Hearthstone

Teddite_sl said:

Just started got into this last week, enjoying it so far. Druid/Priest/Mage are the only classes I got to 10 with so far, and do well enough with them in matches.
Would you guys recommend I save up my gold for when I start feeling more confident, or jump into Arena now? I'm sitting at 360 from wins/quests. You get a pack minimum from arena, so even if I get my ass kicked all the way through I'm not out too much gold.

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Starting Stone #1: Six Steps to an Ultimate Deck

Follow that to get all the "free" gold. I strongly encourage people to play arena, it isn't to hard to get to the point where you're going 3/3. Worst case since you always get a pack, you paid 50g for some dust, some extra gold, a card, and (most important) game experience. Since you get like 1,000 free gold from doing various things and will complete some quests in the process of spending it on arena, your first ~15-16 arenas are basically free.

Thanks for the link. Read through it and a few other things earlier. I think I have a good grasp on the game, despite still making some really rookie mistakes (playing cards in the wrong order, causing me to miss out on a 1/1 buff). My first free arena run I had 4 wins, and quit out at 2 losses because I didn't know I could just save my arena deck and continue later. Looking back at it, I have no idea how I managed those wins, my deck was pretty horrible. I don't recall too many specifics, but I know I had some Murlocks mixed in with everything else, which never got buffed or used to any real benefit. I'm going to buy into Arena now, and hope for the best.

Sinzar_sl said:

My own opinion on the state of hearthstone is the longer it's out, the harder it gets because losing sucks, and if you aren't very good, you lose often. Keep losing, and a casual player will simply walk away from the game. That means as time goes by, the majority remaining are the upper skilled elite, which is maybe why there's comments recently about how much harder matches have become.

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Yep, I barely play anymore because my winrate is atrocious, with no fucking idea how to improve.

The lack of depth in this game is appalling. With Blizzard's glacial development pace and the limitations of the your turn, my turn system I just can't see where the staying power is going to come from. They're even nerfing anything remotely resembling a combo deck so the game really is just going to be about tempo and ramming your creatures into the other guy forever.

Does anyone who played MTG at a high level really feel like this game has any long term potential whatsoever? I play it twice a week now just to plow through the dailies while I do other shit and it doesn't even require coherent thought. How do 20,000 people watch other people play this on twitch every night?

It's not a bad game, not at all. It's just......so fucking limited. I know whether I'm going to win or lose with like 97% certainty by turn 3. There is very little capacity for outplaying the other person or coming back because the mechanics just don't allow it, and without dead draws overcoming a tempo disadvantage is fucking ridiculously hard.

Gilgamel_sl said:

Does anyone who played MTG at a high level really feel like this game has any long term potential whatsoever?

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No. Unless Blizzard can somehow shit out 2-3 sets every year (which they won't, let's be honest), it's going to stay a stale casualfest forever. Arena is a fine time waster at work, but past that there isn't much point. This is compounded even more by their constant and heavy-handed nerfing of anything that isn't just playing a slightly bigger dude every turn.

Gilgamel_sl said:

Does anyone who played MTG at a high level really feel like this game has any long term potential whatsoever?

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Potential to become as deep as MTG? Never. Potential to become bigger than MTG for a while, and keep going for a couple of years? Sure.

Hearthstone is so much easier to get into, so much more immediately gratifying, so much more flexible with regards to how much time and money you want to spend, and so superior as a (digital) spectator "sport", that I'm pretty sure it will be bigger than MTG for a period. That is, it will be "bigger" as in have more players, I don't think the pro scene will be as healthy.

WotC have managed to keep their cardboard business strong for the last decade by creating an inferior online product. I think it's getting very close to biting them in the ass. Unless of course Hearthstone just creates a legion of new card players that will eventually move on to MTG in search of a more skill intensive game - that could happen too.

It has the potential to eventually become as deep as MtG. It's a card game. You can always just keep adding more and more. When I look at the game I see this vast potential but I just absolutely despise the balancing end of things. Applying a MMO patch cycle to a CCG is setting yourself up for nothing bit misery and a crybaby player base. Some cards and decks are always going to be popular or better at a particular time. Get a fucking helmet.

Blizzard needs to create alternative modes, eithe PvE or 2v2, 1v3, whatever, adjust rulesets, let people figure out different metas and so on. The core game is great because of how smooth it plays, you never have to wait during your turn, you can queue actions. Magic would need some good UI to make it as appealing, because waiting for all the phases and priority sucks.

Yeah, I'm much more looking forward to what the game is going to be than what it is now. Different playmodes (classless? double life, double deck size? raid mode?), all the classes having secrets, all the classes having weapons, legendary spells, etc. This of course all depends on Blizzard pushing out expansions once every six months or so and not going at their usual speed.

I also agree they need to up the rewards per match to like 10g. They already cap the gold earned at 100g a day, right? So why force people to get 30 wins for a pack, that's insane. And the game is very unfun if you don't have the cards, so making it easier for people to get cards by grinding is a good thing. I lasted about a week before I said "fuck it" and spent $100 on packs just because of how annoying it is to not even have class rares. Maybe that's what they want, but a bunch more people aren't going to say "fuck it" and buy the cards, they're just going to say "fuck it" and uninstall. Only having the 10ish starter quest packs and staring up at 30 wins and a quest a day is straight up soul killing. Also, rewards on where you're ranked at the end of the month maybe? Game definitely needs added incentive of some kind, golden cards through leveling just won't do it for most people.

HOLY SHIT GOD PACK.

Nebuchadnezzar_sl said:

I also agree they need to up the rewards per match to like 10g. They already cap the gold earned at 100g a day, right? So why force people to get 30 wins for a pack, that's insane. And the game is very unfun if you don't have the cards, so making it easier for people to get cards by grinding is a good thing. I lasted about a week before I said "fuck it" and spent $100 on packs just because of how annoying it is to not even have class rares. Maybe that's what they want, but a bunch more people aren't going to say "fuck it" and buy the cards, they're just going to say "fuck it" and uninstall. Only having the 10ish starter quest packs and staring up at 30 wins and a quest a day is straight up soul killing. Also, rewards on where you're ranked at the end of the month maybe? Game definitely needs added incentive of some kind, golden cards through leveling just won't do it for most people.

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Welcome to F2P gaming...

100$ on Hearthstone ?! The best rule of F2P is that if the game isn't fun for free, spending money won't fix it.

Who said it wasn't fun? It was fun, it was just gimped playing the same cards for every class. More cards = more toys = more fun. I don't feel ripped off, I just think they should up the gold payout so it's not such a high threshold. And I'm kind of shocked you're shocked about $100. Trust me, I'm not even close to the high end on that one.

Oh look, its the mtg is such a superior game discussion in the hearthstone thread again, like that hasn't been brought up 100x already; quick someone post how much better hex/M&M is.

Nebuchadnezzar_sl said:

Who said it wasn't fun? It was fun, it was just gimped playing the same cards for every class. More cards = more toys = more fun. I don't feel ripped off, I just think they should up the gold payout so it's not such a high threshold. And I'm kind of shocked you're shocked about $100. Trust me, I'm not even close to the high end on that one.

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I guess I'm way more cautios with my spending habits (being a student helps). I know how F2P games work, all the "whales" and so on, it just never struck me that somebody could consider it a good deal to spend that money with no concrete reward, you just get to pull the lever on the RNG machine 50 ? times.

Column_sl said:

They should allow sealed deck arena out into the population as casual play.You just get no rewards from it.
That way people can practice arena, and also they would be able to host tournaments with that type of Arena deck building.

That way you have real arena, and casual arena.

It would also help new people earn gold, and cards for constructed without the worries of being on a very uneven playing field.

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That would be incredible. Go get a job at Blizzard and have them implement your idea.

If you want to enjoy constructed, paying $50 lets you get competitive instantly instead of grinding arena for a month. If you just want to do arena there's no reason to pay (assuming you can go infinite).

But then again, I come from the opposite point of view, having way more money than time. Also, I see Hearthstone as a CCG, which normally would be much more expensive to get into than that.

attog_sl said:

Go get a job at Blizzard

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Holy fuck please no.

I would be happier with timed turns/rounds. You have 20 seconds asshole! This game isn't that hard to where you need the fuse to run half way down every turn...

If the opponent has used half of his allotted turn time, allow me to click on minions and spam their emotes, un-squelchable until he goes!