Arena Map Pools and Rotation

[Linxy]

With the introduction of Nokhudon Proving Grounds as a new Arena map in Dragonflight, we’ve hit 15 total Arena maps that are available when players queue up. We feel that this is a large number to have in the pool at once and waters down a map’s impact in an Arena experience. That being said, we think it will be interesting and fun to divide up the maps into a rotation to keep the pool dynamic for players.

We feel a weekly cadence ensures players will see their favorite maps frequently during a season. Additionally, the decision for 8-map pools was made to compact the rotation so players will be able to more easily refine strategy on certain maps with specific compositions within a week.

After working with a few combinations, the iteration we will be implementing for Dragonflight Season 1 will be a rotation of 3 buckets with 8 maps each, that captured all our current maps:

POOL A	POOL B	POOL C
Nagrand Arena	Nagrand Arena	Nagrand Arena
Dalaran Sewers	Ruins of Lordaeron	Hook Point
Tiger’s Peak	Tol’Viron Arena	Tiger’s Peak
Enigma Crucible	Empyrean Domain	Ashamane’s Fall
Empyrean Domain	Blade’s Edge Arena	The Robodrome
Ashamane’s Fall	Maldraxxus Coliseum	Mugambala
Maldraxxus Coliseum	Black Rook Hold Arena	Enigma Crucible
Nokhudon Proving Grounds	Nokhudon Proving Grounds	Nokhudon Proving Grounds

While discussing internally what the map pools should look like, there were various factors we looked at to divide the maps up to be as fair as possible. The factors we looked at within each pool included map size (large and small), map line of sight placement (symmetrical pillars, Z-axis, or other variants), and to keep the new map in each rotation, which in Season 1 of Dragonflight is Nokhudon Proving Grounds.

Note: The map pools will be available in Rated Arena and Arena Skirmishes only at this time, Rated Solo Shuffle and Solo Shuffle Brawl will not have rotating map pools.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences with this rotation in Season 1.

[Chîlling-shazzrah]

Blades edge and mugambala can flat out be removed from the game, universally disliked by everyone

[Thomasman-nerathor]

I recently thought, that its a bit sad, that we see this new and amazing arena so rarely and that something should be done about it.

Its a right step imo, but i dont like it at all tbh, to not see certain arenas in certain weeks. Imo u should have just brought the new arena more often, two or three times as much, whilest keeping all the others.

We will see different opinions ofc, but i dont like that one at all. The only good thing i can see is, that the new one comes more often, but excluding others totally in certain weeks is something i rly dislike.

[Ishayo-tarren-mill]

Not a good idea. It changes the game balance on a predictable weekly basis, leading to players not queuing in certain weeks because it’s guaranteed rating loss.

Just do what you do in SC2 or M+: Different maps for different seasons. I do agree that 15 maps is a bit high.

While you’re at it, take that opportunity to make a new map nearly every season. Like dungeons.

[Linxy]

After reading player feedback, we looked at the number of large maps available to players in each pool per week and Pool C ended up with more of the larger maps than the rest. To address this, we swapped Tiger’s Peak from Pool B with Tol’Viron Arena from Pool C.

[Qvoid-stormscale]

Oh yeah, so funny to have so few maps u get bored.