Hunter Quest seems profoundly OP right now. It fits in pretty easily with current hunter archetypes and gives permanent improvements without having to complete the quest, if I'm reading it correctly.
Warrior quest seems fun at least. Potential win condition if Juggernaut is unkillable
Probably the best free skin that has been offered in a while (not counting the 1000 win, rewards track, or 200 levels skins). Plus I cracked 2 legendaries off of the free packs. Worth the slog!
Kinda disappointing. I agree that they could've given forewarning about the stream so that those invested in it would know not to make plans. Not the end of the world, but still, it's poor communication.
For what it's worth, I really dislike the streams and the "banter" that goes on with them (ditto with the announce videos) so would prefer a card dump.
What I'd really like to see is only like 20% of the cards before launch day, so that we can be surprised by all the new cards day 1.
Just so I'm clear, you're saying you don't care about assault/abuse because there are bad people out there who pretend to care in order to get some sort of moral high ground?
You say it's hard to care, but I want to challenge you on that. Let's have a little hypothetical situation: you're walking down the street, turn a corner, and see the aftermath of a car accident. There's a person lying bleeding on the ground, a family nearby crying. The person is receiving first aid, so you're not expected to get involved. You know jack about this family, this person on the ground. Is it hard to feel empathy? For all you know, the person might be shitty, might be a saint, but, importantly, you don't know. It seems to me healthier to assume that, on the balance, they're as fine a person as your average individual. It seems easier to empathize.
But let's say you don't, for whatever reason. The family is kind of in your way. Do you say "I don't care, get out of the way" or do you maybe give them a little space and walk around?
Nobody, literally nobody, is asking you to get out and protest. Nobody is making you brigade online. Right now, nobody needs you to do anything. Literally the only thing being asked is to keep things like "I don't care, just gimme the cards" to yourself. Be grumpy that it's disrupted reveal season, that's your prerogative. You'll get the cards soon enough.
For us, this has disrupted the reveal season for an expansion that nobody will remember in 2 years time. For them, lives and careers have been affected. Just keep that in perspective. Saying "I don't care" really says "your problems don't matter," and that's a profoundly shitty thing to say to someone, particularly when they're talking about assault/harassment.
Everyone, everyone, has their own shit to deal with. I've got my problems and I don't doubt that you have yours. Those suck! But recognizing when other people are expressing theirs and taking a second to go "yeah, that sucks" rather than "shut up, I don't care" will take you a long, long way in life. You'll find it easier to get help with your own situations if you're willing to, even just a little, be open to other people talking about their own.
Perhaps "must" is too strong. But "can" certainly applies. We can believe victims, and we, as citizens, are not obligated to give the presumption of innocence to anyone in how we deal with them.
Let's try another hypothetical.
Your brother steals $20 from your wallet. You know this because you saw him do it. The next day, you tell your friend. In exactly no world is your friend obligated to go "whoah, hold up. We have to presume your brother is innocent. This is only alleged until proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law." -- Just stop for a second and think on that one. Would it make sense in any world for your friend to say that? Is that what you'd expect them to do?
Of course, context matters. Maybe your friend knows your brother was actually out of town at the time. Maybe you have a history of mistakenly thinking people have taken money from your wallet. Those are, of course, possibilities.
Or maybe your brother is well known to be someone who takes $20 from your wallet. It's not the first time he's taken your cash. In fact, other people have accused him of just the same thing.
Your friend needs someone to look after their wallet. They are not in any way obligated to believe that your brother is innocent of all these wallet-snatching shenanigans.
Blizzard-Activision is a big company, and, believe it or not, these kinds of things happen in big companies all the time. There are loads of people who have spoken about these sorts of things across the industry. We know how hostile the gaming community is to women. We know how hostile the gaming community is to race. These are not new pieces of information.
Yes, the court must presume innocence. But we're not the court. We're listening to our friends say that they've been wronged.
That's a misunderstanding of what the presumption of innocence is.
The state is required to presume innocence. The state cannot arbitrarily declare guilt, but must prove it for the state to take any punitive actions.
For individuals to react, there is no legal or constitutional need to presume innocence.
Example, you witness your friend Bob get punched in the face by James Earl Jones. You are under no obligation to wait for there to be a declaration of guilt to say to other people "I saw James Earl Jones punch my friend." The people you tell can say "James Earl Jones punched this dude's friend." People can and will decide whether they believe that based on your credibility and the perceived character of James Earl Jones. At no point in there is anyone required to presume innocence.
Bob files charges. The state must presume innocence. They have to be able to prove it was James Earl Jones, that it was assault, etc. They can't say "this one person's word is good enough for me."
I absolutely get being uncomfortable with jumping on board a rush to judgement on the internet. Sometimes that can be wildly misled, taken by little things out of context, and blown up by a single person (or small group) who is looking for an axe to grind.
We have, though, evidence that this isn't the case here.
First off, this is a big suit, and it's brought by the Government of California. Not a single actor. Not one disgruntled person. The state government. After two years of investigation, it's a pretty damning indictment.
Secondly, this isn't "the first news of a scandal." People (mostly women) have been talking about this literally for years. It may be the first time that it's in a court of law, but that doesn't make it the first time we're hearing about it. This isn't the first step in the process for the women who have been harassed and discriminated against, this is their last resort.
It speaks to the ways that we're ready to dismiss or ignore women's voices when they bring things up. And that's a sucky thing to be complicit in.
I want to emphasize that I'm not singling you out as a "bad guy" or anything. I've been complicit in this, too. I paid for HS for the first time in years with Barrens and got the battle pass. I supported a company that has been demonstrably shitty to women and people of colour. I don't love that feeling. But rather than sit in it, it reminds me that it's important to sit up, take note, and believe women. They are more deserving of being given a chance than the large, multimillion dollar corporation who exists to monetize various entertaining passtimes.
Not being a WoW player, I can only conclude that the Wailing Caverns are a peaceful place, and that those pools of water are just the collected tears of everyone who goes there to have a good cry.
FWIW the card back looks nice enough. I'm a big fan of the simple designs
Thanks! I wound up getting Guff Runetotem which is pretty useless for me. Still, I'll probably hold on to it because it's the one I got for hitting Legend.
I've stuck with Pally mostly because I love playing them in D&D, so it always felt like a good extension.
And congrats on hitting Legend to you too! What did you get?
So, this is absolutely nothing, but I just hit legend for the first time (playing about 7 years, never particularly seriously until the last few months) and have been almost entirely F2P the entire time (I bought the most recent tavern pass and Kharazan back in the day.)
So, I ground my way from D5 to L16480 using a slightly aggro secret Paladin. I feel kinda scummy about it, but Paladin and Mage are my mains, and this seemed like the right meta to make the push.
Anyhow, that's all. I'm just happy for the win (and slightly buzzed on a couple of celebratory IPAs)
I'd rather watch a literal potato rope for an hour than watch Kripp joylessly sulk his way through a game, so I'm extra happy for this.
Particularly because this is an exhibition event, a more diverse and representative group of players seems like a no-brainer. It's such a basic idea that it should've been done ages ago.
For one, you appeal to more people, and therefore a bigger market. For every gamerboi who actually refuses to watch, there's going to be at least one Avelline/Luna Stan, plus X, where X is a nonzero sum of people that are watching because women are playing.
For two, you model a better, bigger society by having more representation. More people involved and excited? Awesome! We'll have better content. And wait, if there's better content, Blizzard makes more money. Which means more support for the game.
If all it takes changing the demographics of who participates in exhibition events to slowly improve the overall quality of the game (obviously there's more to it, and more to do) then what possible legitimate reason is there to be opposed?
TLDR: Kripp is boring, better representation is good.
Did they even playtest Cho'Gall? What absolute nonsense. You've got 15 turns tops to do 100 damage to someone with, let me check, infinite board clears. 0/10
Quick thoughts:
Hunter Quest seems profoundly OP right now. It fits in pretty easily with current hunter archetypes and gives permanent improvements without having to complete the quest, if I'm reading it correctly.
Warrior quest seems fun at least. Potential win condition if Juggernaut is unkillable
Probably the best free skin that has been offered in a while (not counting the 1000 win, rewards track, or 200 levels skins). Plus I cracked 2 legendaries off of the free packs. Worth the slog!
Kinda disappointing. I agree that they could've given forewarning about the stream so that those invested in it would know not to make plans. Not the end of the world, but still, it's poor communication.
For what it's worth, I really dislike the streams and the "banter" that goes on with them (ditto with the announce videos) so would prefer a card dump.
What I'd really like to see is only like 20% of the cards before launch day, so that we can be surprised by all the new cards day 1.
Just so I'm clear, you're saying you don't care about assault/abuse because there are bad people out there who pretend to care in order to get some sort of moral high ground?
You say it's hard to care, but I want to challenge you on that. Let's have a little hypothetical situation: you're walking down the street, turn a corner, and see the aftermath of a car accident. There's a person lying bleeding on the ground, a family nearby crying. The person is receiving first aid, so you're not expected to get involved. You know jack about this family, this person on the ground. Is it hard to feel empathy? For all you know, the person might be shitty, might be a saint, but, importantly, you don't know. It seems to me healthier to assume that, on the balance, they're as fine a person as your average individual. It seems easier to empathize.
But let's say you don't, for whatever reason. The family is kind of in your way. Do you say "I don't care, get out of the way" or do you maybe give them a little space and walk around?
Nobody, literally nobody, is asking you to get out and protest. Nobody is making you brigade online. Right now, nobody needs you to do anything. Literally the only thing being asked is to keep things like "I don't care, just gimme the cards" to yourself. Be grumpy that it's disrupted reveal season, that's your prerogative. You'll get the cards soon enough.
For us, this has disrupted the reveal season for an expansion that nobody will remember in 2 years time. For them, lives and careers have been affected. Just keep that in perspective. Saying "I don't care" really says "your problems don't matter," and that's a profoundly shitty thing to say to someone, particularly when they're talking about assault/harassment.
Everyone, everyone, has their own shit to deal with. I've got my problems and I don't doubt that you have yours. Those suck! But recognizing when other people are expressing theirs and taking a second to go "yeah, that sucks" rather than "shut up, I don't care" will take you a long, long way in life. You'll find it easier to get help with your own situations if you're willing to, even just a little, be open to other people talking about their own.
Some free advice for you:
If you want to avoid downvotes, which you appear to take personally, don't respond to people talking about sexual assault/harassment with "don't care"
What a catastrophically selfish way to behave
Perhaps "must" is too strong. But "can" certainly applies. We can believe victims, and we, as citizens, are not obligated to give the presumption of innocence to anyone in how we deal with them.
Let's try another hypothetical.
Your brother steals $20 from your wallet. You know this because you saw him do it. The next day, you tell your friend. In exactly no world is your friend obligated to go "whoah, hold up. We have to presume your brother is innocent. This is only alleged until proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law." -- Just stop for a second and think on that one. Would it make sense in any world for your friend to say that? Is that what you'd expect them to do?
Of course, context matters. Maybe your friend knows your brother was actually out of town at the time. Maybe you have a history of mistakenly thinking people have taken money from your wallet. Those are, of course, possibilities.
Or maybe your brother is well known to be someone who takes $20 from your wallet. It's not the first time he's taken your cash. In fact, other people have accused him of just the same thing.
Your friend needs someone to look after their wallet. They are not in any way obligated to believe that your brother is innocent of all these wallet-snatching shenanigans.
Blizzard-Activision is a big company, and, believe it or not, these kinds of things happen in big companies all the time. There are loads of people who have spoken about these sorts of things across the industry. We know how hostile the gaming community is to women. We know how hostile the gaming community is to race. These are not new pieces of information.
Yes, the court must presume innocence. But we're not the court. We're listening to our friends say that they've been wronged.
That's a misunderstanding of what the presumption of innocence is.
The state is required to presume innocence. The state cannot arbitrarily declare guilt, but must prove it for the state to take any punitive actions.
For individuals to react, there is no legal or constitutional need to presume innocence.
Example, you witness your friend Bob get punched in the face by James Earl Jones. You are under no obligation to wait for there to be a declaration of guilt to say to other people "I saw James Earl Jones punch my friend." The people you tell can say "James Earl Jones punched this dude's friend." People can and will decide whether they believe that based on your credibility and the perceived character of James Earl Jones. At no point in there is anyone required to presume innocence.
Bob files charges. The state must presume innocence. They have to be able to prove it was James Earl Jones, that it was assault, etc. They can't say "this one person's word is good enough for me."
But people, individuals, can and must.
Dude, that's a pretty bleak outlook.
Caring about other people, whether they care about you or not, is the bare minimum for a functioning world.
Hey BasilAnguis, that's kind of a bad take.
I absolutely get being uncomfortable with jumping on board a rush to judgement on the internet. Sometimes that can be wildly misled, taken by little things out of context, and blown up by a single person (or small group) who is looking for an axe to grind.
We have, though, evidence that this isn't the case here.
First off, this is a big suit, and it's brought by the Government of California. Not a single actor. Not one disgruntled person. The state government. After two years of investigation, it's a pretty damning indictment.
Secondly, this isn't "the first news of a scandal." People (mostly women) have been talking about this literally for years. It may be the first time that it's in a court of law, but that doesn't make it the first time we're hearing about it. This isn't the first step in the process for the women who have been harassed and discriminated against, this is their last resort.
It speaks to the ways that we're ready to dismiss or ignore women's voices when they bring things up. And that's a sucky thing to be complicit in.
I want to emphasize that I'm not singling you out as a "bad guy" or anything. I've been complicit in this, too. I paid for HS for the first time in years with Barrens and got the battle pass. I supported a company that has been demonstrably shitty to women and people of colour. I don't love that feeling. But rather than sit in it, it reminds me that it's important to sit up, take note, and believe women. They are more deserving of being given a chance than the large, multimillion dollar corporation who exists to monetize various entertaining passtimes.
Not being a WoW player, I can only conclude that the Wailing Caverns are a peaceful place, and that those pools of water are just the collected tears of everyone who goes there to have a good cry.
FWIW the card back looks nice enough. I'm a big fan of the simple designs
Damn this is a fun deck. Thanks, Funki
Thanks! I wound up getting Guff Runetotem which is pretty useless for me. Still, I'll probably hold on to it because it's the one I got for hitting Legend.
I've stuck with Pally mostly because I love playing them in D&D, so it always felt like a good extension.
And congrats on hitting Legend to you too! What did you get?
So, this is absolutely nothing, but I just hit legend for the first time (playing about 7 years, never particularly seriously until the last few months) and have been almost entirely F2P the entire time (I bought the most recent tavern pass and Kharazan back in the day.)
So, I ground my way from D5 to L16480 using a slightly aggro secret Paladin. I feel kinda scummy about it, but Paladin and Mage are my mains, and this seemed like the right meta to make the push.
Anyhow, that's all. I'm just happy for the win (and slightly buzzed on a couple of celebratory IPAs)
I'd rather watch a literal potato rope for an hour than watch Kripp joylessly sulk his way through a game, so I'm extra happy for this.
Particularly because this is an exhibition event, a more diverse and representative group of players seems like a no-brainer. It's such a basic idea that it should've been done ages ago.
For one, you appeal to more people, and therefore a bigger market. For every gamerboi who actually refuses to watch, there's going to be at least one Avelline/Luna Stan, plus X, where X is a nonzero sum of people that are watching because women are playing.
For two, you model a better, bigger society by having more representation. More people involved and excited? Awesome! We'll have better content. And wait, if there's better content, Blizzard makes more money. Which means more support for the game.
If all it takes changing the demographics of who participates in exhibition events to slowly improve the overall quality of the game (obviously there's more to it, and more to do) then what possible legitimate reason is there to be opposed?
TLDR: Kripp is boring, better representation is good.
on attempt 5 I lucked out with demon transform. Garbagetown encounter though
Did they even playtest Cho'Gall? What absolute nonsense. You've got 15 turns tops to do 100 damage to someone with, let me check, infinite board clears. 0/10
Anyone else stay at the same level despite the rebalance?
Loving this deck! It got me from the doldrums around Diamond-7/8 and finally hit D-5 for the first time! Now I'm just trying to push to Legend.
I did have a ridiculous mirror match with this, too. I wound up accidentally burning a Libram of Hope which probably cost me the game.
I've been having loads of fun with this on the ladder at the end of the month. Thanks!
Favorite moment: the brief time when I could ladder with summoner mage
2020: looking forward to some sweet solo content and events