General Gaming Hearthstone: The Thread 2.0 - Scholomance Academy Expansion Announced

[TheLeon]

I only had the gold for 15 packs, but after the Hall of Fame rotation I’m sitting on about 9k dust. I’m probably going to wait a few days before I craft too much. 

 

Edit: actually, I completely forgot - this is Whizbang’s time to shine!

[TwinIon]

So far the only deck I've had consistent success with is Dragon Bomb Warrior, which is what got me to 5.

 

I've played a few lackey Rogues and I have to say I've never seen the deck work at all. Certainly seems like some build of hunter will be good, Murloc Shaman is powerful, and aggro rogue seems like it could be a thing. I've gotten comboed by a druid a couple times, but it's hard to say if it's consistent. I played against a few priests, and the inner fire ones seem too slow.

 

 

Even now, I feel like they should have rotated the other hero cards. Especially Boom and Hagatha. They're not as oppressive as Rexxar/Jaina/Guldan, but that infinite value engine is still there, even if it's slightly limited.

 

[TheLeon]

It might be because I'm going up against some sloppy decks, but I'm really happy with my Tesspionage 2.0 deck. I started yesterday at the bottom of rank 8, and I went on a win streak all the way to 5. Underbelly Fence, Hench-Clan Burglar, and Vendetta are all insane. 

[osxmatt]

So uh, how long until Bomb Warrior is nerfed? I could easily see bomb damage reduced to 2 or 3.

[Anzo]

New Token Druid is easy mode to rank 5. 8-2 today. My goodness that deck is busted. 

[osxmatt]

I don't think I've ever posted a replay, but my turn 11 is the biggest pull a win out of my ass I've ever experience in my 3 years playing this game.

 

https://hsreplay.net/replay/Yj3TX6uiDpyuFdgooHkPhA

[Pikachu]

Hearthstone rolls out Rise of the Mechs, starting June 3

[TwinIon]

I've been enjoying the single player content. There's a lot of variety and I haven't been too consistently blown out by unbeatable draws by my opponents, even in heroic.

 

I'm excited they've kept up their increased pace of nerfs.

 

I've very interested in their new willingness to add in a single new card and buff old ones. It's a whole new paradigm for Hearthstone and the kind of thing that, if done regularly, could keep the meta fresh between expansions. Even if right now, it seems that there could be an issue with the new card:

 

[TheLeon]

Making additional changes before it even has a chance to be a real problem. Not bad.

[osxmatt]

Sad news, Hearthpwn is shutting down!

 

https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1-the-hearthpwn-tavern-is-closing-its-doors

[TwinIon]

9 minutes ago, osxmatt said:

Sad news, Hearthpwn is shutting down!

 

https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1-the-hearthpwn-tavern-is-closing-its-doors

That's a surprise to me. It's not shocking to me that someone running a site like that would quit, but it is a surprise that a site like that, owned by Curse (and therefore Twitch and Amazon), would just go away. The game might not be growing in popularity, but it's far from dead, and Hearthpwn seems like the best of breed.

[Anzo]

10 hours ago, TwinIon said:

That's a surprise to me. It's not shocking to me that someone running a site like that would quit, but it is a surprise that a site like that, owned by Curse (and therefore Twitch and Amazon), would just go away. The game might not be growing in popularity, but it's far from dead, and Hearthpwn seems like the best of breed.

He is starting a new site that will essentially be the same as Hearthpwn but out of the Curse/Twitch network called Out of Cards that will include Hearthstone and MTG stuff. 

[Link200]

On 5/28/2019 at 1:24 PM, TwinIon said:

That's a surprise to me. It's not shocking to me that someone running a site like that would quit, but it is a surprise that a site like that, owned by Curse (and therefore Twitch and Amazon), would just go away. The game might not be growing in popularity, but it's far from dead, and Hearthpwn seems like the best of breed.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised is HSReplay has impacted them.

[TheLeon]

Developer Insights - New Basic/Classic cards, Vanish and Mind Blast to be Hall of Famed

 

I'll definitely miss Vanish.  Mind Blast was only really used for OTK/burst decks that were unfun to play against (although I'll admit to playing them for a while) so I can see why they HoF'd it, but the replacement card is terrible. The new legendaries that will be added to the Classic set are intriguing. 

 

[TwinIon]

I've never been much of a Rogue player, so I'll be happy to see vanish gone. I'm enjoying this new Blizzard, willing to shake things up much more consistently. I don't expect to see any of those new cards see play, but I'm glad they're adding stuff at such consistent intervals.

[Anzo]

5 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I've never been much of a Rogue player, so I'll be happy to see vanish gone. I'm enjoying this new Blizzard, willing to shake things up much more consistently. I don't expect to see any of those new cards see play, but I'm glad they're adding stuff at such consistent intervals.

I could see Whiteman being played. Pretty powerful effect. Clear their minions by sacrificing your and boom you get them all back.

[TwinIon]

13 hours ago, Anzo said:

I could see Whiteman being played. Pretty powerful effect. Clear their minions by sacrificing your and boom you get them all back.

It's only one mana cheaper than Kel, though you do get the immediate effect, but that's only useful if you've got minions with rush or something and something to throw them into. Shudderwock potential I suppose, but overall it just seems like an expensive card that will be very situational.

[TheLeon]

Saviors of Uldum launches August 6th.

 

 

 

The new Basic/Classic cards are available now, along with some other updates.

 

[Anzo]

Mercenaries 280

[Pikachu]

 

[Brian]

Battlegrounds is out in beta if you preorder the next expansion. It is fun as long as you don’t care about winning since the balance isn’t great. 

[TheLeon]

Descent of Dragons is live.  I hadn't really been paying attention, so I didn't realize that everyone gets all 5 Galakrond legendaries as a login bonus. Since they're kinda the "hook" for this expansion, that's pretty cool. 

[Pikachu]

 

[TwinIon]

I've really been ignoring the ladder since Battlegrounds became available, and for the first time in a long while I haven't been paying attention to the card reveals.

 

Battlegrounds is a surprising amount of fun, and surprisingly addictive. I never really played any of the other autobattler games, so while I was aware of them, this is really my first. I first thought that not being able to choose attacks was going to make it far too random and far too passive. It is quite random, but it still largely feels within your control. There are also a surprising number of decisions to be made each turn, and there's a lot of freedom in how you approach the game. I think there are balance issues that need to be addressed (murlocs are way too strong right now, Brann should probably be tier 6), but they've been updating it frequently and rotating heroes quite a lot. I hope that attention doesn't disappear with the end of the Beta phase.

 

I'm far more interested in Battlegrounds than I am in Arena. I've got 140 Arena wins, since launch. I've got 77 top 4 finishes and 22 first place finishes in Battlegrounds thus far (yay for the stats screen!). I don't expect the current MMR system is going to stay, and I hope they find a good replacement, but it's been fun seeing the number tick up over time. I'm not really sure how much time I'll be putting into each mode over time, but if the ladder gets stale, Hearthstone now has another good way to keep me in the game. I do wish you could complete quests in Battlegrounds though. I'm going into this expansion with little gold saved up because I haven't been completing my dailies.

 

 

As for the standard game, so far I haven't played much, but there seems to be an obvious synergy with Battlecry Shaman and Galakrond. Who knows if it's good enough to stay in the meta, but the deck was straightforward enough to build with a bunch of new cards that it's easy enough to get wins.

[Brian]

Some of these Legendaries are way OP.

[TwinIon]

As of day two it sure seems like the battlecry / Galakrond Shaman is the nuts. I've been playing the quest version, and it's made my climb pretty easy so far. I hadn't played ladder for a while, so I was at 16. After a 15 game win streak I'm to 6. Overall the current build I'm using is 21/3. Once I get back to 5 I'll probably mess around some more and see what else is working.

[TheLeon]

I only just unpacked the Shaman quest last week. I tend to not play the most popular decks, and battlecry Shaman overwhelmed the ladder the last month or two, so I've been reluctant to try it. Someone played a Miracle Rogue against me that seemed like a lot of fun, so I've been trying to make that work. The 0 Mana cards you draw with Galakrond (and Togwaggle's treasure) plus the extra coins you get from Umbral Skulker can lead to some shenanigans. 

[Brian]

I have been playing Dragon/Reno Control Mage with a lot of success. If I get the upgraded Flamestrike that does 8 damage, it’s a guaranteed victory. 

[TheLeon]

Shaman is going to be the focus of nerfs, hitting as early as next week.

[TwinIon]

This has got to be the fastest they've ever done a balance patch that wasn't fixing some unanticipated OTK or something. I certainly appreciate the new, more responsive HS team.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have all the cards for the other decks that are currently competitive with Shaman. I don't have the Hunter Quest (though I'm skeptical that deck will last long), I don't have all the stuff for highlander mage or the new warrior legendary weapon. Since I've gotten to 5 I think I'll just play some battlegrounds until the balance patch hits and the meta settles a little more.

[Brian]

Even with Mage, there is little you can do if you don’t get a good draw. Shaman is just broken. Last 5 ladder matches was with Shaman. I hated the last Shaman variant. Leave it to Blizzard to top it. 

[TheLeon]

Nerfs will go live later today.

• Corrupt Elementalist: Now costs 6 Mana (up from 5)
• Sludge Slurper: Now has 1 Attack (down from 2)
• Faceless Corruptor: Now has 4 Attack (down from 5)
• Mogu Fleshshaper: Now costs 9 Mana (up from 7)

Should slow them down... slightly? 

[TheLeon]

More nerfs coming this week.

 

Dragonqueen Alexstrasza giving you another Dragonqueen Alexstrasza was completely absurd. I actually got it a couple days ago in arena, but my opponent conceded before I could play the second one. 

[Pikachu]

 

[TheLeon]

Demon Hunter class will be added with the next expansion, Priest is getting completely reworked, some cards (mostly wild) are getting un-nerfed, Hall of Fame for the new year announced, new ladder system. Pretty insane list of announcements.