The Hearthstone Beta!

[Gafsha]

I took a peek around to check on this forum's pick on the Hearthstone Beta game by Blizzard. Instead, I found... Well, nothing about it! None I could find, at least. So...

Hearthstone Beta and Image above all belongs to Blizzard Entertainment, and I hold no claim of owning any of these.

People whom are interested in the Hearthstone Beta, consider this forum topic as a discussion site for the game! Talk about certain combos you find powerful, ideas in mind about the game, and even discuss some of the art of the cards that you may find ... appealing.
Also, not sure if I'm allowed to encourage this, but mention which region you play in. If you also are looking for a friend to play with, mention that as well! I know I'm looking for a friend to play with. I'm in the US beta, just for anyone interested.

[meikle]

i hate anduin.

[RampantDesires]

Priest decks are stupidly over powered.  All that heal up and draw more cards nonsense would be bad enough, but easily having a 18/18 minion out on like round five is ridiculous.

[meikle]

I've been playing mostly as a mage, but I tried a few games as a priest and found that they felt just as ridiculous when I was using them as they did when I was playing against them.  Unless I'm playing Arena (and so can't afford losses), I've gotten into the habit of just leaving games against priests.  They seem to have a counter for everything I can do as Jaina, and until I figure out how to get around it, playing against priests just makes me not want to play at all.

[Gafsha]

I started out as Druid and Shaman, mostly experimenting around with the two classes. I have to agree with meikle and RampantDesires, once I found a certain basic priest deck that promoted card draw, along with several ways of board control and putting power-cards on the field. I actually starting using it, both for the satisfaction of winning with basic cards and trying to find some other ways of countering the deck I use.

I found this one mage I fought against that actually managed to win quite easily. I believe the true counter to priest decks are spell-damage control decks, for the mage I fought against played only Mana Wyrms, Ogre Magis, and Kobolds with spells all over the place. Even when I managed to draw so much and try to block them with heals and taunts, her spells got to me. So.... maybe spell-based decks are a counter?

[RampantDesires]

I have a fair amount of luck using a hunter deck against priests.  Most of the stuff builds on eachother so mind controlling one isn't such a huge hit, plus the steady hero damage negates the heal. But then you're one holy nova away from sucking again.  An AOE that also heals your side? WTF?

[meikle]

The mage deck I play is basically built around keeping a keeping a wall up between myself and my opponent (lots of taunts and freezes for example) with methods of cleaning out their field while they try to get through.  It works out well, but I just find that priests have a ton of ways to mitigate it: useful but weak minions are easy to clear out with Power Word: Whatever, and heavy hitters cease to be cost effective when put up against Power Word: The Other One.   Those cards are the most frustrating; you can't constantly hold back your heavy hitters because ~maybe Anduin is holding a Power Word: Kill Anything~, but then if he does you're boned anyway. 

I really prefer arenas to constructed though, but I don't see myself spending $2 at a time for each deck (because, since I don't really care for constructed and would rather just play the draft-ish form, winning cards at the end doesn't entice me.)

[Gafsha]

I think Holy Nova is one of the most cost-efficient AoE spells of the game, along with Flamestrike and Brawl (if it goes in your favor).

Shadow Word: Pain kills minions with 3 or less attack.
Shadow Word: Death kills minions with 5 or more attack.

I think the ultimate minion that is immune to these spells has to be Ysera. 4 Attack and 12 Health, it'll cost the priest quite a lot to hit through and kill. Even then, the turn you do play her is the turn you get a useful dream card.

But you better hope the priest doesn't have a Mind Control, 'cuz then you fuuuuucked.

[Zero]

Coming from a dota background, I really only grind play mode to complete the quests to play in arena. I dislike when people are on a relatively uneven playing field, just played a game where my opponent played only epics and legendaries. Almost won, but it was every card in play mode x.x.

But yeah, while I wouldn't say priest is overpowered by any stretch, I can neither play them nor can I really beat them. I need to adapt my style a bit more as I learn which cards to assume my opponents have with which classes.

Anywho, I think I'll have much more fun when I can purchase bulk arena entries =]

[SinXAzgard21]

Don't know what I'm doing wrong but I've lost 20+ games and only have 3 wins.  Can't even beat bots since all of a sudden my field gets wiped and I cannot stop it. 

[Shjade]

So what I'm hearing is Hearthstone is set around the late-BC era of WoW PvP, when priests were essentially immortal and made arena play a test of which team's priest is better?

[RampantDesires]

What kind of deck are you playing Sin? and what spells/combos are wiping your board so thoroughly?

I have occasionally gone against those legendary/epic laden decks and its just kind of a morbidly curious 'Seriously?' as I watch the carnage unfold.  Completing quests has gotten me quite a bit of gold don't get me wrong, but I am a hoarder when I open packs so many "yeah I might use that sometime" cards. Can't bring myself to break anything down :(

[SinXAzgard21]

What kind of deck are you playing Sin? and what spells/combos are wiping your board so thoroughly?

I have occasionally gone against those legendary/epic laden decks and its just kind of a morbidly curious 'Seriously?' as I watch the carnage unfold.  Completing quests has gotten me quite a bit of gold don't get me wrong, but I am a hoarder when I open packs so many "yeah I might use that sometime" cards. Can't bring myself to break anything down :(

Same cards as everyone else I've been pared with.  I only have warrior and mage past level 10 but still, I can't do a damn thing.  I'm not really sure what to do, I've tried lower cost decks but get nuked so I rebuild to have a stronger deck but can't get anything out fast enough not to die.  I have to burn all my control cards as a mage so early I get shafted later in the game.  Or as a warrior I try to build up combos but get shot in the face every time I try.

Oh and I can't even beat the effing bots, I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong.  Literally I have no fucking clue what I am doing wrong and I am about to just uninstall and stick to playing MtG for cards.

[Chris Brady]

I hear ya, Sin.  I have the basic Warrior deck and I'm constantly getting crushed.  I keep thinking "What is this?  Vanilla WoW??"

[RampantDesires]

So just talking basic cards here you might give the hunter or warlock deck a go? The hunter deck builds fast and buffs itself for the most part making it hard to just wipe the whole board with a single AOE at the very least you can pop out two hero damage a round.  The warlock's void walker, a 1/3 with taunt for one mana is absolutely retarded (the other demons can be nice too, a Succubus when you have a hand full of meh cards is great, but yeah) and helps protect you early on forcing them to target it while you get some larger minions out.
Seriously if you're having board maintenance problems he's your new best friend.
Who doesn't love a hot 'lady' with a whip?


The warrior deck was/is hard for me.  I like the basic concept but even customized I'm lucky to win a third of my matches.  Leveled it to ten and GTFOed.

[Chris Brady]

The issue is that the Warrior deck I have, (which is all I have currently on top of the starter everyone gets) can't even win against any other decks, save the Mage, and I can't beat anything else with them.

[SinXAzgard21]

So just talking basic cards here you might give the hunter or warlock deck a go? The hunter deck builds fast and buffs itself for the most part making it hard to just wipe the whole board with a single AOE at the very least you can pop out two hero damage a round.  The warlock's void walker, a 1/3 with taunt for one mana is absolutely retarded (the other demons can be nice too, a Succubus when you have a hand full of meh cards is great, but yeah) and helps protect you early on forcing them to target it while you get some larger minions out.
Seriously if you're having board maintenance problems he's your new best friend.
Who doesn't love a hot 'lady' with a whip?


The warrior deck was/is hard for me.  I like the basic concept but even customized I'm lucky to win a third of my matches.  Leveled it to ten and GTFOed.

Guess I'll give those two a whirl in practice.

[SinXAzgard21]

Thanks for the tips about hunters, but priests have no counters and that is all people play it seems.

[Gafsha]

So what I'm hearing is Hearthstone is set around the late-BC era of WoW PvP, when priests were essentially immortal and made arena play a test of which team's priest is better?

This made my morning, thank you Shjade. c:

According to personal experience and some other research I found about the game, it turns out the strongest class to play with basic cards are Priests. As for when more rare and epics become part of your deck (and in handfuls, not just a couple here and there), priests are still powerful, but no longer impossible to fight thanks to help of your new cards.

At least, I think that's how it works. Otherwise priests just got too buffed up and became the new rogue.

[SinXAzgard21]

This made my morning, thank you Shjade. c:

According to personal experience and some other research I found about the game, it turns out the strongest class to play with basic cards are Priests. As for when more rare and epics become part of your deck (and in handfuls, not just a couple here and there), priests are still powerful, but no longer impossible to fight thanks to help of your new cards.

At least, I think that's how it works. Otherwise priests just got too buffed up and became the new rogue.

Deck I faced had the 2/7 troll that gains 3 attack every time it is damaged just healed and reaped in the attack damage and face raped my minions. 

[meikle]

So what I'm hearing is Hearthstone is set around the late-BC era of WoW PvP, when priests were essentially immortal and made arena play a test of which team's priest is better?

I wouldn't really compare it with WoW.  It's not WoW, it's not WoW pvp.

It is frustrating, though.  The deck I play is all about battlefield control (lots of taunt minions, lots of cards that put multiple minions on the board at once, etc) and the only class I have significant difficulty with is priests.  I'm probably like 2/10 against priests, breaking even or ahead against every other class.  Warlocks cause me trouble too, but not enough trouble that I give up as soon as I see the Gul'dan avatar the way I quit when I see Anduin.

I play mage in constructed mode, level 15.

Deck I faced had the 2/7 troll that gains 3 attack every time it is damaged just healed and reaped in the attack damage and face raped my minions.

Don't hurt the gurubashi berserker until you can kill it.  Be aware of the damage that you have on the field, and the damage that your enemy has to deal with before they can hurt you (it's worth it to hurt the gurubashi berserker right now if it means they have to kill themselves against a tank before they can hit you; it's not worth it to take 5 damage next turn if you can't kill it swiftly this turn.)  It's not the end of the world to lose everything you have on the field as long as you can repopulate.  In most of my games it's pretty normal for who has control of the field to change pretty quickly (as a mage, flamestrike can quickly turn complete enemy control of the battlefield around, for example.)  Ideally, you should have some method in your deck to take out a heavy hitter pretty quickly, whether that's a class spell or something like the dwarf hunter who kills high-attack enemies when it comes out on the field, etc.

Priests are fucking ridiculous because there are so many minions whose utility is based on their health bar (imp-summoner, that minion that makes new cards whenever it takes damage, gurubashi berskerker, etc); the ability to very affordably cast heals every turn makes those cards incredibly powerful, and if the enemy can't get enough damage out to kill them outright (which can be difficulty against 7 health minions like the berserker or 5 health minions like the imp summoner because they can be pulled up relatively early and buffed like crazy by priest spells) are basically super-powered in Anduin decks.

That they can summon, like, a mogu 2/7 on turn 3 and turn it into an 18/18 by turn 4 or 5 makes a lucky draw Anduin basically unstoppable by most classes ... except other priests, who can spend 3 mana to kill an 18/18.  Rogues can, too, but rogues don't have the same incredibly utility in every other situation that priests do.

One of the important things I picked up on early on is, don't waste useful, cheap spells early.  Save them until you need them.  You can afford to take a few damage early on if it means saving your cheap game-changer spells until they're really going to change the game, etc.

[Shjade]

I wouldn't really compare it with WoW.  It's not WoW, it's not WoW pvp.

That's okay, it was a joke. n.n

[SinXAzgard21]

Just encountered four decks that had nothing but rares and better in them...  Yeah I think I'm done with this rigged ass shit.  I hate arena and I refuse to dump loads of money into this game.

[meikle]

Just encountered four decks that had nothing but rares and better in them...  Yeah I think I'm done with this rigged ass shit.  I hate arena and I refuse to dump loads of money into this game.

or you can ragequit!

You don't like constructed because it's "rigged ass shit" and you don't like arena because ???.  Is it possible you are just not a deck construction kind of game player?

A deck with nothing but rares and better would probably be a shitty deck, considering how many bread and butter cards are common (or even basic, ie, free.)

That's okay, it was a joke. n.n

I took it seriously because I remember likening the original WoW card game to WoW pvp (because, at least when it first came out, the way different classes played against each other did feel a lot like the way they felt in WoW!)

[SinXAzgard21]

or you can ragequit!

You don't like constructed because it's "rigged ass shit" and you don't like arena because ???.  Is it possible you are just not a deck construction kind of game player?

A deck with nothing but rares and better would probably be a shitty deck, considering how many bread and butter cards are common (or even basic, ie, free.)

I took it seriously because I remember likening the original WoW card game to WoW pvp (because, at least when it first came out, the way different classes played against each other did feel a lot like the way they felt in WoW!)

I play MtG and I do not buy the booster nor do I buy the pre constructed decks.  I buy individual cards.  So I like constructing decks.  I use a lot of the bread and butter cards and for some ungodly reason I don't get the cards I need to save me.  Maybe it is just horrible luck but honestly after loosing so much I just don't give two fucks.