The primary reason for the Warsong nerf was not that Patron Warrior was OP. It was because that card was causing problems for the design of new cards. Every neutral and Warrior class card with 3 or less attack had to be designed so that it would not break the game if it had charge on it. It’s a pretty significant design limitation to work around, so they felt they had to correct it.
prolix
3024
Rogue is such a disaster right now. Every once in a while I try to put a rogue deck together, but always give up.
slantz
3025
I wasn’t saying Miracle rogue was still viable. I was showing that there have been plenty of decks over time that have their own personality.
Welll one thing resulting fron the Warsong Commander nerf is that Warrior is now a rich people’s deck. Icy Veins version of Legendary Control Warrior weighs in at 12,760 dust, running 6 legendaries and 6 epics.
http://www.icy-veins.com/hearthstone/legendary-warrior-fatigue-control-tgt-deck.
The Legendary Dragon deck is not much cheaper at 10,640 dust.
http://www.icy-veins.com/hearthstone/legendary-dragon-warrior-tgt-deck.
The only cheap alternative appears to be a Mech/Rush deck.
Control tends to be expensive to play, yes. Luckily there are other ways to play Hearthstone than just netdeck ladder climbing.
- Got my first 9-win Arena run over the weekend! (EPIC!)
- Went 1-3 and 0-3 in Arena today and tumbled from rank 11 to 16 in ladder play (BRUTAL!)
Hearthstone, I wish I knew how to quit you.
prolix
3029
Ouch. The only way to fix that is to play face hunter 24/7 and use the threaten emote every time you play a card.
So two months into the new expansion, and I think Hearthstone is heading in the wrong direction. Aside from Mysterious Challenger and a couple druid cards, almost no TGT cards are seeing regular play. Now that Patron Warrior deck is nerfed, the aggro decks are running rampant on the ladder as predicted. Face Hunters, Aggro Druids, Aggro Paladins, and various tempo decks are all dominating the current meta. I watched the Challengestone tournament over the weekend, where the participants were only allowed to craft decks with TGT cards, epics, and legendaries, and it was a serious breath of fresh air. The underlying mechanics of the game are still great, but the game is very stale as it is being played currently. I think the developers really need to shake things up in the near future.
A few weeks ago, I argued against regular small balance patches ala Heroes of the Storm, but I’m now reconsidering. I think it would be cool if they did a larger scale rebalancing with each expansion so that the new cards are at least on equal footing with the best existing cards (which are getting very hard to dethrone at this point). Another option might be to rotate cards in and out of each ladder season so that people are forced to think and adapt each month.
I’m worried that the current development team is far too conservative to give Hearthstone the shakeup that it needs. And why shouldn’t they be? The status quo is raking in tons of money. The current path is not sustainable, though.
prolix
3031
I agree with this. I’m pretty sure Blizzard knew that aggro decks were a problem, which is why TGT didn’t really give those decks many new cards to work with. The problem is, they didn’t give control/midrange decks anything to combat those decks. So the meta hasn’t changed.
There is nothing more demoralizing than losing to a bot playing a Mysterious Challenger deck, which has already happened to me (at least) twice this week.
Secret pallies are annoying, but I don’t lose to them any more often than any other deck. Whatever deck I happen to be playing (was patron warrior, now dragon priest) always gets wrecked by handlock to the point that it’s practically an auto concede. As long as I have cards in hand to deal with a big fat Challenger after an avenge, I feel like I have a decent shot.
What really demoralizes me is a) seeing a warlock and b) a stupid goddamn motherfucking flamewaker behind a bunch of taunts. But that’s just me…
I just got my first 12 win (Paladin) arena run! It was likely to have been a 12-0 run too, but my internet dropped during one of my games and I lost. Definitely one of the best decks I’ve ever drafted, if not the best. Tons of good early game, really strong minions on curve through the mid-game, and a few solid finishers. There were a few hard fought games, but also a lot of dominant wins. For my last game to get to 12, I played a rogue who conceded on turn 6 after he triggered the Redemption secret on my Piloted Shredder, giving me a second deathrattle trigger.
Here’s the deck list:
Argent Squire
Injured Kvaldir
Redemption
Repentance
Amani Berserker
Bloodsail Raider
Dire Wolf Alpha
Garrison Commander
Mad Bomber
Shielder Minibot (x2)
Aldor Peacekeeper
Argent Horserider
Muster for Battle
Seal of Champions (x2)
Warhorse Trainer
Blessing of Kings (x2)
Evil Heckler
Hammer of Wrath
Murloc Knight
Piloted Shredder
Violet Teacher
Feugen
Solemn Vigil
Mysterious Challenger
Piloted Sky Golem
Guardian of Kings (x2)
Quaro
3034
I’d love if they balanced and rotated the cards every month.
The current state of the meta is just awful right now. On the metric of ‘number of interesting decisions in a match’ things are clearly going in the wrong direction. I just did my monthly climb over two days to hit 5 with Secret Paladin myself while barely paying attention to most matches. Literally Netflixing the whole time. Play muster/shredder/loatheb/mc/boom etc on the turn they can be played, do the obvious trades. Whether this would have happened anyway or if it’s from removing Patron is hard to say. But Secret Paladin is in this weird spot where it is simultaneous the very easy to play and the strongest. The Druid decks are only marginally more interesting. They need to make sure the game doesn’t devolve into ‘play your x cost minion on turn x’ every single turn.
I really miss Patron. Never really got great at it which is why it was so awesome – there was so much more to get out of practicing it.
Daagar
3035
So, I’m the most casual Hearthstone player ever. As in, I don’t have anything beyond the basic cards you get for going to 10 in each class. But I seem to have somehow racked up nearly $30 in play store credits which start expiring soon (which at least at one point could purchase expansions), and enough in-game gold for a second expansion. This would get me Naxx and whatever the second one is. But I realize this means I’m still a zillion cards behind. Basically - is this a worthwhile use of play credits at this point, or is jumping in at this point just silly talk?
Depends on what you’re looking to get out of it. Both the expansions have some fun single-player stuff (though I’d stay away from Heroic mode with a limited card pool) and unlock quite a few good cards that can be used in your casual decks. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s worth it. But if you’re hoping to suddenly move from casual to ladder-climbing competitive, you’ll be disappointed.
The cards from Naxx are regarded as some of the best in the game. Sludge Belcher, Zombie Chow, Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist, Loatheb, Shade of Naxxramus are all cards that get played in top tier decks and are valuable enough to give a nice boost to even the most basic decks. It’s not too late to jump in if you enjoy the game. It’s going to be a while before you get a good card collection, but Naxxramus is definitely a good start. Blackrock Mountain has some nice cards too, but I think those cards don’t stand on their own as well, and generally require more synergy with rarer cards. The single player campaigns are fun though. I credit them to getting me addicted to Hearthstone again.
Tyrion
3038
I think spending any money on Hearthstone for a new player is an absolute waste; and I feel especially bad for people who spent $50 on the TGT pre-order. Could that be one of the worst values in video games?
If you’re still interested in Hearthstone, stick to Arena and watching Youtubers like Kripparrian or Trump. Use the Play Store credit on something else; 80 Days, Sorcery! 1-3, board game conversions, anything else.
Daagar
3039
I always forget that Arena lets me play with anything. I don’t really care about climbing the ladder, and the gold I have socked away would pay for a number of runs even if I 0-3 all of them (which, I would). Oddly, arena might end up being the best route for casual play. Strange, that.
The only thing that will come in super handy is Naxx, everything else is good if you want to compete on the ladder but not needed for casual play. if I was starting today I would play for free for a month or so, then get Naxx, then just play for free until I really felt I needed something else.
I deliberately did not buy much of the latest expansion. Its far more fun for me to draw the cards from gold by quests or craft them.
After playing the game just about every day since launch I am increasingly convinced ranked play is the least fun part of the game.
Brakara
3041
If you want to spend money on the game, then buy the adventures (Naxx, then BRM). For a causal player, it’s not only worth it because the cards makes your collection much better, but you get some single player content as well (where some of the matches are actually pretty fun).
Yeah, I started playing in mid-January this year and all I’ve bought are the two expansions. Admittedly I play a lot, but I have been able to collect almost all the legendaries I want, some from decks bought with in game gold, but most by crafting. I didn’t follow the efficient Trump style FTP method of concentrating on one class and dusting every card that won’t fit the deck I’m building towards, but I am an aggressive duster. If you want to play constructed, bear in mind what people said up thread, aggro decks rule the roost at the moment. This is likely to continue as it’s in the nature of the game and Blizzard have said that MtG style control methods like mana destruction or interrupts are ‘boring’ and go out of heir way to nerf combo decks.
