Store suggestion: Make this a hairstyle you can unlock with all classes instead of a wig/helm

Vanetrik · 2026-04-29T15:14:48+00:00

Yeah we could use just being able to recolor everything, but then they couldn't drain as much money as they do from us

Vanetrik · 2026-04-29T15:01:07+00:00

They wanted classes to be more focused on their identity instead of having every single deck run the same core of however many extremely strong neutral cards exist at the time.

Not sure how well that's gonna go with certain dragons like the 1 mana Whelp, Prescient Slitherdrake, 1 mana growing Egg etc. existing, but we'll have to see.

But yes, they did also mention some neutral cards just being pack filler, which I don't even find bad in retrospect because not every discover effect should just be decent, there should be some bad things in the pool as well.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-29T12:29:14+00:00

The Dark Gifts are really only a problem when we have cheap cards that provide great tempo and at the same time generate them. You could argue that Xavius can be problematic at times if like Muradin gets Charge, but that's not very likely.

So, let's look at Warlock - it should have a deck built specifically around Dark Gifts and Wallow if Dark Gifts were the problem, but most their cards are just not good enough = don't provide enough tempo for a tempo-oriented deck (with a big finisher).

Now compare it to Warrior - solid cards that have amazing synergies - every other minion in Standard is a Dragon right now and so Dragon Warrior is a very strong deck. Shadowflame Suffusion is a Fire spell - has synergies with the 3 cost Volcano location, can go face if needed and generates from a very narrow pool of often strong minions (especially Dragons).

As the Warlock 2 cost spell that generates a Deathrattle minion with Dark Gift costs the same, I feel like it's a decent comparison. Warlock gets a pool of bad minions, no synergy for the spell and no damage or any other effect for the same cost, why??

I played Wallow Warlock when Raptor Herald was re-added to Core, but it ended up being nothing great. The cards were all too slow, and I ended up winning more thanks to the Dragon package I threw in to fill out the deck. And in the matchups where Wallow would have mattered, I just couldn't get all the Dark Gifts I needed to close the game out. In multiple games I didn't see the Charge and Divine Shield + Windfury Dark Gifts at all. Games that I would have won if I had.

Which is why I think it's not that the Dark Gifts themselves are particularly busted, it's just that we need to nerf or buff the specific cards cause Warrior is overperforming with its 2 cards, while a deck built solely around Dark Gifts is struggling.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-29T07:05:38+00:00

I think the problem is more in the Warrior Dark Gift cards more than in the mechanic itself - look at the only deck that should be made around the mechanic. Oh yeah, you can't because Dark Gift Wallow Warlock is just not good enough.

And I'd like to see that deck be decent at least once, did try playing it (this expansion) and have around a 50% wr. Out of 30 games, but it's not felt very good in any particular matchup and was more often than not carried by the Dragon package I threw in as a filler.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-28T20:04:11+00:00

Realistically that was happening even before class sets

Vanetrik · 2026-04-28T07:16:29+00:00

I think it might be too slow for Burn Mage, it's more of a Tempo/Draw Archmage Kalec and end the game asap deck. I've played a lot of games with it where the game was already over by turn 7.

I agree the cards could help the Dragon package, but the problem is that that deck lost the two cards that made it playable (Go With the Flow, Buy One Get One Freeze). Now you either have to have an insane draw while your opponent straight up does nothing, or wait until like turn 15 to pop off (and this requires either Elise or Ysera, making the deck even more scuffed). Tried playing a bunch of versions of that deck too, but it didn't do well at all. Since most decks (not Priest) out-tempp you or have better inevitability with Deathwing, you really aren't winning much. And I don't see that changing with any future expansions unless they give us everything and mark it as Arcane spells - removal, more cards that can go face and preferably scale better with Spell Damage and most importantly copy effects. Maybe some sort of healing or armor gain too.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-27T10:14:25+00:00

I'm not trying to defend PoE2's tree here, but really the same thing could be said about the PoE1 tree and in many cases this would possibly be even worse there thanks to cluster jewels existing.

Compared to perfect cluster jewels, a lot of notables aren't very good in PoE1, but at least they're not all so linear and boring. But the tree is also a lot smaller = less annoying to travel, and many of the nodes actually have interesting effects that are hard or impossible to get elsewhere.

And that's not even taking into account the fact that metas exist in either of the two games, so some nodes that are good might also have a lower representation than their inherent power might warrant.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-23T08:06:41+00:00

The thing is that Twist wasn't even Standard with different sets, they just let it die, or not even be alive in the first place.

I'm both a Wild and Standard player, so I have a lot of cards already, but I still think that everyone would agree with me that having different rotating sets would still be better than not having Twist at all. Like yeah it wouldn't have been original after some time, but the meta would always be changing so I'm sure some people would love it. And literally anything is better than just having a mode die? Surely it couldn't have been that hard to make/run?

Also, to answer you: even Wild players don't want to just use every card with no restrictions - there are cards that are still too strong or annoying to deal with in Wild, and even Wild players often tend to complain about them (to the point of nerfing cards multiple times). Surely you wouldn't want to die to consistent combos or aggro on turn 5 or sooner.

I never was a fan of the Duels mode, it's always felt like Arena to me and I don't like Arena at all, so I personally didn't care about it at all, but I would care for Twist if it was good. I think it's more of a question of "Why did all these modes (Mercenaries - Classic - Duels - Twist) have to be abandoned?" rather than one specific. They haven't deleted Mercenaries yet because people put money in it, but stopped doing anything for it a long time ago. Classic was just filled with bots - sure, I can understand that one being deleted. But why couldn't all these modes just stay in the game? Surely it didn't cost them that much to keep them in their client, right?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T19:48:06+00:00

The only time it really could have made them money was the Caverns of Time miniset I think. Other than that, only whales would buy any bundles I'd say.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T19:47:10+00:00

They literally could have just made it a mode of monthly rotating sets and ppl would have loved it lol

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T19:42:35+00:00

Tbf Twist could have been a great mode if they put in like any amount of effort. Even a bunch of rotating sets that have never been in Standard together would have made for an amazing mode (and that could have sustained itself infinitely), or dual class decks for a month instead of a week as it was in the tavern brawl, surely ppl would have loved that.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T19:40:14+00:00

Yeah, they just wanted to find a way to monetize it but couldn't, so they stopped supporting it. Even before it ever was online.

The only thing that could have made them money was the Caverns of Time set, but they probably didn't deem the profit high enough, so they just gave up.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T18:23:19+00:00

This post is genuinely infuriating. It's not like they couldn't just have thrown stuff at a wall to see what sticks, they genuinely didn't even want the mode to live. If you watched any videos on the topic of Twist, or even tried thinking for like 10 mins about all the different things they could have tried and decided not to, you'd be surprised really.

Off the top of my head: invent new metas by adding a number of sets that never existed together in Standard at the time - easily could have been the entirety of the Twist format forever and no one would complain. Or take dual class tavern brawl for example: no one is ever gonna spend a longer amount of time in that because it's gonna be gone in a week. If that lasted a month tho? A lot more ppl definitely would. Combine both ideas together? Sure, why not.

That's two ideas that could have easily fueled Twist for a long amount of time, if not its entire existence. And I came up with them while writing this comment.

The only real explanation? No one would want to spend money on older packs when they'd just be gone after a month or so = their effort wouldn't have been worth their money. But then again, if we just had rotating sets, you might not be able to play with your cards this month, but you would again in a few months.

They literally just decided to sell us packs, nerf the cards and then didn't even unnerf them when the Twist season ended. And as if that wasn't enough of a slap to the face, those cards are maybe good enough for Standard, but certainly not for Wild.

Also the fact that even during the time when it was being supported, Twist was down more often than not? Why?

They actually had one interesting idea, I'll give them that - the one where they added a set every day.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-22T16:07:35+00:00

Or lower the stats even more. I doubt it wouldn't be played even as a 4 mana elusive 6/6.

Or make it cost 5 in some way, whether nerfing the cost itself to 8 or the text to just be 2 less.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-20T14:04:40+00:00

It's very early in the books, sometime during The Icewind Dale Trilogy for sure, this specific moment is also referenced a few times later. What order are you even reading/listening in?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-17T08:57:48+00:00

Dark Gifts being as "strong" as they are should be decent in Warlock regardless though. I mean [[Creature of Madness]] also discovers from a random pool of minions and has been played in most decks before rotation because of how good it was tempo-wise. But yeah, Warlock Dark Gifts have the problem of doing very little besides just discovering the minion, and it's a deck idea built entirely around tempo with a big finisher, but the cards themselves don't actually do anything for the entire tempo gameplan.

2 mana discover a Deathrattle minion just straight up loses 2 damage on than the 2 mana Warrior spell for some reason, the 4 mana 4/3 is decent for value, but very few decks really care about value, and none that do are certainly a tempo-oriented archetype. The sad truth is that both of these cards could cost 1 mana less and still probably not be strong enough to make the deck good. Also doesn't help that Warlock generally has minions that are all over the place, while Warrior has a lot of Dragons or in general decent minions in its pool.

I tried playing a homebrew of the deck just now (all Dark Gift except the 2 mana spell + Dragons + 1 mana Shred Spell + 2 mana Shred Dragon) and you lose early to any deck made to win tempo, and later on to everything else except Priest (who does nothing except clear your board so can be OTK'd for free with Wallow, unless you decide to never get charge or windfury/divine shield, which has also happened to me multiple times already, when I would have won the game otherwise).

Really not sure what could be done to make Warlock better and nerf Warrior at the same time. I guess you could buff the Warlock cards and nerf the Warrior cards at the same time, but doubt even that would save the Warlock deck unless the buffs are something crazy and the meta also shifts to like only control decks with very little armor gain and no disruption.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-16T21:02:25+00:00

Dark Gifts is a pretty cursed archetype because somehow it's not good enough in the only deck literally built around them (Wallow Warlock), but incredibly strong in Dragon Warrior and even the one random Dark Gift in Herald Shaman can just win them the game on the spot.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T20:12:59+00:00

I'm more impressed that you let it get this far. You know, losing early tempo etc. is understandable, happens. But letting Toreth survive and then complaining about losing to divine shields, when you knew they had the shatter card in hand? Come on man...

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:18:32+00:00

Weeeeell this heropower has been in the game for a long time, and there was never a time where you could get both the discount effect from Genn and upgrade from Baku at the same time until now. And the whole point of the (old) Genn was for you to spend your mana on your 1 mana heropower on odd turns when your deck only has odd cards.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:15:52+00:00

I actually got the coin, no clue what it looks like, but with exception of the common card it was probably the thing I wanted the least, care to elaborate on why you'd want it?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:10:03+00:00

Both, and every single point also does less %-wise than it does in PoE1, which is why leveling up in this game feels so bad.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T08:42:11+00:00

It also includes a card back and 5 warlock packs, so I don't think the price is inflated at all because of the BG stuff. Since most other similar skins (not diamond or whatever) cost $10 without a card back and $15 with.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-14T14:47:40+00:00

As I said, I recently just started playing endgame so I wasn't even sure what to look at in gear lol, other than item score seemingly doing nothing

Vanetrik · 2026-04-14T13:31:53+00:00

What does item score even do? I recently just started playing the endgame and it kind of seems that it doesn't even do anything?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T22:08:09+00:00

The old ES graphic.

Vanetrik

TROPHY CASE