I so hope they seriously consider auto squelch. Auto squelch adds so much more than it takes away. I find emotes to be more tilting than fun, and any idea that emotes are more genuine than not makes me feel like we're simply not interacting with the same players.
"Feedback from such a fixed audience can be dangerous, though. Easy to trick yourself into believing that is everyone."
Everyone on these community sites needs to read this quote and read it again. These communities, even all of them added together, do not represent the majority of the player base.
This is a really good take! I was one that misread the battle pass stuff earlier, and I would hate for it to screw over F2P players. I would love a system that is affordable, fun, and rewarding. How I envision battle passes work is like that, but the survey one we saw didn't seem like that. I too hope the devs can create a system that's best for everyone.
I'd have to imagine Kael'thas would get nerfed again. I have heard/seen the Druid stats aren't actually amazing, BUT I think Kael'thas creates and encourages a really unfun style of play with it's mana cheating. I don't know enough about design to be an expert on it or w/e, but I think it should be "your third spell you cast on your turn costs (1)." That way it's not "every 3rd spell" and whatever spell you casts still *costs* something. When you make expensive cards free it defeats the purpose of making them expensive.
So the first time I read this, I read it as "optional battle pass alongside the current system."
I see that is not the case. So the 8000 gold I save between expansions would be useless...? I don't think that's very good.
I would love a Battlepass that's just an optional (yes paid for) add-on that doesn't replace anything, so we can still do quests and achieve gold and F2P players aren't just screwed. That doesn't make any sense.
I would absolutely love this. I love battle pass systems. They make me feel encouraged to play and often give rewards way above their price. It's a win/win scenario.
EDIT: After re-reading this, I see the system is set to replace the quest system entirely, screwing over F2P players and probably causing less overall rewards. To me, that makes NO sense and I do not support that at all. I was more picturing a battle pass ALONGSIDE the daily quests and gold gathering.
I am so nervous they're going to choose one of the most frustrating Year of the Dragon cards to unnerf. Here's to them unnerfing like Sludge Slerper or something.
For a while now I've been thinking of making a video expressing certain concerns I had with the way the Year of the Dragon has been handled by Blizzard. Unfortunately, I have no audience to start with, nor do I have the equipment (and frankly, knowledge) to make a video I'd be truly proud of. I've been commenting on this forum a bit lately and decided... Maybe this could be the place to start. It's important to note as I put in the title--this is an opinion piece. I am not speaking objectively. This is strictly subjective.
I can't say I have terribly many qualifications, since I'm not exactly a Hearthstone personality, or a "pro player." However, I have some I can list that I hope will set my apart and show my opinion comes from the view of an above average Hearthstone player.
I am a 5x legend player--Two of those during the Year of the Raven, and the remaining 3 occurring in November, December, and January. I play for my University's TESPA team, where we were finished 3rd in the East and then went 2-2 in the playoff rounds. I have placed 1st in three local tournaments. Safe to say, I played a lot this year--it's why I feel I have a strong argument for my problems with this year.
With that intro out of the way, I'd like to express my concern with the Year of the Dragon, going expansion by expansion. I'd then like to express my concern for what this means for the upcoming year rumored to be titled Year of the Phoenix.
Let's get started then.
Rise of Shadows
I think it's safe to say we were all excited for Year of the Dragon. Year of the Raven soured many people with the frustrating experience that came along with Genn and Baku's even and odd decks. Blizzard started off with a bold move: Moving all of the Even and Odd cards to the Hall of Fame, preventing them from controlling the meta for another year. This year promised us something we'd never seen before--a year long narrative. We were excited to see the return of Villains from Hearthstone history. Rafaam, Dr. Boom, Hagatha, Lazul, and Togwaggle all came back in an exciting way. But as their legendaries were revealed, the first two small problem started. First, Dr. Boom and Hagatha were and still are both represented in Standard already with their hero cards. Why were they getting legendaries again? This ended up not mattering much to people--a problem swiftly avoided as people realized: This doesn't matter, actually. I agree. But the next problem stuck the whole year: They were class legendaries. This struck fear in some people; I admit to being concerned as well. The 5 classes were branded the League of Evil, and were given the Scheme mechanic that saw little success outside of Hagatha's scheme. But the promise of the year long mechanic in the Lackey mechanic brought many people over to the evil classes.
In response, the "good" classes, who saw so little representation in the first expansion they didn't even get a team name, got... Twinspell. And Twinspell is a really good mechanic! For at least some point in the year, every Twinspell card saw play. It was a success! But the success of the mechanic stands much too short against the excitement brought by the Evil classes. We saw far more attempts by people to make Evil decks work, as Bomb Warrior and Tempo Rogue became the dominant decks of the meta, edging out Conjurer Mage. The "good" classes were flat out not as exciting as the Evil classes, and it showed. Blizzard attempted to balance this out in the next expansion, but made what I feel was a crucial error...
Saviors of Uldum
The good classes finally had their heroes. The League of Explorers returned, as Reno, Finley, Elise, and Brann brought with them the much loved Singleton mechanic. Concerns for Bomb Warrior ruining this mechanic were swept away quickly at launch, as Bomb Warrior was simply incapable of keeping up, especially after the August 26th patch nerfing the Dr. Boom hero card to 9 mana. Along with them, they brought an extremely powerful friend, the hardest to program card in Hearthstone's history: Zephrys the Great. A neutral legendary. Yes: a NEUTRAL legendary.
Again, the Evil classes ended up being much more exciting. Four mechanics were re/introduced this set: Quests, which were for everyone, Reborn, which was for everyone, Plagues, which were for Evil only, and Singleton, which, thanks to Zephrys, was for everyone. Not to mention, the new Titanic Lackey really only saw play in the Evil classes that could properly support Lackeys. Hell, during this time, the best Quest was far and away the Shaman quest. This meant that again, the Evil classes were the favorite, more exciting classes. Thankfully the best Highlander decks during the Saviors of Uldum meta, and even during the Doom in the Tomb event, were the Good-Now-Explorer classes. This did not last.
Descent of Dragons & Galakrond's Awakening
The promised Dragons heavy expansion has finally arrived! This was the most excited I'd been for a Hearthstone expansion I'd been to date. I clearly had fun playing it; I've made legend twice during the event. But I won't lie to you all: the first time making legend was an absolute joke. The laughably overpowered Galakrond Shaman carried me to an 80% win rate as I reached legend on only the second day of the expansion. However, before I get in my own way, allow me to rewind a bit.
Descent of Dragons brought us two new mechanics: Invoke, one of the strongest mechanics to ever become part of the game, and Sidequests, a mechanic that like Twinspell has been really strong, but just doesn't bring the excitement of the Evil classes. We of course can't forget new Lackey synergy cards and the new Draconic lackey, or most importantly: Galakrond. Five brand new hero cards that were only for the Evil classes, again showing these 5 favor over the Explorer classes. Invoke and Galakrond was such a powerful mechanic, that the Shaman version of it was nerfed a mere two weeks in, and some cards with the mechanic got nerfed AGAIN a few weeks later. It was the most botched expansion launch in a while; not since The Witchwood has a new expansion come in and been nerfed so quickly. It left a terrible tastes in our mouths; how did Blizzard not see how freakishly overpowered this set was?
I did not forget about Zephrys. What should have been the most exciting card for the explorers robbed them of what made them most unique: The Singleton mechanic. Since Descent of Dragons, we've seen Highlander Rogue, Warrior, and Shaman all arrive in some form. Highlander Hunter remains the strongest, to be sure; but it's not what I've been hammering on this whole post. It is not exciting. Mage, Hunter, Druid, and Paladin were all powerful at some point during this year--but none of them have the excitement the EVIL classes brought. Their identities were pushed aside for Blizzard to focus on only five of it's nine classes.
Looking Forward
I hope people noticed something as they read this. I did talk about balance, sure, but that wasn't the main point I was talking about. It feels like Blizzard gave up on 4 of the 9 classes, and it showed throughout the year. When only five (or four, sorry Priest) classes are fun, the Meta isn't fun. The most fun I've had this year has been playing Battlegrounds--a game mode that provides us with no helpful rewards to help our collections, save for the occasional "play Battlegrounds" quests. This makes me concerned for the rumored Year of the Phoenix. What will Blizzard do?
Are we going to have a Witchwood situation? Is Descent of Dragons and Galakrond's awakening going to be so god damn powerful and fun that the first expansion of 2020 will be pushed to the wayside?
Is Blizzard going to try to balance itself out, and then leave the 5 Evil classes in the dust by over focusing on the Explorer classes?
Blizzard has already announced they will not be continuing the year long story. Why? The story and connected mechanics have at least been well received, if not without their problems.
As we face Hearthstone 2020, what does the future hold in store?
I don't think there's any simple solutions, especially in the case that my opinions here don't reflect strongly on others opinions. I just hope that 2020 brings cool, fun stuff for all the classes, not just half of them.
I appreciate you taking the time to read all of my thoughts. I love Hearthstone. I love playing Hearthstone. I just played so much of it this year, I couldn't ignore these problems, and I wanted to share my thoughts somewhere. Thank you. <3
I do think the bundle is good value. As someone who rarely if ever plays wild, but still has a good collection; this bundle could be worth a lot of dust going into the new hearthstone year.
I feel strongly that this card is being overrated. While Finley is out the earliest of the 4, he is also the one who is easiest to miss with. You wouldn't put him in an aggro deck because it's very hard to make a no dups aggro deck, and if you tried to put him in aggro you can really miss with warrior, priest, and shaman. In a control deck, you might be fine with most hero powers, but there are gonna be moments where you really want one and won't get it. I don't think Finley provides the consistency you want out of his effect.
I have no idea how good this is, BUT, it makes me WANT to play Hunter, and I think that's very good design.
Hunter is a class that needs consistency to work, so no-dups decks work contrary to this. But when this hits it's gonna feel so good and so satisfying. It'll definitely see a lot of experimenting. I hope it ends up being good enough.
So... Kael'thas???
I so hope they seriously consider auto squelch. Auto squelch adds so much more than it takes away. I find emotes to be more tilting than fun, and any idea that emotes are more genuine than not makes me feel like we're simply not interacting with the same players.
I made a guide on Reddit about how I learned to deal with Xyrella/Samuro. It has given me great success!
You can read it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HSMercenaries/comments/q9i4rz/a_quick_guide_on_orcs_including_countering/
"Buffs are being considered." ? That is the wrong way, I want mass nerfs to bring the power level of the game down, not increase it.
"Feedback from such a fixed audience can be dangerous, though. Easy to trick yourself into believing that is everyone."
Everyone on these community sites needs to read this quote and read it again. These communities, even all of them added together, do not represent the majority of the player base.
This is a really good take! I was one that misread the battle pass stuff earlier, and I would hate for it to screw over F2P players. I would love a system that is affordable, fun, and rewarding. How I envision battle passes work is like that, but the survey one we saw didn't seem like that. I too hope the devs can create a system that's best for everyone.
Mana cheating makes me feel bad. grr.
I'd have to imagine Kael'thas would get nerfed again. I have heard/seen the Druid stats aren't actually amazing, BUT I think Kael'thas creates and encourages a really unfun style of play with it's mana cheating. I don't know enough about design to be an expert on it or w/e, but I think it should be "your third spell you cast on your turn costs (1)." That way it's not "every 3rd spell" and whatever spell you casts still *costs* something. When you make expensive cards free it defeats the purpose of making them expensive.
So the first time I read this, I read it as "optional battle pass alongside the current system."
I see that is not the case. So the 8000 gold I save between expansions would be useless...? I don't think that's very good.
I would love a Battlepass that's just an optional (yes paid for) add-on that doesn't replace anything, so we can still do quests and achieve gold and F2P players aren't just screwed. That doesn't make any sense.
I would absolutely love this. I love battle pass systems. They make me feel encouraged to play and often give rewards way above their price. It's a win/win scenario.
EDIT: After re-reading this, I see the system is set to replace the quest system entirely, screwing over F2P players and probably causing less overall rewards. To me, that makes NO sense and I do not support that at all. I was more picturing a battle pass ALONGSIDE the daily quests and gold gathering.
I cannot help but feel like these Imprisoned minions are going to be way too slow to be good.
A new class is INSANE!!!
That's so exciting. What else is crazy and that we didn't actually see anything for the new expansion itself, just the name!
Wow. This reveal season is gonna be nutty.
I am so nervous they're going to choose one of the most frustrating Year of the Dragon cards to unnerf. Here's to them unnerfing like Sludge Slerper or something.
Hello everyone. I'm Raktoner.
For a while now I've been thinking of making a video expressing certain concerns I had with the way the Year of the Dragon has been handled by Blizzard. Unfortunately, I have no audience to start with, nor do I have the equipment (and frankly, knowledge) to make a video I'd be truly proud of. I've been commenting on this forum a bit lately and decided... Maybe this could be the place to start. It's important to note as I put in the title--this is an opinion piece. I am not speaking objectively. This is strictly subjective.
I can't say I have terribly many qualifications, since I'm not exactly a Hearthstone personality, or a "pro player." However, I have some I can list that I hope will set my apart and show my opinion comes from the view of an above average Hearthstone player.
I am a 5x legend player--Two of those during the Year of the Raven, and the remaining 3 occurring in November, December, and January. I play for my University's TESPA team, where we were finished 3rd in the East and then went 2-2 in the playoff rounds. I have placed 1st in three local tournaments. Safe to say, I played a lot this year--it's why I feel I have a strong argument for my problems with this year.
With that intro out of the way, I'd like to express my concern with the Year of the Dragon, going expansion by expansion. I'd then like to express my concern for what this means for the upcoming year rumored to be titled Year of the Phoenix.
Let's get started then.
Rise of Shadows
I think it's safe to say we were all excited for Year of the Dragon. Year of the Raven soured many people with the frustrating experience that came along with Genn and Baku's even and odd decks. Blizzard started off with a bold move: Moving all of the Even and Odd cards to the Hall of Fame, preventing them from controlling the meta for another year. This year promised us something we'd never seen before--a year long narrative. We were excited to see the return of Villains from Hearthstone history. Rafaam, Dr. Boom, Hagatha, Lazul, and Togwaggle all came back in an exciting way. But as their legendaries were revealed, the first two small problem started. First, Dr. Boom and Hagatha were and still are both represented in Standard already with their hero cards. Why were they getting legendaries again? This ended up not mattering much to people--a problem swiftly avoided as people realized: This doesn't matter, actually. I agree. But the next problem stuck the whole year: They were class legendaries. This struck fear in some people; I admit to being concerned as well. The 5 classes were branded the League of Evil, and were given the Scheme mechanic that saw little success outside of Hagatha's scheme. But the promise of the year long mechanic in the Lackey mechanic brought many people over to the evil classes.
In response, the "good" classes, who saw so little representation in the first expansion they didn't even get a team name, got... Twinspell. And Twinspell is a really good mechanic! For at least some point in the year, every Twinspell card saw play. It was a success! But the success of the mechanic stands much too short against the excitement brought by the Evil classes. We saw far more attempts by people to make Evil decks work, as Bomb Warrior and Tempo Rogue became the dominant decks of the meta, edging out Conjurer Mage. The "good" classes were flat out not as exciting as the Evil classes, and it showed. Blizzard attempted to balance this out in the next expansion, but made what I feel was a crucial error...
Saviors of Uldum
The good classes finally had their heroes. The League of Explorers returned, as Reno, Finley, Elise, and Brann brought with them the much loved Singleton mechanic. Concerns for Bomb Warrior ruining this mechanic were swept away quickly at launch, as Bomb Warrior was simply incapable of keeping up, especially after the August 26th patch nerfing the Dr. Boom hero card to 9 mana. Along with them, they brought an extremely powerful friend, the hardest to program card in Hearthstone's history: Zephrys the Great. A neutral legendary. Yes: a NEUTRAL legendary.
Again, the Evil classes ended up being much more exciting. Four mechanics were re/introduced this set: Quests, which were for everyone, Reborn, which was for everyone, Plagues, which were for Evil only, and Singleton, which, thanks to Zephrys, was for everyone. Not to mention, the new Titanic Lackey really only saw play in the Evil classes that could properly support Lackeys. Hell, during this time, the best Quest was far and away the Shaman quest. This meant that again, the Evil classes were the favorite, more exciting classes. Thankfully the best Highlander decks during the Saviors of Uldum meta, and even during the Doom in the Tomb event, were the Good-Now-Explorer classes. This did not last.
Descent of Dragons & Galakrond's Awakening
The promised Dragons heavy expansion has finally arrived! This was the most excited I'd been for a Hearthstone expansion I'd been to date. I clearly had fun playing it; I've made legend twice during the event. But I won't lie to you all: the first time making legend was an absolute joke. The laughably overpowered Galakrond Shaman carried me to an 80% win rate as I reached legend on only the second day of the expansion. However, before I get in my own way, allow me to rewind a bit.
Descent of Dragons brought us two new mechanics: Invoke, one of the strongest mechanics to ever become part of the game, and Sidequests, a mechanic that like Twinspell has been really strong, but just doesn't bring the excitement of the Evil classes. We of course can't forget new Lackey synergy cards and the new Draconic lackey, or most importantly: Galakrond. Five brand new hero cards that were only for the Evil classes, again showing these 5 favor over the Explorer classes. Invoke and Galakrond was such a powerful mechanic, that the Shaman version of it was nerfed a mere two weeks in, and some cards with the mechanic got nerfed AGAIN a few weeks later. It was the most botched expansion launch in a while; not since The Witchwood has a new expansion come in and been nerfed so quickly. It left a terrible tastes in our mouths; how did Blizzard not see how freakishly overpowered this set was?
I did not forget about Zephrys. What should have been the most exciting card for the explorers robbed them of what made them most unique: The Singleton mechanic. Since Descent of Dragons, we've seen Highlander Rogue, Warrior, and Shaman all arrive in some form. Highlander Hunter remains the strongest, to be sure; but it's not what I've been hammering on this whole post. It is not exciting. Mage, Hunter, Druid, and Paladin were all powerful at some point during this year--but none of them have the excitement the EVIL classes brought. Their identities were pushed aside for Blizzard to focus on only five of it's nine classes.
Looking Forward
I hope people noticed something as they read this. I did talk about balance, sure, but that wasn't the main point I was talking about. It feels like Blizzard gave up on 4 of the 9 classes, and it showed throughout the year. When only five (or four, sorry Priest) classes are fun, the Meta isn't fun. The most fun I've had this year has been playing Battlegrounds--a game mode that provides us with no helpful rewards to help our collections, save for the occasional "play Battlegrounds" quests. This makes me concerned for the rumored Year of the Phoenix. What will Blizzard do?
Are we going to have a Witchwood situation? Is Descent of Dragons and Galakrond's awakening going to be so god damn powerful and fun that the first expansion of 2020 will be pushed to the wayside?
Is Blizzard going to try to balance itself out, and then leave the 5 Evil classes in the dust by over focusing on the Explorer classes?
Blizzard has already announced they will not be continuing the year long story. Why? The story and connected mechanics have at least been well received, if not without their problems.
As we face Hearthstone 2020, what does the future hold in store?
I don't think there's any simple solutions, especially in the case that my opinions here don't reflect strongly on others opinions. I just hope that 2020 brings cool, fun stuff for all the classes, not just half of them.
I appreciate you taking the time to read all of my thoughts. I love Hearthstone. I love playing Hearthstone. I just played so much of it this year, I couldn't ignore these problems, and I wanted to share my thoughts somewhere. Thank you. <3
I do think the bundle is good value. As someone who rarely if ever plays wild, but still has a good collection; this bundle could be worth a lot of dust going into the new hearthstone year.
Thank you for the quick reply! That's very exciting to hear. I wonder when we'll learn more about Celeste.
Are we sure the mage hero is not just Khadgar coming back to the store? I don't know the specifics of the data mine, so I figured I'd ask :)
The example showed a fireball that did 8 damage, an arcane intellect that drew 4 cards, and a polymorph that costed 1.
I'd imagine it discovers upgraded versions of basic mage spells.
Seems pretty damn good.
I feel strongly that this card is being overrated. While Finley is out the earliest of the 4, he is also the one who is easiest to miss with. You wouldn't put him in an aggro deck because it's very hard to make a no dups aggro deck, and if you tried to put him in aggro you can really miss with warrior, priest, and shaman. In a control deck, you might be fine with most hero powers, but there are gonna be moments where you really want one and won't get it. I don't think Finley provides the consistency you want out of his effect.
I have no idea how good this is, BUT, it makes me WANT to play Hunter, and I think that's very good design.
Hunter is a class that needs consistency to work, so no-dups decks work contrary to this. But when this hits it's gonna feel so good and so satisfying. It'll definitely see a lot of experimenting. I hope it ends up being good enough.