“Why Hearthstone Battlegrounds is replacing Arena and all other game modes.”
Written by HandEatingLlama for Esportsium
Blizzard’s Hearthstone recently came out with, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, a new Auto Battler variation. It has been so popular that all other modes have been left barren. Countless top Hearthstone players have stopped playing Arena, Standard and Wild modes of Hearthstone since it went live in November 2019.
Some of the game’s top players didn’t grind out the levels to be on the leaderboards or attempt to hit legend.
Firebat Tweeted 12/2/2019
— Firebat (@firebat) December 2, 2019
Frustration v. Motivation
After over 50 consecutive Legends in Constructed, Nicholena wasn’t motivated to achieve Legend with the new Hearthstone Battlegrounds game mode out.
first time not getting Legend this month since I started playing HS, over 50 consecutive Legends. mixed feelings pic.twitter.com/rOoNJcF8ws
— Nicholena ? (@F2K_Nicholena) December 1, 2019
ZalaeHS
Another prominent pro player had this to say as he announced his plans to stream the new game mode on his channel later that day.
Streaming some battlegrounds. Fun fact November was the first time in 5 years that I didn’t make legend.
— Zalae (@ZalaeHS) December 1, 2019
ZeddyHS
Zeddy has been extremely outspoken on the state of Hearthstone stating, “Even after Blizzard promised they would fix problems six months ago. Evolve/Quest Shaman plagues Standard and Wild is unplayable thanks to Snip-Snap Combo Priest consistently killing players on Turn 5.”
After returning to ladder for the last two days all I can say is @IksarHS @PlayHearthstone and anyone who is in charge of balancing this game, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves for what you have left as a mess for the last 2 months. There is no excuse for this.
— F2K_Zeddy (@ZeddyHS) November 30, 2019
The Top 200 is not 200
The following graphic shows that on the Asia server there were only 180 Legend Players in November 2019. This graphic is alarming, considering it’s usually a Top 200 list.
What does this mean overall?
Because the games didn’t feel fun because it just boiled down to who could do the broken stuff first. Players would rather play a game mode that is having balance updates and not being ignored for 2 months.
I stopped playing standard after about a week of playing against Evolve/Battlecry Shaman. They brought back cards for a special event and just left them there and even had big money tournaments riding with those cards in the card pool.
Balance v. Tilt
It seems that the balance team is grasping for anything to keep Hearthstone relevant as a virtual card game with games like Magic the Gathering Arena doing so well and other options coming up every few weeks. It seems they feel the need to release a set now that has so much power creep.
I’m left curious as to what cards Blizzard said were “too powerful” for this set. Looking at the current set of cards released so far, the pack fillers might as well be 4 mana 7/7’s. They tried buffing a set in Boomsday, and that ended up making a polarizing Meta where anyone that was playing during that time cursed Blizzard for making Luna’s Pocket Galaxy a 5 mana card.
Buff & Nerf
They thankfully reverted this change because it made for some very overpowered decks and some incredibly dull games. I had had high hopes for Blizzard when I saw that they were buffing old cards. I’m still waiting for Illidain and Gruul buffs.
It seems that they’re missing the mark in most aspects of their constructed play in standard and wild. They’re clearly missing the mark in Arena.
Exodus: Movement of…
I don’t blame people for leaving Constructed and even Arena now to play Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Hearthstone Battlegrounds is getting support and balance updates at a much more alarming rate. Arena had changes that introduced a bucket system that had “good” and “bad” tiered buckets. This was intended to allow players improved chances to get better overall card selection.
The Metas got fresh changes based on specific sets being in the card pool. Shortly after, Blizzard simply removed it without any explanation or plan for the future. It made me happy that I wasn’t an Arena only streamer because it would have been a huge slap in the face.
An Uncaring Pattern
What I am getting at here is that Blizzard doesn’t care about the state of the game because they want you to buy packs. They don’t make any money outside of that. With Legends of Runeterra set to hit the public soon, it could spell the end for a lot of constructed players wanting to sit in the sinking ships of Blizzard and their beloved card game.
HandEatingLlama
I hope they get their act together. After playing Legends of Runeterra, I don’t see Hearthstone keeping up unless they go through a pretty massive overhaul on their philosophies. I hope for their sake and all the wonderful people that I know that make amazing Hearthstone content that Blizzard hears the cries of its players and more people are like Zeddy and keep them honest.
Who knows, maybe we will see a Gruul buff. Until next time folks take care and be safe.
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“Why Hearthstone Battlegrounds is replacing Arena and all other game modes.”
Written by HandEatingLlama for Esportsium