I'll take another look at the Hearthstone meta when the nerfs hit, because right now it's straight up unplayable. Patches: broken since day one, never nerfed. Corridor creeper: just witnessed another game with turn 3 or 4, 2 0 mana 5/5s. Autismreaper: do I need to begin? (and I think they shouldve nerfed him instead of raza), and ofcourse bonemare, the classic ''I'm making a midrange/tempo deck, so this overstatted card needs to be jammed in my deck.''
I don't think much will change, because cubelock will probably be dominant, but hey: nothing changed the last 1800 times, it might now
I refuse to believe anyone can look at the world championships and say with a straight face that this is a skill-based measure of intelligence, or anything of that sort.
really love how little skill is involved in the warlock mirror.
Is there really that much skill in any type of mirror match? Regardless of the archtype/playstyle I'm sure it pretty much boils down to "Did the other gal/guy draw their key cards or low curve (if aggro match-up) before I did? If so, then I usually lose."
You can tell a lot from some mirrors, tbh. (Wild) Freezemage is a good one - easy as pie to spot bad players - those that swing into an unknown secret with <4 power, for example, or let themselves get milled with acolyte - or even something like not holding Alex for defensive uses and burning dome to chip the opp down (almost always the better choice in a mirror, IMO, though much more questionable than other points), not popping a scientist before popping a block, or messing up fatigue. Basic errors, some of these, and quite common.
Probably THE most boring match to play, though. lots of draw-go, not much happening other than trying to bait errors (leaving opp's novice alive instead of pinging when secrets are up, pretty much). Freezes on empty boards, that kind of wastage.
The thing with mirrors in Hearthstone in general is that once both players are beyond a certain skill level (which often means that they know how to trade, understand tempo and value, understand their win conditions etc.), the outcome of the matchup is indeed decided by draw rng rather than skill. This is ofcourse completely logical: HS consists of skill and rng, so as skill becomes less of a factor, rng becomes more of a factor. It does make grinding at certain ranks extremely tedious though.
Watching a Thijs stream, he's playing against a cubelock. The guy is rank 3 (which is high 10 days into the season) and has a legend cardback. Aside from that, he's playing (arguably) the hardest deck in the meta. Yet he's making constant, obvious misplays (killing his 4/6 instead of his 3/3 cube, using amethyst to destroy the cube when he could have heropowered (didnt use it that turn)).
Please, TRY to argue how you have to be intelligent or skilled to do well at HS. Please. This is coming from a guy who's GOOD for HS standards (I can hit legend with metadecks every season, with a high winrate), yet I'm willing to admit I should NOT be good at a game that has decisions which are mainly based on mathematics.
Blizzard seems to have a clear approach to Hearthstone. Anyone can use/abuse simple decks to get high legend. Anyone. All you need is the deck and experience. And despite the rise of decks that have a way off difficulty-succes ratio (razakus priest, jade druid) Blizzard consistently fails to solve this problem. In the past I've always assumed that was Blizzards fault, but now I know better. They deliberately choose to not fix these decks.
And why not? That's very simple, because the average HS player enjoys them. Does the average HS player care in the slightest bit about which deck they are using, or how this influences their ladder opponents? No, all they care about hitting that rank -whether it be 10, 5, legend or legend #x- to get that sense of accomplishment they lack in life, even if they consciously or subconsciously know they don't deserve it.
As a small piece of proof, all you have to look at is the average HS pro. Is the average HS pro capable of expert calculations in a short span of time? Does the average HS pro seem to be incredibly intelligent? No, on the contrary, the majority of them seem to be average people because they are. A lot of them are average people who just so happen to dedicate a lot of time to HS, which results in - you guessed it - experience.
In theory, the main skill required for HS is mathematics, with ofcourse the main task being calculating probabilities. In practice, the skill is divided into about a 90-10 ratio, consisting of experience - intelligence. I am thoroughly convinced there have been plenty of metas in which a person who is borderline legally retarded could've hit legend, and that's not an exaggeration.
But hey, Blizzard has a clear strategy and a lot of people seem to be getting joy off that strategy. To what extent, can I complain about that? Perhaps it's simply my fault for misinterpreting the core of Hearthstone. Blizzard makes money, people enjoy. Simple as that.
Without further ado, I'm officially quitting Hearthstone. I might drop by the fora occassionally, I might take another look at the game when the next expansions drops. And who knows, maybe some incredibly difficult but highly rewarding deck gets discovered, but I highly doubt it.
Fuck cubelock
I'll take another look at the Hearthstone meta when the nerfs hit, because right now it's straight up unplayable. Patches: broken since day one, never nerfed. Corridor creeper: just witnessed another game with turn 3 or 4, 2 0 mana 5/5s. Autismreaper: do I need to begin? (and I think they shouldve nerfed him instead of raza), and ofcourse bonemare, the classic ''I'm making a midrange/tempo deck, so this overstatted card needs to be jammed in my deck.''
I don't think much will change, because cubelock will probably be dominant, but hey: nothing changed the last 1800 times, it might now
Fuck cubelock
I refuse to believe anyone can look at the world championships and say with a straight face that this is a skill-based measure of intelligence, or anything of that sort.
Fuck cubelock
Fuck cubelock
I like how now that pirate warrior is tier 3, people think it's not cancer anymore.
Just because it isn't good anymore doesn't mean that upgrading reaper and swinging face for four turns isn't cancer anymore.
Fuck cubelock
Watching the championship serves as a good reminder of why I don't play this game anymore
Fuck cubelock
Watching a Thijs stream, he's playing against a cubelock. The guy is rank 3 (which is high 10 days into the season) and has a legend cardback. Aside from that, he's playing (arguably) the hardest deck in the meta. Yet he's making constant, obvious misplays (killing his 4/6 instead of his 3/3 cube, using amethyst to destroy the cube when he could have heropowered (didnt use it that turn)).
Please, TRY to argue how you have to be intelligent or skilled to do well at HS. Please. This is coming from a guy who's GOOD for HS standards (I can hit legend with metadecks every season, with a high winrate), yet I'm willing to admit I should NOT be good at a game that has decisions which are mainly based on mathematics.
Fuck cubelock
A little bit over a month since I quit HS, perhaps it's time to take another look at the meta again. Let's take a look at the tempostorm meta.
#1 Highlander priest
That's all folks
Fuck cubelock
I'm done. I'm quitting HS.
Blizzard seems to have a clear approach to Hearthstone. Anyone can use/abuse simple decks to get high legend. Anyone. All you need is the deck and experience. And despite the rise of decks that have a way off difficulty-succes ratio (razakus priest, jade druid) Blizzard consistently fails to solve this problem. In the past I've always assumed that was Blizzards fault, but now I know better. They deliberately choose to not fix these decks.
And why not? That's very simple, because the average HS player enjoys them. Does the average HS player care in the slightest bit about which deck they are using, or how this influences their ladder opponents? No, all they care about hitting that rank -whether it be 10, 5, legend or legend #x- to get that sense of accomplishment they lack in life, even if they consciously or subconsciously know they don't deserve it.
As a small piece of proof, all you have to look at is the average HS pro. Is the average HS pro capable of expert calculations in a short span of time? Does the average HS pro seem to be incredibly intelligent? No, on the contrary, the majority of them seem to be average people because they are. A lot of them are average people who just so happen to dedicate a lot of time to HS, which results in - you guessed it - experience.
In theory, the main skill required for HS is mathematics, with ofcourse the main task being calculating probabilities. In practice, the skill is divided into about a 90-10 ratio, consisting of experience - intelligence. I am thoroughly convinced there have been plenty of metas in which a person who is borderline legally retarded could've hit legend, and that's not an exaggeration.
But hey, Blizzard has a clear strategy and a lot of people seem to be getting joy off that strategy. To what extent, can I complain about that? Perhaps it's simply my fault for misinterpreting the core of Hearthstone. Blizzard makes money, people enjoy. Simple as that.
Without further ado, I'm officially quitting Hearthstone. I might drop by the fora occassionally, I might take another look at the game when the next expansions drops. And who knows, maybe some incredibly difficult but highly rewarding deck gets discovered, but I highly doubt it.
Fuck cubelock
Fuck cubelock
The first aidsbags abusing razakus priest on ladder have appeared. Well, the new meta was fun while it lasted
Fuck cubelock
I'll give the meta a chance to settle, but right now things aren't looking good.
Fuck cubelock
Netdecked miracle rogue, razakus priest, secret mage... is this really what the meta looks like just after release?
Fuck cubelock
I'm so dumb. See, silly me thought I'd have about a day of fun before netdeckers started ruining everything. Turns out it was only a few hours!
Fuck cubelock
Go fuck yourself if you're playing miracle rogue
Fuck cubelock