Thursday, November 6, 2014

Quarterly Infodump

Earlier this week, Hex President and draft aficionado Cory Jones went into the forums for a Q&A regarding the Basically-Open-But-We're-Not-Ready-To-Call-It-Open Beta.  Much speculation has been surrounding the next major features for the game, including larger tournaments; Shattered Destiny, Hex's second PvP set; and the Frost Ring, the introduction to Hex's long awaited PvE content.  The thread quickly ballooned and many questions were fielded, resulting in a veritable info-dump and giving us a good idea about what to expect from the Beta as we approach the end of the year.

The next three major content updates according to the Q&A are Shattered Destiny, which is planned for November; Frost Ring/Arena, planned for December; and to many player's surprise, asynchronous Sealed tournaments, also planned for December.  It's important to note that Hex has been reluctant to release specific dates, as there has been a history of missed deadlines that have caused ripples in the community.  As such, it's not unlikely to realistically expect some of these updates getting pushed to the first quarter of 2015 (Shattered Destiny was originally announced to launch in late August).  But reservations aside, these upcoming content updates are fairly sizable steps towards getting the game to resemble what was presented in the Kickstarter.  

Shattered Destiny

A good chunk of Set 2 has been spoiled, and a lot of the cards look awesome and feature mechanics that will change both draft and constructed.  The Dual-Threshold Shards will be particularly key for making three-shard decks viable in the metagame, as well as smoothing out the draws of dual-shard decks.  Cards from Set 1 (Shards of Fate) will find some love with the addition of Shattered Destiny as new strategies will emerge.  The Darkspire Clan will at least double in size with two new cards added to the mix, including the incredibly potent Darkspire Tyrant.  The other Rare and Legendary cards are equally strong, and many come with the quirky charm that Hex likes to inject into their design, evidenced in cards like the menacing Killipede, which can toxify your opponents before the finishing sting!  

This will be a particularly important addition to Hex for a few reasons.  Primarily, it serves to reinvigorate an increasingly stale metagame.  Many of Hex's most ardent players have been drafting Set 1 for the better part of a year now, and Constructed has been tested and tuned evn before then.  While a good portion of the backers are waiting until PvE is in the game to start actively playing, the ones that are as addicted to draft as I am will be coming back in full force when Set 2 finally drops.  There will also be significantly less Set 2 packs given out from the Kickstarter than of Set 1, meaning we'll probably have a better idea of what the market will look like going forward when pricing singles from Shattered Destiny.

Asynchronous Sealed

If you've played Hearthstone or wanted to draft but couldn't commit the three hours to do so, you'll understand the appeal of this feature and why learning that it's being developed and slated to launch soon excites me.  Normal Single Elimination tournaments can run anywhere from ten minutes if you're eliminated quickly in round one, to near three hours if you grind it out to the finals, and that's not accounting for deck construction!  Asynchronous Sealed allows you to compete in Sealed Deck without as much of a time commitment.  You get build and play the deck at your leisure, facing off against other Sealed players until you hit a certain amount of losses or you max out on wins.  At least, that's a rough overview of how it works in Hearthstone.  It's unclear exactly what Hex's Asynchronous Tournaments will look like, though it's fair to speculate prizes will be based on the number of wins you get and that it will cost packs and platinum to enter.  This format could work with either Constructed or Sealed, though not Booster Draft, since playing against the cards you pass is part of the overall strategy.  Additionally, the ability to play tournament matches at your leisure can only open Hex up to more players, including myself, since I've been resigned to drafting almost exclusively on my days off when I don't already have plans (an increasingly rare occurrence).

Frost Ring/Arena

A majority of the information was unsurprisingly pointed at PvE.  The Frost Ring, sometimes referred to simply as "Arena," is planned to launch in December 2014.  Kickstarter PvE card rewards are planned to be distributed upon launch of The Frost Ring.  PvP Champions will be usable in the Arena until "phase 2" (suggesting gated content), at which point Mercenaries will be introduced.  The Might System and player Champion creation will not be introduced yet.  The most important part is that this will be the first chance players get to use Equipment and PvE Cards and the first opportunity, aside from the Wheels of Fate, for players to earn these items in game.  

The chests which have been collecting dust in your inventory stash throughout the summer will finally be accessible as well.  Available inside booster packs, players can open the chests to acquire loot based on the chest's rarity.  Chest loot will likely take the form of PvE Cards and Equipment, but may not be limited to just those.  Like the Wheels of Fate, players might have the opportunity to earn mercenaries or card sleeves.  Players looking to get a jump on PvE can find three cards exclusive to the Wheels of Fate: Air Elemental, Lightning Elemental, and Water Elemental, as well as equipment (two for each card) which can be equipped to your champion in the Arena to grant powerful buffs to your cards.  Each champion has six slots for equipment, and each item is tailored to a specific slot.  Bubble Mail, which will provide a buff to the Water Elemental, is a chest piece.  Since each champion can only have one item attached to each slot, players will have to think carefully about not only which cards they want in their deck, but how they want to coordinate the equipment.  This adds a whole new level to deck-building similar to the gem slots, and scooping up that last piece of gear you need will provide the impetus for completing Frost Ring dungeon runs, which will have two difficulty modes and which Cory guesses will take roughly twenty hours for a casual player to complete.

The Wheels of Fate Elemental Cycle, as well as the current loot available from the Wheels of Fate, will be available throughout Shattered Destiny's launch, rotating with the launch of Sets 3 & 4 sometime in 2015.  A full list of the information from the Cory Q&A was broken down by Yasi in the Hex subreddit.

Rock League - Season 2

In community news, the second season of the Rock League has begun.  Deck construction is restricted to only commons and four uncommons, making it perfect for new players. Players can earn points for up to three matches every week, with tiebreaker points for additional matches.  Boosters and even Primal Packs have been donated by community members as prizes for the top 32 participants.  Players can even earn bonus prizes for playing different champions through the league.  The Rock League will run for four weeks beginning November 3rd.  Information and sign-ups can be found at the link above.

Next week I will tell you a tale of how an Archmage from the academy at Cerulea and a young monk from an isolated mountain pass teamed up to liberate one of the most powerful mages on all of Entrath.  

Until next time.

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