Hearthpwn

Okay, I'll take your bait. You are conflating two distinct things. The monetization is different than the gameplay/game modes.

If this post were about a Blizz statement regarding fixing an issue with the new set or Duels or Battlegrounds, I would completely agree that the great, responsive changes that Blizz has made in the past year or two have earned Blizz the benefit of the doubt and we should all put away our pitchforks and wait for the changes without further complaint.

But this post is about a fundamental change to the monetization of the game that, combined with the addition of four new mini-sets each year, appears to have made an already pricey game substantially more expensive for many players. This is in direct contradiction to what Blizz said about the new system. In that situation, it is not reassuring that Blizz's response is just a reiteration of their prior non-specific assurances. When it comes to monetization, how has Blizz earned the benefit of the doubt? Is this game substantially cheaper than it was a year or two ago? The only change I can think of is duplicate protection, which is nice. But that was a very specific change, announced in a clear way. If you reread my initial comment, you will see that my issue is that no specifics were given in response to the outcry. In the context of Blizzard's monetization, the lack of specifics makes this apology concerning. Blizz is a business and we are its customers. We're not friends, so I'm not really looking for general apologies. If Coke doubles the price of a bottle of its product, what I want to hear in response to the outcry is not an apology but specifics about what the price will be going forward.

I believe that most of the folks upset by this, like me, enjoy this game and are very happy with the direction and pace of change when it comes to gameplay and game modes. (Otherwise, why would we be spending our time on this site?) The issue is that we fear that we and/or our friends will be priced out of being able to enjoy this great game.

First Blizz said "Trust us, this future new system will give all players as much or more gold than the previous system." 

Then, after an outcry because data mining reveals this statement to be untrue about their purposely opaque new system, Blizz responds with another statement that amounts to "Trust us, in the future, this new system will be adjusted to give all players as much or more gold than the previous system, but we will continue not to provide any specifics." 

Once bitten, twice shy, Blizz. 

Never has a card had a more appropriate name.

Nice tool for zoo. Fun to play after your opponent plays Wild Growth.

Deathrattle Hunter likes this. 

This new game mode looks fun but my excitement for the competitive, "heroic" mode is tempered by the RNG of treasure selection and my lack of a collection dating back to 2014.

It looks like the treasures are similar to the types of treasures available in last year's solo adventures (Dalaran Heist and Tombs of Terror). Those treasures varied wildly in power level (for instance, one of them randomizes the costs of your cards each turn, so you regularly can cheat out expensive cards for little or no cost; compare that to the one that only draws you an extra card or two at the beginning of the game). And the fact that you have to construct your deck prior to knowing which treasures you will have to choose from makes the RNG aspect of this even more pronounced. You may get lucky and get a treasure perfectly suited to your constructed deck, or you may get no option that synergizes with your deck (or even get options with anti-synergies--such as your taunt-heavy deck getting the treasure of your minions having permanent stealth). We'll have to wait and see the whole range of available treasures to know just how much difference there is between them. 

Then there is the issue of players with incomplete collections being at a competitive disadvantage. I started playing in late 2018 when Rastakhan's Rumble was released. Whales who started when I did could have spent $800 on preorders for each expansion and the Galakrond's Awakening adventure. Yet, despite having spent almost two years and a lot of money playing on the game, that whale will be facing people with significantly bigger card pools, at least during the first phase of Duels. I realize it's nice to reward long-time players (One Night in Kharazan was released in 2016 and Curse of Naxxramas was 2014), but I am guessing a sizable percentage of the current player base wasn't playing in 2014 and are not inclined to start buying packs for old expansions. Of course, you can bring a standard deck into wild and still win. But if your goal is to regularly reach legend then it's usually going to be tough sledding. I am guessing that is the way it will feel in heroic Duels with my 2018-2020 collection, at least at the outset. 

Of course, I can still play the casual mode in Duels and have fun with no cost. I expect that's what I will do. But I don't play casual mode in standard because it has too little stakes, so I wonder if casual Duels will also get old quickly. Or I could start crafting some cards from the old expansions to make competitive Duels decks, but this just makes an already expensive game even more expensive, particularly if Duels rotates old expansions regularly. Or I could just focus on playing standard and arena (where the lack of an old collection doesn't matter, thankfully), which I expect is what I will do long-term.

So, while I am excited about the new game mode and applaud Blizzard for adding to an already great game, I would guess that the long-term audience for heroic Duels may be fairly limited. 

Here's all you need to know about this brawl:

https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/The_Haunted_Carousel

Edit: There is no Kill 100 Dreadsteeds quest this time. Bummer.

If you pick Paladin and are lucky enough to go second, you hero power each turn to always give the opponent the worst minion on the board.

According to the Year of the Phoenix Roadmap, the only things unannounced from Phase 2 are the new game mode and something that is "spell locked." Given that the reveal stream is supposed to contain "several major announcements" (and they are making it unusually easy to get free packs for watching), it seems safe to assume that we will hear about both of these items from the Roadmap. I wouldn't be surprised if the "spell locked" item connects in some way to the new game mode, and the reason they concealed it in the Roadmap was to prevent the possibility of spoiling the new game mode.

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/news/23319441/welcome-to-the-year-of-the-phoenix 

Bon toutou, Boar. Bon toutou. 

Firebat posted a statement on reddit admitting his relegation was deserved due to him not putting in the time, praising the GM system and encouraging people to keep watching GMs. Pretty gracious.

SilverName, Firebat, and BoarControl all have large audiences that should continue to watch their streams, so the lack of exposure from not being a GM probably won't hurt them much. Frankly, Blizzard loses more because their relegation might cost GM casts some viewers and the relegated GMs now have less incentive to stream Hearthstone. That being said, GM needs to have stakes, so relegations are necessary. 

I hope Blizzard extends offers to Firebat and BoarControl for casting gigs. I don't know if they would accept the offers, but I think they both would be excellent at the job.

Face Hunter was prevalent in part because there were so many Druids and Face Hunter had a positive win rate against Druid. The nerf to GA ought to reduce the number of Druids, which should have the effect of increasing the Soul Demon Hunters, since Druid was one of Soul DH's main counters. Soul DH counters Face Hunter. So I think Team 5 is guessing that nerfing one of Druid's key cards (and one of Hunter's non-key cards, lol) will have an ancillary result of Face Hunter being kept in check by an increase in Soul DH. 

Pure/Libroom Paladin had a positive win rate against Soul DH, Face Hunter and Druid, at least outside of top legend. But Paladin is countered by Cyclone/Reno Mage, and it's reasonable to guess that these Mages will increase with the decrease in Druids (since Druid had a positive win rate against Cyclone/Reno Mage). 

In short, nerfing Druid alone might end up being sufficient to keep Face Hunter and (maybe to a lesser extent) Paladin in check by virtue of natural counters to those decks rising in popularity.

RIP Turtle Mage. You will not be missed.

Now THIS sounds like a good event, unlike the "event" last month.

"Everyone, get in here! Give us money for the privilege of being roadkill for pro players racing toward 12 wins!"