What do you like about Arena/PvP?

[willng3]

So we've all gotten a chance to enjoy the Arena for a few weeks.  We've also gotten a chance to see some of the weaknesses displayed by Arena over this time.

So here's what I want to know: 
1)  Do you prefer playing the Arena over synchronous PvP?
2)  Why?

Simple questions, answer as you feel free.

[Astrocyte]

I prefer the arena, for the following reasons:

No desync
More money
No desync
No trolls
No desync
I don't have to choose between either stomping noobs who have no idea what they're doing or getting totally owned by a pro
No desync

[Jappert]

1) YES
2) No desyncs, faster matches, less time wasted.

[dragonsdemesne]

Most of the people in pvp are new players.  90% of the games I've played in pvp were people with less than 100 games played total and zero upgrades.  If there were more people with good pvp decks, it would be different, but as it is now, I only ever see new/weak players in pvp.  Also, I can't go afk during a pvp match for 20 minutes whenever I want :p (which I do all the time playing FGs/platinum)  There's also the issue that people, when they are losing in pvp, will often just disconnect and make you wait for them to timeout, and then you are just playing their AI anyway, and with the contents of their decks, that usually ends up being about ai1.

In the arena, people make better decks.  A bunch of them are still pretty crappy, either due to lack of deckbuilding skill or lack of upgrades, or because the card the oracle gave them sucks, but even a crap deck is tough to beat when it has 2x draw, 3x mark, and a pile of hp.  The rewards in the arena are also much nicer than pvp; more gold, rare spins, and even regular spins are better because arena decks usually only have a few types of card, whereas n00b pvp decks will have one or two each of many cards, making it harder to win one.  (and less likely to be good if you do win one)

If I ever saw some of the good platinum deckbuilders in pvp, I might change my tune, but it's extremely rare that I ever saw anyone with more than a few thousand points score in pvp, and usually it's a few hundred or so.  I used to play a bit more pvp, but now I almost never do because of the reasons I've stated.

[RootRanger]

Events/Tourneys/BL > Arena > PvP1/2

Events, Tourneys, and BL have much better players , as well as a better ranking system than Arena and PvP1/2. Events, Tourneys, and BL also require a lot more deckbuilding skill than Arena, now that everyone has posted decent Arena decks. I dislike PvP 1/2 because it isn't much of a challenge and there are a lot of desyncs.

[Aves]

1-Yes.
2-No desynchs.
More money- virtually impossible to lose electrum unless your win percentage is really really low.
Rares.
Bronze is a good testing place for fun, uncompetitive decks.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Arena has you fighting against players who have been given 'buffs' - it's sort of like Half-Bloods, only with more rewards and more variety (Excluding the Oraclebows.) You can still earn rares (even shards, and if you play Gold or Plat you can get upgraded rares), but the difficulty of getting seems to have upped well enough for their own sake.

1 and 2) Like Root, I prefer Organized PvP(Tourneys, Events, League, etc...) over Arena and Arena over Random PvP too - you're competing against players you are sure they're going to be a challenge and they know what they're doing.  Random PvP has it's own problems.  Arena gives you good decks... but not necessarily will you have a smart computer playing them.

Overall - Arena maintains a grind goal (Which it should), and is a good alternative to the other options you have in the game - you don't need any schedule unlike Organized PvP and there is a 100% guarantee that if you leave in a bad mood, it was because of the deck, not the bad manners seen in random PvP. It has it's own little flaws, but if it's worth playing and you actually get some benefit out of it, it's good.

[(...)]

1) yes
2) no desync, faster to play, better rewards and most decks are more challenging than normal pvp because of skill points

[BloodlinE]

1) massive score gain,moar money and ai is stupid.
2)cuz arena is pro thats why