I'm mostly F2P (I get the battle pass to make XP farming easier) so only had 9 Lich King packs to open at my private fireside gathering. Beat my past luck and got 2 legendaries (Vexallus and Bonelord Frostwhisper), and also got 2 epics. I don't expect my luck to hold, but I've got almost 9k gold ready to go on the 6th.
Man, I'd be annoyed if I cracked Frostmourne in a card pack. Super late game (unless DK has some strong weapons cheating that we haven't seen) - you're likely to only get the full value (3 cards with middling attack and health) on around turn 9. Doesn't seem worth it to me unless somehow the game slows wayyyyy down.
Generally I'm pretty hyped about this: big shake up seems fun. New mechanics. Interesting deckbuilding constraint (and opportunity)
Two things don't work for me though:
1: I don't like the look of the signature legendaries. Losing the card's colour in favour of an expansion-themed tint looks kinda lame to me.
2: the different drop rate on the Signature Golden Packs for legendaries really bothers me. I understand that there won't be a lot of people pumping cash in to get a full golden set, and that it's not targeted at all people, but it seems kinda shady. Making the odds so much better in those packs really pushes people to get those, which doesn't sit right with me.
But overall, pretty minor complaints. Really hyped for this one.
The accusation cards also kind of "sound" wrong to me. I've been trying to come up with a sentence structure where "Theft Accusation" sounds like the right words to say, but it always seems clunky.
Okay, so, I know that it's not a top tier deck or anything, but I'm seriously pissed off that Defend the Dwarven District has avoided the nerfs that have hit the other popular questlines.
Unlike the others, this gives you sizable permanent bonuses that synergize with your quest reward substantially. I'm so tired of seeing this stupid deck, and even more annoyed that rather than nerf it into oblivion like they did with the other popular quests, Blizz has chosen to do nothing.
I know that it's not the strongest, but it's a bigtime feelsbadman moment to go from 18 to 0 on turn 7. UUUAAAAGH! /salt
Given how often this comes up, I think the only reasonable balance change to wild is to switch it to a format that gets to a random assortment of expansions which switch every month. Keep whatever the current core set is, and make the most recent expansion plus 3-5 others legal each month. Rotating sets make it like a weird version of standard, which might be enough to attract me to th mode.
As more expansions come out, the problems of broken decks and degenerate wombo combos are only going to get worse. It's just entropy at work. Nip it in the bud with rotations.
Honestly, it's probably fine. Microsoft doesn't make particularly worse/better content than ActiBlizz, other than remaking the same Halo game for 20 years. Bringing things like Warcraft and other Blizzard IP into the Games pass means I might actually play them.
I'm probably the only person who feels this way because I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, but is anyone else finding the proliferation of skins a bit... much?
I started playing (mostly F2P, but I did get the two most recent Tavern Passes) back around TGT. There were some alternate skins then, but not a crazy number. I remember being so stoked when I got my first (Morgl, I think?) because of their (relative) rarity.
Now it seems like every other week there's a bundle of 5-8 dropping, or maybe two bundles. I don't feel compelled to collect them, and don't care if other people want them. And hey, if you don't want the bundles, there's the 14 or so on the rewards track. Plus the 200 level portraits. Go Nuts with trying to get them! No complaints.
But it does seem like each time I load Battlegrounds I have trouble recognizing which hero is which. Every time* (*obviously not every time) I open the game there's new pop ups with ads for more bundles. I queue into a match and I'm kind of bewildered what my opponent is (particularly if playing on mobile).
It's not that it's bad, per se, but it seems a little overloaded to me.
It seems to me that the easy solve would be removing them from packs altogether. You could craft them if you wanted (though maybe not the golden version, idk) or obtain them via the quest, but that's it.
So, I've played a little of Mercs, and don't have particularly strong feelings on it, but there is one element that really bothers me: information opacity.
What do I mean by this? An example: as a reward after a fight, I'm offered an "Alliance Banner" that gives my Alliance characters +X/+Y. Great. Which ones are my Alliance characters? There is no mention of that on their cards/characters. Nothing. I guess you need to know WC3/WoW lore and/or have listened to the voice lines on characters in main HS: but I typically play with sound off, and have forgotten most of the stuff from the little WoW that I did play 16 years ago.
But let's say I remember who is Alliance and who is Horde (and who might be neither, as I'm sure some are) - now, when I'm being offered it, how can I check who it helps on my team before choosing? It would be great to be able to see who else might benefit from a power up like that, but I have to hold in my head who else is on the team, alive, and of the appropriate type.
I'm an old man, I can't keep that sort of stuff in my head.
It'd be great if there were a little more info about who's on what "team", and if there was the ability to check your roster before selecting rewards.
mostly covering too much ground and on a foundation of things that took place well after the Warcraft stories that I'm familiar with.
The smaller scale stories definitely worked better than the bigger ones. Because the big ones had to cover so much from games that I've never played it all kind of ran together with no real sense of what happened in what order.
But that's kind of baked in to Hearthstone in a way. The heroes are from all across the timeline effectively, making any attempt to explain why they're all 'fighting' at the same time kind of difficult. In that way, I think the mercenaries (and their book) is more effective, even if I like some of the individual mercenaries less than their original counterparts
I'm mostly F2P (I get the battle pass to make XP farming easier) so only had 9 Lich King packs to open at my private fireside gathering. Beat my past luck and got 2 legendaries (Vexallus and Bonelord Frostwhisper), and also got 2 epics. I don't expect my luck to hold, but I've got almost 9k gold ready to go on the 6th.
Man, I'd be annoyed if I cracked Frostmourne in a card pack. Super late game (unless DK has some strong weapons cheating that we haven't seen) - you're likely to only get the full value (3 cards with middling attack and health) on around turn 9. Doesn't seem worth it to me unless somehow the game slows wayyyyy down.
Generally I'm pretty hyped about this: big shake up seems fun. New mechanics. Interesting deckbuilding constraint (and opportunity)
Two things don't work for me though:
1: I don't like the look of the signature legendaries. Losing the card's colour in favour of an expansion-themed tint looks kinda lame to me.
2: the different drop rate on the Signature Golden Packs for legendaries really bothers me. I understand that there won't be a lot of people pumping cash in to get a full golden set, and that it's not targeted at all people, but it seems kinda shady. Making the odds so much better in those packs really pushes people to get those, which doesn't sit right with me.
But overall, pretty minor complaints. Really hyped for this one.
My God. You've done it!
The accusation cards also kind of "sound" wrong to me. I've been trying to come up with a sentence structure where "Theft Accusation" sounds like the right words to say, but it always seems clunky.
Theotar not working sometimes sound like a perk, rather than a bug /s
The Colossal buffs look nice, though I'm really sad that the Hunter Quest didn't get a nerf to the quest itself.
Okay, so, I know that it's not a top tier deck or anything, but I'm seriously pissed off that Defend the Dwarven District has avoided the nerfs that have hit the other popular questlines.
Unlike the others, this gives you sizable permanent bonuses that synergize with your quest reward substantially. I'm so tired of seeing this stupid deck, and even more annoyed that rather than nerf it into oblivion like they did with the other popular quests, Blizz has chosen to do nothing.
I know that it's not the strongest, but it's a bigtime feelsbadman moment to go from 18 to 0 on turn 7. UUUAAAAGH! /salt
Given how often this comes up, I think the only reasonable balance change to wild is to switch it to a format that gets to a random assortment of expansions which switch every month. Keep whatever the current core set is, and make the most recent expansion plus 3-5 others legal each month. Rotating sets make it like a weird version of standard, which might be enough to attract me to th mode.
As more expansions come out, the problems of broken decks and degenerate wombo combos are only going to get worse. It's just entropy at work. Nip it in the bud with rotations.
Curse you Rinzler! Don't Rectify me!
Ah damn. I got 16k by mistake and only crafted 2 epics. Now I'm at 0 dust.
Let it be a lesson, next time there's free dust: spend it quick.
Honestly, it's probably fine. Microsoft doesn't make particularly worse/better content than ActiBlizz, other than remaking the same Halo game for 20 years. Bringing things like Warcraft and other Blizzard IP into the Games pass means I might actually play them.
I'm glad that they're letting folks complete the chain after the 11th... I've got 1400 to go... FOR THE ALLIANCE!
A Kripp highlight? Does he stream anything besides complaining about RNG? /s
Wait... There's more than just Mark of Hakkar?
I'm probably the only person who feels this way because I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, but is anyone else finding the proliferation of skins a bit... much?
I started playing (mostly F2P, but I did get the two most recent Tavern Passes) back around TGT. There were some alternate skins then, but not a crazy number. I remember being so stoked when I got my first (Morgl, I think?) because of their (relative) rarity.
Now it seems like every other week there's a bundle of 5-8 dropping, or maybe two bundles. I don't feel compelled to collect them, and don't care if other people want them. And hey, if you don't want the bundles, there's the 14 or so on the rewards track. Plus the 200 level portraits. Go Nuts with trying to get them! No complaints.
But it does seem like each time I load Battlegrounds I have trouble recognizing which hero is which. Every time* (*obviously not every time) I open the game there's new pop ups with ads for more bundles. I queue into a match and I'm kind of bewildered what my opponent is (particularly if playing on mobile).
It's not that it's bad, per se, but it seems a little overloaded to me.
"skin bundle" just sounds so funny though
It seems to me that the easy solve would be removing them from packs altogether. You could craft them if you wanted (though maybe not the golden version, idk) or obtain them via the quest, but that's it.
So, I've played a little of Mercs, and don't have particularly strong feelings on it, but there is one element that really bothers me: information opacity.
What do I mean by this? An example: as a reward after a fight, I'm offered an "Alliance Banner" that gives my Alliance characters +X/+Y. Great. Which ones are my Alliance characters? There is no mention of that on their cards/characters. Nothing. I guess you need to know WC3/WoW lore and/or have listened to the voice lines on characters in main HS: but I typically play with sound off, and have forgotten most of the stuff from the little WoW that I did play 16 years ago.
But let's say I remember who is Alliance and who is Horde (and who might be neither, as I'm sure some are) - now, when I'm being offered it, how can I check who it helps on my team before choosing? It would be great to be able to see who else might benefit from a power up like that, but I have to hold in my head who else is on the team, alive, and of the appropriate type.
I'm an old man, I can't keep that sort of stuff in my head.
It'd be great if there were a little more info about who's on what "team", and if there was the ability to check your roster before selecting rewards.
mostly covering too much ground and on a foundation of things that took place well after the Warcraft stories that I'm familiar with.
The smaller scale stories definitely worked better than the bigger ones. Because the big ones had to cover so much from games that I've never played it all kind of ran together with no real sense of what happened in what order.
But that's kind of baked in to Hearthstone in a way. The heroes are from all across the timeline effectively, making any attempt to explain why they're all 'fighting' at the same time kind of difficult. In that way, I think the mercenaries (and their book) is more effective, even if I like some of the individual mercenaries less than their original counterparts