I've enjoyed the game so far but I do think the monetization could lead to issues in the future... seems too soon to say yet.
I did want to note that while it is unintuitive that the unlocked talent slots only allow you to switch between talents, I think this is actually a very good thing for the game because it means you won't be up against people using 2 or 3 talents in PVP just because they paid more for a bunch of copies of a unit, which would give them a massive advantage.
This way a FTP player can at least compete with just max level units at uncommon rather than needing to make all their units legendary. (of course the bonus levels still matter but much less so as you said in the article).
I understand your perspective and in an ideal world I think you're right, but honestly I can't think of other games that go out of their way to make tools for blind players to play. When I saw the news about the program being deprecated and people asking blizzard to provide native support I assumed it was a pipe dream. For the most part accessibility features in games rarely go beyond colorblind mode and difficulty scaling. Personally I think a commitment like this to work on the problem so soon after the issue was brought to their attention is about as much as we could have hoped for.
It seems like the allegiance effect wouldn't trigger often enough to be worth it, not to mention that shellshocker isn't a very good target for the effect.
To be honest, the choice to go after bloodbloom did surprise me a little as well, mostly because there's collateral damage in the form of mecha'thun decks that also used the card. But ultimately I think it makes sense for the long term health of the game, since bloodbloom's very existence requires all high-cost spells in the class to be designed knowing that they might come down for two mana, either on turn two (one with the coin) or in tandem with another play as DH warlock does.
Without bloodbloom, darkest hour isn't a particularly scary card, and it would feel absurd to nerf it in standard where it's a meme. Plus it isn't easy to nerf, seeing as increasing the mana cost doesn't really do anything to DH warlock.
I'd actually argue that this effect is better than monk since it can't be removed or traded into. I still don't think it'll see much play, but maybe if a powerful targeted burn deck emerges (for example if malygos rogue is strong) then this will see some play
I think this is the card that would make me want to play a restore druid. Just thinking of all the ways to clone a bunch of Lucentbarks onto the board and then repeatedly bringing them back sounds lovely
I think this prep Academic Espionage to fill your hand with 1-cost cards will be powerful enough to see play as long as there is a rogue archetype that can play a longer game
I've enjoyed the game so far but I do think the monetization could lead to issues in the future... seems too soon to say yet.
I did want to note that while it is unintuitive that the unlocked talent slots only allow you to switch between talents, I think this is actually a very good thing for the game because it means you won't be up against people using 2 or 3 talents in PVP just because they paid more for a bunch of copies of a unit, which would give them a massive advantage.
This way a FTP player can at least compete with just max level units at uncommon rather than needing to make all their units legendary. (of course the bonus levels still matter but much less so as you said in the article).
I understand your perspective and in an ideal world I think you're right, but honestly I can't think of other games that go out of their way to make tools for blind players to play. When I saw the news about the program being deprecated and people asking blizzard to provide native support I assumed it was a pipe dream. For the most part accessibility features in games rarely go beyond colorblind mode and difficulty scaling. Personally I think a commitment like this to work on the problem so soon after the issue was brought to their attention is about as much as we could have hoped for.
It seems like the allegiance effect wouldn't trigger often enough to be worth it, not to mention that shellshocker isn't a very good target for the effect.
It's not as though some idiot's tweet affected the patch schedule. I'm sure they've been looking at these changes for quite some time now.
To be honest, the choice to go after bloodbloom did surprise me a little as well, mostly because there's collateral damage in the form of mecha'thun decks that also used the card. But ultimately I think it makes sense for the long term health of the game, since bloodbloom's very existence requires all high-cost spells in the class to be designed knowing that they might come down for two mana, either on turn two (one with the coin) or in tandem with another play as DH warlock does.
Without bloodbloom, darkest hour isn't a particularly scary card, and it would feel absurd to nerf it in standard where it's a meme. Plus it isn't easy to nerf, seeing as increasing the mana cost doesn't really do anything to DH warlock.
NEXT:
I'd actually argue that this effect is better than monk since it can't be removed or traded into. I still don't think it'll see much play, but maybe if a powerful targeted burn deck emerges (for example if malygos rogue is strong) then this will see some play
I think this is the card that would make me want to play a restore druid. Just thinking of all the ways to clone a bunch of Lucentbarks onto the board and then repeatedly bringing them back sounds lovely
Maybe some chance of a warrior with big spells, Archivist, and Spiteful Summoner?
I think this prep Academic Espionage to fill your hand with 1-cost cards will be powerful enough to see play as long as there is a rogue archetype that can play a longer game