Well, good news -- they are also doing events (which were planned all along), which give a lot of additional rewards that the rabble-rousers didn't and couldn't include in their calculations.
During the Ashes of Outland expansion, each player received an average of 6900 gold and 4 classic packs for completing quests. In the new Rewards Track patch, the amount of gold has increased to 5550 coins. In addition to this, the amount of experience from quests should be sufficient to conquer 7 bonus levels. This means you will get an additional 1050 gold.
Thus, the new amount of gold for completing quests will be 6600. This is a very important change!
Yes, you still receive 300-500 less gold, but your profit will be much higher if your goal is to collect a collection of cards (even if you think that the current packs and the first legendary card should not be taken into account).
According to my calculations, the total Rewards Track reward for quests will be equivalent to a minimum of 9550 gold (6600 Gold + 2 Legendary Cards + 5 Latest Packs + 5 Prior Packs + 2 Tavern Tickets + 1 Epic Car)
For some Arena players who don’t need cards at all, the loss of even 300-500 gold coins for quests this is still damage. Xp per hour can compensate for the loss of gold and potentially give even more. Arena players in the past did not receive gold for three victories at all, and now they get at least something. The situation for the Arena players has improved slightly, but what about the fate of the players who spend a lot of time in the game? Blizzard is still silent on XP PER HOUR!
Something I can't ever decide if it's worth it or not. When running a primarily spell mage deck, is it right to coin+Incanter's flow on turn 1? Or should you save the coin and wait until turn 2? The idea being that by coining on turn 1, you are giving a "coin" for all future spells. Assuming you never float mana, in theory the idea holds merit. But if you ever find yourself short of one mana, then holding the coin may be better.
Maybe I should make a new thread for this question, but are you planning on making big competitions (expansions/classes) like the ones which used to happen on HearthPwn? Of course I do not want to rush if you want to prepare for this as best as you can, maybe you would have to make them in a different format than the usual weekly competitions.
We do plan to have bigger competitions, but we dont have a system for it in place yet. So, yeah.
The catch-up mechanism is that the rewards are very front-loaded, so if you join late in the expansion, you will get a lot more out of the track in the last few weeks of the expansion than someone who's already reached level 50.
Honestly, all this drama is so uncalled-for. It reminds me of the people who insist that matchmaking is rigged or that the pity timer deliberately screws free players. As I always say to those people: What does Blizzard have to gain from a lie that is so easily debunked? They know they will be raked over the coals by every media outlet if someone proves they deliberately misled players. Doesn't it make more sense to assume that the calculations of the people with LESS information than Blizzard might be significantly skewed -- indeed, that it would be impossible for anyone outside of Blizzard to accurately predict the end-of-season reward totals?
We all know that there are plenty of gold-accountants among our ranks, and Team 5 knows it too. It is safe to assume that those individuals will sound all kinds of alarms next March or April if the numbers aren't lining up. So why not give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt until then? If and when the bean-counters can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the rewards are worse -- THAT is when we should sharpen our pitchforks. What's happening now is ridiculous.
Innocent until proven guilty is still a thing, and we do not have nearly enough information to prove Blizzard guilty (or even that anything is actually wrong). The one thing they ARE guilty of is poor communication, but come on, that's always been the case.
Rogue-like games are always about starting off weak and trying (and sometimes failing) to become as broken as possible as you go along. Sometimes you are given the nuts, other times you have to muddle through with treasures which aren't best suited to your deck.
Except this isn't a rogue-like. Rogue-like games are single-player, and it's not a big deal if you die and have to try again.
Duels is a competitive game, and it can cost gold or cash to enter. Also, when you die (3 times), you're out. People are less likely to enter if the game is inherently unfair.
I especially disagree with the idea of Rare and Ultra Rare pools with extravagantly overpowered cards. Sure it's fun to play with a deck that can't lose, but it's not at all fun to be on the other side of that. I'd love to know how much those Ultra-Rare cards kick up the win rate; I'm sure it's a large, unhealthy number. At least if all treasures were the same rarity, it would be more about skill (picking the right card) instead of luck (being offered the right card).
OK, fine. Here are some statements with which I categorically disagree:
"The suggestion of making the kick not work with overwhelm is a non-starter -- he’s so dependent on the overwhelm damage to be effective." -- Lee Sin was fine before it became so easy to add Overwhelm, so this is blatantly false.
"Lee needs to be able to end games." -- No, a 5-mana Champion does not need to be ending games.
"[Vladimir's] new effect is to the right (as opposed to the left) because that’s what players are used to" -- TERRIBLE reason
"Shyvana effective heals herself when she attacks, so more health might "make her unkillable". -- Not even close to being the hardest to kill.
"There is also a desire for Demacia to have "square" stats (i.e., X|X instead of X|Y)." -- Yeah, that really enhances the game.
"Giving Taric +1 HP would be problematic since he often has Tough, so he might also become effectively unkillable." -- see above
"I think Lulu is objectively one of the stronger champions, she just doesn't fit in a lot of decks". -- actually self-contradictory
"Lulu, Taric, and Vlad all need to participate in an attack to get additional value, which makes them difficult to balance." -- This is actually true for a lot of other Champions who are extremely powerful, so let's not pretend it can't be done.
“I think Darius is better than people think” -- He's been in some of the most popular Noxus decks since beta, so no, people know exactly how good he is.
"Teemo + mushroom decks are not competitive, but you can still play them." -- Same is true of any completely random deck. Why are you even talking right now?
"1 drop champions are hard to balance." -- My job isn't super easy, either, but I do it.
"Giving (Minah Swiftfoot) more agency and flexibility in how she's used. The Quick Attack allows her to “eat” big units on attack." -- She already "eats" three units when she's played, often ending games. Isn't that enough for a follower?
"The problem with the Zephyr Sage infinite combo deck wasn't it's power, it was that the client's turn timer doesn't handle it well." -- No, the problem is that it was infinite, which is pretty much always a huge design flaw.
"Thinks Flock is 'exactly what the doctor ordered' for Swain decks" -- No, Flock is exactly what makes Swain decks (and other burn decks) problematic.
I think that's enough for now. I didn't make it all the way through, but suffice it to say that most of this article rubbed me the wrong way.
Currently level 17 (501/2600) towards 18, and I do not have the Tavern Pass. I only played Ranked Standard to get to Gold 10 otherwise I've been playing Battle Grounds/Duels for achievements. I did complete last weeks win 7 games of Ranked Play mode via low Bronze Wild while completing Ride Together, Die Together, Lothraxion's Balloon Shop & Two Punch Man.
Newly made level 23 (244/3200) towards 24. I've been collecting the Darkmoon Faire xp achievements & completed Duelist 5-9 yesterday before the launch that netted me 5,800 xp. I posted in the 80g (That needs a name update!) quest trading thread if any1 on NA has the Challenge a Friend daily.
I have just made it to level 25 & this was my Legendary reward:
It would be awesome if the level 25 reward was a guaranteed Old God. Hell, they should have made the legendary you get at the start of the rewards track an Old God. I still don't understand why they couldn't give players a free Old God at the expansion's launch. I'm just lucky I got Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate as my golden legendary from the bundle.
They were so generous with gifting us all the Galakrond cards in Descent of Dragons last year so it's reasonable that players feel shafted right now. But then again, that was right after the Blitzchung controversy so Blizzard probably gave them away for free just to appease the fanbase. My hunch is they never really intended to make the Galakronds free too.
PS: burned cards CAN accelerate fatigue if cards are burned, but it never triggers fatigue damage. So you don't immediately kill with tickatus. At best you setup one fatigue tick on next turn. So in the meanwhile you still have to survive for several turns unless you close the game by other means. It's not Coldlight Milling. Subtle but crucial.
This is an important point. Some people think they can kill their opponents through fatigue damage through Tickatus, which doesn't happen. If there are no more cards in your opponent's deck, playing Tickatus won't trigger the fatigue damage you're hoping for because its card text says "remove the top 5 cards in your opponent's deck," it doesn't say draw cards. So if there's nothing to remove, Tickatus' effect is useless.
I've had some opponents BM me right before playing Tickatus when my deck is already empty, no doubt thinking they'd kill me with an avalanche of fatigue damage that doesn't happen. It's pretty funny.
Currently, lvl 21 and the rewards track feels awful. I don't know about the math but it feels like it takes 3 days of dailies to get 100 gold while it used to take only one day to get 60 gold. The weekly quests should be the daily quests. Blizzard slowed down the gold amount and stopped the ten gold for 3 wins. I feel like I am not really incentivized to play as 400 experience for an hour is insanely lower than 10 gold for three wins. It feels really bad and a loss of efficacy. I am scared that the Pluderin' Pirates card back from September 2014 might pop up in the hearthstone shop and I will be powerless to get the gold that I need to pay for it. So I need to keep at least 500 gold in my account just for that purpose.
I think this new rewards track might actually slowly kill the game because it feels like players have fewer real ways of getting gold. At the very least give the players back the 3 wins for 10 gold option.
I am proud of those content creators who are taking a stand on YouTube and other platforms against the new reward track as this game is not just for fun but their way of getting money.
Maybe I should make a new thread for this question, but are you planning on making big competitions (expansions/classes) like the ones which used to happen on HearthPwn? Of course I do not want to rush if you want to prepare for this as best as you can, maybe you would have to make them in a different format than the usual weekly competitions.
Also, I can give some feedback for contestants which still didn't submit:
@fungusABao
Show Spoiler
From both of these cards I like Flamental more, mainly because it's corrupted art is more fitting to the original. That seem to have a real impact on how people rate cards. Also from Natural Element's text I can interpret like it affects itself, because cards which do not usualy state 'other' in their text(Dread Infernal, Tending Tauren, Scavenging Shivarra). I do not know if it was intended to do so, and even if it did, it still may be confusing, because a voter could think that you just worded it wrong, and therefore vote 1 or 2 stars less. Also, I found an easy to repair mistake in Flamental's text - There should be '.' instead of ',' between 'Taunt' and 'Battlecry' (Magtheridon, Claw Machine, Mogu Fleshshaper).
@MenacingBagel
Show Spoiler
I realy like the first version, unfortunately it does not meet criteria. However, the second version is not as good as first in my opinion (also I still don't know if it do not break rules). It seem to be quite out of place for this to be considered Murloc, while Costumed Entertainer is not. If you don't have other ideas, and one will confirm this do not break rules you can go with this, maybe reduce the buff from +3/+3 to +2/+2. However, if you are ever planning to use this design again, without these requirements, first version is probably better.
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
Well, good news -- they are also doing events (which were planned all along), which give a lot of additional rewards that the rabble-rousers didn't and couldn't include in their calculations.
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
If they think this is going to be enough to keep the player base happy then they are delusional.
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
During the Ashes of Outland expansion, each player received an average of 6900 gold and 4 classic packs for completing quests. In the new Rewards Track patch, the amount of gold has increased to 5550 coins. In addition to this, the amount of experience from quests should be sufficient to conquer 7 bonus levels. This means you will get an additional 1050 gold.
Thus, the new amount of gold for completing quests will be 6600. This is a very important change!
Yes, you still receive 300-500 less gold, but your profit will be much higher if your goal is to collect a collection of cards (even if you think that the current packs and the first legendary card should not be taken into account).
According to my calculations, the total Rewards Track reward for quests will be equivalent to a minimum of 9550 gold (6600 Gold + 2 Legendary Cards + 5 Latest Packs + 5 Prior Packs + 2 Tavern Tickets + 1 Epic Car)
For some Arena players who don’t need cards at all, the loss of even 300-500 gold coins for quests this is still damage. Xp per hour can compensate for the loss of gold and potentially give even more. Arena players in the past did not receive gold for three victories at all, and now they get at least something. The situation for the Arena players has improved slightly, but what about the fate of the players who spend a lot of time in the game? Blizzard is still silent on XP PER HOUR!
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
Nothing special in the patch. Super small with exactly the changes that were detailed. womp womp
Incanter's flow - A thought process. Turn 1 or not?
Something I can't ever decide if it's worth it or not. When running a primarily spell mage deck, is it right to coin+Incanter's flow on turn 1? Or should you save the coin and wait until turn 2? The idea being that by coining on turn 1, you are giving a "coin" for all future spells. Assuming you never float mana, in theory the idea holds merit. But if you ever find yourself short of one mana, then holding the coin may be better.
Thoughts?
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
Patch just went live. When I relogged it got downloaded for me
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
"We'll be digging into the patch and let you know if there is anything special going on"
This is what I've been waiting all along.
"Please teach me datamining o Master!"
Hearthstone Rewards Track Patch - Client Updated to Removed End of Track Pack Rewards, Replaced with Gold
Ah yes, the ''listening to the playerbase'' step of the plan
Old Gods, New Tricks - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
We do plan to have bigger competitions, but we dont have a system for it in place yet. So, yeah.
Blizzard Screwed Up With the Rewards Track - A Letter to Hearthstone
The catch-up mechanism is that the rewards are very front-loaded, so if you join late in the expansion, you will get a lot more out of the track in the last few weeks of the expansion than someone who's already reached level 50.
Honestly, all this drama is so uncalled-for. It reminds me of the people who insist that matchmaking is rigged or that the pity timer deliberately screws free players. As I always say to those people: What does Blizzard have to gain from a lie that is so easily debunked? They know they will be raked over the coals by every media outlet if someone proves they deliberately misled players. Doesn't it make more sense to assume that the calculations of the people with LESS information than Blizzard might be significantly skewed -- indeed, that it would be impossible for anyone outside of Blizzard to accurately predict the end-of-season reward totals?
We all know that there are plenty of gold-accountants among our ranks, and Team 5 knows it too. It is safe to assume that those individuals will sound all kinds of alarms next March or April if the numbers aren't lining up. So why not give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt until then? If and when the bean-counters can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the rewards are worse -- THAT is when we should sharpen our pitchforks. What's happening now is ridiculous.
Innocent until proven guilty is still a thing, and we do not have nearly enough information to prove Blizzard guilty (or even that anything is actually wrong). The one thing they ARE guilty of is poor communication, but come on, that's always been the case.
Hearthstone Hotfixes - Weekly Quest Fixes, Duels Now Contributes to Class Progress, Heroic Duels Rating Fix
The number to the right of the XP bar is the level you are going to be, not the level you are.
It's not the smartest way to do the interface.
Hearthstone Hotfixes - Duels Gets a Balance Update Moving Treasures Into Different Pools, Phaoris’ Blade Nerfed
Except this isn't a rogue-like. Rogue-like games are single-player, and it's not a big deal if you die and have to try again.
Duels is a competitive game, and it can cost gold or cash to enter. Also, when you die (3 times), you're out. People are less likely to enter if the game is inherently unfair.
I especially disagree with the idea of Rare and Ultra Rare pools with extravagantly overpowered cards. Sure it's fun to play with a deck that can't lose, but it's not at all fun to be on the other side of that. I'd love to know how much those Ultra-Rare cards kick up the win rate; I'm sure it's a large, unhealthy number. At least if all treasures were the same rarity, it would be more about skill (picking the right card) instead of luck (being offered the right card).
Riot's RubinZoo Discusses Recent Runeterra Card Changes, Card Balance, Design Process, and More
OK, fine. Here are some statements with which I categorically disagree:
I think that's enough for now. I didn't make it all the way through, but suffice it to say that most of this article rubbed me the wrong way.
Did Anyone Else Not Receive a Daily Quest?
I did not get a daily quest today either
Rewards Track: Current progress
It would be awesome if the level 25 reward was a guaranteed Old God. Hell, they should have made the legendary you get at the start of the rewards track an Old God. I still don't understand why they couldn't give players a free Old God at the expansion's launch. I'm just lucky I got Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate as my golden legendary from the bundle.
They were so generous with gifting us all the Galakrond cards in Descent of Dragons last year so it's reasonable that players feel shafted right now. But then again, that was right after the Blitzchung controversy so Blizzard probably gave them away for free just to appease the fanbase. My hunch is they never really intended to make the Galakronds free too.
How soon is too soon to craft?
This is an important point. Some people think they can kill their opponents through fatigue damage through Tickatus, which doesn't happen. If there are no more cards in your opponent's deck, playing Tickatus won't trigger the fatigue damage you're hoping for because its card text says "remove the top 5 cards in your opponent's deck," it doesn't say draw cards. So if there's nothing to remove, Tickatus' effect is useless.
I've had some opponents BM me right before playing Tickatus when my deck is already empty, no doubt thinking they'd kill me with an avalanche of fatigue damage that doesn't happen. It's pretty funny.
Rewards Track: Current progress
Currently, lvl 21 and the rewards track feels awful. I don't know about the math but it feels like it takes 3 days of dailies to get 100 gold while it used to take only one day to get 60 gold. The weekly quests should be the daily quests. Blizzard slowed down the gold amount and stopped the ten gold for 3 wins. I feel like I am not really incentivized to play as 400 experience for an hour is insanely lower than 10 gold for three wins. It feels really bad and a loss of efficacy. I am scared that the Pluderin' Pirates card back from September 2014 might pop up in the hearthstone shop and I will be powerless to get the gold that I need to pay for it. So I need to keep at least 500 gold in my account just for that purpose.
I think this new rewards track might actually slowly kill the game because it feels like players have fewer real ways of getting gold. At the very least give the players back the 3 wins for 10 gold option.
I am proud of those content creators who are taking a stand on YouTube and other platforms against the new reward track as this game is not just for fun but their way of getting money.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
Ok. Game is dead again. Sad face.
A Wild C'Thun, the Shattered Appears! Community Wild Decks With Our Darkmoon Faire Eyeball Friend
"Wildly Poking the Eye" is another good phrase to describe my nights since quarantine started.
Darkseeker's channel - 13th November update: KOtsosKOtsos' Reno Evolve Shudderwock Shaman - ft. Archivist Elysiana
20th November update: Knoepklapper's WILD Reno Taunt Druid ft. Greybough & N'Zoth God of the Deep (1080p)
The first Darkmoon Faire deck that I have played.
Reno. Both N'Zoths. Greybough. Hadronox. Elise. Value. So much value!
Deck code: AAEBAZICHukBig7DFuCsAsu8AsnCAt/EAp7SAq/TAovhAo3wAr/yAo/2AvX8AqCAA9qdA6GhA/SiA/yjA5GxA+i6A/O7A5vOA4rSA/DUA5vYA4ngA4rgA6bhA9HhAwAA
https://youtu.be/o-aAKAxCihM
Old Gods, New Tricks - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Maybe I should make a new thread for this question, but are you planning on making big competitions (expansions/classes) like the ones which used to happen on HearthPwn? Of course I do not want to rush if you want to prepare for this as best as you can, maybe you would have to make them in a different format than the usual weekly competitions.
Also, I can give some feedback for contestants which still didn't submit:
@fungusABao
@MenacingBagel
@Hordaki
@Wailor
@Arkasaur
@linkblade91
Did Anyone Else Not Receive a Daily Quest?
I was curious about that too. I did not get my daily today, but I'm also did not get all my weekly quest few days earlier...
Probably many of us did not recieved new quest today.
Eye See You! 4 Hearthstone Standard Decks Featuring C'Thun the Shattered
Love to try out C’Thun Mage, and get pounded into oblivion by Face Hunters using 0 new cards : )
Spinning the Wheel of Fate with Yogg-Saron in Standard - 4 Hearthstone Decks to Get Your Maw On
Clown Druid is, like the name, pretty awesome..
Corrupt
So it HAS to be in the hand at all times? No upgrade when I draw a Corrupt card from the deck?