TAC - 196

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Brode on Balance/Design

The past two weeks, 30% of players were playing Shaman on the Legend ladder

17% of players were playing Shaman when all ranks are included
This includes all types of Shaman decks

The worst point in history, balance wise, was Undertaker Hunter where Hunter was being played by 35% of players across all ranks
The 'pirate package' of Small-Time Buccaneer and Patches the Pirate is being played in roughly 50% of decks above rank 5
The average win-rate for Aggro Shaman is 53%, which is currently the highest win-rate deck in the meta

There has never been a 'best deck' with a lower win-rate than this
It only has a 35% win-rate against Control Warrior that is tuned against it.
For example this Control Warrior from Fibonacci works great!

There will be a patch near the end of this month
An announcement about balance changes will be made around a week or so before that

Links

Iksar on Arena Spell Increase

A Reddit user asks if the team has considered increasing the chance that spells are offered in Arena.

Right now we're testing at about a 20% increase. We think having spells occur more often and the card pool being standard is a good idea, but the thing we fight a bit is that when you have a smaller card pool and increase the rate of any set of cards....those cards appear quite frequently. I'm fairly certain it's not a good idea for every Mage deck to have 4 Volcanic Potions or every Shaman deck to have 5 Jade Lightnings, but it might be a good idea to increase the rate at which you get spells or the most recent set. In any case, we have a number of changes in test now and hope to announce the final changes in the nearish future.

http://www.hearthhead.com/news/iksar-on-arena-spells-increased-by-about-20-standard-a-good-idea

Rumor: Leaked HS Expansion - Lost Secrets of Un'Goro

Voice actress Lani Minella has done work on many Blizzard titles in the past including previous Hearthstone expansions, and the resume was found on her personal website. Based on those facts this might very well be the next Hearthstone expansion!

Joce is out but wants to relay her excited about the potential inclusion of some of her favorite lore:

Freya and the Titans/Keepers
Raptor-training Trolls

Un’Goro Lore in case it comes up.

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/2213-hearthstone-lost-secrets-of-ungoro-new-expansion

Strategy - Jade Shaman

Patreon Thanks

TAC is supported by our epic Patrons. You can become a TAC Patron by going to Patreon.com/tac. Becoming a TAC patron gives you access to the TAC Skype account for the Patron Call-in episodes as well as the aftershow video.

Thanks to the patrons we do one extra episode a month where patrons can call in and ask questions live on the show. The next Patron Call-In episode will be at the end of this month.

KarlDrogom X.
Danielm Lange
Ryanm Sturm
Jordan Witt
Mark Slupesky
Zoltan Werkner
Bob Stanoch

Jade Shaman Talk

Popular Jade Shaman Deck on HearthPwn - Reached no.1 on EU Server
apDrop’s Jade Shaman

Crazy Game Stories

You can send your Crazy Game Stories to TACpodcast@gmail.com.

Kazin

Dear Tac Team,

The Boss Battle Royale Tavern Brawl has been a blast, and I guess it comes as no surprise that some interesting combinations would come from it. Picture this. I've been playing several brawl games with my brother and he's beaten me every time. I finally decide to play as the Naga lady and I think I have the win in the bag. A strange game ensues as he plays the chess boss and my power changes his minions every turn. A short time later I am at 30 health with a full board and I've got him down to 1 with nothing. I could have killed him, but I wanted to see how high I could evolve my minions. Full of confidence I hit the end turn button and watch with growing horror and astonishment as my minions evolve one last time. As it happens, one of my minions became the Unlicensed Apothecary and because my evolving minions count as summoned minions I get hit in the face for five damage for all of them. It was one of the most brutal accidental suicides I've experienced in Hearthstone. On the bright side I have this great story to share with everyone.

Emails

You can send your emails to TACpodcast@gmail.com.

Nerdlington

Hello ... CHICKENS!

Hearthstone may have earned $394 Million last year, but I think we can do better - what are your best million dollar ideas for Hearthstone?

I'll start: what if Blizzard sold physical packs where each collectible card had a unique code that was also redeemable in-game for the card's digital version?

This would be great for collectors and completionists like myself, and would have the interesting side effect of creating a secondary card market with players selling codes online.

The physical cards would be sold at a premium to offset production costs and prevent anyone from taking advantage, which would also have the benefit of making Blizzard obscene amounts of money.

Ben Brode - if you're listening my fee is 10%

Love the show and keep it up!

Piemaster

Hi TAC Crew

Nearly 200 episodes and still going strong – good on you!

A recent post on reddit saying that Hearthstone ‘deserved a better design team’ received nearly 5000 upvotes. A subsequent survey posted on Hearthpwn put this to the vote asking the question whether Hearthstone should hire a completely new design team and 47% of those who responded said yes.

That is forty seven percent of what we define as ‘the community’ feel that the current Hearthstone design team should be fired from the game – the game that they themselves created from nothing and turned into one of the most successful video games in the world and presumably the people voting in the poll chose to play from the millions of games available – and replaced with a completely new team.

My question is this. In light of the above why should we, let alone Blizzard, ever listen to what this ‘community’ thinks? These are the people who we allow to define what the ‘big issues’ are and shape the dialogue between Blizzard and their customers, yet they seemingly have absolutely no clue what constitutes a rational business decision.

Love to hear your opinions as always.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/5ktfj4/this_game_deserves_a_better_design_team/

http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/182489-is-hearthstone-in-a-bad-position

Andrew

Well met from Liverpool, UK (home of the Beatles)!

I am a trainee computer science teacher at a high school in blighty (England). I often talk to the kids about gaming and they are always shocked to learn I know about Twitch (they think is a secret world of gaming adults do not understand)..

My question: We often have to remind ourselves that this is a kids card game. However, NO kids I teach across any of the year groups play wizard poker and are actually much more interested in overwatch, counterstrike or clash of clans. Do you think children actually account for the majority of the player base? If not, it begs the question, why can't team5 budge ever so slightly on their uber simplified approach to UI and gameplay mode? Having said this, I understand the Blizzard ethos of making their games accessible to all. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Outro

Patreon Thanks

iTunes Thanks

Name

The Angry Chicken can be found on Amove.tv and Youtube.com/Amovetv. Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H. and Peter Williams. TAC coffee mugs and glasses are over at bit.ly/amovestore and our tshirt is for sale at SlashLoot.com.

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Personal Stuff

Dill’s where else can everyone find you?

Follow Dills @WillieDills

Check out my stream at twitch.tv/williedillssf

The Instance - The World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to

Stormcast - We record Sundays at 8pm PST

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Follow Jocelyn @JocePlays

The Gamers’ Inn

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NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.

Into the Nexus: The Heroes of the Storm Podcast!

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