First of all, these ideas are based around wild and my personal observations and feelings.
Now to the main part. In my opinion, Blizzard is too reluctant in doing drastic changes to cards. This might be due to most of them being deemed awful and usless by the community. One such example is Warsong Commander. A card that was redesigned and ultimately killed by Blizzard. Because of this, Blizzard is more conservative in doing drastic changes. Slight stat adjustments and mana changes are the most often nerfs. A good nerf that Blizzard has made recently is Crabrider. The card is still strong but it is not as dangerous and bursty as it used to be and the overall feeling of the card remains the same even if for 1 turn.
Even though changing the card might make it a brand new one what if the changes were made while maintaining the theme but with an added drawback, just like Crabrider?
In wild there is a card - Raise Dead. Even though the card is balanced, it currently supports a very strong Warlock deck. Paying only 3 health and getting back 2 minions is very strong especially in decks that benefit from health changes. My idea is to make the card discard 1 of the given minions or maybe even both at the end of turn. This not only makes the card more challenging to use, but adds extra support for discard warlock. An archetype that Blizzard just can't forget about.
Another strong card that many people might find annoying is Shadowreaper Anduin. Again the card itself is not unbalanced, the main reason that players might find it too strong is Raza the Chained. Of course, Blizzard nerfed the card and ultimately killed the deck in the past but since it was un-nerfed it resurfaced yet again. My idea is to lower the hero power damage by 1 and maybe make it cost 1 mana. This change doesn't affect the Spawn of Shadows combo but it does lower the burst damage from the hero power by half and it makes it more board based than face is the place based which is more fitting for priest.
A Mage card that players are currently hating is Incanter's Flow. Honestly, this card has just terrible design. If this card is in the 1/3 of your deck it's basically usless, while if it is in the first 10 cards the card allows for huge tempo, value and damage turns. So how can we try to balance it without killing it or changing the mana cost? Well, 1 idea is that the spells only get the mana reduction till the end of turn. Another idea is to give it an opposite effect on minions, meaning your spells cost 1 less and your minions cost 1 more, maybe even 2 more. Lastly, it gives the reduction only to the first spell that you draw in a turn, but this change kills the idea of the card, so probably no.
Conviction or +3, +6, +9 face damage in a turn, funny I know, is another card that sounds and looks balanced but can lead to turns where you take insane amounts of damage from a board that could have been deemed weak by the other player. The only balance change that I can think of is to make this effect last till the end of turn. Even though the card is weaker at the start of the game it can still be used as a burst card and a good finisher card nonetheless .
Kigsbane is a card that if you get it early and you have some buffs for it then your opponent is probably dead around turn 5. Some nerf ideas that I had are reducing the charges to 2 or even 1, make it loose 1 dmg at the end of turn, make it loose 1 buff at the end of turn. I really like the card design and the deck archetype that it allows to make but currently it is only used either as another tool in agro decks or as a card that prevents fatigue damage in late game.
A lot of people find Tickatus to be a very unfun card to play against. Well so do I. Even though I use it in my Wild Warlock deck I always feel shitty when using it against my opponent. What if corruption made it so that both players discard 5 cards. Or if you discard 2 cards and the opponent discards 3 cards or maybe even just adding *dead* cards into opponents deck to make their draw weaker. The overall idea of disrupting your opponent remains the same just with a slight drawback to you as well.
I have more ideas but right now I just want to hear your feedback and ideas about what cards you see as problematic, broken or unfun and how would you change them.
The reason they generally nerf cards by just a stat point or mana is so that it retains the spirit of the card, and fulfills the same roll that it previously did. Changing how the card works just takes up design space, instead of nerfing a card to function differently, they could just release a new card that does the new effect. If it's a matter of something being op, nerfing the mana or stats generally works well enough. If it's a matter of bad design, then you'd rather it be nerfed to not be meta viable.
I think some cards should be nerfed though, especially in wild
The reason they generally nerf cards by just a stat point or mana is so that it retains the spirit of the card, and fulfills the same roll that it previously did. Changing how the card works just takes up design space, instead of nerfing a card to function differently, they could just release a new card that does the new effect. If it's a matter of something being op, nerfing the mana or stats generally works well enough. If it's a matter of bad design, then you'd rather it be nerfed to not be meta viable.
I think some cards should be nerfed though, especially in wild
Yeah, often the stat/mana changes do help to balance the card but quite often when a card has an effect that is very strong and unique the mana or stat changes either hardly make an impact or make it almost unviable, in my opinion
And yeah wild can get a benefit from some changes. The meta hardly changed over the last 2 years if not more. Which makes wild feel not so wild.
Yeah, often the stat/mana changes do help to balance the card but quite often when a card has an effect that is very strong and unique the mana or stat changes either hardly make an impact or make it almost unviable, in my opinion
And yeah wild can get a benefit from some changes. The meta hardly changed over the last 2 years if not more. Which makes wild feel not so wild.
Yeah, because the numbers in hearthstone are so small, it's sometimes Impossible to get the balance right. Like Abusive Sergeant was great as a 2/1 but unplayable as a 1/1. and since we can't have it as a 1.5/1 it's kinda impossible to balance. (this is just an example, i think he'd be fine to go back to a 2/1 in this meta)
Nerf secret mage, that deck is 30% of wild. Print tech cards in the mini set for both standard and wild. For example, print a card that can change the HP of both players so they can counter deathknights and even/odd decks by changing HP. Print a 2 mana 2/2 that destroys all enemy secrets. Eaters of secrets is just too slow and I almost never see it being teched.
The problem i have with their approach to nerf cards is that most of the time they dont fix the frustration feelings when playing with/against the card , as a Rogue only player let's say Jandice Barov is a good example, i obvsly have played a bunch with the card and it was never THAT big of deal, she was one of the strongest cards in the format dont get me wrong but never "WOW THIS CARD IS BROKEN DUDE" like she STILL is right now after the year change, small poll of cards etc... specially with bounce effects, Of course changing it's mana to 6 effectivelly make it's winrate lower and people do not keep her in the opening hand 100% of times for example, but did they fixed the frustration aspect of the card i just mentioned? Absolutely not.
The problem i have with their approach to nerf cards is that most of the time they dont fix the frustration feelings when playing with/against the card , as a Rogue only player let's say Jandice Barov is a good example, i obvsly have played a bunch with the card and it was never THAT big of deal, she was one of the strongest cards in the format dont get me wrong but never "WOW THIS CARD IS BROKEN DUDE" like she STILL is right now after the year change, small poll of cards etc... specially with bounce effects, Of course changing it's mana to 6 effectivelly make it's winrate lower and people do not keep her in the opening hand 100% of times for example, but did they fixed the frustration aspect of the card i just mentioned? Absolutely not.
They did it very well with the crabrider though.
The thing is, what's often frustrating about a card is that it causes you to lose. No matter what they nerf, people will always be frustrated by something because losing is inherently frustrating.
Now if the data shows that a card is too good or if the card creates bad play patterns, they should definitely nerf it. But balancing based on frustration would be a never ending cycle
Your ideas are brode-like, as in "give your charge minions +1 attack" as it would effectively kill all the cards you mentioned. No one would play raza priest if the HP dealt 1 damage, no one would play kingsbane (a tier 3 deck currently) if it had 1 durability, no one would play incanter's flow if it had any of the effects you mentioned, no one would play tickatus if it was nerfed the way you wanted it to. These are some of the stupidest nerf ideas I've ever heard and as much as the wild meta can be irritating, I very much hope they don't change any of it if these would be the possible changes. Just because you don't like a card or a deck doesn't mean you can literally nuke it from orbit into oblivion and be like "yeah, that's a job well done", especially not when the devs themselves have turned away from these kinds of nerfs. I could say hey, let's make mage secrets cost 6 and only be reduced by 4 mana with kabal lackey, ktm and ancient mysteries, now wouldn't that fix a lot of problems in wild?
The problem i have with their approach to nerf cards is that most of the time they dont fix the frustration feelings when playing with/against the card , as a Rogue only player let's say Jandice Barov is a good example, i obvsly have played a bunch with the card and it was never THAT big of deal, she was one of the strongest cards in the format dont get me wrong but never "WOW THIS CARD IS BROKEN DUDE" like she STILL is right now after the year change, small poll of cards etc... specially with bounce effects, Of course changing it's mana to 6 effectivelly make it's winrate lower and people do not keep her in the opening hand 100% of times for example, but did they fixed the frustration aspect of the card i just mentioned? Absolutely not.
They did it very well with the crabrider though.
The thing is, what's often frustrating about a card is that it causes you to lose. No matter what they nerf, people will always be frustrated by something because losing is inherently frustrating.
Now if the data shows that a card is too good or if the card creates bad play patterns, they should definitely nerf it. But balancing based on frustration would be a never ending cycle
Yea, that's a good point of view.
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First of all, these ideas are based around wild and my personal observations and feelings.
Now to the main part. In my opinion, Blizzard is too reluctant in doing drastic changes to cards. This might be due to most of them being deemed awful and usless by the community. One such example is Warsong Commander. A card that was redesigned and ultimately killed by Blizzard. Because of this, Blizzard is more conservative in doing drastic changes. Slight stat adjustments and mana changes are the most often nerfs. A good nerf that Blizzard has made recently is Crabrider. The card is still strong but it is not as dangerous and bursty as it used to be and the overall feeling of the card remains the same even if for 1 turn.
Even though changing the card might make it a brand new one what if the changes were made while maintaining the theme but with an added drawback, just like Crabrider?
In wild there is a card - Raise Dead. Even though the card is balanced, it currently supports a very strong Warlock deck. Paying only 3 health and getting back 2 minions is very strong especially in decks that benefit from health changes. My idea is to make the card discard 1 of the given minions or maybe even both at the end of turn. This not only makes the card more challenging to use, but adds extra support for discard warlock. An archetype that Blizzard just can't forget about.
Another strong card that many people might find annoying is Shadowreaper Anduin. Again the card itself is not unbalanced, the main reason that players might find it too strong is Raza the Chained. Of course, Blizzard nerfed the card and ultimately killed the deck in the past but since it was un-nerfed it resurfaced yet again. My idea is to lower the hero power damage by 1 and maybe make it cost 1 mana. This change doesn't affect the Spawn of Shadows combo but it does lower the burst damage from the hero power by half and it makes it more board based than face is the place based which is more fitting for priest.
A Mage card that players are currently hating is Incanter's Flow. Honestly, this card has just terrible design. If this card is in the 1/3 of your deck it's basically usless, while if it is in the first 10 cards the card allows for huge tempo, value and damage turns. So how can we try to balance it without killing it or changing the mana cost? Well, 1 idea is that the spells only get the mana reduction till the end of turn. Another idea is to give it an opposite effect on minions, meaning your spells cost 1 less and your minions cost 1 more, maybe even 2 more. Lastly, it gives the reduction only to the first spell that you draw in a turn, but this change kills the idea of the card, so probably no.
Conviction or +3, +6, +9 face damage in a turn, funny I know, is another card that sounds and looks balanced but can lead to turns where you take insane amounts of damage from a board that could have been deemed weak by the other player. The only balance change that I can think of is to make this effect last till the end of turn. Even though the card is weaker at the start of the game it can still be used as a burst card and a good finisher card nonetheless .
Kigsbane is a card that if you get it early and you have some buffs for it then your opponent is probably dead around turn 5. Some nerf ideas that I had are reducing the charges to 2 or even 1, make it loose 1 dmg at the end of turn, make it loose 1 buff at the end of turn. I really like the card design and the deck archetype that it allows to make but currently it is only used either as another tool in agro decks or as a card that prevents fatigue damage in late game.
A lot of people find Tickatus to be a very unfun card to play against. Well so do I. Even though I use it in my Wild Warlock deck I always feel shitty when using it against my opponent. What if corruption made it so that both players discard 5 cards. Or if you discard 2 cards and the opponent discards 3 cards or maybe even just adding *dead* cards into opponents deck to make their draw weaker. The overall idea of disrupting your opponent remains the same just with a slight drawback to you as well.
I have more ideas but right now I just want to hear your feedback and ideas about what cards you see as problematic, broken or unfun and how would you change them.
The reason they generally nerf cards by just a stat point or mana is so that it retains the spirit of the card, and fulfills the same roll that it previously did. Changing how the card works just takes up design space, instead of nerfing a card to function differently, they could just release a new card that does the new effect. If it's a matter of something being op, nerfing the mana or stats generally works well enough. If it's a matter of bad design, then you'd rather it be nerfed to not be meta viable.
I think some cards should be nerfed though, especially in wild
Yeah, often the stat/mana changes do help to balance the card but quite often when a card has an effect that is very strong and unique the mana or stat changes either hardly make an impact or make it almost unviable, in my opinion
And yeah wild can get a benefit from some changes. The meta hardly changed over the last 2 years if not more. Which makes wild feel not so wild.
Yeah, because the numbers in hearthstone are so small, it's sometimes Impossible to get the balance right. Like Abusive Sergeant was great as a 2/1 but unplayable as a 1/1. and since we can't have it as a 1.5/1 it's kinda impossible to balance. (this is just an example, i think he'd be fine to go back to a 2/1 in this meta)
Nerf secret mage, that deck is 30% of wild. Print tech cards in the mini set for both standard and wild. For example, print a card that can change the HP of both players so they can counter deathknights and even/odd decks by changing HP. Print a 2 mana 2/2 that destroys all enemy secrets. Eaters of secrets is just too slow and I almost never see it being teched.
The problem i have with their approach to nerf cards is that most of the time they dont fix the frustration feelings when playing with/against the card , as a Rogue only player let's say Jandice Barov is a good example, i obvsly have played a bunch with the card and it was never THAT big of deal, she was one of the strongest cards in the format dont get me wrong but never "WOW THIS CARD IS BROKEN DUDE" like she STILL is right now after the year change, small poll of cards etc... specially with bounce effects, Of course changing it's mana to 6 effectivelly make it's winrate lower and people do not keep her in the opening hand 100% of times for example, but did they fixed the frustration aspect of the card i just mentioned? Absolutely not.
They did it very well with the crabrider though.
The thing is, what's often frustrating about a card is that it causes you to lose. No matter what they nerf, people will always be frustrated by something because losing is inherently frustrating.
Now if the data shows that a card is too good or if the card creates bad play patterns, they should definitely nerf it. But balancing based on frustration would be a never ending cycle
Your ideas are brode-like, as in "give your charge minions +1 attack" as it would effectively kill all the cards you mentioned. No one would play raza priest if the HP dealt 1 damage, no one would play kingsbane (a tier 3 deck currently) if it had 1 durability, no one would play incanter's flow if it had any of the effects you mentioned, no one would play tickatus if it was nerfed the way you wanted it to. These are some of the stupidest nerf ideas I've ever heard and as much as the wild meta can be irritating, I very much hope they don't change any of it if these would be the possible changes. Just because you don't like a card or a deck doesn't mean you can literally nuke it from orbit into oblivion and be like "yeah, that's a job well done", especially not when the devs themselves have turned away from these kinds of nerfs. I could say hey, let's make mage secrets cost 6 and only be reduced by 4 mana with kabal lackey, ktm and ancient mysteries, now wouldn't that fix a lot of problems in wild?
Yea, that's a good point of view.