The most worrying thing is that there’s a class with a worse win rate than Priest. That’s how you know things are unbalanced. The Priest’s core identity is being challenged!
no, Thrall is coming later, his new skin is already in the game.
Also, Malfurion Gul'dan (and maybe Illidan I guess?) are still coming down the line. They're just doing different characters inbetween because of the whole theme of the year
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did a “Book of X” for the next expansion or the last expansion of the year. People are assuming from the year of the gryphon expansion teaser image that there’ll be an Alliance themed expansion after this one follow by and AvH expansion of some kind. That gives Team 5 a lot of room to create more lore within Hearthstone, and thus, more heroes/mercenaries/X to fit into the story they’re trying to tell. It’s not a year long narrative like Year of the Dragon, but it’ll be loosely tied together.
This is all just a guess anyway based on the image linked above.
I think the real issue here is unfortunately Cannonmaster Smythe is currently bad. If you're not going the libram route, its better to go for early game and burst late game with weapons like Hammer of the Naaru. Your early game tempo and secrets should be enough to handle mage so your late game just steamroll past their mana cheating bs while against other paladin there's early game Crabrider, Crossroads Gossiper and Conviction (Rank 1) which should be enough to pull through to the finish line.
The deck dominates at lower ranks where people don't know how to play around the secrets. People I play against constantly pop the secrets when it's not necessary to, which allows me to snowball with the tempo gained and the Crossroads Gossiper. However, a friend of mine who plays at above 500 legend says the deck is trash because people realise that the deck doesn't actually have much gas as long as you don't pop the secrets. The only way the Paladin gains tempo is by constraining your plays, but if played correctly, they won't have much they'll be able to do.
Hearthstone isn't fun right now. Between the insane power of the Paladins, the damn towers that kill all the decks that kill Mages, and the Lunacy of Mages, I can't find anything fun to play. I'm super salty about Paladin and have been for a while. Nuke them back to the stone age. Take their swords and core.
But, since I happen to have Lunacy and all the BS for that deck, here I go! I'll cast more Nagrand Slams as mage than I ever have as Hunter. I wish I could play that card as a Hunter.
Mage got propelled to insane levels due to the bad cards being rotated out. I will be honest I thought the problem card would have been Jandice Barov rather than Deck of Lunacy . And I am sure that Jandice will still be an issue if left untouched.
While I think this is one of the more disgusting early meta we have seen. Lets not forget that day 1 DH was so busted it needed multiple day 2 nerfs and more the following weeks. Then ofcourse there was Galakrond Shaman which was the best aggro, midrange and control deck when it just got released.
Like Yourprivatenightmare I too think people are focusing on mage too much and not on Paladin at all. The secrets are annoying but that is not the real reason why they are good right now. Sword of the Fallen is effectively a recruit card for cards you don't want to draw.
Another reason is, last year around this time Paladin was one of the worst classes of the game. They didn't add a lot of good cards to paladin in the year of the Dragon. (remember the year of the Dragon would normaly have had Genn and Baku Paladin was the only class with a good odd and even deck And because T5 works about 3 expansions ahead for a long time that was going to be what they had to work with)
So they got a few buffs on the libram set. Which was needed. However T5 kept adding really solid cards to paladin the last year to get Paladin up to par.
The last point is that Paladin got a way better core set. It lost a lot of bad cards. And the secrets are now playable aswell.
Which culminated to a point where paladin lost almost nothing from the year of the dragon, got very good cards in the year of the Pheonix and gained the single best card from this set with Sword of the Fallen .
no, Thrall is coming later, his new skin is already in the game.
Also, Malfurion Gul'dan (and maybe Illidan I guess?) are still coming down the line. They're just doing different characters inbetween because of the whole theme of the year
I cant understand ppl that say random is fun. U literally arent playing a win con game. No startegy just trust on the gaming gods. How is that fun? U win not ur fault u lose not ur fault. Fun?
Random isn't fun when it's something like "randomly generate massive power swings" like the ones we see with Deck of Lunacy, but there are lots of way that random can be rewarding. I think the Discover mechanic is a good example of this - it gets to be skill testing by seeing how well you pick the right card for the situation at hand.
Other "heavily random" strategies include Miracle Priest and Burgle Rogue, both of which are decently popular (historically speaking). They satisfies the "Timmy/Tammy" player's desire for big, exciting turns, but it also gives you a chance to see what you can do with a pile of random cards (not all that unlike a Sealed or Draft game of MTG). Having to cobble together a strategy based on a handful of random cards can be very skill testing, and it's certainly a great way to add variety to your games.
Notably, those two archetypes tend to have lower average power levels for their random cards, and they don't get the major discounts associated with Deck of Lunacy. Those two factors are a big part of why the randomness of No Minion Mage today is so unfun.
The weird part about Lunacy mage is that when you leave out Lunacy (which I do because I don't like casino mage) it's still incredibly overpowered and easy to level with.
My other two cents, both mage and paladin are fun to play right now, so it's basicly all i did, just like most.
I don't actually recall there ever being any pack drops for Grandmasters specifically, and this should be a first for Youtube Hearthstone? It's nice to see them finally extending it to proper esport events, even if it seems too modest for weeks 2-7. Still much better than nothing and complete lack of promotion that they've had so far.
I agree with you regarding the major bait and switch with all these midrange decks. I was really excited about playing tempo/midrange decks, and have just been clobbered on ladder. But I don't think you can reasonably argue that Tickatus Warlock is responsible for the metagame.
For one, Warlock is no more than about 10% of the decks being played right now (as indicated by the chart in this article). For another, the stats on HSReplay indicate that it loses a lot to Hunter and Demon Hunter, but Paladin and Mage wreck those classes right now (at winrates around 70% for the former, and 60% for the latter).
I get why people hate Tickatus, and any metagame that's dominated by a card that can wipe out a third of your deck over the course of a game is certainly unfun if it's a top meta deck. But I don't think that's true today for Tickatus Warlock, and I think seeing the traditionally aggro and tempo classes regain traction on the ladder would naturally decrease its play rates.
The more highroll-y nature of pally and mage drawing specific cards in the first few turns can make it feel worse, certainly, but I'm not sure it actually is. At least I have more hope when they don't highroll than I ever did against the more consistent DH and Galakrond Shaman.
In the end the human brain is pretty bad at comparing emotions separated by a year, and usually treats present emotions as stronger than past ones, even if they actually aren't. That is not to say "I'm right, you're wrong", just that it's probably not possible to compare them fairly.
So no, this is not a uniquely bad start, but instead seems to be a common symptom of adding fancy new things without the capacity to test them fully. In this case the move from Classic to Core sets threw a lot of decks in the air, and I appreciate how hard it was to see where they'd all land. I'm still willing to point fingers where its obvious though (I'm looking at you Galakrond Shaman).
The other factor here is rotation. I've been trying to play Taunt Druid on ladder (without much success), and I've noticed that Teacher's Pet has a much better deathrattle nowadays because of how small the 3-drop beast pool has gotten.
I think Mage and Paladin have been similarly improved on the fringes thanks to rotation, which is really hard to fully account for in testing. Combine that with great new stuff like "0 mana draw 2" and you get this kind of mess. Still, this is egregious enough that I'm surprised they didn't see it coming.
The funniest part is that people are so preoccupied with trying to abuse Mage that they don't realise that Paladin is even stronger because it literally doesn't have a counter.
I really hope we get a hotfix this week or else I'll just complete my dailies in Tavern Brawl and not touch the game otherwise.
I don't think we ever had a first week meta that was so bad that basically any and all meme decks are completely unplayable because you can't actually win these matchups without going hard on the turn 1 tempo.
I think you're slightly exaggerating. Dhunters on week 1 was absolutely crushing everything, and so did galakrond shaman week 1. This may not be the healthiest week 1 for a while, but there's no denying its nothing compared to the two named above.
Also, paladin has counters. But since its also very weak to mage, its reasonably not explored much. Shadow Hunter Vol'jin is a good counter, to either remove the Libram of Wisdoms or get one of those pesky Pen Flingers out. Its not even strictly a bad card on its own to be honest.
ESPC
Wish I really opened this!
Watch Post And Learn - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I'm still looking for art for a more creative idea, but I had to get this out of my head first. Inner Demon on a stick, kind of.
Edit: The text misses "this turn". Thanks for the pointer, cydonianknight!
Rokara's Warrior Book of Mercenaries Datamined - Bosses, Decks, and Voicelines
I like Rokara. Going to craft that card with my Lunacy dust.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
The most worrying thing is that there’s a class with a worse win rate than Priest. That’s how you know things are unbalanced. The Priest’s core identity is being challenged!
Rokara's Warrior Book of Mercenaries Datamined - Bosses, Decks, and Voicelines
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did a “Book of X” for the next expansion or the last expansion of the year. People are assuming from the year of the gryphon expansion teaser image that there’ll be an Alliance themed expansion after this one follow by and AvH expansion of some kind. That gives Team 5 a lot of room to create more lore within Hearthstone, and thus, more heroes/mercenaries/X to fit into the story they’re trying to tell. It’s not a year long narrative like Year of the Dragon, but it’ll be loosely tied together.
This is all just a guess anyway based on the image linked above.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
I think the real issue here is unfortunately Cannonmaster Smythe is currently bad. If you're not going the libram route, its better to go for early game and burst late game with weapons like Hammer of the Naaru. Your early game tempo and secrets should be enough to handle mage so your late game just steamroll past their mana cheating bs while against other paladin there's early game Crabrider, Crossroads Gossiper and Conviction (Rank 1) which should be enough to pull through to the finish line.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
The deck dominates at lower ranks where people don't know how to play around the secrets. People I play against constantly pop the secrets when it's not necessary to, which allows me to snowball with the tempo gained and the Crossroads Gossiper. However, a friend of mine who plays at above 500 legend says the deck is trash because people realise that the deck doesn't actually have much gas as long as you don't pop the secrets. The only way the Paladin gains tempo is by constraining your plays, but if played correctly, they won't have much they'll be able to do.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
Hearthstone isn't fun right now. Between the insane power of the Paladins, the damn towers that kill all the decks that kill Mages, and the Lunacy of Mages, I can't find anything fun to play. I'm super salty about Paladin and have been for a while. Nuke them back to the stone age. Take their swords and core.
But, since I happen to have Lunacy and all the BS for that deck, here I go! I'll cast more Nagrand Slams as mage than I ever have as Hunter. I wish I could play that card as a Hunter.
Can we talk about Jaraxxus yet?
Agree, Tickatus would be fine, if uncorrupted mills the player, corrupted mills the player and also his opponent.
Would still be playable in no deck Warlock archetype Blizzard is pushing.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
Mage got propelled to insane levels due to the bad cards being rotated out. I will be honest I thought the problem card would have been Jandice Barov rather than Deck of Lunacy . And I am sure that Jandice will still be an issue if left untouched.
While I think this is one of the more disgusting early meta we have seen. Lets not forget that day 1 DH was so busted it needed multiple day 2 nerfs and more the following weeks. Then ofcourse there was Galakrond Shaman which was the best aggro, midrange and control deck when it just got released.
Like Yourprivatenightmare I too think people are focusing on mage too much and not on Paladin at all. The secrets are annoying but that is not the real reason why they are good right now. Sword of the Fallen is effectively a recruit card for cards you don't want to draw.
Another reason is, last year around this time Paladin was one of the worst classes of the game. They didn't add a lot of good cards to paladin in the year of the Dragon. (remember the year of the Dragon would normaly have had Genn and Baku Paladin was the only class with a good odd and even deck And because T5 works about 3 expansions ahead for a long time that was going to be what they had to work with)
So they got a few buffs on the libram set. Which was needed. However T5 kept adding really solid cards to paladin the last year to get Paladin up to par.
The last point is that Paladin got a way better core set. It lost a lot of bad cards. And the secrets are now playable aswell.
Which culminated to a point where paladin lost almost nothing from the year of the dragon, got very good cards in the year of the Pheonix and gained the single best card from this set with Sword of the Fallen .
Watch Post And Learn - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Feedback later maybe
Hearthstone Patch 20.0.1 Arrives on April 5 - Removes Pen Flinger From Duels' Designer Bucket & Plenty of Card Bug Fixes
No, actually. It's never worked that way, only since Patch 20.0 it started behaving differently. So now it's back to how it always was.
Rokara's Warrior Book of Mercenaries Datamined - Bosses, Decks, and Voicelines
no, Thrall is coming later, his new skin is already in the game.
Also, Malfurion Gul'dan (and maybe Illidan I guess?) are still coming down the line. They're just doing different characters inbetween because of the whole theme of the year
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
Random isn't fun when it's something like "randomly generate massive power swings" like the ones we see with Deck of Lunacy, but there are lots of way that random can be rewarding. I think the Discover mechanic is a good example of this - it gets to be skill testing by seeing how well you pick the right card for the situation at hand.
Other "heavily random" strategies include Miracle Priest and Burgle Rogue, both of which are decently popular (historically speaking). They satisfies the "Timmy/Tammy" player's desire for big, exciting turns, but it also gives you a chance to see what you can do with a pile of random cards (not all that unlike a Sealed or Draft game of MTG). Having to cobble together a strategy based on a handful of random cards can be very skill testing, and it's certainly a great way to add variety to your games.
Notably, those two archetypes tend to have lower average power levels for their random cards, and they don't get the major discounts associated with Deck of Lunacy. Those two factors are a big part of why the randomness of No Minion Mage today is so unfun.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
The weird part about Lunacy mage is that when you leave out Lunacy (which I do because I don't like casino mage) it's still incredibly overpowered and easy to level with.
My other two cents, both mage and paladin are fun to play right now, so it's basicly all i did, just like most.
Free Card Pack Drops Return to Hearthstone Grandmasters Streams, Masters Tour, and World Championship
I don't actually recall there ever being any pack drops for Grandmasters specifically, and this should be a first for Youtube Hearthstone? It's nice to see them finally extending it to proper esport events, even if it seems too modest for weeks 2-7. Still much better than nothing and complete lack of promotion that they've had so far.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
This has 100% been my experience trying to target No Minion Mage, and it hasn't gotten me very far
Hearthstone is unplayable right now
I used a similar list a few days ago. Worked quite good, but I only made a few test games and there weren't so many Paladins and Mages.
Rokara's Warrior Book of Mercenaries Datamined - Bosses, Decks, and Voicelines
So we're basically skipping guldan and thrall now?
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
I agree with you regarding the major bait and switch with all these midrange decks. I was really excited about playing tempo/midrange decks, and have just been clobbered on ladder. But I don't think you can reasonably argue that Tickatus Warlock is responsible for the metagame.
For one, Warlock is no more than about 10% of the decks being played right now (as indicated by the chart in this article). For another, the stats on HSReplay indicate that it loses a lot to Hunter and Demon Hunter, but Paladin and Mage wreck those classes right now (at winrates around 70% for the former, and 60% for the latter).
I get why people hate Tickatus, and any metagame that's dominated by a card that can wipe out a third of your deck over the course of a game is certainly unfun if it's a top meta deck. But I don't think that's true today for Tickatus Warlock, and I think seeing the traditionally aggro and tempo classes regain traction on the ladder would naturally decrease its play rates.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
The more highroll-y nature of pally and mage drawing specific cards in the first few turns can make it feel worse, certainly, but I'm not sure it actually is. At least I have more hope when they don't highroll than I ever did against the more consistent DH and Galakrond Shaman.
In the end the human brain is pretty bad at comparing emotions separated by a year, and usually treats present emotions as stronger than past ones, even if they actually aren't. That is not to say "I'm right, you're wrong", just that it's probably not possible to compare them fairly.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
The other factor here is rotation. I've been trying to play Taunt Druid on ladder (without much success), and I've noticed that Teacher's Pet has a much better deathrattle nowadays because of how small the 3-drop beast pool has gotten.
I think Mage and Paladin have been similarly improved on the fringes thanks to rotation, which is really hard to fully account for in testing. Combine that with great new stuff like "0 mana draw 2" and you get this kind of mess. Still, this is egregious enough that I'm surprised they didn't see it coming.
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
So guess who has dusted his Deck of Lunacy when Barrens hit because the card is trash and the dust was needed for shiny new stuff?
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
Sorry for not being clearer (if you didn't come up with 30 and someone downvoted you it's my fault for not laying out the numbers better).
30 = 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 2*2 + 4*1
Mage and Paladin are Dominating Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Meta With Over 50% of Decks Played
I think you're slightly exaggerating. Dhunters on week 1 was absolutely crushing everything, and so did galakrond shaman week 1. This may not be the healthiest week 1 for a while, but there's no denying its nothing compared to the two named above.
Also, paladin has counters. But since its also very weak to mage, its reasonably not explored much. Shadow Hunter Vol'jin is a good counter, to either remove the Libram of Wisdoms or get one of those pesky Pen Flingers out. Its not even strictly a bad card on its own to be honest.