Hearthstone

[Adrenaline]

I got a Beta invite and was wondering if anyone has any pointers for this game as I have never gotten into a game like this before.

I searched and got nothing on the game, just WoW related posts.

 

[WiseUp216]

Check out TotalBiscuit's Hearthstone series of ~18 episodes. He does a good job explaining the strategies that he uses.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut/search?query=hearthstone

 

[Snock514]

I'm so jealous I've been watching nl_kripparrian play every other night or so, it looks pretty polished and fun!

 

[Xed]

I am enjoying it more than I thought I would but am concerned about RMT.

 

[lupi]

Just got an invite email. Stayed up late for the game last night so was planning on sleep time early....will have to see how the willpower goes tonight.

 

[smackababy]

It is pretty much Magic the Gathering Online. If you played that at all, you should understand the game pretty quickly.

The only problem I have wish such games like this is it costs money to play Arena (draft tourneys in MTG) and you get nothing in return, at least from what I can tell. I am not going to pay $3 for a possible 3 games (3 losses and you're done) and get a few cards that I can't even sell afterwards. Without a marketplace to sell rare cards, there is little incentive to play drafts where you don't keep the cards AND playing constructed suffers the same problems every trading card game has (the rich kids always win because they buy the best cards).

Perhaps if they did a free day or something once a week, I'd play it on that day. Otherwise, I am not throwing money away with no real chance to at least break even if I win.

 

[Aikouka]

I thought you pay gold to enter the arena? The difference there versus real money is that just like most freemium games, you can earn gold in the game. In TB's latest video on the changes, he talked about gold rewards being increased substantially.

 

[smackababy]

I thought you pay gold to enter the arena? The difference there versus real money is that just like most freemium games, you can earn gold in the game. In TB's latest video on the changes, he talked about gold rewards being increased substantially.

From what I've seen of it, you have to pay at least some to play in the Arena. Blizzard has stated they will be giving you all the gold you spend in the beta back after the game goes live.

And the problem with games like this that 'reward' gold is that you have to win to get them. Even MTG, if you won a draft, you could use the packs to enter another draft, however, you still had to pay with a coin. It made it cheaper, but not entirely free. The thing it had going for it was the card marketplace. You could sell your rare cards for currency in the game to be used to pay for more drafts. Plus, you kept every card you got from the drafts.

As far as I can tell, you only get the "rewards" after the arena and it is like a few cards and a bit of gold. Not exactly worth the $3 or whatever it costs to enter.

I guess it wouldn't be so bad if this was a physical trading card game, because you got physical cards. However, the fact that it is only online kind of irks me as just a way to grab money with microtransactions for a largely pay to win genre. If you get nothing substantial from Arena, there is no reason it should cost any money.

 

[hardhat]

Each arena entry costs $1.99 or 150 gold. With each arena entry you get one pack of "expert" cards. That is 5 cards. The same pack costs $1.50, or some small discount with mass purchases. You also get four random rewards that scale to your performance with arena entry. So you are essentially paying $0.50 cents per arena run, plus a mandatory pack purchase. You typically earn enough gold for another admission at 7 wins. Less than 10% of the player pool can win consistently enough in arena to continually fund further admissions through only arena winnings.

The arena seems to be how they intend to make money, as very few people value digital cards enough to outright buy packs. That means they probably aren't going to change the system to something fair like after 3 wins you can fund another run. However, if you do the daily quest you can typically earn an arena run through rewards every other day.

Overall, the game looks pretty balanced now. There isn't that much card diversity yet, which keeps things simple. They might have overnerfed Rogue with the last update very slightly.

 

[Erenhardt]

I was so hyped about this game 2 weeks ago. Now I forget about it and what? Beta invite! Couldn't they pick me earlier when I had lots of free time? Now I'm busy and probably will not even play it ;/

 

[lupi]

yeah, it's somewhat addicting

 

[Snock514]

i was so hyped about this game 2 weeks ago. Now i forget about it and what? Beta invite! Couldn't they pick me earlier when i had lots of free time? Now i'm busy and probably will not even play it ;/

do want

 

[lupi]

Went through and played jaina until I unlocked all the classes which got mage to level 10. Only fight the gave any challenge was against warrior, had to play that one 3 times. First was figuring out his armor and execute and buffed personal weapons suck if he gets the cards in the right order. Second was me getting an absolute horrible early selection of cards, and downed him on the third go. Didn't help on the first battle that I learned you could accidentally cast a fireball on yourself.

 

[gothamhunter]

Just got an invite; really excited.

 

[waggy]

I just got a invite too. every time I open it Forte agent opens at the same time..
If i close the program it re-opens.


also the servers were down so i couldn't do shit

 

[lupi]

Only played a little last night. Had a daily quest to do a "play" match, tried but after about 2 minutes twice of computer looking for opponent but nothing else happening droped that. Started leveling up the warrior since that was the only one that gave my mage a challenge. Decimated the warlock (which seems a bad class to me) but had troubled against most others. For some reason I was getting nearly as good cards as the AI did. While the computer would somehow get multiple hero weapons per game, I got it once over four.

 

[lupi]

And does anyone know, when you start receiving all these new cards are they automatically added to your deck possibilities or must you make custom decks?

 

[Aikouka]

And does anyone know, when you start receiving all these new cards are they automatically added to your deck possibilities or must you make custom decks?

I believe custom decks are only used for constructed play. New cards should automatically be added to your possible cards for Arena play.

 

[lupi]

Have only done practice mode so far.

 

[Majes]

The only similarity between this and MTG is really that they are card games...
Hearthstone is very, very simple to play. There is a little bit of strategy, but most games are pretty random.

I do like that games tend to be very close and fairly quick. But I played about 100 games when I got into the beta and gave it up. Not enough to it to keep my interest.

 

[waggy]

so far i like it. some stuff makes me wonder. i swear one guy was getting 2-3 cards a round.

can you edit a custom deck? i can't find a way to do t hat.

 

[Zeze]

Anyone have an extra invite for me? Do they even hand extra invites?

PM me.

 

[gothamhunter]

I'm kicking some pretty good butt, but I was also state ranked in MTG so I figured some skill would carry over (not tooting my own horn, just aware of my nerdness).

I went 8-0 in Arena before losing 3 in a row, once while trying to play when my wife was talking to me about her co-teachers and I couldn't concentrate lol.

I'm enjoying it a lot and bought some packs already; I see this being played long-term for me.

 

[Snock514]

@PlayHearthstone We are sending out a wave of Hearthstone beta keys to the North American region right now. This wave should conclude within the hour. - 23 minutes ago

edit: fml still no key and ive been opted in for all betas, I guess that's what I get for getting into the d3 beta..

 

[smackababy]

Just got one, so I guess they are sending them out quick. Ugh, there goes my money.