The Battlegrounds reset note is a bit disappointing. The most enticing part of an MMR reset is the ability to have your matches impact your ranking more, as they did when you started out. Like that, if you've improved it would be easier to zoom right into a higher ranking. It sounds like that isn't truly possible (your matches will 'mean more', but only up to your previous ranking), which makes me question the point of this reset - if all they change is the visual readout, what actually changes? Why do it?
I feel ya, ElSabidon. Shadowverse's card design philosophy is a road which I hope Hearthstone doesn't follow. In that game, there aren't decks. There are win conditions, and cards which help you get to those win conditions. You can play Deck A and face Deck B and know that, no matter how well you play, their win condition is a turn 7 card and yours is a turn 9, so you lose.
Even though we're not at Shadowverse yet, it feels like cards these days are overdesigned; there are so few plain ole well-statted minions. Curve is a myth, unless you're Paladin. Cards aren't played if they don't have unique, strong effects. Besides aggro, decks aren't collections of good cards anymore - they're synergized pools of cards that are optimized to create a big swing turn(s). Unlike Shadowverse, there's still a great deal of deck-building agency, which I enjoy - not everything is theorycrafted, tested, and sent out for play by the devs, like Libram Paladin - but the current and recent card pool feels less interactive to play with, since stats matter less than effects. Not less skillful, but less interactive. I never thought I'd say this, but I kinda miss [Hearthstone Card (Grook-Fu Master) Not Found].
PrivateNightmare, if you do miss the strategic back and forth of old Hearthstone, I would encourage you to give Arena a try. Since you mostly pick for stats, it feels oldschool and can be quite fun. I play more Arena than ranked myself, at least.
That free Mage pack is larger than the hero portraits. They are hyping up that one, single Mage pack like it's Smaug's personal gold bidet. I resent it.
I'm very excited for Battlegrounds parties, though. Finally!
That's a neat, better rewording of it. I thought it worked like Unleash the Hounds until I read your message, hah.
The idea is great though, aye! Not sold on Dormant being in the Classic set, but interesting idea in line with Paladin's flavor (though everything is, somehow :|).
Jaded Student (holding a loose-leaf textbook from Pearson), 4 mana 2-4, "Slip and fall on your college's non-ADA compliant stairways. Take 3 damage. Deal 3 damage to all over minions."
Arena rewards are still worth it. They just serve a different purpose than Standard rewards. Arena helps you build up your collection more cheaply, but isn't desirable for players who want to save gold.
Overall, though, if you're very good at Arena, you can save more gold. In ranked, you get 10 gold for every three wins. In Arena, if you win 9 times, you can gain 100+ gold on top of the 150 you spent, plus a card pack (a card pack from the current expansion, they aren't classic packs like the BG rewards).
I would like to see changes to the Arena rewards - more golden cards or legendaries rewarded for great runs would be enticing incentive even for gold-savers to try the format, and much more fun - but I think the current purpose Arena serves is healthy. And, economics aside, it's just a fun format to play, since you can win more than you do in constructed and have some variety as you play - plus, deckbuilding. A few weeks after expac drop, deckbuilding in Standard is a pipe dream, but you can do that every day in Arena.
Also, your collection doesn't help you in Arena? Come on! Golden cards, man. You can't lose if you have golden cards.
This was Firebat's fault, but Blizzard should adjust their match scheduling so that each region starts at a set time. Then players would only have to be on call within a region's scheduled time, as you wouldn't have, for instance, NA's starting time decided by another region's playing speed. People in NA probably only want to watch NA matches, and it should be easy for viewers to know when those will happen.
Thanks for this. I was on the exclusivity side of things, 'til I read your comment. I'm with you, now; while there are already the tournament, Legend, and heroic single-player hardbacks, it would be lovely if we could have more skill-based rewards. Maybe rewards for reaching a specific tier in Battlegrounds, for reaching Legend several times over, for specific Legend ranks, for Arena finishes, or else - there are plenty of opportunities.
They did advertise the exclusivity of pre-order cosmetics, but more than holding them to that, I would rather they remove the artificial scarcity of bought items. As you point out, to complain about that inconsistency is to encourage artificial scarcity.
I can understand this system being implemented in full-attention games, but Hearthstone is a casual game. You pop out your phone on the bus to work, play a game, put it away; bring up a game in the background while you do some school reading; occupy yourself a bit more by pulling out your phone and having a game while you watch a movie; etc. I can't speak for anyone else, but I imagine that I'm not the only one who rarely, outside of new expansion week, plays Hearthstone and only plays Hearthstone. That's part of why I love it, really - I can have fun and occupy my mind while I do some chores or complete some brainless work.
So, games like Fortnite, where you have to invest your attention to play it, I think a Battle Pass makes more sense there. Games like Hearthstone, I think that you'd be sacrificing, slighting, a huge portion of your casual playerbase who won't be able to slide by on daily quests as they did before. Unless the rewards are extravagant, of course - but why would they be, if Blizzard is looking to make money? As other folks have said, the currently shown gold amounts are disappointing, and the fact that you aren't only rewarded gold means that you can't save it up and buy a bunch of packs at once - meaning suboptimal decks and suboptimal fun throughout much of an expansion.
As someone who buys the 80 smackers bundle each expansion, I know that Battle Pass vs. Daily Quests won't impact my progression greatly, barring Blizzard screwing the pooch. More harmful, to my attention, than whatever rewards are offered is that it's another generic patch to the game. Like the new ladder system - it works better, yes, but there isn't much to set it apart from other ladders, other Battle Passes. The game slides into the background, becoming more and more one of a homogeneous mass of similar games which I've played, and further and further from the nostalgic memories which I hold. Once that connection is lost, while a conscious decision to stop playing won't happen, Hearthstone will nonetheless gradually fade into the background, fade out of my habits, and stop becoming something which I consider part of and important to myself. A bit overly poetic, but still, true!
Final count: 35 of the 135 cards released feature some type of analog information repository (also known as a 'book', but it's fun to call nerds A.I.R.heads) in their art. About 25%. Things you didn't need to know!
You just ticked me off to something that I can't wait to try! The main issue with Preparation has always been that running it makes your hand very small very quickly, but Secret Passage lessens that risk. Finally, I might be able to play Prep again.
Holy freakin' what, why, who, how, what on the seven earth mothers and their randomly generated followers!? Here, I thought they did a neato and subtly balanced a strong card against class weaknesses, but noooooo, Lilian Voss can have her cake and the tokens it generates, too! Bleh. Bleepity bleep bleep. That ain't how them words work, Blizzard!
I will pass on E-girl Jaina.
The Battlegrounds reset note is a bit disappointing. The most enticing part of an MMR reset is the ability to have your matches impact your ranking more, as they did when you started out. Like that, if you've improved it would be easier to zoom right into a higher ranking. It sounds like that isn't truly possible (your matches will 'mean more', but only up to your previous ranking), which makes me question the point of this reset - if all they change is the visual readout, what actually changes? Why do it?
I feel ya, ElSabidon. Shadowverse's card design philosophy is a road which I hope Hearthstone doesn't follow. In that game, there aren't decks. There are win conditions, and cards which help you get to those win conditions. You can play Deck A and face Deck B and know that, no matter how well you play, their win condition is a turn 7 card and yours is a turn 9, so you lose.
Even though we're not at Shadowverse yet, it feels like cards these days are overdesigned; there are so few plain ole well-statted minions. Curve is a myth, unless you're Paladin. Cards aren't played if they don't have unique, strong effects. Besides aggro, decks aren't collections of good cards anymore - they're synergized pools of cards that are optimized to create a big swing turn(s). Unlike Shadowverse, there's still a great deal of deck-building agency, which I enjoy - not everything is theorycrafted, tested, and sent out for play by the devs, like Libram Paladin - but the current and recent card pool feels less interactive to play with, since stats matter less than effects. Not less skillful, but less interactive. I never thought I'd say this, but I kinda miss [Hearthstone Card (Grook-Fu Master) Not Found].
PrivateNightmare, if you do miss the strategic back and forth of old Hearthstone, I would encourage you to give Arena a try. Since you mostly pick for stats, it feels oldschool and can be quite fun. I play more Arena than ranked myself, at least.
That free Mage pack is larger than the hero portraits. They are hyping up that one, single Mage pack like it's Smaug's personal gold bidet. I resent it.
I'm very excited for Battlegrounds parties, though. Finally!
That's a neat, better rewording of it. I thought it worked like Unleash the Hounds until I read your message, hah.
The idea is great though, aye! Not sold on Dormant being in the Classic set, but interesting idea in line with Paladin's flavor (though everything is, somehow :|).
Jaded Student (holding a loose-leaf textbook from Pearson), 4 mana 2-4, "Slip and fall on your college's non-ADA compliant stairways. Take 3 damage. Deal 3 damage to all over minions."
Arena rewards are still worth it. They just serve a different purpose than Standard rewards. Arena helps you build up your collection more cheaply, but isn't desirable for players who want to save gold.
Overall, though, if you're very good at Arena, you can save more gold. In ranked, you get 10 gold for every three wins. In Arena, if you win 9 times, you can gain 100+ gold on top of the 150 you spent, plus a card pack (a card pack from the current expansion, they aren't classic packs like the BG rewards).
I would like to see changes to the Arena rewards - more golden cards or legendaries rewarded for great runs would be enticing incentive even for gold-savers to try the format, and much more fun - but I think the current purpose Arena serves is healthy. And, economics aside, it's just a fun format to play, since you can win more than you do in constructed and have some variety as you play - plus, deckbuilding. A few weeks after expac drop, deckbuilding in Standard is a pipe dream, but you can do that every day in Arena.
Also, your collection doesn't help you in Arena? Come on! Golden cards, man. You can't lose if you have golden cards.
This was Firebat's fault, but Blizzard should adjust their match scheduling so that each region starts at a set time. Then players would only have to be on call within a region's scheduled time, as you wouldn't have, for instance, NA's starting time decided by another region's playing speed. People in NA probably only want to watch NA matches, and it should be easy for viewers to know when those will happen.
Does that mean that Stitched Tracker works the same, too?
Thanks for this. I was on the exclusivity side of things, 'til I read your comment. I'm with you, now; while there are already the tournament, Legend, and heroic single-player hardbacks, it would be lovely if we could have more skill-based rewards. Maybe rewards for reaching a specific tier in Battlegrounds, for reaching Legend several times over, for specific Legend ranks, for Arena finishes, or else - there are plenty of opportunities.
They did advertise the exclusivity of pre-order cosmetics, but more than holding them to that, I would rather they remove the artificial scarcity of bought items. As you point out, to complain about that inconsistency is to encourage artificial scarcity.
I haven't seen a Star Student Stelina played, yet, through about 100 games. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising.
I racked up 11 wins on a DH deck in Arena with two Blood Heralds, yesterday! That thing's a beast over there.
Intrepid Initiate looks a bit like the protagonist of one o' those CGI Chinese anime. Like Duoluo Dalu - if you've seen it, you know what I mean, heh.
Gol dangin' buzzards, High Abbess Alura would have been BANGIN' with glasses! How dare they not choose that concept?!
I can understand this system being implemented in full-attention games, but Hearthstone is a casual game. You pop out your phone on the bus to work, play a game, put it away; bring up a game in the background while you do some school reading; occupy yourself a bit more by pulling out your phone and having a game while you watch a movie; etc. I can't speak for anyone else, but I imagine that I'm not the only one who rarely, outside of new expansion week, plays Hearthstone and only plays Hearthstone. That's part of why I love it, really - I can have fun and occupy my mind while I do some chores or complete some brainless work.
So, games like Fortnite, where you have to invest your attention to play it, I think a Battle Pass makes more sense there. Games like Hearthstone, I think that you'd be sacrificing, slighting, a huge portion of your casual playerbase who won't be able to slide by on daily quests as they did before. Unless the rewards are extravagant, of course - but why would they be, if Blizzard is looking to make money? As other folks have said, the currently shown gold amounts are disappointing, and the fact that you aren't only rewarded gold means that you can't save it up and buy a bunch of packs at once - meaning suboptimal decks and suboptimal fun throughout much of an expansion.
As someone who buys the 80 smackers bundle each expansion, I know that Battle Pass vs. Daily Quests won't impact my progression greatly, barring Blizzard screwing the pooch. More harmful, to my attention, than whatever rewards are offered is that it's another generic patch to the game. Like the new ladder system - it works better, yes, but there isn't much to set it apart from other ladders, other Battle Passes. The game slides into the background, becoming more and more one of a homogeneous mass of similar games which I've played, and further and further from the nostalgic memories which I hold. Once that connection is lost, while a conscious decision to stop playing won't happen, Hearthstone will nonetheless gradually fade into the background, fade out of my habits, and stop becoming something which I consider part of and important to myself. A bit overly poetic, but still, true!
Final count: 35 of the 135 cards released feature some type of analog information repository (also known as a 'book', but it's fun to call nerds A.I.R.heads) in their art. About 25%. Things you didn't need to know!
If Enchanted Cauldron ends up seeing play in a competitive deck, I'll eat my shoe. Happily.
Also, wait a tick, Double Jump isn't among Demon Hunter's best-rated cards? Outcast: Disbelief!
What about twitch doms, daddy flux?
You just ticked me off to something that I can't wait to try! The main issue with Preparation has always been that running it makes your hand very small very quickly, but Secret Passage lessens that risk. Finally, I might be able to play Prep again.
Holy freakin' what, why, who, how, what on the seven earth mothers and their randomly generated followers!? Here, I thought they did a neato and subtly balanced a strong card against class weaknesses, but noooooo, Lilian Voss can have her cake and the tokens it generates, too! Bleh. Bleepity bleep bleep. That ain't how them words work, Blizzard!