A big clarification that 3+ wins with Duels rewards experience the first time. I went on a 10-win run with Warlock and got huge bonuses for my first 3-10th wins. 8,200 experience all together (starts at 850 experience for 3-wins and goes up from there). I wonder if that'll be refreshed each expansion season. I assume Arena and Duels provide a per-hour experience gain similar to constructed. Good to have clarification on that, but the rewards for Duels wins at high levels are worth more than a daily quest and are worth attempting regularly (it will be tough for me to get to 11 or 12 wins for that last XP boost).
So just general impressions of the Rewards Track so far is that it's very, very well done. If it releases five days before the next expansion each time it'll give you a huge boost in packs and gold right before release. That just feels good. I'm curious about experience rewarded for time played and wins because I haven't seen evidence of it yet. Maybe that's rewarded the following day? I also greatly appreciate having the extra quest slot to miss a day. So far so good. Can't believe it took this many years, but at least they did it right.
I think it could see play in a mediocre Druid deck. Survival of the Fittest for 10 mana. Next turn fill your board with 8/8 taunts. That's not a great play because it'd be better to have SotF hit medium things for consistency, playability, and value, but it would be a fun as hell closer.
Will three wins in Ranked still be rewarded by 10 gold? I've been playing 80% Duels the last few weeks, and it bothers me that I don't get that 3-win bump from that game mode. I understand not having it for Heroic/Arena because of the rewards structure, but it would give more people an incentive to play casual if it gave you something. And maybe it does? I really have no idea how this new experience-based quest system works. Any insight on the details of these new quest mechanics is appreciated.
I'm pretty sure that because it's just cosmetics it's only cash. Similar to you, I'll never pay for it. I'm comfortable with that. A lot of other people like cosmetics and this feels like the first time they're being serious about releasing regular cosmetic content on a regular basis. If that helps fund the game and keep new game modes like Duels being produced, I'm happy. I'm most curious about unlocking additional hero powers and treasures in duels and if that will be paywalled in any way.
Warrior has been one of my best clases so I'm surprised at the buff. Very happy with the Rogue buffs and Shaman nerf. Can't wait for full release and some more HP and starting treasure variety. Really looking forward to more details overall on Duels, Progression, Achievements, etc. I wish they would schedule those announcements along with the card reveal schedule.
This game, as a game, has a ton going for it. I really like the mana system and the minion positioning/combat system. But I was progressing through the beginner missions, going from AI to competitive play, and on four attempts across two days I waited over 5 minutes to get matched in PvP draft arena before just cancelling and doing something else. I still may go back to it, but no guarantees.
I started playing this last night after your coverage went live. Too early for me to make a judgment as a whole, but those are some pretty fantastic giveaways.
1) In regards to the stats: many variants of those decks are running well above 60% on HSReplay. The aggregate variants across all ranks is what drops them below 60%. I don't have premium HSReplay so admittedly my analysis is limited. I read the VS report at your suggestion, and while the meta is generally healthy (I wasn't trying to be negative about the state of the game in my OP), I think there are clear issues.
2) Sinister Strike IS a bad card. It's also run in many variants of rogue that are performing above 63% on HSReplay. That's a testament to the power of Secret Passage. It's why it's Viscious Syndicate's metabreaker of the week, and the most played deck at competitive ranks. There are a lot of lethal outs for Rogue - maybe I shouldn't have focused on Sinister Strike. Secret Passage is broken on its face, and there's only one thing really keeping it in check.
3) What does best against Rogue? Even more aggressive Hunter and Demon Hunter decks that are powered by Voracious Reader. If you nerf Secret Passage you can't ignore the even more aggressive decks.
4) Despite the hyper-aggression, Libram Paladin is incredibly versatile and dominant, even if it doesn't quite top the chart at the highest levels of competition. What makes it unfair? I looked at Argent Braggart, First Day of School, and High Abbess Alura, but ultimately the problem is that Libram of Wisdom is over-powered at every stage of the game. I'm open to a different suggestion of how to deal with that, but I couldn't think of a better one.
5) Basically, if you agree that Voracious Reader should be nerfed as a versatile neutral that's pushing zoo/aggro too far over the top, you also have to look at keeping Rogue and Paladin in check. I thought the nerfs I suggested, only three cards in total, were pretty conservative, and don't kill their utility.
Context - We're three weeks into the Scholomance Acadamey Expansion. Kael'thas Sunstrider, who was broken before Day 1, has been fixed, but no other nerfs for Standard have been introduced (Mindrender Illucia was mostly for Wild).
HSReplay has the Tier 1 decks as Libram Paladin (58.1%), Face Hunter (57.4%), Stealth Rogue (57.2%), and Aggro Demon Hunter (55.9%).
My suggested nerfs:
Libram of Wisdom - Change the cost from 2-mana to 3-mana. This wouldn't affect the end-game power of the card or of Lady Liadrin, but would make for a much fairer early-game and mid-game. At first I speculated on changing stats or discounts of Aldor Attendant or Aldor Truthseeker, but their stats and effects are generally balanced for the other Librams. You want wisdom? You need to study harder and longer first.
Voracious Reader - Change the cost from 2-mana to 3-mana. There's nothing to over-think here. Make the card slower. Make it harder for a player to empty their hand on the same turn they play this. Make it come down later when the opponent can more easily deal with it. We all knew this card was too good as printed, and it's overdue for a nerf.
Secret Passage - Change "Replace your hand with 5 cards from your deck" to "3 cards." The Soularium was an excellent legendary spell. This draws more, is more consistent, and has no down-side. It's barely RNG to use this card to search for a game-winning Eviscerate or Sinister Strike. Making this change won't alter a single deck-list in current Rogue decks, but would hopefully shave a few tenths of a percent off their win-rate.
I would think that because Shadow Visions is discovering its second copy from a fixed pool, that's different than discussing itself from a randomly generated pool.
I followed the comments on the other thread, and I'm trying to wrap my head around it. I play nearly every day, rarely miss a daily, but don't play much more than dailies unless I'm going for R5 or Legend. I also play Arena at a decent enough level to not lose much gold (Average ~5 wins). I agree that the 5,000 gold banked per expansion sounds about right for me. I understand from the other thread that some players are able to bank double that.
I think most issues could be resolved if they stopped rewarding specific set packs - in general and in Arena - and started rewarding pack tokens to claim any expansion. You could also bank pack tokens into future sets or spend them on wild sets. The biggest problem with Arena is that towards the end of a season you don't want to keep opening current set packs. I also would have gone to Legend last month if I knew the set pack rewards were going to be from Scholomance and not AoO (they visually still appear to be AoO as you level up Ranked). I know that potentially adds a new form of currency into Hearthstone, but the issue with pack rewards is that the value of a given set pack changes over the course of a season and set-rotation-year. The 150 gold arena entrance fee is a set value if you can pick and choose how to spend your pack reward.
Gibberling Druid is absolutely busted, and while credit goes to Lightning Bloom and Voracious Reader, I also think Gibberling might just be too nuts. It's very much a "60% of the time of the time, it works every time" kind of deck (actually 52% odds of getting it in your opening hand if you fully mulligan without the coin).
I paid for the 55-pack preorder and had a great run. 7 legendaries in 83 packs plus the 2-goldens for logging in. I'm most excited about getting Omu, Mozaki, Gandling, and Polkelt.
This also marks the first time where I did not mass disenchant my extras. I went through manually. There are just so many powerful cards that might be nerfed. I hung on to extras of at least one card in every class. Are Shield of Honor or Blessing of Authority likely to get nerfed? Probably not, but why not wait a couple weeks to see how the meta shakes out. If Gibberling gets nerfed I'll have made bank with my 9+ copies. Golden Voracious Reader? I'm keeping that.
I think Hearthstone is better than ever, Team 5 is doing a great job, and I don't typically think about Blizzard, let alone complain about them. However, I think news like this is important, and has broader implications for the video game industry and society.
I've worked for large institutions and small non-profits, and I've witnessed unfair wage discrepancies at both. Each time I've been the one earning more, and I volunteered my salary and benefits info with other co-workers who went on to advocate for the pay they deserved (without outing me). It's a good thing to get in the habit of doing. You might found out you should be making more, or you might help someone else. I've never been part of a company-wide revolt, but I've got another 28 years to accomplish that before social security kicks in.
A big clarification that 3+ wins with Duels rewards experience the first time. I went on a 10-win run with Warlock and got huge bonuses for my first 3-10th wins. 8,200 experience all together (starts at 850 experience for 3-wins and goes up from there). I wonder if that'll be refreshed each expansion season. I assume Arena and Duels provide a per-hour experience gain similar to constructed. Good to have clarification on that, but the rewards for Duels wins at high levels are worth more than a daily quest and are worth attempting regularly (it will be tough for me to get to 11 or 12 wins for that last XP boost).
So just general impressions of the Rewards Track so far is that it's very, very well done. If it releases five days before the next expansion each time it'll give you a huge boost in packs and gold right before release. That just feels good. I'm curious about experience rewarded for time played and wins because I haven't seen evidence of it yet. Maybe that's rewarded the following day? I also greatly appreciate having the extra quest slot to miss a day. So far so good. Can't believe it took this many years, but at least they did it right.
I think it could see play in a mediocre Druid deck. Survival of the Fittest for 10 mana. Next turn fill your board with 8/8 taunts. That's not a great play because it'd be better to have SotF hit medium things for consistency, playability, and value, but it would be a fun as hell closer.
Will three wins in Ranked still be rewarded by 10 gold? I've been playing 80% Duels the last few weeks, and it bothers me that I don't get that 3-win bump from that game mode. I understand not having it for Heroic/Arena because of the rewards structure, but it would give more people an incentive to play casual if it gave you something. And maybe it does? I really have no idea how this new experience-based quest system works. Any insight on the details of these new quest mechanics is appreciated.
I'm pretty sure that because it's just cosmetics it's only cash. Similar to you, I'll never pay for it. I'm comfortable with that. A lot of other people like cosmetics and this feels like the first time they're being serious about releasing regular cosmetic content on a regular basis. If that helps fund the game and keep new game modes like Duels being produced, I'm happy. I'm most curious about unlocking additional hero powers and treasures in duels and if that will be paywalled in any way.
Not a dig against OoC's excellent articles, but I'm correct that there's a TON we don't know about the progression and achievement systems right?
DH already had 3 epics revealed. I think it's 2,3,5,5.
Can't wait for the clips of people failing to play around Counterspell.
Warrior has been one of my best clases so I'm surprised at the buff. Very happy with the Rogue buffs and Shaman nerf. Can't wait for full release and some more HP and starting treasure variety. Really looking forward to more details overall on Duels, Progression, Achievements, etc. I wish they would schedule those announcements along with the card reveal schedule.
Great change on Invocation. Would have preferred a softer nerf of 8 on Astromancer, but I think it's still good enough to see play so not a huge deal.
This game, as a game, has a ton going for it. I really like the mana system and the minion positioning/combat system. But I was progressing through the beginner missions, going from AI to competitive play, and on four attempts across two days I waited over 5 minutes to get matched in PvP draft arena before just cancelling and doing something else. I still may go back to it, but no guarantees.
I started playing this last night after your coverage went live. Too early for me to make a judgment as a whole, but those are some pretty fantastic giveaways.
1) In regards to the stats: many variants of those decks are running well above 60% on HSReplay. The aggregate variants across all ranks is what drops them below 60%. I don't have premium HSReplay so admittedly my analysis is limited. I read the VS report at your suggestion, and while the meta is generally healthy (I wasn't trying to be negative about the state of the game in my OP), I think there are clear issues.
2) Sinister Strike IS a bad card. It's also run in many variants of rogue that are performing above 63% on HSReplay. That's a testament to the power of Secret Passage. It's why it's Viscious Syndicate's metabreaker of the week, and the most played deck at competitive ranks. There are a lot of lethal outs for Rogue - maybe I shouldn't have focused on Sinister Strike. Secret Passage is broken on its face, and there's only one thing really keeping it in check.
3) What does best against Rogue? Even more aggressive Hunter and Demon Hunter decks that are powered by Voracious Reader. If you nerf Secret Passage you can't ignore the even more aggressive decks.
4) Despite the hyper-aggression, Libram Paladin is incredibly versatile and dominant, even if it doesn't quite top the chart at the highest levels of competition. What makes it unfair? I looked at Argent Braggart, First Day of School, and High Abbess Alura, but ultimately the problem is that Libram of Wisdom is over-powered at every stage of the game. I'm open to a different suggestion of how to deal with that, but I couldn't think of a better one.
5) Basically, if you agree that Voracious Reader should be nerfed as a versatile neutral that's pushing zoo/aggro too far over the top, you also have to look at keeping Rogue and Paladin in check. I thought the nerfs I suggested, only three cards in total, were pretty conservative, and don't kill their utility.
Context - We're three weeks into the Scholomance Acadamey Expansion. Kael'thas Sunstrider, who was broken before Day 1, has been fixed, but no other nerfs for Standard have been introduced (Mindrender Illucia was mostly for Wild).
HSReplay has the Tier 1 decks as Libram Paladin (58.1%), Face Hunter (57.4%), Stealth Rogue (57.2%), and Aggro Demon Hunter (55.9%).
My suggested nerfs:
Libram of Wisdom - Change the cost from 2-mana to 3-mana. This wouldn't affect the end-game power of the card or of Lady Liadrin, but would make for a much fairer early-game and mid-game. At first I speculated on changing stats or discounts of Aldor Attendant or Aldor Truthseeker, but their stats and effects are generally balanced for the other Librams. You want wisdom? You need to study harder and longer first.
Voracious Reader - Change the cost from 2-mana to 3-mana. There's nothing to over-think here. Make the card slower. Make it harder for a player to empty their hand on the same turn they play this. Make it come down later when the opponent can more easily deal with it. We all knew this card was too good as printed, and it's overdue for a nerf.
Secret Passage - Change "Replace your hand with 5 cards from your deck" to "3 cards." The Soularium was an excellent legendary spell. This draws more, is more consistent, and has no down-side. It's barely RNG to use this card to search for a game-winning Eviscerate or Sinister Strike. Making this change won't alter a single deck-list in current Rogue decks, but would hopefully shave a few tenths of a percent off their win-rate.
I would think that because Shadow Visions is discovering its second copy from a fixed pool, that's different than discussing itself from a randomly generated pool.
I followed the comments on the other thread, and I'm trying to wrap my head around it. I play nearly every day, rarely miss a daily, but don't play much more than dailies unless I'm going for R5 or Legend. I also play Arena at a decent enough level to not lose much gold (Average ~5 wins). I agree that the 5,000 gold banked per expansion sounds about right for me. I understand from the other thread that some players are able to bank double that.
I think most issues could be resolved if they stopped rewarding specific set packs - in general and in Arena - and started rewarding pack tokens to claim any expansion. You could also bank pack tokens into future sets or spend them on wild sets. The biggest problem with Arena is that towards the end of a season you don't want to keep opening current set packs. I also would have gone to Legend last month if I knew the set pack rewards were going to be from Scholomance and not AoO (they visually still appear to be AoO as you level up Ranked). I know that potentially adds a new form of currency into Hearthstone, but the issue with pack rewards is that the value of a given set pack changes over the course of a season and set-rotation-year. The 150 gold arena entrance fee is a set value if you can pick and choose how to spend your pack reward.
Gibberling Druid is absolutely busted, and while credit goes to Lightning Bloom and Voracious Reader, I also think Gibberling might just be too nuts. It's very much a "60% of the time of the time, it works every time" kind of deck (actually 52% odds of getting it in your opening hand if you fully mulligan without the coin).
I have 7 tour guides and a golden Voracious Reader so here's hoping you're right.
Let's hear about those packs!
I paid for the 55-pack preorder and had a great run. 7 legendaries in 83 packs plus the 2-goldens for logging in. I'm most excited about getting Omu, Mozaki, Gandling, and Polkelt.
This also marks the first time where I did not mass disenchant my extras. I went through manually. There are just so many powerful cards that might be nerfed. I hung on to extras of at least one card in every class. Are Shield of Honor or Blessing of Authority likely to get nerfed? Probably not, but why not wait a couple weeks to see how the meta shakes out. If Gibberling gets nerfed I'll have made bank with my 9+ copies. Golden Voracious Reader? I'm keeping that.
I think Hearthstone is better than ever, Team 5 is doing a great job, and I don't typically think about Blizzard, let alone complain about them. However, I think news like this is important, and has broader implications for the video game industry and society.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-03/blizzard-workers-share-salaries-in-revolt-over-wage-disparities
I've worked for large institutions and small non-profits, and I've witnessed unfair wage discrepancies at both. Each time I've been the one earning more, and I volunteered my salary and benefits info with other co-workers who went on to advocate for the pay they deserved (without outing me). It's a good thing to get in the habit of doing. You might found out you should be making more, or you might help someone else. I've never been part of a company-wide revolt, but I've got another 28 years to accomplish that before social security kicks in.