Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

[Drisco]

Was watching some guy play it on a Twitch stream earlier today and it looked pretty neat.

I'd love to try it out, but it's a closed beta.

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/

Streams: http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Hearthstone:%20Heroes%20of%20Warcraft


Anyone else think they'll be playing?

[dszabo]

I put in for a beta invite but never got one. I will be playing, to start anyways.

[Taernath]

I put in for the beta and haven't gotten an invite either.

[Gelston]

Another collectible card game? Ugh.

[Nieninque]

It looks shit

[Malisai]

Ill probably check it out since it will be free to play and you can earn most of the cards in game through play.

However Im not sure how long ill end up playing. It does not seem like you can have much variation in your play. Each deck is based on a class and gets cards based on that, you can add neutral cards (which any deck can use) to your deck to change it up a bit, but at the end of the day a warlock deck behaves like a warlock deck. Since the core mechanics are built into what class deck you are playing (based on the hero ability and the cards in the class deck).

I wonder how much variation and complexity you can build with these decks. the complexity of deck building is one of the things that keeps MtG going strong (even if certian deck types end up being heavily played in tournements). Who knows. I think that if this game wasnt being made by blizz it would bomb. As it stands it wil do decently just based off of blizz's current player base.

[Archigeek]

My cousin has been playing it and finding it to be a lot of fun.

[Taernath]

Got into the beta the other day. It's pretty fun. Plays a lot like Magic (as I remember it, been years since I last played), and the card crafting/deck building seem pretty interesting. I played a match last night where my opponent had a really strong taunt card (creature that you HAVE to attack before you can attack the player) that he buffed to insane levels with other cards, but I polymorphed it into a 1/1 creature then used arcane explosion, killing it and a few other cards he had placed in a single round. Feels good man.

Some of the heroes are really powerful compared to others though. You start with Jaina, who can spend 2 mana to cause 1 damage, but there are others who spend 2 mana to cause OR heal 2 damage.

[Drisco]

Ugh, I've been in the Opt-In since it first allowed you to, I still haven't got into it :(.

[TheEschaton]

Neither have I, apparently it's super addicting.

It's like the WoW of TCGs.

[TheEschaton]

Got into the beta the other day. It's pretty fun. Plays a lot like Magic (as I remember it, been years since I last played), and the card crafting/deck building seem pretty interesting. I played a match last night where my opponent had a really strong taunt card (creature that you HAVE to attack before you can attack the player) that he buffed to insane levels with other cards, but I polymorphed it into a 1/1 creature then used arcane explosion, killing it and a few other cards he had placed in a single round. Feels good man.

Some of the heroes are really powerful compared to others though. You start with Jaina, who can spend 2 mana to cause 1 damage, but there are others who spend 2 mana to cause OR heal 2 damage.

Also, Jaina's 1 dmg can be done to ANYTHING. Rexxar's Steady Shot can only be used against the other hero for 2 dmg (so you can't clear any other cards with it) and Anduin's 2 heal power requires a card (of which you can have max 2 in a 30 card deck) to change his healing power to a damage power.

[Taernath]

Also, Jaina's 1 dmg can be done to ANYTHING. Rexxar's Steady Shot can only be used against the other hero for 2 dmg (so you can't clear any other cards with it) and Anduin's 2 heal power requires a card (of which you can have max 2 in a 30 card deck) to change his healing power to a damage power.

You can't clear cards with it, but steady shot is still a constant 2 damage bypassing all minions (at least, I think it bypasses taunts), which sets a time limit on the battle. The heal is also super annoying because it can be used on minions AND Anduin himself.

[masterdtwin]

I got into the beta on monday.

Honestly, if you liked M:TG you will probably find this game to be like liquid cocaine. One of the things I like is that it doesn't have as many super-extravagent cards and options. It's very simplistic, but there are still some pretty devastating combos you can do.

The current deck I've been using has been with Jaina. I have freeze (stops enemy from attacking) abilities and spell cards. I have several +spell damage (increase damage of spell cards) creatures including Malygos who adds +5 by himself. One of the fun combos I use is a (forgot the name of the card) 3 damage + freeze ability on anything, combined with an ice/frost lance (freezes a character, or if frozen does 4 damage). If you combine the two with some spell damage, you can pump out some serious damage (malygos alone makes it a 17 damage combo).

I'm looking into coming up with a good strategy to use with Uther. I haven't really worked it out yet, but there's a creature that gets +3/+3 for every divine shield lost when summoned. I kicked someone's ass on the arena mode (random cards picked), by managing to pull him up to 15/15 in the 3rd round of the game... good times :)

[TheEschaton]

The problem is drawing that card in the first place.

[TheEschaton]

Oh dang, I got invited. EIGHT DAYS AGO.

All my WoW guildies were getting invites, and I was pissed I wasn't one of them, so out of spite this morning I searched my EMail this morning for an invite and it was there, just totally missed it, 8 days ago. I guess getting 50+ political EMails a day is bad for the inbox. :(

DOWNLOADING NOW, OH MAN.

[Jarvan]

SolForge is also a fairly addicting game. And free to play as well.

[Taernath]

I guess Hearthstone released today.

It has a tie-in with WoW in that if you win 3 matches you get a Hearthsteed (http://www.wowhead.com/item=98618/hearthsteed).

[Gemstones]

There is only one true Hearthstone - the one near Wehnimer's Landing.

[Tgo01]

I'm still playing the tutorial or whatever but it's pretty fun thus far. The humor is surprisingly good :O

I'm surprised this game is free, Blizzard could have easily slapped a 5 dollar price tag on it and I'm sure just about everyone who already plays Blizzard games would have bought it anyways. Or do they have plans to make money from this game?

[Taernath]

They have the standard CCG booster pack store.

[Tgo01]

They have the standard CCG booster pack store.

Oh, duh. Now that I finished the tutorial I see that the cards cost money.

[Tgo01]

We all agree the warrior is the best, right?

[Warriorbird]

We all agree the warrior is the best, right?

Ha ha ha.

The game's okay. Not as deep as Magic.

[Drisco]

We all agree the warrior is the best, right?

With an Aggro Hunter deck I've gotten to Rank 12 and with a Spellpower Rogue Control/Aggro deck I've gotten to 14. I just made Leeroy Jenkins, so I should see my rank increase a bit.

Warrior weapons drive me nuts. That early game 3/2 weap for 2 is op.

[Taernath]

We all agree the warrior is the best, right?

That 2 armor every turn.

Goddamn.

[Taernath]

Also I'm pretty sure my repair bot healing the enemy team is a bug.

[Tgo01]

I changed my mind, the priest is the best of all!

Damn this game for being so addicting.

[subzero]

I changed my mind, the priest is the best of all!

Damn this game for being so addicting.

Yeah, I like the priest.

[Ashliana]

Priests are amazing. Mage is very good. For fun, try out a spell damage Rogue. They work amazingly well.

[Gawyane]

Shaman is OP as hell with the right deck.

[Taernath]

I've found I have the best luck with a hunter. A 3 damage bow weapon repaired with 'secret' effects (traps), a 0 cost spell that sets a minion's health to 1, and a bunch of board wipers is really great for decimating someone's team.

It sounds like everyone is recommending different decks so it must be balanced I guess.

[Tgo01]

I've found I have the best luck with a hunter. It sounds like everyone is recommending different decks so it must be balanced I guess.

I can't seem to ever win against mages and that's all I've faced in the last 6 games. It's possible I just suck though but that's highly unlikely.

[Taernath]

I've heard spellpower mages are pretty hard but I haven't seen one yet.

[RichardCranium]

I played for the mount and ended up playing it all day.

I never played Magic or any other card game for that matter though.

[RichardCranium]

It turns out I am really, really bad at this.

[Tgo01]

It turns out I am really, really bad at this.

Me too :/

I see a lot of people stack their decks with minions and towards the end of the game they had a lot of minions up and were calling out minions that cost 8 and 9 mana each. I tried stacking my deck with minion cards but just couldn't do it right.

Finally tried out the rogue hero and tried going for cards that would do as much damage to the enemy hero as possible for as little mana as possible. Finally won a game as a rogue. Woot!

[Tgo01]

Well I told myself I was gonna learn how to build a good deck on my own but after going about 2-30 in games against other people I broke down and Googled a good Rogue deck.

So far so good, 3 wins in a row.

[Taernath]

I have two legendary cards:

Elite Tauren Chieftain (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/682-elite-tauren-chieftain)
Gelbin Mekkatorque (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/251-gelbin-mekkatorque)

Mekkatorque's summons are random, and their effects can help the enemy team, so I'm thinking he's more trouble than he's worth having in a deck. Apparently the Chieftain does something similar. Are there any useful legendaries?

[subzero]

I have two legendary cards:

Elite Tauren Chieftain (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/682-elite-tauren-chieftain)
Gelbin Mekkatorque (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/251-gelbin-mekkatorque)

Mekkatorque's summons are random, and their effects can help the enemy team, so I'm thinking he's more trouble than he's worth having in a deck. Apparently the Chieftain does something similar. Are there any useful legendaries?

I have a decent combo in my priest deck using Alexstraza. It's got a battlecry that lets me take a hero's health to 15. Then I'll hit'em with 2x mind blast (5 dmg to opposing hero) and mop up with critters.

[Tgo01]

Are there any useful legendaries?

There are some but looking at decks that other players build it seems 1-3 legendaries are all most decks have.

Which is kind of good because I was worried if you didn't have 30 legendaries in a deck you couldn't win.

[Tgo01]

Anyone still playing this game?

I still play a little but not nearly as much as I did before. The fun factor has taken a huge nose dive now that I see just how random this game is. It's a card game so of course randomness is involved but then there are like 30 different cards and abilities that are random, who goes first is random (and apparently going first is a major plus in this game).

I also appreciate the "casual" aspect of it; you don't need to devote an entire hour to finish a match but I think they made it a bit too casual. Just 30 card decks and each player starts with 3 or 4, single AOE cards that can take out an entire board filled with minions, only 30 hero health.

Plus some of these cards are just...blick. Like you can bring out a huge 8/8 minion that cost you 8+ mana to play then your opponent plays a 2 mana 2/2 minion and reduces his health to one. Just like, really?

The game seemed great and really fun at first but that petered out pretty quickly for me.

[Warriorbird]

Anyone still playing this game?

I still play a little but not nearly as much as I did before. The fun factor has taken a huge nose dive now that I see just how random this game is. It's a card game so of course randomness is involved but then there are like 30 different cards and abilities that are random, who goes first is random (and apparently going first is a major plus in this game).

I also appreciate the "casual" aspect of it; you don't need to devote an entire to finish a match but I think they made it a bit too casual. Just 30 card decks and each player starts with 3 or 4, single AOE cards that can take out an entire board filled with minions, only 30 hero health.

Plus some of these cards are just...blick. Like you can bring out a huge 8/8 minion that cost you 8+ mana to play then your opponent plays a 2 mana 2/2 minion and reduces his health to one. Just like, really?

The game seemed great and really fun at first but that petered out pretty quickly for me.

I felt something similar. I played it heavy for about a month of Beta, then I got frustrated at that same aspect.

[Tgo01]

It's also no fun that it's not entirely uncommon for matches to be over by turn 6 or 7. When I first started playing this game I thought minions would play a major role, like you plop a minion down and you could expect to see it up for 5 or 6 turns but in reality for the most part your minions are gone in 3 turns tops, most of the time they don't even last long enough to attack unless they have charge.

[Tgo01]

This is the type of shit I mean. I play one game that lasts about 13 turns and we're pretty evenly matched, I end up winning the game with like 8 health left.

Very next game is against a warlock and he wins on turn 5 with full health, didn't even have to use his hero power! Seriously what the fuck? And it's not because I suck (although I do) there was just literally nothing I could do.

Heroes need more than 30 health in this game. I can't believe with all of that beta testing Blizzard never sat down and said "Naww, 30 health isn't gonna cut it."

[Warriorbird]

This is the type of shit I mean. I play one game that lasts about 13 turns and we're pretty evenly matched, I end up winning the game with like 8 health left.

Very next game is against a warlock and he wins on turn 5 with full health, didn't even have to use his hero power! Seriously what the fuck? And it's not because I suck (although I do) there was just literally nothing I could do.

Heroes need more than 30 health in this game. I can't believe with all of that beta testing Blizzard never sat down and said "Naww, 30 health isn't gonna cut it."

There's too much randomness, even with a carefully selected deck. It's still fun though and easily accessible.

[Tgo01]

There's too much randomness, even with a carefully selected deck. It's still fun though and easily accessible.

Yeah it's still a fun little time killer. I dunno though. Not sure how much I'll play once Diablo expansion hits.

[Atlanteax]

This is the type of shit I mean. I play one game that lasts about 13 turns and we're pretty evenly matched, I end up winning the game with like 8 health left.

Very next game is against a warlock and he wins on turn 5 with full health, didn't even have to use his hero power! Seriously what the fuck? And it's not because I suck (although I do) there was just literally nothing I could do.

Heroes need more than 30 health in this game. I can't believe with all of that beta testing Blizzard never sat down and said "Naww, 30 health isn't gonna cut it."

I think Blizzard intentionally designed it so that games are usually over in 6-7 rounds, because casual players (their target market) apparently hate drawn-out engaging matches.

[Tolwynn]

Just played a game where an opponent's Nat Pagle fired off 11 turns in a row. Congrats to Blizzard for somehow implementing a worse RNG than even Simu could manage.

[Taernath]

There's too much randomness, even with a carefully selected deck. It's still fun though and easily accessible.

Exactly. I feel like most of my games I either win or lose by a large margin, there's hardly any middle ground. Also, some of my best/most useful cards I rarely see due to there being a 2 card limit and the shortness of a game. Magic allows you to have 60 cards (twice as much, but roughly 20 are land) with 4 of a particular card. That allows you to customize your deck a lot more effectively than just 30 cards does.

[Tgo01]

Exactly. I feel like most of my games I either win or lose by a large margin, there's hardly any middle ground. Also, some of my best/most useful cards I rarely see due to there being a 2 card limit and the shortness of a game. Magic allows you to have 60 cards (twice as much, but roughly 20 are land) with 4 of a particular card. That allows you to customize your deck a lot more effectively than just 30 cards does.

The game is entirely too casual. There are posts on the officials about people playing other games while playing Hearthstone. In fact I even watched a Youtube video from a popular Hearthstone streamer, Trump, who was going to play Hearthstone and that new Heroes game Blizzard is creating. He was going to play both at once but the Heroes game wouldn't load while Hearthstone was running.

There are also posts about people playing with bots; that's how uncomplicated the game is, people can just run bots to play the game for them and still win a good portion of the time.

It sucks because I still have a little fun with the game but at this point I dunno, it's just weird. It's like I know the game is broken but I keep wanting to play. Almost like another game we all know and love...

[Methais]

Solution: Strip Hearthstone

(no fat chicks)

[Tgo01]

lawl my account on the official Hearthstone forums was banned because I had the audacity to point out the flaws with this game.

There used to be a time when Blizzard didn't crack down on dissent on their forums but lately with the sub par games they have been releasing I guess they figure it's easier to silence the nay sayers then actually make a decent game to begin with.

[Taernath]

What the fuck? Is your account actually banned (i.e. can't play HS any more) or did you just lose posting privileges? Also a link would be nice.

[Tgo01]

What the fuck? Is your account actually banned (i.e. can't play HS any more) or did you just lose posting privileges? Also a link would be nice.

Just my forum account. "Keep buying them decks but don't you DARE say a word against our game!"

They made sure to delete the thread I started too before banning me.

They are REALLY cracking down on dissent though. I've gotten banned from their forums before but to be fair a lot of times I deserved it but it usually took a week or two to bring the ban hammer down.

This time though...less than a day! And honestly I didn't even deserve it this time, I was being polite and following the rules and everything. I basically just said the game sucks and needs a lot of work, but I said it in a nicer way.

I think Blizzard realizes this game is just a house of cards waiting to fall...get it?!?

Cards...cards...

[Jumpkick]

Would love to see what you actually wrote. Most accounts I see that get the ban are blatantly flaming the game or employees or something and have very little constructive content in their posts.

[SHAFT]

You're a real malcontent tgo, causing trouble everywhere you go. You're like the next James dean, a real rebel without a cause. I dig your style.

[Warriorbird]

Tgo is edgy, yo. I personally found the staff pretty responsive to commentary. They did seem to want to make clear this was a casual game though.

[Tgo01]

You're a real malcontent tgo, causing trouble everywhere you go. You're like the next James dean, a real rebel without a cause. I dig your style.


Tgo is edgy, yo.

Damn right, I'm one cool cat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4iWCGipBsuA/SMmUcOcDb6I/AAAAAAAAAXE/JeoVNWZKKR8/s320/cat+sup.jpg


Would love to see what you actually wrote. Most accounts I see that get the ban are blatantly flaming the game or employees or something and have very little constructive content in their posts.

I really wasn't flaming though. Yes I'll admit I was ranting but I was expressing my feelings about why I was ranting and what I felt needed to be changed. I even said the game was fun and had a lot of potential!

[Atlanteax]

Tgo is edgy, yo. I personally found the staff pretty responsive to commentary. They did seem to want to make clear this was a casual game though.

Casual like Angry Birds & Candy Crush.

[Tgo01]

I'm pretty sure they went ahead and banned everyone in the thread who was agreeing with me as well because I can't help but notice that they haven't posted anything since then yet they were fairly active before hand.

[Warriorbird]

Casual like Angry Birds & Candy Crush.

Pretty much what was said, actually.

[Taernath]

Casual like Angry Birds & Candy Crush.

He must have been intimidating the stay at home mom demographic.

[Atlanteax]

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/i-KjPfTcZ/0/1050x10000/i-KjPfTcZ-1050x10000.jpg

[Ceyrin]

This thread was amusing.

Anyone still playing can pass me their battle.net tag and get wrecked at my convenience.

Alternatively, I can help you get better at the game.