"The passes last a limited amount of time so they get players to engage more with the game so they don't miss out on rewards."
Nothing like using what's already well known about FOMO to try to get more players to compulsively play the game. Let's be honest here. You 'get' to "engage" with the game, really means "Here's this digital carrot. Play the game more or miss out on these cool shinies. Oh, and also you get to pay more money so that you don't miss out on said shinies."
Look, I get it, businesses at the end need to make profit, they're not a charity for doing their job, but some business models reek of more greedy practice because of how we've seen them used in other games and with other companies. This is essentially a 'pseudo subscription' model for Hearthstone. Yeah you technically still get to play as a free player, but now arbitrary gates are placed on you as far as in-game 'income' goes. This is one step further away from the type of free-to-play game that would allow said players to not fall behind paying players.
As an fyi I am no longer a free to play player (haven't been for awhile), but I still really dislike this move. Even as a paying player I spend at least the $80 on each expansion mega bundle. I could get everything else without spending more money. Now I 'get' to spend money on top of the $80 just to keep up with the Jones or I start falling behind.
I also think this survey is the illusion of choice when it comes to the direction of Hearthstone. As was suggested in the article the survey very much does not have any impact on whether this massive change to the game is going to happen. It's more to pretend like the big boys upstairs are listening to the community (I haven't seen any streamers whose content I follow or any well known HS competitive players ask for a battle pass).
This is actually a roundabout method of getting players to buy packs with real money rather than grind up gold. Here's some problems I can see at first glance.
- The total packs you get throughout the 4 months would be 39+18 = 57, but since FTP players tend to hoard their gold for the next expansion, in theory you're opening 18 packs of the current expansion throughout that 4 months of grinding. The number of packs I tend to open per expansion is around 80-90, and I'm usually nowhere near the amount of cards I need or would like. So halving this, and then subjecting me to a 4 month grind since packs are granted incrementally means I would have to be content with playing half-assed decks, get lucky with my legendaries, or...you know...buy more packs.
- You get another 14 packs of the current expansion, 4 months after the next one launches. I'd like to immediately point out that most players focuses on the current expansion, and not the previous one. It doesn't really matter even if I chanced that one legendary I always wanted at the very last pack I get. The fact of the matter is I've been doing without for the past 8 months, so what are the chances that I still give a shit after 8 months, or havent just crafted the card myself?
- Arena tickets. Not my thing. But if everyone just concedes three times, I wonder if the meta would then be to wait out at least the minute mark for the mulligan phase so the other player concedes first and give you a freebie.
- Skins, artwork, etc. Well, these don't actually affect the game, and since everyone gets one, its like the non-golden SN1P-SN4P phenomenon where the non-golden card is actually more glamorous than the golden one.
- And, of course, we still don't know how the grind would be like. But if its really really bad, then its just netdeckers left right and center all over again. Ceiling floors are important so players can choose their ceiling and stay there playing fun decks, but if you're being tracked for xp all day, then its just more important to just grind out that 9k xp limit per week than actually experimenting with sub optimal decks. It also makes it a lot worse for those without an adequate collection.
Of course things can change. Its just a concept for now, but I hope they will change their minds about giving out previous expansion packs instead of current. Your personal experience (for good or ill) of an expansion should ideally stay within that expansion.
Personally don’t like the idea of this too much, especially since it means f2p players will be getting less gold, and will need to grind a lot more for the less gold.
Thx for the free 4 packs of AoO Blizz i got 3 legendaries (Ysiel pack 1 and Golden Azzinoth shield/Maiev pack 4) for them. Since i sense extra luck i bought some Scholo packs to try it. From 6 packs (2 quest day3 1 arena 3 for shop) i've got the 2 druid legendaries i miss from this set (Shando & Omu) . So i basically pulled 5 legendaries from 10 packs.
You are, unfortunately, correct in your understanding.
This is exactly what this survey is for though - getting feedback. By getting this topic out into the open, the community can use the data to have a conversation with Blizzard instead of relying on the random chance that they get to participate via email.
I am curious if the pass will end up being better for players that are more on the casual F2P side. It's possible they will see an increase in earnings and Blizzard is instead trying to get the hardcore dedicated F2P players pony up for the paid pass, doubling the rewards for playing. It'll always come down to price though. If this is a $5 upgrade, it's incredibly smart, though it does suck in a way since it would have been free before.
I hope I'm misunderstanding this, but is this insinuating that free to play players would be capped at earning only 3990 gold per expansion, and thus only being able to buy 40 packs or so per expansion release? If so, that's a massive blow to that community as it's very common for us to earn 8000-11000 gold per expansion depending on how much we play. I opened 115 packs this expansion. If I can't do that anymore, that might destroy my ability to play at the level that I'm able to now. I can't see how I would continue playing at that rate.
Battle pass systems with paid models are predatory business practices that abuse FOMO to take advantage of people with poor impulse control and children, but I'm not surprised that blizzard would be attracted to that.
F2P players won't be able to progress past level 100 unless there are additional 1-time large bonuses of experience you can earn in an expansion cycle (legendary quests maybe?) =(
For people who save their gold for packs from the next Expansion this would be suck.
Right now I got round about 8000 gold every 4 months by doing dailies. If you do the same amount of games during the new battle Pass you only got 4000 gold (level 100) or 6250 gold by grinding to level 150.
I love them because when there's a game I really enjoy playing, it feels great to get rewards and I don't mind putting 20 bucks into the pot in a free to play title for a large variety of rewards.
I hate them because if I want to play 4 different games with 4 different battle passes all going on at the same time, depending on how they are structured, I feel like I'm just playing specific ways to get the passes done to move onto the next game instead of just enjoying the game. The fear of missing out on rewards is real and it sucks.
I'm more towards the love side though. Its rare for me to be playing more than a couple of games at once so it kinda works out. Hearthstone's version which is just playing the game also makes it really easy to progress. Fornite or PUBG have different silly things you gotta do in the game, making it more of a challenge. MTG Arena is much like the Hearthstone pass where you just need to play and finish your dailies... which reminds me... I haven't done any this week yet RIP.
I would absolutely love this. I love battle pass systems. They make me feel encouraged to play and often give rewards way above their price. It's a win/win scenario.
EDIT: After re-reading this, I see the system is set to replace the quest system entirely, screwing over F2P players and probably causing less overall rewards. To me, that makes NO sense and I do not support that at all. I was more picturing a battle pass ALONGSIDE the daily quests and gold gathering.
A week after I posted my Hecarim/Kalista deck over half of the decks in ranked are slight variants of it... lol. The funny part is now its hard to find the usual meta decks because Hecarush beats them ;p Unfortunately for me, Hecarush is weak to Hecarush so mirror comes down to who gets sharks/kalista up and running first... T_T
"If you don't like the meta in LoR, wait a day."
In all seriousness, I finally got around to trying your decklist today and I actually enjoyed it a lot, so thanks.
Gibberling Druid is absolutely busted, and while credit goes to Lightning Bloom and Voracious Reader, I also think Gibberling might just be too nuts. It's very much a "60% of the time of the time, it works every time" kind of deck (actually 52% odds of getting it in your opening hand if you fully mulligan without the coin).
Didn't do so well with my packs as well. Got 2+1 legendaries in 56 packs. One of which reached the 40 pack pity timer, which up until now I've never experienced.
Do you guys have this strange thing where your first legendary will almost always come before the ten pack timer, then its like an average of 10-20 packs until you get the other one? Has happened to me like for the past 5 expansions.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
"The passes last a limited amount of time so they get players to engage more with the game so they don't miss out on rewards."
Nothing like using what's already well known about FOMO to try to get more players to compulsively play the game. Let's be honest here. You 'get' to "engage" with the game, really means "Here's this digital carrot. Play the game more or miss out on these cool shinies. Oh, and also you get to pay more money so that you don't miss out on said shinies."
Look, I get it, businesses at the end need to make profit, they're not a charity for doing their job, but some business models reek of more greedy practice because of how we've seen them used in other games and with other companies. This is essentially a 'pseudo subscription' model for Hearthstone. Yeah you technically still get to play as a free player, but now arbitrary gates are placed on you as far as in-game 'income' goes. This is one step further away from the type of free-to-play game that would allow said players to not fall behind paying players.
As an fyi I am no longer a free to play player (haven't been for awhile), but I still really dislike this move. Even as a paying player I spend at least the $80 on each expansion mega bundle. I could get everything else without spending more money. Now I 'get' to spend money on top of the $80 just to keep up with the Jones or I start falling behind.
I also think this survey is the illusion of choice when it comes to the direction of Hearthstone. As was suggested in the article the survey very much does not have any impact on whether this massive change to the game is going to happen. It's more to pretend like the big boys upstairs are listening to the community (I haven't seen any streamers whose content I follow or any well known HS competitive players ask for a battle pass).
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
This is actually a roundabout method of getting players to buy packs with real money rather than grind up gold. Here's some problems I can see at first glance.
- The total packs you get throughout the 4 months would be 39+18 = 57, but since FTP players tend to hoard their gold for the next expansion, in theory you're opening 18 packs of the current expansion throughout that 4 months of grinding. The number of packs I tend to open per expansion is around 80-90, and I'm usually nowhere near the amount of cards I need or would like. So halving this, and then subjecting me to a 4 month grind since packs are granted incrementally means I would have to be content with playing half-assed decks, get lucky with my legendaries, or...you know...buy more packs.
- You get another 14 packs of the current expansion, 4 months after the next one launches. I'd like to immediately point out that most players focuses on the current expansion, and not the previous one. It doesn't really matter even if I chanced that one legendary I always wanted at the very last pack I get. The fact of the matter is I've been doing without for the past 8 months, so what are the chances that I still give a shit after 8 months, or havent just crafted the card myself?
- Arena tickets. Not my thing. But if everyone just concedes three times, I wonder if the meta would then be to wait out at least the minute mark for the mulligan phase so the other player concedes first and give you a freebie.
- Skins, artwork, etc. Well, these don't actually affect the game, and since everyone gets one, its like the non-golden SN1P-SN4P phenomenon where the non-golden card is actually more glamorous than the golden one.
- And, of course, we still don't know how the grind would be like. But if its really really bad, then its just netdeckers left right and center all over again. Ceiling floors are important so players can choose their ceiling and stay there playing fun decks, but if you're being tracked for xp all day, then its just more important to just grind out that 9k xp limit per week than actually experimenting with sub optimal decks. It also makes it a lot worse for those without an adequate collection.
Of course things can change. Its just a concept for now, but I hope they will change their minds about giving out previous expansion packs instead of current. Your personal experience (for good or ill) of an expansion should ideally stay within that expansion.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
Personally don’t like the idea of this too much, especially since it means f2p players will be getting less gold, and will need to grind a lot more for the less gold.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
Well, lets hope they don't do this then. Because I wouldn't play this game anymore and... Well, yeah. That would just suck,
Twitch Drops Error In Your Favor - Collect Ashes of Outland Packs (Expired)
Thx for the free 4 packs of AoO Blizz i got 3 legendaries (Ysiel pack 1 and Golden Azzinoth shield/Maiev pack 4) for them. Since i sense extra luck i bought some Scholo packs to try it. From 6 packs (2 quest day3 1 arena 3 for shop) i've got the 2 druid legendaries i miss from this set (Shando & Omu) . So i basically pulled 5 legendaries from 10 packs.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
Not looking forward to the reduced amounts of gold in saving up for the following expansion. Definitely a hit to F2P players.
I loathe this a lot.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
You are, unfortunately, correct in your understanding.
This is exactly what this survey is for though - getting feedback. By getting this topic out into the open, the community can use the data to have a conversation with Blizzard instead of relying on the random chance that they get to participate via email.
I am curious if the pass will end up being better for players that are more on the casual F2P side. It's possible they will see an increase in earnings and Blizzard is instead trying to get the hardcore dedicated F2P players pony up for the paid pass, doubling the rewards for playing. It'll always come down to price though. If this is a $5 upgrade, it's incredibly smart, though it does suck in a way since it would have been free before.
So much unknown!
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
I hope I'm misunderstanding this, but is this insinuating that free to play players would be capped at earning only 3990 gold per expansion, and thus only being able to buy 40 packs or so per expansion release? If so, that's a massive blow to that community as it's very common for us to earn 8000-11000 gold per expansion depending on how much we play. I opened 115 packs this expansion. If I can't do that anymore, that might destroy my ability to play at the level that I'm able to now. I can't see how I would continue playing at that rate.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
Battle pass systems with paid models are predatory business practices that abuse FOMO to take advantage of people with poor impulse control and children, but I'm not surprised that blizzard would be attracted to that.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
F2P players won't be able to progress past level 100 unless there are additional 1-time large bonuses of experience you can earn in an expansion cycle (legendary quests maybe?) =(
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
For people who save their gold for packs from the next Expansion this would be suck.
Right now I got round about 8000 gold every 4 months by doing dailies. If you do the same amount of games during the new battle Pass you only got 4000 gold (level 100) or 6250 gold by grinding to level 150.
I dont like this system that much.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
I love and hate them.
I love them because when there's a game I really enjoy playing, it feels great to get rewards and I don't mind putting 20 bucks into the pot in a free to play title for a large variety of rewards.
I hate them because if I want to play 4 different games with 4 different battle passes all going on at the same time, depending on how they are structured, I feel like I'm just playing specific ways to get the passes done to move onto the next game instead of just enjoying the game. The fear of missing out on rewards is real and it sucks.
I'm more towards the love side though. Its rare for me to be playing more than a couple of games at once so it kinda works out. Hearthstone's version which is just playing the game also makes it really easy to progress. Fornite or PUBG have different silly things you gotta do in the game, making it more of a challenge. MTG Arena is much like the Hearthstone pass where you just need to play and finish your dailies... which reminds me... I haven't done any this week yet RIP.
Blizzard Adding a Battle Pass to Hearthstone? Survey Highlights Alternate Art for The Coin, New Hero Skins, Paid Leveling Rewards
I would absolutely love this. I love battle pass systems. They make me feel encouraged to play and often give rewards way above their price. It's a win/win scenario.
EDIT: After re-reading this, I see the system is set to replace the quest system entirely, screwing over F2P players and probably causing less overall rewards. To me, that makes NO sense and I do not support that at all. I was more picturing a battle pass ALONGSIDE the daily quests and gold gathering.
That's what I get for linking a deck and description.
"If you don't like the meta in LoR, wait a day."
In all seriousness, I finally got around to trying your decklist today and I actually enjoyed it a lot, so thanks.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Gibberling Druid is absolutely busted, and while credit goes to Lightning Bloom and Voracious Reader, I also think Gibberling might just be too nuts. It's very much a "60% of the time of the time, it works every time" kind of deck (actually 52% odds of getting it in your opening hand if you fully mulligan without the coin).
Why are you not running Licensed Adventurer for the coins to make this combo work smoother?
Pack opening story and analysis
Didn't do so well with my packs as well. Got 2+1 legendaries in 56 packs. One of which reached the 40 pack pity timer, which up until now I've never experienced.
Do you guys have this strange thing where your first legendary will almost always come before the ten pack timer, then its like an average of 10-20 packs until you get the other one? Has happened to me like for the past 5 expansions.
Twitch Drops Error In Your Favor - Collect Ashes of Outland Packs (Expired)
Sudden packs
Pack opening story and analysis
Managed to get that last legendary on each of my accounts.
NA 38 packs
EU 39 packs
ASIA 34 packs
Like I say, haven't done very well this expansion.
The Artwork Process of Scholomance Academy - Concept Art Spotlight
They always do such fantastic work on the art.
Brawl Haul - Commanding the Field with Niv-Mizzet, Reborn
How would you update this deck for MTG Core 21?
Scholomance EVEN Warlock
"An archetype that plays with and manipulates its health more than Christian Bale."
lol
The New King Of LOR
We have a new highest win rate deck in legends of Runterra, and that's Swain TF.
I'll include my version that just swaps riptide rex for farron, because he's been getting good results on stream lately.
Now I personally haven't seen anyone playing this list at all, have you guys?
This is according to mobalytics, 57 percent wins, with 3000 games
https://lor.mobalytics.gg/stats/regions
The Artwork Process of Scholomance Academy - Concept Art Spotlight
Nope. Unfortunately not.
The Artwork Process of Scholomance Academy - Concept Art Spotlight
Were you able to find the concept art for Judicious Junior?
Really curios what the thought processes were for the current art to have been chosen