Overall your argument is sound, and I do feel that sometimes the start of a new run can feel samey and boring - especially before you get that special "umpf" for the run in the form of a treasure or special card. I do feel however that you forgot to mention that, while indeed regressing in terms of getting the bonus after the first encounter - the developers did a great step forward in my opinion - in the form of the Anomaly mode.
While Anomaly mode doesn't really let you outright choose the bonus you start with - a lot of the time it REALLY mixes things up, to the point of making the first encounters really challenging and worthwhile sometimes. I feel this mode is a better compromise to just outright choosing the treasure or whatever right at the start, since it is always random and it forces you to deal with it and adjust your playstyle to the anomaly. Ultimately - I fear that simply front-loading the treasure would make the overall feeling of the heist duller, as people would immediately know what they are getting themselves into - and it would be easier to reroll into a preferred treasure, overall making people get bored of the adventure faster.
I've been playing the Heroic Mode of Dalaran Heist as my main game mode for the past month and a half, and while I do agree she feels stronger than the other bosses of her tier - she doesn't seem broken to me. I don't even mind seeing her as commonly as I do now, and while I have lost to her numerous times in the past - it was always due to me not being able to curve. I agree that these situations feel shitty, but at least you don't lose anything meaningful (you basically just click the play button again).
I would rather they balance some of the later bosses a bit - especially ones that are ridiculously one sided like facing Haro Setting-Sun with a swarmy deck, or the shenanigans Vas'no can pull off at the start of the match with triple overload + mana advantage.
Just beat Heroic Mode on Dalaran Heist - wing 5 - with the most automatic deck I've ever played. I've started as a rogue with the 2 mana 2 damage to undamanged minions hero power, and the first treasure I got was Robes of Gaudiness (which in itself is pretty bonkers). Over the next few bosses, I've managed to get myself an Anub'arak, and then later I've used Duplatransmogrifier on it. When I've realised what I had done - it was already too late; I've just made a deck with 22 Anub'araks, all costing 4 mana.
I thought I was done for, since my deck is pretty much dead weight until turn 4, but then I got my second treasure: Rocket pack. From there - it was super smooth sailing; All I had to do, against any heroic boss, was just survive until turn 4, and from there I basically won. Every turn I summoned an Anub'arak, which either removed something or just stayed on board, and the extra Nerubian tokens also helped clear boards with their rush. It didn't even matter how much spell damage or random spell generation the last bosses of the heist had - they just spend it all on minions that essentially dont ever die. Eventually they just ran out of steam, while my Anub'araks gently tapped their face once in a while - and I've won the Heroic Heist.
I've been lurking on HearthPwn for a good few years now, and I've completely migrated here, to Out Of Cards. Because I've never actually posted on HP, I never really got attached to the mods there - but their presence and work were often apparent. You could see Flux or Chimera respond to technical issues on the forums a lot (comparatively speaking), and all the news posts came super hot straight out of the oven. The site felt vibrant and alive, in part because of the great community but also the team behind it all. And although I wasn't active on the forums back then - I really understand the drive to follow Flux and the crew, they really deserve it.
My problems with HP started towards its "closing" - news became a bit slower but they were still quick and fresh. The forums, on the other hand, felt like they started to lean more into salt threads and people complaining about cards \ classes \ blizzard, with constructive criticism and interesting discussion being diluted in a lot of aggression and nonsense. These problems feel even more pronounced now - HP news section is very much behind in my opinion, and I've leaned more and more (now completely) to using OoC for news. The forums there feel dead half the time, and the other half is just more salt - at least in my opinion.
The thing is - I really don't think Magic Find is inherently the one to blame for this. They simply purchased what I would describe as the carcass of a site, and stopped it from shutting down - but they really have a lot of work to do. Since many of the old mods left the site, they are understaffed right now (I've seen a forum post about recruiting mods for HP not too long ago), which means curating content and managing forums is incredibly slow. I don't know if they knew what they were getting out of that deal, and I don't blame them for the "death" of HP (I feel like Curse \ Fandom is to blame on that front). All i know is, that at the end of the day - I use a site and the forums for content and community, and right now I just feel better about both in OoC. I do wish Magic Find all the luck in the world, but that being said - I'm sticking to OoC for now.
Like some already said - I too feel like this is a strong candidate for the best adventure \ PvE content so far; The setting is really nice, the bosses diverse and interesting, the random effects (be it the extra "treasures" or the anomaly mode) really spice things up and keep it fresh. I felt like the difficulty on normal was on a good level - it didn't feel too easy (unless you lucked into some ridiculous combination) and on the other hand didn't feel like it completely relied on luck (whether it being card RNG, things offered, encounter order etc. I'm looking at you - Rastakhan's Rumble).
I do however second what user RavenSunHS said about the playable heroes (sorry, couldn't figure out how to quote people without messing my entire comment) - Many playable heroes felt too cartoony, and I do feel like this has gotten worse with each week. For me, this is so bad that whenever I play Rogue or Druid, I just have to mute the game... Their quips especially felt fine the first time I played with them, but now they just annoy me.
This comment was loaded... "LIKE ME SIDE ARM." ...*dies*
Weird... well I guess I'll try to reproduce it if I get a chance, but it's a pretty rare combination to get. If the 2 cards work but the 4 don't - I wonder what screws with the game's logic there - the progression should be pretty consistant and linear...
I've played with this treasure a lot recently and so far - the bug is only visual. Every curse card procs immidiately, and seperately, so it only shows that it did 2 damage - but it definitely does 2 per card.
With 2 copies it does 4 damage per turn - I've literally just played a run with it before coming here. The only run I've had where I gave my opponent 4 curses happened when wing 3 was released, and there were some patches since then, so I can't confirm that 4 cards really do 8 damage since they may have messed something up along the way - but back then it definitely did.
Did you maybe play against some specific hero or with a weird anomaly? I don't know if there are some which can affect the curse cards, but there seem to be so many combinations...
Recently I've tried using the collectible card filter page here on OoC, and while the filtering function seems to be very efficient and quick, one window in particular was a bit difficult to use. The specific window I'm talking about is the expansion selector - it is rather small compared to the amount of things you can select from. While I do understand that the window is built the way it is because it allows for multiple selections (and not a simple drop-down menu like the rest of the inputs on that page), it is a bit janky to use on the user-side of things.
I've put together a proposed solution (quickly, in paint - don't judge ^_^) in which the "expansion" window is simply enlarged to be the size of 2 "lines" (vertically speaking). This allows for way more lines to be displayed and makes it easier to navigate and select from. I have to preface this by saying I don't possess any technical knowledge regarding implementation - so I might be proposing something which is impossible or just not worth the hassle - but I think it would be great if something like this could be done.
I feel like the best way to cope with situations like this is just simply to take a break from Hearthstone for a couple of hours \ a day. I think that ultimately the game should be played for fun, and when it stops being fun (whether due to a lack of updates or situations in which the universe decides you are cursed for the day) - I just simply move on to doing something else.
I think that if you just force yourself through more and more matches like this - you would get burned out quick. And kicking furniture around would only make your mood sour when you would need it later ;-)
This brawl seems very poorly thought out. It claims to give each deck a mech-themed deck, but in reality this is far from the truth.
As priest - you get a spell priest deck with a some removal and some card stealing - the only mech in the deck is Zilliax. As warlock - you get some removal and big minions, coupled with Arch-Villain Rafaam. Seems like this deck tries to cheat big guys out - but so far I've yet to see anyone actually pull this off.
On the polar opposite of this - rogue gets a semi-decent Pogo-Hopper deck with a good amount of synergy, and paladins get a standard-ish mech deck with a lot of magnetic minions. The sheer power gap between the decks and the false claims that the decks are centered around mech synergy, make it so that this brawl is only good for the free pack.
Personally I wasn't bothered by it. The fact that they simply repeat, with a set order, power and deck actually are a nice change of pace - you can plan your deck in advance to better counter them, instead of getting some random dude that might have the direct counter to your deck. This felt like it made heroic mode a bit less of an RNG fest, which is important since the last 4 encounters get pretty crazy pretty damn fast.
Way back when Maplestory was new and relatively popular, my friends and I signed up and played it together for about a year. After that, they slowly started leaving the game one by one, until I was basically playing it alone - which ended up causing me to take a break from the game as well.
About 2-3 years down the line, I got bored and decided to get back to the game. Problem was I couldn't remember my old account info and had to start a new one. I was in no mood to think of a creative name so I just decided that since the beginner mobs are snails - I would be the snail killer. That was taken and Snailblood was the next best thing.
After that - all my account names have snail-related bits to them.
While using the mobile version of the site - the side menu is of course a necessity. Problem is, at least for my Android phone, that when you expand one of the menus into its sub-menus, causing the menu to collapse back requires you to hit the main "side menu" button. This may seem like a personal inconvenience but it was very unintuitive for me, and I'm sure to many others as well.
Personally, I think adding the option of closing the sub-menus back by clicking the little arrow thing (or just adding a small button next to the text instead) would be great.
P.S. Love what you are doing with the site! keep up the amazing work!!!
Hi Ali,
Overall your argument is sound, and I do feel that sometimes the start of a new run can feel samey and boring - especially before you get that special "umpf" for the run in the form of a treasure or special card. I do feel however that you forgot to mention that, while indeed regressing in terms of getting the bonus after the first encounter - the developers did a great step forward in my opinion - in the form of the Anomaly mode.
While Anomaly mode doesn't really let you outright choose the bonus you start with - a lot of the time it REALLY mixes things up, to the point of making the first encounters really challenging and worthwhile sometimes. I feel this mode is a better compromise to just outright choosing the treasure or whatever right at the start, since it is always random and it forces you to deal with it and adjust your playstyle to the anomaly. Ultimately - I fear that simply front-loading the treasure would make the overall feeling of the heist duller, as people would immediately know what they are getting themselves into - and it would be easier to reroll into a preferred treasure, overall making people get bored of the adventure faster.
Basically - I'm advertising Anomaly mode ^_^
I've been playing the Heroic Mode of Dalaran Heist as my main game mode for the past month and a half, and while I do agree she feels stronger than the other bosses of her tier - she doesn't seem broken to me. I don't even mind seeing her as commonly as I do now, and while I have lost to her numerous times in the past - it was always due to me not being able to curve. I agree that these situations feel shitty, but at least you don't lose anything meaningful (you basically just click the play button again).
I would rather they balance some of the later bosses a bit - especially ones that are ridiculously one sided like facing Haro Setting-Sun with a swarmy deck, or the shenanigans Vas'no can pull off at the start of the match with triple overload + mana advantage.
I like the look of George the Fallen - just because of the portrait.
But I prefer if they add Tekahn for the overall feel and theme (I know it's like the millionth warlock hero... still...)
Just beat Heroic Mode on Dalaran Heist - wing 5 - with the most automatic deck I've ever played. I've started as a rogue with the 2 mana 2 damage to undamanged minions hero power, and the first treasure I got was Robes of Gaudiness (which in itself is pretty bonkers). Over the next few bosses, I've managed to get myself an Anub'arak, and then later I've used Duplatransmogrifier on it. When I've realised what I had done - it was already too late; I've just made a deck with 22 Anub'araks, all costing 4 mana.
I thought I was done for, since my deck is pretty much dead weight until turn 4, but then I got my second treasure: Rocket pack. From there - it was super smooth sailing; All I had to do, against any heroic boss, was just survive until turn 4, and from there I basically won. Every turn I summoned an Anub'arak, which either removed something or just stayed on board, and the extra Nerubian tokens also helped clear boards with their rush. It didn't even matter how much spell damage or random spell generation the last bosses of the heist had - they just spend it all on minions that essentially dont ever die. Eventually they just ran out of steam, while my Anub'araks gently tapped their face once in a while - and I've won the Heroic Heist.
Thanks for the replies - it certainly clears some things up, and I'm glad that my idea seems to resonate with other people :)
I've been lurking on HearthPwn for a good few years now, and I've completely migrated here, to Out Of Cards. Because I've never actually posted on HP, I never really got attached to the mods there - but their presence and work were often apparent. You could see Flux or Chimera respond to technical issues on the forums a lot (comparatively speaking), and all the news posts came super hot straight out of the oven. The site felt vibrant and alive, in part because of the great community but also the team behind it all. And although I wasn't active on the forums back then - I really understand the drive to follow Flux and the crew, they really deserve it.
My problems with HP started towards its "closing" - news became a bit slower but they were still quick and fresh. The forums, on the other hand, felt like they started to lean more into salt threads and people complaining about cards \ classes \ blizzard, with constructive criticism and interesting discussion being diluted in a lot of aggression and nonsense. These problems feel even more pronounced now - HP news section is very much behind in my opinion, and I've leaned more and more (now completely) to using OoC for news. The forums there feel dead half the time, and the other half is just more salt - at least in my opinion.
The thing is - I really don't think Magic Find is inherently the one to blame for this. They simply purchased what I would describe as the carcass of a site, and stopped it from shutting down - but they really have a lot of work to do. Since many of the old mods left the site, they are understaffed right now (I've seen a forum post about recruiting mods for HP not too long ago), which means curating content and managing forums is incredibly slow. I don't know if they knew what they were getting out of that deal, and I don't blame them for the "death" of HP (I feel like Curse \ Fandom is to blame on that front). All i know is, that at the end of the day - I use a site and the forums for content and community, and right now I just feel better about both in OoC. I do wish Magic Find all the luck in the world, but that being said - I'm sticking to OoC for now.
Like some already said - I too feel like this is a strong candidate for the best adventure \ PvE content so far; The setting is really nice, the bosses diverse and interesting, the random effects (be it the extra "treasures" or the anomaly mode) really spice things up and keep it fresh. I felt like the difficulty on normal was on a good level - it didn't feel too easy (unless you lucked into some ridiculous combination) and on the other hand didn't feel like it completely relied on luck (whether it being card RNG, things offered, encounter order etc. I'm looking at you - Rastakhan's Rumble).
I do however second what user RavenSunHS said about the playable heroes (sorry, couldn't figure out how to quote people without messing my entire comment) - Many playable heroes felt too cartoony, and I do feel like this has gotten worse with each week. For me, this is so bad that whenever I play Rogue or Druid, I just have to mute the game... Their quips especially felt fine the first time I played with them, but now they just annoy me.
This comment was loaded... "LIKE ME SIDE ARM." ...*dies*
Didn't get any response, I'm trying to bump this a bit.
Hope I'm not breaking any rules by doing so, but I couldn't find a forum rules section... Maybe add it somewhere easily accessible?
Every interaction Malificent has with Millhouse Manastorm. Pure. Gold.
(especially that super-secret interaction where you summon 5 of him).
Weird... well I guess I'll try to reproduce it if I get a chance, but it's a pretty rare combination to get. If the 2 cards work but the 4 don't - I wonder what screws with the game's logic there - the progression should be pretty consistant and linear...
I've played with this treasure a lot recently and so far - the bug is only visual. Every curse card procs immidiately, and seperately, so it only shows that it did 2 damage - but it definitely does 2 per card.
With 2 copies it does 4 damage per turn - I've literally just played a run with it before coming here. The only run I've had where I gave my opponent 4 curses happened when wing 3 was released, and there were some patches since then, so I can't confirm that 4 cards really do 8 damage since they may have messed something up along the way - but back then it definitely did.
Did you maybe play against some specific hero or with a weird anomaly? I don't know if there are some which can affect the curse cards, but there seem to be so many combinations...
Hi guys!
Recently I've tried using the collectible card filter page here on OoC, and while the filtering function seems to be very efficient and quick, one window in particular was a bit difficult to use. The specific window I'm talking about is the expansion selector - it is rather small compared to the amount of things you can select from. While I do understand that the window is built the way it is because it allows for multiple selections (and not a simple drop-down menu like the rest of the inputs on that page), it is a bit janky to use on the user-side of things.
I've put together a proposed solution (quickly, in paint - don't judge ^_^) in which the "expansion" window is simply enlarged to be the size of 2 "lines" (vertically speaking). This allows for way more lines to be displayed and makes it easier to navigate and select from. I have to preface this by saying I don't possess any technical knowledge regarding implementation - so I might be proposing something which is impossible or just not worth the hassle - but I think it would be great if something like this could be done.
Couldn't find a way to upload an image here, here's a link to imgur: https://imgur.com/9nv7UTs
Would love to hear your opinions!
I feel like the best way to cope with situations like this is just simply to take a break from Hearthstone for a couple of hours \ a day. I think that ultimately the game should be played for fun, and when it stops being fun (whether due to a lack of updates or situations in which the universe decides you are cursed for the day) - I just simply move on to doing something else.
I think that if you just force yourself through more and more matches like this - you would get burned out quick. And kicking furniture around would only make your mood sour when you would need it later ;-)
This brawl seems very poorly thought out. It claims to give each deck a mech-themed deck, but in reality this is far from the truth.
As priest - you get a spell priest deck with a some removal and some card stealing - the only mech in the deck is Zilliax.
As warlock - you get some removal and big minions, coupled with Arch-Villain Rafaam. Seems like this deck tries to cheat big guys out - but so far I've yet to see anyone actually pull this off.
On the polar opposite of this - rogue gets a semi-decent Pogo-Hopper deck with a good amount of synergy, and paladins get a standard-ish mech deck with a lot of magnetic minions. The sheer power gap between the decks and the false claims that the decks are centered around mech synergy, make it so that this brawl is only good for the free pack.
Wasted potential in my opinion.
Personally I wasn't bothered by it. The fact that they simply repeat, with a set order, power and deck actually are a nice change of pace - you can plan your deck in advance to better counter them, instead of getting some random dude that might have the direct counter to your deck. This felt like it made heroic mode a bit less of an RNG fest, which is important since the last 4 encounters get pretty crazy pretty damn fast.
Great suggestion - would be great to have a comprehensive list of known bugs \ feature requests to quickly go over before posting another.
As for the bug report - I use chrome and Shift+Enter works fine, and the Spacebar is OK as well for me. Might be a bug specific to Firefox.
Proof:
No problem using spacebar
Way back when Maplestory was new and relatively popular, my friends and I signed up and played it together for about a year. After that, they slowly started leaving the game one by one, until I was basically playing it alone - which ended up causing me to take a break from the game as well.
About 2-3 years down the line, I got bored and decided to get back to the game. Problem was I couldn't remember my old account info and had to start a new one. I was in no mood to think of a creative name so I just decided that since the beginner mobs are snails - I would be the snail killer. That was taken and Snailblood was the next best thing.
After that - all my account names have snail-related bits to them.
While using the mobile version of the site - the side menu is of course a necessity. Problem is, at least for my Android phone, that when you expand one of the menus into its sub-menus, causing the menu to collapse back requires you to hit the main "side menu" button. This may seem like a personal inconvenience but it was very unintuitive for me, and I'm sure to many others as well.
Personally, I think adding the option of closing the sub-menus back by clicking the little arrow thing (or just adding a small button next to the text instead) would be great.
P.S. Love what you are doing with the site! keep up the amazing work!!!