I have read and responded to posts today about how to make Mage healthier.
In this meta I say it’s impossible.
Mage has to have sickening mana cheats to even be competitive, because the cards it has are really weak compared to other classes.
When this game started, Mage survived by using stall in the form of freeze like frost nova, and turn delay in the form of secrets like Ice barrier and block.
Fast forward to now, and Ice block is HOF, and Ice barrier at three mana isn’t good enough, unless it can be played for free via IF. Even then; it is weak against what other decks can put on the board by turn four and five.
I really believe in order to go forward, this game has to go back.
Massive nerfs for every class across the board.
A return to class fundamental strengths and weaknesses.
A complete reset in terms of mana cheat and passive effects.
What does that mean for mage?
For Mage, I think that means the best in game hand burn, and tempo, and the worst heals, armor, taunts.
Am I wrong?
Because speaking only for myself, if nothing is done, I see this game becoming a one to three turn game where the player going second has no chance, and no involvement.
I mean all the mage rambling aside( which isn’t necessarily wrong), I would love if blizzard hit the great reset button as this game gets faster and faster, and currently any 10 mana cards are a complete joke to print as they will never see play!
But doubt that will ever happen though, as blizzard seems to think that a turn 5-6 game is what we want, hence all classes are getting tuned for ending the game faster! Personally I much prefer this to a meta dominated by fatigue decks, as those are just beyond terrible to play against…
As for what means for mages I ain’t sure, no one like to much damage from hand, as that quickly turns the game into solitaire… and that is kind of the role mages have currently!
Blizz’s concern was if they introduce a weak expansion which has no impact on the meta, it will drives down their revenue. that’s why we keep seeing power creep, no way back
I apologize for always speaking from Mage’s POV, as I know it annoys many players that I do so, but the thing is… I have to.
I cannot speak to other classes which I haven’t played in years.
I agree that a hard reset is what is needed. I also agree that it is highly unlikely unless there is a far larger backlash against the direction the game has taken.
I would love to see mage return to minions that use tempo and stall while closing with burn from hand.
That to me is what the class is.
Team 5 has gotten so far away from Class roles and the built in strengths/weaknesses that Warlock can now out heal Priest and they do it all passively, so they have the best draw, with no drawback.
Mage has awful cards, but thanks to RSW and IF they can manage to win just by making their entire deck free or darn near it. Add in Ignite and they are fatigue proof as well.
This game is a complete mess now and the designers have real nerve calling it an ESport imo.
I would start with denying mana cheating to 0 mana in general, obviously there would be buffs necessary afterwards
As a Dev, how can this be done?
What are the challenges and considerations that they will face?
We have reached an impasse.
Quests should have been shelved.
Not because they’re OP, or because they kill Control. But because there’s a bunch of players who have this idea of Hearthstone where they can play decks that just defend. They’re mostly garbage decks for a while now. But those players had hope. It was not going to materialize, but they held that hope.
And seeing a Quest on turn 1 causes a sense of hopelessness because they can’t just win by defending.
But now that these Quests are live, killing them it’s not going to make those people happy, because they’re going to find that Control still sucks.
Instead they’re going to just make everyone who is enjoying this meta super upset. And I know this might be hard to believe, but there’s a lot of people enjoying this meta.
I think it’s too late for a hard reset. The mass of nerfs Team 5 would have to come with would be just refused by Blizzard due to the huge number of dust that would be for free.
Instead, the specific decks should just become obsolete(that way they would dissapear from the meta without having to see 100 nerfed cards).
Maybe now only some nerfs would help, but in the mini-set and the future expansion I hope we will get hate-cards that are especially made to make obsolete any type of solitaire playstyle.
I don’t know: maybe counterspells for everyone, hate-battlecry cards, more ways to punish the opponent if he doesn’t care about your board or what you did. They would be annoying at first → until the meta shapes around actual minion-stats and then we would get the old Hearthstone back(at least in another form).
One option I can see that could reduce the powerlevel of the game heavily would be to do a harsher rotation.
As in introduce a Standard-standard in which only one year of cards is present. (Not the cards that were released within the last year, but only cards that were releaßed in 2021 (or 2022 for the next rotation.) ) While this would certainly upset a lot of people and make the last set of the year be only playable for 3 months, it would also help reduce the necessity of powercreep as every year there would be a completely new game, with a new core set and one expansion, without danger of the new cards seeing no play because the last year of cards is still so strong.
No. Because when you streamline decks - give them heavy build criteria - it gets bland quickly. Make those build arounds too good, and you get what we have now. A bland and boring meta for many people.
For those who like quick games its great! but for those who like games lasting to 12-15 odd turns (my ideal) there is no longer an option.
Its a business decision to accommodate for the new regulations in China.
Fine! If you, Blizzard, want to prioritse Chinese CHILDREN over western adults, so they can get their 3 hour per week “fix”, thats your call. Apparently I am no longer a part of your target audience, so I walk away from the game (not the forums though, too much fun here).
I am not part of Blizzard. I didn’t create this expansion.
Don’t refer to me as “you, Blizzard”.
Comprehension is a thing. I was not referring to you, “you”.
I don’t appreciate trying to link me to Blizzard, when you are replying to a post in which I begin by disagreeing with their decision to bring Quests back.
I didnt.
Comprehension.
That paragraph was not related to you/your stance, hence having its own paragraph, but directed at Blizzard.
That’s true
This isn’t necessarily tied to the first point. Priest quest and Shaman quest and Paladin quest is a clear attempt at midrange and Control. Priest quest is made to last exactly that many turns. The point being that isn’t related to streamlining: some quests were just too meta warping. But that isn’t to kill control. It’s to kill do-nothing-control, whose games lasted waaaaay longer than turn 15.
What’s the deal with people in these forums and china, FGS
Maybe Blizzards actions over the last few years? They are catering to the chinese audience, starting with nerfing Jaina’s cleavage.
Yeah, too bad thats too slow to be even remotely consistent. And, no, The priest quest COMPLETES at that time, it needs to last much longer to actually, you know, win consistently.
I dunno… I don’t think it’s just this forum.
I think this is just a consequence of China becoming a more dominant player in the world (or returning to their quote unquote rightful place, as some would believe)
I think China wants to have it both ways though. On one hand they want to be more dominant and important and take US’s place. On the other hand they seem to get very salty when people talk about them… but that kinda comes along with becoming more important. The old Chinese saying is that the biggest tree catches the most wind…
…though some say (and by some I mean I heard it on the Internet so it must b e true /s) China is just acting salty, to give their own citizens a show (e.g the outside world hates China, they’re bad, focus your hate on them and not your own government’s possible flaws, trust your own government to protect you against those mean people outside, etc)
The yearly rotation is basically what you are asking for isn’t it?
I have been to China.
I hung out with the snobs at the American club, ditched them quick.
Then I went out with my friends and got drunk at a Salsa bar. Pretty good dancers. Then the next day my friend who doesn’t drink tea bought 100$ worth of tea and stood up the hot girl from the Salsa bar.
Then a cabbie tried to scam us.
I also got to buy some really nice shoes that my boss hated.
But Taiwan is a lot better. Been there too. They were super nice to my pregnant wife. If you are thinking about moving to China, try Taiwan instead. They had an awesome Warcraft mural as an ad in the subway entrance.
“Dont go to China, go to China”.
Sorry, couldnt resist. Taiwan is the Republic of… CHINA!