For those of us on these forums that constantly lament the lack of balance and overuse of Tier 1 decks (the majority?) I think it will be a much more enjoyable experience.
People complain that Tier 1 decks show up in Casual. Yeah, they show up, but not nearly as much as in Ranked. I honestly had hardly played in casual at all before last week. I guess that's because for the 9 months before I started playing Hearthstone I pretty much only played Overwatch. In Overwatch Quick Play is a joke and a waste of time compared to Competitive. I think it's just been wired into my brain by now that Casual mode is not as challenging or interesting. The other thing with Overwatch competitive mode is that ranking up is truly rewarding. As you rank up from Silver to Gold to Platinum the quality of play really improves, which makes it a better experience.
But Hearthstone is a completely different game than Overwatch or any other online game I've ever played. After 4 months of only playing Ranked I'm starting to see the light. I think I can be a lot more accepting of Ranked mode now that I'm mainly playing Casual. In Ranked mode people are fighting tooth and nail to rank up. It's super competitive so of course you're only going to see Tier 1 and 2 decks, and how can we blame anyone for that? If you're constantly going up against people who are fielding optimal decks it feels really bad to be dominated by them while you're trying to have fun with homebrews or Tier 3-4 decks. It's sink or swim and that's the nature of Ranked mode and it's not going to change...ever. Fretting about it and getting triggered isn't going to change a thing. It's like boxing with a tornado. You can't win, you get worn down and tossed around, and you start really hating life.
I get it now. Cubelock is OP. Spiteful Summoner is oppressive. Blizzard's business model is insulting. The whole litany. A lot of it is true and it can be super frustrating, but, speaking for myself, I've kind of reached my limit. I'm at the point where I'm either going to find a way to enjoy this game I'm playing or I need to do something else, despite the fact that I'm a fat blubbery whale and I'm on the hook for the fortune I've spent on Hearthstone.
The quality of play in Casual mode is fine in my experience. Occasionally you'll run up against someone who seems to not really know what they're doing...but that actually feels good compared to watching someone execute Cubelock with surgical precision. You'll see decks from all tiers and the occasional homebrew. It's super refreshing.
As for Casual not offering the reward of ranking up for wins, well....to each their own but for me a win is a win. Winning a match is satisfying, and they don't feel like cakewalks at all. So I realize now I'm the type of player who needs Casual to be my baseline. Having that outlet there for me, it's a lot funner--a lot more natural--now to jump into Ranked and battle with top tier decks when I'm in the mood to throw down. Y'know what I mean? Ranking up with 2 or 3 Tier 1 decks can be a lot of fun when I don't feel forced into it.
To all those who are at their wit's end, I suggest trying out Casual mode for a while and seeing how it goes over a few days. You may be pleasantly surprised. And don't forget, there's also Wild Casual mode, which is likely to be even farther off the beaten path.
I like casual in theory, but in reality it is just as tilting to me as ladder. Unless you lose several in a row you will be seeing tier 1 and tier 2 decks regularly. Not as often as ranked, sure, but still enough for it to feel more like practice mode than anything resembling "casual". Plus on top of that there's just no reward, aside from 10 coins every 3 wins but I don't really care about coins since I mostly get them from arena.
To me arena is much more of a casual mode anyway. The wins still matter, but you will see a variety of decks and cards you never play with in constructed, and if you do well you get rewarded accordingly. It's not perfect because you will face some truly insane decks but when I want to relax, I'm more likely to fire up an arena run than play casual.
Arena is a nice change for me as well, though it can be pretty tilting. It's fun and challenging but it also makes me feel stupid, y'know? I think I have a good deck this time and then I go 2-3 and lose to these insane decks and I'm like wh..how..huh? But it's fine.
Experiences will vary greatly but for me I haven't faced an oppressive amount of high tier decks in Casual. I actually brought out my Spiteful Druid in casual today (for practice because I've only played it once) and when the Tyrantus dropped on turn 6 the guy conceded immediately. I was like ok I deserve that LOL. I might do the same thing and in Casual why not. Players have more freedom to just bail when they see you're offering them only misery. I think the effect of that probably ripples out some to cause people to play those decks less. I didn't play anymore Spiteful Druid after that. Didn't want the next guy conceding on me mid-game.
Another thing I've noticed is emotes don't tilt me nearly as much. In fact I'll even interpret differently the same kind of emote I'd get at a certain point in the match in Ranked. I'm just not as sensitive. And actually I've noticed in general people aren't a$$holes in Casual the way they are in Ranked. The feeling overall is much more relaxed.
Yeah other than to complete quests without the threat of losing ranks I don't see the point of playing Casual. When I go in there to do quests for decks/classes I don't like or arn't tier 1 or 2 it's nothing but tier 1 or 2. I went into casual yesterday and got even and odd pally over and over.
I agree. When I play ladder, I get frustrated or angry at RNG and the rock-paper-scizzors nature of the matchups. It's hard to enjoy the game in that mental mode, when every loss feels like a waste of time that has to be made up for with wins. When I just want to play for fun, I use casual, and if I really am sick of baku paladin or what not, I simply concede and don't suffer any consequence for it.
For those of us on these forums that constantly lament the lack of balance and overuse of Tier 1 decks (the majority?) I think it will be a much more enjoyable experience.
People complain that Tier 1 decks show up in Casual. Yeah, they show up, but not nearly as much as in Ranked. I honestly had hardly played in casual at all before last week. I guess that's because for the 9 months before I started playing Hearthstone I pretty much only played Overwatch. In Overwatch Quick Play is a joke and a waste of time compared to Competitive. I think it's just been wired into my brain by now that Casual mode is not as challenging or interesting. The other thing with Overwatch competitive mode is that ranking up is truly rewarding. As you rank up from Silver to Gold to Platinum the quality of play really improves, which makes it a better experience.
But Hearthstone is a completely different game than Overwatch or any other online game I've ever played. After 4 months of only playing Ranked I'm starting to see the light. I think I can be a lot more accepting of Ranked mode now that I'm mainly playing Casual. In Ranked mode people are fighting tooth and nail to rank up. It's super competitive so of course you're only going to see Tier 1 and 2 decks, and how can we blame anyone for that? If you're constantly going up against people who are fielding optimal decks it feels really bad to be dominated by them while you're trying to have fun with homebrews or Tier 3-4 decks. It's sink or swim and that's the nature of Ranked mode and it's not going to change...ever. Fretting about it and getting triggered isn't going to change a thing. It's like boxing with a tornado. You can't win, you get worn down and tossed around, and you start really hating life.
I get it now. Cubelock is OP. Spiteful Summoner is oppressive. Blizzard's business model is insulting. The whole litany. A lot of it is true and it can be super frustrating, but, speaking for myself, I've kind of reached my limit. I'm at the point where I'm either going to find a way to enjoy this game I'm playing or I need to do something else, despite the fact that I'm a fat blubbery whale and I'm on the hook for the fortune I've spent on Hearthstone.
The quality of play in Casual mode is fine in my experience. Occasionally you'll run up against someone who seems to not really know what they're doing...but that actually feels good compared to watching someone execute Cubelock with surgical precision. You'll see decks from all tiers and the occasional homebrew. It's super refreshing.
As for Casual not offering the reward of ranking up for wins, well....to each their own but for me a win is a win. Winning a match is satisfying, and they don't feel like cakewalks at all. So I realize now I'm the type of player who needs Casual to be my baseline. Having that outlet there for me, it's a lot funner--a lot more natural--now to jump into Ranked and battle with top tier decks when I'm in the mood to throw down. Y'know what I mean? Ranking up with 2 or 3 Tier 1 decks can be a lot of fun when I don't feel forced into it.
To all those who are at their wit's end, I suggest trying out Casual mode for a while and seeing how it goes over a few days. You may be pleasantly surprised. And don't forget, there's also Wild Casual mode, which is likely to be even farther off the beaten path.
This.........
.........entire post is 100% opposite of my experience in casual mode. The only bit of truth to it is that you'll run into less tier 1 netdecks in casual (eventually), just purely based on the fact that EVERY deck on ladder is a tier 1 netdeck. But for every janky homebrew for fun deck i play against in casual, I run into 3 or 4 Baku Hunters, Baku Rogues, Baku/Genn Paladins, Tempo Mages, Baku Hunters, Baku Hunters, Baku Hunters, Baku Rogues, Baku Paladins, Baku Rogues, Baku Rogues, Baku Palainds, Genn Paladins, and Baku Hunters.
I flood the Salt thread for a reason. That reason is tier 1 netdecks in casual.
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.........entire post is 100% opposite of my experience in casual mode. The only bit of truth to it is that you'll run into less tier 1 netdecks in casual (eventually), just purely based on the fact that EVERY deck on ladder is a tier 1 netdeck. But for every janky homebrew for fun deck i play against in casual, I run into 3 or 4 Baku Hunters, Baku Rogues, Baku/Genn Paladins, Tempo Mages, Baku Hunters, Baku Hunters, Baku Hunters, Baku Rogues, Baku Paladins, Baku Rogues, Baku Rogues, Baku Palainds, Genn Paladins, and Baku Hunters.
I flood the Salt thread for a reason. That reason is tier 1 netdecks in casual.
I like coming across tier 1 decks in casual. I actively try to find new deck ideas that can compete, and playing tier 1 decks in casual is a great way of testing them out against the best without crippling my rank. I can also justify losing by thinking "Hope you're proud of beating my even togwaggle miracle Rogue with your netdeck!"
Disclaimer: I have never actually created an even togwaggle miracle Rogue... Yet
The "Casual is the place to play lower tier decks" theory is wrong.
- The more you win, the more you play with people with better winrates.
- People with better winrates (almost) always play with the better decks.
- If you dont play absolute trash tier decks, and dont loose on purpose, you are going to eventually play against 100% golden heroes tier 1 decks
The solutions ares:
- Play ranked but not in the floor or top, i have found that 15-10 is the most "casual deck" place
- Play casual and loose on purpose about 100 games, that is get in a match and auto-concede. That way you winrate will be low and you will face low skill players or bad decks.
As I dont like the second solution, I try to stick to the first one.
Maybe you had better luck than me but my last dozen or so games have all been Vs odd/ even paladin or cubelock (I think there was one Baku hunter and one Baku rogue in there). I play in casual a lot when I'm trying to get dailies completed and my experience has been that if I'm lucky every 10 games I'll see something cool once, some semi obscure t2-3 decks a couple of times and then whatever's dominant in ranked the rest of the games.
I think the issue is some players go there to grind out those 10 gold rewards every day and they want to get it done asap without risking their rank. The real Fun's in wild imo. You get to see what a meta with 15 viable decks instead of 3 looks like plus you have so much more freedom in deck building (although you do have to put up with the occasional game ruined by Naga Sea Witch).
Do you have high casual mmr? It may be more meta at higher MMR.
This is the problem, as I stated in my previous post. If you are half-decent in this game, even playing goofy / fun decks, you eventually reach a MMR that you face 100% golden heroes and tier S-1 meta decks.
Casual is rigged in the long term. Its better to play ranked and stick to the low ranks (15-10). I dont say 20-15 because of noob farmers (they never die).
Do you have high casual mmr? It may be more meta at higher MMR.
I pretty exclusively play weird homebrew fun decks that I make up on the spot. For example, I am currently playing a "Mr Steal Your Deck" Priest....and my last three matches were Baku Hunter, Hadronox Druid, and (as I'm typing this) Baku Paladin.
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For those of us on these forums that constantly lament the lack of balance and overuse of Tier 1 decks (the majority?) I think it will be a much more enjoyable experience.
People complain that Tier 1 decks show up in Casual. Yeah, they show up, but not nearly as much as in Ranked. I honestly had hardly played in casual at all before last week. I guess that's because for the 9 months before I started playing Hearthstone I pretty much only played Overwatch. In Overwatch Quick Play is a joke and a waste of time compared to Competitive. I think it's just been wired into my brain by now that Casual mode is not as challenging or interesting. The other thing with Overwatch competitive mode is that ranking up is truly rewarding. As you rank up from Silver to Gold to Platinum the quality of play really improves, which makes it a better experience.
But Hearthstone is a completely different game than Overwatch or any other online game I've ever played. After 4 months of only playing Ranked I'm starting to see the light. I think I can be a lot more accepting of Ranked mode now that I'm mainly playing Casual. In Ranked mode people are fighting tooth and nail to rank up. It's super competitive so of course you're only going to see Tier 1 and 2 decks, and how can we blame anyone for that? If you're constantly going up against people who are fielding optimal decks it feels really bad to be dominated by them while you're trying to have fun with homebrews or Tier 3-4 decks. It's sink or swim and that's the nature of Ranked mode and it's not going to change...ever. Fretting about it and getting triggered isn't going to change a thing. It's like boxing with a tornado. You can't win, you get worn down and tossed around, and you start really hating life.
I get it now. Cubelock is OP. Spiteful Summoner is oppressive. Blizzard's business model is insulting. The whole litany. A lot of it is true and it can be super frustrating, but, speaking for myself, I've kind of reached my limit. I'm at the point where I'm either going to find a way to enjoy this game I'm playing or I need to do something else, despite the fact that I'm a fat blubbery whale and I'm on the hook for the fortune I've spent on Hearthstone.
The quality of play in Casual mode is fine in my experience. Occasionally you'll run up against someone who seems to not really know what they're doing...but that actually feels good compared to watching someone execute Cubelock with surgical precision. You'll see decks from all tiers and the occasional homebrew. It's super refreshing.
As for Casual not offering the reward of ranking up for wins, well....to each their own but for me a win is a win. Winning a match is satisfying, and they don't feel like cakewalks at all. So I realize now I'm the type of player who needs Casual to be my baseline. Having that outlet there for me, it's a lot funner--a lot more natural--now to jump into Ranked and battle with top tier decks when I'm in the mood to throw down. Y'know what I mean? Ranking up with 2 or 3 Tier 1 decks can be a lot of fun when I don't feel forced into it.
To all those who are at their wit's end, I suggest trying out Casual mode for a while and seeing how it goes over a few days. You may be pleasantly surprised. And don't forget, there's also Wild Casual mode, which is likely to be even farther off the beaten path.
I couldn't agree more, casual is where I have the most fun nowadays.
I like casual in theory, but in reality it is just as tilting to me as ladder. Unless you lose several in a row you will be seeing tier 1 and tier 2 decks regularly. Not as often as ranked, sure, but still enough for it to feel more like practice mode than anything resembling "casual". Plus on top of that there's just no reward, aside from 10 coins every 3 wins but I don't really care about coins since I mostly get them from arena.
To me arena is much more of a casual mode anyway. The wins still matter, but you will see a variety of decks and cards you never play with in constructed, and if you do well you get rewarded accordingly. It's not perfect because you will face some truly insane decks but when I want to relax, I'm more likely to fire up an arena run than play casual.
Arena is a nice change for me as well, though it can be pretty tilting. It's fun and challenging but it also makes me feel stupid, y'know? I think I have a good deck this time and then I go 2-3 and lose to these insane decks and I'm like wh..how..huh? But it's fine.
Experiences will vary greatly but for me I haven't faced an oppressive amount of high tier decks in Casual. I actually brought out my Spiteful Druid in casual today (for practice because I've only played it once) and when the Tyrantus dropped on turn 6 the guy conceded immediately. I was like ok I deserve that LOL. I might do the same thing and in Casual why not. Players have more freedom to just bail when they see you're offering them only misery. I think the effect of that probably ripples out some to cause people to play those decks less. I didn't play anymore Spiteful Druid after that. Didn't want the next guy conceding on me mid-game.
Another thing I've noticed is emotes don't tilt me nearly as much. In fact I'll even interpret differently the same kind of emote I'd get at a certain point in the match in Ranked. I'm just not as sensitive. And actually I've noticed in general people aren't a$$holes in Casual the way they are in Ranked. The feeling overall is much more relaxed.
Yeah other than to complete quests without the threat of losing ranks I don't see the point of playing Casual. When I go in there to do quests for decks/classes I don't like or arn't tier 1 or 2 it's nothing but tier 1 or 2. I went into casual yesterday and got even and odd pally over and over.
I agree. When I play ladder, I get frustrated or angry at RNG and the rock-paper-scizzors nature of the matchups. It's hard to enjoy the game in that mental mode, when every loss feels like a waste of time that has to be made up for with wins. When I just want to play for fun, I use casual, and if I really am sick of baku paladin or what not, I simply concede and don't suffer any consequence for it.
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I used to play a lot of casual, but now I'm too obsessed with getting Warlock, Priest, Hunter and Mahe in golden, they are all near 400 victories
The "Casual is the place to play lower tier decks" theory is wrong.
- The more you win, the more you play with people with better winrates.
- People with better winrates (almost) always play with the better decks.
- If you dont play absolute trash tier decks, and dont loose on purpose, you are going to eventually play against 100% golden heroes tier 1 decks
The solutions ares:
- Play ranked but not in the floor or top, i have found that 15-10 is the most "casual deck" place
- Play casual and loose on purpose about 100 games, that is get in a match and auto-concede. That way you winrate will be low and you will face low skill players or bad decks.
As I dont like the second solution, I try to stick to the first one.
Maybe you had better luck than me but my last dozen or so games have all been Vs odd/ even paladin or cubelock (I think there was one Baku hunter and one Baku rogue in there). I play in casual a lot when I'm trying to get dailies completed and my experience has been that if I'm lucky every 10 games I'll see something cool once, some semi obscure t2-3 decks a couple of times and then whatever's dominant in ranked the rest of the games.
I think the issue is some players go there to grind out those 10 gold rewards every day and they want to get it done asap without risking their rank. The real Fun's in wild imo. You get to see what a meta with 15 viable decks instead of 3 looks like plus you have so much more freedom in deck building (although you do have to put up with the occasional game ruined by Naga Sea Witch).
Currently playing casual on my lunch break. I'm on game #6. All of my games thus far have been against aggro/netdecks.
edit: conceded game #6 because it was Baku Paladin.
edit: game 7 keleseth zoolock with keleseth on 2.
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Do you have high casual mmr? It may be more meta at higher MMR.
Kaladin's RoS Set Review
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