Hearthstone

Amzin

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
Seananigans_sl said:
Well, I get what you're saying, but I don't necessarily agree. And regardless, I completely understand Hearthstone's mechanics, which is why I'm a tad confused as to my poor performance. Although I have noticed there's a HUGE luck factor involved with HS Arenas (which is slightly different from drafting in MtG for instance), which allows some players to draft legendaries and others to never see a single legendary offered up in draft rounds (me).

I've only played a few Arena games so it's entirely possible I've just been draft/draw screwed thus far. That'd match up with my general luck in blizzard games!


And with regards to HS being a dumbed down version of MtG, I only agree with regard to lack of instants/interruptions, deck size, and card allowances (2x of unique card). In fact, the mana system isn't dumbed down, just different, and the monster/attacking system is in fact quite possibly more complex, in that the options of what to do with your monsters are much more varied than simply "Uhhh, I'll attack."

I will say the Secret system they have as a poor-man's interrupt/instant system is pretty disappointing. They seem... lame.
Click to expand...
As a long-time MTG player that mostly plays Arena, there's a few things to note. Arena deck construction is different than normal deck construction, obviously. You want to aim for 1) a solid curve, whenever possible and 2) cards that can go 2-for-1, whenever possible. Trumps' arena guides are a great place to start for seeing what cards are high-value for any deck in arena. Mostly you try to avoid gimmicks in arena as you never know how much of that gimmick you'll get (same as drafting in MTG really), but different cards are good in arena that aren't as solid in constructed, or at least don't see a ton of play.

There's a lot of variation with classes too, at first I stuck with just 2-3 classes as much as possible so I could get the feel for how they play out. Once you get comfortable with a few classes, branch out from there. For arena, hunter, warlock, and priest are probably the most difficult to pull off successfully, and mage is probably the most reliable.
 
Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
30,807
87,019
Seananigans_sl said:
Although I seem to suck ass at Arenas, which confuses me, because I used to be really good at Magic and such, and understand plenty about card game mechanics.
Click to expand...
You are potentially playing against people that have run through the Arena hundreds of times. Just showing up and expecting to do well because you played MtG is a bit foolish.
 
Valderen

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,628
2,849
While I agree that at the core Hearthstone is a lot simpler than MtG, we have to remember that Magic has been around for 20 years. It has evolved a lot over the years.

I prefer the predictable mana of Heartstone to the Lands of magic. Being land starved or having too many Lands because of bad draw was never fun in my opinion, and not really "strategic".

The lack of different Land type, is essentially replaced by the different classes. It's a lot simpler since you can't mix and match different classes like you could do with MtG with different colors.

The way monster attack is different, still unsure which I prefer yet...both have their merits.

The biggest thing missing is interrupts and instants as people mentioned...Hearthstone version of them are secrets, but they are way simpler and more restrictive, but I see it as one thing they could definitely improve upon in future card sets.

30 cards limit I am still on the fence about, I definitely like the simplicity of it, so far I have no found it that restrictive...I mean you have a limit of 2 of each card vs typical MtG deck of 60 cards where you can have 4 of each type usually about 1/3 are lands...you end up with about the same actually number of card variety.

I'm curious on how the game will involve, I totally enjoy the fact that I can play on the iPad, always have opponents available either in the arena, casual or ranked format. Also, I like that I can't talk to anyone...the somewhat anonymous nature of it suits...no assholes talking trash, or anything like that is definitely a good thing.
smile.png


So overall for the initial release, I love it...in my opinion the real beauty of the game is the actual software platform. The hearthstone client does a wonderful job of managing the game and mechanics.

And I just love it on the iPad...this is how ccg should be played.
smile.png
 
AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil

Poet Warrior
<Donor>
17,781
25,897
I agree with the no random chatter thing. I like it. If I really want to talk or ask a question I can friend request after the game. If he doesn't want to hear it he can ignore it. I dig it. I also agree that magic's Lands are its weak spot when compared to Hearthstone. I've even listened to Rosewater's podcast defending the design choice of Lands as a thing and I'm still not convinced. This version of mana acquisition is maybe not as diverse, but is ultimately more fun.
 
Valderen

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,628
2,849
Oh simple they could do with the secrets to make them a bit more interesting and somewhat closer to instant/interrupts is to have a "pop-up" asking whether you want to use it or not when an event triggers them.

It would not be as flexible as instants/interrupts but it would better than now, I dislike not being able to decide if I want to use it or not...sometimes it triggers on crap.
smile.png
 
Amzin

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
That would interrupt the flow of the game though, which is entirely why Blizzard won't introduce interrupts. It creates the exact same situation. They just need to add variety to secrets which I imagine they will, going forward.
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
This is actually kinda cool



Pull Up a Chair: Introducing Fireside Gatherings - Hearthstone

Fireside Gatherings offer the opportunity to add the new ?Fireside Friends? card back to your collection! This card back can be obtained by playing three matches against another player on the same network using the following criteria:

- At least three people (including yourself) must be logged into Hearthstone on the same subnet.
- Each match must be played against a player that is playing on the same subnet as you.
- These matches can be played against your friends or using the Player Near Me feature, as long as the above two criteria are met
 
C

Column_sl

shitlord
9,833
7
I knew they were eventually heading toward this. This is when Hearthstone becomes really cool, they just need to put in better tournament options such as if you want to ban certain cards, or providing local arena style play without being in the real arena.

Maybe a bracket option as well that tournament holders can easily keep track of throughout there local game nights.
 
Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
30,807
87,019
The only people who are going to give a fuck are the people I don't want making those decisions.

A local area tournament client is a very good idea though.
 
Dandai

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,504
I think the iPad launch will only serve to slow down updates even more. Remember that they can't just hotfix things in with the app store like they can on the PC client. My experience with app store and releases/updates has been pretty bad in terms of guaranteeing a launch time (granted I don't have a dick the size of blizzard to swing around). I can say "Don't release before X date" but they generally give 0 fucks and it can take them weeks to validate a single app and the smallest code revision.
 
Pyros

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,306
2,415
Dandai_sl said:
I think the iPad launch will only serve to slow down updates even more. Remember that they can't just hotfix things in with the app store like they can on the PC client. My experience with app store and releases/updates has been pretty bad in terms of guaranteeing a launch time (granted I don't have a dick the size of blizzard to swing around). I can say "Don't release before X date" but they generally give 0 fucks and it can take them weeks to validate a single app and the smallest code revision.
Click to expand...
Not like they were going lightning fast with the updates anyway. I think I was still playing for the last update and I haven't played in like 2months. Naxxramas is coming this "summer", aka in several months, so yeah, I think they'll be fine with iPad updates.
 
Derpa

Derpa

Trakanon Raider
2,011
665
Pyros_sl said:
Not like they were going lightning fast with the updates anyway. I think I was still playing for the last update and I haven't played in like 2months. Naxxramas is coming this "summer", aka in several months, so yeah, I think they'll be fine with iPad updates.
Click to expand...
Yea I haven't played in 3-4 months now. The small pool size with the lack of formats turned it into a total bore-fest.
 
Mures

Mures

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,014
511
Anyone heard any word on the android release?

Didn't see anyone mention it here, but at pax east they announced over 10 million hearthstone accounts have been created thus far and that was before the ios release, which it has already risen to the most popular free download in the apple store. Seems crazy blizzard isn't throwing more resources at this.
 
C

Column_sl

shitlord
9,833
7
Dandai_sl said:
I think the iPad launch will only serve to slow down updates even more. Remember that they can't just hotfix things in with the app store like they can on the PC client. My experience with app store and releases/updates has been pretty bad in terms of guaranteeing a launch time (granted I don't have a dick the size of blizzard to swing around). I can say "Don't release before X date" but they generally give 0 fucks and it can take them weeks to validate a single app and the smallest code revision.
Click to expand...
They claim they want to update it every 3 months, but ugh if the IPAD slows it down any further...
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
mures_sl said:
Anyone heard any word on the android release?
Click to expand...
No hard date yet, just 2014.

I stupidly played some arena games on my iPad when my wifi was acting up. Lost one to an infinite turn. I should've stopped there, but I killed the program and queued for arena again. Another infinite turn ended up being my third loss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.