Trial by Felfire Opinions

So I just wanted to make a thread asking about what you guys throughout about the newest solo adventure. Personally I loved the story but felt some bosses were stronger than others and some were absolute pushovers. Also, the rhyming got annoying fast.

Spoilers about the later levels.

I'm only about halfway through, so tomorrow when I finish it, I'll update the post. I appreciate the fact that it was free, because spending any money on it would have been a letdown. The encounters are okay. Compared to Galakrond's Awakening, only playing as one hero gets pretty boring after a while. The beginning Hero Power is good, but... bland? I do not know about her Demon Hunter Hero Power yet. The point I'm trying to make is that in G's A we were looking forward to each fight's new hero, new emotes, new HP and new cards. While in TbFf the decks so far, for the first 2 wings are just a mix of Hunter, Rogue and DH cards without a greater strategy or many synergies.

Compared to The Dalaran Heist and Tombs of Terror, I found the bosses to be on about the same level of fleshed-outness, which is great. Their difficulty is good, the only outlier so far is the Felstorm, which can be easy as cake or impossible, depending on what the boss randomly recruits. But our new cards, the outcasts fall flat in comparison to the former's treasures. Like the orc guy, its ability is summoning an [Hearthstone Card (Imprisoned Homonculus) Not Found]? That's it? Quite uncreative.

I really liked the rhymes, though. It shows that actual effort went into the script.

In summary: it being free is good, I appreciate it. The story is not bad. What is missing is some originality and creativity in the cards, for them to feel fresh and exciting to play. I want to see something new, a new mechanic, synergy across classes. Our strategy adapting to original cards.

I wonder if the finale will be as good as the Rafaam and Galakrond vs. the World fight in Galakrond's Awakening. THAT felt good to play.

Quote From linkblade91

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The rhyming is especially annoying in the final battle, when you have to listen to it on repeat every time you lose. The opening part being mandatory - where you don't get your cards until they're done talking - is the worst. I just want to retry the fight for the fifth/sixth/seventh time; making me sit through the dialogue over and over is just mean. I liked the rhyming for the most part - it made the script interesting - but it had run its course by the end.

I was not so fortunate against the final confrontation as you were: it honestly felt like a "supposed to lose" fight for a while, because his hand/draws were just perfect time and again. I couldn't get a foothold to defend myself properly, and was quickly overwhelmed…

 

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…only to discover you don't have to win, just survive long enough. Kind of made it anti-climatic, 'cause I probably would have lost that round as well. I would say "at least it's over now", but it really only lasted about two and a half hours of my time. Back to being bored…

I agree with what you said about the final confrontation. It was kinda a letdown.

It... honestly just felt like the worst single player adventure so far.

1) Randomness
Most of the time the bosses have really high variance of randomness, either in their cards (like Bane of Doom) or Hero powers (liek the one that just plays a random outlands card every turn). One "fun" encounter was against one boss casting Eye of the Storm randomly on turn 4, summoning 3 5/6 taunts that were impossible to clear. Another time I beat a boss because they just didn't play a card for 3 turns in a row. Either way, it was very unsatisfying. I had several moments where I thought I was supposed to loose a fight only to realise I had to slog through.

2) Blandness
The deck you are forced to play changes extremly slowly. Most of the time you got either a hunter/rogue deck or a demon hunter deck but mostly it feels the same. There isn't anything cool you get to do, your hero powers are either basically a better Tracking or the basic demon hunter HP that sometimes gives +2 attack instead. Your Outcast friends are probably the only interesting cards to play but they are situational and after the 10th time you kind of get over it. After completing the thing, I am unlikely to ever return to these games - unlike Galakrond's Awakening which made sure that every single encounter is unique in a way.

3) Ignoring its own design
That's mostly an issue with the Juraxxus encounter towards the end but with the dependancy on random chance it may as well be present in other encounters. Juraxxus has a deck filled with Prime Legendaries and two reactors that make his summons and spells better. Facing a prime deck, you'd assume that the design intended for the battle to ramp up once the prime versions are drawn and bigger threads hit the board. Not so. The moment you even crape the lategame, you are dead. The deck provided to you is aggressive and snowbally in nature and if you let Juraxxus get to the primes, there is no way to outplay him. Your best way to beat him is to restart until you have a hand that can snowball and hope he gets a bad draw. Otherwise he summons Scrapyard Colossus on turn 5 or similar BS.

4) Story just kind of f***s off
The plot surrounding Aranna starts of interesting albeit slow, having her meat the outcasts, training as demon hunters and then having to fight former friend and the big bad. However, the fight against illidan comes out of left field and ends in a similar manner. He just kind of apologises for being a bad boy and gives up after you deal 40 damage to him (or sth like that) and it just doesn't feel... good? Meanwhile Galakrond's Awakening had a 3 expansion plotline set up, made sure to give every encounter character and nuance and put some effort into the final encounters.

Overall the entire Adventure felt bland and uninspired almost as if these were scrapped boss designs from another adventure, tossed together and tied into a plot that was written over night. It stands in direct comparison to the prior adventure which actually got some replayablity! Sadly, Trial by Felfire just makes me feel like, since it was free, not a lot of work went into it :(

Maybe my luck was extremely high, but I played it through in two sittings, with just a few bosses where I had to adapt my strategy.
I actually really love the story.
Here's why:

I totally get the part about no replayability and the rhyming being annoying after a few failed attempts.
But as this is also a showcase of the mechanics and ideas this expansion, I think it's just really cool to get if you are someone who's playing for free.
So I wouldn't treat it as harshly (and actually was quite surprised by some details).

i finished that "Adventure". it was so boring. 5 chapters with same deck? only a few cards changed each fight and it was so ResidentSleeper with annoying long talks.

It feels lacking. In my opinion it is certainly among the worst HS Solo Contents released so far (Galakronds Awankening already was pretty disappointing).

Story-wise it is ok, maybe a bit uninspired but overall ok. My main issue is the replayability, escpecially when you compare it to the previous dungeon-run style adventures. In the Dungeon Runs you had different hero classes, a variety of treasures and card buckets and quite a lot of bosses (some pretty rare, so you might only encounter them in your 10th run or so). In short much more variety and thus at least some replayability. In comparison the current Adventure feels extremely linear and boring to me. It was slightly interesting the first time but I don't really want to play it again. Dungeon runs were much better imho.

Wasn't a fan of this one, I eventually had to turn off the sound as I couldn't handle the constant interrupting rhymes.
The last couple of solo content has had this annoying habit of 'speech-bubbles' popping up that get in the way of gameplay, I'd be fine with it if I could keep playing normally while the narrating happened.

Also had some problems with outcast not working correctly at times, but that's obviously a bug.

Overall underwhelming.  I think this expansion the team was fully focused on trying to get out the Demon Hunter class and the solo content was an after thought.  And I think the fact that it was free this time around shows they knew it.

Quote From Demonxz95

Shahraz can just burn in hell.

Now that's a fact I can't deny.

I’m very glad that the adventure was entirely free, so the fact that it was a total cakewalk was very welcome to get that sweet cardback.

Only complaint is that Jaraxxus felt way too lacking of a fight, like COME ON. I was hoping to see some like elements of a Boom Labs puzzle or something in the fight, maybe a random reference or something. Also was disappointed the concert idea was only for the trailer, I would have loved to just like fight in a moshpit or something, I have bad personal tastes. Also dislike that Illidan was literally defeated by the power of friendship like its literally the “we were bad, but now we’re good” meme. Like his 1000 years of conviction which literally made him betray his race and sell out to the demons resolved in “but we’re friends” “oh right lol, whoops”.

I felt compelled to complete it even if the reward was uninteresting to me, so I guess I liked it.

I appreciate the effort with rhymes, as bard-like features are always good for tavern vibes.

Maybe the adventure could have churned some encounters into one, and definitely the transition between Outcast and Trainees should have been way more dramatic than "it rains, let's find shelter, and then start slapping each other for no reason and suddenly feel da powa"

I kind of liked it and since it was free don't want to complain about too much. 

But there have been many missed opportunities for me. 

Building a team of allys was a nice idea. But all the recruits did not often play a decisive role in the battles. I won easily weather I drew them or not. 

Also it felt weird to see my deck growing without being noticed by the game 

I very much liked the dungeon runs or even witchwood style where you could select new cards and build your own deck/strategy. 

Alright, so I finally got round to finishing the adventure. Here's a few thoughts;

- The rhymes are neat, and I'd imagine it couldn't have been easy to write and make it work. There's some hit and misses but overall, I'm a little impressed. Unfortunately, its one thing to hear a rhyme, its quite another to hear the same fucking thing over and over each time you're forced to restart. They just get in the way of your game and there are some sequences that last more than my patience can take. Wish blizz would just get rid of all the dialogue on the second time playing.

- Its not a dungeon run where you build your deck, so that's a little less interactivity there. But it does mean that team5 has better control of what you get so you're not facing Jaraxxus with a bs deck that can never win. But it also means there's less stakes involved. You can easily just cheese each battle by restarting until you get the perfect hand i.e. mostly if you can get a 2 drop on 2, or get one of your outcasts heros you're pretty much going to win (if you can get karnuk to spawn that imprisoned antaen on curve, the match is heavily in your favor from there). Also it eliminates most of the replayability, since you're essentially playing the same deck on the same boss.

- Story is bland, like really bland. Spoilers ahead, so if you don't care about the story just click below.

- Arrana as a character is paper thin and about as relatable as a piece of cardboard. Her motives to become a demon hunter is almost nonexistent; her motives in general for risking life and limb in outland is nill, other than the vague "must be better than my sis" thing. Almost no effort has been made to make Arrana feel weak or remotely human; she literally becomes leader of a group of similar cardboard cutouts from the outset, beats foes with merciless ease, highly intelligent, and even manages to out-argue the lord of angst himself. From this adventure, it seems like Aranna can do anything. And we are led to believe that her sister Elise can do even more. One wonders why they haven't just team up and be queens of Azeroth yet.

- Is it fun? Well, its something. I confess its not entirely bad or boring. But I won't be coming back for more, unfortunately. Its not as engaging as the final boss battle against Hagatha in Witchwood (probably the best way a story is handled in hearthstone), not as fun as Rastakhan's adventure (which I think the character Rikkar is a better character and features a better story than this), and there's no fun villain like in KotFT and Naxx.

Quite a forgettable experience, but hey at least its free.

The only fight I lost even once was Mother Sharaz. It sounds like I just got somewhat lucky, but I'm still disappointed in how much of a cakewalk it was. I get that it's hard to design challenging AI fights now that cards are so powerful (I did Heroic Naxx recently and blew right through it), but this was particularly weak.

The Illidan fight was especially disappointing. He got me down to ~5, but I actually managed to stabilize with some lifesteal. Just as I was comfortably turning the fight around on my own... it just ended. What a lame anti-climax.

Here's hoping the challenge bosses are more interesting and, well, challenging.

Quote From dapperdog

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Alright, so I finally got round to finishing the adventure. Here's a few thoughts;

- The rhymes are neat, and I'd imagine it couldn't have been easy to write and make it work. There's some hit and misses but overall, I'm a little impressed. Unfortunately, its one thing to hear a rhyme, its quite another to hear the same fucking thing over and over each time you're forced to restart. They just get in the way of your game and there are some sequences that last more than my patience can take. Wish blizz would just get rid of all the dialogue on the second time playing.

- Its not a dungeon run where you build your deck, so that's a little less interactivity there. But it does mean that team5 has better control of what you get so you're not facing Jaraxxus with a bs deck that can never win. But it also means there's less stakes involved. You can easily just cheese each battle by restarting until you get the perfect hand i.e. mostly if you can get a 2 drop on 2, or get one of your outcasts heros you're pretty much going to win (if you can get karnuk to spawn that imprisoned antaen on curve, the match is heavily in your favor from there). Also it eliminates most of the replayability, since you're essentially playing the same deck on the same boss.

- Story is bland, like really bland. Spoilers ahead, so if you don't care about the story just click below.

 

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So we follow the adventures of Arrana, sister to Elise Starseeker, who for reasons only known to her, travels to the dangerous world of outland to do…something…and on her travels saves, meets, and groups together with alleged outcasts of various races/species and for very unconvincing reasons decides to ride to the black temple to accomplish…uhhh…power and success? a place to call home? to have a cup of coffee? Self evident reasons, I guess.

Half way down the line, Baduu, who by the way just joined up like 2 missions ago, decides that she doens't want to join up with Illidan (probably because she recognizes how vacuous the idea seems to be) and leaves. And the way the game portrays this is to fix it so she is drawn into your hand on turn 5-6 (cant remember) and is promptly removed from your hand. And if you lose that fight, you get to see this over and over again until you win. I don't get why this isn't handled outside of the battle or at the end of the battle so technically you're only going to see this once. As it stands, I've seen her leave like 3 times in my playthrough, so whatever emotions I have for her (which is nill, since we only seen her like twice. I've never even got to play her for fuck sake) is just dragged through the mud until I just wanted to get it over with.

Then you meet Illidan, and he trains you to be dhunters. Apparently the process involves you fighting each other until you lose your eyes and sprout horns on your head. I'm no lore expert in WoW, but I'm pretty sure this is not how one becomes a demon hunter.

So with better powers she fights through the rusted legion, defeats Jaraxxus with the power of friendship, and ONLY THEN she realised that Illidan's a bit of a nutter. She then fight him, and depending on your luck she might actually beat him but I've heard it doens't really matter (I did it on my first try, so I couldn't confirm if its a supposed to lose fight) and by your stark powers of reasoning actually made him see the error of his ways. Which is entirely bs to be honest.

The best way to describe the story is that it feels safe. It pulls no punches and takes no risks. Suffice to say you're the good guy fighting the bad guys. No attempts have been made to make Arrana or the other outcasts even slightly relatable, likable, or unique. It almost feels disney-esque; a heroine (because of course it is) with a rag-tag group of diverse races, genders and religions complete with mascot-like comedic sidekick for that sweet merch sales, fighting against a self-evident and proudly villainous bad guy.

 

 

- Arrana as a character is paper thin and about as relatable as a piece of cardboard. Her motives to become a demon hunter is almost nonexistent; her motives in general for risking life and limb in outland is nill, other than the vague "must be better than my sis" thing. Almost no effort has been made to make Arrana feel weak or remotely human; she literally becomes leader of a group of similar cardboard cutouts from the outset, beats foes with merciless ease, highly intelligent, and even manages to out-argue the lord of angst himself. From this adventure, it seems like Aranna can do anything. And we are led to belief that her sister Elise can do even more. One wonders why they haven't just team up and be queens of Azeroth yet.

- Is it fun? Well, its something. I confess its not entirely bad or boring. But I won't be coming back for more, unfortunately. Its not as engaging as the final boss battle against Hagatha in Witchwood (probably the best way a story is handled in hearthstone), not as fun as Rastakhan's adventure (which I think the character Rikkar is a better character and features a better story than this), and there's no fun villain like in KotFT and Naxx.

Quite a forgettable experience, but hey at least its free.

I agree with most what you said. I think the reason why Baduu ditched her team in the Black Temple was because of the history of the Draenei. I believe she didn't want to train in a formerly sacred, now a blemished place and become that, what she despised.

She saw Illidan as yet another tyrant influenced by demons and didn't want to have anything in common with him. Now, this spills other questions - like why didn't she try to assassinate him in the BT? If she wanted to leave so badly, why didn't she leave before going in? I mean, Elise Aranna told her group where they were heading to, why was she surprised? If she was disgusted by Illidan's doings and the actions of his trainees, why didn't she stop Aranna's group after hearing about their plans? How did the rusted legion capture Baduu and bend her will? So many questions left unanswered, so I agree that the story wasn't well thought out.

I think Baduu suggested heading to the Black Temple herself- which had been a holy place of the Draenei I think?-, since she knew no Demons were there, even though she didn't exactly know who had taken residence. Upon meeting Illidan, she left, because he was too demony for her taste.

I know I'm a little late to the party but ... I just now have a bit of time on my hand, and was wondering on the overall powerlevel of that adventure... The last 2 bosses were a little trickier, but fairly simple to solve. What deck(s) have you guys been using?

Otherwise, to be back on thread topic, I personally didn't minded the rime, but wouldn't go as far as saying I enjoyed them either - just not as bothered as some other users were - the overall power level seems to be variable according to playstyle and the RNG also accounts for most of the game outcome. In that regard, I preferred the Dungeon runs where for instances, many layers of RNG were involved, but you had a little more control on the outcome. The trial seemed unbalanced ... but that being said, I still enjoyed most of it, and with that story line being enacted into a quest-like adventure got me back to traveling Azeroth, so that was a plus!