That was my exact thought as well, but then a friend of mine pointed out that you can just use Crazed Alchemist instead of Abusive Sergeant if you want to use her as a finisher. She did get a lot worse as a usefull card in your deck that can occasionally spin out of control when your opponent doesnt clear her though.
Seems about time that we have a thread to talk about the random games we've all been playing!
I'll get things started off for June 2023.
I've been dabbling in Path of Exile, aiming to get some more seasonal challenges done while we wait for Exilecon to announce the new season (and more PoE 2 info). I also recently was playing Diablo 4, though didn't really enjoy the experience (it will be better in a couple years certainly).
I've also had an opportunity to check out the new F1 23 game which feels like a solid improvement over F1 22. The new lighting looks fantastic and all the cars look better too. Small UI updates and overall better menu flow makes navigating with a steering wheel better. Regretfully I didn't get to write up a review for the game yet.
I'm hoping to get a chance to login to World of Warcraft Classic over the next couple of weeks since Midsummer Fire Festival is taking place and those achievements will be needed for that sweet Violet Proto-Drake =D
Also that Final Fantasy demo is calling my name. This weekend was absolute chaos though so I didn't get a chance to touch it.
YouTube is something that I do want to branch out into for the reason you've already gone into, it's just a time thing. I didn't really have the time to play Diablo 4 as it is, but you bet I made sure to fit it in because I wanted to give it a fair chance.
I 100% agree with the inventory. It feels so wrong to have everything the same size.
I played Path of Exile during its Alpha. I played it during Beta. I played it multiple times over the years during different seasons. Sure, the game wasn't great when it came out, but it did exactly what they wanted to - they wanted to make a better Diablo 2.
It's a bit of a difference though with GGG releasing their first title and Blizzard, who is supposed to be an industry titan. Blizzard has had several releases in the Diablo series and what we received was a half-assed attempt at a grand ARPG. Things they learned from Diablo 3, completely forgotten by the team 4's development started.
But, it's a modern game and they're expecting us to wait it out as they slow drip the essential content so they can keep our attention glued to a shop.
Now, your video of Asmongold. He's in a level 68 area. That can't even be considered end game.
Dinosaur Game, also known as Chrome Dino, is a browser game created by Google and incorporated into the Google Chrome web browser. In this game, players will control a pixelated, horizontally-scrolling dinosaur with the objective of preventing him from colliding with obstacles in order to increase his score. In 2014, members of the Chrome user experience development team created the game. Play it now!
- Probably the most significant change for all players, whether new or old. Prior to this change, for new players to collect the classic set can be and often is a nightmare. Imagine this, to play face hunter in 2016, you'd still need 60% of classic cards available. And whenever an epic card is required, there's when you know you're screwed. Took me nigh on 2 years before I had most of the rares in classic, imagine what its like for a starting player.
Also, core set changes means we'll get to see old cards come back to standard, which is always nice.
No dupes from packs.
- Another big one in history. Prior to the changes, it wasn't unusual to collect 5 copies of useless epic cards every expansion. It wasn't all that uncommon to not have all the rares either, from 80 packs. Thankfully, those are all things of the past
Quests changing from 'Wins' to 'Play'/ allowing quests to be completed with friends
- I kid you not. There was a time when hearthstone simply roadblocked you from completing quests, because certain classes were simply unrepresented in the meta. Today, we have tons of choices, even with poor classes. Back then, there were like 2 tier 1 decks and everything below that is trash. Mercifully you can complete quests in casual mode, which is where I did most of mine.
Rush keyword
- Yes, the best and most influential keyword is not discover, its rush. Aggro games back then used to be fairly insurmountable, because most classes simply dont have initiative. Hence why Fiery War Axe was once the best card in the game.
Today, rush is printed on just about everything. Its often taken for granted that its literally introduced only in 2018
And last but not least
The reward track
- The sheer amount of controversy generated by this topic alone would suffice it a high seat in hearthstone's history, but it also marked the beginning of an era.
Hearthstone monetization boomed hard after this was introduced. I cannot easily point out when hearthstone started decaying, but if I had to pinpoint an area, it would start around this time, culminating in a more noticeable decay around the sunken city expansion.
Could it be that hearthstone has pushed so far into the 'live service' area where you're expected to commit long hours to the game to keep up? Maybe. All I can say, is that hearthstone used to be a game I play to chill. Its no longer the case after the introduction of the reward track.
I do notice that the one thing you struggle with that prevents you from getting to masters is that you don't really "win" games.
You kind of look at okay I lost that last game what is the exact line of play that isn't going to "win" me the game but counter what just happened to me.
And its like okay great how do you win the other 100 now?
You dont know what they are playing and you're not going to beat them.
You see winrate climbing means clobering everyone!
You dont know their deck, their tech, their cards, their strategy, you just have to be better and I am
While you have quite a few valid points, I'd like to remind you that PoE was pretty much complete garbage on release (it also didn't have any endgame, you had plenty of "illusion of choice" but you had to stack HP nodes or get oneshot, there was excessive rubber banding, etc.) and it took 10 years of development to provide it with features and QoL changes.
Also, do you consider this "superior endgame gameplay" ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9t5trXWT8
Because this is literally garbage. Modern poe = 70 hours to get characters going 100 kmh covering the screen with projectiles that murder everything.
Superior gameplay my ass.
Other fantastic ARPG games also were pretty dismal at release. Grim Dawn only had a few zones, the itemization was awful, and there was no endgame at all. It took two expansions and many patches to make it brilliant.
One could argue that a 70$ AAA game shouldn't need expansions to be playable, and it would be a fair point, but not a single competetor has done it right from day 1.
So when I say people have been meeming too hard in eternal I mean the following.
Thresh Nasus was seen as the best deck in the game...why? Because it board spammed and then it atrocitied for lethal.
People ran deny and that one smart deck running decision took theesh Nasus from 58% in eternal to 50% meaning it wasn't tier 1 it was an average average average deck - a solid meme nothing more
Now bot spam, it spams pings and then it spams bots. Can we find a decent solution for doing nothing into blah board vommit? I really want to hope so for the playerbase and for the format.
We beat thresh nasus, we beat poppy ziggs, we beat every meme that this format had to throw at us so let's beat bot spam. Cuz this format deserves it
1. Bott spam - it's a deck where you play cheap spells and then you play free 6/6 quick attackers. Wins 55% of games but a lot of that is the misplay and annoyance factor. I don't think it's the top 1% deck of the format more so just the best ping spam deck right now
2. Jax Orn - one of the best midrange decks in the game it does midrange things at 56%
3. Jayce lux - only sporting like a 51% winrate there are better control lists for sure
4. Ryze - down to 47% it is not a 4th place deck anymore it's not even a top 10 deck anymore when you high roll
5. Annie jhin - down to 53% compared to pirate aggro 58% it's bad
6. Elusive Spam- 54% winrate has good tech and good matchups but also big flaws
Honestly, pretty much everything else is down to sub 50% so you're better off playing your own decks for this meta
Because we aren't in a two deck eternal meta it isn't Jax or ping spam that's stupid
It's Jax, ping spam, elusive spam, aggro spam, and every single actually good deck people have found yet cuz they keep trying to find that next big meme list
Eternal is in a very balanced and strong position right now. Lots of deck, lots of variety and nothing that's screams nerf now. Like what are they gonna do nerf bot? Nerf pings? Nah ping spam ain't going anywhere but there's lots of other actual interesting stuff to play
So for those that don't know burst passing used to be when you'd burst to bank value then pass to pressure your opponent to committing resources.
Now it's more accurate to say that while burst passing is riskier pass bursting is very strong.
It's hard to imagine playing any aggro deck right now without a strong pass burst.
Pirate aggro can take free passes off control in order to draw cards at burst and improve board.
Elusives can take passes to bank stats on unblockable bodies.
Playing an aggro deck that cant do that like Annie Jhin feels bad to me.
So when I said that it's not a great deck in Eternal thats more so what I meant.
Obviously you can just run your linear optimal hand and win, but it can't really do anything beyond that and is very inflexible in terms of play pattern so objectively it's a little worse than last season for climbing I think
As for poppy ziggs I don't even know what happened to that deck? Majins attempt at creating a new persistent aggro deck fell off the planet? Oh well we all have our specialties.
Each deck has its merits one deck has very strong burst passes basically allowing you to bank 5/5 stats on your elusives on turn 3 so this devalues pings.
The other deck is just super fast and has good pings to clear 2/1 spam, and a stun for higher value blocks.
So once again the eternal king doing his own thing and winning casually like a lot!
So I dont know I'd you guys want to take this as a sign that I was right Nifty Aggro is a strong and consistent climbing deck or if you want to say I was wrong because I had to climb with one other deck to correct it's weaknesses.
I would say I was right, I very rarely mono climb anyway usually using a 2-3 deck rotation and that works for me. Last season was elites plus my own ramp deck. This season its elusives and my own aggro list.
In college, I devoted most of my time to studying, and, unfortunately, did not find time for games. There was a lot of material that required study, tasks, projects and exams, and I tried to put as much effort into them as possible. I even had to look for a writing sample due to lack of time, I used https://samplius.com/ for this. While games are a great way to relax and have fun, I understood that my education had the highest priority. Studying helps me develop and build my future career. Although I didn't play games in college, I know it's an integral part of many student lives and I'm sure I'll find time for it in the future.
Hearthstone's Latest Patch Brings Balance Changes to Standard, Battlegrounds, & Duels
That was my exact thought as well, but then a friend of mine pointed out that you can just use Crazed Alchemist instead of Abusive Sergeant if you want to use her as a finisher. She did get a lot worse as a usefull card in your deck that can occasionally spin out of control when your opponent doesnt clear her though.
What Have You Been Playing Recently? June 2023 Edition
Seems about time that we have a thread to talk about the random games we've all been playing!
I'll get things started off for June 2023.
I've been dabbling in Path of Exile, aiming to get some more seasonal challenges done while we wait for Exilecon to announce the new season (and more PoE 2 info). I also recently was playing Diablo 4, though didn't really enjoy the experience (it will be better in a couple years certainly).
I've also had an opportunity to check out the new F1 23 game which feels like a solid improvement over F1 22. The new lighting looks fantastic and all the cars look better too. Small UI updates and overall better menu flow makes navigating with a steering wheel better. Regretfully I didn't get to write up a review for the game yet.
I'm hoping to get a chance to login to World of Warcraft Classic over the next couple of weeks since Midsummer Fire Festival is taking place and those achievements will be needed for that sweet Violet Proto-Drake =D
Also that Final Fantasy demo is calling my name. This weekend was absolute chaos though so I didn't get a chance to touch it.
Diablo IV No Longer Defines the ARPG Genre - The Review From Hell
Thanks, dapperdog!
YouTube is something that I do want to branch out into for the reason you've already gone into, it's just a time thing. I didn't really have the time to play Diablo 4 as it is, but you bet I made sure to fit it in because I wanted to give it a fair chance.
I 100% agree with the inventory. It feels so wrong to have everything the same size.
Diablo IV No Longer Defines the ARPG Genre - The Review From Hell
I played Path of Exile during its Alpha. I played it during Beta. I played it multiple times over the years during different seasons. Sure, the game wasn't great when it came out, but it did exactly what they wanted to - they wanted to make a better Diablo 2.
It's a bit of a difference though with GGG releasing their first title and Blizzard, who is supposed to be an industry titan. Blizzard has had several releases in the Diablo series and what we received was a half-assed attempt at a grand ARPG. Things they learned from Diablo 3, completely forgotten by the team 4's development started.
But, it's a modern game and they're expecting us to wait it out as they slow drip the essential content so they can keep our attention glued to a shop.
Now, your video of Asmongold. He's in a level 68 area. That can't even be considered end game.
Sotmr
Dinosaur Game, also known as Chrome Dino, is a browser game created by Google and incorporated into the Google Chrome web browser. In this game, players will control a pixelated, horizontally-scrolling dinosaur with the objective of preventing him from colliding with obstacles in order to increase his score. In 2014, members of the Chrome user experience development team created the game. Play it now!
swankyorc
Baldi's Basics, the first and only official release of the horror edutainment parody game. You can't take this game at face value.
What would you say were the biggest changes in HS history?
Well, let's review some history then;
Core set release
- Probably the most significant change for all players, whether new or old. Prior to this change, for new players to collect the classic set can be and often is a nightmare. Imagine this, to play face hunter in 2016, you'd still need 60% of classic cards available. And whenever an epic card is required, there's when you know you're screwed. Took me nigh on 2 years before I had most of the rares in classic, imagine what its like for a starting player.
Also, core set changes means we'll get to see old cards come back to standard, which is always nice.
No dupes from packs.
- Another big one in history. Prior to the changes, it wasn't unusual to collect 5 copies of useless epic cards every expansion. It wasn't all that uncommon to not have all the rares either, from 80 packs. Thankfully, those are all things of the past
Quests changing from 'Wins' to 'Play'/ allowing quests to be completed with friends
- I kid you not. There was a time when hearthstone simply roadblocked you from completing quests, because certain classes were simply unrepresented in the meta. Today, we have tons of choices, even with poor classes. Back then, there were like 2 tier 1 decks and everything below that is trash. Mercifully you can complete quests in casual mode, which is where I did most of mine.
Rush keyword
- Yes, the best and most influential keyword is not discover, its rush. Aggro games back then used to be fairly insurmountable, because most classes simply dont have initiative. Hence why Fiery War Axe was once the best card in the game.
Today, rush is printed on just about everything. Its often taken for granted that its literally introduced only in 2018
And last but not least
The reward track
- The sheer amount of controversy generated by this topic alone would suffice it a high seat in hearthstone's history, but it also marked the beginning of an era.
Hearthstone monetization boomed hard after this was introduced. I cannot easily point out when hearthstone started decaying, but if I had to pinpoint an area, it would start around this time, culminating in a more noticeable decay around the sunken city expansion.
Could it be that hearthstone has pushed so far into the 'live service' area where you're expected to commit long hours to the game to keep up? Maybe. All I can say, is that hearthstone used to be a game I play to chill. Its no longer the case after the introduction of the reward track.
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
I do notice that the one thing you struggle with that prevents you from getting to masters is that you don't really "win" games.
You kind of look at okay I lost that last game what is the exact line of play that isn't going to "win" me the game but counter what just happened to me.
And its like okay great how do you win the other 100 now?
You dont know what they are playing and you're not going to beat them.
You see winrate climbing means clobering everyone!
You dont know their deck, their tech, their cards, their strategy, you just have to be better and I am
Ranking Every Series 3 Card in MARVEL SNAP - Choose Your Card Tier List
When will the 3 tier list get updated. It has already been a month
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
Yes ping spam is a deck we've established this well more a lack of a deck masquerading as a deck
Now fortunately most ping spam shells are ******** awful like literally the worst deck you could play.
Unfortunately there is one variant that is currently competitive and nobody wants it to be.
Maybe that one will get cracked too eventually we will see
Cuz if LOR ever gets to the point where open pass spam is the entire game nobody wants that, it can be exactly one deck and one deck only thats it
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
Gg indeed my tripple mystic shot friend
Even the perfect hand won't make you suck less against nifty aggro the proven masters level aggro deck
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
Damn nifty aggro is good boys let's just say there's that tier list than there's meeeee
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
You see we have been through this before you all line up with your swinging big dicks and I clobber u
It's always the same
Can we stop pretending now?
I'm a masters eternal player with a unique playstyle and unique decks that can not be replicated.
You cant stop me and you'll never be like me and that's okay :)
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
Gg troll is right lol do you think you consistently get to masters with my own decks by being bad?
No that's u
Diablo IV No Longer Defines the ARPG Genre - The Review From Hell
While you have quite a few valid points, I'd like to remind you that PoE was pretty much complete garbage on release (it also didn't have any endgame, you had plenty of "illusion of choice" but you had to stack HP nodes or get oneshot, there was excessive rubber banding, etc.) and it took 10 years of development to provide it with features and QoL changes.
Also, do you consider this "superior endgame gameplay" ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9t5trXWT8
Because this is literally garbage. Modern poe = 70 hours to get characters going 100 kmh covering the screen with projectiles that murder everything.
Superior gameplay my ass.
Other fantastic ARPG games also were pretty dismal at release. Grim Dawn only had a few zones, the itemization was awful, and there was no endgame at all. It took two expansions and many patches to make it brilliant.
One could argue that a 70$ AAA game shouldn't need expansions to be playable, and it would be a fair point, but not a single competetor has done it right from day 1.
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
So when I say people have been meeming too hard in eternal I mean the following.
Thresh Nasus was seen as the best deck in the game...why? Because it board spammed and then it atrocitied for lethal.
People ran deny and that one smart deck running decision took theesh Nasus from 58% in eternal to 50% meaning it wasn't tier 1 it was an average average average deck - a solid meme nothing more
Now bot spam, it spams pings and then it spams bots. Can we find a decent solution for doing nothing into blah board vommit? I really want to hope so for the playerbase and for the format.
We beat thresh nasus, we beat poppy ziggs, we beat every meme that this format had to throw at us so let's beat bot spam. Cuz this format deserves it
Discussing The More Stable Less Meme Eternal Meta
1. Bott spam - it's a deck where you play cheap spells and then you play free 6/6 quick attackers. Wins 55% of games but a lot of that is the misplay and annoyance factor. I don't think it's the top 1% deck of the format more so just the best ping spam deck right now
2. Jax Orn - one of the best midrange decks in the game it does midrange things at 56%
3. Jayce lux - only sporting like a 51% winrate there are better control lists for sure
4. Ryze - down to 47% it is not a 4th place deck anymore it's not even a top 10 deck anymore when you high roll
5. Annie jhin - down to 53% compared to pirate aggro 58% it's bad
6. Elusive Spam- 54% winrate has good tech and good matchups but also big flaws
Honestly, pretty much everything else is down to sub 50% so you're better off playing your own decks for this meta
Because we aren't in a two deck eternal meta it isn't Jax or ping spam that's stupid
It's Jax, ping spam, elusive spam, aggro spam, and every single actually good deck people have found yet cuz they keep trying to find that next big meme list
Eternal is in a very balanced and strong position right now. Lots of deck, lots of variety and nothing that's screams nerf now. Like what are they gonna do nerf bot? Nerf pings? Nah ping spam ain't going anywhere but there's lots of other actual interesting stuff to play
Easy Masters With Nifty Aggro
Also shout outs to Mogwai and Swim they taught me how to play the game and now the student had become the master.
Also shootouts to the trolls and snipers that try to stop me. Making me work for it only ends up showing off my superiority so I appreciate it.
Easy Masters With Nifty Aggro
Final List after stone -> masters
3 - pigeons
3 - elegant edge
3 - butchers
3 - rearguard
1 - house spider
3 - demolisionists
3 - make it rain
3 - pirouette
3 - Samara
3 - miss fortune
3 - noxious fervor
3 - zap sprayfin
3 - eye of nagakboros
3 - decimate
Check is next season when I pilot another off meta homebrew deck from stone to masters on eternal ladder just because that's what Nifty does
Easy Masters With Nifty Aggro
So for those that don't know burst passing used to be when you'd burst to bank value then pass to pressure your opponent to committing resources.
Now it's more accurate to say that while burst passing is riskier pass bursting is very strong.
It's hard to imagine playing any aggro deck right now without a strong pass burst.
Pirate aggro can take free passes off control in order to draw cards at burst and improve board.
Elusives can take passes to bank stats on unblockable bodies.
Playing an aggro deck that cant do that like Annie Jhin feels bad to me.
So when I said that it's not a great deck in Eternal thats more so what I meant.
Obviously you can just run your linear optimal hand and win, but it can't really do anything beyond that and is very inflexible in terms of play pattern so objectively it's a little worse than last season for climbing I think
As for poppy ziggs I don't even know what happened to that deck? Majins attempt at creating a new persistent aggro deck fell off the planet? Oh well we all have our specialties.
Easy Masters With Nifty Aggro
So mixed climb with elusive spam and Nifty aggro.
Each deck has its merits one deck has very strong burst passes basically allowing you to bank 5/5 stats on your elusives on turn 3 so this devalues pings.
The other deck is just super fast and has good pings to clear 2/1 spam, and a stun for higher value blocks.
So once again the eternal king doing his own thing and winning casually like a lot!
So I dont know I'd you guys want to take this as a sign that I was right Nifty Aggro is a strong and consistent climbing deck or if you want to say I was wrong because I had to climb with one other deck to correct it's weaknesses.
I would say I was right, I very rarely mono climb anyway usually using a 2-3 deck rotation and that works for me. Last season was elites plus my own ramp deck. This season its elusives and my own aggro list.
High Evo
With Galactus dead, 90% of my opponents are High Evo decks… So glad the big guy is gone, making the game into a one deck pony. So much fun!
Thaddius Druid
E.T.C band includes:
Tony, King of Piracy
Rivendare, Warrider
Ozumat
Icesteak
In college, I devoted most of my time to studying, and, unfortunately, did not find time for games. There was a lot of material that required study, tasks, projects and exams, and I tried to put as much effort into them as possible. I even had to look for a writing sample due to lack of time, I used https://samplius.com/ for this. While games are a great way to relax and have fun, I understood that my education had the highest priority. Studying helps me develop and build my future career. Although I didn't play games in college, I know it's an integral part of many student lives and I'm sure I'll find time for it in the future.
Hearthstone's Latest Patch Brings Balance Changes to Standard, Battlegrounds, & Duels
wow, S'theno was just atomized huh