Thanks for your help! I've read an article about Demon Hunter being a good class for casual players who just want to have some fun, so it looks like I can choose between Legion and Battle for Azeroth if I want to play that class. So if I got your info correctly, the easiest thing to do is get the free trial version of retail, isn't it?
Thanks a lot for making me aware of the PVE vs PVP decision, I guess that will save me lots of trouble.
I'll check out some YouTube videos now before committing to something. Thanks again for your advice, everything you've got to share is helpful!
Having looked up lots of stuff on WoWpedia for the weekly card design competitions, I finally got curious enough to try out the game itself. I have practically no idea what is waiting for me, so I was hoping some of you could help me out with a few do's and don'ts.
So... first things first: I read the wikipedia article and WoW: Classic looks like a good point to start. Is that correct? I also read there's a 1 month free trial, that would be nice.
As soon as I have purchased the game, I expect having to choose a character. I guess I'm a damage dealer kind of player (sorry, not sorry) and combat suits me better than spell casting. From what I've read about the fractions, both appeal to me, but the horde is just the cooler bunch. Any tips what to have in mind when I make that choice?
From there on I'll just see where the game takes me. I get it's a very complex world and I'm looking forward to exploring it.
Any help from you would be very appreciated, especially in regards to the question which game to purchase in the first place since I can't start without an answer to that :D
Big Spell Galakrond Shaman is my go to deck if I want to play something off meta at the moment. Galakrond package plus beefy spells plus King Phaoris essentially.
Funny, I just found out that if you use hearthcards on mobile, there are 3 watermarks missing from the custom category, the one for the year of the phoenix among them. I always wondered where you got those. Switching to the desktop version of the site doesn't help either. Just wanted to tell you in case someone else had the same issue.
More feedback:
Thez:
Show Spoiler
I like your idea and the lore implications are great (please keep explaining those!). It looks a bit overwhelming at first glance but works together really nicely. Cool card!
Wailor:
Show Spoiler
Manastorm might not be effective enough. Even if you manage to keep him alive for one turn, the effect is capped at 5 mana spells. Sure, that's something, but not legendary-worthy in my eyes. Harrison has a strong effect but RNG might be the downfall of this card. So I'd go with Xavius, I like his new and creative effect very much. Maybe reduce the stats of the tokens a bit, this could easily get out of hand (2/3/2?).
TheHoax91:
Show Spoiler
As you already noticed, this got a bit confusing. Do you want this to switch hero powers after three turns?
meisterz39:
Show Spoiler
I don't like Maiev, but the other two are great! Whitemane reminds me of Res Priest and I haven't seen the application of a Deathrattle as an aura effect, so that could cost you some points. My favorite of your ideas is the Curator. Maybe you can find some better art, but the effect is cool!
Thanks for the feedback for Sylvanas! I will keep an eye out if we're headed towards a Rogue Secret situation and correct the wording (woopsie).
Feedback!
HyperOrange:
Show Spoiler
I don't like Kel's effect, but the art is great! I really laughed about Leeroy, though. Nice idea, great flavor! Right now there are 2 chickens in the game as far as I know, so for the price of putting 4 trash minions in your deck, you get a 5 mana 10/10 with charge. I'm really not sure if anybody would go to such lengths but I would award you 4 stars anyways because of the great flavor. *keeps on giggling
RenoLord:
Show Spoiler
Sorry, but I don't get how casting spells is in any way related to Leeroy, Warrior or chickens. The idea for Kel is nice, but the name and the hero power don't fit well yet. I'd like you to work some more on this, it looks like a Lord J for mage.
Xarkkal:
Show Spoiler
Sorry for posting Sylvanas first. I think your effect was more creative, so I will not submit mine if you want. There are enough interesting characters to come up with something new. [Edit: Ah well, I submitted it. I hope that's okay with you :-)] I like your new card, though. Highlander Hunter might get out of hands with another value machine, but that's certainly not the fault of your card. Well done! Please let me know if you want to jump back to Sylvanas if you so choose.
Feuerrabe:
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I like how the token is stronger than the main card, great flavor! Did you make the token a neutral card on purpose? Balance looks fine, well done!
SDhn2a:
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As the others already said, Y'Shaarj is the coolest of your ideas. Looks balanced but very interesting. I like it!
grumpymonk:
Show Spoiler
Maiev looks OP. Without AOE you could simply never touch her and would gain perma-resurrect for stealth minions. That scares me. Kael'thas looks better, but I don't know how people will react to Verdant Sphere. Giving Spell Damage to your hero is a great idea!
Demonxz95:
Show Spoiler
I'm a bit nervous about Nefarious and what might be thrown at me on turn 9, so I'm thankful you haven't made his effect a Battlecry. Nice balancing there! Al'ar looks more intriguing to me, though, because you managed to make something useful, even strong out of a trash legendary. Great card!
KANSAS:
Show Spoiler
I think it's fair, but quite a highroll card. If you don't happen to get a Tundra Rhino, it might very well end up being a 10 mana do nothing card, which is… risky. If you pull it, it's almost certainly insta win. Hm. Not sure how to rate this.
MrRhapsody:
Show Spoiler
I like the flavor of Patches, but it should really be a 1/3 like the others said. Medivh looks the most interesting of your ideas. Have you considered using Elementals rather than Demons? That would fit the mage identity better. And don't forget to add the point at the end of the first line of Medivh the Cursed's card ;-)
The Hoax91:
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I don't understand what happens with the nice art of your card when the original hero gets resurrected. It would be a shame if Edys image wouldn't be seen after she was played. Also, the hero power is way OP. The discover effect alone would be okay, but not summoning.
Conduit:
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The 2/4/4 looks reeeeeally nice. A little bit insane, but nice. Well done!
Pokeniner:
Show Spoiler
Great card, nothing to criticize but the "orphan" in the last line.
shaveyou:
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I like that you chose the weaker legendaries. Flavor-wise, Saraad makes more sense… but Sally has the benefit of being raised from meme-status. I'm torn.
Inconspicuosaurus:
Show Spoiler
Really cool idea to rework Gruul and make him a Demon Hunter legendary! The balance looks fine to me. Nice work!
MenacingBagel:
Show Spoiler
Interesting idea, I'm curious for your final design. As it is, there's a typo ("enemies minions") and I have absolutely no idea if this is balanced. Probably it is, since it is worse than a Twisting Nether after all.
CursedParrot:
Show Spoiler
I would strongly advice to look for different art than the original one. The effect looks interesting, though.
DescentOfDragonsOP:
Show Spoiler
As the others already pointed out, this could backfire really hard. But since you decide when to play this, it might actually work. Exciting idea, I'm looking forward to see the art for this!
I came up with the same question last week and somewhere read that it is scheduled for June. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I dug up that info. I'll let you know if I manage to find it again.
First of all, congrats to DestroyeR! For me it was the most flavorful card out of a final round of really great submissions.
Regarding the finalists vote, I mostly agree with shaveyou. This time I gave 5 stars once, two times 4 stars and so on. Usually no finalist gets 1 star from me. I do tend to try and make out my favorite card and rate it 5 stars while giving all the others a maximum of 4, though.
When I made it to the finals, I tried to circumvent the dilemma by giving myself 5 stars while not voting on the other cards at all. Giving good cards bad rates to bolster my own chances to win doesn't feel fair and I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot either. So yeah, excluding the finalists from the final vote would be a great idea for me.
Last but not least I want to jump to the aid of the chicken. It has flavor, it fits the set it was placed in and while it's certainly rather on the meme side of submissions, I don't think it is as bad as its in game brothers at all. This minion being a mech, you can magnetize all kind of stuff to it and get at least one bomb going. You'll have 1 mana left over often enough to slip this in somewhere useful and at least give your opponent something to think about: they should now try to remove the minion with one strike or they risk shuffling more than one bomb into their deck. I think the chicken is versatile enough to reduce this issue to the somewhat exaggerated question if dealing 5 face damage for 1 mana with the potential for more is good or not. It certainly is in my eyes. It got 4 stars from me.
Edit: Also don't forget the synergy with Warrior's self damage package, once the chicken found some corns to beef up its health. I'll stop this now.
I love Deathrattle Hunter and was happy to see it supported again in Ashes of Outland. Sylvanas was a natural pick for this, I hope she isn't too boring because of the alternate hero skin. I'm still thinking about the name and looking for art, but what do you think so far? Is Battlecry AND Deathrattle too much? I don't want her to be beaten by Teron Gorefiend... is she too similar to him?
I found the competition themed "The price of power" very interesting. It allowed us to design OP effects which is cool for itself and then forced us to balance them with a drawback of comparable strength. Lots of cool ideas and quite some variety among the submissions.
I agree, Demon Hunter feels viable but not oppressively so in Wild. I mainly play the Odd list these days but switch to an Aggro Keleseth list now and then. It's not incredibly strong, but games are fast and the class feels still fresh so I see how many wins I can net before the next round of nerfs hits.
Would it be posible to add a feature that gives us the option of bookmarking decks? I'm already struggling with the 18 deck slots in game, but with all the cool ideas I stumble upon on here, I usually end up copying the deck code and sending myself an email or storing it in a notes app. I would love a button on a deck page which adds it to a bookmarks site linked with my account. So...
1) Are there other people who'd like to bookmark decks?
2) Could it be implemented technically?
Thanks for reading and the great work on this page!
Thanks for sharing the deck and the cool guide :-)
One question: How would you feel about swapping the Voidlords with Enhanced Dreadlords? The Lifesteal of the latter's tokens certainly comes in useful, the N'Zoth synergy is still there and you could avoid clogging your board with Voidwalkers when Bloodreaver Gul'dan's or Kanrethad Prime's battlecries hit...
Good luck to everyone who submitted, and an extra shot of lock to whoever submitted Impflicting Pain. That's a far more interesting, less swing-y card than my Impvasion!
That was me, thank you very much :-)
Good luck to the finalists, I'm glad almost all my favorites made it. Really a lot of great ideas this week!
Thanks for the explanation, Xarkkal. I'm certainly not new to the game but these details still sometimes elude me. I was thinking about the Card Design Competition about the Taunt Warrior deck where somebody had an idea for a card that gave all minions in their hand taunt, but that wouldn't count towards Fire Plume's Heart. Looks like that's a different thing than discounting spells for Open the Waygate.
Anyway... I like KANSAS idea best so far. Apprentice is a centerpiece card for mage and a key and iconic part of its identity imho. I would hate to see that one nerfed. Flamewaker surely is a big part of the problem but not really to blame either. I could live with him only hitting enemy minions which could help keep the potential face damage in check, though. Not sure about the giants yet... So the quest itself is the obvious target and reworking the condition feels more fair than tuning down the reward in this case. I really like KANSAS solution for those reasons.
I've been playing quest mage today to learn the deck and see for myself just how broken it is. I've never been a fan of it myself, and have rarely played the archetype. But the current form of it is just ridiculously easy to pull off. The biggest problem is the mana cheat. You end up casting so many spells for 0 mana, which can alone end up completing your quest. I was thinking about it today on what could be done to slow down the quest completion, but also not just completely kill the OTK potential. It is healthy to have OTK decks in the meta, but the random spell generation and low cost spells have been pushed in Mage to the max for too long, and has made this Quest just way too easy to complete. I think the best option would be to make it so spells that cost 0 do not count towards quest progression. That way, only spells you spend mana on would count towards your quest. This would also eliminate The Coin being such a huge benefit.
(I have debated making it for spells that cost 2 or more just because of the amount of 1-cost spells that mage has, but I think starting with just removing the 0-cost spells should be enough to slow it down to an acceptable power level.)
This also leaves Sorcerer's Apprentice untouched. As much as I hate this card, it is actually perfectly fine. If this card was touched, it would break way too many Mage decks. Any nerfs need to be directed towards the Quest itself, and the Giants. My proposed nerf makes Sorcerer's Apprentice less powerful in the deck, since it would make all your 1-cost spells not count towards your quest.
I also agree with Lyra that the cost of Mana Giant needs to be increased. I agree that it should start at 12-mana just like Arcane Giant.
These two nerfs should slow down the speed of the OTK, while not completely destroying the archetype. This will allow for a less polarized meta that Quest Mage could still be a part of, without being a Tier-S deck.
I'm not sure that's enough, actually. I played the deck a lot in March to grind my Mage to 1.000 wins and my impression is that most spells initially cost more than 0. Like OP said, it's the cheap spells for 1 or 2 mana that get cheaper with apprentice or glyph that make up most of the cycling. Or do I get the mechanic wrong and they wouldn't count towards the quest in your iteration if they get discounted? I always assumed such cards check for the initial state of the card, not an altered form it gained by buffs or the like.
Thanks everybody who tried to help me out this week. I've just submitted my card and will try to think things through before posting here next week ;-) The thing is that I'm still new to this and every idea that comes to my mind feels terribly exciting so that I want to share it with you :D
One more round of feedback:
@Feuerrabe:
Show Spoiler
Very interesting idea. I'm not sure about the powerlevel, this could be devastating and extremely frustrating to play against. The discard mechanic is meant to be a punishment for getting to play stronger than usual cards; by inflicting thi punishment upon your opponent you gain a huge advantage.
@Xarkkal:
Show Spoiler
Thanks for your kind words! It was surely fun to create the card, but as you said, it's too bland. I like your chicken, the flavor is there! The only issue I have is that the other two chickens gain Attack while yours shuffles bombs, so that's a bit off. Making it a mech should be enough to go with the traditional effect and the card still see play because of the combo with Zilliax alone. I don't know. I got the impression people are fed up with bombs. I would give you 4 stars anyway, the chicken is cool and useful as it is.
@MenacingBagel:
Show Spoiler
Honestly I like Grub much more. The only thing I would change about his last iteration is that one player's cards should be returned after all his bombs exploded and not all of them.
Congrats! That surely is a great feeling :-) Nice to see that rather conservative decks still work these days. If I'm lucky enough to find Kanrethad Ebonlocke in one of my season's reward packs tomorrow, I will give your deck a shot. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your help! I've read an article about Demon Hunter being a good class for casual players who just want to have some fun, so it looks like I can choose between Legion and Battle for Azeroth if I want to play that class. So if I got your info correctly, the easiest thing to do is get the free trial version of retail, isn't it?
Thanks a lot for making me aware of the PVE vs PVP decision, I guess that will save me lots of trouble.
I'll check out some YouTube videos now before committing to something. Thanks again for your advice, everything you've got to share is helpful!
Having looked up lots of stuff on WoWpedia for the weekly card design competitions, I finally got curious enough to try out the game itself. I have practically no idea what is waiting for me, so I was hoping some of you could help me out with a few do's and don'ts.
So... first things first: I read the wikipedia article and WoW: Classic looks like a good point to start. Is that correct? I also read there's a 1 month free trial, that would be nice.
As soon as I have purchased the game, I expect having to choose a character. I guess I'm a damage dealer kind of player (sorry, not sorry) and combat suits me better than spell casting. From what I've read about the fractions, both appeal to me, but the horde is just the cooler bunch. Any tips what to have in mind when I make that choice?
From there on I'll just see where the game takes me. I get it's a very complex world and I'm looking forward to exploring it.
Any help from you would be very appreciated, especially in regards to the question which game to purchase in the first place since I can't start without an answer to that :D
Big Spell Galakrond Shaman is my go to deck if I want to play something off meta at the moment. Galakrond package plus beefy spells plus King Phaoris essentially.
Cool, that's good news! Thanks for letting us know you've got this on your to so list.
Funny, I just found out that if you use hearthcards on mobile, there are 3 watermarks missing from the custom category, the one for the year of the phoenix among them. I always wondered where you got those. Switching to the desktop version of the site doesn't help either. Just wanted to tell you in case someone else had the same issue.
More feedback:
Thez:
Wailor:
TheHoax91:
meisterz39:
Thanks for the feedback for Sylvanas! I will keep an eye out if we're headed towards a Rogue Secret situation and correct the wording (woopsie).
Feedback!
HyperOrange:
RenoLord:
Xarkkal:
Feuerrabe:
SDhn2a:
grumpymonk:
Demonxz95:
KANSAS:
MrRhapsody:
The Hoax91:
Conduit:
Pokeniner:
shaveyou:
Inconspicuosaurus:
MenacingBagel:
CursedParrot:
DescentOfDragonsOP:
linkblade91:
I have no idea if this source is reliable, but here is what I found:
https://hearthstone-decks.net/leak-the-solo-adventure-for-ashes-of-outland-will-launch-on-june-10th/
I came up with the same question last week and somewhere read that it is scheduled for June. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I dug up that info. I'll let you know if I manage to find it again.
First of all, congrats to DestroyeR! For me it was the most flavorful card out of a final round of really great submissions.
Regarding the finalists vote, I mostly agree with shaveyou. This time I gave 5 stars once, two times 4 stars and so on. Usually no finalist gets 1 star from me. I do tend to try and make out my favorite card and rate it 5 stars while giving all the others a maximum of 4, though.
When I made it to the finals, I tried to circumvent the dilemma by giving myself 5 stars while not voting on the other cards at all. Giving good cards bad rates to bolster my own chances to win doesn't feel fair and I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot either. So yeah, excluding the finalists from the final vote would be a great idea for me.
Last but not least I want to jump to the aid of the chicken. It has flavor, it fits the set it was placed in and while it's certainly rather on the meme side of submissions, I don't think it is as bad as its in game brothers at all. This minion being a mech, you can magnetize all kind of stuff to it and get at least one bomb going. You'll have 1 mana left over often enough to slip this in somewhere useful and at least give your opponent something to think about: they should now try to remove the minion with one strike or they risk shuffling more than one bomb into their deck. I think the chicken is versatile enough to reduce this issue to the somewhat exaggerated question if dealing 5 face damage for 1 mana with the potential for more is good or not. It certainly is in my eyes. It got 4 stars from me.
Edit: Also don't forget the synergy with Warrior's self damage package, once the chicken found some corns to beef up its health. I'll stop this now.
Here's my first idea:
I love Deathrattle Hunter and was happy to see it supported again in Ashes of Outland. Sylvanas was a natural pick for this, I hope she isn't too boring because of the alternate hero skin. I'm still thinking about the name and looking for art, but what do you think so far? Is Battlecry AND Deathrattle too much? I don't want her to be beaten by Teron Gorefiend... is she too similar to him?
I found the competition themed "The price of power" very interesting. It allowed us to design OP effects which is cool for itself and then forced us to balance them with a drawback of comparable strength. Lots of cool ideas and quite some variety among the submissions.
Thanks for those reviews, I really like them!
I agree, Demon Hunter feels viable but not oppressively so in Wild. I mainly play the Odd list these days but switch to an Aggro Keleseth list now and then. It's not incredibly strong, but games are fast and the class feels still fresh so I see how many wins I can net before the next round of nerfs hits.
Would it be posible to add a feature that gives us the option of bookmarking decks? I'm already struggling with the 18 deck slots in game, but with all the cool ideas I stumble upon on here, I usually end up copying the deck code and sending myself an email or storing it in a notes app. I would love a button on a deck page which adds it to a bookmarks site linked with my account. So...
1) Are there other people who'd like to bookmark decks?
2) Could it be implemented technically?
Thanks for reading and the great work on this page!
Thanks for sharing the deck and the cool guide :-)
One question: How would you feel about swapping the Voidlords with Enhanced Dreadlords? The Lifesteal of the latter's tokens certainly comes in useful, the N'Zoth synergy is still there and you could avoid clogging your board with Voidwalkers when Bloodreaver Gul'dan's or Kanrethad Prime's battlecries hit...
That was me, thank you very much :-)
Good luck to the finalists, I'm glad almost all my favorites made it. Really a lot of great ideas this week!
Thanks for the explanation, Xarkkal. I'm certainly not new to the game but these details still sometimes elude me. I was thinking about the Card Design Competition about the Taunt Warrior deck where somebody had an idea for a card that gave all minions in their hand taunt, but that wouldn't count towards Fire Plume's Heart. Looks like that's a different thing than discounting spells for Open the Waygate.
Anyway... I like KANSAS idea best so far. Apprentice is a centerpiece card for mage and a key and iconic part of its identity imho. I would hate to see that one nerfed. Flamewaker surely is a big part of the problem but not really to blame either. I could live with him only hitting enemy minions which could help keep the potential face damage in check, though. Not sure about the giants yet... So the quest itself is the obvious target and reworking the condition feels more fair than tuning down the reward in this case. I really like KANSAS solution for those reasons.
I'm not sure that's enough, actually. I played the deck a lot in March to grind my Mage to 1.000 wins and my impression is that most spells initially cost more than 0. Like OP said, it's the cheap spells for 1 or 2 mana that get cheaper with apprentice or glyph that make up most of the cycling. Or do I get the mechanic wrong and they wouldn't count towards the quest in your iteration if they get discounted? I always assumed such cards check for the initial state of the card, not an altered form it gained by buffs or the like.
Now that would be really nice! I so want to finish that DH legendary Alandien I created this week :)
But first: good luck to everyone for this week!
Thanks everybody who tried to help me out this week. I've just submitted my card and will try to think things through before posting here next week ;-) The thing is that I'm still new to this and every idea that comes to my mind feels terribly exciting so that I want to share it with you :D
One more round of feedback:
@Feuerrabe:
@Xarkkal:
@MenacingBagel:
Congrats! That surely is a great feeling :-) Nice to see that rather conservative decks still work these days. If I'm lucky enough to find Kanrethad Ebonlocke in one of my season's reward packs tomorrow, I will give your deck a shot. Thanks for sharing!