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.
While this brawl was quite exciting (pve encounters are always cool even if they are mediocre) it didnt feel rewarding because:
1. No pack.
2. When I did it first time I just took pirate warrior and won in turn 5 without triggering any secrets. I got new cardback, meh.
3. I decided to trigger them, took me about 5 games. Wasn't rewarding.
4. I decided to become cow king, took me about 20 more games. Still no reward.
Pointless. There should be something. 100g for triggering all the secrets? Maybe this missing pack should be awarded to players who trigger them and kill cow king? But even without the rewards I have replayed it 30 times. Thats more than any other brawl, maybe thats the point;)
But sadly, this brawl was still better than D1 in D3;)
My only reflection so far is this: who the fuck is jarretjawn ?
I was dissapointed. I dont like brawls in general cause they are either terribly balanced or just a rng fests.
When they announced this one and said about brawl only cards i figured we might have some fun with op spells and minnions like back in ragnaros vs nefarian brawl (shame one side was clearly stronger). When i saw "create your brawl deck" button i knew they f*cked up and it will be boring as always. Nothing special, not even close to being fun or challenging like regular/heroic bosses in adventure mode. The terrible ai i wont even mention cause its nothing new and i dont expect it to ever change. overall 3/5 is a good grade for it but i expected better for 20th anniversary of the game that rly put blizzard on the map and was imo their first big success that everyone was talking about. (warcraft 2 was great too but didnt hit with such wide audience)
No pack = no fun for me .
Card backs are useless and I don't care about Diablo universe .
wish i could have fun for 40 dust in shitty rng fests that are brawls each week
I liked the Brawl and its reward. The part I thought was lacking is how the Hearthstone AI seems incapable of making it through a single game without making some colossally bad play. As interesting as the mechanics were, I didn't feel like the brawl was too replayable because there was no expectation that the AI would ever be able to beat you.
i have to disagree about hearthstone bad AI for the first time ever
i only played this brawl late Sunday but played it quite a bunch... this guy knew when to push face and when to trade.. i was blind going in so i made a hunter deck to finish some quest, this guy was fun and good... he got his lethal by shadowflaming a weapon rack and killing me.. even at the times he lost.. it is true that i lost once, but that one time too many for hearthstone AI controlled encounters for me.. the Cow King on the other hand was stupid :P
I saw some clever Power Overwhelming + Shadowflame plays myself, but I also saw quite a few plays like Power Overwhelming on Imp Gang Boss (AI's only minion) attacking my face when I was at 30 life...
You should include Hysteria's video, too. He came up with some really fun interactions, such as having both players become the cow king and especially turning yourself into a golden cow king (sadly the bovines weren't animated... shame on you Blizzard!).
Did anyone ever get the Stealth & Charge secrets?
Actually, now that you mention it, he never did for me... Kinda annoying since the secret I really hated was the death one.
Like, I'm supposed to possibly throw the game just incase it's one of them? More often than not for me it wasn't.
Don't bitch and hope this one comes back, Right?!!?
I had the Stealth hit more than once ad the Charge --- nope! Fun Brawl. Very fun!
Nice concept and was different but executed poorly like most things from Team 5. It was so brain dead easy to beat it sucked all the fun out, had no desire to play it a 2nd time.
A thing Blizzard used to excel at but is now something they don't get at all now that all the founders don't do this anymore is that without struggle there can't be triumph. Everyone look back at all your greatest gaming moments throughout your life, chances are it was struggle and you were banging head on the keyboard but looking back would you have wanted it any other way? Fuck no. All of this participation hand outs with brain dead easiness is the #1 absolute cancer to Blizzard games today it makes for abysmal game play with no lasting memory no nothing.
Come on relax a little.
The awesome gameplay you describe is well catered for in adventure content (Heroic) and in ranked (get Legend if you can). This brawl being relatively easy meant new players can also get the card back.
Personally I liked the extra playability of finding every secret and getting into the cow level.
Fun brawl. Would have preferred a pack to a cardback but that's a tiny gripe.
Tiny indeed. Why would 40 dust be better than an awesome lookin' card-back?
Then you'll never truly understand the joy of playing with the Cupcake card back whilst eating a cupcake...
Was a great brawl, replay was a little lacking after you managed to do cow level, but, left some trying to become cow king, which was an interesting concept.
All n all, I think it was a solid 8 out of 10, it's replay value was more than what most brawls are which is one. And the few gold farming ones. This one got you involved more than any other brawl to date.
I really liked the brawl. It was something fresh.
Let's face it, not every brawl will fall into peoples taste and previous ones already falls under that category as well.
It felt like "a wild" boss appeared that we had to do battle against.
The only thing I feel like is IF they're going to do some more Player vs A.I. - implement a Heroic version of it as well.