Legendary is easiest to decide. Mechanically, if we only want something to happen once a game (ignoring shenanigans), we’ll make it Legendary. Or if it needs to be the only copy of something. A good example is the no-duplicate cards like Reno and Kazakas. Or if there’s something that doesn’t make sense to happen twice in a game, like this scrapped card: “Battlecry: Detonate all Bombs in your opponent’s deck.” After that card, there’s no Bombs in their deck, so the second copy feels like a dud. We try and avoid that where we can. Also, if the design is top-down and can only fit one named character, we’ll make it Legendary. Ragnaros, Lightlord’s effect is directly linked to Ragnaros, so it’d be silly to make his flavor anything other than Ragnaros.
As for the others, it’s mostly a complexity thing. The more the complex a card is, the more rare it is. Shadowcaster is a complex card that can do a lot of different things, but you need context of how to use it effectively. Dirty Rat is another good example; if you just play Dirty Rat, you may not know what you’re getting in to. Other times, if the card is a weird one-off card we put it at Epic, like Void Contract or Immortal Prelate.
At the common level, we try and put the most basic and easy to understand cards for a class. Rare is somewhere between Common and Epic.
In Initial Design (first 16 weeks), we try and get it as close as possible, but it’s mostly just from most complex to least complex.
Later on in Final Design, once designs are mostly locked in, we may shuffle them to make the class feel better. Like, if all the commons for a class are minions, or if an entire deck archetype is at rare.
Are the plans on adding whizbang to the classic set? And are there other cards coming to the classic set either from other sets or just new ones like tome of intellect?
Battlenet is on the same level as facebook, reddit, twitter etc. (not ingame)
A guild system ideally would entail additional incentives for interaction (issue challenges in the chat, share replays/ decklists, guild quests/ tournaments, co-op missions/puzzles etc.)
A couple of things going on here. For Basic cards, we’ve always nerfed in the past. If we Hall of Fame a Basic card, we need to replace it at the same time since it’s in everyone’s collection. That’s something we might do in the future, but haven’t yet.
For Classic cards, it’s a question of whether the effect is something we want around long term in standard. There are a few of pieces to that - how well does it fit the class’ fantasy, is it a healthy effect for the game to have around always, and is it something cool and exciting that we want to preserve in Wild. For Cold Blood, it’s a healthy effect, something we want rogues to be able to do, and not so unique that we felt like Wild rogues badly needed it, so we nerfed it instead of Hall of Faming it.
In Rise of Shadows we saw the return of 5 of Hearthstones iconic villains as they lay siege to Dalaran, can you tease where the League of E.V.I.L will strike afterward or if they’ll have any additional team members?
Hi Hadidjah! As a member of the art team I have a question. Imp, Treant and Squirrel all got new token art for RoS. Why didn’t the Murloc from Soul of the Murloc get new token art? Jus curious.
Indeed, better refining and defining class strengths and weaknesses is a big goal of ours this year. That does sound like a good topic for a designer insight or blog post!
That was the argument for standard shudderwock yes, but as doppelganster exists in wild completely untouched and not a problem: the argument doesn’t hold up in wild.
Yogg being a neutral board wipe was powerful enough for competitive play in standard, and would probably continue to be in wild. (My nerf to Yogg would have limited it to class spells, as it lives now is a travesty.) Competitive Wild exists less than once a year so it wouldn’t be a problem there either.
Any of you got a favorite card design or mechanic, that had to be scrapped because it was impossible to balance or fundamentally flawed in some other way?
Or one that sounded cool on paper but turned out to be much less fun in practice for some unforeseen reason?
Have you thought about the possibility of giving monthly rewards for playing in standard and other rewards for playing wild? I feel that it can encourage more people to play wild if they receive a separate reward for playing both formats.
What do you think of the bourgeois oppression of the proletariat?
Oh, wait: wrong thread.
What do you think about adding Whizbang the Wonderful to the Classic set in order to replace Sylvanas Windrunner or Ragnaros the Firelord? There are countless reasons for this, and indubitably you have heard and discussed them all, so I will not waste your time listing them.
Additionally, Toki, Time-Tinker is a card that can really only work in Standard. I know you have never changed class before, but do you think you could switch her with a Neutral Legendary, such that she becomes Neutral and the formerly Neutral one becomes a Mage Class card? Mild flavor notwithstanding, she seems to make much more sense as a Neutral Legendary; and she would then be the perfect candidate to replace the other of the two Legendaries sent to the Hall of Fame, should you be amenable to adding Whizbang the Wonderful to the Classic set.
Hey all. My few Questions: 1: Do you have plans to add some synergies, if you destroy your own Mana Crystals, like Felguard and Blastcrystal Potion?
Since Tar Creeper looks the Felguard a bit… weak.
Wingblast or Vendetta are, for me, better than Blastcrystal Potion.
2: Do you have plans to add Supportcards for Lord Jaraxxus, like for C’Thun?
Maybe change the Hero Power, like the second Shadowform or give Lord Jaraxxus +3 Health (wherever he is)?
This is something we’re considering. I don’t think we’ll get into a formula for “Mages always get a Legendary spell” and “Warriors get a Legendary weapon.” But I think now that we’ve done Legendary spells and weapons, we’re more likely to just do it when it feels right.
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