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Eurogamer Italy Interview with Dean Ayala (testing & balancing) Translated

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By Stefano Silvestri. Interesting interview about balancing.

Q: With Un'Goro, Reno Jackson will exit standard. Playing single card decks will be very difficult. Have you got any plans on introducing a similar card?
A: Not in Un'Goro for sure. We never want to create doppelganger cards and that's the reason behind the Standard format, to force variations in the meta-game. Wild is very popular tho, and you'll be able to play Reno Here.

Q: Do you think single card decks will be completely left behind with Un’Goro?
A: Of course this kind of deck will be less present in the future, but Kazzakus is a very strong and popular card so we think it’s not an end. We don’t want the players to stick with the same deck for 2 or 3 expansion, and you can see that since other popular cards like Sylvanas and Ragnaros are leaving standard. Regarding Ragnaros, it’s very important that he’s leaving because people didn’t care about new 8+ cards since he has been a must have in any deck.

Q: “By the fire purged!” When you hear that phrase, you immediately recognise Hearthstone. Standard format shifts the Meta, but at the same time sweeps away all those characters who in terms of marketing made the game what it is now. Isn’t that risky?
A: We decided that is more important to keep the gameplay fresh than to preserve iconic heroes. We’ve been thinking about keeping Ragnaros in a less powerful version, maybe a 6/6, but in the end we understood that it was worse than taking it out entirely.

Q: Arena top 100 was well received. What can you say about it?
A: I’m personally invoved in this feature. What we worked towards is preventing people from creating smurfs because of a bad start. The last thing we want is to introduce a mechanic that has the side effect of making people stop playing on their original account. Now every run can be a 30.

Q: Any plans on introducing player-created tournaments?
A: It’s one of the top requested features. But there are a lot of questions we have to answer before we can work on it. Will it be a feature made for pro or casuals? Which kind of tournaments will we see? How do you assign points? How do you resolve the problem of vacant lots? We have to think about it a little bit more

Q: I’m curious about one thing. Why is attack 4 the weak spot of the priest? You gave him cards to destroy every kind of minion except the ones with 4 attack points. What’s the math behind this choice? Why not 5?
A: Every character should have his weak spots. What I can say is that you’ll probably never see a Priest with a card that destroys a 4 attack minion.

Q: Will you make the players craft card backs?
A: There’s a strong chance we’ll do it, we dont want people that had to leave for a month feel less rewarded.

Q: Why didn’t you give the chance to buy arcane dust?
A: Because we want the people to constantly try new cards and decks. The reason behind that choice is the fact that maybe you open up a pack and find a legendary you are not looking for; even if you don't need it you are more likely to try and use it rather than turning it in. If people could be able to buy dust, we’ll be seeing the same decks over and over again.

Q: You are on the balancing team. Pardon me for being rude, but I have to ask you. What were you thinking about when you introduced Gadgetzan cards? Pirate Warrior deck is too unbalanced, and the expansion in general reduced the meta variation a lot. Warriors are only pirate, priests are dragon and it’s near impossible to find a druid that’s not jade.
A: Our final objective is to create with each expansion a set of 3-4 "standard mechanic variations" per every character, and of course we are not happy when only one gets played. Talking about the Priest, you can effectively play a not-dragon priest, but people like dragons and that’s why we see a lot of them. Talking about the druid only 70% of his playerbase goes Jade, so it’s accettable for us. Pirate warrior killed control, but I think that’s because of Jade mechanics interactions with warrior control.

Q: Talking about Jade, it’s very difficult for every control deck to compete effectively against Jade Druid...
A: But the deck still has weaknesses. This didn’t happen with Kharazan Mid Ranges, which were unstoppable. Today a Reno-Lock or a Reno-Mage can compete with a Jade Druid. Pirate Warrior is a deadly deck, but it’s mono dimensional. Maybe that’s the reason behind his success, because it’s easier to play or cheaper to build.

You said today some decks can compete with Jade, and that Un’Goro will shift the meta. But how about Jade mechanics? It’s a long time before they go Wild.
A: I hear a lot of both positive and negative feedback about Jade decks, but the truth is that their population is only 9%.

Q: Including Shamans, Druids and Rogues?
A: Yes, Jade decks are not so common, even if it’s true that most of the times they destroy other control decks. If I think about Rogues and Shamans I see 3 or 4 ways to play them, not control focused only.

Q: Every time I met with you developers we considered rush and control decks, never Mill decks. They are my favourite, because I don’t think there’s anything better than winning a game playing with a Mill Rogue. Will you ever build cards towards that mechanic?
A: I’m very sad to say that feedbacks are mostly negative and I think Mill decks are some of the most frustrating to fight, so I think you’ll never see those cards.

Q: Do you consider losing at turn 5 by a Pirate Warrior deck to be less frustrating?
A: Maybe we’ll introduce cards that can fit in a Mill deck, but never with that purpose only, like Vanish.

More to come soon

EDIT: Words

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