Regardless of what you think of these buffs, here's the bigger point: they're willing to do buffs!
Guys, this is the best news for Hearthstone in many years, seriously!
Will this help Warrior? Are some of these a mistake? Okay, okay, but listen: now the door is open. The can buff a few cards here and there, probably from a set that has been out for about 6 months, to inject some changes into the meta-game and give weak cards a chance to shine. Some of the current buffs may prove to be bad, but isn't it awesome that they're willing to try?
1
Blizzard markets the pre-orders the way it does because they have market research and promotional teams which know the best way to present this stuff to maximize profit. Yes, it is calculated, but I would expect no less from a company like them to have their shit together when it comes to this. They know exactly what way to offer things to maximize their profit. But so does every other business worth its salt. So why do they need to be painted as some kind of villains here?
I don't think these bundle options are a bad deal by any stretch, especially compared to previous pre-order bundles. To me, the Boomsday Project bundle is the most rewarding one yet in terms of what you get for your money. Yes, the Witchwood one had 20 more packs for the same $50, but the Boomsday bundle instead includes a guaranteed golden legendary that is 1,600 dust in your pouch at worst. With 50 packs you definitely won't have all the cards yet, so the dust value from cards of which you open more than 2 copies in those 20 additional packs would surely be less than 1,600 dust, unless you literally dusted every card in those 20 packs. At least this way you know you can be guaranteed 1,600 dust along with any dust you get from extras in your 50 packs to craft the cards YOU want, rather than get a random assortment of cards you may or may not use. That seems more valuable to players, especially those on limited budgets. On the plus side, maybe the golden legendary you get is one of the legendaries you were most excited to open. In that case it's even better! Of course that's just my opinion, but that's how I look at the situation as a player in my circumstance. This set is the most happy I've been to spend money on a pre-order as I feel it is worth the investment. Full disclosure: I pre-order basically every time, regardless of how many cards are previewed or how good they look. Be cynical and call me a shill or a moron or whatever you want, but I know that every set has good cards and stuff I want to play with, even if I don't exactly know what those cards are a month, weeks before, or even a week after the set releases.
3
The issue here is that a lot of all of this is subjective and opinion based. To say that pre-ordering is terrible, $80 is a ton of money, or that the bundle is a bad deal, etc., etc. is just an opinion. There is no authority that says who is right or wrong. One person feels that these bundles are completely reasonable and another thinks it is highway robbery. The truth is that these are only opinions and each person's feelings on them will be different depending on their circumstances. I personally don't mind that they offer extra content for those willing to pre-order a special bundle. How is this any different from "Collector Edition" versions of other games available for pre-order? That is a practice that has been around for two decades now.
At no point did Blizzard ever promise anyone the ability to get everything in Hearthstone via a free method. Blizzard never said definitively one way or another how alternate heroes would be introduced into the game. Some are paid, some are free via achievements, and some are acquired via a charity. Blizzard is not betraying anyone or acting in bad faith here because there was never any kind of officially established method they were going to introduce them. They are free to decide how to introduce new content into the game. If you don't like it, that's fair and you can choose to react accordingly with your wallet/time, etc., but to come at it from the opinion that Blizzard owes you something (in this case the ability to get an alternate hero skin) is pure entitlement. The game may be free to play, but that doesn't mean all content is free.
5
The number of people not spending even like 30 seconds to think about how this interacts with Odd Paladin before posting "OMG Odd Paladin now OP eff you Blizz" is baffling.
6
All of the nerfs seem good. I sort of wish they left Crystal Core buffing to 5/5, but made it so when you played Crystal Core it worked like Mistcaller or Keleseth where it grants the buff to hand and/or deck at the time you play it. Meaning bouncing guys back to your hard reverts them to original stat line. Would prevent all the burst potential with the charge minions.
1
Odd Paladin won't run Call to Arms. Getting three 1 cost minions for 5 mana is not a great deal. Also, 1 cost minions are much worse than 2 cost in terms of what cards are available in Standard right now.
3
Since they can't play 2 cost minions I doubt they run Call to Arms. Getting three 1 cost minions for 5 is not great.
1
I think there are plenty of ways to make cards that don't just say "remove all your opponent's armor". A card that just flat out did that would be too powerful. However, cards that got buffs if your opponent has any armor is probably the best way to do it. Something like a 5 cost 4/6 minion that gets +4 attack if your opponent has armor. They could make minions or spells that are lightning/electricity themed that do extra damage if the defender or target has armor. There could be armor ignoring minions, like vampires or something, that when they deal damage they only deal it to health and not armor.
So there's a lot of creative ways they could make armor punishing cards that are fair and would be effective, rather than just having cards that say "remove all the armor". Because there's no fun or interactivity in that. ;)
1
I net deck sometimes, but usually when I do it is a function of saving myself time. I don’t have a ton of time to play Hearthstone, so when I do play, I’ll look at decks on the internet and find one that looks like I will enjoy it. I very rarely will choose the most top tier decks, but I just don’t have time to build decks from scratch then play them enough to tune it successfully. A lot of the time I decide I want to play a certain class or a certain theme. I’ll then search for decks online that meet those criteria and choose one to play. So while yes, I do net deck, I don’t do it out of a sense of needing to play the absolute best deck to crush everyone and win all the time. I think it is important to understand players net deck for different reasons, not all of which are negative.
1
Most fun I had was post-Caverns Below nerf during Un'Goro meta. There was a crazy number of different truly viable decks you could play. Yeah, Jade Druid was around, but it wasn't oppressive at all like it was after Frozen Throne came out.
Our current meta is meh overall historically. It's not the worst I've seen (I've been playing since Goblins vs Gnomes and I felt the year of unending Shaman was the worst), but it's not in the upper level either.
2
Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt have two differences from the traditional adventures. 1) Instead of treating each boss as a puzzle to beat by building a deck from your collection to exploit their weakness/gimmick (the traditional adventure style), your character grows in power as it progresses on the Run/Hunt by finding treasure and adding new cards to your deck. 2) Dungeon Run/Monster Hunt is a more repeatable mode that isn't always the exact same every time like League of Explorers, Naxx, etc. as the bosses you face aren't always the same and there are rare bosses to encounter. So from the perspective of gameplay, Dungeon Run type modes should have more replay value and be much more friendly to those who are F2P.
It sounds like your only real gripe with the Dungeon Run format is the lack of exciting prizes for playing it. I believe Blizzard wanted to move away from putting cards behind a barrier where you had to actually beat something to get them, even after you paid money. The way they do it now you can get anything you want right away via buying packs and crafting, which is much better for players who wish to play with the cards they are most excited about right when the expansion releases. Also, by not putting cards behind a barrier of gameplay, they can make the content more challenging right off the bat.
While getting a card back as a prize is not super exciting (I agree with you here), it doesn't cost you anything to play Dungeon Run either. It is just a bonus on top of the normal ways to play Hearthstone (ranked/arena). Would you be more excited about the Dungeon Run/Monster Hunt format if it awarded more than one card back (or maybe you could earn old card backs you were missing by completing it subsequent times)? How about a new alternate hero or some other kind of flair for your account?