We're back covering Dean Ayala's community Q&A and we're going to get right into it!

  • All previous Q&As from Dean can be found under our "Iksar's Community Q&A" topic.
  • Anything covered in the previous Q&As will not be covered in the recap but will appear in the transcript below.

Shop

  • They want to add pre-constructed decks that you can purchase.
  • These decks will be competitive right out of the box.
  • No timeline on when pre-constructed decks will happen.
  • Today they were discussing doing more Wild bundle deals.
  • New tech lets them do personalized bundles which makes it easier to offer wild content.

Battle Pass

  • When big topics come up in the community, they don't always have someone that feels comfortable talking about it.
  • The team was not aligned on what to do which is why we didn't get a fast response on the issues.

Cards

  • Freeze Shaman was canned and made intentionally weak because they noticed too late in development how negative the gameplay was.
  • Freeze Shaman was fun to play but not fun to play against.
  • The dev team was certain they'd nerf Malfurion the Pestilent but he ended up being powerful yet fine.
  • Dr. Morrigan was a risky card considering how powerful Warlock was at the time. She saw "basically 0 play" so there was no need to nerf her.
  • They try to not repeat archetype support for stuff they've done lately and is something the class is good at. Supporting archetypes almost there is the way to go.
  • Muster for Battle was "insane in data", much better than almost all cards during its time in Standard.
  • Patches the Pirate was likely the best card ever prior to his nerf.
  • Dean's top 5 OP Cards:
    1. Corridor Creeper
    2. Undertaker
    3. Patches the Pirate
    4. Spreading Plague
    5. Leeroy Jenkins

Tavern Brawl

  • Dean is 99% sure brawls will drop Year of the Phoenix packs. A blog coming out soon will confirm the plans.

 Misc

  • They will continue to add more secrets to the game boards as they enjoy doing it.
  • More modes being added doesn't worry Dean since the population size of Hearthstone is so massive. 1v1s also help.
  • The big concern about more modes is the upkeep required. It means they have less time to develop each next big thing.

Iksar

  • A favourite idea for an expansion was the Innkeeper being kidnapped and the 10 heroes got together to investigate his disappearance.
  • Would love to do a space cat or space dog line of themed skins.
  • Recently installed window coverings in the house him and Molly bought last year.
  • He has the most wins with Paladin. Lots of Mysterious Challenger and Odd Paladin.
  • Dean is playing Freeze Mage first when Classic Mode hits.

Full Q&A Transcript

Quote From Iksar

Ask me a question about Hearthstone and I will try my best to answer. More likely I can answer your question if it relates to game design in some way, but can give other questions a shot. 7:00PM - 8:00PST https://t.co/YFCcu4KNcu (Source)

@IksarHS Can you talk a little about the theory behind Freeze Shaman back in the day? Where did it come from? Why did it get so many cards and will it ever return?

@TimRizzo Was an extreme version of what happened to inspire. We made the call it had fairly negative gameplay too late to redesign the archetype. How weak we ended up making it was overkill but to make it weak at all was intentional. (Source)

@TimRizzo IMO it was reasonably fun to play (when the cards were pushed in power level) but could feel pretty miserable to be on the opposite end. Moorabi was a (4) 4/4 if I remember right, and Cryostasis was (1) mana. (Source)

@IksarHS Design exercise: Knights of the Frozen Throne 2: Knights on Ice is the next set! Design me a Death Knight Demon Hunter including name, battlecry, and hero power. Go!

@RTwoCTwo favoriting for future use (Source)

@IksarHS I find the walls seem to be closing in around me. There’s no escape. Hearthstone has taken over my life. I lost my job and wife to it. So what are all the new Kazakus options?

@J_Alexander_HS small golem, medium golem, big boi golem (Source)

@IksarHS Are there any ideas for expansion settings or premises that you were really into personally but never made the cut?

@Sad_Cart YES The Innkeeper has been kidnapped and our 10 heroes band together to investigate his disappearance, find the evil culprit, and restore the tavern master to his home. (Source)

@IksarHS Are you and the team planning to test the waters going harder in a more "meme" direction? I'm asked based on this tweet https://t.co/9EqIClIrRo If yes, only skins or also cards, mechanics, where is the line drawn?

@PascoaHS I was mostly joking about being mega-restricted in our designs, god I would love to do a space-cat themed line of skins but I feel like we have to do our own take on it now. Maybe space dogs. (Source)

@IksarHS Who on the design team would win in each the following scenarios: 1. No holds barred brawl 2. A chess tournament 3. Beauty contest 4. Talent show

@hypopyh I'll take @Tabayrak Karazhan Chess right? Definitely me. Inappropriate Cora would win the Hearthstone Idol competition (Source)

@IksarHS CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: ❇️ Who is your favorite character from Jujutsu Kaisen? And why is it Papa Gojo? ❇️ What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie? ❇️ When is the best time to take a nap?

@ItsMeMollyO papa gojo because he's strong, funny, and has bushy eyelashes like me the coconut chocolate one right now (Source)

@IksarHS On a scale of 1-10, how cringe was my reveal video today?

@blisterguy one of the best I've seen, you delivered. 0 cringe 10 hype. (Source)

@IksarHS There're too many Odd Warrior Auto-bots in Wild Ranked. Is there any solution for that?

@ven0m_symbi0te We monitor for bots and ban bots. Ongoing process. Bots are pretty smart, though, and can figure out new ways to go undetected and the cycle continues. (Source)

@ven0m_symbi0te Overall, we haven't actually seen much of an influx in time per match or time per turn expansion over expansion. Data would lead us to believe that not much has changed even if some anecdotal evidence says otherwise. (Source)

@ven0m_symbi0te In any case, it's something we're always on the lookout for. (Source)

@IksarHS Not about hearthstone, but how’s it going? We always ask how development is going but never how the developers are doing

@LWaechter25 Pretty good. We just installed window coverings into the house we bought late last year. I get excited by old man things like that these days. I have a lovely wife and two cute dogs so I feel pretty lucky. Also get to work on my favorite game! (Source)

@IksarHS Is there plans on changing the tavern brawl packs to possibly the current year packs like the year of the Phoenix pack or the upcoming year of the Gryphon pack? It’ll be nice to be able the acquire these packs and get cards that we are missing from older expansions of that year!

@lamri247 Yep, I'm 99% sure it's year of the phoenix pack in the future but there should be some blog information that comes out soon detailing next expansion changes. (Source)

@IksarHS We always hear/see cards the dev team didn’t think was good, but ended up meta defining. On the flip side, Are there cards the team thought would be a powerhouse or very strong, only for it to either end up weak or go entirely under the radar?

@VinnyTheRonald @IksarHS I remember them saying they thought Valeera the Hollow was insane but it didnt really see any relevant play

@VLage_ @VinnyTheRonald team has a bunch of people with differing opinions, so it's hard to pick out something that all of us thought together… I remember thinking we'd absolutely end up nerfing Malfurion DK at (7) mana and we shouldn't do it. Ended up being powerful but totally fine. (Source)

@VLage_ @VinnyTheRonald We were really tentative around Dr. Morrigan because of the power level of warlock at the time and some combos around her but it ended up seeing basically 0 play. (Source)

@IksarHS about the reveal season, since sometime ago they got for about a week only, but the expansion reveal usually comes a month before it launches, is there a particular reason why it only goes for a week instead of 2 weeks like it was before?

@Wiibomb Probably a better question for @Chris_Attalus. As for expansion reveal vs card reveal season, the optimal time for pre-sale and the optimal time for hype season aren't always aligned. Can't really do one without the other so they end up staggered. (Source)

@IksarHS What's the likelihood of community/custom settings like the Brawl blocks where you get to choose expansion?

@RealPrismsword low, I like the idea of new formats that use your cards in different ways, if we were to make another mode alongside wild/standard/classic we'd want it to be as approachable or more approachable, not less. (Source)

@IksarHS Really tricky question for you to answer so I won’t be offended if you don’t; when all the uproar was happening on Reddit earlier in the expansion cycle around the battle pass, why did it take so long for HS to communicate anything to the player base? (It felt far too long)

@LeBruce When really big topics come up there isn't always one person that feels comfortable stepping up and speaking on behalf of the entire team. In the case of the battle pass, we just weren't all aligned on what to do. (Source)

@LeBruce We tried being hand-wavey about it and saying hey trust us we're working on it (we were) but I think it backfired. Players felt like there was a breach of trust and we wanted to come out with a message that had real details, answers, and action. (Source)

@LeBruce Because rewards systems impact tons of teams (design teams and business teams) there needed to be alignment on exactly what the right thing was to do. It takes time to get that alignment. Even when we had it, we got second and third opinions. (Source)

@IksarHS Have there ever been any laughably bad OTK combos that you discover in QA testing? Any fun examples? I always remember killing Jaraxxus with Sacrificial Pact for a short while.

@FilmCriticKurt Normally when an OTK is laughably bad we let it slip through. There have been many there were laughable and not bad we had to cut…. (Source)

@IksarHS What is your class with the most wins? Are there particular reasons behind it? A screenshot from your journal would be awesome 🔥

@Avalon_OOC Looks like Paladin. I played a lot of Mysterious Challenger and Odd Paladin…. https://t.co/ar9gXKm8Hj (Source)

@IksarHS I’d rather not if that’s ok.

@ChadTwiggs yeah that's cool, chad. (Source)

@IksarHS In a previous AMA you mentioned replays are very work intensive to implement. Curious if you could share more what makes it hard to do in-client compared to the tools that already exist out there from third parties.

@Seerows_Law This isn't really something I can or would be good at getting into over Twitter. There are just a lot of details. Before you even get to making replays work there is a whole UI for where replays exist, how far do we go back, do we simulate the time passed or just play turns out? (Source)

@Seerows_Law On top of that I would guess if you went to these third party places and asked them what it took to build their own site where you can view them…. you'd probably find it was not a small feat. (Source)

@IksarHS Can we get a Zephrys solo adventure that explains the origin of his friendship with Temple Enforcer?

@SuperiorDavidHS Zephrys, Temple Enforcer, Tirion, and Wild Growth were the original members of the League of Explorers. (Source)

@IksarHS Are there hidden interactions in older game boards that no one has figured out yet? I LOVE boards that have things like the Un'Goro Volcano on them; fingers crossed we see more of it!

@MartianBuu There will be more secret interactions, it's always something the team have enjoyed doing. Are there still secrets out there, well they wouldn't be a secret if I said something. (Source)

@IksarHS When will the Rewards Track Reset for Barrens? Is there a regular "1 week/Tuesday before new expansion" time you're planning on it resetting every expansion so players can earn a few Barrens packs from Track?

@willowkiller more details on all the exact timings coming in a blog very soon(ish) (Source)

@IksarHS I've heard mini sets are going in-between every expansion going forward. Is there potential for old keywords to make an appearance there? Like, maybe a Bloodmage with Frenzy & Spellburst or something else flavorful/crazy? Just curious what is "on the table" for mini set designs.

@AJz77x We're open to it within the same year so they all rotate at the same time. We've been doing that in our end of year sets for awhile now. (Source)

@IksarHS what's the first deck you're gonna play in classic

@RidiculousHat freeze mage duh (Source)

@IksarHS follow up question, are you excited to get doomguarded by chakki

@RidiculousHat chakki is too high mmr for me to play against (Source)

@IksarHS Hey, so my question is, how do you decide which archetype to support for an expansion? Not just things like Highlander, but see Commander Rhyssa or the new Paladin Secret legendary.

@VLage_ First thing is we look at what they've done lately, try not to repeat exactly something they are already good at but try to support archetypes that almost got there but not quite. (Source)

@IksarHS Duels Question: I have been playing the mode more and more over the last two weeks, but don't own very many of the cards before Year of the Dragon. Could their be future bundles offered for the old set thats included in the Duels season? I know I would buy some.

@IksarHS Just re-read this and saw the wrong "there." Sigh, its not even worth a response now lol.

@BIGYKN We were just discussing today the idea of doing more Wild bundle deals when there is Wild content available. We only recently(ish) got the tech to present personalized shops to people, which makes offering wild content a lot easier. (Source)

@IksarHS With boar and bluegill sticking around. Any worries about quest rogue?

@TaggermcBagger Not really, part of the goal was that some of these old decks come back into the fray and balance each other out. Also if it's truly an issue our turnaround on addressing things is pretty fast these days when it comes to balance. (Source)

@IksarHS I like Hearthstone, but very often on new releases I can't enjoy the new set because most of the fun cards are Legendaries and it's extremely punishing to craft "wrong ones". Release bundles are very stingy with Legendaries. Any tweaks upcoming for that? (dust system, bundles)

@fischer_scotty Reward system rewards a lot more than we used to, hopefully enough to enjoy. We want to make pre-constructed decks to sell as well that are just competitive right out of the box. Will be a little while til those are ready, though. (Source)

@IksarHS How do you fine tune between not making something repetitive but allowing it to reach a critical mass of playable cards in standard (like standard secret mage, which required quite a bit of support but is lowkey super good rn) ?

@VLage_ We pay pretty close attention to what is rotating and if an archetype has some soon-rotating powerful cards that haven't seen play we sometimes try and support them to give a last-hurrah. Something like secret mage benefitted a lot from that. (Source)

@VLage_ We made secret mage in standard multiple times but it was never quite S-tier quality. Because it never got there, we often made very powerful cards for it to see some play. Then in Wild you can just cut all the bad cards and only use the really great ones…. (Source)

@VLage_ Then when we do something new we start with what is the theme of the expansion and what general strategies is a class supposed to be strong with. (Source)

@VLage_ So if we were introducing new spell types in the same expansion we were doing a dragon expansion, we might look at warrior and see if we could make a 'dragonfire armor' set of cards and what that might mean. (Source)

@VLage_ So we make a bunch of armor spells that say when you are holding a dragon, they become become a new card that is fireforged. Then since you can create fire spells, we make cards that say 'when you cast a fire spell do X'. Then we have a fire warrior…. (Source)

@VLage_ terrible 15 second example, but a lot of it comes from being inspired from characters and settings while staying within the bounding box of what a class is supposed to be strong/weak at (Source)

@FilmCriticKurt A lot of Stonetusk Boars or Summoning Portals… (Source)

@IksarHS Aren't You afraid that having more and more modes: 1. Will make some modes niche that's played by few people. 2. Will be hard to develop, balance and just keep fresh every mode with limited staff?

@Moluk13 yes…. One of the biggest costs is the upkeep costs. The more modes we make that require constant upkeep means the less time we can spend developing the next thing and the next thing. Team size starts to get less and less efficient. (Source)

@Moluk13 Population sizes fortunately aren't much of an issue, Hearthstone is a very successful game with a big audience. We also benefit from our game being mostly 1 v 1 so we aren't having to find a fair match for large groups of players very often. (Source)

@IksarHS Thanks for the answer. Gotta hand it to you, this has been the best period to play the game since I started, you and the team have done an amazing job in both gameplay and community interaction recently, cheers dude.

@VLage_ Thanks I appreciate that :) (Source)

@Moluk13 BG is the exception to that, but it's so popular we have no problems making fair games. (Source)

@IksarHS Often times there's a change that most engaged players want but would apparently make the game worse for the majority of the player base. However how is it even possible to know what the "silent majority" that play Hearthstone really want?

@StormFeverHS Mounds of data, both from game data and from consumer insights interviews and surveys. Some pure designer intuition. (Source)

@IksarHS Which do you think is the strongest card you ever released (prenerfed version)? Can make it more interesting with a top 5 maybe?

@FenoHS Well, strongest is hard to talk about because it can mean overall (today) or strongest for it's time when it was released. I will give it a shot, though… (Source)

@FenoHS For a card that didn't get nerfed, probably Muster for Battle. It was insane in data, much better than basically all cards of it's time. (Source)

@FenoHS For pre-nerf, I think it's possible Patches was just the best card ever. We still don't have very reliable data to tell us real numbers just because how the card works. We normally rank cards by a statistic called 'adjusted draw-win rate'. (Source)

@FenoHS Which essentially means a number that takes into account how many cards played in a game, what the win rate of the decks it's played in, and how much a card makes that win-rate change when drawn. (Source)

@FenoHS Patches is obviously weird with that because you don't want to draw it, but there isn't a great metric we ever found for directly comparing it to other cards. It was pretty busted, but honestly not in a way I regret… (Source)

@IksarHS Have new Yogg's percentages been adjusted since release?

@D0nkeyHS no (Source)

@IksarHS is there any plan for a naga expansion, with queen azshara as legendary?, or even Sargeras itself?

@Joshosss NO SPOILERS I do agree, though. I also admit this theme has come up many times in recent pitch meetings…. (Source)

@StormFeverHS Sometimes it's obvious: Players complaining a mission is too easy when 60% of players fail it on the first try. Sometimes less obvious: Players saying they hate playing against Tickatus Warlock and thinking it should change. (Source)

@StormFeverHS Sometimes regional: Eastern (china, japan, korea, etc) often think about what is important to the game much differently than english speaking regions do. (Source)

@IksarHS @FenoHS Makes a ton of sense, for nerfed cards that you can track, it's gotta be 5 cost skull of guldan? That's the craziest one I can remember

@jrhsk8 @FenoHS doesn't even make my top 10 (Source)

@jrhsk8 @FenoHS skull is powerful and gives players the feels, but so do all cards that reduce the cost of things to 0…. in terms of true power level it wasn't even remotely in the same universe as something like pre-nerf ancharr which people didn't talk about as much (Source)

@FenoHS But really if I had to pick a top 5 of wow OP: 1. Corridor Creeper 2. Undertaker 3. Patches the Pirate 4. Spreading Plague 5. Leeroy Honorable Mention Ancharr Genn Baku Buzzard Leeroy Giggling (Source)

@FenoHS Ancharr was actually incredibly nuts in data but didn't get talked about nearly as much as the number would show (Source)