There's always someone who's willing to complain about progress. It is not that complicated.
Arcane spells are bright pinkish purple. (Mage, Druid)
Fel spells are a distinctive shade of yellowish green. (Demon Hunter, Warlock)
Fire spells are orange. (Mage, Shaman, Warlock)
Frost spells are pale blue. (Mage, Shaman)
Nature spells are either lightning or a leafy green. (Druid, Shaman)
Holy spells are yellow. (Paladin, Priest)
Shadow spells are black with purple highlights. (Priest, Warlock)
Most of all, the class and name of the spell will be a very obvious clue. (The classes listed above are the ones that most commonly use that spell school, but there may be exceptions.) Not all spells will have a school. For example, I would not expect to see schools assigned to most Warrior or Rogue spells. I can imagine certain Hunter spells being fire, frost or nature, but many would have no school.
I'm sure if you went through all the current spells, you would have no trouble whatsoever assigning a school to each one (with "no school" being an option).
I'm not saying it will happen, only that it should.
However, I do find it interesting that Iksar tweeted that question a few months ago about what it would take for former players to come back to the game. That's not something you just randomly decide to ask -- there must have been revenue reasons behind it.
Sounds to me like a lot of the 23.5 million active users last year were playing free modes, not buying random packs.
Merging doubles into golden would make them never nerf anything, since we would get enourmous profits from merging those 9+ duplicates.
That's easy enough to fix. Just make it so you cannot disenchant a golden card that was created this way. Ostensibly, you're making it golden because you want to keep it, so that should not be a problem.
Ideally when you open a pack the cards that come it in are exciting for a variety of reasons
Hard disagree. Opening packs is a painful chore, and I hate it. The one time in twenty that you see a Legendary does not make it better -- in fact, it often makes it worse if the Legendary is bad.
The Core set is a step in the right direction, but all random packs (i.e., loot boxes) need to go away forever. Just let us buy exactly the cards we want, or let us subscribe for full access. It's not like we own the cards, anyway. We're just renting them until the day the servers are shut down for good.
You can already upgrade normal cards into golden. You disenchant the normal one and use the dust (plus a ton more dust) to make the golden one. You can also already use gold to do this. You buy some packs, disenchant what you get, and craft what you want from the dust.
I have trouble believing their "upgrade" system would actually be more cost-effective than that, so I really don't see much point in designing a whole new UI around the process.
However, for the sake of argument, I think it would be fun if you could merge two identical normal cards into the golden version, at no additional cost. That's honestly the only way I see myself doing it. Anything more is just too wasteful.
As for crafting portraits and cardbacks, I would craft a select few that I've missed, but only if it's shockingly cheap. The conversion rate I use is 100 dust = 100 gold = $1.17, and I'll be keeping that in mind when I make any cosmetic crafting decisions.
It was recently mentioned that Team 5 prefers to take breaks between releases of Hero cards, so Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is unlikely (also people hate him).
It was also recently mentioned that singleton support was rotating out, so no Zephrys the Great.
C'Thun can't happen without his specific support cards, and it would be weird to have some Old Gods but not others, plus it would be super weird to have two different versions of Old Gods in the same Standard meta, so no N'Zoth, the Corruptor.
I think there will be riots if Ultimate Infestation ever returns to Standard. (Really, Dean? Printing five 5's on a card does not constitute good design.)
Powermace is no good as a Core card because it's just weird to give Shaman Mech synergy unless the expansion is themed around Mechs.
The others would probably be fine. In fact, all the cards I haven't excluded are fun and well-designed without being overpowered, so I'd be glad to see them in Core.
A deck containing only cards from the Core Set may not be competitive, but I'm sure there will be budget decks that do reasonably well. You don't need to play top tier decks to ladder: you can get wins with slightly less powerful decks as well, easily enough to complete your quests and if you're persistent enough even to reach legend.
That is already true, though. My point is that it's not likely to become more true after rotation.
If it's a Core-only card, the golden version would share the same fate as the regular version. At this time, that fate has not been decided, but the plan is to move them to Wild.
I would assume that Core cards that originated in other sets will not have golden achievements, because those cards are craftable and disenchantable. They do not normally give out free golden cards that are disenchantable.
For returning players, it depends on the state of their collection before they quit. If they had already collected most of Classic, this does not help them at all.
And everyone playing Standard still has to pay a pretty penny to keep current. This Core set doesn't help you build a decent deck. It only allows you to build "a deck." You will technically be able to play the game, but don't expect a lot of wins. The Core set is very much the free demo version of the game (just as f2p has always been), not the competitive full release.
Plenty of people are unhappy about the number of useless cards they are required to buy.
The good news is, fewer people are willing to continue buying them because it's finally sinking in what a scam random packs are. They are a direct precursor to the loot boxes you see in other games, and every bit as predatory.
If you don't like buying a bunch of stuff you don't need or want -- stuff you are literally required by the game to destroy, moments after you bought it -- stop buying it. That's the only way Blizzard Activision will ever get the message.
Since Core is refreshed each year, we can make Core cards more consistently impactful and relevant to the current meta.
Note that "can" is not the same as "will." Mark my words: You're still going to need just as many expansion cards per deck as you do now, and expansion Legendaries are still going to dominate.
You are correct. The Classic meta was very much solved within a couple of months. It's going to be a lot of the same over and over again, only without the "figuring out" period you would normally see at launch.
Reading this list is enough to give me nightmares, but to each their own, I suppose.
There are 343 cards in Basic + Classic. There will be 235 cards in the Core set. That's a much smaller chunk, not bigger.
Maybe you mean you believe the Core cards will be more impactful than the current evergreen cards? Obviously, I can't say that's impossible, but it goes against every move Blizzard has made since the beginning of Hearthstone. It's a fact that they want your money, so why on Earth would they print expansion cards that are not going to be more desirable and more competitive than the ones they are giving away for free?
Will you be able to build a deck with free cards? Absolutely. Will you be able to win Ranked games with decks that use fewer expansion cards than current top-tier decks? Absolutely not. If you think you'll be able to spend less money per expansion and still be competitive in Standard, you are dreaming.
And thanks for the downvotes, everyone. If I'm crushing your weirdly optimistic dreams, it means I'm doing something right.
Free players who have a full or nearly full collection of Classic can now enjoy a mode where they are at no disadvantage whatsoever, while still gaining Reward Track XP that can be spent on Standard cards if they choose.
The barrier to entry for Hearthstone is much lower, as new players no longer need to collect a Classic set on top of the latest expansions.
On the other hand, the game continues to be expensive for veteran players on an ongoing basis, as expansion packs are still just very expensive loot crates, and you have to open WAY too many of them to get the cards you want.
I can see why others might be excited by all of this, but as a veteran player with a full Classic collection and no desire to relive 2014, none of this will have any financial impact on me whatsoever.
The only real difference is the possible side effect of better game balance without the looming specter of evergreen cards wrecking the design space, but I'm not completely confident Team 5 will suddenly stop making terrible mistakes or leaving oppressive archetypes to rule the meta for far longer than they should.
Since Classic packs are now for the Classic/Wild game modes only, any card that was in the game in 2014 will be obtainable from Classic packs. The Hall of Fame no longer exists.
There's always someone who's willing to complain about progress. It is not that complicated.
Most of all, the class and name of the spell will be a very obvious clue. (The classes listed above are the ones that most commonly use that spell school, but there may be exceptions.) Not all spells will have a school. For example, I would not expect to see schools assigned to most Warrior or Rogue spells. I can imagine certain Hunter spells being fire, frost or nature, but many would have no school.
I'm sure if you went through all the current spells, you would have no trouble whatsoever assigning a school to each one (with "no school" being an option).
All I can say is, I'm very glad you people aren't the ones making the decisions.
Many of these choices are perfect examples of how many players don't even understand the role of the Core Set.
Duels didn't become fun until this year, so it's no surprise to me. In 2020, it was extremely lopsided and monotonous.
I'm not saying it will happen, only that it should.
However, I do find it interesting that Iksar tweeted that question a few months ago about what it would take for former players to come back to the game. That's not something you just randomly decide to ask -- there must have been revenue reasons behind it.
Sounds to me like a lot of the 23.5 million active users last year were playing free modes, not buying random packs.
That's easy enough to fix. Just make it so you cannot disenchant a golden card that was created this way. Ostensibly, you're making it golden because you want to keep it, so that should not be a problem.
Hard disagree. Opening packs is a painful chore, and I hate it. The one time in twenty that you see a Legendary does not make it better -- in fact, it often makes it worse if the Legendary is bad.
The Core set is a step in the right direction, but all random packs (i.e., loot boxes) need to go away forever. Just let us buy exactly the cards we want, or let us subscribe for full access. It's not like we own the cards, anyway. We're just renting them until the day the servers are shut down for good.
You can already upgrade normal cards into golden. You disenchant the normal one and use the dust (plus a ton more dust) to make the golden one. You can also already use gold to do this. You buy some packs, disenchant what you get, and craft what you want from the dust.
I have trouble believing their "upgrade" system would actually be more cost-effective than that, so I really don't see much point in designing a whole new UI around the process.
However, for the sake of argument, I think it would be fun if you could merge two identical normal cards into the golden version, at no additional cost. That's honestly the only way I see myself doing it. Anything more is just too wasteful.
As for crafting portraits and cardbacks, I would craft a select few that I've missed, but only if it's shockingly cheap. The conversion rate I use is 100 dust = 100 gold = $1.17, and I'll be keeping that in mind when I make any cosmetic crafting decisions.
Well, Fel Reaver cannot be allowed to exist in the same meta as Silas Darkmoon, so that's out.
It was recently mentioned that Team 5 prefers to take breaks between releases of Hero cards, so Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is unlikely (also people hate him).
It was also recently mentioned that singleton support was rotating out, so no Zephrys the Great.
C'Thun can't happen without his specific support cards, and it would be weird to have some Old Gods but not others, plus it would be super weird to have two different versions of Old Gods in the same Standard meta, so no N'Zoth, the Corruptor.
I think there will be riots if Ultimate Infestation ever returns to Standard. (Really, Dean? Printing five 5's on a card does not constitute good design.)
Powermace is no good as a Core card because it's just weird to give Shaman Mech synergy unless the expansion is themed around Mechs.
The others would probably be fine. In fact, all the cards I haven't excluded are fun and well-designed without being overpowered, so I'd be glad to see them in Core.
That is already true, though. My point is that it's not likely to become more true after rotation.
If it's a Core-only card, the golden version would share the same fate as the regular version. At this time, that fate has not been decided, but the plan is to move them to Wild.
I would assume that Core cards that originated in other sets will not have golden achievements, because those cards are craftable and disenchantable. They do not normally give out free golden cards that are disenchantable.
For returning players, it depends on the state of their collection before they quit. If they had already collected most of Classic, this does not help them at all.
And everyone playing Standard still has to pay a pretty penny to keep current. This Core set doesn't help you build a decent deck. It only allows you to build "a deck." You will technically be able to play the game, but don't expect a lot of wins. The Core set is very much the free demo version of the game (just as f2p has always been), not the competitive full release.
You only get half credit for that because you hedged and said "maybe Basic."
Plenty of people are unhappy about the number of useless cards they are required to buy.
The good news is, fewer people are willing to continue buying them because it's finally sinking in what a scam random packs are. They are a direct precursor to the loot boxes you see in other games, and every bit as predatory.
If you don't like buying a bunch of stuff you don't need or want -- stuff you are literally required by the game to destroy, moments after you bought it -- stop buying it. That's the only way Blizzard Activision will ever get the message.
Note that "can" is not the same as "will." Mark my words: You're still going to need just as many expansion cards per deck as you do now, and expansion Legendaries are still going to dominate.
You are correct. The Classic meta was very much solved within a couple of months. It's going to be a lot of the same over and over again, only without the "figuring out" period you would normally see at launch.
Reading this list is enough to give me nightmares, but to each their own, I suppose.
There are 343 cards in Basic + Classic. There will be 235 cards in the Core set. That's a much smaller chunk, not bigger.
Maybe you mean you believe the Core cards will be more impactful than the current evergreen cards? Obviously, I can't say that's impossible, but it goes against every move Blizzard has made since the beginning of Hearthstone. It's a fact that they want your money, so why on Earth would they print expansion cards that are not going to be more desirable and more competitive than the ones they are giving away for free?
Will you be able to build a deck with free cards? Absolutely. Will you be able to win Ranked games with decks that use fewer expansion cards than current top-tier decks? Absolutely not. If you think you'll be able to spend less money per expansion and still be competitive in Standard, you are dreaming.
And thanks for the downvotes, everyone. If I'm crushing your weirdly optimistic dreams, it means I'm doing something right.
What all of this means is:
I can see why others might be excited by all of this, but as a veteran player with a full Classic collection and no desire to relive 2014, none of this will have any financial impact on me whatsoever.
The only real difference is the possible side effect of better game balance without the looming specter of evergreen cards wrecking the design space, but I'm not completely confident Team 5 will suddenly stop making terrible mistakes or leaving oppressive archetypes to rule the meta for far longer than they should.
To be fair, there was never any goddamn reason, so ...
Since Classic packs are now for the Classic/Wild game modes only, any card that was in the game in 2014 will be obtainable from Classic packs. The Hall of Fame no longer exists.
She originally used Aluneth, but it began to resist her when it was time to fight Sargeras, so she set it aside and took up Atiesh.