Hearthstone: More gold rewards, class balance, and more
One of the first major updates to the Hearthstone beta client is almost here (along with the account wipe). Hearthstone Community Manager Zeriyah wrote a post with additional details on the new bug fixes and quality of life improvements which just so happens to include:
Daily quest flexibility (Defeat X opponents with either Y class or Z class)
Class balance (Yay, nerfed rogues)
Gold generation improved (10 gold per three wins instead of 5 gold per five wins)
Read on for my thoughts of the changes and the changes themselves.
Olivia mentioned two of the major problems she had with Hearthstone with the daily quests and the rewards. The quests themselves are sometimes nigh-impossible to actually complete especially for players with limited card collections or who have yet to unlock the full potential of a class. I have access to almost every card in the game (with the exception of a half dozen) so the probability of putting together a neutral deck and pairing it with a random class and winning is much easier for me as opposed to someone who is just getting started. I will admit that getting druid and warrior quests were the toughest for me to complete early on because I simply didn't have that many basic card options unlocked. They weren't really all that fun for me to play either. While I feel that quests themselves should be a little challenging, no one should feel that they have to spend more than $150 to increase their card pool to adequately complete them. I believe that if you drop money on a game, it should be because you want to not because you're required to.
In any case, I'm really pleased to hear that the developers have made changes. The fact that you can now complete class quests with two possible choices should both help encourage diversification and not cause players to feel helpless when they don't main the class of the day. Love the gold rewards change! 10 gold per three wins is way better than 5 gold per 5 wins. Assuming the pack prices stay the same, you should be able to afford a new card pack with in game gold every 30 wins. The arena rewards have been adjusted. I'm not really a fan of picking up Arcane Dust. What does a guy with almost every card going to craft when he has almost every card? It's pointless and I'd rather stock up and save that dust for future expansions to selectively buy the power cards that I want. In the arena mode, more gold is guaranteed after five and six arena wins. An extra pack or a gold card is guaranteed with nine wins. Pretty cool!
What about class balance? Rogue decks are super strong right now but the fact that it's getting brought back down and retuned is reassuring. At the Masters 3 level, I feel that half the decks I'm playing against are some variation of rogue. I've had to alter my deck lists and plans to assume that I'm going to go up against a rogue. For the priest and warrior decks, they were always a little underpowered and their ability to stabilize and win often wasn't as consistent. While yes, it is nice to drop a turn 2 Lightwell into a turn 3 Divine Spirit and Inner Fire, it is a one trick approach. More diversity and power is needed. If you want more information on why warrior decks are in a bad spot, read Alex's answer to that question in today's edition of the Queue.
Speaking of rewards, gold cards are cosmetic rewards players can earn from a variety of methods. Once you hit level 20, you'll receive a gold card of that class every 2 levels. When you reach level 50, you get a gold border of your hero. Gold cards aren't that different from a game play perspective but they're often animated. It is now possible to unlock basic minions at higher experience levels. Most gold cards can also be unlocked randomly when purchasing booster packs. I'm not the kind of person that's really into gold cards all that much, but I can see the appeal. On the other hand, I did drop a ton of cash into Riot's League of Legends for the sole purpose of picking up skins. I figure if I'm going to crush my opponents, I'd like to do it with some style.
In our previous blog, we covered some of the nitty-gritty facts about the wipe and what exactly it entails. It's an exciting time for the Hearthstone team, since this wipe will coincide with our first major closed beta patch for both the Americas and Europe regions. Our update covers a wealth of bug fixes and quality of life improvement within Hearthstone, and today we'll be sharing some of the highlights of this upcoming patch. Many of these changes are based on feedback that you, our valued community, provided to us on the forums. Daily Quests We've gotten a lot of comments on quests. The community has discovered some fun hidden quests, but some of our daily quests have frustrated those of you who have quests that don't correspond to your favored class. After the patch, daily quests that require you to win with a specific class will now give you a choice between two classes, allowing you some additional flexibility. Balance Class balance has been a hot topic, with many of you commenting on the strength and versatility of the Rogue class compared to other classes, such as the Warrior and Priest. Rogues will have some key spells and minions adjusted to bring them more in line with the other classes. Warriors and Priests will find themselves with new tools and improved cards to round out their arsenal, and we've made some adjustments to the other classes here and there as well. We'll be publishing our full patch notes so you can review these and other changes to the heroes of Hearthstone in full detail. Golden Cards Golden cards are fun to collect in Hearthstone, and a cool way to show off your accomplishments. Many golden cards have been updated with new animations, and there are still more to come. If you've helped test our in-game store and acquired your new forever-friend Gelbin Mekkatorque, check out his shiny new animation! In addition to the new animations to Golden cards, we have also added the ability to unlock Golden Basic minions at higher experience levels. Now you can shoot for creating a 100% golden card deck to really dazzle your opponent! Crafting We've received a lot of feedback regarding the crafting system, and how the crafting interface didn't feel quite as intuitive as it should have been. Crafting is intended to be easy to access and a fun way to craft new cards for your collection, and we want that to be noticeable right away to the new player. We've updated the UI for our crafting system, so making cards for your collection should be even easier than before! Click the "Crafting Mode" button to access the updated crafting UI. Social Improvements We've improved our chat functionality to make it more streamlined and easier to interact with your friends. We've also introduced Toasts: they're a cool addition to our social features that let your friends know when you've done something awesome in-game, like open a Legendary card or complete an Arena run. Combine these two improvements together and you'll never miss an exciting moment with your card-slinging friends in Hearthstone! Play Mode and Arena Finally, we're aware that a lot of discussion on the forums is revolving around Play and Arena mode, and how to make them more compelling for players to participate in. We've changed experience and leveling so you can max out your Hero at level 60 and earn experience in any game mode up to max level. This includes Play mode (ranked or unranked), Practice, matches against friends, and the Arena. The rate that you acquire gold has been one of the other most-commented on topics on our forums. This patch will improve the gold output of Play mode, changing the gold generation rate from 5 gold per five wins to 10 gold per three wins. We will be monitoring this update as we progress further into closed beta and will continue to make changes as needed. We've made significant changes to the Arena as well: In general, rewards gained will include less dust and more cards, as well as guaranteeing more gold for both five and six Arena wins. To further entice you to become an Arena Grand Master, an extra pack OR a golden card is now guaranteed at nine wins. Full patch notes will be available alongside the patch, which will include the collection wipe. For more information on the wipe and what that entails, please read our blog here! Thank you for your continued feedback as we continue the closed beta testing phase of Hearthstone. To opt-in to our closed beta test, please go here!
