Hearthstone needs a Dual-Class Gamemode
I think that in order for Hearthstone to be more fun and have higher deck diversity, they need to introduce a dual-class mode. A dual-class mode allows for cards that would otherwise see absolutely no play to become a part of a viable deck. For example, the quest “The Last Kaleidosaur” was never viable, because Paladin simply didn’t possess enough buff cards. However, if Paladins were able to choose priest as a second class, they could add more buff cards and complete the quest earlier. The same goes for other archetypes like no-spell mage or or Deathrattle rogue, which could have been a lot better with access to tools from another class.
Secondly, dual-class allows for the player to choose which of the two Hero Powers they want, allowing for the creation of archetypes like Control Hunter or Aggro Priest that are limited by their Hero Power.
The Main issue with a dual-class mode is that it would remove some class identity, but as a separate optional mode I think it would open up a lot of deckbuilding possibilities and create 2 more metas for players to solve (standard and wild dual-class) which would make the game feel a lot more fresh and varied.
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I think that in order for Hearthstone to be more fun and have higher deck diversity, they need to introduce a dual-class mode. A dual-class mode allows for cards that would otherwise see absolutely no play to become a part of a viable deck. For example, the quest “The Last Kaleidosaur” was never viable, because Paladin simply didn’t possess enough buff cards. However, if Paladins were able to choose priest as a second class, they could add more buff cards and complete the quest earlier. The same goes for other archetypes like no-spell mage or or Deathrattle rogue, which could have been a lot better with access to tools from another class.
Secondly, dual-class allows for the player to choose which of the two Hero Powers they want, allowing for the creation of archetypes like Control Hunter or Aggro Priest that are limited by their Hero Power.
The Main issue with a dual-class mode is that it would remove some class identity, but as a separate optional mode I think it would open up a lot of deckbuilding possibilities and create 2 more metas for players to solve (standard and wild dual-class) which would make the game feel a lot more fresh and varied.
This would create 36 different two class combinations (or 72 if you count choosing a Hero Power as making it a different combination), which creates a lot more possibilities and allows for cards that would otherwise never see play to potentially become part of an amazing deck. Also, this would allow players to play with their favorite class, even if it’s not the best at the time, because they could combine it with a class with better cards. For example, during times in which Priest is awful, you could play a control warrior deck with some of your favorite priest cards included.
I can considered the pros and cons of this in the past and always decided it is a worse idea than it sounds at first.
The main issue is that HS designers have the luxury of designing class cards knowing no other class can abuse them except on rare occasions with random card generation that cannot influence the meta. As a result there's plots of cards that would become extremely frustrating to play against if another class was given access to them. Take Animated Armor in rogue, who can give it stealth (which the devs told us is why it was put out of reach of rogue in the first place).
Sure you get to do lots of fun and fair things, but the meta won't look like that. Like it is in constructed already it will be filled with the most degenerate things that you'll hate even more than the current single-class degenerate things and there will be no hope of balancing it because it works against the fundamental design of the game.
You bring up allowing hunter to play control, but I would ask why you want to? If you make a control hunter deck now it is weak but at least it feels like a hunter deck which is presumably the most important part since you've chosen hunter to do a thing that other classes are way better for. If you make a hunter/priest control deck, it will be so priest-heavy that you lose the hunter spirit you are aiming for in the first place.
I think this should be a tavern brawl. It wouldn't be a lot of work to implement either because if you hosted your own pre-opening (?) event for AOO you could create a deck using any class and any card.
edit: Some people have mentioned strong combos like Despicable DreadLord and Plaguebringer, but even those wouldn't work because there are so many better card combos that can be done before turn four that would kill you. before turn 7.
Your face is already dead
The only real feasible place to do this would be a Tavern Brawl, and also limiting what sets of cards you can use. Or Arena, like they did for the Halloween event.
Otherwise, you gain access to a whole bunch of absolutely crazy card combos. During the Halloween Arena event, Bloodbloom + Ultimate Infestation was a popular, devastating 2 mana combo.
I definitely agree that it should be a Tavern Brawl first before it could become a game mode, but I don't think that it would be an inherently degenerate game mode. Sure, there would be a lot more annoying combos, but wild also has a lot of powerful combos and it still manages to be a somewhat balanced format. Even though there might be some amazing combos, aggro players would also have access to more powerful aggro tools, so the meta would stabilize at a higher power level (similar to wild).
On the point of it not feeling like you're really playing a "Control Hunter" deck if you're using mostly cards from another class, that is a valid point, but given that dual-class would be an additional game mode on top of normal Hearthstone, you could just play normal Standard and make a Control Hunter deck with just Hunter cards. Adding this mode would just be giving players additional options, so I think it could only be counted as a mistake if it were to be an unfun game mode that only splits the player base. To combat this, I think maybe only Standard dual-class Hearthstone could be introduced, to keep the player base large and prevent some of the more insanely broken combo decks (like secret mage with Hanar).
On the topic of broken cards, I would argue that many of them are just inherently problematic cards that should be nerfed anyway, for the sake of Wild balance. For the examples brought up, one of them (Bloodbloom) has already been nerfed for being too broken, and the other (Animated Armor) is also a card that has no competitive viability outside of some broken combo, and so should also probably be reworked.
@Angry Shuckie
Your point on Dual-class taking away from the point of playing a class, I do feel that it is valid for some players, but other players care more about playing specific cards rather than a specific class. For example, I enjoy playing Thief rogue cards, and I don't particularly care about having Dagger Mastery as my Hero Power or playing the other Rogue cards. Also, some archetypes (like Gonk Druid or Heal Druid) have cards dedicated to those specific archetypes that will never see play because the archetype was never supported again. The only way for me to play a card like Crystal Stag or Lucentbark would be by either combining it with a class like Priest that has the necessary heal cards to make the archetype work, or by combining the heal cards with a class like Warlock that can guarantee that I'll take damage.
I think it’s inevitable that one day they’ll add an epic Neutral card that reads, “if this is in your deck you may add one card from another class.” The downside is you’ll have to play with a “Baku” or two but just two cards from another class would be able to do disgusting things
The Only Constructed Deck Worth Playing:
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/decks/43506-the-only-constructed-deck-worth-playing
The advantage of making a new game mode is the team could make special rules for that mode. Whether that means banning certain class cards, or at least banning certain class cards from being used in certain class combinations. That would be the only way to deal with some potentially broken combos (like Despicable Dreadlord + Plaguebringer)
We are getting a new game mode that the team said uses our collection and has rewards in the same scope as Arena. And we’ve also had dual class Arena, which each time has been a very popular mode. So they very well could be using data from those events to learn and make certain restrictions in a permanent Dual Class Brawliseum type of game mode. Another option is they are just making Brawliseum a mode that’s available all the time, using limited card sets like the Brawl Block. We’ll have to wait and see.
Quick! Someone give me something clever to write here.
Dual class would be aggro heaven
So many cards would have to be banned or restricted in some way that it would probably not be worth it. Does anyone really want to play against a Raza Priest with Coldarra Drake
Who needs consistency when you could have fun?