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Hearthstone |OT9| Our raid wiped in Icecrown Citadel

Beckx

Member
1st boss Jade druid
2nd boss Jade druid
3rd boss control paladin (just killed all the minions and she died to exhaustion :p)

The boss interaction with the Lich King are pretty great.

Also Cobalt Scalebane has to be the card I underestimated the most going into this expansion. It's so good.
 

Grief.exe

Member
This is like Jade Druid in Ungoro, polarizing win rates with beating certain decks and absolutely getting obliterated by others.

This deck is probably terrible against aggro

zXcvm0q.png
 

wiibomb

Member
You guys really used different decks for the new three bosses?

I used wild Reno nzoth priest for all of them.

I will do them all when Lich King releases next week, but I have for sure that I'll try to run non meta decks. It's terribly unfun and I want to enjoy what Team 5 made.

For naxx I played all the adventure with deck made with only basic and classic cards. That was fun (and sometimes challenging)
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
Do they not do heroic versions for single player anymore?

I'd be fine if there was no reward for heroic, it'd just be nice to have to play through.
 

wiibomb

Member
Do they not do heroic versions for single player anymore?

I'd be fine if there was no reward for heroic, it'd just be nice to have to play through.

nope, these adventures are supposed to be a middle ground, more difficult than the normal adventures, but easier than heroic
 

Ketch

Member
Just broke into rank 15 by beating a jade Druid with shadow raza anduin. Waited till the end game and played arch bishop Benedictus and he just conceded.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I did

Druid
Paly
Mage

Thinking back on the 3rd boss now after the fact I see how I could have easily just done jade druid again. I ended up just using Mage with Pyroblast.
 
Beat the solo adventures this week with...

1. Murloc Paladin
2. Dead Man's Hand Fatigue Warrior
3. Murloc Paladin

Seemed easier than last week, might just be me though.
 

Dahbomb

Member
I made a giant meta analysis post on the meta of HS of the first rotation. I looked at over 50 meta reports and tier lists from different sites, compiled data and made top 5 lists for each week listing archetypes.

And of course it got deleted and no way am I going to try to do it again.


But here's the TLDR version of it:

*There was no control meta ever in that time frame. The most we had was 1 control deck in the top 5 decks and the rest were all aggro/curve decks with the usual combo/spell based deck thrown in (for most of the year it was some type of spell Druid deck). There was no Control meta because Midrange Hunter with broken Call of the Wild and Tempo/Dragon Warriors with 1 mana Executes ruled the field. Even Zoolock was getting in on the action along with usual Shaman bull shit.

*Midrange Shaman dominated the meta for a good 5 months with comical numbers in terms of win rates and popularity. When Shaman was on top no control deck was even within top 8, it was usually just even faster or spell burst decks trying to counter it to no avail. This was post nerfs when Aggro Shaman left and Dragon Warrior wasn't there to counter Mid-range Shaman.

*AS SOON as MSG hit, Pirate Warrior and Aggro Shaman became the top decks in HS. For a while it was Aggro Shaman and PW trading places at the top. People forgot that Shaman used to play Bucaneer and Patches with Spirit Claws until they had to nerf both of those cards. You also had Miracle Rogue with aggressive Patches/Buccaneer opener during this time.

*When the balances changes hit, Aggro Shaman dropped and PW became most dominant. Jade Shaman was right below it though, making sure that Shaman stone was alive and well. During this time and before the patch, Renolock was the only control deck touching top 5 with the occasional Reno Mage but for the most part it was a Patches dominated period.

*Pirate Warrior remained dominant and best deck for a good 3 months. Wasn't until MSG hit that PW was knocked down a peg when we got Taunt Warrior, Quest Rogue, Miracle Rogue and various Mage decks. This lasted only a week and Pirate Warrior was back on top again.

*Paladin started to rise back up again with Ungoro in a big way. Midrange Hunter was back as well. We also saw the return of Token/Aggro Druid. However, control meta was no where to be found during this time, Taunt Warrior continued to drop. During the same time, PW was taken over by various Mage decks like Secret Mage and Burn Mage.

*When PW dropped, instead of Control decks coming back up it was instead just different tempo/aggressive decks picking up the slack like Token Druid and Secret/Burn Mage. PW was still a top 5 deck during this time, make no mistake. People said that Ungoro meta was slow and control heavy but the data shows otherwise, there was just more class balance to speak of.

*Crystal Rogue was nerfed and there was still no Control meta. Instead Jade Druid started to rise up along with Freeze Mage (which is still more of a combo deck). That said Ungoro meta was still the best one because the meta kept changing and diversifying with different types of decks throughout.

*And now we are at the current meta.


There was no "control meta" in Hearthstone since the first rotation. At best you can expect to see 1 control deck in the top 5 but it was never the best deck for sure. Every meta was dominated by either a curve/midrange deck on top (Dragon/Tempo Warrior, Midrange Shaman, Midrange Hunter for most of Old Gods and Karazhan) or an aggressive deck (Aggro Shaman/PW post MSG). When you look at the tier lists then it was blatantly obvious why there was no control meta, you still had decks like Midrange Hunter preventing any type of control meta from being a thing. People forgot that in the age of Cthun Warrior, Hunter still had pre nerf COTW.

And the meta was always slowest in the first couple of weeks of an expansion where you expected to see 1 control deck in top 5. After that there were many times where there wasn't a control deck even within the top 8 or top 10 decks.

I think the closest we got to a control meta was when Renolock and Reno Mage were peak but this was also the time when Aggro Shaman with busted Bucaneer/Spirit Claws/Patches, Pirate Warrior and Pirate Miracoli Rogue was a thing. So those Reno decks never really were top in the face of Patches deck and when the balance changes occurred, Shamans just picked up Jade Shaman and dominated the Reno decks anyway.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I think anyone wanting something CLOSE to a control meta should think about how enjoyable a 25-minute game against a Priest is, and whether that's a good thing for either you or the game in general.

If it were common, I could see it actively making people quit. I was playing almost every day up until the release, and I've barely played in the last week. I could play a whole round of Battlegrounds in roughly the same amount of time which is kind of nuts.
 

jerd

Member
I think anyone wanting something CLOSE to a control meta should think about how enjoyable a 25-minute game against a Priest is, and whether that's a good thing for either you or the game in general.

If it were common, I could see it actively making people quit. I was playing almost every day up until the release, and I've barely played in the last week. I could play a whole round of Battlegrounds in roughly the same amount of time which is kind of nuts.

I would be fine with it if the ladder we're different. Grinding out long games only to have all of your progress reset after a few weeks sucks. We either need longer seasons or a softer ladder reset imo
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
Midrange meta is best meta.

I like that aggro that starts presure from turn 1 exists, and I've made peace with aggro often being favored just by virtue of hearthstone's fundamental mechanics, I just hate how unbalanced a small number of cards are that make those decks insane.

I also hate that instead of nerfing the few absolute broken aggro decks, they print more and more broken anti-aggro control cards instead, so that the only aggro decks that could ever work are the few that are already broken.

Like right now, playing against a proper aggro hunter list using a decklist that doesn't have those insane anti-aggro cards is tough but fair that makes it a lot of fun to play against. Playing that aggro deck against a druid with unleash the 1/5s or that control deck against a pirate warrior is not.
 
I just wish aggro involved more thinking. Every other archetype allows you to distinguish between good and bad players, but aggro is all pretty much the same.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I just wish aggro involved more thinking. Every other archetype allows you to distinguish between good and bad players, but aggro is all pretty much the same.
Aggro differentiates in that I played something like 100-200 games of pirate warrior and never made it past like rank 10 with that deck.

From everyone's accounts, more skilled players could do that easily.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I'm sure there has to be a tier 2 deck that uses it. Tier 3 at worst.

I wish I had one to try out.

Probably, saw a pally deck with it. Doesn't seem like he would fit any deck I'd want to play though.

Guess he seems like the best of the three atleast, lol.
 
Aggro differentiates in that I played something like 100-200 games of pirate warrior and never made it past like rank 10 with that deck.

From everyone's accounts, more skilled players could do that easily.

That means you are worse than an AI program at this game, friend. :p
 

Blizzard

Banned
That means you are worse than an AI program at this game, friend. :p
It's pretty mind-boggling! I could probably write a program that could play better than me.

If I start playing again, I should start posting replays to see how much is bad luck and how much is poor decisions. Last time I think I was getting advice in both directions, e.g. when I focused more on face damage, I was told I needed to trade more. When I was trading, I was told I needed to focus harder on gambling all out for face damage. Maybe that balance is what's impossible for me to find.
 
I'm sure there has to be a tier 2 deck that uses it. Tier 3 at worst.

I wish I had one to try out.

It's been used in zoo warlock, you just overload on one drops and there's no great 2 drops Warlock needs to put in anyway, the biggest loss would be alpha wolf and you'd rather give your deck +1/+1 than just your adjacent minions +1 attack.
 

wiibomb

Member
Opened the 2 drop prince. It was bound to happen eventually.

that's fine, out of all 3 the 2-prince is the most usable, imo. There are some decks using it, like the handbuff paladin kibler is using

at least you didn't open the other 2 princes and not 2-prince
 

KuroNeeko

Member
Finished the second wing with DK Jaina! The first match went into fatigue.
The LK interactions were all fantastic as were the ones for when you play a Death Knight.

I only really want Anduin and two Obsidian Statues (and maybe the mage dragon for future expansions?) and then I'll probably start stockpiling gold for the next set.

The only thing I don' t like about this expansion is that it pretty much quashes any hope I had of getting an actual Death Knight class in the future. I'm not nearly as excited about the Monk class...
 

Q8D3vil

Member
I think anyone wanting something CLOSE to a control meta should think about how enjoyable a 25-minute game against a Priest is, and whether that's a good thing for either you or the game in general.

If it were common, I could see it actively making people quit. I was playing almost every day up until the release, and I've barely played in the last week. I could play a whole round of Battlegrounds in roughly the same amount of time which is kind of nuts.
Are you in dumpster rank or something where priest is dominating everything ?
How the fuck can you complain about control priest when jade druid exist, You literally lose the game with any control deck if you dont have huge lead by turn 5 and then they grind you out with jades.
They dont even have to cycle shit thanks to UI, they just keep facerolling you while you trying to think what to do with 6 mana against 10 mana.
 
Tempo warrior still feels like it has potential. I think I'll nail it eventually. Bloodrazor is such a good card. Even cornered sentry is showing a lot of promise. A 2/5 taunt for 2 mana is no joke, which is what you often get with sometimes synergy for frothing.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Are you in dumpster rank or something where priest is dominating everything ?
How the fuck can you complain about control priest when jade druid exist, You literally lose the game with any control deck if you dont have huge lead by turn 5 and then they grind you out with jades.
They dont even have to cycle shit thanks to UI, they just keep facerolling you while you trying to think what to do with 6 mana against 10 mana.
I am in dumpster rank, and I play priest and have 25-minute games, yes.
 
Control decks were in tier 1 but in those meta Pirate Warrior was still #1, even going into Ungoro. There has never been a control meta, even the metas in which a control deck was tier 1 it was in response to an over powered aggro/midrange deck.

Past 6 months have been dominated by Pirate Warrior or Aggro Druid and the year before that it was dominated by whatever Shaman deck.
PW wasn't #1 in MSoG it only became the best deck when Reno rotated and Spirit Claws got nerfed.
I just wish aggro involved more thinking. Every other archetype allows you to distinguish between good and bad players, but aggro is all pretty much the same.
As usual, regardless of CCG, this kind of elitism is most often wrong.
 

Ladekabel

Member
These three battles were easy. The first two I did with Taunt Token Druid and the last one with Dragon Priest with an OTK. Single pack as a reward still seems measly though.

Playing the singleplayer makes me wish kinda wish they would do an offline arena thing where you draft a deck and have to play against AI until you lose and depending on how you did you would get rewards similar like arena.
 

Q8D3vil

Member
Turn 6 Geist still lost to the insane power of Jade Druid great job play testing shit like Ultimate Infestation.
Geist wont win you shit, their win condition is not even cycling Jades anymore. Its just playing them on curve dump their hand and play UI to fill their hand with other jade shit and dump it all over again.
Won 3 games yesterday as JD because my opponent played geist on curve at 6 while i was shitting my hand on 10 mana. In one of them geist even destroyed both my jade idol.
 

Ikkarus

Member
Turn 6 Geist still lost to the insane power of Jade Druid great job play testing shit like Ultimate Infestation.
The only way to win against JD is to apply a lot of pressure at the start otherwise it snowballs.

Even then druid has a load of catch up cards so it's not easy to accomplish. Basically the deck / class is overpowered at the moment.
 
Ice block needs to be fucking moved to wild already. 4 fucking ice blocks played by one shit stain quest mage. This expansions has turned to shit so fucking fast. Jade Druid, Pirate Warrior, and Quest mage.

Such fun.
 
the greedier your deck is the better Geist will be against Jade Druid. W/o Jade Idol the highest Golems will go is 8 or 9 (if they played 1 Idol before)
If JD to overextends on the board, you clear it and they won't have much of a wincondition left. At the speed they churn through their deck they have no way of winning through fatigue.

Issue with that is you'll be getting run over by aggro.
 
Please don't treat Wild like a junkyard for things you do not like. :(

It's pretty mind-boggling! I could probably write a program that could play better than me.

If I start playing again, I should start posting replays to see how much is bad luck and how much is poor decisions. Last time I think I was getting advice in both directions, e.g. when I focused more on face damage, I was told I needed to trade more. When I was trading, I was told I needed to focus harder on gambling all out for face damage. Maybe that balance is what's impossible for me to find.
I struggle with that balance as well. Maybe you should focus on another play style?
 
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