Blizzard Responds to Community Outrage on Purify
There has been outrage in the community over the weekend after Purify was revealed. It has lead to jokes, memes, countless threads, and a few big-time Hearthstone community members made videos addressing the card.
Iksar stated on reddit that they were already happy with the options Priests were getting from Karazhan through Neutrals and because of that wanted to try something different.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Quote from /u/IksarHSWe've had similar articles in the past about design stories for particular cards, I think the most recent one I remember discussed all the design iterations that Yogg went through. Card designs have a number of different goals, sometimes those goals are immediate competitive play and sometimes they shoot for something else. Things like flavor, arena viability, or sprinkling in tools for a new or existing archetype. In smaller sets, it can be a little risky to take a gamble on a new toolkit because there are fewer cards to work with. In the case of Priest, we were pretty happy with the amount of options the class was getting from neutral (Barnes, Curator*, Medivh, Dragon Cards) to do some testing with a new archetype that Purify could be a part of. In my mind there is some positive to the outcry over Purify because I think people will definitely try it out and report any successes/failures/stories they had building and playing a 'silence your own stuff' priest. None of this is to say anyone is wrong in their feedback, but just to communicate some of the ideas surrounding a card design. Hearthstone is important to all of us, and we're trying to do better in terms of communication and understanding what different communities (like this one) are most interested in. I've been happy to be here and have a conversation about what you all want from the game, thanks for being so passionate about it. :D
5) Power Word: Shield is a billion times better as a cycle.
I wouldnt run that card in Silence Priest. I rather run 3 mana Ironbeak but not that garbage.
They see me purifyin' They hatin'
Shadow Priest, OTK Priest, Healing priest, Control Priest, Inner fire priest, dragon priest, purify priest... i got it. The priest identitiy is to have alot of archetypes and they all suck
I think its a good explanation. You might not agree with it, but its still valid and makes sense. Designing games is complicated
Well, yes and no. The effect of purify , the card text isn't a problem. I get the concept of wanting to open up a new archetype. There's not a lot of support for silence priest at this time, but still, it's an interesting concept. However, I cannot in any way understand the mana cost or rarity.
Two mana is simply far too high for the effect (particularly because there's already a 0-mana alternative which is more flexible). One mana might be fair (Power Word Shield is more generally useful, though with lower potential, and only costs 1), but they probably should have just gone with zero mana because Priest needs a bit of help. Likewise on rarity, with Wailing Soul in Naxx, or with key silence-targets like Ancient Watcher and Eerie Statue, Bliz understood that such niche cards shouldn't be common but rare, so they don't clog up arena too much.
While new card effects can sometimes be hard to judge, they clearly have enough experience by this time. Power Word Shield is a card at 1-mana. Wailing Soul is a card at blue-rarity. There's no excuse for Purify being a 2-mana common.
I like how Blizzard gave a completely valid reason, and one that I had considered previously, and the community responds with "nuh uh"
What would that valid reason be again? I missed it.
I'm not in a position to mock up a card but if anyone wants to steal this idea feel free to (though odds are someone else has had a similar thought.
Purify: Silence a (once) friendly community. (Somehow) Draw a paycheck.
Is anybody else reading that as "we heard you, we give a f*"?
I think that's what makes people so mad about this card. The worst class got the worst card in the game … nobody would care. I think what makes a lot of players angry is the fact that they are ignored since standard arrived. Blizzard makes bad design decisions and people are complaining and the only answer they get is … thank you for your feedback. That is basically a nice way to say "F* you (and draw a card)".
Queue all of the wining about motives to add cards other than "make x deck/class" stronger...
Doomsayer Purify Divine Spirit Inner Fire
7 Mana 14/14, draw a card. Thats insane!
do the same but with silence instead? 5 mana?
But you dont draw a card.
Shield Bearer, Power Word: Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire
5 mana 12/12, with taunt, draw a card...
Lightwell, Power Word: Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire
6 Mana 14/14, draw a card...
As you can see, the combo is underpowered.
somebody fire ben brode, if he is lead design for this game, he has been smoking a whole forest when they where putting this on the table...
If Blizzard messes up at least they should have the balls to admit it and not try bullshitting us with some stupid justifications.
But guys you can Purify your Wild Pyromancer and kill... oh wait.. no, you cannot.
Silence is not a great card, otherwise at zero mana it would see more play. This is a targeted self-silence plus card draw - not sure what the fuss is about.
Also, consider wild, there were some self-silence Fel Reaver decks before WOTOG that were really fun. Strategy was basically to include all the over-stat cards that had significantly negative deathrattle or ongoing effects and lots of silence. You could silence yourself and sometimes the opponent. That deck is very very very dead, mostly because of the silence nerfs. It also did better with druid than priest because priest didn't have enough card draw. Now priest can make some great use of the fel reaver and the corrupted healbots and maybe revive that sort of deck in wild. This card with the draw is definitely better than the vanilla silence for that deck because of the card draw.
Combining two effects into one card is what lots of decks need.