So after a long time of contemplating I have decided to actually just quit Hearthstone altogether. I have done this once before back in April but I came back out of boredom (and because the new expansion looked pretty good). HOwever, I can no longer play this game while keeping my sanity and it has become a huge time sink for me.
Basically my reason for leaving once and for all is this: The game has become way too....one sided? Basically over the past year swing turns have become more and more important....and this expansion is by far the worst. Basically every single class in the game has one or more brutal swings that either need an immediate specific answer or else the game is decided on the spot. Classes that don't have this resort to pure aggro (DH and Hunter for instance).
Essentially Hearthstone has turned into what I quit Legends of Runeterra over. A game where answers are sparse and a single play decides the game instead of multiple smaller ones.
To illustrate my point here's the summation of class dynamics right now:
Druid: Ramp to 7, get GA and win from there. If it gets dealt with use one of your many other game ending combos or cards to win. No real actual strategy involved, just play whatever you have in hand that keeps you alive or puts big stuff on the board.
Hunter: Doesn't have crazy swings, so burning your opponent to death is the way to go. Single player game because all you need to do is get as much damage in as possible.
Mage: Cyclone MAge is all about getting Mana Giant out as fast as possible. Highlander Mage is literally just an RNG fiesta at this point.
Warrior: Bomb Warrior is probably the only real control deck left in the game and its gameplan is literally to just spam bombs that your opponent can't interact with. Who thought combining Resident Sleeper Warrior with Face Hunter was a good idea?
Paladin: Between Alura and Argent Braggart they just generally tend to have better plays than everyone else on curve. If you fall behind you're not gonna catch up
Demon Hunter: pretty much just Hunter's mentally deficient brother. Ironically enough, probably the most "interactive" of the bunch and they still win by just going face
Shaman: Even the worst class in the game relies on sticking a totem on turn 2 or 3 and winning from there
Priest: plays a bunch of reactive garbage, but they can steal your stuff for 5-mana now and that's how they win.
Rogue: Their strongest deck revolves around playing minions that most opponents can't reasonably interact with. Any deck that doesn't is much worse by comparison
Warlock: literally got nerfed because all they did was swing the game by turn 3 in Wild. Will probably not even exist anymore in Standard afterwards.
I've tried just memeing and having fun and not taking things too seriously, but you can't have fun with slower decks or play for value if you either die inevitably or get curbstomped by turn 7.
What I used to enjoy about HEarthstone was the constant back and forth. Threat - answer- threat - answer - etc. If one player didn't have an answer they fell behind and had to find a way to deal with the situation which eventually decided the game. Sure, RNG was always a factor that could radically change results but there was always this sense of having an out (at least for most normal decks)
I just don't see the point in playing a game where every match boils down to: "Oh look I had a great mulligan, guess I win" or "Oh look I didn't draw my cards in order, I guess they win instead". And I know, things can always change and balance patches have been more frequent....but I really REALLY don't believe this current meta can even be fixed at this point. They would have to nerf basically every single class in some way and even then all that would do is tip the scales in some classes' favor.
Note that this isn't some sort of attempt to convince anyone to also quit the game. I'm really just trying to write down my own thoughts as a some sort of a final nail in the coffin. If you still enjoy this game then I envy you, but I just can't get the same kind of enjoyment...not anymore.
TL;DR I have made peace with the fact that this game isn't going in a direction I want it to and I'm tired of having to hope every single expansions and rotation that maybe things are going to be different this time around and always being disappointed.
Initially I wanted to go for a really melodramatic approach of dusting my entire collection and then spending said dust on crafting all my faavourite cards from the past in golden as sort of a memorial, but I don't even have the motivation for that anymore. I'll just let the account rot.
I do feel kind of sad about the fact that I won't really be interacting with you people anymore, because this site has a pretty neat community and I've always enjoyed posting here. I guess you can take this as my final farewell. Perhaps digital card games just aren't my thing.
Maybe some day the stars align and we're blessed with some sort of meta that recaptures what the old days were like...but right now I can't see that happening until this entire year has rotated.
Anyways, take care guys, I'm gonna miss you at least a little bit. Shitpost on balance patch posts in my stead.
