Board 8 > Hearthstone Topic: Back to School Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

Took a peek at the stats on the new heroes....

https://hsreplay.net/battlegrounds/heroes/

Ragnaros has apparently dethroned Jandice as the #1 hero.

Chenvaala has apparently taken the throne of the worst hero in the game

Nothing else too surprising; Al'akir is a bit worse than Lich King. Rakanishu is a bit worse than Shudderwock or Jandice when she doesn't find a pogo.

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

https://hsreplay.net/replay/CoQi3cY8Kai9vp6iYKT9HL

Literally every single idiot involved in designing Demon Hunter needs to be unemployed for life. How any of this garbage got approved, let alone unaffected through 13 nerfs, is beyond me.

My attitude on this one is a bit different, I think complaining about Soul DH is a lot more reasonable than complaining about Aggro DH right now. I mean, matchup rock-paper-scissors is playing into this a bit (soul DH is face hunter's worst matchup). But it is worth noting that Soul DH is quite good and one of its worst matchups (Druid) just got nerfed, so it's definitely a deck to watch.

However...I don't think the 13 DH nerfs are too relevant when talking about soul DH. Those nerfs were almost all targeted at aggro DH last expansion, not soul DH which uses mostly cards from the new expansion (it uses all of the soul shard cards, plus Manafeeder Panthera and Wandmaker. That's actually 15/30 cards in the deck). And the old cards used are mostly card draw to draw the new cards, plus cards that weren't very good in aggro DH last expansion (Aldrachi Warblades, Blade Dance...). Like...yeah, DH has had a lot of nerfs, but most of those nerfs didn't target soul DH. (The relevant nerfs are like...Skull of Guldan and Aldrachi Warblades, which were both in literally the first round of nerfs).

---

Average placement 2.99

Pff, oh my god...

---

If you can't win with Rag, just stop playing.

---

Well, to be fair, his hero power does nothing for the first 6-9 turns of the game.

---

False.

It puts the fear into the other 7 players in the lobby.

---

That being said, I did just beat Rag. As Jandice obv.

---

Rag kinda just reminds me of Eudoras late game upside except you dont have to mess up your curve or highroll, you could just find divine shield units and buff them since divine shields are op in battlegrounds and that alone can get you top four

---

This is the first time I've ever won three in a row.

https://i.imgur.com/2zgrfsG.png

Granted it was all of the busted heroes (Sir Finley was cosplaying as the Lich King), but still it feels good for a change. 5500MMR too, so not dumpster tier opponents.

---

can't really call it MMR any more. And I've had a lot more wins than losses so far since the reset. Probably because I'm forcing elementals every game.

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

I have 80G. First to message me in the app gets it. You have until 9 EST.

RIP, I just got home and it's 9:05 EST.

---

I don't have access to Rag yet, hell I'm not even sure if I have access to Jandice yet, so I'm keeping away from battlegrounds for a bit.

---

Rag is available since he's "returning" for those without perks

---

I... actually forgot Rag used to exist before.

---

Welp, gave in and crafted Lorekeeper Polkelt, and then a couple of days later open my end of season packs and get Lord Barov and another legendary.

Guess I maybe should have waited a couple of days before crafting to open those end of season packs, given that I played like...maybe 3 games with Lorekeeper Polkelt before opening those packs. Oh well.

---

I'm to the point where the only enjoyment I get out of Hearthstone anymore is in Arena, so I've been blasting through runs one after the other lately. Just wanted to share a replay of a game I just finished where I had a hard read on my opponent's next turn (even if it was obvious) and made a bizarre-looking play so I could set up lethal the next turn, and I'm quite proud of myself.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/m6knxDJtDoiqjDX98LEV6d

---

Oh you copied my list

but honestly the strength isnt the life gain, its the tempo and burst

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

when every pro agrees post-patch that only Paladin can beat it.

Big Warrior also beats it (particularly if they run Bulwark of Azinoth). Resurrect Priest also beats it. And I assume Guardian Animals Druid still beats it, but that's just a guess.

Loses to decks with big minions and lots of taunts, typically. Wouldn't surprise me if it lost to other "big" variations on decks, like Big DH.

Though yeah, the matchup spread for that deck is looking really really good now. Guardian Druid is going to get generally less popular. And Big Warrior and Resurrect Priest aren't a big part of the meta.

That said, there's a lot of little adjustments people can also make, like putting 2 copies of Frozen Shadoweaver into all their decks if this deck does see a big spike in popularity.

---

Those basically were the win cons with guardian anyway, with Phaoris too (which might be good still, 8 mana minions are generally great)

---

So after my first five games of battlegrounds with the new stuff, I believe I would've been better served just conceding about halfway through each game once I realized I wasn't going to get an elemental build.

---

My last two wins were with non-elemental strats.

---

4th
3rd
3rd
4th
4th
4th
7th
3rd

I've settled into above average at least, with the only outlier being an AFK game where I got junk for my free minions. Might have been able to salvage something but I kind of gave up on that game once that happened. And unless the lobbies went completely crazy after I dipped, elementals went 6-1 with the only loss coming to pogos. Died too early in the AFK game to know what was going on there.

Also, is there some sort of points boost going on like stars on ladder? I got 299 or 300 for all seven of those positive games, which I assume means 300 is the max and I was hitting it even without finishing in the top 2.

---

Based on your rating prior to the reset, the game has some preconceived notion of where it wants you on the ladder, and until you hit that point all winning games are going to award you 300.

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

Firebat just quit.

Pros want their games decided by skill.

I mean, reading what he actually wrote about quitting tells a very different story:

https://old.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/j5ceen/firebat_retiring_from_competitive_hearthstone/g7raj2n/

"If I'm honest I wasn't putting in the time necessary to play at the level required to win championships. I was putting in the just enough to get by kind of energy. And focusing on other things, YouTube, Twitch Streams, moving house, relationships. So, I'd say it is a deserved relegation. Still hurts though, and I keep running back in my mind all the times I could have done a little more. Or what the hell I was thinking with that control warrior + highlander hunter lineup!"

He quit partially cause he got relegated. And he got relegated because he wasn't putting in the study and effort needed to get good at the new meta, cause lots of other stuff was going on in his life that he decided was more important.

---

As someone who occasionally watches him, Firebat leaving isn't particularly surprising news. I seem to remember him talking with Gallon or Zalae earlier this year and saying that he thought this would be his last time playing grandmasters even back then. I also remember one of them talking about how the people in charge of this either brush off or ignore suggestions/input from the players about making things better.

I'm sure the loss/fine they gave him that one week probably didn't help much either.

---

Firebat left? I just saw a battlegrounds video from him the other day.

---

https://i.imgur.com/Emz1saT.png

I'm not sure what kind of transition this guy was going for, but he spent the last two turns killing both the 3rd and 4th place finishers by a combined 50 points or so, then somehow died here to me. Not sure about Finley, but Lich King was pretty strong so I'm confused to how this guy crushed him so hard.

Also, when someone quits/concedes does the history show their last battle as having suffered lethal damage? I don't think it does, but when Rag died on turn seven or so his last two battles he took 10 and then 30, and I have no clue how anyone dealt 30 at that point in the game.

---

azuarc posted...

Firebat left? I just saw a battlegrounds video from him the other day.

Firebat retired from Competitive Hearthstone.

That isn't to say he wont continue to stream Hearthstone as a source of income.

And it was not accompanied with any kind of statement that indicated he retired "doesn't like competitive hearthstone because it is not a skill based game" as UltimaterializerX seemed to indicate.

In fact it was nearly the opposite with Firebat making comments to the effect of him not putting in enough time to continue to compete at the highest levels after he was relegated from Grandmasters.

---

okay. That doesn't surprise me all that much then. He hasn't been highly competitive since year 1. Always had his finger on the pulse, but he's never really been in the mix. And then that crap earlier this year happened.

---

Firebat also had a leg up on the competition year 1, in that he was the one person compiling stats on decks and making stats based deck choices.

Obviously now everyone has access to multiple stats based reports.

---

Been doing poorly with face hunter right after crafting Polkelt partially to try it in that deck. Swapped back to aggro DH (hypothetically a tier 3 deck) and won like...7 games in a row. (That deck didn't work for me at all when I got to diamond, but seems to do okay for me when it's still MMR matchmaking, not sure why).

---

In a game that might have made Ulti go on a longer rant than ever before in this topic... can someone give me the odds of having a 21 card deck with 12 bombs shuffled into it, and drawing all nine non-bomb cards in a row leaving nothing but the 12 bombs by themselves?



---

That would be a 0.00034% chance.

---

MrSmartGuy posted...

That would be a 0.00034% chance.

Alternative odds if you run lorekeeper polkelt (and your remaining 9 cards cost 6+)
100.0%

---

Not sure what you're talking about, I skillfully dodged all those bombs.

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

Alura is a wonderful example of the idiocy of RNG. There is no reason I shouldnt be able to choose the spell she finds.

because turn 4 7/10s with divine shield and taunt are op

---

4 Mana 11/13 seems balanced

---