The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Hearthstone] - Blizzard's CCG - OPEN BETA! Get in there and play, maggot!
kraughmar
Kingston, ONRegistered User regular
Kingston, ONRegistered User regular
(Liberally borrowing the best of our old OP and the beauty of SE++)
LAUNCH STATUS: Open beta - feast on the arenas of fresh meat.
THIS IS FOR: PC/Mac, and eventually Android and iDevices!
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.
Freeze Mage is popular - they control the game by keeping all your guys frozen all the time, and then they burn you down with Pyroblast.
Warlock - Curi's deck was / is popular. Early aggro board control.
Healadin variations are countering Freeze/Burn mages.
Warriors, Hunters, and to a lesser extent Priests are bottom tier.
(People with better understanding of the meta feel free to chime in when this gets out of date)
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!
Decent streamers/youtube clips to watch, to learn!
Trump
Kripparian
Hafu
Ellohime
apDrop
ek0p
kraughmar on
0
Posts
auctioneer doesn't do enough when he comes out and he's too small to live
i dunno, secrets are already mostly mediocre except for a few exceptions (which still aren't great). i can't see making them worse being all that important of a design goal.
Although I think he's overrated in Arena unless you got a lot of taunt (which is also overrated) or cheap spells.
They're frustratingly non-interactive, to me. I would also like more counterspells.
I suppose the counterpoint to that is that secrets are cheap, between 1-3 mana depending on what class they're for. And yes, they can be played around, but playing around them is another way of saying that the other player is forced to make a certain play to defuse the secret. There's value in forcing your opponent to make a play they might not have wanted to make on a given turn.
Right now it's what, 30% faster than MTGO? Probably not even that.
for example he gets completely trashed by dark iron dwarf (buff puts 3/x in shield master kill range, he trades directly with auctioneer)
sylvanas would be much stronger in general (though perhaps not against Mage)
And that's fair. I'd say Paladin is most hurt by not being able to choose when things go off, but then as you say they are only out one mana. They are out a card though. You can use a few offensively which is fine and I'm sure there will be more later (maybe) which might mitigate the issue.
Well if you replace him with azure drake you at least get a guaranteed card draw out of it!
What about this?
http://www.hearthhead.com/deckbuilder#cMd67MiS7MqK7Mj67zs07Mdo7Mmh7Mcn7Maq7zc47Mzj7MbY7MzV7Muz7Muc7Mra8q
Faceless manipulator for maximum value on the big guys!
Also I have no legendaries or druid epics
I assume if I had ancients of lore/war I'd sub them in for the azure drakes.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
The Hunter ones especially are good for this as you want to try and draw out the Snipe or the Frost Trap.
It feels much faster than 50%.
There's just no room for instant type play online. Waiting for an opponent to "ok" everything is just unbearably slow.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
I think 4/4 is fine given his effect. You get Auctioneer for card draw as opposed to the body.
on curve he just dies, as a combo he is worse than nourish and too situational
I would put in shield master for the earthen ring healers, but you'd need more healing from lores to make up for it
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Alexstraza > Pyro > Pyro > Frostbolt + Icelance + Fireball
Was kind of impressed by my opponent.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
That they were all in his hand without any card draw is impressive.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
In general I've begun to see earth shock as a much better card than I previously thought, at least in the current meta.
I was just now swooping in to give @kraughmar props for that. Well played.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Most shaman tools are actually really good. My favorite class to play, easily.
I just wish some of lightning/forked lightning/Lightning storm were in the basic set.
Any of their core mechanic at all, really.
Edit: Maybe not. he's back to stupid.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Streaming 8PST on weeknights