‘Hearthstone’ Decks: Announcement States Changes To Arena League Of Explorers Cards’ Algorithm

Blizzard, the developers behind the desktop, iOS and Android collectible card game (CCG) Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, has made an announcement stating changes to the algorithm deciding the proportion of League of Explorers cards to older cards inside any Arena deck.

The changes have been pushed through with a hot-fix, so Hearthstone players should already be reaping the benefits of Blizzard tweaking the chances of a League of Explorers card being selected as part of a player’s arena deck.

League of Explorers cards will now appear at a 1.5x rate in Arena decks compared to other card sets, meaning that League of Explorers cards now have a 50-percent higher chance of being included in the virtual shuffling deciding a Hearthstone player’s fate in the Arena.

Blizzard originally promised the rate-of-selection boost for League of Explorers cards in Arena decks at Blizzcon, but due to a bug, the bonus wasn’t properly implemented. HearthArena posted an analysis of multiple Arena deck shuffles and found that while common League of Explorers cards did indeed show 1.5x more than older cards, neutral rare and epic League of Explorers cards were seemingly showing up at a -1.5x proportion.

It seems Blizzard has taken notice and fixed the bug, so now all rarity level League of Explorers cards will start appearing in Arena decks at a 1.5x rate.

Released Nov. 12, League of Explorers is the third adventure Blizzard has released for Hearthstone. Some of the best new cards in League of Explorers include Dark Peddler, a common rarity card for Warlocks that’s already been nerfed to no avail, Obsidian Destroyer, a common rarity card for Warriors that HearthArena calls the “fourth best performing Warrior card among all skill levels,” and Keeper of Uldaman, a common rarity card for Paladins.

The algorithm deciding which cards are included in Arena decks and a Hearthstone card pack is a Blizzard secret, but analyzing the results of multiple sets of data can provide some insight into how they work. For example, after opening up about 30 Hearthstone card packs, the chances of a Hearthstone player receiving a legendary rarity card shoots up sky high. The pity timer for epic rarity cards on the other hand, is roughly 10 Hearthstone card packs without any occurrences.