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Hearthstone: Because what Magic really needed was F2P mechanics

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I was in a pattern of pretty much only playing Arena and then doing ranked only to get to Rank 20 so I get the season's card back. Climbing from 23 to 20, is a joke, my decks have composition and I know the game. I felt bad for the opponents.

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I'm surprised sometimes at the quality of cards I see at Level 20 in the ladder.  One person had ALL gold cards and a gold hero.  I'm guessing they stopped playing for a few months so they got bumped down?  Or maybe just started/quit enough games to be bumped way down the ladder so they could steamroll a bunch of games to get their dailys done?

That's a reasonable theory, although they could just be a mid-range player whose been in it for a while. If you're in the 12-14 range at the end of the month, you start at 20 the next month. That's approximately where I end up most months that I'm actively playing. The rank-resets are pretty compressed. Looking at a chart, you can't get above 16 with bonus stars

 

It seems to happen more at the beginning of the month, to the extent that I've basically taken to playing Arena or casual until about the 15th, then going back into the ladder once its well-sorted again.

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I was in the beta and just picked it up for iphone. I guess what it boils down to for me is I don't like having to wait around for real live players to make up their minds. But to get all the versus AI expansion stuff is $50+ CDN which feels kinda steep.

 

It's still fun just to play against the vanilla non-expansion AI once in a while, but I'm not getting any new cards that way beyond the original unlocks for each class. Which, to be fair, I haven't done all of yet.

 

Sol Forge has that bit right IMO in that you can earn cards just by playing the AI.

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N490#1718. I tend to rank anywhere between 13-18 every month, depending on how much I play and how gimmicky I want things to get. If you want some friendly sparring, hit me up on NA

I was in the beta and just picked it up for iphone. I guess what it boils down to for me is I don't like having to wait around for real live players to make up their minds.

Funny. I tend to play too fast and make basic mistakes only so my opponent doesn't have to wait too long on me.

How do you fellow constructed players feel about the meta? Do you build with it in mind or are you in a bubble as soon as you click/touch the "Create a new deck" button?

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Sandman#1820. I generally finish seasons around rank 8-10. Highest I've been was 4, but I mostly play arena since I find it more enjoyable than the ladder.

 

How do you fellow constructed players feel about the meta? Do you build with it in mind or are you in a bubble as soon as you click/touch the "Create a new deck" button?

 

I get sick of playing Face Hunters every third game so a lot of my decks are built more control oriented to help combat that. I've been playing a lot of Priest and Warrior lately since the life gain makes it tougher for the hunters to close out the game.

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Played a few games of this now, liking it pretty well. Only thing is I wish I could speed things along a bit, too used to Ascension and other iOS card games' speed. I'm allthetacos#1490 if anyone wants some really casual games!

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after getting bored of playing the same mage and warrior decks as i was seeing everywhere else, i threw together a paladin control deck and found some success with it. been more consistent than any other decks i've played so far, and way more fun. lots of combos in here that are really satisfying to execute. it's not perfect (still make revisions every few games), and there's a few cards i don't have yet that i wish i did, but i like it

 

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So many combos. As a Priest/Rogue player, I approve of this very much.

Are you getting a lot of mileage of of your Avenge?

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not a great deal, but it's nice to put out if there's a couple of blessing of kings buffed oozes or after i've just played muster & juggler

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Do any of yall use drafting software, like Hearth Arena or ArenaValue or whatever? Is something like that expected at this point? I'm pretty new and am largely ignorant of, like, the arena "metagame" but it seems like the most fun way to play the game, haha.

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Do any of yall use drafting software, like Hearth Arena or ArenaValue or whatever? Is something like that expected at this point? I'm pretty new and am largely ignorant of, like, the arena "metagame" but it seems like the most fun way to play the game, haha.

 

If you are new to Arena, I'd definitely recommend it. When I first started playing Arena a year ago I used Trump's tier lists while drafting, and a site like Hearth Arena feels like an extension of that. It not only teaches you the value of the cards versus others, but also helps you building a deck by making sure you have a good curve.

 

I use it every now and then and 95% of the picks are usually what I would pick without help, but sometimes it will choose a card based on deck synergies that I wouldn't have picked up on.

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i'm at the point now where i have a couple of decks that win consistently but i get bored of them so easily that I don't want to play them. so while last season i got up to rank 12, i've been having fun at around 17-18 this season with weird (and mostly inconsistent) zoolock, value mage and deathrattle druid decks. playing warlock really makes me wish i had the cards for handlock, such a fun class to play with cool class cards. i find flamewalker to be a huge asset to my mage game, especially if i get too many from chromaggus or duplicate.

 

i notice i've gotten like 40 friend requests in the past couple of weeks too, i assume a lot of them from here? because i don't remember posting my tag anywhere else. so if you see me online, feel free to challenge me to a game, i'll be happy to play my stupid decks against you!

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What mostly surprises me about that advert is that it's really bad.

 

Then again, every time I watch normal TV (blessedly rarely nowadays) I'm surprised by how bad most adverts are, and this is only more true in the US (said with no xenophobia whatsoever, I mourn for my American brethren who have to deal with even dumber and shittier advertising). I cannot remember the last time any desire was engendered in me by a TV ad for anything except food.

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I've put a decent amount of time into this (somewhere around 5-10 hours) and it's just not doing it for me. The basic concept and mechanics are fun enough for a little while but I think I reached a point where it's going to stay pretty stale unless I start to fork out money to buy a bunch of better cards which I have no desire to do. I think I might just have a fundamental problem with the concept of digital collectible card games and how they work. If it were a game that people could just drop 20 bucks on and then all of the cool stuff gets unlocked through normal play, I think I would be much more into it. But I've reached a point now where I finished the small amount of basic single player content and all of the other single player stuff will only unlock if I spend money or play a shitload more of this game to earn gold. But playing a shitload more of this game would either mean just doing the same single player matches I've already done or playing against real people who have probably spent money on the game and have all kinds of good shit.

 

If these were physical cards that I was purchasing though and I could collect them and hold them in my hands I would probably be way more into it. Something about it being digital is just deflating. Like I would literally just be purchasing attack and defense numbers.

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I feel like this definitely got worse over time too with the introduction of the expansions. Hearthstone was always kind of balanced in such a way as to favor having one or two big kickers (read: legendaries) in your deck, if it's not an all-out rush strategy, through the automatic progression to more expensive cards the longer a match lasts, opposite something like Magic where how many land cards you should put in and how many you end up drawing is a more active concern. However, regular cards still felt pretty competitive opposite those and since getting one was entirely a matter of finding one in packs, you might have griped about your enemy turning around the game with a bs legendary or epic, but you also could hold out hope that you might find that same one in the very next pack you grind for.

 

Now there's so many cards tied up in this single player content - one legendary per wing of these dungeons, plus a whole lot of basic cards that are big in the meta atm - that if you tried to make due with just the cards you start out with, you'd feel helplessly outgunned.

 

Intentionally, I guess?

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I think you can buy the first adventure (Naxx) and complete quests every day for a few weeks to have enough dust to craft some staple cards for a couple of classes to have a chance in ranked mode up to about rank 10, which is pretty good. with the exception of Grim Patron, there's no cards from the second adventure that really found their way into the meta. what got me to buy the second adventure mode and spend a tiny bit more on packs is that I just find this game to be really fun with the right cards, and those two adventure modes are really well put together on their own. I don't doubt however that there's still big problems with the game and that it clearly wants you to keep spending more and more money on it to get to legend, which is a pretty big flaw if you compare it to other big competitive games like DOTA, which I'm fairly certain you don't have to pay any money for to stand a chance against top players. 

 

I've been playing consistently for about 5 months now, I've bought about 10 packs with real money and paid for both of the adventures. I try earning enough gold every day to open a pack, very rarely will I do arena. I have about 4 or 5 decks that are very close to ones that get played in tournaments and at high level these days, and if I tried really hard (or if I was good at the game) I could have gotten pretty close to legend, if not legend. it took a lot of time, but I still love the game, love watching tournaments and streamers, and will continue to spend as little as possible on it. the money I do spend is because I want to play with more fun and crazy cards and decks, not because I care about winning. 

 

 

in other news, a new mode got announced today that sounds really fun! "Tavern Brawl", a tournament mode with modifiers and deck building challenges, so that's exciting. 

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Expansions make it kind of hard for f2p to keep up :( Still working on my Naxx months later after a bit of a hiatus. The adventures, while pretty fun, are really only enjoyable for that one game or maybe two. Everyone knows it's really just for the cards.

 

I'm super excited for Tavern Brawl. Not just for the game mode, but it means they're still adding new stuff and trying to keep Hearthstone alive and fun! Yippee!

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I've put a decent amount of time into this (somewhere around 5-10 hours) and it's just not doing it for me. The basic concept and mechanics are fun enough for a little while but I think I reached a point where it's going to stay pretty stale unless I start to fork out money to buy a bunch of better cards which I have no desire to do. I think I might just have a fundamental problem with the concept of digital collectible card games and how they work. If it were a game that people could just drop 20 bucks on and then all of the cool stuff gets unlocked through normal play, I think I would be much more into it. But I've reached a point now where I finished the small amount of basic single player content and all of the other single player stuff will only unlock if I spend money or play a shitload more of this game to earn gold. But playing a shitload more of this game would either mean just doing the same single player matches I've already done or playing against real people who have probably spent money on the game and have all kinds of good shit.

 

If these were physical cards that I was purchasing though and I could collect them and hold them in my hands I would probably be way more into it. Something about it being digital is just deflating. Like I would literally just be purchasing attack and defense numbers.

This is precisely why I pretty much exclusively play arena. Limited is my favourite format in any CCG anyway. The big draw for Hearthstone for me was always the basically infinite access to an enjoyable limited format in a good client.

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I tried Hearthstone recently, and I found the client intolerable. It's pretty and functional, but the animation pauses made me want to tear my hair out. Time to draw my card for the turn, wait a second while it animates flipping off the deck and popping into my hand. Time to attack with three creatures, wait a second for each attack animation to play. I quit the game after half an hour when I realized there was no "disable animations" button. I'm not sure why this particular instance of a game not respecting my time drove me to quit so quickly, maybe it's because I'm used to the Magic Online client which has no animations, and so plays as fast as possible.

 

I realize that what bothers me is often not what bothers other people, so I thought I'd ask the forum: does that annoy anyone else? 

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I actually like that the game pushes back a little, it makes it feel more physical, and it's saved me from making some mistakes.

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Nope, I love that part of it. I hate feeling rushed in tactical games, and the animations makes me calm.

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I tried Hearthstone recently, and I found the client intolerable. It's pretty and functional, but the animation pauses made me want to tear my hair out. Time to draw my card for the turn, wait a second while it animates flipping off the deck and popping into my hand. Time to attack with three creatures, wait a second for each attack animation to play. I quit the game after half an hour when I realized there was no "disable animations" button. I'm not sure why this particular instance of a game not respecting my time drove me to quit so quickly, maybe it's because I'm used to the Magic Online client which has no animations, and so plays as fast as possible.

 

I realize that what bothers me is often not what bothers other people, so I thought I'd ask the forum: does that annoy anyone else? 

 

I kind of agree. The animations don't bother me so much necessarily. What does bother me is that they are usually choppy as hell on my Galaxy Note 4. It would be nice if there was a way to disable them because I'd rather have no animation than choppy animation.

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