Yep. They found a way take the least popular thing in all of raid and make it worse.

Circling back to say "told ya so" on Fabian being of no consequence in Live Arena. You've all had time to overcome Armanz guilt and realize that nobody bothers to use Fabian, even as ban-bait. You don't have to pick him first, whoever you're up against isn't going to bother with him. And none of that would be so if he hadn't inexplicably been pre-nerfed with his useless speed aura.

yeah this is just super, super wrong 

he's tremendous in LA in Gold, definitely great in G4 at 7k+ and for those pushing hard in seasonal. he gets picked a LOT up there. with Wands running around and everyone still running quad stoneskin (for the most part), fabian does more than armanz in most matchups up there, I feel.

What game are you playing? Fabian is dominating high end Live Arena.  I am in G4, and he is my first pick every time I get first pick, and any time the opponent does not pick him first.

In the current G4 Meta, Fabian is more prevalent and more effective than Armanz by a long shot.  

I'm in Gold II and I've seen him maybe four times, total, in a month. And I don't ban him if I do. But in 15 fights a day I see Armanz at least 10.

all things equal when it comes to relative build strength: fabian is just more impactful than armanz in higher end arena (and likely arena in general), helps against the majority of mythics more and being able to buff strip + lockout without proc'ing wand/sheep is such a massive deal before you even get to his passive.

i can see an outcome in which someone with less answers for armanz/build related issues would feel the need to pick first or ban him. i do think for the majority of players with marius for example, picking armanz over marius is a big leak I see. 

Just how do they justify the scoring in live, if I bail on 3 - and sometimes its a contest to see who bails first - I lose 6 points, if I win the next I get 7 so I'm +1 basically you can't do much but gain points which will mean an incredible amount of players in one tier oneday

That is the inevitable end point yes, and im sure its intended.  Eventually almost anyone actively playing will end up in G4 and it'll feel like classic arena but slower.

Hopefully they add more tiers if and when that happens. Or otherwise do something for the matchmaking process to distinguish between massive levels of account disparity even if they've both fought roughly the same number of total battles, which right now is the only factor.