Everyone's favourite Hearthstone Dad, Dean "Iksar" Ayala, finished off the week with a Q&A! As usual, here's our recap of all the important points and a full transcript of the event.

  • All previous Q&As from Dean can be found under our "Iksar's Community Q&A" topic.
  • Anything covered in the previous Q&As will not be covered in the recap but will appear in the transcript below.

Cosmetics

  • When determining which hero portrait comes with the pre-order bundles they go for a thematic character and one they feel players care about.
  • The Three Kingdoms skins did "abnormally well".
  • Cosmetics products that people buy are more likely to see things like them in the future.
  • Nothing to talk about yet, but Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Duels should expect more cosmetics.
  • They are still progressing on a system to upgrade normal cards to golden. No release date to announce.

Game Boards

  • Yesterday the team was brainstorming about players picking their own game boards to see.
  • "Ideally you could pick a board and be able to show it off to your opponent".
  • Half-boards could be a thing, but the way they are done in Hearthstone now doesn't make it work well.
  • They aren't sure how they will go about it, there's still lots to talk about.
  • Battlegrounds could potentially be a testbed for custom game boards.
  • Nothing is set in stone yet.

Nozdormu Day

  • Dean only speaks about Nozdormu Day as a fan that has brainstormed. Don't expect anything here to become a thing.
  • He'd like to do a quest players would get at midnight server time to celebrate.
  • Hearthstone currently lacks the tech to give players a quest at a specific time on a specific day each month.

Mercenaries Mode

  • We'll hear more about it when they are ready to tell us more.
  • Paul, the lead of the Mercenaries team, is the best Mercs player on the team.

Cards

  • Dean vaguely recalls that Dr. Boom's Scheme was originally an AoE-focused card.
    • The effect was instead given to Shamans, who needed AoE tools and they were concerned about Warrior having more of it.
    • Given more time, they likely would have redesigned the card.
    • In retrospect, 4 mana was too high for the card.
    • They liked the idea of some of the schemes having an "infinite" feel.
  • They didn't want to see the Watch Tower cards to be auto-includes in your deck.
  • Mini-sets started because doing card releases every 4 months was too slow.
  • Dean is certain they will do some sort of continuous spell at some point. They need to figure out the readability aspect of visuals.

Meta

  • They are still evaluating how they feel about the new meta.
  • Paladins are still very powerful. They are keeping an eye on the margins between it and other classes.
  • They will be discussing potential buffs next week. Nerfs need some time to breathe.
  • No date on future balance changes, but less than a month is Dean's guess.
  • Paladin will be discussed internally on Monday. Being the best deck is okay, it just can't shove out everyone else.
  • If Paladins have a 54% winrate and few bad matchups, it'll likely get hit.

Pandaland

  • Dean would like to do Pandaria in Hearthstone.
  • A reason why they've held off on Pandas and their big characters is that they might want to add Monk to the game at some point.

Full Transcript of Q&A #14

Quote From Dean Ayala

Hearthstone AMA #14 Ask me a question about Hearthstone! 5:30PM - 6:45PM https://t.co/cy2OTGo0Yj (Source)

@IksarHS 75 minutes? Still on Friday? How does @ItsMeMollyO feel about this

@RidiculousHat @ItsMeMollyO oh the 75 minutes was a typo, molly is still working so she doesn't know yet shhh (Source)

@IksarHS What cards would you consider Hearthstone’s "Power Nine"? Cards so strong that all future cards sort of need to be designed below that ceiling?

@Sad_Cart Hard to say, we nerf all the cards that reach power nine levels of busted and all the unnerfed stuff was cards we deemed appropriate. I didn't play MTG back in the day but how in the hell is time walk a 2 mana card? How does that make sense!?! (Source)

@Sad_Cart Pre-Nerf tho…. Innervate Leeroy Warsong Commander Starving Buzzard Patches Corridor Creeper Undertaker Baku the Mooneater That's what came to mind … (Source)

@IksarHS Is there a method when deciding which new hero portrait comes with the pre order bundles?

@RarranHS We like to do a character that we feel players would care about that also fits the theme of that given expansion. (Source)

@IksarHS I've seen a few people talk about it so I wanted to bring it up. Nozdormu Day. What are your thoughts on a call to action in-game to mention the day and to try and get more players engaged in it?

@Fluxflashor I had thought about making a quest that releases on midnight of that day every month for every player…. but requires some tech if we wanted to do it. I wasn't involved in Nozdormu day so just been brainstorming to myself as a fan. (Source)

@IksarHS Are Diamond cards meant to work differently with duplicate protection? Or is the fact I got a second Blackthorn before my first regular Samuro unintended? (I have not previously collected a regular Samuro at all)

@blisterguy If you have a diamond samuro, you shouldn't open a regular or golden copy of him until you have all other legendary cards. So yes, if you have diamond samuro it's intended you'd be able to open a second blackthorn before a first regular or golden samuro (Source)

@IksarHS Wait, but why would I get a second regular Blackthorn before my first regular Samuro though? I have every Legendary in regular except Samuro, and now I have two Blackthorn.

@blisterguy Duplicate protection asks what legendary you don't own (regardless of reg, gold, or diamond), then gives you one from that pool. Once you own everything, it gives you a random legendary. (Source)

@IksarHS It’s always back-filled the non-golden gaps, though, once I had 1 of everything. This is the first time since Ashes I’ve had it not work that way.

@blisterguy @IksarHS Yeah, and this. I had a questioned this myself because when Polkelt was nerfed I dusted him but I only had him golden, and having a full Scholo set now and my legendary was a normal Polkelt so I went digging to see if it was intentional https://t.co/Z1gU4rWtbS

@Hylung @blisterguy HMM, well @Celestalon would know this much better than I so now I'm second guessing myself. Will look into it thanks for bringing up :) (Source)

@IksarHS How’s Mercenaries (new game mode) coming along? On schedule? Who’s the best Mercenary player on Team 5 internal testing? 😅

@ben_heathstone Definitely Paul, the lead of the Merc team. No updates, you'll hear more when it's ready :) (Source)

@IksarHS There has always been a lot of speculation regarding Boom's Scheme. Was the armor gain always its original design or was there something else in mind? Perhaps bomb related? https://t.co/MybGyZQNHb

@ZeddyHS Honestly it's been so long I'm not sure I remember but what I think happened was that Dr. Boom's Scheme was originally the Shaman AoE scheme. When we got to final design we were concerned at Warrior's going AoE toolkit and fatigue style decks being so effective. (Source)

@ZeddyHS While Shaman was struggling to find AoE tools. So we swapped the AoE to Shaman and had to redesign the Warrior card. (Source)

@ZeddyHS We playtested at (I think) 2 and 3, but ultimately made the card weaker on purpose so it would be fringe in the control-i-est of control decks but not really an option otherwise because it was just a stall card. (Source)

@ZeddyHS Given more time I think we would have kept redesigning but we were okay with having a fringe card for combo players just wanting to stall til they do their thing. (Source)

@ZeddyHS In retrospect, 4 mana was too much for even that circumstance to be a reality. We could have buffed to 3 (or maybe even 2) but what would we really be accomplishing in a world where gain a ton of armor and stall is a great option? (Source)

@ZeddyHS So some upsides and downsides to making a late swap and redesign but ultimately I think still worth it. One of the reasons the design existed at all was because we really liked the idea that some of the schemes have this infinite feel. (Source)

@ZeddyHS Togwaggle's did that, but most of the others had a cap. For the AoE, the damage doesn't matter beyond a certain point, for the imp summon, it only goes to 7, etc. Having an uncapped thing can make for some great player stories when it gets extreme. (Source)

@ZeddyHS So I think we fell in love with that concept, the other gameplay downsides ended up being so negative it wasn't a design that worked in practice. It happens! (Source)

@IksarHS Was the watchtower nerf based on winrate or "feel"? They didn't seem that oppressive and hardly feel worth it now that they're averagely stated minions that can't attack. Was this a mechanic that didn't live up to expectations?

@writes_jo Mostly feel. We knew the nerfs would be pretty hard but they aren't the kinds of cards we'd like to show up on the regular like Tar Creeper or Sludge Belcher did. Happy if they are fringe or fit in the right deck, not happy if they are regular picks for generic power level. (Source)

@IksarHS I’m curious to know about data for aesthetic things like cardbacks and hero portraits. Do you all track which are most popular? What sort of information do you have on how people use and interact with those parts of the game? Thanks for taking questions!

@ArthurDenison We do lots of cosmetic tracking for both coolness and business reasons. Cosmetics products that people buy are more likely to see things like them in the future. The three kindgoms skins did abnormally well, for example. (Source)

@IksarHS What was your favorite game before Hearthstone?

@GallonHS mmm WoW Everquest Halo Pokemon Red/Blue Mario 64 Street Fighter 2 Tekken Gears of War (Source)

@IksarHS If Blizzard made a Hearthstone anime who would be the protagonist?

@Hockeyboyz3_hs this is a good question…. Probably a new character. A city orphan who Harth gave a job sweeping floors in the Inn. Never had the gold for cards but learned the game by intently watching tavern go-ers play. (Source)

@Hockeyboyz3_hs Eventually a wealthy patron took notice of the orphan's knowledge and gave him the means to play. Orphan child beats everyone in the Inn at the game and it seen as a prodigy that could possibly take on the big city Hearthstone players of Stormwind and Orgrimmar. (Source)

@Hockeyboyz3_hs A story of a rural town supporting the small-town kid who takes on the wealthy bourgeoisie Hearthstone class. Hearthstone becomes popular all around Azeroth and orphan child becomes famous, going on to win multiple Azeroth championships. (Source)

@IksarHS Are there any plans on having a pickable game boards like how you can pick your card back and coin?

@Reavered_HS We were actually just brainstorming this yesterday. There are some challenges involved. Ideally you could pick a board and be able to show it off to your opponent. This might mean we only do half-boards… (Source)

@Reavered_HS But the way boards are built in Hearthstone, they only work from one angle. So we couldn't just flip a single asset to the other side of the board and expect it to work. (Source)

@Reavered_HS So this means we could have custom boards that only you see, or we could take on all the tech and artistic challenges of having two different boards of totally different styles in the same play space. (Source)

@Reavered_HS We aren't sure what path to take, might start (or end) with this idea only in battlegrounds. Nothing to discuss yet but we think the idea is cool. (Source)

@IksarHS What's one mechanic you wish you could port from Battlegrounds to another Auto Battler and what mechanic/unit do you wish you could port from another Auto Battler into Battlegrounds?

@RealPrismsword Hearthstone has better up front understandability than other auto-battlers. It's easier to understand 5/5 is better than 1/1 than it is to understand X unit ability/damage is better than Y unit ability/damage. (Source)

@RealPrismsword When you first play some other autobattlers it's a lot easier to get lost in all the choices available than it is in Hearthstone. So I suppose overall accessibility is just something I wish other auto-battlers were better at. (Source)

@RealPrismsword Alternatively, most of these other games do a better job of the game feeling like a big party with other players. Like you are truly playing a multiplayer game. Hearthstone is a game with 8-players that doesn't really feel much like an 8-player game. (Source)

@RealPrismsword Neither of these are units or mechanics but more notes about the core strengths and weaknesses or our game in comparison to the other products out there. (Source)

@IksarHS Been loving the new patch, are you guys happy with how the meta has turned out so far now that lunacy mage has died down a bit?

@LWaechter25 Still evaluating. Paladin is still very powerful, Face Hunter is more of an opportunist. Nothing wrong with Paladin being the best deck, just keeping a close eye on the margins between it and other classes. Making sure there are still good options out there, etc. (Source)

@IksarHS Team 5 has been subjected to a Hunger Games-esque battle royale!! Would you team up with anyone? And is there anyone you definitely do not trust?

@hypopyh Well, I'd have no idea what I was doing. So in that case, I'd pick Gloria because she has lots of experience dealing with me when I have no idea what to do. (Source)

@hypopyh And I don't trust anyone I can't predict. @Chakki_HS or @quietbastion are hard reads. Alec likes to be flashy and you are loud so I'd feel more comfortable predicting your movements. (Source)

@IksarHS Any plans to add Vanity rewards to Arena/Duels/BGs like cardbacks, coins, skins potentially diamond cards?

@GodsWoundsHS Yes. We're ramping up our cosmetic pipelines significantly and have been for quite some time. I would expect things like you mention in the future, nothing to talk about yet, but we workin (Source)

@IksarHS Who is the best WOW character that you feel they should be in Hearthstone, but you didn't have an opportunity yet?

@felipedm2001 7 years later we've done most of the big ones. I'd like to do Pandaria. Taran Zhu, Chen Stormstout, Lili, etc. We've always held off because 'what if we want to do monk someday' but it's been so long now that we might just do it. No plans as of yet, though…. (Source)

@IksarHS Can we expect to see any buffs in future balance changes? I gather that nerfs are the preferred route but when are buffs warranted over nerfs from a design perspective?

@victort1324 We're going to discuss it next week. Wanted to give the nerfs some time to breath so we can look at the resulting meta and change cards accordingly. No date yet, but I'd say less than a month. (Source)

@IksarHS Has there ever been discussion bringing Hearthstone to consoles or do you think it’ll be a wasted effort?

@StacheManTM We've talked about it but never really taken it seriously. There is tons of upkeep involved with updating on playstation, microsoft, and nintendo platforms for every patch. We'd also have to have totally new inputs that fit controller gameplay. (Source)

@IksarHS Who is your favorite competitive player to watch?

@hs_Pasca @Surrender_hs is my favorite HS player, always has been. Extremely talented. (Source)

@IksarHS Thanks for doing these. I think the light touch/more frequent method is definitely the way to go with nerfs, but in terms of Paladin this last one seemed extra light. How are you feeling about this patch and the potential need to go a little further to bring Uther in line.

@msjtx2020 Waiting to see. We'll discuss on Monday but wanted to give changes some time to breathe. If Uther is hanging around 54+% with few bad matchups we'll probably tag it again. If it ends up the best deck that is fine, just don't want it to shove all other contenders out. (Source)

@IksarHS What prompted the decision to start doing mini-sets? I’m a fan of mid-season change injecting, just an interesting route to take

@trevor_grote Pretty simple, actually. We wanted to do content on a 2-month cadence instead of 4-month because we felt 4-month was too slow. We tried things like buff event or bring back cards from Wild to Standard, both were just okay. (Source)

@trevor_grote So we thought why not use our existing pipeline of making cards to just release a smaller set instead. First few went very well from an engagement standpoint so we built it in to the core content cadence. (Source)

@IksarHS Will Hearthstone have it where some weeks have double tavern pass points from games? It doesn’t have to apply to the quest but it would be very nice to have some 2XP weekends.

@GLgamer98 We originally had lots of mini-events planned but decided to bake all the rewards we wanted to give into the main track. There were some…. issues…. with holding back rewards information from players and saying 'trust us!' (Source)

@IksarHS What card in Hearthstone do you think has the best translation from its WOW source?

@Gui_Fieti Someone asked me this the other day. Spells do a great job for the most part. Pyroblast does the same thing in both games for the most part. Character-wise I think Nefarian (for mechanical reasons) and Majordomo (for flavor reasons) are good examples. (Source)

@IksarHS How often do you look to newer WoW content for inspiration? If I remember right, the Tortollan actually got more face time in HS before WoW, but I'm curious on when we might see some Shadowlands races/characters? Maybe too far removed from Azeroth to fit into a general expansion?

@WardrumHS Some of the ideas for new expansions have been Shadowlands themed. Tortollan were developed on T5 first (in Un'Goro) and later used in WoW. Hearthstone stories tend to be less 'big' than WoW stories. If we did a Shadowlands theme we'd probably pick one small piece of it. (Source)

@WardrumHS But yes, we look to WoW for inspiration all the time. New content and old. (Source)

@IksarHS Hi my dear Iksar, please show the ladder MMR as a number, not only rank. let us see the change of MMR after every game. If I'm at rank 2 legend and I don't know how many games I need to get rank 1 that would be sucks. Please tell me your opinion about this one!

@CN_Soda We thought about this (and might still do it at some point) but I think players would actually be unhappy with it. There are some strange things that happen to an MMR number that make sense mathematically but aren't very intuitive. (Source)

@CN_Soda You see some of it on Battlegrounds now. Players get upset when they lose more points for losing than they get for winning. They think there are matchmaking problems or there is a bug and they are being wronged in some way. (Source)

@CN_Soda Also we normalize the MMR number every season, the number inflates over the course of a season, so I think it would be a fairly confusing thing to keep track of and understand. (Source)

@CN_Soda Some seasons you'd be 2.0 MMR and rank 100 and other seasons you might be 3.1 MMR and rank 10000 and not understand why. (Source)

@IksarHS I took a look through the skins in my collection the other day and I noticed that there are a lot of cool skins and alternate heroes. Do you have any favorites?

@triplelift_hs N'Zoth. My favorite set of skins is actually in concept phase right now. Being done by the very talented @MrJackArt. Can't wait to share them when ready. (Source)

@IksarHS Where do you find the Kermit gifs?

@mattatarms i type in 'kermit' to the gif option on twitter (Source)

@IksarHS Have you ever thought about introducing Field Spells/Lands or any kind of continuous spells like to Hearthstone?

@BoaPharaoh So many times. There is gameplay there but we'd have to figure out a visual that has great readability. Also something that can be interacted with by your opponent. I'm SURE we'll get there at some point, so far there have just been many cut mechanics trying to get there. (Source)

@IksarHS How's the "upgrade cards to their golden versions" feature doing? Any new updates? Can we expect it this year or rather next?

@imik_plays Progressing, no release date yet. (Source)

@IksarHS Don't you think that Baku and Genn will become more and more annoying as literally every odd/even card option for a specific deck odd/even deck will get strong enough and it will feel like you have no restrictions at all by running either of them?

@imik_plays Baku and Genn decks will get better over time, but that is true for any Wild deck. I actually expect them to get worse over time in comparison to other decks. Given infinite time the only decks that will survive will be insane early-game combo decks. (Source)