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?
Inspire in standard when anduin + raza is a thing...? Just dont.
Well, if I'm not mistaken, Gadgetzan will be illegal (rotate to wild in HS terms) in a couple of months. So maybe by then it wil be kinda ok to have some inspire at last. Let's just hope they don't come up with the idea for Kobolds...
I suppose couple of months is half a year +
But yes rotation is "soon" (Around Arpil/May I'd wager), and when it happens Whispers, Kara and Gadgetzan will go out. And it wil be glorious.
i hope for some new word like: give to unit ability +1 , so fire elemental will do 4target dmg not 3 and scalebane will +6attack, etc etc
Is Shuffle a mechanic you use rarely?
What about minion evasion. A small chance for an attack on a minion to miss.
Or a taunt but for magic. "Spells and hero powers must target this minion first"
O and MAKE WARLOCK GREAT AGAIN!!
I like dragons.
can we have a poll of which mechanic we like to return?
I'd rather vote on which mechanic to ban forever..
#1 Jade
#2 Cast random spell(s)
I'd like to see inspire and Joust come back at some point. Although they need to make joust cards' base stats more balanced so if you lose the coin flip they aren't utter garbage.
They also need to make "can't be targeted by spells or hero powers" a keyword like "elusive" or "magic resistant" or something.
Joust isn't even a keyword. We all understand it but Blizz never actually set it in stone. So it's still completely open to be reconsidered and implemented differently. Though the change would cause some confusion/friction, maybe for the best if, for example, it could trigger off of minions that cost less for certain cards.
I wanna see some adaptations to quests. Like with the hero cards, they're all different costs and different power levels for different decks, but quests were all one mana played immediately. Like I want some expensive quests that require some late-game stuff, like a warrior quest: get a total of x armor, reward: never take fatigue damage. That might be broken or useless, it's just off the top of my head. Or like the weapons, there's no ultimate reward, but like a druid 8 mana quest: "every time a friendly minion dies, joust. If you win, return it to your hand. It costs one less cumulatively" or something that requires a sacrifice on the turn it's played but a strong effect on board, not just a battlecry and a new hero power like the hero cards
Now that we've seen all the heroes become rulers of the dead, now I'd like to see them all become servants of the light. A black/white lantern scenario if you will.
Maybe if Inspire also made your hero power cost 1 mana it would be worth it.
I'm perfectly happy to let Joust and Quests rot in the cold, cold ground.
If they find a way to make Inspire not suck, I'd be willing to give it another chance. Better stats/mana cost would be a good start.
Play wild to see Inspire working.
[card]Shadowreaper Anduin[/card] + Inspire cards are close to 60% of the total decks we verse, they work well when you can trigger it multiple times per turn.