Not worth the wait. Most bosses I cleared on the first try, while the longest took maybe 5 attempts (the hardest for me where the cast a spell/summon a monster hero ability and the one who casted spells after overloading, which summoned the 3 5/6 taunts at 5-6 mana). And I am maybe a decent HS player, not really that good.
Just because Rafaam was liked, you don’t have to make everyone rhyme. And I actually enjoyed Rafaam and Reno rhyming, but this choice feels like piggy banking on that.
Aranna, the main hero… did she have to be related to someone (Elize)? That was so unnecessary, and the story could have worked with any named DH from the order hall, or someone completely new that didn’t rely on an existing character to be liked. Oh … and glasses aren’t a familiar trait… for real though… we would have believed they are sisters without the glasses… And because Elize apparently was able to teach a murloc common, Aranna is able to understand a being from a completely different race, from another planet.
And my last observation, the dungeon style adventures definitely had more replay-ability/variety.
It’s supposed to be a play, a retelling of a story in a rhyming tale format. This has already been done during Hallow’s End events with the Headless Horseman brawl as well as certain parts of the Karazhan adventure.
So no, I don’t really see any piggy banking on that.
Well, I have 3 counterpoints to that:
Did she have to be completely unique? Being related to a character who we know is a perfectly valid character design and writers do it all the time. Naruto, Dragon Ball, et cetera. In terms of the story her design & lineage make total sense.
Using already existing characters might not allow some personality traits to be shown that were needed to be present for the story to work - natural leadership, caring person & concern for friends, does that sound like any named demon hunter that you know? Closest would be Altruis but even then there’s some elements missing.
I didn’t see myself liking Aranna because of the fact that she’s a Starseeker. I liked her because of her personality. The fact that she was one didn’t even register in my mind in a negative manner.
Given how the adventure has been structured thus far, I’m seeing it being an homage to older adventures like Naxxramas & League of Explorers (With the Class Challenge that’s coming) while also utilizing the more modern stuff that we saw with the Descent of Dragons adventure (Premade decks for the regular mode & Heroic allowing self-made decks).
All in all, I think your post is coming from a good place but the endpoint is looking to me more and more like you’re just nitpicking.
My thoughts on solo adventure, it was nice for a free solo adventure, I really liked it but I will admit the whole rhythm thing was a bit out of place, I mean I get why the went for it as BrotherRoga mentioned it’s supposed to be a play but doesnt stop it from feeling out of place especially in contrast to the prologue. In other words they should save the rhymes for rafaam and the headless horseman
Everything else tho I pretty much agree with BrotherRoga, I really liked the rusted legion and the duality of turning half mech with the legion or half demon.
The only other downsides was that becoming a demon hunter felt more like a nerf than a buff to aranna and the outcasts (apart from the ork), seriosly I had the same difficulty but that was literally because we now had a weaker deck cause there was too much focus on hitting with our face so hp was easy to run low on and the ending was kinda weird with the cheesy ending and illidan being way over dramatic and irrational compared to what was shown of him in the prologue.
I mostly agree with LeoXblader in my opinion for the Solo Adventure.
As a free adventure it’s really good, it this was a payed one i surely will feel a little bit screwed. But again i still enjoyed it, even in it’s simplicity and in the lack of prizes. Yeah, a little bit easy, won mostly on first try except Jaraxxus two times and one boss for bad draws. Can’t wait for the class challenges, hoping for more compelling matches.
Story wise i think it was good. Aranna as a character is enjoyable and pleasant, and not because she’s a Starseeker. The fact she’s Elize’s sister is just a nice extra that ties her to other storylines, but not who she is. Defining her cause of her sister ironically proves her story where everyone talks about her sister instead of her. So i did like the simplicity of the young sister looking for adventure to prove herself, meeting someone with a sort of similar fate. The thing i liked the most was getting together with the outcasts, growing together, i’m a little disappointed that in the HS format it’s difficult to convey such stories in the proper way. And yeah, Illidan probably was the weakest link with the cheesy bit at the end, but nothings perfect haha
For the rhymes… neutral reaction. I enjoy them, but not super crazy about them. So in the end it doesn’t matter to me, but my best friend loves rhymes and so she’s happy about it.
So for me the adventure was nice. Nothing exceptional or great, but for what it was i can’t complain. Had fun, nice simple story, interesting matches and cards.
For the rhyming, yes it is a way of storytelling, I enjoy it in general, but Illidan doesn’t seem the rhyming type, and it comes out of nowhere, he didn’t even use it for the prologue, so it just feels out of character.
For Aranna, the only thing that being Elize’s sister brought, was her sister issues to mirror Illidans brother issues, which was just cheesy. That’s why i said her family relation was unnecessary to her character, her personality was more than enough to make her likeable.
Didn’t the Demon Hunter in Valsharah seemed pretty willing to save her mates while putting herself in danger ? And seemed pretty affected to find them dead/lost. Just because existing characters aren’t completely fleshed out, they shouldn’t be rulled out.
In my eyes it was necessary to establish her motivations. If her sibling was just some nameless nobody, we wouldn’t care. But since it’s Elise, we’re automatically far more invested in Aranna by association.
I mostly wish the difficulty didn’t come from: A. Whether the boss gets 2+ scrap imps, B. Whether the boss draws both of the 6 mana 5/7 charge, or C. Whether the boss draws that 5 mana draw 3 put all minions into play.
Combine C and B and the whole thing just makes me want to pull my hair out.
She didn’t need a sister. Her motivation was helping someone in need/ finding safety, being in her sister’s shadow came up only to create a sh!tty bond with Illidan. If you take that out of the story, nothing changes, she would still wish to save the outcasts, she would still wish to save everyone from the Rusted Legion, because that’s her personality.
Hello, when starting a Trial by Felfire game, it allows you to pick any deck but after few moments pop-up show saying, that you cannot use wild decks. Please fix or if intended, allow us to use wild decks. Please show wild cummunity some respect. Thank you.
I agree with boring & unfun, also they don’t let you use your own decks in the challenges, but apparently blizzard; who don’t release unbalanced and unplaytested cards; are working on a fix.
