True, it often feels like the game is decided very early, purely by RNG. If you don't have any power house by turn 7, while other players do, you're done, because they will grow from now on (every single turn), and you will fall behind more and more.
This. If Bob decides to suicide you by offering you 2 unstable ghouls and 2 undesirable Tier 1 units on 5 mana or 6 mana, you probably are doomed.
This is why Ysera and Flurgal, who are guaranteed synergy units and therefore inevitable triples are #1 and #2 heroes.
When HSReplay looks at ALL Battlegrounds games, yes, those are the top 2 heroes. But your reasoning is all wrong. The real reason is 1. yeah, they are somewhat strong heroes but more importantly 2a. when one player takes a minion, that copy is removed from the pool available to other players and 2b. unskilled players are crap at reading signals and will plow ahead with their game plan without the slightest concern for what Bob's offering and/or what other players are taking. Those heroes are strong because, even if someone else forces Dragons/Murlocs, you'll have an edge over them, and the hero powers are designed for the kind of braindead archetype forcing that noobs do all the time, then complain about refresh luck because the archetype they want to force didn't show up and they didn't take any of the valid alternatives offered.
That the hero with a 2 cost refresh is the third best hero in the game, and that Nozdormu isn't even better than average, gracefully disproves your hypothesis on the importance of refreshes.
Among players with high skill, Ysera and Flurgl are still Tier 2 heroes (7th and 13th best) but the top 5 are Hooktusk, Daryl, Millhouse, Galewing and Nguyen. Daryl is most certainly the highest skill cap hero in the game.
I have said that many times already, this mode needs some come back / anti bad luck mechanic, because without it, there's simply too wide gap between high and low roll. If you get bad pools from Bob during some key turns (like 7-10), you're screwed and most of the time there's no way to compensate that later on (unless you get many really crazy rolls). I think banking your gold for the next turn would be nice, because it would allow lowrollres to come back and not waste gold on trash minions or re-rolls, just because you have to spend it anyway. Maybe not all your gold, maybe not any time you want (to balance things out), but some form of banking would help a lot to fight back against RNG.
I have said that many times already, this mode needs some come back / anti bad luck mechanic, because without it, there's simply too wide gap between high and low roll. If you get bad pools from Bob during some key turns (like 7-10), you're screwed and most of the time there's no way to compensate that later on (unless you get many really crazy rolls). I think banking your gold for the next turn would be nice, because it would allow lowrollres to come back and not waste gold on trash minions or re-rolls, just because you have to spend it anyway. Maybe not all your gold, maybe not any time you want (to balance things out), but some form of banking would help a lot to fight back against RNG.
This mechanic already exists. It's called buying a unit and keeping it in your hand. Particularly effective with token minions, Sellemental, Sun Bacon Relaxer etc
Scrotie, your critique of my logic is entirely wrong.
Ysera and Flurgal are Tavern immune due to guaranteed synergy.
Then you list the top heroes at high MMR to dispute this.
Well guess what: Hooktusk, Daryl and Galewing are also tavern avoiding heroes. Hooktusk discovers, Galewing discovers and Daryl just sells what he gets to super buff so it doesn't much matter what the 15/15 minion is.
(Note: since you seem to think this is a "skill game" and probably like MMR, I was at 11000 - 12000 MMR for a long time when the game interested me enough to "try hard". And there are elements of skill, but in this current meta mostly you need to be on track to compete for the win at 7, 8, 9 mana -- this is totally a high roller meta).
Note: since you seem to think this is a "skill game" and probably like MMR, I was at 11000 - 12000 MMR for a long time when the game interested me enough to "try hard".
I was able to confirm this, I think. Providing you're the tori who had a rating of 12239 in Season 2. I'll have to begrudgingly concede the strong possibility that you're better than I am at Battlegrounds. I still have my doubts, but I'll play a bit more first before pressing any arguments.
This mechanic already exists. It's called buying a unit and keeping it in your hand. Particularly effective with token minions, Sellemental, Sun Bacon Relaxer etc
Spending 3 gold on trash minion just to get back 1 gold back in the future (but only if you have room on the board) is far from the proper gold banking system and it's not very helpful when you are already behind.
This mechanic already exists. It's called buying a unit and keeping it in your hand. Particularly effective with token minions, Sellemental, Sun Bacon Relaxer etc
Spending 3 gold on trash minion just to get back 1 gold back in the future (but only if you have room on the board) is far from the proper gold banking system and it's not very helpful when you are already behind.
First, I don't think it's worth it to spend 3 Gold on a trash minion just to get 1 Gold back later. That's a strawman. Now, 3 Gold now to get 2 Gold back later (Sellemental), or 3 Gold to get 1 Gold and 2 Blood Gems later, that is what I was advocating.
Second, not having a flex spot is roughly equivalent to saying "my build is done and doesn't need further improvement." Generally speaking, it's the right move only if you're convinced the next battle coming up will be your last, win or lose. There are a few exceptions — for instance, if your warband is golden Monstrous Macaw, golden Selfless Hero, Gemsplitter, Aggem Thorncurse, Greasebot, Goldgrubber and Agamaggan, then I'd say there's nothing to sell there. But those exceptions are rare.
The single most common Battlegrounds mistake, that I see even streamers doing, is: refreshing when they have 2 Gold left and a weak minion in the "Battlecry" spot, with an empty hand, in the midgame. Let's say you're playing Murlocs in that situation, there's two possibilities: either you get a minion you'd freeze for, or you don't. If you don't get anything, the refresh was worthless; if you do get something, the refresh actually costs 2-3 Gold long term, because if you freeze you don't refresh at the beginning of the turn and you lose 1 Gold in value that way, plus if you still have Gold unspent at the end of turn you lose it. So what you should do instead is probably something like selling your unbuffed Coldlight Oracle and buy a random Savannah Highmane that's available instead. You'll probably just sell the Highmane next turn, but now there's a better chance you're not taking damage next combat. Heck, a Coldlight is only a 2/3, you could replace it with a Sellemental or the sell for 3 Pirate, be just about as strong, and be up Gold next turn. Always remember that long term minions cost 2 Gold — you buy for 3 but you sell for 1, 3-1=2.
Game is in such a shit state right now. Its all high roll, all about lucky triples and rolls. The early game heroes seem to have a greater advantage. Avoiding damage early is key to surviving long enough to tavern 5-6.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I think Cookie McCookface might give Ysera a run for top spot once the masses figure out how to use him. My last 4 games with him were 2 firsts and 2 seconds.
So... since my last post on Nov 11... 13 days ago... I have not once seen Cookie McCookFace as an option to choose from. I play at least 10 games of BG a day on average. That is insane.
Oops double post.
When HSReplay looks at ALL Battlegrounds games, yes, those are the top 2 heroes. But your reasoning is all wrong. The real reason is 1. yeah, they are somewhat strong heroes but more importantly 2a. when one player takes a minion, that copy is removed from the pool available to other players and 2b. unskilled players are crap at reading signals and will plow ahead with their game plan without the slightest concern for what Bob's offering and/or what other players are taking. Those heroes are strong because, even if someone else forces Dragons/Murlocs, you'll have an edge over them, and the hero powers are designed for the kind of braindead archetype forcing that noobs do all the time, then complain about refresh luck because the archetype they want to force didn't show up and they didn't take any of the valid alternatives offered.
That the hero with a 2 cost refresh is the third best hero in the game, and that Nozdormu isn't even better than average, gracefully disproves your hypothesis on the importance of refreshes.
Among players with high skill, Ysera and Flurgl are still Tier 2 heroes (7th and 13th best) but the top 5 are Hooktusk, Daryl, Millhouse, Galewing and Nguyen. Daryl is most certainly the highest skill cap hero in the game.
I have said that many times already, this mode needs some come back / anti bad luck mechanic, because without it, there's simply too wide gap between high and low roll. If you get bad pools from Bob during some key turns (like 7-10), you're screwed and most of the time there's no way to compensate that later on (unless you get many really crazy rolls). I think banking your gold for the next turn would be nice, because it would allow lowrollres to come back and not waste gold on trash minions or re-rolls, just because you have to spend it anyway. Maybe not all your gold, maybe not any time you want (to balance things out), but some form of banking would help a lot to fight back against RNG.
This mechanic already exists. It's called buying a unit and keeping it in your hand. Particularly effective with token minions, Sellemental, Sun Bacon Relaxer etc
Scrotie, your critique of my logic is entirely wrong.
Ysera and Flurgal are Tavern immune due to guaranteed synergy.
Then you list the top heroes at high MMR to dispute this.
Well guess what: Hooktusk, Daryl and Galewing are also tavern avoiding heroes. Hooktusk discovers, Galewing discovers and Daryl just sells what he gets to super buff so it doesn't much matter what the 15/15 minion is.
(Note: since you seem to think this is a "skill game" and probably like MMR, I was at 11000 - 12000 MMR for a long time when the game interested me enough to "try hard". And there are elements of skill, but in this current meta mostly you need to be on track to compete for the win at 7, 8, 9 mana -- this is totally a high roller meta).
I was able to confirm this, I think. Providing you're the tori who had a rating of 12239 in Season 2. I'll have to begrudgingly concede the strong possibility that you're better than I am at Battlegrounds. I still have my doubts, but I'll play a bit more first before pressing any arguments.
I am not Tori, I was never able to crack the Battlegrounds Top 200. I came damn close, though.
I did notice the name "Tori" when I was trying to crack the Top 200. Those games at MMR 11500+ were hard as hell.
Spending 3 gold on trash minion just to get back 1 gold back in the future (but only if you have room on the board) is far from the proper gold banking system and it's not very helpful when you are already behind.
First, I don't think it's worth it to spend 3 Gold on a trash minion just to get 1 Gold back later. That's a strawman. Now, 3 Gold now to get 2 Gold back later (Sellemental), or 3 Gold to get 1 Gold and 2 Blood Gems later, that is what I was advocating.
Second, not having a flex spot is roughly equivalent to saying "my build is done and doesn't need further improvement." Generally speaking, it's the right move only if you're convinced the next battle coming up will be your last, win or lose. There are a few exceptions — for instance, if your warband is golden Monstrous Macaw, golden Selfless Hero, Gemsplitter, Aggem Thorncurse, Greasebot, Goldgrubber and Agamaggan, then I'd say there's nothing to sell there. But those exceptions are rare.
The single most common Battlegrounds mistake, that I see even streamers doing, is: refreshing when they have 2 Gold left and a weak minion in the "Battlecry" spot, with an empty hand, in the midgame. Let's say you're playing Murlocs in that situation, there's two possibilities: either you get a minion you'd freeze for, or you don't. If you don't get anything, the refresh was worthless; if you do get something, the refresh actually costs 2-3 Gold long term, because if you freeze you don't refresh at the beginning of the turn and you lose 1 Gold in value that way, plus if you still have Gold unspent at the end of turn you lose it. So what you should do instead is probably something like selling your unbuffed Coldlight Oracle and buy a random Savannah Highmane that's available instead. You'll probably just sell the Highmane next turn, but now there's a better chance you're not taking damage next combat. Heck, a Coldlight is only a 2/3, you could replace it with a Sellemental or the sell for 3 Pirate, be just about as strong, and be up Gold next turn. Always remember that long term minions cost 2 Gold — you buy for 3 but you sell for 1, 3-1=2.
Game is in such a shit state right now. Its all high roll, all about lucky triples and rolls. The early game heroes seem to have a greater advantage. Avoiding damage early is key to surviving long enough to tavern 5-6.
It needs to bring back prizes badly.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I think Cookie McCookface might give Ysera a run for top spot once the masses figure out how to use him. My last 4 games with him were 2 firsts and 2 seconds.
So... since my last post on Nov 11... 13 days ago... I have not once seen Cookie McCookFace as an option to choose from. I play at least 10 games of BG a day on average. That is insane.
17 days later and I finally was able to choose him again... and got first.