Hearthpwn

NA Maintenance Postponed

Maintenance was scheduled for North America earlier today, but it was cancelled last minute due to server stability issues. European maintenance today is currently underway and the servers should be back up soon. NA maintenance has been moved to January 16th, at 10 AM PST. It does not appear that the patch is going live with this maintenance period, but rather, it is to prepare for it.

Quote from Aratil

Due to unexpected stability issues, the scheduled maintenance for today has been cancelled for the North American region.

Maintenance for the European region is still scheduled for tonight. Maintenance for the North American region has been moved to tomorrow, January 16th, at 10:00 AM PST.

Blue Tweets

Quote from Blizzard on Twitter

Game Design

So there's no plan to balance the current underplayed cards? Will those new cards expand upon current themes such as Pirates etc?
There's no plans to change any more cards at all, unless there is some crazy emergency. - Ben Brode (Source)

I agree that sometimes cards can fly under the radar and pop up even though they weren't touched but there's too many like that imo
I am not asking for like crazy buffs. Just to take another look at underplayed neu / class cards and see what love you can dish out
have any top candidates you'd want us to look at? - Ben Brode (Source)
Dust Devil, A'lAkir, Far Sight, Kidnapper, Holy Wrath, Alarm-o-Bot, Ironforge Rifleman, Harrison Jones, Priestess Elune, War Golem
Rarely seen cards that I listed could use some love. I do agree with you though, more cards should actually solve a lot of issues.
Some of the cards you listed are actually *very* strong, according to our back-end data.
Just because most people aren't playing them, doesn't mean that the people who are aren't winning.
And some other cards (specifically those in the Basic set) are often role-players.
Basic cards need to be dirt-simple, and it's ok with us if you ditch some of them over time as you earn more cards.
Certainly some basic cards are top-tier, but it's ok with us if nobody plays Magma Rager or War Golem. They're still doing a job. - Ben Brode (Source)

How do you feel about the 5 drops in the game at the moment? There doesn't seem to be many options.
We can always make more in our adventures and expansions! :) - Ben Brode (Source)

Golden Heroes

Once Golden Hero's are avail. in #Hearthstone , will the Shaman's Hero Power Totems be golden/animated?
That is the plan :) - Ben Brode (Source)

Harrassment

Any report features for Hearthstone? For user names or harassment of some kind?
I am curious about how people are harassing you. We are looking at this stuff carefully. - Yong Woo (Source)
Not me actually, a friend. ...not that it matters. Specifics tho! Friend got a B-net friend request from
the last person she played. Accepted it and the other person was, well, terrible. Obviously she unfriended
and don't think she's heard from the same one again. Could of course just never accept any invite, but
is there a way to report such behavior? Same person is still out there possibly attacking others.
I see what you mean. Hmm.. it's something we're looking at. No specific plans on exactly how to handle it yet. - Yong Woo (Source)

Blue Posts

The blues came out of hiding and were busy posting on the official forums today.

Game Balance Concerns

Some players have been concerned about the way the Hearthstone team has been addressing balancing. Zeriyah provides some insight into how the team arrives at card changes, and we'll be seeing more about the process within the next couple of days.

Quote from Zeriyah

Thank you for posting your concerns about the most recent patches with constructive criticism. We're keeping an eye on this thread and would like to see the discussions and sentiment continue. However, if this thread continues to degrade in quality and loses sight of the original messaging with posts that are less than constructive, the thread will be locked. Please be mindful of the forum rules and be respectful to others - we don't expect everyone to have the same opinion, but we do expect that the rules are followed.

I appreciate you responding to this thread Zeriyah as I know you're relatively busy and can't generally reply. Incase the point gets lost, the underlying concern I have is were any of these changes based on statistical data on Blizzard's end, and if so, can you give us some indication as to what the stats were that were the basis for it? Because the nerfs of the last two patches seem to simply be a checklist of the most complained about cards on the forums, and it seems as if the weakest classes to begin with were the ones that were being nerfed further.

We do have extensive data that is collected from the beta testers that assists us in making the correct decisions for the overall balance of the game, however we do have to be mindful of the proper ways to convey this data, if at all. If we were to say that X class was performing well above and beyond other classes at X levels of play, we run into the risk of defining the state of the meta for our players rather than having it change and evolve on its own. We don't want to be defining the meta for Hearthstone - It should be a shifting, changing, evolving thing, facilitated by the players. That sort of change and variation is healthy for the overall state of the game, as it keeps people trying new things and pushes deck-building innovation. 

Card changes, when they are done, are generally done to promote this healthy gaming environment. Obviously, no one class or card should ever be dominating the state of the meta. It causes stagnation, frustration, and discourages that normally fun feeling of creativity and wonder when deck-building. The feeling of "well, I only can put 15 cards in my deck because my other 15 cards have to be these particular 15 cards because they're just better" puts limits everywhere. 

Sometimes the data we have aligns with the community sentiment. Some times it does not. We touched on some data briefly at BlizzCon; at that time, an example of data not lining up with community sentiment was with Priests. We monitor feedback extensively, through both numerical data and the pulse of the community. Nothing is truly black and white, and there is no such thing as an "obvious fix", as we always have to keep looking forward and not just at the here and now. 

We'll be discussing more about why we make changes to cards and the philosophy behind those changes more in the coming days. I've rambled a lot!

Checking if Hearthstone has been Added to your Account

There have been some delays in sending out emails to notify users that they have received Hearthstone beta access. If you opted-in to the beta, and haven't received an email stating you got in, follow Aratil's instructions below to check to see if you have access.

Quote from Aratil

To check if your account has already been flagged, please visit this link. If your account is flagged, then Hearthstone will show up on your account at this page.

If your account has not yet been flagged for the beta test, we are still going through all of the accounts and we will provide another update at a later time.

If your account has already been flagged, then you already have access to Hearthstone. No additional beta keys will be necessary. This post can also help you to get Hearthstone up and running.

We have also identified an issue that is causing a delay of the related emails from being sent out, so if you have not yet received the email, you should receive it within the next few days.

Loading Bug

Some players were experiencing issues with loading earlier today. If you are still encountering any issues, let Blizzard know in this thread.

Quote from Aratil

We are currently aware of issues regarding long load times and issues that may be preventing certain games from starting and are working on resolving them now.

Deathrattle Minion Resurrection Bug

Quote from Zeriyah

We're aware that there are some issues related to Deathrattle effects that involve minion resurrection. We've got that currently down as a known issue that we're looking into fixing.