It had always been possible to see what class a weapon belong to, that tiny little rectangle's color. So after 6 years we finally get this changed. Wonder how many eyes this little thing has strained over them years.
But if the effect can be game changing to play, and we can't choose the effect, that means the card is either extremely strong or stupidly weak depending on an rng system no one has control of.
Man its going to be some dark times when we start seeing this card winning matches for your opponent because we happen to be in a game board that favors our opponent instead of us. How is this even remotely justified in a supposedly competitive game?
Man, they really ramped up those stuff you get from preordering a deluxe.
And with something as iconic as kel'thuzad, that's really hard to pass up. Shame that's its effectively paywalled until further notice. But hey, that means there's just a chance for a Mr. Bigglesworth skin to appear on a 20USD price tag right?
But its likely just too expensive to be honest. I know it wasn't popular, but couldn't they have one of those kiddie preorders like they had in Rastakhan, $20 packs 20USD? maybe throw in a random legendary, and I'm in.
- To get people to buy them, they'd have to sell at a discounted price. Its the usual 1USD per pack deal instead of 2.99USD for 2 packs. So if this becomes a staple, no one will buy packs at ordinary price anymore, hence less profit
- The idea is that part of the proceeds (250k USD) goes to players via tournaments, while they keep the rest. We can only speculate that this is usually surpassed, but not by much. So theres not really a lot of it in it for Blizz to continue this practice.
- Part of a plan to reduce perceived costs to playing the game. There's usually 2 deals per expansion. 1 will come one or two months after expansion launches (usually with a skin attached), another will come as part of the adventure. Add more to this and suddenly FTP players will feel like they're being pressured to pay to play. This is a longshot, but I cant wholeheartedly say I didn't feel left out on good deals myself (I've only preordered once, and usually skip the discounts unless its current expansion packs)
- Or more insidiously, the cap has never been reached so blizz dont get a bean out of the deal. Hence its discontinued.
Did you get the supposed free deck from coming back?
Its been a lot better actually, far as standard is concerned. Wild is a mess, but with Warglaives of Azzinoth being nerfed things might change.
Its not been totally great. The adventure, in my opinion, sucked. Standard is somewhat balanced now though priest is still cancer. Dhunters are at the forefront, but no longer as abusive as it was.
If you're really feeling it, try totem shaman or quest druid. Lots of fun, but inconsistent results. Theres probably still a little time before the nerfs, so maybe try out control dhunters before warglaives gets the nerf.
Hearthstone has 10 classes now and its not always possible to design cards so all classes have decks that can triumph with pure skill alone. That 1 mana hp in dhunters are pretty broken, but as much as I don't like it I'm having trouble thinking up a suitable replacement for it. At very least they're actively making changes so the OP levels of stupid are being toned down, even if cautiously slow. Dhunters are in a better spot than they ever had, and with the nerf to Warglaives of Azzinoth, nearly everything that was oppressive have been addressed one way or another (not referring to wild, obviously. That's another level of stupid worth its own discussion thread).
Yes, priest is a scourge filled with RNG, along with mage (mostly due to The Amazing Reno). If this continues, it wouldn't surprise me if Thoughtsteal gets nerfed back to 3. But that's the thing, I can look forward to something being done about it. Its easy to forget that just over 1.5 years ago nerfs/changes are pretty much down to once or twice per expansion, and usually the size of nukes.
Team5 have recently come down on the RNG aspect of the game and we are led to believe the next expansion will have less of it, so there's something to look forward to. Take a break, like I had in June when I had the unfortunate bad taste of trying to climb with libram paladin. New expansions' in 3 weeks
Maybe. Despite the gameplay trailers and announcements, it seems like d4 is having some trouble meeting deadlines. I can only hope they release it when its ready and not before.
There's still control dhunter, which is actually pretty good, though not as good as tempo.
The current tempo dhunter list with 2x Vulpera Scoundrel (not the priestess of fury build) has been doing well enough for me. Priest is not really a problem unless they highroll their discovers and random minions, in most cases they just run out of steam way before you do. Rogue and hunter depends heavily on what type, and whether they have Frozen Shadoweaver on 3 or 5. In most cases, if you can get 1 drop on 1 or Umberwing on 2, you're still favored to win it.
Its no longer an auto win by the third nerf. Now it actually demands some skill in deciding mulligans and trades. Just like any other healthy deck.
Of course Blizz wants us to spend money on the game (that's how it keeps going after all!), but they do that by keeping us interested, and it is a moot point what the motives behind that are. Thought experiment: does it actually matter how greedy and devious someone is if all their money is earned by doing things that make people happy?
Of course it matters. Hearthstone, much like blizz itself, isn't just a commodity maintained by continued influx of cash. It thrives in a community who may have spent much of their lives around. It belongs to its corporate board members as much it belongs to its community, that's what make it more than just a number on the cash register.
Unfortunately, its corporate members are largely unelected and therefore unaccountable to its community. They can jack up prices as easily as they can put it down, no matter how it affects the livelihood of its community. The key is to balance it so corporate makes a decent profit, and the community stays happy. Corporate greed, however, is rarely happy just to make a profit. So you'd have shady practices designed to either make all the money in the world, or to tip that balance ever so slowly in their favor. Its up to its community to call them out on it and rebalance it whenever possible.
The motives matter. Blizz used to live up to a standard unequaled in the gaming industry. After its merger, those standards are slowly but surely being corroded as activition-blizz comes out with new ways to earn money irrespective of the high standards it set itself, as it hopes its community adapts to the so called new normal. Galakrond's awakening, for example, is one such attempt at creating a new normal where an additional $20 (or 2800 gold) is required in order for anyone to keep up with the game (you can't just craft those cards with dust). I'm sure it makes the community very happy to have an additional set of cards to play with, but are we going to accept 3 expansions a year + an additional $20 every expansion? Lets not even discuss the implications this will have on game design if we let them get away with it.
Expand on the murgurgle story please. I like to know if there is a side story where a spunky, independent female murloc slowly but surely freed murgurgle from his captive mind control state and eventually formed an avenger-style team of ragtag murlocs personalities, going on to beat Mecha-Jaraxxus with the power of friendship.
Oh, and there will of course be a mandatory required scene where mecha-jaraxxus somehow managed to control murgurgle again and later making that oh so obvious mistake of commanding him to kill the girl, rolling his eyes when the power of love triumphs to push him off a cliff to his certain doom, which will at some point be retcon into another blockbuster sequel.
Or you know...they want us all to have fun in a meta with a variety of viable decks.
If all blizz wanted was to boost expansion pack sales, all they'd have to do is just powercreep every expansion until we eventually get minions with 100 attack and 500 health.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza - Basically dragonqueen on 9 is nonexistent anymore except the greediest of decks. Its still very powerful but it will change very little to those playing dragonqueen regularly. It doesn't change dragonqueen on 10 plays for example. What it does exactly is to nerf combo decks aiming at getting value from dragonqueen, which means that meme quest shaman deck (which isn't very good by the way) just lost its win condition. Quite a shame indeed.
Corsair Cache - The real reason to play this was always because it tutors weapons and for its durability buff. But it does have some implications. Since it effectively means that Ancharrr no longer hits for 3, its easier to set it so it doesn't just eat a 3 drop when its played on 3.
Metamorphosis - Still good, and the only true change here is its almost going to universally hit face and nothing else now. 4 damage barely kills anything in the 5 mana range.
Kayn Sunfury - Was good as a 3/5, will still be good as a 3/4. Cant say from my own experience what this change will end up doing.
Warglaives of Azzinoth - This one's the real bank buster. Changes to mana means its no longer in odd dhunter (a massive thing), and also means its useless as a clear tool now since its just one mana away from the better Flamereaper. Opens up a ton of space in the metagame where this on 5 basically ends swarm decks.
Dragoncaster - So that highroll big spell mage is dead. Highlander mage has more than enough space for a 7 mana dragoncaster, and I don't think they will stop using it because this got nerfed one mana away. What this means its no longer possible to curve manasaber into dragoncaster on 5.
Fungal Fortunes - I honestly think this card is no longer usable. Its too slow, and it also means you have to skip 2 turns to curve into Overgrowth (this on turn 3, and later overgrowth on 4, you're not doing anything else without an Innervate). This might be the biggest nerf on the list, just right below or on par with warglaives, and quite timely too. Spell/dragon druid has been quite cancerous for some time, and needs a knock down a peg or two.
Galakrond, the Nightmare - This is not the end. One costed cards are still busted, and rogues will still be drawing cards, which is the real reason for playing a fully invoked galakrond in the first place. Heistbaron Togwaggle untouched means the gameplan hasn't really change except you can almost never play galakrond on 7 ever again, which in reality, isn't really common anyway. It has that small effect that malygos galakrond rogue is now infinitely worst (but still not unplayable) so there's that.
Beneficiaries to this change? Priest is untouched, but that nerf to druid and dhunter might bring back hunter into the top. Swarm decks like murloc paladin might just be unchallenged now, and [Hearthstone Card (frozen shadowweaver) Not Found] may just be dropped as a mandatory inclusion. Will libram pally make a rise? No. Priest just saw 2 of its predators nerfed, and it eats paladins for breakfast. Control dhunter barely saw the light of day and might just be gone to oblivion before it even learns to walk. My prediction is dragon and highlander hunter on the top, followed by warrior. Priest continues to be annoying, murloc pally and totem shaman goes up, and dhunters to finally take stage as no.2 on the tier list until the next expansion.
Not a fan of the nerfs, except that change to Warglaives of Azzinoth. Fingers crossed we dont see more priests because of it.
If you're wondering which is unanimously the most complained of, its likely anything that requires a discover effect (raven idols, yikes), and the other will be co-op brawls.
It had always been possible to see what class a weapon belong to, that tiny little rectangle's color. So after 6 years we finally get this changed. Wonder how many eyes this little thing has strained over them years.
Interesting card.
But if the effect can be game changing to play, and we can't choose the effect, that means the card is either extremely strong or stupidly weak depending on an rng system no one has control of.
Man its going to be some dark times when we start seeing this card winning matches for your opponent because we happen to be in a game board that favors our opponent instead of us. How is this even remotely justified in a supposedly competitive game?
So long as I don't see priest cards that discover cards from opponent's deck I'm fine with it.
Nature Studies looking very strong though, and very concerning.
Man, they really ramped up those stuff you get from preordering a deluxe.
And with something as iconic as kel'thuzad, that's really hard to pass up. Shame that's its effectively paywalled until further notice. But hey, that means there's just a chance for a Mr. Bigglesworth skin to appear on a 20USD price tag right?
But its likely just too expensive to be honest. I know it wasn't popular, but couldn't they have one of those kiddie preorders like they had in Rastakhan, $20 packs 20USD? maybe throw in a random legendary, and I'm in.
Some speculation;
- To get people to buy them, they'd have to sell at a discounted price. Its the usual 1USD per pack deal instead of 2.99USD for 2 packs. So if this becomes a staple, no one will buy packs at ordinary price anymore, hence less profit
- The idea is that part of the proceeds (250k USD) goes to players via tournaments, while they keep the rest. We can only speculate that this is usually surpassed, but not by much. So theres not really a lot of it in it for Blizz to continue this practice.
- Part of a plan to reduce perceived costs to playing the game. There's usually 2 deals per expansion. 1 will come one or two months after expansion launches (usually with a skin attached), another will come as part of the adventure. Add more to this and suddenly FTP players will feel like they're being pressured to pay to play. This is a longshot, but I cant wholeheartedly say I didn't feel left out on good deals myself (I've only preordered once, and usually skip the discounts unless its current expansion packs)
- Or more insidiously, the cap has never been reached so blizz dont get a bean out of the deal. Hence its discontinued.
Its likely either mage or priest. Or maybe its paladin. After all they're Making Mummies
Did you get the supposed free deck from coming back?
Its been a lot better actually, far as standard is concerned. Wild is a mess, but with Warglaives of Azzinoth being nerfed things might change.
Its not been totally great. The adventure, in my opinion, sucked. Standard is somewhat balanced now though priest is still cancer. Dhunters are at the forefront, but no longer as abusive as it was.
If you're really feeling it, try totem shaman or quest druid. Lots of fun, but inconsistent results. Theres probably still a little time before the nerfs, so maybe try out control dhunters before warglaives gets the nerf.
Just can't wait until tomorrow when hearthstone is at its most optimistic; pre-expansion.
Hearthstone has 10 classes now and its not always possible to design cards so all classes have decks that can triumph with pure skill alone. That 1 mana hp in dhunters are pretty broken, but as much as I don't like it I'm having trouble thinking up a suitable replacement for it. At very least they're actively making changes so the OP levels of stupid are being toned down, even if cautiously slow. Dhunters are in a better spot than they ever had, and with the nerf to Warglaives of Azzinoth, nearly everything that was oppressive have been addressed one way or another (not referring to wild, obviously. That's another level of stupid worth its own discussion thread).
Yes, priest is a scourge filled with RNG, along with mage (mostly due to The Amazing Reno). If this continues, it wouldn't surprise me if Thoughtsteal gets nerfed back to 3. But that's the thing, I can look forward to something being done about it. Its easy to forget that just over 1.5 years ago nerfs/changes are pretty much down to once or twice per expansion, and usually the size of nukes.
Team5 have recently come down on the RNG aspect of the game and we are led to believe the next expansion will have less of it, so there's something to look forward to. Take a break, like I had in June when I had the unfortunate bad taste of trying to climb with libram paladin. New expansions' in 3 weeks
Maybe. Despite the gameplay trailers and announcements, it seems like d4 is having some trouble meeting deadlines. I can only hope they release it when its ready and not before.
There's still control dhunter, which is actually pretty good, though not as good as tempo.
The current tempo dhunter list with 2x Vulpera Scoundrel (not the priestess of fury build) has been doing well enough for me. Priest is not really a problem unless they highroll their discovers and random minions, in most cases they just run out of steam way before you do. Rogue and hunter depends heavily on what type, and whether they have Frozen Shadoweaver on 3 or 5. In most cases, if you can get 1 drop on 1 or Umberwing on 2, you're still favored to win it.
Its no longer an auto win by the third nerf. Now it actually demands some skill in deciding mulligans and trades. Just like any other healthy deck.
Of course it matters. Hearthstone, much like blizz itself, isn't just a commodity maintained by continued influx of cash. It thrives in a community who may have spent much of their lives around. It belongs to its corporate board members as much it belongs to its community, that's what make it more than just a number on the cash register.
Unfortunately, its corporate members are largely unelected and therefore unaccountable to its community. They can jack up prices as easily as they can put it down, no matter how it affects the livelihood of its community. The key is to balance it so corporate makes a decent profit, and the community stays happy. Corporate greed, however, is rarely happy just to make a profit. So you'd have shady practices designed to either make all the money in the world, or to tip that balance ever so slowly in their favor. Its up to its community to call them out on it and rebalance it whenever possible.
The motives matter. Blizz used to live up to a standard unequaled in the gaming industry. After its merger, those standards are slowly but surely being corroded as activition-blizz comes out with new ways to earn money irrespective of the high standards it set itself, as it hopes its community adapts to the so called new normal. Galakrond's awakening, for example, is one such attempt at creating a new normal where an additional $20 (or 2800 gold) is required in order for anyone to keep up with the game (you can't just craft those cards with dust). I'm sure it makes the community very happy to have an additional set of cards to play with, but are we going to accept 3 expansions a year + an additional $20 every expansion? Lets not even discuss the implications this will have on game design if we let them get away with it.
Expand on the murgurgle story please. I like to know if there is a side story where a spunky, independent female murloc slowly but surely freed murgurgle from his captive mind control state and eventually formed an avenger-style team of ragtag murlocs personalities, going on to beat Mecha-Jaraxxus with the power of friendship.
Oh, and there will of course be a mandatory required scene where mecha-jaraxxus somehow managed to control murgurgle again and later making that oh so obvious mistake of commanding him to kill the girl, rolling his eyes when the power of love triumphs to push him off a cliff to his certain doom, which will at some point be retcon into another blockbuster sequel.
Or you know...they want us all to have fun in a meta with a variety of viable decks.
If all blizz wanted was to boost expansion pack sales, all they'd have to do is just powercreep every expansion until we eventually get minions with 100 attack and 500 health.
What!? and risk confusing new players?
Thats what everyone said after every nerf, 4 nerfs back.
Someone will come out with something. Lets not forget that the thing holding up every other dhunter list except for tempo is tempo itself.
Just happy to see Warglaives of Azzinoth nerfed. Its been a while since I last saw a weapon that can do literally anything.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza - Basically dragonqueen on 9 is nonexistent anymore except the greediest of decks. Its still very powerful but it will change very little to those playing dragonqueen regularly. It doesn't change dragonqueen on 10 plays for example. What it does exactly is to nerf combo decks aiming at getting value from dragonqueen, which means that meme quest shaman deck (which isn't very good by the way) just lost its win condition. Quite a shame indeed.
Corsair Cache - The real reason to play this was always because it tutors weapons and for its durability buff. But it does have some implications. Since it effectively means that Ancharrr no longer hits for 3, its easier to set it so it doesn't just eat a 3 drop when its played on 3.
Metamorphosis - Still good, and the only true change here is its almost going to universally hit face and nothing else now. 4 damage barely kills anything in the 5 mana range.
Kayn Sunfury - Was good as a 3/5, will still be good as a 3/4. Cant say from my own experience what this change will end up doing.
Warglaives of Azzinoth - This one's the real bank buster. Changes to mana means its no longer in odd dhunter (a massive thing), and also means its useless as a clear tool now since its just one mana away from the better Flamereaper. Opens up a ton of space in the metagame where this on 5 basically ends swarm decks.
Dragoncaster - So that highroll big spell mage is dead. Highlander mage has more than enough space for a 7 mana dragoncaster, and I don't think they will stop using it because this got nerfed one mana away. What this means its no longer possible to curve manasaber into dragoncaster on 5.
Fungal Fortunes - I honestly think this card is no longer usable. Its too slow, and it also means you have to skip 2 turns to curve into Overgrowth (this on turn 3, and later overgrowth on 4, you're not doing anything else without an Innervate). This might be the biggest nerf on the list, just right below or on par with warglaives, and quite timely too. Spell/dragon druid has been quite cancerous for some time, and needs a knock down a peg or two.
Galakrond, the Nightmare - This is not the end. One costed cards are still busted, and rogues will still be drawing cards, which is the real reason for playing a fully invoked galakrond in the first place. Heistbaron Togwaggle untouched means the gameplan hasn't really change except you can almost never play galakrond on 7 ever again, which in reality, isn't really common anyway. It has that small effect that malygos galakrond rogue is now infinitely worst (but still not unplayable) so there's that.
Beneficiaries to this change? Priest is untouched, but that nerf to druid and dhunter might bring back hunter into the top. Swarm decks like murloc paladin might just be unchallenged now, and [Hearthstone Card (frozen shadowweaver) Not Found] may just be dropped as a mandatory inclusion. Will libram pally make a rise? No. Priest just saw 2 of its predators nerfed, and it eats paladins for breakfast. Control dhunter barely saw the light of day and might just be gone to oblivion before it even learns to walk. My prediction is dragon and highlander hunter on the top, followed by warrior. Priest continues to be annoying, murloc pally and totem shaman goes up, and dhunters to finally take stage as no.2 on the tier list until the next expansion.
Not a fan of the nerfs, except that change to Warglaives of Azzinoth. Fingers crossed we dont see more priests because of it.
If you're wondering which is unanimously the most complained of, its likely anything that requires a discover effect (raven idols, yikes), and the other will be co-op brawls.
Got in, got my pack, got out.
My sincere condolences for those who needed to play this more than once for their pack.