Well... I just hit level 27 in the rewards track and got the Ashes of Outland pack. Normally, this would be really bad (and it is for the vast majority of players) but the pack gave me Ysiel Windsinger. This wouldn't be anything special if it wasn't for the fact that i also received Lady Vashj from the previous Ashes of Outland pack in the reward track. So, i was one of the lucky enough people to not be screwed by these otherwise really low value rewards. I still think they should change it but i'll take it.
The 'Pity Timer' mechanic currently only exists because of mainland chinese gambling law.
Hopefully this change is indicative of a general reform away from the pack system? I doubt it, but the way EU legislation is leaning, I don't know how much longer hearthstone can keep propping up a system that most players, as far as I have seen, put up with as a genre trope rather than enjoying.
Now that I thinked better, I believe that the "Health Transfer" of Persistent Spirit doesn't work as I intended, because unless it's destroyed, his Health will be 0 or negative when he dies in trades.
I'm considering to transfer only the Attack and Deathrattle now. 😅
Here's my first idea. The Corrupt mechanic is ideal for mimic chests, even if it's not related to faires like most Corrupt cards.
Not sure if it's a bit too weak in its regular form. In fact, it was originally a 1 mana 0/2 which gained +3 Attack, but that can't participate in this comp, so I had to rehash it the best I could. If you can think of a better statline than this, that would be very welcome.
Quick feedback:
Demonxz95
Show Spoiler
Not a fan, honestly. The Attack swap option seems too good and I can't think of a satisfying way to fix it.
linkblade91
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Both are good, but not mindblowing. I think I like Imposing Bark a little bit better.
BloodMefist
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Carnival Rager is funny, but it's a bit too strong, like you point out.
Haunted Spirit is more interesting and fits Priest really well. It's hard to tell if it's balanced, but I'd say it's fine.
KANSAS
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I guess the body is supposed to be an extra effect (like Frostbolt's Freezing), which allows you to take advantage of Attack buffs and stuff like that, right?
It's a bit of a weird concept, but I find it interesting.
DalvanKillder
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Life-Binded Imp is too extreme, IMO.
Persistent Spirit has a cool concept, but the highroll potential is too big right now. If you manage to "pass" its effect twice, you can get A LOT of stats. I'd go with 5 mana or 6 mana with Rush or Taunt (so that it is easier to activate, but it's more costly). Additionally, I'd try to find a better artwork.
Hordaki
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Cool card. All three keywords fit both Witchwood and the artwork very well.
Neoguli
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I originally didn't like your card because I thought it included ALL Treasures from Tombs of Terror, which would be impossible to balance by design. Given you're choosing from a pool of three, it's actually okay, even if that also makes it so that you can choose which one you want.
It's not a bad effect, but I am under the impression that it would have a different statline if it wasn't because of the comp's theme. I'd change the Armor gain for Health (to the minion), so that the body is more justified.
I completely agree there is value to those items. Your post seems like a reasonable delve into the value but, ultimately, you agree the value is not 1:1 with gold.
The context is everything here. Again, the concern was absolute and specific: will we earn the same amount of gold in between expansions? The answer is no.
For one, a very recent analysis by Bunnyhopper suggests that lots of players will end up with more gold not less at the end of the expansion (https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srg57g). But more to the point, gold doesn't matter, and neither do packs really - all that matters is cards. Gold is only in contention here because specific things were said about gold, and historically it's the most direct way for F2P players to get new cards at the start of an expansion. Blizzard could just as easily have said "we're getting rid of gold entirely, and will be rewarding you with new 'player packs' that you can trade in for packs of any set you want" and you'd have a functionally equivalent system because gold is just a means to more cards.
My contention with your original point was not that the non-gold rewards were all equivalent to the gold rewards in value, but rather that you shouldn't throw them out of the analysis entirely the way you did. Understanding their gold-equivalent value is important to understanding the overall value to the player. The question that actually matters is not "will I get more gold?" but rather "will I get more new cards?" That question just happens to be easiest to answer in terms of gold-equivalence because gold still buys cards in the same way it used to, and gold is an easy tool for comparing to the old reward system. (Gold is also a good but imperfect way to measure card acquisition concretely, as it's easy to count packs from gold, but card probabilities from packs is largely opaque.)
Your conclusion that "analysis by Bunnyhopper suggests that lots of players will end up with more gold" seems vague. How are you defining "lots of players" in this situation?
I'd have to do some digging to source it [edit: source], but team 5 is on record stating that ~75% of players were below rank 15 in the old ranked system. That seems to suggest that most players are not putting in more than an hour per day, since even schlub's like me reach rank 5 with 1 hour per day of play. This suggests that most players are playing less than the 3 hours per day in Bunnyhopper's calculations. My math, which is actually supported by Bunnyhopper's math that you linked, suggests that all players that are under 3 hours per day will earn less. Combining both suggests that 75% of the player base will earn less gold in this new system. Again, I'll mention that those calculations are based on the minimum we'd earn in the old system.
This is why I feel that the bad faith started with Blizzard, and why I disagree with your assessment that the player base is arguing in bad faith.
I will say it's not cool for people to be attacking streamers and/or devs on their channels/streams. That's not going to help and is way out of line.
I am 4 - 26 so far today and all I get are T1 decks and opponents with legendary card backs. How many times I have to loose until I get normal enemies?
Re: Consume Magic, it's all about the upside. You'd be more comfortable putting it in your deck than Silence since the upside of drawing a card renders its higher cost negligible. If you made the argument that Consume Magic can only target enemy minions you'd probably have a case, but silencing your own minions isn't really part of the DH class's gameplan.
Re: Shardshatter Mystic, it's probably still a smidge worse than Duskbreaker, but it's really not that hard to activate it considering the cheaper Spirit Jailer and Soul Shear exist which curves right into Mystic. The only drawback is if you somehow don't draw any soul fragment-shuffling cards or if you run out of soul fragments in your deck (which only happens if you have really rotten luck or if you mulligan wrong), which poses almost (emphasis on "almost") the same problem as not having a dragon in hand for Duskbreaker.
Re: Priestess of Fury, well, Ragnaros the Firelord sucks at dealing with wide boards. The point is that pre-nerf Priestess was cheaper and could even be cheated out with Raging Felscreamer, and its potential to either clear your opponent's board or deal 6 damage to the face makes it more versatile. I think that makes Priestess better despite Ragnaros easily having a higher power level (8 damage is no joke).
Level 32 or 33 I don't remember. I hit my legendary pity timer a couple of days ago so I don't pay as much attention anymore.
Grind is really shit in this system but oh well.
Keep the current exp system but re-introduce the gold system so quests give both exp and gold and I guarantee 99% of user base would be happy but considering this hearthstone and Blizzard this would be ''too generous'' for them lol.
I faced a DH bot yday on diamond 6, bot just hero powered in the middle of the turn, plus two hovers over portrait, all with the exact same timing each turn. No cards played. This is actually the only time ever I am 100% sure it was a bot.
Free win on ladder, but still very annoying. I hope this won't become a regular thing.
Aldrachi Warblades - honestly one of the best weapons in the game considering all the synergies it has with DH's attack-giving spells
Skull of Gul'dan - even at 6 mana, it's probably still in the top 3 most powerful cards in the game right now. It's the best drawing tool over anything the other classes have to offer.
I could go on. Demon Hunter as a class is just soooo busted, even after there have been 10+ nerfs to the class already since it entered the game.
Level 33 right now without the pass. I know that many people hate the grind and find 4 months long track horrible, but I find it totally ok and normal. I'm one of those who played WoW for a long time and grinding those levels from 1 to 60/70/80 could take casually playing a long time. Getting the top level was actually the start of the gear and reputation grind.
I mean, if you just love the gameplay and don't play just for rewards, you naturally will enjoy gaming more and those 50 levels don't really feel that bad.
I just hit level 25. Got the Totem... The frigging Totem... So i got nothing on level 25 as i have no use and no interest in this card. Getting legendaries completely at random like this is starting to feel terrible because i'm already used to the Wild Cards and freedom of choice in Legends of Runeterra.
The devs really should think about just giving us arcane dust as a reward instead of a random legendary. It would've been better if the level 25 reward was 2,000 dust or something, so players can be free to craft whatever they want, whether they be one legendary and an epic, four epics, etc. I got Deck of Chaos from level 25 which is just terrible (threw it in my Cubelock deck for Wild where it's still a terrible inclusion).
In fact, the level rewards should be much more diverse and generous like the old legendary quests we used to have. Remember quests that reward us with a pack, dust, and gold at the same time? Getting a single pack at level 28, an AOO one that just gave me 40 dust, is really depressing.
I feel you on Grand Totem Eys'or. If you'd gotten it earlier maybe you'd have enjoyed it more, since it was really dominant in the first week. I got it from a golden pack, so I can dust it whenever I want :P
I agree. It's such a simple solution. Just give us some freedom of choice. Let us decide what we want and if it end up sucking later then it wouldn't be their fault as it was our own choice. A risk we took when choosing our cards. The way it is right now alongside the absolutely terrible value for disenchanting just causes a lot of players with a limited collection to lose a lot. A random legendary only matters for completionists and people who invest a lot and can play with any class.
Who cares if in the long term some players are getting slightly more gold?
The system feels much worse, you can't complete quests in tavern brawls some quests force you into some modes/actions (ranked/arena also playing old gods), some rewards are still old expansion packs.
Packs still feel bad to open, the dust system still sucks, the game is still expensive AF, and feel very grindy.
The new system should've be a CLEAR IMPROVEMENT over the old one.. which it's not.
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Well... I just hit level 27 in the rewards track and got the Ashes of Outland pack. Normally, this would be really bad (and it is for the vast majority of players) but the pack gave me Ysiel Windsinger. This wouldn't be anything special if it wasn't for the fact that i also received Lady Vashj from the previous Ashes of Outland pack in the reward track. So, i was one of the lucky enough people to not be screwed by these otherwise really low value rewards. I still think they should change it but i'll take it.
New Hearthstone Currencies Coming to China - Arcane Orbs & Runestones
The 'Pity Timer' mechanic currently only exists because of mainland chinese gambling law.
Hopefully this change is indicative of a general reform away from the pack system? I doubt it, but the way EU legislation is leaning, I don't know how much longer hearthstone can keep propping up a system that most players, as far as I have seen, put up with as a genre trope rather than enjoying.
[UNCONFIRMED] It seems they removed the pity timer on legendaries
You can use HsDecktracker plugin and it's simpler
[UNCONFIRMED] It seems they removed the pity timer on legendaries
The thing with gambling is that you can get 1 in every pack or 1 ever 40 packs. You depend on luck.
This was one of my best expansions, with 1leg every ~15 packs. I was coming from 1 every ~30 on AoO... Yogg giveth and yogg taketh away.
All The Rage - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Now that I thinked better, I believe that the "Health Transfer" of Persistent Spirit doesn't work as I intended, because unless it's destroyed, his Health will be 0 or negative when he dies in trades.
I'm considering to transfer only the Attack and Deathrattle now. 😅
All The Rage - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Here's my first idea. The Corrupt mechanic is ideal for mimic chests, even if it's not related to faires like most Corrupt cards.
Not sure if it's a bit too weak in its regular form. In fact, it was originally a 1 mana 0/2 which gained +3 Attack, but that can't participate in this comp, so I had to rehash it the best I could. If you can think of a better statline than this, that would be very welcome.
Quick feedback:
Demonxz95
linkblade91
BloodMefist
Haunted Spirit is more interesting and fits Priest really well. It's hard to tell if it's balanced, but I'd say it's fine.
KANSAS
It's a bit of a weird concept, but I find it interesting.
DalvanKillder
Persistent Spirit has a cool concept, but the highroll potential is too big right now. If you manage to "pass" its effect twice, you can get A LOT of stats. I'd go with 5 mana or 6 mana with Rush or Taunt (so that it is easier to activate, but it's more costly). Additionally, I'd try to find a better artwork.
Hordaki
Neoguli
Out of the Treasures you listed, I'd go with Zephrys's Lamp, Canopic Jars and Staff of Scales, since their effects are less problematic than their counterparts.
MenacingBagel
All The Rage - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Maybe I won't be lazy this time! nah
Grim Tutor - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Grats, link :)
Hot take - Blizzard is actually not that bad
Your conclusion that "analysis by Bunnyhopper suggests that lots of players will end up with more gold" seems vague. How are you defining "lots of players" in this situation?
I'd have to do some digging to source it [edit: source], but team 5 is on record stating that ~75% of players were below rank 15 in the old ranked system. That seems to suggest that most players are not putting in more than an hour per day, since even schlub's like me reach rank 5 with 1 hour per day of play. This suggests that most players are playing less than the 3 hours per day in Bunnyhopper's calculations. My math, which is actually supported by Bunnyhopper's math that you linked, suggests that all players that are under 3 hours per day will earn less. Combining both suggests that 75% of the player base will earn less gold in this new system. Again, I'll mention that those calculations are based on the minimum we'd earn in the old system.
This is why I feel that the bad faith started with Blizzard, and why I disagree with your assessment that the player base is arguing in bad faith.
I will say it's not cool for people to be attacking streamers and/or devs on their channels/streams. That's not going to help and is way out of line.
Blizzard is Working on a New Fix For Select Players With Ongoing Quest Issues
So you're suggesting that EVERY communication from Blizzard ought to address the Rewards Track controversy? In what world is that a good idea?
How many times I have to loose / how low has to be my winrate, so I get normal opponents?
I am 4 - 26 so far today and all I get are T1 decks and opponents with legendary card backs. How many times I have to loose until I get normal enemies?
New Hearthstone Currencies Coming to China - Arcane Orbs & Runestones
I didn't see that this is a repost until I reread the first line. Is it possible to add "(Repost)" to the title for all of us who missed it?
About nerfs
Re: Consume Magic, it's all about the upside. You'd be more comfortable putting it in your deck than Silence since the upside of drawing a card renders its higher cost negligible. If you made the argument that Consume Magic can only target enemy minions you'd probably have a case, but silencing your own minions isn't really part of the DH class's gameplan.
Re: Shardshatter Mystic, it's probably still a smidge worse than Duskbreaker, but it's really not that hard to activate it considering the cheaper Spirit Jailer and Soul Shear exist which curves right into Mystic. The only drawback is if you somehow don't draw any soul fragment-shuffling cards or if you run out of soul fragments in your deck (which only happens if you have really rotten luck or if you mulligan wrong), which poses almost (emphasis on "almost") the same problem as not having a dragon in hand for Duskbreaker.
Re: Priestess of Fury, well, Ragnaros the Firelord sucks at dealing with wide boards. The point is that pre-nerf Priestess was cheaper and could even be cheated out with Raging Felscreamer, and its potential to either clear your opponent's board or deal 6 damage to the face makes it more versatile. I think that makes Priestess better despite Ragnaros easily having a higher power level (8 damage is no joke).
Could This Be a Bot Thing?
If they didn't do any action it means they aren't a bot, just someone who hit play and went afk on purpose.
You know if it's a bot if they do the same action every turn which is usually just hero power.
Could This Be a Bot Thing?
I thought this was an exclusive BG thing, but I guess that stealth nerf to AFK players made xp farmers a little more desperate.
Rewards Track: Current progress
Level 32 or 33 I don't remember. I hit my legendary pity timer a couple of days ago so I don't pay as much attention anymore.
Grind is really shit in this system but oh well.
Keep the current exp system but re-introduce the gold system so quests give both exp and gold and I guarantee 99% of user base would be happy but considering this hearthstone and Blizzard this would be ''too generous'' for them lol.
Could This Be a Bot Thing?
I faced a DH bot yday on diamond 6, bot just hero powered in the middle of the turn, plus two hovers over portrait, all with the exact same timing each turn. No cards played. This is actually the only time ever I am 100% sure it was a bot.
Free win on ladder, but still very annoying. I hope this won't become a regular thing.
About nerfs
Except that:
Consume Magic costs 1 more, and the card draw is conditional
Shardshatter Mystic requires you to draw and play another card beforehand which is much harder that just holding a dragon
Priestess of Fury unlike Ragnaros sucks at dealing with big minions
About nerfs
Most of their tools are improvements on what other classes have.
Consume Magic - a better Silence, since it has the upside of drawing you a card
Shardshatter Mystic - on par with [Hearthstone Card (Dusk Breaker,) Not Found] one of the best cards ever printed
Priestess of Fury - pre-nerf version was arguably a better Ragnaros the Firelord because its damage is distributed, and it's cheaper
Aldrachi Warblades - honestly one of the best weapons in the game considering all the synergies it has with DH's attack-giving spells
Skull of Gul'dan - even at 6 mana, it's probably still in the top 3 most powerful cards in the game right now. It's the best drawing tool over anything the other classes have to offer.
I could go on. Demon Hunter as a class is just soooo busted, even after there have been 10+ nerfs to the class already since it entered the game.
Rewards Track: Current progress
Level 33 right now without the pass. I know that many people hate the grind and find 4 months long track horrible, but I find it totally ok and normal. I'm one of those who played WoW for a long time and grinding those levels from 1 to 60/70/80 could take casually playing a long time. Getting the top level was actually the start of the gear and reputation grind.
I mean, if you just love the gameplay and don't play just for rewards, you naturally will enjoy gaming more and those 50 levels don't really feel that bad.
Hearthstone's December Card Back, Valorous Virtue, Has Arrived!
Looking forward for Out of Cards Holiday Party
Rewards Track: Current progress
I agree. It's such a simple solution. Just give us some freedom of choice. Let us decide what we want and if it end up sucking later then it wouldn't be their fault as it was our own choice. A risk we took when choosing our cards. The way it is right now alongside the absolutely terrible value for disenchanting just causes a lot of players with a limited collection to lose a lot. A random legendary only matters for completionists and people who invest a lot and can play with any class.
Hot take - Blizzard is actually not that bad
Who cares if in the long term some players are getting slightly more gold?
The system feels much worse, you can't complete quests in tavern brawls some quests force you into some modes/actions (ranked/arena also playing old gods), some rewards are still old expansion packs.
Packs still feel bad to open, the dust system still sucks, the game is still expensive AF, and feel very grindy.
The new system should've be a CLEAR IMPROVEMENT over the old one.. which it's not.
Ironforge
This goes nicely with my Magni hero.
Valorous Virtue
Ooh, very nice.