News Realms Remove Ads - Go Premium! Sign In or Register

Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Barnes is just another example of bad card design. RNG isn't inherently bad but swingy RNG mechanics isn't good design.

Barnes is just another on the same tier as Implosion, Tuskar, Knife Jugglar Yogg etc. Games shouldn't be decided because someone can pull off a virtual coin flip.

RNG can give the game depth(eg: Discover is a great RNG mechanic that rewards the correct choice) but lately it seems Blizzard has decided to tack on lazy RNG instead of encouraging more interesting player choice.

I'm seriously regretting purchasing this wing since it just encourages them to print more cards like this.

  • Iksar
    Posted 9 years, 6 months ago (Source)

    I don't get how it never crossed your mind to not make it "Yeti at worst". I am putting him in all kinds of decks just because on average he is going to get you 4.5-5 mana of value in a random midrange deck. All that was needed to make him strictly a niche card is a stat reduction. Even 3/3 might do it.

    One of the times we actually did make 'Yeti with upside' was with Master of Evolution. Dark Cultist, Ethereal Peddler, etc. All the effects of those cards are wildly different but it's clearly possible to make 'reasonable curve stat minion with upside effect' without it being broken in power level.

  • Iksar
    Posted 9 years, 6 months ago (Source)

    Thanks for the response. Although the cards you are referencing to are all class cards. I believe one of the core philosophy of Blizz balancing is that Legendary cards are not supposed to be stronger but rather unique. I think Barnes is exactly intended to be the latter, but I am just not sure whether people slamming him into already existing decks that run value minions and making them stronger was as planned.

    In the days following the release of an exciting and powerful card, we expect it to show up in basically every deck. I think if the days following the release of C'Thun was representative of how much C'Thun ended up getting played over all of Old Gods that would have been a problem. There are many more cards left to release so I'm looking forward to seeing everything shift as the weeks go by.

  • Iksar
    Posted 9 years, 6 months ago (Source)

    Barnes will likely be used "because why not" in N'zoth decks, same way that Yogg is used in Tempo Mage, Token Druid and Lock and Load Hunter (though it is more of a core on the first one).

    That seems okay to me. If Nzoth decks were seeing a high play rate pre Kara we might have not gave them another strong piece for that deck. That wasn't the case.

  • Iksar
    Posted 9 years, 6 months ago (Source)

    You'll keep an eye on it? As if changes to the cards could occur? Pffft.

    I don't know the number off the top of my head, but at least 10 cards have changed in power level after release. We are always monitoring reception and statistics.

  • Iksar
    Posted 9 years, 6 months ago (Source)

    1) Common card - basic stats.

    2) Another big dude in Arena.

    3) Flavour.

    4) Fill out the set.

    5) Teach newer players about the game, and let them use a big minion for cheap if they open it.

    All acceptable yet also highly debatable and controversial at the same time.

    I'd agree with all except for maybe number 4, all cards should have some justification to exist. I often use the (10) 10/10 as a card I'm very happy that we made despite it having a confusingly low constructed power level to some people. As far as Barnes goes, he's been out for less than 48 hours so I would expect to see a lot of him because the effect is pretty polarizing. When the dust settles I hope to see that card in decks designed to get insane value out of him rather than building decks 29 cards the way you would have anyway + Barnes because why not. I think if you made a deck of 28 spells, Barnes, and Ragnaros then that T4 swing is probably warranted. We'll keep an eye on it, though. I enjoy reading the discussions!

Tweet