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Hearthstone Closed Beta - Open beta in NA, elsewhere next few days. New thread soon!

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Glad to see this thread starting to liven up with all the keys being handed out. Can't believe my luck this time around -- having gotten keys for Diablo3, WoW Expansions (at least 2 of them), SC2... just not my month!

I think it's clear the game with go open beta right around BlizzCon. So... looking forward to seeing you all real soon!
 
Motte in Paris said:
Oh, that's an interesting tool!

My choices

My thoughts:
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3. I know Berserker is great, but i wanted more minions and board control and imp is good with it, it also synergies well with Rampage, which i took earlier :)
5. I know its not great, but i wanted some taunter and 5 mana card
7. Because, it not only synergies with those enrages, but all deals with all that stupid 2/1, 3/1, 0/1 crap that is in openings of many Hunter/Shaman/Rogue decks :)
12. Yep, i know, but i just wanted more board control minions, and two minions is better than one :)
13. Didnt choose Spiteful Smith, because i didnt have any weapon and do know if affects Heroic Strike
14. I wanted something stronger and Elemental is just great :)
15. It was dilemma for me as well, but i didnt see weapons and its great substitute :)
17. I love Gnome, i've seen tons of good value from this card and Tiger even if good, can be killed by every minion and spell, where Gnome even if killed deal damage to enemy :)
18. Got Charge, because i was thinking that i'll get Windfury + buffs finisher in late game from time to time.
19. Yeah i know, i was thinking about Silence, but i got silence already and didnt have Windfury and wanted it for combo with Charge
23. Kripparrian convinced me to MCT
26. Wanted something for end-game.
30. Got Kodo instead of Mortal, because deck already had quite many cards to deal with lower life values, but not much with high values and those quite often pared with low attack values, especially taunts :)
 
Cross post from the sell thread

WTS

Hearthstone Beta key.
from the email: "Please note that the Hearthstone closed beta is currently only available to players from North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia."

Send offers to my PM. Definitely looking for offers above $60
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The four gnome cards that allow you to draw are addictive, but I wonder if I should dump them in place of ther cards I'd in theory pull in their place.

The only place they seem appropriate is my Rogue deck where I am almost always getting through my entire deck every game.
 
Went 7-3 in the Arena, allowing me to play for "free" for the first time. Feelsgoodman.gif. Got a pack, 155 gold and a golden common.

1) I don't get to play a lot - probably 3-4 matches a night a few night a week. Which contributes more than anything to why this hasn't happened in the past. I simply don't complete a ton of Arena runs.

2) I'm an okay player so a typical result for me is 3-3 or 4-3.

People will insist that if you consistently go 3-3, 4-3 or 5-3 that you're "bad" or a scrub. Or that anyone with some persistence and skill can consistently get to 7-3, helping them go infinite or near-infinite with the help of quests and Play Mode gold. This just plain isn't true!

It's simple math. For every single Arena session that ends 7-3 or better, there has to be an equal number that ended 2-3, 1-3, or 0-3.

Every single hour, every single day, overall Arena W/L across the entire community has to end up at 50% wins and 50% losses. So just my modest 7-3 has to be balanced out by no less than two 1-3s, for a total of 9 wins, 9 losses. Casual players will buy into the arena and lose consistently (hopefully still having fun in the process), thereby "bankrolling" the going-infinite pros. Meanwhile, most players like me will consistently put up results ranging from 2-3 to 6-3.
 
I got in with the first PCGamesN giveaway and have been playing throughout the weekend.

Got mage to 14 and switched to priest, which resulted in me rattling off a decent number of wins in unranked. Swapped to the Doctor Draw deck from above and did great for a bit and considered entering ranked. Decided to swap to a deck featuring the pump health mechanic + card drawing engine from Priest (Lightspawn + Inner Fire, card draw cards like Acolyte of Pain etc.) but continually got destroyed because it's either not viable or was built incorrectly. I can't find a build for it, to be honest.

I did arena as priest after that and won a pack and some gold which was fun, but not enough to recoup what the cost would have been. I liked the arena, but I like being able to keep my cards, so it's painful when I get an awesome one I don't have only to lose it inevitably. Looks like this is the main function of the game right now though, so I gotta buck up.

The last two days I've been just flailing around trying to find what class I want to play. I was super excited to play that Priest combo deck, but I just cannot get it to work. Since then I've attempted common card budget builds from Warrior (didn't like it), Hunter (Combo deck centered around Young Dragonhawk + other beasts and Unleash the Hounds, but lacking certain cards cause I don't have many yet - was awesome but relied too much on a gimmick and those cards), Paladin (Divine Shield deck I found was awesome but required two legendaries and a bunch of other expensive cards to really shine, and the budget replacements basically made it not what it was supposed to be), and then Shaman.

I played Shaman last night as Shaman control, basically some variation of the Artosis Shaman deck from one of those tournaments before the wipe. I lucked into an Al'Akir (which isn't that great, but he used it as well and it has surprisingly won me a few games) in the couple packs I bought, and it has been quite enjoyable. I dusted every single other card I had that wasn't priest/mage to make it, which I hope I don't regret. I kept priest/mage because they seem to be the strongest now from what I've read, and my games prove that.

Game is ridiculous fun, like a rabbit hole once you get into arena or constructed deck building. I've already spent more time than I should have, to be honest.
 
Alur said:
I did arena as priest after that and won a pack and some gold which was fun, but not enough to recoup what the cost would have been. I liked the arena, but I like being able to keep my cards, so it's painful when I get an awesome one I don't have only to lose it inevitably. Looks like this is the main function of the game right now though, so I gotta buck up.
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It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out, but there are two thresholds for Arena success:

1) The first is the one everyone talks about, which is going at least 7-3, which means the Arena run pays for itself in its payout. 150g + a pack guaranteed. It'll happen to skilled players sometimes, but only super-dedicated players will get there consistently.

2) The second threshold is one I never thought about for quite a while. But basically, going around 2-3 or 3-3 or better will net you a pack and more than 50 gold, plus probably some dust. Since packs cost 100 gold when bought straight-up, your Arena run in that case basically got you a discounted pack :)

That's why it's still worth it to run Arena even if you don't have the dedication to consistently get 7 wins. It's generally a much better value for your gold vs. just buying a pack. Packs should never be bought with gold.
 
GDJustin said:
Went 7-3 in the Arena, allowing me to play for "free" for the first time. Feelsgoodman.gif. Got a pack, 155 gold and a golden common.

1) I don't get to play a lot - probably 3-4 matches a night a few night a week. Which contributes more than anything to why this hasn't happened in the past. I simply don't complete a ton of Arena runs.

2) I'm an okay player so a typical result for me is 3-3 or 4-3.

People will insist that if you consistently go 3-3, 4-3 or 5-3 that you're "bad" or a scrub. Or that anyone with some persistence and skill can consistently get to 7-3, helping them go infinite or near-infinite with the help of quests and Play Mode gold. This just plain isn't true!

It's simple math. For every single Arena session that ends 7-3 or better, there has to be an equal number that ended 2-3, 1-3, or 0-3.

Every single hour, every single day, overall Arena W/L across the entire community has to end up at 50% wins and 50% losses. So just my modest 7-3 has to be balanced out by no less than two 1-3s. Casual players will buy into the arena and lose consistently (hopefully still having fun in the process), thereby "bankrolling" the going-infinite pros. Meanwhile, most players like me will consistently put up results ranging from 2-3 to 6-3.
Click to expand...

There are a lot more bad and new players, so your math works out. It is true when there's a huge player base that aren't good. The first 3 wins are pretty much auto wins because you play vs everyone. 4-6 is about how good you are. 7-9 is about rng and your deck. That's why the good players can go 7+ most of the time. I wouldn't even call going 9 wins good, there are just a huge amount of unskilled players right now.

If you just play a few games a night plus do the quests, you should break even too.
 
GDJustin said:
1) I don't get to play a lot - probably 3-4 matches a night a few night a week. Which contributes more than anything to why this hasn't happened in the past. I simply don't complete a ton of Arena runs.
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Honestly, that's the best thing about Hearth. That kind of playtime means a steady stream of daily quest gold which means more Arena!

I was also psyched I could back out the Arena and continue playing in it the following day. Damn game is casual heaven.

Still don't like the way it does mana, though. It makes the Mage direct damage deck insanely powerful.
 
Lactose_Intolerant said:
There are a lot more bad and new players, so your math works out. It is true when there's a huge player base that aren't good. The first 3 wins are pretty much auto wins because you play vs everyone. 4-6 is about how good you are. 7-9 is about rng and your deck. That's why the good players can go 7+ most of the time. I wouldn't even call going 9 wins good, there are just a huge amount of unskilled players right now.

If you just play a few games a night plus do the quests, you should break even too.
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But even you're falling into the mindset, a little bit. For every single 9-2 there has to be three poor dudes that went 0-3, 1-3, 1-3. This is true today, when there's lots of newbies, but it'll be true in a year, when the community is old.

Of course, maybe that just means the plugged in, skilled players will have a lot harder time going infinite at that point, as the skill curve levels out. We'll probably see a lot more 2-3s, 3-3s and 4-3s, with things getting VERY tough around 5 and 6.
 
GDJustin said:
But even you're falling into the mindset, a little bit. For every single 9-2 there has to be three poor dudes that went 0-3, 1-3, 1-3. This is true today, when there's lots of newbies, but it'll be true in a year, when the community is old.

Of course, maybe that just means the plugged in, skilled players will have a lot harder time going infinite at that point, as the skill curve levels out. We'll probably see a lot more 2-3s, 3-3s and 4-3s, with things getting VERY tough around 5 and 6.
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Most people will quit because the game isn't deep. While it being free + blizzard will keep the stream of people coming.

If you are good at the game, you don't need money. If that isn't the case then blizzard needs to change their rewards. They have already listened to the community about the rewards for 5 and 6.
 
GDJustin said:
That's why it's still worth it to run Arena even if you don't have the dedication to consistently get 7 wins. It's generally a much better value for your gold vs. just buying a pack. Packs should never be bought with gold.
Click to expand...

The only counter-argument to this is accounting for the time in which is takes to complete an Arena run versus the simplicity of buying a single pack (or discounted group of packs).

In essence, though, I agree that there is more value to playing a run of arena.
 
Lactose_Intolerant said:
Most people will quit because the game isn't deep. While it being free + blizzard will keep the stream of people coming.

If you are good at the game, you don't need money. If that isn't the case then blizzard needs to change their rewards. They have already listened to the community about the rewards for 5 and 6.
Click to expand...

5 and 6 get you a cheaper, subsidized pack as I outlined above. 7 is still the magic number. And 7 isn't sustainable for almost anyone longterm, because consistently putting up 7 wins means two folks didn't make it to .500. Putting up 9 wins ups that to three folks.
 
hobart said:
The only counter-argument to this is accounting for the time in which is takes to complete an Arena run versus the simplicity of buying a single pack (or discounted group of packs).

In essence, though, I agree that there is more value to playing a run of arena.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying don't buy packs. I'm saying don't buy them with gold - spend cash on them. Save the gold for Arena. You'll get more. It's designed that way. Blizz buffed it to be even further designed that way.
 
Last night, I played this game until 3 AM. I had work at 7. Haven't done anything like that since I was in College. This game could be bad for me...
 
Another day, another hopeful key wave. Although in all honestly, it's probably better for my health that I don't have access to beta yet.
 
Has anyone seen (or is using) a good mage deck post patch (preferably mage control, but mage aggro will do I suppose) that isn't packed with Thalnos legendaries + etc? I guess you could say budget.

Seems like everything is from August or involves having Bloodmage Thalnos x 2 or some other variation of high dust cards. I enjoyed what time I spent with mage, but win/loss record was only 50%. I'd like to have a mage deck to play around with or work towards when not shamanizing since they seem to be so strong.
 
GDJustin said:
5 and 6 get you a cheaper, subsidized pack as I outlined above. 7 is still the magic number. And 7 isn't sustainable for almost anyone longterm, because consistently putting up 7 wins means two folks didn't make it to .500. Putting up 9 wins ups that to three folks.
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Then the new bad players can spend 1.99 or play constructed. Blizzard wants to make money. They give you means to play it for free or if you are bad or don't want to take the time to gain the gold up, pay money. As long as there is a way to play the game for free, most people won't complain. It is still better than MTG money wise.

I don't understand what the folks getting under .500 have anything to do with the conversation. They shouldn't be playing arena if they aren't prepared to pay money for it. After the first 2 times you completely bomb in arena, you should figure out you should stop and learn the game better.

I think almost anyone is too low of a percentage. Just because you aren't achieving it doesn't mean there isn't a larger percentage than you think. Just use your own math. Even if you get 5-6 and get the occasional free run of 7-9, you will still have enough money to play for free. Daily quests plus 3 wins for 10 gold in constructed will make up the difference. The way constructed ranking is, there are still tons of bad people even in the top ranks. You don't need special cards to win more often than not.
 
I have a spare beta key. First person to answer this question gets it:

In the novel 1984 what does 2 + 2 equal according to the establishment?
 
dk_ said:
Thanks again man! Gave it to our fellow member Haunted.
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gmT7i.gif


My thanks to you and oktarb. ^^ See you online, bros! :)
 
Holy crap, I checked my spam folder and got an invite a few days ago. /facepalm. If I win a key tomorrow in the reddit giveaway then I will give it to a fellow GAF member
 
Lactose_Intolerant said:
Then the new bad players can spend 1.99 or play constructed. Blizzard wants to make money. They give you means to play it for free or if you are bad or don't want to take the time to gain the gold up, pay money. As long as there is a way to play the game for free, most people won't complain. It is still better than MTG money wise.

I don't understand what the folks getting under .500 have anything to do with the conversation. They shouldn't be playing arena if they aren't prepared to pay money for it. After the first 2 times you completely bomb in arena, you should figure out you should stop and learn the game better.

I think almost anyone is too low of a percentage. Just because you aren't achieving it doesn't mean there isn't a larger percentage than you think. Just use your own math. Even if you get 5-6 and get the occasional free run of 7-9, you will still have enough money to play for free. Daily quests plus 3 wins for 10 gold in constructed will make up the difference. The way constructed ranking is, there are still tons of bad people even in the top ranks. You don't need special cards to win more often than not.
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I have absolutely no problem with pretty much any aspect of Hearthstone. Sorry if you were misunderstanding me.

Check back to my first post on this page. I'm just saying, by definition, the majority of people will never ever have 70%+ win rates in Arena - no matter what. More winners will just be creating more losers at the other end.

It's nothing about Hearthstone itself. It's a commentary on the people saying "everyone" can get up to 60%+ win rates.
 
LOL last arena game I played I thoughtstole Ragnaros and then proceeded to destroy him with it.

To add to the current conversation, I personally average 7 wins in arena. Most of the people that lose to me end up making an error that costs them the game. By errors I mean like by turn 7 you should not be stacking the board with minions vs a mage because of flamestrike, whereas vs a warrior you should try and stack as much as possible due to no AOE.But vs a pally you should try and clear the board before turn 4 rather than deal direct damage because of kings and truesilver and might. Many people just simply haven't played long enough to learn smaller mana dependent things like that.
 
My Arena losts comes from the card drafts not giving me the option for these A+ tier cards.

Then when I'm up against the same class, they put out 3+ of these cards while I got none or only 1 in my deck.

That RNG draft luck.
 
EU wave went out and guess what, I got in!

Pretty cool since I've avoided the game like plague since it got announced, but around four or five days ago the dam broke and I started getting really hyped. Couldn't have come at a better time too, got a couple days off!

700MB to go.
 
Im very bad in arena. My stats. I cant understand what is wrong. Maybe I didn't pick the right cards or strategy is bad. I hope its the first one. Meanwhile in ranked constructed I have more wins then loses.
 
Azusa said:
Im very bad in arena. My stats. I cant understand what is wrong. Maybe I didn't pick the right cards or strategy is bad. I hope its the first one. Meanwhile in ranked constructed I have more wins then loses.
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That makes sense, Arena is very different from constructed.

The problem with Arena is you aren't guaranteed to get those class synergies that are required for constructed play. So a class that relies heavily on synergies, such as a hunter, is significantly weaker in arena just because can't guarantee certain cards coming up.

In arena, you pick the most powerful cards, while placing only some weight towards synergies. That way you are statistically going to have the best deck, rather than hoping for those synergies to come up down the line and having a weaker deck overall.

I'm hoping Blizzard will mitigate some of this by giving us 5-10 extra picks and throwing out picks we don't want. That allows us to pick a few more synergies over those powerful cards.
 
But all these popular streamers are way better then me in arena. Luck? Or maybe its skill. They are playing like 8 hour per day.

So in arena I just need to pick best card possible and hope for luck and great draw? There must be a strategy somewhere.
 
Azusa said:
But all these popular streamers are way better then me in arena. Luck? Or maybe its skill. They are playing like 8 hour per day.

So in arena I just need to pick best card possible and hope for luck and great draw? There must be a strategy somewhere.
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Total skill, for sure. Watch Trump, he's the best player (in my opinion). He's streaming now.
 
Gaffer list for new page. PM me your deets and I'll add them. Make sure to tell me your region as well.

Gaffers-BNet

NA:
Sajjaja - Sajjaja#1529
KuroNeeko - kuroMame#1491
tylerf - tylerf#1732
EscapingJail - EscapingJail#1496
Wunder - Wunder#6816
mercviper - MercViper#1232
Lactose_Intolerant - Lactose#1213
Lawke - Lawke#1165
Alur - Keyes#1431
shadowstar - ShadowStar#1741
sqwarlock - sqwarlock#1217
ph00p - jasius#1791

EU:
Xater - Xater#2989
dk_ - dkunderscore#2653
drkOne - asynchrony#2917
profit - Profit #1239
Azusa - Azusa#1343
Spookie - Spookie#1328

Undetermined:
largan - Largan#2640
 
Sajjaja said:
Gaffer list for new page. Leave your deets and I'll add them.

Gaffers-BNet

NA:
Sajjaja - Sajjaja#1529
KuroNeeko - kuroMame#1491
tylerf - tylerf#1732
EscapingJail - EscapingJail#1496
Wunder - Wunder#6816
mercviper - MercViper#1232
Lactose_Intolerant - Lactose#1213

EU:
Xater - Xater#2989
dk_ - dkunderscore#2653
drkOne - asynchrony#2917
profit - Profit #1239
Azusa - Azusa#1343
Spookie - Spookie#1328

Undetermined:
Click to expand...

Please add me:

Lawke - Lawke#1165

Just got in this past week, doing horribly. Looking for people to play with casually and develop some new strategies with. I'm on usually in the evening during the week, around 7:30 PM CST.
 
Grief.exe said:
I'm hoping Blizzard will mitigate some of this by giving us 5-10 extra picks and throwing out picks we don't want. That allows us to pick a few more synergies over those powerful cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't understand why we can't pick 40 and choose 30 of them. Or have a sideboard we can swap in and out between games.
 
Alur said:
Has anyone seen (or is using) a good mage deck post patch (preferably mage control, but mage aggro will do I suppose) that isn't packed with Thalnos legendaries + etc? I guess you could say budget.

Seems like everything is from August or involves having Bloodmage Thalnos x 2 or some other variation of high dust cards. I enjoyed what time I spent with mage, but win/loss record was only 50%. I'd like to have a mage deck to play around with or work towards when not shamanizing since they seem to be so strong.
Click to expand...

I think any mage deck with Fireballs + Polymorphs + Frostbolts + Flamestrikes, filled in with solid general cards will be good. Cherry on the top if you can get a Pyroblast.
 
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