Today marks an important milestone for Hearthstone's Tavern Brawl mode - 300 weeks of brawls! It doesn't seem that Blizzard is too enthusiastic about the event though because this week, we're seeing Just a Hallucination make a return for its fifth go.
As the title says, that's disappointing. Tavern Brawl has become disappointing.
I don't play a whole lot of Tavern Brawl anymore because repeats don't interest me, also Battlegrounds takes up much of my Hearthstone time, but I'm genuinely passionate about the mode. There is so much room for potentially cool ideas as the game goes on, you can't possibly run out of them. Sure, sometimes an idea might flop, but that's the beauty of Tavern Brawl - it only lasts for a week! Having more ways to play with cards, with simple rules attached to them, is awesome and with the digital format that Hearthstone has, they have the upper-hand.
Tavern Brawl Today
The current status of brawls shouldn't exactly be a surprise though as Dean Ayala has talked a bit about it in a previous community Q&A in which someone asked about the excessive repeats.
Quote From Dean Ayala What’s the plan for Tavern Brawls? They are listed on all phases of the roadmap for Year of the Phoenix, yet we had mostly repeats this year. Should we expect this many repeat Tavern Brawls as the team focusing on other game modes? Any thought to changing the Classic pack reward?
The team responsible for Tavern Brawl content is also responsible for duels, book of heroes, and another entirely new game mode we haven't talked about much yet. They've just been busy. I'd expect some newer tavern brawls when those things get closer to release but not until then
Duels, Book of Heroes, and the new mode (Mercenaries) have put Tavern Brawl into the shadows. The current fate of Tavern Brawls was likely also solidified when joemag left Blizzard a little over a year ago. Joe was on the live content team and was one of the main people behind new brawls. His insight on brawls was never replaced by anyone else as the team went to work on much more than brawls and basic events.
I'm not saying that Tavern Brawl needs someone dedicated to it, its simple business at the end of the day whether we like it or not and you aren't going to get a great return on your investment if someone's only job is to play with the mode - it isn't monetized and I don't think anyone is quitting the game if they just removed brawls altogether. It is also important to bring back some older brawls occasionally because some of them are genuinely enjoyable to play and are clearly community favourites (Idols of Azeroth, Top 2, Top 3, Cloneball! to name a few) because that can be an exciting moment and discussion within the great community (plus those engagement metrics!).
What I am saying though is we need more than what we're getting. Let's take a look at the last year of Tavern Brawls. We had 12 "new" Tavern Brawls compared to the 23 new ones we saw in 2019. Here are last year's "new" brawls, the majority of which were in the first half of the year.
- Jan 8 - Just Macaws
- Jan 22 - Road to Northrend
- Jan 29 - Lunar Blessings!
- Feb 12 - Brawl of Gaudiness
- Mar 4 - The Burndown - Rekindled
- Apr 8 - The Fury of Kael'thas
- Apr 29 - Brawl Block: Feeling Adventurous?
- Jun 17 - An Outlandish Recipe
- Jun 24 - The Outlandish Burndown
- Jul 1 - Rumbledome!
- Oct 14 - Boss Battle Royale 3
- Nov 25 - Half & Half
"New?" Yeah, "New". You see, some of the “new” Tavern Brawls are only reskins of older brawls which, in my opinion, don't count as new ideas.
- Just Macaws is cool but it is just a much-needed improvement over the Webspinner brawl.
- We saw the Burndown in two flavors, which was already an older brawl.
- Brawl Block's theme is recurring.
- Outlandish Recipe is the usual deck recipe brawl we'll get with a new set - or at least that we should get with a new set...
- Boss Battle Royale 3 brings us an additional batch of adventure bosses to play with.
That's not to say that Tavern Brawls that don't require a whole lot of development time aren't worthy of our time, Brawl Block: Feeling Adventurous? was a genuinely fun brawl after all, but it does make me question why we couldn't have seen something that "simple" as a fun 300th brawl thing.
Under no circumstance am I saying creating a Tavern Brawl is a simple task. Developers hate when people call stuff simple because the public never knows everything that is going behind the scene and as a developer myself I have a special understanding and respect for what these awesome folks go through. This is especially true when beaurocracy is involved. Don't make assumptions, don't harass people!
I'm more so disappointed that it seems that no one had a serious conversation about what to do for Brawl 300. Maybe communication issues due to the pandemic was at play here, or perhaps everyone really is just super into Mercenaries right now and they need to really get it out the door sooner rather than later since it seems like, even though it hasn't been official confirmed, it was the mode we were supposed to see during the end of the Year of the Phoenix.
Regardless, could we not have seen a new Brawl Block with a fresh rule? Maybe we can get an anniversary Tavern Brawl on #312 to celebrate 6 years of brawling. Not as cool of a number to do something on, but at least they've got 3 months to consider doing something for it. And it shouldn't just be a Cavalcade of Brawls again.
Tavern Brawl's Future
There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. Since Classic packs are being retired, we'll see new rewards from Tavern Brawls since they can give us newer card packs instead which at least gives veterans the ability to potentially earn a new card and newbies can get cards with appropriate power levels. We're also getting closer to the release of Mercenaries as time goes on, which as Dean says may be when some room gets freed up to work on new Tavern Brawl content.
Personally, I would have loved to see them give us an early look at the Classic mode. It would have been a good way to promote something that was coming in the near future and really get people excited for it. I'd also love to see:
- Bonus experience for playing a weekly brawl.
- Bring back the deck recipe brawls for every expansion. And bring it out right away!
- Tavern Brawls that focus on new set mechanics before they come out when it makes sense.
- Ashes of Outland could have had a sweet global Outcast-based brawl. Could have done a cost reduction or let you draw a card.
- Scholomance Academy was a perfect opportunity to let us build dual-class decks. Not exactly the same, but cool!
- Better achievement rewards for playing Tavern Brawl. We need a Tavern Brawl card back or two!
Blizzard, please make brawls entertaining again. Also, it would be cool to give out stats on Tavern Brawls again like you did that one time at an early BlizzCon. Individual brawl popularities is cool.
Comments
I’ve stopped playing Brawls a long time. Most are just boring pre-made decks or RNG fiestas. I don’t want to lose my time and sanity every week just to get one damn pack.
I think Blizz should change the pack condition from winning to simply playing x games without conceding. It’s in their interest too since they often use Brawl data for future designs.
Yes riot is doing better with it's "tavern brawl" but it was a feature added upon from hearthstones tavern brawl, and thats the nature of feature copying.
The new guy will improve on the original.
Given tavern brawls arent rewarding classic packs soon, they may well give packs of the phoenix instead (thats my guess) which may get people playing it again.
I played a lot of tavern brawl as a casual player and I dont play it much now , I think it's still ok for it to be a fun addition for new players to mix up the game a bit and earn a small card bonus for your collection.
I'm not phazed that they arent spending any time making new brawls, given theres duels and other content like champions coming.
Tavern brawl I think is fine as it is.
That's just nature of Hearthstone they don't put too much effort or creativity into their modes just rng
Compare these Tavern Brawls with Runeterra Labs...
For. Real.
Riot is killing it on that front and that was a whole separate discussion I wasn't able to have today.
The deck recipe brawl might still be coming this time around, but likely not until the 20.0 patch is live so that the cards are all in the game and ready to be used in the brawl. Not sure exactly when that patch drops, maybe March 23. So that Wednesday, March 24 would be the first chance to do it. Maybe they will, maybe they won't! The only reason not to do it that day would be to avoid rotating cards being generated off cards in the recipes. So maybe the day after launch would be better for that reason.
Yeah, but I got King Krush today from the pack.
And, yeah, deck recipes when expansions drop. Let us try the stuff before crafting!
I almost always just play for the pack, unless it is a bearable brawl and I will play it to complete quests. I wouldn't even play for the pack but I am three cards from a complete classic set and I don't want to craft Gruul, Brightwing, or Millhouse Manastorm.
Tavern Brawl is just outdated and newer modes are a lot better, they might as well get rid of it. I only do it for a pack.
I think they should implement this mode into friendly matches.
Tavern brawl is just a zombie of its former self, done just for the sake of it and to award a weekly pack to those who would suffer it. And I'm completely okay with that.
Of course, for every good brawl there's always going to be bad ones, this one for example and perhaps the worst of the worst the brawl with raven idol in it. But at its core, it has always been a more laid back mode for casual play, one that rarely requires its participants to sweat over it.
Could it be better? Sure. I've never understood why team5 didn't just use the weekly tavern brawl for actual experimentation of nerfs, buffs, new card descriptions, or just to offer us a glimpse of a new mode, etc. The data would have been invaluable; play testing planned changes in exchange for a pack. Perhaps its because then there would be a need to constantly patch the game and they couldn't be bothered to do it or risk bugs, but it does seem to me a waste.
The only Tavern Brawl that I loved was the Lunar Tavern Brawl. I played that one until I completely satisfied with every bonus effect.
The rest was there just for the pack.
Looking at how dominant dhunters (blessing of pig) were in that brawl, I'm surprised anyone could enjoy it. I racked up like 14 wins, with only 1-2 losses in between.
Warrior with extra health blessing was a good counter.
They said in one of the interviews during Blizzconline that the team that handles tavern brawl were the same ones that work on Duels as well as the new mercenaries mode. So my guess is they are focusing on that. That being said, i do think there are probably a few brawls that could be recycled less often.
If only I mentioned that in the article :P
When wins gave gold, i use to love playing Brawls, these days... I play the 1 for the pack, then move on.
Honestly, I think the reason nothing special was made with Brawl 300 is because no one realized it was coming up. Team 5's attention is on the next few sets, modes and events, while the outside community is waiting on the new expansion and rotation with baited breath.
Tavern Brawl is my favourite mode -- I'll usually play 30-40 games when the decks are premade, down to 5-10 when you need to build your deck. On the other hand, I dislike Battlegrounds, because it's like a whole new environment where you have to learn all the permutations of hero powers and minions to do well.
I'm never disappointed in Tavern Brawl because I never expect it to be all that interesting.
It's fine, and I don't mind playing for the free pack, but it's never been something I look forward to or whatever.
What? Idols of Azeroth? That is like the slowest brawl ever. No thanks :p