One of the best cards revealed from the set so far. This already has an archetype to slot into (Handbuff Paladin), but as a standalone it's already very strong. Paladin has a lot of buff synergies that this could take advantage of. A single buff from Alliance Bannerman turns this into a 3-mana 4/4 with rush, which is very good.
Defile on a (neutral) stick, which sounds great. However, the 5-mana cost means setting up a full board clear might not be as easy compared to the 2-mana spell version. Still, I'm happy to see one of the most creative cards ever printed being reincarnated, and is accessible to all classes at that.
That's an awesome card. It's simply a better Frost Nova because it can potentially remove a minion on the board. Yet another good control tool for Warrior.
That's a strong card. 8-mana rush that can give you 13/13 stats on the board the turn it's played? I don't see any downside to this other than the meta being too fast for it to see play.
It's a good early game tool, and feels bad to draw in the late game. If you can kill a lot of tokens with these in the early game, it can do a lot of damage to face later on. That feels a little slow for Hunter right now since the class mostly wants to go face from the get-go nowadays. I'll have to see what the rest of the set for the class looks like.
Incredibly powerful card. That weapon could rival any treasure you get from Duels, that's how insane it is. It HAS to be answered/removed otherwise you'll just win a lot of the time. Honestly, this hero card feels like it belongs to the Warrior class, but I'm happy to try out some control archetypes that this card will probably enable in Paladin.
Hopefully this nerf exterminates it from ladder, even though the nerf isn't that damaging (+2 damage aura effect the whole game is still ridiculous). The card draw and the archetype it's played in (Spell Mage, which discourages board play) are what really make Questline Mage so unfun to play against, and what causes it to lock out control or any slow archetypes.
That said, this nerf might dissuade people from playing this abomination on ladder. Go dust your copies, please!
Well, these are underwhelming. I probably won't buy this mini-set, gonna save my gold for the next expansion. There are very few cards in this mini-set that excite me, and I can just craft them since the usable ones are just rares and commons (and Mr. Smite, probably; I'll get free dust when he inevitably gets nerfed).
United in Stormwind remains the worst expansion in the game's history due to the number of un-fun archetypes you get to face, and this mini-set might not change that anytime soon.
This is one of those cards that could either be broken or just overrated by the community. I'm leaning towards broken and meta-defining because it might speed up the meta even more. This is Leeroy reincarnated, with better stats and an aura effect to boot.
Regardless of what Mr. Smite's influence in the game is going to be, this card angers me so much because it's more proof that the current dev team is probably one of the worst in the game's history. Didn't Iksar or some other dev say before that they're eliminating the charge keyword from the game?Then why did they print this monstrosity all of a sudden? Are they just screwing with us, trying to induce us into going on Zeddy-like rants?
Seriously, f*ck these devs. They clearly don't know what direction they want to take the game in; they keep going back on their word, reprinting broken shit (like reincarnating RAZA PRIEST in Hunter, a class that LOVES to go face), and failing to introduce a diversity of archetypes. They suck, plain and simple.
I started playing again after nearly 3 weeks and I finally crossed the level 100 barrier. Seeing the amazing progress made by others here, I'm definitely feeling small with my snail-like progress!
I chose Felheart Gul'dan as my portrait, and it is a beauty. I'm at Level 103 after playing a lot of Questline Priest to get some Stormwind achievements done. Hopefully the mini-set shakes up this incredibly stale meta.
I tried it last night, and I quit playing after the very first level (the one with Hogger as the boss). I found it boring and simplistic, from the gameplay to the aesthetics. Seriously, the background/environment looks very plain, almost like it's an unfinished game that was simply rushed to completion. The fact that others here are saying that there's a lot to criticize yet it's very addictive is a massive red flag for me; that's the hallmark of a predatory game, and I don't want to fall for it.
I'll give it another try in the coming days, but as it stands, it's just not very interesting. It bored me so much that it made me go back to playing Standard even though this meta is my least favorite ever, which is saying something.
I've only been playing hs for about 3 years now. I've looked at some of the quests from before I started playing from the ungoro expansion, and the quests from ungoro seem more powerful than the current ones...? Is that to be expected or do you guys think that the current quests are more powerful than previous ones?
Definitely not. The Un'goro quests' power levels pale in comparison to the Stormwind ones overall, since the latter has a lot more quests that are game-winning and meta-defining. You could only say that for The Caverns Below and maybe Open the Waygate in Un'goro, but even those two quests necessitated very strict deckbuilding restrictions unlike the Stormwind quests. There are 4 Stormwind quests that approach and even surpass The Caverns Below in terms of power level and polarity:
The Demon Seed - Using your fatigue against your opponent as a win condition is straight-up broken. As long as some competitive deck using this questline exists, control and value decks won't stand a chance in that meta. It freaking broke Wild, for crying out loud.
Command the Elements - Having an aura effect that double-casts your spells is an instant win condition most of the time. I played this deck a lot pre-nerf and the broken plays it allowed me to pull off was ridiculous, and even post-nerf it's still competitive.
Defend the Dwarven District - Giving the Raza machine gun to a class that already loves to go face was a terrible idea from the start. This quest has been wreaking havoc in Wild from day one, and it's semi-competitive in Standard too.
Sorcerer's Gambit - Simply a plain, boring design that is completely unfun to play against. As long as Mage has enough burn spells, why should Blizz ever print minions for this class again? In Kibler's latest video, he got burned down for lethal in a single turn when he was at 37 health. That'll piss anyone off.
The other Stormwind quests aren't as problematic...yet. Seek Guidance, whose win condition is literally to destroy the opponent, is a few buffs and support away from becoming the most frustrating quest. Raid the Docks is probably the most fun quest to play and play against, but it poses its own problems too especially in Wild, as it gives Pirate Warrior infinite fuel in the late game which is unfair to give an aggro deck. Final Showdown was frustrating to play against too for a time. Find the Imposter is the only balanced quest in the set.
Simply put, the Stormwind questlines are probably some of the worst-designed cards in HS history, or at the very least they're some of the most polarizing. They've sapped away a lot of joy I had for this game to the point that I only play once a week now, mostly because I fear that they'll continue to influence future expansions and create even more frustrating metas.
I haven't played much since the latest round of nerfs, so I can't say for sure whether I really like it or not. But in the few times that I did, I got pissed off quite a bit, especially when I queued against Questline Mages (though in the last time I played, I didn't face a single one, which was weird). That questline really needs a rework because it's just so boring and frustrating to play against, and it must be so boring to play too.
The pre-nerf meta wasn't as generally fun either, though I did enjoy playing the different decks with The Demon Seed and Command the Elements. The Warlock decks took some skill to play which I found fulfilling, despite knowing how much of a design mistake the questline really is.
So while I did enjoy several archetypes from the overall Stormwind meta, I had a bad taste in my mouth the whole time because of the terrible design direction the devs took for this expansion. Seriously, cards like Ignite, The Demon Seed, Command the Elements, Sorcerer's Gambit, Defend the Dwarven District, Battleground Battlemaster, and even Raid the Docks should never have been printed. They're all problematic for the health of the game because of their infinite value (looking at you, Ignite) and sure-win conditions (Warlock, Shaman, Mage, and Hunter questlines) and they're probably going to be power-crept in the future, which will lead to an even more frustrating meta.
Had a funny win in Duels yesterday...my opponent was at 15 health, and dropped a Robes of Protection to protect the 4 minions on their board. I only had an Optimistic Ogre on my board, summoned when I cast a Firelands Portal. So figuring all was lost, I just cast Pure Cold to hit my opponent for 8 in the face (with my passive Fireshaper hitting for 1 extra face damage), then decided to trade away my Ogre to their Blood of G'huun. Lo and behold, my Optimistic Ogre went face for the win!
Again, never concede. An Optimistic Ogre lethal! It turns out that 50% of the time, it works every time.
I'm only at Level 86. Took me two weeks to reach my stated target of Level 83, but I've just been so busy with work lately. I played with a lot of Overload Shaman just before the questline was nerfed, piloting the Doomhammer variant to counter all the Warlocks and Mages. Whacking them in the face over and over again felt soooo good.
After the nerfs, I tried to play Even Handlock in Wild, and while the format definitely benefited from The Demon Seed ban, it's still extremely fast. I racked up a lot of losses with that Evenlock deck in Platinum ranks as I faced countless aggro decks that I just couldn't keep up with. It's a shame since the deck is pretty fun to playi f only it could be allowed to execute its game plan, but I'm almost always dead within turn 6 or 7. Again, screw Wild.
Now I'm stuck without a deck to play in Standard. I tried Hero Power Mage (Kibler's version) but it's a middling deck at best, and the only other deck I saw success with was Elemental Shaman which I've more or less grown bored with. Hunters seem to be the dominant archetype now, with the endless charge of Trampling Rhinos bashing me in the face.
Not really sure when I'll be able to hit Level 100 since XP is hard to come by. Hopefully I get there before the mini-set comes.
@Tetsuo: I did not test if the exploit was fixed in the meantime since I completed the achievement already weeks ago. I think there was no mention of it in the patch notes. So, please report back to us all whether it still works after your try 😅
I tried this out...and I can confirm that it still works! Tried it out in Casual Duels. Do this now if you still haven't, they might fix this in the next patch. Thanks a lot for pointing this out, this saved me some serious grind!
I'm at level 76. Not much progress again because I didn't play for two days this week. Not too much success in the achievement front either, but I finally completed those that I've been grinding for a while:
The Brave and the Bolner - achieved it in a casual duels deck
Share Your Pain - I finally completed this using one of MarkMcKz's meme decks; a super mill Warlock where you discard multiple Hand of Gul'dans using Expired Merchant, Baron Rivendare, and Spiritsinger Umbra to deal obscene amounts of fatigue damage. What's lame is that it doesn't show your opponent's health in negative figures once you pull off the combo, but I'm guessing you can deal up to 120+ fatigue damage. It's fun to pull off!
Yoggchamp - Posted about this in the Pepper Thread
It's so Fluffy! - I played a lot of Questline Rogue, so I managed to finish this old achievement
WTS (2nd tier) - I haven't been playing a lot of decks with tradeable cards in them so the tradeable achievements are still a ways to go, but that's gonna change now that I know casual duels count towards achievements. I'll play in that mode more from now on.
I absolutely hate this meta right now. I HATE IT. Here are the decks I've been facing all day:
Questline Mage
Questline Warlock
Celestial Druid
Questline Shaman
ALL of them can kill you in a single turn. ALL of them. So what, I have to play hyper aggro every single time now? Is that it? It's NOT FUN, and it's NOT FUNNY ANYMORE.
I really, really wish the devs have a bad day today. They destroyed this game, those morons.
One of the best cards revealed from the set so far. This already has an archetype to slot into (Handbuff Paladin), but as a standalone it's already very strong. Paladin has a lot of buff synergies that this could take advantage of. A single buff from Alliance Bannerman turns this into a 3-mana 4/4 with rush, which is very good.
Defile on a (neutral) stick, which sounds great. However, the 5-mana cost means setting up a full board clear might not be as easy compared to the 2-mana spell version. Still, I'm happy to see one of the most creative cards ever printed being reincarnated, and is accessible to all classes at that.
That's an awesome card. It's simply a better Frost Nova because it can potentially remove a minion on the board. Yet another good control tool for Warrior.
That's a strong card. 8-mana rush that can give you 13/13 stats on the board the turn it's played? I don't see any downside to this other than the meta being too fast for it to see play.
It's a good early game tool, and feels bad to draw in the late game. If you can kill a lot of tokens with these in the early game, it can do a lot of damage to face later on. That feels a little slow for Hunter right now since the class mostly wants to go face from the get-go nowadays. I'll have to see what the rest of the set for the class looks like.
Incredibly powerful card. That weapon could rival any treasure you get from Duels, that's how insane it is. It HAS to be answered/removed otherwise you'll just win a lot of the time. Honestly, this hero card feels like it belongs to the Warrior class, but I'm happy to try out some control archetypes that this card will probably enable in Paladin.
Hopefully this nerf exterminates it from ladder, even though the nerf isn't that damaging (+2 damage aura effect the whole game is still ridiculous). The card draw and the archetype it's played in (Spell Mage, which discourages board play) are what really make Questline Mage so unfun to play against, and what causes it to lock out control or any slow archetypes.
That said, this nerf might dissuade people from playing this abomination on ladder. Go dust your copies, please!
Well, these are underwhelming. I probably won't buy this mini-set, gonna save my gold for the next expansion. There are very few cards in this mini-set that excite me, and I can just craft them since the usable ones are just rares and commons (and Mr. Smite, probably; I'll get free dust when he inevitably gets nerfed).
United in Stormwind remains the worst expansion in the game's history due to the number of un-fun archetypes you get to face, and this mini-set might not change that anytime soon.
This is one of those cards that could either be broken or just overrated by the community. I'm leaning towards broken and meta-defining because it might speed up the meta even more. This is Leeroy reincarnated, with better stats and an aura effect to boot.
Regardless of what Mr. Smite's influence in the game is going to be, this card angers me so much because it's more proof that the current dev team is probably one of the worst in the game's history. Didn't Iksar or some other dev say before that they're eliminating the charge keyword from the game?Then why did they print this monstrosity all of a sudden? Are they just screwing with us, trying to induce us into going on Zeddy-like rants?
Seriously, f*ck these devs. They clearly don't know what direction they want to take the game in; they keep going back on their word, reprinting broken shit (like reincarnating RAZA PRIEST in Hunter, a class that LOVES to go face), and failing to introduce a diversity of archetypes. They suck, plain and simple.
I started playing again after nearly 3 weeks and I finally crossed the level 100 barrier. Seeing the amazing progress made by others here, I'm definitely feeling small with my snail-like progress!
I chose Felheart Gul'dan as my portrait, and it is a beauty. I'm at Level 103 after playing a lot of Questline Priest to get some Stormwind achievements done. Hopefully the mini-set shakes up this incredibly stale meta.
I tried it last night, and I quit playing after the very first level (the one with Hogger as the boss). I found it boring and simplistic, from the gameplay to the aesthetics. Seriously, the background/environment looks very plain, almost like it's an unfinished game that was simply rushed to completion. The fact that others here are saying that there's a lot to criticize yet it's very addictive is a massive red flag for me; that's the hallmark of a predatory game, and I don't want to fall for it.
I'll give it another try in the coming days, but as it stands, it's just not very interesting. It bored me so much that it made me go back to playing Standard even though this meta is my least favorite ever, which is saying something.
Definitely not. The Un'goro quests' power levels pale in comparison to the Stormwind ones overall, since the latter has a lot more quests that are game-winning and meta-defining. You could only say that for The Caverns Below and maybe Open the Waygate in Un'goro, but even those two quests necessitated very strict deckbuilding restrictions unlike the Stormwind quests. There are 4 Stormwind quests that approach and even surpass The Caverns Below in terms of power level and polarity:
The Demon Seed - Using your fatigue against your opponent as a win condition is straight-up broken. As long as some competitive deck using this questline exists, control and value decks won't stand a chance in that meta. It freaking broke Wild, for crying out loud.
Command the Elements - Having an aura effect that double-casts your spells is an instant win condition most of the time. I played this deck a lot pre-nerf and the broken plays it allowed me to pull off was ridiculous, and even post-nerf it's still competitive.
Defend the Dwarven District - Giving the Raza machine gun to a class that already loves to go face was a terrible idea from the start. This quest has been wreaking havoc in Wild from day one, and it's semi-competitive in Standard too.
Sorcerer's Gambit - Simply a plain, boring design that is completely unfun to play against. As long as Mage has enough burn spells, why should Blizz ever print minions for this class again? In Kibler's latest video, he got burned down for lethal in a single turn when he was at 37 health. That'll piss anyone off.
The other Stormwind quests aren't as problematic...yet. Seek Guidance, whose win condition is literally to destroy the opponent, is a few buffs and support away from becoming the most frustrating quest. Raid the Docks is probably the most fun quest to play and play against, but it poses its own problems too especially in Wild, as it gives Pirate Warrior infinite fuel in the late game which is unfair to give an aggro deck. Final Showdown was frustrating to play against too for a time. Find the Imposter is the only balanced quest in the set.
Simply put, the Stormwind questlines are probably some of the worst-designed cards in HS history, or at the very least they're some of the most polarizing. They've sapped away a lot of joy I had for this game to the point that I only play once a week now, mostly because I fear that they'll continue to influence future expansions and create even more frustrating metas.
Yep, I'm pretty sure a lot of people forgot this card existed. Never seen her played, so I don't even know what her voice line is.
I haven't played much since the latest round of nerfs, so I can't say for sure whether I really like it or not. But in the few times that I did, I got pissed off quite a bit, especially when I queued against Questline Mages (though in the last time I played, I didn't face a single one, which was weird). That questline really needs a rework because it's just so boring and frustrating to play against, and it must be so boring to play too.
The pre-nerf meta wasn't as generally fun either, though I did enjoy playing the different decks with The Demon Seed and Command the Elements. The Warlock decks took some skill to play which I found fulfilling, despite knowing how much of a design mistake the questline really is.
So while I did enjoy several archetypes from the overall Stormwind meta, I had a bad taste in my mouth the whole time because of the terrible design direction the devs took for this expansion. Seriously, cards like Ignite, The Demon Seed, Command the Elements, Sorcerer's Gambit, Defend the Dwarven District, Battleground Battlemaster, and even Raid the Docks should never have been printed. They're all problematic for the health of the game because of their infinite value (looking at you, Ignite) and sure-win conditions (Warlock, Shaman, Mage, and Hunter questlines) and they're probably going to be power-crept in the future, which will lead to an even more frustrating meta.
Had a funny win in Duels yesterday...my opponent was at 15 health, and dropped a Robes of Protection to protect the 4 minions on their board. I only had an Optimistic Ogre on my board, summoned when I cast a Firelands Portal. So figuring all was lost, I just cast Pure Cold to hit my opponent for 8 in the face (with my passive Fireshaper hitting for 1 extra face damage), then decided to trade away my Ogre to their Blood of G'huun. Lo and behold, my Optimistic Ogre went face for the win!
Again, never concede. An Optimistic Ogre lethal! It turns out that 50% of the time, it works every time.
I'm only at Level 86. Took me two weeks to reach my stated target of Level 83, but I've just been so busy with work lately. I played with a lot of Overload Shaman just before the questline was nerfed, piloting the Doomhammer variant to counter all the Warlocks and Mages. Whacking them in the face over and over again felt soooo good.
After the nerfs, I tried to play Even Handlock in Wild, and while the format definitely benefited from The Demon Seed ban, it's still extremely fast. I racked up a lot of losses with that Evenlock deck in Platinum ranks as I faced countless aggro decks that I just couldn't keep up with. It's a shame since the deck is pretty fun to playi f only it could be allowed to execute its game plan, but I'm almost always dead within turn 6 or 7. Again, screw Wild.
Now I'm stuck without a deck to play in Standard. I tried Hero Power Mage (Kibler's version) but it's a middling deck at best, and the only other deck I saw success with was Elemental Shaman which I've more or less grown bored with. Hunters seem to be the dominant archetype now, with the endless charge of Trampling Rhinos bashing me in the face.
Not really sure when I'll be able to hit Level 100 since XP is hard to come by. Hopefully I get there before the mini-set comes.
All of these look sick. I'm buying this bundle no matter how overpriced it is. Shut up and take my money, Blizzard!
Prince Charming Anduin is hilarious XD
I tried this out...and I can confirm that it still works! Tried it out in Casual Duels. Do this now if you still haven't, they might fix this in the next patch. Thanks a lot for pointing this out, this saved me some serious grind!
I'm at level 76. Not much progress again because I didn't play for two days this week. Not too much success in the achievement front either, but I finally completed those that I've been grinding for a while:
The Brave and the Bolner - achieved it in a casual duels deck
Share Your Pain - I finally completed this using one of MarkMcKz's meme decks; a super mill Warlock where you discard multiple Hand of Gul'dans using Expired Merchant, Baron Rivendare, and Spiritsinger Umbra to deal obscene amounts of fatigue damage. What's lame is that it doesn't show your opponent's health in negative figures once you pull off the combo, but I'm guessing you can deal up to 120+ fatigue damage. It's fun to pull off!
Yoggchamp - Posted about this in the Pepper Thread
It's so Fluffy! - I played a lot of Questline Rogue, so I managed to finish this old achievement
WTS (2nd tier) - I haven't been playing a lot of decks with tradeable cards in them so the tradeable achievements are still a ways to go, but that's gonna change now that I know casual duels count towards achievements. I'll play in that mode more from now on.
My target for next week is level 83.
I absolutely hate this meta right now. I HATE IT. Here are the decks I've been facing all day:
Questline Mage
Questline Warlock
Celestial Druid
Questline Shaman
ALL of them can kill you in a single turn. ALL of them. So what, I have to play hyper aggro every single time now? Is that it? It's NOT FUN, and it's NOT FUNNY ANYMORE.
I really, really wish the devs have a bad day today. They destroyed this game, those morons.