One, the rewards seem a bit small. Tournament mode seems like a big investment of time and gold, playing for over an hour straight only to make a 10 gold profit would be frustrating for a lot of players. You didn't mention exactly how much gold or dust would be rewarded, but it would have to be a lot. Only the top 3 players get a pack, and it looks like 3 and 4 don't get enough rewards to compensate for their investment. If only the top 2 players get to make a profit then this mode will be swarming with only the most competitive spikes and a LOT of salty people.
Two, it will take forever. You get forty minutes to make four decks, and then there will be four rounds of elimination, that can easily take over an hour and a half. Plus you cannot break in between games, you have to play throughout the entire thing. I just don't think a lot of people have that kind of time on their hands. If there wasn't a 'deck building' phase then it would take much less time, you could just make your decks before entering. Another thing you could do is have only 6 players instead of 8, this would also mean you only have to build 3 decks instead of 4.
1: I left the rewards ambiguous because I honestly don't know how much the actual rewards would be. I'm sure there's several combinations of awards that can be given to the players, I was more focused on writing the article rather than do the math of the rewards themselves. It's mainly there to show what to realistically expect. I think top 3 should make a profit, 4th place should come just under even. Plus giving players dust helps them craft cards they want/need for the Ladder.
2: Oh yeah, it will take a LONG time. Like I said I think this is one of the main reasons why Team 5 canned a few years back, BUT that doesn't mean there aren't players who won't play it daily. You can break in between games if you win fast enough, there's also a two minute break if the other player is waiting on you to finish. It's in the wall of text somewhere up there, and it may need to be adjusted to 5-10 minutes but then again that's adding onto total time. I think I should add in a check system if all the players are done making their decks the match can go ahead and start, but that could also cause griefing/trolling. Plus the deck box could help but that would need some more thought than what I put into it, the main reason for deck crafting is so that people can adapt their strategies to what cards are legal. I defaulted to 8 players simply because we know Hearthstone can handle 8 players in a session at once. I want to keep it at 4 decks so players can ban a deck as they see fit. Unless banning is removed then yeah go down to three decks and make it best of 3, BUT that means less games in total which then should reflect on total rewards. Less Games = Fewer rewards.
I've been working on this for a few weeks. I've been thinking of how this can be implemented into the game, how it rewards players, how it can pay for itself in the long run, and mainly how it can be fun. As we go through this, if you spot anything that I didn't cover, stuff that would be un-fun, or things that need improvement, let me know. If the player base stays vocal on this topic (maybe this thread) we might be able to make things work and bring some new fun to our favorite game.
The Basics:
The way the mode will be implemented will be similar to that of Tavern Brawl. It will be live for an entire week before maintenance/reset.
Cards/sets will be rotated in and out. This will give us use of older cards and while also taking away staple Classic and Basic cards. This is to prevent a stale meta. this is why Battlegrounds is a hit. Team 5 have been very vigilant and hands on when it has come to balance Battlegrounds, if they could use this philosophy with Tournament Mode (The one I'm describing) then it will last.
Rule sets can be used to limit deck construction even more. Rule Sets such as; - Pauper: No Epic or Legendary Cards - Stay Dead: No Deathrattle Cards - Be Quiet: No Battlecry Cards - This is My Main: Only Class Cards are used
Tournament mode can also use the Standard format, to make things more interesting since the Standard format Meta is more often than not figured out.
There are 3 different levels of entry to this mode, I will go over the rewards after I lay these out. 1 - Free: Everyone will get one FREE entry into the mode each week. After you have use your Free play, you'll have to play in the other levels. This free entry will also give you access to ALL of the available cards whereas the next two levels come straight from your collection. This mode will not affect your rating. 2 - Casual: The cost of entry will be 150g or your local currency. This is for people to practice in while still obtaining rewards. This mode will affect your rating. 3 - Competitive: The cost of entry will be 500g or your local currency, this is where the big boys go to play. Go hard, or go home. This mode will affect your rating.
With the introduction of Battlegrounds, Team 5 has shown us that Hearthstone can hold 8 people together enough to get through a game. So Tournament mode will be using an Eight Player Bracket. You will see your opponents Tournament Portraits and their rating and they can see yours as well.
This is a rough draft of what it will look like, match- ups are not set in stone:
With each game you'll have your rating changed according to how well you did, similar to Battlegrounds. For example:
Obviously it will go higher than 999 but Hearthcards can only do so much. Do not worry about the portraits at this moment, I'll get to that soon.
The Rules:
As stated earlier, there will be sets/cards rotating in and out each week to keep the game mode feeling fresh each week. This also keeps people from developing unbeatable strategies for too long.
All eight players will be matched together, you will all be shown what sets are in use, followed by being sent to the a collection manager inside the mode and everyone will have 40 minutes to craft 4 decks.
The matches will be best of 5.
You will be able to ban an opponents deck.
Once a deck wins, you cannot use it anymore in that game until the next match.
There is 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and 4th Place. - 1st place is the winner. - 2nd Place belongs to the person who lost to the winner, - 3rd place will be decided in a match between the two players who didn't make it to the final match-up. - 4th Place belongs to the player who lost the decider match for 3rd Place. - All other players will not get a placement.
There will be spectating in place for those who lose, but no cards from either players hands can be seen. -The only match they can watch is the grand final of the tournament, this prevents sniping.
Once you have won your match-up you will sit in the bracket screen until a match-up ends, then you will be matched with the winner of that match-up. There will be a two minute pause before the match begins to let the winner take a small break. - This is your time to do what you need to do before the next match.
Rewards:
Competitive will grant the largest amount of rewards.
Casual and Free will grant the same amount of rewards.
These rewards should be; -Gold -Dust -Pack Tokens for YOU to DECIDE which pack you want.
Rewards for placements will be; - Players in 1st place will receive a pack token, some dust, and more gold than what 2nd place got. - Players in 2nd place will receive a pack token, some dust, and some gold. - Players in 3rd place will receive a pack token and some dust. - Players in 4th place will receive some dust. - Players below 4th place will not receive anything.
These rewards will scale based on if they are played in competitive or casual. -It should be noted that Arena tickets should be given out in competitive.
Progression:
Progression comes in the form of Tournament Mode exclusive Hero Portraits. -These will be rewarded based on how many games you have won with a particular class inside Tournament Mode.
Hero portraits will not be represented in the match-up themselves. If you play Shaman, you will be whatever Shaman you chose for your deck during deck construction or be defaulted to your favorite.
This is a great opportunity to use some old art, here are some examples; Druid - 500, 1000, 1500
Mage - 500, 1000, 1500
Warrior - 500, 1000, 1500
So on and so forth for each class. Also, ignore the health for these portraits, I couldn't find any without health indicators.
These portraits aren't set in stone but it's a good motivator to work towards something.
Friendly Matches:
Friendly matches should be available within this mode.
A host should be able to make their own rule sets and decide what's banned and what isn't.
Friendly matches are free, and thus no rewards are given.
Things to Consider:
Deck boxes. -While this mode exists people will want to keep decks they know work for next time around. There needs to be a feature implemented that way players who don't use 3rd party sites to save their decks (Like outof.cards) can, well save their decks. -If cards in those decks are now illegal, they can copy/paste the deck code within Hearthstone to make a clone and edit it.
Splitting the player base: -Some of you will have fears that this will split the player base and I totally agree. I'm not a Legend Wild player but I've heard it's slim pickins up in the higher ranks. My philosophy on this is the same from when I played WoW wishing for something like WoW Classic: "It's better to have a split player base than no player base at all." Agree with that statement or not, that's just how I see it.
How long will a round of Tournament Mode Take? -This is probably the most concerning, and may very well be the reason as to why it hasn't came to fruition yet. Doing a round in tournament mode is and SHOULD be a commitment, it shouldn't be a throw away game because you're at 1 HP and think you've lost. -It will take well over two hours four one full Tournament. Simply because players need ample time to look through what's available and decide what the best route is.
Is it worth anything in the competitive scene of Standard Hearthstone Tournaments? -No, this is something entirely separate from official events.
Conclusion:
I think I've laid out a pretty good foundation on what Team 5 could do with Tournament mode. Is it perfect? I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is, that I'm trying to help and I'm trying to get you, the players, behind this idea that we've all been asking for, for years.
Some things that will improve HS experience overall may be (random order):
in-game Tournament mode, like Brawliseum;
in-game statistics and deck tracker;
a new format that will place itself between Wild and Standard, using a mix of old and new sets;
a complete rework of Ladder, making it less grinding and more interesting to play;
a better economy (that has been teased when new currencies has been data mined);
reworked Basic set for all Classes, fixing some very old design flaws;
a real Casual mode that has no reward of any kind, so that people there can go just to mess around and it will not be flooded by meta decks;
achievements rewarding cosmetics (old card backs, potraits and whatever they may come up with);
more attention on Arena's balance.
I don't really take into consideration Battleground or any completly new game mode because in the end HS is a card game, not a platform where I can find some watered down version of other totally indipendent games.
Can you give me your definition of Tournament mode? Everyone says they want it but each player has their own idea of what it would be, and I think that's the reason Blizzard canned it.
Ladder is Grindy because that's how it's designed, they can make it easier sure but that just dilutes the Legend ranks. What they need is a Grand MAster mode where only people who have their shit together climb to the top.
Unfortunately I think the new currencies are China only.
Battlegrounds was something HS didn't need but got anyway, for some weird reason.
Hot take: Achievements are a terrible idea. They wouldn't bring any new players in, and while they'd provide a short-term happiness boost they would lead to a subsequent drop in playrate because having all the achievements gives a perception of 'completion' which subconsciously discourages people from playing. And I say that despite the fact that I personally would like them a lot.
Frankly the things that would most improve this game are all external to the game and should be being provided by third-parties already. Comprehensive resources developed and maintained by noted professionals (entirely for their name-drop) to explain how game design works, how balance works, and how to judge the relative strengths of cards, would be a great improvement. Primarily because it would stop people complaining about things that don't need to be complained about, and stop them massively overhyping cards like Embiggen :P
Achievements are a fantastic idea if they are done right. They wouldn't bring new players in but it might keep new players longer. Make the achievements long term. Hearthstone has been going on 6 years in 2020 and some people are still working towards 500/1000 wins per class.
That's community hype though and you really can't stop it. Brian Kibler has a been a proponent for wanting the Classic & Basic sets rotated to Wild, what him and all his fans fail to realize is that it absolutely fucks over F2Players.
A new Wild policy, that does not necessarily include spot nerfs. A better card AND mechanic design policy that avoids flaws (eg restricting how you reach (0) on cards, how you can Mutate insane amounts of mana, etc).
Connected to #1, more and better TECH cards, even if useless for Standard, but acting as positive nerfs in Wild.
Permanent Brawliseum (with one free entrance per week) acting as soft Tournament mode. Standard and Wild. To soften the grind of ladder, while keeping the challenge of competitive Constructed.
Sure, as some said, Achievements.
Buff the disenchant gain of common and rares to 10 and 50, respectively (to match 1/4 of their cost).
Buff some forgotten Basic and Classic cards. Eg, Ironforge Rifleman could easily be a 3/3 (and still be far from strong).
1: With the amount of cards in HS it's going to be impossible at some point to prevent every broken combo. My thing is, that since Big Priest existed for so long, I'm wondering what their internal policy for Wild id.
2: Platebreaker kind of does this but yeah, Wild specific tech cards here and there would be nice.
3: I don't have a problem with a permanent Brawliseum, but what's going to happen to Arena? Or do you think Arena will not be affected?
4: LONG term, frequently updated, and trackable achievements.
So I made the mistake of asking this question on Reddit and mostly got only answers that we’re halfway thought out.
This question excludes Battlegrounds Tribal inclusions, patching, and Balance changes. This is a more long term question.
We see that battlegrounds has done a good job of bringing some older players back while attracting some new players, I don’t know how long they’ll stay but it’s still a good sign that change is effect for HS.
I often make the assumption that new formats would help but I’d like to know what others have in mind.
I enjoy my time in Wild because I’m playing my Joke Priest deck, or my Aviana, Togwaggle Druid. But I don’t intend to ever really climb ladder at all, so there’s that.
You brought up your collection which I think is something players tend to forget about. There are ALOT of cards in HS and you can’t really do much with them because of the power level that is wild. I read this post a while back, some parts of it are irrelevant now but it makes some good points.
Wild packs are good for those who care. I hope they have distinct disclaimers so new players won't be confused.
Also, it will be weird to see the 3 heroes leave and be replaced with just one. However, this makes me hopeful that new portraits will be added more frequently and that we'll be getting more classic lore characters, with the meme/expansion-themed characters being relegated to bundles and preorders (Vanessa vanCleef, let's go , Rogue needs some love)
They probably Finally realized how much money they could make from hero portraits and have just now made enough portraits to rotate through the shop. Hopefully they add other missed portraits for players who missed some of the pre-order exclusives
I can't remember what I said initially about this card when it was first revealed but I'm sure I thought that it wasn't that good. At the time Dr. Boom Warrior/Luna's Pocket Mage were dominant so there was obviously no way a Highlander card with RNG affecting your hero power could be useful, I'm still pretty sure it won't be used much in the coming metas unless more neutral, non-legendary highlander cards get printed to support those deck types.
It'll provide steam if you get it early that is true, but if it's the 20th+ card in the deck then maybe it's not so great.
There is a huge difference between current top tiers, and when we had Odd Paladin and Even Shaman at the top.
In the same way there is a difference between POWERFUL vs BROKEN.
And it's not just a matter of power, it's also a matter that current top decks are basically Tempo AND Combo (power from hand) at the same time!
They can build insane boards in the same turn, and you can only hope to hold a counter at the right time, or you're screwed.
So no, if they nerfed the current trio of top decks, the new ones would be obviously very powerful, but not equally broken (Renodecks would probably stabilize on top, with classic Combo rising as meta police, and Odd/Even Tempo to lock the balance).
(And unnerfing some cards would do little to no good on its own, even tho i'd certainly appreciate Yogg unnerfed).
I expect Wild to be very powerful, NOT broken.
So I agree with everything you've said except for your last sentence.
I think this comes from my perception of Wild should be is different from yours. You expect it to be very powerful, I expect it to be broken. With access to every card it is inevitable that Wild gets out of hand, and that's okay. What's not okay is that Team 5 selectively nerfs some cards/decks but not others. Aviana, Dreadsteed, and Naga Sea Witch are great examples of this since Team 5 was swift to "re-balance" these cards while Barnes was still a large community complaint. So my question is "Why do some cards see immediate action but others took years before Team 5 would step in?".
I think the solution to this problem (I'm about to sound like a broken record) is to introduce a format in between Standard and Wild. Something that allows cards from every set to be played but bans cards that cause broken combos, SN1P-SN4P, un-nerfed Shadowboxer, and un-nerfed Naga Sea Witch.
One obvious argument to that idea is the potential to splitting the player base, but having a split player base is better than having no player base.
3. I've already said it once but I'll say it again, they should not nerf cards in wild and should've un-nerfed (Yogg, Tuskar, Molten Giant to name a few) cards when they rotated
They did un-nerf Molten Giant when he rotated. I wish they had done that with other cards as well (such as yogg). This would make wild much more interesting and it would play a big role in attracting standard players to wild.
"Are you sad that yogg got nerfed? well now you can play him in all his former glory in a new format that will require you to spend lots of time/dust/money to play."
It sounds like blizzard could be making money off of pushing wild more.
Thanks for reminding me, I guess I forgot about its changes.
I think they're holding off actually adding anything new to the game (Battlegrounds was not made for the health of Hearthstone (I could dive deeper on that but I'm not going to) it is a cash in on auto-battlers) until they (Team 5) start seeing scary financial impact.
1. The problem of Sniploc stems from the fact that Wild allows players to use their ENTIRE collection to build decks, this is it's biggest strength while simultaneously being its biggest weakness. Of course Team 5 knew this would eventually come about, they also understand that one of three things will happen. If they step in and nerf the deck, a new Bad Guy will reveal himself and everyone will complain about that deck. The second comes from the release of a set of cards that unlock more possibilities for counters to the deck itself. Lastly, just other decks coming up that are even more powerful overall. If you ask me, Wild should never be touched/re-balanced, but instead a new format with limits should be introduced (See link at bottom of comment)
2. Yeah I don't see why they don't push Wild harder. There's a vast library of cards that can only be gained with real world money. It's just a really weird missed opportunity on Blizzard's part. Maybe they're waiting for the "Oh fuck we haven't made our financial quota this quarter, hit the emergency button" and push Wild HARD.
3. I've already said it once but I'll say it again, they should not nerf cards in wild and should've un-nerfed (Yogg, Tuskar, Molten Giant to name a few) cards when they rotated
My stance on this matter is that there are simply too many cards to cram into two formats and we need more. My ideas aren't perfect but they're something to think about and digest, and I'm sure at least one of them would be a welcomed addition.
This is an awesome idea. I give it a 5/7 , absolute perfect score.
Thanks, so I don't know if this is the place to ask, or if you have a road map of what's coming to the site, are the design competitions coming back?
And with that question, could it be possible to implement a custom card bank onto the site, and along with that, do a card of the hour (because there'd be an abundance of cards) similar to Hearthcards.net? Just curious.
We don't have a roadmap, yet. What I can tel l you though is card design competitions are going to come back better than we ever did them before. We will allow users to store their custom cards on the site and even eventually let people tag them with custom sets and such so it is easy to present them to other people. That will tie in to card design competitions and probably also expansion design competitions when we figure out exactly where we want to go with those. The biggest goal though for fan creations stuff is to make it as fair as possible. I was hoping we'd have something out for it already but unfortunately there's a ton of stuff to do still. It's close though, some initial work has been done =)
But yeah, card of the day is something that we'll get done, likely sometime before the next adventure comes out since we have most of the cogs in place to make it happen now.
I think now would be an excellent time to launch it since we're still a few weeks before reveal season. ;)
1: I left the rewards ambiguous because I honestly don't know how much the actual rewards would be. I'm sure there's several combinations of awards that can be given to the players, I was more focused on writing the article rather than do the math of the rewards themselves. It's mainly there to show what to realistically expect. I think top 3 should make a profit, 4th place should come just under even. Plus giving players dust helps them craft cards they want/need for the Ladder.
2: Oh yeah, it will take a LONG time. Like I said I think this is one of the main reasons why Team 5 canned a few years back, BUT that doesn't mean there aren't players who won't play it daily. You can break in between games if you win fast enough, there's also a two minute break if the other player is waiting on you to finish. It's in the wall of text somewhere up there, and it may need to be adjusted to 5-10 minutes but then again that's adding onto total time. I think I should add in a check system if all the players are done making their decks the match can go ahead and start, but that could also cause griefing/trolling. Plus the deck box could help but that would need some more thought than what I put into it, the main reason for deck crafting is so that people can adapt their strategies to what cards are legal. I defaulted to 8 players simply because we know Hearthstone can handle 8 players in a session at once. I want to keep it at 4 decks so players can ban a deck as they see fit. Unless banning is removed then yeah go down to three decks and make it best of 3, BUT that means less games in total which then should reflect on total rewards. Less Games = Fewer rewards.
I did: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/ehlocg/tournament_mode/
I just hope it doesn't get lost in the aether or just straight up ignored.
I wish lol
I've been working on this for a few weeks. I've been thinking of how this can be implemented into the game, how it rewards players, how it can pay for itself in the long run, and mainly how it can be fun. As we go through this, if you spot anything that I didn't cover, stuff that would be un-fun, or things that need improvement, let me know. If the player base stays vocal on this topic (maybe this thread) we might be able to make things work and bring some new fun to our favorite game.
The Basics:
The way the mode will be implemented will be similar to that of Tavern Brawl. It will be live for an entire week before maintenance/reset.
Cards/sets will be rotated in and out. This will give us use of older cards and while also taking away staple Classic and Basic cards. This is to prevent a stale meta. this is why Battlegrounds is a hit. Team 5 have been very vigilant and hands on when it has come to balance Battlegrounds, if they could use this philosophy with Tournament Mode (The one I'm describing) then it will last.
Rule sets can be used to limit deck construction even more. Rule Sets such as;
- Pauper: No Epic or Legendary Cards
- Stay Dead: No Deathrattle Cards
- Be Quiet: No Battlecry Cards
- This is My Main: Only Class Cards are used
Tournament mode can also use the Standard format, to make things more interesting since the Standard format Meta is more often than not figured out.
There are 3 different levels of entry to this mode, I will go over the rewards after I lay these out.
1 - Free: Everyone will get one FREE entry into the mode each week. After you have use your Free play, you'll have to play in the other levels. This free entry will also give you access to ALL of the available cards whereas the next two levels come straight from your collection. This mode will not affect your rating.
2 - Casual: The cost of entry will be 150g or your local currency. This is for people to practice in while still obtaining rewards. This mode will affect your rating.
3 - Competitive: The cost of entry will be 500g or your local currency, this is where the big boys go to play. Go hard, or go home. This mode will affect your rating.
With the introduction of Battlegrounds, Team 5 has shown us that Hearthstone can hold 8 people together enough to get through a game. So Tournament mode will be using an Eight Player Bracket. You will see your opponents Tournament Portraits and their rating and they can see yours as well.
This is a rough draft of what it will look like, match- ups are not set in stone:
With each game you'll have your rating changed according to how well you did, similar to Battlegrounds.
For example:
Obviously it will go higher than 999 but Hearthcards can only do so much. Do not worry about the portraits at this moment, I'll get to that soon.
The Rules:
As stated earlier, there will be sets/cards rotating in and out each week to keep the game mode feeling fresh each week. This also keeps people from developing unbeatable strategies for too long.
All eight players will be matched together, you will all be shown what sets are in use, followed by being sent to the a collection manager inside the mode and everyone will have 40 minutes to craft 4 decks.
The matches will be best of 5.
You will be able to ban an opponents deck.
Once a deck wins, you cannot use it anymore in that game until the next match.
There is 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and 4th Place.
- 1st place is the winner.
- 2nd Place belongs to the person who lost to the winner,
- 3rd place will be decided in a match between the two players who didn't make it to the final match-up.
- 4th Place belongs to the player who lost the decider match for 3rd Place.
- All other players will not get a placement.
There will be spectating in place for those who lose, but no cards from either players hands can be seen.
-The only match they can watch is the grand final of the tournament, this prevents sniping.
Once you have won your match-up you will sit in the bracket screen until a match-up ends, then you will be matched with the winner of that match-up. There will be a two minute pause before the match begins to let the winner take a small break.
- This is your time to do what you need to do before the next match.
Rewards:
Competitive will grant the largest amount of rewards.
Casual and Free will grant the same amount of rewards.
These rewards should be;
-Gold
-Dust
-Pack Tokens for YOU to DECIDE which pack you want.
Rewards for placements will be;
- Players in 1st place will receive a pack token, some dust, and more gold than what 2nd place got.
- Players in 2nd place will receive a pack token, some dust, and some gold.
- Players in 3rd place will receive a pack token and some dust.
- Players in 4th place will receive some dust.
- Players below 4th place will not receive anything.
These rewards will scale based on if they are played in competitive or casual.
-It should be noted that Arena tickets should be given out in competitive.
Progression:
Progression comes in the form of Tournament Mode exclusive Hero Portraits.
-These will be rewarded based on how many games you have won with a particular class inside Tournament Mode.
Hero portraits will not be represented in the match-up themselves. If you play Shaman, you will be whatever Shaman you chose for your deck during deck construction or be defaulted to your favorite.
This is a great opportunity to use some old art, here are some examples;
Druid - 500, 1000, 1500
Mage - 500, 1000, 1500
Warrior - 500, 1000, 1500
So on and so forth for each class. Also, ignore the health for these portraits, I couldn't find any without health indicators.
These portraits aren't set in stone but it's a good motivator to work towards something.
Friendly Matches:
Friendly matches should be available within this mode.
A host should be able to make their own rule sets and decide what's banned and what isn't.
Friendly matches are free, and thus no rewards are given.
Things to Consider:
Deck boxes.
-While this mode exists people will want to keep decks they know work for next time around. There needs to be a feature implemented that way players who don't use 3rd party sites to save their decks (Like outof.cards) can, well save their decks.
-If cards in those decks are now illegal, they can copy/paste the deck code within Hearthstone to make a clone and edit it.
Splitting the player base:
-Some of you will have fears that this will split the player base and I totally agree. I'm not a Legend Wild player but I've heard it's slim pickins up in the higher ranks. My philosophy on this is the same from when I played WoW wishing for something like WoW Classic: "It's better to have a split player base than no player base at all." Agree with that statement or not, that's just how I see it.
How long will a round of Tournament Mode Take?
-This is probably the most concerning, and may very well be the reason as to why it hasn't came to fruition yet. Doing a round in tournament mode is and SHOULD be a commitment, it shouldn't be a throw away game because you're at 1 HP and think you've lost.
-It will take well over two hours four one full Tournament. Simply because players need ample time to look through what's available and decide what the best route is.
Is it worth anything in the competitive scene of Standard Hearthstone Tournaments?
-No, this is something entirely separate from official events.
Conclusion:
I think I've laid out a pretty good foundation on what Team 5 could do with Tournament mode. Is it perfect? I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is, that I'm trying to help and I'm trying to get you, the players, behind this idea that we've all been asking for, for years.
Thank you for reading.
-Grif.
Can you give me your definition of Tournament mode? Everyone says they want it but each player has their own idea of what it would be, and I think that's the reason Blizzard canned it.
Ladder is Grindy because that's how it's designed, they can make it easier sure but that just dilutes the Legend ranks. What they need is a Grand MAster mode where only people who have their shit together climb to the top.
Unfortunately I think the new currencies are China only.
Battlegrounds was something HS didn't need but got anyway, for some weird reason.
Achievements are a fantastic idea if they are done right. They wouldn't bring new players in but it might keep new players longer. Make the achievements long term. Hearthstone has been going on 6 years in 2020 and some people are still working towards 500/1000 wins per class.
That's community hype though and you really can't stop it. Brian Kibler has a been a proponent for wanting the Classic & Basic sets rotated to Wild, what him and all his fans fail to realize is that it absolutely fucks over F2Players.
1: With the amount of cards in HS it's going to be impossible at some point to prevent every broken combo. My thing is, that since Big Priest existed for so long, I'm wondering what their internal policy for Wild id.
2: Platebreaker kind of does this but yeah, Wild specific tech cards here and there would be nice.
3: I don't have a problem with a permanent Brawliseum, but what's going to happen to Arena? Or do you think Arena will not be affected?
4: LONG term, frequently updated, and trackable achievements.
5: Yeah Dust economy needs an overhaul.
6: Unnerf every Wild card. Yes, all of them.
7: I don't see why not.
So I made the mistake of asking this question on Reddit and mostly got only answers that we’re halfway thought out.
This question excludes Battlegrounds Tribal inclusions, patching, and Balance changes. This is a more long term question.
We see that battlegrounds has done a good job of bringing some older players back while attracting some new players, I don’t know how long they’ll stay but it’s still a good sign that change is effect for HS.
I often make the assumption that new formats would help but I’d like to know what others have in mind.
I enjoy my time in Wild because I’m playing my Joke Priest deck, or my Aviana, Togwaggle Druid. But I don’t intend to ever really climb ladder at all, so there’s that.
You brought up your collection which I think is something players tend to forget about. There are ALOT of cards in HS and you can’t really do much with them because of the power level that is wild. I read this post a while back, some parts of it are irrelevant now but it makes some good points.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/c9vsy3/blizzard_i_want_my_collection_to_matter_pls_make/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
They probably Finally realized how much money they could make from hero portraits and have just now made enough portraits to rotate through the shop. Hopefully they add other missed portraits for players who missed some of the pre-order exclusives
This would be the best incentive to do so. My question now is: How much MORE support is Wild going to get?
This and Explosive Trap would serve as a good board clear if Reborn and "Deathrattle: Summon X" didn't exist but we'll see how it plays out.
Let's just hope Hearthstone doesn't go the route of Heroes of the Storm.
I can't remember what I said initially about this card when it was first revealed but I'm sure I thought that it wasn't that good. At the time Dr. Boom Warrior/Luna's Pocket Mage were dominant so there was obviously no way a Highlander card with RNG affecting your hero power could be useful, I'm still pretty sure it won't be used much in the coming metas unless more neutral, non-legendary highlander cards get printed to support those deck types.
It'll provide steam if you get it early that is true, but if it's the 20th+ card in the deck then maybe it's not so great.
Zephrys the Great, Call to Adventure, and Witchwood Piper are cards that will work most of the time, so obviously more useful than a card that works some of the time.
Not worth the dust, I think players can comfortably disenchant it without worrying if it will be a key card in a deck.
Mechs will still dominate but at least we saw a balance patch this soon, so that implies they'll balance this mode frequently.
So I agree with everything you've said except for your last sentence.
I think this comes from my perception of Wild should be is different from yours. You expect it to be very powerful, I expect it to be broken. With access to every card it is inevitable that Wild gets out of hand, and that's okay. What's not okay is that Team 5 selectively nerfs some cards/decks but not others. Aviana, Dreadsteed, and Naga Sea Witch are great examples of this since Team 5 was swift to "re-balance" these cards while Barnes was still a large community complaint. So my question is "Why do some cards see immediate action but others took years before Team 5 would step in?".
I think the solution to this problem (I'm about to sound like a broken record) is to introduce a format in between Standard and Wild. Something that allows cards from every set to be played but bans cards that cause broken combos, SN1P-SN4P, un-nerfed Shadowboxer, and un-nerfed Naga Sea Witch.
One obvious argument to that idea is the potential to splitting the player base, but having a split player base is better than having no player base.
Thanks for reminding me, I guess I forgot about its changes.
I think they're holding off actually adding anything new to the game (Battlegrounds was not made for the health of Hearthstone (I could dive deeper on that but I'm not going to) it is a cash in on auto-battlers) until they (Team 5) start seeing scary financial impact.
If my decks have a theme I'll usually try to compliment it with an appropriate portrait but that's not always possible.
Druid - Elise
Hunter - Aleria
Mage - Khadgar (Wish there was a Gnomish mage so it can tie a Mech mage together well)
Paladin - Arthas (Sir-Annoy-O for my mech decks)
Priest - Madame Lazul
Rogue - Valeera (The rogue heroes are not interesting IMHO)
Shaman - King Rastakhan for my Wild Shudder Shaman, The Thunder King for my elemental Shaman
Warlock - Nemsy
Warrior - Deathwing
1. The problem of Sniploc stems from the fact that Wild allows players to use their ENTIRE collection to build decks, this is it's biggest strength while simultaneously being its biggest weakness. Of course Team 5 knew this would eventually come about, they also understand that one of three things will happen. If they step in and nerf the deck, a new Bad Guy will reveal himself and everyone will complain about that deck. The second comes from the release of a set of cards that unlock more possibilities for counters to the deck itself. Lastly, just other decks coming up that are even more powerful overall. If you ask me, Wild should never be touched/re-balanced, but instead a new format with limits should be introduced (See link at bottom of comment)
2. Yeah I don't see why they don't push Wild harder. There's a vast library of cards that can only be gained with real world money. It's just a really weird missed opportunity on Blizzard's part. Maybe they're waiting for the "Oh fuck we haven't made our financial quota this quarter, hit the emergency button" and push Wild HARD.
3. I've already said it once but I'll say it again, they should not nerf cards in wild and should've un-nerfed (Yogg, Tuskar, Molten Giant to name a few) cards when they rotated
My stance on this matter is that there are simply too many cards to cram into two formats and we need more. My ideas aren't perfect but they're something to think about and digest, and I'm sure at least one of them would be a welcomed addition.
https://outof.cards/forums/hearthstone/hearthstone-general/1488-six-formats-hearthstone-could-easily-have
I think now would be an excellent time to launch it since we're still a few weeks before reveal season. ;)