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!
I think they got it right this time for most totens, one noticeable exception is Deathrattle priest which still is extremely bad.
Spell priest and Spell mage are a lot of fun.
Gave the Rumble a new try. Took the Dragon Shrine. Went all the way through. Some of the matches were VERY challenging, but obviously nothing insurmountable. I was able to select for at least one dragon in every choice of buckets I got. Probably 60% of the time I was offered the Dragon Heart option.
Only one run, but seems much better balanced than before.
turn 1 coin kelaseth with the triple battlecry shrine shaman followed up by turn 6 triple battlecry mistcaller was the most soul crushing defeat I faced. hope that's gone.
That was my proudest victory :D
Damn, i really want actual shrine selection. For me, favorite solo adventure was Witchwood, which brought really interesting cannon mechanics. I really enjoyed replaying runs as Darius Crowley, trying to build a deck around cannons. And i would really like to do the same in RR, but i can't. For example, let's say i want to have fun with priest spellgen shrine. But i don't get it. I can concede until i get it, but i will always have shrine i lost with and shrine i lost to in selection, and so my chances of getting it in final spot is 1/25 (or 1/21 if it considers different classes, but then i have absolutely no chance of getting it if i concede against deathrattle/heal priest). For me, that's bullshit, and i don't want to play RR just because of that. I've tried plenty of shrines already, let me choose those i liked the most and toy around with them! I would really like to go Endless Evolve shaman, spellgen priest with companion which reduces cost of spells, steal rogue fatigue kills, self-harm Paladin, Secret Hunter, but i cant! That's just stupid
And you know, im okay with the idea that at the start of the expansion they wanted people to experiment with different shrines. I really would like to experiment with shrines, but i would like to do it in order i like to do, not in some random ass order. That bullshit must be changed to a normal pick already.
I always thought that the solution to the "lack of replayability" of the solo content is to have monthly quests. They would be complete a Dungeon Run, complete a Monster Hunt, complete a Rumble Run and complete an Arena run. They'd give you a pack or something equivalent. Being a monthly quest, it wouldn't be a big pressure to get it finished, but it's enough to keep playing the different formats.
It also fits in perfectly with the already existing "monthly quest" to get 5 wins on the ladder for your chest.
I’ve been playing computer games since we got a Telstar as a gift in 1980. This is not an age/generational issue. There are simply different kinds of gamers.
Some people enjoy playing the game more for the game itself while others enjoy focusing on the progression aspect. Neither is better than the other but one type of gamer cannot enjoy this mode unless there is some rpg character progression for doing so.
There are many factors that keep players interested in the game: Music, Mechanics, Plot, Rewards, Progression, exploration, etc.
I feel bad when someone says he is only playing the game for the rewards... because that is just an induced Skinner box behavior.
Extra Credits made a good video explaining it.
Exactly. It is just my opinion regarding the Run. It seems people can't take different opinions and downvote me. Yet, people want to see different opinions. It seems having a different opinion these days seems to be a no-no. LOL
People also seem to regularly forget that you do, in fact, need card to play anything other than single player in this game and have any success or fun. Giving those to Adventure players gives those a bigger incentive to actually go and play constructed more often, too.
I'm frustrated that the patch didn't include the one thing I wanted more than anything: A list of shrines that I've won with.
Seriously, this is baffling.
This x1000. I don't care about rewards, I just want to have a goal to achieve.
The fundamental problem with RR from my perspective is that the Shrines are so powerful that it is very difficult and often outright impossible to recover from the loss of one. If the boss draws a combo that kills your shrine first, you probably lose.
Why are you playing games?
A sense of progression is a huge part of any game.
Every Rumble Run you play is a game on ladder you did not, which is one less match towards gold rewards which is one more step towards progression. For a player who wants to build their collection, they are effectively punished for playing RR, same with all of the solo experiences.
Yeah, evil Blizzard, making you play single player instead of multiplayer!
If only there was some way, any way at all, you could not play the single player and play only multiplayer, your sense of progression would be intact! Too bad you're physically and financially forced to play the single player.
There is a lot of players who want to do something single player, why you want to make this game to fit your interest? LOL
And every game you play on ladder is time you could have invested into something actually productive, so what's your point? Unless you're a very popular streamer the only incentive you could have to play the game is to have fun, because at some point you will stop playing the game and all that "progress" will mean absolutely nothing.
Hey, it's just my opinion and preference to the Run. What's wrong with having a different opinion to the game? Who are you to decide what I like and dislike? Is having my own likes and dislikes which different from yours that bad? People these days. Seems that being myself is wrong. LOL