Journey to Un'Goro - What do you think?

[MiskWisk]

Well, the latest Hearthstone pack hit last night (for me anyway) and I think enough time has passed for people to have played around a little. So, I decided to see what the lovely people on the Escapist thought about it (cue my normal thread replies of less than a page).

When I unpacked, I got most of the mage and shaman cards, far too many elder longnecks and most of the elementals. Got the mage quest as well which is quite nice as well. I've ended up with two decks. The mage one is set on completing the quest but will either need me remaking it from scratch or just ditching the thing. The Time Warp is nice but I just don't seem to have the ability to make a good deck to support it.

The other deck though is an Elemental Shaman deck and I absolutely love it. I so rarely play shaman since I have so much trouble usually making good shaman decks that I was pleasantly surprised by how much synergy there is for elementals. This deck is lovely to play with since it pretty much always has stuff to use and things like Kalimos' invocations are a really nice lategame move to play. Still need to get Ozruk, although the discover mechanic came through for me in one game resulting in a 5/20 taunt which was amusing. I was extremely pleased with my first game with this that ended up being a Quest Hunter (because Hunter needed to be more cancerous) that ended up swinging from near defeat to being a great victory (stone sentinel is an amazing card). I will probably have to put some board clear but as you may be able to guess I really like this deck.

Well, I've gushed enough, so what are your thoughts? Got any nice decks you've thought up to mess around with? Had any good games you wanted to talk about? Let's hear it!

 

[Asita]

It's managed to piss me off again.

A good portion of Un'goro seems to revolve around Quest cards, to the point that they were crafted to be guaranteed first turn plays. At minimum they seem to be to Un'goro what C'thun was to Whispers of the Old Gods. Thing is, they're all class exclusive legendary cards...which you have to either craft or get lucky and pull. That really rubs me the wrong way. I'm not opposed to obvious meta opportunities or even the need for a lot of cards to make various decks work, but when an expansion seems to be built around the concept that each deck will be built around a single class card for each class and then doesn't give us a reasonable expectation of getting those cards, I call foul.

On more personal frustrations: I broke and crafted the warrior one just so I'd have something but the problem is that to make it work I pretty much have to devote my deck to low cost taunts and that makes me stupidly easy to deal with. (Which, admittedly could just be that I haven't figured out a good deck for Fire Plume's Heart).

I have also more or less thrown in the towel when it comes to fighting rogues because that quest is way too easy for them to utterly break. Turn 5, quest was out and their 4 damage on the field turned into 20 and would only cascade outwards from there. Forget my taunt warrior, my classic mage couldn't deal with that.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Most of the quests are stupid in one form or another. They're either game-breaking (The Marsh Queen, The Caverns Below) or trash (The Last Kaleidosaur), without a lot of in-between.

It's sad to see Hearthstone's power level take such a huge jump, which effectively means that Arena is the ONLY viable way to get cards without paying for them. People who don't like Arena are just shit out of luck.

 

[Erttheking]

It's managed to piss me off again.

A good portion of Un'goro seems to revolve around Quest cards, to the point that they were crafted to be guaranteed first turn plays. At minimum they seem to be to Un'goro what C'thun was to Whispers of the Old Gods. Thing is, they're all class exclusive legendary cards...which you have to either craft or get lucky and pull. That really rubs me the wrong way. I'm not opposed to obvious meta opportunities or even the need for a lot of cards to make various decks work, but when an expansion seems to be built around the concept that each deck will be built around a single class card for each class and then doesn't give us a reasonable expectation of getting those cards, I call foul.

On more personal frustrations: I broke and crafted the warrior one just so I'd have something but the problem is that to make it work I pretty much have to devote my deck to low cost taunts and that makes me stupidly easy to deal with. (Which, admittedly could just be that I haven't figured out a good deck for Fire Plume's Heart).

I have also more or less thrown in the towel when it comes to fighting rogues because that quest is way too easy for them to utterly break. Turn 5, quest was out and their 4 damage on the field turned into 20 and would only cascade outwards from there. Forget my taunt warrior, my classic mage couldn't deal with that.

I'm enjoying it, but I can't deny that this is a problem. I was really lucky and I managed to get the Priest quest card, then craft a deck around it. It's served me well, but I can only imagine how hellish things are for those who are less fortunate.

 

[MiskWisk]

It's managed to piss me off again.

A good portion of Un'goro seems to revolve around Quest cards, to the point that they were crafted to be guaranteed first turn plays. At minimum they seem to be to Un'goro what C'thun was to Whispers of the Old Gods. Thing is, they're all class exclusive legendary cards...which you have to either craft or get lucky and pull. That really rubs me the wrong way. I'm not opposed to obvious meta opportunities or even the need for a lot of cards to make various decks work, but when an expansion seems to be built around the concept that each deck will be built around a single class card for each class and then doesn't give us a reasonable expectation of getting those cards, I call foul.

On more personal frustrations: I broke and crafted the warrior one just so I'd have something but the problem is that to make it work I pretty much have to devote my deck to low cost taunts and that makes me stupidly easy to deal with. (Which, admittedly could just be that I haven't figured out a good deck for Fire Plume's Heart).

I have also more or less thrown in the towel when it comes to fighting rogues because that quest is way too easy for them to utterly break. Turn 5, quest was out and their 4 damage on the field turned into 20 and would only cascade outwards from there. Forget my taunt warrior, my classic mage couldn't deal with that.

Having played some more games I fully agree. Some of the quest are horribly broken and imbalanced. The mage one is nice but it's one use and that's it. Druid gets an 8/8 and permanently 0 cost minions. Rogue is, as you say, horrifically broken. I have no idea why they thought the Hunter one was a good idea. I haven't ran into a Warrior yet who managed to finish it but from the sound of it it's worthless.

I enjoy a lot of what this pack gave, but I have a horrible sinking feeling that it is going to be nothing but quest Rogue and Hunter for months.

 

[Asita]

Having played some more games I fully agree. Some of the quest are horribly broken and imbalanced. The mage one is nice but it's one use and that's it. Druid gets an 8/8 and permanently 0 cost minions. Rogue is, as you say, horrifically broken. I have no idea why they thought the Hunter one was a good idea. I haven't ran into a Warrior yet who managed to finish it but from the sound of it it's worthless.

I enjoy a lot of what this pack gave, but I have a horrible sinking feeling that it is going to be nothing but quest Rogue and Hunter for months.

Eh...for a given value of worthless? The reward is very powerful in that it gives you a 4/2 weapon and turns your hero ability into DIE INSECT (2 cost, Deal 8 damage to a random enemy). Decent enough, but coupled with the fact that you need to have played 7 taunt minions before that happens, you're likely to either lack board control or have used up a lot of your control abilities. The problem is that - if my experience thus far is anything to go by - Fire Plume's Heart needs momentum to really work, and taunt minions are delayers, not momentum generators, so by the time you finish the quest you're playing catchup more often than not.

 

[Xeorm]

From what I've seen the warrior one is good, but does require some good taunt cards to play. If you're playing the crappy taunts, it's not going to work. But it is remarkably good once you get two or so blasts off onto minions.

The quests in general are mostly mediocre, aside from a few. The rogue and mage quests are very nice, giving them strong win conditions in decks that can reliably get them off. The warrior one is solid, or looks to be, but not sure how capable it'll be. The priest one is effectively reno 2.0, so much better. Others I don't care much for. They take far too long to get off and don't provide anything immediate. Warlock one especially is notable. Takes too many imps for the loss of tempo to make sense given the current meta.

Overall though, I like the expansion. it's new at least. Should be fun too when standard has more expansions going for it. Had the same happen last year, where the old expansions got knocked off and the new meta didn't have enough cards floating around to really get a solid meta going.

 

[babinro]

Pros:
Amazing set in terms of FUN FACTOR. The quest concept is a blast to build around even though you know for a fact most will ultimately be trash on a competitive level. Still, this is the most fun I've had playing Hearthstone since launch.

Cons:
Costs/Dust. This set has more 'must have' cards to make these new concepts work than any other expansion in Hearthstone history. While the actual competitive decks 2 months from now might be 'free to play friendly' in terms of true dust cost...this expansion sets a HORRIBLE pay to win precedent at least initially. Making each quest a Legendary while also have at least one other highly desirably legendary which supports said quest is rough. And considering you'd be lucky to even get 2 of 9 quests for buying the preorder DEAL for $50.00 that's even worse. This expansion showcases the best and greediest the game has to offer. It is a truly horrible time to be a new free to play player in Hearthstone.

Solution:
As much as it hurts Blizzard's bottom line, quests are such a core part of the set and the FUN that they should have been printed as single copy Rares. Keep the supporting quest cards at higher rarity but don't create a barrier to entry towards even enjoying the core concept of the expansion.

Personal Progress:
My limiting factor thus far has been time. I have the cards but I haven't gotten around to using them all.

I built a Wild Highlander Quest Priest Deck...this deck needs refinement but on paper its impressive and the level of healing it generates is absurd.

I built a Wild Quest Paladin deck and while this deck costs a LOT of dust and is probably strictly casual, it's also SUPER FUN to play and has been my best time so far in Un'goro. You need to play this in wild though because some core options are missing which make the deck too weak/inconsistent in Standard.

I built a non-quest Beast Hunter deck around Dinosize in Standard. This deck trades wins a lot at higher rank and could benefit from refinement but its a good. I like that there's a future for midrange Hunter once again.

Finally I built the popular Rogue Quest in standard that's going around. This deck feels pretty competitive but its functionally a combo deck. I mean that in CCG terms not the Rogue combo keyword. Not being a fan of combo decks I'm enjoying Quest Rogue while its a fresh new thing...but I don't think it'll offer lasting enjoyment. The deck doesn't offer much counter play and it largely bends over to anything remotely aggro at the moment. Consider this a solid, low dust deck to climb the ladder with but it's among the less fun ones to play after you've gone through the motions a dozen times.

On the back burner:
I have Quest Warrior, Quest Mage, Quest Warlock and Elemental Shaman all unplayed but built. I'll get around to them over the course of next week most likely.

 

[jademunky]

I am hating the rogue quest being repeatedly being used by everyone. I mean, I know its new and everyone wants to try it out and will settle into something a little more individualized eventually but in the meantime, just.... dammit.