Gem of Ease Workaround, Ancient Items Clarification, Quinsane 2.1.2 Monk
Beta Patch 33684, Town Hall Heroes #40 - The New Patch!
Blizzard Sending Gift to Veteran Players
Update 3:33 PM EST: Added message from Ben Brode on Undertaker.
Update from Ben Brode on Undertaker
No changes to Undertaker... yet. The card is still being given lots of attention. Also, it appears the interview posted below is old.
Quote from Ben BrodeHey everyone!
Thanks for your thoughts on Undertaker. I wanted to mention that this interview actually took place close to the launch of GvG last year. Things have changed a lot in the meta, and we’ve been paying a lot of attention to Undertaker since I gave that interview. I just wanted to make sure you guys know that a lot of careful research goes into this stuff. We’re always keeping an eye on things, and we’ll make changes when they’re necessary.
Thanks!
Ben Brode on Card Nerfs & The Future
Ben Brode sat down with GameSpot's Rob Crossley to discuss the Hearthstone world after Goblins vs Gnomes. We've recapped the important parts of the brief interview below. To read it in full, head on over to the full article on the GameSpot website.
Quote from Ben BrodeLeeroy Jenkins
Leeroy did actually appear in the world championships, in a Miracle deck by Tarei, and I have seen it still around. It's certainly not as endemic as it used to be, but that was the goal in the first place.
Flare
We felt people were a little bit getting randomly screwed by Hunter if you had a secrets deck because it was no cost to the Hunter to remove them. Now at least you know that Hunter players need to make a sacrifice with Flare, in that they need to make their deck worse against non-secret decks if they want to keep that advantage over secret decks.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer
Auctioneer, mixed with the new Spare Parts cards from Goblins vs Gnomes, we thought that was pretty dangerous, and a change we had to make.
Undertaker
We did add some cards to Goblins vs Gnomes that are specifically good against Deathrattle decks. But The Undertaker is one of those cards that feels really powerful when he's hurting you, but if you draw him late in the game he's pretty terrible. We were paying attention to how people were using him, and looked at how we were playing against him, but we didn't feel he's nerf-worthy. He is very powerful, but it wasn't past the line for us.
Soulfire
We felt [it] was a little bit too efficient.
Starving Buzzard
Buzzard is a little bit more unseen now though, but its mechanic, where you could draw your entire deck fairly consistently early on, we felt we had to change that.
The "Having too many cards" problem
There are a lot of games in this genre that solve this problem already. Also we have some ideas that are unique to Hearthstone that we think could potentially resolve these types of problems. One thing we're aware of is new players could find the game harder to get into, and harder to learn, the more cards we add.
We have ideas to solve those problems, but I think we're a little bit far off from those problems today.
Hearthstone Bot Ban Wave
Another wave of bans have gone out today for Hearthstone bots, and this time, they're permanent.
Quote from ZeriyahIn our continued efforts to promote a fair play environment within Hearthstone, we have permanently banned Hearthstone accounts found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay, which is a violation of our Terms of Use.
We will continue to closely monitor Hearthstone and take action as needed to protect the game environment. Hearthstone accounts found to be cheating in any form will be permanently closed without warning.
If you believe that you’ve encountered a possible bot or other form of exploitation, please let us know by emailing our hacks team at hacks@blizzard.com.This is a new wave of bans that has not affected those players suspended by the first wave. As we mentioned in both our Recent Actions Against Botting in Hearthstone and Continued Actions Against Botting in Hearthstone posts, those found to be botting after the first wave will receive a permanent ban from the game.
Accounts banned in this wave have been discovered to be botting after our warnings and not permanent bans against those already actioned upon in the first wave.
The larger the card universe the harder it is to balance (and the harder it is for new players to begin playing and be competitive). MtG managed this by eliminating older sets from competitive play. Blizzard might manage this by allowing all cards to be played in casual but only certain sets/cards to be played in ranked.
Maybe, but Magic had much, MUCH bigger sets than Hearthstone. If they're having trouble balancing THIS few cards, I have serious doubts about the game's future. GvG is only 120 cards. The average Magic block had a standalone expansion set of 350-400 cards and 2 smaller expansions of 150-200 cards, and that was WITHOUT counting the base set. Hearthstone is honestly NOT a big game by CCG standards.
Which would suck! When and if they do that, I hope they have a legacy ranked ladder.
Interesting archetype appears... only to be proved unviable by samd old huntard and zoo. Pretty much the only "new stuff" that managed to survive are Pally and Mage.
Yeah, what drugs are you on? Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is playing anything "unique". Swapping all the deathrattle decks into mech decks isn't unique. Mech mage isn't unique (it's basically just aggro mage but with mechs), mech rogue isn't unique (same concept), mech druid is laughable at best (actually druid in general is pretty laughable now), and mech pally is just Shockadin...with mechs.
And then the rest of the game is 110% unchanged. Control warrior, zoo, handlock, huntards, controlololololol priests. 120 cards and the only thing that changed was people run Dr. Boom and changed things like Leper Gnomes into Clockwork Gnomes.
A game should always be balanced around the top level plays, and the rest of the players should adjust to it. It shouldn't be other way around.
I love the fact Auctioneer + parts would be op but it is according to blizzard ok with Antonidas ...
Dear Hearthstone Design Team,
When your player base gives you a majority consensus feedback about a card being too strong, based on their experience over millions of games, then it means that card is too strong. I would strongly urge you to pull your heads out of your asses and fix it.
With love,
Everyone
don't speak for me, noob.
Hard data on the card?
To do a brute force calculation on if the card is over-performing or not you'd have to factor in which decks are playing it, if it is drawn, when it is drawn, when it is played, in what order it's played in, where on the board it is placed, on what turn, etc., etc. so that you can pin-point this one card's effect and separate it out of the background noise of randomly played and drawn cards in every conceivable deck...and then find a statistical deviation in win/loss ratio based on all that data.
What kind of futuristic, NASA-esque super-computers do you think blizz is doing this with?
I live near Nasa trust me those computers are not super, most are based on 2002 technology. Hell the probe that is gonna reach pluto has a ps1 processor driving it.
Undertaker NEEDS a nerf. I don't even see how this can be questionable...
It can become a 2 drop for the same stats, would still be a monster.
It can stay a 1 drop, but only boost attack, and still be strong.
It can remain the same, but read +1/+1 until the end of the turn, and still be able to burst / maintain board control.
It can be +1/+1 permanently, when a friendly deathrattle minion DIES, instead of played, and still be a good card.
How can he say the card is fine, when it clearly is not?
they would need to create 3rd card type - so far you have minions and spells, nothing more. Also by changing parts to something else you would need to change coin for exampe since it also gives advantage to players dependant on deck (violet teacher for example)
Currently there are minions, spells, and weapons.
Well... Someone said the word "artifact"?
So Ben describes a card that changed the entire meta on his own and made about half of all decks used to climb the ladder Deathrattle zoo (especially in the seasons before GvG release) as 'not nerf worthy'...? That requires a pretty heavy pair of balls.
exactly my point - every one drop is worse in late game but not every can be buffed to 6/7 at turn 3 ... for how I love Ben this was one hell bs about undertaker because that card needs change more than anything else.
"Undertaker is fine. L2P." - Ben Brode
You have got to be fist fucking me.
'Buzzard is a little bit more unseen now though' yeah, just a little bit...
good job killing off cards instead of actually balancing them.
If anything is getting nerfed, my money is on Unstable Portal. It really does need to be 3 mana, because it can shut down matches so easily if it pulls something completely uber.
No card should be able to decide a match on turn 1 (if it's coined out) but I have seen Unstable Portal do just that.