I'm actually very interested to know who are the members of Untied Sr. Explorers! The league of Evil faced therm in one of the fight in Galakrond Awakening.
Personally, I like the dismissal of neutral cards from a design perspective. It makes each region's identity/profile that much sharper. Also, personally, I like that it makes deckbuilding less complicated/time-consuming by reducing the total number of cards to choose from, but that's obviously not a balance argument.
I believe as long as Riot don't drop the ball on card buffs and nerfs, other regions shouldn't need very specific tools to counter very specific deck strategies; they could just build the own deck archetypes that are equally as strong. Like, if elusives cost more, did less damage to the nexus, or were weakened in some other way, different types of aggro decks might be able to more consistently outpace them. Or control decks might survive for longer if nexus healing was cheaper / more plentiful.
Then again, there are just the thoughts of little old me playing for fun and not really being interested in ranked games. Guess life is tougher when you permanently have to deal with the next big thing in the metagame.
Since this is the recap of the week I will start off with last week's Expeditions. I went 7/7/6 for my paid runs. I just finished my 3 paid runs for this week and went 7/1/6. The 1 win run was all around terrible, my 1st deck was lucky to even win the 1 game and my 2nd deck was a below average deck where I got unlucky and ended up with only 1 win in the 2nd trial.
I leveled up the Ionia & Noxus Regions to level 14 & 15 just for the Platinum chests. I opened both Katarina & Yasuo!!! These were sorely needed for my Yasuo stun deck.
I played 1 game with my newly finished Stun deck & my opp was running Mono S.I., I steamedrolled them hard!!!!
Finally, Vault progress is at level 12 0/4k xp & will be at level 13 by Tuesday.
each region has a level right? level them to 4,8,12,16,20
You can switch regions at any time so switch between them freely, if you reach 4 in Noxus for example switch to level 0 Ionia to get more wild cards at 4.. I level them all up evenly but multiples of 4 give you the most wild cards.
Topic, but I'd like to expand on my mindset on why this is something I believe needs to be addressed.
So right now, we live in a meta where Elusive Aggro is dominant, and there's a limited amount of ways for some regions to counter that strategy. Demacia has a share of Challenger Minions that can snipe the stealthy guys, Shadow Isles has removal (in fact, Shadow Isles has even BETTER removal tools than Piltover, the region that seems to want to specialize in that sort of thing, but that's another show), Freljord is pretty much reliant on Avalanche and whatever your secondary region's tools to deal (maybe you can buff Braum, and maybe you can slam an Anivia, but neither of these are really practical solutions as you're reliant on getting a way to buff Braum, and against the really aggro decks, you're dead before you can get Anivia to clear the board) This isn't an Elusive hate thread, I'm just using it as an example because it's the clearest way to demonstrate my point here, there are strategies that are going to dominate any card game, and most of the time the strengths of these strategies play right into the weakness of other decks. It's just how these things work, sure, and it's always going to be that way as long as card games are a thing.
...But the question I'm trying to ask here, is what if we had a Neutral set that any region could use, to at least offset the various number of overwhelming strategies that may enter the game, just to give the decks weak to whatever's dominating the meta this month a fighting chance? I'm not saying every deck should have the tools to counter everything, just give them one or two cards to make things a little less lopsided. Some equivalents to stuff like Dragonmaw Poacher, or Galakka Crawler, and other such things would be very healthy for the game in my opinion, and I think it could do a lot to address the current Elusive situation and other things that might spiral out of control down the line.
So, is a "Tech" set of weaker cards that any deck can utilize designed to address certain specific strategies the way to go, or is there a better approach to balance the game in the long term?
That would be pretty awesome. There's a lot of material in Outland that would make for some good set themes. Technically we've visited the Netherstorm area where Dr. Boom's lab is, but there's so much more to explore.
He's an auto-include in minion-based Aggro-Tempo decks.
If the meta is Aggro-Tempo oriented, Leeroy becomes popular.
Either way, about sheer popularity, Zilliax is far more obnoxious. In Wild too. Now THAT is a card that is truly everywhere, with very few exceptions.
Agreed, Leeroy comes in and out of fashion a bit. I guess by having the highest burst output in a single card in most of these decks, and often being the thing to finish you off, it is not surprising he becomes the focus of complaints. I'm not personally calling for him to be sent to the HoF, but I do wonder whether it is good design for the highest burst damage card for most classes (ignoring combos) to be neutral.
Compare that to Zilliax, who is so commonly played yet so rarely complained about. I guess it does so much stuff that it is always useful, but it does this at the cost of stats, so it isn't crazy strong at the one or two relevant things it does in any given instance. Hence it is rare you feel cheated when it is played against you. Plus it was always destined to rotate out of standard, making people more tolerant of it.
So I really wanted to play this game, but since I am unfortunately an owner of a Mac I had to install Windows through Boot Camp. Sometimes while I'm playing the game, the display will just freeze and I have to restart. So far I have never met anyone else who plays through Boot Camp and the support team said they couldn't help me either. So if anyone knows somethings I can try to fix this problem I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advanced.
Very enjoyable read ; thanks for making us travel without leaving our living rooms ^^ Also, I knew Rafaam was self-absorbed but didn't knew most of his ''fame'' was auto-proclaimed
So many wins with so many classes... I'm truly amazed.
My only golden hero is Anduin (666, so ironic lol), followed by Rexxar (413), Valeera (189) and... that's it. All the other classes are below 100 wins.
One reason of these records might be the fact that for the first year I played mostly in Casual mode, whereas I don't go there since June: playing stupid stuff at rank 5 is a lot more rewarding than doing it in Casual.
I guess I'll have to grind a lot to get even a single new portrait!
Almost 4 months later, here's how things have changed for me
Priest - got a couple more wins and now I'm around 710
Hunter - finally got that Golden Rexxar
Rogue - unexpectedly I hit the 500 wins with this class too (even before Hunter which was missing just 90 wins)
I've also improved (some slightly, some in a more remarkable way) my scores with all the other 6 classes and I wonder which one will be the next.
To be honest I'm just one Embiggen short for the complete meta list, but I'm not sure I want to play that. Also, I started taking a look to the "wild side" as well, and it gives me a lot more options.
Eventhough you can hardly trust random folks from the interweb, if you ever want to share and post your screenshots and other images - for extra credibility, proof checkin' and what not - consider visiting imgur.com and uploading your pics there, so you can later link it in your post ; that's how the other legit internet folks do it.
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
Why did you have to say that? Now someone is going to rule 34 it.
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
I'm actually very interested to know who are the members of Untied Sr. Explorers! The league of Evil faced therm in one of the fight in Galakrond Awakening.
Is the lack of a "neutral" set a bigger problem than we realize?
Personally, I like the dismissal of neutral cards from a design perspective. It makes each region's identity/profile that much sharper. Also, personally, I like that it makes deckbuilding less complicated/time-consuming by reducing the total number of cards to choose from, but that's obviously not a balance argument.
I believe as long as Riot don't drop the ball on card buffs and nerfs, other regions shouldn't need very specific tools to counter very specific deck strategies; they could just build the own deck archetypes that are equally as strong. Like, if elusives cost more, did less damage to the nexus, or were weakened in some other way, different types of aggro decks might be able to more consistently outpace them. Or control decks might survive for longer if nexus healing was cheaper / more plentiful.
Then again, there are just the thoughts of little old me playing for fun and not really being interested in ranked games. Guess life is tougher when you permanently have to deal with the next big thing in the metagame.
Just sack Leeroy already.
That's because he's a finisher.
It's never fun to lose.
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
does it matter if you cannot bang?
Legends of Runeterra - Weekly Recap Feb. 7
Since this is the recap of the week I will start off with last week's Expeditions. I went 7/7/6 for my paid runs. I just finished my 3 paid runs for this week and went 7/1/6. The 1 win run was all around terrible, my 1st deck was lucky to even win the 1 game and my 2nd deck was a below average deck where I got unlucky and ended up with only 1 win in the 2nd trial.
I leveled up the Ionia & Noxus Regions to level 14 & 15 just for the Platinum chests. I opened both Katarina & Yasuo!!! These were sorely needed for my Yasuo stun deck.
I played 1 game with my newly finished Stun deck & my opp was running Mono S.I., I steamedrolled them hard!!!!
Finally, Vault progress is at level 12 0/4k xp & will be at level 13 by Tuesday.
Legends of Runterra Display Freezing
I get this a lot too. The client is new and unrefined and it'll probably have to go through some QoL patches before all this gets sorted.
Awesome Legends of Runeterra Decks Being Played at the Highest Ranks
each region has a level right? level them to 4,8,12,16,20
You can switch regions at any time so switch between them freely, if you reach 4 in Noxus for example switch to level 0 Ionia to get more wild cards at 4.. I level them all up evenly but multiples of 4 give you the most wild cards.
Is the lack of a "neutral" set a bigger problem than we realize?
Topic, but I'd like to expand on my mindset on why this is something I believe needs to be addressed.
So right now, we live in a meta where Elusive Aggro is dominant, and there's a limited amount of ways for some regions to counter that strategy. Demacia has a share of Challenger Minions that can snipe the stealthy guys, Shadow Isles has removal (in fact, Shadow Isles has even BETTER removal tools than Piltover, the region that seems to want to specialize in that sort of thing, but that's another show), Freljord is pretty much reliant on Avalanche and whatever your secondary region's tools to deal (maybe you can buff Braum, and maybe you can slam an Anivia, but neither of these are really practical solutions as you're reliant on getting a way to buff Braum, and against the really aggro decks, you're dead before you can get Anivia to clear the board) This isn't an Elusive hate thread, I'm just using it as an example because it's the clearest way to demonstrate my point here, there are strategies that are going to dominate any card game, and most of the time the strengths of these strategies play right into the weakness of other decks. It's just how these things work, sure, and it's always going to be that way as long as card games are a thing.
...But the question I'm trying to ask here, is what if we had a Neutral set that any region could use, to at least offset the various number of overwhelming strategies that may enter the game, just to give the decks weak to whatever's dominating the meta this month a fighting chance? I'm not saying every deck should have the tools to counter everything, just give them one or two cards to make things a little less lopsided. Some equivalents to stuff like Dragonmaw Poacher, or Galakka Crawler, and other such things would be very healthy for the game in my opinion, and I think it could do a lot to address the current Elusive situation and other things that might spiral out of control down the line.
So, is a "Tech" set of weaker cards that any deck can utilize designed to address certain specific strategies the way to go, or is there a better approach to balance the game in the long term?
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
That would be pretty awesome. There's a lot of material in Outland that would make for some good set themes. Technically we've visited the Netherstorm area where Dr. Boom's lab is, but there's so much more to explore.
Just sack Leeroy already.
I'd be fine seeing him HOF'd. He's not broken, but he just isn't fun to play against in my opinion.
Micro Mummy
Terribly. You might have a chance if you get a Subdue, but this deck didn't turn out nearly as good as I hoped it would.
Just sack Leeroy already.
Agreed, Leeroy comes in and out of fashion a bit. I guess by having the highest burst output in a single card in most of these decks, and often being the thing to finish you off, it is not surprising he becomes the focus of complaints. I'm not personally calling for him to be sent to the HoF, but I do wonder whether it is good design for the highest burst damage card for most classes (ignoring combos) to be neutral.
Compare that to Zilliax, who is so commonly played yet so rarely complained about. I guess it does so much stuff that it is always useful, but it does this at the cost of stats, so it isn't crazy strong at the one or two relevant things it does in any given instance. Hence it is rare you feel cheated when it is played against you. Plus it was always destined to rotate out of standard, making people more tolerant of it.
Just sack Leeroy already.
He's an auto-include in minion-based Aggro-Tempo decks.
If the meta is Aggro-Tempo oriented, Leeroy becomes popular.
Either way, about sheer popularity, Zilliax is far more obnoxious. In Wild too. Now THAT is a card that is truly everywhere, with very few exceptions.
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
"Never trust an ethereal, you cant see their faces"
Legends of Runterra Display Freezing
So I really wanted to play this game, but since I am unfortunately an owner of a Mac I had to install Windows through Boot Camp. Sometimes while I'm playing the game, the display will just freeze and I have to restart. So far I have never met anyone else who plays through Boot Camp and the support team said they couldn't help me either. So if anyone knows somethings I can try to fix this problem I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advanced.
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
I Hope they do expansion of ethereals it will be interesting something like Nexus expansion and finally kaelthas legendary
Micro Mummy
Interesting idea, but ... How does it fare against Pogo-Hoppers ?
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
Very enjoyable read ; thanks for making us travel without leaving our living rooms ^^
Also, I knew Rafaam was self-absorbed but didn't knew most of his ''fame'' was auto-proclaimed
Traversing Azeroth - The History of the Mysterious Ethereals
Fun fact: Hearthstone is where the first female Ethereals in the Warcraft universe are seen. Ethereal Peddler, Transmogrifier, and Grand Lackey Erkh.
Golden Hero Portrait - Completionist & Grind
Almost 4 months later, here's how things have changed for me
Priest - got a couple more wins and now I'm around 710
Hunter - finally got that Golden Rexxar
Rogue - unexpectedly I hit the 500 wins with this class too (even before Hunter which was missing just 90 wins)
I've also improved (some slightly, some in a more remarkable way) my scores with all the other 6 classes and I wonder which one will be the next.
To be honest I'm just one Embiggen short for the complete meta list, but I'm not sure I want to play that. Also, I started taking a look to the "wild side" as well, and it gives me a lot more options.
Golden Hero Portrait - Completionist & Grind
A Weekend of Wild Decks
I tried adding the screenshot in the guides yesterday but didn't know how to do it. Now I do, thanks a lot dude ;)
A Weekend of Wild Decks
Eventhough you can hardly trust random folks from the interweb, if you ever want to share and post your screenshots and other images - for extra credibility, proof checkin' and what not - consider visiting imgur.com and uploading your pics there, so you can later link it in your post ; that's how the other legit internet folks do it.
A Weekend of Wild Decks
Well, usually you can't trust folks on the internet ;)
thanks :)