Thank you :) The front page article is just a portal to the guide to allow more people to see it, so the article itself is never viewed, just this guide that it links to.
Excellent point. I must have missed that when I looked over his fight tactics. My apologies. Still, I would consider his most flavorful aspect to be the whole "blades instead of hands" feature, and I'm not sure what the best way would be to represent that as a card except for equipping a weapon somehow. Any ideas?
I usually keep cards that I think are destined for a nerf, and have occasionally hit on the right ones. Dragoncaster is one of those hits. 8 copies still in my collection that never got dusted. :D
I agree too. I'm really torn on this one. It's such a cool card but I'm quite convinced she won't be playable anymore. The thing is, I tend to use up my dust because I always have that next hot shit in mind I'd like to try out. Sigh.
Of course Blizz wants us to spend money on the game (that's how it keeps going after all!), but they do that by keeping us interested, and it is a moot point what the motives behind that are. Thought experiment: does it actually matter how greedy and devious someone is if all their money is earned by doing things that make people happy?
Of course it matters. Hearthstone, much like blizz itself, isn't just a commodity maintained by continued influx of cash. It thrives in a community who may have spent much of their lives around. It belongs to its corporate board members as much it belongs to its community, that's what make it more than just a number on the cash register.
Unfortunately, its corporate members are largely unelected and therefore unaccountable to its community. They can jack up prices as easily as they can put it down, no matter how it affects the livelihood of its community. The key is to balance it so corporate makes a decent profit, and the community stays happy. Corporate greed, however, is rarely happy just to make a profit. So you'd have shady practices designed to either make all the money in the world, or to tip that balance ever so slowly in their favor. Its up to its community to call them out on it and rebalance it whenever possible.
The motives matter. Blizz used to live up to a standard unequaled in the gaming industry. After its merger, those standards are slowly but surely being corroded as activition-blizz comes out with new ways to earn money irrespective of the high standards it set itself, as it hopes its community adapts to the so called new normal. Galakrond's awakening, for example, is one such attempt at creating a new normal where an additional $20 (or 2800 gold) is required in order for anyone to keep up with the game (you can't just craft those cards with dust). I'm sure it makes the community very happy to have an additional set of cards to play with, but are we going to accept 3 expansions a year + an additional $20 every expansion? Lets not even discuss the implications this will have on game design if we let them get away with it.
As someone that played WoW heavily until MoP, with BC being my favorite expansion, I can tell you that the base Kargath Bladefist is much more appropriate than you know. One of the major mechanics of the fight with him in the Shattered Halls instance was he would Charge (an iconic Warrior ability) players in the group. This occurred roughly every 30 seconds and each usage of the ability would increase the number of uses. So the first time he would just Charge once, then twice and so on. So the Rush mechanic fits that very well, as he was a very specific representation of the Warrior class in the game.
I completely agree with this sentiment, and I, for one, am disappointed about it. I was finding more and more often when I play highlander decks that DQA felt slower than the meta (both standard and wild) and more often than not didn't gift a solution I needed when I was behind, even when played on curve. I hope she isn't completely unplayable - it's a really fun card, and I love the highlander archetype.
This represents my feelings on the card as a whole and reminiscing about how OP it was. But increasing the cost of the new dragons will hopefully negate a full turn at least.
The change is healthy for the game but the card itself is probably hot garbage now. It's highly likely that the meta won't slow down and now she requires a much slower meta to be played safely. She is pretty much going to become a 10 mana card that can't really be played if you are behind. She can't save from a bad position. She was designed as a swing card but she can't create swing turns effectively anymore. What's the point of playing a card with a restriction to your deck that doesn't produce big payoffs unless you are already winning? This is just my opinion and i may be playing the Doomsayer here but i think it's not worth using her in any deck after the change. Totally unplayable.
Well that's why I suggested that unspent mana reduces the cost of your next hero power instead. The Hero Power is usually pretty insignificant so it wouldn't enable many combos and only really affect Inspire cards.
You might be underestimating what decks would this create, tho it could be very interesting to see :)
Ah, interesting. I'm not very familiar with the RTS, and have never played Warcraft III, but thanks for letting me know. I thought there might be something like that, but I couldn't find anything solid online and opted to play it safe. I'll look into that and possibly edit it in sometime in the future.
I would love to see more 'holidays' but this is more like the paid in brawls from HS than the fire festival. They have a pretty good amount of events going on at any time in MtG that are either free or a gold entry (not hard to save up for if you are doing dailies). I do wish they would release info about how many winners they get, I'm interested in that data. They probably won't because if it's only a few dozen at most in the top 2, you'll have less people willing to hork over a huge entrance fee.
I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Yeah, I really like the Solarian Prime effect as well, even though I don't currently have the card. It gives more certainty to the randomness of chaos mage, which is very powerful in its own way.
I've actually been considering a murloc post for quite some time now. I'll likely wait a bit until the theme of the next set is announced, and do some related write-ups for it, but I'll put down murloc as a good evergreen post for a rainy day.
I have had someone spawn another one on me before and it completely shifted the match. I was clearly in the lead and ready to drop them on the next turn. Then they get Alexstrasza and the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. The (1) mana thing to me in negligible due to the fact that by the time they play this card, they usually have a few extra mana to play things.
And that is an excellent point. Cards are often about communicating an aspect of the class fantasy and using a specific character to flavor it, and that is perfectly legitimate. I only get "picky" about the stuff in these articles because I like providing more specific information and don't want to cause any misconceptions about the character by failing to clarify differences between them and the card.
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
Thank you :) The front page article is just a portal to the guide to allow more people to see it, so the article itself is never viewed, just this guide that it links to.
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
Excellent point. I must have missed that when I looked over his fight tactics. My apologies. Still, I would consider his most flavorful aspect to be the whole "blades instead of hands" feature, and I'm not sure what the best way would be to represent that as a card except for equipping a weapon somehow. Any ideas?
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
Thanks. :) I learned how to use photoshop recently and have a lot of fun with it.
10 Card Nerfs Arriving in Hearthstone on July 14! Targets Demon Hunters, Galakrond Rogue, Pirates & More
I usually keep cards that I think are destined for a nerf, and have occasionally hit on the right ones. Dragoncaster is one of those hits. 8 copies still in my collection that never got dusted. :D
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
Nice banner art
Traversing Azeroth - The Lore Behind Ahn'Qiraj, Prison of C'Thun
Scarab wall, a wall of scarabs. Which annoying hearthstone card do that?
It's spreading plague lol
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
I agree too. I'm really torn on this one. It's such a cool card but I'm quite convinced she won't be playable anymore. The thing is, I tend to use up my dust because I always have that next hot shit in mind I'd like to try out. Sigh.
Hearthstone Game Designer Alec Dawson Comments on Upcoming Card Nerfs
Of course it matters. Hearthstone, much like blizz itself, isn't just a commodity maintained by continued influx of cash. It thrives in a community who may have spent much of their lives around. It belongs to its corporate board members as much it belongs to its community, that's what make it more than just a number on the cash register.
Unfortunately, its corporate members are largely unelected and therefore unaccountable to its community. They can jack up prices as easily as they can put it down, no matter how it affects the livelihood of its community. The key is to balance it so corporate makes a decent profit, and the community stays happy. Corporate greed, however, is rarely happy just to make a profit. So you'd have shady practices designed to either make all the money in the world, or to tip that balance ever so slowly in their favor. Its up to its community to call them out on it and rebalance it whenever possible.
The motives matter. Blizz used to live up to a standard unequaled in the gaming industry. After its merger, those standards are slowly but surely being corroded as activition-blizz comes out with new ways to earn money irrespective of the high standards it set itself, as it hopes its community adapts to the so called new normal. Galakrond's awakening, for example, is one such attempt at creating a new normal where an additional $20 (or 2800 gold) is required in order for anyone to keep up with the game (you can't just craft those cards with dust). I'm sure it makes the community very happy to have an additional set of cards to play with, but are we going to accept 3 expansions a year + an additional $20 every expansion? Lets not even discuss the implications this will have on game design if we let them get away with it.
Let's scout ahead! Reporting in
80k shards wow =O
Guess you guys are stacked for the next exp... well done!
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
As someone that played WoW heavily until MoP, with BC being my favorite expansion, I can tell you that the base Kargath Bladefist is much more appropriate than you know. One of the major mechanics of the fight with him in the Shattered Halls instance was he would Charge (an iconic Warrior ability) players in the group. This occurred roughly every 30 seconds and each usage of the ability would increase the number of uses. So the first time he would just Charge once, then twice and so on. So the Rush mechanic fits that very well, as he was a very specific representation of the Warrior class in the game.
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
I completely agree with this sentiment, and I, for one, am disappointed about it. I was finding more and more often when I play highlander decks that DQA felt slower than the meta (both standard and wild) and more often than not didn't gift a solution I needed when I was behind, even when played on curve. I hope she isn't completely unplayable - it's a really fun card, and I love the highlander archetype.
10 Card Nerfs Arriving in Hearthstone on July 14! Targets Demon Hunters, Galakrond Rogue, Pirates & More
This represents my feelings on the card as a whole and reminiscing about how OP it was. But increasing the cost of the new dragons will hopefully negate a full turn at least.
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
Maybe it was mentioned before, but why the comment counters shows 0 in your articles?
But, one thing is surely mentioned: great write again, Goliath. ;)
Aggro: Odd Demon Hunter
Yeah, this deck is about to get hit hard.
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
The change is healthy for the game but the card itself is probably hot garbage now. It's highly likely that the meta won't slow down and now she requires a much slower meta to be played safely. She is pretty much going to become a 10 mana card that can't really be played if you are behind. She can't save from a bad position. She was designed as a swing card but she can't create swing turns effectively anymore. What's the point of playing a card with a restriction to your deck that doesn't produce big payoffs unless you are already winning? This is just my opinion and i may be playing the Doomsayer here but i think it's not worth using her in any deck after the change. Totally unplayable.
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
so, the next nerf will be zephrys at 10 mana because he was too powerful and highlander decks cannot have consistent cards to build arround
Game Design Lessons HS could learn from LoR
You might be underestimating what decks would this create, tho it could be very interesting to see :)
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
You really should change that!
The Arena Open Tournament Returns on August 1 - Win Up to $2000!
I would love to see more 'holidays' but this is more like the paid in brawls from HS than the fire festival. They have a pretty good amount of events going on at any time in MtG that are either free or a gold entry (not hard to save up for if you are doing dailies). I do wish they would release info about how many winners they get, I'm interested in that data. They probably won't because if it's only a few dozen at most in the top 2, you'll have less people willing to hork over a huge entrance fee.
10 Card Nerfs Arriving in Hearthstone on July 14! Targets Demon Hunters, Galakrond Rogue, Pirates & More
DQ Alex has not been able to spawn herself for a few months now, that was nerfed earlier this year.
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
I dropped a Duplicate on the board first turn with a Kabal Lackey. Next turn I dropped Astromancer Solarian. They Backstab, him and I get the other copies of it and they drop Deathlord. I Fireball and hit with the lackey, get the prime... they conceded
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Yeah, I really like the Solarian Prime effect as well, even though I don't currently have the card. It gives more certainty to the randomness of chaos mage, which is very powerful in its own way.
I've actually been considering a murloc post for quite some time now. I'll likely wait a bit until the theme of the next set is announced, and do some related write-ups for it, but I'll put down murloc as a good evergreen post for a rainy day.
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
I have had someone spawn another one on me before and it completely shifted the match. I was clearly in the lead and ready to drop them on the next turn. Then they get Alexstrasza and the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. The (1) mana thing to me in negligible due to the fact that by the time they play this card, they usually have a few extra mana to play things.
Ashes of Outland Prime Legendaries: Archivist's Lore
And that is an excellent point. Cards are often about communicating an aspect of the class fantasy and using a specific character to flavor it, and that is perfectly legitimate. I only get "picky" about the stuff in these articles because I like providing more specific information and don't want to cause any misconceptions about the character by failing to clarify differences between them and the card.
Hearthstone Game Designer Alec Dawson Comments on Upcoming Card Nerfs
people still pay for packs?