Yeah. They really didn't need to give Quest Warrior any buffs for it to be decent and it got two (as in, buffs on two cards the deck actually wants to play). Oof.
I liked Regis Killbin's idea for Illucia better: swap until the end of your turn, so if you play Illucia early in the turn you can disrupt your opponent's hand with your remaining mana, but you can't make them skip their turn by passing an (almost) empty hand.
Later on, you’ll be able to stick new Mercenaries on the Bench and have them watch your more powerful Mercenaries take on tougher Bounties. Remember, all members of a Party get the same experience from fights, even if they don’t participate. Power-levelling like that could cut the leveling time drastically.
If they remove Valeera I am never going to believe they want to treat the classes equally. I know classes don't really matter in Mercenaries, but character flavour still does, and I always identify with rogues in fantasy games. Take Valeera away and there's only Scabbs left, and he's a chef in his default art! Then again, I guess that's completely in line with their philosophy of never giving rogue hero portraits. *sigh*
I assume they made her the de facto face of the game since she's one of the few good characters who's actually neutral between the Horde and Alliance, which is useful for flavour purposes. You could also believe she would be hiring mercenaries, whereas that would feel weird for some characters.
I expect someday there will be a max-level increase, so you'll need more coins eventually. This could mean we'll continue to see coin drops even if you're maxed out, with the argument that you'll want them in the future.
On the other side, it would feel shitty in the short-term that you gain coins for characters you're done with. Even if you'll need more in the future, denying us those excess coins would keep everyone on an even playing-field going into expansions and the like; you wouldn't be able to dump your excess coins into better abilities right away because you wouldn't have any.
Kind of leaning toward the first one, because it's easier to manage; as-in, you wouldn't need to program a check or a stopper. Something else to consider is this: if you stop earning coins for maxed-out characters, it will become easier and easier to level the ones that you have left. Blizzard might not want that.
Irebound Brute: Well its going to be harder to highroll with this card now, i like it!
Perpetual Flame: Nice, this card was just too strong. Now aggro/tempo has a better chance of killing questline shaman before they get bursted down.
Command the Elements: Nice! now that they have to play 1 more overload card, it will take 1 turn or so longer to complete the questline. Maybe we can now actually get a chance to Mutanus the Devourer their quest reward.
The Demon Seed: YES. So glas this got nerfed... FINALLY. It's THE nerf people asked for since pretty much day 1, and now they actually did it! (Honestly i was kinda scared they were going to nerf Flesh Giant by 1 0 mana again lmao.) Also now that the quesline also got slowed down a bit... I really hope the deck is slowed down enough that Mutanus the Devourer can now eat their quest reward more often. Also im so happy they FINALLY banned this card in Wild. Honestly i'm surprised they actually took this long to ban it. Like Stealer of Souls was banned quite fast, but they let The Demon Seed run havok in wild for so much longer..? So glad i wont be facing that card again in wild. But regardless Darkglare warlock will 100% remain the strongest deck in Wild, as it already was the best deck in wild before they got The Demon Seed.
Runed Mithril Rod: Yeah, this... does something? To me a mana increase doesnt really affect mithril rod, because playing it a bit later = probably more cards in hand to discount by 1 mana. I think that Runed Mithril Rod will probably continue to see play, because a card that can give 2 Emperor Thaurissan procs still seems really strong to me.
Rework: Mindrender Illucia: YESSSSSS! YEEEEAAHHH! Mindrender Illucia is DEAD! YES! Oh im so glad. This card was sooo toxic and maddening to play against. Aggro shadow priest used it as a 3 mana Time Warp and control priest used it to completely shut down any combo strategy. That being said, big RIP to the YES* priest archetype. :( (-* YES priest decks are decks that setup for example a Mecha'thun OTK and use Mindrender Illucia to give their opponent the combo/free win!)
Alright Buffs:
Mordresh Fire Eye: I LOVE this change. This will really help hero power mage in standard, and EVEN mage in wild! Also you can now hero power for example: A divine shield minion, and still kill the minion with Mordresh battlecry. I love this change and i hope hero power mage gets a lot better with this!
Wildfire: Okay here is a change thats both a buff AND a nerf at the same time. It's technically a nerf because being ODD-costed means that EVEN-mage cannot run it anymore... And that deck is actually quite popular as well... (And i personally like playing it a lot) But on the other side this change makes it so you can turn 1 Wildfire into turn 2 heropower! You no longer need a Coin in order to cast Wildfire turn 1! Also now that it costs 1 mana, ODD Mage can now run it! Not sure if ODD mage will actually run it, but i feel like it will make space for it.
Leatherworking Kit: This will certainly help out RAT/Swarm hunter a LOT. Not only that, but Sword of a Thousand Truths Hunter also enjoys it. (Even though that deck isnt really competative) Not only that but this is a big buff to a lot of other hunter archetypes, considering hunter is quite bad at drawing cards.
Selective Breeder: Love this change. It always felt bad playing this on turn 2, because you just know that it gets removed instantly. Now it might be able to have a little bit of impact by idunno trading into a 1/1 minion and living? Still im happy this got buffed! (Maybe i should try out Beastmaster Leoroxx OTK hunter again soon...)
Stormwind Freebooter, Stonemaul Anchorman and Bloodsail Deckhand: Wow i did not suspect pirate warrior buffs. This deck is already very good in wild, and in standard it felt like it only needed some more decent pirates from something like a mini set. But man are these changes HUGE. Bloodsail Deckhand is now a premium 1 drop WITH and addition effect, which is NUTS. Stonemaul Anchorman was already decent and now the frenzy is easier to pull of, giving many warrior archetypes more draw. Stormwind Freebooter now has premium stats AND gives you +2 attack, this is just really strong! I really think questline Pirate warrior will be one of the better decks in the meta going forward, with these incredibly buffs. (Probably will craft the warrior questline with my Mindrender Illucia dust) :]
Still no answers to my only real questions -- What happens to coin drops once a mercenary is fully upgraded? What becomes of leftover coins?
But it's nice to know the price of crafting a new Merc -- that's important information. Honestly, they are making it seem so easy to collect and upgrade everything that I'm considering the f2p approach. I was willing to pay a bit to get a head start on the collection, but it kinda feels unnecessary now. I don't care at all about leaderboards, so I'm in no hurry to dive into PvP with a perfectly curated team.
Kind of unexpected for me but not undeserved. This card in Arena is on par with legendary bombs like Ysera or the Rat King in terms of win rate. And it is just a rare.
This ultra-rare pool is a huge move that I both love and hate. I love that we'll see less of these cards, but after so much as admitting they are bad for the game, wouldn't it make more sense to remove them entirely, or nerf them like you'd nerf other broken cards?
The whole idea of getting lucky with a crazy powerful loot drop was fine in Dungeon Runs, but it's stupid as hell in a PvP mode.
As I predicted quest warlock banned in wild. Now my solid gold pirate quest warrior will be even better with buffs….tons of crying on other forums as usual already.
on a side note to those of you that dust cards: unless you need the dust never dust anything.
this nerf will net me over 10k dust and that’s just the EXTRA copies of the cards. I have a complete collection so I never dust even useless cards.
To all of those that sat through the boring grind of 666 self damage on the warlock quest…..congrats because now that grind is almost unbearable.
I’m glad I did all the achievements as well. For those that didn’t man I feel your pain
It's weird to think about how they are banning an Arena card that I've never even seen played in constructed. Just goes to show how unimportant the board is in the Standard meta.
No, I honestly still believe the problem is still the amount of efficient heals that Warlock has right now, this is going to do nothing substantial in standard but tempt players to dust it.
In my honest opinion Mindrender Illucia was only "good" because it was pretty much the one counter to quest rewards in standard, if you were lucky enough to catch them off guard.
I never ran into the card in any other context since it's previous mana nerf.
Now because it was seen in data as "a good card" because it beat 90% of the meta (being any quest deck) and pretty much nothing else, it's been rendered unplayable by a nerf that I think really shouldn't have happened.
Ironically, I played it just now, as other two options from triple were even more useless. It reached 100/100 by the end of the round, and I ended second place due to shitty RNG (to beasts).
I can't believe they straight-up murdered Illucia. They could have changed her in a way that left her viable in non-aggro archetypes. It has been quite sime time since they utterly trashed a card like this.
Can't wait to start making Wildfire with Wandmaker. Fire Mage is about to get spicy! If it does work, it will be just as overplayed as Quest Mage, and we'll get a whole new round of whining about a whole new Tier 2 deck that's not actually oppressive.
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
actually he said that
"Currently planning on PvP to award the same XP as Constructed Ranked PvP and for PvE to award the same amount of XP as Arena/BG/Duels."
When Does the United in Stormwind Mini-Set "Deadmines" Arrive? Early November 2021 is Most Likely
How do we know it's Deadmines exactly?
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
I know people like to shout power creep, but one mana for a 2/2 with the pirate tag and a useful discount on a future play is definitely a valid case.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
Yeah. They really didn't need to give Quest Warrior any buffs for it to be decent and it got two (as in, buffs on two cards the deck actually wants to play). Oof.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
I liked Regis Killbin's idea for Illucia better: swap until the end of your turn, so if you play Illucia early in the turn you can disrupt your opponent's hand with your remaining mana, but you can't make them skip their turn by passing an (almost) empty hand.
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
Good to see Exp Share exists!
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
If they remove Valeera I am never going to believe they want to treat the classes equally. I know classes don't really matter in Mercenaries, but character flavour still does, and I always identify with rogues in fantasy games. Take Valeera away and there's only Scabbs left, and he's a chef in his default art! Then again, I guess that's completely in line with their philosophy of never giving rogue hero portraits. *sigh*
I assume they made her the de facto face of the game since she's one of the few good characters who's actually neutral between the Horde and Alliance, which is useful for flavour purposes. You could also believe she would be hiring mercenaries, whereas that would feel weird for some characters.
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
Iksar tweeted that it's the same as ranked constructed for PvP, same as other modes for PvE.
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
No answer to how much Tavern Pass XP/hour do you get for playing Mercenaries?
Early Access Look at Hearthstone Mercenaries Gameplay - First 2 Tutorials, Upgraded Account, Party Building, & More From Slysssa
I don't know, I was thinking something more exciting, I need to play to be shure
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
I could see it go either way, honestly:
Kind of leaning toward the first one, because it's easier to manage; as-in, you wouldn't need to program a check or a stopper. Something else to consider is this: if you stop earning coins for maxed-out characters, it will become easier and easier to level the ones that you have left. Blizzard might not want that.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
My prediction: Quest Warrior is now the strongest deck in Wild. But I am quite happy with the Mage buffs.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
Welp my (horrible) opinion on the changes:
NERFs:
Irebound Brute: Well its going to be harder to highroll with this card now, i like it!
Perpetual Flame: Nice, this card was just too strong. Now aggro/tempo has a better chance of killing questline shaman before they get bursted down.
Command the Elements: Nice! now that they have to play 1 more overload card, it will take 1 turn or so longer to complete the questline. Maybe we can now actually get a chance to Mutanus the Devourer their quest reward.
The Demon Seed: YES. So glas this got nerfed... FINALLY. It's THE nerf people asked for since pretty much day 1, and now they actually did it! (Honestly i was kinda scared they were going to nerf Flesh Giant by 1 0 mana again lmao.) Also now that the quesline also got slowed down a bit... I really hope the deck is slowed down enough that Mutanus the Devourer can now eat their quest reward more often. Also im so happy they FINALLY banned this card in Wild. Honestly i'm surprised they actually took this long to ban it. Like Stealer of Souls was banned quite fast, but they let The Demon Seed run havok in wild for so much longer..? So glad i wont be facing that card again in wild. But regardless Darkglare warlock will 100% remain the strongest deck in Wild, as it already was the best deck in wild before they got The Demon Seed.
Runed Mithril Rod: Yeah, this... does something? To me a mana increase doesnt really affect mithril rod, because playing it a bit later = probably more cards in hand to discount by 1 mana. I think that Runed Mithril Rod will probably continue to see play, because a card that can give 2 Emperor Thaurissan procs still seems really strong to me.
Rework: Mindrender Illucia: YESSSSSS! YEEEEAAHHH! Mindrender Illucia is DEAD! YES! Oh im so glad. This card was sooo toxic and maddening to play against. Aggro shadow priest used it as a 3 mana Time Warp and control priest used it to completely shut down any combo strategy. That being said, big RIP to the YES* priest archetype. :( (-* YES priest decks are decks that setup for example a Mecha'thun OTK and use Mindrender Illucia to give their opponent the combo/free win!)
Alright Buffs:
Mordresh Fire Eye: I LOVE this change. This will really help hero power mage in standard, and EVEN mage in wild! Also you can now hero power for example: A divine shield minion, and still kill the minion with Mordresh battlecry. I love this change and i hope hero power mage gets a lot better with this!
Wildfire: Okay here is a change thats both a buff AND a nerf at the same time. It's technically a nerf because being ODD-costed means that EVEN-mage cannot run it anymore... And that deck is actually quite popular as well... (And i personally like playing it a lot) But on the other side this change makes it so you can turn 1 Wildfire into turn 2 heropower! You no longer need a Coin in order to cast Wildfire turn 1! Also now that it costs 1 mana, ODD Mage can now run it! Not sure if ODD mage will actually run it, but i feel like it will make space for it.
Leatherworking Kit: This will certainly help out RAT/Swarm hunter a LOT. Not only that, but Sword of a Thousand Truths Hunter also enjoys it. (Even though that deck isnt really competative) Not only that but this is a big buff to a lot of other hunter archetypes, considering hunter is quite bad at drawing cards.
Selective Breeder: Love this change. It always felt bad playing this on turn 2, because you just know that it gets removed instantly. Now it might be able to have a little bit of impact by idunno trading into a 1/1 minion and living? Still im happy this got buffed! (Maybe i should try out Beastmaster Leoroxx OTK hunter again soon...)
Stormwind Freebooter, Stonemaul Anchorman and Bloodsail Deckhand: Wow i did not suspect pirate warrior buffs. This deck is already very good in wild, and in standard it felt like it only needed some more decent pirates from something like a mini set. But man are these changes HUGE. Bloodsail Deckhand is now a premium 1 drop WITH and addition effect, which is NUTS. Stonemaul Anchorman was already decent and now the frenzy is easier to pull of, giving many warrior archetypes more draw. Stormwind Freebooter now has premium stats AND gives you +2 attack, this is just really strong! I really think questline Pirate warrior will be one of the better decks in the meta going forward, with these incredibly buffs. (Probably will craft the warrior questline with my Mindrender Illucia dust) :]
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
Not it is not. It is good but has two significant weaknesses: 1) Running out of cards and 2) It folds against armor/lifegain decks
Blizzard Answers Frequently Asked Mercenaries Questions, Confirms 153 Mercenary Packs Available Through Campfire Tasks at Launch
Still no answers to my only real questions -- What happens to coin drops once a mercenary is fully upgraded? What becomes of leftover coins?
But it's nice to know the price of crafting a new Merc -- that's important information. Honestly, they are making it seem so easy to collect and upgrade everything that I'm considering the f2p approach. I was willing to pay a bit to get a head start on the collection, but it kinda feels unnecessary now. I don't care at all about leaderboards, so I'm in no hurry to dive into PvP with a perfectly curated team.
Ramming Mount is Banned in Hearthstone's Arena, Offering Rates Adjusting for Balance
Kind of unexpected for me but not undeserved. This card in Arena is on par with legendary bombs like Ysera or the Rat King in terms of win rate. And it is just a rare.
Hearthstone Duels Gets an Update This Week - Oppressive Treasures Being Moved to "Ultra Rare" Pool
This ultra-rare pool is a huge move that I both love and hate. I love that we'll see less of these cards, but after so much as admitting they are bad for the game, wouldn't it make more sense to remove them entirely, or nerf them like you'd nerf other broken cards?
The whole idea of getting lucky with a crazy powerful loot drop was fine in Dungeon Runs, but it's stupid as hell in a PvP mode.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
As I predicted quest warlock banned in wild. Now my solid gold pirate quest warrior will be even better with buffs….tons of crying on other forums as usual already.
on a side note to those of you that dust cards: unless you need the dust never dust anything.
this nerf will net me over 10k dust and that’s just the EXTRA copies of the cards. I have a complete collection so I never dust even useless cards.
To all of those that sat through the boring grind of 666 self damage on the warlock quest…..congrats because now that grind is almost unbearable.
I’m glad I did all the achievements as well. For those that didn’t man I feel your pain
Ramming Mount is Banned in Hearthstone's Arena, Offering Rates Adjusting for Balance
It's weird to think about how they are banning an Arena card that I've never even seen played in constructed. Just goes to show how unimportant the board is in the Standard meta.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
As for the 3 HP nerf on The Demon Seed
No, I honestly still believe the problem is still the amount of efficient heals that Warlock has right now, this is going to do nothing substantial in standard but tempt players to dust it.
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
Time to move to Wild I guess. Standard is still as fucked as ever, and this patch isn’t going to change anythin
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
In my honest opinion Mindrender Illucia was only "good" because it was pretty much the one counter to quest rewards in standard, if you were lucky enough to catch them off guard.
I never ran into the card in any other context since it's previous mana nerf.
Now because it was seen in data as "a good card" because it beat 90% of the meta (being any quest deck) and pretty much nothing else, it's been rendered unplayable by a nerf that I think really shouldn't have happened.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Gets a Massive Patch Tomorrow - Datamined Leapfrogger Nerfed Confirmed
Ironically, I played it just now, as other two options from triple were even more useless. It reached 100/100 by the end of the round, and I ended second place due to shitty RNG (to beasts).
Standard and Wild Balance Updates Arrive on Tuesday - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Swaps Decks or Cards, The Demon Seed Banned in Wild
I can't believe they straight-up murdered Illucia. They could have changed her in a way that left her viable in non-aggro archetypes. It has been quite sime time since they utterly trashed a card like this.
Can't wait to start making Wildfire with Wandmaker. Fire Mage is about to get spicy! If it does work, it will be just as overplayed as Quest Mage, and we'll get a whole new round of whining about a whole new Tier 2 deck that's not actually oppressive.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Gets a Massive Patch Tomorrow - Datamined Leapfrogger Nerfed Confirmed
Still counter-able by Poisonous relatively easily, since it has Taunt, so I guess that's why. We shall see.