I know there are different opinions on this, but I do think it is possible to have an impact on the average amount toxicity in a game through design decisions. There are reasons (many reasons!) why some games have more of a problem with toxic behaviour than others. I imagine that once a player has sent some kind of unpleasant message after a match and not had any consequences, they feel validated and are happy to continue doing it. I personally would like to see a warning for 1st time offenders, maybe temporary ban for 2nd and perma ban for 3rd.
I would LOVE a new rotating sets mode. Something I don't understand why they don't do (except from a workload/resources perspective, although in this case he mentions it wouldn't be much work) is occasionally try out something like this in the "modes" section as something like "Limited time experimental mode" that pops up as an extra icon for 1-2 months like a very extended tavern brawl. Long enough that it could have a competitive ladder and it's own meta, but if it is unpopular/low player count then they can just scrap it afterwards because they were up-front about the fact it was time-limited. If it is popular then it could be expanded into its own permanent mode.
Happy to have given you a reason to recraft the quest! Toxmonger is also one of my favorite cards, I also used to run it with elven archer back in the day. I tried Pen Flinger in this list for a while but there are so few spells it hardly ever got bounced and then it got nerfed anyway.
This may seem like a small thing but I think it might be significant: is Vol'jin's hero power the first time in any Hearthstone mode that a card or hero power is able to click on (target) more than one character? I have always assumed that they had made a decision never to do that to keep the simple to interact with, and maybe why they made cards that refresh your hero power or cards like twinspell instead of allowing you to target more than one minion with a single effect. Also why every effect that targets more than one character but less than all uses random targets.
In my love-hate relationship with priest this is firmly on the love side. Looking forward to making a Wild deathrattle deck with this, the unnerfed albatross, a bunch of duplication effects and the good old N'zoth.
I don't think they should unnerf Caverns because I find it to be unfun, however it's a very different situation to Raza. Before Raza was nerfed Reno Priest was tier 1 and surprise surprise it was again after it reverted. Caverns on the other hand simply wasn't ever played in wild because it wasn't good enough. There have been several cards released since then that make it easier to complete but with the loss of boar they have less of the charge element that would allow it to compete with other combo decks in wild.
I have a feeling they're keeping river croc, yeti etc so they have some tutorial cards for brand new players. They help teach what the basic statlines for different mana costs should be
I disagree that the point of external mmr is to determine end of season rewards, those are just an arbitrary way to encourage people to play the mode.
The point of external mmr is that people like numbers.
External mmr gives the impression that all of your skill and knowledge (in comparison to the average skill and knowledge of every single other person who plays that mode) can be reduced to a single number, and if you do good the number will go up and if you do bad the number will go down. Without an external mmr you just have casual mode (which as far as I know still has internal mmr).
I managed to work this one out after a minute of thinking about it, this has to be the most poorly worded HS card? I think just adding "your" as in "among your other minions" would help a bit.
Rotating sets were one of my favorite additions to HS so I'm glad they might be returning. Personally I would be fine with them having the first 2 months of each expansion be Standard cards in Arena and the last 2 months rotate to a mixed set.
I had been hoping they would introduce rotating sets for years before they actually did and when it happened it became one of my favorite things about the format. I'm still enjoying it but would much prefer it if they re-introduced rotations.
Hadidjah is still working at Blizzard so I guess it's either just them wanting a personal change or the best people are being pulled onto what is seen as the most important project.
Out of the ones mentioned in this article, the only one i think that should be unnerfed is Dr. Boom. It never saw much play in wild when it was 7 mana since the death knights are better value anyway.
I ain't sleeping on it, seemed super strong the moment I saw it. I think of all the flexible cards, the ones that have an option to draw are usually the best.
At first i thought "oh no, a worse Spreading Madness", but then realised it can't go face. I guess it's similar to volcano in a handlock, which seems good.
I know there are different opinions on this, but I do think it is possible to have an impact on the average amount toxicity in a game through design decisions. There are reasons (many reasons!) why some games have more of a problem with toxic behaviour than others. I imagine that once a player has sent some kind of unpleasant message after a match and not had any consequences, they feel validated and are happy to continue doing it. I personally would like to see a warning for 1st time offenders, maybe temporary ban for 2nd and perma ban for 3rd.
I would LOVE a new rotating sets mode. Something I don't understand why they don't do (except from a workload/resources perspective, although in this case he mentions it wouldn't be much work) is occasionally try out something like this in the "modes" section as something like "Limited time experimental mode" that pops up as an extra icon for 1-2 months like a very extended tavern brawl. Long enough that it could have a competitive ladder and it's own meta, but if it is unpopular/low player count then they can just scrap it afterwards because they were up-front about the fact it was time-limited. If it is popular then it could be expanded into its own permanent mode.
Happy to have given you a reason to recraft the quest! Toxmonger is also one of my favorite cards, I also used to run it with elven archer back in the day. I tried Pen Flinger in this list for a while but there are so few spells it hardly ever got bounced and then it got nerfed anyway.
This may seem like a small thing but I think it might be significant: is Vol'jin's hero power the first time in any Hearthstone mode that a card or hero power is able to click on (target) more than one character? I have always assumed that they had made a decision never to do that to keep the simple to interact with, and maybe why they made cards that refresh your hero power or cards like twinspell instead of allowing you to target more than one minion with a single effect. Also why every effect that targets more than one character but less than all uses random targets.
In my love-hate relationship with priest this is firmly on the love side. Looking forward to making a Wild deathrattle deck with this, the unnerfed albatross, a bunch of duplication effects and the good old N'zoth.
Apothecary was the 1 card I was most hoping to get reverted for this reason, can't wait to get Sneeds out again
I don't think they should unnerf Caverns because I find it to be unfun, however it's a very different situation to Raza. Before Raza was nerfed Reno Priest was tier 1 and surprise surprise it was again after it reverted. Caverns on the other hand simply wasn't ever played in wild because it wasn't good enough. There have been several cards released since then that make it easier to complete but with the loss of boar they have less of the charge element that would allow it to compete with other combo decks in wild.
I have a feeling they're keeping river croc, yeti etc so they have some tutorial cards for brand new players. They help teach what the basic statlines for different mana costs should be
I disagree that the point of external mmr is to determine end of season rewards, those are just an arbitrary way to encourage people to play the mode.
The point of external mmr is that people like numbers.
External mmr gives the impression that all of your skill and knowledge (in comparison to the average skill and knowledge of every single other person who plays that mode) can be reduced to a single number, and if you do good the number will go up and if you do bad the number will go down. Without an external mmr you just have casual mode (which as far as I know still has internal mmr).
I managed to work this one out after a minute of thinking about it, this has to be the most poorly worded HS card? I think just adding "your" as in "among your other minions" would help a bit.
Rotating sets were one of my favorite additions to HS so I'm glad they might be returning. Personally I would be fine with them having the first 2 months of each expansion be Standard cards in Arena and the last 2 months rotate to a mixed set.
Just want to say I'm loving the creativity of a lot of these new cards.
I had been hoping they would introduce rotating sets for years before they actually did and when it happened it became one of my favorite things about the format. I'm still enjoying it but would much prefer it if they re-introduced rotations.
Hadidjah is still working at Blizzard so I guess it's either just them wanting a personal change or the best people are being pulled onto what is seen as the most important project.
was going to say the same, watched this yesterday and it was a lot of fun
Am I the only one who thinks Hench-Clan Squire is the opposite of cute, like it has been at a rave for 3 days straight?
Mostly I just want yogg unnerfed.
Out of the ones mentioned in this article, the only one i think that should be unnerfed is Dr. Boom. It never saw much play in wild when it was 7 mana since the death knights are better value anyway.
I ain't sleeping on it, seemed super strong the moment I saw it. I think of all the flexible cards, the ones that have an option to draw are usually the best.
was also about to comment on this! agree great article overall though. i think sea witch might have been the first wild-only nerf (from memory)
At first i thought "oh no, a worse Spreading Madness", but then realised it can't go face. I guess it's similar to volcano in a handlock, which seems good.