The Dark Wanderer Reflections - Looking Back on the Latest Tavern Brawl
Blizzard recognized the 20th anniversary of Diablo in pretty big ways this year, and the celebration wasn't confined to just the Diablo series itself. Hearthstone gamers got to join the party when the most recent weekly Tavern Brawl got a demonic makeover. The Dark Wanderer, the main meddler of Diablo II, took a stop in the inn to court the powers of evil with a deck of cards. The ensuing event was one of the most unique and interesting Brawls to date.
Now that the Tavern Brawl has ended, it's time for a little reflection. From the poll on the Forums, the HearthPwn community gave the Brawl a 3.9 in Awesomeness, a 3.1 in Replayability, and a 3.3 in Balance. But how did the pros feel about it?
Some of Hearthstone's biggest stars sat down with the new mode to see what's what, and the below is a small sampling from some of the best. Were you left wanting more, like Krip? Or were you like Amaz, and just left confused by the whole ordeal?
Disguised Toast
Did you reveal all of the Dark Wanderer's 10 secrets during the Tavern Brawl? Toast's breakdown of the event is as comprehensive as it gets, and it includes all the secrets, an optimal deck list, and the strategies he used to beat the NPC. From the number of cow-related puns in the video, it's clear that Toast found this Brawl quite a-moo-sing.
Kripparrian
Though he found the Tavern Brawl to be interesting and high quality, Krip wasn't a fan of its replayablity. "It felt like a fairly mediocre PvE encounter as part of an adventure," he said in his video about the subject.
Trump
Maybe the most well-known Hearthstone player on the internet, Trump walked into the Dark Wanderer blind, and he was taken by surprise in the cow dimension phase of the Brawl. After taking an initial trampling by the hellish herd, he eventually gained the upper hoof. "That's kind of cool," Trump shrugged after receiving the special card back. While the event was clearly unique, it didn't seem to rank high on Trump's Awesomeness scale.
Amaz
NRG's Amaz needed a couple of takes before understanding the secrets of The Dark Wanderer. Even then, the presence of the Cow King provided him with many more questions than answers. He did stumble across one of the more interesting secrets within this special event; if you gain possession of the Enigmatic Portal before it triggers, you will be the one to transform into The Cow King! Overall, it seemed like Amaz was left wanting more from the Tavern Brawl.
Now, we want to hear from you. How did you enjoy this unique Tavern Brawl? Let us know in the comments below.
The easiest brawl, a mage performed (standard card 2 AoE mana) or shaman (2 AoE mana). But interesting. I would like to see again in the future this fight. Either the skin on the warlock class!
Did everyone forget that around the same time last year Blizz did the Winterveil brawl and gave us the Winter cardback instead of the pack? Geez I know i'm gonna be staying home this December >_>
It is if you are ftp and not buying packs to save for the adventures.
this is the people that ruin the game...
Another week, without free pack.
Tell moo about it!
Smh didn't post Hysteria's video. He did a bunch of experiments including a golden cow. (it wasn't golden thanks blizzard)
I played it a few times. Once to earn a card back, and to become a Cow King. There was nothing more intersting for me.
It was fun, and the card back was top-quality which for sure will invoke the envy of all who do not have it.... but, once you do everything, there isn't much reason to keep coming back to it. It kind of reminded me of the Stormwind brawl, with the score counter and all. It's kind of like you hit your challenge point of dealing a billion damage, after that it feels like it's pointless. Same with the Cow King - you meet him or be him, then after that what's the difference between killing 10, 30, or 100 hell bovines - just the score I guess.
yeah.. just unique card back with animation that can't be aquired in any time. yeah, it sucks.
I played it once for the card back, watched Toast and Kripp's vids so I didn't have to bother getting the Cow King myself. Really boring brawl, zero replayability :/
It was pretty fun and good designed. It could have been a little bit harder imo. But than the newer players would be mad. So next time they should spice brawls like this up by introdoucing more levels in increasing difficulty.
I edited the most typos away. Sorry.
good idea, different difficulty levels would be interesting. that was my main complaint too. I don't particularly like a PvE where I don't have to build something special to beat it. Having to think about how to beat it is my favorite part of PvE. I also had this issue with most of the karazhan PvE. with only a couple of the PvE fights requiring any heavy lifting at all (maybe 3 if you include heroic chess)
Im so sorry Mister i wont abuse ur eyes again. I typed too fast and didnt cared to overead it because my English isnt the best. But the most are only typos. So calm down :)
i won with trash zoo deck easy win i had no clue :p
They should have made it more obvious that there was more to the brawl than meets the eye. I get that they wanted to make obtaining the card back easier for players with small collections, but they should have dropped some hints that you might want to build your deck a certain way or something.