Hearthpwn

The idea is to expand on the number of card types and equipment mechanics in the game in order to diversify the card pool and provide class specific healing mechanics. The mechanic works like, Armor is a card type that equips and adds Armor to your hero, the Armor as a card type stays equipped to your hero until the Armor stat is reduced to zero. 

For Example,

"Golden Chest Plate" 3 mana

Paladin

Add 4 Armor to your Hero

All of your minions have +1 Attack while "Golden Chest Plate" is equipped. 

This would give Heros who can't have Healing powers a sensible mechanic for extending the duration of the game, the Armor amount essentially acts as the Armor's durability and can provide other various effects for different classes like Freezing minions who attack your Hero in the case of Mages etc. I figure the design should be based on the non-healing classes more than on the healing classes, with each class receiving one set of Armor and that Armor's mana cost should be based on the average turn that class loses to aggro in order to extend the game. It'd be quite a different mechanic from healing because you can't "over Armor" compared to "over Heal" and you could make Armor less cost effective than Healing but allow Armor to provide other benefits to your Hero or Minion in an offensive or defensive capacity. For Warriors for example, I thought it would be very interesting to give them an Armor that gives them Taunt so the Hero could essentially tank for the Minions instead and extend the Taunt as long as they could continue to add Armor with their hero power.

The interface would have to change a little in order to add the mechanic, but it shouldn't be a big deal because the Hero Power could just be combined with the Hero portrait and the Armor slot could replace the Hero power.

Well they definitely have the art for it. The tcg had tons of armor style art, who knows what they will do in the future.

Interesting thought, but I feel it would disrupt the balance the game has atm. 

Question: If a Warrior uses their hero ability or a Mage uses Ice Barrier, would this lengthen the life of their current armor?  Or does the "Armor" from armor always get depleted before "Armor" from other sources?

Would a Warrior's Shield Slam be enhanced by the armor they equipped, or would those values be kept separate?

I Could see it filling the Weapon slot give it durability based on hits taken ? Could be interesting making the current weapon slot more of a "item Slot" maybe even have artifact like items.

Yeah, the idea is Armor stays so long as the Armor value is above 0 so adding Armor thru' actions or hero powers is like adding durability. I don't think it's a huge balance issue tho' and you can build around the mechanic, like for instance the Warrior Armor giving the Warrior Taunt is really interesting IMO.

Ice Barrier is kind of a horrible card, so adding value to it with an Armor card type would be ok I think.

@Lech

Healing and Armor are not comparable, healing is a re-active instead of a pro-active measure and more than a few paladins have died from a Force of Nature/Savage Roar while holding a Lay on Hands.

Obviously not with that attitutde, but honestly equipment is already less interactive than armor because there's no way to get rid of it using the base mechanics of the game, that sword that hands out +1/1 tokens for paladins is kind of bull shit OP uninteractive design IMO.

I agree having the weapons slot become more of an equipment slot makes more sense than an "Armor" that conflicts with the current idea of what armor is. I would not mind equipments having battle cries of giving armor for example [card]Frost armor[\card] could be

3 mana durability 3

-battle cry: give hero 8 armor  when hero is attacked freeze attacking minion and lose one durability

I don't see why that is the case. Explain your point of view rather than just smacking my idea down.

I feel it would be an easy way to introduce items to fill the slots for non weapon based classes. Sure druids and mages and warlocks could use staffs or wands. However, orbs books or tombs feel much more caster like.

There would not be to much complication of the game considering the weapon slot already exists and players understand the current durability mechanic. I understand at this point in development it will never happen but still the idea feels valid enough.

Lech, WTF are you talking about when you say that Armor as a card type is "uninteractive," maybe you don't understand what I wrote because English isn't your first language but as soon as the Armor value the Armor card gives the hero is reduced to 0 the Armor is destroyed - that's already more interactive than equipment and nothing you're writing makes any sense to me.

As long as the card type can be removed by the combat phase, that's interactivity - Weapons are far less interactive and Sword of Justice is case and point of bad or abusive design.

Changing the interface to accomodate the card isn't that difficult, just move the hero power over the hero portrait and activate it with left click to free up a second equipment slot.

I don't really get what you're arguing, you can't balance anything that's inherently bad design - why would you create an Armor that gives an Attack value? I could site individual exampes of giving weapons mechanics that are even worse than giving Armor an attack value, that doesn't mean weapons are inherently imbalanced it just means you have to be careful about what mechanics you give them. That could be said for any card type.

I think Lech's point is that any effect tied to the existing armor mechanic would be OP in the hands of a Warrior because they can keep boosting their own armor (not unlike my question earlier in the thread).

If Armor cards have their own durability apart from the existing Armor mechanic this gets somewhat mitigated - but you would need to define how Armor armor and Armor Durability interact (if at all).

My guess is that we'll see weapons that cause damage when you are attacked before we see armors that do the same.

I think it's not a question of design but a question of balance, if classes can add Armor in order to increase durability then you just reduce the Armor stat to compensate. It's not like adding armor is equivalent to adding durability because armor is reduced per attack point and durability is reduced by turn, so if you're playing an Armor and you're losing board position then adding 2 armor with your hero ability isn't going to give you an "unremovable, ever lasting" effect because the opponent is going to be gaining board position, attacking you with his minions or balancing things out with his hero power as well. 

I don't think the idea is invalid because of that interaction, I just think it needs playtesting and balancing.

Well, there is a lot of room for new mechanics. I think the armor idea is reasonable, although it would probably be restricted to plate-wearing classes (unless you rename it equipment/artifact or something like that). My favorite mechanic would be implementing a graveyard and graveyard interactions.

I would say armor has its own "Power" stat like weapons and creatures. The way it would work is the "Power" would reduce the amount of damage taken by that amount until the durability ran out. So a:

3/3/2 Shield would cost 3 and for 2 attacks would reduce the damage taken by 3. You could knock that out with 2 1/1s or 2 4/4s and also deal 2 damage. I think this is a pretty fair way to implement armor as equipment. Can't wait for Hearthstone's Skullflame Shield!!!

I honestly love the idea and was thinking the same thing the other day.

I think armor would be a nice new addition to the game and introduce new types of gameplay.

@Mcbeard, really like the ideas man!

I like this armor type :) 

I don't like it. 

1) It adds a facet the game doesn't need; the game is "deep" enough with the incumbent mechanics already. 

2) Some of the suggestions on here are simply buffs to hero powers, which would completely unseat the entire focus and flow of the game.

3) It makes armor classes less unique. As a corollary, this is why you probably won't see weapons for non-weapon classes, or neutral weapons.

Quote from honj90 »

My favorite mechanic would be implementing a graveyard and graveyard interactions.

I like this but I don't like the idea of having a big pile of cards to sift through with all the rest of the UI being so streamlined. I think cards like one that returned a random fallen minion to play would work well.  I like how they stayed away from search mechanics and left it at random such and such from your deck to help speed up game flow.

My biggest issue with armor is the fact that it makes warrior extremely strong compared to the other classes. Beyond this, I think it is a little awkward in the current game state. Most of the time the armor will be almost entirely useless unless you have a taunt creature up because your opponent will just burst the armor down. It doesn't seem like it would add a lot to the game in general. But that's just my opinion!

One of the beautiful things about this game is that cards are impermanent and can transform, and that once something is dead, it's gone for good. I think we'll see a few more "necromancy" type effects which save creatures from dying, but I would rather not have the MtG graveyard and related shenanigans.