Ben Thompson and Ben Brode Twitter Q&A
During Gamescom, Ben Brode and Ben Thompson both answered community questions on Twitter via video. We've transcribed all their responses and summarized their answers down below for you.
- The mouse seen in some official art is named Sarge. He is the best friend of the Innkeeper, Harth Stonebrew.
- No plans right now to do the same treatment Death Knights received for Monk and Demon Hunter.
- RNG cards can actually add skill to the game and aren't just there to make things fun.
- Reducing the top-end grind for ladder and giving players stuck at low levels at progression are the immediate goals the new ladder system needs to achieve.
- Mechanics they like will be brought back. Giving others their own time to shine is important though.
- Concerned about Druid? Brode wants you to check out Dean Ayala's post.
We've got some fluffy responses too!
- Brode's favourite card from Frozen Throne is Deathstalker Rexxar.
- Thompson's favourite is Valeera the Hollow
- Brode has been using Meat Wagon alongside Validated Doomsayer and Devilsaur Egg.
- Both Bens love the Archmage Antonidas card art (and artist - Wayne Reynolds).
Quote from @PlayHearthstoneWhich card is your favourite card in #FrozenThrone?
Ben Thompson: Mine personally would be Valeera the Hollow, mostly from the conceptual side of what does a Death Knight Rogue look like. A rogue that is permanently a part of Shadow sounds like an awesome visual to me and the artist did an amazing job.
Ben Brode: Speaking of an awesome visual, Deathstalker Rexxar, owning the board, stitching together a horrifying beast, that's my favourite card in the set.
BT: And most animated. (Source)
That cute mouse in the [Frozen Throne] trailer, I've also seen it on [Mean Streets of Gadgetzan] artwork. Is there a story behind it? Does it have a name?
BT: That mouse in the trailer is actually Sarge. The best friend of Hearth Stonebrew, the Innkeeper of the tavern. He has in fact shown up in key art from previous expansions as you mentioned from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, and even in some of the early art for the game. Keep an eye out as I'm sure he'll show up again.
BB: Especially if you leave cheese out. (Source)
Are there any plans to incorporate Monk and Demon Hunter classes in a similar fashion to Death Knights in the future?
BT: We were actually really happy to be able to find a home for Death Knights in the form of the new hero cards with Knights of the Frozen Throne. That said, at this point in time there is no plans to do this again for a different class in the future. Who knows what the future holds however. (Source)
Hi Ben, what do you think of the design of RNG cards? Do you agree that RNG cards make HS more fun to watch but less competitive?
BB/BT: Hi Garrosh.
BT: Actually, on the Hearthstone team we do believe RNG cards make Hearthstone more fun to play.
BB: Yeah and it has an interesting relationship with skill. A lot of the random cards generate new cards that you didn't put into your deck. That can often create novel scenarios - brand new that you haven't had to deal with before and the best players at Hearthstone are the best at adapting to those brand new situations quickly and finding the right answer. So, in that way, it can actually add skill to the game. (Source)
Frozen Throne is cool guys! Get it? Ok but how about a quick update on ladder changes please? Thanks!
BB: We are hard at work on changes to the ladder. I'm very excited about them. I think there's a couple of big opportunities to make things better. One is to reduce the amount of grind for top level players. Two, adding a bit of progression for players that are stuck at the very bottom of the ladder. And three is increasing the winrate for brand new players and making the new player experience better - that I think will have to come later since we're focused on the first two things right now, but we're excited. (Source)
What is one card you wish saw more play on ladder or what is the card that players haven't figured out how to use properly?
BB: I feel like maybe players haven't figured out Meat Wagon yet. It is super fun and can be very powerful. I've been playing it with Validated Doomsayer and Devilsaur Egg which because they have 0-attack they come out via the Meat Wagon and it might be powerful.
BT: Seems good. Seems good. (Source)
You always introduce new cool mechanics, but never bring them back - Will we see more hero and lifesteal cards in upcoming expansions?
BT: That's not exactly true, we have actually brought back mechanics from the past. If you look at something like Deathrattle that featured in the Classic set and also Curse of Naxxramas, now its showing up again for Knights of the Frozen Throne.
BB: As far as Death Knights and lifesteal, we don't want to talk too much about the future just yet, but generally we do bring stuff back if we like it - we'll explore it again. We do want to give other mechanics time to shine. We're very excited about other new ideas we have. (Source)
So I think that we all agree that Druid is too strong. Do you have any plans for any nerfs so that we don't get smashed each game?
BB: I think Druid is very strong but Knights of the Frozen Throne is only two weeks old. We're going to monitor the situation, and that doesn't mean just do nothing, we're actually looking at winrates and seeing what comes up. Ideally, decks take advantage of Druids and raise in winrate and lower the play and winrate of Druid over time. If that doesn't happen, we're considering a couple of nerfs and changes. We did a big writeup of this recently and I encourage you to check out Dean Ayala's post on the current state of Druid and what we're planning. (Source)
Favourite card art/artist?
BT: I would say from the Classic set would be Archmage Antonidas.
BB: I knew you were going say that.
BT: I knew you were going to say that too.
Brode laughs.
BT: It's a great card by a great artist - Wayne Reynolds did an amazing job on it and I believe that it's just carried through from set to set and remains one of my favourites. (Source)
Any thoughts on hero cards in arena and balancing issues? (Banning them or adding others to the "synergy" category)
BB: Well I think generally the idea is to keep trying things with the Arena. The synergies thing we're trying out and getting feedback on it, but yeah it is to change it up and try new things over time. (Source)
Poor game, poor meta, where are the new decks in this exp? Where?????
You have destroy all ungoro decks for play what? Jade druid? Pirate war? Murlock paladin?
Are you crazy blizzard?
I don't think that Deathrattle arguement is all that fair. They made it sound like after Classic and Naxx it disappeared entirely when it has been one of the most prevalent mechanics of all time.
I really hope they do bring back some old mechanics. I really think a lot of them have a lot of potential, my favorite being Inspire, Quests, and Adapt.
Agreed! Mine are, apart from Battlecry which is ever present, Inspire and Joust :)
Yeah we need more joust cards and joust synergy cards!
Me too, +1 for joust and Inspire! I'm really sad that Blizz f*cked up the opportunity with TGT.
The fact that they implemented it such that ties lost joust ruined it, and the mechanic could never recover from that. If you won ties it would be too good on the other hand.
They just didn't think it through at all.
As rogue main I loved the idea behind Valeera the Hollow, but unfortunatelly it's the weakest DK.
Deathstalker Rexxar - very interesting mechanics as well, but hunter state is so mediocre right now tbh.
I would love Blizzard to make play mode for tier 3 or lower decks only. I now it's impossible to implement, but non-ranked is filled with people finishing quests and training tier 1 decks. Going ranked feels like a low salary day job, same shit, game after game, all the time.
I really belive that Chama CK is the weakest instead of Valeera, but he has the most sinergy battlecry of all the DKs. DK Chaman do nothing on empty board and his hero power is even worse when you lose the tempo of the match so he is really the only DK that is bad to play when you are in a bad spot (but actually the "best" to play when you are winning) is like a win-more DK most of the times. Valeera is very hard to play, and is a turn 9 card witch means that she need some preparations for hit the board but actually some decks prove that her hero power can make very hard struggles in few turns, she fix in actually whatever Rogue deck cause have a extra copy of any card is strong as hell in this game.
aah yeah that is cause i normally talk in spanish XD sorry
One thing people do not see in the rogue hero is the potential with head crack. Because if the combo on the shadow version gets activated then you get another REAL version of the card so you can rack up on head cracks. And with preparation you can cast it a lot. I have won games because of head crack, sinister strike, and the rogue hero. Just cast three sinister strikes and two head cracks. Then bam 13 damage in one turn, 15 with prep.
Sure you have prepare your board for shaman DK, but it's not win-more card it turns a sey of shitty 1/1 and 2/2 into something much more powerful. Even with empty board, on turn 6 with coin, DK (and pirate+pathces and firefly) you can setup a board you wouldn't be able to with 7 mana.
This is the mentality that pisses me off. If the only way Druid isn't too powerful is if people are forced to play Druid or play specific counter decks with Druid in mind then Druid is too fucking powerful. Basically what he is saying is Druid is too powerful but we are going to wait and see if more players starting playing Druid to counter Druid or run very specific tech decks to counter Druid so that Druid win rates come down. But if the players are willing to suffer through many more weeks of Druid decks without taking those measures THEN we will think about some nerfs and changes. Fucking bullshit.
"Druid seems really strong right now, but just wait and see!"
Yeah wait and see that it might become even more powerful. They assume that somehow Druids are a puzzle to be solved and not just blatantly broken.
Not really, that's what card games like this are all about, creating a deck tuned to beat the current meta. Games like Herthstone are fun partly because the end game is always changing.
It's because they absolutely, fundamentally refuse to admit fault. They never have and never will.
"it only has 51.5% WR, not OP at all"
no one want to push the PLAY button and hear "I must protect the wild" 5 times in a row
and following these EXACT play every game
coin -> wild growth -> jade blossom -> Nourish -> mire keeper -> play some taunt -> Ultimate Infestation
yeah that's what happen every game
like the pirate warrior for example
You just get SMORC
problem is not win rate. you're likely to have more than 50% WR against them, but do the same thing every game is FUCKING BORING
so stop pushing a single class in a ladder and said "it's fine look at the win rate" FUCK THE WIN RATE
Its fk boring just 1 play against 1 class i dont fk care about winrate at this point.