Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Ever since Hearthstone has dropped on phones I've been playing lots of matches. That might sound like a lot of time but considering each Hearthstone match typically lasts between 5 to 10 minutes it's not. The individual match length and ability to play on phones make it a great choice if you don't have hours to allocate to playing games or a beefy Desktop. Oh and the game is hells-o-fun too.
The classes I have been having the most fun with are the Shaman and Warlock. I have been trying out simple strategy decks with some basic cards. After I unlocked all the basic cards by leveling up each class to 10 by practicing on the computer I decided to take my hand playing...
The classes I have been having the most fun with are the Shaman and Warlock. I have been trying out simple strategy decks with some basic cards. After I unlocked all the basic cards by leveling up each class to 10 by practicing on the computer I decided to take my hand playing...
Those are some good tips in the video. I've sadly become a "Hearthstone Sith." I got disappointed with it because I was hoping for more of a single player game than competing against others. When I earned enough gold, I unlocked one of the single player modes, but it didn't last long enough for me.
I was always surprised by people who played Warlock decks as I thought those were suicidal. I thought all of the decks have good abilities, except for the Warlock. Thus, that is my least favorite. I'm not sure which is my favorite, though. So, kuddos for playing a Warlock deck. Your description helped me realize that the Warlock can obviously be a good deck.
I haven't played Hearthstone since I gave up on it when I last played over a month ago, maybe more. I'm glad it made it to phones and tablets as I thought it would work well on them (at least tablets). I also got the Collector's Edition of Reaper of Souls. I noticed, after playing and reading about Hearthstone, that there were some cards that came along with that. I haven't redeemed them, I never saw a prompt about it, but maybe that's because I started playing the game after RoS.
If you got the Reaper boxes Collecotrs Edition the Hearthstone pack codes are in the box.
If you want them or not I might know someone that can use them
I got the digital edition of the game and CE, not a hard copy.
I've been playing Hearthstone a lot lately. I love the ability to pick it up, play for 5 mins and then put it down. The variety of play is also great. Playing against other people in this game (Greg, I never did comment on your forum post about PvP gaming now that I think about it) is great. The interaction is limited, as you have a limited set of emotes, but you can get a sense of how the other player is feeling through them ("Greetings," "Threaten," "Oops," etc).
My 3 favorite classes to play right now are Druid (because that's what I always played in WoW), Mage and Warlock. I am having a lot of fun with the spell cards. I love just throwing out damage, even when it's to myself at times. And clearing the board of minions is great too. I just love to nuke :)
30 million Hearthstone accounts. That's pretty incredible.
https://twitter.com/PlayHearthstone/status/595619019593416704
Good write up, Jon. It was fun to see your enthusiasm over "new" cards and building to your basic decklist. I'm about 7 wins away from having a shiny priest (need 500 wins in ranked play to make your hero and hero power shiny) and I am level 60 (cap) with priest, druid, mage. So those are my favs and I do play a lot! (As I've mentioned before).
Getting Harrison Jones was a great lucky find! I have yet to get him, but he's been one of my considerations to craft for a while. I try not to get too much card draw in my control decks because I often sit with 5-8 cards in my hand anyways and in a mirror-match, we've gone through all 30 cards and are taking fatigue damage. So, I keep all card draw out of my priest deck actually. But destroying a weapon, drawing cards, getting a powerful guy out... it's a great card.
Always look for cards that do more than 1 thing. Those deathrattle guys are great for example (like the harvester golem). Or the rifleman (battlecry deal 1 or 2 dmg).
You should be able to purchase the expansions with in game gold, so check that out, I think it's like 700 and it adds cards and 1 player mode for a bit. The cards you get can't be received in packs and everyone gets the same ones... they are definitly worth having. Like from Curse of the Naxxaramus or whatever you get a Sludge Beast. Costs 5 for a 3/5 taunt - deathrattle, summon a 1/2 taunt sludge dude... really great.
You have to do the 1-player battles in the expansion to unlock each new card, it shows you what you can get I think... but yeah, check that out before getting packs. Also, try some Arena out, a great way to play with cards you don't have yet.
I'm glad you pointed out the expansions, JaBo, I was thinking of mentioning that to Jon, since he seems to have earned plenty of gold. I earned enough and unlocked the Naxxaramus. I did beat it and I got some cards from it. That was one of the things that majorly disappointed me, though. I was expecting a lot more single-player play with that expansion. Still, I'd say, if you have the gold, they're worth getting. Maybe some day I'll get over my lack of single player disappointment and play some more. Hearthstone really is a great game, in all honesty, and I'm not surprised that it's very popular. As I keep saying, I just wish there was a lot more to the single player aspect of the game.
"You should be able to purchase the expansions with in game gold, so check that out, I think it's like 700 and it adds cards and 1 player mode for a bit."
Greg mentioned that but I went to the store to check it out and it said it cost $24.99 to unlock. That said, if you go to the Solo Adventures then click the expansions you can unlock each wave for 700 gold. So you would recommend the 4 guaranteed cards as opposed to opening 7 packs? That said, in later stages like you say, some of those cards are sick...
Glad I figured out you can unlock those with gold that's incredible, opens up the game to a whole bunch more play.
Greg: They added another expansion Black Rock Mountain and I think they will add a bunch more too. Looking forward to trying those. It's been fun just to play the daily quests against other people in casual mode.
Tonight I unlocked the first part of Naxxramas, the arachnid quarter. Had a bear of a time with the first boss but the others fell quickly. The class challenges were fun and I love the new spider cards. Already replaced some of the cards in my decks with them and really have enjoyed the results.
Have you tried the arena yet?
What's funny, is I finally got my 500 wins on Priest and am a shiny Priest now... but now I feel like I must be working on something else. So, I made 8 different paladin decks and am cycling through them to level him up to unlock golden cards. Level 60 is cap and you unlock the golden versions of base cards on the way up.
Taken from wiki:
1-10
Up to level 10, reaching each even-numbered level will reward the player with a new basic card x 2 for that hero's class. These cards are not obtainable through any other means. These cards constitute half of each class' basic cards.
This makes reaching level 10 with each hero quite important to playing that class, in order to complete the selection of basic cards available to that hero. Once level 10 has been reached, that class' full selection of basic cards is available to the player.
11-60
Above level 10, reaching certain levels will award golden versions of existing basic cards. As they are soulbound, it is not possible to disenchant these cards, making the reward purely cosmetic. These rewards are the only way to gain golden versions of these cards.
Between levels 11 and 50/52, golden class-specific basic cards are awarded.
Above level 50/52, golden basic neutral minion cards are awarded.
So, now that I have Priest at 500 wins, my next goal is to get all my heroes to 60 so I have all the golden base cards.
I have:
Mage, Druid, Priest at 60.
Warrior and Hunter are 44
Paladin and Shaman are 42
Warlock is 39
Rogue is 37
I don't like Rogue lol.
I might deviate to work on getting Druid or Mage to 500 wins at some point, but it's all a slow march.
It's also fun making a full deck list of decks for the same hero. I came up with one of my favorite Priest combo decks this way and I found some fun Paladin combos yesterday doing this same thing.
I'm nowhere near 500 wins or level 60 for any of my classes, but I feel like I've played a lot the past month or so (since it's been available on my phone). Looking through the Naxx card rewards, there's only a few cards I could see possibly playing. For now I'd rather take my chances and just buy card packs (and go to the arena occasionally).
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I'm too impatient to save up 700 gold lol
Let me see what my levels are. I can say before I check, nothing like JaBo's.
Mage 10, Shaman 22, Druid 13, Paladin 14, Warlock 18, Hunter 15, Warrior 16, Rogue 17 & Priest 11. I played Warrior a bunch when I originally started Hearthstone and have mostly played Shaman coming back to the game.
I have 70 total wins, which I am pretty happy about. Still ranked 25 as I only play casual against other players. Not sure when i'll start playing ranked but at some point I will. Kind of want to improve a bit first.
It turns out that at levels 25 and 24 in ranked matches, losing doesn't set you back, so I've dipped my toe into ranked matches. Right now I'm a 2-star level 24, hopefully I'll make level 23 today :)
And my class levels are:
Warlock 19
Druid 19
Mage 19
Priest 15
Rogue 14
Warrior 9
Shaman 5
Paladin 4
Hunter 1
I definitely stick to the top 4 of my classes lol (Priest is new for me, but I enjoy it, and Druid was my first class to try out, because of my WoW typical characters)
Yeah you don't lose ranks for losing from 20-25. May as well do ranked. You earn new cards backs for getting to rank 20 during a cycle (which is about a month I think). My best rank before they reset me was 7 or 8. I was on a huge win streak. I haven't been able to get there again. I did a surge of arena's this weekend, paying for a few even and in total I had 9 packs to open. I got this warrior card from the packs:
http://i.imgur.com/Nq9qYgU.jpg
And then I got pushed over 1600 dust and I crafted this:
http://imgur.com/yWlgha1
Pretty happy about both those additions for my decks.
Wow, those are both amazing cards!
I've been wanting Lord Jaraxxus for a while, I've lost many a game to him. You can be at 1 health (or 30 health) and when you play him, your hero is replaced by Lord Jaraxxus. You get a weapon that hits for 3 with 8 durability and you get a new hero power. Pay 2 mana for a 6/6 demon. And your current and maximum health gets set to 15.
It's pretty good
I can't wait to get that card now!
It looks like Mal'Ganis is pretty rad too, for the same dust cost.
Yeah, he is, I've lost to him before too, that immunity really forces you to take him out before killing the hero.
I was playing warlock vs warlock the other day. It was turn 5, he had out the demon that has deathrattlle summon a random demon from your hand. I killed it and it brought out Mal'Ganis for him. I bet he was really happy to get that out on turn 5 for free lol... I was holding a Sacrificial Pact in my hand though =]
Interesting article about someone getting a Druid to 500 ranked wins for the golden portrait. At my current rank win ration I should get that golden portrait in 2043.
http://www.pcgamer.com/becoming-a-golden-druid-a-tale-of-obsession/
It does take a long time, I don't remember when they started tracking the wins towards this. It wasn't at release.
Here's my wins on each hero currently for ranked
Priest 500+
Druid 230
Mage 142
Warrior 136
Shaman 74
Paladin 66
Hunter 53
Warlock 46
Rogue 44
That totals 1291. It says I have 1616 Play Mode Wins though. Also, it says My best arena key is 911, but I don't know what that means lol. Ok, I used google. That's my total wins in the arena, my best run is 10 wins.
Let's say for the sake of averages, I have a 50/50 win ratio. Meaning, I've won 1616 games in ranked and lost 1616 games in ranked. For Arena, let's say I average 4 wins with 3 losses. That means with 911 wins it would have taken me 228 arena runs to accrue that many wins which gives me 684 losses. (I'm a little weirded out by that number... that seems crazy to me).
So just in ranked mode, I've played about 3232 games and in arena another 1595. That's 4827 total games for ranked and arena. Let's say each game is average of 10 minutes. That's 804.5 hours (33.5 days) play time.
And that's just in the actual matches, not deck building, not single player missions, not opening packs etc etc.
And 10 minute average might be low, if it's a 15 minute average well, we'd be looking at 1206.75 hours (or over 50 days) played.
The article was dead on about achievables, though. Also, when he mentioned the pro-tip about sticking to one deck while ranking the ladder, that is also true. I bounce from deck to deck a lot and I suffer on the ladder for it. When I locked down a deck and just played and fine tuned that one, that's when I got to rank 7 or 8.
I recently crafted two Ironbeak Owl's for my Hunter deck and they fit in very well. They also happen to be the first cards i've crafted.
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Ironbeak_Owl
I've been playing quite a bit of hunter recently as the beast abilities stack very well together. I also picked up two webspinners as achievements for completing the Hunter class quest on Naxxramas tier 2. So far only after completing Naxxramas tier 2 the cards I've enjoy the most are Sludge Belcher, Maexxna, Webspinner & Haunted Creeper.
Looking forward to picking up Mac Scientist, Kel Thuzad, Echoing Ooze and Shade of Naxxramas.
Oh indeed, thos Webspinners are top notch 1-drops. It's so fun getting one of these guys from it: http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Malorne
Cards I may use in my decks from Curse of the Naxramas:
Haunted Creeper
Sometimes Nerubian Egg
Sometimes Stoneskin Gargoyle
Unstable Ghoul
Sludge Belcher
Echoing Ooze
Shade of Naxxramas
Kel'Thuzad
Loatheb
Loatheb and Sludge Belcher are probably my favorite 2 of the bunch.
I don't get Loatheb he seems way too situational but I could be wrong. How do you use him?
Have you had him used against you?
Let me say, I've lost many a game to someone dropping him after they had a solid board state and I needed to cast some spells.
For me, it has multiple uses. You don't really want to drop him as your only minion if they already have some out, because they'll just take him down and play new minions. No big deal.
But, let's say you have a minion or two out and they don't. Drop him and they now don't have a quick and easy way to deal with all your minions. Sure they could drop a charge minion or a taunt minion, but you could still have spells of your own to help you remove their minions, whereas for a turn, you've fairly effectively blocked them from using spells to remove your minions.
So, it's sort of insurance for a turn. Another good use is when you just need to make sure you're going to be protected from a flurry of spells or big board wipe (mage flamestrike).
It also insanely shuts down some decks that rely on comboing cheap spells.
There's been games where they play Loatheb against me and I'm just like well... pass. He's one of those cards that is hard to really see how effective he is since you don't know what he blocked for you, but you just use him as insurance and assume your opponent has spells in hand to kill your threats. If he doesn't, a 5/5 for 5 isn't the worst.
You'll see people (I've had to do it) still pay the 5 extra mana for a spell too, that's always fun.
Makes sense. I'll think about what decks I might put him in.
I do like that Ironbeak Owl. Very helpful, and I use it often. I've only crafted one card, the Gadgetzan Auctioneer. I cast a lot with Warlock, Mage and Priest, so I plan on using him often. He's a 6 cost card, but with my Summoning Portals, hopefully I can get him out sooner.
http://media-hearth.cursecdn.com/avatars/147/939/131.png (Gadgetzan Auctioneer)
http://gkrage.com/hearthstone-cards/summoning-portal.jpg (Summoning Portal)
If you're wanting a really powerful rare card for Mage, go with Unstable Portal. That card can win you a game or give you enough advantage to win you the game. Getting a random creature that will cost 3 less can be really fun when it gives you a super sweet legendary.
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Unstable_Portal
I was able to chain some Arenas this weekend (meaning, went 5-3, 7-3, 4-3, 8-3 and with quests and prize money I was able to just keep doing more arena). This meant that at the end, when I finally ran out of coins (100 left) I had 12 packs to open. Now, I've opened 20 packs in one sitting and not opened a legendary. So, my last couple times have been pretty lucky. Because this time, I opened not one, but two legendaries. The small caveat to that was I had to break one down...because it was one I already had. I had opened one just a minute earlier lol.
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/File:Sneed%27s_Old_Shredder(12187).png
Not complaining of course! I'll take that guy and the 400 dust for breaking down the duplicate. In fact, I'm now at 1600 dust again and can craft another legendary (or 4 epics). Not sure what my next target is though, that Old Shredder was probably my next target. There's certainly some good ones I don't have yet, but I'll likely wait until I get an urge for one in a deck. May end up being the other warlock legendary.
Dude, that thing is rad. I've lost to it and want one.
yeah, the randomness is just so hard to plan around. I've seen so many things come out of it from a dumb 0/4 to an 8/8 charge. I've even seen itself come back. Would be fun in a shaman deck using the deathrattle cards it has.
In fact, I through a shaman mech/death rattle deck together at lunch time, here's a fun result lol
http://i.imgur.com/PDBlRRq.jpg
Note, those other two legendaries are spawns from the Shredder
NICE
Picked up Illidan Stormrage from a pack. Looking forward to playing him in my Warlock deck!
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131211224446/hearthstone/images/e/ef/IllidanStormrage.png
I had the Sneed Old Shredder in my last Arena deck. In one game as he died, he summoned Kel'Thuzad, which brought back the Shredder... I wish the game hadn't ended so soon after that, because it would have been fun to see how many legendary cards I could have gotten out!
And just got my butt kicked by Lord Jaraxxus lol
I actually played today for the first time in a long time. I decided to resist the Sith mindset and just tried to play for fun. I may have lost about half or more of the games I played, but I managed to complete my daily quests. So, that was cool. I may jump back in the game from time to time trying to just have fun with it instead of worrying about winning or losing. I would like to collect more gold so I can unlock the other single player parts of the game.
Nice, Shredder is so fun, so is Kel'Thuzad, so many cheap tricks with him to get out 2 copies of him (well, have 1 out and kill it plus bringing it back to life same turn thereby having him resurrect himself again).
I wish there were more replacement hero cards besides Lord Jaraxxus and the Ragnaros one. Going to max of 8 health is too risky, so only Jaraxxus is viable, but it's cool getting alternate speech.
I stole Lord Jaraxxus as a Priest once, that was lots of fun :D
Greg: That's a good way to go about it. I played ranked till I hit 20 and then stopped because I did what I needed to unlock the card back. My skills and cards are not at the level where I do well at ranked beyond that though so I am doing the dailies and playing casual and with friends. For me, that's fun enough and I just unlocked a new Naxxramas tier and beat all the bosses one a time the first go. Totally fun but I expected a bit more a challenge, I guess I got really great Shaman hands.
JaBo: I am two Naxx tiers away from unlocking Kel'Thuzad and can't wait to do it. At my current gold earning clip I should have him in a month or less. If I earn 60 gold per day on quests then I should have 1400 to unlock the last two tiers in 23 days!
With that, the Echoing Ooze and Shade of Naxxramas are also cards I want to incorporate into my decks.
It's 700 gold per tier?
Yeah it is. It's steep when you consider unlocking the Adventure is $25 but 700 isn't crazy. That said, I am still not sure an adventure tier in cards is quite worth 7 packs. That said, some very much are but the Knight Quarter cards aren't that great, which is what I just finished.
5 tiers right? So 3500 gold for the whole thing? or $25
$25 would get you 15 packs for $20, 2 packs for $3, and a draft for $2. SO if you spent $25 you'd only get 18 packs. If you spent 3500 gold, well 35 packs. (or 23 arena runs). I guess that's the price of playing for free though. Doable, but not as effectively.
I feel odd spending money on Hearthstone sometimes just because there's no retained value...but really, I could probably sell my account or something. Not to mention the fact that I play it on multiple devices every single day. It keeps me from buying more games I know I won't have time to play.
Account selling? Not sure how practical that would be, do you have other Blizzard games? I have ... all of them that I know of and selling my account would ... suck :D
I hear you on the perceived value though, so far it's just time played but I do plan on buying stuff. We talked about this last night in the Roundtable(linked on the main page). I sort of look at this online stuff like an MMO, it's around until it's not so don't spend money you will regret if it goes away.
That's very true. If the game were to lose popularity and be shut down then you'd be out money. I'd definitely be more upset about losing the game itself than the money I've spent. It's also cheaper than playing magic online. I started that up a couple times and one of them I learned that you can pretty much do drafts 24/7. But they cost just as much as in real life. The cards are worth $ in real life, but it's harder to cash them out. And if you are good at drafts you can win prizes and do them again for free basically. But I was never good enough for that. I played for one month and spent like $200 doing drafts that month and that's with trading off the good cards I was pulling for more $... it was crazy addicting!
And yeah, account selling would be akin to selling your steam library I suppose. I don't have any of the other games though.
Yeah, I really think this video is really helpful. I became a "Hearthstone Sith" as described in the video and stopped playing. I started playing again recently, though I'm not sure exactly why. I haven't quite figured out the bonus from Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. I got the Digital Deluxe edition, which seems to include three packs of cards. That may be something I opened when I started playing Hearthstone and just didn't pay attention. I don't believe I have any RoS cards, though.
Back to the video, I'm actively working on the recommended mindset, staying calm and not worrying too much about winning or losing. Sure, I try to win, which is great when it happens, but I often lose, but that's ok. Luck is also definitely a factor. I had three dailies when I started playing again, which is great. I wish they'd give you three every day, but apparently it's only one. They can stack up to three, though.
I think my favorite kind of daily is something like I had recently, "cast 40 spells," others are like "deal 40 damage to enemy." Those are dailies I like because I can complete them even by losing.
Today my daily was to win 2 games with the Shaman or Mage. I completed it with the Shaman. I beat a Warlock and then my next opponent quit right after we drew our cards, so I got an instant win, which completed my daily.
I know I have some of the Naxxramas cards. I've created custom decks for every class and I play with those decks. They're not specialized and the game was the only guide I used to create them.
Well, I lose a lot too, it is a lot of luck sometimes. There's a lot of factors to a match and a lot of them are random. Some are deck design, some are timing/knowledge/experience based, and some are random number generator (RNG).
I get pretty upset sometimes when something crappy happens from the RNG and I was about to win but lose instead because my spell did 3 dmg instead of 4-6 that would won me a game. But, the flip happens too and I laugh gleefully at my opponent when he had lethal (meaning was about to swing and win) but he decides to kill my Piloted Shredder (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/12191-piloted-shredder) and it spawns a taunt minion or something causing him to be short and lose.
I check this site pretty frequently and if you have some questions or want some advise or tips, let me know. My hearthstone name is Nardraug#1711. I'm usually in the 13-17 rank as I don't play a consistent deck and like to play with fun (albeit not the best) combos. I'm also just working on leveling up the other classes to get gold cards unlocked.
I have a lot of cards and deck possibilities, which is nice. If there's some cards you want to see interact or wonder how useful something is, I can maybe show you (goes for anyone on here).
I do play for the achievable goals, such as getting paladin to level 60 or trying to get to that 12 win arena run. But I also just enjoy the interaction of the game. The single-player is my least favorite part, but it's not bad to have a relaxed - untimed match with the computer.
"I haven't quite figured out the bonus from Diablo III: Reaper of Souls."
That said curious if you would be interested in doing a Google Hangout where we play and talk about the game and what we are doing so people might be able to glean some tips from it. In Hangout you can share your screen and then we can talk about the match as it's happening and why we are doing what we do.
There were print cards included in the Collectors Edition with codes you could type in for three free packs.
"I check this site pretty frequently and if you have some questions or want some advise or tips, let me know."
I've seen you play JaBo, I am not that good yet
That sounds fine to me. I'm open to anything here. I can cover deck construction - arena - ranked play. This game is just so addicting for me and it's one that is easy to oblige.
I haven't seen any Diablo cards. I've seen some that are similar to spells and creatures, but nothing that seems specifically from that game. I know they exist, though. Here are the specific details about the bonus cards: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/13393435/unlock-expert-card-packs-with-reaper-of-souls%E2%84%A2-3-20-2014 So, for getting the Digital Deluxe edition of RoS, my Hearthstone bonus is three Hearthstone Expert Card Packs, which as I said, I may have overlooked. I remember opening multiple decks and it's been a while, maybe I already opened those packs.
I like how my Battle.net friends list has expanded. I often see at least one of you on while I'm playing RoS or Hearthstone. it's cool to see notifications of what you're doing. Jon was a spectator for one of my matches and I was one for one of his. It's pretty cool to watch your friends play! Jon and I also had an in-game chat, which was great. Cheerful Ghost has definitely expanded my games and parts of games that I probably would not use or play if it weren't for CG. CG helps make gaming more awesome!
I recently had a daily of winning 7 games "in any mode" (it's worth more than usual, I think). So, I decided to see if that included Solo Adventures, which it did and made completing that daily much easier. I decided to re-challenge the Naxxramas bosses. I also noticed that you get a gold card for leveling a class up to 20, so I decided that was a new goal to work on. I also realized that I could get exp in Solo mode, even if I lose. So, I worked on a few classes.
Today I had to summon 40 creatures that cost 2 or less. As I said, that's my favorite kind of daily because I didn't have to worry about winning. Since I was last working on getting my Warlock to 20, I decided to go with that and play. I ended up accomplishing both goals and it was fun. Since I didn't care about winning as much, I didn't worry too much about the cost of using his Hero Ability and put it to good use. So yeah, I like that Blizzard created a fun game that can be fun even if you lose.
I don't think there are any new or unique cards you get that are based on Diablo. It's just the 3 free packs with random cards.
One thing I learned from another thread on her was that you can click the x on the quest (once a day) and it respins your quest and gives you a new one. I love that I've finally learned that. I now try to respin any 40 gold quest so as to maximize getting 60-100 gold quests.
Spectating can be fun. With the addition of the spectate quest, I placed my name on reddit and got a dozen or so invites from people for purposes of always having at least one person online to spectate if need be for that quest. It can add some pressure when someone randomly (they do have to be on your friends list) spectates you and you're playing a crappy deck or doing poorly lol. But it's also fun to be pwning when someone spectates.
I finally decided what legendary to craft and it was the other legendary demon. He has been fun. Got one out turn 3 one game.
Turn 3 - use coin - into voidcaller. Then Sacrificial pact my voidcaller to summon a random demon from my hand (and gain 5 life).
A card I'd recommend saving up dust for is the faceless manipulator guy. He's epic rarity, so that's 400 dust a pop, not too bad. He lets you copy any minion for 5. So, even if you don't have powerful legendaries... you can copy your opponent's =] It copies just as they are, so if they are damaged, it'll copy that, if they are buffed up, it'll copy that.
Jon - This week is busy with my mother-in-law visiting from San Diego, but I should be available after this week to set up something up on Hangout.
Card games are my favorite genre of game I think. I devote a lot of time each day/week to both MTG and Hearthstone and I still look eagerly at other card games lol. I think the combination of deck building strategy, playing strategy, luck of the draw, and the quick interaction of it all is just super designed for my tastes. I guess I enjoy player vs player (pvp) games too.
I knew you could respin your daily quests. I think I read some where that doing that when you get 40's to get something better is a good strategy. I should put that into practice. I'm familiar with the Faceless Manipulator.
A few Hearthstone news bits I didn't want to spin into a new post:
Blizzard is hinting a new Warrior character for the game. The said they won't add new classes(bummer) but they are considering a new Warrior character. I wonder if this will change the Warriors ability?
http://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-is-teasing-a-new-hearthstone-something/
Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone are getting some free DLC tie ins as if you get to level 12 in Heroes of the Storm you get a Heroes cardback and if you get 100 wins in Hearthstone you get a special Hearthstone mount in Heroes.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/19529839
I am level 7 in Heroes of the Storm so I guess i'll keep grinding away till I get that cool new cardback.
They are geniuses at this kind of marketing. I'd love to see that expand. Unlock Heroes characters/items/mounts or Hearthstone cards for getting a level 70 character in Diablo 3, something else unlocked for every 100 paragon levels, completing the storyline in each Starcraft 2 campaign, winning 100 multiplayer Starcraft games, etc.
That kind of tie-in is amazing for players, and even better for them since they make more money.
They really are. Heroes of the Storm isn't a kind of game i'd normally play but due to this and the fact it's free and in Battle.net I am playing it and it's a lot of fun. Even the online multiplayer part is really fun and so far, I haven't seen any toxic players at all.
Here's a link to some other Quests too, some are hidden until you complete them:
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Quest
For instance, when you acquire all the Pirate cards from the classic set, you'll get 2 free Captain's Parrots cards.
Yeah, I've looked at that page before.
I may have over looked it, but I didn't see anything about rewards you get for leveling your classes. I found out that you get gold cards by reaching level 20. Then, you get another reward by reaching level 23, which is much sooner than I expected.
I remember seeing that you could buy the extra Solo Adventures stuff and they're really not expensive. I used 700 gold to buy the Naxxramus one and I'm saving up for the next one. I read a strategy of saving gold for the Arena, but my self-confidence in the game isn't too high, so I don't think I'm really ready to gamble my gold with the Arena. I did go in once for free (your first time is free) and won either a couple of cards or packs. I think I had two wins.
Re-rolling quests makes me a little nervous because I don't want to get a "win 5 games" one. If I always had the "win 7 games in any mode" quest, I'd be quite happy!
The Win 7 games quest is a higher gold count so I wouldn't reroll that either. The re-roll strategy is pretty solid, reroll at 40's or under until 60 or above the complete it. If you have 3 40 quests, complete one. I think that's the gist anyway. Oh and i'd add the, if you get the free pack thing, open it
Yesterday I was sick, so I barely played, so I didn't complete my daily which was "win 3 with any class." Today's daily was "win 5 with Druid or Hunter." I didn't re-roll, but I noticed that every win I got went towards both dailies, since I was using my Hunter. Completing those, I was just 10 gold away from 700, so I went and got another win, since I was one away from 10 more gold. So now, I've unlocked the 2nd quarter of Naxxramus.
I've been enjoying the game and having fun with it again. I'm surprised by how many wins I got today (at least 6), which makes me feel pretty good.
This is a game where luck seems to be clearly visible, at least I see it that way. I still think of the things mentioned in this video and all of that has helped me enjoy the game again. Sometimes networking issues happen. I've had quite a few games where my opponent wasn't really there, left, or got disconnected. I've been disconnected during a match at least once. Opponents don't seem to like to let you win, either. If they are losing and they can see an end for them in sight, they will often concede. This is something I do not do.
Initially, my problem with the game was that I wasn't doing very well and I didn't like competing with others. That vision has disappeared, finally. I'm not always so focused on winning, it just depends on what daily quest I've been given. Additionally, I pretty much don't go into "Play Mode" unless I'm working on a daily that requires it. Having ones that don't require me to win most certainly relieves me of the pressure of winning. If I don't have to win, I don't try so very hard to do so, I pretty much try to accomplish my daily. I wonder if others play this way or if pretty much everyone plays to win.
I was also very glad to find out that I could get golden cards just by leveling up my heroes and that I could do so in the single player mode. This has certainly lead me to play and enjoy the game more.
I also think opponents are usually pretty nice and I wonder if that's just how they are or if it's because the game doesn't necessarily allow you to be "mean." Sure you could emote a threat/taunt or whatever, but generally the emotes are limited . People often use the "well played" one. I pretty much always use that one at the end of a match, especially if my opponent did play very well.
What is your experience like? Do you notice any of the things I've mentioned? Do you play similarly (not always focused on winning)?
"This is a game where luck seems to be clearly visible, at least I see it that way. I still think of the things mentioned in this video and all of that has helped me enjoy the game again. Sometimes networking issues happen. I've had quite a few games where my opponent wasn't really there, left, or got disconnected. I've been disconnected during a match at least once. Opponents don't seem to like to let you win, either."
I think you are right, the game does have a fair amount of luck to it no question. In fact recently i've been losing WAY more than I did before. Before i'd be able to win about half or more of the time, lately it's been way worse. So I had to sort of look at what other people had in their decks for the classes I played, see how effective that was and incorporate it if it makes sense. Doesn't ensure a victory but I've been starting to win again which is nice.
"I also think opponents are usually pretty nice and I wonder if that's just how they are or if it's because the game doesn't necessarily allow you to be "mean.""
It's hard to tell, but the limiting part of communication does help people seem nicer. Sometimes people can "taunt" you by doing something particularly skillful or wiping out your minions then they "apologize." That seems to be particularly passive aggressive/dick-ish and I squelch people for that. I don't think rubbing a good move in someones nose is good sportsmanship and avoid it. I usually just send two messages to the other player "Hello" at the top of the match and "Well played" at the end. Sometimes, if they do something cool against me or something I haven't seen before I'll send them a "well played" but beyond that it's just the standard two hello and good game at the end. I try and focus more on the game because if I get wrapped up in them being annoying or whatever, it throws off my game.
Lately, I'm seeing more disconnections or opponents leaving or quitting before the match really begins or before I get a chance to defeat them. I'm feeling so much better about this game after watching that video and playing with those tips in mind. Sometimes I feel like I'm a good player and sometimes I feel terrible. Sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes it seems my opponents do, too, as they'll squelch a "sorry." Sometimes they'll even do that after doing something like defeating a whole row of my minions.
I think quite a bit of success in this game depends on what cards you draw first and what cards you continue to draw. I think (here's a tip) that at the beginning of a match, it's really important to make sure you have in your hand at least a couple of cards you can play relatively soon. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck for the first part of the game not being able to play what's in your hand. This has happened to me in all game modes.
I agree, I think the limited communication makes people seem nicer and less mean. In my experience, people have usually been quite nice. It's cool seeing a "well played." People seem to be like me and they'll say that at the end of a match. I almost always do. I haven't run into any of the a-holes you mention. I've been taunted before, but that's just the hero's words.
I've been re-rolling my dailies when I get them, hoping for the big one. It doesn't always work and sometimes I feel like saving my daily for the next day so that I can re-roll, but I tend to just play what I get after that re-roll. Today I re-rolled a 60 and got a 40, but that's the gamble you take with that feature.
I'm also curious if any of you have faced an opponent more than once. I'm sure I have, which I find fascinating because I know there are very many players world wide. Yet there have been a few times where I recognized my opponent from a previous match.
Still, once I complete my daily quest, I jump into single player mode. That might not earn me much gold, but it allows me to continue to level up my heroes and not feel the pressure of playing against someone else. Some of the AI opponents are tough, many of them are unique and require strategy, but some of them can be fun.
I think the first time I was able to afford a pack of cards (with gold), I bought at least one. Then, I found out about the extra single player unlockables, so I've been saving my gold to purchase those. I'm still working on Naxxramas. Most recently, I unlocked the Military Quarter.
Have any of you unlocked other parts of the game? If so, which?
I don't think "sorry" after a badass move is necessarily taunting. I legitimately feel bad for doing things like that in MtG sometimes, but I'm not going to hold back on people.
Travis: That's a good thought, maybe not everyone is the way I describe. But some may be, still it's good to consider that not everyone does that.
Greg: I've unlocked all of Naxx except the final quarter. Should unlock it in another week.
I've been wondering why I haven't seen you in these conversations, Travis. Do you play? Why does it seem like you've been missing out on the action?
I agree that "sorry" after a badass move isn't taunting, but one it is one example of how seemingly nice people seem to be.
I have played Hearthstone a bit. For me, most of the fun of card games comes from playing in person with people, and Hearthstone takes that away. It's fun, and fantastic for what it is, but I'd rather be playing other types of games, generally.
Actually, I find the "sorry" after a good movek to be incredibly insulting. Maybe they do feel genuinely bad, but I seriously doubt it lol. This is a game where the point is to kill the other player, not to kill nicely lol. But that said, it doesn't happen often and I quite enjoy the game.
I just realized that there isn't any reward for the Tavern Brawls I've won. For some reason I thought it was going to have a similar reward structure to the Arena (more rewards for more wins), but I see I was wrong. And reading around the internet, it sounds like Blizzard didn't want people to feel like they *had* to play it, which I understand. I already miss playing as Blackrock bosses
I just unlocked the final Naxxramas tier. Took about a month of collecting gold to do it so it's nice to have finished. Now I am thinking about how to incorporate Kel Thuzad, Echoing Ooze and Shade of Naxxramas into my decks.
I finally saved up for the first Blackrock Mountain tier. It was fun to play through, and the 2 class challenges were unique, but pretty easy. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's brawl will be :)
One thing that's been bugging me lately playing against other players is when they rub in victories. And by rubbing it in I mean not finishing me off, but playing every card they have before killing me. If you have enough damage available out to kill me, I don't want to sit around waiting for you to put out all your other minions, kill mine, and use all your buffs before finishing the game.
Maybe it's just me being a sore loser, but when I win, I feel that the proper way is to do it quickly. Sort of an unwritten rule in my head :)
Adam, I can definitely see your perspective on that. I think it shows how even limited communication can be open to interpretation. As for what's been bugging you lately, you gain experience from doing different things like killing a minion, killing an opponent, and playing a card. So, in a way it may be worth it to take a few extra moves to gain some extra experience instead of moving in for the straight kill. Here is my resource: http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/284t1a/how_leveling_works/
That's great, Jon! Since you mentioned incorporating new cards into decks, I'm still left with wondering how and when you guys decide to re-customize a deck. It's been a while since I've done it and I've earned a bit of cards since then. I should probably just go ahead and do it. What do you suggest?
Ok, I admit I didn't know the exp from playing cards/killing minions, so I'll rethink my stance on that. I still would rather someone just finish the game, as when we're up in levels, that 6 or 9 more exp doesn't seem like it would make much difference.
As far as making new decks or incorporating new cards, if you have a deck you like, but a card you want to try, sometimes I'll just find a card that has the same cost to exchange out. Working through Blackrock, different bosses forced me to create new decks to counter what they were doing (I had to make a deck with no taunt, and almost all my decks depend on a lot of taunts). This could help put you in the mindset of deck rebuilding. Also the Arena is a great way to experience cards/styles you would normally not play (also the Tavern Brawl potentially).
Well, I do understand and can certainly agree with you. Thanks for the tips. Today I'm getting slaughtered with my Shaman, so I might try to customize that deck again. I think I last customized my decks after facing some of the Naxxramas bosses, but it's been a while since then and I've played more of them multiple times. I like unlocking the Class Challenges because they give me a chance to play with what I call "not-my-cards." =)
I sort of wish there was some other chat available, because in a sense it creates faceless bodies you can be as rude to as you want.
I gave someone a well played after a match and the guy friend requested me. I accepted to hear what he had to say. He basically was a sore loser and asked why I said well played after that match when I beat him by getting lucky draws, then he calls me a moron and defriends me.
I've also had ppl add me after a match just to talk about how crazy the match was or how good it was. That's more typical.
As far as emotes go though, they can be read so many ways. I too get frustrated when my opponent is winning and rubbing it in by emoting things like "sorry" or "hello" and I actually prefer if they threaten because it just feels more appropriate than a snarky "sorry"
Conceding at the end of a match happens a LOT. I do it, my opponent does it, it's just normal. Sometimes when you know it's over, you just want to move to the next match. I do let my opponent swing for the win most times, but when they start playing other cards that they don't need, I just concede.
Now I do that too sometimes, if the match was really close, sometimes I want to show them that the cards in my hand would have easily killed him even if he managed to deal with my other threats. But I do it quick and just throw it out there and quickly end it. I don't want to be that guy that's showboating and killing his board OR even worse, the very worst kind of a-hole is the one that sits there almost dead with you almost dead and if it makes it to your turn then you can win. But they sit and sit pondering their cards and doing dumb little things and then when the turn timer starts they finally fireball you or some stupid crap. I HATE the slow-rolling. That's the worst for me lol.
I feel like not having chat leads to people treating their opponents like faceless robots more often. If you could chat, maybe people would be nicer. Maybe not.... lol.
I've had a few people try and friend me after a match, but I haven't because well I was kind of afraid of what you mention but now I never will friend anyone that way
I like conceding at the end of a match too if they are not going to go for the quick kill. And yeah, killing this and that or casting extra spells might help with someones level but that's not a big deal to me. I just want to play matches for, mostly, gold dailies. So if I am not winning i'm not getting closer to my dailies so i'd prefer people kill me quickly than the slow death.
Overall I enjoy the Hearthstone emote system over a normal chat. I know when I play my friends in real life my banter is more like "OH FUCK" and "I HATE YOU" and "SON OF A BITCH" than anything nice. I am not being mean, I am having a ton of fun and we enjoy the game it's just that I am so into the moment that I want to be there and talk that way and if a random person could see that, I bet they'd think I was a dipshit. And I may very well be one, but it's still fun to talk that way with friends
Make sure to get to at least level 20 on ranked for this cool new card back.
http://us.battle.net//hearthstone/en/blog/19808339
I might actually use this one.
Today was the first time I conceded and I did it twice. Both times, I was near my end and my opponent would have had me if they had gotten another turn. I did this precisely for the reason some of you stated and that was to save time. I know the last time I did it, I didn't concede on my last turn until I played a few cards, to get some extra experience points.
I also got lucky and won my Tavern Brawl match because my opponent "left." This was one of those occurrences I come across every now and then. My best guess as to why this happens is networking issues, a player may have idled or been disconnected some how. Although, it's also possible that (in these instances) the opponent left after not being happy with the cards they were starting out with. I actually think that's happened to me once.
Your opponents do leave some matches right as they start. One thing I know happens is people sand bagging their rank to increase their chances at winning matches. So instead of going higher on the ladder, they'll concede matches to lose rank to 20 and then play against easier opponents.
I have some fun screenshots to post of a couple matches gone crazy.
http://i.imgur.com/yDVOcDN.jpg
It's a little greedy, but so fun when you pull something like this off
This next one, you can see he was at 4 life while I still had effects going off (also, notice the turn timer has reached the end... it stayed there for a while because A LOT of effects were stacked up)
http://i.imgur.com/PBheUwk.jpg
And then the final result. He had a 2/8 defender out before all that started happening that had to get mowed down by my shadow boxers first too.
http://i.imgur.com/WcB1u2N.jpg
He had 4 mana...
I need to fraps or record one of these combos going off... I almost won like this on turn 3 yesterday, but my opponent had a 4/5 taunt out that I couldn't quite get around.
Wow! I still haven't played any ranked matches, so I'm still at 25.
Losing ranked matches does you no harm until level 19 (then you can only fall back to level 20), plus you get a new card back when you end the month at level 20 :)
Speaking of card backs, is it possible to change these on the mobile game? I've not found a way to do that, and I've not installed it on any computer yet.
Adam: Yep, they moved it to the place where you build your deck. You now pick the card back per deck.
I just played a guy that purchased the Medivh hero. Medivh starts with an amazing animation as the birds swoop in and away and he shows up. It's really cool and somewhat intimidating.
That said, I pulled out a win and with my Warlock deck which I just started playing with today. After I bought out Kel Thuzad he (rightfully so) started focusing on it but I had taunt minions and fully stacked board. He killed Kel but I got the win.
Oh and the final cards you get from Naxx in Kel Thuzad, Shade of Naxx and Echoing Ooze are superb. If anyone is saving gold to get through an adventure, Naxx is the ticket. I use quite a few Naxx cards in all my decks.
I've played against Medivh once. Yeah I think the Shad of Naxx is pretty good.
I decided to try ranked matches. I have one star! That means I got one win, doesn't tell you how many I lost. Hahahaha
The new season cardback revealed:
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19809918
Cool! I was impressed with myself because I decided to give Ranked matches a try. I ended up getting to 19 in just a day or two. So, I won a card back, which is a nice change. I've seen some nice ones out there.
Here's to add to the topic of player communication.
Setting. Arena. Guy just lost on turn 6 (he had 5 mana to my 6). He instant friend adds me... I know what to expect. He adds me and I see his status as collecting arena rewards, so this knocked him out.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11951242_10207825357971221_8586269260636546518_n.jpg?oh=bc05d6904406d75a160e472de1ccb186&oe=567AF865
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11903931_10207825358331230_4961200851694721159_n.jpg?oh=b10e5eeb3e64ba9ace2a3186a0a21b5d&oe=56788524
Some people are just bitter a-holes lol
holy crap. I've not run across anything like that.
I've not run across anything like that because I don't friend people after a match. Some people are so passive aggressive with the taunts I can't imagine friending people to be worth it for the chance it could turn out good.
I've been getting to the point that i've been saying "well played" at the top of the match and if they get snarky with the taunts, muting and then saying "well played" or "thanks" at the end.
Good sportsmanship is lost with many gamers and if you can't take a loss as a legitimate loss then I am going to say you are going to have lots of problems in life in general. Can you even imagine this person talking about their job or relationship? My God, the horror
Yeah, that's exactly my thought, I want to make a mini-series based on people playing a game in real life, but talking like they would if anonymous on the internet... I think it'd be funny as shit and point out just how dumb people are.
But ya, as I said, I knew this guy was probably going to be a dick when I accepted. I was ready for it and I didn't get upset over what he said, it amused me. I like that over the passive aggressive spam taunting or slow playing a win.
It annoys me, which throws me off my game a bit which is why I don't accept friend requests from matches and aggressively squelch. Since i've done that it's been way better. I should just start a match by squelching, might not be a bad idea.
One recent match I was going against a very well constructed Warlock deck(this player either spent more money and time in the game than me) VS my Shaman deck, it's not my strongest but I love it a lot. It was one of the longest games i've played and I damn near killed them a few times. When he dropped Lord Jaxxarus I still got him down to 8 life, but couldn't pull the win. I beat back a Mal'Ganis and other back-o-trick Warlock cards.
When he finally had me it was taunt gloat city. I wanted to be like "dude you just beat a free to play player with a fairly standard Shaman deck, but not by much." LOL people.
haha right, it's like the Ducks beating the Beavers... you don't get to gloat afterwards... the Ducks are way stronger of a team right now. But if you lose or even come close... yeah, I feel yah.
Ppl are dumb
That said the other day I beat someone with a gold hero portrait and that felt like the best thing in the world. They were great and had a very strong deck. I am nowhere close to a gold hero portrait!
Yeah, I hate losing priest matches because I have a gold portrait. or like, if I throw out 5 legendaries and lose and they didn't play a single one, I'm like awesome, I suck lol
Hahaha, yeah!