“We will still have in-game events, of course, but they will remain consistent with our existing approach to event rewards instead of rewarding bonus XP for the rewards track.”
So yes, there will be events. We’ll get cards or packs from them.
The takeaway from this is that we’ll no longer get slightly fewer rewards in return for slightly more work. Not it legitimately sounds like slightly more rewards for the same amount of work as before. There are still reasons to dislike the system, but they’re generally reasons why one wouldn’t have liked Hearthstone to begin with.
They look pretty snazzy if I do say so myself! The icon of the class, and it's associated color, I like it! Honestly, Garrosh's story looks the most interesting, especially the Anduin fight
Wahoo! This is good news! GREAT news, even! Slicing off 20% percent of the requirement, allowing Tavern Brawls and even Battlegrounds to contribute and we even get a bit of compensation! Dalaran Underbelly, here I come
This is weak imo. But at least I'm not losing gold compared to the old system but still, I was really disappointed when I reached the level 150 change, because it made me realise that most of these stuff are a mediocre increase in exp, and unless I'm reading it wrong there won't be events at all? so they literally just gave us the events exp so in many ways this is just the same greedy system.
Blizzard will always remain at fault for refusing to document how the reward pass worked and not talking about how much XP we could expect from events. They failed to paint the full picture, it was like one of those botched Spanish restorations, and because of that, the community went wild.
They knew it was going to be datamined with everything being client-side. They would be fools to think otherwise after having the game datamined for the past 7 years.
I just wish places would have better controlled and directed the outrage. A lot of it was just senseless bashing without any constructive discussion. Even some pillars of the community failed to do the right thing and approach it from a constructive POV, furthering the outrage. I get it though, outrage gets clicks. Outrage makes you important.
Well, this seems to be headed in the right direction at l(e)ast. However, one thing I'd like to see addressed is the discrepancy between Standard and Wild in terms of quest completion. Play X Corrupt cards etc. may be all fine and dandy for Standard and require no extra effort on the player's part, but in Wild Corrupt is utterly useless. There's like...what, three, four Corrupt cards in the entire set that you MIGHT consider including if you wanted to get funky. I think one, two tops, see regular play, one of which is in a highlander deck. I get that tying your reward track to the set mechanic is logically sound but unless your set mechanic is viable in practice in all formats (which it never will be), Wild players get hamstrung by essentially getting worse quests.
The same goes for set-based achievements (which happen to be the only ones that award XP). Unless you want to go out of your way to farm these in Casual, you're not completing most of these in Wild.
The larger discussions around this topic have really clarified for me the value proposition of Hearthstone. The entire economy is based around being a CCG simulator. I remember when I discovered Hearthstone in 2014 how excited I was by its affordability compared to IRL MTG which I had abandoned over a decade earlier because of cost. There was something satisfying about opening packs and building a collection. It scratched an itch. Six years and thousands of packs later and I could care less about that simulated experience. If I'm paying $45, let alone $80, I want the full game experience. If not on release, then at least halfway through the expansion cycle. Not having a complete set of cards after paying $80 is beyond absurd.
These rewards track improvements are GOOD REFORMS to a BAD SYSTEM. Frankly, MTG was designed to be a rip-off, layered on top of a fantastic game (I can't speak to the MTG Arena economy). The rarity system of cards and incomplete collections are artifacts of a predatory model of manufactured scarcity (literal and figurative). There's no place for it anymore. I only played Runeterra for a month or so, but it seemed to be taking a good approach to limiting card collections for the sake of the meta vs. allowing F2P players to amass a full collection before the next expansion (correct me if I'm wrong). But more and more generous rewards systems simply seem to be ignoring the fact that the game doesn't need to operate via packs at all.
I also think that these rewards track reforms don't go far enough in addressing the player-base for Arena and Heroic Duels. Additional game modes have both a time and gold cost (including Battlegrounds Perks). There needs to be low barriers of entry to play for different game modes. Arena/Duels tickets, and probably generic pack tickets, need to become an official currency. Maybe reward players with a free ticket if they complete all their weekly quests. Be transparent on the XP rewards for playing in these modes. I'm just imagining a system where you knew if you paid $45 for the expansion you could be free to spend your gold on the game modes of your choice instead of miserly scrounging for 40-dust packs in the hopes of a legendary. Duels really hooked me at first, but I'm feeling too punished for a bad-run when I can't earn daily gold. I'm not sure if a 20% decrease in XP requirements really addresses that tension.
I've taken the last couple weeks to log off Hearthstone for the first time in a few years. I've been playing my back-catalog of Steam games, and it's just astounding how far $45, let alone $80 will go with other games. I agree very strongly with the recent assessments that Hearthstone is F2P, but Pay-To-Have-Fun. I'll probably check back in with Hearthstone in a couple weeks when the rewards track gets updated, but I have a hard time seeing myself going back to the level of play I've sustained over the last few years. It's not "fun" unless you invest A LOT of money AND time, and that's not fun.
Do you feel partly responsible for the outrage? (You shouldn't) As outof.cards was the first site to release (Great job btw. For giving us important info) the data-mine about the rewards track XP.
I'm not trying to say anything just genuinely curious.
These changes seem pretty good. It's especially nice that we will be able to complete quests in Tavern Brawl or Battlegrounds now. I simply don't like the state of the ladder and it feels bad to be forced to play there for the quests. My only question is if the update is coming this week or on December 15th. Regardless, it's good to know that i won't be forced to play ranked anymore to complete quests when it's in a horrible state. Some freedom of choice is really nice.
Honestly, i question why have "low tier" quests to begin with, lowering the difference to 100xp from 200xp compared to the regular 1k xp quests is nice, but it is such a small amount, why even bother?
Runeterra does this right, they have a baseline xp and "highroll" quests you can roll into, or simply just reroll a quest you dont feel like doing without a fear of getting a one with inferior reward.
I dont want to keep on the complain train, these announced changes are good, just some things seem like they r there for no real reason, thats all.
I'm more disappointed in the community for acting the way they did (reddit mainly). It will always take time for a large company to go through the processes to make an announcement, and that's after they figure out what to do. The silence definitely sucked, even a "we're still working out the details" would have been nice, but we knew they weren't going to let this be the failure of the game.
I'd still really like to see a bonus chunk of XP for completing your weekly brawl as a further incentive for people to dive into the mode for a couple of games a week, but this is 100% a step in the right direction. Reward consistency is so key to making it feel like a good experience and they've hit the nail on the head by not only reducing XP required but also by putting more gains into the system.
Seems like a solid update that addresses a lot of the issues people had with the new system. I'm especially glad to see things like the Quests that required Legendaries be addressed - that felt like something they could easily just glance over.
I'm also glad that they acknowledge that additional event experience should not be considered when looking at progression along the rewards track - that should be an extra bonus, not something required to get the full experience.
The final note that these changes aren't the end of it is also a welcome one. While what we see here looks good, we can't be complacent with stuff like this. It's always good to be vigilant with rewards systems, because they're so easy to tweak to be worse - MTGA has a battle pass that has been consistently priced the same, despite not always running for the same length of time or offering the same amount of rewards, as an example.
Disappointed that it took this long to address, but very optimistic with how they've addressed it.
These are very good first changes to the reward track. No more 800 xp quests + no quests that needed certain legendaries/wins in arena are very nice start.
It definitely replaces Decimate in burn like cursed parrot said.
I think it's hard to say if it will replace Decimate in PnZ Nox burn. I think I can see it easier with both of them being run. This card is probably a lot worse in burn than Decimate since this card is basically just -1 damage and costs 1 more than Get Excited! I could see both being run in burn but I can't ever see Decimate being replaced.
Also, I don't believe this is Viktor's Champ spell because they usually reveal it along with the Champion.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
“We will still have in-game events, of course, but they will remain consistent with our existing approach to event rewards instead of rewarding bonus XP for the rewards track.”
So yes, there will be events. We’ll get cards or packs from them.
The takeaway from this is that we’ll no longer get slightly fewer rewards in return for slightly more work. Not it legitimately sounds like slightly more rewards for the same amount of work as before. There are still reasons to dislike the system, but they’re generally reasons why one wouldn’t have liked Hearthstone to begin with.
The Designs of the Class-Specific Packs Coming From Book of Heroes
They look pretty snazzy if I do say so myself! The icon of the class, and it's associated color, I like it! Honestly, Garrosh's story looks the most interesting, especially the Anduin fight
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Really? This is what's been dominating the current meta.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Blows party horn
Wahoo! This is good news! GREAT news, even! Slicing off 20% percent of the requirement, allowing Tavern Brawls and even Battlegrounds to contribute and we even get a bit of compensation! Dalaran Underbelly, here I come
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
This is weak imo. But at least I'm not losing gold compared to the old system but still, I was really disappointed when I reached the level 150 change, because it made me realise that most of these stuff are a mediocre increase in exp, and unless I'm reading it wrong there won't be events at all? so they literally just gave us the events exp so in many ways this is just the same greedy system.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Nope!
Blizzard will always remain at fault for refusing to document how the reward pass worked and not talking about how much XP we could expect from events. They failed to paint the full picture, it was like one of those botched Spanish restorations, and because of that, the community went wild.
They knew it was going to be datamined with everything being client-side. They would be fools to think otherwise after having the game datamined for the past 7 years.
I just wish places would have better controlled and directed the outrage. A lot of it was just senseless bashing without any constructive discussion. Even some pillars of the community failed to do the right thing and approach it from a constructive POV, furthering the outrage. I get it though, outrage gets clicks. Outrage makes you important.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
I don't have to luxury of having Roffle's heavily tanked MMR ;)
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Maybe try this deck.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Well, this seems to be headed in the right direction at l(e)ast. However, one thing I'd like to see addressed is the discrepancy between Standard and Wild in terms of quest completion. Play X Corrupt cards etc. may be all fine and dandy for Standard and require no extra effort on the player's part, but in Wild Corrupt is utterly useless. There's like...what, three, four Corrupt cards in the entire set that you MIGHT consider including if you wanted to get funky. I think one, two tops, see regular play, one of which is in a highlander deck. I get that tying your reward track to the set mechanic is logically sound but unless your set mechanic is viable in practice in all formats (which it never will be), Wild players get hamstrung by essentially getting worse quests.
The same goes for set-based achievements (which happen to be the only ones that award XP). Unless you want to go out of your way to farm these in Casual, you're not completing most of these in Wild.
Six New Cards Revealed for Runeterra's Cosmic Creation Expansion Including Piltover's Landmark
Man, love me some mill decks!
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
These are decent improvements BUT...
The larger discussions around this topic have really clarified for me the value proposition of Hearthstone. The entire economy is based around being a CCG simulator. I remember when I discovered Hearthstone in 2014 how excited I was by its affordability compared to IRL MTG which I had abandoned over a decade earlier because of cost. There was something satisfying about opening packs and building a collection. It scratched an itch. Six years and thousands of packs later and I could care less about that simulated experience. If I'm paying $45, let alone $80, I want the full game experience. If not on release, then at least halfway through the expansion cycle. Not having a complete set of cards after paying $80 is beyond absurd.
These rewards track improvements are GOOD REFORMS to a BAD SYSTEM. Frankly, MTG was designed to be a rip-off, layered on top of a fantastic game (I can't speak to the MTG Arena economy). The rarity system of cards and incomplete collections are artifacts of a predatory model of manufactured scarcity (literal and figurative). There's no place for it anymore. I only played Runeterra for a month or so, but it seemed to be taking a good approach to limiting card collections for the sake of the meta vs. allowing F2P players to amass a full collection before the next expansion (correct me if I'm wrong). But more and more generous rewards systems simply seem to be ignoring the fact that the game doesn't need to operate via packs at all.
I also think that these rewards track reforms don't go far enough in addressing the player-base for Arena and Heroic Duels. Additional game modes have both a time and gold cost (including Battlegrounds Perks). There needs to be low barriers of entry to play for different game modes. Arena/Duels tickets, and probably generic pack tickets, need to become an official currency. Maybe reward players with a free ticket if they complete all their weekly quests. Be transparent on the XP rewards for playing in these modes. I'm just imagining a system where you knew if you paid $45 for the expansion you could be free to spend your gold on the game modes of your choice instead of miserly scrounging for 40-dust packs in the hopes of a legendary. Duels really hooked me at first, but I'm feeling too punished for a bad-run when I can't earn daily gold. I'm not sure if a 20% decrease in XP requirements really addresses that tension.
I've taken the last couple weeks to log off Hearthstone for the first time in a few years. I've been playing my back-catalog of Steam games, and it's just astounding how far $45, let alone $80 will go with other games. I agree very strongly with the recent assessments that Hearthstone is F2P, but Pay-To-Have-Fun. I'll probably check back in with Hearthstone in a couple weeks when the rewards track gets updated, but I have a hard time seeing myself going back to the level of play I've sustained over the last few years. It's not "fun" unless you invest A LOT of money AND time, and that's not fun.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Do you feel partly responsible for the outrage? (You shouldn't) As outof.cards was the first site to release (Great job btw. For giving us important info) the data-mine about the rewards track XP.
I'm not trying to say anything just genuinely curious.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Yay. Good. This looks, at first glance, to be actually better. Now, GIVE ME MORE! BUWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
These changes seem pretty good. It's especially nice that we will be able to complete quests in Tavern Brawl or Battlegrounds now. I simply don't like the state of the ladder and it feels bad to be forced to play there for the quests. My only question is if the update is coming this week or on December 15th. Regardless, it's good to know that i won't be forced to play ranked anymore to complete quests when it's in a horrible state. Some freedom of choice is really nice.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Honestly, i question why have "low tier" quests to begin with, lowering the difference to 100xp from 200xp compared to the regular 1k xp quests is nice, but it is such a small amount, why even bother?
Runeterra does this right, they have a baseline xp and "highroll" quests you can roll into, or simply just reroll a quest you dont feel like doing without a fear of getting a one with inferior reward.
I dont want to keep on the complain train, these announced changes are good, just some things seem like they r there for no real reason, thats all.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Finally!!!!
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
This is where the fun begins
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
THis is somehow what I wanted =) Well rest of the changes are good too, but this was like my main concern, chunks were too big...
Rewards Track: Current progress
Lvl 40 and half here with todays Daily and Weekly quests. Hope the new system will be better/faster than this. Cheers.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
I'm more disappointed in the community for acting the way they did (reddit mainly). It will always take time for a large company to go through the processes to make an announcement, and that's after they figure out what to do. The silence definitely sucked, even a "we're still working out the details" would have been nice, but we knew they weren't going to let this be the failure of the game.
I'd still really like to see a bonus chunk of XP for completing your weekly brawl as a further incentive for people to dive into the mode for a couple of games a week, but this is 100% a step in the right direction. Reward consistency is so key to making it feel like a good experience and they've hit the nail on the head by not only reducing XP required but also by putting more gains into the system.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Just came in to see these changes. After so long silence, finally something.
"We’re thankful and fortunate to have such a passionate community, and your constructive feedback is always heard."
Ben Lee, Game Director
XD
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
Seems like a solid update that addresses a lot of the issues people had with the new system. I'm especially glad to see things like the Quests that required Legendaries be addressed - that felt like something they could easily just glance over.
I'm also glad that they acknowledge that additional event experience should not be considered when looking at progression along the rewards track - that should be an extra bonus, not something required to get the full experience.
The final note that these changes aren't the end of it is also a welcome one. While what we see here looks good, we can't be complacent with stuff like this. It's always good to be vigilant with rewards systems, because they're so easy to tweak to be worse - MTGA has a battle pass that has been consistently priced the same, despite not always running for the same length of time or offering the same amount of rewards, as an example.
Disappointed that it took this long to address, but very optimistic with how they've addressed it.
Blizzard Responds to the Hearthstone Rewards Track - Less XP Required, Gold Bonus Next Week, More XP Gains
These are very good first changes to the reward track. No more 800 xp quests + no quests that needed certain legendaries/wins in arena are very nice start.
New Piltover & Zaun Spell - Aftershock
I think it's hard to say if it will replace Decimate in PnZ Nox burn. I think I can see it easier with both of them being run. This card is probably a lot worse in burn than Decimate since this card is basically just -1 damage and costs 1 more than Get Excited! I could see both being run in burn but I can't ever see Decimate being replaced.
Also, I don't believe this is Viktor's Champ spell because they usually reveal it along with the Champion.
Hearthstone's Journal May See The Return of Total Win Count and Arena Wins in The Future
Good god no, I think I'd literally die of shock!