I disagree that capsules are basically just random packs. Yes, a rare capsule is basically just a pack from Hearthstone, with the same minimum plus a chance at better stuff. But there are also epic capsules, which are gives you a guaranteed epic, and a champion capsule, which gives you are guaranteed champion. PLUS, you can choose which region to earn rewards from. If I hate playing noxus, then I simply don't earn noxus rewards. I think this is a great (and reliable) way to earn cards. I can earn cards from whatever region I chose, and I can look ahead and see what kinds of cards I will be earning and when.
I sounds to me like you are not dissatisfied with how they are giving you rewards, but simply with the quality of the capsules/chests. Sometimes you are going to earn the minimal rewards, that is just how all CCGs work. I really don't know what you want. Would you rather they just remove the chance of getting upgraded capsules? Or do you just want to get all around better stuff?
Some people got really lucky on their first vault and that's okay - this is the first vault of hundreds. Over time, everyone should be on a similar playing field with all the people that get to the same level of vault consistently having close to the same amount of rewards.
Getting random upgrades is a feel-good feature and it is important to have them in games. The rates are also high enough that it doesn't feel impossible to get upgrades, unlike Hearthstone which requires you to open a crazy amount of content to get something so vital to gameplay (Legendaries).
Now, I do think it would be interesting if they made it a bit more consistent and if you had earned three diamond chests, one would always contain an epic capsule. It would be a good reward for putting in all the extra time required to go from 10-13, though the diamond chests themselves already give a nice boost over the platinum ones.
Sure Priest has seen better days - so have lots of Heroes not only Priest. Every class was at the Top Tier Decks and every class was on the least played class spot - but that´s not how it will stay. The Meta Changes with almost every expansion - and leaving just because your favourable class does not get the love you want it to is simply (at least for me) not the right choice.
Sure, everyone should play what he/she enjoys but there are lots of fun decks out there. And hell Priest is not that bad right now - Rezz Priest is doing pretty well. Never realy watched Zetalot - sure saw some clips or tried some decks of his but if he thinks the spot priest is in now is a good reason to take a leave so be it - i personaly think it is not that bad.
So far i've played Rezz Priest to Rank 3 (started at 8).
Yeah, honestly, I wish they'd just give us gold. I understand there are problems with that, such as us being able to buy packs from new expansions easier instead of spending money, but if we look at Legends of Runeterra and how right they are doing things to make the game F2P, Hearthstone needs to "get learnt".
Blizzard is going to have to really dedicate themselves this year to revamp the economy in Hearthstone because if they wait too long, I know people that won't come back. Last year was a damn incredible year for the game with them, for the first time ever, being on the ball and releasing plenty of content between sets. It took them years to get to that point though and for many, it was too late to get people back into the game.
We're off to a good start this year with 35 cards being released for $20 (this is INSANE value) or a relatively small amount of gold, though I do worry they do this at least once more this year for another $20 so it has effectively added $40 to the overall price of the game per year. I hope we see better deals on expansions or a change in card drop-rates / crafting costs.
One of the biggest things that attracted me to this game was that Riot had ditched the random-packs model, allowing the players to craft exactly the cards they want. In particular, the uncertain rarities of the cards in random packs often leads to a feels-bad situation when, for example, you get nothing but forty dust worth of garbage in Hearthstone.
So in Runeterra, I kinda hate the way that, even at max level, the Vault reward is mostly bad cards by default, with a random chance to upgrade each drop. It is basically full of random packs!
(For those who don't know: A diamond chest contains several hundred shards plus three rare capsules. Each rare capsule contains a handful of common cards and one guaranteed rare, much like a Hearthstone pack. And also like Hearthstone, there's a very small random chance that each capsule and card can spontaneously upgrade to a rarer version of itself.)
Getting three rare capsules that fail to upgrade out of a diamond chest is a bit of a letdown, considering how hard you worked to earn it.
I would much rather receive slightly fewer, better rewards than a larger number of weak rewards that might upgrade if I get lucky. A diamond chest should guarantee at least one epic capsule, don't you think?
This whole random upgrade thing is just a throwback to the microtransaction model everyone is starting to despise, which I thought Runeterra might be trying to move away from. Can we please just ditch it altogether?
This is actually not true. There are several ways to get duplicate Champions on the board at the same time.
So you're only forbidden from playing duplicates from your hand (as they turn into signature spells), but you can create copies of ones that are already on the field?
Do note that some cards specifically state they copy followers though.
I don't agree with your assessment of the game, I think there are enough answers and there is a lot of skill in mulliganing for, deckbuilding and outplaying your opponent in a manner you will get a favorable board state.
1. HP in the game- I thought it was too little but actually it it's fine since you can almost always block it compared to games like hearthstone you need a special keyword to block face damage, that makes nexus damage much more valuable I am ok with the game being balanced around 20 hp, as long as you generally don't die by turn 4, in the state of the game by how powerful the late game options are making the hp pool larger would skew the game toward a heavy control meta.
2. hell no, drawing more cards is not good for the game, you can't spend them and you will constantly overdraw with any none aggro deck, besides you would fatigue faster (in this game fatigue= instant lose) and Teemodecks will be so much oppressive (they are not that much but they would be).
3. No, just nerf deny.. even to 5 mana is not an exaggeration the card is too good at 3 mana.
Elusive needs either to be separated into 1 turn elusive and permanent elusive(like camouflage vs stealth in league) , or all elusive followers (not champions, Teemo and Ezreal are fine) need a nerf across the board.
Braum instantly wins any early game, he needs to be bumped to 4 mana OR reduce his health to 4 (and requirement to 8). a single buff on him and he is a monster.
Fiora is too good standalone just slapped into decks as a 3/3 challenger which might win you the game alone, sometimes also is a removal bait, I would suggest making her level up at 3 kills, and the win at 1 kill that way she is easier to deal with, that wouldn't make her feel bad but make her less able to win without support.
Buff Poro Snax to 3 cause poros are cool but under powered :( (specially after the fluff nerf)
That being said I think only the elusive problem need to be addressed ASAP, too many elusive followers are toxic for the game specially when they are permanently elusive.
I'm trying to wrap my head around this, does Blizzard not have enough money to fund it's own e-sports? That cannot be it. And if what was mentioned is true, that this has a cap (if they sell more than X packages, everything after that does NOT go to the prize pool) and half of it goes to Blizzard regardless, this is just a shameless move to make money that has little to do with e-sports. They are throwing in the e-sports prize thing just as an excuse.
They are whimsical animated stickers, for crying out loud. They aren't even voiced!
There is no etiquette, and there never will be.
Anyone who has a problem with the way another player is emoting can mute them. Problem solved.
I don't know that I agree with that. Even in the initial closed betas there was a clear etiquette emerging - in the vast majority of games (that I experienced, at least) the Shen emote was used as a 'Well played' salute, usually at the end of the game. So far it's been a polite pleasantry from what I've seen - in much the same way that people will offer 'gg' at the end of a game in other areas, wherein it's less a comment on the quality of the game and more a polite statement equivalent to saying 'good morning' to someone.
I've not seen any emergent etiquette around the other emotes, but if I make the assumption that my experience is representative (which is, admittedly, a difficult leap to make without empirical evidence) then there's precedent... meaning it's wholly possible further etiquette may emerge.
To be fair, it's not 100% intuitive; there are some interactions with buffs and bounces that don't make a lot of sense. As an example: if you've played a Poro-Snax with a Lonely Poro in hand, it'll get buffed to 2/2. When played, the newly generated Poro also receives the +1/+1 despite not existing before the buff was played. And yet when Lonely Poro is returned to hand it reverts to a 1/1, losing the buffs that even generated cards receive. It's consistent with previous mechanics, but in no way intuitive.
That's weird I would assume the Poro Snax is an aura effect like Warmother's Call if any poro is on board it gets +X/+X (X being the number of Poro Snax played).
Yeah, that's exactly how I'd have assumed it would work too. I know from experience, however, that it does not. Just one of those interactions you have to learn to accept I suppose... it's been years and I'm still not 100% happy that you can't use Silence to remove Polymorph in HS ¬.¬.
- There's some validity to your point on deck size - decks are substantially larger (proportionally) than similar card games for the relative health totals. Magic is a poor comparator given its continued reliance on the Lands mechanic. However, simply drawing 2 cards per turn is a short-sighted and unsustainable way of resolving it. I suspect the issue will slowly resolve itself as more cards are released - the problem is really around reliability, and that becomes less of an issue when there are more cards around which can fit into a given situation more comfortably.
- Spells really aren't particularly overpowered, particularly as they tend towards being 'all in' plays to have any significant impact - using up all your mana for the turn to have a short-term impact. Removal, meanwhile, is removal - the point you make here could be made for pretty much every other card game in existence. That's kind of their point - minions are for longer-term benefit-over-time, while spells are for a short-term swing.
- Nexus health - that's something that's been batted around a few times in different places. I felt the same way when I first started playing, but I'm less sold on it now. That said, I can't honestly say whether that's a change in my viewpoint over time or simply me getting used to it.
- Card draw - already covered above.
- Deny - Giving access to a single card to all regions would be creating a massive exception to the entire game design for the sake of a single effect. There is potential to give similar effects to other regions, but I'm sceptical that they'd do that as a blanket move. What's more likely is they'll nerf Deny, which is something they've already said is under consideration. While I heavily disagree with the idea of spreading Deny around more widely, I also do feel that it's a game-warping effect; Deny existing heavily disincentivizes any deck from running high-cost spells, while also contributing to the ridiculous presence Ionia has in the upper tiers right now (though I will note that Elusive is far more a culprit in that regard).
The thing about a digital card game is that regardless of what the card says, it can be programmed to do whatever the programmer wants.
I agree with this. However, this doesn't absolve the developer from having to make sure the text on the cards is accurate - otherwise, things gets unintuitive and confusing, which will inevitably alienate players.
But what you're not taking into account with that statement is that the developer has competing priorities. They're not just required to make the text accurate, they're also required to make it approachable, consistent with all other instances of similar effects, easily readable from both a grammar and a colloquial standpoint...
The former is, of course, the main point, and the reason (I assume) this entire thread could exist in the first place. When you have to choose between making something clear and easily understood to a new player, and writing text that covers as many possible interactions as possible, you do the former. Both to avoid scaring away new players and because anyone who's going to keep playing only needs to see an interaction like this once to learn how it works. The cost-benefit is heavily in favour of simplified text.
Admittedly, it wouldn't take much to clarify the interaction (simply adding the words 'to me' to Barrier's text would do it), but I'm sure there's plenty of factors in play to get to this point.
It was a promotional event open to a very limited number of players.
There is no way in hell they would ever let you keep your progress after something like that, and they were very open about the fact that progress would be wiped. If you consider that a waste of time, you shouldn't have bothered.
This is actually not true. There are several ways to get duplicate Champions on the board at the same time.
So you're only forbidden from playing duplicates from your hand (as they turn into signature spells), but you can create copies of ones that are already on the field?
After playing different card games for years, i am here to give you my take on LOR.
The snowball in this game is HUGE, you need to let players draw 2 cards each round, there are too many cards in your deck and if you don't happen to have a specific card/answer(usually a spell) in your hand the game can end in just 1 turn due to the sire amount of power each card holds.
Things only get worse with how overpowered spells are, it's actually the only way to force a kill on an opponet's unit("challenger" ain't reliable) making them frustrating and underwhelming to play against. You can lose the entire game due to a single spell, a complete 100% turn around.
Ideas to fix this:
1) Up the nexus HP to 25 or even 30, making the game a bit slower and letting us take 1-2 more attacks reducing the need of answers to be so asap.
2) To compensate for the HP buff, let us draw 2 cards per turn resetting the game's paste and giving back aggro the power it lost from the higher HP. +what i have told above.
3) Let every region use "deny", indirectly nerfing all spells a little bit.
I am extremely open to discussion, especially from a competitive view, cause i am only talking about casual playing.
My English ain't that sharp, sorry for any mistakes i made.
A new Hearthstone channel approaches!
Not a fan of random upgrades in chests
I disagree that capsules are basically just random packs. Yes, a rare capsule is basically just a pack from Hearthstone, with the same minimum plus a chance at better stuff. But there are also epic capsules, which are gives you a guaranteed epic, and a champion capsule, which gives you are guaranteed champion. PLUS, you can choose which region to earn rewards from. If I hate playing noxus, then I simply don't earn noxus rewards. I think this is a great (and reliable) way to earn cards. I can earn cards from whatever region I chose, and I can look ahead and see what kinds of cards I will be earning and when.
I sounds to me like you are not dissatisfied with how they are giving you rewards, but simply with the quality of the capsules/chests. Sometimes you are going to earn the minimal rewards, that is just how all CCGs work. I really don't know what you want. Would you rather they just remove the chance of getting upgraded capsules? Or do you just want to get all around better stuff?
Not a fan of random upgrades in chests
I don't think it's that big of an issue.
Some people got really lucky on their first vault and that's okay - this is the first vault of hundreds. Over time, everyone should be on a similar playing field with all the people that get to the same level of vault consistently having close to the same amount of rewards.
Getting random upgrades is a feel-good feature and it is important to have them in games. The rates are also high enough that it doesn't feel impossible to get upgrades, unlike Hearthstone which requires you to open a crazy amount of content to get something so vital to gameplay (Legendaries).
Now, I do think it would be interesting if they made it a bit more consistent and if you had earned three diamond chests, one would always contain an epic capsule. It would be a good reward for putting in all the extra time required to go from 10-13, though the diamond chests themselves already give a nice boost over the platinum ones.
Zetalot Taking An Indefinite Leave From Hearthstone
Sure Priest has seen better days - so have lots of Heroes not only Priest. Every class was at the Top Tier Decks and every class was on the least played class spot - but that´s not how it will stay. The Meta Changes with almost every expansion - and leaving just because your favourable class does not get the love you want it to is simply (at least for me) not the right choice.
Sure, everyone should play what he/she enjoys but there are lots of fun decks out there. And hell Priest is not that bad right now - Rezz Priest is doing pretty well. Never realy watched Zetalot - sure saw some clips or tried some decks of his but if he thinks the spot priest is in now is a good reason to take a leave so be it - i personaly think it is not that bad.
So far i've played Rezz Priest to Rank 3 (started at 8).
The Lunar New Year Tavern Brawl - Lunar Blessings!
BuT tHe NeW pLaYeR eXpErIeNcE ~ ~ ~
Yeah, honestly, I wish they'd just give us gold. I understand there are problems with that, such as us being able to buy packs from new expansions easier instead of spending money, but if we look at Legends of Runeterra and how right they are doing things to make the game F2P, Hearthstone needs to "get learnt".
Blizzard is going to have to really dedicate themselves this year to revamp the economy in Hearthstone because if they wait too long, I know people that won't come back. Last year was a damn incredible year for the game with them, for the first time ever, being on the ball and releasing plenty of content between sets. It took them years to get to that point though and for many, it was too late to get people back into the game.
We're off to a good start this year with 35 cards being released for $20 (this is INSANE value) or a relatively small amount of gold, though I do worry they do this at least once more this year for another $20 so it has effectively added $40 to the overall price of the game per year. I hope we see better deals on expansions or a change in card drop-rates / crafting costs.
TL;DR: Blizzard, your Tavern Brawl rewards suck.
Not a fan of random upgrades in chests
One of the biggest things that attracted me to this game was that Riot had ditched the random-packs model, allowing the players to craft exactly the cards they want. In particular, the uncertain rarities of the cards in random packs often leads to a feels-bad situation when, for example, you get nothing but forty dust worth of garbage in Hearthstone.
So in Runeterra, I kinda hate the way that, even at max level, the Vault reward is mostly bad cards by default, with a random chance to upgrade each drop. It is basically full of random packs!
(For those who don't know: A diamond chest contains several hundred shards plus three rare capsules. Each rare capsule contains a handful of common cards and one guaranteed rare, much like a Hearthstone pack. And also like Hearthstone, there's a very small random chance that each capsule and card can spontaneously upgrade to a rarer version of itself.)
Getting three rare capsules that fail to upgrade out of a diamond chest is a bit of a letdown, considering how hard you worked to earn it.
I would much rather receive slightly fewer, better rewards than a larger number of weak rewards that might upgrade if I get lucky. A diamond chest should guarantee at least one epic capsule, don't you think?
This whole random upgrade thing is just a throwback to the microtransaction model everyone is starting to despise, which I thought Runeterra might be trying to move away from. Can we please just ditch it altogether?
What is the Shen emote supposed to convey?
I use Shen as "well played", also most other people I saw using it, used it for the same reason.
Riot is gonna earn the big buck for those emotes for sure! (soon tm)
The Lunar New Year Tavern Brawl - Lunar Blessings!
And pointless to some players...
Dragon Reno Priest
Great write-up!
Duplicate Champion question
Do note that some cards specifically state they copy followers though.
The ways I know to get many champions on board are Thresh, Dawn and Dusk, Warmother's Call, The Harrowing, Detain, Kinkou Wayfinder(Summoning Teemo),Kalista, Mist's Call.
Add articles created to profiles
It is funny you bring this up, frenzy. This is actually available on the development copy of the site and it'll roll out in the next update.
The Lunar New Year Tavern Brawl - Lunar Blessings!
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.
Stop having good ideas. That isn't allowed in Hearthstone!
For real though, Classic packs are boring.
The Lunar New Year Tavern Brawl - Lunar Blessings!
It would be pretty cool if instead of the regular classic pack we got a "year of the dragon" pack for our first win in the brawl.
Feedback on the gameplay/balance
I don't agree with your assessment of the game, I think there are enough answers and there is a lot of skill in mulliganing for, deckbuilding and outplaying your opponent in a manner you will get a favorable board state.
1. HP in the game- I thought it was too little but actually it it's fine since you can almost always block it compared to games like hearthstone you need a special keyword to block face damage, that makes nexus damage much more valuable I am ok with the game being balanced around 20 hp, as long as you generally don't die by turn 4, in the state of the game by how powerful the late game options are making the hp pool larger would skew the game toward a heavy control meta.
2. hell no, drawing more cards is not good for the game, you can't spend them and you will constantly overdraw with any none aggro deck, besides you would fatigue faster (in this game fatigue= instant lose) and Teemodecks will be so much oppressive (they are not that much but they would be).
3. No, just nerf deny.. even to 5 mana is not an exaggeration the card is too good at 3 mana.
What they do need to fix balance wise:
Back to Back from burst to fast
Elusive needs either to be separated into 1 turn elusive and permanent elusive(like camouflage vs stealth in league) , or all elusive followers (not champions, Teemo and Ezreal are fine) need a nerf across the board.
Braum instantly wins any early game, he needs to be bumped to 4 mana OR reduce his health to 4 (and requirement to 8). a single buff on him and he is a monster.
Dawnspeakers to 3 health from 4.
that 1/1 last breath for 4/4 gives a 3/3 instead.
Fiora is too good standalone just slapped into decks as a 3/3 challenger which might win you the game alone, sometimes also is a removal bait, I would suggest making her level up at 3 kills, and the win at 1 kill that way she is easier to deal with, that wouldn't make her feel bad but make her less able to win without support.
Buff Poro Snax to 3 cause poros are cool but under powered :( (specially after the fluff nerf)
That being said I think only the elusive problem need to be addressed ASAP, too many elusive followers are toxic for the game specially when they are permanently elusive.
Hearthstone Esports Gets a New Crowdfunding Bundle - The Dragon Masters Bundle Now Available with a New Card Pack
I'm trying to wrap my head around this, does Blizzard not have enough money to fund it's own e-sports? That cannot be it. And if what was mentioned is true, that this has a cap (if they sell more than X packages, everything after that does NOT go to the prize pool) and half of it goes to Blizzard regardless, this is just a shameless move to make money that has little to do with e-sports. They are throwing in the e-sports prize thing just as an excuse.
What is the Shen emote supposed to convey?
I don't know that I agree with that. Even in the initial closed betas there was a clear etiquette emerging - in the vast majority of games (that I experienced, at least) the Shen emote was used as a 'Well played' salute, usually at the end of the game. So far it's been a polite pleasantry from what I've seen - in much the same way that people will offer 'gg' at the end of a game in other areas, wherein it's less a comment on the quality of the game and more a polite statement equivalent to saying 'good morning' to someone.
I've not seen any emergent etiquette around the other emotes, but if I make the assumption that my experience is representative (which is, admittedly, a difficult leap to make without empirical evidence) then there's precedent... meaning it's wholly possible further etiquette may emerge.
Duplicate Champion question
Yeah, that's exactly how I'd have assumed it would work too. I know from experience, however, that it does not. Just one of those interactions you have to learn to accept I suppose... it's been years and I'm still not 100% happy that you can't use Silence to remove Polymorph in HS ¬.¬.
Feedback on the gameplay/balance
- There's some validity to your point on deck size - decks are substantially larger (proportionally) than similar card games for the relative health totals. Magic is a poor comparator given its continued reliance on the Lands mechanic. However, simply drawing 2 cards per turn is a short-sighted and unsustainable way of resolving it. I suspect the issue will slowly resolve itself as more cards are released - the problem is really around reliability, and that becomes less of an issue when there are more cards around which can fit into a given situation more comfortably.
- Spells really aren't particularly overpowered, particularly as they tend towards being 'all in' plays to have any significant impact - using up all your mana for the turn to have a short-term impact. Removal, meanwhile, is removal - the point you make here could be made for pretty much every other card game in existence. That's kind of their point - minions are for longer-term benefit-over-time, while spells are for a short-term swing.
- Nexus health - that's something that's been batted around a few times in different places. I felt the same way when I first started playing, but I'm less sold on it now. That said, I can't honestly say whether that's a change in my viewpoint over time or simply me getting used to it.
- Card draw - already covered above.
- Deny - Giving access to a single card to all regions would be creating a massive exception to the entire game design for the sake of a single effect. There is potential to give similar effects to other regions, but I'm sceptical that they'd do that as a blanket move. What's more likely is they'll nerf Deny, which is something they've already said is under consideration. While I heavily disagree with the idea of spreading Deny around more widely, I also do feel that it's a game-warping effect; Deny existing heavily disincentivizes any deck from running high-cost spells, while also contributing to the ridiculous presence Ionia has in the upper tiers right now (though I will note that Elusive is far more a culprit in that regard).
Overwhelm does damage to nexus even if the opponent has a barrier..
But what you're not taking into account with that statement is that the developer has competing priorities. They're not just required to make the text accurate, they're also required to make it approachable, consistent with all other instances of similar effects, easily readable from both a grammar and a colloquial standpoint...
The former is, of course, the main point, and the reason (I assume) this entire thread could exist in the first place. When you have to choose between making something clear and easily understood to a new player, and writing text that covers as many possible interactions as possible, you do the former. Both to avoid scaring away new players and because anyone who's going to keep playing only needs to see an interaction like this once to learn how it works. The cost-benefit is heavily in favour of simplified text.
Admittedly, it wouldn't take much to clarify the interaction (simply adding the words 'to me' to Barrier's text would do it), but I'm sure there's plenty of factors in play to get to this point.
What is the Shen emote supposed to convey?
They are whimsical animated stickers, for crying out loud. They aren't even voiced!
There is no etiquette, and there never will be.
Anyone who has a problem with the way another player is emoting can mute them. Problem solved.
Beta Testers were given nothing and stripped of their progress
That wasn't even a beta, per se.
It was a promotional event open to a very limited number of players.
There is no way in hell they would ever let you keep your progress after something like that, and they were very open about the fact that progress would be wiped. If you consider that a waste of time, you shouldn't have bothered.
Is the starter pack worthwhile?
If you intend to spend any money on this game whatsoever, you should start with the Starter Pack.
It contains some of the most useful commons and rares in the game, and you will be very glad you don't have to craft them.
[Region] notices your commitment ...
I assume it's the region whose cards you used the most up to that point.
Duplicate Champion question
Correct.
Feedback on the gameplay/balance
After playing different card games for years, i am here to give you my take on LOR.
The snowball in this game is HUGE, you need to let players draw 2 cards each round, there are too many cards in your deck and if you don't happen to have a specific card/answer(usually a spell) in your hand the game can end in just 1 turn due to the sire amount of power each card holds.
Things only get worse with how overpowered spells are, it's actually the only way to force a kill on an opponet's unit("challenger" ain't reliable) making them frustrating and underwhelming to play against.
You can lose the entire game due to a single spell, a complete 100% turn around.
Ideas to fix this:
1) Up the nexus HP to 25 or even 30, making the game a bit slower and letting us take 1-2 more attacks reducing the need of answers to be so asap.
2) To compensate for the HP buff, let us draw 2 cards per turn resetting the game's paste and giving back aggro the power it lost from the higher HP. +what i have told above.
3) Let every region use "deny", indirectly nerfing all spells a little bit.
I am extremely open to discussion, especially from a competitive view, cause i am only talking about casual playing.
My English ain't that sharp, sorry for any mistakes i made.