Hello everyone. I'm Raktoner.
For a while now I've been thinking of making a video expressing certain concerns I had with the way the Year of the Dragon has been handled by Blizzard. Unfortunately, I have no audience to start with, nor do I have the equipment (and frankly, knowledge) to make a video I'd be truly proud of. I've been commenting on this forum a bit lately and decided... Maybe this could be the place to start. It's important to note as I put in the title--this is an opinion piece. I am not speaking objectively. This is strictly subjective.
I can't say I have terribly many qualifications, since I'm not exactly a Hearthstone personality, or a "pro player." However, I have some I can list that I hope will set my apart and show my opinion comes from the view of an above average Hearthstone player.
I am a 5x legend player--Two of those during the Year of the Raven, and the remaining 3 occurring in November, December, and January. I play for my University's TESPA team, where we were finished 3rd in the East and then went 2-2 in the playoff rounds. I have placed 1st in three local tournaments. Safe to say, I played a lot this year--it's why I feel I have a strong argument for my problems with this year.
With that intro out of the way, I'd like to express my concern with the Year of the Dragon, going expansion by expansion. I'd then like to express my concern for what this means for the upcoming year rumored to be titled Year of the Phoenix.
Let's get started then.
Rise of Shadows
I think it's safe to say we were all excited for Year of the Dragon. Year of the Raven soured many people with the frustrating experience that came along with Genn and Baku's even and odd decks. Blizzard started off with a bold move: Moving all of the Even and Odd cards to the Hall of Fame, preventing them from controlling the meta for another year. This year promised us something we'd never seen before--a year long narrative. We were excited to see the return of Villains from Hearthstone history. Rafaam, Dr. Boom, Hagatha, Lazul, and Togwaggle all came back in an exciting way. But as their legendaries were revealed, the first two small problem started. First, Dr. Boom and Hagatha were and still are both represented in Standard already with their hero cards. Why were they getting legendaries again? This ended up not mattering much to people--a problem swiftly avoided as people realized: This doesn't matter, actually. I agree. But the next problem stuck the whole year: They were class legendaries. This struck fear in some people; I admit to being concerned as well. The 5 classes were branded the League of Evil, and were given the Scheme mechanic that saw little success outside of Hagatha's scheme. But the promise of the year long mechanic in the Lackey mechanic brought many people over to the evil classes.
In response, the "good" classes, who saw so little representation in the first expansion they didn't even get a team name, got... Twinspell. And Twinspell is a really good mechanic! For at least some point in the year, every Twinspell card saw play. It was a success! But the success of the mechanic stands much too short against the excitement brought by the Evil classes. We saw far more attempts by people to make Evil decks work, as Bomb Warrior and Tempo Rogue became the dominant decks of the meta, edging out Conjurer Mage. The "good" classes were flat out not as exciting as the Evil classes, and it showed. Blizzard attempted to balance this out in the next expansion, but made what I feel was a crucial error...
Saviors of Uldum
The good classes finally had their heroes. The League of Explorers returned, as Reno, Finley, Elise, and Brann brought with them the much loved Singleton mechanic. Concerns for Bomb Warrior ruining this mechanic were swept away quickly at launch, as Bomb Warrior was simply incapable of keeping up, especially after the August 26th patch nerfing the Dr. Boom hero card to 9 mana. Along with them, they brought an extremely powerful friend, the hardest to program card in Hearthstone's history: Zephrys the Great. A neutral legendary. Yes: a NEUTRAL legendary.
Again, the Evil classes ended up being much more exciting. Four mechanics were re/introduced this set: Quests, which were for everyone, Reborn, which was for everyone, Plagues, which were for Evil only, and Singleton, which, thanks to Zephrys, was for everyone. Not to mention, the new Titanic Lackey really only saw play in the Evil classes that could properly support Lackeys. Hell, during this time, the best Quest was far and away the Shaman quest. This meant that again, the Evil classes were the favorite, more exciting classes. Thankfully the best Highlander decks during the Saviors of Uldum meta, and even during the Doom in the Tomb event, were the Good-Now-Explorer classes. This did not last.
Descent of Dragons & Galakrond's Awakening
The promised Dragons heavy expansion has finally arrived! This was the most excited I'd been for a Hearthstone expansion I'd been to date. I clearly had fun playing it; I've made legend twice during the event. But I won't lie to you all: the first time making legend was an absolute joke. The laughably overpowered Galakrond Shaman carried me to an 80% win rate as I reached legend on only the second day of the expansion. However, before I get in my own way, allow me to rewind a bit.
Descent of Dragons brought us two new mechanics: Invoke, one of the strongest mechanics to ever become part of the game, and Sidequests, a mechanic that like Twinspell has been really strong, but just doesn't bring the excitement of the Evil classes. We of course can't forget new Lackey synergy cards and the new Draconic lackey, or most importantly: Galakrond. Five brand new hero cards that were only for the Evil classes, again showing these 5 favor over the Explorer classes. Invoke and Galakrond was such a powerful mechanic, that the Shaman version of it was nerfed a mere two weeks in, and some cards with the mechanic got nerfed AGAIN a few weeks later. It was the most botched expansion launch in a while; not since The Witchwood has a new expansion come in and been nerfed so quickly. It left a terrible tastes in our mouths; how did Blizzard not see how freakishly overpowered this set was?
I did not forget about Zephrys. What should have been the most exciting card for the explorers robbed them of what made them most unique: The Singleton mechanic. Since Descent of Dragons, we've seen Highlander Rogue, Warrior, and Shaman all arrive in some form. Highlander Hunter remains the strongest, to be sure; but it's not what I've been hammering on this whole post. It is not exciting. Mage, Hunter, Druid, and Paladin were all powerful at some point during this year--but none of them have the excitement the EVIL classes brought. Their identities were pushed aside for Blizzard to focus on only five of it's nine classes.
Looking Forward
I hope people noticed something as they read this. I did talk about balance, sure, but that wasn't the main point I was talking about. It feels like Blizzard gave up on 4 of the 9 classes, and it showed throughout the year. When only five (or four, sorry Priest) classes are fun, the Meta isn't fun. The most fun I've had this year has been playing Battlegrounds--a game mode that provides us with no helpful rewards to help our collections, save for the occasional "play Battlegrounds" quests. This makes me concerned for the rumored Year of the Phoenix. What will Blizzard do?
Are we going to have a Witchwood situation? Is Descent of Dragons and Galakrond's awakening going to be so god damn powerful and fun that the first expansion of 2020 will be pushed to the wayside?
Is Blizzard going to try to balance itself out, and then leave the 5 Evil classes in the dust by over focusing on the Explorer classes?
Blizzard has already announced they will not be continuing the year long story. Why? The story and connected mechanics have at least been well received, if not without their problems.
As we face Hearthstone 2020, what does the future hold in store?
I don't think there's any simple solutions, especially in the case that my opinions here don't reflect strongly on others opinions. I just hope that 2020 brings cool, fun stuff for all the classes, not just half of them.
I appreciate you taking the time to read all of my thoughts. I love Hearthstone. I love playing Hearthstone. I just played so much of it this year, I couldn't ignore these problems, and I wanted to share my thoughts somewhere. Thank you. <3
