Dean "Iksar" Ayala has asked Hearthstone players a question this afternoon on Twitter which makes for good discussion. If you saw our recent recap for his weekly Q&A, you may have seen his talk on "limited-time systems changes" in Hearthstone which is where the team would push out a special event for a few weeks that would change a core system. One of these changes he mentioned was being able to ban a class on the ranked ladder.
That's not what we're being prompted with today though because now, Dean wants to know what players would think about a "Class Bonus Event". Here's how it would work:
- A random class is chosen as your bonus class.
- Winning games with your bonus class gives you double XP and double stars.
- After 3 wins with your bonus class, a new class becomes your bonus one.
Dean does note that this would result in star inflation, making it the easiest time to get to your highest personal best rank ever. With all that in mind, and the fact that they are not currently working on that, what do you think of the idea?
Would you want to see this become a reality? How long do you think such an event should last? Share your thoughts in the comments below or send them on over to Dean directly on Twitter.
Quote From Dean Ayala New Idea: Class Bonus Event
Tell me what you think in the comments. In constructed, a random class is chosen as your bonus class. Winning games with that class gives you double XP and double stars. After 3 wins with your bonus class, it swaps to a new one.
Thoughts?
Yes, this would result in star inflation. Probably would be the easiest time to get to your highest rank ever.
How long would it last? Well, if you think it's a cool idea, how long do you think it *should* last?
No, we aren't working on this right now.
Comments
This is an objectively good idea. It would give players more stars and more exp for no cost, whats to dislike? Even in the worst case scenario you would still be earning the same as you would have otherwise. There is no risk and no downside. I would love extra incentive to play other classes and promote some diversity. And yes, there are the people who don't play certain classes (for me it is paladin, priest, and rogue), but again, you aren't losing anything by not participating.
Well, this is interesting and I really liked the idea, but for me, this have 2 problems, the balance between classes will make harder to climb with certain classes and of course is my collection, I dont play with some classes like shaman and pala, so it will be harder too
That would at least force the devs to make the game more balanced, because otherwise this idea is prone to metas like we are now in, as you would convince players to play the randomly selected class only for them to be left infuriated because of that class's state.
Yeah, this seems like a fun idea to push class diversity.
The f2p whinging is moot as they are not negatively impacted by it in any way.
I also don't understand why people care about star inflation. Rank doesn't matter anyway except high legend, for tournament qualification purposes, where stars don't exist to begin with.
It's an interesting idea to incentivize players to play more HS during a limited-time event, but the implementation needs to be thought out properly. For eg: every player should start off with a random class that has this bonus, not everyone getting the same class with said bonus as I wouldn't want to play MirrorStone. There are ofc negative side effects for F2P players who only play with 3-4 classes and dust the rest of their collection, but I feel those types of players are already impacted by this in other modes like Duels and Arena.
I vaguely remember the director of HS (Ben) said limited-time events were planned when the rewards track was initially released. These were removed when they did the track revamp during DMF. Maybe the limited-time event Dean is talking about is similar to what was originally planned before all the hate towards the original rewards track.
The limited-time events were going to be XP events, but because no one liked not leveling up at all outside the events they just scrapped the idea altogether and just gave winning a bigger XP gain, so you are pretty much right I imagine. I am going to try and get a source for this when I get home.
Also, Ben was gone for at least a year by the time the BP was released.
I think he means the "new" Ben, not Ben Brode.
This is a terrible idea, since it really punishes people with small collections. I know plenty of people that disenchant every card from certain classes so that they have enough resources to play what they want from other ones. This would basically lock those people out of progressing as fast as people who throw plenty of money at the screen. This would push Hearthstone even further into P2W territory than it already is, as the amount of money you spend on the game (giving you options of playing many classes) will directly correlate with your bonus stars and thus your rank.
This event cannot be a punishment for Free-2-Play players if it allows them to get some extra resources. Even if you have cards for only one class and you cannot take part in the event, you will not lose anything, since on average this event will allow players to receive only an additional ~ 1500 XP (50 gold). For most of the players, a Class Bonus Event is a great opportunity to try different strategies and styles of play and thus diversify the daily interaction actions in the game.
I'm pretty sure there is a fallacy in there since non-Legend ranks are not a zero-sum aspect of the game, so some people getting bonuses won't have a tangible downside for everyone else. The bonus stars would not help you win games, just rank up faster. True, there are some tangible rewards for ranking up, but none of it reduces F2P players' ability to rank up at all. If anything, pushing other players into switching their decks/class will help improve the win rates of those who don't engage with it. Furthermore, if it leads to rank inflation then you'll start encountering players who belong(ed) at lower ranks and who will be easier to beat on average.
So I wouldn't call it a P2W scheme at all. 'Pay to rank up' maybe, but that doesn't harm players with limited class choices and the knock-on effects might benefit them anyway.
Give the least played or lowest winrate class the 2x Bonus. So more player s try to create better decks. And have a Bonus.
Double XP for a class, yeah could be good.
Double Stars... then what is the point of a ranked system? Well, do not have these double stars past D5 please. Should it not be better to reward players for getting better at the game? If you get a high rank too easily with this, then it feels like it doesn't mean anything.
If it's gonna be random, won't there be some players who would get unfamiliar class to play with? I know for certain there are players who never use certain classes in Hearthstone, so to adjust themselves playing that class would take a bit of time (and losses). But the xp bonus is nice.
Although, keep losing the game until you win 3 times is achievable, because there's a milestone in every rank.
Isn't that kind the point of the random classes.. it's an incentive to try something new
If they want to implement it, I'd say just go for the double xp and change the requirements from 'win' to 'play'. The point of this is to award bonuses, in exchange for player satisfaction and increased game time. Making winning as a requirement will almost certainly turn many heads away, and after looking at the tavern brawl this week I think its fair to say that forcing players to win games that they might not have the cards for will only aggravate, not help.
As for double stars, Im not a fan. But I can understand why others would want it. Might be a good time to reach legend and get that free legendary. But star inflation is something Im not sure I want to suffer myself.
The tweet from Dean Ayala inspired me to create this image. This is a great idea! It would be cool to have minor weekend events, fun monthly events and huge events like a Class Bonus Event. Even a small XP boost is a good incentive to do unusual actions in the game and have fun.
Everything about this sounds like fun to me. It's especially nice for those who don't rank up high month after month - without all those extra bonus stars, it just seems too far to even try, and you'd feel forced into just picking the top netdecks. Now, in theory, if you can play a little, you can pickup a few bonus stars as you go along, push a little higher, feel some incentive to keep it going the next month. Plus, I like to bounce around from deck to deck anyway, so it's right in my wheelhouse :)
If it would increase class variety, sure!
I love this idea! I think it would need to reset every now and again, maybe even limit the number of bonus classes per day to stop the "star inflation." And is star inflation even a problem? It's not like it is really doing much considering matchmaking is based on MMR, not rank. Stars are just a pretty visual that really mean nothing at this point (other than more rewards at the end of the month, which shouldn't be a complaint for anyone).
Yes. I want this.