The thing I’ve been waiting for all this time is a quick pitch telling us what makes the game FUN. We know it exists, but why are we going to want to play it over one of the 50 other roguelikes getting released each month? Especially since this design team is stepping away from their comfort zone of “lots of cards that interact in interesting ways.” Even Battlegrounds is fundamentally a lot of cards that become stronger or weaker depending on what cards they see.
My impression right now is that this is in the Clash of Clans/Clash Royale vein: You don’t buy a card collection, but you do work to keep leveling up your units, and your success depends as much on your units’ level as on your skill. Those games don’t have to be bad - I think Clash Royale is pretty fun, actually - but the few good ones are worthwhile DESPITE that monetization model, not because of it.
I’ll check out any new mode they stick into the Hearthstone client, so in the end, maybe it doesn’t matter how well they market it to me in advance. But for what it’s worth, they still haven’t given me a reason to be excited.
The three we’ve seen so far correspond to mercenary characters in the Horde. So it’s possible that we’ll get five Dungeoneers for them this time and the other five Dungeoneers next time.
But I’m pretty sure that there will be one for all ten classes eventually.
It looks like “Dungeoneers” will be a sub-theme of this mini-set. That’s a change - the previous mini-sets introduced no new theme. Instead, their thing was to mix up themes from all three sets of the year. Since this is our first time getting a mini-set after set #1, I guess that wouldn’t have worked. I like this decision.
That would be very cool. I think it’s unlikely, because they usually like to have just a few hero cards in Standard at a time. If they did the mercenaries, they’d have to make cards for all ten classes.
In general, I think that if you look at a cosmetic effect and think “it costs $X for a JPG”, then the cosmetic is not for you.
I think the fair point of comparison is that an alternate hero costs about as much as a new board. I can see the argument for that. Is a board worth its price? Based on what I see from my opponents, it looks like the answer is “yes for a lot of people, no for a lot of other people”.
For the record, I’ve bought one board, several cheaper cosmetics, and most event passes. I don’t have any plans to buy alternate heroes, though maybe I’ll change my mind eventually.
(Edited to reflect that a skin costs about as much as a board, not more. I originally said more because I didn’t realize the $50 price included 4 champion cards.)
Lab of Legends is awesome (and I don’t say that lightly - I’m not a fan of any single-player Hearthstone games). I think it would make sense for them to take it out of the Labs, though. It’s no longer a temporary experiment.
The roadmap (available in-client in the news section) promises the event on May 19th. I believe this date has stayed consistent ever since the published the calendar months ago.
So yes, I agree with you that the evidence points towards an event with best week’s patch :) I can’t say for sure about the Labs, etc, but your logic makes sense for those.
I was excited for Irelia/Azir and built it as soon as I could. I’ve only had time to play 4 games, but I won them all. And they all felt pretty boring. Spam allies, then win. I didn’t make any interesting decisions or get used to quirks of the new cards. Just spam-attack until I win.
I’m not going to give up on it yet, but I’m getting worried.
A broken record? I read almost every comment on news stories, and I hadn’t heard of that deal. Probably because it was LoL and not LoR. But still, I don’t feel like anyone is spamming the comments over it.
Corporate acknowledgement of social issues is a complex subject. I’m probably slightly more on Flux’s point of view than Taznak’s, but I appreciate the perspective and that it was brought to my awareness. And comments like this are a relief, since I came here expecting to see a repeat of last year’s complaints about gay emotes.
OMG. This looks fascinating. But also kind of obnoxious. I may have to stop playing this deck if it makes me feel like too much of an asshole.
Irelia’s low health is her main weakness, of course. She only stays alive as long as you have enough cards (and allies) to keep swapping her around. Hopefully that’s a fair trade-off for the threat she presents.
Yes, I did have the XP boost from the Tavern Pass. I completed all my quests, and usually rerolled 800 XP ones to get the 1000 XP ones. I didn’t try very hard to get achievement XP.
Completing your quests is the most important factor. Playing the game gives up to 400 XP per hour (500 with the boost), so an extra hour of play per day is worth at most 10 levels per month.
This doesn’t seem that difficult. I think I got to level 191 in the last expansion with about an hour of playing per day. Now that there are more levels with lower XP requirements, it will be easy to get more than 200 levels per expansion.
Getting all 10 heroes will take a while, yes. But all dedicated players will have the hero portrait for their preferred class right away. That’s a lot less prestige than the 500 win portrait.
The thing I’ve been waiting for all this time is a quick pitch telling us what makes the game FUN. We know it exists, but why are we going to want to play it over one of the 50 other roguelikes getting released each month? Especially since this design team is stepping away from their comfort zone of “lots of cards that interact in interesting ways.” Even Battlegrounds is fundamentally a lot of cards that become stronger or weaker depending on what cards they see.
My impression right now is that this is in the Clash of Clans/Clash Royale vein: You don’t buy a card collection, but you do work to keep leveling up your units, and your success depends as much on your units’ level as on your skill. Those games don’t have to be bad - I think Clash Royale is pretty fun, actually - but the few good ones are worthwhile DESPITE that monetization model, not because of it.
I’ll check out any new mode they stick into the Hearthstone client, so in the end, maybe it doesn’t matter how well they market it to me in advance. But for what it’s worth, they still haven’t given me a reason to be excited.
Wait. They BUFFED Irelia?
The three we’ve seen so far correspond to mercenary characters in the Horde. So it’s possible that we’ll get five Dungeoneers for them this time and the other five Dungeoneers next time.
But I’m pretty sure that there will be one for all ten classes eventually.
It looks like “Dungeoneers” will be a sub-theme of this mini-set. That’s a change - the previous mini-sets introduced no new theme. Instead, their thing was to mix up themes from all three sets of the year. Since this is our first time getting a mini-set after set #1, I guess that wouldn’t have worked. I like this decision.
That would be very cool. I think it’s unlikely, because they usually like to have just a few hero cards in Standard at a time. If they did the mercenaries, they’d have to make cards for all ten classes.
(Personally, I think we could handle it.)
Dean, two weeks ago:
Dean last night:
I don’t want to pry, since he’s choosing not to say any more, but it sounds like there’s a baby announcement on the way...
In general, I think that if you look at a cosmetic effect and think “it costs $X for a JPG”, then the cosmetic is not for you.
I think the fair point of comparison is that an alternate hero costs about as much as a new board. I can see the argument for that. Is a board worth its price? Based on what I see from my opponents, it looks like the answer is “yes for a lot of people, no for a lot of other people”.
For the record, I’ve bought one board, several cheaper cosmetics, and most event passes. I don’t have any plans to buy alternate heroes, though maybe I’ll change my mind eventually.
(Edited to reflect that a skin costs about as much as a board, not more. I originally said more because I didn’t realize the $50 price included 4 champion cards.)
Lab of Legends is awesome (and I don’t say that lightly - I’m not a fan of any single-player Hearthstone games). I think it would make sense for them to take it out of the Labs, though. It’s no longer a temporary experiment.
Life is too short to play unranked games. I’ll see you on the ladder with Nozdormu in my deck!
The roadmap (available in-client in the news section) promises the event on May 19th. I believe this date has stayed consistent ever since the published the calendar months ago.
So yes, I agree with you that the evidence points towards an event with best week’s patch :) I can’t say for sure about the Labs, etc, but your logic makes sense for those.
I was excited for Irelia/Azir and built it as soon as I could. I’ve only had time to play 4 games, but I won them all. And they all felt pretty boring. Spam allies, then win. I didn’t make any interesting decisions or get used to quirks of the new cards. Just spam-attack until I win.
I’m not going to give up on it yet, but I’m getting worried.
A broken record? I read almost every comment on news stories, and I hadn’t heard of that deal. Probably because it was LoL and not LoR. But still, I don’t feel like anyone is spamming the comments over it.
Corporate acknowledgement of social issues is a complex subject. I’m probably slightly more on Flux’s point of view than Taznak’s, but I appreciate the perspective and that it was brought to my awareness. And comments like this are a relief, since I came here expecting to see a repeat of last year’s complaints about gay emotes.
The new Region Road levels are giving me cards from old sets instead of the new one! Is this happening to anyone else?
Pizza Stone! The best card back of all time.
OMG. This looks fascinating. But also kind of obnoxious. I may have to stop playing this deck if it makes me feel like too much of an asshole.
Irelia’s low health is her main weakness, of course. She only stays alive as long as you have enough cards (and allies) to keep swapping her around. Hopefully that’s a fair trade-off for the threat she presents.
Today they revealed new Ionia cards... but the only Ionia support that anyone cares about comes from Targon.
I’m always happy to see DreamQuest love.
Yes, I did have the XP boost from the Tavern Pass. I completed all my quests, and usually rerolled 800 XP ones to get the 1000 XP ones. I didn’t try very hard to get achievement XP.
Completing your quests is the most important factor. Playing the game gives up to 400 XP per hour (500 with the boost), so an extra hour of play per day is worth at most 10 levels per month.
This doesn’t seem that difficult. I think I got to level 191 in the last expansion with about an hour of playing per day. Now that there are more levels with lower XP requirements, it will be easy to get more than 200 levels per expansion.
Getting all 10 heroes will take a while, yes. But all dedicated players will have the hero portrait for their preferred class right away. That’s a lot less prestige than the 500 win portrait.
Cithria the Goddess
13-mana, 20/20
When you play another Cithria card, reduce my cost by 1.
Allies have Overwhelm and “Attack: Obliterate my blocker”.