Hearthpwn

Oh wow, that really feels like a punch in the gut. While to me most of the expansion looks rather meh I was really excited for the new Whizbang. But not only to play with him but most importantly to play against him. It's an amazing card that I think most people would love to at least try it out a few times for the fun of it. I was really looking forward to the first few weeks with tons of games with and against the new Whizbang but now... I don't know...

The most annoying thing here is that I can't really do anything about it. I can't buy it for other people to then play against it. This thing is something that I started to notice recently. I don't care that much what I can play as long as it's somewhat fun and having started a few months ago a new account I can say that part is super easy. (New Player experience has improved a lot IMO.) The part that always gets in the way is what the opponent plays and of course it's most often just some optimized decks that just tries to win. Either that or a bot with a super boring basic deck. Well, maybe that's just my experience but you get the idea.

I really have to say that for me I realized that it makes basically no sense to spend money anymore. And that despite me liking many aspects especially the great work with the little details like visuals and sounds. But what do I actually get when I spend money? I can only adjust my deck. What if I am fine with what I've got but would still like to have fun? If they would sell access to a single player mode where you can play against your own decks played by the innkeeper that would make sense for me to buy maybe. But all this other stuff especially all those fancy but limited cosmetics? No, why should I buy that? But it seems this is the way they have chosen for Hearthstone.

I guess in the end this expansion as the 10 year anniversary has made me realize that indeed a lot has changed. My personal favorite period was the Year of the Dragon with a really awesome theme throughout the year but most importantly Dungeon-Run type Solo Adventures were still a thing and at an all-time high. After that... yeah, a lot of things have changed and to me it feels like it's often not as exciting anymore and a lot revolves around things I don't care about. Cosmetics, achievements, optimized decks. I just want to have fun with cards like the new Whizbang. But now people need to spend resources instead of getting it for free.

I suppose that is their plan. People are so excited about the new Whizbang that they would directly or more likely indirectly spend money to get to play with it. The problem is that I think it might not actually be so fun if not a lot of people play with him. Now the problem with giving him out for free is of course that they wouldn't be able to directly monetize that. It's one of those things I really don't like about Hearthstone. The actual cool cards that are fun for both players are extremely hard to monetize because they require the opponent to also "play for fun" but the default is "play to win".

What I was really hoping for the 10 year anniversary was some kind of overhaul of the social functionalities. Currently Hearthstone is certainly not a game where it's like you like walk into a friendly tavern, sit down at a table and just start a fun game of Hearthstone. It could be though. But not with the current setup. What did they do instead? Recently they shut down fireside gatherings completely. IMO that was not a bad start if they wouldn't tie it down to some specific actual IRL location. But no, instead of improving it they rather remove it completely. I'm not sure how much they could do because of the overall battle-net client but I mean in a game like World of Warcraft you also don't need to first accept friend request to talk to people so in some form or another it could be done. But yeah, it seems like they don't want Hearthstone to be a social game; something I really would like since I love the silly shenanigans like Yogg and whatnot.

A part of me knew it was going to be Li'Na, Shop Manager , but I wanted to believe it was going to be Joymancer Jepetto. Sad day for the Free too play player.

Tho I was sure it wasn't going to be Splendiferous Whizbang or Zilliax Deluxe 3000 cause they are the most hyped Neutral Legendaries, and is not a very Blizzard move give away the cards that are going to get crafted on day one the most.

No longer getting diamond legendary from collecting legendary cards, instead getting 2 rare and 2 common signature cards, eww...

I just saw the Achievement thing, then checked out what the new version looks like, and my goodness, this stinks.

Most of the achievements are still tied to specific legendaries and epics, making this even more of a bonus package to people who bought big bundles than before (since your chances of having those specific cards are much slimmer now). And overall a significantly smaller package also, only awarding 700 XP per class instead of 1100 (cannot really compare neutrals).

Fittingly, one of the most rewarding achievements is tied to Corridor Sleeper. Might as well give write on the pre-order "includes a time-exclusive minion that can make you another 1400 XP".

Few people even bothered to do the achievements and Blizzard thought these people need to get a slap on the wrist? For having the audactiy of playing (mostly) really crappy cards and decks, giving free wins to the tryhard ladder junkies, and making loads of XP in the process, that would amount up to... maybe a few hundred gold at most? (Well, technically, though you'd make far more XP just from playing all the games required to complete the achievements. You'll probably have a few thousand XP collected before you can get the 200 for winning 100 games with Reno decks)

Most of the achievements were horribly designed, tedious and time consuming and enforcing suboptimal playstyles. And the tiny fraction of players that even bothered to complete them at least populated the ladder. At a time, when the playerbase is noticably dwindling and bots are getting out of hand (and no, bots do not play achievement-decks, you'd notice). And you want to tell those players that they should play less?

I mean, come on! WTF are their priorities!?

Whizbang isnt free legendary :(

booooooooooo i tought zilliax or whizbang

Whelp... that is definitely not (one of) the free legendary I expected, probably one nobody expected, and one that I expect almost everyone will be disappointed by.

This feels like it was done on purpose. You have Whizbang decks, you have Zilliax with it's dozen different versions, you have Jepetto with its Miniaturize-synergy, and instead we get the one that is underwhelming and forgettable in design and powerlevel, and feels like a last minute addition.

The Hearthstone law of never being too exciting.

Sad...first signature art quality could not hold up with last year also less cards and now only one Diamond Card.

And Achievement hunting made easier ... it will be a sad set launch for me, hope next expansion will be better, but it will save my money!

Oh no they gaved the worst leg 

Well, it is good news that the achievements of the previous expansion continue to give experience after the release of the patch.

have u seen how few achievements there are now? it was the only reason I continue to play the game after reaching D5, they removed card rewards as well you know golden for playing specific cards, and also no more diamond for owning the whole collection, seems like a shitty way to go on about things from my personal perspective, now I'd probably finish all achieves and call it a day till next expansion.