"I'd like us to be a little bit more data informed on the kinds of things our global audience think is cool. We have some gut opinions on that obviously but we could do better research. We're trying to now."
I get that as a business, Team 5 inspired to cater towards what makes money, but I'd be far more excited if Dean said they were developing something cool that the TEAM wanted to do. Something specific and niche and cool that the developers got excited about, not something 'for everyone'.
Also, I guess my hopes for GvG 2 this year are dashed. I am sad :c
I resonate with the last point made; the buckets are the worst part of Duels (and Dungeon Runs). Rather than picking what seems best, you're usually picking what seems least worst. As mentioned, I often find myself playing Pirate Warrior because that's the only deck which somewhat reliably gets buckets.
Frankly, the bucket system should be replaced with something else. It's not fun. It biases players towards meta decks. It's impossible to properly balance.
Heh, it's been awhile, apparently. Edited! Thanks for the catch.
Regards to your card, while I'm in love with the idea of a future-expansion Shadow Druid, it's difficult to reconcile pure hero damage with Druid. Effects closer to Webweave seem more fitting - maybe effects like poisonous, copying, resurrection, entangling/corrupting friendly/enemy units, cost increases for benefits, etc. Big ole board-fillin' nature-gone-bad stuff.
I found this fanart which inspired me, and I'm trying to create an effect which matches its' mood of being in an unknown place - whether by lashing out in terror, being overwhelmingly confused, or seeing shadows jump from every corner.
Which do y'all think works best?
Feedback for unsubmitted cards:
Show Spoiler
Destroyer: That isn't worth the effect, nor is there a flavor there I can see to it. Also, I think you're right about there being balance issues: a card like this will fundamentally being overpowered or underpowered, with very little space in between (if any). Perhaps you could find a different direction for the art by synergizing with Mage's elementals somehow, which are all about cards added to hand, spell damage, elemental cost reduction, tokens added to hand, and/or hero power damage. There is a lot of cost reduction in that sphere - maybe you could find enjoy turning an aspect around humorously or playing two aspects against each other.
R: I'm not a fan. For one, the effect seems too easily obtained, but also, the hero power ALWAYS costs (1) more. While balanced, the playing experience is crappy. I don't feel that I've done something special, and what I have obtained is tough to use. I'd go back to the drawing board and figure out how that cost increase can be a payment for something flashy and fun, rather than the shackles on your fun reward itself. That said, you're the only one following a hero power theme, so if it does work out, you'll be in pretty well!
Neoguli: I'm not crazy about it. Fundamentally, it's similar to R's card - by increasing the cost of your reward, while balanced, you're decreasing how fun the card is to play. If you could apply the cost reduction to another aspect, it might be more successful. An aspect that adds some flavor, perhaps - at the moment, I'm not sure why the card does what it does. Discover is a neat field to play with for this competition, so I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Doingtheobvious: I quite like this! You are increasing the cost of your reward, but the damage scaling with that makes the more expensive card feel better, not worse! And actually, I like the non-dual class version more. Fire synergy isn't really a Shaman thing. My only gripes with the card would be that it's a potion, which seems odd for Mage, and that you also ought to change the expansion symbol, because some sticklers care about that.
I think you're right about new cards being 'purely optical'. Dean has discussed at several moments how each expansion needs to have a hypemaster - something that invites a greater feeling than 'ah, these cards would be neat in this deck'. New appearances help the new cards to feel different, and that difference also, like the spaces between credit card numbers, makes them more memorable to new players.
With that in mind, I'm amazed that they didn't create something new for these field cards, whether an animation, a card border, or a play visual. You can't just smush everything into the secret slot forever, Hearthstone! Given that they did the same with the home screen redesign - just smushed it all into the old box - it leaves me thinking that Team 5 is suffering for UI support.
Scholomance cards won't rotate from Duels, at least - the devs have stated that they'd like Duels to be a Wild mode, so we'll only be seeing additions to the card pool.
As for the heroes, it's hard to imagine that they'll add 10 more heroes and leave the mode as-is. I don't have a clue how they'll handle that.
My biggest gripe in Duels is with the card buckets. Almost every time, I end up picking the bucket that's the least worst - not the best. More than the buckets rarely synergizing with your strategy, many cards are just bad. Not bad and fun, like Yogg'saron. Bad. Why are those offered?
Similarly, treasure offerings. Because of the way Duels is set up, to have success, you need to design a deck around the treasures available. For instance, you put more Battlecry cards in your deck than you might otherwise to make use of the Battlecry cost reduction and/or doubling. After doing that, if you don't get the treasure for Battlecries, you're just waiting to lose so you can start the next run and get what you want. That isn't fun.
For both the buckets and the treasures, offerings should consider your deck structure. If you have almost all Battlecry cards, you should have a higher chance of getting a treasure for Battlecries. Also, as noted in the article, you shouldn't be able to get 2 or 3 buckets/treasures with no relation to your deck. Playing an Armor Warrior and getting two Pirates buckets, or playing a Frost Mage and getting offered both the Fire and Arcane spell treasures - that obviously shouldn't happen, at least. Just the latter would remove the feeling of a 'wasted run'.
My best run with Diablo (8-3) so far was just a result of slapping together all the effective face damage spells that both classes have. Power Overwhelming, Heroic Strike, Hellfire, etc. And then you get the treasure that doubles your first spell each turn, and bam, wins!
Twice the class card pool equals twice the available face cheese, who knew?
You're matched up with teams that have a similar composition to yours, I believe, so you don't actually need fully leveled mercs to play high level PVP.
I've had quite a bit of fun using Level 5 mercs around 6000~ rating, myself. If nobody else is queueing with them you get a bot, which is usually pretty easy to beat :)
It's worth noting for the second bundle that coins are far less valuable than dust once you own all legendaries, even if the two currencies appear similar. Dust will get you a whole new card to play with, while coins, if you have every merc, will get you a piddly few extra stat points. Conversely, if you DON'T own every merc, coins are more valuable than dust! 250 coins is halfway to a legendary merc - this deal offers 2400 dust in 'Hearthstone terms'. A much better deal for 8$ than traditional Hearthstone bundles.
"I'd like us to be a little bit more data informed on the kinds of things our global audience think is cool. We have some gut opinions on that obviously but we could do better research. We're trying to now."
I get that as a business, Team 5 inspired to cater towards what makes money, but I'd be far more excited if Dean said they were developing something cool that the TEAM wanted to do. Something specific and niche and cool that the developers got excited about, not something 'for everyone'.
Also, I guess my hopes for GvG 2 this year are dashed. I am sad :c
What about the Year of the Wraith/Banshee/Ghoul/Zombie/Bat?
Bring back Sylvanas, the Lich King, and all those other classic undead characters.
It does seem! Quite so. It's a seemy seem that seems like... seemy.
This is a great, comprehensive article.
I resonate with the last point made; the buckets are the worst part of Duels (and Dungeon Runs). Rather than picking what seems best, you're usually picking what seems least worst. As mentioned, I often find myself playing Pirate Warrior because that's the only deck which somewhat reliably gets buckets.
Frankly, the bucket system should be replaced with something else. It's not fun. It biases players towards meta decks. It's impossible to properly balance.
I hadn't realized how disgustingly wonderful this art piece is. Thanks, Flux.
Nice!
Congratulations on the growth, y'all. You deserve it! Whenever friends ask about card reveals or deck codes, I direct them this way.
To a relaxing and productive 2022 :)
Heh, it's been awhile, apparently. Edited! Thanks for the catch.
Regards to your card, while I'm in love with the idea of a future-expansion Shadow Druid, it's difficult to reconcile pure hero damage with Druid. Effects closer to Webweave seem more fitting - maybe effects like poisonous, copying, resurrection, entangling/corrupting friendly/enemy units, cost increases for benefits, etc. Big ole board-fillin' nature-gone-bad stuff.
I'm throwing my ideas in earlier this week. Fingers crossed, I won't clinch last place again :') Let me know what you think!
I found this fanart which inspired me, and I'm trying to create an effect which matches its' mood of being in an unknown place - whether by lashing out in terror, being overwhelmingly confused, or seeing shadows jump from every corner.
Which do y'all think works best?
Feedback for unsubmitted cards:
Destroyer: That isn't worth the effect, nor is there a flavor there I can see to it. Also, I think you're right about there being balance issues: a card like this will fundamentally being overpowered or underpowered, with very little space in between (if any). Perhaps you could find a different direction for the art by synergizing with Mage's elementals somehow, which are all about cards added to hand, spell damage, elemental cost reduction, tokens added to hand, and/or hero power damage. There is a lot of cost reduction in that sphere - maybe you could find enjoy turning an aspect around humorously or playing two aspects against each other.
R: I'm not a fan. For one, the effect seems too easily obtained, but also, the hero power ALWAYS costs (1) more. While balanced, the playing experience is crappy. I don't feel that I've done something special, and what I have obtained is tough to use. I'd go back to the drawing board and figure out how that cost increase can be a payment for something flashy and fun, rather than the shackles on your fun reward itself. That said, you're the only one following a hero power theme, so if it does work out, you'll be in pretty well!
Neoguli: I'm not crazy about it. Fundamentally, it's similar to R's card - by increasing the cost of your reward, while balanced, you're decreasing how fun the card is to play. If you could apply the cost reduction to another aspect, it might be more successful. An aspect that adds some flavor, perhaps - at the moment, I'm not sure why the card does what it does. Discover is a neat field to play with for this competition, so I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Doingtheobvious: I quite like this! You are increasing the cost of your reward, but the damage scaling with that makes the more expensive card feel better, not worse! And actually, I like the non-dual class version more. Fire synergy isn't really a Shaman thing. My only gripes with the card would be that it's a potion, which seems odd for Mage, and that you also ought to change the expansion symbol, because some sticklers care about that.
I think you're right about new cards being 'purely optical'. Dean has discussed at several moments how each expansion needs to have a hypemaster - something that invites a greater feeling than 'ah, these cards would be neat in this deck'. New appearances help the new cards to feel different, and that difference also, like the spaces between credit card numbers, makes them more memorable to new players.
With that in mind, I'm amazed that they didn't create something new for these field cards, whether an animation, a card border, or a play visual. You can't just smush everything into the secret slot forever, Hearthstone! Given that they did the same with the home screen redesign - just smushed it all into the old box - it leaves me thinking that Team 5 is suffering for UI support.
You're right. Bahaha.
The Rat King never dies.
That new Hunter weapon sure looks like fun!
Scholomance cards won't rotate from Duels, at least - the devs have stated that they'd like Duels to be a Wild mode, so we'll only be seeing additions to the card pool.
As for the heroes, it's hard to imagine that they'll add 10 more heroes and leave the mode as-is. I don't have a clue how they'll handle that.
My biggest gripe in Duels is with the card buckets. Almost every time, I end up picking the bucket that's the least worst - not the best. More than the buckets rarely synergizing with your strategy, many cards are just bad. Not bad and fun, like Yogg'saron. Bad. Why are those offered?
Similarly, treasure offerings. Because of the way Duels is set up, to have success, you need to design a deck around the treasures available. For instance, you put more Battlecry cards in your deck than you might otherwise to make use of the Battlecry cost reduction and/or doubling. After doing that, if you don't get the treasure for Battlecries, you're just waiting to lose so you can start the next run and get what you want. That isn't fun.
For both the buckets and the treasures, offerings should consider your deck structure. If you have almost all Battlecry cards, you should have a higher chance of getting a treasure for Battlecries. Also, as noted in the article, you shouldn't be able to get 2 or 3 buckets/treasures with no relation to your deck. Playing an Armor Warrior and getting two Pirates buckets, or playing a Frost Mage and getting offered both the Fire and Arcane spell treasures - that obviously shouldn't happen, at least. Just the latter would remove the feeling of a 'wasted run'.
My best run with Diablo (8-3) so far was just a result of slapping together all the effective face damage spells that both classes have. Power Overwhelming, Heroic Strike, Hellfire, etc. And then you get the treasure that doubles your first spell each turn, and bam, wins!
Twice the class card pool equals twice the available face cheese, who knew?
I have been waiting for this for a long, long time. Perhaps I can justify including him in my Quest Warlock? I'll be trying!
The Calmer Bomber.
You're matched up with teams that have a similar composition to yours, I believe, so you don't actually need fully leveled mercs to play high level PVP.
I've had quite a bit of fun using Level 5 mercs around 6000~ rating, myself. If nobody else is queueing with them you get a bot, which is usually pretty easy to beat :)
It's worth noting for the second bundle that coins are far less valuable than dust once you own all legendaries, even if the two currencies appear similar. Dust will get you a whole new card to play with, while coins, if you have every merc, will get you a piddly few extra stat points. Conversely, if you DON'T own every merc, coins are more valuable than dust! 250 coins is halfway to a legendary merc - this deal offers 2400 dust in 'Hearthstone terms'. A much better deal for 8$ than traditional Hearthstone bundles.