Quality Maniac: League of Legends part 2. Severe Lobby bug that can cause promo loses.

This bug wow, how it annoys me.

This one is actually very serious as it can cost ranked promo games. I would say its very, very critical riot fix it fast  but I have seen it for weeks so....

What happens is that sometimes you don't get into the game lobby room but are stuck in the home UI place. Why this is really bad is because when the timer is out when picking champions the player gets a elo minus and even worse if they are in a promo they lose the promo!

The system has been implanted to punish people from leaving the lobby which as common before but then tis absolutely crucial that it functions correctly. I have managed to reproduce this bug over 10 times in a row, so I also know how to avoid it but it can still happen if one is unlucky.

This can happen in all the game modes, rank, normal,draft normal etc. But clearly the worst is for rank as the player gets punished by the faulty game while at normal they only get the 5 minute ban time (which also happens for ranked but clearly is not a concern compared to auto lose).

The images don't truly give this justice as when it happens the music of being in a lobby changes and one can hear people picking champions etc. (so if I was not so lazy I should take a recording instead).

Anyway this is how it looks when the bug happens. The pop up appears explaining the game rules of lobbying, which btw clearly state is a promo lose if not picking/leaving. Which is really bad as it clearly is not working good enough.

When it happens one can actually go around, use the shop, set runes pages etc (its possible to buy during this time). And its possible to try and rank queue then this message appears.

Sometimes if you get lucky you will actually come into the lobby.

This is were the magic happens.

By pressing the accept button and then going somewere else with the computer, i.e not making the Leaueg of Legend clint being on top anymore is what causes this during the entry of lobby time.

I of course like the rest of the modern society have zero attention span and I will press to go and read/watch something using my Internet browser during that time, especially as even do joining the lobby can go pretty quick if I am a later pick that is a few minutes until its my turn to do anything. SO yeah of course a user will go and do something else in the meantime.

Knowing this I have now started to avoid cuasing the bug...

But it can still happen, for example sometimes I get a shock wave player error from having Marvel Avengers Alliance running using Firefox that will prompt firefox to be on top and might make me lose a promo game. Actually this scenario have happened exactly...like that. And other w.e program that might take presence over the LoL client for just this brief time frame of the Match found can really fuck the player. 

This is truly quite the rage creating issue, I would definitely rate this bug on an almost show-stopper level. As losing a promo game automatically because of a faulty system can make a user stop playing the game.  Very high level of severity.

 

Quality Maniac: Marvel Avengers Alliance PvP pre-season requirement

Yep Playdom did another live bug.. no surprise.

But I love this one seems I don't have to write any guides etc to explain how to reach Adamantium this (pre)season.

One cant always be sure with Playdom as they also do have some really bad designers...among other things. And their planned game economy is if anything half assed. 

They have changed around the requirement to enter Adamantium for this new systems. In last pre-season(why are they doing this shit...)
 It was 10%. Now Vibranium is at 10% so we can assume Adamantium is not there.

And they do want to make it easier to reach the league....but 50%???

I am guessing that should say 5%. That's an educated guess from me.

Quality Maniac: League of Legends, Azir Bug

So first Azir was unplayable because a bug and as soon as I finally get to play him. What do I spot another bug.

I never get how these kind of blatant UI bugs pass a developers eyes.

Not the best first impression, clearly it should not be 2 basic skins for Azir. Both of them say the same text when moving around. I have not tested playing with both (writing this as I load my first Azir game) but that could be a big issue. If one of  them crashes or get some weird glitzed skin ingame.

Hearthstone Frostwyrm Lair Review.

So the last cards in the curse of naxxramas set. And I have to say that I have quickly lost interest in Hearhtstone. Like many others I completely agree that it was to few new cards, constructed meta still feels very much the same. Luckily arena at least feels a little different. But it still an issue in this draft mode as well. Its simply not enough new cards. So comparing it to going and drafting in a Magic prerelease or just normal draft etc Most cards are new, its not like MTG is the perfect game or anything. On the contrary half cards are either reprints or just useless fooder cards you would only use in a draft so they are pretty much just 1.1 for 1 and so on.
 The ting in Hearthstone is that is so few new cards so you see them like 1 every 5 pick or so. And people don't alway pick them so gameplay wise later on its few new cards. So its a lot of the same.

One thing overall is that the class card are not game changing. Dark Cultist is amazing but its not big bang womp and suddenly all your minions were gone. No Class gained something that you have to think about. Warrior got his new weapon but it that just means warrior got more % chance to have a weapon that you overall would fear anyway. The only real removal spell is for Druid which of course no one ever picks in Arena. Thats one  big thing why the Arena meta is almost the same the new cards did not create any really new troublesome cards or combos for that matter that the player has to look out for.

Everyone hates Avenge but I think its a pretty nice card.

In constructed I been running a redemption deck with a lot of Divine shields and some Deathrattle. Avenge is really good with Divine sheild just like Blessing of Kings is.  And in arena it is pretty good card. People generally dont have removal they have to trade with minions. They dont have so much silence and to silence a small guy is not very good. 

This is the best secret in Arena. And in a way that actually does a lot. Because in arena one thing I have always assumed because its correct 90% of the time is that if a Paladin drops a secret it has to be Noble Sacrifice, its always Noble Sacrifice. Now then with 2 viable Paladin Secrets you cant any longer assume its Noble Sacrifice. 

Well then its not a lot more to say. It is a great card? No. Is any Paladin card great nope. They do cost 1 mana so its not expected ot be overall good. While a card should have 2n+1 in stats so a 1 drop should have 3. There exist so many "broken" 1 drops like Mana wyrm, Northshire Cleric etc with more then 3 stats and an ability...
 Because otehr wise 5 stats for 1 mana would be awesome even if uncontrolled. The real problem is more the tempo. If paladin would be able to drop a 5 stats for 1 mana e.g a Zombie Chow. That would be really good. So Avenge is decent.

Well it aren't so many good rare card in Hearthstone is it? Its kinda hard to say how good/bad Ooze is because obviously it needs some kind of buff to be good. But there are several bad epics like both the lords(stat boost for type) doomsayer hungry crab, Mountain giant and often Molten giant. The only 2 good Epics pre naxxramas are Sea giant and Blood Knight. And then several classes got pretty bad epics as well most notorious Rogue. Getting 1.2 x 2 stats (6) for 2 mana is really good so its not horrible compared to preparation...

I actually want to put this card in here right way:

Best way to look at Shade is first of all to like with Ooze to compare it with the other bad epics cards.
 People seem to hate this cad I think its pretty great. I have even read some people saying that Jungle Panther is better thats fucking retarded. This card is so much better then Jungle Panther.

This card is a 3.3 at your turn when it can attack. So its not a  2.2 for 3 mana  but a 3.3 thanks to its stealth. Sure it dies by consecration and other Aoe but most 3 drops dies by most aoes.

This card is easy to compare to the lords with their 3.3 stats for 3 and ability that likely will never do anything. This is at least a 3.3 with stealth but of course it also grows.

just like Ooze got more stats then those epics Shade is better as well.

Epic Breakdown:

Blood Knight is the best epic as divine sheild minions are heavily picked in arena. 

Sea Giant is the absolutely most solid giant and best pick by far of them. He is better for Shaman and Paladin then Blood knight is and if your deck has a lot of minion spawning stuff e.g Imp Master. He is better for the deck. But with n o information of your cards Blood knight is the best pick of all the epics (excluding for shaman and Paladin).

Then its both of these 2 new cards. They perform better then the others really.

As mentioned Ooze is 5 stats for 2 way better then 6 stats for 3 as both lord has. Shade is at least 6 stats for 3.

Mountain giant is unplayable in almost any arena deck. I main Handlock in Constructed so I know very well how this card works. And in Constructed u got a lot of Removal and Taunt so its "safe" to sit and Life tap to later wipe the board and then play MT or to Play it and then remove one minion with soulfire etc.  This will never happen in arena. Its absolutely the worst giant in arena by far,

Molten Giant I can say might be better then ooze in the right Priest deck or other similar heal classes or actually in Rogue were you self damage your self to get it out...but its very hard to play in arena. Ooze is at least a decent 2 drop with the potential of super good drop with a buff card. But for priest then who dont really have a good buff card is a little harder to make it work so they are kinda even for some classes.

Doomsayer is obviously unplayable in arena.

 Hungry Crab is better then Doomsayer but not by much.

Big Game Hunter is better for Decks who cant buff etc for Ooze but Shade is a lot better.
 Shade is really a solid 3 drop and very good coin drop at turn 2. 




The way shade usually works is that it will kill a 3 drop and stay alive still increasing it stats this will force the opponent to use a removal card on it (or trade 2 more minion) so it usually leads to a 2 for 1 card. Its a lot more worth to not attack with shade to just trade it and kil lit off as life points is not something one should care about. Dropping it at turn 2 especially can be great as then you can really sit there and wait. And I dont mean wait to kil la big guy like with Panther but just wait for a Trade were it will kill the minion but survive (with 2 hp if against Mage etc). 



Still both of these cards are better for buff classes mainly then Paladin and Druid. Which unfortunately already have really good class epics. Rogue can of course do Cold Blood on a Ooze turn 3 thats 2 5.2 for 3 mana and 2 cards. Thats pretty good but very vulnerable. 

Not much to say about ooze more then its really good with buffs especially for Paladin as Paladin got both Blessing of Kings and Blessing of might but even Blessing of Wisdom can be nice. It has a really neat combo with Sword of Justice. When played with SoJ the first ooze becomes a 2.3 and the other one copies that and then becomes a 3.4 thats a very good combo.






Then Shade like any other Stealth minion can be buffed in its stealth. 

Echoing Ooze:

Paladin +++. Druid ++. Rouge + (because Rouge also commonly take buffer minions like Defender of Argus also all Rouge Epics sucks...) Shaman + (Flametounge, bloodlust, Shaman also favors buffer cards like DoA)

Shade of Naxxramas.

Paladin ++, Druid ++, + The rest.

 

The Final last boss. Finally I can stop writing about Hearthstone really ;)

I was on a business trip last week but it really feels like I mentioned earukler that these cards are to few and did not change the gameplay enough. Doing Dailies until next expansion?

One thing I am thinking right away I want ot put it out here before I go into Kel'Thuzad. Is that the game might need the limited format system. Were if you go to arena we could pick - only new cards or vanilla cards. Yes obviously that does not work as its only 30 new cards. Well 30 + class cards. That would be interesting hopefully something like that happens next expansion with more cards and some sort of system that makes arena focus more on the newer cards. As otehr card gme does Just my 2 cent.

 Ok Kel'Thuzad. Its a lot of whine about this card in how broken it is in constructed. While all the Deathrattle shenanigans are hard to come by in Arena (e.g Sylvanas + Kel'Thuzad). Its still one of the better arena cards.

The reason why is because Arena is so heavy on the minions. Its trade, trade and more trades. Dropping this card and Trading an Ogre into something else big is really, really good in arena. More likely its probably 2 smaller low/medium drops traded into 2 other smaller or 2 medium/late. But that regardless causes a lot of issues for the opponent. As they will lake a lot of removal. Its veyr hard to get ride of Kel'Thuzad. The opponent pretty much needs a hard board wipe combo like Equality and X.

 Some people say hes a win more card, but not really he is not great on an empty board but just 1 medium trade is enough to get a pretty big lead in arena at turn 8.

His biggest downside is the general problem with having such a high mana cost card. Makes it harder for Rouge, Hunter etc other aggro classes or decks. Of course sometimes you do have a Rouge Control deck and then he is pretty good.

Some say hes bad because he cant do anything when you are down, in that sense that if they have several guys out and you have none he will do nothing expect be a big guy they ignore. Thats true for all the Legendary as well. Rag would random and maybe hit a big guy, Ysera will draw a card in end of turn and really do nothing. The only legendary that can turn that around is Deathwing. (Why strong removal cards usually are better to have then any Legendary).

 I don't think there is a class which is specially better with him, a little Paladin with his class ability but it don't fell like enough to really warrant that. However, its more on that Paladin can favour token creating cards, a token overall in arena is great. That helps.

To pick him over other good legendaries is mainly about - do you have a slow or fast deck. Fast mana cost automatically makes him rejected ( given that the otehr legendary is a cheap drop). Then how much Token creation do the deck have? The more the better and how much Deathrattle but I think that Divine sheild usually is more favorably.e Cards like Scarlet Crusader is really good being resurrected with its shield back. Place him behind a sunwalker --- thats really annoying.