We just finished up the 2nd Preview Patch for Legends of Runeterra, which introduced Expeditions, the new drafting format for the title. It’s been a lot of fun, but now we’ve got to say farewell until the game returns for closed beta sometime during Q1. In this article we’ll look at some of the things that stood out for this limited play option. You can still register to join in the fun next time at the Legends of Runeterra website.
Trials
In this draft format they have tried to put in many ways for you to get the best results possible and include second chances at better rewards. Each run includes two trials and your final rewards will be based on whichever trial had the best performance. Each trial lasts until you either reach 7 wins or lose twice in a row. However, it is sudden death once you get to 6 wins, so getting that final win is more challenging.
It's your choice if you want to try for better results.
Drafting
Drafting is a bit different than what you may be used to from other similar games. You start off by drafting a couple of Champions to determine the regions for your deck and then you’ll get to choose between synergy and wild picks until you’ve completed a 30-card deck (15 picks). The cards bundled together are all based on different archetypes, which may help you decide which direction you should draft.
Which Champion do you want on your side?
Upgrading
After each match you will have a chance to further tweak your deck by using trade picks. This allows you to switch out a card that may not be as good as you had hoped with something else that better fits your deck. This is a nice way to fix drafting mistakes or times when you had no better options.
Wild picks can even add a 3rd Region to your deck!
Rewards
You’ll always win at least 1 Champion as part of your prize pool on top of whatever other cards or shards you are rewarded. The rewards feel generous but may not give you enough shards to pay for the entry fee. Since you can only play 3 Expeditions to earn rewards from each week it may not be too much of an issue.
This is only 1 page out of 6 for rewards!
Overall
It’s a good system that makes building your deck fast and fun. It also has a much more relaxed feel than drafting formats from other similar games. Being focused on the wins and giving you so many opportunities to improve feels good. There are some Champions who may still need to be slightly tuned. I know Anivia can be extremely frustrating and difficult to get rid of in this format.
Once the game starts back up again, they’ll have even more features implemented and invites to send out. They have already performed a wipe on all accounts, so everyone will be starting with a clean slate. I’m ready for it to be available permanently so I can continue to explore this great game! What did you enjoy about the Expeditions patch? Share your experiences in the comments below!
Comments
@neonangel
You need to add experience rewards + chests to the rewards section imo. Because The economy of Runeterra is different than any other game. Even daily quests are giving you experiences, Weekly Vaults needs experiences to be upgraded, Regional rewards need experiences etc. Experience is almost the most important part of the economy for collecting.
So much people seemed confused the economy of the Runeterra with the economy of the Hearthstone. Everyone thinks that rewards are so less compared to Hearthstone or Magic or some other game but it isn't truly. Everyone forgets Weekly Vaults and Regional rewards which Expeditions upgrades them greatly if you can get wins from it.
Shards + Card reward of Expeditions are extras in my opinion, the real reward is Experience like how Daily quests gives. You can farm your expeditions through your Weekly Vault + Regional rewards and they also synergizes with each other.
I played the hell out of expeditions (musta done at least 20 runs after the initial 3 purchased ones, so 26 runs at least). Have to say I don't think I ever found Anivia to be a problem - in my opinion, if Anivia is causing issues you didn't pack enough removal. Her effect isn't even that powerful really, so long as she's not allowed to level before you can deal with her. Now, Tryndamere on the other hand - I stopped drafting Trynd after a while because it just wasn't fun anymore. A game in which Trynd hit the board was usually over (in my favour) inside two turns. People seemed to be really bad at playing against Overwhelm.
I do think Donnie's post below has some merit - the highlight of my runs was building a Poro deck which had 5x Poro Snax, 4x Iceborne Legacy, 5x the 3/3 Overwhelm Poro, and most amusingly, 4x Braum. That's right, all four of my champions were Braum. Every game was a race against the inevitable fluffy tide of monstrously growing Poro - for those unaware, when levelled up Braum summons a poro whenever he survives damage, and it's specifically the 3/3 Poro I already drafted 5 copies of with all the various deck-wide buffs.
Anyway, sorry, tangent. While Donnie's post has some merit - particularly noting that it seemed to be some champions got offered FAR more often than others, such that I only saw Yasuo offered once in 25+ runs and never saw Hecarim, yet got offered Ashe practically every run. That said, it's worth noting that LOR's card offering probably isn't complete yet. I'd expect to see Bilgewater, Shurima and the Void represented before the game hits full release (since adding Regions after-the-fact would be weird, especially given there's only a handful they could realistically add). As more Regions are added, and probably more cards are added to the current Regions too, it's reasonable to expect draft consistency to decrease accordingly.
Personally I greatly enjoyed expeditions, far more so than constructed (which was a little hit or miss for me to be honest). Looking forward to the new year when I get to play again.
That's the crux of the discussion: in the final product, how difficult will it be to find defensive cards versus how easy will it to be pick runaway cards that create huge value if not dealt with? The whole gist of this mode is that deck building options are constrained, so the specifics are going to be critical to whether or not its enjoyable once everyone figures out the successful strategies. E.g. (and please forgive me for referring back to other games; I wasn't able to get into this beta) for Hearthstone, Vicious Fledgling is banned in Arena because it is so powerful yet almost a nonfactor in Constructed. The difference is that HS Arena decks often struggle to find viable defensive options where as Constructed every successful deck has some way to answer early board threats. A lot of Quest Druids have started running Pounce just so they can kill an early EVIL Totem or Lightwarden, for Pete's sake.
I agree with everything you say here. But I want to make my main focus Expeditions, and it is not possible under the current system.
We got given an Expedition token and 8,000 shards in the beta to pay for our first 3 and get to the free stuff. But the actual system going forward is play a 'Draft mode' and get mainly 'Ranked mode' rewards.
It is not possible for players to get the 12,000 shards per week, every week needed to access the 3 mandatory paid Expeditions each week. If we want to play this mode we have to pay real money pretty consistently to enter, and then we get rewards for another mode. Shame.
It is not possible ? I don't think so.
Did you see Weekly Vaults ? Have you ever opened a Diamond Chest ? Have you ever got 7 wins from a Trial ?
Yes it is possible to get 12000 shards per week, even more if you don't spend your shards from regional rewards to cards. Also I don't think you will need those shards to craft cards. There are wildcards and You can get them back from 7 wins from trials.
You don't need to pay real money to consistently to enter. Sorry but your comment is totally wrong.
I got 1500 experience after 7 wins in first and 1 wins at second trial. I got 1 champion card + Diamond Chest + 3500 shards +1500 experience after first trial + 100 experience after second trial and also I got 1750 experience from my 7 wins and 25 experience from a lose at first trial + 250 experience from my second trial's win + 50 experience losing 2 games at second trial. That's total of 3675 experiences.
With that 3575 total experiences your regional reward gets at least 2 jumps which gives you also shards + cards.
Don't confuse economy of Runeterra with Hearthstone.
I have told it about here, if you can read, you can understand more.
https://outof.cards/forums/legends-of-runeterra/runeterra-general/2007-expedition-reward-structure-discussion-fairly-low-risk-but-also-low-reward?page=1#comment-40879
for the other things that you have 4+ copies of cards and etc., That's what I also worry but game is so new, so less cards it has for now and I think riot proved that they will support the game with quick patches imo. With new expansions and more cards, The mode could be quite good. I mean, Runeterra doesn't even have enough cards to make a standard mode yet.
Do anyone remember how was the first Arena of Hearthstone ? So, don't compare games which has complete standard sets and didn't even released.
Maybe you're right about their generousity, but I don't think we should include region rewards when calculating if it's possible to go inifinite with Runeterra drafts. Players will max out on all region rewards soon.
Region rewards are not endless. They are just a system to get new players invested. We should judge the Runeterra draft economy on rewards that are draft rewards and weekly vault rewards, not region experience points for finite unlocks.
And although I got plenty of 7 wins in this soft beta meta. I'm not fooling myself that i'll be getting the same results in a years time, when a much higher percentage of the best draft players remain. It's a closed system for every draft player that wins 1 game there has to be a player that loses 1 game. That opponent in the sudden death final round will always be as good as you. Our average will be about 5.5 wins per run, and the rewards REALLY drop off below 7 wins. (5 win reward is: One Champion card, 1 gold chest, 800 shards; after completing the 2 trials of 1 expedition.)
Remember after 3 weekly Expeditions the following free Expeditions don't give rewards. You can't grind runeterra drafts for profit, and i maxed the weekly vault after 3 days play. Runeterra rewards are generous but heavily capped.
I still think we'll be struggling for the 48,000 shards a month that we need to play draft as soon as the finite region rewards are maxed out.
the thing is, I was trying to say that you don't need to farm arena to what you need for this game. The game doesn't force you to play expeditions -unlike Arena of Hearthstone- if you want to complete your collection as a f2p player.
Also, You are saying "Region rewards are not endless. They are just a system to get new players invested. We should judge the Runeterra draft economy on rewards that are draft rewards and weekly vault rewards, not region experience points for finite unlocks." but forgetting that those experience rewards also upgrade your Weekly Vaults. Ok, Region rewards will end in time but Weekly Vaults will refresh every week and every week you will need experiences to upgrade them.
The fact that "don't confuse Runeterra's economy with Hearthstone's economy." was there because of that.
I can understand that you want to play expeditions all the time tho. That's a different topic that you are a draft fan or not but truth is any player who plays runeterra doesn't need to farm expeditions because of the sake of f2p. That was what I meant.
So, Expeditions are not one of the most rewarding part of the game for f2p players, it is different from any other card game. Game's rewarding system is different. Expeditions are just a draft mode of this game which is fun to play while pushing your collection upwards with some rewards if you play them. It is more like Brawl mode of Hearthstone with more rewards than it. It even offers more experience than normal games so it will help your time to push your Weekly Vaults in less time. The only good thing about expeditions might even be that fact because Weekly Vaults are the most important thing to save stuff for upcoming expansions.
People won't spare as Draft players and Constructed players in this game. You can easily say that Riot didn't want to spare players as mode players when you see the economy model of the game. Arena is important for Hearthstone because so much f2p player farming it to "reach" p2p players and that's the worst thing for a game in my opinion. It causes players only farm. They can't even play constructed in time because they need cards to be able to win p2p players. Expeditions are not like Arena.
I liked the economy model of the Runeterra. That helps us to play more constructed than Arena. That's the thing. You can say that "someone plays draft modes because they like it", i can understand that. I also like to play draft mode but most people are playing drafts because they need cards in hearthstone and you know that. They are playing arena to collect cards to be able to play constructed, but they lose time to get experience in constructed and lose time to climb ranks. The new system Runeterra offers is a win-win in my honest opinion.
Oh and also, I am not saying that they are generous. It is a strategic move to shape your player base as ALL-mode players. They seem like they don't want to spare player base as i said before. They are just saying like; "hey, look here, You don't need to farm draft in this game to be able to play constructed. We will already make you able to play constructed. Draft is just for fun and some little rewards. There are also other stuff to extend your collection. Come play this game's all modes uncaringly which mode will give you more rewards. " That's what I'm reading from runeterra's economy model.
I have edit the post to add something. I hope you read after I edit.
You are absolutely right Runeterra's economic model seems to be pushing players to play multiple modes. However I think a significant percentage will want to play only the draft mode (15%?). It's a great format! I'm one of those players.
We don't want to 'farm' the draft mode for a collection, because we don't need a collection. We want get access to the unlimited drafts after the 3 tickets are bought and paid for each week. We want to get access to those drafts even though they offer no rewards, just so we can keep playing our mode for fun.
And the more I look at it, the more I believe that coming up with 12,000 shards each week to break that barrier will not be possible without using real money.
Obtaining experience points for the capped level 10 weekly chest (ultimately very similar to HS's daily quests) will only get us part of the way. The most damning evidence for how Runeterra's economic model is not draft mode friendly is:
I can't say anything for your decisions. It is your taste to play a game. I also am spending so much time in Draft mode because it is funnier. Not just for farming. I just generalized the farm stuff on playerbase. I didn't mean draft-fans.
xp reward for a win in draft mode might be 100 xp but after wins you got complete experience burst like 2000xp for 7 wins as trial bonus. It is basically 285 exp for every win. That means you got 100+285xp for every wins in draft mode. It is even more than constructed. 250 vs 385 exp.
I've tried open play mode after finished my expeditions limit and surrendered after I got my first lose. I got 50 or 25 (didn't really remember this) exp from my lose and 100 experience from ending the expedition even it was open play.
So you don't only have win experiences, There is also an expedition reward even in open play. I didn't got 7 wins on open play expeditions because I wanted to try decks I've built but as soon as the closed beta starts I will try that and share my experiences with it but I know what I got from 0 wins; 150 xp.
I still think that 12k shards are obtainable in a week tho. As you can see here expeditions refund themselves if you got 7 wins from one of your trials and gives trial bonus experiences so wins for expeditions are not only 100 exp;
As you can see here after 7th win, He got 4000 shards + 1 Champion Capsule and also 2000 xp as Trial bonus. You can see that Trial bonus at 1:36:43 and you can see expedition rewards at 1:37:28.
He got totally 7 + 6 wins from games. it is 1300xp for wins + 50exp for a lose from 6win trial(maybe more loses we don't know that) 2000xp for 1. trial bonus + 1500 exp from 2.trial bonus(I know it from my 6 win trial).
it is total of 4850 exp for 13w/1l of expeditions. For 14 games of constructed with 13w/1l, you would get 3350 exp. That's what I meant by saying experience reward.
Also I got 3450 shards from 6 wins in one of my expedition runs + 1500 exp for trial bonus, didn't remember how much I got from my first trial's 3 wins tho. It should have been around 500-1000 exp. I don't think that 550 shards are hard to collect in a week and 1500-2500 exp is great for my weekly vaults.
There is also a fact that You will collect more shards in time because extra cards from chests will always be conjured into shards automatically. As you complete your cards, your shards will expand.
If a player is a good drafter, I don't think he/she can't obtain infinite drafts. If you are good, you can go infinite expeditions. That is possible. Game is also giving you more chance with 2 trials. If you can't get 7 wins from one, you can always try 2nd one. Rewards are from your most wins basically and you also will get trial bonus experiences from both trials according to your wins not only from one. if you can get double 7 wins, it is basically 4000 experience.
And chests are not capped to 10 level. There are 13 levels since second preview. For first preview it was;
10 level, 3 platinum chests
Now it is;
11 level, 1 diamond chest and 2 platinum chests
12 level, 2 diamond chesst and 1 platinum chests
13 level, 3 diamond chests.
If you are an only draft mode player, You don't even care cards so all your shards will be there for expeditions. C'mon 12k shards isn't that hard to obtain for a week. Even 4k shards might be enough for infinite expeditions if you are good enough.
TL;DR, Yes you can play infinite expeditions without using real money. They are even free after 12k shards and that's not even hard to obtain by playing and being successful in expeditions.
Ok, but i think this paints a more realistic picture. The official rewards:
1 win reward: One champion card, 200 shards.
2 wins reward: One champion card, bronze chest, 200 shards.
3 wins reward: One champion card, silver chest, 200 shards.
4 wins reward: One champion card, one basic capsule, 600 shards.
5 wins reward: One Champion card, gold chest, 800 shards.
6 wins reward: One champion card, platinum chest, 1000 shards.
7 wins reward: Champion Capsule, 4000 shards.
That is some drop off! Just imagine when the initial soft meta ends, and almost every player left is as good as you. The odd bad expedition will pull everybodies average towards 5 wins. A max 12 expeditions a month that give rewards. Region rewards all maxed out. And a requirement of 48,000 shards a month to play draft mode.
Weekly vaults as you've described don't make up that short fall. Good luck to draft mode only players.
Ok dude, I am ending this discussion here, Because you seem like you have hard times to understand what I write here.
I am a first degree witness of how the rewards are. I got a diamond chest via 6 wins and my complete shard reward with what I got from that chest was 3500 plus few shards.
You want a world that 5 wins gives you also 4000 shards which make you able to play expeditions infinitely but the truth is you are forgetting the fact that chests + extra cards will also give you shards.
Try to understand a bit the economy model of the game and then we can discuss.
I will play this game as f2p completely and make you know how I'm playing all of my expeditions without spending a coin or how I can't play because I won't spend any real money to expeditions or wildcards. Maybe on cosmetics if i really like them.
Good luck in your life.
Edit: BTW, May I ask Were you in second preview ?
I want to make one thing clear right off the bat - I'm not a fan of draft, so take this critiscism with a pinch of salt.
The thing that felt incredibly lackluster about this mode was the lack of diversity of the card buckets. Add to that the trade option and you find yourself in a format where it's highly consistent to tailor a deck how you would want it exactly with the only caveat in comparison to constructed decks being the ability to include more than 3 copies of any card in your deck. In my 3 runs I averaged anywhere between 4 and 6 cards that were a 5 or 6 of in my deck. There are a few problems I saw with this:
Firstly, individual card power is very disproportionate in LoR. You take a card like vile feast - playable on 2 - 2 mana 1/1 ping and awakening brood - playable on 3 - 6 mana 3 2/1's and you see how it's not even a contest. Better cards will be preffered, even synergies will struggle to keep up, when individual cards' power levels will improve your win chances when you can consistently draw and play them.
This leads to my second point. Unlike draft or in this case Arena in hearthstone, expeditions seemed completely like stat checks. In hearthstone you struggle to work with what you have, and try to respond to your opponent. In runeterra you are so specific in how you made your deck, that every game will play out the same and it will come down to the simple fact how well the opponents cards match up to yours. There is very little decision making involved.
One of my expeditions' 7th match was a very clear example of this. I had a spider token spam deck with around 5 broods, 6 crawling sensations and 4 elises. My opponent had frostbite spam. I saw 6 harsh winds, 4 flash freezes, 3 ashes, 2 of the minion (I forgot it's name) that frostbites the strongest enemy at the start of the turn, and I counted 2 brittle steel. It was a complete mismatch for him, he had no chance, but obviously, if I didn't have a deck that went wide cosistently it would be completely different.
Obviously, it's an issue of the current card pool - it's just not that diverse, but in the present state, that made expeditions highly unenjoyable for me.
Has there been any foreshadowing of how/if they'll try to manipulate balance? E.g., you mention Anivia as standing out: in Hearthstone Arena, Blizzard had been "bucketing" such that you'd have to chose between her and a few other powerful cards, then restrict your subsequent offerings to much lower power level. For MtG paper draft, every physical card in the tournament is offered to some player every round so the "balance" is that all the super-valuable cards like Anivia are swooped after the first couple of rounds.
Since she's a Champion you have a good chance of seeing her right off the bat during your first 2 picks. I don't know if they'll take any other measures specific to Expeditions, but considering how close they're looking at balance for constructed there is a good chance they'll make some type of adjustment if a certain card or archetype becomes an issue.