Hearthstone's Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig tweeted over the weekend a great update for those that are diving deep into the rewards track.
Although this won't be hitting when patch 20.0 brings us Forged in the Barrens as it wasn't ready for prime time, the next major patch after the expansion launch will bring in the achievements that will bring along rewards that he believes are "preeetty sweet". What we know so far is that it appears to be a cumulative count on the rewards track and not based on your highest level, so this will be something even the more casual audience can grind towards over multiple passes.
We don't know what "sweet" means, but we do question if this is going to be the new cosmetic Dean was talking about last week in his 9th community Q&A. Dean did mention that the rewards track was primarily a cosmetic-focused value on the paid end as to not cut into their other revenue streams, so it would make sense to introduce a new cosmetic through the system.
What rewards track level have you gotten to so far through the inaugural pass that arrived with Madness at the Darkmoon Faire? Does achievements that count your total levels motivate you to go even harder on the grind? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Quote From Celestalon Hey! Super excited about everything coming soon! I was wondering, we're getting a new tavern pass soon, lvls will be back to 1 and the reset will happen every time, so will we be able to eventually track the total XP/lvls reached through all expansion cycles?
Yes, we're going to add an achievement that tracks your total reward track levels ever earned!
This didn't quite make it in for 20.0, but we're aiming for the next major patch after that.
(It's worth the wait though, the rewards are preeetty sweet. 😉)
Comments
I'm level 145 now, with over 7k+ gold because I spent 2500 on The Thunder King and Maiev. I'm pretty sure that's still more than I've ever had.
I am around lvl 180 and right around the 14,000 gold I was predicting I’d hit when looking at my progress two months ago. Seeing as 8,000 gold to 9,000 gold was pretty typical for me in past expansions, earning around 12,000 gold (plus 2k still rolling over from last exp) is pretty good!
One thing I am wondering about these sweet rewards... perhaps the cumulative rewards track levels over time will be how you earn golden Core cards?! Something like that. I’m not going to get too hyped for anything better than that just yet or I may just feel disappointed if it isn’t that sweet in the end
Currently level 250 on the battlepass, hope that it contributes to this called new reward.
I have 10k gold for next expansion and buying extra packs from old expansions so i can get the majority of wild cards.
So after the initial community outrage and skepticism (me included), as a very casual F2P player I'm currently at level 111 and counting, and my gold income is certainly WAY above what I would make with the old system.
Without missing any quests it's quite easy to get very high on the the rewards track, especially after the changes to make the quetss easier to complete, I've actually missed a couple of weekly quests and a few more dailies, as long as you can reroll ones that don't suit you (except the ranked wins one) I assume anybody could get enough gold to make quite a sizeable purchase of packs without spending any money.
Side note - cosmetic changes are fine (and make it much easier to know if you're playing against another F2P player or not), but there are a while lot of those already, and while you can pretty easily know what class you're against by the hero power, I'm not sure it's very friendly to new players, now that each class has 3-4 skins and at least 2 characters. I've not kept up to date with all those cosmetics so I keep realizing there are more and more added all the time.
P.S. The fact I got more gold than every before doesn't mean I'll ever say no to MORE achievements, without (or preferably with) rewards.
Does playing against a F2P-players feels different then?
It's not supposed to, but it actually does, at least a little.
Playing against someone you realize paid for their cards makes losing a tad less annoying and winning a tad better. Playing against a deck that's factually better than yours but you cant afford to build because you're F2P is less frustrating (also, just a tad less).
so basically hopefully we are getting those sweet sweet rewards on 23rd (patch day)
They didn't make it into patch 20.0, so no. I'd assume the "next major patch" will be the mini-set associated with the Barrens, but it could be something sooner.
oh oops... Misread that... oh well
I would think it would be a BG patch a month into the expansion. That seems to be their update cycle
Good point. After I wrote it I realised there would probably be a big BG patch before the mini-expansion. I almost never play BG and usually ignore its updates, hence why I forgot about it. I'm sure someone will point out I missed duels updates too, for much the same reason.
It's a good thing I covered myself by saying "it could be something sooner" :)
Since you inquired, I reached the pinnacle of the rewards track 5 days ago (level 350) with the purchased Tavern pass. This is about 3 weeks before the next rewards track starts and the overall feeling I have is that it is both liberating and also feels bad.
The grind towards reaching the upper limit has ended and the downside is that no more XP is rewarded at all; so any time spent in HS now is purely for fun without additional reward whatsoever. Seeing the 0 XP gained notification after each game played is amusing to me. It is up to you to decide if the pure fun of playing HS is satisfying enough without the additional splash of XP accumulation (extra fun). I do not know for sure for myself… I just know the long grind is over and I am not going to grind it out another time, unless there will be much more additional cosmetic rewards added to the track (not just gold).
Next to having fun, my main personal goal in HS is to obtain all the hero portraits and all the cardbacks that do not have a funky requirement. As for the hero portraits I still have some road ahead of me. I only have 3 classes above 1000 wins, the rest is very close though (850+ wins) except for Demon Hunter (100+ wins). As for the cardbacks, I miss a few handfuls, because I did not start playing HS since Beta (I only started playing regularly since Blackrock Mountain).
It would be nice if the rewards track would offer the old cardbacks which I still miss. I know people will be upset about it because they might think owning those means they are somehow more privileged or lose value otherwise. Being a collector myself, I think it is just strictly better to have more ways to achieve a full collection of cosmetics. Not everyone started playing HS since day 1 or went to each and every Blizzcon event (nor does anyone own a time machine). By the way, I do not really mind never getting those special event cardbacks, just the seasonal ones that required me to win a few ranked games. I am glad these are already reappearing in the shop once in awhile.
PS.: Unsure if this will be helpful advice or not; I finished a Duels run with 12 wins after I already cleared the rewards track and there is some XP to be collected still. I assume it will carry over to the next rewards track so I am not going to collect that XP right now.
EDIT: I expect to get quite a few downvotes for my cardbacks comment, so feel free to not disappoint me 😋
Assuming you weren't botting, how many hours a day do you have to put in for that? I didn't buy the pass, but I kinda calculated that if I bought it day 1, I might be level 180 or so.
There was no botting involved whatsoever. I dare not risk a potential ban by Blizzard. As for the amount of time required should be about 4+ hours daily I reckon, although I did not keep precise track of that. Also, I would not recommend it because I felt it took away quite some fun of playing Hearthstone. Thus, I will not repeat it myself for the next rewards track.
fun fact about blizzard greed we did not get a single legendary quest for XP like they promised us .
bunch a Liars
They removed the legendary quests when they made updates to the rewards track. Blizzard told us in December, I think
Fun fact about player greed: Nothing is ever good enough for some people. Even though pretty much everyone agrees that the reward track gives out significantly more gold than the old system, you still find something to complain about.
Also, they promised seasonal events that would add to the overall value of free stuff. I don't recall XP being mentioned specifically. If you're not happy with the free packs you got, please send them my way. I can always use more dust.
You just didn't read news properly... they reduced amount of XP required for level 50 but at expense of removing those legendary quests...
To piggyback on this comment to provide a sour, this was a part of their big announcement 3 months ago
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/2302-blizzard-responds-to-the-hearthstone-rewards-track-less-xp-required-gold-bonus-next-week-more-xp-gains
Well, after reaching lvl 50 we're just storing gold for next expansion boosters, i'm making some exp 'cause i'm also trying to complete the darkmoon achievements before barrens come and those will be useless like the other achievements