Its called 'unique quests' in the gamepedia website but its basically achievements, defined by having to do very specific things like unlock every hero, or defeat all heroes in expert tutorial mode, etc.
That 50 USD bundle just get smaller and smaller every day huh. I remembered back a year ago you'd get a golden legendary and 50 packs for that money.
Not going to lie, I like the cardback and hero portrait. But blizzard insistently puts all those exclusive stuff up a tier that is just impossible, doubly so because of the ongoing virus issue.
Had those also been in the smaller bundle, I might have bought it. Well, guess I'll be keeping that 50usd and 80usd firm in my pocket.
I think the real issue here is, unlike battlegrounds which unlocks perks using the pass that costs something universal like gold, this one requires card collecting, which is dependent on getting lucky in pack openings.
If someone were to only be interested in DR and not in standard ranked, I guess they would grind the supposed heroic mode which I would guess will grant packs as rewards. But how much grinding is one to make, and how successful they can get, if they're playing with a handicap from the start. Not to mention that said heroic mode is likely to also cost gold to play.
A simple illustration is to imagine having to have collected 30 epics (No small feat) in order to unlock Twin Tyrant in arena. That would simply be untenable.
Of course, we can give blizz the benefit of the doubt since the DR is currently so OP that you probably dont need anything new to get past to say, 7 wins. But then again, when arena was first introduced and no one developed any cheat sheets, arena was pretty simple for those who had figured it out. It didn't take long before the meta was broken and those 10-12 wins became as rare as desert rain.
Not every one of us have the luxury of time to log into twitch just for the sole purposes of a raffle, of which the rewards are not really that great.
Its nice of them to do this, don't get me wrong, but you would think that giving it out for free for everyone to play would be the best thing to do to get the ball rolling.
Blizzard have done it again. 4 very exciting legendaries, of which I'm sure I will never get out of a pack. Oh well, moving on.
Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate is an rng card that will certainly see play, and will certainly shit on some unlucky streamer in one of those meme videos. Nearly all the options will be good from what I saw, but the one 5% chance to get a pyro or nothing deal is where we cross the line to bonkersburg. Why does this option even need to exist is beyond me, but after I calmed down a bit, its actually just a massive gamble of which odds are will always favor the winning player, so perhaps its not as bs as I thought on first impression.
C'Thun, the Shattered is another cthun build around card. As such its usefulness is completely based on whether you can assemble it fast enough, and if the pieces are actually worth shit. The end effect is strong, but unlikely to ever kill since its very rare to actually get an empty board and 10 mana to spend it. Its not confirmed yet, but cthun's pieces might actually be the first time ever that a card actually expand the deck size which might count for something in fatigue control wars.
N'Zoth, God of the Deep is deceptively powerful and Im 100% sure its going to go into every midrange-control deck in the next expansion. Might even creep its way into aggro decks too.
Y'Shaarj, the Defiler can only be powerful depending on the corrupt cards we see. But for now its the least powerful of the 4 we've got.
Okay, so we're finally going to get this whether we like it or not, so let's just have a go with it.
Positives are obvious. The better interface, the new hero portraits (which really surprises me how nice it looks), and there's only a slight pay to win element here (pay for the pass so you get 10% faster exp gain, which is the only objectively better perk compared to normal). There's no real cap to the amount of gold you can get (though its not obvious how much we need to play to max out), which is a nice idea too.
The negatives are less obvious, since we aren't really briefed on anything specific. Questions to ask;
- How fast the exp gain is for the average player. We don't actually know what the xp is required to max out, but its fair to assume that you can get there by just completing the quests every day (if this is not the case then that's a real bummer right here). Since there's actual reasons to get xp past the level cap (you get 150 gold for every level past) we can also assume that you would likely need to play as much as a legend player does to get anywhere near there.
- Whether the rewards will give out unwanted rewards like packs from previous expansions in lieu of gold. If blizz thinks a previous expansion pack is worth 100 gold, then they seriously need a stern clip across the ear. Also, I don't need arena passes, tavern passes, or the new duel passes. I need gold, and that's always preferable to others.
- How much gold we can theoretically gather up in time for the next expansion is not clear. But with the reward structure as we see it its likely that we wont exactly get that 8k gold per expansion as is customary.
- How obnoxious is the quests. Let's be clear here. I don't play battlegrounds to any regular amount of level. Just don't have the time. So if there is such a quest, I will obviously want to flip it. But it wouldn't help if I have to constantly flip only to see another annoying quest (play and win duels mode would probably be the worst of the lot) taunting me to complete or lose value. Let's hope there's as little as possible of such things.
Its basically a removal card most of the time, and a pretty evil one too. Basically if both parties were neck in neck on the late game, this one will completely flip the board and require either another Silas to counter or you just lost your best minion to a tavern brawl gimmick.
If it ever catches on, it will instinctively ensure that all good minions past turn 7 will always be in the middle. But I doubt it will catch on to be honest.
Its an underwhelming announcement, honestly. Speculations was rife, and I really thought its either limited wild, or some kind of new mode with new rules, but the reveal being this? Dungeon runs were frustrating enough, and now I get to pit myself against a human opponent with it. Is that really the kind of A-game we were anticipating early this year when the hearthstone development map was shown to us?
And on top of that unwanted cake, is the cherry of it all. If this article is correct, the assorted hero powers and treasures will eventually require actual cards to unlock, guaranteeing that not everyone would have access to the whole thing without having first paid something somewhere, whether its gold, dust, or ehem real money.
Sorry blizz, but this is one thing that I would probably never get to really enjoy.
I think the real culprit is Gentle Djinn at tier 5. The others are okay. Crackling cyclone is a flexible and strong unit, but unless someone plays rag, or buffed it up with Nomi shenanigans, its mostly just decent in the late game.
Well, a priest revamp is honestly the last thing I thought others would try, since it only got its revamp like early this year. I can see that you've already chosen to HoF some of the new cards introduced.
So, some interesting observations;
- Northshire cleric change is interesting, and honestly something team5 should have done. But I guess they either wanted to preserve its viability in wild (like good luck with that) or they simply didn't want priest to draw like ever. So congrats on making it playable, strong, but not overpowered
- 9 mana mind control may seem innocuous, but when you consider that one of the best card for priest, renew. is still currently in standard and can discover and make playable that card immediately on 10, suddenly mind control at 9 seems like one of those cards that will make strong men cry. I think it being at 10 is not only completely justified, its a necessity
- Reviving infusion is good, but in wild, where dealing face damage with spells is absolutely legit with priest, its potentially game ending with something like malygos.
- Breathe of the infinity in, but no decent class dragon card. Seems like an oversight honestly. Unless every expansion comes out with a dragon for priest, then its just a deal 2 to all minions at the end.
Its just another one of those brawls thats interesting in theory but bs in practice. To sum it up, if you happen to choose paladin or shaman, you can get thoroughly screwed or screw your opponent by whether the merry-go-round starts right or left, which is decided entirely at random by the way.
I only vaguely remembered that this was given out as sort of a treasure hunt. If it weren't for that forum post earlier this week I would've just missed this one.
I do like the idea though. Maybe if they are arranging another early card from the next expansion as a giveaway, they can explore the same idea again.
That they decide to fit everything into one event might well signal that the new reward system isn't going to start more controversy, so I eagerly wait to hear more details on it. Let's hope it doesn't descent into riot.
New game mode, what could it be? Something tells me that either its just regular hearthstone with gimmicks (start at 40hp, deathrattles pop immediately, new hero power, etc.) or its them making attempts to cut into their competitors market (LoR rules, hearthstone cards).
Expansion. Hype. But I got to say that this might be one of those few times I'm actually more interested in the other news that comes along with the expansion announcement. Expect 6-12 really hot cards to be revealed, followed by 2 weeks of nothing before the reveal season starts.
Solarian prime can win games on its own, never mind that you can usually expect at least 2 of them per game. Whether its 7 mana or 9 mana, the only thing that changes here is that you can no longer just play this on 7 either as a last ditch card, and only have enough mana at 10 to cast one Ray of Frost in case it fails hard.
Needless to say, I don't expect anyone to start ditching Astromancer Solarian anytime soon. Even if all goes completely belly up for mage (an unlikely scenario) solarian will still be respected as one of the strongest cards from AoO, and I don't expect this nerf to change it by much.
(just so you dont spend too much time thinking about it, I didn't downvoted you. Just sharing thoughts)
The problem with Hunter isn't that there's any egregious card that is to "blame" but the simple fact that they have had hardly any nerfs. They aren't a top dog in terms of their meta viability, but at the same time they are never bottom rung either.
What this ends up doing is making face hunter the quintessential 'fall back' option for people climbing ladder. (along with any other flavor of the month decks).
Whether a class is bad, cancerous, or problematic isn't and shouldn't be defined by whether they have had nerfs within any time frame. That they haven't really been viable on the top end is the reason why their cards have stayed unnerfed.
Face hunter isn't truly a fall back option for climbing, since soul dhunter is a better deck overall, and plays more or less the same game as face hunter does, at the same speed. Its only popular at the moment because its a cheap and easy deck. The further up the rankings go, the less popular hunter becomes, because higher ranked players are more skilled and the price is no longer a factor.
Aggro gets a bad press since it has a reputation to be as you would call it, 'vomit' decks, but its actually more complex than it seems. In most cases they actually need to understand their matches since they are inherently playing low curve cards, and you don't need AoE to beat them, just enough tempo to outlast their low, but consistent, value.
I would agree that hp in hearthstone has some problems, but a bigger problem in my opinion is how team5 is framing each class to archetypes, so hunter's propensity towards smorc is enforced by the kind of cards it gets. But that is, as you say, a topic for another time.
Its called 'unique quests' in the gamepedia website but its basically achievements, defined by having to do very specific things like unlock every hero, or defeat all heroes in expert tutorial mode, etc.
https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Quest#Unique_quests
And they do award gold, dust, card packs, etc.
its usd not euro. But you're right. Guess I jumped to conclusions.
That 50 USD bundle just get smaller and smaller every day huh. I remembered back a year ago you'd get a golden legendary and 50 packs for that money.
Not going to lie, I like the cardback and hero portrait. But blizzard insistently puts all those exclusive stuff up a tier that is just impossible, doubly so because of the ongoing virus issue.
Had those also been in the smaller bundle, I might have bought it. Well, guess I'll be keeping that 50usd and 80usd firm in my pocket.
I think the real issue here is, unlike battlegrounds which unlocks perks using the pass that costs something universal like gold, this one requires card collecting, which is dependent on getting lucky in pack openings.
If someone were to only be interested in DR and not in standard ranked, I guess they would grind the supposed heroic mode which I would guess will grant packs as rewards. But how much grinding is one to make, and how successful they can get, if they're playing with a handicap from the start. Not to mention that said heroic mode is likely to also cost gold to play.
A simple illustration is to imagine having to have collected 30 epics (No small feat) in order to unlock Twin Tyrant in arena. That would simply be untenable.
Of course, we can give blizz the benefit of the doubt since the DR is currently so OP that you probably dont need anything new to get past to say, 7 wins. But then again, when arena was first introduced and no one developed any cheat sheets, arena was pretty simple for those who had figured it out. It didn't take long before the meta was broken and those 10-12 wins became as rare as desert rain.
damn forgot about that one.
Not every one of us have the luxury of time to log into twitch just for the sole purposes of a raffle, of which the rewards are not really that great.
Its nice of them to do this, don't get me wrong, but you would think that giving it out for free for everyone to play would be the best thing to do to get the ball rolling.
But hearthstone achievents have given out gold as a reward in the past. Maybe there will be xp for completing these now.
Judging by there being a 'Win 2 place and above in battlegrounds' quest, I'm sure rerolling will still be thing
But you're right, we dont have a list yet so there's no way to tell whether rerolling daily will get us better rewards.
Blizzard have done it again. 4 very exciting legendaries, of which I'm sure I will never get out of a pack. Oh well, moving on.
Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate is an rng card that will certainly see play, and will certainly shit on some unlucky streamer in one of those meme videos. Nearly all the options will be good from what I saw, but the one 5% chance to get a pyro or nothing deal is where we cross the line to bonkersburg. Why does this option even need to exist is beyond me, but after I calmed down a bit, its actually just a massive gamble of which odds are will always favor the winning player, so perhaps its not as bs as I thought on first impression.
C'Thun, the Shattered is another cthun build around card. As such its usefulness is completely based on whether you can assemble it fast enough, and if the pieces are actually worth shit. The end effect is strong, but unlikely to ever kill since its very rare to actually get an empty board and 10 mana to spend it. Its not confirmed yet, but cthun's pieces might actually be the first time ever that a card actually expand the deck size which might count for something in fatigue control wars.
N'Zoth, God of the Deep is deceptively powerful and Im 100% sure its going to go into every midrange-control deck in the next expansion. Might even creep its way into aggro decks too.
Y'Shaarj, the Defiler can only be powerful depending on the corrupt cards we see. But for now its the least powerful of the 4 we've got.
Okay, so we're finally going to get this whether we like it or not, so let's just have a go with it.
Positives are obvious. The better interface, the new hero portraits (which really surprises me how nice it looks), and there's only a slight pay to win element here (pay for the pass so you get 10% faster exp gain, which is the only objectively better perk compared to normal). There's no real cap to the amount of gold you can get (though its not obvious how much we need to play to max out), which is a nice idea too.
The negatives are less obvious, since we aren't really briefed on anything specific. Questions to ask;
- How fast the exp gain is for the average player. We don't actually know what the xp is required to max out, but its fair to assume that you can get there by just completing the quests every day (if this is not the case then that's a real bummer right here). Since there's actual reasons to get xp past the level cap (you get 150 gold for every level past) we can also assume that you would likely need to play as much as a legend player does to get anywhere near there.
- Whether the rewards will give out unwanted rewards like packs from previous expansions in lieu of gold. If blizz thinks a previous expansion pack is worth 100 gold, then they seriously need a stern clip across the ear. Also, I don't need arena passes, tavern passes, or the new duel passes. I need gold, and that's always preferable to others.
- How much gold we can theoretically gather up in time for the next expansion is not clear. But with the reward structure as we see it its likely that we wont exactly get that 8k gold per expansion as is customary.
- How obnoxious is the quests. Let's be clear here. I don't play battlegrounds to any regular amount of level. Just don't have the time. So if there is such a quest, I will obviously want to flip it. But it wouldn't help if I have to constantly flip only to see another annoying quest (play and win duels mode would probably be the worst of the lot) taunting me to complete or lose value. Let's hope there's as little as possible of such things.
Its basically a removal card most of the time, and a pretty evil one too. Basically if both parties were neck in neck on the late game, this one will completely flip the board and require either another Silas to counter or you just lost your best minion to a tavern brawl gimmick.
If it ever catches on, it will instinctively ensure that all good minions past turn 7 will always be in the middle. But I doubt it will catch on to be honest.
Its an underwhelming announcement, honestly. Speculations was rife, and I really thought its either limited wild, or some kind of new mode with new rules, but the reveal being this? Dungeon runs were frustrating enough, and now I get to pit myself against a human opponent with it. Is that really the kind of A-game we were anticipating early this year when the hearthstone development map was shown to us?
And on top of that unwanted cake, is the cherry of it all. If this article is correct, the assorted hero powers and treasures will eventually require actual cards to unlock, guaranteeing that not everyone would have access to the whole thing without having first paid something somewhere, whether its gold, dust, or ehem real money.
Sorry blizz, but this is one thing that I would probably never get to really enjoy.
I think the real culprit is Gentle Djinn at tier 5. The others are okay. Crackling cyclone is a flexible and strong unit, but unless someone plays rag, or buffed it up with Nomi shenanigans, its mostly just decent in the late game.
Well, a priest revamp is honestly the last thing I thought others would try, since it only got its revamp like early this year. I can see that you've already chosen to HoF some of the new cards introduced.
So, some interesting observations;
- Northshire cleric change is interesting, and honestly something team5 should have done. But I guess they either wanted to preserve its viability in wild (like good luck with that) or they simply didn't want priest to draw like ever. So congrats on making it playable, strong, but not overpowered
- 9 mana mind control may seem innocuous, but when you consider that one of the best card for priest, renew. is still currently in standard and can discover and make playable that card immediately on 10, suddenly mind control at 9 seems like one of those cards that will make strong men cry. I think it being at 10 is not only completely justified, its a necessity
- Reviving infusion is good, but in wild, where dealing face damage with spells is absolutely legit with priest, its potentially game ending with something like malygos.
- Breathe of the infinity in, but no decent class dragon card. Seems like an oversight honestly. Unless every expansion comes out with a dragon for priest, then its just a deal 2 to all minions at the end.
Its just another one of those brawls thats interesting in theory but bs in practice. To sum it up, if you happen to choose paladin or shaman, you can get thoroughly screwed or screw your opponent by whether the merry-go-round starts right or left, which is decided entirely at random by the way.
I only vaguely remembered that this was given out as sort of a treasure hunt. If it weren't for that forum post earlier this week I would've just missed this one.
I do like the idea though. Maybe if they are arranging another early card from the next expansion as a giveaway, they can explore the same idea again.
That they decide to fit everything into one event might well signal that the new reward system isn't going to start more controversy, so I eagerly wait to hear more details on it. Let's hope it doesn't descent into riot.
New game mode, what could it be? Something tells me that either its just regular hearthstone with gimmicks (start at 40hp, deathrattles pop immediately, new hero power, etc.) or its them making attempts to cut into their competitors market (LoR rules, hearthstone cards).
Expansion. Hype. But I got to say that this might be one of those few times I'm actually more interested in the other news that comes along with the expansion announcement. Expect 6-12 really hot cards to be revealed, followed by 2 weeks of nothing before the reveal season starts.
Solarian prime can win games on its own, never mind that you can usually expect at least 2 of them per game. Whether its 7 mana or 9 mana, the only thing that changes here is that you can no longer just play this on 7 either as a last ditch card, and only have enough mana at 10 to cast one Ray of Frost in case it fails hard.
Needless to say, I don't expect anyone to start ditching Astromancer Solarian anytime soon. Even if all goes completely belly up for mage (an unlikely scenario) solarian will still be respected as one of the strongest cards from AoO, and I don't expect this nerf to change it by much.
(just so you dont spend too much time thinking about it, I didn't downvoted you. Just sharing thoughts)
Maybe pre-historic Azeroth, with protodrake dragon aspects and titans, stone dwarfs and trogs.
Iron horde theme? With that alternate universe Draenor
Or maybe classic alliance vs horde, with tri class cards
Darkmoon faire (because if the next one isn't then its never going to be)
Whether a class is bad, cancerous, or problematic isn't and shouldn't be defined by whether they have had nerfs within any time frame. That they haven't really been viable on the top end is the reason why their cards have stayed unnerfed.
Face hunter isn't truly a fall back option for climbing, since soul dhunter is a better deck overall, and plays more or less the same game as face hunter does, at the same speed. Its only popular at the moment because its a cheap and easy deck. The further up the rankings go, the less popular hunter becomes, because higher ranked players are more skilled and the price is no longer a factor.
Aggro gets a bad press since it has a reputation to be as you would call it, 'vomit' decks, but its actually more complex than it seems. In most cases they actually need to understand their matches since they are inherently playing low curve cards, and you don't need AoE to beat them, just enough tempo to outlast their low, but consistent, value.
I would agree that hp in hearthstone has some problems, but a bigger problem in my opinion is how team5 is framing each class to archetypes, so hunter's propensity towards smorc is enforced by the kind of cards it gets. But that is, as you say, a topic for another time.