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Whoah I had a really bad 1-3 run in Arena with the Warlock, failed on my deck selection. The best part is... the only win is the other person leaving the game in the first round, and I still get a pack and 30 gold so it cost me 20 gold and still got some experience with new cards I guess Sadly didn't get to play Ysera :/

A Warlock pulled out a Worgen and cast Power Overwhelming three times on it, so he hit me for 16 dmg in round 4 or 5. Oh dear. I'm no sure if he could have hit it with Mortal Coil, otherwise he would have killed me with just that creature. But that's ok he pulled a fourth Power Overwhelming a round or two later :p

The worgen can become incredebly strong, I had a priest play him, then increase his health to something like 20 (:O) and then use this make atack equal to health card. Two attacks later I was done for. And one other time I was playing a mage, who hit his worgen with a fire blast (or whatever it's called, his class ability) and then hit me and finally took out my 4* minion. I am still stuck on the 1:2 arena run, as I am not at home for a couple of weeks and for some reason the game's requirements are really high in terms of hardware. I can't install it on my notebook.

ファブリス Wrote:Sadly didn't get to play Ysera

That's a shame, I remember losing against someone with that card. He also had some kind of spell, which was very powerful and did damage to all cards, but Ysera.

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Doh. Just realized I could have picked Alexstrasza yesterday instead of Ysera which seemed more complicated but I didn't realize I could have healed myself with it.

riogray Wrote:(...) the game's requirements are really high in terms of hardware. I can't install it on my notebook.

That's odd I heard quite the opposite. Also they are going to release an iPad version soon. Try updating the drivers if you have a old hardware model... you never know. I heard it should run on integrated GPU.

riogray Wrote:I had a priest play him, then increase his health to something like 20

Yeah they do this to me with the Lightspawn usually, and often after a dropping a Taunt.

Warlock gives me the most wins in Play mode by far, so why did it fail so bad in Arena? I'm thinking maybe it is very flexible when I can make a balanced deck. I have spells for direct damage and can draw cards. In Arena I don't know that I will have the spells so the Hero power just kills me sooner than later. Obviously lack of skills/experience as well but I think the play style in Arena is a big factor. So now I'm thinking I should stick to classes that have a "control" Hero Power like Warrior, Rogue, Priest, Mage... would be better to build Arena experience. At least if the deck is average I still have a means of removal of weak creatures.

Just won an arena match by virtue of my opponent having run out of cards and taking 2 (I think) damage at the start of his turns... my last round of attacks left him at 1 health, I had 2 left (he was Mage, so I had two rounds to live - had 5-6 minions at that point though).

Confirming that it runs on iGPU (mobile Sandy Bridge). Medium effects by default, runs smoothly.

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Here's a Twitch broadcast of the beginning of my Mage Arena run tonight, drafting cards and 1st win vs Priest.

Critique of my pick of cards much welcome. It doesn't seem too bad... though I could have done without two Demolishers =)

edit: hmm... I guess I could have picked the Dragon as the first pick. I'm so used to run out of cards I didn't have the confidence that I would be able to make a good use of it..

I guess I would have gone for the mana wyrms in two instances and the dragon instead of the demolisher as first card, but otherwise this is exacly what I would have picked. It's funny how playstyles differ, I wouldn't have played the scarlet crusader, but used arcane missile in the beginning. So how did it end? I installed Hearthstone on my notebook, after you two said it doesn't need much hardware and it seems to run perfectly, allthough I was notified, that I do not have the recommended hardware. I managed to get a 5:3 hunter arena run today again, I was a bit disappointed as I had a 3:0 start.

And again! So irritating, I wonder how they match players in arena. Do they start you of with people, who haven't won and then increase the difficulty by leting you play oponents, who have won previous matches? On another note I tried paladin and shaman and both have been a lot of fun. I really like the totems of the shaman.

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riogray Wrote:I guess I would have gone for the mana wyrms in two instances

Interesting. This is a case where I haven't seen it used against myself in a significant way, but definitely I should play with it in Play mode to see its potential. I think you're right though.

I didn't expect to get two demolishers. I wonder if some players have guessed the draft algorithm somehow. It does look like you often get 2 or 3 of some cards.

Quote:So how did it end?

2-3. Didn't get to play it as much as I'd like because one disconnect counted as a loss. It looked pretty bad for me though because it was the second game in a row with a Paladin that used the epic 1/5 Sword of Justice (Whenever you summon a minion, give it +1/+1 and this loses 1 durability.). That seems to give a significant advantage in the early rounds... for 3 mana.

Quote:I managed to get a 5:3 hunter arena run today again, I was a bit disappointed as I had a 3:0 start.

Damn that's nice. I'm beginning to grok "aggro" style. Having fun in Ranked with a deck inspired by Reynad's Warrior. Surprisingly decent even without all the good cards. I'm kind of plateau-ing at rank 17 losing one, winning one, but I'm not able to craft yet Frothing Berserker x2, Mortal Strike x2, and another Bloodsail Raider. And I definitely make mistakes so it's a good learning. Like last fail against a Mage, I held off from using Weapon,; but I could have gone to her face with Heroic Strike for +7 and a Yeti. Instead I held off, then she use Frost Nova, and then next turn the Water Elemental so I lost my opportunity to bring her to 15 when I'm at 28.

I'm really glad I setup a recording solution. OBS is super easy to use. I've learned quite a few things already just replaying my losses. The idea is I can connect to an actual experience I had. A good example in this Arena win vs Priest even though I won, I think at 19m20s I could have played better. Brewmaster seems like a decent play: I get to save my Demolisher which was silenced, I don't lose a card and put down a 3/2 but then I play Stormwind. This is a case of inattention where I believed the Squire was 4/4 in my mind, and it would survive after exchanging with Game Hunter, and the 2/2 > 3/3 would kill the Acolyte, so in theory it looked good. Had I played Dark Scale instead I would have had a 4/5 which was safe from Shadow Words, the 4/3 would be healed to 4/4 and take the Acolyte, and the 2/2 could be sacrificed against the Big Game Hunter. Now I'd have had a 4/3, 4/5, 3/2 against a 3/2 and Stormwind still up next turn. Priest would probably have used Shadow Pain vs 3/2 but then Storwind would buff the 4/5 into 5/6 and potentially the Demolisher into a 2/5.

Quote:And again! So irritating, I wonder how they match players in arena. Do they start you of with people, who haven't won and then increase the difficulty by leting you play oponents, who have won previous matches?

It's supposed to be the case but according to some Reddit threads that matchups are not always following this scenario.

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Just had a pretty silly game where the Mage dropped 5 taunts in the first 2 rounds

edit: Deleted the video cause it's not really worth keeping. It was a bit funny because the Mage seemed to be using Murlocs and the Taunts would potentially stop her from adding more smaller minions but then she dropped a Frostwolf (which incidentally I don't see much at all lately).. so I went to work and finished with a 2/2 Sheep :p

I had the most amazing arena run today, I managed a 7:3 with a paladin. As a result I got 175 gold and one deck, a first time positive net outcome for me. I was quite lucky in terms of cards, I got an [url=http://www.hearthhead.com/card=420/cairne-bloodhoof
]Cairne Bloodhoof[/url], Holy Wrath, Avenging Wrath, Aldor Peacekeeper and Argent Protector. This turned out to be a very good combination, I almost never ran out of cards, as I also had two Acolytes of Pain and one Cult Master. Sadly I played against two mages, which had just too much of a damage output for me and one priest, who just played really well. I wish I had recorded that match, as I am still not quite sure why I lost. So once I am back home and have a little time, I will try your OBS setup.

ファブリス Wrote:Just had a pretty silly game where the Mage dropped 5 taunts in the first 2 rounds

I love those kind of games, where you realize it must be a beginner playing, but even though you win easily it is really refreshing to see this completely different playstyle.

ファブリス Wrote:I'm beginning to grok "aggro" style. Having fun in Ranked with a deck inspired by Reynad's Warrior.

Yes warrior is quite a lot of fun. But at the moment I'm really into paladin, simply because I seem to win a lot

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Have you noticed Priests sometimes heal a minion that doesn't need healing, and it doesn't cause any benefit? Why do they do that?

I had one guy heal me in the first round followed by the threat "The light shall burn you!" which made me giggle. At least it makes some sense, it's a little roleplay. But otherwise I don't get it.

Oh and congratulations! Btw, be aware of a nasty bug: if you happen to use ALT-F4 instead of "Concede" in the 3rd loss in Arena (because it's often quicker to exit and click "Play" due to all the animations), when you come back you may find the key says "0 wins" and the rewards accordingly. Happened to me and a quick search over the forums revealed it happened to another person.

ファブリス Wrote:Have you noticed Priests sometimes heal a minion that doesn't need healing, and it doesn't cause any benefit? Why do they do that?

They do this all the time. I think it is some kind of reflex. Just as some people take a huge amount of time in the first round and then play nothing (because really they can't). Or how people have to play every single card until they decide to finally defeat you.

ファブリス Wrote:Btw, be aware of a nasty bug

Thanks for letting me know, will refrain from using ALT-F4 alltogether for now.

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Wow I had a great game with my aggro Warrior against a really good Priest in Ranked play (still with my weak deck mind you, I don't have the Frothing Berserkers and Mortal Strikes).

First I learned to hold off mana in order to armor up before I get too low. I thought I'd lose, and then I recover to 12 life + 18 armor, and he's at 5. Then at 18min I make a fateful decision to ignore the 6/4 and go for the Hero to bring it to 1. Still a gamble, because he could have had a Taunt but one that I greatly underestimated.

Edit1: Wow haha.. I now realize the reason he held onto an Ooze in the late game is because he got one of my Arcanite Reaper with Thought Steal, which he kept for a while, and thus he knew I would get it later. This is the kind of thing I would take forever to learn if I hadn't watched it again.

Edit2: Actually looking at it again I now realize the bigger mistake is that I equipped Arcanite Reaper at the end of my turn (around 14m30s). Early game I sometimes do this to be ready for incoming threats with mana at disposal to add minions. But at that stage of the game the only card I have above 5 mana was the Argent Commander, AND I'm only getting one card a turn. So I should have held onto the Weapon just in case, keep burning the Priest for more than he can heal, and then equip the weapon for the killing blow.

Edit3: Oh and I now realized in ranked actually people use the Ooze quite often... and I'm obviously a Warrior so he didn't even need Thought Steal to figure that out, duh me :p

Btw, did you get good value out of Holy Wrath? I've read it's not considered a good card, although one poster concluded it was worth it in a deck with an average of 4+ mana cards. It would be totally worth the gamble if it was an AOE.

riogray Wrote:They do this all the time. I think it is some kind of reflex

On further thought I think maybe they do that to make sure they never miss the Hero Power? It's happened to me on the Druid for example to forget to use the remaining mana when there is enough left and nothing else to do.

Quote:Btw, did you get good value out of Holy Wrath?

As a matter of fact I did. It obviously is a bit of a gamble to play it, but for me it worked out in most cases.

Quite a good match you had there with the priest. I'm quite impressed that you are rank 15

Quote:On further thought I think maybe they do that to make sure they never miss the Hero Power?

I'm sure that's why but it still is irritating.

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That's cool. I'm beginning to take the "card rankings" lists/spreadsheet with a grain of salt. Some card are said to be bad, but they may be bad in Arena in general and great for some Ranked decks, and vice versa.

I fell back to Rank 16. I realized that trying to replace cards I'm missing from a full aggro Warrior isn't working, since the whole point of that deck is to do as much damage as possible early game and then benefit from Mortal Strike to finish off before the opponent draws the big cards.

Without Mortal Strike or another very strong card I figured I'm better off adding Taunts as those are my biggest weakness late game. Basically every other match was spending 15 minutes defending and/or armoring up and then dying to a Ragnaros or Pyroblast. It's frustrating because those are rather boring games and I'd much rather just conceded in turn 1 and move on to learn how to play the early game better.

Only highlight yesterday is I finally beat one of those annoying Priests using the Lightwell + Divine Spirit + Inner Fire gimmick. Had I not added a Taunt to the Warrior deck it would not have worked. Actually chewed through a 20 Life Lightwell, under cover of a Fen Creeper, with Darkscales and Yetis. That guy teased me with a "thank you" when I spent time hitting his Lightwell so it made the win all the more satisfying =)

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Hmm can't quite make my mind if I want to buy a few packs. I got a lot out of the game already, but on the other hand I don't really like this business model. I'm thinking maybe 7 packs for like 8,99 €... that would be no more than a monthly MMO sub (when they used to be good instead of F2P treadmills >_>).

When you buy packs you keep the cards "forever". So in a sense it is better than buying consumables on a F2P game. But then again they are selling virtual currency. Plus, it's a form of gambling, so in a sense it is buying consumables. Only you can "transmute" some of it back into permanent card, but at a loss.

How do people feel about this?

I guess if you're dying to get some cards then it's an OK way, but I prefer the slow and steady route of Arena. I feel the community consensus is that Arena is a more cost effective path to gaining packs, so long as you can get 3+ wins on average. Although there's also the consideration that some players don't like Arena in the first place, and also that requires an additional time commitment to obviously play through the games.

I think Hearthstone is in sort of a middle ground -- it's obviously much cheaper than Magic, where you'd often have to spend hundreds of dollars to get the absolute top tier decks. On the other hand, in Magic cards are physical things (so there's more intrinsic value than just a 'digital' card like in Hearthstone), and you can actually trade them to other players - something that Hearthstone developers say is not part of the game's philosophy as a Collectible Card Game.

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Yeah I was hoping to get packs through Arena but I'm just not having fun with it. Even with one win it's not a bad deal since you get a pack and perhaps a bit of gold... but it's more frustrating than it is fun for me. I really don't understand how to draft the decks properly, I always seem to end up with a lack of a good hand to start a game, or the other player pulls some gimmicks. Like right now it seems Alarm-o-Bot is all the rage >_>

In Ranked Play even with a cheap deck and even when I'm kind of plateauing near rank 15-14 with a Warrior I still learn a lot, because it's a more constrained environment. It's just overall more fun for me.

For someone like me who doesn't enjoy Arena all that much, or maybe will do so when I know the game much better, I'm thinking maybe buying packs for 100 gold isn't so bad. If you play an hour every day and do the daily quest I think you can sustain a pack a day. On further thought, for me actually Arena might be a slower way to get Packs since I take much more time to think through how to best handle each turn..

Aaanyway...

It was pretty funny tonight in Ranked Play I had two players concede to my Warrior quite early in the game. I don't think I was in such a great spot, they must have thought I had the full Reynad "aggro" deck ^_^ (Mortal Strike's, and Frothing Berserkers... which I don't have).

Playing the aggro Warrior turned out much more interesting than I thought. Because the interaction between the cards in hand is less complex, rather than being boring it actually let me focus on basic principles of the game like chosing what cards to keep at the beginning, when to attack a minion, when to attack the hero. When to go all out, when to hold cards. It's great.

I've been using http://www.arenavalue.com/ for arena drafts whenever I have close decisions between cards. I think the card values are based on Trump's tier lists, so they're pretty solid. I just hit 10 wins for the first time with a shaman deck, and man do you run into people with stacked decks once you get closer to 12 wins.

ファブリス Wrote:Playing the aggro Warrior turned out much more interesting than I thought. Because the interaction between the cards in hand is less complex, rather than being boring it actually let me focus on basic principles of the game like chosing what cards to keep at the beginning, when to attack a minion, when to attack the hero. When to go all out, when to hold cards. It's great.

I played Reynad's aggro warrior deck for a few days during my first week playing and I completely agree. Massing short games with tons of decision points, I got a really good feel for what to mulligan at the start and how to look for/setup trades and all that fundamental stuff. It probably would've been a much slower learning curve to start if I was playing 25 minute long druid control games. I got pretty bored of aggro decks once I felt like I had the basics down though, just not enough hard decisions to keep things interesting.

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Wow I just found out that if you don't clear 3 daily quests, there is a backlog. I was playing on a secondary US account while EU is down, and after clearing two quessts they got immediately replaced! That means I'm piling up gold while leveling heroes on that account and don't have to grind as slowly to get decent cards to play on that secondary account. Pretty sweet!

Today had a Paladin cast Blessing of Wisdom (Choose a minion. Whenever it attacks, draw a card.) AND a Divine Shield on my Northshire Cleric. I hadn't seen that move before... I'm not sure what to think of it. I guess that's a good way to get value out of the card seeing as in the early rounds it's not always easy to afford 2 mana to heal the Northshire for an extra card. I just didn't attack with it unless necessary. Do people do that on Ranked?

I'm feeling a bit more confident lately and I figure I may just as well play Ranked instead of Casual and even do dailies in Ranked. As long as I have a deck than can win half the games (which isn't too hard with the aggro Warrior deck).. even if I don't progress much what's there to lose?

In Casual though... there is definitely a lot of time to lose. Lately I've had some really silly matches. The Mage that spends high value cards early in the game for seemingly no reason (eg. Fireball my Defender of Argus, when there are two Taunts at full Health with more Attack and her side of the board is clear... I don't get it). Or that Mage who casts Frostbolt on herself and then goes "Oops".

I understand there's new players all the time, which is cool. But I read somewhere if you have winning streaks you're supposed to face better opponents. Have you noticed anyting like that in Casual?

That might have been a bug, they haven't backloged in my experience. I managed two games yesterday and finished one quest. Since I hadn't played in a while I sure would have had more quest on the line, but I didn't get a new one. In regards to the playing better opponents in casual, I think I can confirm that. I still have more or less the same win/lose ratio compared to when I started and I have become much better at the game (at least that's what I like to think).

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Has anyone figured out how to replace a quest? (ideally to get a 60 Gold or 100 Gold quest instead of the 40 Gold ones).

Everytime I clicked the little crosshair nothing happens, yet recent comments on Reddit seem to indicate it works in the beta.

you mean the red cross? doesn't that just erase one quest? I haven't tried to click on it, way too dangerous

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Yes, at least that's what I understand. You are supposed to be able to cancel a quest and get a replacement (only once per quest).

"Rerolling" quests was not available at one point during beta (it was taken down due to a bug), but looking at a recent Reddit thread it seems this works for a lot of people.

EDIT: Well I tried on a US account just now and it worked. There is no visual feedback. Clicked twice, the crosshairs disappeared from *two* quests I had there, and the one I clicked was indeed replaced with another. If anything that means you can play the Hero's you prefer or even complete two quests at once if the Hero's requirement overlap. But I was only able to replace one of the two quests, rather than replace each individual quest.

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self Wrote:(eg. Fireball my Defender of Argus, when there are two Taunts at full Health with more Attack and her side of the board is clear... I don't get it)

This happened again. Now I get it... likely a player that is still learning the differences between "live" effects such as Stormwind's +1/+1 and Battlecry. I guess they are trying to get rid of the Taunts by killing the Defender of Argus. It definitely wasn't obvious to me when I started playing Hearthstone.