I agree, the Crabrider change feels like an elegant way to fix the issues with the card while it retains some utility. I could see it staying in Rush Warrior as it still works well with Parade Leader and Playmaker. Other nerfs seems fine. Incanter's Flow feels far more problematic than Refreshing Spring Water, but we'll see. It has an absurd winrate when played on turn 2 / coined on 2, and most cards like that with low cost (Keleseth, 2 mana DoL) have felt that way.
Buffs feel conservative, which is probably a good way to approach it but less exciting. The Boomsday buffs were probably too much as the had to nerf a bunch of them after the fact. Iksar has talked about how hard buffs are, because if the buffs are too strong they made new problems, but if they aren't enough then why did they bother. The Lilypad Lurker is the only one that jumps out, but that needs a deck to go in. If they commit to Elemental support in future content, that feels like one that gets reverted. Premium stats and a plus effect (albeit with condition) seems scary.
I'd settle for them fixing the obnoxious bug with Oh My Yogg! that forces me to either relog or turn the sound off. Agreed that it feels like a 1 mana counterspell at least 60% of the time.
Animated Broomstick is weird because it isn't being played much right now. Unclear if that is a result of the meta or it just isn't as powerful as it seems. It needs worthy targets.
A little preemptive. Winrates for watch posts were concerning, but they weren't a huge problem because Spell Mage doesn't play minions, and Secret Paladin can usually clear them or ignore them.
I feel like I played against you this feels so familiar! It is rather absurd to be how often I see Coin -> Deck of Lunacy on turn 1. How do people always have it in their hand turn 1?!
I'm at 154 (with tavern pass) and will probably end up getting a few more before launch. I enjoyed Scholomance meta a lot more than DWF overall so I haven't been playing much lately, just completing quests with Prime Warlock. Will end up with about 7k gold (bought the miniset with 2k) which is about 4k more than I usually end up with.
Pretty pleased with the rewards track, never been able to get anywhere near 70 packs on top of the preorder. Ironically, I only did the normal bundle this time because I have so much gold I didn't think I'd need it. And the skin didn't tempt me enough.
The flavor for some of the cards for this expansion is WEIRD. What do Scorpids have to do with spells? Why does an Undead rocker cost more mana and have more stats than Alextrasza? What do cannons have to do with turning soldiers into secrets? It isn't that big of a deal, but historically they have generally been better about this.
It's weird given the increased communication from Dean, Alec, etc. that they wouldn't just say what's up. Maybe they were pressured to reveal for Blizzcon, since that event was so sparse to begin with. But will people really care if it gets pushed out a little bit? Sure the meta is stale/annoying but I think most of us expected this to launch in April anyway given past years, so I don't see what the big deal is.
I said in another thread this is now the most expensive Hearthstone mode. Not even Standard or Wild requires you have all the cards, or even most of the cards, in any given set. I get that they want to monetize the system, especially given their inability to effectively monetize Battlegrounds, but this feels arbitrary and bad.
The gold entry fee plus needing Wild cards was enough of a paywall. Its insane to me that this became the most expensive mode in Hearthstone. I rarely, if ever, collect all the cards in a set but have never needed to in order to play Standard / Wild. I feel bad for the devs that spend time designing so many of these cards that hardly anyone will ever see. It's a fun mode but too random to devote the amount of time / money required to enjoy it.
I agree with a lot of your points! I think a lot of the reaction is emotional, which isn't to say that I don't respect what people are feeling, but it is more nuanced for a few reasons:
People feel lied to. How many times did they say you would get equal to or more rewards? They had to have known that wasn't true, so why push it so hard?
If Blizzard had released this while offering slightly more rewards overall, people wouldn't have looked more closely at the monetization model that they don't like. Runeterra existing makes this reaction more pronounced, because they can look across to another game which does it differently (and cheaper).
To your point, people have created a false equivalency between the value of a GaaS (which Hearthstone is, more or less) vs a single player AAA title. I recently bought Ghost of Tsushima, which is an amazing game, but it will eventually end. Even if they make some kind of DLC expansion, the gameplay is largely set; it won't ever be as variable as something like Hearthstone (nor should it be, they are entirely different games).
But you have included a lot of good that they have done for the game to make it better and cheaper, which might be forgotten when in a rage. I think the progress towards leveling is what I take issue with. I agree with your point that this is similar to how it works in many RPG systems, but I don't know that I want progression to be like an RPG. Later levels aren't worth that much more than earlier levels (200 gold vs 100) so why does it take so much longer? It also changed the play experience from the old system, where you felt you could earn something everyday, to the current system, where you earn a bit Monday/Tuesday and little else the rest of the week. If I were them, I would double the levels, half the XP needed to gain each, and spread the rewards out across the track. Packs should always be paired with at least a little gold. It is more of a psychological thing though.
I feel like they have to respond to this in some way, but at this point, I don't think most people who are angry are going to be satisfied. They aren't just going to remove packs and go LoR overnight. I think at best, they increase the amount of XP people earn (and reverse the terrible decision to make it based on time only). Maybe they also lower the pity timer on legendaries, but it is going to be tweaks in the short term, not an overhaul.
Dude, I was Diamond 2 tonight and I finally made it! You can too, rooting for you! And like others said, if you fall there is always next month. When AOO came out, I got one win away from Legend twice (after getting there once and going on a big losing streak) and didn't get there.
The mobile idea is interesting, but I doubt they would design the game around that. I think it's simpler than that; aggro decks are fast and cheap. You climb fast and when you lose, it doesn't hurt as much because the match only took a few minutes. The decision-making in aggro decks revolves around when to trade and when to go face (broadly) which is strategic, but is a different way of thinking than control decks, which is about when to be proactive and when to save resources. Different people have different preferences, but aggro has other factors in it's favor that control doesn't.
I think Team 5 recently has struggled to balance aggro decks, because cheap cards being powerful is harder to balance than expensive cards being powerful. At the end of the day, on ladder, people play what wins. It's up to Team 5 to make that field diverse; I think they more of less succeeded with Scholomance, time will tell for DMF.
The quest chain was about playing Duels. You have to get 2 wins, then 3 wins, then 4 wins, If I remember right. We have no way to know if this will be available to everyone in a couple weeks when the mode goes into Beta, but I think it will for two reasons:
1. They want people to test it. There are already some obvious balance issues. It doesn't kill the fun of the mode for casual, but for heroic I think a balance pass would be greatly appreciated.
2. They already got our money for pre-purchase, why give us 6 extra packs and not everyone else? Why create that quest chain just for those people? Seems inexplicable to be, but doesn't mean that it isn't true.
I hope dual-class cards are revisited at least occasionally moving forward. It's fun and makes the game more interesting. We haven't had an "evergreen" concept added in a while - Rush from Witchwood? Given the UI work they did for this, I have some hope; there are certainly plenty more combinations for them to play around with.
This card seems kinda bad. It does nothing unless you Outcast it, which at 4 mana is harder early in the game when an aggro or tempo deck would want to do something like this (like shuffle a Brawl on turn 4 going into turn 5). Sure, there is a chance you nail a power card, but what if you don't? You only get to look at 3 cards, and sure, 3 out of 6 or 7 are decent odds, but are they decent enough to deal with getting nothing out of this? Even if you do pull it off, you just get a 4/3. I think I would rather just freezing something to get the 4/3.
I think it might be un-fun, but I like that they are experimenting with expanding the design space. This feels like a safer way to experiment with this than Glide, which feels far more extreme.
Her being a lich would be fitting for a hero card as well!
Apparently her model was updated in Shadowlands, this art seems consistent with that.
I agree, the Crabrider change feels like an elegant way to fix the issues with the card while it retains some utility. I could see it staying in Rush Warrior as it still works well with Parade Leader and Playmaker. Other nerfs seems fine. Incanter's Flow feels far more problematic than Refreshing Spring Water, but we'll see. It has an absurd winrate when played on turn 2 / coined on 2, and most cards like that with low cost (Keleseth, 2 mana DoL) have felt that way.
Buffs feel conservative, which is probably a good way to approach it but less exciting. The Boomsday buffs were probably too much as the had to nerf a bunch of them after the fact. Iksar has talked about how hard buffs are, because if the buffs are too strong they made new problems, but if they aren't enough then why did they bother. The Lilypad Lurker is the only one that jumps out, but that needs a deck to go in. If they commit to Elemental support in future content, that feels like one that gets reverted. Premium stats and a plus effect (albeit with condition) seems scary.
I'd settle for them fixing the obnoxious bug with Oh My Yogg! that forces me to either relog or turn the sound off. Agreed that it feels like a 1 mana counterspell at least 60% of the time.
Animated Broomstick is weird because it isn't being played much right now. Unclear if that is a result of the meta or it just isn't as powerful as it seems. It needs worthy targets.
A little preemptive. Winrates for watch posts were concerning, but they weren't a huge problem because Spell Mage doesn't play minions, and Secret Paladin can usually clear them or ignore them.
I feel like I played against you this feels so familiar! It is rather absurd to be how often I see Coin -> Deck of Lunacy on turn 1. How do people always have it in their hand turn 1?!
I'm at 154 (with tavern pass) and will probably end up getting a few more before launch. I enjoyed Scholomance meta a lot more than DWF overall so I haven't been playing much lately, just completing quests with Prime Warlock. Will end up with about 7k gold (bought the miniset with 2k) which is about 4k more than I usually end up with.
Pretty pleased with the rewards track, never been able to get anywhere near 70 packs on top of the preorder. Ironically, I only did the normal bundle this time because I have so much gold I didn't think I'd need it. And the skin didn't tempt me enough.
The flavor for some of the cards for this expansion is WEIRD. What do Scorpids have to do with spells? Why does an Undead rocker cost more mana and have more stats than Alextrasza? What do cannons have to do with turning soldiers into secrets? It isn't that big of a deal, but historically they have generally been better about this.
It's weird given the increased communication from Dean, Alec, etc. that they wouldn't just say what's up. Maybe they were pressured to reveal for Blizzcon, since that event was so sparse to begin with. But will people really care if it gets pushed out a little bit? Sure the meta is stale/annoying but I think most of us expected this to launch in April anyway given past years, so I don't see what the big deal is.
I said in another thread this is now the most expensive Hearthstone mode. Not even Standard or Wild requires you have all the cards, or even most of the cards, in any given set. I get that they want to monetize the system, especially given their inability to effectively monetize Battlegrounds, but this feels arbitrary and bad.
The gold entry fee plus needing Wild cards was enough of a paywall. Its insane to me that this became the most expensive mode in Hearthstone. I rarely, if ever, collect all the cards in a set but have never needed to in order to play Standard / Wild. I feel bad for the devs that spend time designing so many of these cards that hardly anyone will ever see. It's a fun mode but too random to devote the amount of time / money required to enjoy it.
I agree with a lot of your points! I think a lot of the reaction is emotional, which isn't to say that I don't respect what people are feeling, but it is more nuanced for a few reasons:
But you have included a lot of good that they have done for the game to make it better and cheaper, which might be forgotten when in a rage. I think the progress towards leveling is what I take issue with. I agree with your point that this is similar to how it works in many RPG systems, but I don't know that I want progression to be like an RPG. Later levels aren't worth that much more than earlier levels (200 gold vs 100) so why does it take so much longer? It also changed the play experience from the old system, where you felt you could earn something everyday, to the current system, where you earn a bit Monday/Tuesday and little else the rest of the week. If I were them, I would double the levels, half the XP needed to gain each, and spread the rewards out across the track. Packs should always be paired with at least a little gold. It is more of a psychological thing though.
I feel like they have to respond to this in some way, but at this point, I don't think most people who are angry are going to be satisfied. They aren't just going to remove packs and go LoR overnight. I think at best, they increase the amount of XP people earn (and reverse the terrible decision to make it based on time only). Maybe they also lower the pity timer on legendaries, but it is going to be tweaks in the short term, not an overhaul.
Dude, I was Diamond 2 tonight and I finally made it! You can too, rooting for you! And like others said, if you fall there is always next month. When AOO came out, I got one win away from Legend twice (after getting there once and going on a big losing streak) and didn't get there.
It was and it was awful. I much prefer getting rolled over in 5 minutes than waiting 35 knowing you are going to lose.
The mobile idea is interesting, but I doubt they would design the game around that. I think it's simpler than that; aggro decks are fast and cheap. You climb fast and when you lose, it doesn't hurt as much because the match only took a few minutes. The decision-making in aggro decks revolves around when to trade and when to go face (broadly) which is strategic, but is a different way of thinking than control decks, which is about when to be proactive and when to save resources. Different people have different preferences, but aggro has other factors in it's favor that control doesn't.
I think Team 5 recently has struggled to balance aggro decks, because cheap cards being powerful is harder to balance than expensive cards being powerful. At the end of the day, on ladder, people play what wins. It's up to Team 5 to make that field diverse; I think they more of less succeeded with Scholomance, time will tell for DMF.
The quest chain was about playing Duels. You have to get 2 wins, then 3 wins, then 4 wins, If I remember right. We have no way to know if this will be available to everyone in a couple weeks when the mode goes into Beta, but I think it will for two reasons:
1. They want people to test it. There are already some obvious balance issues. It doesn't kill the fun of the mode for casual, but for heroic I think a balance pass would be greatly appreciated.
2. They already got our money for pre-purchase, why give us 6 extra packs and not everyone else? Why create that quest chain just for those people? Seems inexplicable to be, but doesn't mean that it isn't true.
Inspired by a few of these to try and come up with a "watery" mechanic.
I hope dual-class cards are revisited at least occasionally moving forward. It's fun and makes the game more interesting. We haven't had an "evergreen" concept added in a while - Rush from Witchwood? Given the UI work they did for this, I have some hope; there are certainly plenty more combinations for them to play around with.
This card seems kinda bad. It does nothing unless you Outcast it, which at 4 mana is harder early in the game when an aggro or tempo deck would want to do something like this (like shuffle a Brawl on turn 4 going into turn 5). Sure, there is a chance you nail a power card, but what if you don't? You only get to look at 3 cards, and sure, 3 out of 6 or 7 are decent odds, but are they decent enough to deal with getting nothing out of this? Even if you do pull it off, you just get a 4/3. I think I would rather just freezing something to get the 4/3.
I think it might be un-fun, but I like that they are experimenting with expanding the design space. This feels like a safer way to experiment with this than Glide, which feels far more extreme.