Hearthstone

[silvers1]

Anyone tried this game?  Just started a couple days ago ... interesting concept, but ....
when I try going against real players, seems more about who has the better cards vs any real strategy.

Is it really possible to compete without investing a lot of money?

[Blackout]

I've played quite a bit of hearthstone and I can definitely say that yes, you most certainly can win without really good cards. New cards are pretty easy to earn overall, and in addition to that there are a great many decent cards that can be used by any class. What problems have ya' been having so far? What class ect. I might be able to help a bit

[silvers1]

I've been playing the Cleric class, since I had the easiest time with it when playing the game vs the innkeeper.

Problems I've been having:
1.  If I don't get a low level shield guy early, I'm in trouble.  I need that guy to give me a little breathing room early on, or im easily pummelled.  Heck, I've had matches where 10 turns into the game, I've not seen ANY shield guy card turn up.

2.  A number of players I've played against seem to have an answer for anything I play.   Put a hard hitter?  Bam, he's a sheep.
Put a tough shield guy?  Bam, insta-kill card.  Once they get 3 or more cards out there, it just snowballs.

3.  No good way to generate new cards, other than the card which spawns new cards on a heal.   And she's easily killable.

I've had a number of matches I've replayed in my mind, and there's nothing I could have done to win.

Any recommended cards I should keep in my custom deck, or any I should avoid?

[Blackout]

By Cleric I'm assuming ya' mean priest. If thats the case I have a couple of suggestions; Firstly as for shield units, gold-shire footmen, iron-fur grizzlies, and silver-back patriarchs are all really great early shield units. They won't do much damage but they all cost less than 3 and I believe that you get them for free for all decks by default (as in you don't have to buy or earn them). Shattered-sun clerics can also provide some fairly basic synergy and can power up some of your weaker cards, as a result they work pretty well with taunt/shield cards. For specific priest cards North-shire clerics are a must. They are awesome as they let you draw a card every time you heal a card especially since the priests default ability is a heal. Circle of healing is also a must as it heals all your cards and its FREE, no cost at all.

For more advanced stuff your gonna' have to use your power words and shadow words. The best to use in my opinion are Shadow word death (It specializes in removing really hard hitting cards and only costs 3) power word shield is also a pretty nice little cheap heal. Mass dispel is amazing; it costs 4 but will remove all taunts and other effects from all enemy cards for that turn. So if you want to get aggressive but keep getting blocked by taunt/shield cards pop that and let em' have it. Finally light-bomb is also pretty good as removal for hard hitting cards but it costs more than shadow word death.

Hope that helped, I'm not that familiar with priests but hopefully I've been of some assistance.
P.S. All class specific cards have to/can be earned. You don't need to buy them or anything just play practice matches as said class and you will be given them as you level up a little.

[silvers1]

I'm also wondering how the matching works.   Does it match just by your characters's level,  by you win/loss percentage, or by some other criteria?   I'm thinking about taking him through the expert level practice matches, but afraid if I do so, my higher level will put me against even tougher opponents when I play other real people.

When playing, how does card selection work?  Is each card in your deck only single use, or can the randomizer reselect the same card?

[Aggelakis]

Have you played Magic the Gathering CCG? This is basically that, but WoW. You create a deck (or use a pre-created one). Whatever cards are chosen for the deck are what you draw from. If you only have one Big Nasty Bugaboo, then you'll only draw one Big Nasty Bugaboo per deck shuffle. If you have four, you are much more likely to draw a Big Nasty Bugaboo.

As for matching, I have no idea but I'd guess it's a combination of your character's level, PVE and PVP scores, card count/quality/etc., probably with higher weighting on the PVP.

[Minotaur]

I'm also wondering how the matching works.   Does it match just by your characters's level,  by you win/loss percentage, or by some other criteria?   I'm thinking about taking him through the expert level practice matches, but afraid if I do so, my higher level will put me against even tougher opponents when I play other real people.

When playing, how does card selection work?  Is each card in your deck only single use, or can the randomizer reselect the same card?

In casual, it matches by your W/L percentage and is not split by deck, so if you have a good cleric deck, win a load of games then try to develop a shaman deck, you'll be matched against decks that match your overall win percentage, not the one with you as a shaman.

I believe level is irrelevant, it's only your rank in ranked and your casual W/L percentage in casual, I don't think doing the expert practices matters.

One thing to watch is that the ranks reset at the beginning of the month, so playing ranked at low ranks is tough now, but rapidly becomes easier than casual as the month goes on.

[Harlequin565]

I've been playing for quite a while now - since beta. I find it really accessible (and handy to play on the iPad) and great for "ten minute" intervals of boredom.

I've not splashed much cash on it and am rubbish at Arena so I stick to doing the quests and buying packs with it for the most part. I did get the Naxx expansion though which does add some really nice cards. I think the F2P model is pretty good, but having recently started an EU account from scratch, it is tough getting started with nothing!

Trump (YouTuber) does a series called "Trump's Teachings" which shows you how to build competitive decks using only basic cards. This is really useful and informative. I'd recommend giving that a watch.

-H

[Ironwolf]

Several ways to play the game:

1. Blitz - you keep attacking the player at every single chance - some people can lose their best card and not flinch, yet land 2 points of damage on them and they panic. Just do everything possible to hurt them.

2. Numbers - this works really well against most players - lots of small hitting cards that stack. Some give bonuses for number of rats and on the board and so on - they are cheap and when adding a shield card or taunt on your side can really overwhelm the other side.

3. Slow burn - keep slow gradual pressure on your opponent, kind of bore them.

4. Fast twitch - play instantly and you can pass on the same to your opponent where they will play sloppy and not think.

You are not playing cards - you are defeating the person behind the cards. Sometimes the luck of the draw does come into it - but often you try these 4 strategies and see how they react. It teachs you what the player values or how he/she thinks. The you apply the one that fits .