Is anybody else dumbfounded by what Mages have become? RNG engines where sometimes you’ll trample them and sometimes they are untouchable? I understand most card games have a certain level of RNG involved but I feel this current Meta all spell mage deck kind of steals the class identity of the deck. I stopped playing my mage because I enjoyed that Frost/Fire/Arcane identity but it just can’t stand up to a mage randomly playing Librams and Hunter rush beasts and Warlock destruction cards.
I just don’t feel like that’s a mage from World of Warcraft whatsoever.
Well, Spell Mage decks that don’t run Deck of Lunacy (and therefore can’t play other classes’ spells) outperform Spell Mage decks that do. So you might see a return to more traditional mage spell schools soon enough.
I hope so. Class identity was such a huge thing for me in this game. Different classes having spells and abilities only they had access to. That made playing different classes different. Exciting. Most classes just randomly summoning up other classes iconic cards is just…weird. I’m sure a lot of people love it but it just doesn’t sit well with me personally. Why assume or specialize in a class at all when they can all just pull from every class? Takes what made it special away.
Mage has so many non-RNG options, that I hope they play DoL.
Without DoL they have:
12 damage fireball
10 damage apexis blast
20 damage mask of chtun
6 damage orb
If you are a class with no healing (hello Rexxar), you have no choice but rush the face hoping to not die in the process.
o mages has the spell deck with not so high RNG, but also the heropower version which isn’t that bad (from a “fun to play” point of view, at least. I don’t feel like I am scamming wins because of RNG)
The trolls will pop their heads up eventually but I think I’ve described my concerns. Maybe I’ll just get to the end of my Barrens pass and wait for the next rotation. I don’t mind facing Mage, Warlock, Mage, Mage, Mage, Warlock, random priest, mage, OCCASIONALLY a warrior (though I hear it’s nothing but a swarm of warriors and paladins up top)…but it does get monotonous. I won’t go as far as to mention net decking but I will say I’m disappointed in the lack of creativity climbing up the ranks.
As said by others, DoL is the one that sticks out as super RNG, but you can still build reasonable decks without it.
Discover (which mage has several) is kinda RNG, but kinda not since you get to choose. I think these are acceptable as long as you don’t run your whole deck with them.
If you shun even discovers, it gets harder, but there’s still some ping stuff and elemental stuff to work with. It won’t be meta or anything, but the options are there to play around.
It’s a bit ironic for a spell casting class like mages to have so much RNG.
We’re not harry potter students turning oranges into frogs, we’re supposed to be master sorcerers making powerful elementals do our bidding. Randomness does not fit into this.
Mage is a really popular class. When it has an easy to play powerful deck, it floods the meta and ruins it (see pre-nerf DoL). As such, they have moved to make mage less tempo curvestone and higher skill cap greedy.
There are trade offs from this decision.
I think this version is more in keeping with mage’s identity. Unpredictable, shockingly powerful at times, but also weak and vulnerable… clothies with burst.
You know that you’re basically suggesting that anything people have fun while playing should also be inaccessible because a part of the public are dummies who think that other people have obligation to play an varied amount of decks.
Don’t you?
In other words you’re saying that something being “too much fun” is a problem.
If by “have RNG” you mean having the option to run RNG cards, I actually counted more hunter options (just a class I picked out) with some element of randomness (and I left out a few cards like scavengers, since even though what you draw is random, hunter can deck build so the randomness is basically gone)
If mages want to, they can try to play elementals, spell damage, secrets (cut out netherwind if you think that’s too random), and ping stuff.
Well… as above, right now mages actually do have some elemental support. Haven’t seen many people trying to make grand finale work though…
Legit the only reason I run deck of lunacy is for unfavorable matches such as, hunter or paladin. Sometimes a 1x flowed Lunacy is enough to claw my way back healing and taunting up for 6 mana cost. Sure its a dead card alot of the time but its decent enough to be included in spell mage because of the unfavorable matches.
Lunacy being 4 really hurts, Evocation being our only other spell legendary is also pretty garbage at the moment because it costs 2 mana which imo is expensive for a legendary that actually requires you to have a ton of mana for it to be even worth using (most times its never worth it).
At this point in Hearthstone, its derivation from World of Warcraft is largely irrelevant in regard to the direction classes take. Aside from very obvious characteristics, like priests heal and mages cast a lot of spells, the two hardly have much to do with one another.
I dunno, the class identity is still very much alive. Warrior with board presence and weapon control, lock with ability to turn the tides at low health, mage with it’s gimicky tricks just like in wow currently, Rogue with it’s ability to drive you insane on how unfair some of their turns feel and random bursts, DH with it’s ability to do random survival things darkness in wow but lifebeam and healing glaives in HS, Paladin being broken in every variant of the game just like Wow.
I find alot of similarities in both games, which is why I like it probably more than someone with no WoW experience.
I like the this “new” RNG aspect of the Mage, makes every match an unique one. That’s why I play no-minion mage.
I don’t like Deck of Lunacy, that’s way too much RNG for me. I confess I use to run it before the nerf, but I would only play it when desperate, or on a really bad match-up, like Hunter.
2mana Deck of Lunacy is a very good card (if you know when to use it), 3mana would be OK, 4mana is unplayable.
There is so much homogenization in this game that class roles are really muddy, in spite of the spell class distinctions. Dual class cards and just giving classes access to abilities that they have not traditionally had.
It’s maddening to me.
I completely agree. I really loved the full on triforce of Fire/Ice/Arcane identity mage had. I felt like a mage while playing it. Now I don’t know what I feel like. That’s the reason I put mage down. In time these shenanigans will rotate out and maybe feeling like the class I’m playing will return.
I do actually enjoy the duel class cards. That does open up some interesting and identity forming play. I more refer to the Discover ANY class cards. I think they are ridiculous and completely ruin my immersion (I just don’t see a Master Mage suddenly pulling out a tomb and summoning the light to heal themselves and summon a purified demon. Then turning around with a bow and nailing a 100 yard headshot…).
It really is disappointing. I shall return to Mage when it feels like playing one again. Till then…I’m just going to smash them in the face with murlocs.