Your Questions for Hearthstone Game Designer Dean Ayala!
Blizzard has generously invited Hearthpwn to fly to the Bahamas this weekend for the upcoming Hearthstone Winter Championship! While at the event, we'll have a chance to sit down with Hearthstone Game Designer Dean "Iksar" Ayala to ask him some questions about Hearthstone's upcoming expansion, Journey to Un'Goro!
Do you have a great question on your mind? Write it down in the comments below and we might include it when we compile the best ones later this week!
Dean is a Game Designer on the final design team, focusing on testing and balancing new cards, making sure they're fun, trying to predict what decks they will go in and what the meta will look like. He also plays a lot of Arena! He's also very active on Twitter and Reddit, often responding to questions from the community.
Still, there are people playing wild
Will there ever be a second chance to get old card backs, either through the store or a duplicate tavern brawl, in the case of Winterveil's card back?
Will there ever be a second chance to get old card backs, either through the store or a duplicate tavern brawl, in the case of Winterveil's card back?
Are you related to Aya Blackpaw?
I'm F2P. How the heck am I supposed to get 18 legendaries, when it takes my like 30 packs to get one?
You don't need to get all the legendaries in the expansion and it's also unrealistic to expect people to do so, unless they spend a truly exorbitant amount of money/are incredibly lucky. Decide which few decks you want to play, and then craft for them.
With the new price changes in EU, i feel that most players will not be able to afford packs to open the meme rogue cards they need. What effects do you think this will have on the playerbase?
Will Quests appear in the Arena draft? If so, will they appear more frequently than other legendaries because they are spells?Edit: It has already been confirmed that Quests won't appear in Arena.
Will be some another cards to support new rogue legendary minion Sherazin, Corpse Flower? It has pretty interesting idea, but there is no opportunity to do it whether in fun or effective way. Though it is enough if it would have a taunt or stealth. In general we are not able to use any cards to get benefit from this card, but only cheep cards. Tomb pillager goes out from standard, so in ladder we will only see agro rouge and it is not good. With some new supportive cards it is real to create a new competitive rogue archetype based on Sherazin, Corpse Flower, I would like to see it.
We've seen lately that the meta-defining legendaries are more and more class oriented, not like what we had with Naxramas, GVG and LOE! I wonder what's the reason behind this design direction? and if we will see some powerful neutral legendaries printed in the future expansions especially with the rotation of Ragnaros the Firelord and Sylvanas Windrunner?
What will happen to arena, when the next expansion will be released and other expansions will rotate out of standard?
Will it be wild decks vs. standard decks again? This is real unfair for one player (even if standard decks would be stronger than wild decks)
With the intent to make Wild fun and have people play it, with the number of different options for decks and considering Un'Goro seems to want to push even more new different decks, are there any plans to help players try and tinker with new decks by having more deck slots available? What is the mindset of Blizzard behind their reasoning?
Are you related to Aya Blackpaw?
Do the devs think that Gadgetzan was a bit too extreme? Pirates dominated the expansion, making many decks obsolete, Jade mechanic invalidated most control decks, the meta was rock-paper-scissors, where rock had to draw Reno to win against scissors. Going into the future Gadgetzan looks bad too. Un'Goro has to have a lot of powercreep to match Jade. Generic hand buffs of Grimy Goons can still work here and there, yet the Kabal are screwed with Reno rotating out.
I wonder if more expansions just isn't possible. Hearthstone cards are harder to make than Magic cards due to them requiring voice acting, animations, and programming.
Aside from Un'goro, are you planning on releasing anymore character heroes that can be bought anytime soon? It's been a while since Magni, Alleria and Medivh. Also, it feels that most races are under represented as we have seen mostly humans, orcs and elves. It would be nice to see more of the other races too.
Thanks and keep up the good work
Dude, where's my car?
1. How is Un'goro going to reduce the prevalence of jade decks in the control segment of the meta?
2. How will elementals receive continued support after Un'goro? Will they fade away like mechs?
3. Do quests currently seem like discover, as an "eternal" mechanic, or like inspire, as a "single-expansion" mechanic?
4. Not a question per se but an idea to fix arena permanently. Instead of banning some cards outright, why not simply provide rewards for under-chosen cards? For instance, if I pick 10 magma ragers I build up enough Arena Dust to put a Sylvanas from my collection into the deck too? (Also I think arena should be wild).
Can you have more than one quest active at a time? (Does it matter if the quest is the same or different). In wild can quests be summoned by Nexus-Champion Saraad, Yogg-Saron, Hope's End
Will Nether Portal (and cards of the like) disable Reliquary Seeker battlecry?
Has Blizzard considering tweaking the card Summoning Portal to fit into a new portal tribe?
In wild, will Nether Portal count as a minion for Gormok the Impaler?
With 18+ legendary cards in this expansion...
How much of a given expansion does Blizzard expect an average player to have by the next expansion or adventure? Is it like 60 percent or more like 70 percent?
I have two questions about 2 cards they revealed: "Sherazin, Corpse Flower" and "Nether Portal", the reward for completing the warlock's quest. Will the token count as a minion on board for the effect of Mind Control Tech? For example, if I have 3 minions on board and a Nether Portal, can my opponent play MCT and activate his battlecry? Second question, can those tokens be stolen by the effect of MCT?