Hearthstone

[Aikouka]

Dumb question - Does this game require skill? I've heard it's very casual and a noob like me can get into the game in matter of hours? Is that true? I really want to start playing because I have a 15 hour flight this week and I want to play Heartstone on my iPad during the flight hehehe

First of all, are you going to have in-flight access? That's important since Hearthstone is an online-only game.

Does the game require skill? Yeah. There's a little bit of the "chess element" involved in trying to control your opponent or the flow of the game. There's also a lot of knowledge that you won't have until you've played the game for a while. For example, if a class throws up a secret (these are "trap" cards that proc on certain criteria listed on the card), you need to be able to figure out which one it is. For example, if a Hunter throws up a secret and I don't have anything too menacing on the board, I'm going to assume it's a Snipe (deals 4 damage to whatever minion is played next). If he throws up a secret and I have a menacing minion on the board, I'm going to assume that it's a freezing trap (upon attacking the hero, send the minion back to the owner's hand and raise the mana cost by 2). If I have a few smaller minions on the board, I'm going to assume that it's an Explosive Trap.

I ran into a few Hunters during my Casual Play session last night, and I was able to guess the Snipe and toss out a weak minion to "eat it" instead of a tougher minion (that would have been made much easier to kill if it took it). Although, I did screw up with a Mage in regard to secrets. When you construct a deck, most cards are limited to 2 of each in a deck (some cards have a limit of 1). I had a Mage use Mirror Entity (when your opponent plays a minion, you get one too) on me twice, and then he threw a third secret up. I was all worried about it being another Mirror Entity, but it wasn't until after I played a card to screw that up that I realized I was a dummy since he couldn't have any more of them.

 

[Cappuccino]

First of all, are you going to have in-flight access? That's important since Hearthstone is an online-only game.

Does the game require skill? Yeah. There's a little bit of the "chess element" involved in trying to control your opponent or the flow of the game. There's also a lot of knowledge that you won't have until you've played the game for a while. For example, if a class throws up a secret (these are "trap" cards that proc on certain criteria listed on the card), you need to be able to figure out which one it is. For example, if a Hunter throws up a secret and I don't have anything too menacing on the board, I'm going to assume it's a Snipe (deals 4 damage to whatever minion is played next). If he throws up a secret and I have a menacing minion on the board, I'm going to assume that it's a freezing trap (upon attacking the hero, send the minion back to the owner's hand and raise the mana cost by 2). If I have a few smaller minions on the board, I'm going to assume that it's an Explosive Trap.

I ran into a few Hunters during my Casual Play session last night, and I was able to guess the Snipe and toss out a weak minion to "eat it" instead of a tougher minion (that would have been made much easier to kill if it took it). Although, I did screw up with a Mage in regard to secrets. When you construct a deck, most cards are limited to 2 of each in a deck (some cards have a limit of 1). I had a Mage use Mirror Entity (when your opponent plays a minion, you get one too) on me twice, and then he threw a third secret up. I was all worried about it being another Mirror Entity, but it wasn't until after I played a card to screw that up that I realized I was a dummy since he couldn't have any more of them.

Oh snap! I totally forgot about that. I guess I will play offline and play with the AI. What a bummer I wanted to play online as well, I totally forgot that I'm up in the air flying

Oh I see. I have no clue. I think it's a good idea to play lots of offline to get use to the mechanics. Give me 1 week and I will be the best in the world!
Oh and can you play people around the world? US VS EU, or is it like Diablo 3?

 

[lupi]

same as diablo, you can play any region but items are region locked.

 

[Chiropteran]

Post reset ranked, WTF is with all these slow warlock giant decks. I'm sure they get ripped apart by any sort of rush or hunter deck, but of course I only see them when I am playing a slowish control deck.

 

[lupi]

It's been the 2nd/3rd most common lock deck, surprised you haven't seen more of them. Played against one last night on my nondescript hunter, want much of a challenge though when I dropped 2 buzzard and a hound down when he had 3 mobs out, already had a wolf on the board so my hounds were 2-1.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, I have run into those a lot for a while now, but as stated, they don't last against a rush deck, which is pretty much all I use anymore except on my priest (well, it sometimes becomes a rush deck depending on card draw). But the priest deck is such a back heavy deck to begin with that it has no problems countering those giants (between the 2x kill minion with 5 or greater attack, and a big game hunter, it handles them very easily, plus the healing and health buffs, I can outlast them).

 

[lupi]

Logged in for a moment last night to check things. Getting the black temple art should be easy as I started this season at rank 20.

 

[Aikouka]

I saw that I had two quests that included winning with a Warlock. So, I decided to create a Warlock deck, but I was a bit weary since I never leveled my Warlock. Yeah, I didn't do so hot. My biggest problem was that I could never gain momentum nor halt my opponent's. I did get Corruption via leveling after losing twice, so that might help a little bit. I also probably need to consider adding a few other spells as removal.

To help lift my ailing spirits, I jumped onto my Priest for a little raucous fun! Of course, I ended up getting all the right cards in my hand (1x Power Word: Shield, 2x Divine Spirits, 1x Inner Fire). I slapped down a Boulderfist Ogre with my original plan to use the cards on it. That ended up being a bad idea, but I was able to use it (with the Power Word: Shield) to clear his board and play my second Boulderfist Ogre... who became a 28/28. :awe:

The thing is... I really feel cheap using a play like that. It just doesn't seem right that it only costs four mana to buff that card up to that extreme. Essentially, you cannot leave a minion with a decent health pool on the board when you're playing against a Priest. Frankly, I think some of the Priest removal cards are too cheap as well. Ultimately, the most powerful card against a Priest is a 4/x, because that's the only card that a Priest cannot insta-kill!

 

[Cappuccino]

Just finish defeating the training missions. I won my first casual game and lost my first rank game. To be honest I don't like it. Maybe I'm not very interested in card games I dunno. Am I missing something? I lost the rank game because he/she have better cards so is this game pay to win? Just wondering.

 

[Aikouka]

I've only ever opened five decks (3 from Diablo III, 1 from Arena and 1 purchased with gold), and I certainly don't consider it impossible to beat people that have opened a lot more.

There are usually three reasons you can lose:
1) Bad Deck (common among newer players)
2) Bad Luck (bad draw for you and/or good draw for them)
3) Got Outplayed (sometimes by cheesy things like mentioned in my last post)

One thing to keep in mind is that you may want to level up your character against the AI to at least level 10. By level 10, you get all of the common cards for your character, and they can be quite helpful.

 

[lupi]

Yeah, play AI/complete expert AI missions to get the chars you want to level 10, otherwise you'll be missing several key class cards that will be making play difficult.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Ultimately, the most powerful card against a Priest is a 4/x, because that's the only card that a Priest cannot insta-kill!

Or a 3/X that you combo buff in the same turn to a 4/X. It is one of the reasons why I keep the 3/2 battlecry +1/+1 cards in most of my decks. So many players base the taunts they play against what you have on the table in terms of attack power. A card that gives a boost becomes very useful, and in the case of against the priest, that card is very useful to make a Fen Creeper (3/6 + taunt) into a card that the priest has a lot of difficulty dealing with (but you can only play it when you have 8 mana or more to be certain the priest doesn't auto-kill it).

 

[Cappuccino]

I've only ever opened five decks (3 from Diablo III, 1 from Arena and 1 purchased with gold), and I certainly don't consider it impossible to beat people that have opened a lot more.

There are usually three reasons you can lose:
1) Bad Deck (common among newer players)
2) Bad Luck (bad draw for you and/or good draw for them)
3) Got Outplayed (sometimes by cheesy things like mentioned in my last post)

One thing to keep in mind is that you may want to level up your character against the AI to at least level 10. By level 10, you get all of the common cards for your character, and they can be quite helpful.

Oh I see. I think I lost due to bad luck. I nearly killed him. He had 6 life left. :hmm:
Silly question - How do I play against the AI and try and reach level 10? I don't see any modes besides 'Casual' and 'Ranked games' Also, can I do this offline? I'm up in the air this Sunday

 

[Aikouka]

Oh I see. I think I lost due to bad luck. I nearly killed him. He had 6 life left. :hmm:
Silly question - How do I play against the AI and try and reach level 10? I don't see any modes besides 'Casual' and 'Ranked games' Also, can I do this offline? I'm up in the air this Sunday

You need to go into Practice, which is between Play and Arena on the main menu. You can choose one of their decks or use one of your custom decks. I'm currently (and painfully) earning some experience on my Druid as I saw that I can finish two quests if I win on a Druid. :awe: The Expert Mage was absolutely annihilating me, but it doesn't help that I don't have all that many good common cards and my class cards weren't that good either. I'm still having issues where I end up top decking or having spells (buffs) in my hand. :\ I beat the Mage earlier by using my hero power about 5 turns in a row.

I don't think you can play the game offline at all. It doesn't require a great Internet connection, but it does require one.

 

[Cappuccino]

You need to go into Practice, which is between Play and Arena on the main menu. You can choose one of their decks or use one of your custom decks. I'm currently (and painfully) earning some experience on my Druid as I saw that I can finish two quests if I win on a Druid. :awe: The Expert Mage was absolutely annihilating me, but it doesn't help that I don't have all that many good common cards and my class cards weren't that good either. I'm still having issues where I end up top decking or having spells (buffs) in my hand. :\ I beat the Mage earlier by using my hero power about 5 turns in a row.

I don't think you can play the game offline at all. It doesn't require a great Internet connection, but it does require one.

Yes I need practice for sure. I'm still a fresh newb!~ :awe:

I don't think you can play the game offline at all. It doesn't require a great Internet connection, but it does require one.
^
my life just ended -_-

 

[Fallen Kell]

Any news on the expansion and if the AI "dungeon runs" can be purchased with in-game gold (and how much gold is needed)?

Started saving up since I know I typically just get crap cards anyway from packs and I hate arena since it is so random as to the cards you might get to choose from for the deck.

 

[Rage187]

I've been playing this for about a week and it has eaten into all my free time and money.

 

[Rage187]

Forced to play as a pali last night in the arena. I picked 2 2x damage cards and got a 6 gem card up to 32 attack which insta killed the priest I was playing against. Next opponent I did 30 damage with the same combo.

 

[kyrax12]

I've been playing this for about a week and it has eaten into all my free time and money.

Wait what... How much money did you spend on the game?

 

[JTsyo]

Any news on the expansion and if the AI "dungeon runs" can be purchased with in-game gold (and how much gold is needed)?

Started saving up since I know I typically just get crap cards anyway from packs and I hate arena since it is so random as to the cards you might get to choose from for the deck.

You can unlock the the dungeon with in game gold but they haven't said how much. You get the first one free so at least you can try it out to see if you like it.

Battle.net cache bnet is down for some reason

Curse of Naxxramas will open its gates over the course of 5 weeks, opening wing by wing. The first wing of Curse of Naxxramas, The Arachnid Quarter, will be available free for all Hearthstone players. If you wish to venture further into Naxxramas to collect all of the new cards for your collection, each wing besides the Arachnid Quarter can be purchased with in-game gold or real money, whichever you prefer. As each wing is released, the cards available in each wing will also show up in your Arena picks, even if you have not earned them for your personal collection yet.

 

[Aikouka]

Wait what... How much money did you spend on the game?

There's one nice approach you can take if you have the iPad version. It isn't uncommon to find iTunes gift cards on sale for about 20% off. If you buy anything through the iPad version for money (i.e. not gold), it gets charged through iTunes. So, that means it will use your gift card balance, which was 20% off. :awe:

Apart from that, you could buy Battle.Net cards at Target for 5% off.

 

[Rage187]

Wait what... How much money did you spend on the game?

maybe $30


My FTP rule is play it for a few days, I'll spend $5-10. I'm still playing it a week later, I'll throw another $20 at it.

I stopped buying card decks and now will occasionally pay to play in the arena. I've been good for the last few days though as I got 300 gold for winning 100 games.

 

[kyrax12]

There's one nice approach you can take if you have the iPad version. It isn't uncommon to find iTunes gift cards on sale for about 20% off. If you buy anything through the iPad version for money (i.e. not gold), it gets charged through iTunes. So, that means it will use your gift card balance, which was 20% off. :awe:

Apart from that, you could buy Battle.Net cards at Target for 5% off.

So would you recommend buying iTunes gift cards instead of battle.net gift cards?

I do have the iPad version.

 

[Aikouka]

So would you recommend buying iTunes gift cards instead of battle.net gift cards?

I do have the iPad version.

I'm pretty sure the card packs are the same price regardless of which version you choose. So, as long as you can get iTunes gift cards for less than you can buy a Battle.Net gift card, it will be cheaper to go that route. SlickDeals usually lists when there's a sale on iTunes gift cards. Here's an example of the last deal that I did.

 

[lupi]

the nerfed unleash the hounds getting nerfed again.