I like the idea, there are certain cards that I wish I had a golden too, and when I no longer need it then it's always satisfying to disenchant a golden to make another legendary of my choice.
I'd also like to see a point system each season that you can spend on card backs you've missed. (preferably making them reasonably expensive so it takes some time to achieve them).
I'm fascinated by the Priest deck, especially since I have most of the cards it needs and I've never seen anything quite like it. Mind giving me a little explanation before I go and craft Lady in White?
This deck is based on the classic Lady in White deck, using minions with huge Health to have a strong deck with low costs, adding the new Magnetic mechanic to provide even more Health, giving us the possibility of making OTK combos with Inner Fire and Divine Spirit, for example Unpowered Steambot or the Upgradeable Framebot plus Bronze Gatekeeper, in fact, this last two without the combo (only with Lady in White) should have 10/10 when magnetized, allowing us to make easy combos whitout risking too much cards.
As you can see I put Chameleos in this deck, but only to have some control of the enemy hand, it's basically like a tech card, another good option is some Silence type card, to evade that Taunt that don't let us OTK.
SN1P-SN4P and Zilliax are in this deck to mainain board, both are good to sabe you in a hard match for a few turns, when you can't actívate your combos.
Finally, Test Subject is a common in all combo priest decks, playing our spells on it an then Vivid Nightmare plus my idea of putting Shadowy Figure to obtain even more spells.
Too complicated for HS design policy (understandably so, for this matter), won't happen.
And they will also never try a Genn/Baku risk in the future, where the upgrade is a Start of the Game effect, no matter how harsh the deckbuilding restriction. And again, understandably so: Genn/Baku should have been class or triclass-restricted, not full-blown neutrals. Making more cards with that design would trigger a social Mass Hysteria on Standard community.
If anything, it could be new fuel for future Hero Cards, or cards that work similarly to Justicar Trueheart or Raza the Chained, that is, upgrades that are bound to card draw.
Even then, most of the Hero Powers don't look so exciting as to deserve complicated designs efforts... Maybe only few of them.
The thing is that this "complicated feature" already is kind of in the game it doesn't require too much of additional GUI to add to the game(it can be just like adding a card back to a deck, you will assign the hero power as well), also it would make strategies that are a total failure in certain classes more relevant and expand the posibilities.
I am not talking about adding baku again I am saying that if they add starting hero powers they need to add support to baku hero powers in the wild format as well as justicar.
I am against another "start of game" or draw dependant effect what I am talking about is a balanced, yet different hero power on the same power level of the current ones..0 mana cost effect, or 1 mana cost with a draw back(take damage, random,overload,costing 3,symmetric) it's a design space the devs aren't using.
they don't have to look exciting cause they are starting hero powers what is exciting is adding support and consistency to previously failed archtypes by adding more depth to deck building as well as adding another strategic layer to the game expanding the possibilties.
for example Rogue hero power is tempo heavy but Blizzard is trying to push value rogue if the hero power supported a more value oriented game plan.. or warlock really would like a hero power that uses the discard mechanic.
we saw endless examples of hero powers the devs come up with in the adventure, you tone them down to standard play and then you get a new layer to deck building, it could be an event at first for testing.
Anyway it's just a possibility they might test for the future.
Too complicated for HS design policy (understandably so, for this matter), won't happen.
And they will also never try a Genn/Baku risk in the future, where the upgrade is a Start of the Game effect, no matter how harsh the deckbuilding restriction. And again, understandably so: Genn/Baku should have been class or triclass-restricted, not full-blown neutrals. Making more cards with that design would trigger a social Mass Hysteria on Standard community.
If anything, it could be new fuel for future Hero Cards, or cards that work similarly to Justicar Trueheart or Raza the Chained, that is, upgrades that are bound to card draw.
Even then, most of the Hero Powers don't look so exciting as to deserve complicated designs efforts... Maybe only few of them.
Warlock can be incredibly good if you get mal'ganis with stealthed minions passive. The ai typically can't do anything to you. Throw in a Rin the first disciple to win harder. I agree bomb warrior is pretty bad but extremely fun if you can somehow get an elekk to survive on board and not face Kazamon. I've rage quitted a few times because of that bastard.
I took Mech Paladin to rank 2 tonight. Then, every opponent was running silence. I expected it from Shamans or the occasional Priest. But I started to see Hunters running 2 ironbeak owls and Warriors even running spellbreakers. It was infuriating. So trust me, there are plenty of ways to counter this deck.
I cutted kalcgos out for blast wave to counter even more aggro decks, but if you are encountering alot of warriors or shirvallla paladin you should swap it back in. As i wrote in the guide if the decks reach 10 upvote il post a mulligan strategy guide, if it reach 20 upvote il post a list of suitable replacements for every match ups rate like for example inserting kalcgos if you enounter alot of warriors or shirvalla's paladin
I think it more likely that a bunch of these are toned down versions of proposed death knight hero powers that didn't make it out of R&D. We'll probably see more hero cards in the future, as well as other means to change the basic hero power, but I doubt it'll be any of these ones. A lot of them are just meh, and then there's Burning Wit, the mage discount one, which is completely off the walls bonkers in terms of power level.
I don't think the fundamental hero power system will be changed, it's hard enough to balance the game with just one hero power per class. Class cards are balanced around the hero powers because they aren't all equal, EG Warlock gets crappy cards because lifetap is way OP. This'd mean that any alternative WL hero power would have to be similarly good or any player running it will just be at a disadvantage.
Having the alt hero powers in single player content strikes me as a reasonable compromise.
I think you're half right. I think the new hero powers will come in the form of cards that "upgrade" your hero power to an all new one. A new Justicar or Baku that changes things up more than just ramps up the power level.
But there is no chance in my mind that each class will get a choice of multiple hero powers as their default start of game button. It just opens up too many design constraints while making Blizzard no money. Can't see it happening. That's not how ActiBlizz works.
Great deck so far! I’ve gone 6-0 in wild with it using a few alterations, I didn’t have enough dust for the whole thing. Do you think Ziliax would work well in This type of deck
Shaman and Hunter are the ones I'm most conflicted about in my ranking, you could have Shaman at T2 and Hunter T3, but I do think there are definite (average) power level differences between the classes based on the hero powers and the types of buckets they're assigned. Even if you get the appropriate cards and hero power, Warlock's "sacrifice" theme will be awkward, gimmicky and situational whereas everything in the "Big Shaman" pool is good if you can afford it.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Burning Wit is objectively head and shoulders better than all the other hero powers. Investing one mana to cheat two later on is very strong, especially because so many high-cost (mage) cards are balanced around being too expensive to cast alongside other things, EG Antonidas. That card can solo any boss because he turns mana into damage, and your hero power is free mana.
Bob is definitely the man you need to have on your side if you want to have a highlight-reel playthrough, though. I was trying for ages to get Elistra in buff priest and of course when you do she NEVER shows up in the tavern. Or she does but you're not offered Right hand man or Gang's all here. As much as I like the fact that they added more ways to retool your deck the fact that that too is luck-based is frustrating, especially if you get the right action with the wrong cards or vice versa.
I like this idea! I think it would be a great incentive to get people to play solo adventures and find a new connection between their collection and the adventures -- not like the older way of doing adventures in exchange for card rewards but still having an impact on the collection. For a lot of people, like me, it would be fun because then I'd have to sit down and think about what card I would want to have as a golden legendary. I'm one of those players that isn't so much into the cosmetics of the game, but tying it to an adventure would get me enthusiastic about golden cards. Oddly, I wouldn't dust my golden legendary, either, because it would have a special place in my collection.
OP should write a letter to Blizzard suggesting this idea and see what they think.
Just at first glance, its seems to me there's an awful lot of 1-ofs in the deck. I get that you can tutor for these with Bwonsamdi, but at that point, how often does it make a difference if you draw your tech one drops, Bloodsail Corsair or potion vendor?
I'd probably cut those for a second Abusive Sergeant and Argent Squire. The deck doesn't have comeback mechanisms other than magic carpet so you might as well lean in on taking the board on the first turns.
My best experiences with shaman were playing big shaman, but you're heavily reliant on getting the right treasures to support that, EG robes of gaudiness or Scepter of Summoning. If you pick the deck with Whirling Zap-o-matic you can also go super-aggressive if you get the right treasures (banana split!) and tavern buffs, although the efficacy of the early rush wears off around the fifth or sixth encounter. Battlecry shaman is a ton of fun. Refresh is a great hero power but really messes with your curve if you don't pay attention. Hardly ever worth using on turn 1, for example.
If you're super lucky with priest you can get the Elistra the Immortal + Right hand man + gang's all here dream, but realistically you're stuck playing some form of big priest. The alt hero powers are super underwhelming, but the big stuff buckets are pretty solid.
Rogue has two decent hero powers in Yoink! and Cut-less, but the card pools are pretty iffy. The pirates and weapons stuff is mostly junk IMO.
Tier Bleh is Warlock and Warrior
Warlock has some truly terrible buckets like sacrifice, discard and healing/lifesteal. The top end picks aren't terribly impressive as many of WL's larger minions are discount-demons with some huge drawback. Double battlecry is downright harmful and premium deathrattles are pretty scarce as well.On top of that the hero powers aren't spectacular either. You'll probably do fine with a captured flag zoo/swarm build but boy am I thoroughly unimpressed by Warlock so far.
Warrior's themes are likewise pretty atrocious, like masochistic minions or taunts. The hero powers aren't good either. I've tried everything to make bomb warrior work in act three, where it should be the most favoured due to the lack of space for minions, and even with good treasures(double hero power!) and solid control picks it still fell short for me every time I've tried. So far I've had the most success just going for the quest and ditching my hero power as soon as possible. That said Warrior's large minion pool isn't terrible.
I don't think it's possible to have tiers, but your experience trying out all the different heroes is really helpful! My only deal is that I actually finished Chapters 2, 3, and 4 on my first try using Shaman and I am a terrible Shaman player, so terrible in fact that until I tried it out on this adventure I had no interest in the class and mostly dusted things from that part of my collection if I desperately needed to craft something. Playing the Heist has made me interested more in Shaman. As far as Chapter 1 goes, I beat it with Mage, but on my second try. For Chapter 5 I've tried Hunter, Mage, Warlock, Paladin, and Rogue. Mostly I've been using Paladin, but I cannot for the life of me get the "Sound the Bells" spell reduced to 0 mana. Bartender Bob refuses to give me the option of reducing a spell by three. However, when I use other classes, Bob faithfully gives me the option to reduce spell costs. So, should I make a foil hat? LOL
I would say Tier 1 is Bartender Bob. He's got to be with you all the way so you can get your deck "just so" for the adventure.
I haven't tried all the alternate Paladin and Warlock abilities yet, just got done beating the heist on heroic.
Other than Act 3, the streets, which can really hurt classes that have lots of swarm buckets like Druid and Warlock, the power levels of the different classes are more or less consistent between the acts, so I might as well go on a class-by-class basis.
The undisputed tier-1 hero is mage, due to the mana discount hero power, which is absolutely busted on its own, synergises with most of the strongest passive treasures AND works really well with some of the most powerful mage legendaries (Antonidas, Kalecgos) which show up in the buckets and tavern a lot. If you want to beat the heist on easy mode, Rakanishu + Burning wit is the way to go.
Tier 2 is Paladin, Hunter, Druid.
Paladin has a bunch of absolutely insane interactions with Sound the bells that can singlehandedly win you the heist, either with the passive treasure that lets you cast spells with health points or the tavern card that lets you reduce a spell by 3 (the echoes cost 0 as well). Other than that Paladin has a decent pool of legendaries, although the defensive nature of a lot of these is a drag because there are tons of bosses that will inevitably win any value game. But if you win the highroll then this class is nuts.
I couldn't really say why Hunter is as powerful as it is, it's certainly not the hero powers, but for whatever reason, it just works. Pet training is cute, but slow, and the shifting chameleons have terrible counter-synergy with Hagatha's embrace. That said, they're pretty great against Galliwix and the Carousel, so there's that.
Druid has incredibly powerful card picks and is really only hampered by its mediocre hero powers. +1/+1 is the best of the bunch. Tokens, choose one and big druid are all very solid decks, and you can even combine the archetypes if need be. Keeper Stalladris is nuts.
Tier 3 Shaman Priest and Rogue
My best experiences with shaman were playing big shaman, but you're heavily reliant on getting the right treasures to support that, EG robes of gaudiness or Scepter of Summoning. If you pick the deck with Whirling Zap-o-matic you can also go super-aggressive if you get the right treasures (banana split!) and tavern buffs, although the efficacy of the early rush wears off around the fifth or sixth encounter. Battlecry shaman is a ton of fun. Refresh is a great hero power but really messes with your curve if you don't pay attention. Hardly ever worth using on turn 1, for example.
If you're super lucky with priest you can get the Elistra the Immortal + Right hand man + gang's all here dream, but realistically you're stuck playing some form of big priest. The alt hero powers are super underwhelming, but the big stuff buckets are pretty solid.
Rogue has two decent hero powers in Yoink! and Cut-less, but the card pools are pretty iffy. The pirates and weapons stuff is mostly junk IMO.
Tier Bleh is Warlock and Warrior
Warlock has some truly terrible buckets like sacrifice, discard and healing/lifesteal. The top end picks aren't terribly impressive as many of WL's larger minions are discount-demons with some huge drawback. Double battlecry is downright harmful and premium deathrattles are pretty scarce as well.On top of that the hero powers aren't spectacular either. You'll probably do fine with a captured flag zoo/swarm build but boy am I thoroughly unimpressed by Warlock so far. (Edit: If you can draft a lot of Molten Giants + scepter of summoning that's still a cute combo, just not as strong as in the catacomb run where you also had a hand WL bucket with Mountain giants. The discounts add up so the base cost is (5 - damage taken) so that's turn 2 hero power turn 3 8/8, which is pretty sweet. Just hard to hit consistently. Spell power +3 is also surprisingly good with WL because almost every bucket contains one or more mediocre damage spells like demonfire, hellfire, fellfire potion, etc. all of which become premium board clears.)
Warrior's themes are likewise pretty atrocious, like masochistic minions or taunts. The hero powers aren't good either. I've tried everything to make bomb warrior work in act three, where it should be the most favoured due to the lack of space for minions, and even with good treasures(double hero power!) and solid control picks it still fell short for me every time I've tried. So far I've had the most success just going for the quest and ditching my hero power as soon as possible. That said Warrior's large minion pool isn't terrible.
Regarding act 5, I don't think it's particularly difficult compared to the other acts, just longer. So far on both normal and heroic, if I made it to the final four bosses I've beaten them; it's 6-7-8 where you run into trouble, IMO. I beat act 5 on heroic on my first attempt with an atrocious Elixir of Vim + First Aid kit paladin deck, so it's certainly not like you need to highroll on treasures or w/e to win.
Interesting part is that Paladin and Priest are making use of this card in standard... Paladin, yes antisynergy with army, so you don't keep it in starting hand, but late game it is good still especially after army. and in priest, well extra arms zoo deck can use some mechs it seems...
Adventure To Turn A Card Into A Golden
I like the idea, there are certain cards that I wish I had a golden too, and when I no longer need it then it's always satisfying to disenchant a golden to make another legendary of my choice.
I'd also like to see a point system each season that you can spend on card backs you've missed. (preferably making them reasonably expensive so it takes some time to achieve them).
Those are my new decks for this season, their lower wr is 69 per cent (Druid).
Mosh'Ogg Enforcer Is not a bad card for Lady in White decks, but I don't know where to put it here.
Those are my new decks for this season, their lower wr is 69 per cent (Druid).
The priest guide is now posted, text me if you need more information.
Woodcaster's Combo Priest
This deck is based on the classic Lady in White deck, using minions with huge Health to have a strong deck with low costs, adding the new Magnetic mechanic to provide even more Health, giving us the possibility of making OTK combos with Inner Fire and Divine Spirit, for example Unpowered Steambot or the Upgradeable Framebot plus Bronze Gatekeeper, in fact, this last two without the combo (only with Lady in White) should have 10/10 when magnetized, allowing us to make easy combos whitout risking too much cards.
As you can see I put Chameleos in this deck, but only to have some control of the enemy hand, it's basically like a tech card, another good option is some Silence type card, to evade that Taunt that don't let us OTK.
Other posible board deploy combo is Quartz Elemental with Unsleeping Soul.
SN1P-SN4P and Zilliax are in this deck to mainain board, both are good to sabe you in a hard match for a few turns, when you can't actívate your combos.
Finally, Test Subject is a common in all combo priest decks, playing our spells on it an then Vivid Nightmare plus my idea of putting Shadowy Figure to obtain even more spells.
[Speculation]Heist hero powers being used in regular play in the future
The thing is that this "complicated feature" already is kind of in the game it doesn't require too much of additional GUI to add to the game(it can be just like adding a card back to a deck, you will assign the hero power as well), also it would make strategies that are a total failure in certain classes more relevant and expand the posibilities.
I am not talking about adding baku again I am saying that if they add starting hero powers they need to add support to baku hero powers in the wild format as well as justicar.
I am against another "start of game" or draw dependant effect what I am talking about is a balanced, yet different hero power on the same power level of the current ones..0 mana cost effect, or 1 mana cost with a draw back(take damage, random,overload,costing 3,symmetric) it's a design space the devs aren't using.
they don't have to look exciting cause they are starting hero powers what is exciting is adding support and consistency to previously failed archtypes by adding more depth to deck building as well as adding another strategic layer to the game expanding the possibilties.
for example Rogue hero power is tempo heavy but Blizzard is trying to push value rogue if the hero power supported a more value oriented game plan.. or warlock really would like a hero power that uses the discard mechanic.
we saw endless examples of hero powers the devs come up with in the adventure, you tone them down to standard play and then you get a new layer to deck building, it could be an event at first for testing.
Anyway it's just a possibility they might test for the future.
[Speculation]Heist hero powers being used in regular play in the future
Too complicated for HS design policy (understandably so, for this matter), won't happen.
And they will also never try a Genn/Baku risk in the future, where the upgrade is a Start of the Game effect, no matter how harsh the deckbuilding restriction. And again, understandably so: Genn/Baku should have been class or triclass-restricted, not full-blown neutrals. Making more cards with that design would trigger a social Mass Hysteria on Standard community.
If anything, it could be new fuel for future Hero Cards, or cards that work similarly to Justicar Trueheart or Raza the Chained, that is, upgrades that are bound to card draw.
Even then, most of the Hero Powers don't look so exciting as to deserve complicated designs efforts... Maybe only few of them.
Dalaran Heist Tips
Warlock can be incredibly good if you get mal'ganis with stealthed minions passive. The ai typically can't do anything to you. Throw in a Rin the first disciple to win harder. I agree bomb warrior is pretty bad but extremely fun if you can somehow get an elekk to survive on board and not face Kazamon. I've rage quitted a few times because of that bastard.
The Last Chapter of The Dalaran Heist is LIVE!
i choose evolve hero power + Quest Murloc Shaman + 3 minion bomb at start , play as aggro as can, Bang the Khadgar well with big fat murloc
[Speculation]Heist hero powers being used in regular play in the future
Well the hero powers won't be implemented as is, but after a slight nerf/ adjustment.
I really don' t think we will get those hero powers as hero cards as their power level is medium to low at best..
Storm Token Shaman
Can you please tell me the mulligans and general strategy for this deck?
The Blue Portal
my absolute favourite card back. simply mesmerising
What class/deck do you play to beat Mech Paladin?
I took Mech Paladin to rank 2 tonight. Then, every opponent was running silence. I expected it from Shamans or the occasional Priest. But I started to see Hunters running 2 ironbeak owls and Warriors even running spellbreakers. It was infuriating. So trust me, there are plenty of ways to counter this deck.
Quest Trading - Play A Friend!
Battletag: Zeedrome#1317
Region: NA
Trade only?: Yes, you go first, I can show proof of quest
Akron's Pocket Blast Mage
I cutted kalcgos out for blast wave to counter even more aggro decks, but if you are encountering alot of warriors or shirvallla paladin you should swap it back in.
As i wrote in the guide if the decks reach 10 upvote il post a mulligan strategy guide, if it reach 20 upvote il post a list of suitable replacements for every match ups rate like for example inserting kalcgos if you enounter alot of warriors or shirvalla's paladin
[Speculation]Heist hero powers being used in regular play in the future
I think it more likely that a bunch of these are toned down versions of proposed death knight hero powers that didn't make it out of R&D. We'll probably see more hero cards in the future, as well as other means to change the basic hero power, but I doubt it'll be any of these ones. A lot of them are just meh, and then there's Burning Wit, the mage discount one, which is completely off the walls bonkers in terms of power level.
I don't think the fundamental hero power system will be changed, it's hard enough to balance the game with just one hero power per class. Class cards are balanced around the hero powers because they aren't all equal, EG Warlock gets crappy cards because lifetap is way OP. This'd mean that any alternative WL hero power would have to be similarly good or any player running it will just be at a disadvantage.
Having the alt hero powers in single player content strikes me as a reasonable compromise.
Question Regarding Forum Rules
Right on. Thank you for not being squeamish about such things.
In other news, I'm about to post a thread called "Lessons from Pathra in GM".
It is NOT in any way, shape, or form related to gender issues. It's just a discussion about tempo plays as illustrated by her week 4 games.
I know Kibler and Frodan spent ten minutes talking about how much hate she's been getting in Twitch chat. This is not that.
EDIT: In hind sight, I think I'll write it up tomorrow.
[Speculation]Heist hero powers being used in regular play in the future
I think you're half right. I think the new hero powers will come in the form of cards that "upgrade" your hero power to an all new one. A new Justicar or Baku that changes things up more than just ramps up the power level.
But there is no chance in my mind that each class will get a choice of multiple hero powers as their default start of game button. It just opens up too many design constraints while making Blizzard no money. Can't see it happening. That's not how ActiBlizz works.
SN1P-SN4P exept it's a swarm deck instead of a mech deck exept it's also a mech deck
Great deck so far! I’ve gone 6-0 in wild with it using a few alterations, I didn’t have enough dust for the whole thing. Do you think Ziliax would work well in This type of deck
Dalaran Heist Tips
Shaman and Hunter are the ones I'm most conflicted about in my ranking, you could have Shaman at T2 and Hunter T3, but I do think there are definite (average) power level differences between the classes based on the hero powers and the types of buckets they're assigned. Even if you get the appropriate cards and hero power, Warlock's "sacrifice" theme will be awkward, gimmicky and situational whereas everything in the "Big Shaman" pool is good if you can afford it.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Burning Wit is objectively head and shoulders better than all the other hero powers. Investing one mana to cheat two later on is very strong, especially because so many high-cost (mage) cards are balanced around being too expensive to cast alongside other things, EG Antonidas. That card can solo any boss because he turns mana into damage, and your hero power is free mana.
Bob is definitely the man you need to have on your side if you want to have a highlight-reel playthrough, though. I was trying for ages to get Elistra in buff priest and of course when you do she NEVER shows up in the tavern. Or she does but you're not offered Right hand man or Gang's all here. As much as I like the fact that they added more ways to retool your deck the fact that that too is luck-based is frustrating, especially if you get the right action with the wrong cards or vice versa.
Adventure To Turn A Card Into A Golden
I like this idea! I think it would be a great incentive to get people to play solo adventures and find a new connection between their collection and the adventures -- not like the older way of doing adventures in exchange for card rewards but still having an impact on the collection. For a lot of people, like me, it would be fun because then I'd have to sit down and think about what card I would want to have as a golden legendary. I'm one of those players that isn't so much into the cosmetics of the game, but tying it to an adventure would get me enthusiastic about golden cards. Oddly, I wouldn't dust my golden legendary, either, because it would have a special place in my collection.
OP should write a letter to Blizzard suggesting this idea and see what they think.
My Zoo is cuter than yours
Just at first glance, its seems to me there's an awful lot of 1-ofs in the deck. I get that you can tutor for these with Bwonsamdi, but at that point, how often does it make a difference if you draw your tech one drops, Bloodsail Corsair or potion vendor?
I'd probably cut those for a second Abusive Sergeant and Argent Squire. The deck doesn't have comeback mechanisms other than magic carpet so you might as well lean in on taking the board on the first turns.
Almost feel guilty about this one…
I had that combo one time, of course the very first game after picking up the double hero power treasure, I got rogue hero power and got smashed. D:
Dalaran Heist Tips
I don't think it's possible to have tiers, but your experience trying out all the different heroes is really helpful! My only deal is that I actually finished Chapters 2, 3, and 4 on my first try using Shaman and I am a terrible Shaman player, so terrible in fact that until I tried it out on this adventure I had no interest in the class and mostly dusted things from that part of my collection if I desperately needed to craft something. Playing the Heist has made me interested more in Shaman. As far as Chapter 1 goes, I beat it with Mage, but on my second try. For Chapter 5 I've tried Hunter, Mage, Warlock, Paladin, and Rogue. Mostly I've been using Paladin, but I cannot for the life of me get the "Sound the Bells" spell reduced to 0 mana. Bartender Bob refuses to give me the option of reducing a spell by three. However, when I use other classes, Bob faithfully gives me the option to reduce spell costs. So, should I make a foil hat? LOL
I would say Tier 1 is Bartender Bob. He's got to be with you all the way so you can get your deck "just so" for the adventure.
Dalaran Heist Tips
I haven't tried all the alternate Paladin and Warlock abilities yet, just got done beating the heist on heroic.
Other than Act 3, the streets, which can really hurt classes that have lots of swarm buckets like Druid and Warlock, the power levels of the different classes are more or less consistent between the acts, so I might as well go on a class-by-class basis.
The undisputed tier-1 hero is mage, due to the mana discount hero power, which is absolutely busted on its own, synergises with most of the strongest passive treasures AND works really well with some of the most powerful mage legendaries (Antonidas, Kalecgos) which show up in the buckets and tavern a lot. If you want to beat the heist on easy mode, Rakanishu + Burning wit is the way to go.
Tier 2 is Paladin, Hunter, Druid.
Paladin has a bunch of absolutely insane interactions with Sound the bells that can singlehandedly win you the heist, either with the passive treasure that lets you cast spells with health points or the tavern card that lets you reduce a spell by 3 (the echoes cost 0 as well). Other than that Paladin has a decent pool of legendaries, although the defensive nature of a lot of these is a drag because there are tons of bosses that will inevitably win any value game. But if you win the highroll then this class is nuts.
I couldn't really say why Hunter is as powerful as it is, it's certainly not the hero powers, but for whatever reason, it just works. Pet training is cute, but slow, and the shifting chameleons have terrible counter-synergy with Hagatha's embrace. That said, they're pretty great against Galliwix and the Carousel, so there's that.
Druid has incredibly powerful card picks and is really only hampered by its mediocre hero powers. +1/+1 is the best of the bunch. Tokens, choose one and big druid are all very solid decks, and you can even combine the archetypes if need be. Keeper Stalladris is nuts.
Tier 3 Shaman Priest and Rogue
My best experiences with shaman were playing big shaman, but you're heavily reliant on getting the right treasures to support that, EG robes of gaudiness or Scepter of Summoning. If you pick the deck with Whirling Zap-o-matic you can also go super-aggressive if you get the right treasures (banana split!) and tavern buffs, although the efficacy of the early rush wears off around the fifth or sixth encounter. Battlecry shaman is a ton of fun. Refresh is a great hero power but really messes with your curve if you don't pay attention. Hardly ever worth using on turn 1, for example.
If you're super lucky with priest you can get the Elistra the Immortal + Right hand man + gang's all here dream, but realistically you're stuck playing some form of big priest. The alt hero powers are super underwhelming, but the big stuff buckets are pretty solid.
Rogue has two decent hero powers in Yoink! and Cut-less, but the card pools are pretty iffy. The pirates and weapons stuff is mostly junk IMO.
Tier Bleh is Warlock and Warrior
Warlock has some truly terrible buckets like sacrifice, discard and healing/lifesteal. The top end picks aren't terribly impressive as many of WL's larger minions are discount-demons with some huge drawback. Double battlecry is downright harmful and premium deathrattles are pretty scarce as well.On top of that the hero powers aren't spectacular either. You'll probably do fine with a captured flag zoo/swarm build but boy am I thoroughly unimpressed by Warlock so far. (Edit: If you can draft a lot of Molten Giants + scepter of summoning that's still a cute combo, just not as strong as in the catacomb run where you also had a hand WL bucket with Mountain giants. The discounts add up so the base cost is (5 - damage taken) so that's turn 2 hero power turn 3 8/8, which is pretty sweet. Just hard to hit consistently. Spell power +3 is also surprisingly good with WL because almost every bucket contains one or more mediocre damage spells like demonfire, hellfire, fellfire potion, etc. all of which become premium board clears.)
Warrior's themes are likewise pretty atrocious, like masochistic minions or taunts. The hero powers aren't good either. I've tried everything to make bomb warrior work in act three, where it should be the most favoured due to the lack of space for minions, and even with good treasures(double hero power!) and solid control picks it still fell short for me every time I've tried. So far I've had the most success just going for the quest and ditching my hero power as soon as possible. That said Warrior's large minion pool isn't terrible.
Regarding act 5, I don't think it's particularly difficult compared to the other acts, just longer. So far on both normal and heroic, if I made it to the final four bosses I've beaten them; it's 6-7-8 where you run into trouble, IMO. I beat act 5 on heroic on my first attempt with an atrocious Elixir of Vim + First Aid kit paladin deck, so it's certainly not like you need to highroll on treasures or w/e to win.
SN1P-SN4P
Interesting part is that Paladin and Priest are making use of this card in standard... Paladin, yes antisynergy with army, so you don't keep it in starting hand, but late game it is good still especially after army. and in priest, well extra arms zoo deck can use some mechs it seems...