I do gotta say though, with the main stage stuff being free on day 1, if I wasn't actively covering BlizzCon, I'd probably rethink the ticket purchase since not all the panels are always worth watching. All the stuff that really matters is now going to be free, and for Hearthstone specifically a single panel outside of the expansion one is kinda meh.
Luckily for me though, I play almost all of the titles which makes all the cosmetics alone worth the price.
I have done the last few years of virtual ticket. Still undecided about this year. Seems like about half of what I would want to see is free. Card back is nice, but not sure getting a card as Golden that big of a deal to me. (I am assuming the standard version will be free as before).
I was hoping there would be packs included this year as well - but doesn't look like it. Has there been any teases of more stuff being added to the virtual ticket bundle as we get closer?
as far as i know (I left playing LoL 2-3 years ago) pirate champions like Miss Fortune, Gankplank and champions related with sea like Fizz are from Bilgewater. What I mean is it is a well-known region. They will probably release that region earlier because the champions that I mentioned are so popular ones.
Pretty interesting to see Hunter as my worst match up. I believe the stats that Heartharena collects are based off of the Portrait hero (1st hero you choose) so this potentially means that Hunter as a 1st pick might be under estimated by hsreplay.net which currently ranks it 7th overall. I am absolutely getting SHELLED going 2nd against (50% WR), which makes sense if they had Steady Shot, but without it, it's a bit surprising to see, I can't really pinpoint the reasoning.
Warrior and Warlock is no surprise as tough customers, they are both top classes to choose. Boosted class cards make these classes extremely hard to deal. I played against someone last night that drafted 5x Death's Bites, Fools Bane and a Blood Razor. It was ridiculous.
Reference 70% WR is 7 win average.
Paladin and Priest are the other top classes to choose, but I am doing significantly better against them (~76% WR) then Warrior and Warlock.
Another interesting note - Mage which is the weakest class based on hsreplay.net is my 3rd most encountered class, this is probably due to newer players entering the Arena with limited class knowledge, so they choose classes they are familiar with or have previous strong arena experiences with.
Druid ranks 5th on hsreplay, but i've taken them to the cleaners this meta which seems a bit out of line as well.
Sample size is becoming relevant but variance can explain some of these oddities. Another thing that could account massively is the hero power. Unfortunately these stats only separate the Portrait here and dont go into the hero powers. It would be a nice stat to have to be able to see how well i've done against the various combinations or hero powers separately.
Curious how everyone else is faring so far in Duals, any outliers or strange stats you care to discuss or share ?
I don't think the average HS player will enjoy LoR as much as HS. LoR gameplay is more similar to MTG, so MTGA players will fit better into it.
Personally, I hate to be interrupted every time I play a card and it makes me feel really nervous. The HS flow is fast and straight, and casual players (especially from mobile) will still prefer HS because of his simplicity.
They also have the animated series coming out in the future which will help people like me that knows absolutely nothing about league of legends lore to get into it. I played runeterra and was on and off about it but in the end I think I liked it, but I think I would enjoy it more if I knew about the characters in the cards I was playing. One of the main reasons I love Hearthstone is because I see a new card and think "I know that dude!" or like when Kadger was released - "What the hell... hes only a 2/2! com'on!"
I can't wait to see what riot has up their sleeves the get my full attention. They sure have the money to do so heh D:
I didn't mention this in the Legends of Runeterra article because I thought it would be obvious, but because of a few comments the article and our Twitter got, I would like to mention that this article is intended to be lighthearted and fun. As TCGs have been around for nearly 30 years now, and the founding game of that genre, Magic, still alive and kicking like nobody's business, it's inevitable that different TCGs will share at least a few of the same card designs and ideas, and that's not a bad thing in the slightest. Great minds think alike, and maybe you'll see that in this article or the Runeterra one.
They have been actually (re)building the lore extensively over the past few years. Redoing the original lore that characters had to one that would tie them all together in a unified universe and timeline. It was pretty random when LoL launched just to give characters some flavor, but wasnt rly thought out in depth much. That is not true today.
They've spent the past few years really diving into getting the League of Legends lore fleshed out!
With them working on lots of new games, its no real surprise they wanted to make sure everything in the realm would have a solid base to work from. You might be interested in checking out the Universe site where they have stories, biographies of characters, and a ton more. I should link this in the original post.
I used to dust most of my mage cards but I have recently started playing the class more and I have already crafted a bunch of epics. I have tried making some reno mage lists and none of them have been very good. I really like the look of this list but I am missing all of the mage legendarys except for reno the relicologist.
What would be some replacements for the legends in this list? Frostlich jaina is on the top of my crafting list, but Hexlord malacrass, luna's pocket galaxy, and inkmaster solia I would have to wait months to get.
Interesting... I wonder if there will be a strong push towards establishing solid lore in LoL (I may be out of the loop, but I was under the impression it was pretty cursory on lore, focusing more on gameplay)
I don't think LoR will surpass HS, since, IMO, one of the most brilliant feature of it is the simple gameplay. On your turn, you play minions, cast some spells and try to destroy your opponent. Then you wait your opponent's turn. Straightforward.
And also, it has another advantage over MtG, that it's mobile friendly.
What I think that will happen is that many MtG newcomers will switch to LoR (since they won't have to catch up the old stuff) and they might grab some HS players that, like me, miss more in-game micromanagement, like in MtG, and at the same time, can do it in a cell phone...
LoR might not surpass HS, but it doesn't really need to. It just needs to take enough of the marketshare to push Blizzard to compete more in this space. I agree that the simple gameplay that Hearthstone offers is a bit part of its advantage, but I think that simplicity is a double-edged sword. The focus on tempo and the offense advantage in combat makes Hearthstone inherently anti-control, and when a control-heavy meta does come about, it's often quite degenerate. (This was well-demonstrated by recent Control Warrior mirrors that went on for as long as an hour per game and were often won by random discovered cards from Archivist Elysiana or the 40 turn limit.)
Hearthstone's biggest competitor today is MTGA, and the reason I think LoR will meaningfully impact HS is because LoR addresses a lot of what's wrong with MTGA:
MTGA is not mobile friendly
MTGA can't be patched for balance because of the physical game
MTGA doesn't offer an easy way for new players to get into the game because meta decks require tons of expensive cards, and the only way to get them is random packs/boatloads of money or time
MTGA suffers from the old designs of MTG (namely, mana screw/mana flood)
I don't think LoR will surpass HS, since, IMO, one of the most brilliant feature of it is the simple gameplay. On your turn, you play minions, cast some spells and try to destroy your opponent. Then you wait your opponent's turn. Straightforward.
And also, it has another advantage over MtG, that it's mobile friendly.
What I think that will happen is that many MtG newcomers will switch to LoR (since they won't have to catch up the old stuff) and they might grab some HS players that, like me, miss more in-game micromanagement, like in MtG, and at the same time, can do it in a cell phone...
The concept of a "HS Killer" really reminds me of the supposed need for a "Halo Killer" during Halo's heyday... it really is a result of the human psyche's desire to have a "one vs. one" scenario and a prevalence to champion underdogs. Of course things are never that simple and there usually isn't a _____ killer; games die due to a ton of different factors. Halo's popularity (which was crazy at its peak) dropped due to some poor decisions in game design, marketing, company focus and competition, not to mention all the studio decisions regarding resources and contract negotiations. If LoR offers a legitimate alternative to HearthStone, that can only be good for fans of DCCG (note it may not be good for HS, but that's free market for you). As mentioned, if Blizzard sees a portion of the market swinging away from them and no longer feel dominant, maybe they will take some positive actions to make HS more appealing to both their veterans and newcomers to secure their position. If not, other games (including LoR) may take more and more of the market share. The introduction of a solid new product will always shake up the economy a bit, but don't expect LoR to drop and HS to die the next week... those things rarely happen.
You're right that there are a lot of factors which contribute, but at the end of the day, a game with no competition in its genre won't fall out of favor despite a lot of other failures in design, marketing, etc. Moreover, while your Halo example demonstrates how Halo's position weakened, and competition was able to come in and dethrone it, Hearthstone is not like Halo in one key aspect - the collection invests players with time and money in a way that doesn't happen in FPS games. The perceived cost of switching FPS games is much lower because the skills translate and you can start playing competitively immediately.
I think people are looking for an HS killer not because they want a one vs. one battle of games, but because there's a sense that HS's position in the market has weakened, but that the sunk cost hold HS has on players, and the mobile-friendly nature of it, makes competing much harder. It's not enough to make a better game - it needs to be better, still be mobile-friendly, and provide a reasonable new-player experience that can incentivize someone to leave a game to go somewhere else where they'll need to invest money and time to build a collection large enough to play competitively
I honestly hope LoR is successful just because it will force Blizzard to put more effort into some of the major issues with HS. They have improved greatly in 2019, but there is still plenty of issues that still need addressing. Competition is good, but I'm not going to keep my hopes up, because we've been down this road before.
This. Many card games can easylie coexist, so I hope LoR will be a great game with solid fan base. I also want try how LoR so for now it's ok, but easthetic still bother me so far (also I never played LoL). What I can is for sure it's a game that is not boring to watch, and it's also important for it's potencially success.
You're right that many games can easily coexist, and that it's silly to proclaim every new digital CCG "the Hearthstone killer," but I think you may be a bit too rosy in your outlook on coexistence today. The facts remain that Hearthstone is the 500lb gorilla in the room when it comes to marketshare:
The same SuperData report that this comes from says that the overall audience size for digital CCGs is leveling out, and that a large majority of players want access on their smartphones. HS's biggest competition - MTGA - will probably never make it to mobile because the game is too complex and the board size has no limits to make rendering straight-forward. Other games like Gwent are getting into mobile, but they're just not popular enough to make a dent.
These factors, combined with the inertia of players' sunk cost in Hearthstone, makes it a juggernaut, and for someone to get into the digital CCG space, they need to take shots at Hearthstone's marketshare. That would be great, and that's why people are looking for the "Hearthstone killer." If Blizzard takes a big hit in their profits, perhaps they'll make a serious investment in Hearthstone improvements. How long have they talked about tournament modes? How long have people been calling for rotating standard sets or greater investment into the Wild format to make old cards less worthless?
Runeterra may not be a "Hearthstone killer," but from my first impressions, I think it's well-poised to deal the major hit to Hearthstone that Blizzard needs if they're ever gong to take major steps to improve the game. In particular:
Runeterra offers a "safe" F2P switch. Between the sunk cost into Hearthstone and the knowledge that switching to something like MTGA will also require massive time/monetary investment to be competitively viable, most players would prefer not to switch. Runeterra gate-limits buying cards, offers focused ways to get cards from specific regions, and only uses wildcards so that people can more easily get exactly what they want, so the risk of grinding for what you want is lower. (I believe this is a big part of why most other CCGs have failed to gain traction - they use the same basic monetizing model as Hearthstone/MTG/etc., and no one wants to sink that much money/time in twice).
Runeterra is mobile-first. This is going to make it a lot easier for casual players to pick up and try on the go, where a game like MTGA or Artifact was always going to require players to set aside time to game at home.
Runeterra will probably appeal to the Hearthstone players who want a more complex strategy game as their main CCG, but don't want to play a game like MTGA that's saddled with poor mechanics that stem from age/being a non-native to digital spaces (e.g. having to draw land cards is painful after you've played Hearthstone, and mana screw is super tilting)
Riot Games has said they'll be willing to make balance patches as frequently as once a month if needed, whereas Blizzard has been extremely slow to do any balance fixes.
Nothing is going to kill Hearthstone (which is a good thing), but it doesn't have enough real competition, and Runeterra looks poised to be a major competitor in this space.
So basically we still say the same thing. My look is not too rosy, cos this games coexisting and will be coexist (until Blizz or other company don't do something stupid). I think you also have right telling that LoR will be main copetitor for HS and it's a good thing. Blizz need strong opponent to feel that they must wokr hard to keep up. I hope it will be the case.
By the way, I had no idea that Pokemon TCG doing that good on the market.
Runeterra BBCode Support for Card Links and Images
Yeah, I'll get one out when the next site update hits with the deckbuilder.
BlizzCon 2019 Schedule Announced - 2 Hearthstone Panels
Nothing else teased yet unfortunately.
I do gotta say though, with the main stage stuff being free on day 1, if I wasn't actively covering BlizzCon, I'd probably rethink the ticket purchase since not all the panels are always worth watching. All the stuff that really matters is now going to be free, and for Hearthstone specifically a single panel outside of the expansion one is kinda meh.
Luckily for me though, I play almost all of the titles which makes all the cosmetics alone worth the price.
Runeterra BBCode Support for Card Links and Images
Will there be a button for runeterra cards like hearthstone cards in comment edit screen ? Because it is always easier to do :)
BlizzCon 2019 Schedule Announced - 2 Hearthstone Panels
I have done the last few years of virtual ticket. Still undecided about this year. Seems like about half of what I would want to see is free. Card back is nice, but not sure getting a card as Golden that big of a deal to me. (I am assuming the standard version will be free as before).
I was hoping there would be packs included this year as well - but doesn't look like it. Has there been any teases of more stuff being added to the virtual ticket bundle as we get closer?
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
Super hyped for their anime and I expect we'll try and cover it in some way if there is anything interesting / new that comes out of it.
1,000 Win Portrait Rewards
Does anyone know when the full arts will be released?
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
as far as i know (I left playing LoL 2-3 years ago) pirate champions like Miss Fortune, Gankplank and champions related with sea like Fizz are from Bilgewater. What I mean is it is a well-known region. They will probably release that region earlier because the champions that I mentioned are so popular ones.
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
Riot isnt playing around are they now?
My current Vs class match ups in duals
Pretty interesting to see Hunter as my worst match up. I believe the stats that Heartharena collects are based off of the Portrait hero (1st hero you choose) so this potentially means that Hunter as a 1st pick might be under estimated by hsreplay.net which currently ranks it 7th overall. I am absolutely getting SHELLED going 2nd against (50% WR), which makes sense if they had Steady Shot, but without it, it's a bit surprising to see, I can't really pinpoint the reasoning.
Warrior and Warlock is no surprise as tough customers, they are both top classes to choose. Boosted class cards make these classes extremely hard to deal. I played against someone last night that drafted 5x Death's Bites, Fools Bane and a Blood Razor. It was ridiculous.
Reference 70% WR is 7 win average.
Paladin and Priest are the other top classes to choose, but I am doing significantly better against them (~76% WR) then Warrior and Warlock.
Another interesting note - Mage which is the weakest class based on hsreplay.net is my 3rd most encountered class, this is probably due to newer players entering the Arena with limited class knowledge, so they choose classes they are familiar with or have previous strong arena experiences with.
Druid ranks 5th on hsreplay, but i've taken them to the cleaners this meta which seems a bit out of line as well.
Sample size is becoming relevant but variance can explain some of these oddities. Another thing that could account massively is the hero power. Unfortunately these stats only separate the Portrait here and dont go into the hero powers. It would be a nice stat to have to be able to see how well i've done against the various combinations or hero powers separately.
Curious how everyone else is faring so far in Duals, any outliers or strange stats you care to discuss or share ?
Hearthstone vs. LoR
Different Games,
Different Audiences.
I don't think the average HS player will enjoy LoR as much as HS. LoR gameplay is more similar to MTG, so MTGA players will fit better into it.
Personally, I hate to be interrupted every time I play a card and it makes me feel really nervous. The HS flow is fast and straight, and casual players (especially from mobile) will still prefer HS because of his simplicity.
Anyway LoR still a 10/10 AAA game, gratz to Rito.
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
They also have the animated series coming out in the future which will help people like me that knows absolutely nothing about league of legends lore to get into it. I played runeterra and was on and off about it but in the end I think I liked it, but I think I would enjoy it more if I knew about the characters in the cards I was playing. One of the main reasons I love Hearthstone is because I see a new card and think "I know that dude!" or like when Kadger was released - "What the hell... hes only a 2/2! com'on!"
I can't wait to see what riot has up their sleeves the get my full attention. They sure have the money to do so heh D:
Cards From Other Games That Made It Into Hearthstone
I didn't mention this in the Legends of Runeterra article because I thought it would be obvious, but because of a few comments the article and our Twitter got, I would like to mention that this article is intended to be lighthearted and fun. As TCGs have been around for nearly 30 years now, and the founding game of that genre, Magic, still alive and kicking like nobody's business, it's inevitable that different TCGs will share at least a few of the same card designs and ideas, and that's not a bad thing in the slightest. Great minds think alike, and maybe you'll see that in this article or the Runeterra one.
N'Zoth the Mechanical Castaway?
what do you think about [Hearthstone Card (Anka, the Buried) Not Found] in this deck?
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
They have been actually (re)building the lore extensively over the past few years. Redoing the original lore that characters had to one that would tie them all together in a unified universe and timeline. It was pretty random when LoL launched just to give characters some flavor, but wasnt rly thought out in depth much. That is not true today.
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
They've spent the past few years really diving into getting the League of Legends lore fleshed out!
With them working on lots of new games, its no real surprise they wanted to make sure everything in the realm would have a solid base to work from. You might be interested in checking out the Universe site where they have stories, biographies of characters, and a ton more. I should link this in the original post.
https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/
magikman's Monopoly Mage
This deck looks great!
I used to dust most of my mage cards but I have recently started playing the class more and I have already crafted a bunch of epics. I have tried making some reno mage lists and none of them have been very good. I really like the look of this list but I am missing all of the mage legendarys except for reno the relicologist.
What would be some replacements for the legends in this list? Frostlich jaina is on the top of my crafting list, but Hexlord malacrass, luna's pocket galaxy, and inkmaster solia I would have to wait months to get.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
There will come a day when Poisonous will rule the game... But Dirty Rat's tech brother will be there.
Next - a hunter or paladin spell.
Quest Trading - Play A Friend!
Battletag: raftel#2209
Region: EU
Trade only?: yes, you go first
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
Since is shows Targon, Shurima, Ixtal, and Bilgewater this could be a spoiler for the next regions they will be releasing.
Realms of Runeterra - Riot is Releasing a Narrative Companion Book
Interesting... I wonder if there will be a strong push towards establishing solid lore in LoL (I may be out of the loop, but I was under the impression it was pretty cursory on lore, focusing more on gameplay)
Hearthstone vs. LoR
LoR might not surpass HS, but it doesn't really need to. It just needs to take enough of the marketshare to push Blizzard to compete more in this space. I agree that the simple gameplay that Hearthstone offers is a bit part of its advantage, but I think that simplicity is a double-edged sword. The focus on tempo and the offense advantage in combat makes Hearthstone inherently anti-control, and when a control-heavy meta does come about, it's often quite degenerate. (This was well-demonstrated by recent Control Warrior mirrors that went on for as long as an hour per game and were often won by random discovered cards from Archivist Elysiana or the 40 turn limit.)
Hearthstone's biggest competitor today is MTGA, and the reason I think LoR will meaningfully impact HS is because LoR addresses a lot of what's wrong with MTGA:
Hearthstone vs. LoR
I don't think LoR will surpass HS, since, IMO, one of the most brilliant feature of it is the simple gameplay. On your turn, you play minions, cast some spells and try to destroy your opponent. Then you wait your opponent's turn. Straightforward.
And also, it has another advantage over MtG, that it's mobile friendly.
What I think that will happen is that many MtG newcomers will switch to LoR (since they won't have to catch up the old stuff) and they might grab some HS players that, like me, miss more in-game micromanagement, like in MtG, and at the same time, can do it in a cell phone...
Hearthstone vs. LoR
You're right that there are a lot of factors which contribute, but at the end of the day, a game with no competition in its genre won't fall out of favor despite a lot of other failures in design, marketing, etc. Moreover, while your Halo example demonstrates how Halo's position weakened, and competition was able to come in and dethrone it, Hearthstone is not like Halo in one key aspect - the collection invests players with time and money in a way that doesn't happen in FPS games. The perceived cost of switching FPS games is much lower because the skills translate and you can start playing competitively immediately.
I think people are looking for an HS killer not because they want a one vs. one battle of games, but because there's a sense that HS's position in the market has weakened, but that the sunk cost hold HS has on players, and the mobile-friendly nature of it, makes competing much harder. It's not enough to make a better game - it needs to be better, still be mobile-friendly, and provide a reasonable new-player experience that can incentivize someone to leave a game to go somewhere else where they'll need to invest money and time to build a collection large enough to play competitively
Hearthstone vs. LoR
So basically we still say the same thing. My look is not too rosy, cos this games coexisting and will be coexist (until Blizz or other company don't do something stupid). I think you also have right telling that LoR will be main copetitor for HS and it's a good thing. Blizz need strong opponent to feel that they must wokr hard to keep up. I hope it will be the case.
By the way, I had no idea that Pokemon TCG doing that good on the market.
Masters Tour Bucharest - Decklists, Results & Recap
It's designed to come apart and cause embarrassing moments. AND fit in suitcases.