With the announcement of the eventual announcement that Hearthstone will have an expansion containing "over 100 new cards", I couldn't help myself thinking of new cards I would love to see. My first thought was the fact that, currently, each class has a specific Legendary card with a theme related to the flavor of that card's class. The idea of new Legendary Class Cards has been going through my brain for the past few weeks, so I just had to get them out and into the ether. The card text of the following examples are really what I would love to see, so ignore the Mana to Stats ratio as I'm sure they would need some balancing; they're just what I came up with. Enjoy:
Warrior: General Nazgrim
- 9 Mana 5/10 Taunt
- Battlecry: Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero, and up to 3 enemy minions in the center of the board.
- Spinning Axe Animation in front of the enemy hero
Rogue: Garona Halforcen
- 7 Mana 3/7 Stealth
- Combo: Place an Assassinate in your hand. OR
- Combo: Destroy an enemy minion. (Animated dagger coming through the back of the minion) OR
- Combo: Deal 5 damage to the enemy hero. (Animated dagger coming through the back of the hero)
- Garona was the assassin who murdered Varian's father by literally and figuratively stabbing him in the back, so involving an Assainate card/animation seems appropriate.
Hunter: Nathanos Blightcaller
- 8 Mana 3/5 Immune while attacking
- Battlecry: Summon two 2/2 Blighthounds with Charge
- Nathanos was the first Forsaken Hunter after Sylvannas. In Vanilla WoW, there was a raid quest to kill him and his Blighthounds in Eastern Plaguelands.
Mage: Rhonin Redhair
- 8 Mana 1/9 Spell Damage +2
- At the end of your turn, cast, at random, one Mage Spell.
- The spell would be augmented by the spell damage. Of course, a 6 damage Flamestrike would be ideal, or even a 12 damage Pyroblast, but because it's a random spell to a random target, you could get an naked Ice Lance or Arcane Intellect.
Warlock: Eye of Kilrogg
- 4 Mana 1/7
- Battlecry: Destroy all enemy Secrets. At the end of your turn, reveal all stealth minions.
- I just felt someone other than Hunters need a card that destroys Secrets. Also, while it's on the board, Stealth minions would be useless. He sees YOU!!
Paladin: The Naaru A'dal
- 7 Mana 2/5
- At the end of your turn, return the most recent minion killed to life with Divine Shield.
- A'dal would need a sweet death animation, because, really, you can't kill a Naaru.
Priest: Archbishop Benedictus
- 7 Mana 1/9
- When a friendly character is healed, your hero gains 2 Armor.
- The armor would look more like a Priest bubble than a Warrior's armor.
Shaman: Farseer Nobundo
- 6 Mana 2/6
- At the end of your turn, call a random element to aid you.
-- Fire: Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
-- Air: Give another random minion Windfury or Spell Damage +1.
-- Earth: Summon a 2/4 Earth Elemental with Taunt.
-- Water: Restore 2 health all friendly characters. (Yes, even Thrall)
- More randomness for Shaman might not be the best thing, but I love the flavor of this card. "Elements Guide Me"
Druid: Hamuul Runetotem
- 8 Mana 5/9
- Choose One: Deal 2 Damage to all enemy characters and Taunt; Spell Damage +1 Restore 5 Health to your hero.
- Card Art would be different just like Druid of the Claw. Tauren Bear form for the Taunt, or Tree of Life form for the Spell Damage.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Fortune Teller - Getting Stuff out of my Brain
I just had a couple things in my head that I want to get out concerning cool ideas I'd like to see in World of Warcraft.
The first idea came while listening to the Podcast Warcraft Well Read (@wowwellread). It's a show based on the classic book club, but focuses on the novels related to Warcraft. One of the hosts named Skolnick (@skolnickwho) has a particular fascination with the lore character Azshara. He will consistently drop references to her on most shows he joins and describes how mesmerizing she is and how he will always love her. A bit RP, I hope. Anyway, in discussing how easily it would be to fall under her spell, it got me thinking of a future raid encounter with the now Naga Queen, Azshara.
The interesting thing about this idea is the fact that Azshara's raid encounter would actually begin the moment the penultimate boss (of course she would be the last boss in the raid) would be defeated. In the moments of this boss's death, he would cast a mass Mind Control spell, essentially turning each raid member against one another, but with a catch; each raid member would still have control of their character, yet be hostile to each other. Taking into consideration the zero trash between this boss and Azshara, it would be a race to pull Azshara as the raid team stuns, slows, and kills each other to win the favor of the former Elven Queen. The first player to reach her would then be fully mind controlled for the majority of the Azshara encounter. The mind control would be imperative to finishing the encounter, a la the "Amber Monster" vehicle mechanic found in Heart of Fear during the Amber-Shaper Un'sok fight. Azshara's mind control would be different because the charmed player would be friendly to the queen, and hostile to their fellow raid members. Perhaps the charm spell would be a stacked debuff that would lose stacks as the queen loses HP. Granted it's an idea that would need some serious balancing and tuning, but I like the idea from a lore perspective. The idea that the beauty of the former Elven Queen is so incredible, even a cohesive and friendly team would turn on each other to earn the queen's attention.
Another idea I had to get out came to me during a different podcast, the WoW Insider show. The conversation evolved into that of Alterac Valley and the dreaded Stormpike bridge. As a former Orc Rogue, I know how much pain and heartache this bridge caused from being knocked off and falling off at least twice per battle. So, I was thinking of something that would be similar to this in the Frostwolf keep area. Falling off the Stormpike bridge essentially takes a Horde player out of the action for a particular amount of time, on top of fall damage. What if in the Frostwolf Keep, a Wind Elemental is busy conjuring up-drafts at some of the points near the walls. If an Alliance player moves too close to these up-drafts (or gets knocked into them), they are blown up and back over the wall, and essentially taken out of action just like being knocked off the bridge. I then felt that the Wind Elemental would have to be out of range or un-killable, but what if the Alliance forces were able to destroy it somehow, would there be a way to balance this with the Stormpike bridge? Then I thought of it. Perhaps, in the process of capturing the Stormpike Graveyard, a system would become available to begin building walls along the bridge that would be permanent, and therefore eliminating the possibility of being knocked off or falling. Granted, with the walls built along the bridge, the lesser used strategy of falling on purpose to avoid dying would be lost, but I think the pros greatly outweigh the cons here.
Whew, got that out. Hopefully when I get some more stuff in my brain, I'll post again. I need to start doing that more. Thanks for reading.
The first idea came while listening to the Podcast Warcraft Well Read (@wowwellread). It's a show based on the classic book club, but focuses on the novels related to Warcraft. One of the hosts named Skolnick (@skolnickwho) has a particular fascination with the lore character Azshara. He will consistently drop references to her on most shows he joins and describes how mesmerizing she is and how he will always love her. A bit RP, I hope. Anyway, in discussing how easily it would be to fall under her spell, it got me thinking of a future raid encounter with the now Naga Queen, Azshara.
The interesting thing about this idea is the fact that Azshara's raid encounter would actually begin the moment the penultimate boss (of course she would be the last boss in the raid) would be defeated. In the moments of this boss's death, he would cast a mass Mind Control spell, essentially turning each raid member against one another, but with a catch; each raid member would still have control of their character, yet be hostile to each other. Taking into consideration the zero trash between this boss and Azshara, it would be a race to pull Azshara as the raid team stuns, slows, and kills each other to win the favor of the former Elven Queen. The first player to reach her would then be fully mind controlled for the majority of the Azshara encounter. The mind control would be imperative to finishing the encounter, a la the "Amber Monster" vehicle mechanic found in Heart of Fear during the Amber-Shaper Un'sok fight. Azshara's mind control would be different because the charmed player would be friendly to the queen, and hostile to their fellow raid members. Perhaps the charm spell would be a stacked debuff that would lose stacks as the queen loses HP. Granted it's an idea that would need some serious balancing and tuning, but I like the idea from a lore perspective. The idea that the beauty of the former Elven Queen is so incredible, even a cohesive and friendly team would turn on each other to earn the queen's attention.
Another idea I had to get out came to me during a different podcast, the WoW Insider show. The conversation evolved into that of Alterac Valley and the dreaded Stormpike bridge. As a former Orc Rogue, I know how much pain and heartache this bridge caused from being knocked off and falling off at least twice per battle. So, I was thinking of something that would be similar to this in the Frostwolf keep area. Falling off the Stormpike bridge essentially takes a Horde player out of the action for a particular amount of time, on top of fall damage. What if in the Frostwolf Keep, a Wind Elemental is busy conjuring up-drafts at some of the points near the walls. If an Alliance player moves too close to these up-drafts (or gets knocked into them), they are blown up and back over the wall, and essentially taken out of action just like being knocked off the bridge. I then felt that the Wind Elemental would have to be out of range or un-killable, but what if the Alliance forces were able to destroy it somehow, would there be a way to balance this with the Stormpike bridge? Then I thought of it. Perhaps, in the process of capturing the Stormpike Graveyard, a system would become available to begin building walls along the bridge that would be permanent, and therefore eliminating the possibility of being knocked off or falling. Granted, with the walls built along the bridge, the lesser used strategy of falling on purpose to avoid dying would be lost, but I think the pros greatly outweigh the cons here.
Whew, got that out. Hopefully when I get some more stuff in my brain, I'll post again. I need to start doing that more. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Hearthstone - New Class Heroes and their Hero Powers
I can't seem to stop playing Hearthstone. Twitch.com is running an ad for the Open Beta and it flashes the words "Deceptively Simple. Insanely Fun." Uh, YA!! Insane being the keyword there for how much I'm playing it.
The Angry Chicken, a Podcast that discusses Hearthstone, has conversed numerous times about possible future Heroes and their respective Hero Powers (HPs). Willie Dills, one of the hosts, had said a few months back that simply sliding around some of the other HPs for the new Heroes. An example would be giving the current Priest HP (Heal any character for 2 Health) to a different class, say Shaman--and giving it a different name, animation, etc. I thought about this, and so did the Podcast hosts, and recently come to find both they and myself agree that doing this shift of HPs would break the balance of the game incredibly. That got me to thinking about ways to slightly change each HP to make it new and interesting, yet keep the balance.
Hunter
The current Hunter Hero is Rexxar. In the lore of Warcraft he is known as The Beastmaster--emphasis on "The." His HP is Steady Shot (Deal 2 damage to the enemy Hero). In lore, there are a few hunters that come about from time to time, but there really is only one other that deserves a place as a Hearthstone Hero. That would be Sylvanas Windrunner. True, there is already a minion with Sylvanas' portrayal, but really, who better? Sylvanas, being the Banshee Queen, a reanimated High Elf with Dark Ranger type powers should have a Dark Ranger type HP. I thought of this:
Black Arrow: Deal 1 damage to the enemy Hero and heal Sylvanas for 1.
I feel the balance is still there. After using Steady Shot, Rexxar is given a +2 advantage to his health. Black Arrow would yield the same advantage, but have what we're looking for: a new and interesting twist on the old HP.
Warlock
Gul'dan, the Warlock hero, currently has the HP Life Tap (Deal 2 damage to Gul'dan and draw a card). I can't think who within the Warcraft lore would be a good fit for the next Hero, but in keeping with the sacrificing life theme I thought of this:
Sacrifice Minion: Deal 2 damage to a friendly minion, draw a card.
Is the balance still there? I'm not really sure. Another idea was to have the option of dealing 2 damage to a friendly minion or giving 2 health to an enemy minion. Either could work.
Shaman
This one is tough, not in the sense of changing the HP, but manipulating the effect of the HP. Thrall, the Shaman hero, has Totemic Call (Summon 1 of 4 random totems). Each of these four totems fall under the classic Shaman elements: Stoneclaw Totem (Earth), Wrath of Air, Searing Totem(Fire), and Healing Stream Totem(Water). The Earth totem is a Taunt. There are a few famous Shaman in the Warcraft lore, but Thrall being an Orc, I feel for a new Shaman Hero, Blizzard should look at the other faction. Nobundo. His HP would be the same, but have a new set of totems randomly selected.
Strength of Earth Totem: 0/2 Grant all Elemental minions +2 attack.
Windfury Totem: 0/2 Grants Nobundo Windfury.
Mana Stream Totem: 0/2 At the start of your turn, replenish one Overloaded Mana Gem.
Fire Nova Totem: 2/3 Taunt. Can't Attack. At the end of each turn lose 1/1. When this totem is destroyed, deal its attack power to all enemy minions.
Another option for the Windfury Totem: 0/1 At the end of your turn grant a random friendly minion Windfury
In the interest of keeping this post short, I'll stop there. Some of the ideas for the other Heroes would have to implement new and interesting mechanics to the game itself. I might post about those ideas in the future, but I feel these three are probably my strongest.
The Angry Chicken, a Podcast that discusses Hearthstone, has conversed numerous times about possible future Heroes and their respective Hero Powers (HPs). Willie Dills, one of the hosts, had said a few months back that simply sliding around some of the other HPs for the new Heroes. An example would be giving the current Priest HP (Heal any character for 2 Health) to a different class, say Shaman--and giving it a different name, animation, etc. I thought about this, and so did the Podcast hosts, and recently come to find both they and myself agree that doing this shift of HPs would break the balance of the game incredibly. That got me to thinking about ways to slightly change each HP to make it new and interesting, yet keep the balance.
Hunter
The current Hunter Hero is Rexxar. In the lore of Warcraft he is known as The Beastmaster--emphasis on "The." His HP is Steady Shot (Deal 2 damage to the enemy Hero). In lore, there are a few hunters that come about from time to time, but there really is only one other that deserves a place as a Hearthstone Hero. That would be Sylvanas Windrunner. True, there is already a minion with Sylvanas' portrayal, but really, who better? Sylvanas, being the Banshee Queen, a reanimated High Elf with Dark Ranger type powers should have a Dark Ranger type HP. I thought of this:
Black Arrow: Deal 1 damage to the enemy Hero and heal Sylvanas for 1.
I feel the balance is still there. After using Steady Shot, Rexxar is given a +2 advantage to his health. Black Arrow would yield the same advantage, but have what we're looking for: a new and interesting twist on the old HP.
Warlock
Gul'dan, the Warlock hero, currently has the HP Life Tap (Deal 2 damage to Gul'dan and draw a card). I can't think who within the Warcraft lore would be a good fit for the next Hero, but in keeping with the sacrificing life theme I thought of this:
Sacrifice Minion: Deal 2 damage to a friendly minion, draw a card.
Is the balance still there? I'm not really sure. Another idea was to have the option of dealing 2 damage to a friendly minion or giving 2 health to an enemy minion. Either could work.
Shaman
This one is tough, not in the sense of changing the HP, but manipulating the effect of the HP. Thrall, the Shaman hero, has Totemic Call (Summon 1 of 4 random totems). Each of these four totems fall under the classic Shaman elements: Stoneclaw Totem (Earth), Wrath of Air, Searing Totem(Fire), and Healing Stream Totem(Water). The Earth totem is a Taunt. There are a few famous Shaman in the Warcraft lore, but Thrall being an Orc, I feel for a new Shaman Hero, Blizzard should look at the other faction. Nobundo. His HP would be the same, but have a new set of totems randomly selected.
Strength of Earth Totem: 0/2 Grant all Elemental minions +2 attack.
Windfury Totem: 0/2 Grants Nobundo Windfury.
Mana Stream Totem: 0/2 At the start of your turn, replenish one Overloaded Mana Gem.
Fire Nova Totem: 2/3 Taunt. Can't Attack. At the end of each turn lose 1/1. When this totem is destroyed, deal its attack power to all enemy minions.
Another option for the Windfury Totem: 0/1 At the end of your turn grant a random friendly minion Windfury
In the interest of keeping this post short, I'll stop there. Some of the ideas for the other Heroes would have to implement new and interesting mechanics to the game itself. I might post about those ideas in the future, but I feel these three are probably my strongest.
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