Mike Donais Explains the Categories of Hearthstone's Mechanics
Card keywords, or mechanics, are a popular topic when new expansions are announced with discussions flooding in on the Hearthstone team not revisiting mechanics of old. Mike Donais explained on reddit that there's three different categories for mechanics and ones that they may bring back in the future could be tweaked or made more fun. Specifically, a change to Joust was mentioned.
Read his post about it down below and while we're at it:
Which mechanics do you like the best and are there any that you think should make a return?
Quote from Mike DonaisThis is a topic we discuss a lot. We have mechanics that fall into 3 categories.
Mechanics we use a lot: Lifesteal, Poisonous, Discover
Mechanics we use sometimes: Played an elemental last turn, Holding a Dragon, Mech build arounds
Mechanics we might bring back: Hero Cards, Joust, Inspire, Adapt, Quests.The nice thing is if people enjoy a mechanic they will be excited to see how we tweak it when it returns, or how we make it more fun the next time. If I was to bring back Joust for example I would probably make ties win instead of lose.
What mechanics from old sets did you all likes the best? Which ones would you like us to bring back sometime in the future?
Might bring back Joust, eh?
Well, I guess I'd love to see the Discover mechanic out of the game. Make more simple keywords that affects minions only, like poisonous or taunt, and less RNG based stuff.
"Fly" could be great. It dodges taunts and stuff, so it's a great evasion keyword. But every other fly creature acts like a natural taunt to each other. Like if you try to attack with a flying creature but you're opponent has one too and you try to attack face there's a message like "A minion with Fly is in the way".
But to not affect the game too much you could make some cards have some keywords that are more efficient against others. Like against "Fly", you could have "Ranged", and it would mean that a ranged minion could inflict damage to a flying minion without taking any damage, but only against a minion with the keyword fly. The keyword would have no impact against a regular minion.
I'd love to see more interactive keyords and counter keywords more than bullshit discover effects. Or at least maybe give us a card that says "your opponent can't discover" when it's on board or something like this.
I think RNG isn't inherently bad anyway, why play hearthstone over MTG for example? Stuff like discover that would never work in a physical card game but adds a uniqueness to every match
More cards without mechanics (Carrion Grub, Chillwind Yeti, Fearsome Doomguard), cards with simple mechanics (Hired Gun, Stranglethorn Tiger, Faerie Dragon), cards with low value vs mana (Jeweled Scarab, Blowgill Sniper, Frost Elemental).
BUT NO MORE Prince Keleseth. I want to play myself, but not deck that play instead me.
For fun You can do more No dublicates cards. You can do it not only legendary. It can be played with dublicates but with Recruit or with garanty cost carddraw like Small-Time Recruits can be remove dublicates from deck.
As somebody who loves playing combo OTK/TTK decks I can tell you already that this just makes the old Rogue Shadowstep Arcane Golem OTK possible again.
I could see the future complaints already :)
let's not make a 3 mana 4-2 with charge I don't want to go back to that word
"4-2 with charge" becouse it Legendary value!
This card is joke. A mockery of the current balance. The main idea of it is a battle cry.
I think this card will be played even if there are no other effects and its stats will be 2-2. On the contrary, I would add a taunt. I think 2-2 with a taunt would be perfect. This card is a curve straightener. It is necessary that low-cost cards are placed with duplicates, while heavy-cost cards don't have duplicates. Battle cry take out small duplicates and topdek getting better.
It like Hemet, Jungle Hunter, but more flexible.
Inspire: (Joust) If your opponent card's cost is lower than yours, adapt.
Inspire: Upgrade your Hero Power 1 level.
Deal 2 damage to your face draw a card to Deal 3 damage to yo face to draw a card.
More Dragons please!
joust should flip a coin if the mana costs are equal to each other, instead of giving the joust win to the opponent
What if Joust was determined by attack value rather than cost?
I would like it to depend on health for my control decks (of wich I can play none currently because of Jade druid outclassing every other late game).
Or maybe a combination of both ahaha. I feel like Joust is a good mechanic, but when there is a draw the mechanic seems a bit clunky. With attack value (or health), I believe there will be a more distinct win or loss, resulting in less draws.
Or "All targets are chosen randomly" ©Mayor Noggenfogger
OK, lets see, if we manage to get an all-time-record for a down-vote ;-)
make the jade-mechanic an everlasting mechanic, that never rotates or gets "banned" into the Hall of Fame ;-)
Neither mind control tech or rag should go into Bless RNGsus category if You ask me.
But I think your categorization suits HS much better.