Hearthstone Patch Changes - Rumble Run Updates, Arena Bucket Changes
Today's Hearthstone client patch brings in changes to Rumble Run and the Arena.
- All class cards have had their pick quality either lowered or raised to get win-rates to as close to 50% as possible.
- Dust refunds from last month's nerfs are done.
- There is a higher chance to see card synergy with your shrine in card picks within Rumble Run.
- Rumble Run bosses should be more fair. They used internal data to tone down heavy hitters.
- When you lose in Rumble Run, your next run will offer your current shrine and the shrine from the boss you lost to in shrine selection.
Quote from BlizzardThis Hearthstone update mixes Rumble Run up for a refreshing new change, while also bringing in some updates to Arena buckets together with the cessation of December 2018’s dust refund. Read on for details!
Arena Updates
Following our Arena update last December, we have adjusted the appearance rate of each individual card available in Arena to ensure the overall win-rate of each class remains as close as possible to our ideal of 50%.
- Hunter, Rogue, and Warrior have had the average quality of their Arena picks lowered.
- Druid, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, and Warlock have had the average quality of their Arena picks raised.
December Update
The dust refunds that were available following our last update in December 2018 are no longer available as of this post.
Rumble Run Changes
Champions, rumblers, and trolls of all sizes! We’ve watched you spend a month punching faces in the Rumble Run, and we think there’s room for some changes based on how things have gone. Here’s what’s new with the Rumble Run.
Weighted Card Rewards
We’ve increased the possibility of synergistic cards for your shrine appearing more often. One of our primary goals with this mode was to showcase the nine troll champions and have you really get to know them. We wanted you to “live the dream” of fighting in the Gurubashi Arena, and to do so, we had to make sure that each Run had its own strong theme. Adjusting the card bucket offerings for decks and re-adding bonus buckets will help strengthen that experience.
Boss Deck Adjustments
One of our design goals with the Rumble Run was to provide huge, overpowered combat. Balancing at such a high power level is a challenge. When it works, it works great. You get epic, monumental combat against overwhelming odds. But when it doesn’t work, it feels random and swingy – like when the AI pulls an overwhelming combo. And since no one likes being repeatedly hit in the face with a club, we’ve pruned some of the power from the boss decks so that your Runs will play out more moderately. We have a lot of data about which bosses have the biggest body counts, and we’ve used that to target the worst offenders. Rumble Runs are now a little easier, but more importantly, they’ll feel a little more fair.
Shrine Selection Changes
In early builds of the Rumble Run, we allowed players to pick a class and shrine before playing. What we found was that playtesters immediately picked their favorite class, gravitated to a certain shrine, and played that shrine repeatedly.
We had wanted to encourage players to try different shrines, especially to experiment with stuff they normally wouldn’t, so we put the current random shrine drafting in place. While that helped achieve our initial goal, it removed that feeling of mastery – the ability to choose a shrine and play with it until you feel you’ve mastered it or exhausted its possibilities.
So we want to bring that back. With this update, whenever you lose, you can expect to always be offered the shrine you just lost with. The shrine that the boss used to beat you in your last run will also be offered, per the status quo.
Some Final Rumble Ruminations
We always prefer to experiment, try extreme ideas, and get feedback rather than play it safe. In true troll fashion, we went big with the Rumble Run and tried some different ideas to give this expansion a unique feel and to capture the thrill of stepping into an arena against known opponents for some superpowered brutality. It’s wallop or be walloped in there, for better or for worse.
One of the things we experimented with—and heard great feedback on—was about the earlier pack rewards for the Rumble Run. Previous Hearthstone missions awarded packs via quests for completing content. For The Boomsday Project, we gave packs out without a quest to celebrate the launch of the expansion’s missions. This time around, we front-loaded the rewards and gave players three extra packs on launch day instead of during the Rumble Run. We felt that packs might be more interesting to people during the initial weeks of the expansion.
As many of you have pointed out, this decision just made the missions feel especially un-rewarding. It’s always more gratifying to earn packs by competing a quest, rather than just being given them. Going forward, we’ll keep this feedback in mind for the launch of new single-player content.
We had a ton of fun making mode and really appreciate the time that many of you took to write out thoughtful feedback. Everything we learn helps make future content better.
And now, it’s back to the Rumble Run!
Kid, if you can't take a little criticism then don't put your opinion on public display.
"Good update. But I'm not playing it again. There's no incentive to do so other than for fun."
This shit is what's wrong with the new generation of gamers. I do not need such an incentive, I play games for fun.
Although I mostly agree with you. That lack of reward also speaks for the devs intentions toward the game economy and business model in general.
It's like they don't want you to have fun AND gain ressources.
I like the game a lot but I feel more and more discouraged by the time/money it takes to keep up to play the decks I want on ladder.
I consider I have already put a lot of time/money into the game for someone with a job and a family, but it does not feel rewarding to play most of the time. Because lets be honest unlike RRun where you can have fun with no requirements, on ladder you have to grind ressources to be able to play good/varied decks (or pay a lot with little return). Otherwise you'll play only 2/3 semi budget decks and experience only a small part of what the game has to offer, which has become more and more unbearrable for me over time.
So a move on the devs part to say "hey you may not be able to play ladder as you would like but here comes a mode where you can have fun while building a little bit of ressources toward imroving your ladder experience for the game you already put money in when you bought our expansion" would feel good to me lol. Even 100 or just 80 dust for a completed run would be something acceptable.
The fact is that there are a lot other good games out there that are very generous where you get a lot of content for your bucks has really grew on me the last few months, making me hate this business model more and more.
It's not that they don't want you to gain resources, they give you the resources even if you don't play it! That's completely different, and much better for anyone who doesn't have the time/energy to invest in single-player. It also allows them to make it that much harder without hurting less-skilled players that would not get the packs.
Also, finishing it just once and getting the card back isn't that hard if all you';re doing it for are the prizes.
The problem is with a F2P game anytime you are playing and not earning rewards you are falling behind. Why play for fun when you can play a different mode for both fun and rewards?
I'm probably a minority, but I really like the solo content in the game.
I played a lot of ranked, but the investment is getting too high for me to keep up with competitive decks. These solo adventures are the perfect pick up and play.
A bit frustrating at times with the RNG, but hey, not like I didn't know that beforehand :)
Is there a special reward for beating the run with each shrine? or is it just the card back for the first win?
100 runs to complete it? That's not RNG, you are bad.
I enjoy Rumble run, and I love the change that you can retry with the same shrine or take the one you lost to.
Good update. But I'm not playing it again. There's no incentive to do so other than for fun. This update only proves that everyone was right, this Run is too hard and swingy. I can't tell how many times I felt helpless in the game cos the boss just snowball me or I have no way of fighting back. Hikkar should have been an unlockable hero. This Run, personally, is the worse compared to Kobolds and Witchwood. At least these two, have a fighting chance. Rumble Run? Either you are lucky or have an manageable, not easy, boss to battle with.
Downvote my opinions all you want. This is just my opinion and thoughts about the Run. Don't like it? Your welcome. I have my likes and dislikes and you have your own. Let's agree to disagree, ya? People these days...
I don't think that rigging Arena picks to keep you as close to 50% winrate as they can is the right way to balance Arena...
It's not "keep you close to 50%", it's "keep the different heroes close to 50%". The more that's true, the more your arena outcome is due to your skill at drafting/playing rather than that your opponent got a 55% winrate hero and you were stuck with a 47% winrate hero.
It's not just about keeping the heroes close to 50%, it's about giving particular heroes trash picks, which pushes even skilled players closer to 50%. Because even if you know which heroes and cards are good in Arena (which is definitely an important part of a player's skillset), you can't pick them if they are not offered to you. If you had no clue which offered hero you should pick or which card is better, the update is going to be good for you. The game will rig your picks to keep you close to 50% anyway.
How about a list? These updates are fine and much needed.
Updates are welcomed. This actually made me open solo adventures again.
What a pointless update. Address issues that need to be addressed
you just suck if you cant even win from the first 2 bosses xd
While I like the ability to pick the same shrine again (if you lost due to your buckets sucking) I feel like being able to pick the shrine would be better. I never got to pick certain shrines (and I played A LOT) that I'd like to try and sometimes lost on purpose to a boss because they had the shrine I wanted.
I don't see why "gravitating to your favorite class/shrine" is a bad thing as long as you have fun.
First run,.
Card back
Bye
Then playing 'Eternal' all month, more fun by miles...
Are you a saddist staying on a forum of a game you don't like and you dont even play or are you just dumb ?
Well, as for me the problem is the disinterest in a solo game system. That's the main reason why players will never “live the dream” of fighting in the Gurubashi Arena" . Arena and ladder are attractive by fighting real ppl plus doing quests (read receive gold transforming into packs etc.) So now solo adventures don't offer to complete quests (except 3 wins KaC and WW), coins, packs, prize at the end of the month.
Besides, I don't collect card backs so I value my time to spend it on RR.