2023 has been quite a successful year for my Hearthstone progression! I’ve started out with the goal of reaching Wild legend with Shaman as well as reaching 500 Shaman and 1.000 Warlock wins. Looks like these resolutions were a little lowly aimed because they had been reached already as early as Mai. Other memorable achievements include (in no particular order): - reaching Wild legend with every class - getting DK to 500 wins less than a year after the class was added to the game - getting triple legend (Classic, Standard, Wild) - reaching my highest ever rank to this day, 339 in Wild - reaching Wild legend every month for a whole year - finally getting that 1.000 wins portrait for Rogue which is meaningful because Pirate Rogue is the deck I’ve achieved the most legend climbs with so far
Money-wise, 2023 has been the second most expensive year for me. Something I absolutely don’t regret is getting the diamond Helya bundle, Plagues are fucking awesome! I’ve also crafted my very first golden decks ever in 2023, Standard Undead Priest and Wild Pirate Rogue.
Regarding Hearthstone resolutions for 2024, I only want to push Demon Hunter, Paladin and Priest over the 1.000 wins threshold - something that shouldn’t be too hard considering this year’s progress. Other than that, I might try to improve my best rank, but that depends on me finding a deck that really clicks with me. Finally, I’m omega hyped for Hearthstone’s 10th anniversary and hoping for some amazing birthday stuff the devs might be cooking up for us :-))
It took a bit longer than expected, but I did not want to burn myself out grinding Rogue. Very happy to finally get this one, Pirate Rogue got me to legend no less than 6 times already!
See you all in a week with a little year in review stuff :-)
I'm sure I read about a big patch next week where they want to fix Jace, Xymox and Hero Varden and also dish out final balance adjustments before the World Championship. Maybe I misremember but I've logged it toward the end of the week.
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and plans in so much detail! There’s certainly a lot to look forward to.
One thing I’d like to note is that I never meant to ask you to share site visitor or add revenue stats. I only mentioned those bulletpoints to make it clear that I’m aware of the fact that there’s a ton of stuff to take into consideration and the general public doesn’t know anything about it.
Again: Thank you very much to sticking to the quality over quantity approach and building this awesome community. I can’t wait to see what’s next
No idea where to drop this so feel free to forward it to Flux or move it to another place or delete it altogether. With all due respect, I'm not a big fan of the change from out of cards to out of games and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to revert that transition. I obviously miss tons of info about stuff like - actual visitor stats - add revenue stats - plans for the site, especially regarding ways to increase its reach
What I do note though is that the front page articles for stuff that isn't about card games has no comments while Hearthstone articles usually spark a little discussion. That makes me think these people are still OOG's main customers and their feed is currently clogged with stuff that doesn't seem to interest them very much (judging by the numbers of comments alone). As far as I know there's a lot going on behind the scenes but we can't really see that. What we do see though is that those behind the scenes efforts take away resources from Hearthstone stuff (see bug reports / feature requests forum and discord channel).
From a strictly logical standpoint I do get the concept of "digital card games have a very narrow target audience, let's better spread out" but it doesn't look like it works out so far.
So what I propose is to go back to the roots and primarily focus on beating hearthpwn as the go to HS page with all you have. As a secondary goal it made a lot of sense to open up to other card games with staff members that feel up to the task imo.
Please read this as constructive criticism from a day 1 user that has grown very fond of the site and its community. I am aware that all my reasoning is based on incomplete info and I have nothing but respect for the continued effort of Flux and all the staff. Thank you for providing this space for us.
I have to say I've underestimated this new set of cards. It has shaken up my Wild experience quite a bit, pushing me from playing my usual aggro stuff to mostly Reno decks during the first week. Not sure if that also means a change of the meta, but I really like it. So far I've played or played against Reno Hunter, Reno Dragon Druid, Even Reno Warrior and Reno Paladin and they all had quite a handful of new cards and felt pretty strong. It has certainly become easier to push through the waves of Even Shaman and Pirate Rogue opponents (be they sentient or not) as especially Hunter and Warrior feast on those two. Nothing more satisfying as wiping a board full of Pirates on turn 4 with Theldurin the Lost!
Wow, that's cool. A bit like Patchwerk times 3, but of course you have to draw them. Also it can target any card, not just minions. I wonder if it could hit noninteractable things like the portal or dormant minions.
That's interesting because for me it works the other way round... I constantly wonder how games like Diablo and WoW can be sold via these super awesome cinematics that bear absolutely no resemblance at all with the actual gameplay. I wouldn't even be surprised if people had tried to file lawsuits because of "false advertisement" or whatever it is called in legal speech. I mean I get it, you want to show some cool stuff that makes people buy the games, but come on! Compare a Horizon trailer and the corresponding gameplay with a Diablo trailer and its gameplay. That's bonkers! But then again, I've never played WoW or Diablo and that's why I can't wrap my head around its advertisement strategy :D
This is an important addendum in my books, because I initially wanted to reply that (kinda) frequent Health / armor changes would ruin the economy. The game is expensive as it is, I want to be able to judge what is powerful and what isn't without fearing for my money, gold and dust investments to blow up every other week.
Tweaking Health / armor instead of nerfs and buffs might work though. I would be an interesting thing to try out at least.
But all in all, I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the current state of the game. I can play hyper aggro that kills turn 4, I can play OTK that requires some thinking and closes out games around turn 7 and I can go for giga control - all of that is possible in Wild with Shadow Priest, Ilgynoth DH, Renolock / Even Warrior. I don't know what level you're playing at, but from what I've heard from friends and judging by my own experiences, you can enjoy almost whatever archetype you wish on ladder as long as you don't step into 11x spheres.
Time zones being a thing prevent me from watching Blizzcon, but that made reading this article all the more interesting - thank you for that! I'll be excited to wake up Saturday morning and see what they've cooked up for Hearthstone.
On a side note, they've mentioned you'd be able to play a demo of something new for Hearthstone at Blizzcon. I wonder what that might be... Tournament mode? 2vs2? Something else entirely?
Finally got all classes golden! Getting Death Knight to 500 in less than a year is something I'm a bit proud of.
Next up I'll give Rogue the last little push and then I'll go back to playing what is the most fun at the given time. I'm still longing for that 1.000 wins DH portrait but the class needs some support first.
The Jungle Giants deck really might be a mid tier contender :D I ran into one on ladder, got destroyed and found a new friend the other day. His version is running Topior and lots of Nature spells, Dew Process being among them so you draw into your free stuff faster after quest completion. Even Shaman and Seedlock were clear losses but if you run into anything slow it's a ton of fun.
2023 has been quite a successful year for my Hearthstone progression! I’ve started out with the goal of reaching Wild legend with Shaman as well as reaching 500 Shaman and 1.000 Warlock wins. Looks like these resolutions were a little lowly aimed because they had been reached already as early as Mai.
Other memorable achievements include (in no particular order):
- reaching Wild legend with every class
- getting DK to 500 wins less than a year after the class was added to the game
- getting triple legend (Classic, Standard, Wild)
- reaching my highest ever rank to this day, 339 in Wild
- reaching Wild legend every month for a whole year
- finally getting that 1.000 wins portrait for Rogue which is meaningful because Pirate Rogue is the deck I’ve achieved the most legend climbs with so far
Money-wise, 2023 has been the second most expensive year for me. Something I absolutely don’t regret is getting the diamond Helya bundle, Plagues are fucking awesome! I’ve also crafted my very first golden decks ever in 2023, Standard Undead Priest and Wild Pirate Rogue.
Regarding Hearthstone resolutions for 2024, I only want to push Demon Hunter, Paladin and Priest over the 1.000 wins threshold - something that shouldn’t be too hard considering this year’s progress. Other than that, I might try to improve my best rank, but that depends on me finding a deck that really clicks with me. Finally, I’m omega hyped for Hearthstone’s 10th anniversary and hoping for some amazing birthday stuff the devs might be cooking up for us :-))
👀
It took a bit longer than expected, but I did not want to burn myself out grinding Rogue. Very happy to finally get this one, Pirate Rogue got me to legend no less than 6 times already!
See you all in a week with a little year in review stuff :-)
Hit me baby one more time!
I'm currently sitting on 47 snowballs and 4812 snowflakes. Anybody dare start a fight?
I still regret not getting Skullbearer Illidan and Emerald Malfurion. Maybe one day they'll return.
Thanks for the updated Blackrockn'Reno list, that one might not be the most competitive deck but it's lots of fun :-)
I'm sure I read about a big patch next week where they want to fix Jace, Xymox and Hero Varden and also dish out final balance adjustments before the World Championship. Maybe I misremember but I've logged it toward the end of the week.
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and plans in so much detail! There’s certainly a lot to look forward to.
One thing I’d like to note is that I never meant to ask you to share site visitor or add revenue stats. I only mentioned those bulletpoints to make it clear that I’m aware of the fact that there’s a ton of stuff to take into consideration and the general public doesn’t know anything about it.
Again: Thank you very much to sticking to the quality over quantity approach and building this awesome community. I can’t wait to see what’s next
No idea where to drop this so feel free to forward it to Flux or move it to another place or delete it altogether.
With all due respect, I'm not a big fan of the change from out of cards to out of games and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to revert that transition. I obviously miss tons of info about stuff like
- actual visitor stats
- add revenue stats
- plans for the site, especially regarding ways to increase its reach
What I do note though is that the front page articles for stuff that isn't about card games has no comments while Hearthstone articles usually spark a little discussion. That makes me think these people are still OOG's main customers and their feed is currently clogged with stuff that doesn't seem to interest them very much (judging by the numbers of comments alone). As far as I know there's a lot going on behind the scenes but we can't really see that. What we do see though is that those behind the scenes efforts take away resources from Hearthstone stuff (see bug reports / feature requests forum and discord channel).
From a strictly logical standpoint I do get the concept of "digital card games have a very narrow target audience, let's better spread out" but it doesn't look like it works out so far.
So what I propose is to go back to the roots and primarily focus on beating hearthpwn as the go to HS page with all you have. As a secondary goal it made a lot of sense to open up to other card games with staff members that feel up to the task imo.
Please read this as constructive criticism from a day 1 user that has grown very fond of the site and its community. I am aware that all my reasoning is based on incomplete info and I have nothing but respect for the continued effort of Flux and all the staff. Thank you for providing this space for us.
Tl;dr: OOC revival when?
I have to say I've underestimated this new set of cards. It has shaken up my Wild experience quite a bit, pushing me from playing my usual aggro stuff to mostly Reno decks during the first week. Not sure if that also means a change of the meta, but I really like it. So far I've played or played against Reno Hunter, Reno Dragon Druid, Even Reno Warrior and Reno Paladin and they all had quite a handful of new cards and felt pretty strong. It has certainly become easier to push through the waves of Even Shaman and Pirate Rogue opponents (be they sentient or not) as especially Hunter and Warrior feast on those two. Nothing more satisfying as wiping a board full of Pirates on turn 4 with Theldurin the Lost!
Remember
? Feel old yet?
That's an excellent question. Things that come to mind are Sargeras, the Destroyer's portal, Sister Svalna's Vision of Darkness and the new Spirit of the Badlands's Mirage.
Edit: There's also Rheastrasza's Purified Dragon Nest.
That still wouldn't make this a good card, but it would be interesting and indeed worthy of a place in your ETC.
Edit 2: Nevermind, the only interesting thing it can destroy are locations. Source: a dev on Reddit
That makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
It's super annoying but maybe it happened due to Europe's switch to winter time this weekend. We'll see in around 40 minutes I guess.
That's interesting because for me it works the other way round... I constantly wonder how games like Diablo and WoW can be sold via these super awesome cinematics that bear absolutely no resemblance at all with the actual gameplay. I wouldn't even be surprised if people had tried to file lawsuits because of "false advertisement" or whatever it is called in legal speech. I mean I get it, you want to show some cool stuff that makes people buy the games, but come on! Compare a Horizon trailer and the corresponding gameplay with a Diablo trailer and its gameplay. That's bonkers! But then again, I've never played WoW or Diablo and that's why I can't wrap my head around its advertisement strategy :D
This is an important addendum in my books, because I initially wanted to reply that (kinda) frequent Health / armor changes would ruin the economy. The game is expensive as it is, I want to be able to judge what is powerful and what isn't without fearing for my money, gold and dust investments to blow up every other week.
Tweaking Health / armor instead of nerfs and buffs might work though. I would be an interesting thing to try out at least.
But all in all, I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the current state of the game. I can play hyper aggro that kills turn 4, I can play OTK that requires some thinking and closes out games around turn 7 and I can go for giga control - all of that is possible in Wild with Shadow Priest, Ilgynoth DH, Renolock / Even Warrior. I don't know what level you're playing at, but from what I've heard from friends and judging by my own experiences, you can enjoy almost whatever archetype you wish on ladder as long as you don't step into 11x spheres.
Time zones being a thing prevent me from watching Blizzcon, but that made reading this article all the more interesting - thank you for that! I'll be excited to wake up Saturday morning and see what they've cooked up for Hearthstone.
On a side note, they've mentioned you'd be able to play a demo of something new for Hearthstone at Blizzcon. I wonder what that might be... Tournament mode? 2vs2? Something else entirely?
Finally got all classes golden! Getting Death Knight to 500 in less than a year is something I'm a bit proud of.
Next up I'll give Rogue the last little push and then I'll go back to playing what is the most fun at the given time. I'm still longing for that 1.000 wins DH portrait but the class needs some support first.
The Jungle Giants deck really might be a mid tier contender :D I ran into one on ladder, got destroyed and found a new friend the other day. His version is running Topior and lots of Nature spells, Dew Process being among them so you draw into your free stuff faster after quest completion. Even Shaman and Seedlock were clear losses but if you run into anything slow it's a ton of fun.