I just think the whole "choose one" idea was dumb. Yes, I get that they want "Horde vs. Alliance" to be a flavorful aspect of Hearthstone. However, I don't think that aspect of the game is top of mind for the majority of players.
Most players care a lot more about owning Legendaries so they can build the decks they want to build. This gameplay issue trumps any lore or atmosphere reason you could give for doing anything.
I really, really hated having to choose one of two legendaries before I opened any packs, knowing I might not get the other one for many weeks. I really, really hated that my Horde/Alliance decision was tied to a card that I might not care for on a mechanical level. And most of all, I really, really hate that we are only getting one diamond version out of all this, even though you know they have both cards prepared as diamond. Everything about this implementation has felt bad from start to finish.
Ultimately, the whole idea of golden cards is really dumb. It's an attempt to replicate the foil premium cards of physical TCGs. However, Hearthstone is NOT a physical TCG, and every time they try to make it seem like one, it causes problems, starting with the random-pack business model and ending with this.
It's because Warlock has too much healing. I've been saying this since Barrens.
One of the main points of Warlock is that it uses Health as a resource. That's all well and good, and makes for interesting decisions ... until you give the class so much healing that there are no more decisions. Just go ahead and spend that Health willy-nilly in full confidence that you'll have no trouble getting it back.
When you're trying to draw through your entire deck, life tapping and cards like Backfire are not the least bit scary because you are guaranteed to get 12 points of healing from quilboars and two 1-mana 6/6 taunts, not to mention all the lifesteal removal you'll draw along the way, some of which may be doubled by Tamsin.
Warlock may not technically have more healing than Priest, but it definitely has far more efficient healing, and a lot of it.
The problems go hand-in-hand, but I do think the latest "OwlTK" Warlock decks shows that card draw is the biggest issue. It's true that decks that care about self-harm (i.e. Questline Handlock) use Barrens Scavenger and Blood Shard Bristleback to recover, but they're only enabled by drawing your whole deck really fast. Meanwhile the "OwlTK" Warlock doesn't use either of those cards to stabalize, instead getting by with cheap AOE like Grimoire of Sacrifice along with extra card draw like Bloodmage Thalnos and the Tour Guide/Manafeeder Panthara combo.
I see what you're saying, but accelerated card draw is supposed to be part of the Warlock class identity. It wouldn't make sense to take that away from them. Healing, on the other hand, should be present but minimal.
Honestly, I think it is too early to decide whether or not OTK Warlock is an issue. It absolutely crumples to Libram Paladin and Quest Mage, and I imagine once people start playing Face Hunter it will suffer even more. Currently I feel like it is only good against grindy decks who win through attrition.
This is exactly the kind of argument I and many others were making about Questline Warlock at the start of United in Stormwind, and we all know where that went. That's not to say the Owl OTK will need some kind of nerfs, per se, but it's clear Warlock is a problem. When it was just Questline Warlock, you could at least argue the deck was consistent because it always started with its win condition (i.e. the quest) in hand. But the success of Owl OTK makes it clear that Warlock is just way too good at consistently and rapidly drawing their whole deck.
It reminds me a bit of that brief time when Gonk OTK and Maly OTK Druids were both surprisingly effective decks because they shared a fairly OP shell of draw and defensive tools.
It's because Warlock has too much healing. I've been saying this since Barrens.
One of the main points of Warlock is that it uses Health as a resource. That's all well and good, and makes for interesting decisions ... until you give the class so much healing that there are no more decisions. Just go ahead and spend that Health willy-nilly in full confidence that you'll have no trouble getting it back.
When you're trying to draw through your entire deck, life tapping and cards like Backfire are not the least bit scary because you are guaranteed to get 12 points of healing from quilboars and two 1-mana 6/6 taunts, not to mention all the lifesteal removal you'll draw along the way, some of which may be doubled by Tamsin.
Warlock may not technically have more healing than Priest, but it definitely has far more efficient healing, and a lot of it.
I've run into no older decks so far, so it's still hard to gauge how well they hold up against the new stuff.
Nice to see people experimenting, though! I've seen several creative attempts that are not on any website's "best decks for new expansion because we magically know how things are going to be" lists.
Isn't this exactly what happened when they gave out Flightmaster Dungar before the launch of Stormwind? Maybe "third time's a charm" when next expansion rolls around ...
That vocal minority has been persistent in holding on to the "dead by turn 7" talking point that has gradually become less and less true with each round of nerfs. It's pretty clear that a lot of the detractors haven't played the game at all since the early days of the expansion and haven't even bothered to check hsreplay to see if their complaints still hold water.
I hated Questlines as much as anyone for a long time, but at the moment, seeing how strong some ot the new cards are, I have strong doubts that Questlines are going to be anything like our biggest problem moving forward.
I'll add that through all this -- since the beginning of this Hearthstone year -- Paladin has never fallen from the top three archetypes, yet complaints about its power level have never caught on like the Questline hate. People do just get angry because everyone else is angry.
Why are people so resistant to just giving auto-squelchers what they want? Why come up with all these half-measures and compromises?
If someone says they don't like emotes, take them at their word. There's no need to pick it apart. Just make it easier to squelch. If someone hates emotes, they are going to squelch anyway. Why not just save people a click?
To answer the question: I think most squelchers aren't bothered by the sound OR the visual. They are bothered by the intent behind the emote, whether real or imagined. They just don't care for trash talk, and there's no way to program around that.
Your inexperience must be with online forums, not Hearthstone itself.
There is a very vocal minority of tinfoil hat wearers in the Hearthstone community, and they are convinced that anything that causes them to lose a game MUST be a form of cheating or rigging.
But you are correct -- apart from stream sniping, there's really no way to cheat at Hearthstone.
Build a Snowman should be useful in a meta that cares more about value and minion combat and gaining slow advantages over the course of the game. In other words: it's a very good Arena card, but not likely to see play in Constructed.
Because midrange can never possibly exist in constructed? OK ...
I just think the whole "choose one" idea was dumb. Yes, I get that they want "Horde vs. Alliance" to be a flavorful aspect of Hearthstone. However, I don't think that aspect of the game is top of mind for the majority of players.
Most players care a lot more about owning Legendaries so they can build the decks they want to build. This gameplay issue trumps any lore or atmosphere reason you could give for doing anything.
I really, really hated having to choose one of two legendaries before I opened any packs, knowing I might not get the other one for many weeks. I really, really hated that my Horde/Alliance decision was tied to a card that I might not care for on a mechanical level. And most of all, I really, really hate that we are only getting one diamond version out of all this, even though you know they have both cards prepared as diamond. Everything about this implementation has felt bad from start to finish.
Ultimately, the whole idea of golden cards is really dumb. It's an attempt to replicate the foil premium cards of physical TCGs. However, Hearthstone is NOT a physical TCG, and every time they try to make it seem like one, it causes problems, starting with the random-pack business model and ending with this.
Understandable, but not excusable. They need to have someone on staff who looks at every decision from the player's perspective.
That destroys any prestige of owning golden/diamond reward cards that cannot be crafted.
I don't care about such things, but apparently some people do, and it seems Blizzard definitely does.
I see what you're saying, but accelerated card draw is supposed to be part of the Warlock class identity. It wouldn't make sense to take that away from them. Healing, on the other hand, should be present but minimal.
OwlTK does make use of the worst offender, Touch of the Nathrezim, along with Drain Soul, exacerbated by Mo'arg Artificer and Tamsin Roame (in a pinch). So the amount of healing generated by even OwlTK is way too much.
It's because Warlock has too much healing. I've been saying this since Barrens.
One of the main points of Warlock is that it uses Health as a resource. That's all well and good, and makes for interesting decisions ... until you give the class so much healing that there are no more decisions. Just go ahead and spend that Health willy-nilly in full confidence that you'll have no trouble getting it back.
When you're trying to draw through your entire deck, life tapping and cards like Backfire are not the least bit scary because you are guaranteed to get 12 points of healing from quilboars and two 1-mana 6/6 taunts, not to mention all the lifesteal removal you'll draw along the way, some of which may be doubled by Tamsin.
Warlock may not technically have more healing than Priest, but it definitely has far more efficient healing, and a lot of it.
Dekkster has it featured in a video. I'm sure he's not the only one.
Trump played his own version, but I would not recommend that.
In other words, Stormwind-era Warlock.
If you can't think of another way to use it, you probably shouldn't craft it.
I've run into no older decks so far, so it's still hard to gauge how well they hold up against the new stuff.
Nice to see people experimenting, though! I've seen several creative attempts that are not on any website's "best decks for new expansion because we magically know how things are going to be" lists.
Isn't this exactly what happened when they gave out Flightmaster Dungar before the launch of Stormwind? Maybe "third time's a charm" when next expansion rolls around ...
That vocal minority has been persistent in holding on to the "dead by turn 7" talking point that has gradually become less and less true with each round of nerfs. It's pretty clear that a lot of the detractors haven't played the game at all since the early days of the expansion and haven't even bothered to check hsreplay to see if their complaints still hold water.
I hated Questlines as much as anyone for a long time, but at the moment, seeing how strong some ot the new cards are, I have strong doubts that Questlines are going to be anything like our biggest problem moving forward.
I'll add that through all this -- since the beginning of this Hearthstone year -- Paladin has never fallen from the top three archetypes, yet complaints about its power level have never caught on like the Questline hate. People do just get angry because everyone else is angry.
Why are people so resistant to just giving auto-squelchers what they want? Why come up with all these half-measures and compromises?
If someone says they don't like emotes, take them at their word. There's no need to pick it apart. Just make it easier to squelch. If someone hates emotes, they are going to squelch anyway. Why not just save people a click?
To answer the question: I think most squelchers aren't bothered by the sound OR the visual. They are bothered by the intent behind the emote, whether real or imagined. They just don't care for trash talk, and there's no way to program around that.
Your inexperience must be with online forums, not Hearthstone itself.
There is a very vocal minority of tinfoil hat wearers in the Hearthstone community, and they are convinced that anything that causes them to lose a game MUST be a form of cheating or rigging.
But you are correct -- apart from stream sniping, there's really no way to cheat at Hearthstone.
Because midrange can never possibly exist in constructed? OK ...
"It would be weird to have Illidan playing Illidan"?
What? This happens ALL THE TIME in Hearthstone.
Confirmed: The developers do not actually play the game.
Surely it's better to save the Tonk-Death Games combo for turn 3 when you know the tonk won't be destroyed before you can exploit it?
The good news is that there's nothing in the chest that those players would need, anyway.
I tried and tried for Instant Gratification at the start of the expansion, but it never came together.
Today, I was just randomly playing my own Priest Questline deck (not the one above), and it happened. I had forgotten the achievement even existed!
Can anyone possibly still care about coins once they've reached high ranks?
It is possible that this reward structure doesn't make a lot of sense.
The only thing worse than reacting to unfounded speculation is publishing it in the first place.