"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.
How fun was molten molten taunt healbot shadowflame?
Exceedingly fun. To play and to play against. Playing against a handlock forced you to make interesting and meaningful decisions about how to play your turns and when/how much damage you should push.
But I loathe this developer comment. To say that your intention was to make sure the card never saw play again is beyond bad form. I hope that Blizzard moves these cards to Wild rather than nerfing them to oblivion. Handlock deserves to exist in Wild, as does old Oil Rogue.
Grimy goon mechanic is a fail except in combo.With cheaper fat minions(shaman),Ramp Jade(druid), aggro and other autopilot decks like dragon priest with multiple hard removals death,pain,hax lol,exec,bolt it's Rio goons.....
The meta will only slowdown if they nerf pirates and aggro in general because Pirate warrior won't lose anything and Reno will leave standard.
Goon mechanics won't be played so much as Bran is leaving and they get easily out-paced while they start to buff their average/weak cards with buffs.
Not predicting Spirit Claws making the mid range shaman stronger was an inexcusable mistake. Can't you realize that 1 mana 9 damage is OP regardless of the deck you're building?!
I do agree Ragnaros is too strong, but on THIS case I'd rather have it as a 6/6 + 8 damage than take it out of standard. I don't really mind they removing cards from standard but they do need to start adding a big number of choices than making a single default 8 mana legendary for each rotation.
Re-evaluate how new content is play tested and consider including the player base somehow and possibly catch potential problem areas before they are released.
deck building skillDUST to utilize.And Sylvanas! Dont forget about her.
Even if the meta slows down, I don't think Goons will be that good. They just die to Nether, Nova plus Doomsayer, Equality Combo, Dragonfire (provided minions aren't buffed enough and they are under 5 health), oh and Kazakus Potion.
"Ben thinks the Grimy Goons mechanic will be used more in the future, once the meta slows down a bit."
It's been a month and a half... what does he think is going to slow the meta down? Nerf to Small Time? I'm sorry to burst everyone's bubbles, but its not going to stop Shaman especially if it isn't a crushing nerf which I doubt will happen.
"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."
Molten Giant would probably be really good for the meta rn and probably would be much more balanced than it used to be
"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 nerved."
God forbid they hurt people's feelings...
"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."
What could they possibly have been thinking? With every expansion this year, it was not hard to predict how Shaman would be powering up more and more just like their little tunnel trogs....
The meta slowing down doesn't necessarily mean this meta. He could be referring to the meta once the new standard year starts and decks become less refined.
True, that's fair. Though that is still 2-3 months away :/
If Ben knows the meta is going to slow down, then he also know they are definitely going to nerf Small-Time Buccaneer. Take this as confirmation.
It's a shitty design team that couldn't predict that Spirit Claws would be good in pre-Karazhan Shaman decks. Do they have nobody on their team that knows how to deck build?
Yeah I would rather them come out and say that they were intentionally powering up aggro because at least we wouldn't be stuck with a negligent design team
the game should be more like rock/paper/scissors... give each class some good anti aggro, anti combo and anti control cards and see how the meta changes from 51% winrate for every deck to 80% winrate from a certain kind of decks and 20% winrate to certain kind of decks... this way the meta will shift much more over a course of time...
I don't think adding more of the Goons mechanic is a good thing. The only thing from keeping it from being completely out of control right now is intense aggro like Pirate Warrior. Ramp like Goons and Jade is a bit excessive.
for the meta to slow it down the dev team has to make cards that will slow it down, its not going to slow itself down one day for no reason like everyones hoping
What is The Grand Tournament?
.
It's the abomination that gave us Flame Juggler, Mysterious Challenger and Totem Golem.
The rest is not worth mentioning and shall not be spoken of.