Iksar, one of the Hearthstone Game Designers, recently asked on Twitter: “What’s on your Hearthstone wishlist for 2017?” I thought this would be a good conversation for our community to have, and hopefully bring awareness to some of the things you would like to see in the next year.
Here is what I would include on my wishlist:
- Tournament Mode – Something like the Heroic Tavern Brawl, but with custom rules on a weekly basis.
- Better Arena Rewards/Support – Wins go towards golden hero portraits, make golden cards usable, player gets the choice of what pack they get, card back for 12-wins, etc.
- Sealed Format: One of my favorite ways to play Magic: The Gathering was in Sealed events. You get a set amount of packs, and you build a deck with them to play against other players. The structure could be similar to Arena. I think this would be an interesting addition to Hearthstone.
- Improvements to Ladder – A less dramatic drop in rank when the new season is released, maybe a less grind-y climb to legend (implement winstreaks in ranks 5 – 1). Better matchup algorithm, a common complaint among pro players is getting matched up against 2k+ legend players when they are competing for top-100 legend.
- More Alternate Hero Portraits – We still don’t have an alternate hero portrait for each of the classes (but we have two for Mage?). Rogue, Druid, and Warlock have no second option. Also, make each one of these available to everyone.
- Ability to Purchase Packs for Friends – I have no idea why this isn’t implemented.
- More Achievements – I’m surprised this hasn’t been explored further yet, these could be as simple as: X Murlocs Played – Reward: Murloc Card Back. Not every achievement requires a reward, but certain benchmarks could be rewarded.
- Reduce the Price of Adventures that are Rotating out of Standard: When an Adventure is on the verge of rotating out of Standard it is hard to recommend that people should purchase them. I think it would help a lot of newer players if the prices were reduced as it got closer to the Standard rotation.
One of the main problems for Hearthstone currently is that the meta becomes stale too quickly. Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is a good example of this, we’re about a month into the expansion and it is already starting to appear like the meta has been figured out to a certain extent. All of the strongest decks have likely been created, and it’s now all about fine tuning them to the meta.
Other card games have added ways to spice up the game between releases. This is usually done by adding a card or two on a monthly basis, or even doing a small run of 10 – 12 cards which can be crafted or purchased (was suggested here).
Another way to do this is to do balancing runs more frequently. I know Blizzard doesn’t like to do this very often, but something like Small-Time Buccaneer that is being shoehorned into just about every deck should be looked at earlier in the release.
Now I want to hear from you! What do you want from Hearthstone in the upcoming year, and what do you think of some of the ideas listed above? Let me know in the comments.
My entire wishlist can be summarised in 3 words… less random bullshit.
I would love to see implemented in wild ladder a rule that won’t allow people to grind with only standard decks. I would love to see at least 1 or 2 wild cards.
Interesting idea, however wild is exactly that, you can use whatever you can.
For instance, in my case I use standard decks and play wild because I don’t want to deal with pirates.
In the other hand, the solution could be the match-up system, I mean, the system could match players up according to the cards. For example, if you play Wild Ladder using some GvG/Naxx cards, you shouldn’t be matched up with full-standard card decks, because like you said, you are looking for something different in the Wild format.
I have other example, if you play Wild Ladder using a full-pirate tier 1 standard deck, the system SHOULD match-up you with a similar standard deck in the Wild Ladder.
Those 3:
1) Tournament Mode – Something like the Heroic Tavern Brawl, but with custom rules on a weekly basis.
2) Better Arena Rewards/Support – Wins go towards golden hero portraits, make golden cards usable, player gets the choice of what pack they get, card back for 12-wins, etc.
3)Improvements to Ladder – A less dramatic drop in rank when the new season is released, maybe a less grind-y climb to legend (implement winstreaks in ranks 5 – 1). Better matchup algorithm, a common complaint among pro players is getting matched up against 2k+ legend players when they are competing for top-100 legend.
Nerf Jade Druid and give Kabal something better than shotty potions. Jade Druid has destroyed control
I think the weekly tavern brawls need some more love… They aren’t very creative or they have been in the game already. Also arena needs more polishing. A better price pool and maybe a fairer drafting process wouldn’t hurt in my opinion.
Not a game changer, but the auto dissenchant cards should have the option to take into account golden cards, now if you have 2 azure drake and 1 golden azure drake, it makes no sense to keep them all.
It sounds like a small thing, but when you have hundreds and hundreds of cards, searching for that kind of duplicates is a pain and can make for a lot of dust.
Typing “extra” in the filter box should save you a lots of time then.
I will separate all the cards where you have golden and not golden double for easy dusting.
What I would like to really see is the introduction of a new hero! Death Knight maybe or monk!! The more achievements idea as well is really interesting. It would give a reason to both casual and hardcore players to spend more time trying to accomplish them.
I think you need something in the game to see replays of top players. When you enter to Hearthstone you have play, adventure, arena brawl and replay where you can see some matches from Thijs, Pavel, etc. Also replays for people that maybe are not so well know but are in the first 10 or 20 in legend. So you can see what decks they use and how they use them. I know most of top player have their streams or youtube channels, but I think that would be a lot of help for many people
Of course not all the matches just every few hours you update a few matches.
(sorry if I did some mistake writing English it’s not my first language )
What would be awesome is to see the next card up after a loss. When I lost a game in Magic I would scoop and look at the top five of my deck to see if I was flooded or what not.
I think a tournament mode would be awesome! I want to also see a sideboard possibly to add silver bullets to certain decks to help certain matchups.
new mechanics similar to lore walker cho’s floating ability in the tutorial, more limitations or the ability to create more strategic plays similar to chess in khazaran.
I feel reno jackson has messed with the strategy of the game. It should be deleted or at least a ten cost card. 6 coins is kinda ridiculous for a card that powerful.
Nowadays you can be killed in turn 3 or 4 against an extremely aggro deck. So, the new challenge is to survive at least until turn 6 to play Reno (if you have him in hand).
I really don’t see an argument to remove or nerf Reno if there are tons of aggro decks around there.
A skilled Reno player can hold off a Skilled aggro player till turn 6, unless you draw dead, and afterwards, it’s basically over for the aggro player. Feels like bad game mechanic to simply lose or win based on if you mulligan or draw a single card. I agree with removing Reno and implementing a card that uses the similar 1-off requirements that many of the new cards take advantage of, but implements a better mechanic. Would also like to finally see other controls decks besides Reno decks again.
“Feels like bad game mechanic to simply lose or win based on if you mulligan or draw a single card.”
I totally agree with this. It feels like I’m playing heads and tails.
I play Reno Priest and it really isn’t that good. Face Hunters are killing me turn 4 and Pirate Warrior can easily kill me after I drop Reno. He doesn’t need a nerf
I’d like to see some of the good things from the original WoW card game implemented, such as having one hero for the Alliance and one for the Horde for each class, having faction-specific cards (minions that are Alliance/Horde specific), and having different hero powers for these faction-specific heroes (so playing Paladin for the Alliance is completely different than playing Paladin for the Horde).
I’d also like to see more tribes (ogres, gnomes, goblins, etc.) introduced and have the tribes have core cards that are cultivated as part of Standard (so we can see them evolve instead of having related cards rotate out). This one would take some time to implement, but would be interesting.
I’d also like to see the adventures have a Co-Op mode, much as the adventure boxes from the original WoW, where at least one of the bosses can be played in such a mode for a card back (like — or maybe instead of — Heroic). Have people added to the “instance” based on their roles (healer, tank, dps) to add some WoW MMO goodness. This would be very challenging to implement across all platforms, but would be cool if they could figure it out.
Another thing i want to add for wild is that they reduce the cost of all wild cards. Since they can no longer be opened up in packs anymore and to encourage others to play wild, why not reduce all wild cards by like 300 less dust? I mean, who would want to craft removed cards when its is easier to work for standard? Pls i hope this could at least reach blizzards ears.
How about fixing up wild? Wild as how i’ve been playing it stinks like feces. All the decks i encounter there are messy and most of the time people just playing standard net decks (with zero wild cards btw). I suggest that they limit the usuage of standard cards in wild. Like a maximum of 15 standard cards should help it a bit. I really enjoy wild and i believe it still matters. I mean who here doesnt miss doctor 7? I miss seeing that card in the meta! I miss playing all the old decks. Everytime i play an old list tho, i just get messed up by this standard player netdecker with no wild cards. Its just not fun at all. I hope they can fix it up by following my suggestion.
I don’t want that some cards rotate, some cards as Reno Jackson and Brann Bronzebeard T.T
A third Play queue that’s actually casual. The Casual queue tends to consist mainly of people playing ladder decks to get quick wins for quests, or simply because they don’t feel like playing Ranked for whatever reason. The new Quests have helped add a bit of variety, but Play mode in general is still an uninviting place for new players and players who enjoy building creative decks.
The existing Casual queue should be renamed to “Unranked” to better describe what players will actually see there, and a third queue with some kind of limitations should be introduced as the new Casual. Perhaps a seasonal or quarterly filter that X’s out decks conforming to the current meta could be implemented. It wouldn’t be perfect, but I’m sure it would make many players happy (and encourage more to open their wallets).
Or maybe a rank limitation, like ranked / unranked / casual (only accessible if your account is not ranked above rank 15)
I can understand how it can be annoying to play casual for beginner. I am a rank 5+ rogue player but with limited skill in other class. So to do class specific quest I craft a deck of that class and go casual. Most of the time it will be meta deck because I know them so well due to playing against them all the time.
So sometimes I crush a real casual and I am sure it does not feel good for him.
The thing I would need is a play zone where I can do the 5 victory priest quest without losing 4 ranks in the process.
I actually play mostly Ranked and have all the cards necessary to build almost any meta deck. But since I have all these cards that are all but worthless competitively, I like to experiment from time to time by building a casual theme deck. Then I take it into Casual and am quickly reminded that it’s just as saturated with Jade Druids, Pirate Warriors, Aggro Shamans, Dragon Priests, Renolocks and Miracle Rogues as Ranked is. Inevitably I end up bored with the game because it’s either play a meta deck or resign to lose most games to meta decks. I can only play with/against the same handful of archetypes for so many weeks before it just isn’t fun anymore, and if I can’t even then just enjoy playing a wacky casual creation, what reason do I have to play Hearthstone?
I think the goldens in arena would be huge, where else would you be able to enjoy that golden Boulderfist Ogre you got so late in your hs career? Plus it seems so easy to implement..
Sealed would be awesome too. Have you seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp0rNO8vFSk
What I would like-To be able to reach legend easier since I only play around 10 hours a week and to up the rewards in arena/make a new format. But on top of all that I want to have a separate game that just has standard cards for phone users since it is at around 4 gigs right now for the app.
”both Druid and Warlock have no second option”
you forgot about Rogue Valeria will cry in a corner dont be mean to her
You’re right, forgot Rogue (fixed it)! My Apologies, Valeera.
Make hunter great again please! For me worst (aggro-reno) meta ever!
1) Watch replays
2) more ranks for new players. or better options
3) better social community (better chat, clan)
4) less dust for old cards (in wild mode)
Why would you like less dust?
I think he means less dust needed to craft cards in wild mode.
Which makes sense in a way, giving easier access to wild to newer player. Not sure if blizzard would agree as it would make it more easy for people to be drained from standard to wild and blizzard seems interested into promoting standart
Ohh right. That the cards cost less dust. It makes sense, but Blizzard promotes Standard for new players so it likely will never happen.
Cards from goblin vs gnomes or Naxxramas will never be used by new players or old players who never got this, for example Dr. Boom. so, why need to cost the same as new cards? however as Alkoviak said, it could promote to play wild mode…
Ya make more heroes and make them available to everyone, not this exclusive Bullshit like with khadgar
khaghar was a promotion to help out animals! and compared to other non exclusive protraits it was 5 dollars compared to 10 dollars so it was a good deal.
Ya sure a great deal for those with an apple device, us android users/completionists wouldn’t mind us some Khadgar :p
A charity with all hearthstone community still better than only ios.
I, and a close friend of mine, have been wanting a way to play Hearthstone as a Co-Op once in a while. It seems like some of the solo adventures and quests sometimes offer a close style. I would not think it be too awful hard for the designers to code something like that. That would be fun!
yeah they do not do enough of these types of brawls
the problem with co-op brawls is that if you are playing with a friend it doesn’t count for quests nor the brawl reward.
I wish to have arena game with 33 cards during dck creation. Then choose 3 card to remove from It.
More tecnical less random.
Oh! you mean like magic where you have a 15 card side pool in which to swap out cards based upon the classes you were facing to make it a better matchup.
Or Just the possibility to put some picks out 🙂
I think all your wishlist ideas are pretty good, i would like to add one thing that i find is the most importen thing for hearthstonem, and that is making a ban system for ladder. You should be able to practise for a turnament on ladder and that is imposseble without a ban systems. In order for still make all classes able to be played i think it should be some thing like this: Every 3rd day you can ban a class wich you wont be matched against on ladder the next 3 days. Every time you have to ban you have to pick a new class until you have cycled through all classes. I think this would be very fair and balanced and it would reward players who make good tech choices and good deck building alot more.
This would get derailed pretty quickly by the hearthstone team since it is an idea that just doesn’t seem right for the health of the game.
I think your bullet point list is both excellent and complete – at least it’s everything I had on mine, plus a couple I hadn’t thought of (but wish I had).
+1 from me on each and every one… with one condition:
Tournament Mode in addition to, not replacing, any of the current modes (I’m thinking of Tavern Brawl of course, which is often excellent for our otherwise under-served newer members to the hearthstone community).
Re. the meta – difficult one… I agree it’s an issue, but the question is what’s the best solution? I’m wary of frequent (re) balancing as I think they get it wrong as often as they get it right, and I think beginner cards should be left alone as well, which doesn’t seem to be the case. For this reason and because I think it’d be more fun anyway, I favour the small card run idea, as per Mr Clark’s suggestion!
For the small card run idea is fine. instead of new cards, I would like the idea of nostalgia run. Like add some staple cards from wild for limited time like current of next year introduce back the whole mech package. To see how it would interact with the new cards.
And could be used to adjusted a meta.
Please fix Huntersville. We need card draw/AoE something like barrage,, som to clear the board of 2-3 defense minions. Hunters are way too slow against aggro and way too fast for control. The Goons mechanism is crap at this point. We are no answer to pirate or Reno. After rotating it could get better
I agree with you, I wish someday other hunter archetypes (than face or midrange) could be a thing, why not a Control Hunter? Hero Power could be changed with some spells like Priest.