...I don't like Death Knight

I am all for new classes in Hearthstone and bold design decisions, but I am not a fan of the Death Knight class… Theme, artwork, class cards, hero power etc are all awesome, but some of the structural mechanics feel very gimmicky to me, specifically the way there are special deckbuilding and gameplay rules which apply only to that class… referring to corpse and rune mechanics.

I would have much preferred a new class that operated in the same fundamental way as the others and was simply delineated by hero power and class cards, as is the core design of Hearthstone… or if you’re going to add class-specific gameplay and deckbuilding mechanics that do not simply exist on class cards and hero powers, add them for every class not just one…

My 2c obviously.

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I think (hope) that this is the plan, but I imagine they want to test the waters with a single class before implementing something similar across the entire game. I would hope for a massive relaunch at the next set rotation. DK seems to be quite nicely balanced (so much so it is getting rolled by all the ridiculousness the set brought to the other classes), so if they can nail that with the other classes in April, I think we’ll be in a great spot.

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They’re not going to introduce a rune-type and corpse-type mechanic on 10 classes that already have their own mechanics. Maybe a year from now.

I hope the rune system doesn’t spread across other classes; it only makes the game more linear and more expensive

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I think they did a fantastic job with DK and made something unique, interesting, and fun.

I think it’s over played atm and it’s taking a minute to figure out good lists, but I think the design potential of decks is better than most anything else.

Those that play thief decks aren’t happy, but I think DK is a step in the right direction for the future of the game.

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Yeah I was kinda thinking the same thing, Overwatch just got a “sequel” but Hearthstone has been going for 10 years at this point and has a lot more unmined design space IMO… So if they really wanna do something different then I say they swing for the fences, but the reality is they’re probably in a place right now business-wise where they’re trying to cash in on whatever they can before the acquisition happens, who knows…

I’m not an expert in this category, but I agree - like I said, I enjoy a lot of what I’ve seen with the DK cards etc I’m just not a fan of the structural approach they’ve taken with this class vs all the others in the game.

Thanks for the comments!

Another excellent comment, and I’m inclined to agree: my preference would have been for them to simply make a new class and stick with core Hearthstone design… But I’m also generally down for them to try new things, I’d just like them to be a little more holistic :slight_smile:

That being said, I can think of several financial incentives for them to do things the way they did…

Again, I don’t think the class/expansion is terrible by any stretch, it just feels kind of off to me and not the way I’d like to see new classes designed for the game as it currently stands 10 years in… if they want to add totally new deckbuilding and gameplay mechanics then I personally think they should pocket that stuff for a sequel and revamp the whole experience so it feels fresh for all the classes. Not necessarily runes/corpses for everyone, but similar rules-burdens and general structure on a class-by-class basis… so maybe every class get the two standard resources of cards/mana then another class-specific one, for example. I’ve played this game since the beginning / still play all the time and these kinds of structural changes don’t really feel necessary to me as I think they still have plenty of design space to work with, but game design involves a lot of trial and error so I also don’t fault them for trying stuff… doing it for only one class just feels like a miss to me, that’s all :slight_smile:

Thanks again for the comments everyone!

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Wpuld you rather they made DK closer to how it works in WoW where you have to build rune energy before you can use certain abilities? IE can’t use frost abilities without first building up frost runes. That would be overly clunky for a card game and make the class complete garbage as everything would be multi card combos or delayed reactions.

Not sure if i even want em to design monk class now lol :sweat_smile:

DK isn’t all bad just i dunno, not sure what i was expecting. Granted it just came out so i’ll continue to give it a chance.

Bit of a loaded question, but I think I’m going to go with no lol… I don’t like the rune system period honestly… they already have a mechanic for making cards that are too powerful when combined mutually exclusive from each other (classes) and I am happy with that.

I totally agree, like I said in the OP I do like the card design, theme, feel, artwork etc of the class so far, it’s more the structural stuff that feels kind of off to me…

Thanks for the comments everyone!!

The corpse mechanic doesn’t bother me much (other than the fact other classes can’t use them if they steal DK cards, which isn’t great).

The rune system is strangling the class though, as it severely limits how creative you can be when building a DK deck.

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Yeah, this should probably get fixed at some point. It is very annoying to get cards from the class that are kind of hamstrung by not being able to power them up.

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I’d argue that it increases creativity because if you could use anything, then you’d have Renathal Blood DKs with the draw power of Frost and the Corpse generation of Unholy. Just swap all the greed/discover cards that we see in Blood DK lists with Frost’s draw and Unholy’s board presence. The deck would be insanity.

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Eh, I’d disagree there. Once you put in a single good card from your class in your deck, you are effectively locked out of 2/3 of the class and all of the other themes.

Essentially the rune system created 3 separate classes that are all called Death Knight, and not one cohesive one with flexibility.

There would be way more room for creativity if you could meaningfully mix the themes, but the current restrictions make that impossible outside of just making half of your deck discover cards and hoping to get lucky.

(And yes, they would probably need to rebalance things a bit without that restriction, but the rune system is absolutely not improving creativity, which requires more options than the near zero flexibility the class currently has within each rune type)

they told us already they are working on a way for classes to use corpses if they get DK cards and until then cards that do nothing without corpses cant be generated by burgle cards

Yeah, this is a little more specific a complaint than my original comment, but after having played around with the rune system for a week or so now I’m inclined to agree… I’m sure they’ll eventually make some split rune cards etc that’ll encourage more diversity, but in general it’s just basically an extension of the already existing class system and, again, I don’t like how it only applies to one class in the game…

Yeah, this seems fine to me… I’m just not sure it’s an additional mechanic that makes sense to add for every class outside the context of this specific set, you know? I would have liked to see corpse generation/consumption as a keyword mechanic that is exclusive to DK personally, rather than a default game mechanic that applied to only one class if that makes any sense… again, keeping class delineation to class cards/hero powers, as is Hearthstone’s core design (which is great IMO).

so far i h avent read anything about releasing cards with the mechanic just making it so if you copy generate or take DK cards youll be able to use them too