We finally have all the info on cards, prices, etc. for the next mini-expansion, so I thought I'd give my thoughts on it. TLDR: I'm pleased that the team seems to be moving in the right direction. Much improved over Light's Verdict.
Buyer's Guide: https://blog.godsunchained.com/2022/12/08/winter-wanderlands-set-buyers-guide/
(All images from ^^)
Pack Pricing
No more Rare/Epic/Leggy pack. Just a normal pack and an "only-buy-this-to-support-us" shiny pack. I much prefer this simpler approach. No stress about what to buy. They've got some card packs, and you can get one for $10.
Honestly, I think buying a couple normal packs to support the devs is completely reasonable. What's in a pack, anyway?
There will also be a limited discount as with previous sets. Starting at only 10% this time, though. So $9 for the first packs.
Pack Contents
The columns sum up to 100%, so for example, a normal pack has roughly a 5% chance for a legendary card.
EDIT: I just found out in discord that these are per card slot. This means each card has a 5% chance of being a legendary. You've got a (roughly) 15% chance to get a leggy from a normal pack. You have a (roughly) 78% chance of getting a leggy from a shiny pack.
Shiny packs have a 40% chance. Shiny packs are also guaranteed to be shadow or above:
Honestly, the Shiny Pack looks like better value than those offered in the past. The price is lower (only $100 compared to $150) and the odds of legendary shadow cards are actually really high. However, are the contents worth 10x the normal pack? Most certainly not. Remember that shiney is primarily cosmetic - particularly for legendary cards. The boost to daily p&e is trivial, so no one is willing to pay 5x met prices for a shadow. Shiny legendary ROIs from daily p2e are abysmal - like decades. They do make it much more likely to get this trinket, though:
In my opinion, buying normal packs supports the devs without throwing money away.
However, the same mechanics are in play with Winter Wonderland that have ensured all previous packs are negative expected value:
Giving packs away
To be clear: I'm happy that all of the below events are taking place. It is worth highlighting, though, that they all but guarantee that the cards you get from packs will be worth less than the cost of the pack.
Weekend Ranked
So most people in Diamond/Mythic will be getting WW packs for free. This will run for 4 weekends, and Eclipse confirmed that WW packs are rewarded based on the above rules each weekend.
Holiday Rewards
This is new for this set. I think it's a great program and encourages people to play. 1,000 is also a lot of people, so it isn't another "top 20 get x" type of event that causes a collective yawn. I also like that wins have nothing to do with it. Just play. The timing of this event to start on Christmas Eve is less than ideal, but there will be plenty of days between Christmas and the new year to get some packs.
Candy Chain
I'm actually most excited to see this event. The game has desperately needed collaborative community events for a while now. It has been so obvious that it made me question the team for not doing it, but now we have one.
Everyone working together, and everyone who participates gets the same reward. Probably includes a few packs. Maybe a trinket? Who knows?
Conclusion
Various posters/commenters have reviewed the entire WW set, so I won't waste time going over those here. Except to say that there is no Thaeriel or Blade of Whiteplain level of OPness in the set. I think the GU team has learned a lot and made improvements since the LV mini set. Happy to see it.
My play time has been down heavily over the past month, but this new set will definitely bring me back. I want to collect the new cards, of course, but also see how much the meta changes. Maybe play against more than the same 5 decks at Mythic. One can hope!
I couldn't agree more on Winter Wanderland being a positive direction, and I'm excited to play in the events and earn some unique packs for a few weeks. I'm not sure on the shiny packs being a worse value (though probably negative ROI either way). Each card slot has a 40% chance of a legendary vs. 5% in the regular packs. That's 8x higher so obviously just for the chance of a given legendary, it's a worse value. However, since they come in a minimum shadow shine (usually at least 2x a meteorite on the marketplace),and there's a 25% chance that it's a gold, I actually think the ROI may be better in shiny.
That's a good point. I suppose if you're looking to spend $100s, it might make sense. I'm looking to spend $10s 😄
I added this as an edit, but:
I just found out in discord that these are per card slot. This means each card has a 5% chance of being a legendary. You've got a (roughly) 15% chance to get a leggy from a normal pack. You have a (roughly) 78% chance of getting a leggy from a shiny pack.
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!LOLZI totally agree with your conclusion @kstreet , I am more than pleased to learn about this upcoming news, and will surely increase my play time this month. Seems like we need to try hard for the following weekend events in order to gain some of those sweet reward packs. Thank you for giving us this update I wouldn't know about all of this for sure. Keep up the great job mate.
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Good review of the news packs man! i see that buying the normal 10$ pack is the way to go!
I agree.
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