Hearthstone Blackrock Mountain Review : Prewords on the design direction

Wow I am really looking forward to this Hearthstone expansion, well I guess I mean to get more cards. I think the concept with holding dragon is really awesome and I don't say that because I am a general suck up to Blizz or that I used to work there etc.

No I really think its a great game design concept for digital card games, I have worked on card games and one issue you will find a lot doing that is that people are still thinking like its a real analog card game. I have also designed board game card games for that matter as well and then you have a lot of other issues, there is a lot of math issues that Hearthstone can avoid or rather Hearthstone can force more probability stuff into the game, which some people hate some people like (I would say its clearly to make it more accessible for casual players, which is a good thing!)

But, the star of this and I really do think that the Hearthstone team does this is that they have started making cards that would not work in a traditional card game like Magic the Gathering or that they would work, kinda. Like they could work but they would have to have other rulings, they cant follow the rulings that Hearthstone has right now on them.

All the Dragon in hand are like that. In Magic, that would be a classic "Reveal X creature in hand" so you would have to show it. Here in a digital game they can actually ignore that. And that is actually a huge thing, because its not like they could not use the Reveal function. Just let the player pick I want to reveal this card in the hand and show it, like when you mill someone over 10 cards. Its clearly technically possible, its pretty much already programmed into the game. thats no issue, the point here is that the game has been designed to not show that on purpose.
 And that would never work analogy as there you would have to show so you actually know the player has a Dragon so a whole concept around that I really like. The hand thing is clearly then much stronger then it is in other card games, so its actually more worth to play. Other examples then which aren't from this expasnion but I think show that they design is going in the right direction si cards like Unstable portal, yes its super random more random then any analog card game is, mainly as the effect is not possible without having a computer to truly random any card.
 Thats a great card design utilizing the fact its a digital card game. This also brings up other cards like Gang Up, which is probably my new favorite card as I love Mill, gonna talk about that more in my next article on the first wing. Its a card that will put copies on target card in your deck. There is a lot of copy cards in Magic, A LOT. Ok a lot, in blue but they let you copy stuff and put it on the board. This copies and put it in your deck thats another thing thats super hard to do with analog card games. So I really like these new cards, they are very nice.

Lastly I think one big thing is that people can start defending their playing this game over magic etc;) I am comparing this game to magic a lot and other games for that matter (but Magic here as I think most readers will recognize the cards from that game the easiest). This kind of design really does make Hearhstone stop being a "light version" of magic as it goes into using more and more mechanics we will never seen in Magic. As I play both these game regularly I think thats very good as it really makes the gameplay experience on this game a lot more exciting and fresh.

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Best Team PvP Season 20. Guide for best characters for PvP. Review Beta Ray Bill

Ah the Noble Beta Ray Bill, space version of Thor. I never really liked him, I get that his world was super destroyed by Surter, which also is kinda weird in a sense to me it seems that all Asgard stuff should be aimed to earth, like earth is where they will enter our "midgard" otherwise for example the Skrull gods makes no sense, wouldent the gods just be at one planet is Marvel, like the dark past storyline of asgard when they were fighting those dark gods that ruled some other random planet. So how did Surter get to Beta Ray Bill's planet, why did not Thor etc know when he was space traveling and stopped him. The overall story is like, oh Surtur been rampaging around for years on some random far away space planet that has nothing to do with Earth.
 I guess my biggest question is why don't he do this more if its so easy. Just go and ruin other planets instead of getting your ass kicked each time on Earth. Clearly the Asgardians aren't protecting other planets then just Earth so go somewhere else more then once.

And Beta Ray Bill is super Noble, super boring. Come on hes kinda like Super-man such a stale and 0% interesting character. I have not played him much I can admit in the game. Which is kind sad because I have to say that at least Playdom did not just copy Thor and gave him 1 new ability etc. Beta Ray Bil is a completely different game character then Thor, while they are the exact same power set in the comics.

First of all hes both Blaster and Bruiser, which make sense as Thor was always kinda like, well hes either Bruiser or Blaster, Thor alt suit would make him Blaster etc. I am kinda iffy about having more double classes then the warrior 3, it really don't fit his skill set that he is a double class. I suppose but comic wise he does have the correct classes and he is both tanky and high damage so. Fine ?, guess I a am a little perplexed.

Well for his passive he both tanks for low health allies and increases everyones defences making him do both more damage and more tanking stuff. So yeah both Blaster and Bruiser is there. However, thats pretty much where his interesting stuff ends.

I think that its a lot of the NOT like Thor is design fault really, that makes him very weak as a character. So to not make him like Thor, they just made all his stuff be about, setting up the electric debuff and then damage people with that electric attacks will make them take extra damage synergy..
 His third attack gives all enemies the static charge, which is that they take extra damage from electric moves and it also deals an extra unique debuff to him Ozone increasing  all damage from electric attacks.

This is his GO to attack. always start with this and then chip their life down with more electricity. He is really super, super limited to be played with another electric characters or he will deal no damage. So put him in with Storm etc And agent with something that can trigger static charges.

His first ability also has a unique ability Crackle, which makes the target take electric daamge after attacking. SO its a like a super bad version of Psychic tap from Emma.
 Hes very simple to play. Use the third attack to get the debuffs out. Get Crackle out and then his ultimate exploits all these thing with another unique damage exploit, that gets ++ from Crackle,ozone,static etc.
 So he really needs someone else to also do this to maintain that. And he deals zero damage except wit this ultimate the rest is just low chip damage.
 Sure if everyone only uses electric attacks it will be a lot of chip, but yeah its like you can play him with 2-3 other characters top and he is still a bad character.

He is one of the most extreme limited characters in the game and not even that good when you play the whole game around him. As I mentioned I think its a lot about fail as game design to be honest in the task to make him so far away from Thor but still use all electric moves he ended up being a character 100% focused on only 1 thing.
 One major issue is that the Agent cant really help so much and all his stuff is really unique so no one can support him. Like Victor Mancha will have Crackle when hes is playable I suppose and he looks to be crap as well so thats probably the dream them for both of them. Well Storm, I think will still be better because of her Defensive skills fit better with Beta Ray Bill.


2/10

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Best Team PvP Season 20. Guide for best characters for PvP. Review Karolina Dean

 

 

 

 

Karolina Dean. 

So another Blaster a lot of Blasters in a row. And she is way better then the 3 before her but she is not that great and well they were really bad so its not hard being better then them. Karolina is fine, decent etc. 

 She also got the same issue that Nova has with that she also needs to build up her ultimate. She cant just use it right away, so again compared to Iron Patriot that is utter crap as he can do it right away and then lose a turn + he deals more damage then she does..so again they do not know how to balance charge up abilities. 

 But it does a lot more damage then Nova and its aoe, so at least is not horrible. She charges up by anyone using energy attacks, making her actually be very strong with Iron Patriot. I use 2 ionizing a-isos (radiation to her attacks, the debuff deals damage and makes enemies take more damage from energy attacks) on her. On the first attack and the third this again then makes her really good with IP and she can also replace IP to be used with Magneto.  That being said Magneto+IP remains far better then her with any of them but she is actually quite good with either of them.

Her first attack is one of hte better primary attacks. It deals reduced potential which randomize some erally strong debuffs that either makes the target be unable to use melee, range or buff abilities. So it randoms out of these 3 and can deal all. It also makes her next attack be super fuking strong as it gives her next range attack massive extra damage with perfect shoot buff + it also will be guaranteed crit and she gains 1 of her energy stacks.

 Basically, what you wanna do is having the rest of the team also use energy like IP. And then turn 1 use her first ability and then turn 2 she can do her ultimate and probably kill them all after IP already done his stuff. In the right team she can deal huge amount of damage at turn 2 which is very fine. She may be a little limited but with strong energy team she can be really good and as mentioned the top 2 energy users are also then top characters in general making her have a strong team potential.

Her issue I guess is more in her other abilities, they aren't particular good just kinda there. Second is a shield that for w.e reason makes her immune to Blind and Dark effect which are almost non existing in the game. IT also gives her shield slam which I guess would be meaningful some games. This ability really should cover the whole team and not just her. Then it would be interesting, making it an anti sheild, shield. But now its pretty shitty.

Her third ability then is a aoe stun and it also removes their armor which is not very good. Of course stunning in general is amazing but people (should at least) be stun immune on most characters so that makes it almost completely useless. I put ionizing on it as I mentioned so I dot all the opponents if needed. Thats make it have some extra utility.

If her second and third ability would be better she could be a very strong character. Right now she unfortunately like many Blasters is super limited, she is a high damage dealer and thats it. But at least she actually can do high damage and not like the other new Blasters who just suck in all regards.

6/10

Marvel Avengers Alliance PvP Season 19 Recap

Mm so this season I actually finally lost some games in attack, I went from 99% win ratio to 90 or so. And the 10% losses was purely from Molly. Like I have been over several times Molly is by far the best character in the game. And its so evident by the team I lost to was not even the same team, it could be Molly and Nul(Luke Cage), Molly Groot. Etc. It did not matter so much what team Molly was with, sure its easier if shes with Invisible Women as she suck so much. But the only thing that really fucks you over is if Molly goes first and get some good critical etc. Then its over. She will just obliterate one team on her own.

But I managed to get Angela (a character I dont get why the added at all but w.e) anyway of course it was not hard as long as one gets up before 1 hour so. Then you just gain points in defence as people crash trying to attack you.


Some of the teams that was in popular this seasons except different Molly teams. Was definitely and for no reason the Pestilence X Rulk combo. Or overall a lot of Pestilence. Who still has a 100% lose chance to Emma Frost...I even put in Modok's weapon on my agent to just clear trough this loser teams faster.

Another thing was different Worthy teams, a lot of Nul and Kuurth variation were both of them together starting become quite popular.
 This was a really shitty team. I don't get it at all. Nul makes you wanna attack him fast before the meteor stack gets to high, Kuurth makes you wanna ignore her because of the love ability. So the result is very clear you ignore Kuurth and Kill Nul. So Kuurth brings nothing for Nul. While for example Pestilence Nul is a lot better. Here you want to kil b oth of them as soon as possible. This means that you either get a lot of dots you wont get rid for for a time if you focus Nul. Or a lot of meteor stacks if you focus Pestilence. While they dont directly combo like Rulk and Pestilence, they both have the same danger so they make a good synergy. Where instead in the new popular Nul + Kuurth gives you nothing. Here they dont match at all. Kuurth is better with another character you do not wanna focus e.g a tank or a counter based character who either dies slowly or hits back hard. This will give Kuurth time to set up her runes.

Typically the Marvel avengers alliance Meta always show some new teams because new is better and they are often a huge liability for peoples chance to win.

Marvel Avengers Allience PvP Tier List Season 19. Guide for best characters for PvP

So there is no difference of coure in this season. As I went over all the new characters (not counting the ones that just got releaed before this season ends like the Enchantress).
 They are all bottom tier (full tier link).

Molly clearly still remains the supreme choice for over powered beyond character. With Emma on a close second.
 As Loki got buffed this season, having all his move be Quick Action he is back in top 20. Pushing out Groot. He is a pretty solid pick against most characters just like all the top characters he severely beats any old vanilla character he always did and now he does that even more so he is not particularly overly much better vs the top characters but he is very good versus bottom tier characters.

So not to mcuh to say this will be another just the same season. Which I think this game has every third season at least.
 Well the pvp defense covers a lot more Mollys making it harder to win, so that can be interesting for the last day.