Hearthpwn

I was a former relatively big spender (probably 350-400/year).  I quit playing just after Uldum came out. Now I always said if you don't like it, don't play, and don't bother posting on a HS forum.  True to that, I haven't posted since, but I visited today on a whim to see if the new expansion has been announced or not, and so maybe I'll share why I quit.

1. Some of my favourite streamers quit.  I realized a large reason I enjoyed hearthstone was watching a few people play who no longer do.

2. I couldn't justify the sinking feeling I always had after opening 150+ packs.  It was almost always a letdown.

3. The core mechanics of the game make it so that the game plays similarly regardless of what cards are printed.  I think death knights were the last innovation in hearthstone I really felt shook up the game.

4. Nearly every card had become a slight reprint of another, and it felt less and less like I was doing new things, and more like I was doing old things in slightly new ways.

5. I really wanted 2v2 or tournament modes, and they just never came. 

6 The single player just felt so repetitive.  Worse, it meant I was paying 6 times a year instead of three, and the card packs for the SP came too late, because by then I already had crafted or opened all the useful cards.

7. The Hong Kong incident honestly came right after I already stopped playing, but it makes me feel extra unenthusiastic about going back.

Honestly, if MTG Arena comes to mobile, I might get sucked into another CCG, because I always did love MTG, but otherwise, probably not. Hearthstone was great entertainment for a few years of my life, but instead I'm just playing AAA games a bit more, and I haven't missed it much.

Not whining, and I'm glad people still love this game, but for me, the end came probably around Violet Hold, and i stuck it out for a bit more hoping it was just a phase.

IMO this is the perfect nerf.  Boom feels so bad on turn 7.  Usually, turn 5 vs aggro is brawl, so aggro puts a few minions out on 6, and BAM!, 7 armor to keep warrior alive another turn, and then the ridiculous mechs start clearing AND rushing, and it's over.

At least now aggro has two more turns.  If you haven't got there by turn 9, you will deserve to have lost.  Turn 7 felt unfair like crystal core, turn 9 seems really good.

This season and last have been shaky, but I couldn't be happier that the show runners and Martin saw the obvious. danaerys is nuts.  People watched all eight seasons and didn't notice...

1. There are no good guys. Seemingly good people can do bad things and villains can save the day. I see people pissed that Cersei's death is supposed to be sad, because she is a villain...so it should be funny when she dies??? Danny is MAD NOW OHHH NOES, even though she just did something basically the same as she does every episode, just this time it was to people we cared about. 

If you were a Khaleesi fanboy or fangirl that's on you. Your heroes will disappoint in this show. Period. 

Are people also not noticing that Arya is borderline psychopath? That Sansa is ruthless? Is those characters not being goody goody in the final episode going to be shocking too?

2. Did people not watch the other seasons? Danny crucified people ffs. Her response to literally every conflict has been violence. The same people who route for her aren't probably even death penalty supporters. Was everyone seriously ok with her burning Tarly alive last season? That was awful. She has had people put to death like every five minutes, and never felt bad about it. Almost every episode Jorah would beg her for mercy. Well Jorah's dead now.

3. Anyone and I mean anyone notice how Dany used to dismiss other legit claims to the throne? No one had a valid claim except her, even though she is the youngest child of the dead mad king, her dynasty is long gone, and no one else recognizes her claim. Her claim is like...as strong as Gendry's. There are fifty characters with a legit claim to the throne, and the only two who act like this are her and Stannis. Ned Stark was willing to die for the principal of who had the best claim, and he didn't even consider her.

How unsurprising then that she didn't recognize Jon's claim. She is...one of the least qualified people to rule. She never even lived in Westeros. Her sole right to rule came from the fact that she is the one true Targaryen left, which was tenuous at best.  Now John Snow has a better claim, and so the real justice would be she just stepped aside. Anyone able to picture her doing that? Nope, because she's been a power hungry nut from day 1.

4. The show subverts expectations and cleverly hides plotlines...but it is still a show. With a plot. There are only so many plots in the world. Literally, anyone getting the iron throne would have been a pretty simple plot once we get there. Oh, Jon is a chosen one, how trite. Well Danny would have been the same. Ditto like half the characters. Game of thrones established early on it's about the intrigue of the journey, not the destination. Whoever sits on the iron throne, this wasn't supposed to be a popularity contest. It was about the idea that no one really wins, and there are no heroes. I have a feeling if Jon does become king, it's not going to be a happy ending anyway. King of what? The capitol is gone.

The problem is the rogue classic set.

Everytime rotation hits, rogue is going to be tier one.  Not as many cards?  No worries, I'll just fill my deck with these low cost or no cost ridiculously powerful cards I ALWAYS HAVE ACCESS TO.

Blizzard has stated that classic cards being in every deck is bad, but for some reason even though every rogue deck ever has run Sapx2, Backstabx2, Prepx2, Fan of Knivesx2, SI Agentx2, and Evisceratex2...still no nerfs except the Cold Blood nerf.

Boom warrior is the new rogue quest, if I may make a prediction. It's not actually that powerful, and I bet it ends up with a sub 50% winrate. But it is mindlessly easy to pilot, and it sets the meta. Do you have enough healing or armor gain to out last the bombs? Can you get there fast enough as agro before 4-5 bombs go off?

My Lucentbark druid deck for example, was designed entirely with one matchup in mind. If you can't beat bomb warrior, don't come to play.

I predict the wrench gets nerfed. I don't particularly want or need it nerfed, but the deck is going to limit creativity. Warrior has dragon synergies, rush synergies, mech synergies, we should be seeing at least two or three warrior decks. All we have is bomb warrior.

Edit: it will be nerfed to battlecry: shuffle a bomb into your opponents deck. You heard it hear first 

Floop is the only way to get around silence, because even if Lucentbark gets silenced, next turn you can floop and faceless, and pretty much no deck can silence all three. That said, the meta is very low on silence right now (except silence priest which is not very popular), so Elysiana should be a good addition. Splintergraft is also ok if you got em.

Quote from Nickfuryusn >>

Wow, dont understand the hate. Unlike a lot of the other dks *cough*rexxar*cough*, jaina actually was a well balanced Dk that didnt create unlimited resources but also took a little brain usage to use. She could only be used in control mage and also made sense in that deck. You couldn't build an aggressive deck and just stick her in there like rexxar. Never mind that mage was never top tier like hunter and she was actually a great card for mage users. I'll miss her.

 Lol, trolling?

You're right, ouch.

 I would include Archivist Elysiana. If after you draw your deck and play Nomi, your opponent somehow deals with it, you simply play the archivist and fill your deck again.

Also, I would include two minstrels to make sure you draw Nomi and the archivist ASAP. Minimize the number of minions in the deck.

All the cards vargoth has synergy with in big priest are being rotated, so don't worry.

I can see mass resurrection being used in most priest classes, where it brings back vargoth and two other minions, and then he brings back three more minions for 6 minion board. I see it more though as an extra win condition then an entire resurrect deck.

I hate to be that guy, but I might just try a murloc deck and steamrole all the slow unoptimized decks the first day. :P

I predict a meta is going to form early around bomb warrior, mech hunter, and murloc shaman. After a few weeks I think control mage and shuffle rogue /thief rogue will also be tier 1 or 2. Spell damage hunter and silence priest will also be competitive.

You guys have just been spoiled by the stupid amount of board clears in recent times.

Take shaman. It still has both Hagatha, and Hagathas scheme. Lightning storm is still around for early on. Beakered lightening or whatever it's called as well. Shudderwock to repeat Hagathas clear. 

Mage still has it's classics in blizzard and flamestrike, as well as the powerful shooting stars and arcane explosion.

Warrior has the flexible warpath, brawl, supercolider and sulthraze, plus the best single minion clearing options.

Paladin has been hit hard, but can still use consecrate, equality/pyro/ and shrink ray.

Warlock still has clears at 1 Mana, 4 Mana, 7 Mana, and 8 Mana. It is hardly going to miss defile.

Druid never has board clear except swipe and Starfall which they always had. Rogue has the same classics in fan of knives and vanish it always had.

Priest has lost a lot of board clear no question.

In short I think people are used to playing this stupid version of hearthstone where they basically do nothing. They either hero power, play a neutral taunt, or skip their turn altogether. Eventually things start looking dangerous and they just wipe the board and start over. Around turn 8 or 9 they take their first real turn. Forget whether you like aggro or control, that's a really boring way to play.  It has also led to the crazy rize in combo decks. Combo decks should feel fun, but they feel like solitaire because all the other player is doing is wiping the board.

I think the result is going to be that the rotation forces control decks and combo decks to include another 4-6 cards aimed at survival. Maybe your goal is to win on turn 16, but you can't just skip turn one, skip turn two, drop a tar creeper turn three, armor upor heal on turn four and pass, and then wipe the board turn five. Maybe instead you have to include a few 1 and 2 drops that lower the overall value of your deck or slow your combo down, but they ensure you actually survive.

The worst example of this has been control mage. The deck has varied, but usually runs two dragons fury, blizzard, meteor, and flamestrike. That is eight extremely powerful board clears. All mage needs to do is get to turn five and aggro is basically done. So I've got 4 rounds as an aggro player, and I also have to deal with tar creeper on turn 3 and probably two pings on my minions. Almost as bad was odd warrior. The only way to give aggro decks a fighting chance was stupid stupid things like odd paladin and odd rogue.

Maybe I'll be wrong, but I've been saying for months too much aoe is killing the balance. I'm glad blizzard agrees.

Quote from Sherman1986 >>

Oh, guys, did you know Amazon Studios is planning on making a Lord of the Rings series for television? I'm so excited about it, I can't wait!!! :D :D :D

We won't have to cry at the end of Game of Thrones because the new Lord of the Rings series is going to  fill our empty hearts!!! :D :D :D

 They are apparently also making a Wheel of Time tv show, FWIW.

And Netflix is making the Witcher.

Also, HBO will make eleven game of thrones spinoffs and milk this franchise bone dry, so you will have GoT to watch until you can't possibly watch anymore.

I wouldn't say that. I was super hyped for both ungoro and KFT. I think ungoro was high power but fair. KnC  I didn't enjoy at all, because the game reached a critical mass of overpowered cards where everything created a stupidly unfair combo. The weapons in particular were terrible. Either they were grossly overpowered like kingsbane, skull of the manari, or aluneth, or they were hilariously bad. Only valyanr (SPL?) was middle ground.

I do agree the last three expansions have been very...meh. I get they needed to decrease the power level, but also the themes were uninteresting, and the single player was too similar to dungeon run. It would have been a lot smarter to do something WoW lore intensive while dropping the power level, but oh well. At least this is looking like a great set.

If you give him windfury, attack face first, then a minion and kill it, you will get a third attack. Not two extra. Windfury means a minion or hero can attack twice. Attack again means one more time.

You can test it out with sandworm if you like.