Hearthpwn

My thoughts ...

1) Buff heroes are now trash (except C'tun due to Whelp Smuggler effect).
2) The best heroes despite what HSReplay says are probably Janice Barov, Silas Darkmoon, Reno Jackson, Flurgal.  Silas can do 10 discovers a game.  Reno just needs one "win the game" unit to make golden and potentially run away with the game.  Flurgal is out of control good.

Win The Game Units:
1) Impatient Doomsayer
2) Whelp Smuggler
3) Tarecgosa - the 4/4 dragon that keeps all combat buffs.  Divine shield from Selfless Hero or Nadina is a buff.  Crazy strong.
4) Dazzling Lightspawn - if you are going elementals, never get rid of even one of these.
5) Insatiable Ur'zul - the Tier 5 demon that eats Tavern minions itself.  You can get this to 100 health rather quickly with Impatient Doomsayer synergy.
6) Bigfernal - Tier 4 growing demon, synergy with Impatient Doomsayer.

For me, I can't quite see a way to make Beasts consistently work, but Illidan can do it.  Monsterous McCall and Leapfrogger plus Rivendare is so strong.  Pirates are hard to pull off, seems that the pirates really needed to win games are Tier 4 and higher -- I've seen some players use Reno Jackson on Tony Two-Tusk and create nightmarish Pirate boards.  Mechs can win, Holy Mecheral is great and Omega Buster is a broken strong Tier 6.

I don't see any Quillboar boards in the late game.

Master Nyugen is really good and really strong and quite fun, but he isn't quite the best hero.  Depending on what tribes are in the game, Jandice Barov's ability to manufacture triples multiple times or how Silas Darkmoon can both board flood and do countless discovers are better.  If murlocs are in the game, Flurgal is broken.

Also win condition are Shudderwock as a hero, with golden Brann and Murlocs. No need a poison anymore)

And new mega crazy party is Leapfrogger + Parrot + Rivender. A just made a 75801/ 75569 minion. Goldrinn? Who needs him?)

Leapfrogger seems kind of silly for a T2 minion. Probably need to cap the amount of times it can jump or something. Seems like it basically outclasses goldrinn and crocolisk right now.

Thanks for the rundown guys. It made me realize that BGs aren't worth playing either.

These morons have no idea how not to create stupid powercreeps in any format.

So far it seems there is quite a lot of varitation, I have won games with all sorts of different builds. The card that really stands out as busted is Impatient Doomsayer. It's so broken you can pivot to it on tier 5 when you are not even playing either demons or tokens, or even taunts, and still feel the power gain. There is not a chance in hell this card remains as it is at tier 3. If you roll two of them them early in the game after hitting 3 it's virtually gg, unless you somehow massively misplay.

Overall, the patch/2.0 has been really fun so far.

Quote from Toribasher >>

My thoughts ...

1) Buff heroes are now trash (except C'tun due to Whelp Smuggler effect).
2) The best heroes despite what HSReplay says are probably Janice Barov, Silas Darkmoon, Reno Jackson, Flurgal.  Silas can do 10 discovers a game.  Reno just needs one "win the game" unit to make golden and potentially run away with the game.  Flurgal is out of control good.

Win The Game Units:
1) Impatient Doomsayer
2) Whelp Smuggler
3) Tarecgosa - the 4/4 dragon that keeps all combat buffs.  Divine shield from Selfless Hero or Nadina is a buff.  Crazy strong.
4) Dazzling Lightspawn - if you are going elementals, never get rid of even one of these.
5) Insatiable Ur'zul - the Tier 5 demon that eats Tavern minions itself.  You can get this to 100 health rather quickly with Impatient Doomsayer synergy.
6) Bigfernal - Tier 4 growing demon, synergy with Impatient Doomsayer.

For me, I can't quite see a way to make Beasts consistently work, but Illidan can do it.  Monsterous McCall and Leapfrogger plus Rivendare is so strong.  Pirates are hard to pull off, seems that the pirates really needed to win games are Tier 4 and higher -- I've seen some players use Reno Jackson on Tony Two-Tusk and create nightmarish Pirate boards.  Mechs can win, Holy Mecheral is great and Omega Buster is a broken strong Tier 6.

I don't see any Quillboar boards in the late game.

Master Nyugen is really good and really strong and quite fun, but he isn't quite the best hero.  Depending on what tribes are in the game, Jandice Barov's ability to manufacture triples multiple times or how Silas Darkmoon can both board flood and do countless discovers are better.  If murlocs are in the game, Flurgal is broken.

 I dont care what HSReplay says. There are 2 very broken heroes in game. Shudderwock with tokens is almost always autowin. Nguen is broken as hell. Noone in their right mind will pick Silas or Flurgal over it. 

Leapfrogger is just broken. Lvl 2 minion that is played over T6 Wolf is just stupid. Also the animations...

My suggestion to fix: remove shudderwock,

make Nguen random , not pick one, 

Leapfrogger cant buff minion that already has this dearhrattle. 

Impatient Doomsayer: Avenge(4)

And buff pirates. 

I dont care what HSReplay says. There are 2 very broken heroes in game. Shudderwock with tokens is almost always autowin. Nguen is broken as hell. Noone in their right mind will pick Silas or Flurgal over it.

I do think Nyugen is broken.  He should be nerfed in the way you said, make it random.

But I will pick Silas or Flurgal over him every single time.

Silas is one of the few heroes immune to what is in Bob's Tavern (Bob cannot screw you).  He is Elise on super-steroids.  You have a strong early game because your free discover units mean you can fill your board faster than most heros, you have tons of discover and whiff units become coins.

Flurgal is also immune to Bob's Tavern -- you will get 4/5 triples every single game and you can always find Murlocs.  Alley Cat and 2/2 water elemental can double up your Murloc offerings.

When I play Silas or Flurgal, especially with the 15 damage cap in place, it is almost statistically impossible to keep me out of Top 4 and not even Bob can stop it.

I only have one complaint so far, leapfrogger (but not why you might think)

It’s an anti-apm minion. It’s promoting DC to have a full buy/sell turn (can you do this or is it considered cheating?)

Otherwise I’ve been having fun :)

-del-

Master Nhuyen is ridiculous.  Reno has a great T4 targets to hit if you want to rush gamble and other impactful minions below T4 even.

Leapfrogger seems key to beast builds.  Good enough for a nerf maybe.

I had a couple good demon games using Impatient Doomsayer to hunt for food.

Mechs are fun again, particularly if you can get a Holy Mecherel with taunt and divine shield.  

Merlocs are back.  Sefin is key to getting multiple poisonous.  Expect George to rise up due to this. Flurgal obviously is nuts now.

Dragons are fun again, really liking them.  Tarecgosa is a monster combined with Prized Promo-Drake and divine shield.  Expect Ysera to rise.

Pirates are dead.  Patches is dead.

Elementals are decent.

Quilboar are tough.  They seem to be more support now.  Gemspitter is a ridiculous blood gem generator combined with Mechs or any build with divine shields.  

My only real beef with BG is the MMR pools.  There is too much of a gap between pools.   I consistently go back and forth between runs where I can't lose and then runs were I can't win.  It's not just a streak, it is skill based.  I am outclassed in one pool and get my ass kicked hard.  I need to just keep getting killed until they drop me down... at which point I am above average skill and kick ass.  6-10 games in each stint.  I really hate it.

It's hard to improve on my skills with the system.  The tactics that I have learned that do well in the lower pool consistently are not good enough in the higher pool... not even close.

I just wish it was more gradual.

Got to say, Demons start outscaling everything else quickly (with the exception of leapfrogger). Suspect that's partly due to the immune one being dropped to T4 - earlier and more likely immune means that you can go ham on Weavers and be pretty sure you'll hit immune. The other big culprit here, of course, is doomsayer, which is absurd with how token-y demons are earlygame, before they shift to massive stats (Ur'zul/bigfernal/weaver) focus. I do find it interesting that people seem to hang onto doomsayers too long - after a point you don't really get much value, if any, from them, and they take up space that could be a bigger demon. You do need to know when to kick them out, but until then they're absurd value. The felbat is surprisingly weak for a TT6 board buffer - partly because you do want to be cycling, partly because ur'zhul competes for the food, partly because you sometimes want non-demons (weaver, DS), and partly because you have more minions than there are edibles.

Mechs feel weak, since the +2/+1 on DS pop is slow scaling. Murlocs struggle to get to TT5 with enough HP to be able to SI:Sefin, I find. Smuggler is still good after the nerf to razorgore, but dragons are reliant on Maly shenanigans or Tarecgosa with prized (and getting to maly without tarec/prized can be tough and relies on hitting the weaker boards). There's not too many combat buffs for dragons other than that and DS, which is a one time thing. Pirates are bottom tier, below menagerie which also feels weak. Boards being huge mean that the mech that deals 6 that looks strong on paper is weak. 

I'm still rising in rating, though down to 100 for a win so no bonuses. Certainly not the best - I'll almost always avoid beasts even if they're in, because so many people are in them that you're rarely getting the trebles you need, for example. Let them fight over it, I'll gobble up weavers.

Mechs feel weak, since the +2/+1 on DS pop is slow scaling.

I dunno; Omega Buster seems like one of the strongest cards in the whole format. Granted it's (fairly) T6, unlike the frog, but the ability to give massive buffs to a board of DS minions is awfully nice. And it may seem unconventional to throw a beast in the mix, but Macaw (plus Baron, obviously) really puts it over the top. Just gotta be careful and avoid Replicating Menace so you're not whiffing on the trigger. I think this'll shine a little more once Leapfrogger is put into the proper tier.

Quote from OverholtNA >>

Mechs feel weak, since the +2/+1 on DS pop is slow scaling.

I dunno; Omega Buster seems like one of the strongest cards in the whole format. Granted it's (fairly) T6, unlike the frog, but the ability to give massive buffs to a board of DS minions is awfully nice. And it may seem unconventional to throw a beast in the mix, but Macaw (plus Baron, obviously) really puts it over the top. Just gotta be careful and avoid Replicating Menace so you're not whiffing on the trigger. I think this'll shine a little more once Leapfrogger is put into the proper tier.

 Omega Buster is really strong - no doubt about that. Not tried it with the Parrot, that could be interesting when you can get a parrot through the competition. Still feels like it'd lose out to the heavy scaling of demons, though a double mecherel and lots of DSes could work well.

Hero thoughts right now:

* Maybe Master Nguyen isn't the best in the game (I'm not entirely convinced otherwise), but he's easily the most fun hero they've released and an absolute auto-pick for that reason alone. If they do make a balance change I hope it doesn't gut him too much. Best move would probably be to remove some of the limited-use hero powers from the pool like Reno, Shudderwock, and maybe Zephrys (though it would bum me out).

* A. F. Kay feels nice again due to the strength of T3. Doomsayer being the obvious culprit. I think my first game back with her was a Doomsayer + Khadgar turn with Acolyte of C'thun in the tavern and I just steamrolled the lobby.

I wouldn't say stat-buff heroes are dead, necessarily, because they still have nice top 4 potential. But it does seem awfully tough to win first place nowadays without a hero that gives you a gold/card boost or greater likelihood at triples.

You definitely run into opponent boards that are on a power level that's hard to reason in your mind super early.   Like you'll power level to 5 and it's like your opponent has been on that level for 4 turns already with 4 6 drops already and everything already buffed up the wazoo.

Feels very anti-phone right now, I already got used to resetting my phone so that I would have time to think, now you HAVE to do it, constantly.   Lots of lines that are pirate-esque, but aside from that some of the fights take way too long.

I hate to say the meta is bad because they at least did what I think they should've been doing with every expansion, making big changes to every class, not just adding a tribe occasionally.   But it feels like they didn't really test this.    

Meta feels like this :

Tier 2 > look for leapfrogger/ whelp smuggler

If you don't find either, you can try setting up to go demon with impatient doomsayer on tier 3, and Insatiable ur'zul on 4 with the tier 6 payoff that is famished felbat.

 You can go murloc in this meta as long as you do it on tier 2 with Saltscale Honcho. It's consistent, and has a small chance of highrolling if you manage to get the poisonous murloc rolling (especialy with hero that synergizes with murloc like  flurgl or brann). After tier 3, if you don't have your murlocs, it's too late.

If you don't have any direction, prioritize beast and mechs. it's never wrong to go beast, beasts are overpowered. Mechs are weak, but flexible, it should increase your odds of landing a top 4 (but don't expect winning 1st place with mechs unless you highroll).

Avoid quilboar, avoid elemental unless you're chenvaa'la, avoir pirates unless you don't find anything else midgame, and switch out of your pirate comp whenever an opportunity arises.

Also beast don't need tier 6, it only need barong on 5.  Goldreen can be nice, and secure you the win in a competitive lobby, but it is not required

that's my 2 cents anyway.

Not as much skill but the fact that after a certain MMR everyone plays mid-range or optimized builds if you get the luck of the draw.