Ben Brode Discusses the Warsong Commander Nerf
A new Designer Insights vlog from Ben Brode discussing Warsong Commander has made it to PlayHearthstone's YouTube channel. We've recapped and embedded the video below.
Warsong Commander now reads (in the next patch): Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.
Quote from Ben Brode
- Warriors are already pretty low on the Arena tier list, and this change does take them down further. This will have to be addressed in future sets.
- Charge and Direct Damage are two of the least fun things in Hearthstone. You can't react to them, you must be proactive.
- They wanted to make the card less complicated because it is in the basic set.
- Warsong Commander was nerfed instead of Grim Patron or Frothing Berserker because the biggest issue now, and going forward, was Warsong.
- It was important to keep the identity of the card intact as much as possible.
- They tried 30 or 40 different designs to see which ones felt the best for the card.
- Dreadsteed was originally going to be released in Naxxramas as a Neutral Minion. Warsong Commander prevented that due to their interaction.
Neutral Spells - Card Design Competition Finalist Voting
For this week's Card Design competition, contestants ventured into contested territory as they were tasked with introducing Neutral Spells to the game... Okay, so creating a cute, punny ad for this competition theme is pretty difficult, but thankfully all of our finalists are more creative than I am, so come visit us over at the Finalist Poll Topic and vote for your favorite submissions!
I don't know if you mean the question serious or not, but for the case it is serious: i don't think they will change the card in that way. It would be a really hugh change and there is currently no need to change that. It is not useful for other classes anyway yet.
I was jking
So becasue its a basic card thats the reason to make it complete garbage? Basic warrior cards are nowhere near to the power level of other class cards. New player looks at River Crocolisk Warsong Commander and is thinking "oh so for 1 more mana my charge minions will have +1 attack". Then he try to pull this deck design and see that his Warsong Commander is dying the turn he plays it or is dying to aoe spells together with his low life charge minions. Then he is raging and quiting the game becasue he has no cards to build control warrior which is the only playable warrior deck, maybe coming back the day after to play face hunter. Really cool learning curve.
People will find a way to hate anything. Many also forget Hearthstone is very early in developmental stages with only 2 ex pacs 2 adventures. This explanation makes sense. I would however like to see them hire a team of ladder grinders to give them summaries of the actual play environment.
Whats with Ben Brode thinking the player base is too stupid to comprehend the game. First he said more than 9 deckslots is confusing and now this.
And yet they found a substantial number of new players were losing against Hemet Nesingwary in the tutorial and never coming back to the game. That comment was about new players not the type of people who read and comment on this site.
And this was the best you could do?
Fire your team. Quit your job.
New open jobs at Hearthstone: Senior Lead designer. Prior experience required: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
best comment. well done bro... well met !
maybe we will see some new deck architects manouvering a Patron 2.0 running Charge or just mixing up Control Warrior and Patron and trying out somekind of midrange list - running patrons and mass Whirlwind effects - maybe even Sea Reaver - who will know what to come when new cards are released.
EDIT: Ahh and just let me add this:
Haters gonna hate -put the salt back into your kitchen and move forward - overall the game will be more healthy without this *shit* --> Shaman was nearly a dead class because of this whole interaction of how warsong + Frothing works --> so maybe we will finally see a rise of the Elements again
my favorite class is shaman, i know he is the second worst class after the rogue in todays meta but i love shammy for no reason. and i think shamans problem is not about another class its about him. he doesnt have an effective combo, control or aggro deck, he only has midrange thats the main problem. and most of the midrange decks are too slow against aggro and too weak against control lately.
"Patron just wasn't fun"
I recall him laughing his ass off when watching the OTKs happen on streams.
I personally loved the Patron deck, this feels like the nerf to Miracle Rogue which took a relatively high skillcap to perfect.
The video also doesn't address nerfing Warsong in a way which could've prevented the OTKs, one of my favourite being "Give charge to minions with 3 attack or less ONLY" i.e. 4+ attack minions lose the charge mechanic
Charge just isnt a fun mechanic, because maybe it takes a high skillcap for the warrior player to pull off such otk combos, but the opponent often cant interact with the game and is doomed to loose no matter what he does, which makes it boring and overpowered.
Yes it does. It was limiting their ability to design new cards. They already had at least one card that they simply could not make due to interaction with Warsong, the original neutral Dreadsteed.
ETA: You may not agree but it does address the issue
I can fully understand the reasons for the nerf and how it might prevent other cards being released or make more open to all classes because of this. You know what Hearthstones needs? I know this is going to sound a bit magic the gathering but they need to add a new type of card to the game that allows you to play on your opponents turns.
Okay hear me out on this, right now the game has secrets which I think is a really cool mechanics. But only Hunter, Mage and Paladin have such cards, which means only those classes have access to even counter someone on their opponents turn. I feel that they should start either adding new secrets to all classes or add some sort of new mechanics or card type that all classes can use that can do something.
Warriors cost 5
Spell Reflect, change the target of a spell to another random target;
Disarm when ever a hero attacks with a weapon destroy that weapon.
Pummel when your hero is attacked lose 5 armor and deal 5 damage to the attacking minion.
Warlocks cost 5
Demon Blood When a demon dies summon a random demon of the same cost form your deck to play. its battlecry negated.
Chaos bolt when a minion you control takes damage on your opponents turn, deal 1 damage for each point of damage done this turn to all characters.
Priest cost 4
Leap of Faith when ever hero would take damage, redirect to a minion you control.
Guardian Spirit When a minion you control dies this turn it gains "deathrattle, summon a 0/4 Guardian Spirit with taunt into play".
Rogue cost 4
Instant Poison when your weapon is destroyed by an opponents effect, summon a 1/4 weapon in it's place, If you are at 15 or less life, it gains +5 damage but loses 2 durability.
Pickpocket when your opponent draws an extra card, draw a card that card cost 2 less. Disarm Trap, counter the effect of an opponents secret, deal 1 damage to all your opponents minions.
Garrote when ever your opponent summons a minion, silence it and draw a card. Does not effect battlecry.
I couldn't think of anything really for Druid but you kind of get the idea. Some might think that allowing all classes to have secrets would be more or less either overpowered or not needed, but I feel that to really have some fun, all classes should have some sort of way to counter when it's not their turn.
RIP Shaman, left behind again
Wow that weird, I had Shaman there, well I'll here is the Shaman one I have down on my notes. Druid was the only one I haven't come up with ones for yet.
Shaman Cost 2 Overload (2)
Earth Shield: when ever your hero is attacked, prevent that damage. This effect is used 3 more time until the end of your next turn.
Lighting Shield: When ever your hero is attacked, deal 1 damage to all minions your opponent controls, this effect is used 3 more times until end of your next turn.
Water Shield: when ever your hero is attacked, return that minion to your opponents hand. this effect is used 3 more times until end of your next turn.
More than likely, I don't think Blizzard will add them to classes that don't or they would have already. Also maybe they are waiting for some reason? In any case its not really too strong but it could use work also or have a totally different effect.
«They tried 30 or 40 different designs to see which ones felt the best for the card.»
Be interesting to see what else they tried.
before the Warsong fix