Hearthstone Dev Interview - C'Thun / Reno / Inspire, Pirates, Spirits in Arena
The Hearthstone reddit had a chance to sit down with Peter Whalen and Liv Breeden to talk about the new expansion.
Here's what they had to say.
- Work started on Rastakhan's Rumble back in early January.
- Unsurprisingly, Battle for Azeroth inspired the set. The team didn't feel constricted by using it - lots of cool characters.
- Spirit cards will be available in the arena.
- The Shrine mechanic is only for the single-player content.
- Starting with Kobolds & Catacombs, they learned that build around cards are better when they are easier to obtain (rare).
- Using their newfound knowledge on build arounds, this set gave players a cheap and expensive version of the same build around to keep it more accessible. (Spirits and Loas)
- They are not opposed to bringing back older keywords / mechanics we loved such as Reno Jackson (Highlander), C'Thun, Inspire.
- We're going to see pirates in the set but not all of them will be cheap to play. Pirates are still an aggressive archetype though.
Quote from Peter Whalen and Liv BreedenPig: We won’t be seeing a return of old keywords anytime soon?
Peter: Certainly not in Rastakhan’s Rumble. But I think it's unfair to count anything out. I think especially old keywords that people have loved before, I think we'll continue to see them. Hero cards are a great example, right? We took a set off, we didn't do any hero cards in Kobolds and Catacombs, and then we've brought them back a small number over the past year.
Pig: One every expansion, it's been really fun!
Peter: One every expansion. So we'll figure out exactly what's the right cadence for hero cards or there's other mechanics that people have loved in the past. Reno Jackson was a cool card.
Pig: Highlander cards!
Peter: Or there's Inspire. There's C'thun, there's all these cool mechanics and none of these are things I'm saying "Oh, this is coming back soon". But there's lots of stuff that people love. And so why wouldn't we bring it back? That sounds great.
Learn More About Rastakhan's Rumble
Looking to learn more about Hearthstone's tenth expansion? Visit our expansion guide for Rastakhan's Rumble!
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when the cards will be revealed?
I guess I will play both. Even 3 with MTG:A.
All have different strategies. Not like other card games. Inclluding Gwent + Duelyst, There are few unique card games.
Elder Scrolls: Legends, Shadowverse, Eternal, Hex etc. They are not unique.
Artifact seemed unique to me. At least I give it a try. But i don't aggree that those games are killers for each other. Unique card games are like different games, not replacement for each other. I mean, I don't see them as rivals. At least they are not for me.
I can understand why it poses an interest. At the same time, MtG:A got such a high rocketing number off the hop because of both its recognition in the gaming industry and its price point. That Artifact wants you to pay up front for a pre-order and pay for cards with no ability to earn them will be a HUGE knock for them with a lot of people.
I'll agree that it's unique. I also think it'll just be too much for a lot of people, especially those who hang in the HS segment of the gaming population.
Nothing to say. I agree! :)
Blizzards new card reveal method is absolutely horrid with no balance having everything stacked at the tail end. What happened to voting for reveals and other means to engage the community? Card showing should have been ongoing since BlizzCon.
It's usually two straight weeks of reveals, so if they start sometime this week they'll be on regular pace. I'm surprised they haven't given us the reveal schedule, tought
They better bring Inspire back before WW rotates out. Nothing supports that mechanic like Odd/Even decks.
I was thinking that too! But seeing how strong Genn/Baku decks have been already they probably aren't wanting too add too many support cards for those archetypes right now. Not saying they would automatically make them better, but if you make some really good Inspire cards with those still in rotation, would probably be best to at least wait until Expansion 2 of 2019 to limit their time together in Standard.
I get that, but pretty much all the TGT Inspire cards were unplayable in any top tier deck, they were just too slow/costly. The reduced mana cost or increased power of the hero power could actually make them appealing, since you wouldnt be losing that much tempo in activating them.
Obviously there could be balance issues, but i think it would be worth exploring this keyword in this way further.
Agree! The best route would probably be to offer maybe one cards that really synergizes with the existing Genn/Baku decks, but then offer some good cards that either try to change up the current Odd/Even archetypes or strengthen the archetypes within classes that haven't seen much Genn/Baku play. For example, what if we got some cool inspire cards for Priest that basically turn you into a Shadow Priest? LIke a demon priest class card, "Inspire: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy."
While obviously demons are usually neutral or warlock cards, this could be a fun thing for Priest. Could be kind of like the old Anduin Machine Gun days if you Cube -> Replicate, get a bunch of these on board.
Also, would be incentive to bring a card like Auchenai Soul Priest back into play, or Shadowform.
Going by past sets/reveals, everything should be released by Friday the 30th. It feels like they're starting a bit late with the reveal schedule this time around, but I guess once it starts it will be like a firehose.
Daelan Proudmoore is dead. He was considered a traitor to Stormwind, so.. yeah, maybe some criminal Defias-style vibes could be had there!
Keep waiting. Unless Blizzard breaks their pattern, announcement of the reveal schedule should be sometime this week with it kicking off either very late this week, or early on next.
Wait, are you telling me that Loa cards are the vanity versions of Spirit cards?
Nah. There's intended synergy between them. The Spirit becomes a build-around theme for the deck. The Loa ends up being the big personification of it and/or a pay-off card. Take what we know about the Warlock class, for instance. The Spirit makes minions in hand bigger. The Loa fills the board with copies of itself, preferably after major hand-buff.
Oh right, i forgot we had already full Warlock setup.
damn, this could have been such a cool mechanic to get easy new game modes for casual players withouth doing much code stuff
The Thumbnail is Gral, Rogue's Loa.
It looks like monster from opening sequence in Guardians of the galaxy 2.
Artifact.. psssht. I watched some of the stream over the weekend and wasn't terribly impressed. I'm a person who plays Hearthstone but enjoys deep strategic games. Oftentimes my non-HS gaming is consumed by Civilization, Endless Space 2 or their like. So deep, detail-based strategy is not a foreign concept to me.
That said, Artifact is *way* too busy for a lot of players. The depth of strategy on the abilities, the sheer number of interactions even with a small card pool, and 3 boards with multiple phases to track? Anyone who thought this is going to be "The Hearthstone Killer!" (tm) was pretty well assuaged by watching any amount of that. The intended audiences are very different.
So.. go enjoy Artifact if you like. Paying pre-order with no seemingly no way to get more cards but spending more money sounds like a great time. At least spending on HS is a choice.