Hearthstone

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, fining/banning the competitor could have been a Blizzard move, but firing the commentators just because they were there? That's external.

[Lorini]

Yeah, fining/banning the competitor could have been a Blizzard move, but firing the commentators just because they were there? That's external.

They've never banned anyone for a year though. For anything, not even for using racist language on stream. The casters still don't know and weren't told why they were fired. Just seems like what a totalitarian government like China would order.

[Lorini]

So Blizzard backed off of the ridiculous penalty while claiming that China had nothing to do with the penalty in the first place, something no one is going to believe. The player now gets his winnings and a six month penalty. I'm sure that won't be enough for many but I strongly agree that tournaments are no place for politics. The last thing I'd want to see in a Grandmasters is a bunch of MAGA hats.

[Blackhawk]

And they are still punishing the broadcasters for somehow not anticipating a single sentence shouted at the beginning of an interview.

[Lorini]

I still don’t understand that, that’s crazy.

[Lorini]

Ok according to Rhykker the casters told the player to say what he had to say. Basically they told him to break a rule. That will get them fired.

[Gryndyl]

And they are still punishing the broadcasters for somehow not anticipating a single sentence shouted at the beginning of an interview.

There's more to it than that. The player showed up to the interview wearing the mask but up until the end the entire interview was about the tournament. At the end the broadcasters finish with "Say the eight words." The phrase 'the eight words' has been used throughout the protests to refer to the protester's slogan that the interviewee promptly delivered on command. They invited him to say it and knew exactly what he was going to say. This is not to excuse or endorse Blizzard over any aspect of their response but the casters weren't innocent bystanders.

[Blackhawk]

Ah. That wasn't in any of the stories I read on it.

[Lorini]

And they are still punishing the broadcasters for somehow not anticipating a single sentence shouted at the beginning of an interview.

There's more to it than that. The player showed up to the interview wearing the mask but up until the end the entire interview was about the tournament. At the end the broadcasters finish with "Say the eight words." The phrase 'the eight words' has been used throughout the protests to refer to the protester's slogan that the interviewee promptly delivered on command. They invited him to say it and knew exactly what he was going to say. This is not to excuse or endorse Blizzard over any aspect of their response but the casters weren't innocent bystanders.

As far as I’m concerned this whole thing is about the casters explicitly telling this player to break the tournament rules. And then being too cowardly to sit there and listen. Utter bullshit. Basically Blizzard's representatives at that tournament told him to do what he did. In my opinion he shouldn’t be punished at all. I’m not super upset that he is, six months isn’t that long, but those casters were shameful.

[Jag]

[Daveman]

I haven't played Hearthstone in years... think my last experiences were an expansion with lots of mechs and the "magnetic" keyword where you mashed minions together into great big mechs of death.

My 17yo son still plays regularly and hit his record of rank 3 this past month. I get a healthy dose of Hearthstone news from him.

If you have the itch to get back in, and haven't logged in for 4 months or more there's some goodies waiting for you. You have to sit through some hand holding as you play a premade deck against 3 AI innkeeper, then complete I think 3 fixed quests (all of which award 3 classic packs) and then you get to pick a premade class deck loaded with a lot of cool cards.

Word is the Rogue deck is the most powerful, but I hate Rogue. The Mage deck is supposedly very close in terms of power, but includes 2 strong neutral legendaries that a lot of classes can use so I went with that and have been having fun.

All this is in preparation for a new expansion in a week or so which will introduce a new hero, the Death Knight. I only have 400 gold but a whopping 12k dust as a lot of my collection has been rotated out of standard.

[Kelric]

Demon Hunter is the new hero. Out today, and I'm enjoying him. He's meant to be super aggressive in hitting the opponent directly and the base deck you get certainly plays that way.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I haven't tried DH yet since I don't have many of his cards (and don't want to craft them at this point), but the early win rates for DH are insane. The top DH decks are winning at a 70+% clip. I'm sure that will drop as people start countering them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see a nerf coming relatively soon.

[gilraen]

I played DH just with the default deck that the game provided. It destroyed most other decks at Bronze level, but even at low Silver, it can't do anything. Now, people are playing custom DH decks that are insanely OP. I fully anticipate nerfs incoming in a few months.

[Torfish]

I'm still playing. I took a embiggen taunt driud from silver to platinum 10 in two days. I'm going to try an all spell Mage deck next. See how that turns out.

[Daveman]

Demon Hunter is the new hero.

Ack, thanks... got my old Warcraft of Warcraft days confused.

Playing yesterday was crazy. I was down in the bronze ranks and a DH deck I used was undefeated against any non-DH opponents, but I was winless against other DHs. Not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. Many of those losses were close at least.

They've already put in some nerfs but the brief list I saw doesn't seem like enough. Imprisoned Antean and Priestess of Fury are just crazy.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

The nerfs are definitely not enough. Since the bonus quest yesterday was to play three games with the DH, I put together a deck that was entirely DH (no neutrals). It still performs amazingly well against any non-DH deck (and about 50/50 against those). The class currently has everything: aggro, controls, life-steal, etc. I'm not sure how Blizzard thought this class wouldn't dominate.

[Kelric]

I'm not that good at ranked play and even I'm coming out over 50% with DH. I'm sure it will drop with the nerfs and once people can counter them, but I'll take the wins that I can get. I prefer playing solo anyway, yet I like the Quest rewards!

Speaking of Quest rewards, I need to watch a friend win for a pack. Won't you be my friend? Kelric#11102

[Torfish]

Still having fun with embiggen Driud with a 31-18 record. It's my most consistent deck in rank play by far. At least, where the meta is at my level. I'm at platinum 7. Not great, but for a casual player I feel good about it. I tried Libram Pally and spell only mage with little success. Secret rogue is super fun, but not consistent for wins. I will play it a few times when I reach levels 5 and 10 (you don't lose rank at those levels). Demon Hunter and Priest are the most played that I've seen since the expansion.

[Kelric]

Still having fun with embiggen Driud with a 31-18 record. It's my most consistent deck in rank play by far. At least, where the meta is at my level. I'm at platinum 7. Not great, but for a casual player I feel good about it. I tried Libram Pally and spell only mage with little success. Secret rogue is super fun, but not consistent for wins. I will play it a few times when I reach levels 5 and 10 (you don't lose rank at those levels). Demon Hunter and Priest are the most played that I've seen since the expansion.

Blizzard says you have too many friends to be my friend.

[El Guapo]

Still having fun with embiggen Driud with a 31-18 record. It's my most consistent deck in rank play by far. At least, where the meta is at my level. I'm at platinum 7. Not great, but for a casual player I feel good about it. I tried Libram Pally and spell only mage with little success. Secret rogue is super fun, but not consistent for wins. I will play it a few times when I reach levels 5 and 10 (you don't lose rank at those levels). Demon Hunter and Priest are the most played that I've seen since the expansion.

Blizzard says you have too many friends to be my friend.

That's just Torfish's way of letting you down easy.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I moved up to Diamond 8 before the expansion dropped using a pretty cheap dragon Hunter deck. But since the expansion I haven't gotten much traction with any decks I have tried (dragon Hunter, Highlander Mage, Galakrond Warlock). At least it seems like most classes have some relatively viable possibilities, except for maybe Warrior which I've rarely seen.

On another note, Demon Hunter is just stupid to play against in arena. It's just got too many tools with its basic cards and rare cards.

[Torfish]

Oh, sorry. I removed about 20 friends that have been off-line for a few months. So you should be good to add me.

I hit a wall with the embiggen Druid, darn priests. Priest is terrible to play against.

I've not hit a wall yet on the expansion in general. I'm hooked at the moment. Lots of new decks that are viable and fun. Playing around with secret rogue, an healing warlock, and learning the OTK demon hunter. I saw a fun OTK warlock deck last night on Twitch, so may try that next.

Still have not hit rank platinum 5.

[Torfish]

New expansion of cards came out last week. Lots of interesting meta decks being created. I've tested the top ten decks this week. Playing about 15-20 games apiece. Pure pally and death-rattle rogue are my top % winning decks. Pure paladin is really good right now in the meta. I'm currently on a 10 game winning streak in diamond rank.

So far, priest has declined immensely with this expansion. But new decks are still being discovered.

Battlegrounds is my favorite mode. My rating floats between 6500 and 7000 currently. As long as the devs keep making updates and adding heroes, it has legs for longevity. I also find it fun to watch others play on Twitch.

[Lorini]

Y'all seen Exodia Mage? She's back (ugh). Glad to see Priest disappear, won't be missed by me at least. SO looking forward to Grandmasters where we can see the new cards in the hands of the pro players, I plan to watch all weekend.

[Torfish]

Yeah, the mage spell damage deck is really fun to play but not so much to play against.

[Torfish]

Hearthstone has a large update today. Achievements, reward system, and new quests. Duels is a new mode that has opened up for all players. Also, added a new battlegrounds hero. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/news/ ... atch-notes

New expansion comes out next week.

[Lorini]

So after reading some analysis, what's happening is that you are getting more rewards but they are over the course of the expansion which in my opinion as a player who plays daily, makes them mostly useless. I really don't need another pack 6 weeks into the expansion, I need packs at the start so I know what I've got. I won't be able to have enough gold at the start of an expansion to buy like 50+ packs like I usually do. This is very disappointing, I hate bait and switch, and for me at least this appears to be just that.

Thread from Reddit discussing this.

https://old.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/co ... omparison/

[Torfish]

You get quite a bit of gold with the new system. Gold and packs. It's much more versus the old system.

At the very least, the rewards and achievements make it more fun to play. So, in general, it's why I play.

[El Guapo]

As long as the new rewards system generates enough gold that I can basically play unlimited Arena without paying out any actual cash (as before), then I'll be fine.

[Lorini]

You get quite a bit of gold with the new system. Gold and packs. It's much more versus the old system.

At the very least, the rewards and achievements make it more fun to play. So, in general, it's why I play.

There is no doubt you get more. The problem for me and people like me is that the rewards are dribbled out over the length of the expansion instead of at the start. Right now, I can take my 10K gold and buy 100 packs. That should be enough to get two or three meta decks so I can ladder climb. At the start of the next expansion, I’ll have less gold and more packs that I no longer care about, so I’ll have to buy their stupid bundle to be competitive on ladder. I don’t want to do that.

Yes El Guapo, the thought is that Arena players really benefit from this change.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

While I think the new reward system is interesting and provides longer term goals, I agree with Lorini that it does reduce the gold flow. There’s no real way to get gold each day like before and the amount of playing it takes to reach the next level and get the next reward seems greatly increased, especially at higher levels. And as far as I can tell the achievements don’t net any rewards at all.

On the plus side, the six or so packs I’ve gotten through the new reward system has netted me four legendaries, including one gold one. Granted, it was four crappy legendaries but still...

[Torfish]

My prospective is skewed. I play everyday for 1-4 hours and buy one expansion pack bundle. That's the only $$'s spent as I don't play arena. I play all the other modes; battlegrounds, duels, rank, and wild. Duels is going to be really good once it opens up more next week.

I have a baseline with the gold/quests system. I gain approximately 8500-9000 gold between expansions (500-600 gold per week). It's been this way for years. I'll be able to make a good comparison to the new system by the next expansion release.

Looking forward to the expansion next week.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I have enjoyed Duels so far. Seems like it has a lot of promise. And nice that (so far) you don’t have to pay gold to play it, unlike Arena. But, of course, you don’t get rewards like in Arena.

I usually stop spending my gold on Arena tickets about 2 to 3 before the expansion launches. That is enough time to build up ~ 2K gold for the expansion.

[Lorini]

My prospective is skewed. I play everyday for 1-4 hours and buy one expansion pack bundle. That's the only $$'s spent as I don't play arena. I play all the other modes; battlegrounds, duels, rank, and wild. Duels is going to be really good once it opens up more next week.

I have a baseline with the gold/quests system. I gain approximately 8500-9000 gold between expansions (500-600 gold per week). It's been this way for years. I'll be able to make a good comparison to the new system by the next expansion release.

Looking forward to the expansion next week.

You understand that you're not going to have that 8500-9000 gold at the start of the next expansion right? You're going to have a bunch of packs instead plus some gold. But not the gold you're used to.

[Lorini]

I have enjoyed Duels so far. Seems like it has a lot of promise. And nice that (so far) you don’t have to pay gold to play it, unlike Arena. But, of course, you don’t get rewards like in Arena.

I usually stop spending my gold on Arena tickets about 2 to 3 before the expansion launches. That is enough time to build up ~ 2K gold for the expansion.

You will both pay and get rewards when Duels goes to the Heroic mode.

[Lorini]

Instead of six packs at the end of the rewards path, players will get 1350 gold. Makes WAY more sense!

We have been listening to your feedback regarding the Rewards Track and it’s clear we missed the mark both in how we communicated and implemented the full functionality of this first version of our rewards system.

We apologize for the confusion and disappointment we have caused.

During the natural progression of the rewards cycle, our intention was, and still is, to give out extra XP over time through a variety of ways. The aim is to help players get through the Rewards Track, or catch-up if they join later in an expansion phase, ultimately ensuring players earn more rewards.

We also didn’t provide any details for how events will link into and support the rewards system. We will be providing bonus XP for various activities at each seasonal event every expansion cycle, and any additional bonus events as needed, again with the aim of ensuring that our players obtain more rewards. Our failure to communicate these factors has led to incomplete projections, for which we apologize.

In addition, you’ve provided us with a wealth of feedback, and we agree that the pack rewards at the end of the track don’t feel appropriate for the effort it takes to get them. We’re going to adjust these rewards in the later stages of the track, swapping six packs for a total of 1350 gold that players can spend as they see fit. If any players reach this milestone before we implement these changes, they will be retroactively compensated.

Our goal for the Rewards Track continues to be that all Hearthstone players earn more gold and total rewards per expansion. We’ll continue to evaluate the impact of these changes, listen to your feedback, and iterate as needed until we get it right.

We will stay true to our word and ensure that the system lives up to what we all believe Hearthstone deserves.

Thank you,

Ben Lee
Game Director

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Good change. Someone did an analysis and found that, in the current iteration, even if you max out your level by the end of the month, you'll get thousands of gold less than in the previous quest system.

[Blackhawk]

How is this these days purely as a casual single player game?

[Lorini]

How is this these days purely as a casual single player game?

Play Slay the Spire instead?