Hearthpwn

It was confirmed via Twitter that immune hero does not take fatigue damage but the new cards still work based on the number on the fatigue 'card' drawn.

Quote from TallStranger >>

So, a few comments on some of the more recent posts. All very interesting.

@M1ch43l: Disagree. Blizzard certainly does care about deck winrate. In fact, I'd say in most cases a specific deck's winrate is the primary reason for a nerf. They look at a deck, try to figure out which card is the most problematic, and reduce its power. Now, certainly it also looks at how many decks the card is in. (That appears to be what they did for Theotar, the Mad Duke) But I think that's a less common occurrence.

@XanKortal: Interesting. I hadn't really thought about class playrate as a metric. Not sure how I feel about that, since I don't care as much about whether class X is a dumpster fire for a given expansion (as long as each class eventually gets a good deck). In fact, I think I'd argue that it's good for a given class to suck for a while: it encourages people to learn how to play other classes, which I think improves the overall quality of play. (Maybe.) And, I think if you balance across deck types, you're going to get a reasonable spread of classes as well.

@DrFlan: To some degree, a healthy meta will always have an element of rock, paper, scissors. I'm primarily a control deck player, so going into a match against a midrange deck, I know I'm at a disadvantage. But, I think the key question is: how big a disadvantage? (Some of this will obviously depend on what type of control deck I'm playing.) Assuming equal player skill, is 60/40 too big? I don't know, but that doesn't seem unreasonable. It's close enough that you still have a decent chance of winning, but still encourages a diversity of deck types.

 Deck's/Class winrate usually leads to popularity. Not always, as has been the case recently with Boon Priest, presumably due to a boring gameplay but that's usually how things go. And despite that high winrate, Priest has been dodging the nerfs for a long time simply because there weren't many complaints about it. Class play and win rates need to be assessed in conjunction so perhaps something like this:

- low win rate, low play rate: balancing needed
- low win rate, high play rate: ideal for Blizz, tells them there is sth people like to play with but doesn't really require any action
- high win rate, low play rate: careful monitoring required
- high win rate, high play rate: balancing needed

Controversially or not, balancing is just one aspect. I can easily see why unbalanced metas over a long period of time could be beneficial for Blizz from sales perspective:
- bad metas get talked about a lot. It's like telling new and returning players: there's an extremely broken=fun thing to play right now, jump back in! As for engaged players, it just keeps them engaged up to a point
- it attracts counters, becomes a challenge players can try to solve and again, creates engagement. It's happening right now with Svalna Priest and Control Paladin trying to counter Rogue (and took a while to emerge!).
- if one or two classes dominate, it encourages people to buy cards, craft new decks etc. Then they get nerfed, another class becomes dominant and again encourages the same process = blizz gets more money as f2p get left behind
- this could be especially true over longer periods of time, lets say 1 year. 1 year of almost perfectly balanced meta might not generate the same engagement with the game and on social media (which translates into revenue) as an unbalanced one.

Whatever engagement this creates, dies down at some point and that is when balancing helps. Not necessarily to balance anything, we've seen balance introducing new un-balance before, but to generate engagement again. They keep telling us they nerf things because of 'feels', recent comment that they will make 'spicy changes', I think those are the best clues we have that it is less about balance and more about engagement. If you're very cynical, you could say that they have a plan for which class will be in the spotlight and when throughout a given year. Maybe Rogue or Druid are the classes that generate the best engagement so it's worth always making them strong. Perhaps Priest does not and so it tends to be weak. Etc.

I used the conconction generating and discounting package. Gives flexibility to remove threats, directly damage and create boards quickly. Easy pack.

My main issue with Fireside Gathering pack opening is that other packs e.g. Standard packs do not contain new cards from the new expansion yet and I would like to open those first to try and get as many new cards from them as possible in a scenario where I have all from the previous sets. 

I rarely complain on here but yet another Imp Curse Warlock later I am fed up. Such a tricky match up that requires to deal with their board, build your own and keep your own hand full to stop the Curses. The best at doing that are... Warlocks themselves. They have one of the strongert early games, ridiculous card draw and a combo-like finisher that doesn't require them to do much as it's tied to board removals. The only weakness are they can't deal very well with big-statted minions but in current meta only Priest can produce those reliably. 

Wait, what? This is all or nothing so you have to guess all 3 correctly otherwise nothing happens? This will never see any play whatsoever!

Battletag: Finalstan#2691

Region: EU UK
Usual Play Times: Evenings
Level of Experience: about 2.5 years. Reaching 1k Legend regularly.
Preferred Heroes: Mage, Rogue, Hunter, DH, Shaman, Warlock (whatever is fun to play so usually not Druid or Priest, lol).
I’m Looking For: Chats about meta and to spectate sometimes

I have been thinking about this a lot recently, more in the context of Legend ranks since climbing past D5 with 11x is a lot easier so I don't even notice anymore, but certainly remember a time when I faced the same issue at D5-D1 level and am experiencing it now at arbitrary Legend levels. I've even started playing against some good, known players and haven't won against any of them yet. Why? Because psychologically I psych myself down, get intimidated or whatever is at play that makes me play worse than I otherwise would.

Think how you play in Casual? Nothing is a bother, you take risks, you are free. I'd like this experience on ladder as well so that you actually play with good decks against good decks and players but somehow just can't make myself forget about ranks. So, it would be neat if ranks and opponents names could be obscured in-game somehow, until the game ended (for names) and for ranks until your whole play session has ended. I'd love that.

Edit: and before anybody tells me to grow up, stop caring, become a better player, why are you bothered etc.? Yes, I should work on all of that but probably won't so something to help me would be great.

Infuse condition is probably a lot easier to meet in Shaman class than any other. Just play Schooling and a few Murlocs (which you do already). Also, there is always HP to rely on. Only issue is have enough minions to die to get the maximum effect and then create another board to stick long enough for the evolve to matter. Again, what Shaman is doing right now fits this description very well so it could be good. Evolving a board of Tiny Toys will be nuts as 7 drops are quite high quality. And there's more than one way to do it.

I give it a week and we will all be sick of Evolve Shaman again.

I think the effect is good but is generally slightly overestimated. In the right deck, though, this could give Mage the survivability it needs to pull off some crazy (skeleton?) stuff the turn after. Being 2 mana, it's easy to play other set up cards before the blow out turn. Let's hope Mage gets the payoffs it needs to win, if it doesn't then this will not help them.

Beast Hunter will like this. The stats are very good. Hunter can generate pretty tough boards to deal with already, which you can now protect with this. Being and aura effect makes it good off of any summoning/resurrect effects (e.g. Ichman, Revive Pet). And, past a certain point, there aren't many good big Beasts to run so this should go in automatically. 

7 mana is a good breakpoint for a card like this and so it will see play. The possibility->certainty of rolling a charge minion alone makes this good. Triggering 2nd effect isn't that difficult (which is when this becomes REALLY good) and even if you top deck it and have nothing else better to play, it could have an immediate effect on the board (Taunt or Charge). I'd say this is pretty good!

8 mana though and it would be borderline unplayable. 

If you are getting extra 10hp you know you are sacrificing something in return. Renathal prioritises survivability so decks should be built around him with that in mind. Question is, what are you trying to survive until? Some kind of swing turn that wins you the game. Classes with tutoring cards can make the decreased consistency easier to swallow as long as they can leverage higher HP to give them enough time to find their swing.

Prestor Druid's been most successful so far as they meet the criteria quite well but even then its above 50% winrate is not terribly impressive. I also think there's some potential there for a 'bigger' DH, maybe if and when we get some more good Demons, but my first thought was actually a Quest Hunter paired up with a bigger Naga package, secrets, Bunker, Concha's Call and a Multicaster for the draw. I'll do some testing on that (I sit in 1k Legend).

Got two legendaries out of the braw pack, one golden. It was worth the pain.

I am not sure Multi-strike will get touched up. If it does it is to bring down the overall power level and not because the card is a power outlier. It is very strong, sure, but some cards are allowed to be. Nerfing Drekthar, which is a given at this point, will do it but it might not be enough. Speaking of, they need to nerf it in a way that will also disincentivise Quest Hunters playing it. Not sure just reducing stats on it will do the trick, it will still be played and it will still be oppressive, it might need a deeper rework unless they reduce the stats to 2/2 or even less. Can't wait to see what they came up with.