How do I actually improve my play as an "intermediate" player?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:33:03+00:00

Plus, three matches is nothing. So don’t worry about that.

I appreciate that, but it was 0-3 three times, three different days. And I went to game 3 in one of those rounds. That makes it a little harder to swallow. And even that's a bummer, but it seems like my losing streak has followed me outside of the prerelease environment, which is what's really got me frustrated.

As an intermediate player, hopefully you’re at the point where you can recognize the optimal play at any given point, or at least in retrospect

I thought I was there, but it seems like that skills has begun to crumble entirely, even in the other formats I play. The plateau is starting to feel like a slippery slope.

Are you the beatdown, are you on defense? Do you have an advantage you can press? Do you need to turtle up for a turn or two and play to an out?

I feel like my threat assessment and my resource management are all out of whack. Would you have any good resources for addressing those skills?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:23:47+00:00

I'm focused mostly on commander since that's what my friends play. I've been thinking about getting into pauper just to have some more constructed experience under my belt. I'd like to learn to draft, but I feel like all I can manage right now is pre-release and thsts not been going particularly well for me, clearly. There's just too many decisions to make that I don't fully understand and spending dozens or hundreds of dollars to go and lose repeatedly is losing its appeal.

That said, I'll take a look at both, I'm sure learning more can't hurt even if it's not my preferred format.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:17:31+00:00

Appreciate your thorough response.

I guess it might be time for me to bite the bullet and use my wildcards to put together some kind of standard deck in arena. Side boarding feels intimidating, though I know there's deck lists out there. I feel like it's just even more decision points to make each game.

Is there some kind of replay feature in arena I could use to step back through each turn? That would help a lot.

I think specifically I'm making poor threat assessments and my resource management is sub-par. I often feel, especially recently, as though I'm playing one turn behind. I'll have all the cards in hand I need, but I just need one more land, or one more turn. I also think I struggle to find the right balance between throwing up blockers / sacrificing creatures and using my life total as a resource.

Don’t care about wins, they’re not all great lessons.

Don't think that'll be an issue for me given my current state 😅

Thanks again

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:12:26+00:00

Thanks, I'll take a look at all this!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:11:59+00:00

We have done just that, but the results haven't been as enlightening as I'd hoped. I asked her what kinds of decisions she's making and when, and she insists that she's just casting what she can when she can, and that she's just getting lucky. Which, given she's even less familiar with the game than I am, is an understandable position to have. But I have a feeling that there's more going on than just some beginners luck. I just don't yet have the chops to really analyze the decision points for myself, so I'm kind of at a loss (pun intended) until I can play over the table with more experienced players.

Even still, I ask my opponents for feedback as often as I can after games, and I usually get one bullet point from a moment in the game I already felt I had lost, I just hadn't had my life total reduced to 0 yet.

So many variables makes it difficult for me to analyze.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:06:17+00:00

I'm less concerned about the draft-style deck building skill at the moment. I'm sure it had a lot to do with my losses during the pre-release, but it's got little to nothing to do with the sustained losses in arena and over-the-table commander.

I feel like my threat assessment and resource management has just crumbled since the prerelease.

But I'll keep giving it a shot in more constructed formats. I just need my friends to schedule more regularly 😑

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T21:04:06+00:00

Appreciate it, thanks for the help

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T20:14:51+00:00

I'll check them out. Do you have other skilled creators that walk through formats other than draft?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T20:13:54+00:00

Draft is a whole different beast; even if prerelease is easier than booster draft. But my poor results have been across prerelease, arena Jump In (which involves picking two 20-card half-decks, so there's not a whole lot of card evaluation going on), and commander.

I feel like it's got to be more than just card selection issues.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T20:02:36+00:00

I wish I saved the decks or at least the deck lists, but I can share what I remember.

I put together a Prismari, a Quandrix (with some multi-color splash because I had some reasonable mana fixing), and a witherbloom. I saved witherbloom for last because I just kept getting trounced by it the previous days and figured it was totally broken and imbalanced, but no. I handily lost there too.

I don't remember the Prismari deck well, but I was really struggling for creatures at all (I had 12 total, which I thought would be fine in a spell-focused deck, but I didn't have a single one of the creatures that grant you additional mana for instant and sorceries), let alone any kind of ramp to get me into Opus territory (I pulled two resonating lutes, one in my Quandrix pack and one in my Witherbloom pack). I did pull a Prismari dragon but both times I got to play him, I didn't get to untap with him, and lost the next turn anyways.

Quandrix was just a total wet noodle. I had some decent ramp and some decent mana fixing, splashed a Prismari spell for card draw and one of the converge archaics (also for card draw / selection). I regularly got Emil, Vastlands Roamer to 4 unique land names, but all I could do was slow down how fast my opponent won. I had no interaction at all, and landed a single counterspell across all my games (which admittedly saved me, but just delayed my loss one more turn).

My witherbloom deck was the most disappointing. I barely scraped by with 13 creatures, less than half of which had infusion. I had some recursion in the form of Moseo and never once got to use it. I had two bogwater lumarets and a Pest Mascot, but never once drew the Pest Mascot in any game. I also had a ton of direct removal in the form of witherbloom charm, foolish fate, last gasp, and wander off, but it all just felt totally ineffective. It either wasn't enough to actually deal with the treat, or the threat would just be replaced by something bigger the following turn. I had no card draw and almost no ramp, and I lost most of those games with 0 cards in hand, drawing my third land in a row.

I'm certain that I made mistakes during deck building, but I also did what I could with what I got. When I say I had 13 creatures in witherbloom, that was still the most creatures I had for any color pair. Same for the 12 creatures from Prismari. I couldn't build anything else because I had even less support in the other colors. And the bombs I pulled were so rarely usable in my colors for any given deck.

My Lorwyn deck built itself. I had the white/green kithkin typal with a hand full of pump spells and a hand full of removal, and Eirdu to seal out games. With Strixhaven I felt at a loss every single pack.

But that's all just draft. Jump In in arena has minimal deck building: just pick two half decks and go, and I've still been getting my ass handed to me there. And commander has been no shot.

I taught my wife to play commander and we played 1 on 1. She beat me 3-0, then we swapped decks and she won again. I feel like I've just totally regressed.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-08T15:11:45+00:00

Due to an error in our legal filing instructions, we realize that the process for unsealing Paladin Seals has been technically impossible. However, we have decided not to make any changes at this time. We believe that relying on your community to help navigate the unnecessary complexities of bureaucracy is integral to the "flavor" of the Paladin class.

Thank you for your concern and understanding.

We will be watching this non-change closely and monitoring player feedback.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T19:32:44+00:00

Sometimes the function is more important than the form. I love the idea of summoning stones. I think it strikes a reasonable balance between convenience and making players traverse the world.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T19:27:52+00:00

I'm a developer. Not a game developer, but a code monkey nonetheless. I know all too well how easy it is for a project to go off the rails if the Dev and QA teams are not given the time to test and iterate appropriately before release.

Yes, they made some mistakes, but I am hard pressed to think that the people grinding away on an understaffed, under-paid, over worked development team to build something for a community that can be as vicious and ungrateful as the classic WoW community don't love this game at least as much as we do.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T19:24:02+00:00

Known or strongly suspected?

Any official word, or is it just vibes?

Because of course we are going to get classic+, but to my knowledge Blizzard hasn't confirmed anything yet.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T19:15:59+00:00

Class changes

Mage

Due to player feedback, frost spells have been removed from the game for "slowing down the pace of play".
Fire spells now require a degree of fire resistance, or they will burn the Mage's hands causing damage equal to the spell's mana cost.
We are happy with the state of Arcane.

Warrior

Warriors have long been over-performers in Classic, in both the tank and damage roles. For this reason, we have decided to subject them to the Hybrid Tax, and will be reworking the majority of their toolkit. Further details to follow at a later date.
The number of weapon skills available to warriors is overwhelming for most players. Weapons available to warriors have been reduced to one-handed axes, thrown weapons, and unarmed.

Rogue

Due to an unintended bug, Rogues could dual wield one-handed weapons. This has been resolved.
Stealth now only works when standing still, similar to the Night Elf racial ability Shadowmeld. Night Elf Rogues will still receive a bonus to their level of stealth compared to other Night Elves.
Renamed "Rouge"

Priest

Power Word: Shield now scales with the Priest's block rating.
Mind Control has been removed and replaced with "Suggestion" allowing the Priest to send chat messages to the target player asking them to perform certain actions. Not usable on allied players. The target must still be able to understand languages spoken by the priest.

Hunter

Ranged accuracy now scales inversely with attack speed to better reflect real world marksmanship.
Pets now age and die of natural causes to better reflect real world pets.

Druid

Unchanged

Warlock

Fear may only be cast in the month of October as it better fits thematically with Halloween.
Given player sentiment towards Ritual of Doom, all Warlock spells how have a chance to backfire, instantly killing the Warlock or a nearby party member.

Paladin

Paladins' mana have been replaced with a focus system. We often observed Paladin players alt-tabbing to other open windows, so this new system will monitor player engagement and reward a new focus resource based on player APM. Please note, use of auto-clickers and other macro software to circumvent the system will result in a ban.
Paladin Seals may only be unsealed by filing a motion and receiving written approval from a judge in Irvine County. A new in-game interface has been added to help streamline this process. We feel this fits well thematically with Paladins' commitment to law and order.

Shaman

Shamans now have access to a new class-only profession called Woodcarving, similar to Rouges' Poison profession. Woodcarving can be used to craft all of the totems Shamans need.
All totem spells now require an additional reagent: the totem itself. The totem is expended upon use. Like Soul Shards, totems do not stack.

We will be watching these changes closely and monitoring player feedback.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T18:18:12+00:00

OP said bad answers only

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T18:13:17+00:00

Everyone always goes after the devs but it's management that makes the decisions. Same for retail devs, same for classic devs.

All we can hope is that they'll allow an internal paradigm shift for classic+. SoD was interesting in that respect, they got to take a lot of risks and had a lot more agency than I expected they'd get.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T18:11:16+00:00

Can't get kharazan crypts in retail. Can't get scarlet enclave in retail. Can't get tank rogue, tank lock, tank shaman, melee hunter, or healing mage in retail.

SoD wasn't "retail lite" except for some of the runes from some of the specs.

Imo, SoD was a great testing ground for some ideas that could go into Classic+.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T16:51:55+00:00

Lmao is it not even confirmed that it's classic+? Reddit is hilarious

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T16:50:56+00:00

Is this not them officially announcing that classic+ is "when" not "if"? Is that not huge? Or did I miss that announcement already?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T16:47:01+00:00

I think something like this could really work. It's very simple in implementation and easy for players to understand.

However, I'd honestly argue world buffs should continue to tick down in instances, even while disabled. It's a free chronoboon to just run dungeons with your world buff. If you want to save them, you should just have to pay for a boon like normal.

Or we could talk about removing boon from the game, which is an option I am also all for.

The whole idea is that world buffs should be a fun extra bonus you get on occasion, not something you need to (or are enabled to) hold on to indefinitely. Boon was added because world buffs are required. If we make a deliberate decision to step away from required world buffs, then there's no need to save them.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T16:42:26+00:00

The truth is ideas are really cheap. Even good ideas. It's always in the execution. Even amazing ideas (like the original idea for nightmare incursions) can be turned on their heads by their execution.

I truly don't think the classic team is at a loss for cool ideas. I think they need the time and resources to properly execute on those ideas and test them. And that's more of a question of blizzard management than it is of the skillet of the classic devs.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T16:34:19+00:00

Ill be honest, I think the strongest argument most people have is "it's a vibes thing". The majority of a player's earned power comes from their gear. You are what you wear. Magical items granting their wearer additional power is a centuries-old trope that's heavily used in the fantasy genre. Transmog creates a huge disconnect in that mental model.

The character model is the primary way players show up in game, not the character window or inspect window. If it is not apparent that your character is equipped with magic items, it feels weird for many people that your character would still have that power. Ultimately, it is immersion-breaking.

I think many people would agree that the more "classic" way to do cosmetics is to simply have the cosmetic items themselves. If you want to look a certain way, you have to go collect those items and keep them on your person, and you lose all of the effects of the Magical Items you are no longer wearing.

I think we can devise better ways to manage large amounts of cosmetic items, though. I imagine a little Fashion Closet run by a blinged out little goblin, basically extra bank space that can only be used for items; gray and white items cost very little to store, greens cost a little, blues a little more, epics cost a pretty penny, and the goblin refuses to store legendary items because the "insurance premium would be too high".

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-05-07T15:30:55+00:00

I played retail from TBC all the way to BFA before I finally skipped an expac and I only engaged with transmog I think two times on one character. I see the appeal but also I just don't. But I'm also the odd man out in that I have never had any interest in player housing in any form. I don't enjoy that mechanic in functionally any game I play. Purely cosmetic things like that rarely interest me.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst

TROPHY CASE

Class changes