasts get more attack.
• Tundra Rhino – More charge.
• King Krush – The King of charge minions second only to Leeroy.

Mage:

• Frostbolt – A cheap 3 damage and keeps your opponent from playing weapons to use on your chargers.
• Fireball – Draft as many as you can! 30 of them if you can.
• Pyroblast – An ok finisher, but you want to close the game out with Fireballs before turn 10.
• Arcane Intellect – Gets you to all your Fireballs.
• Ice Block – So they can’t kill you while you are fireballing their face.

Paladin:

• Hand of Protection – Protect your chargers.
• Blessing of Might – More attack for your chargers.
• Blessing of Kings – A bit slow, but makes your chargers more powerful.
• Holy Wrath – Combos great with all your chargers to squeeze in more damage on a turn.

Priest:

• Holy Smite – See Arcane Shot.
• Inner Fire – Combos with Divine Spirit.
• Divine Spirit – Combos with Inner Fire.
• Lightwell – Keep you and your chargers healthy.
• Mindblast – OP! 5 damage to face for 2 mana. Cheaper than Fireball. Get as many as you can.

Rogue:

• Shadowstep – Make your chargers charge more.
• Sinister Strike – Stronger than Holy Smite and Arcane Shot. 3 damage for 1 mana and no need to direct where it goes, it already knows.
• Cold Blood – Makes your chargers hit for more.
• Patient Assassin – Drop it if you think your opponent is going to play a big taunt. They won’t when thy see this guy.
• Headcrack – Combos great after you play a charge minion. Try and play it every turn.
• Master of Disguise – They won’t be able to trade with your Cold Blooded Arcane Golem once you give it stealth.
• Vanish – Get back all your chargers and remove all their taunts. GG.

Shaman:

• Dust Devil – OP 1 mana minion with Windfury. Hide it behind your Shieldbearer.
• Windfury – Use it on your minions so they can attack twice. Use 2 so they can attack 4 times.
• Farsight – Draws you into your chargers and then play them for less.
• Bloodlust – More damage for all your minions hiding behind taunts.

Warlock:

• Soulfire – Free 4 damage to face.
• Corruption – Let them know their stupid taunt is gonna die.
• Power Overwhelming- So much damage for 1 mana. Don’t worry you have plenty more charge minions.
• Fel Guard – Good taunt for cheap. No downside cause you aren’t using all your mana anyway.
• Summoning Portal – Hides behind your taunts to get more chargers out faster and for cheaper.
• Bane of Doom – Use it to finish of a taunt and it’s basically a free Doom Guard.
• Doom Guard – Powerful charger for pretty cheap.
• Twisting Nether – Shows them you don’t even care about your own minions and best animation.

Warrior:

• Inner Rage – More damage and combos with Rampage.
• Rampage – More damage and combs with Inner Rage.
• Charge – Perfect for when you are forced to pick those pesky minions without charge.
• Warsong Commander – Turn those lame non-chargers into value chargers.
• Gorehowl – A good 7 damage to their face on turn 7 so you can finish them on turn 8.

And that about wraps it up. I hope this guide has been a help to you and keep your eyes out for more of my guides in the near future.