The Future of Firebird's Finery, Monk Leaderboard S6 Weekly Recap
May 26th Hotfix Notes, Medivh Skills & Talents Recap
Legion Beta - Build 21796
Notice: Blizzard has opened up a job opening for a Hearthstone Associate Game Designer.
Old Gods Expansion Could Have Included Titans
The Golden Wisp podcast had Peter Whalen, Hearthstone Game Designer, on to discuss the design of the Old Gods expansion. There were a few interesting bits of information he had to share about the design around the expansion and card nerfs.
Hopefully Titans will one day be a thing in Hearthstone!
Quote from Peter Whalen
- The team wanted to do an expansion featuring Old Gods vs The Titans but couldn't find room to flesh both out within 130 cards.
- C'Thun and his buffing minions had used a keyword called Ritual / Ritualists.
- They don't want to add too many new mechanics to the game - it can make it more difficult for new players to understand the game.
Card Nerfs
- Ice Block, Alexstrasza, and Sylvanas Windrunner were all nerf candidates.
- Keeper of the Grove was going to be increased to 5 mana, but they instead made it a 2/2.
- Blade Flurry was considered to be changed to a single target ability.
- Ancient of Lore was a tough nerf, but they want Druid to feel different every year.
Deck Spotlight: C'Thun N'Zoth Control Priest
Poor Anduin hasn't seen much play on the pro-scene, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun with him! Shock191919 brings us a Rank 5 Priest Control deck tonight which makes use of the Old Gods C'Thun and N'Zoth, with N'Zoth being more of a back-up plan.
- Build up your C'Thun, get some cool stuff from Museum Curator.
- Soak up damage you've taken via Twilight Darkmenders or protect via Twin Emperor Vek'lor.
- If they aren't dead, build your board again via N'Zoth, the Corruptor.
The deck costs 5520 dust, and you can find the contents of it below. Check out the writeup to learn more about the deck.
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Minion (20) |
Ability (10)
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The Angry Chicken #152: "Format Wars"
This week on The Angry Chicken, the crew discussed the americas spring prelims, the various competitive formats and what pros have to say about them, the usual crazy game stories, and your emails.
Watch episode #152 of The Angry Chicken below! You can find previous episodes over on their YouTube channel and you can give the cast a follow over on @TACPodcast on Twitter.
Don't forget Garrett, Jocelyn, and Dills will all be doing a live recording of The Angry Chicken at CreateCon in Orlando, Florida on July 30th. For tickets and information check out CreateConvention.net.
I hope next Adventure is Pirate themed. Blackrock Mountain made the pointless Dragon tribe viable, now let's do the same for Pirates.
And maybe we can get pirates for all the classes finally.
Next Expansion Titans great.
They should have made Blade Flurry do a single target damage to a minion for 6 mana. Guess they didn't test it long enough.
I'm glad that they didn't do Titans as well with this expansion. It's better they take it slowly, so that they wouldn't run out of ideas. On that said, they can do it next expansion, as a way to fight the Old Gods corruption.
As for the nerfs, maybe it's safe to assume that the cards considered will get nerfed next year. I dont think that it would make a big difference for Keeper of the Grove being 5-mana or a 2/2. Maybe it would be considered more often as 5-mana compared to now. Happy that they didn't apply the Savagery nerf on Blade Flurry. Ancient of Lore's nerf was unecessary. The card was only "overused" because of the combo and since they nerfed it, there was no need for Lore's nerf as well.
agree... ben brode is succh an idiot honestly xD never doa good job... and when it does... it's a mistake from him.... like reno jackson... he made the card to troll us... so stupid game designer honestly
i feel like Ben Brode and his crew always do stupid shits "just for fun" and then they realize that what they did is not what they mean, and happens when they want to do something "good" and then that "good thing" is just fucking bad as hell... A BIG example is c'thun... it suppose to be the meta right? but what happened? C'thun is just a trash tier 3 deck.... another example is Reno Jackson.... They made that card just for fun.... those stupids didn't espect to be a competitive card.... i meanif you really sit and read the card it seems like a joke for a card game... but surprise !... Reno is fucking op... that's the problem with ben brode and blizzard... i honestly think they can't do good job for this game... i know my comment is so salty xD but is really the tue what i said... Sorry for bad english tho, is not my main language.
You just talk trash with not a single argument, and then you apologize for your use of the language. You are a joke, man.
''Next year: We want to change Fireball's text to ''4 Mana: Deal 4 damage'' so Mage feels a different way every year''
P.S. I don't like druid
Man, I hope a Titans expansion is next. First, Whispers of the Old Gods. Next? TITANS: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE!
Nice to see the thoughts that go into to nefing a card
To me, it's pretty evident that we should all be past complaining about the nerfs. Standard and the current meta is so, so, so much more fun that it was before. The nerfs have a lot to do with it. I was a little worried about silence being nerfed into oblivion, but now I love it. BGH, Hunter's Mark, and Knife Juggler all still see competitive play. Good riddance to combo, leper gnome, and Arcane Golem. The Blade Flurry nerf still seems really strong on paper, but at the same time Rogue is still one of the best Arena classes, and was the single most represented deck at both the EU and NA prelims. That leaves AoL as a junk card, but there's so many junk epics, that I really don't mind. You could make it a 6/6, and it would still be worse than Azure Drake. Drawing two cards was simply OP, and drawing one is simply never going to be good enough on 7 mana for competitive play. There's better draw mechanics. That's fine.
As for other cards, the casters pointed out that they have a process in place now to nerf cards on a regular schedule when the new Standard sets rotate in. Alex and Ice Block are cards that are always going to have to be looked at carefully, but I don't see them breaking the game right now in any way. Doomhammer and Tirion are always the masters of being undercosted.
Mostly, I wasn't prepared for how much I was going to enjoy the Naxx and GvG cards being gone. Shredder, Belcher, Boom, Lightbomb, Death's Bite, etc. The game is so much better for it.
To everyone complaining about the nerfs that made some cards unplayable (or at least not top tier competitive anymore), you have to understand that Blizzard intends for the formats to change and be different so it's not the same cards over and over forever. If they don't nerf the card enough then there is a chance nothing would have changed and we'd still be dealing with combo Druids and BGH on every big minion you play. So yeah, some cards got harsh treatment.
Personally I am glad they nerfed what they did. Some of the cards are still decent to fringe playable and others are just not a good enough rate to compete anymore. Be glad they did this so all your awesome new cards can actually be used instead of just playing the same format forever. Remember when everyone was complaining that the format was stale for like 3 months earlier this year? Now people complain about card nerfs? The nerfs allowed the format to change to something better. If a few cards have to be sacrificed for the greater good then so be it. I guess some people will always find something to complain about.
Ice block is clearly one of the most broken cards in the game. But sure, let's make druid different by nerfing AoL, an epic class card that is now worst than Azure drake, a neutral rare!
Now there are no cards that are used in literally EVERY DRUID DECK... except maybe wrath, druid of the claw and swipe. Honorable mentions to innervate and willd groth.
Good job. Very refreshing.
"but they want Druid to feel different every year."
Wow this logic is why Drood is dumpster now? Gee thanks well thought out plan there.
I realy like blizzard showing us the "behind the scene" of card design/nerfs. It takes courage and opens the door to massive criticism.
Very cool blizzard. just know that most of us appreciate the window into your design process.
I think Titans could be very cool. Hopefully they get implemented soon.
But we want new mechanics :(