So we have to sit here nice and tight for another 2 weeks? At least tease us with something. I was looking forward to seeing the first six cards of the new expansion, then wait two weeks for the rest of them to start trickling in.
Agreed on accessibility, and if they ever make available the year of the dragon packs, I'd be interested as well.
But there's no reason to put a higher price tag on it, especially since its mostly likely to land you commons and rares, and at this point most people who care about that class would have already got it or crafted it.
If ever this is a test the waters kind of thing, then its certainly unwise to set a higher price tag on it.
Chances are good Celeste is an elemental similar to Harbinger Celestia (who remembers this card, lol). Then again, since anything that's exclusive to hearthstone tend to have a softer look/tone, it might just be a little elemental girl with shining blue eyes, a wide smile, and a cute squeaky voice.
Its a fair assumption that most people will be avoiding the mage packs like the plague, so at least only a few players would be affected.
Hearts out to those who did buy it. But lets be honest, whether its mage packs or warlock packs, if it doesn't guarantee legendaries or epics, for what reason will this be bought for?
I'd like to hear it from Bliz themselves, why the heck is this priced at a higher price than usual and how the heck they could have thought this to be okay.
At least guarantee a legendary, that's maybe worth 10 bucks, just maybe.
Thing is, shareholders are bound to acknowledge that putting customers (and product originality) ahead of immediate revenue is actually what made Blizzard such a valuable brand!
Granted, i am no professional in finance, but if i were a shareholder i'd be appalled by Activision-Blizzard in recent years!
Afterall, finance is about perceived future value. Immediate profit is just a variable of the function.
Becoming shareholder of such a company, with immediate profit in mind, sounds contradictory to me.
I do hope that the several mistakes of the recent years (amongst the good things they released) are indeed just mistakes, not really led by blind profit-driven mindset (which is bound to lead to collapse sooner or later).
The myth of shareholders being long termers is just that, a myth. Most shareholders don't buy in so some manager can tell them 'I have a great idea that will sink profits for a few quarters but in the long run it'll be great'. Money is what you can see on the table, not in your dreams.
The 'mistakes' can be seen a mile away to anyone with even the slightest amount of passion in gaming. The problem with Reforged was, I suspect, a slashed budget based on estimated sales so it can meet expectations of profit. The blitzchung issue is pure greed, simple. No corporate figure wants to lose access to the 2nd biggest market in the world just because of 'issues'.
Shareholders care about money. They occasionally care about other stuff, but there's a good reason why the tops at the top and the bottom feeds on crumbs left behind
Don't put your hopes up it's Activison Blizzard we are talking about it will look good on paper but in the long run they will take more money from us if we want to continue playing.
Hey dude. Believe me or not but ATVI-Blizzard is changing. They've been kinda scared from past community issues about HK and MTX.
I expect some big news this week, something that will change the way we see Activision forever: -Probably today, they will announce a F2P Battle Royale Game called "WARZONE" -Thursday, New Year Announcement will introduce some substantial change to HS economy, aiming to improve the F2P Experience.
That's enough to think that they are shifting their business-set. And probably it's just the beginning...
How do you know that?
W3:refunded and HK case are really stuff that showed the true face of Blizzard
also VARIOUS bugs that went live like adventure card rewards in arena and adventure cards in random effects...
As well as Runettera showing that.. yes you can make the economy F2P, and be enjoyable..
in HS it's just.. you can't experiment at all... that really turned me down.. I am only doing quest to keep up with the game RN..
Even the news of W3R Pro Event is plagued by disconnects. That'll show you how bad Blizzard is right now. They're no longer the same developer who cares about the game or it's fan-based players (20 years of the best game history died just like that).
EDIT. I'll just let this out. In the next Blizzcon event, Blizzard will once again apologize for it. Mark my words.
Its the same developer, but obviously the finance has been restricted against blizzard to do 'Blizzardy things'. Note that Activision have been laying off workers in the wake of a less than expected, but nevertheless profitable, quarter.
Its still the same developer, just no longer putting customers ahead of profits like it used it be. After all, its all corporate at the end.
It has happened to many successful companies once they decide to sign in with a conglomerate. Suddenly you no longer call the shots on what is a successful quarter.
For certain decks, this is just an auto lost. The only reason why this is even slightly tolerable is because of Zilliax and that guy's rotating out. It reminds me a lot of odd paladin where nearly all my deckbuilding efforts have to first confront this silly idea of whether it has even the slightest chance against this deck.
Kripp seems to be impressed, and that's usually a good enough reason for some amount of optimism.
Apart from making it cheaper to have fun in hearthstone, the only other thing is to mix up the evergreen set, maybe taking some cards from expansions. Making evergreen a rotational thing is both a good thing from a business perspective and for the playerbase. It might make it harder for balancing, but if the team can do a balance patch every 2 weeks, I think its feasible.
Then again, it might just be hearthstone 2.0, with the added feature of allowing us to import our cards from hearthstone 1.
Guess we'll just have to wait until the end of the week.
- Its an embiggen-strength in numbers deck. That's your win condition. It therefore follows that there should be 2x Embiggen and 2x Strength in Numbers - Your list should include as few battlecrys as is manageable and feasible, with more emphasis on rush minions, taunts, and deathrattles - Embiggen decks dont tend to draw well, and their cards are usually expensive, so its usually never playing more than 1 card per turn. You can keep the Wild Growth if you like, but I don't think its good enough frankly. Ditch the Innervates. Drawing this card when you need something = dead. Escaped Manasaber does the same thing. - Cobalt Spellkin in a midrange druid deck is practically useless. The one mana slot for druid spells are just vast. Its really a gamble for something good. But most of the time you just end up with something unplayable like gloop. - Ironfur Grizzly, really? No one's that desperate. Besides which, there are plenty better taunt minions. Injured Tol'vir, Bone Wraith, Evasive Drakonid to name a few - I guess the reason why you play 1x Embiggen is because of Ysera, Unleashed. Not only does it not synergies with Strength in Numbers, its also a 9 mana do nothing on board. Most decks will kill you for making plays like this past turn 6. Ysera's not good in decks that can't heal for tons or clear boards. - No Zilliax, the one card that you help you get back against face hunter/dragon hunter. Why? If you don't have it, you can still opt for a replacement in Vicious Scalehide and pray hard. - Acornbearers but no Faceless Corruptor. Nope.
If youre opting for budget, you can try ditching the Strength in Numbers for [Hearthstone Card (double savage roar) Not Found], include 2x vicious scalehide, and 2x vanilla 3 mana 3/4 minion, 2x Faceless Corruptor. Lose the Ysera, wild growth, and cobalt spellkin. Maybe include a silence, like Spellbreaker. That way, you will still have a chance against aggro decks
Lol, you get a thumbs up from me simply for resorting to that technicality. With that definition even the basic set is 'competitive'.
But in all seriousness, there's a good reason why the argument "Hearthstone is too expensive to play/have fun with" is not easily countered with Whizbang the Wonderful. I think that suffices as a counter argument.
Being a pessimistic player, I don't see that this will happen.
Firstly, In my terribly honest opinion, Blizzard is not really a pure F2P game. When you want to play a competitive deck, you surely have to work your way to that deck, either by buying it, or work your way slowly, grinding gold from quest etc.
Secondly, Whizbang the Wonderful can be considered a competitive deck. It's random deck consists of all the Standard Year Cards. It's like when you have that one card, you don't really have to buy any more pack to get more cards, because that one card is all you need. Blizzard wouldn't want that. They want you to buy packs.
Thirdly, we have other cards like Zayle, Shadow Cloak which doing almost the same thing. I can think Blizzard will print out more card like that in the future, instead of having Whizbang the Wonderful moved to Classic.
Just sharing opinions
Your arguments against Whizbang the Wonderful moving to classic has some holes in it. My opinion on your opinion;
- Whizbang decks are randomly selected, and therefore not meta dependent. Even if there exist a deck that can beat anything, you're still on a 1/18 chance to get it every time you queue up. Therefore, using Whizbang to climb ladder competitively is not viable.
- If ranking up ladder is the real goal to playing hearthstone, there's always a reasonably cheap deck in tier 1-2 that cost less than 1600 dust (commons and rares aside). There's no reason to rely solely on Whizbang to do this
- As have been pointed out by others, Whizbang decks are not refined, and doesn't react to what is meta. Therefore, it usually doesn't come with tech cards, and doesn't allow for creativity, or in fact, any fun in the deck building aspect of the game.
- I think its safe to say that people who play hearthstone, from the FTP to the barnacle-infested whales, will still open up packs and generally like collecting cards. Having a one-card collection will hardly appeal to anyone seriously taking up hearthstone as a regular in their schedule of games.
- And last point, Blizzard doesn't tend to change their recipes even after major nerfs. The only exception that I can remember is when Call to Arms was nerfed out of the even slot, which was promptly replaced with Saronite Chain Gang, which was later 'nerfed' as well. So, you can easily end up with a chance for a massively nerfed version of a deck.
I'm all for Whizbang the Wonderful to be classic. But again, how much impact will this make to hearthstone in general? Probably none at all.
Was doing very well with highlander warrior, what with all the embiggens on a downward spiral in terms of play rate. It should be mentioned that dragon hunter going down remarkably consistently when they either don't draw their weapon, or when you destroy it.
Hmmm...doing well, me? Time to tank my rank by going warlock until the month ends.
I think its more about the fact that you're playing a 7 mana card that does nothing to reduce tempo on board.
If Countess Ashmore draws a playable taunt, or playable and decent rush-lifesteal minion, then perhaps there's some hope for the poor dragoness. At around turn 6-above are turns where playing cards that doesn't affect board tempo is generally considered to be bad.
A 1:1 ratio wouldn't work, as others have pointed out. But 1:2 shouldn't break the economy while still making crafting a lot more affordable, which could increase deck variety on ladder.
A different change they could make is add a no-triplicate rule for epics, like we have a no-duplicate rule for legendaries. It always feels terrible to get a third copy of an epic, plus it discourages crafting epics until you've stopped buying packs of a particular set.
I think you mean 1:2 ratio for epics and legendaries. Lets be honest, If I get 20 dust per common dusted, I'll never be buying packs ever again.
No, I mean for all rarities. Even at 1:2, the worst pack would be upgraded from 40 dust to 130 dust, so you'd still need a dozen all-dust packs to craft one legendary.
For me, the amount of packs I buy is limited by how much money I want to spend, which in practice means I never buy packs at full price but do sometimes get bundles. If crafting was cheaper, I'd craft more cards instead of spending less money.
If you already have or can easily get all the cards you need, then I think you can cross out buying the bundles too, even at a discount. I think that's how blizzard thinks people think, and to me that's a fair assumption.
At 130 dust per pack, which just about means a free epic of your choice every three packs, it certainly mean I will never have to fish for epics ever again. Considering that even conservative FTP players can get upwards to 60 packs per expansion, that means the only reason to buy packs (after maxing out rares and commons) will be for legendaries, which make it even less compelling to buy packs for, even at a discount. Let's not forget that a vast majority of legendaries every expansion are quite useless and even fun decks don't go that far.
I think revamping the dust system, if needed at all (and my standing is no), should only include epics and legendaries. Let's throw in rares, I think its still a good compromise. Certainly not commons.
A 1:1 ratio wouldn't work, as others have pointed out. But 1:2 shouldn't break the economy while still making crafting a lot more affordable, which could increase deck variety on ladder.
A different change they could make is add a no-triplicate rule for epics, like we have a no-duplicate rule for legendaries. It always feels terrible to get a third copy of an epic, plus it discourages crafting epics until you've stopped buying packs of a particular set.
I think you mean 1:2 ratio for epics and legendaries. Lets be honest, If I get 20 dust per common dusted, I'll never be buying packs ever again.
Great guide for an off meta deck. I played beast hunter myself when Fresh Scent came out, so its nice to see someone not only posting the deck but offering a nicely written guide.
I'd personally make a few changes, in view of the meta;
- remove Escaped Manasaber for Deadly Shot - Embiggen druid metas. Beast druid don't play the long game and the cards are cheap enough that I never think it necessary. If Zul'jin at 10 doesn't win it you usually just don't win.
- I've tried and often find 4 buff cards too clunky in beast hunter. Most of the time, all that's needed is one buff card in hand. I would personally remove 1x Dire Frenzy for either Unleash the Hounds or even Hench-Clan Hogsteed.
I would also caution against saving up cards for the Timber Wolf combo. Its not worth it. Its nice to have, but I've never been able to execute this combo and win. Best way to use Dire Frenzy is still on 1 drops, and on Diving Gryphon and scalehide.
Its just elementary that you shouldn't be able to dust something at the same cost it takes to craft it. There would not be any incentive to buy packs, except for compulsive collectors.
On the other hand, I never really thought it necessary to revamp the dust system. Its just part and parcel of a FTP (in theory anyway) game. It is necessary to revamp how resources are being distributed, so the game is less expensive to have fun with. The problem isn't the dusting, its getting the cards we want in the first place, either by lowering the RNG or giving more packs for less gold/cash.
A small exercise; if blizzard start selling high value packs at slightly higher costs (packs containing only epics and legendaries, etc.), they'd find out that this would be the preferred choice of everyone buying.
So we have to sit here nice and tight for another 2 weeks? At least tease us with something. I was looking forward to seeing the first six cards of the new expansion, then wait two weeks for the rest of them to start trickling in.
Agreed on accessibility, and if they ever make available the year of the dragon packs, I'd be interested as well.
But there's no reason to put a higher price tag on it, especially since its mostly likely to land you commons and rares, and at this point most people who care about that class would have already got it or crafted it.
If ever this is a test the waters kind of thing, then its certainly unwise to set a higher price tag on it.
Chances are good Celeste is an elemental similar to Harbinger Celestia (who remembers this card, lol). Then again, since anything that's exclusive to hearthstone tend to have a softer look/tone, it might just be a little elemental girl with shining blue eyes, a wide smile, and a cute squeaky voice.
Its a fair assumption that most people will be avoiding the mage packs like the plague, so at least only a few players would be affected.
Hearts out to those who did buy it. But lets be honest, whether its mage packs or warlock packs, if it doesn't guarantee legendaries or epics, for what reason will this be bought for?
I wonder if this means we will only be getting the packs from the dailies, not gold.
I'd like to hear it from Bliz themselves, why the heck is this priced at a higher price than usual and how the heck they could have thought this to be okay.
At least guarantee a legendary, that's maybe worth 10 bucks, just maybe.
The myth of shareholders being long termers is just that, a myth. Most shareholders don't buy in so some manager can tell them 'I have a great idea that will sink profits for a few quarters but in the long run it'll be great'. Money is what you can see on the table, not in your dreams.
The 'mistakes' can be seen a mile away to anyone with even the slightest amount of passion in gaming. The problem with Reforged was, I suspect, a slashed budget based on estimated sales so it can meet expectations of profit. The blitzchung issue is pure greed, simple. No corporate figure wants to lose access to the 2nd biggest market in the world just because of 'issues'.
Shareholders care about money. They occasionally care about other stuff, but there's a good reason why the tops at the top and the bottom feeds on crumbs left behind
Its the same developer, but obviously the finance has been restricted against blizzard to do 'Blizzardy things'. Note that Activision have been laying off workers in the wake of a less than expected, but nevertheless profitable, quarter.
Its still the same developer, just no longer putting customers ahead of profits like it used it be. After all, its all corporate at the end.
It has happened to many successful companies once they decide to sign in with a conglomerate. Suddenly you no longer call the shots on what is a successful quarter.
Face hunter.
For certain decks, this is just an auto lost. The only reason why this is even slightly tolerable is because of Zilliax and that guy's rotating out. It reminds me a lot of odd paladin where nearly all my deckbuilding efforts have to first confront this silly idea of whether it has even the slightest chance against this deck.
Kripp seems to be impressed, and that's usually a good enough reason for some amount of optimism.
Apart from making it cheaper to have fun in hearthstone, the only other thing is to mix up the evergreen set, maybe taking some cards from expansions. Making evergreen a rotational thing is both a good thing from a business perspective and for the playerbase. It might make it harder for balancing, but if the team can do a balance patch every 2 weeks, I think its feasible.
Then again, it might just be hearthstone 2.0, with the added feature of allowing us to import our cards from hearthstone 1.
Guess we'll just have to wait until the end of the week.
Here's a few points on your list;
- Its an embiggen-strength in numbers deck. That's your win condition. It therefore follows that there should be 2x Embiggen and 2x Strength in Numbers
- Your list should include as few battlecrys as is manageable and feasible, with more emphasis on rush minions, taunts, and deathrattles
- Embiggen decks dont tend to draw well, and their cards are usually expensive, so its usually never playing more than 1 card per turn. You can keep the Wild Growth if you like, but I don't think its good enough frankly. Ditch the Innervates. Drawing this card when you need something = dead. Escaped Manasaber does the same thing.
- Cobalt Spellkin in a midrange druid deck is practically useless. The one mana slot for druid spells are just vast. Its really a gamble for something good. But most of the time you just end up with something unplayable like gloop.
- Ironfur Grizzly, really? No one's that desperate. Besides which, there are plenty better taunt minions. Injured Tol'vir, Bone Wraith, Evasive Drakonid to name a few
- I guess the reason why you play 1x Embiggen is because of Ysera, Unleashed. Not only does it not synergies with Strength in Numbers, its also a 9 mana do nothing on board. Most decks will kill you for making plays like this past turn 6. Ysera's not good in decks that can't heal for tons or clear boards.
- No Zilliax, the one card that you help you get back against face hunter/dragon hunter. Why? If you don't have it, you can still opt for a replacement in Vicious Scalehide and pray hard.
- Acornbearers but no Faceless Corruptor. Nope.
If youre opting for budget, you can try ditching the Strength in Numbers for [Hearthstone Card (double savage roar) Not Found], include 2x vicious scalehide, and 2x vanilla 3 mana 3/4 minion, 2x Faceless Corruptor. Lose the Ysera, wild growth, and cobalt spellkin. Maybe include a silence, like Spellbreaker. That way, you will still have a chance against aggro decks
Lol, you get a thumbs up from me simply for resorting to that technicality. With that definition even the basic set is 'competitive'.
But in all seriousness, there's a good reason why the argument "Hearthstone is too expensive to play/have fun with" is not easily countered with Whizbang the Wonderful. I think that suffices as a counter argument.
Your arguments against Whizbang the Wonderful moving to classic has some holes in it. My opinion on your opinion;
- Whizbang decks are randomly selected, and therefore not meta dependent. Even if there exist a deck that can beat anything, you're still on a 1/18 chance to get it every time you queue up. Therefore, using Whizbang to climb ladder competitively is not viable.
- If ranking up ladder is the real goal to playing hearthstone, there's always a reasonably cheap deck in tier 1-2 that cost less than 1600 dust (commons and rares aside). There's no reason to rely solely on Whizbang to do this
- As have been pointed out by others, Whizbang decks are not refined, and doesn't react to what is meta. Therefore, it usually doesn't come with tech cards, and doesn't allow for creativity, or in fact, any fun in the deck building aspect of the game.
- I think its safe to say that people who play hearthstone, from the FTP to the barnacle-infested whales, will still open up packs and generally like collecting cards. Having a one-card collection will hardly appeal to anyone seriously taking up hearthstone as a regular in their schedule of games.
- And last point, Blizzard doesn't tend to change their recipes even after major nerfs. The only exception that I can remember is when Call to Arms was nerfed out of the even slot, which was promptly replaced with Saronite Chain Gang, which was later 'nerfed' as well. So, you can easily end up with a chance for a massively nerfed version of a deck.
I'm all for Whizbang the Wonderful to be classic. But again, how much impact will this make to hearthstone in general? Probably none at all.
Was doing very well with highlander warrior, what with all the embiggens on a downward spiral in terms of play rate. It should be mentioned that dragon hunter going down remarkably consistently when they either don't draw their weapon, or when you destroy it.
Hmmm...doing well, me? Time to tank my rank by going warlock until the month ends.
I think its more about the fact that you're playing a 7 mana card that does nothing to reduce tempo on board.
If Countess Ashmore draws a playable taunt, or playable and decent rush-lifesteal minion, then perhaps there's some hope for the poor dragoness. At around turn 6-above are turns where playing cards that doesn't affect board tempo is generally considered to be bad.
I just like to see the percentage so when it happens to me I can feel like a one percenter for at least once in my life.
If you already have or can easily get all the cards you need, then I think you can cross out buying the bundles too, even at a discount. I think that's how blizzard thinks people think, and to me that's a fair assumption.
At 130 dust per pack, which just about means a free epic of your choice every three packs, it certainly mean I will never have to fish for epics ever again. Considering that even conservative FTP players can get upwards to 60 packs per expansion, that means the only reason to buy packs (after maxing out rares and commons) will be for legendaries, which make it even less compelling to buy packs for, even at a discount. Let's not forget that a vast majority of legendaries every expansion are quite useless and even fun decks don't go that far.
I think revamping the dust system, if needed at all (and my standing is no), should only include epics and legendaries. Let's throw in rares, I think its still a good compromise. Certainly not commons.
I think you mean 1:2 ratio for epics and legendaries. Lets be honest, If I get 20 dust per common dusted, I'll never be buying packs ever again.
Great guide for an off meta deck. I played beast hunter myself when Fresh Scent came out, so its nice to see someone not only posting the deck but offering a nicely written guide.
I'd personally make a few changes, in view of the meta;
- remove Escaped Manasaber for Deadly Shot - Embiggen druid metas. Beast druid don't play the long game and the cards are cheap enough that I never think it necessary. If Zul'jin at 10 doesn't win it you usually just don't win.
- I've tried and often find 4 buff cards too clunky in beast hunter. Most of the time, all that's needed is one buff card in hand. I would personally remove 1x Dire Frenzy for either Unleash the Hounds or even Hench-Clan Hogsteed.
I would also caution against saving up cards for the Timber Wolf combo. Its not worth it. Its nice to have, but I've never been able to execute this combo and win. Best way to use Dire Frenzy is still on 1 drops, and on Diving Gryphon and scalehide.
Its just elementary that you shouldn't be able to dust something at the same cost it takes to craft it. There would not be any incentive to buy packs, except for compulsive collectors.
On the other hand, I never really thought it necessary to revamp the dust system. Its just part and parcel of a FTP (in theory anyway) game. It is necessary to revamp how resources are being distributed, so the game is less expensive to have fun with. The problem isn't the dusting, its getting the cards we want in the first place, either by lowering the RNG or giving more packs for less gold/cash.
A small exercise; if blizzard start selling high value packs at slightly higher costs (packs containing only epics and legendaries, etc.), they'd find out that this would be the preferred choice of everyone buying.