Hearthpwn

You can't assume that at levels 25-10 it's only the aggro players who are "mindless greedy idiots". Basically everyone at those ranks is bad to average at the game and makes plenty of bad/greedy plays regardless of what deck they play.

A lot of people want to complain about the RNG. The thing about RNG is that it has a different effect on the game depending on who is playing. When two players of equal skill play a match, RNG plays a larger role, but the farther apart the skill level of the players is the higher the impact of RNG will be on the game as the more skillful player will be able to make the correct reads and reduce the impact of RNG on the outcome.

It's not surprising that the class tanked with the release of MSG. The Hunter hero power is essentially useless against the exact meta we're in: other hyper aggro decks that go faster than you (Pirate) and Reno decks which have a card which entirely negates all the hero powers you've used up to that point.

Hunter is not a late game class; at best it can do mid-range and unfortunately mid-range is not good in the meta (sorry Goons). There isn't anything inherently wrong with this. Someone has to be at the bottom and it just happens to be Hunter this time. Hunter has been at or near top tier for a long stretch now, so it's fair that it has taken a backseat while other classes get to shine.

I think the cards Hunter got in MSG are very good in a vacuum and there is a good chance they will be quite viable in the future. Rat Pack, Alleycat, and Dispatch Kodo are amazingly efficient based solely on stats/effect to cost. I think once the first expansion of 2017 hits and all the Reno decks go bye-bye that Hunter will make a resurgence. I'm not sure it will be a Goons based deck, but I suppose it depends on what themes the next expansion brings.

Speaking in regards to the Grimy Goons theme, I feel the idea was interesting, but the execution of it was not done in a consistent enough way. Generally speaking the best decks are the ones where you can ensure the desired outcome the most times. The most consistent hand buff effects were given to Paladin (ie the effect buffs all minions in your hand), which coincidentally is the best version of the Goons strategy players have found (although still not really anything but Tier 3 at best currently). The Warrior and Hunter buff effects are bigger but are more random, which means you can't always count on the desired outcome. It also punishes you more when you essentially played two cards (the buff and the minion), but your opponent answers it with one spell.

Let's remember we're talking about Blizzard here. As their name would indicate, they move at a glacier's pace compared to other companies. I'd complain more about it if their track record as a company didn't indicate that their methodology produces higher quality games. I agree it is frustrating sometimes that more doesn't get done, but I think they are in a pickle due to the F2P nature of the game. They clearly make decisions based on trying to keep some kind of baseline status quo so as to not move too fast and pull the rug out of the players who grind their way to the gold/dust they need for things.

I do feel that they need to add a game mode akin to Heroic Brawl (that doesn't eliminate Tavern Brawl) for players who want higher stakes modes. I also feel like they should figure out a way to gain stars on ladder relatively equateable for both aggro and control decks so ladder isn't overrun by aggro all the time. Lastly, I think they should rework some of the Classic set class specific cards. Things like Savagery, Mind Games, and Kidnapper are woefully bad compared to where the game has come since beta. If they wish to keep the Classic set in Standard at all times I think that increasing the power level of some of these currently unplayable cards a little bit can keep the game a bit more fresh by giving classes more interesting basic tools to play off of. However, it'd have to be carefully done as no one wants a class to just be reduced to a single qimmick like Force/Roar was for Druid. I'm not advocating that all classes should be totally balanced against each other at all times (as I said in an earlier post, that is a pipe dream), but that they can create a more interesting game by improving cards slightly/subtly just as much as they can nerfing them.

Quote from Hooghout >>

Having all of the cards always pan out like the designers anticipated is not possible and never will be. These are not problems with the game, they are intrinsic parts of all card games.

There we disagree. This notion is very welcome for sloppy card design but not for those who insist on even distribution of classes in ranked. As for now this distribution is way unbalanced as one can notice in reports of VS. This imbalance is not a result of unforeseeable things, but is systemic organized. 

Quote from Hooghout >>

Quote from banstylejbo >>

I think when criticizing the game a lot of people fail to realize that the game evolves over time. Just because a theme or strategy is good/bad now doesn't mean it always will be. The designers plan ahead and sow the seeds for themes to be good over time and not just giving everyone all the tools immediately. Look at Dragon Priest and Reno decks. It has taken 3 to 5 releases for these decks to become viable in the upper tiers. When the first set of next year drops both of those decks may cease to exist. Maybe then Grimy Goons or Stealth Rogue decks will be viable. We just don't know. I think the designers are learning to spread things over time so that a specific deck isn't dominant for incredibly long stretches as that's when a game becomes unhealthy.

Let's all chill and stop acting like the game is broken and the people in charge are morons just because we can't see the entire picture right now.

 Another uncritical defender of holy Brode and consort. 

I think when criticizing the game a lot of people fail to realize that the game evolves over time. Just because a theme or strategy is good/bad now doesn't mean it always will be. The designers plan ahead and sow the seeds for themes to be good over time and not just giving everyone all the tools immediately. Look at Dragon Priest and Reno decks. It has taken 3 to 5 releases for these decks to become viable in the upper tiers. When the first set of next year drops both of those decks may cease to exist. Maybe then Grimy Goons or Stealth Rogue decks will be viable. We just don't know. I think the designers are learning to spread things over time so that a specific deck isn't dominant for incredibly long stretches as that's when a game becomes unhealthy.

Let's all chill and stop acting like the game is broken and the people in charge are morons just because we can't see the entire picture right now.

1. Rebalance of Classic set class cards. Basically try and make the base set of tools each class has more even in power level. I don't advocate buffing anything to the point of being overpowered, but cards like Savagery, Mind Games, Kidnapper, etc are just woefully bad in every situation. At least rework them to be more interesting/viable with where Hearthstone has gone since the beta.

2. More high stakes game modes. Heroic Brawl was fun, but they need to make it a separate thing so it doesn't take away the regular Tavern Brawl.

3. Rework Ranked mode so players aren't incentivized to play aggro decks since you can play more games faster and therefore rank up faster. Build in a way for control decks to gain stars at the same relative pace.

He's been OK for me, but not craft worthy. His effect just isn't game changing against anything but super aggro. Vs any midrange or control match-up he's fairly bad since his stats are low and he isn't aggressive enough to pressure your opponent unless you've put a ton of buffs on him which isn't always a given if you draw him late.

The entire game is balanced around 30 starting HP. The effort it would take to rebalance the game around 40 HP would be insane at this point. If you don't like losing to aggro, put taunts in your deck as those essentially add HP.

I've opened hundreds of packs for each expansion and have recorded my pulls each time to see what drop rates for legendary, epic, and goldens are. What I've found is that the average (and this held true for MSG) was 1 in ~18 packs for legendary, 1 in ~4.25 packs for epic, 1 in ~ 5.5 packs for golden. Keep in mind you have to open a lot of packs to see these averages play out. If you're just opening 40 packs or a few packs at a time you may see goldens more often than epics or only hit 1 legendary, or maybe you'll hit 4.

I have found that if my pulls for legendary are terrible, where I hit like one in 30 or so packs, that eventually I'll hit a run where I get 2 or 3 in relatively short order which pulls the average back to normal. 

The card has the cost/stats of unplayable cards like Pit Fighter and the rogue Ethereal guy from Karazhan. It has a battlecry that is dependent on meeting a condition. The card is not broken, it is merely strong. Every deck archetype requires cards which are strong to be successful. Let's nerf Reno, Auctioneer, Patches, Maygos, and Jade Idol then since those cards are strong and make their decks powerful. Oh wait, if we do that then other decks will be good and then we will have to nerf the good cards in those decks. Unless a deck becomes a huge percentage of the meta and there is no answer then there is no problem.

Always going to be some deck that triggers people. Just get over it or go play some other game. People were freaking out about C'thun decks right after WOG came out and a week or so later people weren't even talking about it anymore. Chill and have a beer or something.

Gotta love it when a Renolock player forgets that you shuffled two Excavated Evils into his deck and plays Reno, gets no heal, then concedes.

The WoW TCG originally did not include Death Knight as a hero class just like Hearthstone, but they did release a Death Knight Starter Deck eventually which had a collection of basic DK cards for people to use and each set subsequently included DK cards like every other class. I could see Blizzard doing something similar with Adventures which introduce a new class. The Adventure could contain a suite of basic cards for that class and maybe some neutral minions. I think each class in Standard right now has about 48 class specific cards. That could easily be achieved for a new class in an Adventure. Would be a little more than they have had in previous adventures, but it's not that far off.

To everyone complaining about the nerfs that made some cards unplayable (or at least not top tier competitive anymore), you have to understand that Blizzard intends for the formats to change and be different so it's not the same cards over and over forever. If they don't nerf the card enough then there is a chance nothing would have changed and we'd still be dealing with combo Druids and BGH on every big minion you play. So yeah, some cards got harsh treatment.

Personally I am glad they nerfed what they did. Some of the cards are still decent to fringe playable and others are just not a good enough rate to compete anymore. Be glad they did this so all your awesome new cards can actually be used instead of just playing the same format forever. Remember when everyone was complaining that the format was stale for like 3 months earlier this year? Now people complain about card nerfs? The nerfs allowed the format to change to something better. If a few cards have to be sacrificed for the greater good then so be it. I guess some people will always find something to complain about.