Year of the Mammoth and other big changes

[Mahourai]

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20475356

Summary:

New Standard year is the Year of the Mammoth.

Azure Drake, Sylvanas, Ragnaros the Firelord, Power Overwhelming, Ice Lance and Conceal are rotating out of Standard and the Core Set. To compensate players, you will be paid the full dust value of the cards AND also get to keep them, unlike when a card is nerfed.

The plan is for three large expansions this year. Adventures are sort of dead. Instead they will release free single-player content alongside new expansions, or something to that effect. This won't happen with the Spring 2017 expansion, but will happen with the middle 2017 expansion.

They want to promote Wild more now that it has a shit ton of sets in it.

New Rogue hero that you get for winning 10 games in Standard after the Spring 2017 set comes out.

Before the Spring 2017 expansion launches they are doing daily login rewards where you get random free shit.

Thoughts:

The nerfs are whatever. It shows that they absolutely hate the idea of combo decks in Standard, which we knew already, but kneecapping decks like Freeze Mage which were already going to be crippled by the rotation of Emperor Thaurissan seems wrongheaded. Don't be fooled by any pronouncements about how they want to increase design space with these removals - they said the same thing about nerfing Blade Flurry and then didn't print a new rogue weapon for a year. This is strictly about taking options off the board.

Printing more cards a year is good, even if it means I no longer get easy access to key cards from adventures. More cards = more shakeups to the game, more chances for the devs to fix their mistakes naturally instead of with the nerfbat, etc. Same for the free shit.

Nobody is going to play Wild.

[Wyattbw09]

None of it is going to matter if they do what they do with every single expansion and just pick which class is going to be the face class that dominates the game. From the sound of the leak they are just going to make Face Hunter the top deck again.

[Twoddle]

Of course the real reason for removing adventures and replacing them with full expansions is money, it's not hard to read between the lines. Now it'll be even more pay-to-win than before!

[Mahourai]

None of it is going to matter if they do what they do with every single expansion and just pick which class is going to be the face class that dominates the game. From the sound of the leak they are just going to make Face Hunter the top deck again.

In the next season of Hearthstone Standard, an aggro deck will be good. Possibly even the best deck. This will be true after the midyear expansion, and the one at the end of the year. It will be true in the Standard Year after that. If this doesn't sound like something you want, stop playing the game. Hearthstone, the game where the only thing you can do on the board is play guys that can attack and then attack with them, is not going to suddenly stop being friendly to aggressive decks revolved around playing guys and attacking with them.

Of course the real reason for removing adventures and replacing them with full expansions is money, it's not hard to read between the lines. Now it'll be even more pay-to-win than before!

I'm a free-to-play player and I don't care. Releasing more cards is immensely better, even if their motive is purely profit-oriented.

[Deleted]

Pretty lame they removed adventure.

Surprised they didn't move Auctioneer.

I am confused about the dust part. Do we get refund for all dupe or just as many as it fit in a deck? What happens if I have a bunch of gold and normal version?

[bloodwulf]

God you guys really seem like someone pissed in your Cheerios. I personally love the idea that adventures are going away. Im a person that plays inconsistently and would rather have all the cards come from packs then have some of the cards come from boring glorified tavern brawls. I don't think I have ever played an adventure battle more than twice after completing it on normal and heroic.

As to pay-to-win, take it or leave the game is about cracking packs and then working up a ladder. Nearly all TCGs do this, and Blizz does a good job of giving you plenty of gold from quests that can be turned into for arena tickets or packs. Not to mention they already mentioned that there will be daily login rewards which is something I have seen a lot of people request.

Phasing out the core set cards is great. It is 6 cards and they are all basically played any time possible. Azure drake is seriously the most boring card ever but is in basically every deck that it would fit the curve. I encourage Blizzard to break existing decks archetypes...plus we have no idea what the new cards look like so we may see things that will fit the holes left and not be completely broken.

Give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt, as someone who has stuck around for well over a decade and a half of Blizzard products, they get stuff right more often than wrong.

[caractacus]

So I was reading a comment that said if you have Rag and Sylvanus when they go out of standard you will get the dust for these cards. So if that's correct and you have the dust you could basically craft them both now for free (pay out now then get a full refund)

[Mahourai]

Pretty lame they removed adventure.

I'll be sadder about this if their new single-player shit sucks. I'll have to see at the middle of the year.

Surprised they didn't move Auctioneer.

Same.

I am confused about the dust part. Do we get refund for all dupe or just as many as it fit in a deck? What happens if I have a bunch of gold and normal version?

You get paid back dust for as many copies as are legal in a deck, for the maximum value that would represent.

If you have 1 Ragnaros, you get 1600 Dust. If you have 10 Ragnaros, you get 1600 Dust. If you have 10 Ragnaros and 2 Gold Ragnaros, you get 3200 Dust.

[zlygork]

I JUST crafted sylvanas thinking "well, she fits a bunch of decks and will always be standard" guess she's joining murk-eye on my reasons to hate standard list. But hey, free dust!

[Blueobelisk]

>Rag and Sylvannas are going out

YESSSSSSSSSSSS OMG FINALLY.

Those two fucking cards were the rich legendaries that were good in basically any mother fucking deck that I didn't have. They were too versatile. Thank you Blizzard. I hated those cards. I've complained a lot of times about not being able to craft good decks, and most of the reason is because you have to allocate resources to fucking common big cards like Rag and Sylvannas that are just godly value. Two of the best "drops" ever.

[Clozer]

Pretty lame they removed adventure.

Surprised they didn't move Auctioneer.

I am confused about the dust part. Do we get refund for all dupe or just as many as it fit in a deck? What happens if I have a bunch of gold and normal version?

Do you consider to auto add auctioneer if you think your deck needs a 6 drop? I don't. You can dust every single copy of a card you have and get full dust value for each card dusted(just like always).

[Twoddle]

Not to mention they already mentioned that there will be daily login rewards which is something I have seen a lot of people request.

I don't get the idea of rewards for logging in, sounds like some kind of restriction feature commanding you to log in every day for no reason. You must hereby login every day otherwise you won't get blah blah like everyone else.

What do they benefit from you logging in? Why can't they give you the reward anyway?

[Deleted]

Do you consider to auto add auctioneer if you think your deck needs a 6 drop? I don't. You can dust every single copy of a card you have and get full dust value for each card dusted(just like always).

Err no? that is not what it's used for.


From the way they highlight how the dust will implemented it does sound like as Mahourai said. I guess they aim to make it not profitable to hoard anymore. So Kripp got boned, he can finally can hit that dis button.

Edit: Well it's not entirely since you do still get full refund on nerfed cards probably but still Kripp got boned with this move.

[Mhyroth]

Early minions are still too good for their Mana cost compared to midgame-lategame cards.

[Nezrael]

Well, since I got Sylvanas and a golden Rag, I guess I'll go into the expansion with a nice supply of dust
Also, getting rid of some universally strong cards doesn't seem too bad.

The adventure thing sounds a bit meh, but will depend on what they`ll give us as free single-player stuff.

[bloodwulf]

I don't get the idea of rewards for logging in, sounds like some kind of restriction feature commanding you to log in every day for no reason. You must hereby login every day otherwise you won't get blah blah like everyone else.

What do they benefit from you logging in? Why can't they give you the reward anyway?

The idea of a daily login bonus is the same reason gacha games on your mobile devices do it. If you are not playing the game you are not potentially spending money on the game. It is obviously used to encourage people to buy (simply by being in the game) but it is also an added bonus to encourage your attention. Typically these types of rewards also increase based on how many days in a row you play. Its a reward for something most people will be doing anyways. It benefits both Blizzard and the player typically.

[Romanthony]

Adventure dead? How could they say that, each one has been amazing and alot of people enjoy the content and punish themself in hard mode, sad to see it go

[Vankrys]

sylvannas and ragnaros were the first legendaries i crafted back when the game was still in beta. There were awesome card back then and awewome today, i understand why blizzard feels they overshadow other potential cards.

[Ravex]

Nice, now I wont have to deal with those cards when I'm playing against nothing but pirate this and aggro that.

Wait a second...

[Deleted]

Nobody is going to play Wild.

People are already playing Wild.

Adventure dead? How could they say that, each one has been amazing and alot of people enjoy the content and punish themself in hard mode, sad to see it go

Not entirely at least. This is from Hearthpwn's summary:
"The second and third expansions will feature a playable story, like an adventure."

What exactly that means, we'll have to see, but there will be single-player content.