State of decay. I would say that on an objective level, classic is indeed in a state of decay.
Collapse? Depends on perspective. Ramp druids would say yes. Any other form of druid currently cannot exist without playing token. So yea you can say that the classic set nerfs to druid has precipitated the collapse or disintegration of everything druid minus token which was only recently reinvigorated with the new expansion.
But I see you’re a literal guy. Literally. So of course you’re right. Nerfs didn’t ruin classic because by definition, classic still exists. Therefore it can’t be ruined so long as it remains. Who cares if the cards are competitive or relevant. Right?
Most of the cards are not competitive or relevant already… why should there be a few exceptions instead of an even power level among the classic set? This mentality that the classic set is the holy, sacred thing is beyond stupid to me. Prep needed a nerf, Fiery war axe needed a nerf. Maybe one day they will consult baby Jesus and Moses before making a video game, but until then, expect change.
So you are saying my car will not start without Chillwind Yeti? Hmmm, i never thought of it like that.
I see your point and I actually concur that classic should not be viewed as sacrosanct.
Yet, I must disagree with the desecration of the classic set because this treatment doesn’t jive with Blizzard’s purported premise of characterizing classic as a foundational set. Had Blizzard actually adopted a rotational format for the classic set, we wouldn’t have this issue. But they seem to want to have their cake and eat it.
If you reflect on how Blizzard marketed and introduced the classic set, we were told it would be the perpetual set that defines the key qualities of a class. It was the bedrock in which future expansions would stand. As in foundations go, you generally don’t mess with it unless there is something fundamentally awry.
But what we’ve witnessed is the gradual erosion of the classic set in direct contravention on Blizzard’s own started purpose. In fact, nerfing classic either through HOF or straight up nerfs appears to be envogue with each balance patch. Indeed, the convenient excuse of “constraining design space” rings a bit hollow by now. To me, that sound bite means that the creative brain trust at Blizzard has gone bankrupt. A total cop out. A poor excuse to reverse their own precedent and ideology while at the same time refusing to implement a true, sustainable solution—a rotation of classic.
It’s actually a really great idea. You dont need to have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea just because you are uninformed about it.
Magic is a much more indepth game, hearthstone is fun to watch and play… they are both good for different reasons.
It’s comparable to the “Core set” that MTG uses. There are always cards that are flowing in or out, or being added to the base sets per year. So the cards from years ago can come back, or can phase out if they are stifling new expansions.
This whole idea of “catching up” or “the games too hard or expensive to get into” is bogus
CCG are expensive just look at Magic look at Magic Online or Artifact
It’s not the Developers problem if you can’t keep up. It’s up to you the player to decide if you want to invest into the game.
Hearthstone on the other hand if you choose can be completely FTP. You must understand though that this choice also comes with consciences don’t come and complain that you don’t have all the best decks to play or whatever because that’s YOUR choice.
When it comes to the classic set.
A rotating set is the best option. It’s been proven to be a good decision going by other CCG
Nerfing problem Classic cards is a bandaid fix to the problem. But at least it’s a fix. You cannot make the argument of “oh it’s the base design of the game or new players need them to be good otherwise how are they meant to keep up”
Well if a cards poorly balanced, it’s poorly balanced. It doesn’t matter where the card comes from, if it’s a problem it’s a problem. Pretty simple.
The small amount of cards out of the entire classic set that have been touched were changed for the right reasons overall.
I’m all for well-planned nerfs but I think you’re not wrong here. So far the team behind the game seem to be very lazy when it comes to balancing their game. They are either to scared or unwilling but what the game desperately needs is a new base/classic card set like how Magic The Gathering does it.
They could already do so much by re-evaluating old sets (like Priest who needs Lightbombs so badly … or they have to keep on printing busted aoes for him in the future). Same goes for sooo many other classes. This not only would refresh the game by a HUUUUGE amount, they could also announce it like 1 year in advance so no one is pissed when some cards leave or enter classic set.
The “superior” ccgs method is already in force, nerfs and HoF. A rotating core is a far better option than systematically destroying the evergreen set.
Of course, as the only point they have as devs/business is to release new cards, which makes old ones obsolete. If people are cheap and still using the old cards even if they literally deleted 90% of collections to Wild, then nerfing them is the only way.
IF they would care about the players it would be a TCG not a CCG and would not release 40 dmg new Dr Booms and IWIN hero/DK cards which obliterate people who dont have those.
I listed 7 cause these are the cards that got nerfed since August (in about 9 months time). 3 more cards left since August but they werent nerfed but HoFed (Divine favor, doomguard and naturalize) so i didnt put them in the list. Now when we lose 10 ‘‘evergreen’’ cards in less than a year, well theres something going on here and i guess its only gonna get worse.
That said the continues nerfs of the classic set create 2 problems:
a) The direct nerfs of certain cards lead to the indirect nerfs of other cards for ex the nerf of wild growth lead to the indirect nerf of every late game card druid had while the nerf of preparation lead to the nerf of every mid to late game rogue spell
b) The classes become expansion depended. For ex the nerf of equality and the HoF of divine favor made paladin 100% depended on new expansions for draw and controll tools.
Now these 2 things in return have different consequences in standard and wild:
In standard things will eventually come normal cause of the smaller card pool. If blizzard wants, they can easily give a playable archetype to a class in a single expansion. Still that doesnt change the fact that each class choises will get smaller and that many classic cards of the class will become unplayable whether its directly or indirectly
In wild though things are trully f***ed up cause of the larger card pool. There are whole expansions that were released having the classic set in mind, to the point where a small change in the classic set makes these older expansions collapse and turn their cards to unplayable. Again the best example of it its druid and rogue. Without wild growth druid cant play the 3/4 of his older cards (and we re talking about 5 years of cards) and without preparation rogue cant play not even one of its mid to late game spells. How is that even fair or normal?
Yes blizzard suggests that they ll print more cards to replenish the ones that left classic, but lets be honest, if these cards are similar to pilfer they ll never see play.
The only solution is a freaking core set but blizz stubbornly refuses to do so like a small kid suggesting ‘’ This game is mine and i ll do what i want with it’’. Something that as already mentioned has been put to action by other tcgs like MTG which have been alive for the last 30 years.
TLDR: We either get a core set or things will get nasty both standard and wild
Classic destruction just proves that a rotating core set is the way to go instead of a forever set. You can have strong pre nerfed cards if their life in standard is limited but blizzard show they prefer to just make Classic hot garbage probably so they can sell more packs and fool us with the promise of forever set. A forever set means nothing if its slowly turned into hot garbage and becomes complete unplayable. When that happens its like we never had a Classic set to begin with so what’s the point of having the Classic set at all.
It was always their goal to phase out evergreen set. Infact, they have been kind to move things gently, slowly.
Anyway, there is no point investing too much into HS unless you REALLY love the game. They started to charge for PvE content, there are no new features in the foreseeable future and game balance has been pretty much iffy most of the time. It’s a nice game to play from time to time but hardly worth to devote your time and money.
The main problem is the increasing power creep in each new set. If they don’t nerf the basic and classic set, it doesn’t give reason for people to spend money for the chance of getting card that are as powerful or more powerful than the basic and classic cards being nerfed or moved to HoF. It’s all about what will make the company more money, balance comes as secondary.