It would be a real nightmere to balance properly, just look at how Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater were forced in HoF earlier or how much DKs forced almost everyone to play them (ofc some are far better than others also thanks to their battlecry). Also it may requires a whole balance round for potential broken interaction.
It's a nice idea, but probably it should have been implemented since the start of the game instead of being thrown in at this point.
Secret Mage was meta a while ago and the new cards have just refreshed its flavor, but as always Wild will adapt even if slower than Standard. It's just a matter of time but Secret Mage will be put in check, in the meanwhile we can just tech against it even if the solution are not so efficient (except for Flare that is the concept of how tech cards should be printed).
While I too hope for some cool announcements at BlizzCon regarding new features and game modes, probably we'll just get the announcement of the next expansion set and nothing more. To HS have been added so few during the years that when they've announced how they'll never implement a Tournament mode I felt like the last nail in the coffin was set: the game will just keep rolling on new cards until a complete rework (if it will ever come).
It's a good time whenever Zephrys the Great give me a solution that's actually better that the one I was wishing for, leading to an even better result than I was expecting.
C'Thun is the one with the most interesting and fun mechanics, but I really loved to play N'Zoth, the Corruptor into a Deathrattle Reno Priest.
I presonally hate Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: the game has already too much RNG and a deus ex machina that can turn the table just with luck just seems wrong under any point of view.
Many of those idea are pretty good and will also probably be entertaining, but considering how Blizzard managed HS since now I'll be happy to just see one of them added properly (the Brawl Block seems the most "fresh" in term of gameplay) or at last a reworked Ladder system that could replace the actual boring grind.
Vanilla was amazing back there because everything was new, nobody knows a thing and even raids looked cool because they were gorgeous to be in them.
Looking back at those things after all this years you'll see just long grinds, boring encounters and terrible design flaws that made almost all classes viable with only one build.
In 6 months more than half of the players that now are hyped will probably leave it, because those memories cannot be revived today.
Considering the backfire that will blown on Blizzard if such thing will ever be revealed as true, I doubt it can be real: too many people work on HS to be sure that no one could ever discover it and talk about it outside the company.
It's like those world wide conspiracy theory that cannot be real because they're too wide to possibly be kept an absolute secret.
The impression of getting paired always against a "nemesis" or to get unlucky always on a critical match is just a bias, because we remember more easily events gone bad than those gone right.
You have to consider that it isn't part of the Classic set. So it'll rotate out of Standard at some point without the need to be HoF'ed, while Ragnaros the Firelord and Sylvanas Windrunner (just to name a couples) were originally meant to remain into the format forever. Zilliax is one of the most balanced and flexible card ever printed, being Neutral grants its presence almost everywhere but it still far from being OP or overwhelmingly oppressive like Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane were.
HearthPwn was the first and biggest, so it gathered so many players that inevitably interesting content has watered down submerged by same old rant/salty topics about nerfing this and how much OP that is. Also many people just goes there to simply search for a decklist and never contribute to the community, leaving it to stale around. On top of that it is overwhelmed by ads, making it a real pain to use on mobile (and sometimes even on PC).
OoC has learned from HearthPwn's experience and has become better under every single aspect, while keeping improving with each new update thanks to all the efforts and dedications of the Staff. We may experience some degree of "degradation" when the community will blow up in numbers during time but the basic of OoC seems so much solid that all that low level content will be contained or driven away.
I don't agree on everything, but indeed the game hasn't added many things during time: we have basically only 3 game modes (and one is just a fun one), a grindy ladder (that rewards time efficient decks more than others) and a pretty obsolete quest system and greedy economy. When thinking of this situation, I remember that on China (where HS is managed by a third part company) they also already have in-game tournaments, deck tracker and datas avaibale.
I understand that for Blizzard HS must remain a casual friendly game, but adding more option can only make more dedicated players happy instead of letting them slip away (many top streamers have abandoned HS for other games). With MtG: Arena rising into the OCG market as the only real competitor, a sort of HS 2.0 would be a very nice thing to have sooner than later.
I'm actually hoovering between rank 5 and 3, playing almost only my Reno Mecha'thun Lock. Here my impressions by looking at my decktracker datas:
As you already said, Secret Mage has returned once again on ladder but improved with even more direct damage and board control. As always if it starts with a decent hand and can play Aluneth on curve (and you cannot remove it asap), it'll just steamroll the match.
I've faced some Reno Mage and Reno Lock, but I was expecting more of them around. Also found a couple of Reno Priest.
Jade Shaman with the addition of Corrupt the Waters has become another very common match up. On top of an empowered Jade army (thanks to Shudderwock), it can rely on some board control to face off those pesky aggro decks and it looks pretty solid for now.
Big Priest still there but their numbers seem to have thin out a bit. Or I'm just been lucky to face so few of them.
Mech Hunter and Odd Pala are not so common anymore, but that's may be because people are still having fun and experimenting with SoU' cards.
Zoo Lacky Lock have disappeared at rank 5, but I've been matched against a decent numbers of them while climbing. I don't find this deck too consistent or powerfull if compared to its previous incarnation mostly because it has to actually draw Dark Pharaoh Tekahn to become a threat.
1400 gold for 1600 dust would already be a good deal, but on top of Barnes you'll get even other cards that you may disenchant if you're not interested. So go for it if you can, it's indeed a pretty decent exchange.
I'm a bit uncertain about both buffing or nerfing cards. The meta should refresh itself because people have the chance to tinkering with a well balanced and interesting new set of cards in order to create new meta-breaker each time "the dust settles", not because Team5 is making changes to some cards every now and then.
Nerfs are needed when there are extreme scenarios: if something is clearly broken or polarizing. Buffs seems just like a cheap way to shake up a meta that has become stale too fast because tier 1 decks are much more powerfull than the others (and that's mostly because there was some design error on giving certain archetype too many good and/or synergic cards).
It would be a real nightmere to balance properly, just look at how Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater were forced in HoF earlier or how much DKs forced almost everyone to play them (ofc some are far better than others also thanks to their battlecry). Also it may requires a whole balance round for potential broken interaction.
It's a nice idea, but probably it should have been implemented since the start of the game instead of being thrown in at this point.
Secret Mage was meta a while ago and the new cards have just refreshed its flavor, but as always Wild will adapt even if slower than Standard. It's just a matter of time but Secret Mage will be put in check, in the meanwhile we can just tech against it even if the solution are not so efficient (except for Flare that is the concept of how tech cards should be printed).
While I too hope for some cool announcements at BlizzCon regarding new features and game modes, probably we'll just get the announcement of the next expansion set and nothing more. To HS have been added so few during the years that when they've announced how they'll never implement a Tournament mode I felt like the last nail in the coffin was set: the game will just keep rolling on new cards until a complete rework (if it will ever come).
I've got a decent amount of success with the Priest one, but for fun I've found the Paladin with the addition of Majordomo Executus a real blast.
Thanks again for your work and the excellent content !
What a nice guide. I'm sure it would be usefull to lots of people.
Well done once again.
It's a good time whenever Zephrys the Great give me a solution that's actually better that the one I was wishing for, leading to an even better result than I was expecting.
C'Thun is the one with the most interesting and fun mechanics, but I really loved to play N'Zoth, the Corruptor into a Deathrattle Reno Priest.
I presonally hate Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: the game has already too much RNG and a deus ex machina that can turn the table just with luck just seems wrong under any point of view.
I find the concept so fun that I'm going to try out some of those deck asap. Nice job.
HS is pretty light and fun as general mood, even the more "dark" expansion set are at best spooky but nothing more.
It would probably never become too serious.
Many of those idea are pretty good and will also probably be entertaining, but considering how Blizzard managed HS since now I'll be happy to just see one of them added properly (the Brawl Block seems the most "fresh" in term of gameplay) or at last a reworked Ladder system that could replace the actual boring grind.
That is some quality content !
Vanilla was amazing back there because everything was new, nobody knows a thing and even raids looked cool because they were gorgeous to be in them.
Looking back at those things after all this years you'll see just long grinds, boring encounters and terrible design flaws that made almost all classes viable with only one build.
In 6 months more than half of the players that now are hyped will probably leave it, because those memories cannot be revived today.
Considering the backfire that will blown on Blizzard if such thing will ever be revealed as true, I doubt it can be real: too many people work on HS to be sure that no one could ever discover it and talk about it outside the company.
It's like those world wide conspiracy theory that cannot be real because they're too wide to possibly be kept an absolute secret.
The impression of getting paired always against a "nemesis" or to get unlucky always on a critical match is just a bias, because we remember more easily events gone bad than those gone right.
While I almost play only Wild nowdays, it's always nice to read some good written analysis.
Good job.
You have to consider that it isn't part of the Classic set. So it'll rotate out of Standard at some point without the need to be HoF'ed, while Ragnaros the Firelord and Sylvanas Windrunner (just to name a couples) were originally meant to remain into the format forever. Zilliax is one of the most balanced and flexible card ever printed, being Neutral grants its presence almost everywhere but it still far from being OP or overwhelmingly oppressive like Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane were.
HearthPwn was the first and biggest, so it gathered so many players that inevitably interesting content has watered down submerged by same old rant/salty topics about nerfing this and how much OP that is. Also many people just goes there to simply search for a decklist and never contribute to the community, leaving it to stale around. On top of that it is overwhelmed by ads, making it a real pain to use on mobile (and sometimes even on PC).
OoC has learned from HearthPwn's experience and has become better under every single aspect, while keeping improving with each new update thanks to all the efforts and dedications of the Staff. We may experience some degree of "degradation" when the community will blow up in numbers during time but the basic of OoC seems so much solid that all that low level content will be contained or driven away.
I don't agree on everything, but indeed the game hasn't added many things during time: we have basically only 3 game modes (and one is just a fun one), a grindy ladder (that rewards time efficient decks more than others) and a pretty obsolete quest system and greedy economy. When thinking of this situation, I remember that on China (where HS is managed by a third part company) they also already have in-game tournaments, deck tracker and datas avaibale.
I understand that for Blizzard HS must remain a casual friendly game, but adding more option can only make more dedicated players happy instead of letting them slip away (many top streamers have abandoned HS for other games). With MtG: Arena rising into the OCG market as the only real competitor, a sort of HS 2.0 would be a very nice thing to have sooner than later.
I'm actually hoovering between rank 5 and 3, playing almost only my Reno Mecha'thun Lock. Here my impressions by looking at my decktracker datas:
Just my 2 cent.
1400 gold for 1600 dust would already be a good deal, but on top of Barnes you'll get even other cards that you may disenchant if you're not interested. So go for it if you can, it's indeed a pretty decent exchange.
I'm a bit uncertain about both buffing or nerfing cards. The meta should refresh itself because people have the chance to tinkering with a well balanced and interesting new set of cards in order to create new meta-breaker each time "the dust settles", not because Team5 is making changes to some cards every now and then.
Nerfs are needed when there are extreme scenarios: if something is clearly broken or polarizing. Buffs seems just like a cheap way to shake up a meta that has become stale too fast because tier 1 decks are much more powerfull than the others (and that's mostly because there was some design error on giving certain archetype too many good and/or synergic cards).