I am really curios how will they handle standard rotation. It will be a large hit for F2P players and unlike hearthstone there are no option to DE wild cards (either all or useless ones)
I think it's kind of weird to say, "More tribes please!" as if that's some kind of added value to the game.
It's actually an extremely complicated ask, and Team 5 should absolutely not do it just for the sake of doing it.
It's especially tricky when the tribe is already represented in a large number of existing cards. For that reason, Undead is one of the least likely, along with every other player race in WoW.
Plants are definitely over-represented in a small number of classes (Druid and Rogue), so that's a problem.
Ooze, maybe. Certain spells or battlecries could copy an Ooze, and maybe they could have one that dissolves armor or something. (I have been hoping for an armor-hate mechanic for a long time!) Not necessarily ALL the armor at once, but cutting it in half might be cool.
I disagree on over representation of plants. There are no more plants than there were elemental in pre Un'Goro card pool. Also, don't you find suspicious that rogues got so many plants in Un'goro and that one of adapt options was create plants? Is it a coincidence or they had plans for plant synergies but abandoned\denied them for some reason.
And yes more tribes add value to the game. A lot of value and fun in new deckbuilding options. Of course if tribes have cards\mechanics caring for them. Mech tag was completely irrelevant in standard for two years and that was lame...
As others have pointed out, the primary reason to make something a tribe at this point is mechanics-driven. Hearthstone is an intentionally simple card game, so despite the fact that it would make a ton of sense lore-wise to implement tribes such as human, orc, elf, undead, etc. these tribes are ignored on the cards.
Sure. There are no point adding a tribe for "flavor" reasons. Adding a tribe and give it some lame synergies like give +1\+1 isn't that great either.
But I do think that there are many mechanics left to explore. Start of game effects that influence all minions of a tribe. Tribe that interacts with the number of type X cards in your hand. Handbuff tribe.
We have no tribes since Un'goro and that is a long period of time...
Adding a tribe shakes wild by indirectly buffing a bunch of cards, adding a tribe may give new life to some basic\classic cards, adding a tribe creates fun archetypes when you try to make tribe work in classes they weren't intended for.
What about not the new tribe but two-tribe minions? Not the "all" tribe, something more like "pirate/beast". And we still have no tribe to be played around spells as tribe synergy.
Two-tribe minions is something I'd like but any solution I can think of seems clunky for the interface.
As for spell synergy tribe - IMO, Ethereals are the most logical choice. Its their theme already.
BTW, Rafaam is an ethereal, this year story is centered around him, so I wouldn't be that much surprised to see ethereal focused expansion... I can easily see something like him calling for help of other evil ethereals
At least they should put Kobold tribe in the game, there are a lot of Kobolds since their expansión, btw, there are other posible tribes in my mind like:
- as strongpoint said, ogre, kobold, orc and goblin.
- Troll.
- Elf ( it's better without making the difference between blood elfs, Wood's elfs etc).
- Plants (including the Treants).
- It'll be interesting to make a Dinosaur tribe, but making them Beasts was a nice idea.
I still think that racial tribes are extremely unlikely. What distinct mechanics for each race you want to do? Let's look at existing tribes and what they do:
Mechs: Magnetic theme, warrior\hunter\priest identities. Note how irrelevant mech tag was in standard for years. Murlocs: board flood synergies Beasts: Hunters and druid can do interesting things with them. Other than that this tribe is too vague to have theme\mechanic Elementals: Mage and shaman playthings. Played last turn mechanic Demons: Warlock thing. Note how neutral demons have no relevance for anyone else Pirates: Weapon synergies and burgling\drawing cards. Rogue's plaything Dragons: Dragon in hand mechanic Totems: Shaman thing.
Now imagine elves or goblins... What themes, ties to class, unique mechanics they may have? What can make them distinct and important?
I think racial tribes like undead (yes in WoW universe it is a race), ogre, kobold, etc. are very unlikely to happen. I know that there are murlocs but they are fine as exception. But let's say they do ogres and kobolds, then question rises why there are no goblins or orcs? And they simply can't create meaningful and distinct mechanics for all of WoW races.
Tribe needs either a signature mechanic that makes it distinct and gives reason to exist or class that works with them
I wonder if they would update Nightmare Amalgam if new tribes were added. Interestingly, the way that Hench-Clan Hag is worded makes it more future-proof, but the tokens still read like Nightmare Amalgam.
I think they have to, all tribes is all tribes. It will be confusing otherwise. Another thing they can do is to replace all with "multiple" and leave the same description. Multiple can also stuff dragon/spirit but it is clunky.
We got no new tribes since Un'goro and I think it would be nice to have new ones. Lets speculate what tribes should be added to Hearthstone and what we may see in the future
I can see three potential tribes
1) Plants. We have tons of plants in druid as well as several neutral plants. 2) Oozes (there are quite a fey slimes\oozes in wild, including stuff that generates slimes\oozes. Standard currently has 4 (acdic\underbelly ooze, floop, 1\1 token generated by the 2/4 rogue mech) 3) Ghosts (There are enough ghosts\spirits\phantoms\shades\wisp to make them a tribe. Cards like cursed castaway and arfus are a problem)
Animal companion looks like a random inclusion... why not another mech instead? Even something like Nightmare Amalgam looks better. Or another activator for your bombs
Also two 1-drops look quite inconsistent for a deck that wants to curve out.
I am really curios how will they handle standard rotation. It will be a large hit for F2P players and unlike hearthstone there are no option to DE wild cards (either all or useless ones)
Wait... Wait... They BUFFED rogue? It was already really good since the rotation. Is it because bad players play rogue badly bringing average WR down?
I disagree on over representation of plants. There are no more plants than there were elemental in pre Un'Goro card pool. Also, don't you find suspicious that rogues got so many plants in Un'goro and that one of adapt options was create plants? Is it a coincidence or they had plans for plant synergies but abandoned\denied them for some reason.
And yes more tribes add value to the game. A lot of value and fun in new deckbuilding options. Of course if tribes have cards\mechanics caring for them. Mech tag was completely irrelevant in standard for two years and that was lame...
Sure. There are no point adding a tribe for "flavor" reasons. Adding a tribe and give it some lame synergies like give +1\+1 isn't that great either.
But I do think that there are many mechanics left to explore. Start of game effects that influence all minions of a tribe. Tribe that interacts with the number of type X cards in your hand. Handbuff tribe.
We have no tribes since Un'goro and that is a long period of time...
Adding a tribe shakes wild by indirectly buffing a bunch of cards, adding a tribe may give new life to some basic\classic cards, adding a tribe creates fun archetypes when you try to make tribe work in classes they weren't intended for.
Are you sure? That seems to be a strange reason. It is like saying that Demons are so warloc-ish
Two-tribe minions is something I'd like but any solution I can think of seems clunky for the interface.
As for spell synergy tribe - IMO, Ethereals are the most logical choice. Its their theme already.
BTW, Rafaam is an ethereal, this year story is centered around him, so I wouldn't be that much surprised to see ethereal focused expansion... I can easily see something like him calling for help of other evil ethereals
I still think that racial tribes are extremely unlikely. What distinct mechanics for each race you want to do? Let's look at existing tribes and what they do:
Mechs: Magnetic theme, warrior\hunter\priest identities. Note how irrelevant mech tag was in standard for years.
Murlocs: board flood synergies
Beasts: Hunters and druid can do interesting things with them. Other than that this tribe is too vague to have theme\mechanic
Elementals: Mage and shaman playthings. Played last turn mechanic
Demons: Warlock thing. Note how neutral demons have no relevance for anyone else
Pirates: Weapon synergies and burgling\drawing cards. Rogue's plaything
Dragons: Dragon in hand mechanic
Totems: Shaman thing.
Now imagine elves or goblins... What themes, ties to class, unique mechanics they may have? What can make them distinct and important?
I think racial tribes like undead (yes in WoW universe it is a race), ogre, kobold, etc. are very unlikely to happen. I know that there are murlocs but they are fine as exception. But let's say they do ogres and kobolds, then question rises why there are no goblins or orcs? And they simply can't create meaningful and distinct mechanics for all of WoW races.
Tribe needs either a signature mechanic that makes it distinct and gives reason to exist or class that works with them
I think they have to, all tribes is all tribes. It will be confusing otherwise. Another thing they can do is to replace all with "multiple" and leave the same description. Multiple can also stuff dragon/spirit but it is clunky.
We got no new tribes since Un'goro and I think it would be nice to have new ones. Lets speculate what tribes should be added to Hearthstone and what we may see in the future
I can see three potential tribes
1) Plants. We have tons of plants in druid as well as several neutral plants.
2) Oozes (there are quite a fey slimes\oozes in wild, including stuff that generates slimes\oozes. Standard currently has 4 (acdic\underbelly ooze, floop, 1\1 token generated by the 2/4 rogue mech)
3) Ghosts (There are enough ghosts\spirits\phantoms\shades\wisp to make them a tribe. Cards like cursed castaway and arfus are a problem)
Did you just call 1 drop with a random 2 mana minion attached underwhelming?
It is a good thing that they'll add lackeys later. That will give them a way to buff\nerf lackey cards should they be too weak\strong.
Animal companion looks like a random inclusion... why not another mech instead? Even something like Nightmare Amalgam looks better. Or another activator for your bombs
Also two 1-drops look quite inconsistent for a deck that wants to curve out.