Way Too Early Blizzon Predictions 2016 Edition

Welcome back friends! It's been a little while since my last post but I'm excited to get something on the web. News has been slow outside of Whispers of the Old Gods turning Hearthstone upside down and World of Warcraft starting the Legion beta. I wasn't invited to the beta yet so I don't have any insight into what is going on there and I don't want to give my opinions without getting my hands on it. I have some thoughts on what Legion is bringing to the game, some positive and some negative, but I'll save that for a post I have more time to really give a lot of thought to. Whispers has breathed new life into Hearthstone but I am worried that writing too much about it while playing it as much as I do will burn me out and I don't want to do that.

Instead I wanted to repeat what I did last year and take a shot in the dark at what we might see at Blizzcon this year. After trying and failing to get tickets for the last 4 years, I was lucky enough to make it happen this year. Needless to say I'm absolutely thrilled and it got me thinking about what I'll get to see in person as opposed to on my couch via the virtual ticket. This year marks the 10th Blizzcon and the 25th anniversary of Blizzard so I have to imagine there is going to be some kind of celebration for both of those milestones outside of the normal festivities. It may just be some extra special loot in the goody bag but there is going to be something. Ok enough with the vague nonsense predictions and let's get to the fun stuff.

World of Warcraft:
We will be just over two months into Legion when Blizzcon happens so regardless of how good the expansion ends up being in the grand scheme of things we will still be in the honeymoon period. The success of Legion has a lot to do with what the patch release cycle looks like. I expect Blizzard to take the opportunity to preview a solid amount of post release content. The 7.1 patch should be previewed heavily and we should get a least a mention of what the second/final tier of Legion will be. In the past we have been fooled by strong content releases closely following a launch. The Isle of Thunder was outstanding and I probably don't need to bring up Ulduar, but they are consistently failing to continue that pace throughout an expansion. WoW is slipping from it's place at the forefront of Blizzard and that's ok. But we have to hope that things can start to trend upward again for the game as a whole. We won't see 10 million subscribers ever again but the goal is a great game more so than high sub numbers.

Hearthstone:
Blizzcon's Hearthstone news is going to depend on team 5 and how they decide they want the new format rotations to play out in the long run. If the plan is to release 2 full expansions and 1 adventure every year there are positives and negatives to releasing both a smaller and larger set at the end of the year. Releasing an adventure at the end of the year means that the smaller percentage of cards has the shortest amount of time in the standard format. Because the entirety of the Year of the Kraken will rotate out when 2018's first set is released, whatever set released late this year will only have 12-18 months in standard. The upside of getting a larger set at the end of the year is the players have more time in between them to build up gold/dust/money to acquire the new goodies. I guess the size of whatever they announce at Blizzcon isn't as fun as the theme of whatever they release. The Year of the Kraken wasn't chosen as a name for no reason. Whispers is full of Old Gods and everything has tentacles so the next expansion should at least dabble in some of the same themes. Ok, now don't run when you read this, but something like "The Dark Below" could work for both. I know it was a fake leak way back when it would really work and be a wink and a nod to the community. I mean just looks at the Eye of Azshara dungeon in Legion. The oceans are N'Zoth's place of business and areas like Deepholm and Silithus have tons of Old God influence if they just want to continue where Whispers left off. Likewise, Grim Batol, Throne of Tides, and even Halls of Stone/Lightning all have something to do with the Old Gods and could all be combined into a really cool Adventure. Seriously what says "Year of the Kraken" more than fighting Ozumat?!

Heroes of the Storm:
Heroes is a game that is constantly being updated and as such doesn't have a true expansion or sequel to announce. We should see a few new heroes and a map or two previewed but it is almost impossible to predict which heroes they will be. Everyone predicted Cho'Gall but no one knew exactly what we were getting. I still think Deckard Cain is high on the list of possibilities along with Kel'Thuzad and Gul'dan. If we don't have them in the game by December then count them as my picks. Maps are a bit more shaky. I'm not sure Blizzard doesn't regret releasing so many maps so quickly. And with Haunted Mines slated to return I have a feeling they are going to pump the brakes a bit when it comes to battlegrounds. The recently announced Ranked Play update would have gotten a ton of applause as a Blizzcon announcement but there was no way they could afford to wait that long to implement them. Dustin Browder recently said that Arena mode, which was previewed at the con last year, is getting reworked internally so we may have to wait until November for an announce date for that game mode. The Arena will probably be a mode that most players dabble in as a chance of pace so it isn't something they need to rush out the door by any means. We've settled into a good release schedule for new content in the Nexus so Blizzcon should remain a look a few months ahead and a chance for people on the show floor to get their hands on the new goodies.

Overwatch:
We will learn a lot about what to expect in the 3-4 months after Overwatch's release. They have said that new heroes and maps will be free and there are rumors going around that Sunday's Launch Celebration will give a glimpse at the first post-release character. If that's true then the next question becomes how are these heroes going to be released. I'd like to see Blizzard go with a plan similar to how they announced Genji, Mei, and D.Va at last years Blizzcon. Give us 2-3 heroes at a time every 6 months and I'd be happy. If there are a couple characters ready to ship within a few months of launch then Blizzcon would be right on time to announce wave 2. I love the idea of releasing multiple characters at once primarily because of the hero switching mechanic. It's bad in Heroes of the Storm where you have to wait forever to play games with the new hero on release day, but Overwatch would have the exact opposite problem. 5-6 copies of the new character in every game because everyone wants to play the new stuff regardless of how it effects the strategy of the game. Giving everyone 3 new options at least gives a little bit of variety for the first couple weeks. The story of Overwatch is also getting a lot of press with all of the animated shorts. There is going to be more coming for this world and I think Blizzcon will be where we see the next phase of that master plan.

Starcraft and Diablo:
These 2 are mysteries to me. I know Blizzard is going to continue to support both of these games for a while. The time has passed for a Diablo 3 expansion in my opinion so we may just have to wait and see what all these mysterious Diablo hires are working on and we may be waiting a while. The Nova missions were a nice little campaign add on so more things like that would be great. The co-op missions seem like they offer a ton of new and interesting ways to play that can keep people somewhat interested. Other than that, I have no idea what they have in store. Maybe there are some new Diablo armor sets or some cool new Kanai's Cube-esque features we aren't even thinking about, but we won't know until we see it. After a disappointing BC2015 another lackluster Diablo year would make me a little sad though.

Alright. to wrap things up let's work down a list and to hell with it I'll make some set in stone, by name predictions. Hold me to them. Don't let me cop out and gloss over them like I did last year :P

WoW: 7.1 and tier 20 raid at least partially on Argus
Hearthstone: The Dark Below style expansion/adventure
Heroes: Kel'Thuzad, Gul'dan, Deckard Cain, and Arena release date
Overwatch: 3 new heroes, 2 new maps, story content plans revealed
Diablo: Bunch of legendaries
Starcraft: Zerg/Protoss mission pack, new Co-op/Allied Commander characters

Ohh and one more thing......no explanation needed. WARCRAFT 3 AND DIABLO 2 REMASTERED AND FREE TO ALL BATTLE.NET ACCOUNTS TO CELEBRATE 25 YEARS OF BLIZZARD.

:Drops mic:

Thanks as always for reading. Until next time,
Chris

Widowmaker in Heroes of the Storm

Hello team!

I have been doing a lot of Hearthstone related content lately so I wanted to take a break from that and let the Old Gods metagame shake out and see how things look then. Instead I wanted to talk about something that bothered me a bit over the last week. Tracer was given to Heroes players who preordered Overwatch and she came with an awesome trailer.

Now I know what you may be thinking. It really stinks that people had to wait a whole week to play with the new Hero because they had no interest in Overwatch. I do agree with that sentiment and I think early access is one of the worst "rewards" to give players. But I don't want belabor a point that has been made for the last week in addition to the last time it happened with Artanis. Instead I want to go with something a little lighter. 

At the end of Tracer's trailer Widowmaker shows up for a cameo appearance. This spurred a bunch of comments across the collective internet claiming that Widowmaker is too similar to Nova so it must be a Nova skin. That sort of thinking is narrow minded and doesn't give Blizzard enough credit for their hero design. Cho'gall remains one of my favorite things to play in ANY game. And heroes like Abathur and The Lost Vikings show how far outside they box they are willing to go when bringing new heroes into the game. In Overwatch Widowmaker can be played in a similar way to Nova, waiting for people to get out of position and kill them quickly. The difference is the tools they each have available to them. I put together a quick break down of what a potential Widowmaker hero could have in her kit. I'm not going to go into detail about damage numbers or cooldown lengths but at least it will be a jumping off point to see some options she could have. 

Trait: Like Tracer, she uses her D to reload her ammunition. The mechanic feels really good on Tracer and allows for interesting talents. 

Q: I went with something different for her Q ability. Having a melee ability doesn't feel right for a sniper character so I thought using her Q as a toggle between her assault rifle mode of her weapon and the sniper rifle version. The assault more works similar to Tracer where it fires on nearby enemies as long as you are in range. The sniper mode slows your movement speed as well as your attack speed but your attacks deal significantly more damage. It's close to Nova's Anti-Armor Shells talent but it is on demand and doesn't force you to commit to a play style for the remainder of the game.

W: Venom Mine is a useful ability for a couple of reasons. First, it's a decent source of damage that can help finish off someone  trying to make their escape. But the way it is more often used in Overwatch seems to work similarly in Heroes. Often Widow will use her Venom Mine as line of defense for the area she has decided to set up shop in. If someone tries to flank her they trigger the mine and alert her that her position is no longer safe. Lunara players use her Wisp ability in a similar way. Toss it into a bush to make sure there is no gank party awaiting you. Use it to scout a mercenary camp or to cut off a potential escape route in a team fight. 

E: Her grappling hook gives Widowmaker some mobility and gives her an escape mechanism when her position has been found out. This ability loses some of it's power when you remove the vertical movement of a first person shooter. One way it could work is if it pulls her to any structure or wall otherwise does nothing. This would include things like tree lines on the battlefield so that she doesn't need to hug her own towers to make use of the ability, but she does need to be extra mindful of her positioning. 

Heroic: I have noticed, in the few games I've played with Tracer, that her Heroic feels really underwhelming. But that doesn't mean it can't have an impact on the game. That got me thinking about Widowmaker's Ultimate in Overwatch. She grants her entire team vision of the enemy team for a short time. I think you could use the same ability in Heroes. It would give you more information on your opponents and they have to be very careful about when they take camps and how spread they are for objectives. Things like Tyrande's Sentinel and Tassadar's Oracle are useful examples of vision and I think having a global version that recharges every 40 seconds or so could be really useful without being a traditional high damage Heroic,

I have no idea what kind of talents she would have and that's the part of a character's kit that really gives them depth. I do really think that a Widowmaker hero is possible in the future with a little flexibility and I'm sure Blizzard could do a much better job than I did here. Let me know what you think!

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,

Chris

The Nerfs are Real!

Greetings, Travelers!

Finally finally finally. We finally know what changes are coming to Hearthstone's Classic and Basic sets with next weeks expansion. Players have been calling for changes for months and now we get to see what Blizzard decided to change. Let's jump right in and go card by card.

People were predicting a nerf to Ancient of Lore but I wasn't convinced. 5/5 for 7 is under budget so pulling ahead in hand was compensation for not pulling ahead on board. Drawing one card is fine but feels minimal. With another nerf coming up, you don't have the option to draw cards until you find the combo to close out the game. For that reason alone, I'm not sure if this change was necessary.

Casual and Professional players alike can rejoice. Druid combo is dead. Instead of charging trees with a 75 second or less lifespan we get slightly cheaper trees that choose life! Savage Roar will still have the potential to end games more quickly than expected but no longer will we be killed with it from an empty board. It's a good change that I can't really complain about.

This change caught me off guard a bit. I understand Blizzard's desire to tone down the silence effects but I thought the neutral silence minions were the problem. Druid struggles getting the board under control in the early game and Keeper of the Grove helped that problem a bit. Against Zoo you were almost reliant on the 2 damage Battlecry and using the 2/4 body to remove another minion or two over the next couple turns. Part of what I like about Druid as a class in Hearthstone is the versatility cards like Keeper and Ancient of Lore and Wrath offer. But in this case Blizzard might be asking us to pay a little too much for that versatility.

Along the same lines as Keeper, Ironbeak Owl got an adjustment to compensate for the power of the silence effect. I think this change perfect. Making it more expensive will make it slightly harder to find room in decks as a one-of utility minion. It will still see play but we will have to think twice about how much the silence is worth in our deck.

I'VE GOT THE NERF IN MY SIGHTS! This change was suggested by tons of people on Reddit and Twitter and I agree with the reasoning. There need to be answers to the huge powerful minions that come with every set, but the answers don't need to be reasonably strong for their cost when you don't get to use them as removal. Paying 5 mana for a 4/2 minion as a tempo play will never feel good. This change was needed and it feels pretty good in my opinion.

Hunter's Mark getting a 1 mana cost doesn't seem needed but I don't think it changes much. The decks that want a Hunter's Mark now will still want one when this change goes through.

This nerf really confuses me. I understand removing the damage to enemy heroes. Blade Flurry has long been arguably the best Rogue card in the game partially because it could serve as both a way to deal with an opposing board as well as a direct damage spell to close out the game. What I don't understand is the need to double the mana cost to 4. Compare this to Shadowflame which only requires a minion (something most decks have 15 or more of), and it just requires so much more work. You are already reliant on cards like Deadly Poision to get your hero power dagger to an attack high enough to deal with mid-game minions. Otherwise you are spending now 6 mana to deal 1 damage to the enemy board. Twice the mana cost of a card Rogues already have in Fan of Knives AND YOU DON'T EVEN GET TO DRAW A CARD. Rogue has been struggling for multiple expansions now to keep up with the tools that other classes have been getting and now they are getting one of their few crutches kicked out from under them.

The pro community seems to hate this change. Juggler's effect is frustrating because it can lose you the game when you are counting on the damage going one place or another. Like Blizzard said in their explanation, players were shoving this card into any aggressive deck because the stats were really strong on their own and the effect was a huge swing so it was a no-brainer inclusion. The same type of deck will still want Jugglers so maybe the nerf doesn't do anything. I don't know why this card wasn't changed to say "When you play a minion" instead of summon. That way you remove the crazy swing plays with cards like Unleash the Hounds and Imp-losion.

Leper Gnome has been an automatic addition to aggressive decks since day one of Hearthstone. I don't necessarily hate the idea of being a default 1 drop since they tend to have less of an effect as the game progresses compared to something like Piloted Shredder or Sludge Belcher. Blizzard accomplishes their goal of creating more competition at the 1 drop spot in aggro decks, but I think Leper Gnome is still completely viable in those decks. Fine change.

This change makes Arcane Golem basically unplayable. There are other 3 mana 4/4s in the game right now that don't have as big of a drawback and they don't see play right now. The bigger point of this change is the Charge mechanic and the "problems" it seems to cause. In my card game career I have been drawn to combo oriented decks. I love being able to do powerful things and being rewarded for setting up combinations of cards over the course of the game. We have only had combos based around Charge minions to this point in the game and because you can't interact with your opponent during their turn it's frustrating to play against. In my opinion that isn't enough of a reason to eliminate those kinds of decks. If you are going off of Reddit complaints, Mysterious Challenger is a more frustrating win condition than Arcane Golem/Power Overwhelming/Faceless Manipulator. I want combo decks to be a thing in Hearthstone in some form. Whether it's Charge minions or Archmage Antonidas and Sorcerer's Apprentice looping Fireballs. Combos require you to play differently and account for more than just what's on the board and it teaches new players to play around potential cards from their opponents which is a valueable thing to learn if they want to take the game seriously. End rant. RIP Arcane Golem.

People were concerned that Handlock would take over with the nerfs to Druid Combo and Big Game Hunter so this change makes a lot of sense. I think 23 mana would have been ok, but I assume Blizzard tested a lot of different options and I trust them. Players have known for some time now not to put their Warlock opponents close to 10 health and now they have a little more breathing room before they need to worry about a couple 8/8s and some healing or Taunt effects.

The last card change of the day is a bit of a headscratcher. Master of Disguise hasn't seen play yet and we are now going to have a less effective version. Blizzard has brought this card up in the past when talking about cards that have backed them into a corner design-wise and I get it. Minions with strong passive effects are a huge problem when they can't be targeted or attacked. If they felt they were working around this card in the design process for a while then by all means take this opportunity to change it.

Before I wrap things up I do just want to mention a few cards that I am a bit surprised weren't changed. Doomhammer is an essential part of aggressive Shaman decks that won't be losing very much with the Standard rotation. I am a bit surprised something that is so hard to deal with didn't get any changes. Both Innervate and Preparation are mandatory spells for their respective classes so I could have seen Innervate changed to reduce minion costs only and Preparation only reduce spells costs by 2. 

Well that should do it for this post. Thanks as always for reading!

Until next time,

Chris

Whispers of the Old God pt2

Greetings Champions!

Whispers of the Old Gods is inching closer and closer to its April 26th release, and the slow trickle of card reveals is starting to yield some interesting cards. I want to talk about a few that I am really excited about. I won't go over every single card because there are plenty of places you can get that sort of review and I don't want to waste time on cards that I think are underwhelming.

The first 2 cards I want to talk about have me really excited about the future of Shaman. Our totem wielding friend already has a very strong early game with Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem, but midrange versions of Shaman have struggled mightily in the mid game where their Overload cards really hurt them. They have a tendency to fall behind on turns 3-5 then try to rely on cards like Lightning Storm and Fire Elemental to catch back up. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to do that in a world of Piloted Shredder and Dr. Boom. Both of these cards should help create a viable midrange Shaman deck. If this kind of stuff doesn't do it then nothing will. Hallazeal is less impactful partially because it is legendary, but his stats are fine by itself and it has the potential to completely swing the game when paired with Lightning Storm or Elemental Destruction. Master of Evolution could be the best card in the set. 4/5 for 4 is already a fine stat line but we also get to upgrade another minion. Everything about this card fits into what Shaman wants to do. The Overload from Totem Golem has worn off on turn 4 or if you don't have your ideal 2 drop, something like Tuskarr Totemic on turn three into Master of Evolution transforming your 3/2 into another 4 drop really has the potential to run away with the game. The worst case scenario is you "only" get to use it on a totem summoned by your hero power. In that case you are still getting a 4/5 and a random 2 drop which is nothing to scoff at. Shaman has the potential to become the premier tempo deck of Standard in a similar way that Secret Paladin did post Grand Tournament. They look to have strong plays on nearly every turn of the game and can potentially win the game simply by curving out.

Mire Keeper is another example of what a "fixed" Piloted Shredder might look like. For 4 mana you get a 3/3 and a 2/2 or a ramp effect. The strength of this card is that both of the options it gives you are strong at different points of the game. The mana crystal is weaker on turn 4 than turn 2 from Wild Growth obviously, but we have seen powerful Ramp Druid decks in the past that rely on getting 5/10 taunts and other powerful late game minions on the board as quickly as possible. I think it's safe to assume that some aspect of the Savage Roar/Force of Nature combo will be changed, so we may be forced to return to that huge minion play style. Mire Keeper isn't on the power level of Master of Evolution but it is a very fair card at a spot on the curve that Druid has struggled with in the past. I expect to see this card played pretty often.

Cho'Gall is probably my second favorite card that has been revealed to this point. Cards that let you cheat mana have been extremely strong throughout Hearthstone's lifespan. Innervate has been an automatic two-of in every Druid deck since day one. Emperor Thaurissan has enabled dozens of card combinations that would otherwise be unplayable in the same turn from the original Patron Warrior, to Leeroy Jenkins/Power Overwhelming/Faceless Manipulator. People even wanted Mechwarper nerfed because of the strong starts it enabled in the Mech Mage days. Cho'Gall is the next in this line of cards and I expect it to have a similar effect. The two cards I am seeing referenced to combo with Cho'Gall are Siphon Soul and Shadowflame. Siphon Soul effectively lets you kill any minion for only 3 life on top of your 7/7 body. This guy into Shadowflame allows you to deal with almost any board state your opponent has while starting from an empty board. Even something like Bane of Doom gives you a 7/7 and another minion. The big thing to remember about cards like this is it gets better as more cards are released. Cho'Gall will have 2 years in Standard and forever in Wild and it WILL make a splash in both formats.

The last card I want to talk about today is Undercity Huckster. This card is flying under the radar a bit. It's not the type of card that people will be screaming to nerf in 2 months time, but it is a good value card that Rogue stands to gain a lot from in my opinion. Two drop has long been a weak spot for Rogues. They usually end up using their hero power and just waiting to set up for the later turns where they use a Blade Flurry or combination of cards to catch back up. Undercity Huckster gives Rogues a two drop they can play and feel comfortable trading early game and still get some value from. The random aspect of the card is certainly relevant and at times this card will give you a useless card, but there are other times it will give you a Flamewaker or Equality or Nourish. It's cards like this and Master of Evolution that provide a level of randomness that keeps games interesting and different without providing such a huge swing that they will win or lose games on their own.

Well that's all I'm going to cover for today. There are some other cards I am excited about like N'Zoth but I will wait until we see the entire set to make any kind of judgement. I think we are starting to get to the meat of the expansion and have a decent number of cards that will make a splash. 

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,

Chris

Overwatch Story Stuff

Welcome back Soldiers!

This week I wanted to take some time off from all the Hearthstone stuff I've been doing. Spoilers for Whispers of the Old Gods are trickling out and I think it would be better to wait until I've got a decent number to talk about rather than discuss them as they come out regardless of how interesting they may be. Instead I want to toss out a couple ideas of where I think they might be going with some of the Overwatch story.

First I want to talk about Soldier 76. He very strongly resembles Captain America. Not only is he an enhanced super soldier with the original task of wiping out the world greatest threats, but his story is also looking a lot like the Winter Soldier movie plot. Everything is great when you are saving the world, but when things quiet down and someone needs to be held accountable for the damage, it's the hero who takes the blame because he's different. But who is the Hydra of the Overwatch universe? We know someone got Overwatch shut down and turned the public against them and this is what caused Jack Morrison to go into hiding. My theory is that The Vishkar corporation may have had something to do with it. According to Symmetra's character page, Vishkar helped restore the world following the Omnic crisis by building new homes and communities for those made homeless by the conflict. It also says that they sent Symmetra abroad on "clandestine missions around the world to uphold it's corporate interests." If that doesn't sound a little sketchy I don't know what does. What if after the Omnic crisis was over the people in charge of the Vishkar corporation were worried that their role of post robot war FEMA didn't have the longevity they were looking for. What if they decided to remove Overwatch from the picture and leave themselves as the people's only option to turn to for the comfort of safety and peace. They could have used their corporate influence to twist the media and public perception of Overwatch in the same way Hydra turned SHIELD against Captain America. Then this theory could get even deeper. What if Reaper, then known as Gabriel Reyes, was in league with Vishkar. If he resented 76 for being chosen over him to lead Overwatch perhaps he sought out someone with the means to bring down the organization he no longer felt a part of. And then in order to prevent their involvement from ever becoming known to the public, Vishkar made sure Reaper was among the casualties of the Overwatch base's destruction. To bring it all back to 76, now he needs to find Reyes and confirm what he already suspects to be true. And in doing so Overwatch is reformed and tasked with taking down the corrupt Vishkar corporation and in the process redeeming Reaper. Because we all know that Blizzard is a sucker for a redemption story. (cough: Kerrigan, Grommash :cough)

The other character I want to look at is Genji. He was greatly anticipated since the original Overwatch poster was shown at Blizzcon 2014 and he remains a fan favorite since his official announcement in November. I love all the story beats Blizzard is laying down for this cybernetic ninja. He started as a spoiled son of a powerful crime family and was nearly killed by his own brother. THEN he was rescued by Overwatch had to make him into a cyborg in order to save his life. The reasoning is slightly different but this reminds me a lot of how Wolverine got his adamantium skeleton in the whole Weapon X story line. But the cool stuff doesn't stop there. While working with Overwatch on the ultimate revenge plot to take down his own family's crime syndicate he resents himself for his robotic half and goes into hiding. This is where the tin-foil hat stuff comes in. We know he eventually met up our favorite robot monk Zenyatta with whom he eventually comes to accept his new body and the gift it can be. However, what I am interested in is how we get there. The fact that he goes into self-imposed exile feels a lot like the Batman Begins story. Rich guy experiences loss and resents the life he once had. While he is gone he meets up with someone or something who teaches him to turn his past into a strength and put it to use. I want to see what happens in that process. What happens in his time with Zenyatta? Is his training in Tibet more based around focusing his mind? They could go with the expected route where he seeks out Hanzo, the brother who nearly killed him. Or does the Omnic monk teach himthat the fault doesn't lay with Hanzo but with the corrupt family who raised them heartlessly? And how does Genji fit into the plans Overwatch has to reform. Genji is front and center in the "We Are Overwatch" trailer so it would seem that Blizzard is moving forward under the assumption Genji is still a member. Harmony could mean balancing out the injustice done to Genji, but it could mean reconciliation. And I for one welcome a Double Dragon reboot featuring Genji and Hanzo!

I can't wait to see what Blizzard has to offer as they continue to build this world. These two are two of the more prominent characters but there is plenty more to get excited about. Characters who seem secondary for now like Zarya and Mei could have to wait until the second round of cinematic shorts and comics but I'm excited for their stories grow and mesh with the overall lore.

This week may not be up to par with what I normally write up but I find myself thinking more and more about Overwatch as we get closer to release. Thanks as always for taking the time to check it out anyway!

Until next time,
Chris

Whispers of the Old Gods

Greetings Travelers!

I'm back as promised to discuss the newly announced Whispers of the Old Gods Hearthstone Expansion! Blizzard had a nice little presentation prior to the start of the Americas Winter Championship today, but unfortunately they were forced to show up late to their own party. Earlier this week a bunch of Hearthstone content creators and professional players were flown to California for a sneak preview of the announcement. The information was put under embargo, but that didn't stop a Spanish website from posting basically all of the information we got today. This kind of thing happens a lot more than it should in the gaming industry and it really sucks when an announcement like this gets a lot of wind taken out of it's sails on the eve of the event. Sure, they got a ton of traffic to their site in the last 24 hours, but they have basically assured that they won't be invited to a similar event in the future. The worst-case scenario is Blizzard just decides not have similar things take place going forward, and that sucks for everyone. We get less content from our favorite community members and we get it later than we would with these kinds of invitations going out. But enough about the shitty actions of a few jerks. Let's get to the good stuff!

Whispers of the Old Gods is a 134 card expansion based around the idea of the awakened Old Gods messing with things all over Azeroth including our beloved Inn, and it is set to release in late April/early May. This is a little later than a lot of people expected, but I can't say I'm surprised. In addition to a new set of cards we are also getting a new format and with it Blizzard has to review quite a few base set cards and rebalance them according to the current state of the game. Most players agree that things like Big Game Hunter, Knife Juggler, and Force of Nature/Savage Roar are the primary offenders but I'm sure they want to make sure that they hit everything they need to in this pass. They need to ensure these cards are where they want them when the formats hit initially or they risk turning off a portion of the player base if things are too far out of whack and require a second set of changes.

If I'm being honest, I was a little underwhelmed by the announcement as a whole. We only got 6 cards previewed along with the pre-order card back (which the picture above does no justice. the animations are awesome). No game board, no talk of mechanics outside of the Old Gods themselves, and the presentation itself was a lot shorter than I expected. I thought we'd get something more along the lines of the Grand Tournament event. Show off the mechanics and have a few show matches to showcase them. It's not like they didn't have dozens of community members and pro players on site for the event anyway. I don't know maybe I'm just spoiled at this point. But anyway, let's take a look at the cards we did see today.

The first two cards were described as corrupted versions of cards we have seen before. In this case Loot Hoarder and Antique Healbot. Polluted Hoarder seems underwhelming on the surface but we also have to remember we will be in a post Piloted Shredder world. Depending on what other 4 drops we see in Whispers this guy could find a place despite an underwhelming 2 health. Corrupted Healbot is basically a mid-game version of Zombie Chow which seems a bit odd. Chow was at it's best while picking off early game minions and ignoring the drawback of giving your opponent health. Corrupted Healbot is certainly going to be bigger than most things on the board before turn 5 but chances are the opponent has taken more damage by then and the drawback becomes more relevant. It may not matter and controlling the board is the primary goal the deck this is in, but I'll have to see it when the time comes. I do love the idea of playing an Auchenai Soulpriest then trading off my own Corrupted Healbot for the equivalent of a Ragnaros hit to the face.

The other 3 cards I want to talk about are the most interesting by far. (Validated Doomsayer is not a good card and I am spiteful that it was one of the cards previewed.) The Old Gods are the face of the expansion so they need to either be really impressive, or create new and interesting ways to play the game ala Reno Jackson or even Sir Finley. C'Thun and his cohorts clearly are aiming to do the latter. The example Blizzard gave of a late game 14/14 C'Thun wiping out an entire opposing board may be hyperbolic but the possibility is certainly there. What I really like about the two God buffing cards we have here is that the stat distribution is right where you want it to be. A 2/3 for 2 and 3/4 for 4 has become the standard for a playable minion. Because of that these minions are capable of holding their own despite the fact that the game may not reach the point of casting the Old God or you may just not draw it at all. It is a small sample size but I like what we have so far with these 3 cards. There is a lot of potential design-wise if the other 3 Old Gods and their followers are made in this vein. Perhaps we will see a minion that reduces the cost of the God or maybe a minion that gives the Yogg-Saron a Battlecry that spawns a tentacle minion. There are a lot of possibilities and with the limited information about what is in the set this is what has me the most intrigued. As more cards get previewed I'll be sure to review them as best I can. It would be cool to nail down some predictions.

That's it for Hearthstone talk this week but speaking of predictions, I have been doing some thinking about the inevitable Overwatch story content and want to do a probably short post sometime soon with some fun tin foil hat theories I've been cooking up. So chew on that!

Thanks as always for reading team! Until next time,

Chris

The Dangers of Hearthstone's Formats

Welcome back team!


It's been a few weeks since the announcement of Hearthstone's changes revolving around a new rotating Standard format. All the pros and content creators have had their say and expressed how great the changes are for the game. And they are right. I wrote a post a few months back suggestion precontructed decks as a solution to the eventual issues for new players that a larger card pool would bring. The Standard format solves all the same problems and then some. New players have a much smaller barrier to entry. Competitive players will get to experiment with more cards because they will no longer need to justify removing Piloted Shredder for another 4 drop. There are a few points for the new format system that I haven't seen touched on so I want to talk about those before I move into some of my concerns.

I'm going to use my background in Magic in order to make a few of these points so apologies if these comparisons go over some of your heads. I will try my best to make the point clear without them. Magic right now works with a block release schedule. Twice a year they release a new "block" with a new theme and new keyword abilities spread throughout the sets in that particular block. Then every time a new block begins the older of the two in the standard format is no longer playable. What you see happen is a blending of mechanics throughout the 2 blocks in standard in a way that allows one aspect of one block to mesh well with an aspect of the other block in the format. Then this process continues throughout rotations so that certain parts of a standard format remain familiar. Very rarely will a new set in Standard come in and turn the format completely on it's head. To put this in Hearthstone terms think of how Blackrock Mountain led into The Grand Tournament. BRM had cards like Twilight Welp and Blackwing Corruptor and Chromaggus that had the potential to be very strong cards given a good suite of cards to play alongside them. But it wasn't until The Grand Tournament brought cards like Twilight Guardian and Chillmaw completed the picture and made a base Dragon deck possible. Now imagine if League of Explorers or the new set on the horizon brought in more cards that emphasized use of your hero power and the Inspire ability. All of a sudden the cards from TGT like Coldarra Drake and Nexus-Champion Saraad that previously seemed underwhelming may have a complete deck that they can really shine in. This allows Blizzard to push a theme they really want to explore without having to force everything into a single set. And a smaller format let'e more of those types of cards find a place in decks without needing to compete with individually strong cards.

Small rotating formats also allows Blizzard to take more risks in card design. Given the current format rotation rules, League of Explorers will be rotating out of Standard with the first release of 2017. That will give it about 15 months of playability in Hearthstones primary game mode. In the grand scheme of things that's not very long in the lifespan of a card game. If Reno Jackson proved to be overly oppressive to aggro decks then Blizzard has more options of how to address the problem. They can wait to see if the community solves the problem on their own, which seems to be their first choice in the past and rightfully so. They can go in and make changes like they have done in the past with Unleash the Hounds and Warsong Commander. Say what you want about what changes they chose to make, but the fact that they have the option to do so is one of the biggest advantages to being a solely digital game and it's something I hope they do more liberally going forward. However, format rotation also gives them the option to leave things alone and let the rotation take care of the issue for them. This may sound like a bad idea but every issue is going to be unique. The Warsong Commander nerf happened shortly before Blizzcon after months of community issue with Patron Warrior. But Blizzard had stated throughout that the win rate data on the deck led them to believe that the deck wasn't as much of a problem as people believed. It was and still is a very difficult deck to play correctly, but the times where you lost to a ton of damage from an empty board felt awful. I wonder if the situation was different, and Grim Patron and or Death's Bite were set to rotate out within 4-6 months, if Blizz may have decided not to make any changes at all and let the rotation take care of it. Similarly, Mysterious Challenger gets a lot of attention from the community currently as a nerf candidate. I wouldn't be surprised if Secret Paladin goes by the wayside when this first rotation takes place and pushes Shielded Mini-bot and Muster for Battle out of the format. The "wait till rotation" method won't be correct every time, but it does give Blizzard one more answer to potential problems and should give them that much more confidence to take some risks.

Now for my main concern with our new Hearthstone. Right now MTG has two major formats for constructed play; Standard and Modern. The Modern format is pretty much the same as Wild. New cards are legal in Modern as they are released but nothing ever rotates out. Standard in Magic is the default version of the game. It's the format with a majority of the events. And recently, there has been an outcry from some players to even remove the one major non-standard event of the year, a single Modern Pro Tour that takes place shortly after the winter set release. Because there is only the one Pro Tour event and only a handful of other major events in Modern throughout the year, Pros have decided that the format doesn't warrant their attention and become frustrated when they need to focus on it for a few weeks for the Pro Tour. As a result a lot of work gets put into the larger format for a brief period, then it's tossed aside for most of the year and it gets the reputation as a bad or broken format. And as with all card games the player base follows the lead of the professional players and they neglect Modern as well. This is what I am worried about for Hearthstone. By making all of the Hearthstone Championship Tour events Standard format only, Blizzard is forcing the professional player's hand into focusing on Standard primarily as not doing so would hinder their preparation for the most important events for them. And without the professional scene tweaking and innovating on the Wild format it too will fall by the wayside as a pseudo casual mode. It's disingenuous on Blizzard's part to claim that the Wild format will be Hearthstone as we know it now and we are gaining Standard as a new second equal format. For that to be the case they have to set the precedent that both formats are important in their eyes. They need to show the community and other tournament organizers that Wild will be relevant and worth their time to support.

One of the reasons that Magic focuses on Standard is to move product. It's a bit cynical but it's true. But this is where Blizzard is at another advantage. Once a set is out of print in Magic, that's it Wizards of the Coast doesn't sell any more and they have have to switch over to relying on sales of new sets to make money. Meanwhile secondary markets have some say in dictating prices of individual cards whether they are in print or not. Magic players generally have the choice of buying packs until they open the card they need or buying the cards individually from a vendor. Hearthstone doesn't have that option. With the exception of Adventures your options are open them from packs or crafting them with dust. The good thing is there is no secondary market for Hearthstone cards. Supply and demand don't mean a damn thing. So a Legendary is going to cost 1600 dust and a pack is going to be 100 gold presumably forever. So why wouldn't Blizzard support Wild when 40 packs of GvG makes them the same amount of money as 40 packs of whatever the most recent set is. Sell what you can for as long as you can and take advantage of the perks of being a digital product. Add a tab to the store and label it Non-Standard and move Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs Gnomes to it. Then either split the major events and make them alternate between formats, or even better, require them both for the highest level events. Make players competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars be proficient in both formats and truly test their mastery of the game. New players still get the benefit of a decreased barrier of entry, but there is also another carrot on a stick to lead them into expanding their collection and investing in the competitive scene. One thing to remember is that regardless of when a player starts playing, there will be a point where a rotation frustrates them. Day 1 players now are upset they invested in Sludge Belchers, Death's Bite, and Dr. Boom. Players who started last year will be upset when Imp Gang Boss, Flamewaker, and Reno Jackson rotate out. And new players who start with the new standard will be frustrated when this upcoming set rotates out. Keeping Wild interesting and relevant helps soften the blow and eases the concerns of all players who hope to make Hearthstone a long term investment whether that be as a hobby or a career.

I'm excited to see what the upcoming release will bring to Hearthstone not only because of our new formats but also because new cards are always exciting regardless of the size of the card pool. Perhaps we will end up in a similar place where Standard gets figured out and becomes a bit stale within a few weeks of release, but if nothing else, more people will be able to take part in the fun.

I'm hoping to get back into a habit of regular posts. Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,
Chris