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[sambojin]

I sort of thought that shamans were known for health buffs. Behind priests and pallys sure, but running at a reasonable 3rd. Healing totems, ancestoral healing, young priestesses and even witch doctors all work very well in the deck, even if two of those are neutrals. One of the best things about the AoP is that it is the perfect thing to remove a hexed minion, even without buffs. You might not get the card draw, but at least your stompy hitters and taunt walls can do what they do best. I'm keeping it, and may sub out the totem for another.

Just hanging out for a stone elemental. My g.berserkers are stand-ins and they know it. Although, they're going suprisingly well for a weak card. Any other good 5 drops for a taunt and buff heavy deck until I get the elementals?

[SHAD0Wdump]

I sort of thought that shamans were known for health buffs. Behind priests and pallys sure, but running at a reasonable 3rd. Healing totems, ancestoral healing, young priestesses and even witch doctors all work very well in the deck, even if two of those are neutrals. One of the best things about the AoP is that it is the perfect thing to remove a hexed minion, even without buffs. You might not get the card draw, but at least your stompy hitters and taunt walls can do what they do best. I'm keeping it, and may sub out the totem for another.

Just hanging out for a stone elemental. My g.berserkers are stand-ins and they know it. Although, they're going suprisingly well for a weak card. Any other good 5 drops for a taunt and buff heavy deck until I get the elementals?

I'd highly recommend Silver Hand Knights and Frostwolf Warlords since you are likely rocking bloodlust and the warlord works well with split minions as well.

 Besides that, if you use a decent amount of spells, Venture Co. Mercs can help you take the board back in situations where your hand is too full of spells and is a damn decent target for a windfury buff. Since you mentioned a taunt deck, I'd toss in a Gadgetzan Auctioneer as well if you have enough spells.

 Besides that, Darkscale Healers might be able to keep your taunts healthy, Stormpike Commandos can sit safely behind your taunts after dropping their shot, and Azure Drakes are always good for keeping up the cards while putting threats down.
 Bump up the potential of the Drakes if you use a decent number of shaman damage spells.

 Beyond that, all I could find besides a couple legendaries are Stampeding Kodos, Fen Creepers, and Faceless Manipulators. Since you have a buff heavy deck the facelesses might do you some good.

[sambojin]

Double post, but.......

On the philosophy of card game design, I'm not sure if they've got it perfect with Hearthstone, but it's better than most. Let's face it, it's a CCG, which means that having better cards than your opponent in your deck will make winning easier. Bloodfen Raptor vs any other 3/2 2 drop with a text box is the easiest example. It's a simple upgrade to anything with a text box (although in a face-roll hunter deck it is great. It has a text box. Beast). Although, it's not a bad card in a weeny deck, there's just better ones, plain and simple.

PTW? Not really. Pay to accelerate moving up the ranks more-so. If it's important to you to be a diamond player and you don't want to spend months getting there, then buy 450 packs. You'll only have yourself to blame if having 2 of every card didn't let you win.

Super-duper-legendaries? I like them. Even really-good-rares. Most have a downside or are situational. But some are slightly op'd. Kind of. Since the game has very powerful removal, silence, polymorphs, freezes and direct damage available to every class, they're not that big of a problem. Some rares are too good, some legendaries are a must-take at "we all have heaps of cards now" level of play. It's a CCG. They're like that.


But that's it. P2W? Not really. Your rank has very little to do with your skill. It's just a card bracket.

"How many cards have I unlocked and does it reflect my skill against others with similar cards?"

But on character design....... Bleh. The priest is pretty brokenly good, as well as hunter face-roll. They're being fixed. Hopefully. This is at crappy ranks, the broken gets smoothed out at higher card ranks.

So pay to be lazy, or be a priest or hunter and earn some gold. If I got a high rank after a couple of weeks of play in a fairly large CCG, I sort of wouldn't want to pay any money for it. It would mean that the game or the ranking system was broken. This seems fine. In another 3 weeks or so most of the mages clogging ranked will move on anyway, which is a pity really.....

[miljan]

But that's it. P2W? Not really. Your rank has very little to do with your skill. It's just a card bracket.

The game is a definition how you do good (in a way) p2w, but it still is p2w.

As a pure PvP game, paying $$$ you are getting clear advantage compared to people that dont pay. Even if you can get all the cards with grinding, the game is still p2w. The question is not is the game p2w (because it is, as it does the basic thing any p2w game does), but is the amount and how it is implemented ok for you personally or not. For me, it is acceptable

There are a lot of way you do p2w, and you need to do them even more fair if you gonna make a game around PvP. The one they have is ok, not the worst, but also not the best one.

[Un67]

If you do well in Arena, you can win cards and have fun! It's definitely not easy, but good players can pretty much play free-to-play.

[SHAD0Wdump]

 Personally. For me the game isn't really all that P2W, however there are times where I feel it is a bit cheesy when a person tosses down a ragnaros or sylvanus. In the end it's not really that big a deal, though a new player can feel particularly outgunned at times due to not having the end game meat in their deck to handle this.

 Beyond that, I can see an advantage and a disadvantage to buying all the cards. On one hand you get a lot more flexibility from the get-go in creating decks. On the other hand, you remove a large portion of the progression offered.

 If I were to pay money on this game I'd likely put it into arena runs before I'd buy card packs, I feel like I'd be robbing myself of something if I just gave myself most of the cards. Though this might be from my sense that I'm going to be playing hearthstone for a long time.

[sambojin]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, or maybe a split between the two. I've already got most of the cards that I want for my main (shaman) and I'm not a huge fan of at least two of the other heroes, so I might be wasting my money on packs. Arena runs tend to be pretty amusing though, and can get you a pack or two anyway, so it might be worthwhile. I guess the 15 pack option with 3-4 arena runs up my sleeve isn't too excessive a spend for a reasonable game (about $30Aus), but knowing that I can play it for free and have fun doing it already actually makes it an easier cost for me. Which is strange, it should be the reverse. Oh well. It's like an hour or two at the pub vs being geeky at home, with both not exactly enhancing my life.....

[sambojin]

Did anyone else get their rank reset? I don't know if it glitched, I moved up a category (am I in bronze or silver or something now?) or if it marked me as a horrible dc'ing bastard. I still seem to get disconnects at the most annoying times. Mostly just before winning and once when I was halfway through opening a deck. I don't actually know if I got all the cards or not.

It's handy though. I can finally level a few other classes a bit. It does seem like I'm playing in a totally different card bracket though, with rares and legendaries being pulled everywhere (at ranks 25-20). Maybe it has to do with my shaman's level? It's around 27 now, but most my other toons haven't even unlocked all the basics yet.

Either way, the game seems heaps more fun now. Far harder, and with something to always keep me on my toes. Whatever happened, it was a good thing. I now have an equal hate for all classes, not just priests. Everyone can pull off some freaky stuff now.

Has anyone else had a rank reset that seems to up their card bracket?

[ragnar119]

I think some type of reset happens on beginning of every month. Also I am still new, but is the priest basic cards better than other classes? Because when i play him have maybe 10 wins and only 2 to 3 losses, but when i play other classes its more 50% or less wins

[sambojin]

Yes. Yes they are. Better is subjective and situational, but on average a priest has an easier time of it than any other class. Their removal needs a nerf, their buffs are too good, clerics are undercosted, etc. Their synergy with masses of other cards is great as well just due to their hero power.

On average, they are the best. Kill them every chance you get, and be a bit of an arse-hole about it. This is your unwritten quest every single day in Hearthstone.

[Cthulhu]

Priest is inherently strong, yeah.  He just has a very well put together kit that synergizes strongly and is hard to deal with. 

Overall my enjoyment of hearthstone has kind of soured.  Early on it was fun, but as I mentioned in the Infinity Wars thread sometimes Hearthstone kind of feels distilled.  Like they've cut every ounce of fat from the CCG model.  That's not all necessarily bad, but sometimes I feel like I'm playing a two-player math puzzle.  I solved that puzzle with my warlock aggro deck, only mages in their extremely overpowered phase at the end of closed beta could consistently beat me.  Nothing more than 5 mana, only five or six spells.  Just extreme momentum and tempo control that forces the enemy to use all of his resources on a defensive battle he can't win.

At that point the game stops being fun.  I won 9/10 games with that deck and most of the time it wasn't even close.

[sambojin]

I'm starting to move my shaman deck to something like that. The taunt wall is starting to get too slow. It can grind out a stack of removal, but if it doesn't get a fair whack of damage in, they tend to get plinked.

I hate to admit it, but a weeny buff/charge/removal deck it looking pretty powerful in the current meta. It probably won't be as satisfying to win with, but it'll probably win more often.

Give the game another go Cthulu. There's plenty of well developed decks now to play against, and a massive pool of players now. You might find a challenge every once in a while.

ps. Do you play as Cthulu on there? I may have been roflstomped by you (unless my totems/bloodlust did likewise to you).

[Max White]

So if anybody ever wanted to see the grossest, dirtiest, most disgusting win streak ever conceived, well here it is. I need to go take a shower...

[sambojin]

I've got my new "arena" fix. Clear the deck/character you're going to play of all cards, press ok on the prompt to fill it out, play with that deck in ranked. It seems random, but at least it seems random with "your" cards. It also picks fairly well. I almost don't want more than the basic set and a few expert neutrals in this "format". It's a fun way to level characters, but I think I'll use it from now on regardless. It'll keep me on my toes.

[Something Evil]

Hearthstone isn't p2w per se, but it masquerades as a f2p game. You need to put down 20 bucks or so to get stuff like Azure Drakes, Spellbreakers, and whatever other cards are favored in the metagame if you want to just jump in immediately and play ranked, and not farm quests and Arena for a month to get everything you think you might need.

Otherwise pouring a hundred plus bucks into the game, getting everything that catches your fancy, and rushing in with some of the daftest cards ever (Doomhammer, meet Ooze) would still get you into at least midway into single digit ranks if not higher.


Also, Auchenai Soup Priests are <3.