Hearthpwn

Each of the play modes has a player-matching algorithm, but "officially" the algorithms are matching available players by RANK (Standard/Wild/Arena) or MMR (Casual), NOT by deck choice or class.  

That being said, it is also well known that Activision has a patent for a matchmaking process that is meant to encourage microtransactions in Call of Duty.  https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-18-activision-patented-method-of-tuning-matchmaking-to-boost-microtransactions

Hearthstone is not Call of Duty, and it does not have microtransactions as such.  However, if they are doing it in one game, why not another? 

It is in the company's interest to flatten out win rates as much as possible in order encourage players to spend more.  It could be that they rate player's collection by spending and match low-spending players with high-spending players to reward the big spenders and frustrate the frugal ones. 

However, there's just no proof that they are doing it in Hearthstone besides limited anecdotes.  

I think it's always a mistake to dust cards for 1/4 value.  It's just too expensive to re-craft them.  If you're planning on playing Wild, it's especially unwise.  

Most of the cards you've listed are NOT even close to trash - you need to be very careful before hitting that disenchant button.  I've used lots of them in Wild and fun decks.  Don't take that 30% payday loan just so you can get your widescreen TV two weeks early, OK?  

If you need dust, try playing Arena, doing your daily quests, and earning gold for every 3 victories.  Then regularly buy packs of all the newer Standard sets with gold, not just the week a new expansion comes out.  

Quote from user-100401077 >>

Congratulations!

Is it just me or do some of the 1,000 win portraits look worse than the regular portraits? 

 

 No, it's not just you.

It should be a hero card.  They wouldn't even have to give a dust refund.    

Quote from Woondha >>

Roping every single Secret Tard Mage (65% of Wild) - And i see NO reason why i should not.

One reason: You've chosen not to play with Eater of Secrets.

If you make it to Season 3, Episode 7, you'll see me: I was one of the fathers at the eclipse viewing.  

I'm not sure what OP is talking about.  Wild is a great format and not "ruined". 

I just got to Rank 5 on EU server playing Priest.  I fooled around with some Awaken the Makers/N'Zoth Priest builds from 10 to 8, then played Murozond/Togwaggle Combo Priest from ranks 8 to 7 (after the expansion hit), then switched to a Dragon/Mind Blast Priest build with no cards from DoD to get to rank 5.    

Yeah, I saw Pirate Warriors and Secret Mages, but I did not find them oppressive to play against - winning some, losing some.  Playing against them was actually pretty interesting game play, as you had to be very careful about mulligans and play choice.  I saw A LOT of Mech Paladins.  Very annoying, and made me tech two Mass Dispels.  

The Wild meta is very healthy.  Although there are obviously popular decks, you never know what you'll see.  It is also possible to be successful with any class.  

Quote from Sherman1986 >>

Quote from user-100041474>>

Really the amount of flaming you allow on this board is highly toxic and since it is the same on other Hearthstone boards, it will kill the game in a few years from now, because such a community is unbearable!

Dude, if you don't like the community, what are you doing here??? :/

 

Exactly.  Nothing forces anyone to read critical posts.  If they want non-critical content to read, then they should start some other kinds of threads.  I would love to read about strategy tips or deck guides, but that content is sorely lacking in the threads, so there is an obvious niche to fill.  The salt police should focus creating content rather than being being personally insulted by criticism of the game.  

Giving out Tyrande for free might be a slap in the face to some people, but thank you, Blizzard, for my free Tyrande.  

Lovely Tyrande has permanently replaced awkward Anduin.  Majestic voice!  Entrancing art!  A portrait that is wonderfully enhanced in its gold version!  Yay!

I believe this belongs in the Pepper thread: https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/85137-the-pepper-thread-share-your-good-vibes?page=348

JK!  But if have Salt Police, why not Pepper Police, too?  Why not just reduce the forum to two threads? ;0

Should've said Inspire: Deal 5 damage to a random enemy.

I just read up on the way cards are acquired in Runeterra, and I can say with some confidence that the game is utterly doomed.

By limiting the number of cards you can create with a weekly cap, they are essentially saying the people who have been playing the longest and logging in every day are automatically going to have the biggest collections.

That may seem great at first -- keeps things from being all "pay to win" as the kids like to say these days.

However, think down the road a bit. This model is going to be a huge turn-off for new players. No one is going to want to pick up a new game if there is literally no way to catch up with veterans. People complain about it enough in Hearthstone, saying it's a crime that you have to pay money to be able to compete. Well, in Runeterra, you literally cannot compete at all until you've put in your time!

Maybe I'm mistaken about how all of this works, or maybe I missed a piece of the puzzle. But as I understand the system now, it's terrible and the game will never have whales, meaning it will never make any money.

If publishers would stop all the pretense of "free to play" and just admit that games actually cost money -- that they need to have a cost in order to survive -- we could move to a model where people just pay one set price and get all the cards. We need to set aside this collectible model as a relic of gaming history. It kind of made sense for physical cards, but it will never make sense for digital ones.

Quote from Gosphor >>

https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/212005-group-therapy-need-to-blow-off-steam-mega-salty

 Oh yes, another intelligent response. I wish there were a way to ban people from this type of redirect 

What a pathetic nerf patch, basically 60% of the nerfed cards are irrelevant. Let me explain:

• Barnes is wild only, and the nerf is not even enough, delaying him by one turn makes no difference as Archmage Vargoth can still be played on turn 4, and shadow essence is played on turn 6 following a turn 5 Barnes or board clear.
• Luna's Pocket Galaxy & Extra Arms basically returned to their original state so this is a mistake on Blizzard's part. I think Extra Arms could have been 3 mana and the More Arms! to 2 mana but whatever. Luna's Pocket Galaxy could have been redesigned (many nice ideas from the folks on these forums) or made into 6 mana but again whatever typical Blizzard obliterating a card, it was "buffed" for a reason that it was crap and not seeing play.
• So the only real nerfs are Conjurer's Calling and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. While Conjurer's Calling is substantial and deserved it will not greatly affect mage as their freeze and stall can let them be patient for a Khadgar + x1 Conjurer's Calling turn. Nerfing Dr. Boom, Mad Genius by two mana while significant doesnt change much from control Warrior as their deck and game plan will remain the same, the change will just give midrange decks and some aggressive decks a chance which is nice.

So in conclusion this won't shake up the meta as people will think, where is Prismatic Lens nerf or Omega Devastator. Maybe singleton "Control" hunter can compete now. 

Lord Jaraxxus sucks and there's no question about that. This is not really a new issue, but it has become even more apparent in this expansion due to new interaction with Zephrys the Great. For those who don't know, he will always give you Sacrificial Pact if your opponent has become Lord J, which obiously means instant win for you.

Even apart from Lord's other weaknesses (mostly: high mana cost and very low health pool), I think this interaction should be removed, because it's inconsistent and illogical. Why does this interaction works in the first place? Because Jaraxxus is not a hero, but rather a minion, and he - unlike hero cards - may belong to a tribe (in this case, demons). 

Ok then, but If he is from demons tribe, why can't he benefit from that and use effects like "your demons have +1 attack"? It says demons, not demonic minions or whatever (same as Sacrificial Pact and that's why Jaraxxus can be targeted with it). If he's a minion (is he?), why can't he be buffed as any other mionon? I mean he can, but his statistics does not transfer into life pool and attack of your hero after transformation. Why is that? After all, the description clearly indicates that you are becoming Jaraxxus, so his statistics should transfer.

It simply turns out that the beneficial interaction that should work, doesn't work, and the unfavorable interaction, which for many is not even obvious and natural, works and ensures you an immediate loss.

However, it's obvious that even this change would not make Jaraxxus playable, so I believe, that he should recieve a buff. What would you say if he became a full-fledged hero card? The same cost, gets 5 armor points instead of setting the life pool to a fixed 15, but also the hero power instead of 6/6 would summon 5/5 or even 5/4. This does not seem to be OP, especially if we compare it to Hack the System, which gives pretty much the same effect, but much faster, as it may be achieved on turn 5-6, without paying additional costs (so you can use it immediately after getting it).

Please leave a comment, vote in the poll and share your opinion.

Quote from Ace100ace200 >>

Quote from Dunscot >>

Decent card, and it's nice that Shaman finally gets a new totem. Might even end up in Even Shaman: Another Totem for Thing from Below, and Lackeys can help a lot with tempo as we've seen with Rogue.

But something about it seems... I don't know, something doesn't fit here. Hey Team5, what did you have to say about Shaman's class identity again?

Weaknesses: Card draw, card generation

Nevermind.

 You realize that class identity is only for the classic and basic set, don't you? They can print card that do whatever they want as expansion ones.

 I don't know what makes you think that, but it can't be that the official blogpost I'm referring to. If you think I'm making any of this up, feel free to read the blogpost yourself: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/23014810/

To quote, the list of strengths and weaknesses is "to outline our current class identity philosophy and to share our thoughts on where we see each class in the future" and is supposed to give a look at "how we currently picture each of the classes" (emphasis by me). There is no mentioning of this being limited to the core set whatsoever.

Defining the class identity is supposed to establish "a class’s “fantasy”, define the things the class should excel at, and establish where the class should struggle" and the designers want to stay true to these outlines to "push further into the extremes knowing that each class has downsides to balance out new power". In other words, not only is it not limited to the core sets, it is actually supposed to be a guideline for future expansions to improve balancing: Improve the strenghts, but stay true to the weaknesses. To say the least, it certainly does not say anywhere, at all, that they could "do whatever they want" with expansions, as you say.

But even IF the list was only meant to describe the core set, with no meaning for past, current and future design at all, the list would make even less sense than it already does. Let me give you a few examples:

In Druid's strenghts you will find "Beasts". Druid's core set has two beasts: The Panther from Power of the Wild, and the transformations from Druid of the Claw. Besides these two minions that happen to be beasts (not even very good ones), not a single card in Druid's core set benefits directly or indirectly from playing beasts.

Among Priest's strenghts, you will find "Deathrattle". Again, there is not a single effect in Priest's core set that directly or indirectly benefits from Deahtrattles, and there is not a single Priest minion in the core set with a Deathrattle. Same goes for Rogue, also a class that is supposedly strongh with Deathrattles, despite having no minions or cards in the core set with any deathrattle effect. In case of Rogue's core set it would make even less sense because of Shadowstep.

To give you a counterexample: Shaman's core set has more to do with Deathrattles than Priest's or Rogue's thanks to Ancestral Spirit, a card that would allow you to get additional value out of Deathrattle minions since you'd get the effect twice.

In Warrior's strengths, you will find "Taunt". Once again, they have no minions in their core set with Taunt, no spell that gives or improves Taunt, and at most Armorsmith that somewhat synergizes with Taunt. At best, you could say that Warrior's defensive playstyle suggests using minons with Taunt, but that is, in my opinion at least, not really a class trait.

Counterexample: Warlock's core set is also strong with a defensive playstyle, and that class actually does have three class minions in the core set with Taunt. Druid has three minions with Taunt, it's original class legendary summons tokens with Taunt, and they have a spell that gives a minion Taunt. Why isn't Taunt a strength of Druid then? I don't know. Probably because their only playstyle defining card with Taunt synergy was Hadronox; more like an experiment than an ongoing theme they see in the class. 

All these examples ONLY make sense with iconic expansion cards new and old, and are obviously not descriptive of the core set. Druid's Beast strength lies in cards like Menagerie Warden or Stampeding Roar, Priest's Deathrattle theme comes from cards like Museum Curator, Awaken the Makers, Coffin Crasher or Shadowy Figure, Rogue's Deahtrattle theme comes from stuff like Journey Below, Necrium Vial, Necrium Blade and Gral, the Shark and Warrior's Taunt theme is shown in cards like King's Defender, Sparring Partner, Bolster, I Know a Guy, and Fire Plume's Heart.

Sure, if the list is not referring to the Classic and Basic set, you could legitimately ask why Warrior's strength doesn't feature Rush, or why Rogue is not seen as strong with Battlecries. I assume the list isn't meant to be complete, just a few things that they came up with to give a general idea of how they view classes. But if these traits were only meant to define the classes in their Classic and Basic set, many parts of it wouldn't make sense.

Thus, pointing out that EVIL Totem doesn't line up with Shaman's class identity that Team5 had just presented to us and maing fun of it is, in my humble opinion, perfectly justified.

I don't know how much time they've spend on writing that blogpost, or how much they discussed these things internally. And maybe, this list of strengths and weaknesses is relatively new, and pointing out inconsistencies in older sets or even the latest expansion might be a bit inadequate. But if the very next expansion they knew they would announce just a few days later, and one of the first cards they were going to reveal is another obvious example of their class identity defintion not making much sense, that is perfect timing, and I feel invited to make fun of it.

This is literally a Basic card, so it's not supposed to be good.

hmm, then by that flawed logic they should be replacing Frostbolt, Fireball, Tundra Rhino, Animal Companion all with "not suppose to be good cards" as well.

I checked the replay - hearth arena won't help...

You are consistently going face as if you have some hidden plan to finish the opponent next turn. You are leaving the trading to him, allowing him to pick valuable trades, you are not considering the rng effects when you may minimize the low roll chance.

I don't want to call you a bad player, maybe that's the style that suits you well on ladder - where trading is usually not so important, but arena mostly consist of squeezing the last drop of juice from the resources you have. That is the clue. Next is playing around the potential punishing cards from your opponent class, but that can wait till you learn how to be greedy on board.

Good luck!

dfg