Un’Goro Arena Class Tier List

Introduction

Hello everyone! Enough time has passed to get a feel for all the classes in Arena and how they are performing since Un’Goro hit. Having played many runs with each class I feel satisfied enough to rank the classes. All 9 classes are going to be put in the tiers with Tier 1 being the best classes. The rankings are based on personal experience, analysis of current meta and how each class fits into it. Without further ramblings here is the tier list.

Tier 1

Rogue

Without doubt Rogue is the strongest class in Arena right now. Why is this the case? The single biggest reason for Rogue’s success is slower meta. After Arena became standard meta slowed down a lot. Most often curving out starts from turn 3. Currently it’s normal to have no 2 drops in the deck at all which was unheard of previously. Un’Goro with its taunts and big drops slowed the game even more. Rogue, a class which has the biggest potential for big tempo plays, is thriving in a slower meta. Rogues are able to have an explosive early game uncontested and snowball the game and finish it off before any of the big AoE hits the board. One of the biggest weaknesses of Rogue was that it could get rushed down if the opponent pushed a lot of face damage early on. This would mean that Rogue is not able to utilize her dagger anymore, which is a crucial part of her toolkit. With the slow meta the chance of getting rushed down is very low.

Rogue did lose many good cards with LoE, Tgt and Brm rotating out to wild. Most notable losses were dark-iron-skulker, tomb-pillager, buccaneer and unearthed-raptor. More than half of cards lost were at least above average. This rotation did hurt Rogue quite a bit, however the main power of Rogue comes from its classic set. Powerful tempo cards like sap or backstab thrive in this slower meta and unless the next expansion introduces more aggressive cards, it seems like Rogue is going to be on the top for a while.

Mage

Mage was hard to rate as I couldn’t decide whether it belongs to Tier 1 or Tier 2. In the end I’ve decided to put it in Tier 1 even though there is a noticeable gap between Rogue and Mage. Over Arena’s lifetime Mage has always been near the top and that is for a good reason. This class has very strong removals, something which is very strong in Arena. Cards from basic set are very strong in comparison to other classes. Most notable removals include fireball, frostbolt and flamestrike. Mage is best known for devastating Arena with Flamestrike and other strong AoE spells. Mage is also very strong in Arena because unlike many other classes, it doesn’t have notable weaknesses that opponents can exploit. Combine that with solid cards and you’ve got yourself a class that is going to stay on the top of Arena for a while.

Removals are a strong part of current meta. Because there is an influx of various taunts and minions that you want to remove asap such as vicious-fledgling classes with good removal are great. Jaina has all types of removal available in her arsenal which makes her suitable for all situations. Small removal, hard removal, AoE – Jaina is packed with all of these. Because in the current meta games often come down to card advantage rather than tempo, it makes the class even better with value packed AoE removals or simple card advantage generators such as arcane-intellect or cabalists-tome. Overall Mage fits into the current meta very well which is why it’s sitting at the top along with Rogue.

Un’Goro was very generous for Mages. Out of all the Mage cards released, only 2-3 aren’t good. Except mana-bind and molten-reflection all other cards are good in Arena. Some of them like meteor or steam-surger are very strong. Looking at the cards that rotated out, there were only few that you should miss like ethereal-conjurer or fallen-hero. Other than these and few more good cards, there isn’t much to miss from the rotation. So Mage lost many below average cards and in turn received a ton of good cards with Un’Goro. Losing bad cards whilst getting good ones at the same time all while having a strong core set is surely enough to push a class to Tier 1.

Tier 2

Hunter

Hunter usually has been hovering around the middle of the classes, however the current meta is the best for Hunter. steady-shot forces Hunter to play either aggressive or midrange. It is possible to draft and play control archetype, however that is very rare and doesn’t work out too often. Class cards also contribute to the fact that Hunter can’t play to card advantage well. Most of the class cards either give tempo or face damage. Aggressive decks can usually stomp on decks that rely on card advantage to win if they don’t have enough defensive tools. Due to this Hunter works the best in slow metas where it can punish slower decks which don’t have sufficient early game and no way to catch up on the board. Winning the early game allows to push a lot of face damage early on and when the opponent finally manages to remove your board, simply Steady Shot your way to lethal. On top of all this Hunter is Rogue’s weakest matchup which boosts Hunter’s ranking significantly as Rogue is both very strong and popular.

Currently the meta is relatively slow which means Hunter is going to do well. The biggest problem though is that there are a lot of strong taunts in the meta right now. tar-creeper or giant-mastodon can wreak havoc against an unprepared Hunter. The taunt problem changes how Hunter is played quite a bit. Now when playing Hunter, you will need to make more trades since going face often times will get punished by taunts. Besides it’s hard to rely on minions to finish off the opponent since he can drop a big taunt and protect his face. Because of this try to stack up on damage from hand.

In the set rotation Hunter didn’t lose many important cards except a few strong ones like kings-elekk, powershot or quick-shot. Besides these there haven’t been that many good cards that Hunter lost. Many bad or below average cards rotated out which is good news. With Un’Goro 3 very good commons were released – jeweled-macaw, crackling-razormaw and grievous-bite. The important part is that all these are common which means you are going to see them the most. Having as little bad cards as possible is huge for every class and Un’Goro certainly helped Hunter with that. Overall the rotation favored Hunter a lot and it’s one of the reasons why it’s on top.

Paladin

Paladin is in an interesting spot currently. The class is all about board control. With various buffs  Paladin needs to have board control in order to succeed. The problem is that with spell offering rates buffed, AoE is seen more often than it used to be. This is the biggest problem Paladins are facing right now and it’s a tough one. However that isn’t enough to push out Paladin from Tier 2. If the Paladin manages to grab the board, it becomes really tough to win from that point unless you have AoE. 1/1s from the hero power stack up very quick and can pose a threat by themselves if you don’t have a way to clear them. Buffs such as blessing-of-kings or spikeridged-steed can win games by themselves if left unanswered. That is if Paladin has the board. In the other scenario if you lost the board as Paladin you’re going to be in a pickle. The biggest board clear you can do is 2 damage which usually isn’t enough to fully clear the board. Hard removal isn’t strong either. Sure there are debuffs such as aldor-peacekeeper, however they don’t actually kill the minion, only make it weaker. In this slower meta Paladin has some breathing space since people curve out slower and you don’t need to fight from behind from the very start. It allows more time to develop the board. The taunts also help Paladin quite a bit to set up the board in the way you want. Overall slower meta has definitely helped Paladin come near the top.

Looking at the rotations, Paladin lost quite a few good cards. Nothing noticeable from Blackrock Mountain and League of Explorers besides keeper-of-uldaman which is a huge loss for Paladin as it was an amazing card. There were a few good cards in The Grand Tournament, notably seal-of-champions and murloc-knight. These 3 are the biggest losses and they hurt Paladin a lot. With Un’Goro the best thing Paladin got is spikeridged-steed which is nuts how powerful it is. There are more great cards in Un’Goro such as vinecleaver or hydrologist, however Spikeridged Steed is the most important one. Overall Paladin lost 3 premium cards, however Uther did get an amazing premium card along with few good cards in Un’Goro.

Tier 3

Warlock

Warlock has both strengths and weaknesses. The strongest part about Warlock is life-tap which the class is based around. Warlock’s class cards pale in comparison to other classes as a way to offset the strong hero power. The core set of Warlock’s class cards isn’t strong. Therefore how good Warlock is in the Arena is often determined by the cards he gets from expansions. The biggest weakness of Warlock is aggressive decks. Because Life Tap costs health you can use it a limited amount of time before you die. Aggressive decks can put on so much pressure on your health total that you may not be able to use your hero power for the rest of the game. Without its hero power Warlock is a terrible class. The current meta does favor Warlock since it is slow and you can play Warlock without getting pressured too much. The increase in taunts also helps out immensely. The reason why Warlock isn’t at the top comes from what I mentioned before – reliance on good cards from expansions.

Warlock got very hurt from the rotation. Black Rock Mountain hurt the most with 2 very powerful cards rotating out – imp-gang-boss and demonwrath. From League of Explorers and The Grand Tournament Warlock notably lost dark-peddler and wrathguard. Still the biggest loss was BRM. Warlock got shafted in Un’Goro. The 3 commons released aren’t great maybe with the exception of tar-lurker. None of the cards released for Warlock are premium and only few are good. Overall Warlock lost premium cards in the rotation and got shafted in Un’Goro. Because of that it lies in the middle instead of the top.

Priest

Priest is very luck dependent. You can either get very lucky and draw a deck that will take you to 12 wins by itself or you can get unlucky and not even reach 4 or so wins. Often times there is no middle ground and whether you will do well as a Priest often depends on the draft rather than skill when playing. In general Priest is relatively easy to play compared to other classes. Priest is similar to Paladin in a sense that you need board control in order to utilize your tools effectively and if you don’t get on the board often time you are going to lose. Unless you have dragonfire-potion or some other AoE, it is hard to come back on the board once you’ve lost it, especially against Rogue. Rogue’s dominance is very bad for Priest as it’s the worst matchup. Just like with Paladin slower meta did help Priest immensely as it doesn’t get pressured as much.

Priest didn’t lose too much nor it benefited a lot from the set rotation. There were some good cards that rotated out, however there were some awful ones too. In Un’Goro Priest did get some good cards like radiant-elemental and crystalline-oracle and free-from-amber. Overall the rotation didn’t impact Priest’s strength too much and it’s just hanging out in the middle.

Tier 4

Shaman

Currenly Thrall doesn’t have much going for him. The problem with Shaman as a whole is that it doesn’t do unfair things like Warlock with its hero power or Mage with its removals. The theme of Shaman is supposed to be overload and totems. Yet both of these themes aren’t strong in Arena enough to define a class. Shaman does have some good removal, especially AoE which is one of its strongest sides. Another big problem with Shaman is randomness. You can find randomness in Shaman everywhere starting with its hero power and ending in specific cards like lightning-storm. As an Arena player you want as little randomness as possible. Consistency is much more preferred rather than randomness. Since Shaman doesn’t really have a theme it relies on strong class cards to be good.

Un’Goro released an elemental theme which Shaman was supposed to be a big part of. However in Arena Shaman doesn’t have much synergies with elemental. kalimos-primal-lord is the strongest totem synergy, sadly it’s a legendary. Because it’s hard to get elemental synergies in Shaman, it didn’t receive many god cards in Un’Goro with exceptions of volcano and hot-spring-guardian. These are the only 2 rares or commons released for Shaman in Un’Goro. Shaman did lose quite a few strong cards from the rotation. tunnel-trogg, totem-golem, fireguard-destroyer allowed Shaman to have an explosive start and snowball the game from early game into win. Cards like elemental-destruction and thunder-bluff-valiant were powerhouses of Shaman, powerful win conditions. Overall Shaman lost a huge amount of strong cards from rotation while getting almost nothing in return.

Druid

Druid is way at the bottom right now. Druid is similar to Paladin with the same weaknesses, however Paladin at least has some strengths. Druid suffers the same weaknesses like no AoE no hard removals and no ways to come back on board once it’s lost. The main difference is that Paladin can do something with the board like use various buffs or pump out 1/1 Recruits. Druid on the other hand can’t convert a board into a win besides cards like savage-roar. Overall there just isn’t much to say about Druid as it’s just a worse version of Paladin.

Druid is similar to Shaman in a sense that it relies on strong class cards and that it got shafted in the rotation. Druid lost many good cards in The Grand Tournament including darnassus-aspirant, living-roots, druid-of-the-saber, savage-combatant. All of these cards were what was keeping Druid from the rock bottom. Now that they’re gone Druid really needs some good replacements for these powerhouses. Un’Goro did go in the right direction by adding some strong Druid cards like tortollan-forager, shellshifter. Yet there still are a few cards that aren’t good at all(earthen-scales). Overall Druid didn’t get enough support to compensate for the lost cards to get out of the bottom. We can only hope next expansions will help Druid out.

Tier 5

Warrior

Warrior is at absolute rock bottom of Arena currently. It is far behind Druid and Shaman from the previous tier. Over the times Warrior has always been struggling in Arena. Up before League of Explorers warrior has been struggling a ton always being regarded as the worst class in Arena. The biggest problem with Warrior is that it essentially doesn’t have a hero power. armor-up is nearly useless in Arena and definitely not worth 2 mana to spend. On top of that Warrior has some cards that are straight up awful like iron-hide. Both of these reasons make Warrior very bad in Arena. One of the themes in Warrior – armor gain is just useless.

League of Explorers was the expansion that tried to fix Warrior in Arena. And it did by releasing 2 insanely strong commons and a good rare. Now with League of Explorers gone Warrior is going back to the bottom. From TGT and BRM Warrior didn’t lose much as most of the cards there aren’t better than average. With Un’Goro Warrior the only good card is tar-lord. With Warrior losing the cards that kept it in the Arena and not gaining anything good with Un’Goro it’s no surprise that the class is so bad right now.

Closing

That’s all for the tier list. How do you think the tiers should look like? Feel free to leave a comment with what you think are the best classes in Arena right now. As always thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Arena articles.

Until next time,

Bye.

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