So I´ve ended exactly at lvl 268 (5XP above) just before the start of the new rewards track. Already bought the next TP, with 2x3 quests ready to go. I usually hoard around 8-10k gold for the start of the expansion, this time it´s a bit above 4k, but I can´t complain much since I was on a spending spree (my bad lol).
Well, thank you all for contributing to this thread, sharing your progress, thoughts and insights. It was a blast reading each and every comment, and you bet I did! Now it´s time to slowly close this one down and with this words I´d like to invite someone else to take the torch from me and make another one for Alterac. Hope to see you all there soon! Good luck for your new climb all! Peace out.
Other than that pretty low yield in general. Only 5 other legendaries out of 150 packs, which isn't horrible but doesn't compare to last expansion where I basically opened every single meta relevant card (including the 3 nerfed quests) and only had to craft a single legendary from the expansion later.
At least I'm happy I got the Scabbs hero since he's clearly the most relevant card in the entire set and I'm already plying Quest Rogue. Getting Saidan was also pretty sweet since I do want to play Paladin without having to commit to many ressoources.
Also got Caria, Mulverick and Galvangar, the latter of which I'll try the Warrior OTk deck with since I have most of the cards anyways.
Anyone else unable to buy the new Tavern Pass? Says I already own it but everything is still locked on the top of the track and it states I need to purchase it. Getting mixed messages Blizz lol.
I did the "small" pre-order (first time buying a pre-order in a LONG time) and i got Magister Dawngrasp and Captain Galvangar as my free legendaries. (I like both, but i'm especially happy with Magister Dawngrasp!)
I'm not sure if they boosted the chance to get epics, or if i was this luckely this time around. But i did get 26 epics, which surprised me a lot. I also unpacked 1 golden epic, 8 golden rares and 8 golden commons. Outside of the pity timer Najak Hexxen my pack opening went very well, and i'm looking forward to playing around with lots of decks in just a bit!
I really hope everyone else also had/have good pack openings, because this expansion looks very fun on paper and i hope everyone gets to have a LOT of fun the coming days and hopefully the entire expansion! For anyone reading this before opening packs: Good luck, and i hope you unpack the cards you want most! :D
My only 2 classes left under 500 wins is Druid and DH so it was nice to get some new toys there. I'll likely craft Kurtrus, Demon-Render then wait and see how the meta plays out before I craft anything else.
Honestly Stormwind, and in particular the Questline meta, ended up killing almost all the interest i had in the game. I went from hitting Legend fairly regularly to not making it to Silver 5 this past month which i hadnt done since Rastakhan's Rumble (and even then it was for reason unrelated to the state of the game). If AV doesnt shake things up enough, and i could be way off base but right now it doesnt look like it will, i'll probably just quit altogether.
I think part of it has been a percieved changed in design philosophy that came about when the devs because a lot more willing to make balance changes. I mean, don't get me wrong, i think that the approach as it took shape before was great, particularly in contrast with the hands off approach that was used during the early years of the game, but it's also gotten us to a point where of the 5 expansion in the current standard cycle (not counting AV for obvious reasons), at least 3 of them have needed balance changes before the expansions were a month old. I realize that properly adjusting the power level of an expansion is a tough needle to thread, especially considering that high power level expansions are more fondly regarded than weaker ones, but there's gotta be a middle ground between that and releasing blatantly warping cards like 5 mana Battlegrounds Battlemaster with the expectation that they'll be readjusted early on if they screw things up too much.
I do want to stress that this probably sounds more bitter than i actually am. I dont think the game is moving in a "wrong" direction or anything, just one that makes me personally less interested in it. If i do stop playing i don't think it'll be a big deal one way or the other, i'll find something else to kill time with, and HS will still have a large playerbase
Oh noooo Poppy lost 1 attack... literally unplayable now (said no one ever)
No actually these patchnotes try to bring down Poppy decks but it reall doesn't look like this Poppy nerf will EVER matter for the go wide aggro decks that you know her being used in.
Sure now Culling Strike and Quicken can target her if the opponent doesn't have a buff but most likely it only will make Poppy unable to block Poppy and make the Poppy mirror more misreable to play
So...what'd you get? I'm at work on lunch so I won't be opening my packs until later (to keep track of pity timers), but I did see that my two free golden Legendaries were Bru'kan of the Elements and Bearon Gla'shear. The game must've known I did the Shaman review and rewarded me thusly 😁
And once again I am caught in the eternal loop of the android app telling me to open play store for an update which sends me back to the game without an update which then again sends me to the play store.
My province in Canada recently had a binding referendum on daylight savings time. 50.2% of us voted against changing to year-round daylight time. It saddens me, especially because I think that if the vote had been to adopt year-round standard time instead of year-round daylight time, it would have passed. Before the vote, social media blew up with people complaining that if we change, the sun will rise an hour later in the Winter. I never understood the objection: it's Canada; we all wake up in the dark all winter long anyway. Sunrise was at 8:38 this morning in my city.
Honestly, I almost didn't even pre-order this expansion which would have been the first time I didn't purchase a pre-order product. I feel like I played a decent chunk of Forged in the Barrens (relative to the year before that) and had some good fun with it, but the Questlines in Stormwind were too much for me. I dislike not being able to do anything consistently. I also really hate the mana cheat in the game, it has gotten too extreme.
The Hearthstone team has a huge problem on their hands and they best have an answer for it come March/April because I don't think a simple set rotation and small changes to the core set is going to do anything about it.
I just want another format that rotates sets more frequently. Duels doesn't hit the mark for me because as fun as dungeon run treasures are and building decks on the fly with buckets, it feels to me like there's just too much BS (though each time I do have a Duels run I definitely still have fun- its sort of just a mental hurdle). Give me a format with 4 expansions + newest + core set and then rotate the sets every month. That way during an expansion cycle, I have a chance of returning to the game 4 different times because its constantly changing. Nerfs in standard don't mean anything to me anymore.
I do think Hearthstone might be more enjoyable if I ignored everything that was going on in the community though. I think there's a part of it that stems from a mob mentality that ultimately comes from a vocal minority. "Well everyone else is angry, so I should be angry too." Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where I can ignore what is going on in the community. Perhaps the path I chose made it so it would not be possible to enjoy the game. I'm thankful I don't have to put a fake smile on and stream every day.
That was an impressively comprehensive account of it all!
I know which side of the debate I stand on, though blame isn't wholly on Stormwind. Over the course of 2021 I've gone from enjoying playing enough to finally reach Legend with my casual decks (twice!) and owning practically every card in each set, to being a Gold rank player who is disinterested enough to not even be sure I want to bother spending enough gold to get all the rares in AV. If it wasn't for burgle rogue being my bread and butter, I'd probably just leave.
I'm not going to say the recent design direction has been wrong since it's subjective, but it feels like they must have goofed somewhere if a dolphin (semi-whale?) veteran player becomes an apathetic F2P player despite genuinely wanting to keep playing the game. Maybe Stormwind just expedited a process that was going to happen anyway, but I doubt Blizz' shareholders will thank it for that...
Seems like a strange card to evaluate. You need a board beforehand for it to really shine, and then to set up optimal trades to make the most of it. Not sure it can be reliable enough to see play.
"It is important that we point out that you can open the opposing faction leader in card packs even though they can be earned on the legendary questline."
The same has been true of the golden cards on the rewards track since Forged in the Barrens. Opening Primordial Protector in a card pack before reaching the point in the rewards track where you get the second golden copy was basically like getting a rare (of your choice) in that pack instead of an epic. As a free-to-play player, I feel like missing out on an epic when its avoidable is not something I can afford to do, so I've been waiting until I have all of the guaranteed golden cards from the rewards track before I open any card packs, and I intend to hold off on opening FiAV card packs until I have my golden Drek'Thar. I don't like it that I have to do this in order to avoid getting a useless extra copy of Drek'Thar, but I'll do it anyway.
In Forged in the Barrens, I actually decided to open a few card packs right away, just until I got that guaranteed legendary in the first 10 packs. I figured the chance of getting a Primordial Protector before I got the first legendary were pretty small. Guess what my first epic was? It sucked. Never again.
It's Will of Ionia on a stick. The fact that this is a play, not a summon effect removes many possible strong synergies and I am not too sure this' will be good enough
Group Therapy! Need to blow off some steam? Mega salty? Here's the place!
From what I've seen so far, people don't want to play with the new cards. Haven't seen anybody use them.
Fractured in Alterac Valley
WTF I goddamn called this shit, opened this asshole GOLDEN in my 4th pack! Maybe he'll be good later on? #fml
FiAV Pack Opening Day
This must have been my worse pack opening of all time 😭😭😭💔💔💔
4 class packs (DH, Warlock, Rogue and Paladin)
9 standard packs (1 golden)
96 FAV packs
And I get this garbage 😭
What did I do to deserve this!?!?! Wtf is Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'Thar in packs to begin with?
(Also got Najak Hexxen and Wildheart Guff)
Rewards Track: Current progress 3.0
So I´ve ended exactly at lvl 268 (5XP above) just before the start of the new rewards track. Already bought the next TP, with 2x3 quests ready to go. I usually hoard around 8-10k gold for the start of the expansion, this time it´s a bit above 4k, but I can´t complain much since I was on a spending spree (my bad lol).
Well, thank you all for contributing to this thread, sharing your progress, thoughts and insights. It was a blast reading each and every comment, and you bet I did! Now it´s time to slowly close this one down and with this words I´d like to invite someone else to take the torch from me and make another one for Alterac. Hope to see you all there soon! Good luck for your new climb all! Peace out.
FiAV Pack Opening Day
Ofc the first card show up was fucking Drek'Thar.
Typical horde scum.
Other than that pretty low yield in general. Only 5 other legendaries out of 150 packs, which isn't horrible but doesn't compare to last expansion where I basically opened every single meta relevant card (including the 3 nerfed quests) and only had to craft a single legendary from the expansion later.
At least I'm happy I got the Scabbs hero since he's clearly the most relevant card in the entire set and I'm already plying Quest Rogue. Getting Saidan was also pretty sweet since I do want to play Paladin without having to commit to many ressoources.
Also got Caria, Mulverick and Galvangar, the latter of which I'll try the Warrior OTk deck with since I have most of the cards anyways.
Survive the Fractured in Alterac Valley Launch! Day 1 Decks to Try, Freebies, and Everything You Need to Know About the Expansion
Anyone else unable to buy the new Tavern Pass? Says I already own it but everything is still locked on the top of the track and it states I need to purchase it. Getting mixed messages Blizz lol.
FiAV Pack Opening Day
I did the "small" pre-order (first time buying a pre-order in a LONG time) and i got Magister Dawngrasp and Captain Galvangar as my free legendaries. (I like both, but i'm especially happy with Magister Dawngrasp!)
Opened 114 packs total, and got Ivus, the Forest Lord, Xyrella, the Devout, Wing Commander Ichman, Dreadlich Tamsin, Caria Felsoul and a pity-timer Najak Hexxen (Which also is THE one leggy i didn't want..) :[
I'm not sure if they boosted the chance to get epics, or if i was this luckely this time around. But i did get 26 epics, which surprised me a lot. I also unpacked 1 golden epic, 8 golden rares and 8 golden commons. Outside of the pity timer Najak Hexxen my pack opening went very well, and i'm looking forward to playing around with lots of decks in just a bit!
I really hope everyone else also had/have good pack openings, because this expansion looks very fun on paper and i hope everyone gets to have a LOT of fun the coming days and hopefully the entire expansion! For anyone reading this before opening packs: Good luck, and i hope you unpack the cards you want most! :D
FiAV Pack Opening Day
I opened about 80 packs and got Wildheart Guff, golden Caria Felsoul, Wing Commander Ichman, Bearon Gla'shear and Tamsin's Phylactery.
My only 2 classes left under 500 wins is Druid and DH so it was nice to get some new toys there. I'll likely craft Kurtrus, Demon-Render then wait and see how the meta plays out before I craft anything else.
Ahri: New Ionia Champion Reveal - 5 New Runeterra Cards Revealed for Magic Misadventures
With Ahri the recall archetype seem to be finally be getting a proper win con still the mechanic do look kinda slow for the current pace of the game.
I really hope that Bandle Burn and Rally elusive get gutted during the next balance patch.
In the End, We Were Not United in Stormwind - Will Questlines Remain at the Forefront?
Honestly Stormwind, and in particular the Questline meta, ended up killing almost all the interest i had in the game. I went from hitting Legend fairly regularly to not making it to Silver 5 this past month which i hadnt done since Rastakhan's Rumble (and even then it was for reason unrelated to the state of the game). If AV doesnt shake things up enough, and i could be way off base but right now it doesnt look like it will, i'll probably just quit altogether.
I think part of it has been a percieved changed in design philosophy that came about when the devs because a lot more willing to make balance changes. I mean, don't get me wrong, i think that the approach as it took shape before was great, particularly in contrast with the hands off approach that was used during the early years of the game, but it's also gotten us to a point where of the 5 expansion in the current standard cycle (not counting AV for obvious reasons), at least 3 of them have needed balance changes before the expansions were a month old. I realize that properly adjusting the power level of an expansion is a tough needle to thread, especially considering that high power level expansions are more fondly regarded than weaker ones, but there's gotta be a middle ground between that and releasing blatantly warping cards like 5 mana Battlegrounds Battlemaster with the expectation that they'll be readjusted early on if they screw things up too much.
I do want to stress that this probably sounds more bitter than i actually am. I dont think the game is moving in a "wrong" direction or anything, just one that makes me personally less interested in it. If i do stop playing i don't think it'll be a big deal one way or the other, i'll find something else to kill time with, and HS will still have a large playerbase
Runeterra Patch 2.21.0 Full Patch Notes - New Expansion, Poppy Nerfed, New Cosmetics, and More!
Oh noooo Poppy lost 1 attack... literally unplayable now (said no one ever)
No actually these patchnotes try to bring down Poppy decks but it reall doesn't look like this Poppy nerf will EVER matter for the go wide aggro decks that you know her being used in.
Sure now Culling Strike and Quicken can target her if the opponent doesn't have a buff but most likely it only will make Poppy unable to block Poppy and make the Poppy mirror more misreable to play
FiAV Pack Opening Day
So...what'd you get? I'm at work on lunch so I won't be opening my packs until later (to keep track of pity timers), but I did see that my two free golden Legendaries were Bru'kan of the Elements and Bearon Gla'shear. The game must've known I did the Shaman review and rewarded me thusly 😁
Survive the Fractured in Alterac Valley Launch! Day 1 Decks to Try, Freebies, and Everything You Need to Know About the Expansion
And once again I am caught in the eternal loop of the android app telling me to open play store for an update which sends me back to the game without an update which then again sends me to the play store.
Never play on a patch day... :)
Survive the Fractured in Alterac Valley Launch! Day 1 Decks to Try, Freebies, and Everything You Need to Know About the Expansion
My province in Canada recently had a binding referendum on daylight savings time. 50.2% of us voted against changing to year-round daylight time. It saddens me, especially because I think that if the vote had been to adopt year-round standard time instead of year-round daylight time, it would have passed. Before the vote, social media blew up with people complaining that if we change, the sun will rise an hour later in the Winter. I never understood the objection: it's Canada; we all wake up in the dark all winter long anyway. Sunrise was at 8:38 this morning in my city.
In the End, We Were Not United in Stormwind - Will Questlines Remain at the Forefront?
Honestly, I almost didn't even pre-order this expansion which would have been the first time I didn't purchase a pre-order product. I feel like I played a decent chunk of Forged in the Barrens (relative to the year before that) and had some good fun with it, but the Questlines in Stormwind were too much for me. I dislike not being able to do anything consistently. I also really hate the mana cheat in the game, it has gotten too extreme.
The Hearthstone team has a huge problem on their hands and they best have an answer for it come March/April because I don't think a simple set rotation and small changes to the core set is going to do anything about it.
I just want another format that rotates sets more frequently. Duels doesn't hit the mark for me because as fun as dungeon run treasures are and building decks on the fly with buckets, it feels to me like there's just too much BS (though each time I do have a Duels run I definitely still have fun- its sort of just a mental hurdle). Give me a format with 4 expansions + newest + core set and then rotate the sets every month. That way during an expansion cycle, I have a chance of returning to the game 4 different times because its constantly changing. Nerfs in standard don't mean anything to me anymore.
I do think Hearthstone might be more enjoyable if I ignored everything that was going on in the community though. I think there's a part of it that stems from a mob mentality that ultimately comes from a vocal minority. "Well everyone else is angry, so I should be angry too." Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where I can ignore what is going on in the community. Perhaps the path I chose made it so it would not be possible to enjoy the game. I'm thankful I don't have to put a fake smile on and stream every day.
In the End, We Were Not United in Stormwind - Will Questlines Remain at the Forefront?
That was an impressively comprehensive account of it all!
I know which side of the debate I stand on, though blame isn't wholly on Stormwind. Over the course of 2021 I've gone from enjoying playing enough to finally reach Legend with my casual decks (twice!) and owning practically every card in each set, to being a Gold rank player who is disinterested enough to not even be sure I want to bother spending enough gold to get all the rares in AV. If it wasn't for burgle rogue being my bread and butter, I'd probably just leave.
I'm not going to say the recent design direction has been wrong since it's subjective, but it feels like they must have goofed somewhere if a dolphin (semi-whale?) veteran player becomes an apathetic F2P player despite genuinely wanting to keep playing the game. Maybe Stormwind just expedited a process that was going to happen anyway, but I doubt Blizz' shareholders will thank it for that...
New Neutral Minion - Blood Guard
At first glance it looks good, but given that a board is needed and it costs 5 by itself, I don't think it'll see any play outside the arena.
New Neutral Minion - Kobold Taskmaster
Seems like more of an arena card, but maybe some decks can pull off some crazy things with the buffs. Looking at you, Priest!
New Neutral Minion - Corporal
Quite a strong card, specially in arena. Might also see some play in buff Paladin decks.
New Neutral Minion - Sneaky Scout
Seems a little weak, even with the HK effect. Don't think it'll see any play outside the arena.
New Druid Minion - Wing Commander Mulverick
Seems like a strange card to evaluate. You need a board beforehand for it to really shine, and then to set up optimal trades to make the most of it. Not sure it can be reliable enough to see play.
New Rogue Spell - Reconnaissance
Quite a strong and versatile card, I can see it being included in some Rogue decks even if only for tempo plays.
Survive the Fractured in Alterac Valley Launch! Day 1 Decks to Try, Freebies, and Everything You Need to Know About the Expansion
"It is important that we point out that you can open the opposing faction leader in card packs even though they can be earned on the legendary questline."
The same has been true of the golden cards on the rewards track since Forged in the Barrens. Opening Primordial Protector in a card pack before reaching the point in the rewards track where you get the second golden copy was basically like getting a rare (of your choice) in that pack instead of an epic. As a free-to-play player, I feel like missing out on an epic when its avoidable is not something I can afford to do, so I've been waiting until I have all of the guaranteed golden cards from the rewards track before I open any card packs, and I intend to hold off on opening FiAV card packs until I have my golden Drek'Thar. I don't like it that I have to do this in order to avoid getting a useless extra copy of Drek'Thar, but I'll do it anyway.
In Forged in the Barrens, I actually decided to open a few card packs right away, just until I got that guaranteed legendary in the first 10 packs. I figured the chance of getting a Primordial Protector before I got the first legendary were pretty small. Guess what my first epic was? It sucked. Never again.
New Ionia Card - Windsinger
It's Will of Ionia on a stick. The fact that this is a play, not a summon effect removes many possible strong synergies and I am not too sure this' will be good enough
New Ionia Champion - Ahri
Why exactly makes taking off the hood elusive? I mean from a flavour perspective only the opposite (losing elusive) would make sense right?