I'm so hyped! :)

Ok, maybe not a very useful thread, but I really want to express my happiness! Finally, after more than a year (at least in my case) I am super excited about the expansion to come and Hearthstone in general again. Not only do I really like the concept of the expansion and the fact that it will be a theme for the entire year, but the game as a whole is heading in a great direction in my opinion. I feel like the game creators have started caring again about the game itself, as well as the community. Of course we will have to wait and see what the Year of the Dragon will bring, but you have to admit that it's all looking very promising (:

the last time i was this hyped it was during wotog

My hype is low. The future Overpower metadecks are coming....

Heartstone have an big balance problem;

They no adjust the cards fast and no the big decks crush normal and low decks.

First, expressing happiness is not useless. Go to town.

Secondly, I would have a hard time not being hyped for standard about a rotation set just because of the rotation component. Haven't really seen enough to have feels about the environment but you're definitely right that the idea of story across expansions is an interesting design change. I don't actually feel that the level of developer care has really waxed and waned over time, just their ability to implement changes and the sophistication of same. I do think they're getting better at it, but it really isn't fair to imply that previous iterations of the team necessarily cared less.

Quote From Oddrath

First, expressing happiness is not useless. Go to town.

 

Secondly, I would have a hard time not being hyped for standard about a rotation set just because of the rotation component. Haven't really seen enough to have feels about the environment but you're definitely right that the idea of story across expansions is an interesting design change. I don't actually feel that the level of developer care has really waxed and waned over time, just their ability to implement changes and the sophistication of same. I do think they're getting better at it, but it really isn't fair to imply that previous iterations of the team necessarily cared less.

Thanks for the clear and thoughtful reply, I guess your opinion is a lot more balanced than my rush of happiness when I created this thread. Let's just wait and see what will happen. As of yet they have not disappointed me with anything they announced or implemented in the past few weeks. I love the new deck-autocomplete. It got me to play fun decks that I would not even have considered to build without it. 

Before the last load of Card Reveals I was neither her nor there. Now though .. I'm getting excited. More so than for some time, I think Un'Goro was the last time I was this hyped.

 It's the Rotation that has me excited more than anything though. A whole new set of cards, three Massive Sets being cast out and some new Decks to tinker with, including whole new Archetypes. 

I have the same feelings my friend. The cards we 've seen so far seem pretty balanced and the idea of the expansion looks cool overall. I hope this is the expansion that gets me excited for Hearthstone again!  

Really expensive expansion for its content. 

I would like to elaborate a little more on why I am getting more and more excited about this expansion. See, like already mentioned by some of you, the rotation is a very big thing this time around. The Year of the Mammoth brought us so much amazing cards and powerful effects and combos, that we got too saturated and therefore felt unimpressed with the expansions from the Year of the Raven. This even led to the fact that Hearthstone started losing a lot of players and even key members from the community. But when you take a bird's-eye view on the game as a whole, actually the powerful cards were the problem, not the 'underwhelming' expansions from the Year of the Raven. 

Of course the Witchwood brought us the Odd and Even cards and I think that was a very interesting mechanic, but one year in Standard was definitely long enough. Let's take the dust and move on. But next to that, we got the Echo, Rush, and Worgen mechanics, which were very well executed and fitted the theme perfectly. But meanwhile, everyone was fed up with Shudderwock, so we forgot to play with these new mechanics. 

The Boomsday Project brought us Mecha'thun, but let's look past that card. We got a lot of very fun mechs, as well as the Legendary spells. Some of those have been played in some meta decks, but I think/hope that the rotation of the Death Knights will lead to the need for some other expensive cards with cool effects, like Kangor's Endless Army, Luna's Pocket Galaxy, The Boomship and The Storm Bringer. 

And then, most recently, we got Rastakhan's Rumble. I don't know what your experience is, but I heard a lot of complaints and even heard several players declare it the worst HS expansion ever. Although I do not necessarily like the theme, definitely not compared to the previous two expansions, the Spirits and Loa as well as the mechanic Overkill can really bring different decks to the table, as long as they're not outclassed by those super powerful decks from the Year of the Mammoth. And let's not forget the Troll champions, which could serve as weaker versions of the Death knights, since they invite you to build a deck around them. 

Of course we will still keep three hero cards in Standard after rotation, being Hagatha the Witch, Dr. Boom, Mad Genius and Zul'jin, but two of those will play a role in the Year of the Dragon (or at least their characters), and as far as I know none of those have proven to be as powerful as the Death Knights. We wil see how this will develop though the year.

But now, to conclude and finally make my point, I think that less powerful (and therefore hopefully more balanced) expansions will only keep our beloved cardgame interesting. This makes it easier for new players to get into this game and have fun with it, makes it more fun for current players to experiment with decks, and will hopefully result in a more diverse meta. As more and more cards of the Rise of Shadows expansion are being revealed, I am getting the idea that Blizzard has had this plan all along and was working towards this rotation to finally bring more balance to the game and make it more enjoyable again for everyone. Think about it this way: when the most powerful cards are removed, the next most powerful cards become way more interesting. And I think since that 'second' pool of cards is much larger, we will see a lot more diversity. Of course it's cool to have super powerful or ridiculous cards in a new expansion, but after a few weeks or months everyone will be begging for nerfs and start complaining about the lack of balance and boring meta. Unfortunately I can't look into the future, but the recent developments definitely have awoken this feeling of joy and excitement for me that I can't seem to put aside. So let's hope the game will be the best version of itself for years to come! :)

I'm also excited for this expansion. I just did not like the adventure to have to pay

I am excited for rotation. 

On the fence about RoS

But I am loving Hearthstation. I am strictly mobile and this site is MUCH easier for me to navigate on my phone than Hearthpwn. 

I just wish The Innkeeper was available for mobile. It would be so convenient to upload my collection and get some help/guidance with deck building: it is where I am weakest.