Hearthpwn

Idiot people complain about quest warlock&quest mage, but they can't see that paladin is #1 again xD Exactly same situation as before. 

Quest Warlock and Mage are pretty damn powerful.
Even if they weren't, it's no fun to play against them because it's almost impossible to stop them from doing their quest, so the game just feels like it's on a timer. 

Part of the reason Paladin is #1 because it's aggressive and divine shields make their minions harder to remove with spells making it a good matchup vs Quest Warlock.

A big issue with nerfing Paladin though is that it's not just one or two cards that make it strong:
The handbuffs go pretty nuts but those come from 3 different cards. Idk who thought it was a good idea to let Battleground Battlemaster exist, but they can still win pretty consistantly without it. The best way to nerf paladin would probably be through nerfing Cornelius and Varian - moreso Varian - but those two are neutral and I've enjoyed experimenting with Varian in other decks like a N'zoth warrior.

If I had to pick paladin cards, Goody Two Shields and Righteous Protector have felt a little too powerful since their inception, but therin lies the problem: Paladin's "flavour" is minions that are slightly more powerful than anyone else. This deck is basically "what happens when you take slightly overstatted minions and give them more stats?".

Yep. Illidari Inqusitior is still BROKEN AS SHIT.

This is a card I feel people haven't been complaining about enough.
I've always just called it the "free 8" and played against demon hunter as if I have 9-11 less hp (depending on whether they play felosophy). But yeah, it feels like I'm never really safe from lethal vs dh, they're just gonna kill my taunt, then slap my face for 9 on turn 6-7.

What's really sad is that, in the current patch, deathrattle/inquisitor dh is a control deck.
Questlines are basically combo decks, and even if they're nerfed Ticketus and Jaraxxus are still around. Because of how fast questlines are to complete, games can be expected to end before turn 10. Which means - considering their power spike timings and their matchups vs aggro shaman/hunter - decks that would have previously been considered midrange like deathrattle dh and the new handbuff paly, now have to be considered borderline control decks.

 OH-kay, just after I say that quest warlock is the lesser of two evils, I start running into a bunch of a more tempo focused variant. Yeah, quest warlock fucking sucks.

I've calmed down a bit and given some thought to how I feel about questlines.
Note, this is all the opinion of a control player and comes from just 2 days with the expansion (plus the theory streams). Also note this is only about questlines and their associated decks, there are strong smorc decks that don't rely on questlines:

Traditionally, quests have been weak to aggro because they give up their turn 1 and a card in their starting mulligan, then proceed to focus on doing the quest instead of survival/tempo things.
That's still kind of true, but the requirements for the questlines don't feel as steep, and the step-rewards really help make up for those costs. Some of the step-rewards are powerful to the point that quest druid and warrior are basically aggro decks themselves.

Quest Warlock and Mage still play like combo decks, making them good vs control but pretty weak to aggro. However, both classes also have absurd amounts of card draw and both questlines allow that card draw to contribute to their quests, so their "combos" feel like they come out way too early.  I feel warlock is the lesser of the two evils because it has a much harder time vs aggro than mage, but they both hard-counter any attempt to play control.

Quest priest feels the most like a traditional quest-combo deck and of the 3, it's the one I'm least frustrated with, but I'm still not a huge fan of single "win the game" cards. Otks can be fine, shirvallah otk had some interesting interactions, mechathun otk was pretty cool imo, even the other two incarnations of C'thun had buildup, but the priest one just requires 1 card which feels kinda shitty.

Honestly, I was expecting quest hunter and pally to be oppressive considering the hunter's similarities to Raza + Shadowreaper and the power of Baku pally. I don't own either of those questlines and both decks disappeared pretty quickly, so I can't say why they failed but I guess they were a little too slow. The quest rewards for these two are still pretty obscene, so if we somehow end up in a less aggressive meta, these two will probably become pretty relevant.

Rogue and Shaman questlines feel like their respective Galakronds to me: Rogue is just rogue but has even more cheap high-value cards than usual with a big value payoff at the end. Shaman is just shaman but with more swing turns. Rogue questline is by far the stronger of the two, the constant value generation tied to minions with vilespine-2.0 and randomly generated sap-2.0 getting rid of any pesky taunts that may slow them down, quest rogue tries to just shut you out entirely. They're probably the most "singleplayer" of the questlines, at least mage and warlock have the decency to kill you with their quest rewards.

Last, and arguably least (also the only one I unpacked because rng hates me) is DH questline. This one is weird, I would expect it to be good with Il'gynoth but I guess that deck already has to spend a lot of mana on controlling the board and staying alive so they can't afford to spend 5 mana on the reward. I've seen it played with that new boar minion, but ultimately, it's been largely unsuccessful.

That's all the questlines, but some other notes: As I said earlier Mage, Warlock and Priest can't handle aggro well. Quest Mage also has only 1 frost spell that doesn't require a minion to target, in certain scenarios, you might be able to use this to buy yourself a turn, but don't rely on it. They can still burn you down and generate their own minions with studies and apexis blast. Spell-burn decks like shadow priest, quest hunter and - ironically - quest warlock and mage, can best take advantage of quest mage requiring a minion to target.
Since all quest rewards are battlecry minions, Mutanus and Vol'jin can potentially destroy them and Illucia, Stelina and Glide can screw with them, though smart players may realize this and try to play the reward on the turn they complete the quest.
Edit, while I'm listing questline weaknesses, popping divine shield doesn't count as "damage" for hunter quest.

Abadi-abadi-That's all folks. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, now go out there and play some aggrostone while I find a corner to cry in.

 It's satisfying to get a mutanus to hit an opponent's quest reward, but these questlines feel way too oppressive right now.

Does it matter that I have 2 breadbakers and 2 death's head cultists in my deck?
Not to quest mage.

edit: Yuuup, there's that turn 6 quest reward.
Seems reasonable to me.

Oh boy, another quest mage, I wonder if I'll survive to turn 8.
Probably not.

A lot of games are designed like that and a lot of companies hire psychologists. Capitalism is capitalism so companies wanting to do everything in their power to separate customers from their money is nothing new.

I was trying to go for a more introspective approach.
For example: I know I enjoy trying to figure out how to make decks that answer whatever t1 decks people are spamming on ladder. I like Hearthstone over other card games for the craziness it allows, but that craziness is usually only possible in slower decks so I've never been a fan of aggro.

But if you're not actually enjoying the game, don't play the game.
What's the point of video games if not to have fun?

While I find aggro matchups frustrating, at the end of the day, I do still enjoy the game.

We got shadow priest, we got Shadowreaper Anduin Hunter quest, we got warlock who can kill you with their own fatigue.
God forbid I want to play a deck that ever makes it to turn 10.

I've seen a few other people say things to this effect, and I'm really not one to talk considering how much I've used the venting thread.

But if you're not actually enjoying the game, don't play the game.
What's the point of video games if not to have fun?

Oh boy.
After everyone hated all the burn from spell mage, I'm glad to see that the new expansion will be filled with exclusively burn decks.

I was just saying it was too early for those kinds of comments.

I get that this line have could come across a bit douche-y, which may have given the wrong impression:

Correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not super familiar with Twitch, but it looks like neither Eddy nor Allie have streamed Hearthstone since.

but I was being sincere, I don't really use Twitch so I was going by the "Recent Broadcasts", but I'm not sure if all streams are recorded so maybe they had streamed since.

I still stand by what I said. People were getting pretty worked up, and I don't think that the streamers really meant anything by it.

They're not necessarily taking a stand or "protesting"/"boycotting" Blizzard. ... I think they just want to avoid the drama and controversy.

I see a lot of "Choses not to reveal card" -> "Keeps streaming Blizzard games".
Correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not super familiar with Twitch, but it looks like neither Eddy nor Allie have streamed Hearthstone since.

I get the frustration, I agree that we shouldn't get too worked up and think of Blizzard as "guilty until proven innocent" and it's likely not the entire staff, the document mostly refers to the WoW team specifically.

That said, I also really don't think these streamers are just "virtue signaling". I'm coming to hate that term. I think that this news just spoiled the reveal season for them, so they chose to take a step back. They're not necessarily taking a stand or "protesting"/"boycotting" Blizzard. I don't follow them on Twitter, but the tweets shown here are short and tasteful. I think they just want to avoid the drama and controversy.

Refusing to do the reveal brings attention to the issue and lets them sleep at night.

Their responses were short and tasteful. They're pretty clearly not trying to bring attention to themselves.
You can also look at it as: this whole thing would left a bad taste in their mouths so they chose to just take a step back.

Fuck it, I'll keep saying it because nobody seems to read the comments before posting.

The allegations against Blizzard are disgusting. Including a supervisor sexually harassing one of their employees to the point of suicide.
It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to associate themselves with Blizzard after that.