I don't read a whole lot, and usually I don't finish books when I start them. But I have read The Hobbit all the way through at least five times. It is exactly the kind of fantasy I love. All of the characters are very well thought out, the adventure is fun and exciting, Bilbo is just awesome. If you haven't read The Hobbit yet, then stop reading whatever it is you are reading now and start reading it. Personally, I think it is better than The Lord of the Rings.
Personally I think there's a few too many dwarves in The Hobbit, which is my one gripe with the book. You could probably cut out 3 or 4 of them and do no real harm to the story. Regardless, I am a big fan of Tolkien's books, and I appreciate everything from the The Hobbit to the much more dense The Silmarillion.
The latter is a brilliant read if you're a big fantasy lore nerd, and probably frightfully dull and difficult to follow otherwise. I recommend it to anyone who liked Lord of the Rings if they haven't (tried to) read it already, especially as there's a lot in LotR that is mentioned in passing but only explained in The Silmarillion.
I am loving the honest feedback in the video. I cannot validate spending money on this Tavern Brawl, and now my feelings are validated with someone who plays a lot more than me.
I don't read a whole lot, and usually I don't finish books when I start them. But I have read The Hobbit all the way through at least five times. It is exactly the kind of fantasy I love. All of the characters are very well thought out, the adventure is fun and exciting, Bilbo is just awesome. If you haven't read The Hobbit yet, then stop reading whatever it is you are reading now and start reading it. Personally, I think it is better than The Lord of the Rings.
When Regis, the guy that can get shafted by rng in matches and just laughs about it like a good blizzard customer without the slight complain ACTUALLY complains about this Brawl you know its a bad Brawl
You may like Ian Tregillis - Milkweed Triptych Series sci fi trilogy, where the nazi discovered how to create superhuman soldiers during WW2 and the british had only one chance how to fight back - starting to summon demons. The three book are closed, very dark and very sofisticated.
Hey guys and gals, I figured it might be cool to talk about our favorite books, recommend each other hidden gems and keep up to date with promising releases.
For starters, I'd like to let you know that I'm rooting for Science Fiction and Fantasy (big surprise) and everything in between since I've been given the Lord of the Rings as a present on my 10th birthday. Here are some of the titles I'd like to recommend to anyone with a similar taste:
Dan Simmons: The Hyperion Cantos (4 books) My favorite Sci-Fi books. Don't be fooled by the first book, it's primarily a set up for the main story which takes place in books 2-4. There's space craft, there's AI, there's an epic love story and if you feel rather sceptic about religion, this is a great book for you.
Eliezer Yudkowsky a.k.a Less Wrong: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Yes, this is a fan fiction. But please hear me out: This is probably the best book I've ever read. The basic question of the book is what Harry Potter would have acted like if he was a (very) intelligent, grown up, modern person. At times it's hillarious, all of it is exciting, and last but not least: it's free. You can read or download the book at www.hpmor.com - I actually went to the lenghts of taking this to a copy shop and having it bound for 80 € because it is so, so great.
David Mack - Dark Arts series (currently 3 books) This is another series about magicians, but with an interesting twist to the usual pattern: the magicians are yoking demons to perform magic for them. The storys of the first and the second book are taking place during the Second Wolrd War with magic users on both sides. It's way darker than HP in all kind of ways. A good example is the yoking of demons which is mentally exhausting to the point that all major magic users are addicted to alcohol, cocaine or other drugs because they'd lose their mind otherwise.
Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series (main plot ends after book 11) One of my favorite fantasy series, The Sword of Truth is a great story about ethics and morale, set in a world full of magic and magical creatures. It has its lengths but never lost its relevance for me, since it colorfully describes what happens if narrowminded, intolerant people gain the upper hand with the help of a very powerful leader. This is adult material as well - there's quite some cruelty and while the sex scenes themselves are scarce and not detailed at all, the teasing which leads to them certainly isn't. [In my personal opinion, you should start with "Wizard's first rule" and most importantly stop after "Confessor". All the other sequels were just an attempt to milk the cow to death.]
I have chosen to showcase those 4 because my other favorites are rather well known and don't need to be promoted very much imho. Among them are the "Foundation" series by Asimov, the "Ender" series by Orson Scott Card, "The Forever War" by Haldeman and "The Parafaith War" by Modesitt Jr.
High places on my next to read list are taken by "To sleep in a sea of stars" by Paolini and "The Name of the Wind" by Rothfuss (if he ever manages to finish book 3 of the series). I am entertaining the thought to try Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series for a third (or fourth?) time. I've never managed to get past book 4 because he's all about character development and I prefer faster plots.
What are your favorites? Is there anything you'd like to advertice in particular? Something you're looking forward to? Please tell!
That's a very narrow minded view my friend. Take the example of the They Who Endure deck, it existed since the beta but back then it was considered to be nothing but a meme deck, because you did nothing but spam blockers hoping that you would draw They Who Endure and Atrocity before your opponent could finish you off. It's not until the release rising tides that the deck became top tier, because it got access to the infamous Blighted Caretaker into Cursed Keeper combo among other things. allowing you to trade effectively while boosting They Who Endure.
Dude, i don't mean to be rude but you are mistaken. I was the guy who created They Who Endure deck and made it to Master top 50 rank before Bilgwater. So i can give all the feedback needed.
The deck was indeed meme in the beginning since it had incredibly bad matchups against Elusives and Fearsome decks, and both reigned supreme in the beta days. Once both decks got slowly but consistently nerfed patch after patch, Demacia became a very popular S tier deck and They Who Endure was very good against it. Thats when i reached Master Rank 13. After Bilgwater, Blighted Caretaker helped the deck but you are missing the fact they nerfed both Brood Awakening and Iceborn Legacy so i'd say it was an even trade.
So let me get this straight. People who pay for the game on the regular buying packs each expansion (be it with gold or money) had the opportunity to play a decently fun new game mode called Battlegrounds for free. Now, aside from having to buy your packs to play your format of choice, you also have to spit out more for a Tavern Pass to play the same mode you could play before for free, or else you're saddled with a 50 % cut in your options (and as it happens, hero choice is more than half the game at this point).
Then, they bring back the Brawliseum to replace the standard Tavern Brawl and they don't even have the decency to give you the usual free entry anymore. You have to pay for the privilege of playing standard and unless you do astonishingly well (66% winrate) you are guaranteed to lose money. Which is attractive...how, exactly? Meanwhile free-to-play players are twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Tavern Brawl button to be usable again cause they just got robbed of their regular free pack. Everybody is worse off. Literally everybody, including the people not interested in the Brawliseum.
I'm sorry is this supposed to be the way companies provide their services to customers? Gradually, over time, make everything both cost more and be worse? Keep pushing Bliz, please, by all means. Keep grubbing up all the short-term cash at the cost of long-term customer loyalty. Keep looking for people experienced with "executing on monetisation" for your games before they're even a game. Keep cutting down on people's options for game modes you're selling while they're still officially in Beta. I'm absolutely positive it won't bite you in the anal cavity down the road.
Thanks for the feedback) I was fairly surprised about your success with your changes but your thoughts about Mage Malygos card explained it: You were encountering the slower part of the Wild meta so it allowed that much greediness. I'm glad it's working. I must warn you thought why it might eventually flop once you encounter the faster part of the Wild meta.
1. By adding the Dragon package, you made your mana curve higher while also removing Jepetto which is able to draw expensive cards and discount them to 1 mana only.
2.You eventually removed almost any posibility of early clear(except Doomsayer). Depth Charge is second Doomsayer,Explosive Sheep is really nice to play to slow down Aggro or fully heal you with Zilliax, and Flame Ward is really important 3rd secret and absence of it hurts both drawing consistency of Secret tutors and consistency of answering Aggro board early
3. Jepetto Joybuzz is one of the best 8 drops in the game. Not only it draws, but it potentially mana cheats as well. 1 mana Barista,Emperor,Ragnaros,Kazakus and even Zilliax to magnetise on Explosive Sheep to be a 3 mana Reno-like effect are all pretty powerfull and neat plays which wouldn't be possible without Jepetto.
4. Barista is strong value engine. In terms of this deck specifically she enables going infinite(if your Zola was Rated for example against DMH Warrior),she enables more Battlecry effects of cards like Dirty Rat and she's the main reason why Emperor discounts are that strong in this deck(so you can do your battlecry shennanigans and develop fairly midrangey board). Even when she copies 1 battlecry thats already strong value. Making her 1 mana thanks to Jepetto just opens insane value abbilities as well.
The main appeal of this particular build is simple: It acts like a well-oiled machine against any matchup and you are able to always make some neat plays and choices against any matchup. It stands out in the abbility to answer everything well and thats mainly because of this specific 30 card lists. Yes,we cheat less mana than LPG Reno Mage,yes, we don't have an abbility of comboing 3 turns like Quest Reno Mage,but in terms of Control gameplan against Aggro,Midrange,Control and Combo, we are just unmatched.
Your changes removed that abbility. And while the Dragon package is working into slower matchups,it just makes this deck act like a LPG Reno Mage without LPG which is not that strong for the current pwerlevel of overall Wild meta. And that will be especially clear once you run into Kingsbane Rogue,Bomb Warrior or even Discolock.
Just to be clear: I'm not critisising your changes because I hate them etc, I'm just warning your that there might be some point where that Dragon package will start to feel like a handicap instead of upside,just because how fast the meta is and at what powerlevel of Wild we are currently overall.
I suppose there was also Battlegrounds changes, but they happen all the time anyway and I don't even play Battlegrounds (though I know lots of people like it).
Surely this is the least generous event ever.
Blizzard you want my gold? Enable wild adventures to be able to be purchased with gold not only $$$ then at least I can do them on my NA and Asia accounts. Then we can talk - otherwise I'll just hang on to it until next expansion particularly considering the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming battle pass (yes I read your assurances but I'll wait to see the specifics of what's implemented and decide for myself from there).
Now that i think about it, it almost feels like the mage pack from book of heroes was rather some kind of compensation for the loss of a classic pack because of the heroic brawliseum...
This!
Forbidden Library was only the "free" boring book of heroes plus give us money for a wild bundle plus give us money for a scholar bundle plus give us money for brawliseum entrance and some extra money for an old card back.
That's my point it's an optional event we are not forced to partake in. I certainly have not and have no intention to.
If we want to spend 1000 gold on arena runs or to buy packs we are free to do so. If we chose to partake in the event, we are free to do so as well. However, we should also accept both the rewards and consequences of doing so.
Nice changes, I really like the flavor. Maybe the stats are a bit too much? This might be nitpicking, but I would be more comfortable at 5 Health.
BloodMefist
Show Spoiler
I agree with Demon, the full art is way better. I know that I criticized this in my first feedback, but the chance for other classes to get some AOE with a drawback is actually quite cool, so I'd prefer this to stay a Neutral. Cool card!
bananenparty
Show Spoiler
I don't know what's rong with the art, it looks like there's another picture in the background. Is that intended? It's an interesting effect to be sure, but probably not realistic enough to win this competition.
bigcums
Show Spoiler
This is way better than the first card. The effect fits the art if you look close enough to see the eyes on the plate. I like it. I'm no native speaker but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be "its" rather than "it's" in both cases. Finally, the Scholomance vibes aren't very strong. I'd use a custom watermark.
Going to be honest, I don't think this is Blizzard's fault.
Posts of the rewards structure are everywhere, and you are warned with the cost of entry before starting.
that's not the mentality someone should have in a videogame lad. "you are warned" .... are we playing a videogame or betting pants in a casino? I don't want to play a game who warns me I will lose money, no thanks -.-
12 Win Decks to Play in This Week's Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl
These are some interesting decks to play with, at least.
Never woulda thought to put Penflinger in Soul Demon Hunter
Books
Personally I think there's a few too many dwarves in The Hobbit, which is my one gripe with the book. You could probably cut out 3 or 4 of them and do no real harm to the story. Regardless, I am a big fan of Tolkien's books, and I appreciate everything from the The Hobbit to the much more dense The Silmarillion.
The latter is a brilliant read if you're a big fantasy lore nerd, and probably frightfully dull and difficult to follow otherwise. I recommend it to anyone who liked Lord of the Rings if they haven't (tried to) read it already, especially as there's a lot in LotR that is mentioned in passing but only explained in The Silmarillion.
12 Win Decks to Play in This Week's Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl
Well, I think Boar Control was actually using FunkiMonki's deck :) The match where they fought each other was quite interesting to watch!
12 Win Decks to Play in This Week's Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl
I am loving the honest feedback in the video. I cannot validate spending money on this Tavern Brawl, and now my feelings are validated with someone who plays a lot more than me.
12 Win Decks to Play in This Week's Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl
Answer is easy... DO NOT PLAY this freaking brawl, it ain't worth it.
Books
You missed the most important book of all.
Books
I don't read a whole lot, and usually I don't finish books when I start them. But I have read The Hobbit all the way through at least five times. It is exactly the kind of fantasy I love. All of the characters are very well thought out, the adventure is fun and exciting, Bilbo is just awesome. If you haven't read The Hobbit yet, then stop reading whatever it is you are reading now and start reading it. Personally, I think it is better than The Lord of the Rings.
Heroic Brawliseum
So, let's recap this 3 week special event:
Week 1 - Card back you can buy with gold + Pack Bundle
Week 2 - Linear Solo Adventure (with one class pack reward) + Pack (with Skin) Bundle
Week 3 - Card back you can buy with gold + Tavern Brawl you have to spend money on and be incredibly lucky to get a profit
Quite hefty indeed, mr. Ben Lee.
PS: I'm going to bookmark the post discussing the Battle Pass for every time we get great revelations and events like this one. If you want to do it too, here's the link: https://outof.cards/hearthstone/1727-blizzard-responds-to-the-hearthstone-battle-pass-survey-current-reward-values-to-be-preserved-play-hearthstone-your-way-to-progress
Unkillable Board!
This deck is extremely inconsistent without Expired Merchant, I suggest you drop a Matron and something else (Valdris Felgorge?).
Books
Thanks, that sounds very interesting. Closed has become a hard criterion for me. What are your favorites?
Heroic Brawliseum
When Regis, the guy that can get shafted by rng in matches and just laughs about it like a good blizzard customer without the slight complain ACTUALLY complains about this Brawl you know its a bad Brawl
Books
You may like Ian Tregillis - Milkweed Triptych Series sci fi trilogy, where the nazi discovered how to create superhuman soldiers during WW2 and the british had only one chance how to fight back - starting to summon demons. The three book are closed, very dark and very sofisticated.
Books
Hey guys and gals, I figured it might be cool to talk about our favorite books, recommend each other hidden gems and keep up to date with promising releases.
For starters, I'd like to let you know that I'm rooting for Science Fiction and Fantasy (big surprise) and everything in between since I've been given the Lord of the Rings as a present on my 10th birthday. Here are some of the titles I'd like to recommend to anyone with a similar taste:
Dan Simmons: The Hyperion Cantos (4 books)
My favorite Sci-Fi books. Don't be fooled by the first book, it's primarily a set up for the main story which takes place in books 2-4. There's space craft, there's AI, there's an epic love story and if you feel rather sceptic about religion, this is a great book for you.
Eliezer Yudkowsky a.k.a Less Wrong: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Yes, this is a fan fiction. But please hear me out: This is probably the best book I've ever read. The basic question of the book is what Harry Potter would have acted like if he was a (very) intelligent, grown up, modern person. At times it's hillarious, all of it is exciting, and last but not least: it's free. You can read or download the book at www.hpmor.com - I actually went to the lenghts of taking this to a copy shop and having it bound for 80 € because it is so, so great.
David Mack - Dark Arts series (currently 3 books)
This is another series about magicians, but with an interesting twist to the usual pattern: the magicians are yoking demons to perform magic for them. The storys of the first and the second book are taking place during the Second Wolrd War with magic users on both sides. It's way darker than HP in all kind of ways. A good example is the yoking of demons which is mentally exhausting to the point that all major magic users are addicted to alcohol, cocaine or other drugs because they'd lose their mind otherwise.
Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series (main plot ends after book 11)
One of my favorite fantasy series, The Sword of Truth is a great story about ethics and morale, set in a world full of magic and magical creatures. It has its lengths but never lost its relevance for me, since it colorfully describes what happens if narrowminded, intolerant people gain the upper hand with the help of a very powerful leader. This is adult material as well - there's quite some cruelty and while the sex scenes themselves are scarce and not detailed at all, the teasing which leads to them certainly isn't.
[In my personal opinion, you should start with "Wizard's first rule" and most importantly stop after "Confessor". All the other sequels were just an attempt to milk the cow to death.]
I have chosen to showcase those 4 because my other favorites are rather well known and don't need to be promoted very much imho. Among them are the "Foundation" series by Asimov, the "Ender" series by Orson Scott Card, "The Forever War" by Haldeman and "The Parafaith War" by Modesitt Jr.
High places on my next to read list are taken by "To sleep in a sea of stars" by Paolini and "The Name of the Wind" by Rothfuss (if he ever manages to finish book 3 of the series). I am entertaining the thought to try Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series for a third (or fourth?) time. I've never managed to get past book 4 because he's all about character development and I prefer faster plots.
What are your favorites? Is there anything you'd like to advertice in particular? Something you're looking forward to? Please tell!
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
Same
Why No Bilgewater Nerfs?
Dude, i don't mean to be rude but you are mistaken.
I was the guy who created They Who Endure deck and made it to Master top 50 rank before Bilgwater. So i can give all the feedback needed.
The deck was indeed meme in the beginning since it had incredibly bad matchups against Elusives and Fearsome decks, and both reigned supreme in the beta days. Once both decks got slowly but consistently nerfed patch after patch, Demacia became a very popular S tier deck and They Who Endure was very good against it. Thats when i reached Master Rank 13.
After Bilgwater, Blighted Caretaker helped the deck but you are missing the fact they nerfed both Brood Awakening and Iceborn Legacy so i'd say it was an even trade.
Heroic Brawliseum
So let me get this straight. People who pay for the game on the regular buying packs each expansion (be it with gold or money) had the opportunity to play a decently fun new game mode called Battlegrounds for free. Now, aside from having to buy your packs to play your format of choice, you also have to spit out more for a Tavern Pass to play the same mode you could play before for free, or else you're saddled with a 50 % cut in your options (and as it happens, hero choice is more than half the game at this point).
Then, they bring back the Brawliseum to replace the standard Tavern Brawl and they don't even have the decency to give you the usual free entry anymore. You have to pay for the privilege of playing standard and unless you do astonishingly well (66% winrate) you are guaranteed to lose money. Which is attractive...how, exactly? Meanwhile free-to-play players are twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Tavern Brawl button to be usable again cause they just got robbed of their regular free pack. Everybody is worse off. Literally everybody, including the people not interested in the Brawliseum.
I'm sorry is this supposed to be the way companies provide their services to customers? Gradually, over time, make everything both cost more and be worse? Keep pushing Bliz, please, by all means. Keep grubbing up all the short-term cash at the cost of long-term customer loyalty. Keep looking for people experienced with "executing on monetisation" for your games before they're even a game. Keep cutting down on people's options for game modes you're selling while they're still officially in Beta. I'm absolutely positive it won't bite you in the anal cavity down the road.
Legendary Reno DK Mage
Thanks for the feedback) I was fairly surprised about your success with your changes but your thoughts about Mage Malygos card explained it: You were encountering the slower part of the Wild meta so it allowed that much greediness. I'm glad it's working. I must warn you thought why it might eventually flop once you encounter the faster part of the Wild meta.
1. By adding the Dragon package, you made your mana curve higher while also removing Jepetto which is able to draw expensive cards and discount them to 1 mana only.
2.You eventually removed almost any posibility of early clear(except Doomsayer). Depth Charge is second Doomsayer,Explosive Sheep is really nice to play to slow down Aggro or fully heal you with Zilliax, and Flame Ward is really important 3rd secret and absence of it hurts both drawing consistency of Secret tutors and consistency of answering Aggro board early
3. Jepetto Joybuzz is one of the best 8 drops in the game. Not only it draws, but it potentially mana cheats as well. 1 mana Barista,Emperor,Ragnaros,Kazakus and even Zilliax to magnetise on Explosive Sheep to be a 3 mana Reno-like effect are all pretty powerfull and neat plays which wouldn't be possible without Jepetto.
4. Barista is strong value engine. In terms of this deck specifically she enables going infinite(if your Zola was Rated for example against DMH Warrior),she enables more Battlecry effects of cards like Dirty Rat and she's the main reason why Emperor discounts are that strong in this deck(so you can do your battlecry shennanigans and develop fairly midrangey board). Even when she copies 1 battlecry thats already strong value. Making her 1 mana thanks to Jepetto just opens insane value abbilities as well.
The main appeal of this particular build is simple: It acts like a well-oiled machine against any matchup and you are able to always make some neat plays and choices against any matchup. It stands out in the abbility to answer everything well and thats mainly because of this specific 30 card lists. Yes,we cheat less mana than LPG Reno Mage,yes, we don't have an abbility of comboing 3 turns like Quest Reno Mage,but in terms of Control gameplan against Aggro,Midrange,Control and Combo, we are just unmatched.
Your changes removed that abbility. And while the Dragon package is working into slower matchups,it just makes this deck act like a LPG Reno Mage without LPG which is not that strong for the current pwerlevel of overall Wild meta. And that will be especially clear once you run into Kingsbane Rogue,Bomb Warrior or even Discolock.
Just to be clear: I'm not critisising your changes because I hate them etc, I'm just warning your that there might be some point where that Dragon package will start to feel like a handicap instead of upside,just because how fast the meta is and at what powerlevel of Wild we are currently overall.
Heroic Brawliseum
I suppose there was also Battlegrounds changes, but they happen all the time anyway and I don't even play Battlegrounds (though I know lots of people like it).
Surely this is the least generous event ever.
Blizzard you want my gold? Enable wild adventures to be able to be purchased with gold not only $$$ then at least I can do them on my NA and Asia accounts. Then we can talk - otherwise I'll just hang on to it until next expansion particularly considering the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming battle pass (yes I read your assurances but I'll wait to see the specifics of what's implemented and decide for myself from there).
heroic brawl rewards for 12 wins :)
Heroic Brawliseum
As an aside RegisKillbin has posted a video saying that this Tavern Brawl is not worth it. At all.
https://youtu.be/uEOrxEWOk4I
Heroic Brawliseum
i r disappoint
Heroic Brawliseum
This!
Forbidden Library was only the "free" boring book of heroes plus give us money for a wild bundle plus give us money for a scholar bundle plus give us money for brawliseum entrance and some extra money for an old card back.
Heroic Brawliseum
I know I have the unpopular opinion here.
That's my point it's an optional event we are not forced to partake in. I certainly have not and have no intention to.
If we want to spend 1000 gold on arena runs or to buy packs we are free to do so. If we chose to partake in the event, we are free to do so as well. However, we should also accept both the rewards and consequences of doing so.
À La Card - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
KANSAS
BloodMefist
bananenparty
bigcums
Heroic Brawliseum
that's not the mentality someone should have in a videogame lad. "you are warned" .... are we playing a videogame or betting pants in a casino? I don't want to play a game who warns me I will lose money, no thanks -.-