Hearthstone developers Reddit AMA - what did we find out?

AMA sessions on Reddit are probably one of the best ways for any developer to communicate with their player base, and the same goes in the other direction. Hearthstone subreddit yesterday had developers' AMA, and here are some of the most interesting questions answered.

On class identity:

"When it comes to class identity, it's something we are still seeing through and want to be noticeable for the Year of the Phoenix and all future years. So yes, we will be amending and revisiting those class strengths, limitations, and weaknesses as development continue. DH will also be included in that process.

We've also learned that pushing some of those strengths really does help establish the identity further. I think Druid is a solid example of this in Ashes of Outland and that was part of the intention when development started on the expansion. When you have cards like Overgrowth, it goes a long way to reinforcing the mana generation of Druid. We will be leaning more into themes like these for specific classes in order to showcase their strengths.

Finally, we do realize that some of the outlined weaknesses can be a bit too limiting in a card game like Hearthstone. Card draw, for example, is a natural part of our game. The class identities should detail and remind which classes draw a ton of cards vs. which classes draw fewer cards, not which classes draw a ton of cards vs. which classes draw no cards at all. This is something we are actively discussing when it comes to class design and how classes will be shaped in the future."

On upgrading cards to golden versions, instead of crafting them:

"We've actually discussed "Upgrade Card to Golden" as a new feature - it's an idea we like and are considering. It'd probably work just as you'd expect. We don't have any specific timelines to announce - hopefully, we'll be able to in the future."

On option to rearrange decks, more deck slots (+2 for Demon Hunter), and collections in general.

"This is a request that comes up consistently—we’ve heard you loud and clear and are taking it seriously. And yes, The ability to rearrange your decks should be coming during this expansion phase. We have some long-term goals of revisiting the Collection Manager, especially on mobile, and I think this sort of thing would likely fall under that. Nothing planned in the short-term though."

On upcoming balance changes:

"For Demon Hunter, we are still monitoring the data as it comes in but expect 1 or 2 cards to see a change.

For other standard cards, we are looking at a number of cards including Sacrificial Pact, Bad Luck Albatross, Frenzied Felwing, and Kael'Thas. When it comes to Sac Pac, we don't believe it is fun if it plays such a large role in the metagame. That says a lot about where the meta is and your ability to play certain cards. Also, it would be awesome to see more Jaraxxus!

Resurrect Priest has been the source of lots of discussion on the team. The flip-side of this, though, is that a huge number of people are really enjoying playing Resurrect Priest and have invested a lot into building their decks. If its prevalence and win-rate reach an alarming point we'd almost certainly make changes, and we'll cross that bridge if we come to it."

On Wild balance changes: 

"For Wild, we know there has been a lot of very strong reactions to Quest Mage and Darkest Hour Warlock. These decks play in a one-player fashion similar to other decks we've nerfed in the past. There's going to be crazy combos in Wild, but we don't think these two decks, in particular, are healthy. Expect to see changes to Open the Waygate and Bloodbloom."

On Arena balance changes:

"Finally, for Arena, we are looking to do a full micro-adjust patch alongside these changes or shortly after. DH is still a little too strong here and we want to bring up the other classes to close this gap."

On Auto squelch option:

"We hear the request for auto-squelch, but still think it would be a net negative for the game. Emotes are implicitly good-natured, and we want to support them as such. Manually squelching can be used for the extremely rare outlier of toxicity."

"One of the great things about Demon Hunters is that they attack a LOT. It's super fun! However, that has the downside of sounding repetitive, hearing that voice line over and over. In the next major patch, we'll be adding some alternative exertion lines for Illidan attacking, to reduce the repetition. Not TOO much though, what would Lord Illidan be without his VENGEANCE? ;)"

On new game mode/achievements, something that will come later this year:

"The new game mode we plan to launch this year will allow you to use older cards and there will also be achievements that link into older expansions, so you may want to keep your Wild cards. We are a collectable card game and would like our players to feel better about their collection and its value."

On Rogue Secrets:

"We like Rogue Secrets too and are following how they play out. It may be something we see more of in the future if it goes well"

On the guild/clan system:

"Totally agreed on a Guild/Clan social system - it's something Hearthstone would greatly benefit from. As you mentioned, it would be a great springboard for many new features and game modes. Social System been on our list for a while. This year we decided to pursue Progression, Achievements, and New Game Mode as higher priorities for now, but we will reassess in the future."

On making temporary cards (like from Evocation) brighter/more visible:

"Can do, thanks for calling it out."

On ability to spectate a friend while they're drafting an Arena deck/building a constructed deck.

"We recently talked about this internally. It isn't high on our list of priorities, but it is on the list! We like the idea and hopefully, we’ll get to it at some point."

On buffing older cards:

"We don't have any current plans for something exactly like the Rise of the Mechs event from last year. In general, if cards we release aren't achieving our aims, then we're open-minded about making changes. Don't be surprised if you do see the odd buff alongside other card changes we make throughout the year."

On mid-expansion events like the Galakrond's adventure, Rise of the Mech,  or The Doom in the Tomb event:

You will see more of that in the future, but you will also see events that bring different types of play experiences to Hearthstone. Ben detailed some of this in our Year of the Phoenix video, there's a lot of great stuff in the pipeline!

These are only some answers, guys from Hearthstone team were incredibly open and dedicated to answer a huge amount of questions asked, and if you are interested you can read the whole AMA on this link.