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[Hearthstone] iPad version now available worldwide! Naxxramas coming soon!
MNC Dover
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Vent and Teamspeak for discussing games!
Tournament Bracket
(Liberally borrowing the best of our old OP and the beauty of SE++)
THIS IS FOR: PC/Mac, and eventually Android and iDevices!
First information about the new Curse of Naxxramas expansion found here.
We like playing with each other sometimes: Add your Bnet Battletag here.
The game has THREE play modes:
Hearthstone revolves around two heroes summoning minions in a goal to bring the enemy hero to zero life. Think of it as a simpler version of Magic that favors quicker matches, and you're on the right track.
Here are class intros and pretty pictures:
Hero Power: Gain 1 Armor and +1 Attack this turn.
Style: Can accelerate with mana-boosting cards like Innervate. Many cards have two options, allowing for flexibility. Enjoys a good buff.
Weaknesses: Flexible cards tend to be overpriced. Weaker early game without acceleration. Lacks direct removal.
Hero Power: Deal 2 damage to opposing hero.
Style: Utilizes minions to rush down opponent. Great synergy with beast minions. Cheap removal.
Weaknesses: Removal tends to be random targets or secrets that can be played around. Beasts are typically mediocre without hunter synergies. Hero power has no effect on the board.
Hero Power: Deal 1 damage to any character.
Style: Lots of direct damage spells, and spells in general. Very control-oriented, using freeze and removal to keep enemies at bay. Polymorph is one of the best removal spells. Strong AoE damage. Strong finisher via Pyroblast.
Weaknesses: Only has a handful of solid minions. Incredibly vulnerable without any spells. Can be hamstrung if opponent heals enough.
Hero Power: Summon a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit minion.
Style: Enjoys buffing minions and debuffing enemies. Great for weenie decks, but enjoys a slower, somewhat control-oriented game. Solid weapons, and lots of card draw.
Weaknesses: Has poor direct removal. Card draw is good, but either situational (Divine Favor) or expensive (Lay on Hands).
Hero Power: Restores 2 HP to a character.
Style: Control-oriented. Loves to buff minions, particularly HP. Steals opponents' crap, potentially resulting in massive card advantage. Lots of direct removal.
Weaknesses: Weak in the early game. Direct removal is conditional or expensive. People will think you're a jerk.
Hero Power: Summon a 1/2 weapon.
Unique Mechanic: Combo. Cards have an additional effect if you've already played a card earlier in the turn.
Style: Tends to go for rush-down. Lots of direct damage and weapons. Combo allows for cheap, powerful effects.
Weaknesses: Vulnerable late-game. Combo can lead to unfavorable opening hands. AoE spells tend to be poor.
Hero Power: Summons one of the following totems at random: Stoneclaw (0/2 Taunt), Healing (0/2, restores 1 HP to all friendly minions at end of turn), Searing Totem (1/1), Wrath of Air (0/2, +1 Spell Damage)
Unique Mechanic: Overload. You will be unable to spend X mana on your next turn. Think Echo from Magic and you're on the right track.
Style: Has a lot of play styles, being able to sling spells, use weapons, and solid minions. Overload allows for very efficient turns. Hex is among the best direct removal.
Weaknesses: Vulnerable on turns AFTER overload. Hero power is random, which will burn you.
Hero Power: Gain 2 Armor.
Style: Incredibly aggressive, favoring a lot of cheap enrage minions, charge, and great weapons.
Weaknesses: Worst Hero Power in the game. Removal tends to be random or conditional (Execute, Brawl). Damage spells, particularly AoE, are poor. Takes a ton of damage from weapon use.
Hero Power: Deal 2 damage to your hero. Draw a card.
Style: Can go for an aggressive early game with very cheap demons. Hero Power is among the best in the game. Good synergy with demons.
Weaknesses: Powerful cards tend to have bad drawbacks. Removal tends to be weak (Mortal Coil) or carry big drawbacks (Soulfire). Hero Power can hurt your late game.
Current Meta
The current kings of constructed are still control decks and their variants. Druids are probably the most common class at the top of the ladder with good removal and finishing combos in their class specific kit. On the other side of the coin, Murloc Warlock is as popular as it has been for 3 months and new Warrior/Hunter aggro decks are flooding the lower ranks with legendary viable budget decks. Every class (arguably except mage) is viable at a legend level, but matchups are pretty lopsided. Priests perform very well against control Paladins, Druids, Warlocks, and Warriors but really struggle with aggro decks. Shaman is seeing increased play as a midrange anti-aggro class; The Black Knight has dropped in usage and their taunts are becoming formidable again. Rogues are playing everything from aggro to board control to hard control with Headcrack and spell power. For more information, make a post! Many of us are willing to share our feelings on the best way each class can find success.
Grobian's list of less intuitive facts:
Easy intro to Hearthstone in an image.
Full daily quest list here.
TeamLiquid's new Hearthstone siteLiquidHearth
TeamLiquid's Hearthstone Article Portal, a collection of all articles they've done. A good place to start.
HearthHead - Best Arena draft practice, decklists, deck builder, card db
Hearthpwn - Practice Arena drafts, decklists, deck builder, card db. Same stuff different layout.
Chrome Hearthstone Card mouseover extension - Easily find out what all those cards people are talking about do without leaving the thread!
Trump's Neutral Common guide for Arena
Decent streamers/youtube clips to watch, to learn!
Trump
Kripparian
Hafu
Ellohime
apDrop
ek0p
Reynad
Tournament Bracket
(Liberally borrowing the best of our old OP and the beauty of SE++)
THIS IS FOR: PC/Mac, and eventually Android and iDevices!
First information about the new Curse of Naxxramas expansion found here.
We like playing with each other sometimes: Add your Bnet Battletag here.
The game has THREE play modes:
- Constructed - Build a 30-card deck and fight people in ranked or unranked matches. Ranked has recently been majorly revamped.
- Practice - Build a 30-card deck and fight really bad AI opponents to learn the INS AND OUTS of the game nothing.
- Arena - Pay 150g, then pick a hero from a random selection of 3 heroes and draft a deck from a random pool of cards presented to you three at a time. Then battle other people who went through the same process to receive treasures!
Hearthstone revolves around two heroes summoning minions in a goal to bring the enemy hero to zero life. Think of it as a simpler version of Magic that favors quicker matches, and you're on the right track.
Here are class intros and pretty pictures:
Hero Power: Gain 1 Armor and +1 Attack this turn.
Style: Can accelerate with mana-boosting cards like Innervate. Many cards have two options, allowing for flexibility. Enjoys a good buff.
Weaknesses: Flexible cards tend to be overpriced. Weaker early game without acceleration. Lacks direct removal.
Hero Power: Deal 2 damage to opposing hero.
Style: Utilizes minions to rush down opponent. Great synergy with beast minions. Cheap removal.
Weaknesses: Removal tends to be random targets or secrets that can be played around. Beasts are typically mediocre without hunter synergies. Hero power has no effect on the board.
Hero Power: Deal 1 damage to any character.
Style: Lots of direct damage spells, and spells in general. Very control-oriented, using freeze and removal to keep enemies at bay. Polymorph is one of the best removal spells. Strong AoE damage. Strong finisher via Pyroblast.
Weaknesses: Only has a handful of solid minions. Incredibly vulnerable without any spells. Can be hamstrung if opponent heals enough.
Hero Power: Summon a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit minion.
Style: Enjoys buffing minions and debuffing enemies. Great for weenie decks, but enjoys a slower, somewhat control-oriented game. Solid weapons, and lots of card draw.
Weaknesses: Has poor direct removal. Card draw is good, but either situational (Divine Favor) or expensive (Lay on Hands).
Hero Power: Restores 2 HP to a character.
Style: Control-oriented. Loves to buff minions, particularly HP. Steals opponents' crap, potentially resulting in massive card advantage. Lots of direct removal.
Weaknesses: Weak in the early game. Direct removal is conditional or expensive. People will think you're a jerk.
Hero Power: Summon a 1/2 weapon.
Unique Mechanic: Combo. Cards have an additional effect if you've already played a card earlier in the turn.
Style: Tends to go for rush-down. Lots of direct damage and weapons. Combo allows for cheap, powerful effects.
Weaknesses: Vulnerable late-game. Combo can lead to unfavorable opening hands. AoE spells tend to be poor.
Hero Power: Summons one of the following totems at random: Stoneclaw (0/2 Taunt), Healing (0/2, restores 1 HP to all friendly minions at end of turn), Searing Totem (1/1), Wrath of Air (0/2, +1 Spell Damage)
Unique Mechanic: Overload. You will be unable to spend X mana on your next turn. Think Echo from Magic and you're on the right track.
Style: Has a lot of play styles, being able to sling spells, use weapons, and solid minions. Overload allows for very efficient turns. Hex is among the best direct removal.
Weaknesses: Vulnerable on turns AFTER overload. Hero power is random, which will burn you.
Hero Power: Gain 2 Armor.
Style: Incredibly aggressive, favoring a lot of cheap enrage minions, charge, and great weapons.
Weaknesses: Worst Hero Power in the game. Removal tends to be random or conditional (Execute, Brawl). Damage spells, particularly AoE, are poor. Takes a ton of damage from weapon use.
Hero Power: Deal 2 damage to your hero. Draw a card.
Style: Can go for an aggressive early game with very cheap demons. Hero Power is among the best in the game. Good synergy with demons.
Weaknesses: Powerful cards tend to have bad drawbacks. Removal tends to be weak (Mortal Coil) or carry big drawbacks (Soulfire). Hero Power can hurt your late game.
The current kings of constructed are still control decks and their variants. Druids are probably the most common class at the top of the ladder with good removal and finishing combos in their class specific kit. On the other side of the coin, Murloc Warlock is as popular as it has been for 3 months and new Warrior/Hunter aggro decks are flooding the lower ranks with legendary viable budget decks. Every class (arguably except mage) is viable at a legend level, but matchups are pretty lopsided. Priests perform very well against control Paladins, Druids, Warlocks, and Warriors but really struggle with aggro decks. Shaman is seeing increased play as a midrange anti-aggro class; The Black Knight has dropped in usage and their taunts are becoming formidable again. Rogues are playing everything from aggro to board control to hard control with Headcrack and spell power. For more information, make a post! Many of us are willing to share our feelings on the best way each class can find success.
Grobian's list of less intuitive facts:
- Max handsize is 10 cards. Any card over that is drawn then immediately destroyed.
- You can't have more than 7 minions on the board.
- If you draw from an empty deck, each "card" you draw instead damages you, beginning at 1 damage and increasing by 1 damage each draw.
- If multiple things happen at the same time (e.g. trigger at the end of the turn) they happen in the order their respective cards have been played.
- There are hidden quests/achievements that award gold, notably: 100g for beating all Expert AIs, 100g for playing every class to level 10 and 300g for 100 wins total.
- The Shaman hero power always calls one of the 4 totems that isn't out yet. If you get a totem bounced to your hand, you can play a second one, though.
- The hunter spell Animal Companion just calls a random of the 3 possible minions.
- The Warlock spell Sense Demons gives you 1/1 imps for 1 mana if you don't have (any more) demons in your deck.
- Stealth overrides Taunt, not the other way around.
- Stealth is only for the enemy, you can buff your stealthed minions.
- Priest: Shadowform refreshes your hero power, so you can use it twice in a turn.
- Druid: Wild Growth at 10 mana crystals awards you a spell "Excess Mana" which draws a card for 0.
- More comprehensive list of oddities here
Easy intro to Hearthstone in an image.
Full daily quest list here.
TeamLiquid's new Hearthstone siteLiquidHearth
TeamLiquid's Hearthstone Article Portal, a collection of all articles they've done. A good place to start.
HearthHead - Best Arena draft practice, decklists, deck builder, card db
Hearthpwn - Practice Arena drafts, decklists, deck builder, card db. Same stuff different layout.
Chrome Hearthstone Card mouseover extension - Easily find out what all those cards people are talking about do without leaving the thread!
Trump's Neutral Common guide for Arena
Decent streamers/youtube clips to watch, to learn!
Trump
Kripparian
Hafu
Ellohime
apDrop
ek0p
Reynad
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
MNC Dover on
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Posts
Secrets are an interesting way to allow the defending player to be 'sort-of' active without actually breaking the game into phases or pausing for response moves. I think the game would do well to have a few more non-chaff Secret options (...though the obvious problem, to me, is that all Secrets are currently clumped onto a single mana value to prevent players from guessing which secret it is based on what it cost to play. if all hunter traps are going to cost 2 mana, that limits the design space quite a bit since you can't have a really powerful effect for so little cost).
More or less the same for all other games that have a genre though
Though you can do much better at hearthstone as a genre newcomer than you can in any fps or fighting game I'd say.
Pagle is my first non-trash legendary. Post-nerf, do I DE him for a Ragnaros, Ysera, Cairne, or something else?
If I had him I would get a rag
I made that mistake a couple times, luckily my opponents didn't take advantage
Each time I was like aaaaand okay, time to end turn, use up mana with hero po-oh god dammit
It was the funniest moment I have ever had.
I am now going to build a deck around the Raging Lightwell.
DS Friend code: 3840-6605-3406
Before the Great PA Games, I was using him in decks as an answer to other legendaries like Sylvanas and Cairne, but I guess getting one of those, or Cairne/Rag will be a good consolation prize. I have Leeroy & Onyxia, but that's really it as far as useful legendaries go.
Edit: Deathrattles look really cool now.
From what I read this was only in full-screen mode.
And yes, it's annoyed some internet folk.
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Game decides to give me a wisp and an eye for an eye in my card pack. Thanks, game.
*Cue Price is Right bummer music*
That's pretty bad luck! Wonder what the probability of that is. 3 cards out of 30 hiding for 6 games? Yikes.
Well, I hope not, given that UtH + Buzzard is right in line with other class-based card draw mechanics and there's no need to make a good card bad.
UtH+Buzzard nets you 2-3 cards, costs 4 mana and requires you to spend two cards (technically the Buzzard goes onto the board, but it will die). That's not out of proportion compared to on-demand draw like Arcane intellect or Sprint.
Alex, LeeRoy, Sylvanas & Cairne can basically go into any deck and be good, so those are safe bets (I don't personally care for Sylvanas post-nerf, but she's still good).
EDIT: Oh, and if you're running control, just get Ysera. She's brilliant, and will be even better now with Tink out of the picture.
Ooh, I do like the sound of Ysera. I've only played with her once in Arena, but it was mighty fun. With Leeroy for Aggro decks and Ysera for control, I'd say that's a decent spread for making the most out of the limited legendaries I'll have.
Arena RNG is something else, this is a very rare game that still makes me jump out of my chair sometimes and just throw my hands up. But I've somehow grown to enjoy the torment.
For example just now I had a game where I had full board control and dropped my Ysera on round 9. Only next turn he uses faceless manipulator on it. Both yseras draw 2 cards before dying, I get one nightmare and one laughing sister. He gets two Awakens. Goodbye board control, goodbye game. Then next game guess what, same fucking thing happens!!! My own damn Ysera literally lost me two games.
Oh and don't forget the games where the opponent pulls off a freakish triple card synergy that you don't even see in constructed that will leave your jaw on the floor. Really, man, you're gonna put that wolfrider next to your flame totem then cast windfury and bloodlust to charge for the win with not a single card left in your hand? And you did this while competing hard for board control with your other cards all game? Mind is boggled.
Just got it now. Though it came down when he attacked with it.
(So ready for release, guys!)
It's another bug that's been around since beta, but it was rare.
It's 2014 and there are still games incapable of supporting alt+tab, especially such low intensive resource games. Someone needs to go to the guillotine.
Windowed-mode? (I play almost every game in windowed mode nowadays, when possible, but most modern games do support it.)
It's even better than Alt-Tab minimizing, because you can continue to hear the sounds!
I get a bug in windowed mode where the whole rest of the screen turns black if I try to look at any of the cards in the play log.
unresponsive buttons, timeouts, glitches, nothing works, it is a mess
I hope he feels as dirty as he should. Guess I should start carrying a little health restoration?
Whoops, you're right. The other explosive secret, Trap.