Hearthpwn

I don't play anymore (I gave up when they introduced Runestones), but I agree with the general consensus of the group here, that Wild shouldn't have any bans; if anything, it defeats the purpose of the game mode.

Being a player that mostly played wild in my last year of playing, I would say that I do think that It deserves a little more attention in terms of balancing however since they very rarely touch any of the cards despite different combinations becoming more and more powerful as additional synergies emerge from new card sets that are added. An example would be Illuminate and Shadow Essence, which is a combination that can allow broken turns on as early as turn 2 with the coin. I am not saying that particular combination needs to be fixed, it's more an example of how two cards that are fine in a vacuum can become a problem together.

The recent nerfs in standard shook up the meta quite a lot, it would be nice for wild to have a shake-up like that every now and again, by reducing the power levels of some of the dominant decks that polarize wild, but without actually destroying those decks in the process.

I started classic yesterday, and am climbing well.

However, I have noticed that many of my opponents (perhaps 2 in 5) are completely AFK. It's not that they are botting units onto the board and doing potentially useful plays (like I have read with a high level of Warlock Zoo bots), but rather ropping each turn.

Is that something that will go away as my MMR improves?

OK EDIT - Reading online, it seems like some people are getting portraits even if they are missing legendary mercs, while other people are getting a merc they are missing.

If you are missing a merc then perhaps hold off on claiming the reward until Blizzard clarifies, since it may be a bug that could be patched.

At the end of the first questline, you get a legendary merc card for completing it. I think it's at around the 6th bounty.

I wish I had known that before burning through most of my packs to get the final legendary merc, before starting the quests

Well, what an annoying surprise.

At the end of the first questline, about 6 bounties in, the reward is a legendary card. Had I known that I could have saved 70 packs, but instead I got a portrait I didn't need on account of having collected every merc.

I am hoping they never fix it, I hate that card more than any other in standard.

...just like they do in standard.

It took around 70 packs (from the legendary before it) to get the last of the newly released legendaries. Fortunately, I had 250 packs saved up, so I got her (Ysera) in the end, but it sure felt horrible burning through them for the sake of one missing legendary, and knowing there was a chance I could open every single pack I owned and still not find her.

I hope that Blizzard addresses this in the future.

I prefer wild, only because I can climb more consistently, whereas in standard the games feel like a real crap-shot.

I made legend in both formats this month, and Wild was by far the easier. I used Pirate Rogue, but there are a number of well-established decks that you will climb consistently with. However with standard, I had some massive swings, the worst was losing 5 games in a row on Diamond 1. I had to change decks 3 times to finally get across the line. I feel like standard has a higher penalty for who you get matched up with.

For example, in Wild as Pirate Rogue, there isn't any deck that I feel that it is an auto loss. Matches like Even Shaman can be a coin flip, but I never feel like it's completely one-sided. Another common match is Big Priest, and again they can be beaten, depending on how early they are able to play Shadow Essence.

However in Standard, if you are, for example, Ramp Druid and you face Aggro Druid, you might as well concede. Or if you are Imp Lock and you come across Wig Priest, you are in for a rough match. I feel that every deck in Standard feels like that, and that's before you even consider cards like Theotar, the Mad Duke. It just feels much harder to have a consistent climb.

Are they Immune to effects like Brawl?

I don't spend any money on Mercenaries - I have occasionally in the past, but those days are long gone given that I have 252 packs waiting to be opened.

On top of that, 66 of my 100 mercs are fully leveled. And every single merc has all of their 3 abilities at level 5. That is just from doing their tasks, most of which are done grinding the first heroic barrens bounty. One thing to ensure is that your team only has members that aren't fully leveled since you always get 10 to 15 coins for completing the bounty for a random member of your team. So you even slowly level up your other characters as you complete your tasks.

In general, you can max out many of your mercs, and get hundreds of packs, just from finishing all tasks, albeit a very grindy process. Entirely free to play.

When you look at how expensive the coins are in comparison, it makes no sense to ever purchase them. Most players who work on completing tasks will have a backlog of packs waiting to be opened when they release the next set of heroes.

Additionally, when they release the coin conversion patch, almost all of my heroes that aren't max level will instantly become max level, probably with tens of thousands of coins spare (maybe not all of my legendary mercs, depending on how they implement the system). I am sure most other people who have completed all tasks will be in the same boat.

I think Sire Denathrius should only affect enemy minions. That would still make it stronger than Raid Boss Onyxia, which was previously considered the strongest standard 10 drop in the game. The results are similar, it would be a board clear with a strong body left on the board. Only with Denathrius, it would also provide healing, and that body also has lifesteal.

The current issue is that the person who draws Denathrius earliest and avoids having it stolen usually wins the game.

Pick Hunter. Pick any cards that deal immediate damage. Get your free pack.

Thanks for the posts.

I have since had some success with Mech Paladin, which I would say that I am slightly favored with.

However, there have been some really interesting suggestions. I completely forgot about Hex even being in the core set. If you put that on minions such as Mountain Bear then that would totally screw up their gameplan, which is basically to Revive Pet their big units and grind you down.

They are everywhere on the ladder at the moment, Diamond 5 and below. Literally at least one out of every two games is against them. I have just played against 4 in a row.

Whilst I do sometimes beat them, each win usually feels lucky. They feel so over-turned at the moment. Harpoon Gun seems very strong for its cost, and somehow I always seem to be facing an endless stream of Mountain Bear from Revive Pet or other combinations that grind me down.

Note that this is not a salt thread. I accept that Hunters have been a bit lackluster in the past and deserve their time to shine. I just would like to know of the classes that perform well against them.

It is fixed now, you can complete the task. It was a server hotfix, so no update is required.

I echo the sentiments though that this should never have happened in the first place. This was obviously never properly tested, which is inexcusable for a company of this size with a game that is played by so many consumers.