Hearthstone 24: Don't tell the others, but I'm rooting for you!

[otakuryoga]

battlegrounds is not very good right now

it is either Elementals or big hp/poisoned Murlocs

Frankly, no other tribe has a chance at the moment in 99% of games

[Eurus]

battlegrounds is not very good right now

it is either Elementals or big hp/poisoned Murlocs

Frankly, no other tribe has a chance at the moment in 99% of games

Let's be fair... there's also Jandice pogo-hoppers.

[Divayth Fyr]

Let's be fair... there's also Jandice pogo-hoppers.

Elementals can have enough stats to survive trading blows with her pogos...

[Rodin]

I've also had success with George using the new Poison Neutral unit. Grab a few of those and Divine Shield them, supplement with Maexxna and/or Poison Murlocs, then grab a Selfless Hero to do some resets if necessary.

Not that this invalidates the earlier argument. Elementals are too strong, Demons are far too weak, Pirates aren't in great shape either. Dragons and Beasts need a perfect comp to compete, and Mechs are their usual 4th place build.

Ragnaros and Jandice need nerfing, and the argument can be made for a couple of the other top tier heroes too. There are still a bunch of utterly trash heroes that need major buffs to make picking them justifiable.

[zlefin]

I have to agree; it feels like it's in a rather poor place right now; considerably worse than the last time I was playing it (several months ago).
I find that these days there's a lot of variance in the useability of tier 5/6's. It seems like I often get to discover one off of a golden, and it still just has nothing that will work well or be useful. I'm not sure if its because too many of them require synergies, or some of them are just weak. Back in the day, most of the high tier stuff was useable, it might not fit your comp ideally, but many were just reasonably solid enough to still be useful. Now it seems more luck dependent; in particular on whether you happen to get the right high end cards for accumulating stats or not.

[Eurus]

Leaving Jandice as-is and removing Pogo-Hopper wasn't quite the way I saw this going, but I guess that works? Ragnaros nerf seems meaty, let's see if it's enough.

[Hamste]

Spoiler: From patchnotes

Show

King Mukla
Bananarama
Now has a chance to give King Mukla a Big Banana that gives a minion +2/+2.

I mean, Mukla did need a buff but don't really like this. A random chance to get a slightly bigger boost feels bad.



The majordomo change where it says repeat is interesting. Gives me the feeling that there is going to be a hero or minion that interacts with stat buffs to reward many small buffs.

[Eurus]

I think the main effect of the majordomo change is that he gives 1 more point of buff than he used to. Even if you don't get any elementals that's still a small buff. I think that's probably good, I never bothered much with Executus before. This might change that.

[The Glyphstone]

How do people think the boss-hero Brawl decks stack up this time around?

[Geno9999]

How do people think the boss-hero Brawl decks stack up this time around?

Rotwing seems strong, can just run away with the game if an early Nerubian Egg isn't answered, and Chromatic Egg can produce a lot of late-game terror as well. Not sure what the Hoarding Dragon is doing in his deck though.

Lich Baz'Hial is a Freeze Mage with the only AoE in the deck that I could find only being Abomination and Anomalus. While the Hero Power basically means that you can't be chipped to death in the early game, at a max of 15 HP, you're still scarily vulnerable to large bursts.

Haven't played as Illidan, but getting Warglaives is basically the win condition.

[otakuryoga]

got my win with white king

just a matter of keeping his board mostly clear..which is easy since your minions hurt his w/o taking any damage on your turn and opponent will pretty much be forced to trade b4 his guys go away the next turn
and you just keep chipping away a few hp at a time on him

[Geno9999]

Well a lot of things have been announced, first and foremost:

Whispers of the Old Gods; Eldritch Boogaloo! Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
Expansion Keyword is Corrupt: When you play a higher-cost card while this card is in your hand, upgrade it.

Also launching with the expansion is the revamped progression system.

Launching in semi-open beta today is the new PvP game mode Duels format: a blend of constructed, arena, and dungeon runs. When the expansion launches, the game mode will be available for everyone, and with two seperate matchmaking settings: Casual just lets you play for free, while Heroic turns it into Arena proper with a 150 Gold or $1.99 Arena Ticket entry fee, and the same rewards as a Arena run.

[The Glyphstone]

Will quests no longer reward gold?

[Seerow]

Will quests no longer reward gold?

Quests will now reward experience instead of gold.

Allegedly, over the course of an expansion you should get the same amount of gold you get now, with the other new rewards besides. But their announcement gives so few details it's literally impossible to figure out if that is true or not.

[Nerocite]

Dungeon run is really fun, but going against the same bosses over and over gets old. Adding a PVP version is really cool.

[Geno9999]

Quests will now reward experience instead of gold.

Allegedly, over the course of an expansion you should get the same amount of gold you get now, with the other new rewards besides. But their announcement gives so few details it's literally impossible to figure out if that is true or not.

My personal benchmark is going to be a 150 gold level (post-level 50) roughly every 2 days, assuming I just do the daily quest and Win 3 games. Usually it nets me 60-70 gold a day in the current system.

[Seerow]

My personal benchmark is going to be a 150 gold level (post-level 50) roughly every 2 days, assuming I just do the daily quest and Win 3 games. Usually it nets me 60-70 gold a day in the current system.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt of one expansion. I typically save all my gold between expansions and end with 8k, give or take 500 gold either direction (variance usually based on if I do a little arena or get more 80g quests than normal).

So if by the time we hit our next expansion 4 months after launch, I've got somewhere in that range of gold and the other stuff is just a bonus? I'm happy. If I've only got 4000 gold, but a bunch of packs from expansions I don't want or need, we'll have a problem.

[Zevox]

Quests will now reward experience instead of gold.

Oh, that sets off some serious warning bells in my mind - especially since experience is currently worthless once you reach max level with a class. If this makes it harder/impossible for me to easily obtain gold for the Battlegrounds perks, then that could be what finally gets me to stop playing the game altogether. So far I've been fine just doing some rare Wild matches with old decks that I like in order to complete quests for the gold for those perks (since you don't have to win to complete quests anymore), but if the new system is designed to try and force you to engage with every part of the game whether you want to or not, then that'll be the end of it for me.

On a similar note, I have zero interest in the new mode. I got sick of Dungeon Run basically halfway through its second iteration, and haven't wanted to play any version of it since Rumble Run. A PvP version of it sounds even worse to me, so I have no intention of touching that.

[Rynjin]

The exp is for the new battle pass system, not character level.

[Seerow]

Oh, that sets off some serious warning bells in my mind - especially since experience is currently worthless once you reach max level with a class.

Experience is how you progress the battle pass. So instead of directly rewarding you gold, it advances you in the battle pass, which will be giving you gold in addition to packs and cosmetic rewards. class levels are totally irrelevant and I am 90% sure unrelated.

If this makes it harder/impossible for me to easily obtain gold for the Battlegrounds perks, then that could be what finally gets me to stop playing the game altogether. So far I've been fine just doing some rare Wild matches with old decks that I like in order to complete quests for the gold for those perks (since you don't have to win to complete quests anymore), but if the new system is designed to try and force you to engage with every part of the game whether you want to or not, then that'll be the end of it for me.

The system seems to be aiming at the opposite actually. Making various game modes more equally rewarding. In theory you should earn experience from playing BGs, which will translate into hopefully more gold than the 10 you get for every 3 top 4 placements you currently get in BGs.

Again they gave so few details it's hard to say for sure, but that is what the stated intent is.

On a similar note, I have zero interest in the new mode. I got sick of Dungeon Run basically halfway through its second iteration, and haven't wanted to play any version of it since Rumble Run. A PvP version of it sounds even worse to me, so I have no intention of touching that.

To be fair Rumble Run was by far the worst iteration of the Dungeon Run format, and the last couple they put out were actually pretty good (even players who hated all of the previous dungeon runs were generally pretty high on the Uldum thing). It probably won't be my main mode, but it looks like a neat hybrid of Standard, Arena, and Dungeon Run. I love that they let us have a casual mode where you can just play without the entry fee but without the Arena style rewards. I hope somewhere along the lines we get something similar for Arena (just let me draft a deck for fun without betting 150g). Hey maybe even give a paid tournament style entry for Constructed/Battle Grounds. Like you can always play casually for rank/exp, but if you're confident you can choose to bet gold for increased prizes, regardless of your preferred play mode.

[Rynjin]

I thought Wizard Duels sounded neat...until I was informed that apparently it uses your own collection, and only pulls cards from Classic/Basic, Scholomance, Naxxramas, and Karazhan.

Yeah...I'm not crafting cards from Naxx and Karazhan for this mode. They're completely useless to me in any other context.

[Seerow]

I thought Wizard Duels sounded neat...until I was informed that apparently it uses your own collection, and only pulls cards from Classic/Basic, Scholomance, Naxxramas, and Karazhan.

Yeah...I'm not crafting cards from Naxx and Karazhan for this mode. They're completely useless to me in any other context.

Well your own collection is just used for the core 15 card deck. You can probably get away without using either set, especially given how much power creep has come into the game since those sets were new. And hey you might get to draft some cards you haven't played with before.

[Rynjin]

Well your own collection is just used for the core 15 card deck. You can probably get away without using either set, especially given how much power creep has come into the game since those sets were new. And hey you might get to draft some cards you haven't played with before.

That's pretty unlikely. Most old cards have featured heavily in dungeon runs up to this point, and the only expansions/adventures I wasn't around for were Naxx, Goblins vs Gnomes, Blackrock Mountain, the Grand Tournament, and League of Explorers; Naxx, Grand Tournament, and GvG cards in particular show up a lot as pack filler in those modes already.

Everything else I've played with extensively, but disenchanted over the years to craft new Standard cards.

[Zevox]

The system seems to be aiming at the opposite actually. Making various game modes more equally rewarding. In theory you should earn experience from playing BGs, which will translate into hopefully more gold than the 10 you get for every 3 top 4 placements you currently get in BGs.

Again they gave so few details it's hard to say for sure, but that is what the stated intent is.

Well, we'll see if it actually does that in practice, then. If so, good. If not, well, depends on what it does do.

To be fair Rumble Run was by far the worst iteration of the Dungeon Run format, and the last couple they put out were actually pretty good (even players who hated all of the previous dungeon runs were generally pretty high on the Uldum thing).

I watched videos of the later versions on Youtube, and was left with no reason to think I'd like them any better. If anything, they looked worse and worse to me as time went on.

Ultimately, I hate the basic format of it - of needing to hope that you get offered a batch of cards that's actually worth taking after each game, and frequently having to choose between three bad to mediocre options. I don't find that fun, and it just created frustration for me over time. The versions that involved you fighting ridiculous bosses that you weren't even expected to beat in one go without a ridiculously strong strategy/synergy looked unbearable to me. I enjoyed the mode when it first showed up, but now I'd say that was mostly for the novelty of it, nothing more.

I thought Wizard Duels sounded neat...until I was informed that apparently it uses your own collection, and only pulls cards from Classic/Basic, Scholomance, Naxxramas, and Karazhan.

Yeah...I'm not crafting cards from Naxx and Karazhan for this mode. They're completely useless to me in any other context.

That also doesn't help, though I'm the opposite on which set it applies to. I've got plenty from the old sets - especially adventures like Naxx and Karazhan, obviously - but Scholomance came after I stopped playing standard, so I've only got a few freebie packs worth of cards for that.

[LaZodiac]

I thought Wizard Duels sounded neat...until I was informed that apparently it uses your own collection, and only pulls cards from Classic/Basic, Scholomance, Naxxramas, and Karazhan.

Yeah...I'm not crafting cards from Naxx and Karazhan for this mode. They're completely useless to me in any other context.

Okay so having actually watched videos about this, yeah Wizard Duels initial deck is pulled from those sets only (though they'll be rotating sets as the game goes) the actual buckets are from ANYWHERE in the game, and aren't pulled from your own collection.

[zlefin]

I'd already been on a run of going back to the old dungeon runs and playing them; I was finding them fun to play again for several runs, and still am. Did the old kobold one several times, and now doing the Dalaran one and a bit of the Uldum one.

[The Glyphstone]

The revealed cards so far seem very top heavy towards 10 mana big bomb legends, the sort that doesn't find a home even in most Control decks. I'm iffy on Corrupt as well, the buff effect takes away the value of a cheap and powerful card by delaying its use. Overall, this looks like it'll either slow down the meta or get overrun by existing fast decks.

[Geno9999]

As if Tempo Mage didn't need another win condition besides "Present counter-lethal with Conjurer Calling'd Mana Giants" or the nerfed "Oops, all Evocations" and "Oops, all Solarian Primes", New Yogg looks to be just as chaotic as his previous outing. Probably even better, since half of the wheel results is a massive Tempo Swing, or you can get OG Yogg again, while Hand of Fate is a more controlled version of that depending on your hand size. Or, you know, win the game on the spot only get your own face nuked with random Pyro Blasts.

But C'thun looks the most promising to me: most of the pieces are decent, especially the 6/6 Taunt (Body) and the Destroy a Minion (Maw) pieces. 3 to all Minions (Heart) is kind of a Hellfire without the damage your own face downside for +1 mana, so it's fine for a control/combo deck. Eye's effect of 7 dealt randomly to all enemies is pretty head scratching to me tho. Obviously barring some hand or spell copying shenanigans, you're going to need to cast all 4 of them anyway, but Eye is just straight up the weakest of the bunch.
Overall, I can see New C'thun being run in Quest Warlock, Highlander Mage, and probably some new Control/Combo Druid deck, as the 30 dealt randomly is pretty much win the game against any class except Control Warrior and Survival of the Fittest Druid.

Speaking of Control/Combo Druid, oh sweet baby jesus the Eclipses. Luna Eclipse being half of a Wrath with Preparation stapled to it for no extra cost, and then there's freaking Solar Eclipse being a double cast for your next spell. I would be impressed if some Kael'Thas or Exotic Mountseller Combo Druid deck doesn't pop off in the first weeks of the expansion.

[Zevox]

Big patch dropping tomorrow, with a lot of changes for Battlegrounds and Duels. I'm only going to comment on the Battlegrounds changes since I don't play Duels, but wow.

Tons of heroes get buffed. Waggtoggle, Ysera, and Tess look like the biggest winners to me at a glance, but it's hard to judge how impactful some will be. I could see George and Akazamzarak being dark horses to become quite strong, for instance. I'd guess The Curator, Barov, Elise, Rakanishu, and Rat King aren't affect too much personally, but I could be wrong. Hooktusk and Galakrond I think are just tough calls.

I'm kind of sad seeing them remove Nefarian, since I remember when he was one of the best heroes and I loved taking him. But the days of the game being dominated by Mechs and Murlocs with a bunch of divine shields for him to breathe away are long behind us, so I understand it.

For card balance, we get lots of Pirate buffs, Elementals and Amalgadon eat some nerfs, and a single key card each for Demons and Mechs get buffs. I really don't know how much the Pirate buffs will matter, personally, but there's a lot of them, so maybe they'll add up. The Wrath Weaver change makes taking it and trying to force Demons much more appealing, since it no longer auto-loses turn 1 (and 2 if you tavern up). Iron Sensei going to 3 is pretty huge for Mechs, though it really reinforces their identity as a mid-game comp.

Also, they un-nerfed Lightfang at long last - hallelujah! Been wishing they'd do that for ages. I look forward to Menagerie being a more serious comp option once again with that.

Oh, the nerfs. I don't know why they nerfed Garr, he already seems like he shows up too late to be used 98% of the time since he's tier 6 and wants a lot of buffs, but whatever. Lil' Rag losing his extra stats likely means little. Returning the Genie to tier 6 is a very good call, though I don't know why they didn't give him back his original stats in the process, since it's not like he was busted before. And the Amalgadon change is probably a good one, makes it a lot harder to just throw him into non-Menagerie comps without some Brann + temporary minion of another type manipulation for bonus adapts.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

I'm enjoying all the trinkets and new content, played a ton of duel mode, so this expansion's been fantastic for me. And the fact that they're scamming people out of gold on the progression (from everything I hear) is fine by me because I've built up over 10k from not having cared about constructed for over a year and honestly probably never will again.

I honestly just have one question. Am I stupid, or is there a way to auto collect all the rewards for completing the quests? It takes minutes and minutes to go click them all and I'm not even done yet. I'd like to be able to see them highlighted so I know what's new, but you apparently don't get the reward until you click it manually.