I strongly doubt burn/OTK will be supported, based on what's been removed from the Core set: charge, cheap damaging spells that can hit heroes, big temporary attack buffs, etc. Everything points to a renewed focus on the fundamentals: getting the board, keeping the board, and defeating your enemy over a few turns.
I wouldn't disenchant any card with a unique effect (Doomsayer, Knife Thrower, Sea Giant, Wild Pyromancer, etc.) if you think you'll play one of these modes at any point in the future:
- Adventures
- Classic
- Duels
- Tavern Brawl
- Wild
In other words, unless you strictly play Standard ladder and no other mode, you're handicapping yourself by disenchanting cards.
There's also a neutral minion that buffs a minion's health whenever a holy spell is cast. I could easily imagine variations on Mana Wyrm, Violet Teacher and Wild Pyromancer that only trigger with certain spell schools. Overall, this addition opens up a ton a design space... You could even have cards that synergize with 2 or 3 schools only, to really emphasize a certain theme (for example, an elemental that reacts to fire and frost spells only).
I really like the Malygos rework; it seems it will fit nicely with classes that traditionally liked its original version (druid mostly), while also being attractive to control decks that need card draw or tutoring, like priest and mage.
I like to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt (remember: the developers and the decision-makers are two completely different teams!), but geolocking your rewards during your WORLD championship is really stupid.
I know they're doing this because they can't have esports on Twitch anymore, but I can't believe this was the best solution they could come up with.
I just want to thank you for laying out your argument in a reasoned manner. Almost everyone is reacting with sarcasm at best, and inflammatory rhetoric at worst, and that doesn't help anyone.
I think this is a very good deal compared to the standard pricing structure in Hearthstone. Normally, you would be getting 15 packs for that price. So you get 5 extra packs AND two guaranteed legendaries you don't have with this bundle.
If you factor all the packs we will be getting in the coming year (Year of the Phoenix bundles, free packs during Twitch events, etc.), there's a very good chance I'll be able to complete my Scholomance and Darkmoon collections within the next few months, and that hasn't happened since I started playing during beta.
Yup, found out today that you can no longer complete quests or achievements in Brawl or Casual. Your only options are Standard ladder, Wild ladder, or a paid mode (Arena and heroic Duels).
I'm assuming the goal is to funnel the free-to-play players into spending gold or grinding on ladder. This kills Tavern Brawl after you've gotten your classic pack, which is a shame, because that was the perfect way to complete quests involving less popular classes. Now, there's a chance you'll be forced to spend a lot of time on ladder with an underperfoming deck just to clear your log.
Idk why they don't keyword as much as possible, in computer science there's a principle that everything you do a lot needs to be a function/method/constant.
Yes, but remember that this is a *game*, which means it has to remain accessible to a wide number of potential players. Do you think a large number of people would learn computer science terminology just for fun?
Besides demon hunter, nearly all classes get a demon in this expansion (for example, all the "Imprisoned" minions are demons), so it wouldn't surprise me if people included 1 copy in most decks, at least initially.
The problem is that some of the best demons will have much more than 3 health (such as Imprisoned Antaean). I haven't seen an obvious answer to that issue in the rest of the set.
That was a very interesting deep dive on the ethereals! I mostly played during Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, and they've been my favourite non-player race in World of Warcraft ever since. Thanks for writing this!
That being said, I noticed a few typos:
- Paragraph 4 "teaming with life" -- The correct expression is "teeming with life" (teeming; adj. "crowded or full of things").
- P8 "in business with adventures" -- This should be "in business with adventurers".
- Caption 10 "Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight of the League" -- This should be "Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight off the League". You could also simplify by dropping the "off" ("Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight the League").
I'm surprised there is no Grandmasters before the next expansion -- having one GM season per expansion made a lot of sense to me. Other than that, I really like the changes announced.
Just a little bit of backstory explanation that links the vast majority of these cards across games: the elusive/shroud/hexproof is not a reference to their mode of movement, but to the fact that they were inspired by creatures who had Magic Resistance in Dungeons & Dragons. Originally, anyone who targeted a magic resistant creature with a magical effect would have a static chance of having the effect fizzle out completely, before any applicable saving throw were rolled. Faerie dragons and mind flayers (the equivalent of the Faceless Ones in Warcraft, such as Soggoth) were two D&D creatures which were renowned for their high magic resistance.
This will certainly help aggressive warlocks to compete with cyclone mage -- clear the board for cheap, which allows you to follow up with a few minions on the same turn, thereby regaining tempo. Very nice.
I'm a bit sad that they're going back to Kibler again (this is what, his 4th time in the hot seat?) -- I would've liked having Cora back. We haven't seen her since the Heist Inn-vitational, and I thought she did a good job during the Rise of Shadows reveal stream, especially recovering from the snafus that were beyond her control.
Now that the Core set has been revealed, this might be a replacement Circle of Healing used in combination with Crimson Clergy.
I strongly doubt burn/OTK will be supported, based on what's been removed from the Core set: charge, cheap damaging spells that can hit heroes, big temporary attack buffs, etc. Everything points to a renewed focus on the fundamentals: getting the board, keeping the board, and defeating your enemy over a few turns.
Not really. The last few reveal periods lasted 2-3 weeks. We should be getting something this week, at the beginning of next week at the latest.
I wouldn't disenchant any card with a unique effect (Doomsayer, Knife Thrower, Sea Giant, Wild Pyromancer, etc.) if you think you'll play one of these modes at any point in the future:
- Adventures
- Classic
- Duels
- Tavern Brawl
- Wild
In other words, unless you strictly play Standard ladder and no other mode, you're handicapping yourself by disenchanting cards.
There's also a neutral minion that buffs a minion's health whenever a holy spell is cast. I could easily imagine variations on Mana Wyrm, Violet Teacher and Wild Pyromancer that only trigger with certain spell schools. Overall, this addition opens up a ton a design space... You could even have cards that synergize with 2 or 3 schools only, to really emphasize a certain theme (for example, an elemental that reacts to fire and frost spells only).
Nice spread of classes and expansions, all in staple decks!
I really like the Malygos rework; it seems it will fit nicely with classes that traditionally liked its original version (druid mostly), while also being attractive to control decks that need card draw or tutoring, like priest and mage.
Mini expansion should be this month.
Next set and rotation is usually in early April, but they've moved up the last few sets by a week or two, so it might be in late March.
Wow, this is really top-notch work -- even including video cutscenes from the relevant part of the story!
I like to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt (remember: the developers and the decision-makers are two completely different teams!), but geolocking your rewards during your WORLD championship is really stupid.
I know they're doing this because they can't have esports on Twitch anymore, but I can't believe this was the best solution they could come up with.
I just want to thank you for laying out your argument in a reasoned manner. Almost everyone is reacting with sarcasm at best, and inflammatory rhetoric at worst, and that doesn't help anyone.
I think this is a very good deal compared to the standard pricing structure in Hearthstone. Normally, you would be getting 15 packs for that price. So you get 5 extra packs AND two guaranteed legendaries you don't have with this bundle.
If you factor all the packs we will be getting in the coming year (Year of the Phoenix bundles, free packs during Twitch events, etc.), there's a very good chance I'll be able to complete my Scholomance and Darkmoon collections within the next few months, and that hasn't happened since I started playing during beta.
Yup, found out today that you can no longer complete quests or achievements in Brawl or Casual. Your only options are Standard ladder, Wild ladder, or a paid mode (Arena and heroic Duels).
I'm assuming the goal is to funnel the free-to-play players into spending gold or grinding on ladder. This kills Tavern Brawl after you've gotten your classic pack, which is a shame, because that was the perfect way to complete quests involving less popular classes. Now, there's a chance you'll be forced to spend a lot of time on ladder with an underperfoming deck just to clear your log.
Yes, but remember that this is a *game*, which means it has to remain accessible to a wide number of potential players. Do you think a large number of people would learn computer science terminology just for fun?
Besides demon hunter, nearly all classes get a demon in this expansion (for example, all the "Imprisoned" minions are demons), so it wouldn't surprise me if people included 1 copy in most decks, at least initially.
The problem is that some of the best demons will have much more than 3 health (such as Imprisoned Antaean). I haven't seen an obvious answer to that issue in the rest of the set.
That was a very interesting deep dive on the ethereals! I mostly played during Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, and they've been my favourite non-player race in World of Warcraft ever since. Thanks for writing this!
That being said, I noticed a few typos:
- Paragraph 4 "teaming with life" -- The correct expression is "teeming with life" (teeming; adj. "crowded or full of things").
- P8 "in business with adventures" -- This should be "in business with adventurers".
- Caption 10 "Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight of the League" -- This should be "Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight off the League". You could also simplify by dropping the "off" ("Rafaam abandoned Tekahn to fight the League").
I'm surprised there is no Grandmasters before the next expansion -- having one GM season per expansion made a lot of sense to me. Other than that, I really like the changes announced.
Just a little bit of backstory explanation that links the vast majority of these cards across games: the elusive/shroud/hexproof is not a reference to their mode of movement, but to the fact that they were inspired by creatures who had Magic Resistance in Dungeons & Dragons. Originally, anyone who targeted a magic resistant creature with a magical effect would have a static chance of having the effect fizzle out completely, before any applicable saving throw were rolled. Faerie dragons and mind flayers (the equivalent of the Faceless Ones in Warcraft, such as Soggoth) were two D&D creatures which were renowned for their high magic resistance.
This will certainly help aggressive warlocks to compete with cyclone mage -- clear the board for cheap, which allows you to follow up with a few minions on the same turn, thereby regaining tempo. Very nice.
I'm a bit sad that they're going back to Kibler again (this is what, his 4th time in the hot seat?) -- I would've liked having Cora back. We haven't seen her since the Heist Inn-vitational, and I thought she did a good job during the Rise of Shadows reveal stream, especially recovering from the snafus that were beyond her control.