"Ben Brode on how long until Pirates walk the plank"
Tim Clark from PC Gamer had a chance to sit down with Ben Brode to talk about the recent Q&A, his philosophy about nerfing/buffing cards, the next Standard rotation, what they were thinking when Spirit Claws was printed and more!
Quote from Tim Clark and Ben Brode
- They don't want to announce a nerf too far out from it actually happening. If they would, people would feel bad losing against a card they know is going to get nerfed.
- Ben Brode agrees that Small-Time Buccaneer is the problematic card in the Pirate package, not Patches the Pirate. If they decide to change something, it would be Small-Time Buccaneer.
- They intentionally nerfed Molten Giant really hard because they didn't want people to play that card anymore as it was hurting the ability for Standard to change.
- Hypothetically, if they would ever decide to move Classic cards to Wild it would probably be cards like Ragnaros the Firelord because they limit the design space for their mana cost a lot and limit the ability for Standard feel more fresh.
- Ben is not sure if he agrees with Brian Kibler that cheap weapons are a problem in general or if it's only a problem with a few specific weapons.
- The team was a bit disappointed that Shaman got even more popular after Karazhan, as that was not their intention.
- For example, Spirit Claws was intended for a new type of Shaman deck, and not for the current Shaman decks at the time.
- Ben worries about a big expansion concept / theme failing to land.
- C'Thun was one of the most risky things they have ever done and it turned out perfect from a balance perspective.
- Ben thinks the Grimy Goons mechanic will be used more in the future, once the meta slows down a bit.
- They try to have a good balance in 'obvious' mechanics like Jade where you just put as much of them in your deck as you can, and cards that require a bit more deck building skill to utilize.
MOVE RAG??? WTF???
If they do it, I RAGE QUIT standart for sure!
Did you mean to say RAG quit?
I don't have a particular problem with agro. I do have a problem in that
1: Pirate agro is now so strong that it is the only agro. It's the reason Hunter, Paladin and Zoo have been eliminated from the meta
2: Some classes simply don't have reasonable answers to Pirate agro if the Pirate player draws half-way decently. Every class needs some sort of tech that can spank pirates if it is drawn. I'd love to see more cards like Unstable Ghoul, or something like a mini Foe Reaper that would force the pirate to stop and kill the minion, or have his board wiped next turn (and beyond).
Grimy Goons will never be good. They should have learned that lesson from Mistcaller.
I knew immediately that Spirit Claws would be strong. Previously, Argent Squire was often played in shaman decks. Spirit Claws is a better Argent Squire at it's worst, and much, much better at it's best. Shaman has long lacked a way to deal with minions that just need a "ping" to kill or finish off a minion after a low roll on Lightning Storm. At it's worst, it gives shaman a way to do that for 1 mana. at it's best, it's 1 mana for 9 damage. How people didn't see this coming, I have no idea.
Ehm no.... Personally I'd love if they announced nerfs way before they happened.... That way when you lose on turn 4 cause you couldn't outright kill a 1 drop you know it'll be just for a set amount of time and not for ages....
The meta will never slow down Ben.
you heard the man:
KEEP all extra copies of Small-Time Buccaneer !
Is it that weird, that I actually dont mind current meta? Decks seems diverse enough. (even agro decks have many versions) Only thing i might see as an issue is cost of agro countering decks, because they tend to be budget unfriendly. Other than that i like it so far.
Tão dando muita desculpinha e nenhuma solução.
Unless we get sweet anti-aggro cards in the next set, Small-Time Buccaneer will surely bite the dust.
About Molten Giant:
So it changed from face hunter to face warrior. Well, technically it's still a change.
How is Molten Giant related to that? You are just crying for aggro and randomly taking taking a quote from the article?
No, I'm not crying, what I mean is that Blizzard constantly talks about 'changing the meta' and how they want meta to be 'fresh' but in practice what actually is happening is that instead of one face deck we got another.
And I don't know why people always assume that someone is 'crying'. I have very positive win ratio against pirate warrior (worse with shaman & rogue) so w/e. It's just really boring to see aggro on aggro, that's all. Especially when they talk how they want change the meta.
But didn't the meta changed? Aggro decks changed, Control decks changed, Midrange decks changed... If you think there should be no aggro at all, just read guy's post a bit lower.
Can you show me where I wrote it? Now you're just putting words in my mouth. I have nothing against aggro, but it's boring to run on the same decks over and over again. Especially when one deck is like a remix of an old deck that was on different class.
And few days ago I climbed to rank 5 or 4 from 9 running almost only on pirate warrior. And most people would say 'so why are you complaining if you're winning?' and the answer is simple - it's BORING. There's NO interaction, they just go face, I clear the board, heal and they surrender. Fun game.
So sorry if feels like complaining, but when I saw cards in this set I thought there would be much more really cool decks. While players just created fastest decks possible, ignoring 95% of new cards. Well... but disappointing, that's all.
It does feel like complaining. And you are being petty and naive. There always will be aggro. Each expansion. This is how this game works.
And more of that: you need to chose - you wanna climb the ladder or have interesting, interactive, unusual games? Because there are a lot of those between ranks 20 and 12 in the second part of the season. People who are, like you, got bored of same tier1 decks and play something else. With all those new magnificent cards.
In short they know there are problems with Small-Time Buccaneer, they didn't think shaman would be so popular now and that Spirit Claws is meant for a different type of deck...
One question, when and how are they are going to change what is happening? Sorry but as good as it is that they seeing the problem it would have been nice to hear what they are planning to do to combat it.
It's 2 years now waiting for the meta to slowdown
I feel there's always complaints about aggro decks, whether its pirate decks (currently), aggro shaman (with crackle), face hunter (a year ago), zoo (two years ago). The fact is there will always be aggro decks for checks and balances. Imagine the game without aggro decks and fill with midrange and controls. control vs control will take 30 mins every game and you'll be bored out of your mind. Midrange for the most part counters control, so without aggro, midrange will be king and the game will be midrange vs midrange. imagine a bunch of mirror matches, jade druid vs jade druid, mid range shaman vs mid range shaman. In mirror matches, it will come down to curve stone, who can hit their starting mulligans and playing on curve. I can forecast how people will be complaining over reddit and the forums then.
There's never going to be a perfect meta where all classes will be balance or the % of types of decks will be balance (33%/33%/33% aggro, midrange, control)
I'm currently pretty content or satisfy with the meta. it's been the most balance in terms of seeing classes being played as well as different types of decks. For the past year or two, there's been dominate classes or decks and competitive/ladder climbing decks had been narrow down to 3 classes and/or 4 decks. Right now, all classes are represented and can easily hit legend with the exception of hunter and paladin. But i'm sure they will come back to take their reign in the future. we had hunter and pally dominating the ladder for at least a year in the past already.
I suggest to get better at the game instead of complaining about pirates or aggro decks. If you see them that often, why not play a counter deck? Do you know how frustrating it is for your opponents (who's playing pirate decks) to face against a reno deck or control warrior. They lose the majority of the time and sometimes quit after turn 3.
I find the game easier if the meta is defined or populated with the same deck. I just play counter decks and my win rate is easily 70+%. It's when the meta is diversified with a bunch of different decks/arch types that will make it more difficult to climb because you don't know what you'll be facing.