This is my opinion on every gamemode. Obviously it is just my opinion so keep that in mine, but I have played enough of every gamemode to give a pretty honest feedback on every one. I am a player of 6 years, have 4 golden heroes, 5000 MMR Battleground, 12 wins in arena and been rank 1 many times in diamond. So I do have experience on alot of these gamemodes:
Standard:
Pros:
1: It has alot of different decks constantly changing the Meta: I feel like standard feels really fresh compared to some of the other gamemodes. Most classes are playable and each expansion and rotation has an impact on the meta game (unless the expansion is really bad). In year of the phoenix I think most classes have had a chance to shine at least once which means it has been good to play around with different decks and climb the ladder with different heroes.
2: It has balances patches frequently: Another positive is compared to most gamemodes it does have frequent balance patches. It a card or a class gets too overpowered they do balance it within a week or two which is reasonable quick.
3: You do not have to play around everything: Even if cards are generated randomly, it feels like there is less to play around than lets say wild. It is nice to have an idea of what kind of things your opponent could discover or get randomly, even if sometimes it can be hard.
Cons:
1: It only takes one card to warp the meta game: Just look at Bogspine knuckles as an example, That one cards wrapped the meta and now cheese paladin with High Abbess Alura has taken it's place. Having one card more powerful than the other's can lead to one class dominating for large periods of time.
2: It can get stale: Even with the balance patches, Standard has periods which do feel pretty dull half way through expansion cycles as there is less to play around with.
Wild:
Pro:
1: You can play with ALL Your cards: You are not limited to only playing with the newest cards and can enjoy your full collection. If you play wild you may even choose not to craft whole new expansions and only focus on a few cards to slot into your already wild decks, which means you can save gold for other things!
2: A lot more decks to play and try: You can explore more in wild as you have more decks to try out. Wild allows you to try all kinds of decks and combinations with new and old cards for each class.
3: The Combo and Meme potential: Just look at all the different combos and memes you can try in wild! turning your opponent into Ragnaros to kill them, Shooting infinitive fireballs, Using shutterwock with Armor vendor to hold your opponent hostage. Alot of cool and crazy interactions to try.
4: More Hero cards: I am a bit bias, but I like hero cards. It is nice to have more of them in wild like the Death knights to try. I do think they do warp meta games a bit and would probs not work as well in standard, but fun to try them all in wild.
Cons:
1: The Mana cheat is unreal! The Mana cheat in wild Can be brutal. Cheating our huge minions in big priest, Zero mana secrets in mage, Having 5/5 worth of stats on turn 1 in aggro decks and zero mana spells. Wild can be a scary place if you do not know how to counter them.
2: Broken classes stay broken: Getting a balance change in wild is very rare. So the top classes like Darkglare warlock, Secret Mage and Raza priest will ALWAYS be the best classes.
3: You can't play your favorite old decks and win: I think iksar's tweet about "Wild being the place you can play your favorite old decks" is simple not really true. Yes you can play them, but your chance to winning is significantly lower.
4: You can't play around everything: With over twice the amount of cards in wild, It makes is much harder to play around everything, decks like casino mage can lead to games where you are playing against 20 random mage spells which can feel a bit crazy (in a bad way)!
Battlegrounds:
Pros:
1: It is super fun and each game feels different: It feels like a fun gamemode to play as most games do end up playing out different depending on which hero you choose! I enjoy all the different play styles and builds you can make.
2: Has many mini expansions throughout the year: Battlegrounds have many mini expansion and new minions and heroes being added, which does help keep it really fresh.
3: Your decisions can matter: I think battleground has very interesting decision making opportunities like which minions you want to attack first and what minions to buy. This helps make the game feel fresh as each game is a bit different.
Cons:
1: No rewards/cosmetics: One of the biggest cons is the game mode feels like you don't really achieve anything. You do not get card backs or golden battleground heroes which feels like after playing all you can get to really show is either an achievement you have to work for or MMR. I think adding a card back or something could be a good idea in a future update.
Duels:
Pros:
1: It is a dungeon run: Another bias point, but I love dungeon runs and having a gamemode where you can play a dungeon run against other people is pretty cool.
2: Lots of treasures to play around with: I enjoy the fact you can build a starting deck around a treasure and hero power. It seems a bit more personalized than a normal dungeon run as you can build it instead of having a starting deck made by blizzard.
3: A free mode to enjoy: The casual mode is a good touch. Being able to test out decks and treasures before committing any gold or tavern tickets is a good thing.
Cons:
1: It is behind a paywall: If you want the actual crazy treasures and hero powers you have to buy tons of packs to get cards which I feel is a bit rubbish for a gamemode.
2: Some heroes, Passives and treasures feel oppressive: The zombie passive is an example of how mental some passives can be. I think some classes just shine more in the gamemode than others.
Arena:
I forgot this was a mode and have not played it in 2 years so can't say anything apart from IT NEEDS A HUGE CHANGE as it feels like playing curvestone.
2: Broken classes stay broken: Getting a balance change in wild is very rare. So the top classes like Darkglare warlock, Secret Mage and Raza priest will ALWAYS be the best classes.
Look at Kingsbane Rogue. It ruled the Wild meta and no one ever saw it being dethroned. What's at the top now will not always be at the top.
2: Broken classes stay broken: Getting a balance change in wild is very rare. So the top classes like Darkglare warlock, Secret Mage and Raza priest will ALWAYS be the best classes.
Look at Kingsbane Rogue. It ruled the Wild meta and no one ever saw it being dethroned. What's at the top now will not always be at the top.
However, Kingbane is now back at the top as well as Raza priest and Secret Mage both being top decks for the last year with no sign of change. So I would politely say some top decks may fall which is true, but broken decks and top classes normally stay unless some mentally broken card is printed like the new weapon buff card for Rogue and warrior which pushed kingsbane rogue back to the top.
For battlegrounds, I would add that it is heavily luck and RNG dependent as either a plus or minus depending on your perspective. It has slightly more strategy than a pachinko machine where the most strategy is to put a coin in or not while battlegrounds has the... umm... well... I guess battlegrounds has less strategy than a pachinko machine.
So you say that you haven't played Arena in 2 years but it needs a huge change because it feels like curvestone? Lol, it's still one of the best modes but I wish it would feel like curvestone again and not like a "my winrate is decided after draft" rng clown fiesta. Not hating the mode, though, I was very successful in this clown fiesta recently. Not so difficult with 3 Marsh Spawns, 2 premium legendaries, 2 Hex and several board clears in a shaman run or Vectus + Misshifin in a druid run. Yeah, definitely curvestone^^.
I pretty much agree to everything else but that final part contradicts itself. I just think that standard is kinda dumb rn but that's just my opinion. Really looking forward to rotation, especially because I came back with Darkmoon.
I can't disagree with you more about Arena. Arena was the most enjoyable when it was only about curvestone, yetis and crocs. At least it still have biggest upside other modes don't have: If you're good at the game, you automatically become free to play. The problem with Arena is the devs, who don't know what to do with it and constantly doing it worse when they're trying to do anything to improve it, except for balancing classes closer to 50% winrate. "Synergy picks" abomination is a good example: everyone said it would be horrible and it was horrible. IMO the best thing for Arena would be if they keep it in current life support state, just adjust classes more often, because when they rework it, i.e. bring skill-based matchmaking, it probably become as dead as Duels.
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English is not my native language, so, with a high probability, mistakes were made.
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This is my opinion on every gamemode. Obviously it is just my opinion so keep that in mine, but I have played enough of every gamemode to give a pretty honest feedback on every one. I am a player of 6 years, have 4 golden heroes, 5000 MMR Battleground, 12 wins in arena and been rank 1 many times in diamond. So I do have experience on alot of these gamemodes:
Standard:
Pros:
1: It has alot of different decks constantly changing the Meta: I feel like standard feels really fresh compared to some of the other gamemodes. Most classes are playable and each expansion and rotation has an impact on the meta game (unless the expansion is really bad). In year of the phoenix I think most classes have had a chance to shine at least once which means it has been good to play around with different decks and climb the ladder with different heroes.
2: It has balances patches frequently: Another positive is compared to most gamemodes it does have frequent balance patches. It a card or a class gets too overpowered they do balance it within a week or two which is reasonable quick.
3: You do not have to play around everything: Even if cards are generated randomly, it feels like there is less to play around than lets say wild. It is nice to have an idea of what kind of things your opponent could discover or get randomly, even if sometimes it can be hard.
Cons:
1: It only takes one card to warp the meta game: Just look at Bogspine knuckles as an example, That one cards wrapped the meta and now cheese paladin with High Abbess Alura has taken it's place. Having one card more powerful than the other's can lead to one class dominating for large periods of time.
2: It can get stale: Even with the balance patches, Standard has periods which do feel pretty dull half way through expansion cycles as there is less to play around with.
Wild:
Pro:
1: You can play with ALL Your cards: You are not limited to only playing with the newest cards and can enjoy your full collection. If you play wild you may even choose not to craft whole new expansions and only focus on a few cards to slot into your already wild decks, which means you can save gold for other things!
2: A lot more decks to play and try: You can explore more in wild as you have more decks to try out. Wild allows you to try all kinds of decks and combinations with new and old cards for each class.
3: The Combo and Meme potential: Just look at all the different combos and memes you can try in wild! turning your opponent into Ragnaros to kill them, Shooting infinitive fireballs, Using shutterwock with Armor vendor to hold your opponent hostage. Alot of cool and crazy interactions to try.
4: More Hero cards: I am a bit bias, but I like hero cards. It is nice to have more of them in wild like the Death knights to try. I do think they do warp meta games a bit and would probs not work as well in standard, but fun to try them all in wild.
Cons:
1: The Mana cheat is unreal! The Mana cheat in wild Can be brutal. Cheating our huge minions in big priest, Zero mana secrets in mage, Having 5/5 worth of stats on turn 1 in aggro decks and zero mana spells. Wild can be a scary place if you do not know how to counter them.
2: Broken classes stay broken: Getting a balance change in wild is very rare. So the top classes like Darkglare warlock, Secret Mage and Raza priest will ALWAYS be the best classes.
3: You can't play your favorite old decks and win: I think iksar's tweet about "Wild being the place you can play your favorite old decks" is simple not really true. Yes you can play them, but your chance to winning is significantly lower.
4: You can't play around everything: With over twice the amount of cards in wild, It makes is much harder to play around everything, decks like casino mage can lead to games where you are playing against 20 random mage spells which can feel a bit crazy (in a bad way)!
Battlegrounds:
Pros:
1: It is super fun and each game feels different: It feels like a fun gamemode to play as most games do end up playing out different depending on which hero you choose! I enjoy all the different play styles and builds you can make.
2: Has many mini expansions throughout the year: Battlegrounds have many mini expansion and new minions and heroes being added, which does help keep it really fresh.
3: Your decisions can matter: I think battleground has very interesting decision making opportunities like which minions you want to attack first and what minions to buy. This helps make the game feel fresh as each game is a bit different.
Cons:
1: No rewards/cosmetics: One of the biggest cons is the game mode feels like you don't really achieve anything. You do not get card backs or golden battleground heroes which feels like after playing all you can get to really show is either an achievement you have to work for or MMR. I think adding a card back or something could be a good idea in a future update.
Duels:
Pros:
1: It is a dungeon run: Another bias point, but I love dungeon runs and having a gamemode where you can play a dungeon run against other people is pretty cool.
2: Lots of treasures to play around with: I enjoy the fact you can build a starting deck around a treasure and hero power. It seems a bit more personalized than a normal dungeon run as you can build it instead of having a starting deck made by blizzard.
3: A free mode to enjoy: The casual mode is a good touch. Being able to test out decks and treasures before committing any gold or tavern tickets is a good thing.
Cons:
1: It is behind a paywall: If you want the actual crazy treasures and hero powers you have to buy tons of packs to get cards which I feel is a bit rubbish for a gamemode.
2: Some heroes, Passives and treasures feel oppressive: The zombie passive is an example of how mental some passives can be. I think some classes just shine more in the gamemode than others.
Arena:
I forgot this was a mode and have not played it in 2 years so can't say anything apart from IT NEEDS A HUGE CHANGE as it feels like playing curvestone.
What do you think of my review?
I disagree with this:
2: Broken classes stay broken: Getting a balance change in wild is very rare. So the top classes like Darkglare warlock, Secret Mage and Raza priest will ALWAYS be the best classes.
Look at Kingsbane Rogue. It ruled the Wild meta and no one ever saw it being dethroned. What's at the top now will not always be at the top.
However, Kingbane is now back at the top as well as Raza priest and Secret Mage both being top decks for the last year with no sign of change. So I would politely say some top decks may fall which is true, but broken decks and top classes normally stay unless some mentally broken card is printed like the new weapon buff card for Rogue and warrior which pushed kingsbane rogue back to the top.
I'd say I agree with basically all of your points and your thoughts are a pretty accurate reflection of my own.
It's also refreshing to see some balance, you haven't gone off track insulting people etc, good post and an interesting read.
1: It is super fun and each game feels different: It feels like a fun gamemode This can’t be farther from the truth
For battlegrounds, I would add that it is heavily luck and RNG dependent as either a plus or minus depending on your perspective. It has slightly more strategy than a pachinko machine where the most strategy is to put a coin in or not while battlegrounds has the... umm... well... I guess battlegrounds has less strategy than a pachinko machine.
So you say that you haven't played Arena in 2 years but it needs a huge change because it feels like curvestone? Lol, it's still one of the best modes but I wish it would feel like curvestone again and not like a "my winrate is decided after draft" rng clown fiesta. Not hating the mode, though, I was very successful in this clown fiesta recently. Not so difficult with 3 Marsh Spawns, 2 premium legendaries, 2 Hex and several board clears in a shaman run or Vectus + Misshifin in a druid run. Yeah, definitely curvestone^^.
I pretty much agree to everything else but that final part contradicts itself. I just think that standard is kinda dumb rn but that's just my opinion. Really looking forward to rotation, especially because I came back with Darkmoon.
Thanks for your review!
I can't disagree with you more about Arena. Arena was the most enjoyable when it was only about curvestone, yetis and crocs. At least it still have biggest upside other modes don't have: If you're good at the game, you automatically become free to play. The problem with Arena is the devs, who don't know what to do with it and constantly doing it worse when they're trying to do anything to improve it, except for balancing classes closer to 50% winrate. "Synergy picks" abomination is a good example: everyone said it would be horrible and it was horrible. IMO the best thing for Arena would be if they keep it in current life support state, just adjust classes more often, because when they rework it, i.e. bring skill-based matchmaking, it probably become as dead as Duels.
English is not my native language, so, with a high probability, mistakes were made.