Hearthstone
- Thread starter Azrayne
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Guest, did you like the last podcast notification?? Well here's the second one, and for the third podcast! Yep. This Thursday 8-8-24 at 7pm Central
Go here to check out his podcast thread for info on topics and links!Go into the FoH discord and find the Happy Time Fun Hour channel and give it a listen!
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Just want to reiterate, since I was one of those free-only players, this game is much more enjoyable if you put down some cash. Maybe 2-3 40/50 packs of classic, 1 of the other expansions, and all the adventures. Mind you, this is if you're going to spend serious time playing. That may look like a lot of cash up front(it is) but if you average it out over the typical 3-4 months it takes them to release new content, it's not that bad. $75 every ~6 months for a game you'll play constantly over that time is not a bad investment. Plus, you can now buy other games you would be playing later at a discount!
I'll admit they are going to have to do something soon about the barrier of entry for new players. Losing to players just because they have better cards is annoying even if you are willing put money into the game. Which segues nicely into another problem with the game: getting players to pay. I think a lot of players see that they CAN collect all the cards for free, so that's how they're going to do it. With arena, tavern brawl, dailies, and gold from winning, there's just enough of a mental block to keep players from forking over cash even if the money itself isn't an issue.
A lot of my more casual friends are still grinding out gold to buy adventure wings while still playing ranked with decks that would benefit from the missing adventure cards! They're going to miss the LoE meta completely because of how long it takes to grind gold over something measly like $20.
I'll admit they are going to have to do something soon about the barrier of entry for new players. Losing to players just because they have better cards is annoying even if you are willing put money into the game. Which segues nicely into another problem with the game: getting players to pay. I think a lot of players see that they CAN collect all the cards for free, so that's how they're going to do it. With arena, tavern brawl, dailies, and gold from winning, there's just enough of a mental block to keep players from forking over cash even if the money itself isn't an issue.
A lot of my more casual friends are still grinding out gold to buy adventure wings while still playing ranked with decks that would benefit from the missing adventure cards! They're going to miss the LoE meta completely because of how long it takes to grind gold over something measly like $20.
zzeris
King Turd of Shit Hill
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Daethwing,
I couldn't agree more. The Wings themselves have limited replay value but the cards you gain are being used extensively in winning decks. I couldn't imagine playing control without Sludge, combo/ control without Emperor, or priest without the new cards. Every major deck uses some cards from one of the adventures and you miss out on fun and competitive advantages just from missing out on any expansion. The game would not be fun for me without the expansions.
Grinding so much really affects your card choices. I bought every expansion and got the deal with LoE. I now have almost everything I need within 17 months of original purchase. That would have never happened if I wasted my gold on expansions. I haven't even mentioned the effects all that grinding would have on a casual player. I have not regretted the $125ish I've spent on the game in that time. I spent more than that in one release for MtG with less to show for it.
I couldn't agree more. The Wings themselves have limited replay value but the cards you gain are being used extensively in winning decks. I couldn't imagine playing control without Sludge, combo/ control without Emperor, or priest without the new cards. Every major deck uses some cards from one of the adventures and you miss out on fun and competitive advantages just from missing out on any expansion. The game would not be fun for me without the expansions.
Grinding so much really affects your card choices. I bought every expansion and got the deal with LoE. I now have almost everything I need within 17 months of original purchase. That would have never happened if I wasted my gold on expansions. I haven't even mentioned the effects all that grinding would have on a casual player. I have not regretted the $125ish I've spent on the game in that time. I spent more than that in one release for MtG with less to show for it.
Valishar
Molten Core Raider
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My investment is about $60 in Beta, and $50 for that Tourney pre-order promo. But the advantage of continuingly playing since beta is huge. If you do the daily every day that's a minimum of 17030 gold a year (if you only get the 40 gold quests and only win the minimum amount of games). So by now I have all the cards I need and can craft any of the ones I don't if necessary.
As to new players, they are going to have to split the ladder into two, where one is with a full card pool and the other is limited to the latest few sets, like MtG does.
As to new players, they are going to have to split the ladder into two, where one is with a full card pool and the other is limited to the latest few sets, like MtG does.
Vandyn
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Pretty much the same as me, been playing since late beta and i've accumulated most cards outside of some legends, all while probably dropping no more than $50 over the life of the game. For a brand new player I couldn't imagine how competitive you could really be without spending a decent amount of money ($100 at least?).
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Which ladder do streamers play at that point? Part of the draw of Hearthstone is the huge community around it. And I may shit on a lot of them and really only watch one(adwcta), but I'll fully admit that streamers are an integral part of a healthy community.
Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I've spent a good bit more real money than all that (buying 40 packs for the new set expansions and then buying the adventure packs with real money) but yeah playing since beta is huge. I stopped spending gold on packs again a couple months ago, just hoarding for the next set. I do play arena but between buying a 40 and then augmenting with gold packs after an expansion drops you get most of anything good really fast and can go back to hoarding gold for the next time. I still buy random gold packs for a while after the expansion if I'm missing stuff, but usually I'm sitting on a huge pile of dust too since I don't just craft legends and epics willy-nilly for the fuck of it without knowing how useful they will be.
Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Make three legend ranks, one for each ladder and a third for anyone who has hit legend on both ladders in one season!
Brand
Molten Core Raider
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Ritley
Karazhan Raider
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So for me the options are get beaten constantly or drop $100+ at the beginning in order to be able to even begin to compete.
That's more money than I'm willing to drop on a game like this right out of the gate, and getting beat all of the time makes the game not all that fun, making me even less likely to drop money on it.
That's more money than I'm willing to drop on a game like this right out of the gate, and getting beat all of the time makes the game not all that fun, making me even less likely to drop money on it.
Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
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It depends on what you're looking to do. If you're looking to play casually, the only thing I would buy is naxx and then I'd put all gold earned into arena runs. You don't really need to "compete" when you're just starting out. Being "competitive" is going to vary person to person anyway. You can at least get to rank 20(for the card back), easily, every month with just the basic cards. So long as you understand you're going to be doing mostly arena runs and you won't be getting to rank 10+ immediately without the monetary investment and you'll be fine.
Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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I didn't even played ranked for a very long time when I first started. I was pretty much strictly an Arena player until I earned enough cards to make decent decks.
Buying the expansions (Naxx, LoE, BRM) is absolutely necessary though. The cards from those sets are very, very good.
Buying the expansions (Naxx, LoE, BRM) is absolutely necessary though. The cards from those sets are very, very good.
Ritley
Karazhan Raider
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Im not talking about being rank 10 or anything. More about being able to win more than one out of three or four in untangled matches. I do get to rank 20 every month just because it doesn't matter how much you lose.
Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
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I think a lot of your problem isn't card collection, but also just lack of general knowledge of the game. When I say get to rank 20 with basic cards easily, I mean with little to no losses. I did it several months on EU and lost one game in the several months that I did it. Now, I played a bunch on NA already, so I was already well versed in all the cards, how they interact, knowing what my opponent's answer were. I knew the top decks that were being played and I knew which cards have good value and which ones were poor, so with that knowledge I made a budget zoo deck. People who are rank 15+ are generally terrible at the game. They usually tend to over value big drops making it difficult for them to play on curve, thus decks like zoo and face hunter are ideal, because you'll more than likely curve out and you will outpace your opponent.
But without the monetary investment, I'd avoid ladder past getting to 20 and the occasional quest and just stick with arena.
But without the monetary investment, I'd avoid ladder past getting to 20 and the occasional quest and just stick with arena.
Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I just look at it like box costs. Someone else mentioned earlier but it seems like lots of people want to focus on the free aspect, rather than as a game. You're basically jumping into an online game with two expansions and a couple DLC's. If it were boxes or sub you'd end up paying the same way. Its up to you though, but at least buying that 50 classic pack deal right now (with Amazon coins so you get 20% back to buy a few more packs) would get you some more stuff and usually nets you a nice chunk of dust once they are all opened and DE'ed.
Ritley
Karazhan Raider
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I actually don't lose much getting to 20, usually those matches are against people without any better cards than me. I lose a hell of a lot more on unranked matches. And any brawls where you use your own cards.
Ritley
Karazhan Raider
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The comparison of base games plus expansions and DLCs isn't a good one. Games with expansions like WoW or EQ always included the base game and most expansions except for the most recent in one purchase. Imagine if in order to play EQ you had to buy all 90 expansions and the base game for $40 each.
Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
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If I ranked matches was meant to be unranked matches that may also be part of your problem, avoid unranked and just stick to ranked. "Casual" is usually anything but casual.
But until you have a fleshed out collection really you should stick to arena unless you don't mind/are used to dissapointment.
But until you have a fleshed out collection really you should stick to arena unless you don't mind/are used to dissapointment.
Valishar
Molten Core Raider
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Hunter - Deckbuilder - HearthPwn
Zero adventure packs except Nax, no legends or epics. If you can't make this now you should be really really close. Since i made it itested it 100% win rate at rank 15! (Reno lock, token druid, aggro shaman).