Hearthpwn

I was referring to free-to-play players, not free-to-play games. Your little article is talking about games. It is a well-known fact that, in Hearthstone specifically, there is an enormous sector of the player base who take pride in never paying any money for anything in the game whatsoever, and they never intend to. These players are absolutely not potential paying customers in the long term, regardless of what some faff on the internet says.

Yet, they think they are important and deserve to be treated like paying customers because they make it look like the game is popular. I'm sure it makes someone at MicroBlizz happy to keep that number high, but the focus is (and should be) on the people who have actually proven they are willing to open their wallets. Those who haven't done so after 10 years are not suddenly going to do so now -- especially if Blizzard starts "nerfing" whales (whatever that means).

Still the best in 2024! Be sure to read the note in the description!

I think (hope) maybe they mean the "poof"-style clears you get with Reno and Sargeras (and, to a lesser extent, Aman'thul) -- in other words, removing minions from the game as opposed to killing them.

The whole point of deathrattles is that you have something on the board that makes it hard (or at least undesirable) to clear. When every single class has access to one or more ways of getting around that, it becomes a huge balance problem.

If by "core," you mean "free to play," you are extremely mistaken. For one thing, it's not that hard for a free player to make any of the problematic decks. For another, Blizzard will never care about the feelings of people who are not paying.

After an entire decade of players complaining about OTK decks and "inevitability" cards like Reno and Wheel, they finally admit these are unhealthy for the game. Progress?

On the other hand, quest nerfs, so fuck you anyway, Blizzard.

If you want to go the extra mile, there's this: reportfraud.ftc.gov

By changing the terms of reward acquisition (reducing the value of the product for casual players) after the Tavern Pass was purchased, Blizzard has committed fraud.

Better be careful, Blizzard. The way you're managing the game, bots will soon be the only accounts you have left.

Stop cheating, and you won't have to worry about it.

So it's not the same deck, and you know exactly what I'm on about lul.

Are you sure you didn't burn one or more of the plagues with Tomb Traitor?

You clearly don't even know what constitutes statistical proof. If you did, you would generate the evidence and bring the whole Blizzard cheat-industry to its knees with a massive class-action lawsuit.

You are full of hot air and you know it.

Quote from Ghostwaker >>

 Aggro is the wrong word. I merely meant that I try to do damage, or be as offensive as I can without taking risks. But against OTK decks you really have to be aggressive and try to finish before they get their OTK or ruin their win condition somehow. That's why I'm thinking about adding tech to my deck, because I've been facing a lot of mages and shamans lately(you can also fuck up reno warrior with tech). I just don't see what I should sacrifice and it's always a risk playing Dirty Rat.

 Your deck is simply not favored against OTK decks. You should expect to lose to them most of the time. Teching against them will not improve your win rate enough to justify weakening your deck against other matchups where you were favored.

If you are seeing too many OTKs and don't like losing to them, you're better off switching to an archetype that can beat them consistently. I hear there's a Hunter deck out there that does all right ...

Quote from lv426a11 >>

I don't really mind the one for ranked (though I don't agree with their stated reasoning for changing it), but if you're playing ranked with any regularity you'll probably win 15 games a week. 

But the one for Tavern Brawl, Arena or Battlegrounds.  What a joke!  I almost never play arena, I absolutely never play battlegrounds and I wont ever play at least 15 games of tavern brawl.  I have no idea if winning 15 games of battlegrounds is a lot, but it sounds like it might be.

This genuinely feels like the beginning of the end of Hearthstone.  I can see no good reason for this change except to force people to buy packs by limiting their gold, or to "encourage" people to pay to play arena.  Very cynical change imo.

 There are a lot of people who mostly play casual and don't like ranked, just the way you don't like battlegrounds. For them, 5 wins was annoying but doable. Asking those players to win 15 ranked games per week is just going to push them out of the game. These were not necessarily forever-free players, either. I'm sure there are plenty of paying customers who are primarily casual. Or were, until now.

So yeah, "beginning of the end" sums it up pretty well.

PSA: This deck is going to be terrible with the new rules and new cards being used in better decks. Don't even bother.

I have to agree. I normally defend good business decisions, but this is not one. They are shooting themselves in the foot, trying to coerce people to play more games.

It makes me think the numbers really are declining fast if they have to go to such lengths to keep queues active. I guess they no longer have faith in their own ability to draw people in with actual entertaining gameplay. Keep this up, Blizzard, and you'll have nothing left but Battlegrounds.