I don’t think Apprentice is in Standard now. So if anything it wouldn’t be banned, but nerfed. Likely she’d get the “not less than 1” text added so she can’t reduce spells to be 0 mana.
If that happens… So long OG Exodia Mage deck as well.
Hell, even Diamond 4 Wild earlier today I was expecting a QL Pirate Warrior because of the portrait being used. Got Odd Armor Bot instead. Hurray for the free win…
How about a Merc that could create a (one turn only) friendly copy of an enemy character? That might be a fun ability. Who could pull off a trick like that? Archmage Vargoth?
And it seems like there are plenty of tribe gaps to fill in. There are (treasures) buffs for elementals, but only a couple Mercs have that tag.
I have a job, a wife, a 2 year old, a house to clean and maintain, I am the main cook in the house, and a home workout routine I (try to) stick to. I occasionally miss a day or two, but try to at least finish dailies. My wife works nights so a large part of my playing time is probably when it’s just me and my sleeping child at the house.
So yeah… I am on a lot I suppose but still taking care of everything else I need to.
I have no clue what to address in Standard but for Wild, there are two very different lists of changes in my head. One that I wish would happen and one that is likely to happen.
What's likely to happen is they just lengthen the time it takes to complete the Warrior and Hunter questlines by a card or two and be done with it. It's rather boring, unimaginative, and, more importantly, doesn't really fix the format. It's likely to just usher in an age of OTK, with the possible exception of Freeze Shaman, if that survives the downfall of Questline Warrior it used to farm.
If they just nerf the two questlines, the meta doesn't really improve that much. Cause if it won't be the two questlines destroying you, it''ll be just normal Pirate Warrior, which even without the Questline has still been supercharged by the last few expansions. In that respect, they'd have to nerf the entire Neutral "free" pirate package (Patches + Parachute Brigand), otherwise Pirate aggro will always be the best type of aggro. If it's not that, it'll be Shadow Priest (also pirates) or the various Drek'Thar aggro decks (many, like Embiggen Druid, also running Pirates). But hey, those, at least, are good old-fashioned aggro decks that can be run out of resources by control. Or they would be, if control wasn't D.E.D. in Wild. Flamewaker Mage, Ignite Mage, Mozaki Mage, Pillager Rogue, Alignment Druid,. Mechathun Lock, Owl Lock, you name it, they all make control mostly unplayable if they're given room to breathe by the absence of the two Questline decks. And even if you were to nerf ALL of that. Wind the clocks back two years. You're right back to control being D.E.D. because Raza Priest can exist again and makes all control irrelevant. In that respect, so many nerfs would need to happen. Scabbs Cutterbutter + Spirit of the Shark is broken in Rogue, Sorcerer's Apprentice is broken in Mage, Runed Mithril Rod, after two mana nerfs, is still like 10 net negative mana. So is Incanter's Flow and Darkglare, btw, it's just that when it comes to mana cheating, the two respective classes have better options to cheat right now. Alignment + Anakondra is what Sorcerer's Apprentice is to Mage, what Kun Aviana used to be to Druid. Shadowreaper Anduin + Raza is just as unreasonable as it's always been, it's just unplayable right now due to the inevitability present in the meta right now. They would need to nerf/kill almost all of the mana cheating to truly, meaningfully improve the Wild format. Otherwise, they're just kicking two oppressive decks in the nuts to make room for other oppressive decks those two were holding back. That's not really addressing the core issue they've been gradually creating since Scholomance.
My last post in this thread was 1.5 years ago, and a lot has changed: I reached 1,000 wins in 3 classes (and got that long coveted Shadow Gul'dan portrait for Warlock). The ironic thing about that is I have been using the Tamsin "Triumphant" portrait exclusively since United in Stormwind a) for flavor and b) because it's a pretty cool piece of art too!
Here are my class tallies as of today:
DH: 565 wins
Druid: 508 wins (my newest golden hero)
Hunter: 1,019 wins (still rocking Sylvanas, the only non-rewards track portrait I have ever bought)
Mage: 725 wins
Paladin: 1,196 wins
Priest: 463 wins (the last non-golden hero. I am thinking I will try and grind a minimum of 10 wins a month unless Priest is meta again and if I am lucky enough to have the right cards)
Rogue: 707 wins
Shaman: 883 wins
Warlock: 1,086 wins
Warrior: 606 wins (Pirate Quest Warrior in standard and wild has been good to this total, haha)
If only blizzard knew how many are AFK in bronze wild. That's one data I'd like to see.
Im bronze in wild myself, and its kinda funny how whenever I see someone with commander rank and above, I'd almost 90% of the time expect and get to go against a player whos simply not even playing. Just bot the end turn button.
Maybe, speculating obviously, that's why the completion rate is higher in APAC and China.
That's hardly surprising. A vast majority of players dont log in consistently every day, and legend rank is likely less than 5% of the total players every month. Most would spend less than 5 hours a week, probably finish up dailies and get somewhere around gold rank and call it a month.
If Im not mistaken, to finish up the honor track by 11th Jan, you'd need to play somewhere around 10 games, or get 170 honor per day. Which means about 2-3 hours a day. That's a lot to ask for a generation with plenty of choices, and work/life balance thrown into the equation.
I finished the honor quest on 12/24. If only 9.9% worldwide completed the quest by the end of the battle, and I completed it about halfway through the battle… does that mean I play this game more than 95% of all other players around the world?!?!
That makes me feel a little sad about my life style choices…
I'm generally excited by all this new content for Mercenaries; I didn't expect it would get updates so frequently!
The only concern I have is with Training Grounds -- it's really only relevant to brand new players, and even then, they'll probably outgrow the need for this feature after a week or two.
The just need to change the unstoppable force for Rokara into 5/2 (you are immune while attacking). This would do a few things. Make the hero immune to the damage they take while attacking, but still rely on weapon charges. This in turn would encourage ways to gain weapon charges for a brief time (Krastinov perhaps?) and could possibly change the way the hero card is played. Instead of buffing the weapon to 6 (which IMO all that does is promote the warrior to go face instead of trade)
As for the nerfs coming. I won't go into too much depth now as I'm wrapping up things at work, but suffice to say: Mozaki Mage and Thief Rogue both need nerfs, however if they do get nerfed, we'll just have all the flavor of the month players switch back over to questlock/handlock.
I'll just come right out and say it: the hero cards from Alterac feel very fun and mostly balanced (except scabbs, and perhaps guff....I think the current decks we are seeing are borderline oppressive from a control standpoint) ....but the quest cards from Stormwind feel very poorly balanced and should never have been designed the way they were.
There’s been all the cool new BG cosmetics recently (and more coming), that we wanted to make it clear this wasn’t that. And just also generally remind people that BGs is a fun, free game mode.
This isn't the first time they have advertised updates as being free in Battlegrounds. It's a core part of the marketing at this point IMO.
The idea would be to nerf mozaki mage, and disable poison rogue from stealing games, the two most polarizing matchups in the game. Garrote is pivotal in poison rogue, because it sets up inevitability and you can't even taunt them up anymore, and both cloak and scabbs ensure that your opponent must run Rustrot Viper at all costs, maybe even 2, to stand more than a snowball's chance in hell.
Mozaki mage is basically quest mage in stormwind. They dont lose games, they just don't win. Your involvement in the entire match revolves around incanter's flow and mutanus, assuming you even get to turn 7 at all.
Thief rogue is everywhere, but I feel that touching up gnoll slightly would be enough to drastically alter its winrate. Its getting kinda ridiculous too when your opponent Secret Passage on 1 just to hit a 0 mana 4/5. Otherwise, thief rogue is fine to me.
In wild, well, fingers crossed that they would finally do something about quest hunter and warrior. Probably just ban the quest from wild until rotation.
There's also the possibility of buffs in standard. At some point team5 would probably start realizing how weak Rokara, the Valorous really is and buff it to 6. I mean, compared with the other hero cards, rokara is just plain awful. 7 mana equip a 5/2, because not many players tend to play massive minions worth smacking into anyway.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
Please throw ignite mage to the garbage bin. That deck is the worst deck to play against in my entire time of playing hearthstone.
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
At least in Hearthstone, the Alliance finally grew some balls.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
I don’t think Apprentice is in Standard now. So if anything it wouldn’t be banned, but nerfed. Likely she’d get the “not less than 1” text added so she can’t reduce spells to be 0 mana.
If that happens… So long OG Exodia Mage deck as well.
”A-HA!!” ~ Tony
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
Hell, even Diamond 4 Wild earlier today I was expecting a QL Pirate Warrior because of the portrait being used. Got Odd Armor Bot instead. Hurray for the free win…
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds and Duels Modes Get Community Content Reveals Next Week
Are we getting timers for this on HS front page?
Hearthstone's Next Major Patch Brings New Mercenaries, Zones, Bounties, and More to the Tavern on January 25
How about a Merc that could create a (one turn only) friendly copy of an enemy character? That might be a fun ability. Who could pull off a trick like that? Archmage Vargoth?
And it seems like there are plenty of tribe gaps to fill in. There are (treasures) buffs for elementals, but only a couple Mercs have that tag.
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
I have a job, a wife, a 2 year old, a house to clean and maintain, I am the main cook in the house, and a home workout routine I (try to) stick to. I occasionally miss a day or two, but try to at least finish dailies. My wife works nights so a large part of my playing time is probably when it’s just me and my sleeping child at the house.
So yeah… I am on a lot I suppose but still taking care of everything else I need to.
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds and Duels Modes Get Community Content Reveals Next Week
Totems? Can I has totems at last?
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
I have no clue what to address in Standard but for Wild, there are two very different lists of changes in my head. One that I wish would happen and one that is likely to happen.
What's likely to happen is they just lengthen the time it takes to complete the Warrior and Hunter questlines by a card or two and be done with it. It's rather boring, unimaginative, and, more importantly, doesn't really fix the format. It's likely to just usher in an age of OTK, with the possible exception of Freeze Shaman, if that survives the downfall of Questline Warrior it used to farm.
If they just nerf the two questlines, the meta doesn't really improve that much. Cause if it won't be the two questlines destroying you, it''ll be just normal Pirate Warrior, which even without the Questline has still been supercharged by the last few expansions. In that respect, they'd have to nerf the entire Neutral "free" pirate package (Patches + Parachute Brigand), otherwise Pirate aggro will always be the best type of aggro. If it's not that, it'll be Shadow Priest (also pirates) or the various Drek'Thar aggro decks (many, like Embiggen Druid, also running Pirates). But hey, those, at least, are good old-fashioned aggro decks that can be run out of resources by control. Or they would be, if control wasn't D.E.D. in Wild. Flamewaker Mage, Ignite Mage, Mozaki Mage, Pillager Rogue, Alignment Druid,. Mechathun Lock, Owl Lock, you name it, they all make control mostly unplayable if they're given room to breathe by the absence of the two Questline decks. And even if you were to nerf ALL of that. Wind the clocks back two years. You're right back to control being D.E.D. because Raza Priest can exist again and makes all control irrelevant. In that respect, so many nerfs would need to happen. Scabbs Cutterbutter + Spirit of the Shark is broken in Rogue, Sorcerer's Apprentice is broken in Mage, Runed Mithril Rod, after two mana nerfs, is still like 10 net negative mana. So is Incanter's Flow and Darkglare, btw, it's just that when it comes to mana cheating, the two respective classes have better options to cheat right now. Alignment + Anakondra is what Sorcerer's Apprentice is to Mage, what Kun Aviana used to be to Druid. Shadowreaper Anduin + Raza is just as unreasonable as it's always been, it's just unplayable right now due to the inevitability present in the meta right now. They would need to nerf/kill almost all of the mana cheating to truly, meaningfully improve the Wild format. Otherwise, they're just kicking two oppressive decks in the nuts to make room for other oppressive decks those two were holding back. That's not really addressing the core issue they've been gradually creating since Scholomance.
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds and Duels Modes Get Community Content Reveals Next Week
I’m hoping for a new pandaren tribe to hopefully lead into a Pandaria-themed expansion.
Golden Hero Portrait - Completionist & Grind
My last post in this thread was 1.5 years ago, and a lot has changed: I reached 1,000 wins in 3 classes (and got that long coveted Shadow Gul'dan portrait for Warlock). The ironic thing about that is I have been using the Tamsin "Triumphant" portrait exclusively since United in Stormwind a) for flavor and b) because it's a pretty cool piece of art too!
Here are my class tallies as of today:
DH: 565 wins
Druid: 508 wins (my newest golden hero)
Hunter: 1,019 wins (still rocking Sylvanas, the only non-rewards track portrait I have ever bought)
Mage: 725 wins
Paladin: 1,196 wins
Priest: 463 wins (the last non-golden hero. I am thinking I will try and grind a minimum of 10 wins a month unless Priest is meta again and if I am lucky enough to have the right cards)
Rogue: 707 wins
Shaman: 883 wins
Warlock: 1,086 wins
Warrior: 606 wins (Pirate Quest Warrior in standard and wild has been good to this total, haha)
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds and Duels Modes Get Community Content Reveals Next Week
I'm just happy - Blizzard finally does not miss on giving content creators an opportunity to showcase new NON-Constructed stuff !!!
Hearthstone's Next Major Patch Brings New Mercenaries, Zones, Bounties, and More to the Tavern on January 25
It's also worth noting that the new mercs are teased to be Dragon related.
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
If only blizzard knew how many are AFK in bronze wild. That's one data I'd like to see.
Im bronze in wild myself, and its kinda funny how whenever I see someone with commander rank and above, I'd almost 90% of the time expect and get to go against a player whos simply not even playing. Just bot the end turn button.
Maybe, speculating obviously, that's why the completion rate is higher in APAC and China.
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
That's hardly surprising. A vast majority of players dont log in consistently every day, and legend rank is likely less than 5% of the total players every month. Most would spend less than 5 hours a week, probably finish up dailies and get somewhere around gold rank and call it a month.
If Im not mistaken, to finish up the honor track by 11th Jan, you'd need to play somewhere around 10 games, or get 170 honor per day. Which means about 2-3 hours a day. That's a lot to ask for a generation with plenty of choices, and work/life balance thrown into the equation.
Hearthstone's Next Major Patch Brings New Mercenaries, Zones, Bounties, and More to the Tavern on January 25
I would love to see the Scholomance teachers (the hero we use on duels) as new mercenaries but I doubt it
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
I finished the honor quest on 12/24. If only 9.9% worldwide completed the quest by the end of the battle, and I completed it about halfway through the battle… does that mean I play this game more than 95% of all other players around the world?!?!
That makes me feel a little sad about my life style choices…
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
Hrm, might as well do the Cariel achievements along with miniset achievements then.
Hearthstone's Next Major Patch Brings New Mercenaries, Zones, Bounties, and More to the Tavern on January 25
I'm generally excited by all this new content for Mercenaries; I didn't expect it would get updates so frequently!
The only concern I have is with Training Grounds -- it's really only relevant to brand new players, and even then, they'll probably outgrow the need for this feature after a week or two.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
The just need to change the unstoppable force for Rokara into 5/2 (you are immune while attacking). This would do a few things. Make the hero immune to the damage they take while attacking, but still rely on weapon charges. This in turn would encourage ways to gain weapon charges for a brief time (Krastinov perhaps?) and could possibly change the way the hero card is played. Instead of buffing the weapon to 6 (which IMO all that does is promote the warrior to go face instead of trade)
As for the nerfs coming. I won't go into too much depth now as I'm wrapping up things at work, but suffice to say: Mozaki Mage and Thief Rogue both need nerfs, however if they do get nerfed, we'll just have all the flavor of the month players switch back over to questlock/handlock.
I'll just come right out and say it: the hero cards from Alterac feel very fun and mostly balanced (except scabbs, and perhaps guff....I think the current decks we are seeing are borderline oppressive from a control standpoint) ....but the quest cards from Stormwind feel very poorly balanced and should never have been designed the way they were.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
Way to late for me.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
wish: "but not less than 1" for all aura reductions
real life: gnoll to 4/4, scabbs to 8 gl hf.
Blizzard Shares Stats on the Battle for Alterac Valley, At Least 215 Million Games of Hearthstone Played
Very impressive work, thanks for the article!
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds and Duels Modes Get Community Content Reveals Next Week
Decktech expanded on this.
This isn't the first time they have advertised updates as being free in Battlegrounds. It's a core part of the marketing at this point IMO.
Hearthstone's Standard and Wild Modes are Getting Balance Changes on January 25
In standard, the likeliest to be hit would be Wildpaw Gnoll, Shadowcrafter Scabbs, garrote (again), Cloak of Shadows, Incanter's Flow (at this point they might as well just remove this card from the game), Mozaki, Master Duelist. Probably not all above, but certainly some.
The idea would be to nerf mozaki mage, and disable poison rogue from stealing games, the two most polarizing matchups in the game. Garrote is pivotal in poison rogue, because it sets up inevitability and you can't even taunt them up anymore, and both cloak and scabbs ensure that your opponent must run Rustrot Viper at all costs, maybe even 2, to stand more than a snowball's chance in hell.
Mozaki mage is basically quest mage in stormwind. They dont lose games, they just don't win. Your involvement in the entire match revolves around incanter's flow and mutanus, assuming you even get to turn 7 at all.
Thief rogue is everywhere, but I feel that touching up gnoll slightly would be enough to drastically alter its winrate. Its getting kinda ridiculous too when your opponent Secret Passage on 1 just to hit a 0 mana 4/5. Otherwise, thief rogue is fine to me.
In wild, well, fingers crossed that they would finally do something about quest hunter and warrior. Probably just ban the quest from wild until rotation.
There's also the possibility of buffs in standard. At some point team5 would probably start realizing how weak Rokara, the Valorous really is and buff it to 6. I mean, compared with the other hero cards, rokara is just plain awful. 7 mana equip a 5/2, because not many players tend to play massive minions worth smacking into anyway.