Hearthpwn

Quote from BrokenCycle >>

Jandice is SO op if you find a pogo. My proposed "nerf" is to make the HP 1 mana and give the minion you switch in and out +1/+1 each. That at least slows down the growth rate of the pogo's

Seems that Pogo is the only real issue with her. The simplest nerf would be to have minions lose their stats, but that would destroy her probably. I like your suggestion.

I see her rarely do incredibly well outside of early pogos tho. In my experience she is a low-risk high-roller and stats support that (average placement compared to if you find an early pogo). If you combine her non-pogo runs she still does well, but her average is below Maiev and Lich. Consistency is always a factor that I personally, value very high. 

Lord Barov is terrible on average. Luck-dependent high-roll possibilities but he should be avoided.

Omu is - as I expected - the most consistent of the 3 new heroes and does therefore very, very well. I think overall he's the strongest of the new heroes due to the consistency. At the moment he places at the end of top tier. It's nigh impossible to top 6-8 with him. Bartendotron really should be reworked now, since this is what his HP should have looked like. I think Omu will become even better with time, when people figure out how to curve exactly. He benefits tremendously from a token start - even more than other heroes.

So far I've seen Dude Barov twice in a game and he was 8th both times. Ouch.

edit:

Just played my first game  with him. Won the first 3 gambles with a token start and proceeded to power level and finish 3rd.

Was rather close tho with <10 HP. It's weird to stabilize if you don't get anything good once you hit tavern 3 and/or 4. Will probably be better if you take one turn to build a board before continuing to level.

He seems high risk - medium reward to me. You can get ahead early, but it'll always feel weaker than early power-house heroes like Yogg. The gamble is also a huge risk, since some matchups you bet on are just pure luck. I bet on all turns and only got 2 incorrectly (one was a tie). So over 13 bets that got me 22 extra gold.

Quote from xanzan1 >>

 

If the minions don't keep the buffs, she can still be good. But if they do, she'll be broken. 

 A designer confirmed that this is the case.

That means you can rebuff Amalgadon or Battlemaster each turn, which makes her slightly better than I initially thought. You can also get easy triples if you start with a token-producer on turn 1.

Still I think she will be too inconsistent in this fast meta.

Quote from Toribasher >>

With Lord Barov, why not aggressively level up and bet on your opponent each round helping accumulate gold for the next tier?

Quote from Mysterymask >>

kinda taxing but Barov could be done for early game advantage...
T1: Buy Allycat/Token Murloc sell the token bet on you losing (since VERY likely you will) unless you fight against AFK or some crazy Eudora..you start turn 2 with 7 coins..not GAMEBREAKING but a little advantage nonetheless 

 

 You bet on two OTHER players, never yourself.

Still, very, very disappointed that nothing is done about damage and way too fast games. 3 times I got 6-7th place in a row due to facing early-mama bear bullshit. Don't they fucking play their own game? It's super dumb.

Quote from OverholtNA >>

No Lich King nerf? Micro Mummy is probably an indirect buff to LK, even.

 Since it already has reborn, LK's HP does nothing to it. So that's one less target for him. So a slight nerf.

I don't think swapping will buff the pirate or receive buffs from mama and the like.

New Heroes

Minion Changes

•  Mecharoo has been replaced by

• Pack Leader got nerfed:

----

Pack Leader nerf was expected, since he was basically an auto pick. This brings him much more in line with other T2 units. It's also directly a nerf to power-pushing through with beast and Ratpack.

Mecharoo was really awful, in particular compared to Scallywag and had no direct synergies like you have with Captain on T2.

Micro Mummy is a really strong pick that ties or wins against all T1 tokens and even Welp. The +1 buff also makes it more relevant into mid-game. Reborn also triggers divine shield refresh of Defllect-o-Bot.

Lord Barov has a decent skill ceiling in terms of general knowledge (who leveled up when, who has a history of crushing etc) and whose board you actively know. Still, you have to spend 1 gold to get 2 IF you are correct and you lose 1G on your current turn. It's decent for your odd-gold turns, but I don't think he has top tier potential. Will probably be a lot like Kragg, except that you get guaranteed 10g with him (if you wait that long), where as here you need to spend 5g to get net 10g and have to be correct 5 times. Hard to tell atm, he could be a power house who quickly levels if you are correct.

Jandice seems awful in my book. It's basically a worse Malygos. You don't get the benefit of a battlecry and it's random what you get. However, you can manipulate the early taverns to get a favorable trade, so if you have a token, she can get a bit of a power spike. I doubt she will be very consistent tho. I'd say that she will probably lower tier. However, there might be a case for swapping and then re-buying the (battlecry) card, like with Murlocs or Manegerie and Brann.

Forest Warden on the other hand seems really strong. You get 12g over the course of a match, which puts him on a level above Kragg even. However, you get the gold immediately, so you'd need to have 2g left AFTER you tavern up to re-roll and buy a minion, otherwise he's like Noz that you can re-roll "twice" for free on tavern up turns. Alternatively, you can tavern up with 1g and buy another minion, which is also decent enough. I think he'll cruise through early into mid-game very convinently if you play to his strength. Definitely the most exciting of the new heroes.

What are your thoughts and impression?

Infested Wolf is slightly too good at tavern 2 and not good enough for tavern 3. 

I'm all for removing rat pack tho.

Quote from Psy_Kik >>

 I feel like it's a pretty easy fix, just give all patchwork HP...see how things go with 50hp, rather than 40. Doesn't sound like much I know, but I think it would be all it needed.

 I feel 10 HP isn't enough on average. Maybe keep 40HP and introduce a 15 damage cap. This way you don't have this "lose once and you are dead 27 high-roll mama bear bullshit".

Man the longer I play this patch the more I realize that the skill impact on your placement has drastically reduced with how short the games are due to the damage you receive. If they don't change something very, very soon I fear for the mode itself. I'll probably stop playing soon until a new patch hit.

In the previous patch you needed strategy and luck to place high, in this patch you need almost only luck to make it beyond turn 9 to begin with. Super, super dumb.

Quote from Wizzlewix >>

I'd like to see Argent Protector, I'd guess maybe Tier 3 or 4?

 George:

I like Master of Evolution, but it might be too strong and would make the game even more high-rollely.

Personally, I want my tavern 2 Shattered Sun Cleric. It's a universal buff, but only to one minion and only +1/+1 compared to tribe-buffer that do +2/+2 or AoE.

This would give you some new tools and build possibilities. Put your Juggler outside of juggler range? Make Zapp not target your Baron? Or just buff any card.

Another thing I feel is missing is something like Big-Time Racketeer. Could make it tavern 3 since it takes up 2 spaces, but it would give heroes like Malygos or Hooktusk and a few others some more cards to make use of their hero power.

Also, Stealth could be an interesting addition, since it would prevent that your minions are sniped and since they have to attack at some point anyway, it'll always be broken. e.g. Master of Disguise

I just lost a 2.9% match when he attacked 5 times and killed off my divine shield from mama bear, mama bear, divine shield of my golden pack leader, then pack leader and then my golden rat for 3 spawns.

Thanks blizzard.

This is the issue atm:

I lost only twice from 38HP and died on turn 9 or 10 with this board.

If I would have survived that turn or won, I'd deal the same amount to my enemy. It's super dumb how high-roll and fast the games are.

There are almost 4 players dead by turn 9 in half the games. The damage is way too high and needs to be dealt with.