You sounds like the streamers that have come out and said they don't care that the battlepass gives no rewards because they pay real money for everything anyway.
And no you shouldn't feel bad for having fun with the new expansion. I am as well, Maxima Blastenheimer is a very fun card to play, when i shoot a Deathwing out of a cannon at my opponent on turn 6 and they concede after it is very fun, but the problem is i am getting nothing back for the time i am putting into the game. Think of the battlepass as the gold per 3 wins system we had before. Before you would get compensated if you didn't do that by doing quests, not the quests feed into the battlepass and the battlepass gives you rewards after you reach thresholds that constantly get higher and higher. reaching lvl 15 is easy but after that you'll be lucky to get a level a day. And that's with daily quests. And since leveling up is the only way you'll get gold that means the system forces you to grind hours every day instead of just doing the quests and leaving that people used to do. And that's even if you get gold and not a 40 dust pack from ashes out outland or the classic set.
Finally reach lvl 25 and my fucking legenderie is il'gynoth, after my free legendary from the beginning of the expansion is the other shitty demon hunter one. Why don't they just give you 1600 fucking dust instead of the 400 it just gave me for a legendary for a busted class i refuse to play
the only time i ever played Darkmoon Rabbit is when i discovered it off a second Athletic Studies and at that point it was 8 mana instead of 10. Still terrible, but i was playing against a rez priest with 3 [Hearthstone Card (convincing infiltrators) Not Found] so it was a pretty epic play
Apparently, there is a control deck in standard right now. ETC Warrior turns out to be a real powerhouse. Don't give up after failing miserably the first few tries. For me, this guide turned out to be really helpful.
Compared to the degeneracy of token druid, aggro demon hunter, libram paladin, or totem shaman what is this deck going to do? Nothing.
I’m glad that this post has a much calmer and more positive tone to it, but we have to accept the reality that Blizzard has messed up. The new rewards track, while a step in the right direction, is a complete disaster. It is an unrewarding, slow and grindy mess. My biggest problem is Blizzard’s complete and utter lack of communication about the issue, I have no idea what their plan is or if they even intend to address the player outrage. I mean, just look at Naga Sea Witch for a good example of Blizzard’s modus operandi when it comes to things we don’t like. I am just so fed up and completely disappointed in this system, and their lack of transparency and even outright lying to our faces just adds fuel to this
They did respond though? Didn't you see this?
We're supposed to give C'thanks for the battlepass, just like in the "apology letter" we didn't understand how the rewards system REALLY worked.
Wrong lol. We want gold instead of those. Literally most people who complain about the new system DON'T WANT old packs instead of gold. 100 gold is always a pack, but a pack value is not always a 100 gold.
The free legendary and 3 packs are also bonuses in new expansions that you used to get on expansion launch, so lol@ adding it to the pass as if it's a new thing to trick naive users like you.
Tavern tickets also aren't something everybody wants. Events always used to be a thing, they keep going downhill if anything. From double gold at it's best and gold dust to I don't even remember what the last event did, that useless arena thing?
If the new system is better than it should award more base gold than the old system. You can literally play 30 mins in 2 days only doing quests and getting 100 gold guaranteed. Now and especially in the later levels you aren't guaranteed anything, and the weekly quests are very time consuming.
I will reply to a few points below, but first and foremost, can you please use a more respectful tone when making your arguments? You are not going to convince anyone of anything if you start calling them naive and use absolutes like only your opinion is valid. The best discussions often arise through disagreement, but they only work if both sides respect each other.
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Anyway, regarding Tavern Tickets: at absolute worst these amount to a pack of the most recent expansion plus a small amount of dust or gold. And that's what you'll get it you commit 5 minutes to building a deck and just conceding 3 games. If you actually try, you can get a decent amount of extra gold / dust. Now, I'm not saying Arena /Heroic Duels rewards are perfect (I mean, who wants those non-golden commons… seriously?), but the rewards are absolutely what players want, even if they wouldn't normally spend 150 gold on the game modes involved.
You are also portraying XP like it is worthless unless it pushes you over a level there and then, which is nonsense. Rewards in the progression track are more spaced out than the old trickle of gold, but the XP that gets you half way through a level is just as important as the XP that gets you over the level threshold. There is a clear psychological effect with many players where accumulating, say, 200 gold over time feels better than waiting to get it in 1 lump, but unless you are using that gold as you collect it there isn't an actual difference there. Now, what Blizz should do is just show the XP being added after each game, so you can see what it has earned you.
Finally, are weekly quests really that time consuming? Because they are often restricted to specific game modes it is fair to say different players will take longer on different ones, but let's use the default "Get 7 wins in ranked" quest as an example. Assuming 50% win rate, that's 14 games, or 2 a day. That's less than the daily quests ask for, so no, they are not really time consuming once you recognise they are spread across the week.
Experience IS worthless unless it pushes you over the level limit though since the level limit is what gives you rewards. Experience for the sake of experience is nothing. And when you get past the level 15 mark is it increasingly hard to raise your level and get those rewards and those rewards are poor. This is what people are talking about. Welcome to the conversation.
AnAngryBadger: The idea is good enough, but I don't like the flavor. The art might fit Witchwood, but I'm not sure if it should go into Warrior at all. No Darkmoon Faire vibes anyway.
linkblade: I like both of them quite a lot, but I think the Paladin card is a better fit. It's very well placed in Scholomance while the Hunter card just looks okay-is in MDF. Both names do the job for me.
fungusABao: I prefer Enjoy the Faire! but maybe you'll come up with something better after a good night's sleep. It isn't bad but not super creative either.
shaveyou: I don't why the others don't like Pet Trainer, it's a very cool card. It's even better now with the reduced stats. For me, it's way better than Circus Elekk.
DestroyerR: I'd go with your first idea, the second one is too complicated for my taste.
ChickyChick: The card is alright, but not very creative. I think it doesn't need the Overload at all, maybe (1) would be okay.
Neoguli: This one is difficult. On the one hand, you need the Combo for the tutoring effect. On the other hand, I don't like this not being a neutral card. What I do like is the "cryptic" treasure in Uldum. I don't know. Maybe it would be best to drop the combo, make it a neutral and save it up for another competition. Don't get me wrong, it's a very cool design, but that's exactly why I wouldn't waste it on a competition where you have to force it into the theme.
Bit wordy? Why not just say draw a "card" that costs (5) or more? And as for flavor i think it should be minion only if it's like a wild animal attraction like you have going for it currently. It's clear what you're intention is tutor some of the c'thun pieces and later maybe c'thun himself but it seems to be pretty lackluster. Like druid copying rogue's homework.
No you are just wrong and massively misinformed. 1350 gold, does NOT fix anything. The minimum gold loss from the old system is 2000 gold.
Oh, it does change a lot. If you compare it now to the old system you gain 600 less gold, but gain 7 extra packs, an extra legendary and 2 tavern tickets for the same ammount of playtime. Plus events are still a thing. Also wonder why you would want to calculate the minimum gold gain instead of the average.
The free legendary and free packs for the expansion is obviously a bonus from the battlepass and not something that they have already been doing and would have still been doing for each expansion without the battlepass....(they gave out free arenas with expansions too, but i'll let you have that one since it wasn't for every expansion.)
You ignore the reason everyone's faith in actibliz has hit rock bottom. There have been several controversies this year and last from them, which all boil down to the concept of actibliz not caring about their community in favor of their own wallet. And when they release the battlepass it was the final straw on the camel's back. They lied constantly about how they won't be taking players gold how you'll be able to get more than before. Which we know now was a lie. Everything has culminated in this.
Now let's break down what you actually bring up.
"AAA titles don't get regularly patched"
This argument has been made a lot of times to cover for shitty business practices in the "current year". People said this all the time when battlefront was receiving their fair share of backlash over a similar situation. It is not a point of pride that you update your game. It's understandable. It's something that shouldn't be noticed. You shouldn't need to lord that over the players like it's something that they don't deserve.
"CCGs and AAA titles are generally not even the same type of game."
Ah yes the good old trading card argument that's been made a thousand times. Except there is no upwards mobility with hearthstone. Packs and cards don't have REAL VALUE. If i unpack a hearthstone pack and get a legendary from a tier one deck in the meta all year, it has the same value as a meme legendary no one would ever play ever. This is not the same in other card games. Even artifact one had a upward mobility system. When the game released people were saying certain heroes were pay to win and the only way to win, and they would sell for $20 on the steam market. Know what people did then? They opened a lot of packs and got those heroes and sold them for more packs. You can't do that in hearthstone, and the devs will never allow you to do that, they like the closed loop system. When you pay $80 now for a AAA game you are expecting quality, you're expecting a good experience. When you pay $80 for hearthstone what do you get? According to many people's threads i've seen 5 legendries. That's it. And most of them unplayable meme legendaries and not old gods.
"You don't have to buy a full set of expansion cards to play the game, so comparing a $60 sticker price for a AAA title to $130 for pre-release bundles is disingenuous."
This would be true except for the ridiculous amount of powercreep hearthstone has. Every expansion cards get more busted and in order to play you need those cards. Sure you can play river crocolisk and bloodfen raptor mage every expansion and that counts as being able to "play" the game. But it's more like when you were 10 and you ask big brother if you can play video games with him and he hands you an unplugged controller. Yes you can play that way, but not really.
"The overall rewards between new and old progression system never favored the old system - it's simply that many of the new rewards were in the form of packs and cards, which angry players valued less than gold. Blizzard responded to this by replacing the late-level packs with gold, and now it's very easy to have a F2P experience where you complete daily and weekly quests and get strictly more out of the game on all reward dimensions."
Blizzard fixed the rewards for late stage into the battlepass, where almost no one is at because of a hell of a grind it is. They did this so A. They wouldn't need to give players anything to compensate for the change and B. to try to sate the rabid dog of a community by throwing it some chicken bones. The change was nothing. There is still useless packs for rewards in the early features of the system that is still there. Solem talks about this in his latest video https://youtu.be/wQLFDXb9hU0?t=315 the reward is basically useless.
"The "lack of progress" complaints must be coming from people who have never played an RPG, because all of those games feature slower levels as you progress, and no one gets mad about it. It's true that there will be some weeks in the new system where the weekly rewards you earn are lower than what you would have earned in the old system, but you early more on a weekly basis early and late in the system, so that lull only lasts for about 10 or so levels in the middle."
See this? This is a steeljaw snapper, found in tanaris. They're around lvl 38-45. When i played vanilla wow i ginded on these instead of doing quests from lvl 35-50. Because 1 i enjoyed grinding instead of questing, the loot drops were good selling for decent value incuding pearls which i could pier to pier to players for more value and skinning for the same reason. It wasn't a very common grinding spot because people knew of better ones, but for me it was perfect. Do you know the difference between me grinding turtles for 15 levels in WoW and the new battlepass is? The rewards. I got hundreds of gold off these turtles in exchange for my time. In hearthstone i get very little. Even if i do all my quests(when it doesn't give me the do arena quest of the finish top 2 in BGs quest). This isn't about grinding it's about greed. You shouldn't need to grind constantly in a system that promises rewards daily. Grinding shouldn't even need to be applicable since it's fringe strategy that only psychos like me enjoy doing instead of the normal system.
"Back in November 2019 they changed a bunch of daily quests to make them easier to complete (e.g. "Win 2 games as [Class A] or [Class B]" became "Play 3 games as [Class A] or [Class B] or [Class C]")"
This goes to show how much the difference is since they also changed the rewards to be higher and now we just receive experience now into the pass system that does not give rewards from that experience.
"In phase 1 of Year of the Phoenix, they added duplicate protection for all rarities, making it way cheaper to collect all the common and rare cards."
This was a good change. But it doesn't matter to most f2p players that only focus on one or two classes and choose to disenchant other class cards they get because they need dust to craft things.
"The new ranked system has better rewards than the old ranked system, added a ton of ranked floors, and dramatically decreases the amount of grinding you need to do. This frees players up to play low-tier or off-meta decks without risking major ladder progress"
Considering the only way to get experience now is to play ladder then yeah i guess you have to play meme decks or testing decks on ladder now.
"They've added several F2P-friendly formats (Battlegrounds, Duels), and will be adding another new mode before the end of the Year of the Phoenix"
You can call BGs a "f2p-friendly format" since most of the changes you get from paying are high marginal.(even though having extra chances to get one of the current busted heroes per game is better than not having it) But i wouldn't say duels is. Just like in arena it's important to win early and when you don't have all the wild cards you'll need and you're against someone that does it's always an uphill battle for you. And incentivizing crafting those for that game mode is terrible optics.
In closing i agree that SOMEONE at actibliz in the past was trying to make HS a better game, i agree with you on the new ranking system(even though it makes it more grindy it sprinkles decent rewards throughout), the free decks to new and returning players which you didn't mention, the "noob ladder"(which is basically demon hunter ladder), and changing quests to give more gold and be less of a pain to complete. But these changes are just about reverted as of late. Since they all feed into a broken system that promises everything and delivers nothing.
I hate getting these quests as I don't play arena or BGs.
I with they had a an option in the settings.
Something like:
Quote From No Author Specified
Preferred Game Modes:
Ranked
Battlegrounds
Arena
Duels
So the above sample, the bullet points will be tick boxes. When a box is not ticked, the quest related to that game mode would not spawn. So BG player will unlikely get ranked quests, and a ranked player will unlikely get BG quests.
I would be happy with the ability to reroll each quest a single time a day instead of one a day. Other games with this system have this paladins for instance.
I have thought about this before (mostly regarding ways to deal with Rattlegore but it is the same story for librams), and if you actually break it down by what each class has it looks fine overall:
Demon Hunter: Consume Magic as well as Magehunter if you really want to silence lots of stuff.
Druid: Keeper of the Grove (not great, but arguably better than the Owl at least)
Hunter: Freezing Trap (unreliable for this purpose, so I only include this for the sake of completeness)
So 5 of the 10 classes have viable ways to remove librams, druid has a more versatile alternative to the Owl, and the rest have a neutral option if they feel they need it. That sounds like good class design to me.
Just as some classes have to accept they won't get strong AoE or healing, some classes have to accept they won't have strong silence options. Whether the rest choose to use their silences (or equivalent) is up to them, but that is not at all the same as there being "no viable silence card in Standard".
As someone that has played a lot of druid this year, which includes quest druid, gonk druid, taunt druid, lucentbark druid. I can say that Keeper of the Grove is not a card one should EVER consider putting into their deck unless they invent a time machine first. After you play your 4 mana 2/2 against one big paladin minion, they'll just play liadrin or some other dumb shit and beat you down with that instead. All while you waste 4 mana to silence a minion and summon a 2/2 they can easily ignore on board when they resume to hit you in the face, while laughing at you all the way until you hit that concede button.
The only viable option for silence is mage or shaman or demon hunter(because demon hunter is supposed to be good at everything don't ya know). And blizzard has made sure of that. tinkmaster overspark is one of my favorite cards and he's a meme.
Alternatives would be using [Hearthstone Card (sylvanas) Not Found] and Play Dead and Nine Lives in wild https://hsreplay.net/replay/dNgxu2NaUp7c2fwrFda2YB#turn=5b
Had a game today against a token druid, the moment i was about to win the game crashed. Reloaded the game expecting to lose after all the work it took me to get the W, but when i reloaded it turns out i won. My druid opponent had crashed too.
I'm a control player, period, and have been playing since G&G, and the whole card-vomiting paradigm is extremely boring to me as well. Not that aggro didn't always exist, but, as has been said, things have definitely changed over the years.
I've always figured the allure of aggro was the ability to climb ladder fast and gather gold quickly as well, not to mention that it's one of the various aspects of the game's design that minimizes the difference in win rates between the best and the worst players, in order, frankly, to keep more people playing, as opposed to someone losing at a rate commensurate with their skill level and leaving the game out of petulance or frustration.
But, over the past few days, I've begin to question this. I mostly just play casual, because, hey, it's a silly game that's fun and attaining higher ranks accomplishes nothing that's particularly meaningful in life. I play for fun, and play control in casual, and I thought that the new XP system, even if it's less rewarding, would result in less people playing aggro in casual, since your rewards are based on total time spent, as opposed to winning quick games by vomiting out lots of small cards.
But I was wrong. Tons of people are playing aggro in casual. Sure, everyone's free to do whatever they want, but I personally don't get it. If you're getting the same rewards playing more interesting and challenging decks, why not do that? I'm not saying aggro doesn't demand some skill, but it's really a lot of people just doing the same simple things over and over, without the variation in game play evident with more complex decks.
I suppose some will say that people just enjoy winning, as opposed to being challenged. As I said, to each his own, but, to me, that philosophy is just... bleh. I just don't see how it doesn't get boring, unless it ends up morphing in an OCD ritual. Personally, I'd rather just do something else rather than play that way. The point being that, if few people are willing to play control in casual, even if there is no difference in rewards, then maybe the game has indeed become something too different for me. Oh well.
I used to be like this until demon hunter came out, and casual mode was flooded with aggro demon hunter spam.
People say winning in hearthstone is fun, but to me it never has been. It's not fun to cross the finish line or see the final scene of a movie. It's more about how i got there. And if i play cards on curve without thinking about them it's not fun to play. Going face is not fun to me. Making the perfect defile combo, gonking my opponent when i have 5 health remaining. Using nozari or reno when my opponent thinks they've won and won't stop emoting. that's fun. I get upset when i do all that and still lose, but it's easily forgettable in the next game. But it's straw on a camel's back. There's only so many aggro demon hunters or token druids, lackey rogues, or totem shamans in casual mode i can take. They should just separate the two categories. Gate aggro off to ladder where it belongs and leave casual mode for testing out decks and making fun combos.
Is it just me or does it seem like "Finish an Arena run with 4 or more wins." and "Finish in Top 2 in Battlegrounds." has a much higher chance to appear?
This is my third time rerolling those today and the third time they've rerolled into each other.
I tried to play control in standard for a long time. When rise of shadows came out i decided to switch to wild because it was no longer sustainable to play control in standard. It's not bad enough they don't release control tools, but they constantly buff aggro with things like Voracious Reader, and if the only way they want me to play control is be a scumbag and play res priest with Convincing Infiltrator i'm not gonna do that. I tried playing control warrior in standard recently, old school style. Lots of removal tools, some big value bombs at the end when my opponent was out of cards. But the thing was. They just keep playing everything, they play shit and play shit and i can't remove everything. they always have the card draw they always have the Voracious Reader and the token buffs to avoid the shitty aoe they give you. It's impossible.
People complaining about doctor boom control warrior, where they would gain 50+ armor every game and make the games last forever forget that mechathun also came out in boomsday to directly counter this kind of thing. Your warrior opponent with 150 health is no match for a card that says "win the game"
Unfortunately no matter how many people complain there are too many whales that won't notice the change and continue to pay. The old system was like a miner, he worked in the mine all day and whatever he mined out he was able to sell for profit. Some days he made a lot, some days not so much, but never nothing. Now in an effort to make less days when the miner makes not so much, his boss gives him a change in salary. Now everything he mines out he has to give to the boss, and in return he gets a regular fee. This fee is slightly higher than the days when he brought in not so much money, and in return for this guarantee of funds, he will never again make a lot.
You sounds like the streamers that have come out and said they don't care that the battlepass gives no rewards because they pay real money for everything anyway.
And no you shouldn't feel bad for having fun with the new expansion. I am as well, Maxima Blastenheimer is a very fun card to play, when i shoot a Deathwing out of a cannon at my opponent on turn 6 and they concede after it is very fun, but the problem is i am getting nothing back for the time i am putting into the game. Think of the battlepass as the gold per 3 wins system we had before. Before you would get compensated if you didn't do that by doing quests, not the quests feed into the battlepass and the battlepass gives you rewards after you reach thresholds that constantly get higher and higher. reaching lvl 15 is easy but after that you'll be lucky to get a level a day. And that's with daily quests. And since leveling up is the only way you'll get gold that means the system forces you to grind hours every day instead of just doing the quests and leaving that people used to do. And that's even if you get gold and not a 40 dust pack from ashes out outland or the classic set.
https://hsreplay.net/replay/KG7NfxKkvXprSdVwoqEGK8#turn=7a
Can someone explain why i get a full board of 5/5s after oh my yogg turns my commencement into wisps of the old gods??
Finally reach lvl 25 and my fucking legenderie is il'gynoth, after my free legendary from the beginning of the expansion is the other shitty demon hunter one. Why don't they just give you 1600 fucking dust instead of the 400 it just gave me for a legendary for a busted class i refuse to play
the only time i ever played Darkmoon Rabbit is when i discovered it off a second Athletic Studies and at that point it was 8 mana instead of 10. Still terrible, but i was playing against a rez priest with 3 [Hearthstone Card (convincing infiltrators) Not Found] so it was a pretty epic play
Compared to the degeneracy of token druid, aggro demon hunter, libram paladin, or totem shaman what is this deck going to do? Nothing.
They did respond though? Didn't you see this?
We're supposed to give C'thanks for the battlepass, just like in the "apology letter" we didn't understand how the rewards system REALLY worked.
The decks can't be worse than if the blizzard AI made them
Bit wordy? Why not just say draw a "card" that costs (5) or more? And as for flavor i think it should be minion only if it's like a wild animal attraction like you have going for it currently. It's clear what you're intention is tutor some of the c'thun pieces and later maybe c'thun himself but it seems to be pretty lackluster. Like druid copying rogue's homework.
The free legendary and free packs for the expansion is obviously a bonus from the battlepass and not something that they have already been doing and would have still been doing for each expansion without the battlepass....(they gave out free arenas with expansions too, but i'll let you have that one since it wasn't for every expansion.)
You ignore the reason everyone's faith in actibliz has hit rock bottom. There have been several controversies this year and last from them, which all boil down to the concept of actibliz not caring about their community in favor of their own wallet. And when they release the battlepass it was the final straw on the camel's back. They lied constantly about how they won't be taking players gold how you'll be able to get more than before. Which we know now was a lie. Everything has culminated in this.
Now let's break down what you actually bring up.
"AAA titles don't get regularly patched"
This argument has been made a lot of times to cover for shitty business practices in the "current year". People said this all the time when battlefront was receiving their fair share of backlash over a similar situation. It is not a point of pride that you update your game. It's understandable. It's something that shouldn't be noticed. You shouldn't need to lord that over the players like it's something that they don't deserve.
"CCGs and AAA titles are generally not even the same type of game."
Ah yes the good old trading card argument that's been made a thousand times. Except there is no upwards mobility with hearthstone. Packs and cards don't have REAL VALUE. If i unpack a hearthstone pack and get a legendary from a tier one deck in the meta all year, it has the same value as a meme legendary no one would ever play ever. This is not the same in other card games. Even artifact one had a upward mobility system. When the game released people were saying certain heroes were pay to win and the only way to win, and they would sell for $20 on the steam market. Know what people did then? They opened a lot of packs and got those heroes and sold them for more packs. You can't do that in hearthstone, and the devs will never allow you to do that, they like the closed loop system. When you pay $80 now for a AAA game you are expecting quality, you're expecting a good experience. When you pay $80 for hearthstone what do you get? According to many people's threads i've seen 5 legendries. That's it. And most of them unplayable meme legendaries and not old gods.
"You don't have to buy a full set of expansion cards to play the game, so comparing a $60 sticker price for a AAA title to $130 for pre-release bundles is disingenuous."
This would be true except for the ridiculous amount of powercreep hearthstone has. Every expansion cards get more busted and in order to play you need those cards. Sure you can play river crocolisk and bloodfen raptor mage every expansion and that counts as being able to "play" the game. But it's more like when you were 10 and you ask big brother if you can play video games with him and he hands you an unplugged controller. Yes you can play that way, but not really.
"The overall rewards between new and old progression system never favored the old system - it's simply that many of the new rewards were in the form of packs and cards, which angry players valued less than gold. Blizzard responded to this by replacing the late-level packs with gold, and now it's very easy to have a F2P experience where you complete daily and weekly quests and get strictly more out of the game on all reward dimensions."
Blizzard fixed the rewards for late stage into the battlepass, where almost no one is at because of a hell of a grind it is. They did this so A. They wouldn't need to give players anything to compensate for the change and B. to try to sate the rabid dog of a community by throwing it some chicken bones. The change was nothing. There is still useless packs for rewards in the early features of the system that is still there. Solem talks about this in his latest video https://youtu.be/wQLFDXb9hU0?t=315 the reward is basically useless.
"The "lack of progress" complaints must be coming from people who have never played an RPG, because all of those games feature slower levels as you progress, and no one gets mad about it. It's true that there will be some weeks in the new system where the weekly rewards you earn are lower than what you would have earned in the old system, but you early more on a weekly basis early and late in the system, so that lull only lasts for about 10 or so levels in the middle."
See this? This is a steeljaw snapper, found in tanaris. They're around lvl 38-45. When i played vanilla wow i ginded on these instead of doing quests from lvl 35-50. Because 1 i enjoyed grinding instead of questing, the loot drops were good selling for decent value incuding pearls which i could pier to pier to players for more value and skinning for the same reason. It wasn't a very common grinding spot because people knew of better ones, but for me it was perfect. Do you know the difference between me grinding turtles for 15 levels in WoW and the new battlepass is? The rewards. I got hundreds of gold off these turtles in exchange for my time. In hearthstone i get very little. Even if i do all my quests(when it doesn't give me the do arena quest of the finish top 2 in BGs quest). This isn't about grinding it's about greed. You shouldn't need to grind constantly in a system that promises rewards daily. Grinding shouldn't even need to be applicable since it's fringe strategy that only psychos like me enjoy doing instead of the normal system.
"Back in November 2019 they changed a bunch of daily quests to make them easier to complete (e.g. "Win 2 games as [Class A] or [Class B]" became "Play 3 games as [Class A] or [Class B] or [Class C]")"
This goes to show how much the difference is since they also changed the rewards to be higher and now we just receive experience now into the pass system that does not give rewards from that experience.
"In phase 1 of Year of the Phoenix, they added duplicate protection for all rarities, making it way cheaper to collect all the common and rare cards."
This was a good change. But it doesn't matter to most f2p players that only focus on one or two classes and choose to disenchant other class cards they get because they need dust to craft things.
"The new ranked system has better rewards than the old ranked system, added a ton of ranked floors, and dramatically decreases the amount of grinding you need to do. This frees players up to play low-tier or off-meta decks without risking major ladder progress"
Considering the only way to get experience now is to play ladder then yeah i guess you have to play meme decks or testing decks on ladder now.
"They've added several F2P-friendly formats (Battlegrounds, Duels), and will be adding another new mode before the end of the Year of the Phoenix"
You can call BGs a "f2p-friendly format" since most of the changes you get from paying are high marginal.(even though having extra chances to get one of the current busted heroes per game is better than not having it) But i wouldn't say duels is. Just like in arena it's important to win early and when you don't have all the wild cards you'll need and you're against someone that does it's always an uphill battle for you. And incentivizing crafting those for that game mode is terrible optics.
In closing i agree that SOMEONE at actibliz in the past was trying to make HS a better game, i agree with you on the new ranking system(even though it makes it more grindy it sprinkles decent rewards throughout), the free decks to new and returning players which you didn't mention, the "noob ladder"(which is basically demon hunter ladder), and changing quests to give more gold and be less of a pain to complete. But these changes are just about reverted as of late. Since they all feed into a broken system that promises everything and delivers nothing.
I would be happy with the ability to reroll each quest a single time a day instead of one a day. Other games with this system have this paladins for instance.
As someone that has played a lot of druid this year, which includes quest druid, gonk druid, taunt druid, lucentbark druid. I can say that Keeper of the Grove is not a card one should EVER consider putting into their deck unless they invent a time machine first. After you play your 4 mana 2/2 against one big paladin minion, they'll just play liadrin or some other dumb shit and beat you down with that instead. All while you waste 4 mana to silence a minion and summon a 2/2 they can easily ignore on board when they resume to hit you in the face, while laughing at you all the way until you hit that concede button.
The only viable option for silence is mage or shaman or demon hunter(because demon hunter is supposed to be good at everything don't ya know). And blizzard has made sure of that. tinkmaster overspark is one of my favorite cards and he's a meme.
Alternatives would be using [Hearthstone Card (sylvanas) Not Found] and Play Dead and Nine Lives in wild https://hsreplay.net/replay/dNgxu2NaUp7c2fwrFda2YB#turn=5b
Had a game today against a token druid, the moment i was about to win the game crashed. Reloaded the game expecting to lose after all the work it took me to get the W, but when i reloaded it turns out i won. My druid opponent had crashed too.
I used to be like this until demon hunter came out, and casual mode was flooded with aggro demon hunter spam.
People say winning in hearthstone is fun, but to me it never has been. It's not fun to cross the finish line or see the final scene of a movie. It's more about how i got there. And if i play cards on curve without thinking about them it's not fun to play. Going face is not fun to me. Making the perfect defile combo, gonking my opponent when i have 5 health remaining. Using nozari or reno when my opponent thinks they've won and won't stop emoting. that's fun. I get upset when i do all that and still lose, but it's easily forgettable in the next game. But it's straw on a camel's back. There's only so many aggro demon hunters or token druids, lackey rogues, or totem shamans in casual mode i can take. They should just separate the two categories. Gate aggro off to ladder where it belongs and leave casual mode for testing out decks and making fun combos.
Is it just me or does it seem like "Finish an Arena run with 4 or more wins." and "Finish in Top 2 in Battlegrounds." has a much higher chance to appear?
This is my third time rerolling those today and the third time they've rerolled into each other.
I tried to play control in standard for a long time. When rise of shadows came out i decided to switch to wild because it was no longer sustainable to play control in standard. It's not bad enough they don't release control tools, but they constantly buff aggro with things like Voracious Reader, and if the only way they want me to play control is be a scumbag and play res priest with Convincing Infiltrator i'm not gonna do that. I tried playing control warrior in standard recently, old school style. Lots of removal tools, some big value bombs at the end when my opponent was out of cards. But the thing was. They just keep playing everything, they play shit and play shit and i can't remove everything. they always have the card draw they always have the Voracious Reader and the token buffs to avoid the shitty aoe they give you. It's impossible.
People complaining about doctor boom control warrior, where they would gain 50+ armor every game and make the games last forever forget that mechathun also came out in boomsday to directly counter this kind of thing. Your warrior opponent with 150 health is no match for a card that says "win the game"
click the picture of the cat eating spaghetti
Unfortunately no matter how many people complain there are too many whales that won't notice the change and continue to pay. The old system was like a miner, he worked in the mine all day and whatever he mined out he was able to sell for profit. Some days he made a lot, some days not so much, but never nothing. Now in an effort to make less days when the miner makes not so much, his boss gives him a change in salary. Now everything he mines out he has to give to the boss, and in return he gets a regular fee. This fee is slightly higher than the days when he brought in not so much money, and in return for this guarantee of funds, he will never again make a lot.
Keep in mind. You should still wait more to craft ANYTHING.