Dean "Iksar" Ayala was out on Reddit tonight responding to feedback on the Hearthstone Rewards Track for Madness at the Darkmoon Fair. In his post, he gave us some knowledge on what we can expect from the next iteration of the Rewards Track.
The next expansion, the first of the year and the one that will kick off a new set rotation, will feature 100 levels in the core pass rather than the 50 we have today. This might sound like a negative at first, who wants to grind out an additional 50 levels after all, but Dean shared some additional information on that; The experience requirement isn't changing for the main pass and neither are the rewards.
Large gold amounts will go away in favor of smaller, more frequently earned amounts with no overall loss.
One of the common bits of happy feedback from the community on the update that made the rewards track have a total of 350 levels was that the pacing on the gold rewards felt really good. It should be no surprise that players want to earn rewards in short play sessions instead of having to progress towards them over multiple days as the original system worked that way. Blizzard took this feedback to heart and is making it so that the rewards in the main pass will be dished out more frequently, allowing us to collect a token of our progression faster, even if it means it might be in a smaller amount since the same rewards are going to be spread out within double the levels.
No other details are available yet on the next reward track, but Dean says once they are closer to completion, and the expansion, we'll learn more about it. Hopefully, this will be a different situation than the darkness we dove into when the first rewards track iteration was launched. Transparency will go a long way to keeping the community from getting chaotic.
What do you think about 100 levels instead of 50? Do you prefer rewards that take a bit of extra time to earn or would you rather earn them in smaller chunks, faster? Let us know in the comments below!
Here's Dean's full quote. Keep in mind that stuff in development can change!
Quote From Dean Ayala Our latest reward track for the next expansion has 100 levels, the same amount of required XP, and the same amount of total rewards. Sounds like we're on the same page.
As we get closer to completion (and the next expansion) we'll share more details.
Update: Dean wants to clarify that things could still change with the pass as it is still in development.
Quote From Dean Ayala (@IksarHS) Worth noting I mentioned latest version, these things go through a lot of iteration. Sharing information early always has the risk of design changes at a later date causing confusion, though I think it's still worth it to keep people in the loop.
Comments
Of course, you're right. But I can completely relate to Dean - working with customers every day, I know that there is only so much you can do to block out the abuse some people dish out (somehow paying to use your product or service seems to make them feel they are entitled to do so). And Dean gets a lot more of it than I do, and a lot more aggressive and personal. I can imagine him focusing on the other parts of his job for a while and not wanting to expose anyone else in his team to it either...
It was his new year's Twitter resolution to be a better community engager. So far he has been doing excellent job, if you ask me.
And I have to say: he's doing a pretty damn good job so far.
I think it would be great to tell that to him so that he gets a positive feedback too so that he feels his work matters.
Dean used to be very active and then after some harassment he took a vacation from Reddit and Twitter which is where he does most of his community outreach. He's slowly easing back into it which is awesome and I hope people take it easier on him.
With that said, Hearthstone has never been very good at community communication. I'm thankful we at least have gotten spurts of it, but I'd love to see more consistency and people in proper charge of just engaging with the community. Less about managing what streamers are doing and more just talking.
They seem to be really bad at damage control...
I hate to admit it, but you're right.
Guessing no one asked about the mysterious new game mode that is on the road map for this expansion cycle.
One more dash of optimism from me that this is that fabled limited wild mode. It would be nice timing too since the rotation would likely be a few weeks away from its announcement.
If its not it, then it will never be for the next 6 years.
Are you talking about the Year of the Phoenix roadmap? If so, then the new game mode is Duels. I've never heard of any other new game modes so I'm assuming this is what you're talking about.
There is a second confirmed game mode that will arrive before the next expansion. Here's a post we did on it!
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/2064-hearthstones-year-of-the-phoenix-phase-3-brings-another-new-mode-to-the-game
You didn't watch darkmoon reveal stuff carefully (which happened after duels were revealed) they promised one more new mode back then
OK, maybe it'll feel better, but this doesn't excite me. I still worry about the cost of the game, mini set cost, and expansion timing (will I actually have time to earn enough gold). It still seems like they are polishing a turd.
As of now, I prefer smaller chunks. Let's see what they will come up with.
On a side note, by when is next expansion coming?
I believe the next one will come in April as usual. I've got a feeling that they released DMF earlier to get more time for fixes before Christmas vacation considering they released Duels + Reward Track + DMF almost at the same time.
And regarding smaller chunks, yeah, it feels ok to get 50 gold every now and then. Well, maybe, it could have been more daily in the old system, but I'm ok with that.
Mini expansion should be this month.
Next set and rotation is usually in early April, but they've moved up the last few sets by a week or two, so it might be in late March.
We don't know when the mini set for DMF will arrive.
The next major expansion should release in April though!
If nothing changes then this can only be a positive to all players, since the rewards are now spaced out so we can expect to be receiving something every 1-2 days. I would expect the requirement per level will be halved since its basically from 50 to 100 levels.
Personally this isn't really going to change much for me, since I'm pretty much going save up gold until the midexpansion every release anyway. But definitely a good thing for arena players, and for those in need of the gold.
Yeah, its exciting to see that people will get more frequent gold unlocks which means you can actually do something with it if you want to spend it during the cycle. Giving everyone more choice is a good thing!
... but will it feel rewarding?