every single battlegrounds update, blizzard seems to royally screw the pooch by speeding up the game to the point where build-defining cards are either impossible to get (they are too high a tier and the game is over before you’re high enough tavern to get them), or, you’re so close to death at the correct tavern to get these build-defining cards, that it’s a literal coin flip if you can stabilise and make use of them, to the point where the only options currently I feel are power levelling up the tavern tiers and trying to get as many token type minions early enough to allow you to not get stomped in the early game too much, it’s astounding just how frequently this kind of game speed increase bollox occurs with every update and the team still hasn’t learned this lesson.
Unfortunately it’s not great right now. They need a serious balance pass on everything to swap around and change some broken cards. If it makes you feel better. The acknowledged best BG’s player in the world absolutely hates the game right now and is finding it hard to keep playing till some massive changes are done.
I feel the same, if only HSReplay would record BGs… I jsut encountered a lobby where by turn 12 everyone was somehow tier 6 already, AND had minions in their hundreds for stats. I had been highrolling elementals the entire match and was able to reach tier 4 but my biggest minion was like a 22/20. That was my only golden triple as well. Like wut? Like going tier 2 on turn 2 is a staple, sure, but like how are people reaching tier 3 on turn three AND getting more minions? Its like clockwork in other lobbies where I wont take a single loss until turn 9 or 10, then without fail I take 15 dmg, next turn another 15. If im not already dead at this point I just leave the lobby entirely. I also dont see how some are getting a tier 6 minion on like turn 4 or 5… I frequently see the tier 6 quillboar that give all other minions a blood gem at end of turn on someones board full of tier 1 minions and I just got my 3rd and 4th minions after teching to 2 on two.
I havent reached tier 5 in about 10 matches because people are getting their minions scaled into the upper double digits long before I even reach one minion into double digits at all. I cant find any scaling minions of any tribe that affects all others of its tribe below tier 3 or 4, but even when I do it requires another one to trigger it.
Elementals have the guy that does 1/1 on level 2. Mechs have boost a guy when a shield is destroyed on 2, I am not going to list them all.
I am pretty sure its supposed to be a trade off so that the guy who goes 3 on 3 has a chance and the guy that spends 5 turns at 1 has a chance ie their is no right build.
Their are too may cards in the pool, their were as well last season and this season has like a dozen more.
Im aware of the elemental one and mech one, however both are so super rare to encounter I cant reliably build anything around them, or even if I do, the only way the mech one works is to have a minion held in hand, and that alone is so risky a play to not have everything I buy be on the board in order to fill it out or to buff it up in one way or another. Same for the murloc in hand buffing. Its hard enough to reach turn 10 alive let alone have a full board. Having the luxury of things in hand has always been such a foreign concept I just dont get how people are able to juggle it all. But even having 2 of the elemental deathrattle guys on the board doesnt make a difference when the refreshes never offer up any more elementals to even buy up. Its like how Ill be forced to pick a hero with a power thats passive and really only gets going with reborns or deathrattle-summons involved. Like Drekthar. And without fail, the lobby doesnt offer up a single one the entire match to me. Not one. I made it to turn 10 never encountering a single reborn mech or undead, not a single deathrattle-summon demon or mech or undead. NOT ONE. Not even the naga beast tier 1 cheeser. I didnt even get any luck when I thought I was given some rope to save myself by when I found a spell that let me discover a deathrattle minion. Nope. All of them were basic non summoning deathrattles… I just quit at that point as I had already taken 2 turns of 15 dmg each on turns 11 and 12 and was posed to fight the person in first who hadnt lost a single encounter all match rocking a 12 fire streak.
I hate my ability to RNG roll the imaginary dice and they have 6 regular sides all with whole real numbers, and yet somehow I still end up with negative numbers after I roll them. This scenario I just went thru on my most recent game above, happens very frequently. Not a confirmation bias being applied there, I have my good games too, but they are not as constant as the above scenario is. I might get a top 4 in like 1 in 6 games? but the aforementioned scenario plays out at least 1 in 4 matches I play. I may be off by 1 in either direction (1 in 5 or 1 in 3) but I dont want to write my misery down in such a manner. Here is enough! lol
i have found after about 25 total BG games so far since the update, that dragons are the most consistent currently with regards to making a decent build leading into mid/late game, obv requires a bit of good RNG to get the cards offered initially for the starting off point but once you get them you can scale well into the late game (obviously ignoring anybody else trying to do the same and eating up all the cards you need lol).
you want to go with:
tier 1: emerald proto whelp
tier 2: bronze sandspewer, whelp smuggler (this neutral dragon synergy card is actually key for the entire build btw so make sure to keep it around all game as a triple, and also give it taunt and ‘end of turn gain +2/+2’ with the new spells).
tier 3: nether drake
tier 4: razorgore, the untamed
tier 5: drakkari enchanter (for the doubling effect for end of turn effects), ignition specialist (with the double end of turn procs, you can get a lot of tavern spells which can offer potential power spikes in the late game that others don’t have access to normally).
playing this build makes tier 6 a pointless waste of time and does generate stats very quickly, you can also change out the tier 2 bronze sandspewer for the tier 4 peckish feldrake, and use the new tavern spell on tier 5 to trigger a friendly battlecry (assuming you have been juicing the tavern with extra stats along the way), it’s also a good way of getting big chunk stats fast, just not as reliable.
I recognize the tier 1, tier 2 lady, and the enchanter, lol. Thats the only ones I know I have encountered purchasable in the tavern in the roughly dozen or so matches since the reset. I prolly know the others just not by name. I tend to memorize minions by what they do not by their name. Or at least by their pictures, but Ive learned recently most of the images I think I see are not depicting what I thought they were. I forget the most recent one that I got a close up look at its artwork and was flabberghasted as I had never seen anything like what it actually depicts previously… almost like I finally saw the sailboat in the magic eye poster in Mallrats lol.
Edit: gave it a whirl, was able to get 23/27 Bronze Sandspewer + Windfury, a Golden 28/26 Emerald Proto Welp + Windfury, a 18/24 Emerald Protowelp + Reborn, a 22/26 Sandstone Drake + Taunt, an 5/6 electric synthesizer for its battlecry that previous build turn, 4/4 Mangled Bandit for its ability to generate 3 blood gems each turn, and finally a 2/5 the Whelp Smuggler + Taunt.
I didnt encounter any of the spells that aided anything for econ or stats, just a lot of the one that costs health, and the one that gives stats to a menagerie of minions but not a singular tribe. … finished 5th place on like turn 11 or 12 i think?
It is different and faster, sure.
The T5 upgrade is starting at 10 gold, not 11, so you can actually go to T4 at 8 gold and T5 on 9 gold, which helps the highroll - especially if you get the extra gold each turn.
I generally disliked the change to 11 gold, so I am happy with it gone, because it took ages to level up, especially if you were weak. Now you can go T5 more safely and highroll there.
I feel like I win more than before the patch, so I am fine with it. Sometimes there are some superstrong enemies, but that happens.
Who is it not? Still Jeef?
I like spells and I think there are some really good things about this update.
They have given us some more cool interactions, more complicated strategies, and added some real depth to the mode.
However, they have turned the power up and diluted the minion pool to the point that you have no time to use them in competitive games.
Yeah, it’s still Jeef.
The mode has ALWAYS been about highrolling and every release they make it more of that. Just finished a game where someone had 15 triples and I had 3. I just screw around with the mode now, there is NO point on taking it seriously.
Oh that’s slow compared to what I see. People are tier 6 with minions in the hundreds by turn 9 when I play.
I cant even get to 4 til at least 9 or 10
Exactly. We are back to the Tier rush meta once again. If you aren’t rushing to tier 5/6 you aren’t doing it right.
Just naturally through the curve you should be.
Tier 2 on 2
Tier 3 on 5
Tier 4 on 7
Tier 5 depends on if you had a natural curve or if you have created extra to buy into it quickly. From there 6 is easy to hit but not always necessary to go into. Most often you should be at tier 5 by Turn 8 or 9.
You can change it up some depending on factors like extra Gold, Armor to sell minions for extra gold and bonuses that reduce tier costs.
This is how I would like to play. This is why I don’t do well.
Yes, this is how you have to play.
Never seen or heard of a natural curve to upgrading tiers. The only thing that feels natural is when the cost of the upgrade + cost of buying a minion = current amount of gold. Anything less than that seems like a waste of a turn as I did nothing to improve my board at all from the last turn. But I also am victim of many a rounds in a row where Im given nothing of use in every refresh I can afford, I mean I can be at Tier 6 and have my (lets say elemental) build going strong, and for about 30 refreshes in a row I wont be offered a single elemental at all, not even a neutral minion that could help in any way like giving taunt or small stats even, nor will I be offered anything above tier 4 even when I do reach tier 5 and 6 during all 30 of those refreshes.
Explain this sentence more thoroughly please. What do you mean by armor to sell minions for extra gold? Im not understanding what you mean by that. What bonuses that reduce tier cost? I cant remember anything at all that can do that outside of the anomalies. and I still dont get that bit about armor for gold? I dont know where you get armor from, no one has a hero power that involves armor? What am I missing about this?
Okay…
Yes, on those turns i have listed you have enough to buy 1 minion and then tier up. That is in fact a STRONG play. Tiering up is always a strong play though because the average stats of the minions are better than the previous one. Sitting on a lower tier buying minions and filling your board is in almost every case a bad play.
As for the second part i hope this makes sense. I’m going to do this a bit out of order. Armor to sell for gold means this. I sell the minion or minions i have in order to tier up a turn or two before the normal curve which i set above(IE: a turn when you tier up and buy a single minion). I know i am going to lose that round but in the early game taking a few extra damage means nothing because i am now pulling from a high tier than the rest of the lobby. Thusly, i have just used the extra armor my hero had in order to gain a tier advantage and converted my armor into gold.
Most important thing to understand about BG’s. Your health pool is a resource just like gold in game. Heroes that have high armor can be every bit as powerful as a hero with a synergistic hero power. Using that armor to gain tiers faster than anyone else is a sound strategy. It doesn’t matter if you win the lobby with full health or 1 health. A win is a win.
That’s why they started adjusting armor in game for specific heroes and based on your rating. Some of them used to have absurd armor and insanely powerful general Hero powers. Now heroes with top notch general Hero powers have very little armor.
Does that make more sense?
I mentioned I won a bg as undead, but I used spells to to go four on five. Ended up discovering DR to boost undead AP on a board that already had undead going. Used pirate to get extra tavern spells, and was fully online with my undead T6 boards by turn 9. It was not close as I still had armor at the end of the game.