Please don’t make the Shaman Quest, “Summon 7 Elementals.”
Amara, Warden of Hope is a really cool card. An insane reward that finally fulfills priest players’ long overdue wish to increase their health past 30. It has a great design, is very flavorful, and the introduction of the quest mechanic is potentially one of the best additions to Hearthstone.
The only problem with Amara, Warden of Hope is the quest itself, Awaken the Makers. Summon 7 deathrattle minions is a boring quest. Amara, as a reward, is a very interesting card. Yet it contrasts so much with the requirement. It isn’t so much a quest in-game as much as it is a deckbuilding requirement. I personally think it would be far more interesting if instead of promoting alternate deck styles, it promotes a different manner of playing the game. Take this card for example:
So this card does have a certain deckbuilding requirement. It promotes control shaman, as you can’t expect a midrange or aggro shaman to heal this much. But that is the extent of this card’s prerequisite. I could throw it in my Reincarnate Shaman, Malygos Shaman, Crusher Shaman, Control Jade, or even an alternate control shaman build built around healing; it isn’t limited to one specific archetype.
Another thing this card does is promote a new manner of play within the given deck. Control shamans tend to have a large amount of healing. But this card gives us a new manner in which to think about how we heal. To be able to complete the quest, we might save our elemental destruction, or Volcano, or whatever, until we can combo it with Hallazeal, so as to get the most value. We might have 21 health, and while we normally save healing wave until we have 16 as to get the most value, we would complete the quest if we used it now. Do we lose out on healing to get the reward sooner? All my characters are at full health, is it worth it to heal my opponent? It opens a new layer of strategy to think about while playing. Think about this card:
While I don’t play mage much, based on my understanding Mages must constantly balance their damage spells as removal and burst. With this new requirement, they have one more thing to think about. Do they wait for their opponent to extend a little more before playing flamestrike? Is it more valuable to fireball this minion here for the quest or to save it?
I think quests should be more like this. They should be able to fit in multiple archetypes, and rather than having a deck building requirement like priest, they should have a gameplay requirement. Make them feel like actual in-match quests you have to complete. I feel that would be more interesting overall.
Thanks for an awesome game, and I'm really excited to see what you have planned for the next expansion.
I know Blizzard is unlikely to read any of this and they definitely wouldn't change any of their cards because of this post, but I wanted to share what I think Quests should be a a mechanic. Hell, it's possible that Blizzard actually did everything I wanted and this last card was just an exception. I’d like to know what you guys think about this.
Ima be honest, I didn't read a single word past the first paragraph, but I do think your proposed quest cards do have merit. In my opinion, quest cards should be used to support building decks that alone would not be competitive/viable, like Reno Jackson did with no duplicates, and how Awaken the Makers will encourage Deathrattle priest in the new standard year. Blizzard wouldn't make a tribe without adding any synergies to encourage building the decks, so a quest to support elementals would seem to be overkill. With Shaman's current cardpool/class flavor, I would think Blizzard would lean more towards the removal/control quest, as Shaman has a very broad selection of removal.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wants to play Captain Cookie Druid because why not?
So you want a shaman quest card that can only be fulfilled by 2 class minions? I guess they better get a really good Halazeal off. Healing wave is rotating out and so is elemental destruction.
So you want a shaman quest card that can only be fulfilled by 2 class minions? I guess they better get a really good Halazeal off. Healing wave is rotating out and so is elemental destruction.
Well, since the new quest was coming with an entire expansion, I suppose I was expecting Blizzard to print some new healing tools as well. I think it's unlikely they would introduce a new aoe replacement for EleD in Volcano without also including other control tools like healing spells and minions. That being said, I was thinking more about the principle rather than the exact card. 30 health may be a ridiculous requirement even with the new cards coming out, in which case that could be changed.
Amara, Warden of Hope is a really cool card. An insane reward that finally fulfills priest players’ long overdue wish to increase their health past 30. It has a great design, is very flavorful, and the introduction of the quest mechanic is potentially one of the best additions to Hearthstone.
What do you mean? It's Patches,C'Thun,Jade level mechanic - it plays itself. The only thing you need to do is drop minions, literally. This mechanic is one of the worst things I have seen in Hearthstone
I suggest you read the rest of my post. My point was that I'd like the quest mechanic to be less of a deck-building requirement and more of an in-game quest that requires an extra layer of thought to actions you normally would make in the game. I was purely complementing Amara as a cool reward card, which she is, while also making the point that just dropping deathrattle minions is an incredibly boring requirement.
I think Lakkari Sacrifice might be a lot closer to what I was hoping for in terms of strategy. Discarding cards is a decision that requires serious thought, and more importantly it changes depending on the state of the game. The main condition for Awaken the Makers seems to be a draw-based one. The only strategy in regard to completing the quest is when you decide to play the card after drawing it, and maybe the consideration of playing an early N'zoth. The optimal discard always depends on what you draw, and it requires significant thought to discard a card. Furthermore, there's another layer of thought that goes in, "Do I save cards in my hand purely so I can discard them?" Often discard decks try to play their discard cards last so as not to discard anything once they're played. It's very common to see a Discolock with an empty hand because they need an empty hand to get the most value off their discard cards. The quest, however, requires them to actually discard cards, not play discard cards.
The problem with the card, for me, though is that in ultimately only supports one archetype, Discolock. I find it unlikely we'll see more than 2 variations on Discolock, so it's a bit disappointing for me to see a legendary that will generally only see play in one archetype. That's just my opinion though.
Please don’t make the Shaman Quest, “Summon 7 Elementals.”
Amara, Warden of Hope is a really cool card. An insane reward that finally fulfills priest players’ long overdue wish to increase their health past 30. It has a great design, is very flavorful, and the introduction of the quest mechanic is potentially one of the best additions to Hearthstone.
The only problem with Amara, Warden of Hope is the quest itself, Awaken the Makers. Summon 7 deathrattle minions is a boring quest. Amara, as a reward, is a very interesting card. Yet it contrasts so much with the requirement. It isn’t so much a quest in-game as much as it is a deckbuilding requirement. I personally think it would be far more interesting if instead of promoting alternate deck styles, it promotes a different manner of playing the game. Take this card for example:
So this card does have a certain deckbuilding requirement. It promotes control shaman, as you can’t expect a midrange or aggro shaman to heal this much. But that is the extent of this card’s prerequisite. I could throw it in my Reincarnate Shaman, Malygos Shaman, Crusher Shaman, Control Jade, or even an alternate control shaman build built around healing; it isn’t limited to one specific archetype.
Another thing this card does is promote a new manner of play within the given deck. Control shamans tend to have a large amount of healing. But this card gives us a new manner in which to think about how we heal. To be able to complete the quest, we might save our elemental destruction, or Volcano, or whatever, until we can combo it with Hallazeal, so as to get the most value. We might have 21 health, and while we normally save healing wave until we have 16 as to get the most value, we would complete the quest if we used it now. Do we lose out on healing to get the reward sooner? All my characters are at full health, is it worth it to heal my opponent? It opens a new layer of strategy to think about while playing. Think about this card:
While I don’t play mage much, based on my understanding Mages must constantly balance their damage spells as removal and burst. With this new requirement, they have one more thing to think about. Do they wait for their opponent to extend a little more before playing flamestrike? Is it more valuable to fireball this minion here for the quest or to save it?
I think quests should be more like this. They should be able to fit in multiple archetypes, and rather than having a deck building requirement like priest, they should have a gameplay requirement. Make them feel like actual in-match quests you have to complete. I feel that would be more interesting overall.
Thanks for an awesome game, and I'm really excited to see what you have planned for the next expansion.
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I know Blizzard is unlikely to read any of this and they definitely wouldn't change any of their cards because of this post, but I wanted to share what I think Quests should be a a mechanic. Hell, it's possible that Blizzard actually did everything I wanted and this last card was just an exception. I’d like to know what you guys think about this.
Ima be honest, I didn't read a single word past the first paragraph, but I do think your proposed quest cards do have merit. In my opinion, quest cards should be used to support building decks that alone would not be competitive/viable, like Reno Jackson did with no duplicates, and how Awaken the Makers will encourage Deathrattle priest in the new standard year. Blizzard wouldn't make a tribe without adding any synergies to encourage building the decks, so a quest to support elementals would seem to be overkill. With Shaman's current cardpool/class flavor, I would think Blizzard would lean more towards the removal/control quest, as Shaman has a very broad selection of removal.
Wants to play Captain Cookie Druid because why not?
Shaman Quest, "Summon 7 Elementals 5/1" .
Reward: minion 35/7
:3
@ op
You think that they don't have someone who reads largest hs forum?
I actually like these, makes it less of a timer (compared to what the priest card is) and an actual challenge.
playing wild
~nomad
So you want a shaman quest card that can only be fulfilled by 2 class minions? I guess they better get a really good Halazeal off. Healing wave is rotating out and so is elemental destruction.
I think Lakkari Sacrifice might be a lot closer to what I was hoping for in terms of strategy. Discarding cards is a decision that requires serious thought, and more importantly it changes depending on the state of the game. The main condition for Awaken the Makers seems to be a draw-based one. The only strategy in regard to completing the quest is when you decide to play the card after drawing it, and maybe the consideration of playing an early N'zoth. The optimal discard always depends on what you draw, and it requires significant thought to discard a card. Furthermore, there's another layer of thought that goes in, "Do I save cards in my hand purely so I can discard them?" Often discard decks try to play their discard cards last so as not to discard anything once they're played. It's very common to see a Discolock with an empty hand because they need an empty hand to get the most value off their discard cards. The quest, however, requires them to actually discard cards, not play discard cards.
The problem with the card, for me, though is that in ultimately only supports one archetype, Discolock. I find it unlikely we'll see more than 2 variations on Discolock, so it's a bit disappointing for me to see a legendary that will generally only see play in one archetype. That's just my opinion though.
Awaken the Makers finally make Herald Volazj playable!
Wished to be pink.
Then did.
Then fired myself.
Then did again.