Tombs of Terror Adventure
We already knew that Tombs of Terror, the Saviors of Uldum solo adventure, would release in September, but now we have more of a clue about the date.
When the expansion launched, the in game Solo Adventure UI still mentioned that Tombs of Terror would release "Soon". That message has now changed to "Opens in 5 Weeks".
If correct, and there are no changes to it, that would place the Adventure launch in the week of the 23rd to the 27th of September (assuming a no week-end launch).
Going even further, we know from Blizzard's Saviors of Uldum Update post from August 1st that there will be a "set of action-packed Tavern Brawls" with "Incredible Rewards". A set would indicate at least 2 and possibly more, which means that the lead in to the Solo Adventure could be much closer than we thought.
In fact, given that the story of the Tavern Brawls is that Elise Starseeker seeks to reunite the League of Explorers, we could deduce that there will be 3 Tavern Brawls, 1 for each League of Explorers member other than Elise.
That could mean, TOTAL SPECULATION WARNING, we are as little as 2 weeks away from the start of the action!
For those of you unable to get into the game to check this for yourself, here's the new landing page for Tombs of Terror in the game:
"Incredible Rewards"
I chuckled a little, remembering this years Fire Festival.
Welp, freebies are still freebies. And it's good. Specially the out of season ones.
Then I felt stupid for chuckling.
It's still 700g per Wing, right? So don't panic and save some gold..
Card is balanced wdym.
Fair. However, the adventures will be totally purchasable via gold, and most people will have no need to spend the money out of pocket.
5 weeks... wow. In fact it's a long time.
and not forgetting that we'll probably have to wait about +3 more weeks to unlock all the adventure wings...
:ResidentSleeper:
please dont be a dungeon run, please dont be a dungeon run, please dont be a dungeon run
Why no both? Adventure runs are bundles on fun and rng that makes ppl do crazy stuff with those treasure cards and special effects, we can see it on compilations on yt and thats what im playing for.
Old sheme of adventure was kinda akward because despite buying wings you needed to create deck from own cards to play adventure - no new player friendly mechanic, most of succesfull decks contains lot of uncheap cards (i know about budget options but still) tbh i expect it to be dungeon run or lich king like adventure.
Actually, I find the old adventures way more new player friendly than the new ones because you don't have to spend 2-3k to get all the cards and personally, I always like challenges even if the non-heroic version isn't that difficult. Although I agree with your idea of both, mine is a little different; it would be like dalaran but with the REWARD SYSTEM of the old adventures.
5 weeks
HOW WILL WE SURVIVE?!
5 Weeks... :ResidentSleeper:
There was just a notification on the Battlenet thing yesterday that said there was going to be a quest for 3 packs. What happened to that?
How much gold do you think I'll need to save. Is it still 700 per wing?Nevermind, forgot they don't do that
No, I would expect everyone to intuit that it's a profit-driven decision. If you plan on buying the full adventure and you could do so and collect all 15 packs on launch day, who wouldn't then just do that and spend $20 less on card bundles? The other part of the equation which you didn't mention is player engagement--if they release the expansion a month after the card release, they will get a bump in activity, including some players who might otherwise stop playing ~3 weeks after the first release. It's their game; I believe they have a right to monetize it however they see fit so they can afford to keep developing and maintaining it.
As a comparison: I paid ~$25 back in April to see Avengers Endgame with my wife the weekend that it came out. Right now, we could rent Avengers Endgame for $5, or we could probably wait long enough to see it for free on cable (i.e., it would effectively cost us some portion of that cable bill). It's the same movie, and the only reason why it doesn't come straight to cable is because they are trying to make more profit from the people like me that don't want to wait. And because it is so profitable, they're able to finance more MCU movies with big stars / thoughtful script / great FX which I'll probably pay another $25 to see opening weekend. That's just the business model that movie production companies use; you can either accept it and patronize at whichever cost/wait tier that you're comfortable with or you can do something else with your free time.
Am i the only person on the planet who realizes the real reason why they're releasing it so long after the expansion launched is so they make more money/syphon out more gold from players by reducing the value you get from the 15 packs that come with the adventure?
Opening packs of a new expansion is worth way more than opening packs from the previous one since you mostly open cards you don't have and thus don't have to craft them, everyone knows that. The more cards from a set you own the less value you get from opening those packs.
Let's say they release the adventure when the expansion launches or soon after, if you plan to buy for example 30 packs and craft the stuff you don't open, you just get the adventure + an aditional 15 packs, done - you spent $40
But Activision won't allow that, instead you have 2 options - either wait 3 months(remeber you get all the packs when all the wings are released) which is more than half the expansions lifetime so you can do the above and get full value, or buy the 30 packs immediately and then buy the adventure when it releases which in total costs you $60
By releasing the full adventure 3 months after the expansion launches blizzard is effectively making $20 extra from every player who is interested in the solo content.
Some other examples of greed, the real reason they abandoned the 1 expansion 1 adventure model is because adventures give you all the cards guaranteed, no gambling involved and thus less money for them. They promised free adventures when they announced that (hah!) but now we are getting reskinned dungeon runs for $20 that effectively reward you with an average 1500 dust. The real reason unplayable cards like Harbinger Celestia exist is to dilute the pool making it less likely to get the cards you need so you buy more packs. I would not at all be surprised if packs were tuned so you are 0.1% more likely to open an Octosari instead of Zephrys, it seems insignificant but makes them a lot of money over millions of customers. This is also part of the reason for abandoning adventures, you get all the cards anyway so diluting the pool earns them no extra cash.
They are doing business - we all understand it. But yet another dungeon run is NOT fun... imo
After the massive Dalaran Heist adventure, I really don't see why we need another Single Player Adventure so soon. Thematically yes, it's supposed to give more insight on the whole Rise of Shadows plot, but they can really just skip a solo adventure if it means they can put more work into cards and balancing.
I mean, I doubt that many people have even fully completed the Dalaran Heist with all heroes, hero powers, and areas yet.
So wait until the whole thing is released before you buy it. Problem solved.
Also, the RNG thing applies only to Heroic mode. Normal mode can be won through careful strategy -- not every time, but certainly often enough.
As for how long the fun lasts, obviously this will vary for each player. If you are not the type who enjoys this kind of content, don't buy it. But that doesn't mean we can make a blanket statement about whether the whole thing is worth the money. It's definitely worth it for me, even if not for you.
I'm still having fun completing each wing of Heist with every hero. If I finish that before Tombs of Terror is released, maybe I'll try to complete it with each hero power! (This level of tracking was one of my favorite additions to the dungeon delve model!)
Now we need the nerfs! Bring them on!
some info on this coming later this week
12 RoS packs, 1 Golden Classic pack and the Adventure for 20. 3 RoS packs were free because that first Wing was free.