Hearthpwn

I had over 20 disconnections in a game yesterday.  I am about to give up.

Solid player?  That doesn't sound like me ;).  Not sure what the 1840 is about.  If that was part of the name, there is an imposter out there.

I assure you that the spelling is very intentional.

Diablo is cancer.  Might be time for me to get some time away from BG for a bit.

I have seen a significant jump in connection issues.  Auto reconnect doesn't seem to help but shutting the game down and reconnecting does.  

If you sometimes feel that you are just running in circles, perhaps with the perspective of a new dimension, you might realize the change is occuring there and the circle is actually a spiral spring.  

Impermanence is the only constant.  All suffering arises from resisting this truth.

Does anyone know if there have been clear statements made about the randomness of the heros you are presented with at the start of a Battlegrounds game?

I ask this in all seriousness.  For over a week now I have been presented with The Jailer as an option every 3-4 games.  I only get 2 hero options.  The odds of this are staggering. 

I wonder if they have an algorithm that tries to determine heros you like to play and favors odds towards those.  The issue for me seems to be that I tried The Jailor out several times to get to know him, and now he's stalking me.  Most times he shows up I don't want to play him but have to since the other choice is terrible.  Which, if there is favoritism going on, makes him show up more often for me.

Or have I just gone crazy in the face of these staggering odds? 

I was just wondering a day or two ago about whether or not I had the energy to expend on proving that Soul Juggler is blessed during attack determination.  It seemed so obvious, but I am also aware of biases and am data driven. Thank you for saving me the time and effort.

Just like every other new tribe introduction they intentionally cause a stir for attention.  Then a few weeks later they will dull down the strength so that both sides feel they won and Battlegrounds nets a rise in play. 

My advice is to just lean in and go for Naga every game unless something else really presents itself.  That way you really learn quickly how it is played and maybe what works with it (like how blood gems are spells).  Figure out which Hero's work best for the tribe now, though some will drop off after the coming balance (Tess and Scabbs).  

I've only finished 1st once without Naga since launch and that was with a strong Dragon build. I rarely finish out of the top 4.  Lean in and learn and watch the meta as it adapts.

Quote from SirJohn13 >>

There was a balance patch 4 days ago. Illidan's buddy now gives immune for 1 attack (for 2 attacks the golden one) to 1 minion only

I mentioned the patch.

That is not the wording I remember. I reread it a couple of times. My left most minion did not get 2 attacks with immunity either.  From what I could tell there was zero difference with the golden buddy vs the non-golden buddy.

A quick search of the web confirms the bug I suspected as did the person who replied before you.  

Have you tried quillboars, but slightly bigger?

just want to say minions with 0 attack shouldn't be forceable to attack (Hysteria, Mass Hysteria) since they can't attack normally, just make them unable to attack at all.

Wild is unplayable atm

Best new card for me is without question Conjure Mana Biscuit!

I dusted off my cyclone mage from Scholomance and have been loving every second of it.

I've also seen some people doing Mozaki mage OTKs in wild and it's been pretty exciting.

I'm surprised this is the first time we've seen a card referencing mage's unique ability to create food and drink from WoW in HS. Unless there was one and I missed it.

Brings me back to the good old days of minding my own business standing in town and some rando coming up to me and asking for food.

... peasants.

Hey everyone. I've been messing with some Mage decks to start the expansion and feel like Elemental might be the strongest. With that being said, there are a few specific cards that are popular in that deck that, frankly, seem bad. This is the version that got me to Legend. See notes below the deck.

The specific cards that vastly underachieved when I tried them were: Evocation, Wand Thief, and... Mana Cyclone. Yes, Mana Cyclone feels bad in Elemental Mage.

Evocation is just too clunky at 2 mana, the deck often has a fullish hand, and there are a lot of low impact Mage spells that are useless to what you want to be doing. 

Wand Thief has a useless body, isn't an elemental, and discovering any mana Mage card gives you some bad options. Just not worth it.

Mana Cyclone. Okay, hear me out. First, Mana Cyclone has direct anti-synergy with one of your KEY cards in Elemental Allies. They just don't work together. Second, see all of the reasons Evocation is bad. You drop a big Cyclone and get a handful of low impact cards that you can't cast as you die. You might RNG a game or two but running Mana Cyclone kills your consistency.

Replacements/Tech cards;

Firebrand is simply an MVP in the aggro early meta. Must run ATM. 

Wandmaker is basically everything Wand Thief wants to be. A slightly more relevant body (2 damage actually trades) and it gets you exactly the kind of spell you want. Mage 1 cost spells are VERY powerful. This is just more consistent than Wand Thief.

Devolving Missiles can also be Primordial Studies, depending what you're facing. Studies gives you a Mana Giant activator and the spell dmg minions are good right now.

Gyreworm is very nice in an aggro meta but could be subbed out.

Mulligan;

Elemental Allies is the key. If you don't have it initially, mulligan everything (except if you're against Shaman, then keep Frostbolt). If you do, Confectionary & Spellwing are keeps (Chenvalla against Priest or Druid).

 Strat;

The key is to play this deck as TEMPO. You must fight & control the board early, then set up a big finale. If you lose the board, you're toast. Be aware of which decks can't kill you and go full aggro. Keep count of your elementals and try to play them to accomplish something, not just to throw a 1 attack minion down. Many control decks can clear a massive Finale so only trigger as many Elementals as you NEED (3 is good, 4 at most). You want to be able to reload & fire again immediately after the first.

One key to pulling out wins in an unorthodox manner is to play to Mana Giants. Sometimes this means just dumping everything early to get discounts for a turn 5 or 6 giants. This can be very useful against aggro decks and a better win condition than Finale against them. Remember, Mana Giants are triggered by ANY card that didn't start in your hand, not just spells. 

Is no one going to comment about the text size of this card? It might be the biggest in the game. Could even be a Yu-gi-oh card.

MQuote from BoiledFrog >>

If you're stuck at gold playing a DH deck I think you're doing something wrong

 Not sure if the case here, but if you stop playing for an entire month, you'll immediately lose ALL of your Bonus Stars, at which point you are pretty much out of the ranked playing picture, as its virtually impossible to get back to Diamond 5 / Legend while starting without any Star booster at Bronze.

And while laddering has become way easier for regular players, its become a Nightmare for Casual players. Or even if you're a regular player but for whatever reason unable to play for one entire month (which can happen easier than one thinks)

What I'am saying is, that the current Star System is way too punishing, and urgently needs Hot fixing in that regard.

Quote from Gritzy >>

I have been around since beta and I think this is one of the worst overall metas I've been in. The incessant aggro is just soul crushing. Maybe there have been worse single offenders, like mysterious challenger paladin or whatever the dumb hunter card was, but fuck. Every deck is racing you for a turn 6 kill, and the constant DH and dragon hunters are even worse. I just gotta delete this game. Like, who the fuck thought it'd be fun to make sure that aggro has 2 for 1 cards non-stop. REALLY stoked that they all discovered the dumb fucking 2/1 "deal 1 damage give divine shield" at the same time as well. 

Having been around as long I will say the worst part of all this is that I can remember when it was a really good game. Then some bullshit focus group gave them the idea that new players found the game intimidating so they remove all thought and strategy to the point where you no longer actually play the game you just watch it. Perfect cards are spoon fed to you on curve, so-called RNG effects hit perfectly every time, discover cards only offer the best possible choices and top deck winners occur almost every game. ZTG pulled back the curtain and silenced all of those true believers that used to spout nonsense about how impossible it would be to program the game to read the board and pick the best cards. I truly miss the days when you had to think about what to do next. Blizzard is a business and I get that they need to generate revenue. I just wish they hadn't ruined a really good game chasing new dollars. 

Quote from DickDraggin >>

To me Mage is exactly this, but I have been only playing 9 months so don't have the historical view.  People complain about the big Mage RNG swings late game because they had the game in the bag up until then.  But the game was only in the bag because Mage is so deficient early game and always has to climb out of a hole.  Late game Mage comes out swinging with big punches like the Amazing Reno... if it survives that long.  It definitely seems designed into Mage that you must struggle early and then get rewarded later with some massive plays with some variance which balances out in the end.  And that this is intentional by the Devs to make outcomes less determined by early play.

 Shhhhh... You can't make reasonable comments... Now they're going to attack your intelligence, because that would mean they lost fairly, and weren't  "punished by pure RnG""