Of all the Hearthstone conspiracy theories I have heard, this is probably the most delusional. I could theoretically see blizzard rigging packs to keep you from getting good cards without paying money, or rigging your ranked games to keep you from . . . something? Getting the legend card back? I don't know. But there is no way blizzard is rigging arena of all things to keep you at exactly 6 wins. Of all the ways blizzard could cheat, scam, or hoodwink it's players, arena has to be amongst the least profitable.
As Thraxus mentioned above, the shift in the power of both your opponents draft and skill luck is likely due to the fact that at that point in the run you are only being paired with other people who have gotten around 6 wins. In other words, you are only being paired with people who have very strong decks. Whereas in the early part of your run you could be paired with anybody.
I can understand being suspicious about the fairness of the matchmaking, but where you really lost all your credibility (though little it was) was when you accused blizzard of using bots to keep you away from 7 wins. This notion is ridiculous for many reasons. First it is unlikely that blizzard is rigging arena at all. And even if they were they would likely do it in the drafting phase rather than in the match making. And even if they were to rig the match making they could just match your 6 win deck against say, an 11 win deck to decrease your chances of winning and it would be a million times easier. But even if blizzard were so despicable, maniacal, and devious to wave a shiny 150 gold reward in your face, and then proceed to rig the matchmaking to keep you away from it, programming bots to get the luckiest possible draws would be a whole new level of cruel. Also, based on all of the solo content available in Hearthstone so far, blizzard doesn't yet have the technology to make an impressive AI, let alone a realistic one who could accurately mimic a human in terms of things like hovering over the board and the time taken between plays.
I feel like there hasn't been that many Demon Hunter cards in these competitions recently, so here you go.
EDIT: OH FUCK! In the midst of stuff I was doing when I made the card yesterday and trying to find a good Demon Hunter character, I completely blanked out on the fact that it's supposed to be a re-imagining of a Classic Legendary. Well uh, I guess Illidan technically is a Classic Legendary.
I guess, just judge the card by its effect and I will change the artwork to be Illidan??? Or I'll likely just make a different card.
If somebody doesn't know, he's salty because there's a big reward gap between 6 and 7 wins, around 70+ gold. Yes, 6 wins is above average, but 7 wins is the sweet spot.
Technically, it could be profitable for them to match 6 wins with better decks on 7+ scale, or with a better deck (since they track relative deck power as well), but it just wasn't the case in my experience. I haven't noticed any significant difference when I am on 6w, except that my nervousness goes up and my thinking sharpens to try to break the threshold. Also, I remember adding people in that range a few times, asking for their w/l, and we had the same score most of the time (it's usually more mixed once you reach higher, say 10 wins).
So I don't think they do it. Even if you get matched with someone who has 1 win more, the difficulty difference shouldn't be that high.
I can confirm that the last 2 achievements I have yet to complete are not designed properly: TormentedHearts and Kresh Got Back. There is little to no progress possible with them because they are just too damn difficult. In the previous expansion we had the Greybough achievement which was tedious, but at least there was progress albeit very slow.
I would also argue that Tormented Hearts is buggy, because the game did not increase the progression count properly. My opponent played 2 spells discounted via Palm Reading whilst I had a Taintheart Tormenter on board and the achievement only went up by 2 points. The discount my opponent got should have nothing to do with my achievement progress but apparently it did which is wrong IMO. By the way, if it does work as intended it means this achievement is even worse to complete.
Well, that's kinda the same experience anyone whos ever gone that far with arena in hearthstone. Post 7 wins nearly every deck reaches some sort of psuedo constructed levels of power and you either match their level or get rekt 3 times in a row.
I wouldn't say that there's anything scummy behind this. I mean, just look at the bots in the adventures and tell me that blizz is capable of building AI that can truly pilot a deck the same way a human can, and not get found out immediately.
Guessing he did it after bc that will trigger the achievment. So guessing they only tracked after it was implemented. But he's earned that 30 achievement points for finishing it with all classes. Seems about fair ;)
7 wins again, this time with "play holy, discover class card" and scrolls of wonder. Lost vs Mirror priest, shaman murlock and mage loop, but won vs two shamans murlock and another priest with fireshaper
I can understand your sentiment, but I think this is a case of confirmation bias. Blizzard has no motive to rig the MM against you as in a given game there is always one winner and one loser. The issue here in my opinion is as following: The MM matches people with similiar win/loss ratios if possible. At low level this means that I as a pretty experienced Arena player can face a fair amount of less experienced opponents who tend to draft worse and make more mistakes. Once I hit around 5-6 wins this changes as the less experienced players are mostly eliminated by then and leaves me with the good players and the crazy decks. Also the deck quality is significantly up at this point. I hit 7 wins quite regular and at that level you have to expect crazy shit like combos, high value legendaries or perfect counter plays pretty much every game. So nothig special about that. One of my more memorable runs last week ended at around 8 or 9 wins facing a rogue who managed to play no less than three Alex and one Ysera that game (mostly generated via that stupid lackey). But that is only slightly out of the ordinary at that level.
Similarly, if I come back to an arena run after a while, it doesn't matter if I went 5-0, 7-0 or whatever, I instantly lose the next 3 matches no matter what.
As I posted in YouTube chat at the time, people encouraged Gaby and cheered him on when he was showing off during the recent Masters Tour ("So refreshing to see a major competitor not act like a robot"). xBlyzes' reaction is the other side of that coin, and in my opinion, neither is healthy. Yes, they are young, but they still remain top-level athletes, and if they want to have a lasting career, they sorely need some mental/emotional coaching as soon as possible -- just like regular young athletes. Otherwise, they are liable to implode and self-destruct once they hit a streak of disappointing results.
Playoffs were crazy. I've been really impressed with Blitzchung this season (those Token Druid Specialist weeks were amazing) so I'm very happy he managed to get so far, even if he didn't manage to win it all.
Also really happy for Frenetic, going from danger of being relegated to winning it all. His lineup was just immaculate, punishing all the greed he accurately predicted the other players would bring. Gotta love it when somebody brings Face Hunter.
In America's I'm a bit sad that Rami didn't end up winning, since I really like his energy and deck choices, but props to Nalguidan. He deserves it based on that Arcane Intellect play alone. He's also been grinding at the highest level for years so I'm happy that he now gets to prove himself and represent Latin America on the big stage. Also, mark my words: there will be no NA representation at World's this year. LatAm is just too good.
All in all, a very fun tournament. Hope they learn from it for the second season (specialist still sucks), and looking forward to Dalaran.
Why do you have to be salty about it? I mean, you getting to 6 wins in Arena is totally above average. Many people including me had a hard time to even get a nice 3 or 4 wins. Even I can only reach 7 wins in arena in my whole time playing Hearthstone.
Besides, arena is all about getting the best RNG. making the custom deck, getting the best mulligan, best counter, best draws etc. The fact that you can't get past 6 maybe because your RNG is not as good as others.
Bots? Who knows! But they do match you with people of different records and deck power if they can't find an opponent similar to you play against you after X amount of time in a queue. So maybe with the decline of Arena's popularity you are actually just getting matched against really good players, with really good decks that are better than your deck around the point you get to the 6 win mark because there aren't enough people around your deck's level to play against at that point?
Keep in mind, the average number of Arena wins per run is 3 (or at least it used to be several years ago). This occurred because some people go 0-3, and very few people go 12-0, 12-1, or 12-2. So it actually averaged out that 3-3 was the typical Arena run when the mode was much more popular.
This happens to me way too often for it to be a coincidence: I'm strolling along with a good deck I put together doing well and encountering players that have equal decks to mine.
Then I hit six wins and suddenly boss mode is enabled. My opponents have perfect decks and make perfect plays while the primo cards that helped get me to 6 suddenly fail to show up or curve is bust.
Not in my head. This is crafty business decisions to not want to give away anything for free because otherwise decent players like myself could string winning arena runs more often and not really need to pay cash.
Which is fine... If it was transparent. Instead I get this frustrating experience where I can't enjoy the game on a level playing field. I wouldn't be surprised if they have bots set up for it
Ok, now it's your turn to reply with the obsequious "this belongs in a salt thread" and "I can't agree with anything upset so I 100% disagree even though i don't know how it really works" comments. Go:
The tier 6 murloc is better than Brand since you don't have to use a space for him. Sure you can't cycle battlecrys but many turns you don't use that many.
Where are all the BG players at?? OoC is such a graveyard
Arena 6 Win Scam
Of all the Hearthstone conspiracy theories I have heard, this is probably the most delusional. I could theoretically see blizzard rigging packs to keep you from getting good cards without paying money, or rigging your ranked games to keep you from . . . something? Getting the legend card back? I don't know. But there is no way blizzard is rigging arena of all things to keep you at exactly 6 wins. Of all the ways blizzard could cheat, scam, or hoodwink it's players, arena has to be amongst the least profitable.
As Thraxus mentioned above, the shift in the power of both your opponents draft and skill luck is likely due to the fact that at that point in the run you are only being paired with other people who have gotten around 6 wins. In other words, you are only being paired with people who have very strong decks. Whereas in the early part of your run you could be paired with anybody.
I can understand being suspicious about the fairness of the matchmaking, but where you really lost all your credibility (though little it was) was when you accused blizzard of using bots to keep you away from 7 wins. This notion is ridiculous for many reasons. First it is unlikely that blizzard is rigging arena at all. And even if they were they would likely do it in the drafting phase rather than in the match making. And even if they were to rig the match making they could just match your 6 win deck against say, an 11 win deck to decrease your chances of winning and it would be a million times easier. But even if blizzard were so despicable, maniacal, and devious to wave a shiny 150 gold reward in your face, and then proceed to rig the matchmaking to keep you away from it, programming bots to get the luckiest possible draws would be a whole new level of cruel. Also, based on all of the solo content available in Hearthstone so far, blizzard doesn't yet have the technology to make an impressive AI, let alone a realistic one who could accurately mimic a human in terms of things like hovering over the board and the time taken between plays.
The Lich King is Being Disabled in Hearthstone's Battlegrounds Until the Next Major Patch
I saw Xixo's tweet and I was very surprised!
The Price Of Progress - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I feel like there hasn't been that many Demon Hunter cards in these competitions recently, so here you go.
EDIT: OH FUCK! In the midst of stuff I was doing when I made the card yesterday and trying to find a good Demon Hunter character, I completely blanked out on the fact that it's supposed to be a re-imagining of a Classic Legendary. Well uh, I guess Illidan technically is a Classic Legendary.
I guess, just judge the card by its effect and I will change the artwork to be Illidan??? Or I'll likely just make a different card.
RB8647poke's Big Deathrattle Demon Hunter
Thanks! Glad you appreciated it!
RB8647poke's Big Deathrattle Demon Hunter
I love this list and the baffled pause by the opponent when the Fel Summoner arrives.... nice work
wiRer's Evolve Shaman
Ah yes... it's big brain time.
Arena 6 Win Scam
If somebody doesn't know, he's salty because there's a big reward gap between 6 and 7 wins, around 70+ gold. Yes, 6 wins is above average, but 7 wins is the sweet spot.
Technically, it could be profitable for them to match 6 wins with better decks on 7+ scale, or with a better deck (since they track relative deck power as well), but it just wasn't the case in my experience. I haven't noticed any significant difference when I am on 6w, except that my nervousness goes up and my thinking sharpens to try to break the threshold. Also, I remember adding people in that range a few times, asking for their w/l, and we had the same score most of the time (it's usually more mixed once you reach higher, say 10 wins).
So I don't think they do it. Even if you get matched with someone who has 1 win more, the difficulty difference shouldn't be that high.
New FanArt Brawl #15 'Hot Azeroth's Summer' Hosted By Anton Zemskov Has Started!
Or Master of Ceremonies
Or Druid of the Scythe
or Illidari Initiate
Achievement Hunting: Wailing Caverns edition
Thanks for the guide!
I can confirm that the last 2 achievements I have yet to complete are not designed properly: Tormented Hearts and Kresh Got Back. There is little to no progress possible with them because they are just too damn difficult. In the previous expansion we had the Greybough achievement which was tedious, but at least there was progress albeit very slow.
I would also argue that Tormented Hearts is buggy, because the game did not increase the progression count properly. My opponent played 2 spells discounted via Palm Reading whilst I had a Taintheart Tormenter on board and the achievement only went up by 2 points. The discount my opponent got should have nothing to do with my achievement progress but apparently it did which is wrong IMO. By the way, if it does work as intended it means this achievement is even worse to complete.
Arena 6 Win Scam
Well, that's kinda the same experience anyone whos ever gone that far with arena in hearthstone. Post 7 wins nearly every deck reaches some sort of psuedo constructed levels of power and you either match their level or get rekt 3 times in a row.
I wouldn't say that there's anything scummy behind this. I mean, just look at the bots in the adventures and tell me that blizz is capable of building AI that can truly pilot a deck the same way a human can, and not get found out immediately.
New FanArt Brawl #15 'Hot Azeroth's Summer' Hosted By Anton Zemskov Has Started!
On the contrary I raise you Priestess of Fury
I believe
The Two Rarest Achievements in Hearthstone To Date Are, Unsurprisingly, Arena and Duels Related
Guessing he did it after bc that will trigger the achievment. So guessing they only tracked after it was implemented. But he's earned that 30 achievement points for finishing it with all classes. Seems about fair ;)
Miracle Priest
7 wins again, this time with "play holy, discover class card" and scrolls of wonder. Lost vs Mirror priest, shaman murlock and mage loop, but won vs two shamans murlock and another priest with fireshaper
great starter deck, I recommend!
Arena 6 Win Scam
I can understand your sentiment, but I think this is a case of confirmation bias. Blizzard has no motive to rig the MM against you as in a given game there is always one winner and one loser. The issue here in my opinion is as following: The MM matches people with similiar win/loss ratios if possible. At low level this means that I as a pretty experienced Arena player can face a fair amount of less experienced opponents who tend to draft worse and make more mistakes. Once I hit around 5-6 wins this changes as the less experienced players are mostly eliminated by then and leaves me with the good players and the crazy decks. Also the deck quality is significantly up at this point. I hit 7 wins quite regular and at that level you have to expect crazy shit like combos, high value legendaries or perfect counter plays pretty much every game. So nothig special about that. One of my more memorable runs last week ended at around 8 or 9 wins facing a rogue who managed to play no less than three Alex and one Ysera that game (mostly generated via that stupid lackey). But that is only slightly out of the ordinary at that level.
Arena 6 Win Scam
I know how you feel bro XD
Similarly, if I come back to an arena run after a while, it doesn't matter if I went 5-0, 7-0 or whatever, I instantly lose the next 3 matches no matter what.
New FanArt Brawl #15 'Hot Azeroth's Summer' Hosted By Anton Zemskov Has Started!
Instantly think of Living Seed (Rank 1)
All the best for the art competition guys, definitely a fun theme
New FanArt Brawl #15 'Hot Azeroth's Summer' Hosted By Anton Zemskov Has Started!
Illidan doesn't even need to change outfit
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Playoffs Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
As I posted in YouTube chat at the time, people encouraged Gaby and cheered him on when he was showing off during the recent Masters Tour ("So refreshing to see a major competitor not act like a robot"). xBlyzes' reaction is the other side of that coin, and in my opinion, neither is healthy. Yes, they are young, but they still remain top-level athletes, and if they want to have a lasting career, they sorely need some mental/emotional coaching as soon as possible -- just like regular young athletes. Otherwise, they are liable to implode and self-destruct once they hit a streak of disappointing results.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Playoffs Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
Playoffs were crazy. I've been really impressed with Blitzchung this season (those Token Druid Specialist weeks were amazing) so I'm very happy he managed to get so far, even if he didn't manage to win it all.
Also really happy for Frenetic, going from danger of being relegated to winning it all. His lineup was just immaculate, punishing all the greed he accurately predicted the other players would bring. Gotta love it when somebody brings Face Hunter.
In America's I'm a bit sad that Rami didn't end up winning, since I really like his energy and deck choices, but props to Nalguidan. He deserves it based on that Arcane Intellect play alone. He's also been grinding at the highest level for years so I'm happy that he now gets to prove himself and represent Latin America on the big stage. Also, mark my words: there will be no NA representation at World's this year. LatAm is just too good.
All in all, a very fun tournament. Hope they learn from it for the second season (specialist still sucks), and looking forward to Dalaran.
Arena 6 Win Scam
Why do you have to be salty about it? I mean, you getting to 6 wins in Arena is totally above average. Many people including me had a hard time to even get a nice 3 or 4 wins. Even I can only reach 7 wins in arena in my whole time playing Hearthstone.
Besides, arena is all about getting the best RNG. making the custom deck, getting the best mulligan, best counter, best draws etc. The fact that you can't get past 6 maybe because your RNG is not as good as others.
The Two Rarest Achievements in Hearthstone To Date Are, Unsurprisingly, Arena and Duels Related
Ok, ten person
Arena 6 Win Scam
Bots? Who knows! But they do match you with people of different records and deck power if they can't find an opponent similar to you play against you after X amount of time in a queue. So maybe with the decline of Arena's popularity you are actually just getting matched against really good players, with really good decks that are better than your deck around the point you get to the 6 win mark because there aren't enough people around your deck's level to play against at that point?
Keep in mind, the average number of Arena wins per run is 3 (or at least it used to be several years ago). This occurred because some people go 0-3, and very few people go 12-0, 12-1, or 12-2. So it actually averaged out that 3-3 was the typical Arena run when the mode was much more popular.
Arena 6 Win Scam
This happens to me way too often for it to be a coincidence: I'm strolling along with a good deck I put together doing well and encountering players that have equal decks to mine.
Then I hit six wins and suddenly boss mode is enabled. My opponents have perfect decks and make perfect plays while the primo cards that helped get me to 6 suddenly fail to show up or curve is bust.
Not in my head. This is crafty business decisions to not want to give away anything for free because otherwise decent players like myself could string winning arena runs more often and not really need to pay cash.
Which is fine... If it was transparent. Instead I get this frustrating experience where I can't enjoy the game on a level playing field. I wouldn't be surprised if they have bots set up for it
Ok, now it's your turn to reply with the obsequious "this belongs in a salt thread" and "I can't agree with anything upset so I 100% disagree even though i don't know how it really works" comments. Go:
The Price Of Progress - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Can I name him a Master Tinkmaster? (:
Ideas for better Battlegrounds Tribal Units
The tier 6 murloc is better than Brand since you don't have to use a space for him. Sure you can't cycle battlecrys but many turns you don't use that many.
Where are all the BG players at?? OoC is such a graveyard