I don't necessarily agree with you. I've gotten five folks to pick up this game in the last few years. Among those, all of them turned to YouTube and Twitch for deckbuilding ideas and amusing content. They wanted to see what sort of decks and ideas professional players and content creators had, because there's a brain-smotheringly large amount of deck-building options out there.
Granted, those five were more interested in Legend play than they were in out-of-client happenings like tournaments. However, I believe that's because tournaments weren't on their radar. After all, tournament play isn't so different from high-rank Legend play - hype, professionals, cool decks, et cetera. One is shown in-client and one isn't - that's the difference. If tournaments were showcased on the front page of their experience, players would search in that realm for cool ideas, personalities, and decks as well.
If you want a real-world example of this, take Shadowverse, which often holds in-client casual tournaments for cosmetic rewards. They have ranked matchmaking for them and devs keep track of successful decks, showcasing the best or most interesting in-client at the end of each month. Most players participate in those, and if one of the decks showcased is a bit silly or memey, you know you'll inevitably see a fair amount of it on ladder as well. Casual players can enjoy tournaments.
I don't know the rest of the thoughts, sometimes I feel that I'm not alone with that. I just did my first steps with other f2p card games but the progression and the feel of obtaining good card is way better than HS. I played HS since the beginning but right now I don't feel comfortable paying for more packs but didn't being able to construct a decent deck for the classes I love most to play with.
I just wanted to piggyback onto this to say that I dabbled with a different card game recently also, deciding I'd give MTG Arena a try when I was more frustrated with the early state of the battle pass. It totally blew me away with how easy it was to jump into that game, with the starter quest sequence resulting in a new player having one deck for each color as well as one deck for each combination of colors. And the decks are like... not horrible? I started playing some ranked matches just to see how it would go, expecting mostly to lose every game, and the pre-made red/green deck with no changes made by me has gotten me to the platinum tier. It's amazing.
I would rather play Hearthstone, all things considered, but seeing another game's new player experience really opened my eyes.
I'm a bit confused about the lore when Rexxar was mentioned lost in Azeroth due to the Dark Portal being destroyed, yet somehow ended up in Kalimdor where he then met with Thrall after the World Tree Event. How?
I only noticed this because I did played the custom maps for Rexxar in Warcraft 3, and I'm sure Ogrimmar was in Kalimdor because Thrall and Jaina traveled there to stop Archimonde.
These are great points. If the team had a Rehab Month, in which they set all else to the side and put everyone at work on quality of life improvements, taking Hearthstone into the new year, other PR garbage, that would be very, very welcome.
That said, playing other card games like Mythgard or Faeria helps me appreciate Hearthstone's collection manager. It's not terribly functional, no, but it is smooth and easy to use. Building decks in most other card games is a frustrating experience. Laggy lists, huge lists, odd menus, no search functionality, separate crafting and deckbuilding pages, et cetera.
"We'll have an additional advent calendar available for the entire month of January featuring more themed rewards. Stay tuned!"
Just curious, will more cool cosmetics still be added during this snowpocalypse event? If not, then I know how many snowflakes in total I need to convert into cosmetics and the remainder I can spend on (throwing) snowballs 😋 assuming that the next snowpocalypse event uses a different kind of patent-pending snowflakes.
If you don't understand something, then the first thing you should do is to read the full answer:
Illucia is mean. I've answered questions like this previously but it's just finding a balance. Some people literally play Hearthstone to cackle and do mean things like Illucia or Tickatus. We make those cards for them. (Source)
The hope is that the niche of players who absolutely love that stuff can do it, but it's a low enough power level that it's not taking over all of Hearthstone. I think the world where Illucia is the best card in Hearthstone is a world we've messed up. (Source)
Your sources are from twitter. Expecting every person to follow a twitter account just to get a full spectrum of answers is asinine. Consequently you're also being pedantic with the response "If you dont understand something, then you should...read the full answer".
Literally if there were the ability to block someone on here you would be my first. Downvote away.
Edit: You also never actually replied with your own opinion on the cards. Instead you made a snarky quip, and then posted two twitter sources. If ever an appeal to authority existed, your reply is definitely it.
"Feedback from such a fixed audience can be dangerous, though. Easy to trick yourself into believing that is everyone."
Everyone on these community sites needs to read this quote and read it again. These communities, even all of them added together, do not represent the majority of the player base.
In Cyclone Mage you could look at it as giving you an Elemental Evocation. In that scenario they would essentially do the same thing. In Wild you could also hold two of these in your hand, essentially use them to make Sorcerer's Apprentice free (play Apprentice > Biscuit), and then drop Archmage Antonidas into double Molten Reflection. I know there are a billion ways to get this combo off in Wild, but this is just another way without using Emperor Thaurissan.
Give +1/+2 and Taunt to minions you summon during combat.
Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to these new Heroes before they’re formally released on February 4.
NEW BATTLEGROUNDS MINIONS
Soul Devourer
[Tier 3, Demon] 3 Attack, 3 Health
Battlecry: Choose a friendly Demon. Remove it to gain its stats and 3 Gold.
Ring Matron
[Tier 4, Demon] 6 Attack, 4 Health
Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon two 3/2 Imps.
MINION POOL UPDATE
Floating Watcher has been removed from the Battlegrounds Minion pool.
The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
Hearthstone’s first ever Mini-Set, The Darkmoon Races, features 35 unique cards—4 Legendary, 1 Epic (x2), 14 Rare (x2), and 16 Common (x2) for a total of 66 new cards that draw on familiar card mechanics from throughout the Year of the Phoenix! Collectible Darkmoon Races Mini-Set cards can be found in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs, and the entire set is available for purchase from the in-game or web shop for $14.99 or 2000 Gold. Read more about the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set here!
Duels Updates
The Duels Mid-Season Update will add 10 new Hero Powers, 25 new Signature Treasures (5 of which are Dual-Class), 4 new Passive Treasures, and 2 new Active Treasures on January 21! Heroic and Casual ratings will reset with the 19.4 patch, and new Achievements will become available for you to complete. Read more about the Duels Mid-Season Update here!
Dev Comment: There is a known issue where the countdown timer at the bottom of the Duels start screen is incorrect. Duels ratings will reset with the 19.4 patch on January 21.
Arena Rotation
When the 19.4 patch is released on January 21, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:
Fixed a Battlegrounds bug where Argent Braggart would not retain stat buffs when tripled.
Fixed a bug where Malevolent Strike would not discount itself when created by Deck of Lunacy.
Fixed a bug where losing control of a minion immediately when it comes into play (such as playing Silas Darkmoon on an empty board) would not correctly Corrupt cards in hand.
Fixed a bug where the ‘created by’ tag on generated cards was showing up as ‘UNKNOWN ENTITY’ when played.
Fixed a bug where Glinda Crowskin would not grant Echo to cards modified by Deck of Chaos.
Fixed a visual bug where transforming a Dormant minion could make it appear to retain buffs while Dormant.
Fixed a visual bug where Corrupted minions appeared to respawn on the board after being destroyed.
Fixed a visual bug where viewing progress for quests such as Open the Waygate would no longer highlight cards in hand that did not start in your deck.
Fixed a visual bug where Zombeasts in play only displayed card text for the first beast selection when using the Build-A-Beast Hero Power.
Passive Treasures offered between matches in Duels should now present more options that are better suited for the class you're playing.
Coming February 2 - Book of Heroes Anduin
Raised with the expectation he would follow in his father’s footsteps, Prince Anduin has instead forged his own way through the grace of the Light. He learned to wield holy magic as well as a sword, making him a unique figure among the royalty of Azeroth. Thus armed, Anduin has embarked on numerous adventures as far away as the storied realm of Pandaria and as close as the decaying ruins of Lordaeron.
Follow Anduin’s journey in the next installment of Hearthstone Book of Heroes, releasing on February 2! Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Priest Pack, containing only Priest cards from Standard!
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, Ayala! We've told you over and over that the way to make the game friendlier to new players is to change the goddamned business model!
All of this hand-wringing over which mode would or would not be noob-friendly is INSANE when it costs literally hundreds of dollars to buy into the game in the first place, or to re-enter after a long break.
Skill-based matchmaking makes ZERO sense for Arena. He's right that such a change would greatly annoy existing Arena players.
It's OK to have a mode that doesn't pamper new players. If they absolutely must do it, I would hope they just add a casual Arena mode with no rewards beyond XP. That might actually be a fun compromise, but it would further dilute the queue, and I'm not sure Arena has enough players to keep queue times reasonable if they split it like that.
Man i had a really awesome priest draft, like exceptional, and i still didnt find myself playing it in two months, pretty sad that arena leaves me with such a bad feeling lately that i dont even want to play the good decks.
This is interesting. You don't get the possibility of lethal on the turn you play it. But it will most likely clear one enemy minion. If it lasts to the next turn you get face damage and a minion clear every turn. Not a bad effect.
I actually love their fun factor. Not all of them are Hard Hitters, but most seem fun as f... Have 17 packs to open, will do after buying so I get more missing legs and epics.
I just don't know what to think here. It is a strong card on its own, but can you force your opponent to play into it in the manner in which it is intended? Guardian Animals might be its best option but even then it can be inconsistent.
If you keep your armor after not developing on board from turn 2, this can be a rough card to deal with. I'm just not sure that it is impactful enough on a consistent basis to make it worth running.
This is proably a card that will surface in later decks once the rotation happens. I don't think it replaces any of the current weapons that warrior has access to right now.
This is a great Warlock card. It does exactly what any Warlock deck already wants to do. Honestly, this would be a good card for almost any class in almost any deck.
Hearthstone Patch 19.4 and Darkmoon Races Mini Set is Now Live!
Guess I know what I am going to be doing in my off time today
Blizzard is Exploring Adding More Complete Player Profiles to Hearthstone
I don't necessarily agree with you. I've gotten five folks to pick up this game in the last few years. Among those, all of them turned to YouTube and Twitch for deckbuilding ideas and amusing content. They wanted to see what sort of decks and ideas professional players and content creators had, because there's a brain-smotheringly large amount of deck-building options out there.
Granted, those five were more interested in Legend play than they were in out-of-client happenings like tournaments. However, I believe that's because tournaments weren't on their radar. After all, tournament play isn't so different from high-rank Legend play - hype, professionals, cool decks, et cetera. One is shown in-client and one isn't - that's the difference. If tournaments were showcased on the front page of their experience, players would search in that realm for cool ideas, personalities, and decks as well.
If you want a real-world example of this, take Shadowverse, which often holds in-client casual tournaments for cosmetic rewards. They have ranked matchmaking for them and devs keep track of successful decks, showcasing the best or most interesting in-client at the end of each month. Most players participate in those, and if one of the decks showcased is a bit silly or memey, you know you'll inevitably see a fair amount of it on ladder as well. Casual players can enjoy tournaments.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
I just wanted to piggyback onto this to say that I dabbled with a different card game recently also, deciding I'd give MTG Arena a try when I was more frustrated with the early state of the battle pass. It totally blew me away with how easy it was to jump into that game, with the starter quest sequence resulting in a new player having one deck for each color as well as one deck for each combination of colors. And the decks are like... not horrible? I started playing some ranked matches just to see how it would go, expecting mostly to lose every game, and the pre-made red/green deck with no changes made by me has gotten me to the platinum tier. It's amazing.
I would rather play Hearthstone, all things considered, but seeing another game's new player experience really opened my eyes.
The Story of Rexxar: The Missing Pages of Book of Heroes
I'm a bit confused about the lore when Rexxar was mentioned lost in Azeroth due to the Dark Portal being destroyed, yet somehow ended up in Kalimdor where he then met with Thrall after the World Tree Event. How?
I only noticed this because I did played the custom maps for Rexxar in Warcraft 3, and I'm sure Ogrimmar was in Kalimdor because Thrall and Jaina traveled there to stop Archimonde.
The Darkmoon Races Mini Set Full Card List - See All 35 New Darkmoon Faire Cards In One Place!
I think you probably want to be careful with that as it encourages the wrong sort of behavior.
Blizzard is Exploring Adding More Complete Player Profiles to Hearthstone
These are great points. If the team had a Rehab Month, in which they set all else to the side and put everyone at work on quality of life improvements, taking Hearthstone into the new year, other PR garbage, that would be very, very welcome.
That said, playing other card games like Mythgard or Faeria helps me appreciate Hearthstone's collection manager. It's not terribly functional, no, but it is smooth and easy to use. Building decks in most other card games is a frustrating experience. Laggy lists, huge lists, odd menus, no search functionality, separate crafting and deckbuilding pages, et cetera.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
I don't even user Twitter myself, I copied the full answers from this article...
Snowpocalypse
According to the Event Calendar FAQ:
"We'll have an additional advent calendar available for the entire month of January featuring more themed rewards. Stay tuned!"
Just curious, will more cool cosmetics still be added during this snowpocalypse event? If not, then I know how many snowflakes in total I need to convert into cosmetics and the remainder I can spend on (throwing) snowballs 😋 assuming that the next snowpocalypse event uses a different kind of patent-pending snowflakes.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
Your sources are from twitter. Expecting every person to follow a twitter account just to get a full spectrum of answers is asinine. Consequently you're also being pedantic with the response "If you dont understand something, then you should...read the full answer".
Literally if there were the ability to block someone on here you would be my first. Downvote away.
Edit: You also never actually replied with your own opinion on the cards. Instead you made a snarky quip, and then posted two twitter sources. If ever an appeal to authority existed, your reply is definitely it.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
"Feedback from such a fixed audience can be dangerous, though. Easy to trick yourself into believing that is everyone."
Everyone on these community sites needs to read this quote and read it again. These communities, even all of them added together, do not represent the majority of the player base.
Conjure Mana Biscuit
In Cyclone Mage you could look at it as giving you an Elemental Evocation. In that scenario they would essentially do the same thing. In Wild you could also hold two of these in your hand, essentially use them to make Sorcerer's Apprentice free (play Apprentice > Biscuit), and then drop Archmage Antonidas into double Molten Reflection. I know there are a billion ways to get this combo off in Wild, but this is just another way without using Emperor Thaurissan.
Envoy Rustwix
I just found what I'm gonna play day1. Thanks you.
19.4 Patch Notes
Source: https://playhearthstone.com/en-gb/news/23591149/19-4-patch-notes?blzcmp=app
Battlegrounds Updates
NEW BATTLEGROUNDS HEROES
Tickatus
Greybough
Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to these new Heroes before they’re formally released on February 4.
NEW BATTLEGROUNDS MINIONS
Soul Devourer
Ring Matron
MINION POOL UPDATE
The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
Duels Updates
Dev Comment: There is a known issue where the countdown timer at the bottom of the Duels start screen is incorrect. Duels ratings will reset with the 19.4 patch on January 21.
Arena Rotation
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
Coming February 2 - Book of Heroes Anduin
Raised with the expectation he would follow in his father’s footsteps, Prince Anduin has instead forged his own way through the grace of the Light. He learned to wield holy magic as well as a sword, making him a unique figure among the royalty of Azeroth. Thus armed, Anduin has embarked on numerous adventures as far away as the storied realm of Pandaria and as close as the decaying ruins of Lordaeron.
Follow Anduin’s journey in the next installment of Hearthstone Book of Heroes, releasing on February 2! Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Priest Pack, containing only Priest cards from Standard!
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, Ayala! We've told you over and over that the way to make the game friendlier to new players is to change the goddamned business model!
All of this hand-wringing over which mode would or would not be noob-friendly is INSANE when it costs literally hundreds of dollars to buy into the game in the first place, or to re-enter after a long break.
Blizzard is Exploring Adding More Complete Player Profiles to Hearthstone
No interest in this at all, and I'd rather see the team spend its time on something else.
Dean Ayala Could See Hearthstone's Arena With Skill-Based Matchmaking - Is It Right For The Game?
Skill-based matchmaking makes ZERO sense for Arena. He's right that such a change would greatly annoy existing Arena players.
It's OK to have a mode that doesn't pamper new players. If they absolutely must do it, I would hope they just add a casual Arena mode with no rewards beyond XP. That might actually be a fun compromise, but it would further dilute the queue, and I'm not sure Arena has enough players to keep queue times reasonable if they split it like that.
New Neutral Minion - Deathwarden
An interesting tech card that would have been nice back in the deathrattle heyday times. I don't see a use for it now but maybe in some future metas.
The Darkmoon Races Brings a New Hearthstone Arena Rotation - Don't Forget Your "Free" Tavern Ticket
Man i had a really awesome priest draft, like exceptional, and i still didnt find myself playing it in two months, pretty sad that arena leaves me with such a bad feeling lately that i dont even want to play the good decks.
New Neutral Minion - Crabrider
This has to go in a murloc themed deck right? I don't know that it has enough stats on its own to be just a rush/removal tool.
New Neutral Minion - Runaway Blackwing
This is interesting. You don't get the possibility of lethal on the turn you play it. But it will most likely clear one enemy minion. If it lasts to the next turn you get face damage and a minion clear every turn. Not a bad effect.
I highly recommend against buying the mini xpac..
I actually love their fun factor. Not all of them are Hard Hitters, but most seem fun as f... Have 17 packs to open, will do after buying so I get more missing legs and epics.
New Neutral Minion - Moonfang
I just don't know what to think here. It is a strong card on its own, but can you force your opponent to play into it in the manner in which it is intended? Guardian Animals might be its best option but even then it can be inconsistent.
New Warrior Minion - Ironclad
If you keep your armor after not developing on board from turn 2, this can be a rough card to deal with. I'm just not sure that it is impactful enough on a consistent basis to make it worth running.
New Warrior Weapon - Spiked Wheel
This is proably a card that will surface in later decks once the rotation happens. I don't think it replaces any of the current weapons that warrior has access to right now.
New Warlock Spell - Backfire
This is a great Warlock card. It does exactly what any Warlock deck already wants to do. Honestly, this would be a good card for almost any class in almost any deck.