What I've noticed lately is not that the game is not 'uninteractive', but that it is ANTI interactive. There are many more ways now to be hurt for actually putting a minion on board. This was much rarer in old hearthstone. In old hearthstone, you could get value or tempo punished (over extending into AOE, 10-drop into hex), but you were mostly not actively hurt (there are some exceptions, like Mind Control effects)
I absolutely agree. almost half the meta revolves around punishing the other player's initiative (quest hunter, control warrior, otk DH).
In many older decks tempo and aggression were rewarded, and were either a primary or secondary win condition. These days besides a deck or two (which are 2nd/3rd tier usually), feels like every deck just builds up to their very specific win condition, which usually can't be countered or played around easily, if at all.
And if speaking about miserable, than arena has never been so miserable. RNG has become king, and you can't play around anything anymore.
Shaman's stupid design is mostly to blame, followed by Hunter's Quest, that should have a reward costing 8 mana at the very least. Freeze mage too, although FM was a problem in past years. But yeah...play minions get dunked on by boardlock decks. Play otk and lose to aggro, that is life. We have to wait and see what the rotation brings.
UiS really introduced some terrible tendencies. I think that it's ok to have some punishers, but forcing players to kill their own board, just to get lethal from hand faster than the opponent is kind of sad...
BUT! Board locking yourself against a freeze deck has always been a bad idea. Also in classic HS.
What I've noticed lately is not that the game is not 'uninteractive', but that it is ANTI interactive. There are many more ways now to be hurt for actually putting a minion on board. This was much rarer in old hearthstone. In old hearthstone, you could get value or tempo punished (over extending into AOE, 10-drop into hex), but you were mostly not actively hurt (there are some exceptions, like Mind Control effects)
Many years ago, Patron Warrior was nerfed to the ground exactly because of this and Ben Brode made a video explaining said problem, but sadly the actual designers don't seem to care about it. :(
Well, these morons contradict themselves at every step and every expansion. They promised more interactivity, yet they print a lot of Rush bullshit and cost reductions.
The same can be said about playing minions. It's only gonna get worse.
They are so so so afraid to let games last longer, that they force all kinds of win conditions as quickly as possible (quests, kazakusan, onyxia raid boss, etc). These people just don't give a shit about anyone but their target market, since they know the whales always get hyped by every small crap they throw at them, resulting in profits for the company.
Blizzard is in dire need of a management change, a more player-centric one, and not only a certain age category of players. If I were a HS designer, i'd be ashamed right now. So much wasted potential just to force shit, because ADHD teenagers can't spend 3 turns longer in the game.
Arena has been in a bad shape for a good while now. Battlegrounds has become retarded because of the stupid powercreeping. Again. Yet they keep printing more and more powerful stuff to make sure games end even faster. No increased health cap, no faster animations, no solving of disconnects, no tweaked randomness in certain cases (number of times you attack first, number of times you go against the same players, etc). Everything is just going faster and faster and more frustrating to lose or play against.
What I've noticed lately is not that the game is not 'uninteractive', but that it is ANTI interactive. There are many more ways now to be hurt for actually putting a minion on board. This was much rarer in old hearthstone. In old hearthstone, you could get value or tempo punished (over extending into AOE, 10-drop into hex), but you were mostly not actively hurt (there are some exceptions, like Mind Control effects)
I absolutely agree. almost half the meta revolves around punishing the other player's initiative (quest hunter, control warrior, otk DH).
In many older decks tempo and aggression were rewarded, and were either a primary or secondary win condition. These days besides a deck or two (which are 2nd/3rd tier usually), feels like every deck just builds up to their very specific win condition, which usually can't be countered or played around easily, if at all.
And if speaking about miserable, than arena has never been so miserable. RNG has become king, and you can't play around anything anymore.
Shaman's stupid design is mostly to blame, followed by Hunter's Quest, that should have a reward costing 8 mana at the very least. Freeze mage too, although FM was a problem in past years. But yeah...play minions get dunked on by boardlock decks. Play otk and lose to aggro, that is life. We have to wait and see what the rotation brings.
Playing minions never got punished by freeze mage in the same way that a hunter's quest is advanced if you play minions.
UiS really introduced some terrible tendencies. I think that it's ok to have some punishers, but forcing players to kill their own board, just to get lethal from hand faster than the opponent is kind of sad...
BUT! Board locking yourself against a freeze deck has always been a bad idea. Also in classic HS.
Many years ago, Patron Warrior was nerfed to the ground exactly because of this and Ben Brode made a video explaining said problem, but sadly the actual designers don't seem to care about it. :(
Well exactly the same was true when the Mage Quest was meta pre-nerf
"This type of strategy feels really bad to lose to in a large part because your opponent punish you for playing minions." - Ben Brode
Well, these morons contradict themselves at every step and every expansion. They promised more interactivity, yet they print a lot of Rush bullshit and cost reductions.
The same can be said about playing minions. It's only gonna get worse.
They are so so so afraid to let games last longer, that they force all kinds of win conditions as quickly as possible (quests, kazakusan, onyxia raid boss, etc). These people just don't give a shit about anyone but their target market, since they know the whales always get hyped by every small crap they throw at them, resulting in profits for the company.
Blizzard is in dire need of a management change, a more player-centric one, and not only a certain age category of players. If I were a HS designer, i'd be ashamed right now. So much wasted potential just to force shit, because ADHD teenagers can't spend 3 turns longer in the game.
Arena has been in a bad shape for a good while now. Battlegrounds has become retarded because of the stupid powercreeping. Again. Yet they keep printing more and more powerful stuff to make sure games end even faster. No increased health cap, no faster animations, no solving of disconnects, no tweaked randomness in certain cases (number of times you attack first, number of times you go against the same players, etc). Everything is just going faster and faster and more frustrating to lose or play against.
Again, f.u. blizzard. I hope you rot in...jail.