Just a small comment on monstrous mark. Its basically broken, mostly because you can target any minion on this and guarantee damage to the opponent. So if my opponent happens to have a big minion, all I need to do is to target my own minion and charge into it. In this respect, that will likely be its common usage for 90% of the time, which will almost certainly ensure that there is no way to race hunters other than through wide boards. In my opinion, the description should read choose an enemy minion, so the idea of dealing face damage through taunts still stick while not making it terrible to play against.
Should've been designed like this from the start. Hearthstone has this small affliction where they think cards that generate themselves are inherently funny so nearly every one of them are designed to do so. Too bad the joke really gets old after you see mage and priest double up their value for the billion-th time.
Its just another confirmation that this is going to happen no matter what and they are actively trying to keep the hate as low as possible by tweaking ever so slightly every time they get an explosion in reddit or somewhere else. Now the benchmark is set at 5000 gold. Unfortunately for Ben, that's actually not very good since most players can easily get upwards to 8k per expansion if they just play it semi-casually, finishing up all their quests.
Notice that assurances is that the idea is to repackage, not reduce rewards. Which is somewhat true. Again, its not really saying much at all since one of the main issues I had with the BP was that my 57 packs was being stretched out over 4 months, making it tantalizingly within reach if only I have the patience to actually wait. And if I ran out of patience, my only recourse is simple: buy packs with my hard earned cash (of which the exchange rate can go fk itself)
We'll be waiting to see the actual descriptions of the BP when it comes out. At least now we know something of the sort is certainly in the works and its not likely to go away anytime soon.
Honestly, its not been completely doom and gloom for control in standard. Shaman, warrior, dhunter, and priest are viable classes for control, and well worth the while exploring if you've havent gave up on standard.
It takes a while for aggro to go away. Its typically everywhere because, much like myself, anyone that got screwed with their pack openings probably dont have the gold, dust, or real money to get the legendaries they would like/need, hence why aggro rogue, hunter, aggro dhunter, druids, and paladin are everywhere now.
Depending on your own goals, and if you dont really care much about ranking up, you can easily sit yourself near platinum 10 every season and just play decks that are fun to you.
You cant just take everything at face value, convert them into gold and call it a fair crack.
- The '32' packs are actually 18 current expansions packs and 14 standard packs. Those 14 packs are not current expansion, and can range from (taking the current as example) AoO to RoS and I think its fair to say that no one at this point would value RoS packs in the same way as say, AoO or Scholomance packs.
- Arena tickets are a little trickier. 150 gold per ticket is an okay way to call it, but I personally dont care about arena and will be good to simply receive 1 pack in exchange. But lets just accept its 150 gold for now.
- You cant take epics and legendaries and ascribe a gold value to it. It can range from being choice to complete garbage
- Skins and card back dont affect gameplay, and in most cases FTP players wouldn't give a toss for it. So again, you can't just paste a gold value on it and call it fair.
In reality, you're staring at 3990 + 1800 + 600 = 6390 gold + whatever 14 packs you get. Even with this extra 1400 gold its still 7790 for 4 months. Let's also not forget you dont get these straight up. Its incremental, so you either resist buying packs, or play with half-assed decks assuming you've no dust hanging around.
I get like 80-90 packs per expansion. And I still dont get most of the better cards. This battlepass doesn't even match that, and the incremental nature of the rewards is but a thinly veiled attempt at getting us to buy packs. Ironically many of us won't mind paying a little to have more fun, but this is not paying to have fun. Its more like paying to grind. Grind up enough before the fun eventually comes, or pay more money to lessen the grind. That's the real change isn't it?
This is actually a roundabout method of getting players to buy packs with real money rather than grind up gold. Here's some problems I can see at first glance.
- The total packs you get throughout the 4 months would be 39+18 = 57, but since FTP players tend to hoard their gold for the next expansion, in theory you're opening 18 packs of the current expansion throughout that 4 months of grinding. The number of packs I tend to open per expansion is around 80-90, and I'm usually nowhere near the amount of cards I need or would like. So halving this, and then subjecting me to a 4 month grind since packs are granted incrementally means I would have to be content with playing half-assed decks, get lucky with my legendaries, or...you know...buy more packs.
- You get another 14 packs of the current expansion, 4 months after the next one launches. I'd like to immediately point out that most players focuses on the current expansion, and not the previous one. It doesn't really matter even if I chanced that one legendary I always wanted at the very last pack I get. The fact of the matter is I've been doing without for the past 8 months, so what are the chances that I still give a shit after 8 months, or havent just crafted the card myself?
- Arena tickets. Not my thing. But if everyone just concedes three times, I wonder if the meta would then be to wait out at least the minute mark for the mulligan phase so the other player concedes first and give you a freebie.
- Skins, artwork, etc. Well, these don't actually affect the game, and since everyone gets one, its like the non-golden SN1P-SN4P phenomenon where the non-golden card is actually more glamorous than the golden one.
- And, of course, we still don't know how the grind would be like. But if its really really bad, then its just netdeckers left right and center all over again. Ceiling floors are important so players can choose their ceiling and stay there playing fun decks, but if you're being tracked for xp all day, then its just more important to just grind out that 9k xp limit per week than actually experimenting with sub optimal decks. It also makes it a lot worse for those without an adequate collection.
Of course things can change. Its just a concept for now, but I hope they will change their minds about giving out previous expansion packs instead of current. Your personal experience (for good or ill) of an expansion should ideally stay within that expansion.
Didn't do so well with my packs as well. Got 2+1 legendaries in 56 packs. One of which reached the 40 pack pity timer, which up until now I've never experienced.
Do you guys have this strange thing where your first legendary will almost always come before the ten pack timer, then its like an average of 10-20 packs until you get the other one? Has happened to me like for the past 5 expansions.
Its likely not a problem now because most aggro rogue list is pretty disjointed. And losing that shadowstep + Leeroy combo really hit it hard. It'll likely take a few weeks before someone comes out with a more consistent list. For my own part, just having 2x prep in the list makes it a whole lot easier to start spending those 5 cards, thinning out the deck fast.
Voracious Reader isn't going to get nerfed. I kinda forgot how disruptive having 2 Jeeves in the hand was back then, and I'm experiencing it now. Basically if you somehow have both readers in hand, you're not likely to be winning that match.
Alright, there's an official article already, and I've pretty much stated my opinion there. But just to touch upon your opinion;
- Soul fragments and its synergy cards are not really that broken in my opinion. Yes, cards like Void Drinker is extremely powerful, but that's little to no difference from handlock playing Abyssal Summoner and it comes turn 5, assuming you've actually shuffled those cards in. The 2 heal is negligible at best. Any suicide warlock knows they need to play for board to win, and most games are not determined by warlock's health. If they lose board, no amount of healing is going to save them.
- There's only one deck I know that plays Glide unironically and thats the ultra aggro dhunter deck that uses Voracious Reader and Glide in an otherwise normal zoo-ish deck. There's little scenarios where your opponent can get more than 5 cards in hand facing an aggro deck and not die, and from my own experience, glide usually doesn't really do much other than draw you cards
- Lightning Bloom is the only card I think needs a nerf. This along with Kael'thas Sunstrider is pure cancer. Even aggro decks have difficulty chasing after druid, and that's not normally a good sign. I think the most appropriate nerf is to simply change lightning bloom to refresh rather than give mana. That allows both druid and shaman to continue playing with more mana while also stopping those mad turn 3-5 kael'thas into something like Survival of the Fittest or Guardian Animals.
They could have honestly printed Lightning Bloom to simply refresh 2 mana crystals instead of gain. I think that was the original intention but someone in the team may have thought it would be a good idea to make it OP now and nerf it later.
Yeah, things have been a little buggy. If you play quest, that trigger sound plays constantly every turn even when you're not doing anything. And the target arrows tend to stick longer than required.
It may be a bit early, but its clear as day to anyone whose been playing that something needs to be done about druid. Its not so much that druidstone has just returned, but we are now facing situations where the two cards Lightning Bloom and Overgrowth are basically destroying even decks that are meant to counter them. I personally think that its perhaps a little too early to start planning nerfs, but I think that kael'thas situation has got to be looked at. Basically both shaman and druids are running this card, and its not hard to guess why. That down, I think we can easily forgive Guardian Animals and Survival of the Fittest, neither of which come close to the stupidity of cheating a massive Kael'thas Sunstrider into survival of the fittest.
As for paladin. Goody Two-Shields have been predictably impactful, but that's assuming paladin manages to get ahead in the early turns, which isnt really that easy. High Abbess Alura is also similarly strong, but that's a massive coin toss. It could just as easily be Libram of Justice, as much as it could be hope. And to set it up on turn 4 means you have to keep on a 0 mana spell. Not easily done. Given how strong Tour Guide and Voracious Reader are, I think nerfing even a single card from paladin just makes the class completely unplayable. Paladin is basically the most 'fair' class currently in hearthstone, so they don't need any changes.
Raise Dead and Flesh Giants are hardly problems. Raise dead is only in particularly stupid in rez priest, but even that requires that awful combo of Psychopomp and Convincing Infiltrator to first show up. I wouldn't change anything here too.
I heard that Tour Guide and Secret Passage is ripping wild apart with odd rogue. But team5 have always put standard first over wild, so I don't expect anything to be done about this now. Aggro rogue is good, but in my opinion, fair. Its nowhere near as powerful as many have thought, but that might be because its not polished. I think we can leave this off for now and come back later. Its not like team5 is adverse to those 5 nerf bats per expansion these days anyway.
I heavily misjudged how easy it is for druid to get to those power turns, during the reveals. The cards in druid are fair, but quickly becomes unfair when they just go lightning bloom, kael'thas into survival of the fittest. Then you've got one turn to end it before you're quickly outvalued.
The main problem here is actually Overgrowth and Lightning Bloom. Watch druid suffer when these are not in hand. If there was ever a deck that wins by drawing that ONE card, druid will be taking home the winner even with a a score of three blind judges and a guide dog. In fact, when I do win its usually because one or the other just came in too late.
Yet again we encounter what is known as the druid-o-syndrome where the entire deck lives and dies by ramp.
Yes, druid is yet again a problem, cheating out massive amount of mana at turns where no one can possibly do anything about. Its not always consistent, but its more consistent than most aggro decks right now (probably because its not refined). Its kinda like the old spell druid where ramp on 4 into mountseller just closes most games, except now they get to do it even earlier thanks to Lightning Bloom.
If this is the meta then I won't be surprised if next week's gm is druid, warrior, warlock and dhunters, with warrior banned. Maybe aggro rogue can squeeze in a bit.
Aggro rogue feels fine, but a little too fair. The key is to mulligan hard for Secret Passage, At around 4-5 mana you can unleash with a good chance for a huge edwin against druid, assuming they didn't just pound you into the dirt with Lightning Bloom or ramp.
Im having a good time with control dhunter. Feels just right, but I didn't open up Keymaster Alabaster so I wasn't able to test this in that deck. Still unrefined though.
For some reason, giants mage feels really good. Firebrand's really strong, honestly.
The main problem of Plagiarize is simply because it its highly matchup dependent. Against most rogues or mage, you can stand to get plenty of value from this card. Against paladin, priest or any midrange deck and the likelihood is that you're getting one card tops. And you've just spent two mana for it. But getting this off hanar is just sick, since you now have a choice of taking or leaving it depending on matchup.
Secret Passage however is completely crazy. You dont need to be hit by bricks to know this is going to get nerfed at some point. The only justification for this to even be printed is simply because without it there's absolutely no reason why any rogue deck wouldn't just play some version of galakrond. That said, whether this card gets nerfed will heavily depend on how aggressive rogue can get, and without Leeroy Jenkins + Shadowstep, I think team5 would consider this 'balanced' - until its not.
The nature of battlegrounds is its carefree, noncompetitive casualness. Unfortunately this means that a large part of the game itself is rng, with only limited amounts of control each player has over their game. Even your starting hero is essentially a coin toss. Its really not worth making a write up over it. That blizz even balances battlegrounds at all, its usually because the games are getting stale, like the amalgams early on and later the cobalt guardians, and rarely because of something being too 'unfair'
Your case example makes good video highlights. I can symphatize, but I suspect that was the whole point of battlegrounds for most people.
Just a small comment on monstrous mark. Its basically broken, mostly because you can target any minion on this and guarantee damage to the opponent. So if my opponent happens to have a big minion, all I need to do is to target my own minion and charge into it. In this respect, that will likely be its common usage for 90% of the time, which will almost certainly ensure that there is no way to race hunters other than through wide boards. In my opinion, the description should read choose an enemy minion, so the idea of dealing face damage through taunts still stick while not making it terrible to play against.
Could be that you're operating on wifi. Gets me everytime.
So minor pauses between cards is all I got at times. Frustrating yes, but mercifully I've not lost matches because it yet.
Should've been designed like this from the start. Hearthstone has this small affliction where they think cards that generate themselves are inherently funny so nearly every one of them are designed to do so. Too bad the joke really gets old after you see mage and priest double up their value for the billion-th time.
Its just another confirmation that this is going to happen no matter what and they are actively trying to keep the hate as low as possible by tweaking ever so slightly every time they get an explosion in reddit or somewhere else. Now the benchmark is set at 5000 gold. Unfortunately for Ben, that's actually not very good since most players can easily get upwards to 8k per expansion if they just play it semi-casually, finishing up all their quests.
Notice that assurances is that the idea is to repackage, not reduce rewards. Which is somewhat true. Again, its not really saying much at all since one of the main issues I had with the BP was that my 57 packs was being stretched out over 4 months, making it tantalizingly within reach if only I have the patience to actually wait. And if I ran out of patience, my only recourse is simple: buy packs with my hard earned cash (of which the exchange rate can go fk itself)
We'll be waiting to see the actual descriptions of the BP when it comes out. At least now we know something of the sort is certainly in the works and its not likely to go away anytime soon.
Honestly, its not been completely doom and gloom for control in standard. Shaman, warrior, dhunter, and priest are viable classes for control, and well worth the while exploring if you've havent gave up on standard.
It takes a while for aggro to go away. Its typically everywhere because, much like myself, anyone that got screwed with their pack openings probably dont have the gold, dust, or real money to get the legendaries they would like/need, hence why aggro rogue, hunter, aggro dhunter, druids, and paladin are everywhere now.
Depending on your own goals, and if you dont really care much about ranking up, you can easily sit yourself near platinum 10 every season and just play decks that are fun to you.
You cant just take everything at face value, convert them into gold and call it a fair crack.
- The '32' packs are actually 18 current expansions packs and 14 standard packs. Those 14 packs are not current expansion, and can range from (taking the current as example) AoO to RoS and I think its fair to say that no one at this point would value RoS packs in the same way as say, AoO or Scholomance packs.
- Arena tickets are a little trickier. 150 gold per ticket is an okay way to call it, but I personally dont care about arena and will be good to simply receive 1 pack in exchange. But lets just accept its 150 gold for now.
- You cant take epics and legendaries and ascribe a gold value to it. It can range from being choice to complete garbage
- Skins and card back dont affect gameplay, and in most cases FTP players wouldn't give a toss for it. So again, you can't just paste a gold value on it and call it fair.
In reality, you're staring at 3990 + 1800 + 600 = 6390 gold + whatever 14 packs you get. Even with this extra 1400 gold its still 7790 for 4 months. Let's also not forget you dont get these straight up. Its incremental, so you either resist buying packs, or play with half-assed decks assuming you've no dust hanging around.
I get like 80-90 packs per expansion. And I still dont get most of the better cards. This battlepass doesn't even match that, and the incremental nature of the rewards is but a thinly veiled attempt at getting us to buy packs. Ironically many of us won't mind paying a little to have more fun, but this is not paying to have fun. Its more like paying to grind. Grind up enough before the fun eventually comes, or pay more money to lessen the grind. That's the real change isn't it?
This is actually a roundabout method of getting players to buy packs with real money rather than grind up gold. Here's some problems I can see at first glance.
- The total packs you get throughout the 4 months would be 39+18 = 57, but since FTP players tend to hoard their gold for the next expansion, in theory you're opening 18 packs of the current expansion throughout that 4 months of grinding. The number of packs I tend to open per expansion is around 80-90, and I'm usually nowhere near the amount of cards I need or would like. So halving this, and then subjecting me to a 4 month grind since packs are granted incrementally means I would have to be content with playing half-assed decks, get lucky with my legendaries, or...you know...buy more packs.
- You get another 14 packs of the current expansion, 4 months after the next one launches. I'd like to immediately point out that most players focuses on the current expansion, and not the previous one. It doesn't really matter even if I chanced that one legendary I always wanted at the very last pack I get. The fact of the matter is I've been doing without for the past 8 months, so what are the chances that I still give a shit after 8 months, or havent just crafted the card myself?
- Arena tickets. Not my thing. But if everyone just concedes three times, I wonder if the meta would then be to wait out at least the minute mark for the mulligan phase so the other player concedes first and give you a freebie.
- Skins, artwork, etc. Well, these don't actually affect the game, and since everyone gets one, its like the non-golden SN1P-SN4P phenomenon where the non-golden card is actually more glamorous than the golden one.
- And, of course, we still don't know how the grind would be like. But if its really really bad, then its just netdeckers left right and center all over again. Ceiling floors are important so players can choose their ceiling and stay there playing fun decks, but if you're being tracked for xp all day, then its just more important to just grind out that 9k xp limit per week than actually experimenting with sub optimal decks. It also makes it a lot worse for those without an adequate collection.
Of course things can change. Its just a concept for now, but I hope they will change their minds about giving out previous expansion packs instead of current. Your personal experience (for good or ill) of an expansion should ideally stay within that expansion.
Didn't do so well with my packs as well. Got 2+1 legendaries in 56 packs. One of which reached the 40 pack pity timer, which up until now I've never experienced.
Do you guys have this strange thing where your first legendary will almost always come before the ten pack timer, then its like an average of 10-20 packs until you get the other one? Has happened to me like for the past 5 expansions.
Were you able to find the concept art for Judicious Junior?
Really curios what the thought processes were for the current art to have been chosen
Its likely not a problem now because most aggro rogue list is pretty disjointed. And losing that shadowstep + Leeroy combo really hit it hard. It'll likely take a few weeks before someone comes out with a more consistent list. For my own part, just having 2x prep in the list makes it a whole lot easier to start spending those 5 cards, thinning out the deck fast.
Voracious Reader isn't going to get nerfed. I kinda forgot how disruptive having 2 Jeeves in the hand was back then, and I'm experiencing it now. Basically if you somehow have both readers in hand, you're not likely to be winning that match.
Number 1 question: Where the fudge is the felosophy bundle and when is it going to come back?
Alright, there's an official article already, and I've pretty much stated my opinion there. But just to touch upon your opinion;
- Soul fragments and its synergy cards are not really that broken in my opinion. Yes, cards like Void Drinker is extremely powerful, but that's little to no difference from handlock playing Abyssal Summoner and it comes turn 5, assuming you've actually shuffled those cards in. The 2 heal is negligible at best. Any suicide warlock knows they need to play for board to win, and most games are not determined by warlock's health. If they lose board, no amount of healing is going to save them.
- There's only one deck I know that plays Glide unironically and thats the ultra aggro dhunter deck that uses Voracious Reader and Glide in an otherwise normal zoo-ish deck. There's little scenarios where your opponent can get more than 5 cards in hand facing an aggro deck and not die, and from my own experience, glide usually doesn't really do much other than draw you cards
- Lightning Bloom is the only card I think needs a nerf. This along with Kael'thas Sunstrider is pure cancer. Even aggro decks have difficulty chasing after druid, and that's not normally a good sign. I think the most appropriate nerf is to simply change lightning bloom to refresh rather than give mana. That allows both druid and shaman to continue playing with more mana while also stopping those mad turn 3-5 kael'thas into something like Survival of the Fittest or Guardian Animals.
They could have honestly printed Lightning Bloom to simply refresh 2 mana crystals instead of gain. I think that was the original intention but someone in the team may have thought it would be a good idea to make it OP now and nerf it later.
Yeah, things have been a little buggy. If you play quest, that trigger sound plays constantly every turn even when you're not doing anything. And the target arrows tend to stick longer than required.
It may be a bit early, but its clear as day to anyone whose been playing that something needs to be done about druid. Its not so much that druidstone has just returned, but we are now facing situations where the two cards Lightning Bloom and Overgrowth are basically destroying even decks that are meant to counter them. I personally think that its perhaps a little too early to start planning nerfs, but I think that kael'thas situation has got to be looked at. Basically both shaman and druids are running this card, and its not hard to guess why. That down, I think we can easily forgive Guardian Animals and Survival of the Fittest, neither of which come close to the stupidity of cheating a massive Kael'thas Sunstrider into survival of the fittest.
As for paladin. Goody Two-Shields have been predictably impactful, but that's assuming paladin manages to get ahead in the early turns, which isnt really that easy. High Abbess Alura is also similarly strong, but that's a massive coin toss. It could just as easily be Libram of Justice, as much as it could be hope. And to set it up on turn 4 means you have to keep on a 0 mana spell. Not easily done. Given how strong Tour Guide and Voracious Reader are, I think nerfing even a single card from paladin just makes the class completely unplayable. Paladin is basically the most 'fair' class currently in hearthstone, so they don't need any changes.
Raise Dead and Flesh Giants are hardly problems. Raise dead is only in particularly stupid in rez priest, but even that requires that awful combo of Psychopomp and Convincing Infiltrator to first show up. I wouldn't change anything here too.
I heard that Tour Guide and Secret Passage is ripping wild apart with odd rogue. But team5 have always put standard first over wild, so I don't expect anything to be done about this now. Aggro rogue is good, but in my opinion, fair. Its nowhere near as powerful as many have thought, but that might be because its not polished. I think we can leave this off for now and come back later. Its not like team5 is adverse to those 5 nerf bats per expansion these days anyway.
Druid. What else.
I heavily misjudged how easy it is for druid to get to those power turns, during the reveals. The cards in druid are fair, but quickly becomes unfair when they just go lightning bloom, kael'thas into survival of the fittest. Then you've got one turn to end it before you're quickly outvalued.
The main problem here is actually Overgrowth and Lightning Bloom. Watch druid suffer when these are not in hand. If there was ever a deck that wins by drawing that ONE card, druid will be taking home the winner even with a a score of three blind judges and a guide dog. In fact, when I do win its usually because one or the other just came in too late.
Yet again we encounter what is known as the druid-o-syndrome where the entire deck lives and dies by ramp.
Yes, druid is yet again a problem, cheating out massive amount of mana at turns where no one can possibly do anything about. Its not always consistent, but its more consistent than most aggro decks right now (probably because its not refined). Its kinda like the old spell druid where ramp on 4 into mountseller just closes most games, except now they get to do it even earlier thanks to Lightning Bloom.
If this is the meta then I won't be surprised if next week's gm is druid, warrior, warlock and dhunters, with warrior banned. Maybe aggro rogue can squeeze in a bit.
Aggro rogue feels fine, but a little too fair. The key is to mulligan hard for Secret Passage, At around 4-5 mana you can unleash with a good chance for a huge edwin against druid, assuming they didn't just pound you into the dirt with Lightning Bloom or ramp.
Im having a good time with control dhunter. Feels just right, but I didn't open up Keymaster Alabaster so I wasn't able to test this in that deck. Still unrefined though.
For some reason, giants mage feels really good. Firebrand's really strong, honestly.
Amazing. A mad dash 4 hours before launch and you actually managed to finish up reviewing every card. Congrats.
The main problem of Plagiarize is simply because it its highly matchup dependent. Against most rogues or mage, you can stand to get plenty of value from this card. Against paladin, priest or any midrange deck and the likelihood is that you're getting one card tops. And you've just spent two mana for it. But getting this off hanar is just sick, since you now have a choice of taking or leaving it depending on matchup.
Secret Passage however is completely crazy. You dont need to be hit by bricks to know this is going to get nerfed at some point. The only justification for this to even be printed is simply because without it there's absolutely no reason why any rogue deck wouldn't just play some version of galakrond. That said, whether this card gets nerfed will heavily depend on how aggressive rogue can get, and without Leeroy Jenkins + Shadowstep, I think team5 would consider this 'balanced' - until its not.
The nature of battlegrounds is its carefree, noncompetitive casualness. Unfortunately this means that a large part of the game itself is rng, with only limited amounts of control each player has over their game. Even your starting hero is essentially a coin toss. Its really not worth making a write up over it. That blizz even balances battlegrounds at all, its usually because the games are getting stale, like the amalgams early on and later the cobalt guardians, and rarely because of something being too 'unfair'
Your case example makes good video highlights. I can symphatize, but I suspect that was the whole point of battlegrounds for most people.