Hello everyone.
I was thinking a bit about the future of Hearthstone and although it is still a bit early, with the next expansion being 4 months away, I think it is an interesting topic to discuss. I want to give you some of my own thoughts on what I think could or should happen, and I'd like to hear some opinions on what you guys think can or should change with the next year of Hearthstone. Please excuse the following wall of text. If you just want to make some predictions on what you think is going to change, feel free to skip it.
1. One of the things I expect (and really hope) most to happen is Wild content being reintroduced to the in-game store, allowing purchases of Wild sets with gold. There are many things that suggest this. First of all, as Ben Brode (and maybe other designers) has stated multiple times in the past year, the team would like to see players showing more interest in the Wild format, since the focus on Standard is more likely to cause some fatigue between expansions. Despite this, there was pretty much no support whatsoever for the format. To some extend, the game even discourages players from setting into the wild. New players are not made aware that the format exists for roughly a month of playing. Just to see older cards in the collection manager, you have to first hit the crafting button and then select older sets with that little (unmarked) button in the bottom left corner. And if you consider crafting an older card, the game even gives you a warning that it's not part of Standard anymore. Add to this, that Wild sets have been banned from Arena (probably a good move but not helping the format) and, as of late, are oftentimes not allowed/don't appear anymore in Tavern Brawl. Out of sight, out of mind, it seems. And older sets sort of being behind a paywall right now probably discourages most players from even giving it a try. It's no surprise that many players play wild just with standard decks, making the format rather "tame". If there really is an interest on the developer's side to make the format relevant again, the first step should be to make the cards more available than right now and actually give players the impression that the format matters to the developers. One of my favorite examples is that the nerf of Dreadsteed happend without an in-game notification. If you didn't know that Dreadsteed got nerfed, the game would not have told you so. That and the (in my opinion) rather ugly setup for wild with the brown paper in the collection and the tandrils everywhere really gives players the feeling of Wild as a dumpster. And irioncially, the so called "Hall of Fame" suggests that even more, with cards literally getting disposed from Standard.
Another reason why it should happen with the next rotation is that the in-game store right now features an Adventure-button, which only contains One Night in Karazhan. And as we know, Team 5 now rather includes sinlge player content with expansions and gave up the strategy of releasing low impact adventures. In other words, the button is going to be obsolete next year with no plans to revive it. At least "some" change of the interface HAS to happen. And I think with the considerations mentioned before, the most logical step would be to make this button the "Wild"-button, giving old content a seperate section in the store.
2. A rather artificial problem (explaining why it's artificial would be a different topic) that the developers continuously complain about is the relevance of Classic and Basic in Standard and the circumstance that new cards oftentimes don't have the impact on the constructed scene the developers would hope for. There are different ways to respond to that problem, but I think what is most likely to happen is that we will see another large chunk of Classic and Basic cards nerfed or added to the Hall of Fame. Not too long ago, Ben Brode argued on Reddit that the average Standard deck (or any deck really) should not contain more than 10 cards from the core set. But when you look at some classes, that is almost not possible. With Druid, they already enforced this rule by nerfing almost every class card in the Classic set that was not on the weak side to begin with (and I strongly expect Nourish to get hit as well), also forcing a reinvention of the class with every new expansion. Hunter, on the other hand, is a prime example of how to make such drastic nerfs necessary. The class has had one failed expansion after another, and aside from some odd novelties such as Secret Hunter in Karazhan, the Yogg-and-Load that some people tried and the (maybe successfull) invention of the Spell Hunter, all new Hunter cards are measured as "does it fit into Midrange Hunter?". That deck is one of the few archetypes remaining from the old days, about the only Hunter archetpye that has always more or less worked, and the decklist shows with cards like Savannah Highmane, Kill Command, Houndmaster, Animal Companion, Unleash the Hounds [/card] and some others being essential to the deck. Even worse, some new cards have further strengthened that archetype, like [card]Alleycat, Crackling Razormaw or Bearshark, which is why most Hunter players continued to play that same old deck with some little additions here and there. Other classes that heavily rely on their core set are Priest, Mage and to a lesser extend Rogue. In addition, many archetpyes only work because of the core set. There is no Control Paladin without Equality and Consecration, there is no Token/board-focused Shaman without Flametongue Totem and Bloodlust, and almost every Mage deck is either tempo-oriented with Mana Wyrm and Sorcerer's Apprentice being the baseline, or is build around Ice Block in one way or another for a control-ish type. I feel that Team 5 is not too happy about the core set actually being the core of some classes. So I assume that for "design space"-reasons, some of these cards will be removed at least from Standard.
3. In addition to the last point, I think we will also see yet another change in the release schedule. I think the developers are generally pretty happy with how the Year of the Mammoth has been going. And I have to agree, three full expansions per year really help to spice things up. But on the other hand, and I think many will agree with me, it's still not quite enough. The metagame is usually set about a month after the release of a new expansion, and in the 3rd and 4th month of a meta, it really starts getting painful to see the same decks over and over and over again. I think the game would be better off with content being added a bit more frequently, maybe every 2 or 3 months, and I think the developers would like to see these big changes happening more frequently as well. Question is, if they even have the resources to pull that off.
4. While it sounds a bit contradictory to what I said earlier, I think this year has shown more than any other, that the game can easily get stuck if there are too many cards in Standard. Many of the new ideas implemented in JTU, KFT and KnC got overshadowed by ONK and MSG, or worked a little too well with the older cards. So, I think in addition to releasing content more frequently, Blizzard might consider to make the Standard cycles shorter. I think the quality of new cards on average shows that the designers really want to avoid a second happening of TGT. They want to make strong cards that will have a large impact on the meta. But when every expansion is on that power level, it is more likely to happen that decks can get out of hand, as it happend with Jade Druid in KFT and might be happening with Priest or Rogue right now. This wasn't even the first time it happened, but the nerfs happen much sooner nowadays than they used to. On the one hand, that is a good thing, on the other, it shows that many things turn out stronger than the developers apparantly can anticipate, and it can easily cause a lot of frustration right after the launch of an expansion. And that actually should be the best time to enjoy Hearthstone. So, maybe they will consider to let a set expire on the 3rd or 4th expansion following it, so that each new set stays for roughly 12 months in Standard.
5. A topic that somehow was always talked about but never tackled is the ladder for Ranked play, and several developers have already said they are not happy with it and are totally working on something right now. I think, next year we can expect a change of the ladder in some way, although I wonder if the change will be substantial enough. The main issue for most players is the grinding aspect of it, and I think that will be targeted by changing the "reset" of a new season, maybe setting players back only 5 ranks or giving them more bonus stars. What I think will NOT be targetted despite being a problem is the structure of the ladder. As Blizzard has oftentimes stated, more than 50% of all players are lower than rank 19 (iirc), and only about 20% of all players are at rank 15 or higher. Also, the ranks 25-21 can be considered the "new player zone", with most serious players never seeing these ranks at all. Even players who only rank up to 20 every season will start again on 23, if I'm not mistaken. To put it into perspective, we have about 4 ranks for new players and less serious players, 2-4 ranks for normal/casual players, and 15 for those who play more seriously. And while most people claim that the competitive scene really just starts at rank 5 or even later, it is a common issue for many players that netdecking starts as early as rank 19 or 18. Given how many cards per expansion are not even intended to be competitive and how much the developers want to emphasize the crazy and fun and weird aspects of Hearthstone, it doesn not really work that way if two, maybe three ranks out of 25 are a good playground for that. And as many others will likely confirm me, Casual is NOT the answer to that. Depending on how well you have been doing, there is virtually no difference between the decks you encounter in Casual and in Ranked. If the developers want a place for these "fun" decks and cards to see play, it shouldn't be just between rank 20 and 19 with the chance of still commonly facing the latest incarnation of Tempo Mage or Miracle Rogue. If Ranked is only meant to be for the most competitive players, it needs to be advertised differently and should be changed drastically. There is no point in establishing "new player ranks" and "little rewards to help your collection", giving them a place where they can only compete for at most 10 wins, if they ultimately are supposed to get stomped as soon as they get to 20. And for the serious scene, I doubt that you need 15 ranks with I don't know how many stars required to slow down your progress.
6. Finally, again continuing something I mentioned just a paragraph ago, the new player experience needs help, and I admit upfront I will get a little bit emotional here. This also was aknowledged by the developers, so we can expect "something" to happen, but given the latest endeavours, I'm not very optimistic on that. Or lets say, there have been improvements, and they were good ones, but they don't come close to solving the multitude of issues that have piled up over the years and I don't think we will get a good solution offered anytime soon. My hope is at least another small step comung up soon.
I think it is good that they got rid of duplicate legendaries and a guaranteed orange gem appearing in the first 10 packs of an unpurchased set. Still leaves you with the problem that one player can open an unconditionally good legendary like Sunkeeper Tarim, while another one gets a high requirement legendary like Krul the Unshackled or a straight up bad one like Millhouse Manastorm. I think it's worth pointing out here that more recent legendaries are designed to synergize with other legendaries and epics, such as Rhok'delar and To my side. Then again, since JTU, the quality of Commons in new expansions has increased a lot, and although decks on average got more expensive, budget decks leaning into the zoo/mid-agressive direction can still be somewhat successful. However, as already mentioned, ranked is not made for new players. They can have a good time for maybe 10 or 15 games, but when they get to 20 or 19, or maybe make it to 16, they will eventually get stomped hard. The whole "budget" thing is just not a thing anymore on ranked. Most players will disenchant their entire collection to make one, maybe two working decks and grind them at nauseum, killing the diversity and punishing those who like to keep their cards. Effectively, new players have to get themselves a good deck quickly, or they get eaten alive. Not much of a joyful journey of exploration left, is there?
I don't think bad cards or even the luck aspect of pack opening is the main issue that forces players into netdecking and trading a big collection for just one 10k dust deck. I think, it's more the reward system as a whole and the ratio of dust gained/needed. Getting a legendary in 10 packs is great, grinding with basics for 2 weeks to get 10 packs isn't. And you don't do this for one set like people could do during Beta and Vanilla, you do this for 6, and that's just Standard. I know, some people will say that Wild is only for veterans anyway, but come on, why make it a no go area for the increasing populace of the game, when you can easily change it? Anyway, the reward system with daily quests awarding about 50 gold, the 3 wins bonus and the occasional arena run worked really well when there was only one set to buy and the next expansions being a relatively cheap Adventures. Nowadays, we have at mininum Classic + 4 big expansions in Standard, and the next big 135 card expansion always on the horizon. The outlook of grinding for well over a month at low odds of success or spending about 100 $ upfront is unlikely to get new players hooked and invested into the game. I know this is a tricky topic, since there are many players that, for some reason, don't want the system to get cheaper, coming up with lines like "I've been playing since beta and I never spent a single cent and I have all legendaries and hit legend every month" or "just go infinite in arena and you'll have all the cards in just a few months". While these uhm... "arguments" might fit the whole F2P debate somewhat (although not really), it does not contribute to the problems new players are facing right now. Less than one pack per day, requiring extensive grinding and/or doing really well in arena for a minimum effort of about 2 hours per day, every day for over a month, just to get started, is NOT friendly to new players. And like it or not, the whole F2P model that Hearthstone embraces is specifically meant to attract as many players as possible and then get them to spent money when they like the game (although most other good F2P games don't want to create an absolute necessity to spend money at all, going for an "ethical" approach where money is mostly spent on cosmetics). I doubt that the game right now is in a state where it can be enjoyed without spending money upfront and having no experience whatsoever. Or lets say, the enjoyment dies down rather quickly.
Another issue that the developers have successfully ignored for years is the really worthelss tutorial and the fact that even the Innkeeper decks were never updated at all. Even his "expert" decks feature such nerf victims as Starving Buzzard, Warsong Commander and Keeper of the Grove. Truly, I've mastered the game, for I have beaten the Expert Innkeeper and his overnerfed trash cards that nobody dared playing in years. The tutorial and the Innkeeper are supposed to get new players into the game, letting them learn the mechanics, the cards and refine their skills to a point they feel confident in taking on real players. In reality, these modes are helplessly outdated and new players might indeed learn the basic mechanics, but only to find out that about every single card they encounter in Play mode has 2 keywords they never heard of, huge battlecries, or just the word "random" slapped on it without note what this "random" even means. An experienced player knows and fears, that a Firelands Portal can spit out a Doomguard, and what cards are generated by The Lich King. They know that a mage secret without obvious triggers is likely Iceblock and they need to be fast or lose the game inevitably. A new player doesn't and is likely not enjoying the experience.
Also, the starting decks have always been weak and were meant to be refined, even with just basic cards, by new players. It was supposed to be a part of the learning experience and introduce them to the fun of deck building. However, the quality of the Basic set has been drastically lowered over the years with more changes to be expected. Not only are the starter decks a joke, and plenty of the good basic cards nerfed into oblivion, the decks you can make with basic cards are a joke in comparison to even the cheapest decks one could make these days. It's not just that Boulderfist Ogre got powercreeped like 5 times already, it's that the game's pace has changed so much that you are likely dead before you even get to play the ogre. And while some might claim otherwise, that has not always been the case. As I said earlier, it's good that common cards got more powerful. Players will eventually open a lot of commons and it's a good thing that even the "pack fillers" can help them to make their decks more powerful and interesting. But at the same time, I think it is a bit alarming how much the powerlevel of the game has gone up. When Standard launched, the developers argued that one of the reasons for the new format was to avoid powercreeping. They didn't want to be forced to make new cards much better than old time favorites like Sludge Belcher and Piloted Shredder. Well, I think we are a bit beyond that now, aren't we? The supposed "balance", the well maintained power level of Standard, is completely out the window by now. That also makes the game a bit more interesting, sure, but it creates and even fiercer environment for new players to set foot in; something that the developers were specifically trying to avoid, when they opted for Standard. Oops?!
The super minimalistic interface of the game also doesn't help. Quite literally in fact, as it does not even provide a help button or an info section on what was recently changed or what to expect in the upcoming months. Sure, this is not a big issue for those players who are in touch with the community and the developers, visiting sites like this one almost every day. But if you would sell Hearthstone as a standalone product right now, it really lacks some polishment. I am not saying that every other game does it way better, but if you truly care for new players, you do have to go the extra mile to help them get started and find out about everything. And I think Hearthstone has a few more miles to walk, since it has been standing still for the last couple years in that department.
It's just that I really want to see the game get better. As much crap as you can legitimately give Blizzard, I really want them to succeed. Hearthstone can be a great and fun game, and I wish for more people to enjoy it. But it is all these problems that just give me a bad feeling. I have been a new player, I was in that position where I got really intimidated by one of my first opponents in constructed playing Doctor Boom and Muster for Battle. And on other accounts, I do see the lower ranks and can still have some of that new player experience, and at times, it is outright soulcrushing. You struggle with cheap and basic cards, you try to complete the "play 10 cards that cost 8 or more" quest, when your best bet is Ironbark Protector. And then, for completely unrelated reasons, the developers think that Innervate is problematic and should get nerfed. It just pushes a button for me, how they not only solve some issues, but make others even worse. So... I'm sorry for the rant at the end, but I'm just passionate about the game. And I hope, at least some of these things are considered by the people in charge.
Well, that's all from me for now. Congratulations and my thanks to those few who made it to the end of reading all this, and I'm curious about your thoughts regarding the new year and the future of Hearthstone! :)
1
Agreed, I really never to take DK Recxar seriously, especially because of the weak battlecry and evan slower follow up turns with the hero power. Katherina is a much stronger card with immediate board value.
1
The best counter for Mechathun I saw came when the opponent played OTK Quest Priest and completed his quest while playing his OTK turn, generating his 5-mana quest card to his hand, though if playing 2x Ticking Abominations the 0/3 would vanish too.
2
The Tavern brawl design doesn't make any sense, given the DK Mana cost difference and it's battlecry nerf.
Here is what I think would balance out the brawl:
1) Start the brawl at 10 Mana crystals, with the hero class DK already deployed
2) Arena draught a complete deck of cards, minus a slot for the class DK card (to be able to play the battlecry)
3) Allow any class to draught any class's legendary weapon.
Now this Jainafest would be fair (and hella fun)!!
1
I have Faeria and love the Solo and co-op modes, esp. as a friendly way to learn the game. Live Long, Faeria!
2
Been playing HS for a little more than a year, right after Un'Goro came out and I've never laddered above 15...and that was really grinding and trying. Now, I feel ladder anxiety if I try to push beyond rank 18. It's not that I don't think I'm good enough, like someone said, there's no point in ranking higher just for bragging rights or a golden copy of some garbage card and some more dust.
So, every month, the only thing I do now is ladder with my favorite homebrew decks on HSReplay Premium, just to get the card stats and see whether I can figure out how to pilot it better than everyone else pilots their netdecks (believe me, at my low rank, all you see are netdecks on ladder). When I friend someone, it's always from casual.
IMHO, casual is the ONLY reason to play, if you have a life outside Hearthstone.
2
This token Palladin hero is BROKEN (really something wrong with it's passive hero power)!!
Not only does everything either summoned or played get +1/+1 but when Sunkeeper Tarim "sets" every attack and health to 3, the hero power shouldn't create 4/4's for ANY reason (and that was AFTER surviving a double Doppelgangster into double Bloodlust turn (thanks to Ice Block!
https://hsreplay.net/replay/TwnsKbFxYQ2EVUZZRbdZNa
It's really clear to me how untested these interactions are.
5
Crappy brawl with absolutely no class synergies...Here's what I remember about the two lost games:
1) Hunter with no beasts or deathrattles
2) Warlock with no AoE's and just one midrange demon (and that was summoned from a Lackey, not drawn or played)
Eggs are the worst idea ever implemented:
1) Stealth while completely inert
2) RNG summons nothing on curve
3) Undyed eggs produce 1/3 bunnies and a board full of bunnies will win everytime...fascinating!
Here's what would make it better....
A) Arena-styled draft of 15 cards with the other 15 being egg dyes, specific to class
B) Egg dyes would be distributed solely by class with Lifesteals with Warlock, Stealth with Rogue, Poison with Druid, Windfury with Shaman, Taunt with Warrior, Rush with Hunter, Divine Shield with Pally, +2 Attack for Priest (as a nerf for having the best dye) and Mage would get a random mix of all 8.
C) Eggs can be instantly activated as an Inspire at a cost of two health/1 Mana to improve tempo
D) Eggs behave like Spiteful Summoner and summon a random minion equal in cost to a spell still in the deck from the initial draft picks, up to a 5 Mana cost, so that the board doesn't become a "Battle of the 10-Mana Titans".
3
Seriously, WTF, Blizz!
Basically, play on T6 and lose the game.
3
Soul Assimilation: "Destroy your Wisps and take control of a random enemy minion for each wisp destroyed"
What kind of 4 mana broken card T6 play is that???!
Impossible to play around and an auto-swing turn with no recovery possible. I was doing just fine until this shite play:
https://hsreplay.net/replay/ExBfedXkJHfd4xEcyCCDkA
Here are the HS precedences:
Mind Control Tech: Requires 4 or more enemies, to control 1 random
Mind Control: 10 mana spell, to control 1 of choice
Potion of/Shadow Madness: 2 (3) or less attack req, for one turn
even the Monster Hunt bonus card, Enchanting Tune, sets the Attack and Health to 1 of the stolen minions.
2