Its really way too early to say that, game's not even out yet. Blizz did themselves a massive disfavor in not communicating the monetization aspect well (which is likely to be topic no.1 among players anyway) and then did a double fk up by showing not 1, not 2, but 3 different pre-order bundles at a fairly vertical price range.
Theres like a month away from launch and its likely that the heat from this will prompt a few changes. If they hope to avoid being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, I sincerely hope they will.
Quote From CaroComments like these belong in the toxic pile. No game developer ever wants their game to fail. Team 5 isn't intentionally trying to sabotage their own game coz that wouldn't benefit anyone. If Blizzard didn't want HS to succeed, they would've moved most of the developers onto other projects, like they did with Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2. Instead, they've given us 3 new game modes in the space of 3 years (Battlegrounds, Duels and now Mercenaries). They are pushing out more content now than they have in the past because they want the game to succeed! Yes, they do have their faults like not reacting quickly enough to a polarizing meta or not giving Wild enough love, but they not sitting on their hands doing nothing at all either.
Based on what was shown to us I truly believe, that Mercenaries, unlike Battlegrounds, are not designed to be the best game possible but to make most money from lootboxes as possible.
What are you talking about?? If they can sell USD 50,00 bundles based on the "cover" they've shown, than we definitely get to judge it based on it as well. Yes, when the game mode gets released it might be a completely different scenario, but that doesn't negate the criticisms made on what we were presented now.
And cash grab is just the nature of these gatcha games. HS itself is a cash grab. It's a great game! But it's still incredibly reliant on the randomness of packs and the incentive for you to buy more to have fun. It's gambling. Now, not everyone falls for it, but clearly a lot of people do. And they simply replicated for the new mode. It might be more forgiving? Yes. But it's still based on the same system, so it's not going to stray too much from the model we all know.
I was a fanboy once as well but omg, after wasting 200 dollars this expansion on a game I literally haven't played because they killed both Control and Priest and those were the only things I invested in
That the pvp arena is supposed to be the main mode seems to be the general perception, but I feel like the focus, from a gamedesign perspective, lies on the pve part. The mode was announced as a pve experience with an additional pvp version and the game design also reflects that in multiple ways.
1. The Bounties are in the center of the map, while the pvp arena is closer to the edge. That's just a small thing, but it does impact what you unconsciously prioritize.
2. Quests - This one is obviously very vague since they have barely shown any of them, but the ones we do know about can either be completed in every game "Deal 75 damage with arcane shot" or is pve exclusive like "Complete the Ferocious Quillboar bounty". We have yet to see one that rewards you playing pvp.
3. The pvp rewards are limited to once per day. The bounties on the other hand don't have that limit and, judging by the shown gameplay, the pvp rewards don't seem to be much more than the ones for bounties.
4. Building up on that, the bounties have much more contant than the pvp. As I mentioned in my previous comment, there appears to be tons of different bounties. Not only that, but there are bounty loot exclusive attacks, passive Items and ofcourse enemies. When we look at the pvp section again, you'll find out that it uses the same ladder as BG. And just like BG there don't seem to be seasonal rewards. This in combination with my third point again means that playing pve regularely is the optimal way of gaining progress.
So apparently the Discord solved it by now. The puzzle essentially has two stages. A warm-up stage to introduce the concept and a second stage with multiple phases that is truly diabolical.
I'd recommend checking out the solutions in the discord itself, it's a bit hard to sum up, but basically the first step involves adding attack, health and tribe number values to get to your own personal solution.
In the next step you'll be presented with a Chronobreaker on your left and a Buccaneer on your right, whose stats are identical for all players. The discord kind of failed at this one until Celestalon explained the way it was supposed to work which is truly out there. Apparently the randomized opposing board isn't all that randomized and there would be players out there who would have a Chronobreaker or Buccaneer with those exact stats on their board. The challenge was to collect enough data to know what the total "chain" looked like and figure out which exact minions were between the Chronobreaker and the BUccaneer to then add those stats up like in step 1. Pretty damn crazy design and one of the lads even suggested it as a possibility but they just didn't have the data to test the theory.
I think the operative word is "maybe". It's one thing to play 100 games and only get 80% of the way through a grindy achievement, and quite another to play 100 games and still not manage the single condition needed. In the former case, the achievement is an inevitability (even if it's a frustrating one); in the latter you don't know if you'll ever get there, hence the 'maybe'.
This guy lives in an Echo chamber. It's amazing that he makes a living out of running a site for fans of a game, and when the same fans get mad because the game got in such a bad state that everyone is noticing how much of a cash grab the game is his first recommendation is "Find another game".
I was a fanboy once as well but omg, after wasting 200 dollars this expansion on a game I literally haven't played because they killed both Control and Priest and those were the only things I invested in, I felt the hard truth they have a very limited vision and I can't keep supporting a "200 for nothing guaranteed please gift us 300-1000 extra dollars for this other side project we have in mind" that seems like sucks as well.
They need to change things asap and offer something everyone wants to play because "gacha" is not exactly what everyone thinks when the say "Roguelike".
Stop whitewashing Blizzard and accusing the player-base, you should feel bad for doing so.
Reality is stubborn: Bli$$ard is killing Hearthstone just like they killed WoW
Comments like these belong in the toxic pile. No game developer ever wants their game to fail. Team 5 isn't intentionally trying to sabotage their own game coz that wouldn't benefit anyone. If Blizzard didn't want HS to succeed, they would've moved most of the developers onto other projects, like they did with Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2. Instead, they've given us 3 new game modes in the space of 3 years (Battlegrounds, Duels and now Mercenaries). They are pushing out more content now than they have in the past because they want the game to succeed! Yes, they do have their faults like not reacting quickly enough to a polarizing meta or not giving Wild enough love, but they not sitting on their hands doing nothing at all either.
Unfortunately, I think the largest problem with the meta is not fixable without some serious design reconsideration by the dev team. Cards have simply become too powerful across the board, and that's why we see most matches end at turn 7-8. And because of the sheer amount of card draw that's now in the game, you can often go through your entire deck in that time.
Sure, in previous metas, aggro vs. aggro matches would be that quick, but now it's almost every notable match-up. Maybe others disagree, but I think all matches being that short makes each one less memorable.
You shouldn't be forced to play a suboptimal deck for a 100 games to maybe get an achievement.
But I've been doing this for every expansion achievement 💔😓 There's only a handful of achievements like "Share Your Pain" or "Pop goes Divine Shield" that can be completed with meta decks.
Stop whitewashing Blizzard and accusing the player-base, you should feel bad for doing so.
Reality is stubborn: Bli$$ard is killing Hearthstone just like they killed WoW
I just hope that after the last events people open their eyes and can finally understand that the only thing that Blizzard is interested in is making easy money, nothing more. Unfortunately, gone are the days when they intended to make good games.
Anyway, there will be no lack of bootlickers and fanboys who will continue to waste large sums of money in this company, after all, someone has to pay for all those lawyers...
After watching the Mercenaries stream, I was confused AF but also moderately hyped for the mode and just wanted more information (OoC being the first place I went for said information). My personal view was optimistic and enthusiastic for the new mode.... till I started reading comments and watching reaction videos...
Yes, the 30 minute stream was information overload and could have been done better as mentioned above, but that doesn't mean people should lambast the developers and the new mode from the get go when we don't have all the information. I felt so disheartened reading all the comments calling it "Hearthstone: Shadow Legends" or a "cash grab" when absolutely nobody (except the devs themselves) have seen much game play at all. Heck, the stream itself spent 15 min going through each of the points in the Mercenary Village than showing actual gameplay (which should have been a separate stream altogether). This is one of the cases where the phrase "Judging a Book by it's cover" applies 100%.
Complain all you want now, but it means absolutely nothing, coz we haven't played the mode yet. Once the mode releases and we've actually played it, THEN you can complain if you don't enjoy it or if it's rubbish.
I started my first overnight job tonight so I'll have plenty of time to update. In case anyone is a night owl feel free to message me because the hours pass so slow and I would love to chat : D
It is true that the meta is not polarized in a way, that when you encounter deck A with your deck you will win and when you encounter deck B you will lose.
Now it is simple.
You play aggro? You win ~50% against any deck.
You play quest? You win ~50% against any deck.
You play a slower deck hoping to interact on board? Hahaha, no one would play that style while there are quest decks.
I think Flux meant his article well, but it didn't work out. Yes, he correctly stated that attacking anyone is wrong. I can side with that.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, he is wrong in many ways.
He ignores that players make their displeasure so very clear because they love the game. Making the players to be spoiled children throwing themselves on the ground is exactly what the article is aiming against. (But Mom, Wild is Neglected Too!)
Loud discontent has already helped change Reward track for the better. I think many agree that the state of the game after the quests were introduced is not the best. Only aggro strategies or quests work, any style of play where it comes down to interaction on the board are impossible. Games end in round 6-9 by killing an oponent out of hand without any interaction. Is this where the developers want to take the game? Maybe. Is that where the players want the game to go? Many don't. What can players do other than make their displeasure known?
And the not-so-good launch of a new mod whose obvious main goal is to make money has only made it worse. We've already seen that Blizzard's main mistake is not communicating. Not communicating the Reward track, not communicating balance, not communicating the real questions on Mercenaries. Let's not put all the blame on the players.
I get that. But Mercenaries is not only a pve mode. They are clearly incentivizing the pvp aspect with this choice of monetization and from what I've seen in gameplay videos they released, the rewards are bigger in pvp, just like exp in normal HS. Don't get me wrong, it might be great content just like BGs, with lots of f2p resources... but it's still a HS redux in terms of access. And like I said, it didn't need to be. If they think BGs is too cheap, they could've done at least something in the middle of that and normal HS, without delving into the gatcha model.
When I use the term polarization, I had in mind something like ungoro quest rogue, where control matchups are just free wins while against aggro matchups its very near a free win for my opponent. Ive been trying a great deal of different decks but have not really settle on anything because it always seem like there's some matches that I literally can never win against. If my opponent top decks lethal, or rng himself to victory, that's one thing; but right now seems like there's always something, whether its quest shaman or shadow priest, there's always some 80-20 matchups that I just cant imagine beating with my current deck. I gave up on priest in the barrens meta precisely because I just hate how warlocks are auto concede matches.
But as I mentioned, after the 2nd round of nerfs it has gotten better. Let's hope it continues to get better, but I suspect that the powerlevel of the quests are still in the way of a more healthier meta. No one can outvalue quest shaman, quest warlock has inevitability, and quest mage will just kill you on turn 7-8 if you cant heal and/or dont have burn. I agree that we still have the midset so there's hope. But team5 tends to design in advance, so its unlikely we'll see any counter cards for quests, so at some point they'd have to address it. I think its safe to say that the hype is dead and buried by now so there's no reason to delay if there are any plans at all.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Its really way too early to say that, game's not even out yet. Blizz did themselves a massive disfavor in not communicating the monetization aspect well (which is likely to be topic no.1 among players anyway) and then did a double fk up by showing not 1, not 2, but 3 different pre-order bundles at a fairly vertical price range.
Theres like a month away from launch and its likely that the heat from this will prompt a few changes. If they hope to avoid being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, I sincerely hope they will.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Based on what was shown to us I truly believe, that Mercenaries, unlike Battlegrounds, are not designed to be the best game possible but to make most money from lootboxes as possible.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
What are you talking about?? If they can sell USD 50,00 bundles based on the "cover" they've shown, than we definitely get to judge it based on it as well. Yes, when the game mode gets released it might be a completely different scenario, but that doesn't negate the criticisms made on what we were presented now.
And cash grab is just the nature of these gatcha games. HS itself is a cash grab. It's a great game! But it's still incredibly reliant on the randomness of packs and the incentive for you to buy more to have fun. It's gambling. Now, not everyone falls for it, but clearly a lot of people do. And they simply replicated for the new mode. It might be more forgiving? Yes. But it's still based on the same system, so it's not going to stray too much from the model we all know.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Actually Blizzard made Priest a good aggro class
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
That the pvp arena is supposed to be the main mode seems to be the general perception, but I feel like the focus, from a gamedesign perspective, lies on the pve part. The mode was announced as a pve experience with an additional pvp version and the game design also reflects that in multiple ways.
1. The Bounties are in the center of the map, while the pvp arena is closer to the edge. That's just a small thing, but it does impact what you unconsciously prioritize.
2. Quests - This one is obviously very vague since they have barely shown any of them, but the ones we do know about can either be completed in every game "Deal 75 damage with arcane shot" or is pve exclusive like "Complete the Ferocious Quillboar bounty". We have yet to see one that rewards you playing pvp.
3. The pvp rewards are limited to once per day. The bounties on the other hand don't have that limit and, judging by the shown gameplay, the pvp rewards don't seem to be much more than the ones for bounties.
4. Building up on that, the bounties have much more contant than the pvp. As I mentioned in my previous comment, there appears to be tons of different bounties. Not only that, but there are bounty loot exclusive attacks, passive Items and ofcourse enemies. When we look at the pvp section again, you'll find out that it uses the same ladder as BG. And just like BG there don't seem to be seasonal rewards. This in combination with my third point again means that playing pve regularely is the optimal way of gaining progress.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
So apparently the Discord solved it by now. The puzzle essentially has two stages. A warm-up stage to introduce the concept and a second stage with multiple phases that is truly diabolical.
I'd recommend checking out the solutions in the discord itself, it's a bit hard to sum up, but basically the first step involves adding attack, health and tribe number values to get to your own personal solution.
In the next step you'll be presented with a Chronobreaker on your left and a Buccaneer on your right, whose stats are identical for all players. The discord kind of failed at this one until Celestalon explained the way it was supposed to work which is truly out there. Apparently the randomized opposing board isn't all that randomized and there would be players out there who would have a Chronobreaker or Buccaneer with those exact stats on their board. The challenge was to collect enough data to know what the total "chain" looked like and figure out which exact minions were between the Chronobreaker and the BUccaneer to then add those stats up like in step 1. Pretty damn crazy design and one of the lads even suggested it as a possibility but they just didn't have the data to test the theory.
Hearthstone is Looking at Possible Nerfs and Buffs in the September Balance Patch, Wild Balance May be Coming
The one that revolves around redirecting self-damage to your opponent with Blightborn Tamsin's effect.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
I think the operative word is "maybe". It's one thing to play 100 games and only get 80% of the way through a grindy achievement, and quite another to play 100 games and still not manage the single condition needed. In the former case, the achievement is an inevitability (even if it's a frustrating one); in the latter you don't know if you'll ever get there, hence the 'maybe'.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Woah there Flux, that's too far!
I'm joking, of course, no one's day deserves to be ruined for something that's not their fault.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
This guy lives in an Echo chamber. It's amazing that he makes a living out of running a site for fans of a game, and when the same fans get mad because the game got in such a bad state that everyone is noticing how much of a cash grab the game is his first recommendation is "Find another game".
I was a fanboy once as well but omg, after wasting 200 dollars this expansion on a game I literally haven't played because they killed both Control and Priest and those were the only things I invested in, I felt the hard truth they have a very limited vision and I can't keep supporting a "200 for nothing guaranteed please gift us 300-1000 extra dollars for this other side project we have in mind" that seems like sucks as well.
They need to change things asap and offer something everyone wants to play because "gacha" is not exactly what everyone thinks when the say "Roguelike".
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Comments like these belong in the toxic pile. No game developer ever wants their game to fail. Team 5 isn't intentionally trying to sabotage their own game coz that wouldn't benefit anyone. If Blizzard didn't want HS to succeed, they would've moved most of the developers onto other projects, like they did with Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2. Instead, they've given us 3 new game modes in the space of 3 years (Battlegrounds, Duels and now Mercenaries). They are pushing out more content now than they have in the past because they want the game to succeed! Yes, they do have their faults like not reacting quickly enough to a polarizing meta or not giving Wild enough love, but they not sitting on their hands doing nothing at all either.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
Unfortunately, I think the largest problem with the meta is not fixable without some serious design reconsideration by the dev team. Cards have simply become too powerful across the board, and that's why we see most matches end at turn 7-8. And because of the sheer amount of card draw that's now in the game, you can often go through your entire deck in that time.
Sure, in previous metas, aggro vs. aggro matches would be that quick, but now it's almost every notable match-up. Maybe others disagree, but I think all matches being that short makes each one less memorable.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
These Q&A are quite pointless unless he says when and how they will nerf warlock quest, this is getting absurd.
who cares about anything at this point if we cant play Standard or Wild
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
But I've been doing this for every expansion achievement 💔😓 There's only a handful of achievements like "Share Your Pain" or "Pop goes Divine Shield" that can be completed with meta decks.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
"Dean doesn't think Warlock's deck is out of line, its just too consistently powerful."
Facepalm...facedesk....facewall. Repeatedly.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
Stop whitewashing Blizzard and accusing the player-base, you should feel bad for doing so.
Reality is stubborn: Bli$$ard is killing Hearthstone just like they killed WoW
I just hope that after the last events people open their eyes and can finally understand that the only thing that Blizzard is interested in is making easy money, nothing more. Unfortunately, gone are the days when they intended to make good games.
Anyway, there will be no lack of bootlickers and fanboys who will continue to waste large sums of money in this company, after all, someone has to pay for all those lawyers...
Mercenaries: My First Impressions
Thank you. Very good article indeed
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
After watching the Mercenaries stream, I was confused AF but also moderately hyped for the mode and just wanted more information (OoC being the first place I went for said information). My personal view was optimistic and enthusiastic for the new mode.... till I started reading comments and watching reaction videos...
Yes, the 30 minute stream was information overload and could have been done better as mentioned above, but that doesn't mean people should lambast the developers and the new mode from the get go when we don't have all the information. I felt so disheartened reading all the comments calling it "Hearthstone: Shadow Legends" or a "cash grab" when absolutely nobody (except the devs themselves) have seen much game play at all. Heck, the stream itself spent 15 min going through each of the points in the Mercenary Village than showing actual gameplay (which should have been a separate stream altogether). This is one of the cases where the phrase "Judging a Book by it's cover" applies 100%.
Complain all you want now, but it means absolutely nothing, coz we haven't played the mode yet. Once the mode releases and we've actually played it, THEN you can complain if you don't enjoy it or if it's rubbish.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 2 Continues With Week 3
Sad so many Americas GMs are retiring.
On the positive note, the field is so open for any aspiring Americas player to get into GMs.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (Hearthstone Riddles)
Omg I was thinking Thunderhead tooXDXD
I started my first overnight job tonight so I'll have plenty of time to update. In case anyone is a night owl feel free to message me because the hours pass so slow and I would love to chat : D
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
It is true that the meta is not polarized in a way, that when you encounter deck A with your deck you will win and when you encounter deck B you will lose.
Now it is simple.
You play aggro? You win ~50% against any deck.
You play quest? You win ~50% against any deck.
You play a slower deck hoping to interact on board? Hahaha, no one would play that style while there are quest decks.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
I think Flux meant his article well, but it didn't work out. Yes, he correctly stated that attacking anyone is wrong. I can side with that.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, he is wrong in many ways.
He ignores that players make their displeasure so very clear because they love the game. Making the players to be spoiled children throwing themselves on the ground is exactly what the article is aiming against. (But Mom, Wild is Neglected Too!)
Loud discontent has already helped change Reward track for the better. I think many agree that the state of the game after the quests were introduced is not the best. Only aggro strategies or quests work, any style of play where it comes down to interaction on the board are impossible. Games end in round 6-9 by killing an oponent out of hand without any interaction. Is this where the developers want to take the game? Maybe. Is that where the players want the game to go? Many don't. What can players do other than make their displeasure known?
And the not-so-good launch of a new mod whose obvious main goal is to make money has only made it worse. We've already seen that Blizzard's main mistake is not communicating. Not communicating the Reward track, not communicating balance, not communicating the real questions on Mercenaries.
Let's not put all the blame on the players.
Rant: Why Devs Making New Content Aren't Ruining the Game, Players Are
I get that. But Mercenaries is not only a pve mode. They are clearly incentivizing the pvp aspect with this choice of monetization and from what I've seen in gameplay videos they released, the rewards are bigger in pvp, just like exp in normal HS. Don't get me wrong, it might be great content just like BGs, with lots of f2p resources... but it's still a HS redux in terms of access. And like I said, it didn't need to be. If they think BGs is too cheap, they could've done at least something in the middle of that and normal HS, without delving into the gatcha model.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #28 - Warlock in Wild, Arena, Rewards Track Cosmetics Coming for Mercenaries & Battlegrounds, & More
When I use the term polarization, I had in mind something like ungoro quest rogue, where control matchups are just free wins while against aggro matchups its very near a free win for my opponent. Ive been trying a great deal of different decks but have not really settle on anything because it always seem like there's some matches that I literally can never win against. If my opponent top decks lethal, or rng himself to victory, that's one thing; but right now seems like there's always something, whether its quest shaman or shadow priest, there's always some 80-20 matchups that I just cant imagine beating with my current deck. I gave up on priest in the barrens meta precisely because I just hate how warlocks are auto concede matches.
But as I mentioned, after the 2nd round of nerfs it has gotten better. Let's hope it continues to get better, but I suspect that the powerlevel of the quests are still in the way of a more healthier meta. No one can outvalue quest shaman, quest warlock has inevitability, and quest mage will just kill you on turn 7-8 if you cant heal and/or dont have burn. I agree that we still have the midset so there's hope. But team5 tends to design in advance, so its unlikely we'll see any counter cards for quests, so at some point they'd have to address it. I think its safe to say that the hype is dead and buried by now so there's no reason to delay if there are any plans at all.
Going Forward, Characters in Hearthstone Won't be Named After Employees
Who is Samwirse Didier?