Hearthpwn

Sigh. This is bad news for the people who will collect all the cards AND purchase the mini set with their gold. Just becomes dust. You're potenially getting 1/4th the value you would have from the Standard Packs instead since you can get any card from any standard expansion. I will probably have the entire collection in no more than 2 weeks so I am looking at 12 packs of dust at least between expansions?

Updating the regular Tavern Brawl reward pack from a Standard Pack to a pack from the latest expansion!

I always get all the cards when we get a new expansion. Call me a whale if you like, but I like to have no limits when it comes to deckbuilding from the start.

This change makes packs from the brawls pure dust for me, while standard could be saved and be useful when they add new standard cards.

I think quests are not good for the game.

I remember how before the rewards track and rewards XP I thought it would be much better if instead of quests we would have some kind of XP towards our rewards. The formula for the "normal" XP seemed pretty much perfect. What they did is nothing like that and just made everything more complicated and harder to evaluate. The variety of rewards that the system offers is the only good thing about it.

The question is why are quests so important and do they even work for their intended purpose.

From Blizzard's perspective it works as it keeps people to come back and "do their quests". So it makes sense they didn't want to remove them entirely. 

But what about the player perspective? I think there are some reasons why quests instead of just plain more rewards for playing more is good. It can give people incentive to play a certain deck, try out some new strategy or class, or even inspire to build a new deck.

From my experience though it rarely get people to actually be creative. The best example I have is "Play X drink spells". I actually tried to make a meme deck with it and I was playing seriously. To some extent. I'm not a "tryhard", I only play for fun. My "win condition" was Yogg-Saron powered up by all the drink spells. I used Priest to bring back Drink Servers over and over. But what do some people do I faced with the same quest? Quickly kill their Drink Server themselves and mindlessly play the drinks ASAP. They don't care about the actual game. They didn't even try. They just wanted to "get their quest done" and then leave.

So for that reason I think quests are not all that great and I rather dislike them to be honest. I wish they would remove them and adjust the formula on when you get how much XP. And I think how it works with "normal" XP is how it should be.

Of course that would no sense for Blizzard to do because the quest system keeps some people coming back. I'm just saying that for us, the players, I think it would be mostly beneficial to actually not have quests at all and instead we would passively get more rewards XP than we do right now.

These changes make it abundantly clear they don't care about the players, just the cash grab

No shit, Sherlock ... 
Blizzard is TOTALLY making games out of altruism 

Because you don't need customers to make money, right? My point had nothing to do with altruism and more to do with making sure players WANT to play the game still. I used to buys xpacs because it's not much money, but I don't want to incentivize this company anymore with their poor decisions on how they use their resources gained from real money transactions. Clearly this went over your head, bud. Might want to sit out comments if you only take words for face value.

you should google 'sarcasm' or your life is going to be hard buddy :)

 also I am not even gonna pretend I care about your opinion on me 

I dont get it. I actually really like the way quests are now. Theyre pretty easy to complete and give more XP than the way theyre going to revert it to... And the 'play' instead of 'win' is one of the best changes theyve ever done. It's a win-win for everyone. If I dont feel like grinding and I dont care if I lose, I play "kill yourself" warlock, kill myself turn 4 for a fast game and the opponent gets a win for their monthly chest lol. And although getting a pack from the expac instead of a standard one is a lot more exciting and fun for the first couple of weeks of the set, the standard one is pretty much always better. I too save mine and open them before expansion packs when a new set comes out

 I too save mine and open them before expansion packs when a new set comes out

You've just described why they're making the change. Savvy players save $20/$80 opening packs to unlock the mini set. If I can eventually save up the gold, sometimes I go back and buy the golden version for the diamond card, but spend cash? No thanks. This change will lead to an increase in sales, no doubt.

And the 'play' instead of 'win' is one of the best changes theyve ever done. It's a win-win for everyone. If I dont feel like grinding and I dont care if I lose, I play "kill yourself" warlock, kill myself turn 4 for a fast game and the opponent gets a win for their monthly chest lol.

Win-win for everyone? What if the other player would like to play an "actual" game and doesn't care as much about the "free win"? I feel like this is what some people always forget. I for one always report those people for "losing intentionally". I didn't even know that's a valid reason until I once saw it when I reported botting. Although I imagine Blizzard is like you and would be like "What's the matter? It's a win-win for everyone!". But why is it then an option? Very strange. Well, I think it is BM to do this kind of stuff. Sometimes I also rope them while playing around with the board. Why bother? They don't want to play an actual game anyways? Why should I care then? But often I just get bored and concede. Except I see they're trying to do play specific cards for a quest but they don't even try to play properly since they're just doing it for the quest. I of course concede right before they are about to play a card in the hope they have to waste more time now just like how they wasted my time. I know I shouldn't do this but it's just so annoying. "You wanted to play a proper meaningful fun game? Yeah, about that..." Just one of the reasons I try to play mainly with friends now. That or Battlegrounds Duos is also fun.

^I pray this is satire^

No...?

What's so hard to understand?

I don't understand how so many people like those "free wins" so much. Imagine a Rock-Paper-Scissors game but it's coded so that you'll always win. Sounds like a terrible game. Maybe I'm missing something crucial but I really don't get those people. For me there's no fun if the opponent doesn't try to win. What's the point of playing then? To win? Even if it's meaningless? ... Your profile picture fits perfectly here. But why? Why do people do this? Makes no sense to me.

I guess I just have to keep trying to make new friends to play with. Today actually 2 people accepted. Only to then remove me again a few sentences into our conversation. Yeah, Hearthstone is not a great game if you're looking for more friends to just have fun with. The 10 year anniversary would've been the perfect opportunity to launch some great social features. But no, of course they just continue doing some bare minimum to get the maximum profit.

Maybe that's why I hate it that much. This "min-max" type of attitude you see everywhere. It almost always makes things worse. And yet so many mindlessly do it. To what end? But people don't think about that. Just keep doing it and hope for the best. You know, my favorite deck is Yogg Mage. But you don't just mindlessly play whatever random and discovered stuff you get. It can be very important when and how you make use of something.

Sadly it seems most people don't like to play that way and needless to say with that deck type I lose very often because it's basically "too fair". And yet I know how awesome and fun the game can be with the right people and with the right decks.

I don't get how you can think it's important to try to win and play a deck like yogg mage. Those two don't fit together very well, do they? 

Edit: You know what actually I think I get it. I too am a yogg enjoyer but I don't try to lose, if that's what you meant.

Yeah, I guess that's what I mean basically. It seems it actually is hard to understand? To me it's just so obvious. How can I explain it better?

I play to have fun playing random cards; trying to make the best of the stuff that I get and the more variety the better. But most importantly it also should be "meaningful" if that makes sense. As in if I play badly I might lose and if I play well I might win. And for that the opponent also needs to "play to win" and not "I'm just doing a quest/achievement". That's the problem.

In essence the problem here is that there's no tension. It's just super dull and uninteresting. They'll just do their own thing and then leave. That's always the worst. It feels like they just used you. Sometimes I wish the innkeeper would keep playing at least, lol. Then I would get a decent game for once actually! lol How about improving practice mode so you can play against your own decks. But I guess the A.I. might not play all that well so it might not be that much fun. Still I think I would play a lot against the innkeeper if you could give him your decks. I actually did try some adventures but the problem is normal is baby mode but for heroic you have almost no chance with a normal deck. So that isn't actually that much fun unfortunately.

Instead you have to resort to "normal" play and that often isn't great; at least for me. In Ranked you face crazy OP decks and you can't complain because that's just competitive play. I absolutely understand that. That's to be expected there. But guess what happens in Casual. People go there often for those quests and to have their "non-games". The problem is they are basically not playing the game or at best playing a completely different game. For example Suicide Warlock. You had no idea beforehand that the goal suddenly is the opposite. How can you even "win" now? You can't. It's over.

Is it really so hard to understand that I would just like to have a nice decent game where both people have an about equal chance and where hopefully a lot of cool and interesting stuff is happening and with a lot of back and forth and so on? Instead whenever I say it the basic response is always the same: "It's a free win for you. Be happy about it." No! That's not why I'm playing the game! Why would I ever be happy about such an outcome? I really don't get those people. I only see by the downvotes that I'm indeed in a minority with this. I really don't understand. It makes no sense to me.

Yes, a lot of people seem to forget or misunderstand the purpose of playing which is to enjoy the game itself, win or lose. I don't hate free wins because quests are done quicker but I don't love them either because I didn't really get to play the game. Needless to say I dislike aggro the most for its ego-driven intention to claim victory with the least amount of interactions possible. You end the game, there is no game.

Heaven forbid you use the quest reroll system you already have in the game,  make it unlimited rerolls and have both harder and easier weekly quests in the pool. Let the players actually decide how much time they want to spend and xp they want to get. But it's Blizzard, not outside expectations for their genius changes.

Who asked for this? We all know you are doing this for more profit. Trying to disguise it as a decision made for players is disgusting.

Quote from Master_Roxas >>

Negative changes like this will just keep on piling.

They tested the waters long ago with nerfing gameplay exp and the community stupidly supported it believing it was to fight bots.
PS: It's to make players spend more real money.

And guess what? There are more bots now and actual players gain much less exp.

 I have felt this reduction in xp gains, terrible change for the players

I see this as mainly negative changes in my personal case.

I think that after the very controversial first change to the weekly Quest, they hit the sweat spot with "Play 10 games", now it returns not only to need to win 5 games (Which it costs at least the same amount of times, cause decks usally have around a 50% Winrate) but also they are going to reward you with less XP. And for me, a person that plays for fun and that only can afford to play the game a couple hours per week, its going to be way harder for me to complete the Quest. And is not something I think, is something I know. Cause I already experience it.

And the Tavern Pack is also negative, because a Standard Pack IS a New Set Pack, because of the rarity protection. So this change is better the first 2 Weeks. But the next 3 and a half Months, you are keep getting fixed Set Packs, which are most likely going to give you 4-Commons and a Rare that you already have, while before once you concider opening packs is no longer worth it, you could save the standard packs for the next set and open them there to actually get value from it.

The Swapping 250G for 5 packs (which is worth 500G) IS a good change. Render unto Caesar.

Quote from Ophion-EU >>

I much prefer standard packs from brawls. I usually save all standard packs and open them all when each expansion launches. Since standard packs work with duplicate protection they'll almost exclusively give cards from the most recent expansion if you open them first. Now you can't save up anymore which sucks.

 At least we'll get more XP!    Oh wait, no, we'll get less XP.  

The community was unhappy when the initial changes made with stupid requirements - "WIN 15", "play 60 miniaturize" etc.

But they dialled it down and I think the player base were broadly satisfied with it.

So to revert it all now seems weird.