Hearthstone

Vandyn · Aug 13, 2018

The game's design problem is and always has been that they introduce these powerful (game breaking in some cases) cards and simply not enough counters to those cards. In some instances they introduce cards that make older cards more powerful than they once were with again, lack of counter to them. Compound that with the (IMO) design flaw from day one where you cannot instantly react to what your opponent is doing until in some cases it's too late. There are just some cards out there that if they draw them early on there is basically no way to win the game. That is shitty, lazy design and like Ravishing has said, it hasn't really changed at all. They keep making the same design mistakes with every expansion. They introduce mechanics (magnetic) that is obviously broken that it really makes you believe that that Blizzard at this point only sees this game as a cash grab with no need or desire to expand upon it (new modes, hard nerfs on broken cards, etc.)

It's why I'll never spend another dime on the game. Everything I get now is through coins and dust, that's it. I haven't paid actual money for anything in this game for over a year now.

Deathwing · Aug 13, 2018

Is there a game that doesn't have these problems and doesn't have other problems? For example, MTG:A seems better designed but it has economy problems. There's also mana screw/flood issues that they are *maybe* triaging with BO3 matchups but I'll admit I haven't been following it as closely lately.

Just seems astounding that no one has stepped into fill this void. Gwent might have, a year ago, but it seems they've missed their opportunity.

Arbitrary · Aug 13, 2018

A friend of mine that plays and is a super casual was telling me about his experience with the expansion. In his first three games he ran into a MechThun deathrattle (the Reckless Experimenter one) combo kill and had no idea what even happened. His opponent had nothing, no deck, and then won and my friend had no idea what had even happened. That's no good. But he really likes Whizbang and has been playing that before making any crafting decisions so that's good.

I'm hoping the combo stuff is less detrimental than it appears but Whizbang is looking to be really good for the game as a whole.

Ravishing · Aug 13, 2018

Deathwing said:
Is there a game that doesn't have these problems and doesn't have other problems? For example, MTG:A seems better designed but it has economy problems. There's also mana screw/flood issues that they are *maybe* triaging with BO3 matchups but I'll admit I haven't been following it as closely lately.

Just seems astounding that no one has stepped into fill this void. Gwent might have, a year ago, but it seems they've missed their opportunity.

Yes I imagine these problems are prevalent in most games, especially card games that have inherent RNG.
Which is why I keep saying it can be fixed with different modes. Once you can ban out decks the game actually becomes strategic. Same could be said by including a sideboard.
When I was doing the online Tournaments for HCT points it was vastly superior to just ranked ladder.

Sure, it's still an RNG game, and the esport scene comes across as laughable due to the amount of RNG the game has. But the most strategic parts of the game are largely ignored: Deck selection/bans is where you win/lose in most cases. But by the time the tournament stream loads you're already past the strategic elements and now it's just watching games play out.

Honestly a Sealed Deck mode would be even more superior as it can show off the great deck builders. Give them 100 cards to make a deck with (both opponents have the same 100 cards), have 3-5mins (or whatever feels good) to build your deck, then go.

But whatever... keep printing cards and ignore the vast possibilities. It's only a 4.5 year old game at this point and we still have the same game modes. Excellent.

Arbitrary · Aug 13, 2018

I've complained forever that the game does not have a form of ranked play that exactly mirrors the format for the Hearthstone World Championships. How to pick a proper stable of decks for tournament play and being very good with several decks at once are skills necessary for competitive play and skills that the regular play experience does not support. They've oddly gated competitive Hearthstone and I have no idea why. There should be daily tournaments running constantly that are automated and ran through the standard client as well as weekly qualifiers that feed into monthly events that feed into the biggest tournaments the game has.

In August MTGO has six different PTQs, four sealed and two constructed, for upcoming Pro Tours. Hearthstone could grow it's presence in the esports scene overnight with a similar system.

Mist · Aug 14, 2018

Are they trying to ruin this game? Upgradable Framebot is a clearly retarded card in this environment if you did any testing at all.

StoiCynic · Aug 14, 2018

I know you guys are all on some next level griping, but I finally started messing around with this over the weekend. After building a nice little beginner druid starter deck I went on a tear, went 9-2 having a blast. I'm assuming I hit a mmr bracket because the last 8 matches I have been getting stomped on with stacked decks full of legendaries. Needless to say, the honeymoon has ended real quick. I don't mind throwing a few bucks around on a ftp game I was having fun with, but how much are we talking here before I go down the rabbit hole? I know I am significantly behind the curve, if I need to drop 3 digits i'll likely just wait on Artifact for my tcg fix.

Ravishing · Aug 14, 2018

StoiCynic said:
I know you guys are all on some next level griping, but I finally started messing around with this over the weekend. After building a nice little beginner druid starter deck I went on a tear, went 9-2 having a blast. I'm assuming I hit a mmr bracket because the last 8 matches I have been getting stomped on with stacked decks full of legendaries. Needless to say, the honeymoon has ended real quick. I don't mind throwing a few bucks around on a ftp game I was having fun with, but how much are we talking here before I go down the rabbit hole? I know I am significantly behind the curve, if I need to drop 3 digits i'll likely just wait on Artifact for my tcg fix.

Are you brand new to hearthstone?
If you focus on making 1 deck it's not too bad, but to get most of the' must have' cards you're looking at minimum 100 per expansion... 3 expansions + classic in standard rotation means at least $400 to get a decent head start.... but you can go the ftp route and just build 1 deck and save up gold for packs and after a couple rotations (rotations are once a year), you'll have everything you need for very little investment (basically $50 per expansion for the pre-order, plus all the gold you save, 3 expansions per year = $150 per year to be good)

StoiCynic · Aug 14, 2018

Ravishing said:
Are you brand new to hearthstone?
If you focus on making 1 deck it's not too bad, but to get most of the' must have' cards you're looking at minimum 100 per expansion... 3 expansions + classic in standard rotation means at least $400 to get a decent head start.... but you can go the ftp route and just build 1 deck and save up gold for packs and after a couple rotations (rotations are once a year), you'll have everything you need for very little investment (basically $50 per expansion for the pre-order, plus all the gold you save, 3 expansions per year = $150 per year to be good)

Yeah, basically brand new. Holy hell, that's way more than I was expecting. Guess i'll try the one deck route...

Ishad · Aug 16, 2018

Went 12-1 in the brawl using cubelock so that deck is still good.

Origin · Aug 16, 2018

0 desire to play. Missed my first daily since i restarted (6ish months). Game is zzz.

Get your shit together, Blizzard.

Or release Classic WoW already. I'd be cool with that.

Derpa · Aug 16, 2018

Got to say this amused me.

brekk · Aug 16, 2018

Toast is the redeeming quality of hearthstone.

Mist · Aug 16, 2018

Went 12-2 on my free Brawliseum so I guess I can't complain too much about the meta.

EDIT: Odd Rogue without any of the new legendaries.

brekk · Aug 17, 2018

I'm at 3-0 last night running Cubelock.

Ravishing · Aug 17, 2018

I think Im 4-1 after yesterday with mill druid.

But it seems like every player has been so bad.... first win was against a "face hunter" that was using classic cards, so probably a rank 25 player just doing their run cause its free. Only loss has been to a very aggressive Evenlock... Final turn was Shadowflame on Genn to get past my 5x 1/5 taunts. Ouchie. Didn't even know Shadowflame was used lately lol.

Mist · Aug 17, 2018

EDIT: NM I'm dumb, I was thinking Soulfire. I've always hated Warlock spell names, going back to WoW.

Mahes · Aug 17, 2018

Quest Rogue is back and is the reason Giggling Inventor is going to get nerfed. That deck can get mean. Combo decks can be strong against it if it takes to long for the quest to initiate. Mage is also pretty good against it.

TJT · Aug 20, 2018

Went on a tear and got Golden Onyxia, Boomship and Flobidinous Gloop in some random packs. That was nice!

TJT · Aug 22, 2018

There's a Boomsday solo adventure out today... didn't even know there was one.

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