Hearthstone. Who here plays it? Well, many of us do it seems. We are many. Even with our gripes with that game we still seem to have an attachment to it.
My question is simple and straight forward. Does anyone that play Mage as a main respect themselves? I could ask the same for Priest players, but that is for another opinion piece if I have the patience for it.
Mages (Jaina Proudmoore and that new/old guy Medivh)
I will come out and say it, and whoever agrees good, whoever doesn't, well the door to Jaina is that way. Mages are for brain-dead game-play and cheese tactics. There, I said it! /goes offline and hides to protect thyself from the raging-storm up ahead.
1. Balancing
2. Analysis
3. How to Fix?! Suggestions
1.Balancing
Blizzard fails miserably and has done so for the last decade and more to create balancing in their games. And the simple reason for this is two fold.1) The first is the obvious whining little children. The cry-babies that keep whinging about mechanics in Blizzard games that favour skilled players and asking for nerfs and buffs to their favoured classes and what not. Blizzard that primarily focuses on a 14 year old target market, will no doubt want to make the game fun for them. And they do. And perhaps they should, maybe it is "the rest of us" that don't belong in their games. Who knows.
2) Balancing is not a matter of stats, it is a matter of gameplay as well. Balancing a class with regards to making their skills, spells, what not, fit properly into the content is not enough and it is ever so evident after so many years that Blizzard simply gives little to no care or attention to how a class is played.
Meaning - If someone is ranged... Their gameplay is already easier, the balancing is hence already in their favour, and no matter how much you nerf or buff their skills to be fitting for the game, balancing will always be a problem since the actions the player needs to take are considerably easier within that class.
And while a warrior or some other class is sitting there breaking sweat to create and learn the basics of skilled gameplay, a ranged character simply presses one button regardless with what Blizzard game we are looking at, and they achieve the same results.
How to fix this? Well the Shaman has Overload and the Warlock damages himself. An idea for the Mage is something I cover at the end of the article.
From as far back as WarCraft 3. The most unbalanced strategy game I have ever endured. Everyone used the single one cheese tactic of all, and they all did the same cheese tactic to get wins. When a game has such a mechanic in it, the balancing is broken. Simple.
The comments on forums back in the day with regards to this were many. And what was the solution at the time? To use the cheese tactics ourselves until we break through to higher levels and play with those that actually respected themselves and enjoyed the game rather than cheese-chase their wins. What? You all forgot the completely unbalanced dominance of the Night Elves in WarCraft 3?
15 to 16 years later and Blizzard is still riding on the idea of an op ranged class. And the Mage fits right in. (Don't get me started on Hunters and Priests, they belong to equally lengthy rants that I dare say I am too bored to bother with for now).
For starters, should we count the amount of area of effect cards the mage has? Sure, they are a spell based class. But this still does not justify the total of 4 AOE cards (x2 each one), and another 2 to 4 (depending on how we count them) mid-AoE cards each x2 also. Creating a deck that can have up to 8 AoE cards and 8 mid-AoE cards (4 of those second ones are minions).
What imbecile designed this class to begin with? That's right, its Blizzard Entertainment after all. Not convinced? Here, let me break it down for you and compare it to other classes as well.
2. Analysis
To make this short, lets jump right on to the largest Area of Effect card a mage can play, Flamestrike.
So here we have a 7 mana cost card, that deals 4 damage to all enemy minions. One can say it costs a lot. Sure, but add the Arcane Explosion to that and you have with 9 mana 5 damage to all enemy minions.
In most cases this should clear the entire board. Or you can simply go to a 10 mana combo, and deal 4 damage to all enemy minions with a Flamestrike, and then throw a Frost Nova in there to freeze the remaining minions that are alive.
Next round, simply throw another Flamestrike and if you are that lucky Arcane Explosion as well. That is a total of 9 damage to all initial minions (that, being frozen, didn't attack) and 5 damage to any new ones that are played. There are few to no boards that can survive something like that.
Do you have a Flamewaker on your board as well? Then that is another 4 damage split among all enemies on each round if he survives. Wait, what? You have 2 Flamewakers? Well then that is 8 damage for the two spells played on each round, meaning that if they survived both rounds you just dealt a total of 16 damage from those guys alone. If you are greedy and have saved a coin, throw that too and you have dealt 20 damage from the Flamewakers alone!!!
One at this point can argue that hey, a Paladin can wipe your entire board almost indefinitely with only 6 mana!!!
Sure, that is true. However the mage plays a single card, the Flamestrike. Lets not add any combo to it. A 4 damage to all minions spell for 7 mana. And that is it. No drawbacks to the card, nothing. There is no strategy to it, just simply toss it in there. If you have other minions on the board that take advantage of this then all the better. Lets say (aside the Flamewakers) something like a Sorcerer's Apprentice. You just got a 4 damage to all spell for 6 mana.
Meanwhile the Paladin "overpowered" combo of Equality and then Consecration, is that. A combo. Consecrate deals 2 damage to all enemies (not minions alone) however without Equality it is pretty useless. At which point you need to wait for two cards to come in your hand to wipe the board.
Besides that however, there is a draw back to your combo. It might be a little stronger for 1 less mana, and a little harder to pull off, but it is also a combo that weakens your entire board since all minions, friend or foe, are reduced to 1 health.
Lets compare the Flamestrike now to some other area of effects out there shall we? Hmmm...
Ok so the Paladin has a stronger AoE combo, but it has its draw backs, and you need to have both cards to play it. Considerably a harder play. Then we have the next AoE which is pretty powerful, but also has a drawback. The Warlock Hellfire. For 4 mana you deal 3 damage to ALL characters.
Although it costs 4 mana, which is quite a low cost, dealing 3 damage to all enemy minions as well as the enemy character, you are pretty much wiping out your own board at that point as well as taking 3 damage to the face yourself.
Combo it up with Deathrattle one could say. Sure. What if the enemy has Deathrattles' too? Either way, it is something you need to build up to. Considerably even harder than the Paladin AoE combo. If you plan on using Hellfire on your own Deathrattles this is not a one turn thing. It takes planning and many turns to accomplish, and if it backfires you deal damage but also weaken yourself.
Then there is the Lightning Storm of the Shaman. Oh my god what is that? Sure it costs 3 mana for 2 to 3 damage and can be a lifesaver. But is it 3 mana? No it is not. It is actually 5 mana since it has an Overload of 2 mana crystals.
Appart from that, RNG is a part of the play, and more often than not 2 damage is dealt on your enemy minions and not 3. Sure again we can combo this up with a Spell Totem (if RNG allows it, I literally spent 7 turns once to get one spell totem, at which point I was routing for a Healing Totem or a Taunt and didn't need it.... wonderful) or a spell damage card. But anyone can play a + Spell Damage card, and all these are again, combos, some of which, are completely reliant on chance and chance alone.
Meanwhile Mages are sitting in their corner throwing spells like its nothing, putting absolutely no though at all into their play.
Sure the Druid has the seeds, but all minions are effected. And the warrior has the brawl, again all minions are effected and it can completely backfire at times.
Hell, who even plays the Pyroblast when with 8 mana you can slap your opponent to the face (regardless of taunts and divine shields and what not) with 12 damage total from 2x Fireballs? Throw a Kobold Geomancer into the mix and that is 10 Mana for 14 damage to the face completely ignoring the entire board while you are at it. Hell, you like your Pyroblasts as well? Save one for the next round to do a total of 24 Damage in 2 rounds. Even with an Antique Healbot a player at 16 Health the round before cannot save themselves.The Warrior is trying to survive to create one combo and kill the enemy off, a combo that if lucky can do more than 10 damage indeed, sometimes 15, sometimes more (the smarter the play and the luckier the hand) which are all based on really hard plays and smart plays at that.
Also at the cost of being brought down to low health all the time and trying to balance it out with armour. Combos that don't work many times if your hand is a little unlucky. Combos that are hard to pull off.
Meanwhile the mage simply slows you down and before you know it you ate x2 Fireballs to the face and game over. WOW! Amazing finisher combo there my friend, did you think of it up on your own? Play one card of 10 mana and bam, 10 damage. Play 2 cards of 4 mana and bam, 12 damage. I guess the rest of the classes are idiots for trying to figure out a smart combo that could mount up to 16 damage or more and plan for it an entire game. You are the clever one, just sitting behind your taunts at times flinging fireballs. Seriously messed up balancing with regards to gameplay.
You want more problems with the Mage? Ok, putting aside all the Area of Effects, deal 1 damage to all, deal 2 damage to all AND freeze them, freeze all enemies, freeze an enemy and those beside it and deal 1 damage, deal 3 damage split among enemies etc etc, lets take a look at a nice little fellow called the Goblin Blastmage from the GvG expansion.
Wtf is up with that card? Seriously... The chances of playing it with a mech are indefinite. He deals four damage randomly split among all enemies (character included) and is at a whooping 5 attack and 4 health at 4 mana?! Seriously? Seriously now.... Seriously....
...
Seriously...
So let me get this straight, we have, at the 4th turn (when the chances of another mech being on the board are really high, especially with the Annoy-o-Tron that survives quite well early game), a minion of 5 damage and 4 health, that ALSO deals 4 damage split among enemies? How on the planet is that balanced? And it is a rare, meaning you can craft it for 100 arcane dust no problem.
Now lets compare some equivalent GvG cards with the same mana on other classes.
Well, not really though since he has Overload +1. So basically he is a 5 mana cost card.
Sure, combo him up with another card to make use of the Overload, which is hardly a real plus when compared to the 4 damage of the Goblin Blastmage, and to get rid of the overload it is actually a play to get rid of an impairment.
But yes lets say all those are done right (after combos and smart plays that is) and you are left with a 4 mana 5/4 card.
Just as good as the Blastmage right? Well, again not really, since he also has a 50% chance to deal damage to the wrong enemy to balance his strength out. In other words, he is a pile of shit by comparison.
50% chance to strike the wrong enemy is an element of chance again that can backfire or work wonders, either way cards with this mechanic are usually stronger in damage and are balanced out with this uncertainty. So why on earth is the Blastmage so strong?!
Well ok, Dunemaul Shaman has windfury... That balances things out quite a lot, however you need to wait a turn to play him. This implies the problem I witness with him more often than not. He gets killed before you use him. Unless played with a taunt already present, he is a hard card again to use because you need to plan him right. Too early and he is hexed, polymorphed, silenced, assassinated or what not and blown off the board. Too late and his is not as effective as he would be on round 4 or 5. Meaning you need to play him right to thus make him effective.
Not to mention, again, he has 50% chance to attack the wrong enemy. More often than not, good luck on using that windfury right as he ends up being magnetised by larger attack minions and dies off first go.
Meanwhile the Blastmage doesn't need to wait a turn to deal that first amount of damage. He simply pops out yolo deals 4 damage and if you kill him or not no big deal for the Mage, he is dispensable and on the contrary if you use minions to kill him he can waste 2 or more of your early minions in one go. Yolo all the way.
Seriously, wtf is up with that Goblin Blastmage??!!!11one!1
These are not enough to convince you that the Mage is for brain-dead playing?
Should we look into the secrets the Mage has as well?
For the most part secrets are not completely annoying, and Hunters are worse, whilst Paladins have some secrets of their own.
You feel like you are playing around the mechanics of a bot when a secret is against you and challenging yourself to play smarter. That is a nice touch for us that are against secrets, however the Mage did nothing at all of planning or thinking to use that secret.
One can argue, "anyone can play a Mage but if you know how to play well, then and only then you truly know how to play a Mage."
That is a pile of horseshit. No, the Mage is for easy introductory gameplay. If you are a smart and an awesome simply cool amazing player that works wonders, then you simply play better with an introductory class and there the true OP kicks in.
It's plain logic. If you are putting enough thought into your plays with a class like the Mage the way you do with other classes, then the fact that Mage combos/plays are simpler alone ensures you that you are in for the ride of your life.
Others will argue "yes, but they still don't hold up against other classes in higher ranks."
They do and they don't.
Their stupid tactics are simply there to delay their death mostly indeed. Which makes the mind-numbing plays of freeze over freeze which completely negates a minion for a turn completely ruining a play without any effort at all and secrets that prevent lethal and secrets that destroy minions and secrets that copy minions and tactics that don't even bother to pay attention to the mechanics of taunts, all the more vexing.
In most cases you need good minions to win, and if a Mage is playing with spells alone then that is the end to them sure.
However, if you build a legendary or high rank deck with great all around cards and plenty of minions, then add a fair amount of strong Mage spells in there as well, then you are as likely to win as anyone else. You simply need to rely on minions as much as other classes do, and the path to victory is balanced. So pretty much once you stop using Mage tactics and Mage tactics alone and start relying on neutral cards like everyone else, then you are balanced.
I repeat. You stop playing as a Mage, to balance Mage gameplay. Doesn't that say something about the Mage?
Surely no matter how easy she is, against skilled players or legendary decks a Mage relying on brain-dead Mage tactics alone is a sure loss. But with some of her cards the likes of Ice Block, Echo of Medivh, Duplicate, Flamestrike, Flamewalker and yes, that OP as shit 4 mana cost minion Goblin Blastmage, filling up your deck with a legendary play makes the Mage for expert players an even bigger candidate for victory and even easier to handle.
I am not even bothering to compare Mage to Priest as one may notice. He is as bad as the Mage if not worse. Mass Dispel, silence all enemies and draw a card for 4 mana, and that is just the least of the annoyance to the "thieving" Priests. We basically build cool decks so Priests can use them against us through stealing cards, with their double a minions' health, make attack equal to a minions' health, destroy any minion below 3 attack, destroy any minion over 5 attack (basically a better Big Game Hunter), steal an opponent minion altogether, and on and on. No need to even bother with the Priest, I have lost every ounce of respect for anyone that plays Priest as a main.
3. How to Fix?! Suggestions
Is the class OP? Not really. On the contrary, I win against most Mages. Then again, there are times that if their hand is a little ok and they have the cards I mentioned above, I get my ass handed to me out of completely no smart plays at all whatsoever. The class itself is and isn't OP, the play-style however IS overpowered. You completely negate half the rules of the board with targeting spells wherever you want, whilst freeze alone is a tactic that can save your board and prep it with better minions before the enemy has a chance to attack.
How to fix it. Well its too late to change cards. Nerfing them would have cry-babies all over the world crying over it. (Although that Blastmage.... ok yeah, nerf him, 4 damage is more than enough, I would even put him on 3 damage).
One idea would be to create a Mage Overload. Not like the Shaman overload exactly, something that effects spells alone. All spells after a played spell cost 1 extra mana for example. That is a good place to start. This could pile up. Or, the first spell cast after another spell costs 1 extra mana. If you play spell over spell constantly per round, then this could mean you have a constant 1 mana overload on Spells. Play a minion for a round and it balances out again. And so on.
There are several things that can be done to balance the Mage Play-Style out, and although one could argue this would be a mechanic to kill the Mage, I disagree. The better decks rely on minions anyway. And having so many overpowered spells ignorant of the board and available at the ready a mechanic of the sorts of Spell-Overloading is not a big deal at all.
Again one can argue "but with the Shaman you can Bloodlust your board and do well over 16 damage at times on the spot." Sure. But with the Shaman you need to play very smart in order to create that board to begin with. Meanwhile a Mage simply freezes that board in one go, no planning to that prior to doing it whatsoever. Hence your Bloodlust as a Shaman, is completely worthless when you don't have minions to use it. The freeze is always there on the round and moment you need it.
Why should winning with another class be such a huge deal and this notion does not stand true for a Mage? Spell-Overloads will not weaken the Mage, they will simply add more calculation to playing with a Mage. And thus players will search for proper strategies to win with, just like every other class out there. At the moment all she needs to do is stay alive long enough and chip away at the enemy life, control the board as much as possible (especially easy with negating taunt restrictions), and then kill the enemy off. Clap.... clap.
On the contrary, she should sweat a little too with coming up with proper strategies to win. And not freeze over freeze and hey heeeey, I got my Ragnaros out! Well of course you did, I haven't been able to attack you with all your shitty freezes for 3 turns now. Derp.
Will Blizzard ever incorporate such a mechanic?
Well, I have known Blizzard from as far back as WarCraft 2 and Diablo 1. I have seen the changes to their company in the early years, their mentality, tactics and target market strategies over the years, and the chances of them nerfing a Cheese-Class that they evidently love to add to all their games is like betting for a cold day in Hell.
But, it had to be said. Players that main a Mage are either completely casual (at which point its cool I guess) or dedicated Hearthstone players that have absolutely no respect for themselves and how they win as long as they win... If they win.
Don't get me started on Priests... That is another chapter of its own.
Blizzard has been riding the OP spell train for over a decade now with cheese strategies from as far back as the Night Elves in WarCraft 3. There is little to no hope to ever get a fully balanced game from them. I sure do hope Heroes of the Storm doesn't end up being another Spell-Riding Range Infested Cheddar Train.
It's no wonder the tutorial of Hearthstone starts with Jaina. As I said, the class is simply an introductory class. It shouldn't even be a part of the game.
Or, keep the Mage, just fix their damn mechanics. Mages are so frustrating to play against that even winning against them 7 out of 10 times is a pain in the ass as they tend to desperately try and keep the game rolling for eons, clinging on to life as long as they can. Just die already. Prolonging your death is not making my win any more satisfying, it is simply wasting my time before your inevitable doom that is coming... More often than not.
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