Alec Dawson: “Big Changes Coming to Hearthstone in 2021”, “Hall of Fame as it has existed will be no more”

I’ll be honest that things got a little bit more confusing with more Tweets from Senior Game Designer Alec Dawson. Previously, he confirmed that Edwin VanCleef will be rotated out to Wild with its nerf reverted. Shortly after, however, he said that “Hall of Fame as it has existed will be no more”. What does it mean, exactly? Sadly, I have no clue.

My best guess would be the previously teased Classic set rework. As of now, we don’t know how it will look like. Maybe the entire Classic will rotate out to Wild and we’ll get a completely new set instead? Maybe a Basic set will get extended and we’ll get all the new cards for free? Maybe they will make a new Classic set out of already existing cards from older expansions? Or maybe a rotating “core set” that many players (including me) have suggested for ages? Those are of course only just a few options, and it might turn out that none of those is true.

One thing is sure – if you did want to hold Edwin to “double-dip” on Dust when he rotates out to Hall of Fame – it might not be the best idea. You should probably just get rid of it now and then see how the situation develops.

On a more positive note, Alec also said that every type of player should be hyped for the coming changes, which will be announced in the coming months. If they want to release them alongside upcoming new Standard year, and they most likely do, I expect big announcements in March at the latest. Of course, we can’t take it for granted, but I think that they’ve learned to not overhype something if it might turn out to be bad for the players. We’ll see pretty soon!

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

31 Comments

  1. Sneakytodd
    January 11, 2021 at 7:05 am

    I’m really hoping the reason that HOF will not look like we currently know it, and there’ll be no dust refund, is that the “big changes” will have something to do with fixing the crazy expensive monetization of hearthstone. For example, maybe a subscription service, or if you but a pre-purchase bundle you have access to all wild cards for the season.

  2. Nephilim99
    January 11, 2021 at 6:52 am

    I think they won’t delete anything they’ll probably make hof part of classic again and rotate classic (same for witchwood card that were hof). For standard they’ll make a new core set (using card from classic and previous set, maybe a few new one to fix the hole).

  3. H0lysatan
    January 10, 2021 at 9:24 am

    @Stonekeep. Anyway to make the website more convenient to reply messages? because it’s limited to 5 reply. If some conversation become so active and interesting, you can’t reply anymore. The reply limits need to be unlimited (or at least bigger than 5).

    And of course, from time to time, I would love to be able to edit and remove my own posts.
    Thanks in advance.

  4. Yoshi13357
    January 9, 2021 at 3:29 pm

    This hurts because I can’t find some of my Legendaries but anyone know what Happened to Glen Graymane, Baku the Mooneater, and Prophet Velen.

    • H0lysatan
      January 10, 2021 at 9:13 am

      They have their own place called Hall of Fame deck. Only craftable via dust.

      • Yoshi13357
        January 10, 2021 at 9:54 am

        Well the worst is I got all of them though booster packs back then so I feel so heart broken if they disappear. Also I started when Karazhan came out and for some reason I lost 300 rank wins as Paladin and 100 rank wins for Priest you know what happened with that?

        • H0lysatan
          January 10, 2021 at 10:13 am

          Is this a joke? Because if it is, then friend, I can only say, Git Gud!.

          • Yoshi13357
            January 10, 2021 at 12:27 pm

            Not a joke I lost about 300 rank wins as Paladin and 100 rank wins as Priest after I left for a year and came back because I was in college and I looked at my ranked wins and all of it was erased and I was just so mad I broke my tablet by throwing into a wall.

  5. Pandamonium
    January 8, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    And why would there be no benefit to having Edwin? If I can’t use it in standard anymore I would for sure expect my 1600 dust compensation.

    • Durps
      January 9, 2021 at 12:27 am

      might as well dust it now. If Rotation goes like clockwork then you want the Golden Version not the non-Golden version because you can only get 1 refund + dust.
      im a wait for rotation to if it does or doesn’t go like clockwork though.

      • H0lysatan
        January 9, 2021 at 2:30 am

        it is stated above that you will no longer get compensation for HoF cards.
        Please read it again. So the max dust you will get is now only.
        Crafting golden Edwin after that will only make you lose dust.

        • TardisGreen
          January 9, 2021 at 2:57 am

          That is NOT what it says.

        • Pandamonium
          January 10, 2021 at 12:11 am

          My question was why dust wouldn’t be refunded and what the hell would logically justify it, since the game requires long-term farming under the assumption that they won’t just yank out the cards you farmed for so long by changing the way the game works suddenly, not whether or not they said so.

          • Noovae
            January 10, 2021 at 6:07 am

            Reading through the lines, it seems pretty clear to me why there will be no dust refund. The devs never said Van Cleef would go to the HoF, that was an assumption from a sentence that said that he will “rotate”. Knowing now that HoF won’t even exist anymore then, I can confidently speculate that it’s the whole classic set that will rotate out to Wild at the time of the next expansion.

            You never get dust for a rotation. No more HoF needed. That’s the only reasonable explanation I can come with. No more classic set in standard.

            Also, they talked about a rework of classic/basic set a few times before, and recently they said they want to make it easier for new players to get into the game. And if the classic set rotates out, there needs to be a compensation, in the number of cards available in standard, and leaves only the basic set to be reworked. So what I think will happen is this : an extensive rework and a massive extension of the basic set, providing every player, new and old, with a full new and free set to play with, with its power level updated to current Standard’s expansions level.

            At least that’s how I understand/would do it.

            • Durps
              January 10, 2021 at 10:41 pm

              Yup Dust everything nerfed and wait and see is what i was trying to say, no assumptions at this point after that absurd EXP system change bait and switch.

  6. H0lysatan
    January 8, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    My best guess is, Hall of Fame cards is no longer playable even in Wild. There’s a reason why I think that HoF cards shouldn’t playable at all because they’re somehow problematic and doesn’t fit the class style.
    (I still remember they said it like that).

    either that, or Hall of Fame will not provide us with extra dust as compensation anymore.
    But the more I think about this, my first theory should make more sense.

    • H0lysatan
      January 8, 2021 at 6:23 pm

      “There are big changes coming to Hearthstone in 2021”
      I hope all of this gonna happen before next expansion, because surely it fits the name of Phoenix this year. So many changes happened that I’m pretty sure it’s Hearthstone 2.0 soon.

      Any idea what the next Year symbol gonna be? my guess is Turtle or Panda.

      • Alglyphic
        January 8, 2021 at 7:38 pm

        I’m pretty sure “Phoenix” was meant to allude to 2020, with the introduction of the Demon Hunter class and other mechanics on top of the EXP system as a sort of renaissance for the game… which certainly didn’t pan out the way the developers intended. There’d be very little sense in naming a year after an emblem only to have its symbolism apply to the last few months after most of the major content has rolled out.

        Hearthstone certainly had a challenging 2020, during which they lost a lot of the goodwill they once enjoyed, and I’ll not dive into the tired debate of how much of it was their fault or how much of it they deserved. But if anything, the question of whether Edwin’s nerf is a thing or not seems to indicate that Team 5 still hasn’t quite figured out how to communicate upcoming changes and/or drive hype around them. I don’t wish any more crap on the developers than they already got during Darkmoon Faire, but the fact that they haven’t quite coordinated over the status of Edwin is… concerning.

        As for “class style”… I think the flavour argument is a pretty poor one to make considering the myriad of playstyles Blizzard tried to implement with each set (viability notwithstanding). We’ve had Big Hand Warlock, Druid AND Mage. We’ve been told Rogue doesn’t deserve big healing, hence the Leeching Poison nerf, while Heal Paladin and Warlock ran amok (mostly the latter, though). I still haven’t quite gotten over the fact that Priest was meant to be the class that represented the “Cloning” sciences in Boomsday Project and yet Druid was running absolutely wild with their ability to make multiple Malygoses.

        But we shall see. It’s fun to theorise, and bonus points if you get it right, but I think for this year going forward we ought to manage our expectations. You become less likely to be emotional and disappointed that way.

        • H0lysatan
          January 8, 2021 at 9:11 pm

          It’s a sad truth about class style. I can’t disagree with that. especially when Wild still exist.
          But all in all, we’ve had pretty good rework towards F2P even with all the dramas.

          The only minus point is still communication like you pointed out. I wish they’re more pro-active in discussing what they’ll do instead of knocking the hammer down that quick. I know nerf is needed at some point, but communication still far more important.

          We shall see what kind of big changes they were talking about soon. Can’t wait for sure. My guess? They announce it within the Online Blizzcon

          • Alglyphic
            January 8, 2021 at 11:24 pm

            It’s not so much that the developers aren’t proactive – they very much are; exactly how proactive they should be is a discussion for another time. But the fact that they aren’t sure what to tell us about whether Edwin VanCleef is getting a nerf or not – or getting Hall of Famed or Wilded or not – appears to the layperson or average, uninvested player that the devs don’t know what’s happening in their own game. Appearing as though you have no idea what you’re doing is, perhaps, worse than Team 5 mishandling the EXP system integration, because it justifies players’ fears and accusations that development has gone off the rails or the developers flat out don’t care.

            Personally, the F2P rework hasn’t bothered me that much. I mostly get annoyed at the start of expansions, splurging on 60 to 80 booster packs with gold and raging over the dismal legendary pull rate. But I do wish that EXP gain outside of quests was more visible the same way getting 3 wins for 10 gold used to be.

    • Pandamonium
      January 8, 2021 at 7:17 pm

      But then that means that there would still be a hall of fame because they said he’d go back to a 3 cost.

    • Rolioli
      January 8, 2021 at 7:46 pm

      I really hope they don’t take them out of the game. Most of them (mainly Baku/Genn) are really good cards for people new to wild because of how many decks they can fit in. I doubt they could find a way to remove them and keep everyone happy. My guess is that they put the cards back into their original sets and the classic set rotates to wild.

      • H0lysatan
        January 8, 2021 at 9:01 pm

        While it’s true that some HoFed cards is good, doesn’t mean it’s balanced. the power level of those cards is so crazy that Team 5 immediately HoF them instead of waiting for ~2 years.

        The only suggestion I can provide, is to create another mode where every card, HoF and removed cards would also playable. Maybe (All In mode)
        but Wild as it stands rn should not include HoF.
        This is purely my opinion. Others can disagree.

        • Generalflagada
          January 8, 2021 at 11:26 pm

          Well having another wild game mode would be good but they should first fix they current one

          I guess your idea is like the rotating game mode like magic the gathering ?

          • H0lysatan
            January 9, 2021 at 2:17 am

            Rotating old expansion surely fix some problem, but many F2P won’t be able to catch up, since most of them auto dust wild card as soon as they leave standard.
            Between making event like Tomb of Terror where they gave us copies of 23 wild cards, or they make a custom play mode where we can decide the rules ourselves. (I prefer latter)
            Just like custom maps in warcraft 3.

    • Generalflagada
      January 8, 2021 at 11:23 pm

      Well deleting HoF card won’t happen I think because it will literally destroy Half of wild,
      -Baku : odd warrior/ rogue/ paladin(Divine favor)/ Shaman/ Demon Hunter/ (mage)
      -genn : even warlock/ shaman(murkspark eel) / paladin/ (mage)/ new reno hunter deck
      -ragnaros : big priest & big shaman
      -Naturalise : mostly all of combo Druid out there; mechathun/ togwaggle fatigue/ malygos(?)
      -mind blast + velen +Acolyte of pain + North shore clerics: reno « f.u.died.from.30 » priest
      -Coldlight Oracle : most otk deck
      -doomguard: discard warlock
      -Ice block: anti combo tool/ protection/ otk setup
      -mountain & molten giant: pain warlock (new deck)
      -Leroy: aggro finisher
      -ol’ murk eye: one of the best murloc

      Mostly harmless/useless;
      -conceal
      -ice lance
      -power overwhelming
      -divine spirit (meme)
      -black cat
      -spellbreaker( a good card)
      -vanish
      -Sylvanas
      -MCT
      -archenai soul priest
      -azure drake
      -holy fire
      -captain parrot
      -shadow form
      -glitter moth
      -gloom stag
      -ETC original
      -gelbin mekkatork

      So half of the card are harmless, but the other half are deck defining, it would be a huge uproar to just delete those card

      • H0lysatan
        January 9, 2021 at 2:25 am

        Power level in the wild is overwhelming. My point remains, HoF cards is problematic.
        So please don’t take it for granted. I mean, I’m purely speculating.
        But I still can’t ignore it if there’s a slim chance for it to happen.
        If it is, well, take it with salt. 100% pure salt.

        • Generalflagada
          January 9, 2021 at 4:54 am

          I totally agree wild is overwhelming unbalance x)
          I am in the camp that would like x card to be deleted other people will be sad

          Sad thing is it really hard to balance wild but it can be done
          Blizzard don’t really care that much since it’s «  free »

          I just hope that this year more balance patch for wild player like me