Exactly what Shadows said, you compare two situations, that are diametrically different. Curator has an extra 1/1 from the start of the game and it helps him not to lose health in first few rounds just by "existing" basically. But "wasting" a turn by buying a weak-stated minion in the early to mid game where all you can afford is one minion a turn is a very different scenario. There, it very well can cost you some health in the process.
You could compare it to buying a Wrath Weaver on T1 instead of literally any other minion. You are 100% guaranteed to lose some health from this action, because you will gonna lose your next match or two at least. You can eventually turn it around and the investment can lead to your victory, but depending on the situation, you just might be too slow. Same thing could potentially happen with buying a 2/2 amalgam.
I know this is a kinda silly example and that amalgam could be a 1/1 and ppl would still buy it because it would be worth it overall, but the nerf is going to do something. Will it be enough? Probably not, but you will notice it happened.
The Curator's real strength lies in getting an extra body on the board early, meaning you're unlikely to lose health in the early rounds. The Amalgam does then scale well, but I'm pretty sure that The Curator isn't actually one of the best heroes - strong, yes, but not in any broken way.
Me too, 60g constantly on all my 3 accounts. Also rerolled a 60g to a 60g which shouldn't be possible.
In the last 24 hours though I've seen 4 50g quests (and none of which are from a 60g reroll)
I wonder if there was a server side issue that has now been resolved. Or perhaps they've been temporarily more generous due to the period when we couldn't reroll at all.
Perhaps my recent experience isn't shared by most in which case great :)
On turns where you have just enough coins to level up and buy one minion, you can get a minion from the new tier, rather than having to buy a minion from the old tier first
Next time you play, look how many minions you're offered from your current tier on each roll---at higher tiers its frequently 0 and almost never more than 1. Elise basically gives a roll of three minions all at your current tier, which is insane compared to what you are usually offered.
I suggested in another thread taking amalgams out of the minion pool and instead offering them as rewards for triples, tavern level-ups, or something else. Being offered an early amalgam is by far the biggest determining factor in where I finish each game, which seems silly.
Why should memes/jank be welcome everywhere while asking for their own space?
But they're not. Meme decks get filtered out by the ranking system at any rank that doesn't have a floor. You're not going to find a lot of meme decks at Rank 2 or high legend.
Why can't ladder strictly be ladder and casual be strictly casual?
Because there is no hard dividing line between casual and competitive, there isn't even a definition that everyone agrees with. Even if we get past definitional issues, there's a boatload of practical concerns: Suppose you could identify casual and competitive decks, how do you make players play them in the appropriate forum?
It'd certainly save me a lot of frustration and give me a chance at more variety: I basically have to aggro my way through to reach above r15 and sometimes make it to 10 before it gets a bit rough or I can play the non-aggro decks I actually want to play that are in top tiers.
What is stopping you from playing the decks you want to play at lower tiers? Also how does playing less decks result in greater variety?
My first game after the patch I went murlocs and got an easy first place, no other army was close to mine by the end. I think they maybe have the strongest late game of any tribe, it's just that you rely on megasaur on 6 and don't have anything on 5. If you can get brann + a couple of megasaurs though, giving everything divine shield, poison and windfury plus at least 60 health on everything is an easy win. I think the patch has helped a lot surviving long enough to do that.
No, it doesn't make me ecstatic. After about the 3rd or 4th Mill rogue, it gets annoying. It really does.
Why should memes/jank be welcome everywhere while asking for their own space? Why can't ladder strictly be ladder and casual be strictly casual?
It'd certainly save me a lot of frustration and give me a chance at more variety: I basically have to aggro my way through to reach above r15 and sometimes make it to 10 before it gets a bit rough or I can play the non-aggro decks I actually want to play that are in top tiers.
When discussing Battlegrounds, it would be nice to be able to link to the Battlegrounds versions of cards instead of the regular Hearthstone versions, such that it includes the tier rating instead of mana cost.
I'm not sure what the syntax should be. One option would be to have a separate tag like {bgcard} instead of {card}. A different option would be to have a prefix in the body, such as {card}bg:Alleycat{/card}. I guess the cleanest solution is an attribute, such as {card set="battlegrounds"}Alleycat{/card}, but that would be terrible to type.
A different approach would be to have the post editor look up the card as you're typing and have a way of cycling between versions of the card. Misspelled card names are the #1 reason for me editing my posts, so a way to verify that the right card will be displayed would be great. But this is probably the most work to implement.
With Out of Cards supporting multiple card games, I guess you'll eventually run into overlapping names between games as well. Especially really generic names such as "fireball" might exist in multiple games. So it might be worth thinking of a solution for disambiguation in general and not just in the scope of Battlegrounds.
The Curator being one of the top heroes shows that getting an amalgam early, regardless of stats, is very good. So my guess is that it will remain an auto-pick in tier 2 even at 2/2.
Stats would matter more for minions that you eventually get rid of, since those need to be immediately useful. For example Vulgar Homunculus is a good early pick even though most players don't stay on demons. But Amalgams you typically keep until the end, so their starting stats are less important.
I know Battlegrounds just dropped (and i'm definitely enjoying it) but I really hope they keep up on the FREQUENT tweaking/adding/removing minions and heroes. It took less than 1 week for BG to get "solved" i.e. full mech/beast with poisonous Amalgam or 2 so if Blizz let's the game sit it's going to get super dull and repetitive pretty quickly.
I'm optimistic though based on how much they're doing now; just aware that they can't be as hands off as they are with Standard (or even worse, Wild) and expect the mode to survive.
Changing it to a 3/4 star is not better? Seriously? Just think about it. Now it is competing against other stuff you would want: Hydras? Cobalts? Alarm Bots? Annoy-o-bots? Is a 3/4 with potential to be op really worth it at that point?
Not to mention that by that stage, it can probably only receive maybe 6-7 rounds of buffs at max compared to the stupid amount of time a 3/4 in the 2-star range will give (better than most 2 stars and available as early as turn 3! You can easily get at least 10+ turns of buffs on that.) It can still be strong, just not meta-warpingly powerful.
Yes, perhaps I should stop being so pretentious. Maybe Blizzard already experimented with making it have a higher tavern cost and it turned out to be garbage, maybe they are trying to find unique ways in which I would never have dreamt of in my life that would remedy the problem, but making it a fucking 2/2 is not one of them. The problem is the insane buff potential of this minion. (When combined with Lightfang Enforcer for a few turns, literally GG. Unless you happen to be going Murlocs, get Maexxna or have an Amalgam of your own to check the problem, it is unkillable.)
Amalgam is a problem, and there’s no going around it. I love Battlegrounds, and would like to see it become better. Changing its tavern tier is a waaaaaay better fix than making it a 2/2z A 2/2 literally only makes you lose, like, 12 health max so you can win the game later. Its the same dilemma with Nefarian and George, unstoppable in certain cases. The gamemode would require massive restructuring in order to address these problems.
For an alternative solution, remove Amalgam and stat-buffing dudes. Perhaps adding more unique minions that can empower different archetypes would be more fitting. Like how we have different decks in Standard Hearthstone, maybe we can have different crazy sub-archetypes of the tribes like Deathrattle Demons that summon stuff you bought from your hand or something even more stupid like neutral tribe enablers? Now there is a load of variety with the possibility of minions we can buy, strategies can be mixed and matched together, instead of watching the biggest stat sticks wack each other to death (Junkbot and Amalgam meta).
Even if main synergies are are tier 4, being able to get amalgam as early as tier 2 makes it for easier planning, also there are enough buffs at 1-2 for it to matter too...
FWIW, he replied to me a few times on reddit. Mukla was not the second best hero, but he was in the T4. My guess is that they want to tweak his hero power, seeing as they already did it once already.
Brann feels like he's probably an S or A tier hero. Elise is probably in the group right behind him. Strong, but can get bullied early. I've only played Sindragosa once. I think she's probably pretty strong, but I need more practice. Finley seems like he is an easy dumpster tier hero.
Out of Cards Reviews - Descent of Dragons Initial Reveal #5
I wanna try Talanji Priest so much right now...
Out of Cards Reviews - Descent of Dragons Initial Reveal #5
Its beginning to look a lot like Reveal Season ..!
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
Exactly what Shadows said, you compare two situations, that are diametrically different. Curator has an extra 1/1 from the start of the game and it helps him not to lose health in first few rounds just by "existing" basically. But "wasting" a turn by buying a weak-stated minion in the early to mid game where all you can afford is one minion a turn is a very different scenario. There, it very well can cost you some health in the process.
You could compare it to buying a Wrath Weaver on T1 instead of literally any other minion. You are 100% guaranteed to lose some health from this action, because you will gonna lose your next match or two at least. You can eventually turn it around and the investment can lead to your victory, but depending on the situation, you just might be too slow. Same thing could potentially happen with buying a 2/2 amalgam.
I know this is a kinda silly example and that amalgam could be a 1/1 and ppl would still buy it because it would be worth it overall, but the nerf is going to do something. Will it be enough? Probably not, but you will notice it happened.
This Week's Brawl is Shake, Deathrattle and Roll!
oh boy, Classic card packs.
c'mon it's like the day before reveal season, give us more DoD packs
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
The Curator's real strength lies in getting an extra body on the board early, meaning you're unlikely to lose health in the early rounds. The Amalgam does then scale well, but I'm pretty sure that The Curator isn't actually one of the best heroes - strong, yes, but not in any broken way.
New quest system
Me too, 60g constantly on all my 3 accounts. Also rerolled a 60g to a 60g which shouldn't be possible.
In the last 24 hours though I've seen 4 50g quests (and none of which are from a 60g reroll)
I wonder if there was a server side issue that has now been resolved. Or perhaps they've been temporarily more generous due to the period when we couldn't reroll at all.
Perhaps my recent experience isn't shared by most in which case great :)
Battlegrounds new heroes!
Elise is great for two reasons:
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
I suggested in another thread taking amalgams out of the minion pool and instead offering them as rewards for triples, tavern level-ups, or something else. Being offered an early amalgam is by far the biggest determining factor in where I finish each game, which seems silly.
What do you think Casual is Supposed to be?
But they're not. Meme decks get filtered out by the ranking system at any rank that doesn't have a floor. You're not going to find a lot of meme decks at Rank 2 or high legend.
Because there is no hard dividing line between casual and competitive, there isn't even a definition that everyone agrees with. Even if we get past definitional issues, there's a boatload of practical concerns: Suppose you could identify casual and competitive decks, how do you make players play them in the appropriate forum?
What is stopping you from playing the decks you want to play at lower tiers? Also how does playing less decks result in greater variety?
Content Suggestion: Battlegrounds FAQ (MMR)
Hi
I have no idea what MMR is. There are so many posts about it everywhere - but try finding out what it means!
I reckon it would be good Google juice :)
Battlegrounds new heroes!
That's the score-level that you see after a match.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Update - New Heroes, Tavern Tier Touch-Ups and Future Plans
My first game after the patch I went murlocs and got an easy first place, no other army was close to mine by the end. I think they maybe have the strongest late game of any tribe, it's just that you rely on megasaur on 6 and don't have anything on 5. If you can get brann + a couple of megasaurs though, giving everything divine shield, poison and windfury plus at least 60 health on everything is an easy win. I think the patch has helped a lot surviving long enough to do that.
Ability to link HS Battlegrounds cards
I agree that would be neato!
Battlegrounds new heroes!
What does MMR mean?
What do you think Casual is Supposed to be?
No, it doesn't make me ecstatic. After about the 3rd or 4th Mill rogue, it gets annoying. It really does.
Why should memes/jank be welcome everywhere while asking for their own space? Why can't ladder strictly be ladder and casual be strictly casual?
It'd certainly save me a lot of frustration and give me a chance at more variety: I basically have to aggro my way through to reach above r15 and sometimes make it to 10 before it gets a bit rough or I can play the non-aggro decks I actually want to play that are in top tiers.
Ability to link HS Battlegrounds cards
When discussing Battlegrounds, it would be nice to be able to link to the Battlegrounds versions of cards instead of the regular Hearthstone versions, such that it includes the tier rating instead of mana cost.
I'm not sure what the syntax should be. One option would be to have a separate tag like {bgcard} instead of {card}. A different option would be to have a prefix in the body, such as {card}bg:Alleycat{/card}. I guess the cleanest solution is an attribute, such as {card set="battlegrounds"}Alleycat{/card}, but that would be terrible to type.
A different approach would be to have the post editor look up the card as you're typing and have a way of cycling between versions of the card. Misspelled card names are the #1 reason for me editing my posts, so a way to verify that the right card will be displayed would be great. But this is probably the most work to implement.
With Out of Cards supporting multiple card games, I guess you'll eventually run into overlapping names between games as well. Especially really generic names such as "fireball" might exist in multiple games. So it might be worth thinking of a solution for disambiguation in general and not just in the scope of Battlegrounds.
Battlegrounds new heroes!
Got two more games in with Sindragosa. Won them both (@ 5400 MMR) She seems VERY powerful. Harder to play than Brann, maybe. But potentially better.
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
The Curator being one of the top heroes shows that getting an amalgam early, regardless of stats, is very good. So my guess is that it will remain an auto-pick in tier 2 even at 2/2.
Stats would matter more for minions that you eventually get rid of, since those need to be immediately useful. For example Vulgar Homunculus is a good early pick even though most players don't stay on demons. But Amalgams you typically keep until the end, so their starting stats are less important.
Upgraded Repair Bot
I have never ever seen this in game, it didn't come from any random summons, evolve, devolve or whatever shenanigans, nothing. I'm surprised.
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
I know Battlegrounds just dropped (and i'm definitely enjoying it) but I really hope they keep up on the FREQUENT tweaking/adding/removing minions and heroes. It took less than 1 week for BG to get "solved" i.e. full mech/beast with poisonous Amalgam or 2 so if Blizz let's the game sit it's going to get super dull and repetitive pretty quickly.
I'm optimistic though based on how much they're doing now; just aware that they can't be as hands off as they are with Standard (or even worse, Wild) and expect the mode to survive.
Out of Cards Reviews - Descent of Dragons Initial Reveal #4
I feel like I should mention that none of these are the official flavour texts - I just like including silly jokes and references with our content.
We have the official flavour texts on every card's card page, I believe, if you're interested in them.
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
Well then, here’s my argument/rant:
Changing it to a 3/4 star is not better? Seriously? Just think about it. Now it is competing against other stuff you would want: Hydras? Cobalts? Alarm Bots? Annoy-o-bots? Is a 3/4 with potential to be op really worth it at that point?
Not to mention that by that stage, it can probably only receive maybe 6-7 rounds of buffs at max compared to the stupid amount of time a 3/4 in the 2-star range will give (better than most 2 stars and available as early as turn 3! You can easily get at least 10+ turns of buffs on that.) It can still be strong, just not meta-warpingly powerful.
Yes, perhaps I should stop being so pretentious. Maybe Blizzard already experimented with making it have a higher tavern cost and it turned out to be garbage, maybe they are trying to find unique ways in which I would never have dreamt of in my life that would remedy the problem, but making it a fucking 2/2 is not one of them. The problem is the insane buff potential of this minion. (When combined with Lightfang Enforcer for a few turns, literally GG. Unless you happen to be going Murlocs, get Maexxna or have an Amalgam of your own to check the problem, it is unkillable.)
Amalgam is a problem, and there’s no going around it. I love Battlegrounds, and would like to see it become better. Changing its tavern tier is a waaaaaay better fix than making it a 2/2z A 2/2 literally only makes you lose, like, 12 health max so you can win the game later. Its the same dilemma with Nefarian and George, unstoppable in certain cases. The gamemode would require massive restructuring in order to address these problems.
For an alternative solution, remove Amalgam and stat-buffing dudes. Perhaps adding more unique minions that can empower different archetypes would be more fitting. Like how we have different decks in Standard Hearthstone, maybe we can have different crazy sub-archetypes of the tribes like Deathrattle Demons that summon stuff you bought from your hand or something even more stupid like neutral tribe enablers? Now there is a load of variety with the possibility of minions we can buy, strategies can be mixed and matched together, instead of watching the biggest stat sticks wack each other to death (Junkbot and Amalgam meta).
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
Even if main synergies are are tier 4, being able to get amalgam as early as tier 2 makes it for easier planning, also there are enough buffs at 1-2 for it to matter too...
Mike Donais Talks Battlegrounds - Lich Baz'hial, MMR, Blog Coming this Week
FWIW, he replied to me a few times on reddit. Mukla was not the second best hero, but he was in the T4. My guess is that they want to tweak his hero power, seeing as they already did it once already.
Battlegrounds new heroes!
Brann feels like he's probably an S or A tier hero.
Elise is probably in the group right behind him. Strong, but can get bullied early.
I've only played Sindragosa once. I think she's probably pretty strong, but I need more practice.
Finley seems like he is an easy dumpster tier hero.