Should've just removed all the restrictions or at least make it apply only to rare and common cards. There's little to no reason why duels remain practically the only mode currently paywalled and with such a ridiculous condition no less. Under what circumstances will a primarily duels player be interested in getting unique epic cards, and 15 of them too.
Likely because its power level for a 3 mana weapon is too much to bear or the internal stats is showing how easily this card swing games. The 1 damage from the outcast buys tempo in a way that other weapons could not, so the weapon itself is almost always directed at face. With this nerf, its literally the worst weapon for dhunters now, but I'm really okay with that.
Not really satisfied with that 1 mana nerf to Blade Dance, should've been 4 mana or a complete redesign instead, but since they also hit Shardshatter Mystic, I guess we'll be seeing whether it will be possible now to stick boards against soul dhunters.
Nerfing Dinotamer Brann was unexpected and will definitely hit them hard. For some reason I often find myself 1 turn away from stabilizing against highlander hunter, only to be dead from a turn 7 King Krush. So this being 1 turn away will definitely change things.
Voracious Reader nerf was not only necessary, its basically an expected target from its introduction. A 1 mana nerf to this card is enormously brutal. Now at 3 mana if you're stuck with both in hand you might as well just concede the match.
So I guess evolve shaman will be topping the charts now, with druid and warlock perhaps going a few places up. Hunter will probably be unmoved, dhunter and warrior to drop a few places.
These awards are very much like the oscars, its almost always something that have massive developmental funds advantage compared to others and usually the winners are games which I personally don't have as much fun playing. Its always going to be subjective anyway at the end, so no point holding our breath on it.
Last of us 2 for example drags way too long, and its largely a somewhat linear experience. Its famous for its narrative, which I wouldn't deny is among the top, but then suffers from the fact that you're not really playing a game so much as watching a film. In comparison, games like Kingdom come: Deliverance is hardly ever going to be on the top of the list and yet I've just blown like 300 hours on it because it was a fun, even funny, game to play.
Right now, Cyberpunk 2077 is probably going to sweep the awards for next year and yet I am probably one of the few people on earth playing Oxygen not included (DLC came out just days before cyberpunk) instead.
Its not even entertaining to watch these award shows to be honest. The best award shows, in my opinion, will always be the ones that crown the losers in the field, which is why I find the razzies much more interesting than oscars in general. (not sure if video games has raspberry awards)
There's just no way to make it both unique and cost 2 at the same time while being not overpowered. Like it or hate it, its simply impossible to redesign at this point and is hardly a problem in most cases. Twin Slice is just more efficient in nearly all cases and is the real powerhouse of the class.
They certainly did some change here. And in no way can we discount the pressure mounted by the community was the reason why the change even happened in the first place.
For now, I think blizz has done enough to deserve a break. But let's not then go and slag off those who participated in the hate, because let's be honest; changes like these don't come because corporate just went through a lecture with Jiminy Cricket, its a response against community displeasure.
There's nothing entitled about consumers asking for more, no more can it be called entitled for corporate to stick their feet deeper in their greed.
I wouldn't be too disappointed at the community, even if they seemed more partisan than usual. No one can ever say why blizz is acting as they do now, but I would personally attribute a large part of their action now to the massive uproar that have happened (yes, particularly in reddit). Its obvious that changes were needed, and the community did their part by voicing their displeasure.
I personally don't think its possible to have unimpeded fun without taking note of the rewards because not everyone can enjoy every mode and switch their attention when big bad corporate is shitting on where they're sitting at. Hearthstone is simply not cheap to have fun in. Even the adventures get tiring after the 10th time running, and let's be honest, the AI in adventures can never substitute for satisfaction against a human opponent.
But if you can find fun from the sheer satisfaction of a game and tactically avoid all the modes you can't afford, I emphatically congratulate you because that's what I used to do back in the day when I had all but 1 legendaries to work with when I first started. But ultimately, not everyone shares your sanguine nature. Certainly not after what happened.
I supposed its not really a bug, as much as it is an unintended effect of how the card works. The way it works is that cthun will never be offered in the mulligan phase, and will break at the start of the match. The effect of the 'start of the match' takes place according to the placement of the cards in the deck, so if you happen to put both Genn Greymane and cthun in an even deck, and cthun is shuffled on top of genn, then cthun will break first and genn's effect will never trigger (because cthun's cards are odd)
So in this case it could be that the game sets passives to function on priority, so you just got lucky having your cthun within range of the draw.
All control cards, especially AoE cards, have low win rates. That's because they aren't used to finish the game and are situational. As a point of comparison you can look up any warrior deck and you'll find Brawl having the lowest win rate of all the cards and yet its still one warrior's best board clear of all time.
If you can bounce pen flingers multiple times then you're already on your way to victory, and in those cases I would agree that pyromancer is not a necessity. But those are really just the nuts scenario. In many cases you either dont have your Libram of Wisdom or your Libram of Justice costs you mana, usually around 2. Pyromancers can also save you from aggro sometimes, help gain tempo, and it has uses against pally and the odd big deck playing clowns.
Maybe its just me, but I like having an out when the chips are down.
Played secret rogue and its probably the hardest deck to play around here. Its too limited in value to face down warrior and too slow to beat the aggro decks. I'm probably at around 45% winrate, at diamond rank.
In my opinion, playing broom pally and not having pyromancers, plugging your hand with too much value while playing double pen flingers is a mistake. Its main challenge is probably evolve shaman, but I'm having difficulties understanding how this deck can beat up dhunters as well.
You still need a bot and electricity and device life are not free.
Obviously when I used the word 'free' it is in the context of the current situation which is 'playing the game', therefore the intention of my original use of the term is to describe the pursuance of experience points without putting the necessary effort as another person would in the same situation.
If you can bot it then its still free xp. Essentially the idea is that you can leave it up all night and be up like around 1000xp per day depending on the hours you're willing to leave your device turned on.
There's going to be a time where blizz starts putting a cap on the max amount of xp possible in a day, and perhaps even implement something like giving extraordinarily low xp for those under, say, bottom 2 of the list, or tie it up to the number of moves completed per game. You getting only a mere 200xp for 4 hours is testament to them willing and having spent every ounce of muscle to stop easy xp from rolling in.
But 200xp for no effort on your part is still free xp. Why not?
Too bad priest can't draw to save their life. The main problem with any sort of combo deck with priest, at least in standard, has always been drawing those very specific cards and not die in the process. And the current builds are too dependent on Gadgetzan Auctioneer as the draw engine. Too many times I've held on to a cheap hand only to be let down by my auctioneer taking a vacation down my deck while I struggle to stay alive.
There is a possibility of a combo with Reckless Rocketeer, Embalming Ritual and Grave Rune. All that's really needed is a decent midgame board clear option like Mass Hysteria so you don't just die before you get there. Perhaps if the meta slows down a bit, then it'll work more often than not.
I'm not in favor of nerfing warrior, since I can't imagine it as being too strong to defeat. And it keeps aggro at bay.
But even I have to admit that sword eater is just too good a card not to be part of any warrior decks until it rotates. The only deck it doesnt naturally fit in at the moment is in bomb warrior, for obvious reasons.
Nazmani fix is really helpful, at least now its 100% going to actually do something when you play a spell. In case anyone is wondering if this will break the meta, I've been playing miracle builds, cthun builds, and even just plain control builds, and this fix helps but its not going to ever result in priest suddenly taking the meta by storm.
Some nerfs suggested here seems a little too far, like Bladestorm and Boggspine Knuckles which isn't really problems on their own, especially bladestorm since its just so easy to play around it.
Evolve shaman is currently very strong, not merely because the weapon is more consistently drawn now, but because of Revolve, and mana cheating (again, why isn't Lightning Bloom on this list when its a greater problem than even overgrowth). Revolve can be defensive (removing buffed aggro boards), or offensive (used at 4 with the rabbits) but at its best it destroys aggro's board while giving you a decent advantage via cards like Mogu Fleshshaper. And that turn swing can happen as early as turn 4, which in most cases if you are unable to fully remove shaman's board by then they usually snowball on you hard. In my opinion, I expect the archetype to calm down a bit on rotation since both desert hare and fleshshaper will be gone. The knuckles are hard enough to equip as it is, and really doesn't need nerfing.
I'm honestly not really up in arms over warrior in general, though I think the ETC combo having no playaround is a little harsh considering how good warrior is at control. Of course, giving warrior one of the best cards in this expansion in Sword Eater may have something to do with why they're so good. Maybe bump this card by 1 mana would weaken warrior's defense but keep the deck viable? I think its perhaps the best, if we're nerfing it at all.
Most others are fair enough. Blade dance in especially can go crawl under a ditch and die. Team5 should start reviewing their own design for dhunter, because its starting to get to the point where they're practically capable of doing just about anything, from drawing cards, silences, to dealing with boards, to healing. Even taunts don't get a say against Illidan apparently. What's their weakness again?
I’m pretty sure Turalyon still kills a minion even when it is being buffed by a Stormwind Champion, so it could just be a problem with Killmox, which is honestly par for the course at this point.
"Set health to x" description does not override aura effects, just stack on it. If you used Equality in a full board with a stormwind champion in it, only the chaimpion's health will be 1 (not affected by its own aura) while the others will be 2.
Should've just removed all the restrictions or at least make it apply only to rare and common cards. There's little to no reason why duels remain practically the only mode currently paywalled and with such a ridiculous condition no less. Under what circumstances will a primarily duels player be interested in getting unique epic cards, and 15 of them too.
Likely because its power level for a 3 mana weapon is too much to bear or the internal stats is showing how easily this card swing games. The 1 damage from the outcast buys tempo in a way that other weapons could not, so the weapon itself is almost always directed at face. With this nerf, its literally the worst weapon for dhunters now, but I'm really okay with that.
Should've just made all dailies 1000xp. I mean, that 100xp difference is about 15 minutes of play.
Of course, the real question would be is this really even necessary to have low rolled quests in the first place?
Not really satisfied with that 1 mana nerf to Blade Dance, should've been 4 mana or a complete redesign instead, but since they also hit Shardshatter Mystic, I guess we'll be seeing whether it will be possible now to stick boards against soul dhunters.
Nerfing Dinotamer Brann was unexpected and will definitely hit them hard. For some reason I often find myself 1 turn away from stabilizing against highlander hunter, only to be dead from a turn 7 King Krush. So this being 1 turn away will definitely change things.
Voracious Reader nerf was not only necessary, its basically an expected target from its introduction. A 1 mana nerf to this card is enormously brutal. Now at 3 mana if you're stuck with both in hand you might as well just concede the match.
So I guess evolve shaman will be topping the charts now, with druid and warlock perhaps going a few places up. Hunter will probably be unmoved, dhunter and warrior to drop a few places.
These awards are very much like the oscars, its almost always something that have massive developmental funds advantage compared to others and usually the winners are games which I personally don't have as much fun playing. Its always going to be subjective anyway at the end, so no point holding our breath on it.
Last of us 2 for example drags way too long, and its largely a somewhat linear experience. Its famous for its narrative, which I wouldn't deny is among the top, but then suffers from the fact that you're not really playing a game so much as watching a film. In comparison, games like Kingdom come: Deliverance is hardly ever going to be on the top of the list and yet I've just blown like 300 hours on it because it was a fun, even funny, game to play.
Right now, Cyberpunk 2077 is probably going to sweep the awards for next year and yet I am probably one of the few people on earth playing Oxygen not included (DLC came out just days before cyberpunk) instead.
Its not even entertaining to watch these award shows to be honest. The best award shows, in my opinion, will always be the ones that crown the losers in the field, which is why I find the razzies much more interesting than oscars in general. (not sure if video games has raspberry awards)
There's just no way to make it both unique and cost 2 at the same time while being not overpowered. Like it or hate it, its simply impossible to redesign at this point and is hardly a problem in most cases. Twin Slice is just more efficient in nearly all cases and is the real powerhouse of the class.
They certainly did some change here. And in no way can we discount the pressure mounted by the community was the reason why the change even happened in the first place.
For now, I think blizz has done enough to deserve a break. But let's not then go and slag off those who participated in the hate, because let's be honest; changes like these don't come because corporate just went through a lecture with Jiminy Cricket, its a response against community displeasure.
There's nothing entitled about consumers asking for more, no more can it be called entitled for corporate to stick their feet deeper in their greed.
I wouldn't be too disappointed at the community, even if they seemed more partisan than usual. No one can ever say why blizz is acting as they do now, but I would personally attribute a large part of their action now to the massive uproar that have happened (yes, particularly in reddit). Its obvious that changes were needed, and the community did their part by voicing their displeasure.
I personally don't think its possible to have unimpeded fun without taking note of the rewards because not everyone can enjoy every mode and switch their attention when big bad corporate is shitting on where they're sitting at. Hearthstone is simply not cheap to have fun in. Even the adventures get tiring after the 10th time running, and let's be honest, the AI in adventures can never substitute for satisfaction against a human opponent.
But if you can find fun from the sheer satisfaction of a game and tactically avoid all the modes you can't afford, I emphatically congratulate you because that's what I used to do back in the day when I had all but 1 legendaries to work with when I first started. But ultimately, not everyone shares your sanguine nature. Certainly not after what happened.
I supposed its not really a bug, as much as it is an unintended effect of how the card works. The way it works is that cthun will never be offered in the mulligan phase, and will break at the start of the match. The effect of the 'start of the match' takes place according to the placement of the cards in the deck, so if you happen to put both Genn Greymane and cthun in an even deck, and cthun is shuffled on top of genn, then cthun will break first and genn's effect will never trigger (because cthun's cards are odd)
So in this case it could be that the game sets passives to function on priority, so you just got lucky having your cthun within range of the draw.
All control cards, especially AoE cards, have low win rates. That's because they aren't used to finish the game and are situational. As a point of comparison you can look up any warrior deck and you'll find Brawl having the lowest win rate of all the cards and yet its still one warrior's best board clear of all time.
If you can bounce pen flingers multiple times then you're already on your way to victory, and in those cases I would agree that pyromancer is not a necessity. But those are really just the nuts scenario. In many cases you either dont have your Libram of Wisdom or your Libram of Justice costs you mana, usually around 2. Pyromancers can also save you from aggro sometimes, help gain tempo, and it has uses against pally and the odd big deck playing clowns.
Maybe its just me, but I like having an out when the chips are down.
Played secret rogue and its probably the hardest deck to play around here. Its too limited in value to face down warrior and too slow to beat the aggro decks. I'm probably at around 45% winrate, at diamond rank.
In my opinion, playing broom pally and not having pyromancers, plugging your hand with too much value while playing double pen flingers is a mistake. Its main challenge is probably evolve shaman, but I'm having difficulties understanding how this deck can beat up dhunters as well.
Obviously when I used the word 'free' it is in the context of the current situation which is 'playing the game', therefore the intention of my original use of the term is to describe the pursuance of experience points without putting the necessary effort as another person would in the same situation.
If you can bot it then its still free xp. Essentially the idea is that you can leave it up all night and be up like around 1000xp per day depending on the hours you're willing to leave your device turned on.
There's going to be a time where blizz starts putting a cap on the max amount of xp possible in a day, and perhaps even implement something like giving extraordinarily low xp for those under, say, bottom 2 of the list, or tie it up to the number of moves completed per game. You getting only a mere 200xp for 4 hours is testament to them willing and having spent every ounce of muscle to stop easy xp from rolling in.
But 200xp for no effort on your part is still free xp. Why not?
Too bad priest can't draw to save their life. The main problem with any sort of combo deck with priest, at least in standard, has always been drawing those very specific cards and not die in the process. And the current builds are too dependent on Gadgetzan Auctioneer as the draw engine. Too many times I've held on to a cheap hand only to be let down by my auctioneer taking a vacation down my deck while I struggle to stay alive.
There is a possibility of a combo with Reckless Rocketeer, Embalming Ritual and Grave Rune. All that's really needed is a decent midgame board clear option like Mass Hysteria so you don't just die before you get there. Perhaps if the meta slows down a bit, then it'll work more often than not.
I'm not in favor of nerfing warrior, since I can't imagine it as being too strong to defeat. And it keeps aggro at bay.
But even I have to admit that sword eater is just too good a card not to be part of any warrior decks until it rotates. The only deck it doesnt naturally fit in at the moment is in bomb warrior, for obvious reasons.
Nazmani fix is really helpful, at least now its 100% going to actually do something when you play a spell. In case anyone is wondering if this will break the meta, I've been playing miracle builds, cthun builds, and even just plain control builds, and this fix helps but its not going to ever result in priest suddenly taking the meta by storm.
Some nerfs suggested here seems a little too far, like Bladestorm and Boggspine Knuckles which isn't really problems on their own, especially bladestorm since its just so easy to play around it.
Evolve shaman is currently very strong, not merely because the weapon is more consistently drawn now, but because of Revolve, and mana cheating (again, why isn't Lightning Bloom on this list when its a greater problem than even overgrowth). Revolve can be defensive (removing buffed aggro boards), or offensive (used at 4 with the rabbits) but at its best it destroys aggro's board while giving you a decent advantage via cards like Mogu Fleshshaper. And that turn swing can happen as early as turn 4, which in most cases if you are unable to fully remove shaman's board by then they usually snowball on you hard. In my opinion, I expect the archetype to calm down a bit on rotation since both desert hare and fleshshaper will be gone. The knuckles are hard enough to equip as it is, and really doesn't need nerfing.
I'm honestly not really up in arms over warrior in general, though I think the ETC combo having no playaround is a little harsh considering how good warrior is at control. Of course, giving warrior one of the best cards in this expansion in Sword Eater may have something to do with why they're so good. Maybe bump this card by 1 mana would weaken warrior's defense but keep the deck viable? I think its perhaps the best, if we're nerfing it at all.
Most others are fair enough. Blade dance in especially can go crawl under a ditch and die. Team5 should start reviewing their own design for dhunter, because its starting to get to the point where they're practically capable of doing just about anything, from drawing cards, silences, to dealing with boards, to healing. Even taunts don't get a say against Illidan apparently. What's their weakness again?
"Set health to x" description does not override aura effects, just stack on it. If you used Equality in a full board with a stormwind champion in it, only the chaimpion's health will be 1 (not affected by its own aura) while the others will be 2.