Hearthstone #7 - Knights of the Frozen Throne

Wild11MN

First round losers
May 28, 2013
13,201
1,992
MN
The power level of this expansion seems very high. Murloc Shaman is going to destroy the meta right away (maybe). It seems very powerful though. Early returns from the bomb decks make that seem powerful as well.
 

Frankie Spankie

Registered User
Feb 22, 2009
12,351
389
Dorchester, MA
Anybody still playing?

Expansion and standard rotation coming April 9th.


I actually stopped playing completely. The meta just constantly sucks. There's always 2-3 decks that are good and that's it. Even when I watch streamers play, 90% of their opponents play the same 2 hunter decks. It's so tiring. I stopped playing a couple months ago and only miss having a game I can play that doesn't require much attention that can be played 10-15 minutes at a time. I certainly don't miss the game itself, that's for sure.
 

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
33,828
23,185
Lots of warrior bomb decks right now. I'm trying different Priest decks to try counter it, but it's pretty rough sledding. With the right conditions I can have a pretty consistent flow of minions back into my own deck to help mitigate the chances of drawing a bomb, but it's pretty tough to pull off and there's still a luck factor involved. Need to work out the kinks.
 

LightningStrikes

Champa Bay Lightning
Nov 24, 2009
26,063
9,772
Lots of warrior bomb decks right now. I'm trying different Priest decks to try counter it, but it's pretty rough sledding. With the right conditions I can have a pretty consistent flow of minions back into my own deck to help mitigate the chances of drawing a bomb, but it's pretty tough to pull off and there's still a luck factor involved. Need to work out the kinks.
Double ooze seems to be the way to go for now. Also health restoration (Druid, Shaman, Paladin, Priest) or fast decks.
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
37,009
13,425
Philadelphia
Lots of mediocre decks always seem overpowered for the first few days of an expansion before the meta settles. As we've already seen, bomb warrior has been phased out by normal control warrior. Rogue, Hunter, and Druid are the best for aggro/tempo-style decks. Mage and Shaman have some niche potential. Mech pally has some good stats lately.
 

LightningStrikes

Champa Bay Lightning
Nov 24, 2009
26,063
9,772
Lots of mediocre decks always seem overpowered for the first few days of an expansion before the meta settles. As we've already seen, bomb warrior has been phased out by normal control warrior. Rogue, Hunter, and Druid are the best for aggro/tempo-style decks. Mage and Shaman have some niche potential. Mech pally has some good stats lately.
Mech Hunter seems kinda insane too.
 

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
33,828
23,185
Lots of mediocre decks always seem overpowered for the first few days of an expansion before the meta settles. As we've already seen, bomb warrior has been phased out by normal control warrior. Rogue, Hunter, and Druid are the best for aggro/tempo-style decks. Mage and Shaman have some niche potential. Mech pally has some good stats lately.

I'm having a really tough time with Priest right now, and I know it has the worst win rate. There's just not a lot of options at the moment, at least not that I can think of. I can hang around a while, but ultimately lose in the late game or the reverse happens where I can't get to the late game with a deck that needs to and I get crushed early. Resurrect Priest is the best thing out right now and it's kind of lame.
 

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
33,828
23,185
I've been playing a lot recently because of the new expansion. I'm at rank 10 right now and having the most fun I've had in a while. There are still OTK decks out there, and I run one sometimes, but there seems to more variety right now while the meta is in flux a little.
 

Plural

Registered User
Mar 10, 2011
33,703
4,853
Now I remember again why I don't play a lot anymore. 9 wins in arena and 160 gold. What the f*** is that?
 

LightningStrikes

Champa Bay Lightning
Nov 24, 2009
26,063
9,772
Now I remember again why I don't play a lot anymore. 9 wins in arena and 160 gold. What the **** is that?
The game is getting more and more expensive. I had like 11k gold and bought the big pre-order package with the Druid hero. IIRC that's 110 packs plus the 80 from the pre-order (plus three more from their promotion events, yay). And my SoU collection is still far from complete (several epics and legendaries missing, dust almost down to 0 - before the recent nerfs mind you.

But I invested 80 bucks (more than a full game normally costs) plus gold from almost playing half a year and I still didn't get a full expansion. New players are already f***ed but I consider myself a "playing for fun" casual and yet a regular player who tries to do all dailies, the weekly brawl and finish each season between ranks 10 and 2. But I'm far from a regular Legend or 12-win Arena player who plays hundreds of games each season or month. Expansion prices are waaay too high and there are three of them each year.

IMO 80 bucks should get you a full expansion. Heck, even 50. If you want to collect golden cards or play single player content or have special class heroes, sure make that cost more on top. But spending like 200+ bucks worth of real money and in-game gold for 2/3 to 3/4 of a single expansion set is just ridiculous. And you get less gold for playing the game than, say a year ago (thru special events).

Edit: relevant video in this context:

 
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Hammettf2b

oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg
Jul 9, 2012
22,489
4,612
So California
The game is getting more and more expensive. I had like 11k gold and bought the big pre-order package with the Druid hero. IIRC that's 110 packs plus the 80 from the pre-order (plus three more from their promotion events, yay). And my SoU collection is still far from complete (several epics and legendaries missing, dust almost down to 0 - before the recent nerfs mind you.

But I invested 80 bucks (more than a full game normally costs) plus gold from almost playing half a year and I still didn't get a full expansion. New players are already ****ed but I consider myself a "playing for fun" casual and yet a regular player who tries to do all dailies, the weekly brawl and finish each season between ranks 10 and 2. But I'm far from a regular Legend or 12-win Arena player who plays hundreds of games each season or month. Expansion prices are waaay too high and there are three of them each year.

IMO 80 bucks should get you a full expansion. Heck, even 50. If you want to collect golden cards or play single player content or have special class heroes, sure make that cost more on top. But spending like 200+ bucks worth of real money and in-game gold for 2/3 to 3/4 of a single expansion set is just ridiculous. And you get less gold for playing the game than, say a year ago (thru special events).

Edit: relevant video in this context:


I miss the days of buying the adventures and unlocking all the cards that way. It was a great deal.
 
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Pilky01

Registered User
Jan 30, 2012
9,867
2,319
GTA
The Blizzard subreddit has been locked to private.

Interesting to see this blow up at the same time as the NBA business is going on.

Hopefully this represents a sea-change in public opinion and people start to understand the dangers of the CCP.
 
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Suxnet

Registered User
Jan 4, 2012
5,962
569
Western corporations sold their souls to the devil and we're seeing the results of that more and more. If it was just them getting screwed I'd say too bad so sad, but Chinese control of these corporations has very negative affects for society in the west. Heads of states need to stop the PRC takeover now or it's only going to get worse.
 

bleedblue1223

Registered User
Jan 21, 2011
51,762
14,675
Western corporations sold their souls to the devil and we're seeing the results of that more and more. If it was just them getting screwed I'd say too bad so sad, but Chinese control of these corporations has very negative affects for society in the west. Heads of states need to stop the PRC takeover now or it's only going to get worse.
It's happened to the government too, from Clinton to Bush to Obama, they thought that through engagement, China would embrace democracy. In reality, the exact opposite has happened and we've embraced censorship.
 
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Knave

Registered User
Mar 6, 2007
21,627
2,226
Ottawa
It's happened to the government too, from Clinton to Bush to Obama, they thought that through engagement, China would embrace democracy. In reality, the exact opposite has happened and we've embraced censorship.

There was a real possibility it could have slowly (very slowly) happened before Xi rose the ranks and all of his opponents suddenly started dying or disappearing under mysterious circumstances, started getting caught for corruption (while of course Xi and none of the people he favored did), etc...

I think it's a little unfair to those three presidents. They were engaging and things were going fairly well until Xi Jinping happened and even early on in Xi's rule it wasn't clear that he would become as awful as he has. He only came to power in 2012 and it still took a few years to quietly consolidate internal power before it was obvious what he was.

Edit: Bush started the TPP, Obama pushed hard for it. Obama pushed more military resources into the Pacific as a direct counter to China. They were obviously advised that China was becoming a problem but you can't just declare war on another nuclear power or change the global supply chain in 4-8 years.

As for companies they've always been spineless. I would imagine the average customer in North America is worth a shit ton more to Blizzard than the average customer in China. If people want companies to stand up to China then they need to back up their talk with their wallets and walk away. Cancel the subscription and go play something else. Replacing a gaming experience is easier than just about anything else.
 
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syz

[1, 5, 6, 14]
Jul 13, 2007
28,864
12,262
Suppose it's not surprising that it would be Blizzard or the NBA (companies who are already profiting in China) who would escalate matters. Other companies have been trying to figure out just how they have to censor themselves to even be available in that market and haven't figured it out yet, so they aren't yet in a position to put their foots in their mouths like Blizzard is.

Places like Riot are probably just hoping everybody keeps their mouth shut.
 

firewagonHOCKEY

Registered User
Mar 7, 2006
985
58
Belgium
I am very disappointed in Blizzard and have decided to delete my Blizzard games. Sucks because I really enjoy Hearthstone and have been playing it for years and spent a lot of money. But I just can't support such a shit company and look myself in the mirror.
 
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Say Hey Kid

The best all around player ever
Dec 10, 2007
23,621
5,496
I am very disappointed in Blizzard and have decided to delete my Blizzard games. Sucks because I really enjoy Hearthstone and have been playing it for years and spent a lot of money. But I just can't support such a **** company and look myself in the mirror.
Agreed and me too. I started playing Hearthstone day one, but a CA company suspending a pro for 1 year for expressing an opinion is very sad.
 

Frankie Spankie

Registered User
Feb 22, 2009
12,351
389
Dorchester, MA
I'm not really surprised the company that destroyed the Diablo franchise to get a piece of the Chinese market is doing this. Just kind of mindblowing to me how shortsighted they are though. They're losing a lot of customers in NA and EU over this in an effort to gain customers in China but after a year or so, some Chinese company is just going to rip Blizzard off, copy the games once they become popular in China, and Blizzard will lose a ton of customers there too. Then we'll see Blizzard crawling back on their hands and knees about "we were wrong for what we did! We love human rights now!" Yeah... f*** them. I'm glad I stopped playing HS about a year ago, I'm glad I stopped giving Activision any money period.
 
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Hammettf2b

oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg
Jul 9, 2012
22,489
4,612
So California
I am very disappointed in Blizzard and have decided to delete my Blizzard games. Sucks because I really enjoy Hearthstone and have been playing it for years and spent a lot of money. But I just can't support such a **** company and look myself in the mirror.

Agreed and me too. I started playing Hearthstone day one, but a CA company suspending a pro for 1 year for expressing an opinion is very sad.
Serious question. Do you support all the other companies that are backed by Chinese censorship? I have a feeling you do and just don't know about it. Why choose this fight but be a hypocrite and continue to support the other companies that are backed by the Chinese? ( I assume so since there are so many companies, not just gaming companies, that are backed by the Chinese. If not then excuse my assumption.)
 

Suxnet

Registered User
Jan 4, 2012
5,962
569
Well, Epic Games came out with a statement saying they would never ban players for political speech and Tencent owns 40% of them. I mean, at this point, it's kind of like saying "if you don't like China don't buy products made there", which is pretty much impossible to do. I don't think such actions make one a hypocrite. Other companies will take notice of this situation even if there's a lot of Chinese money invested in them. For myself, I try to buy products made in US/Canada because 1) they're typically better quality and 2) support jobs here. They're more expensive of course and I'm not swimming in cash, but I do what I can. It's a small sacrifice for the bigger picture.
 

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