Hearthpwn

They mean Sunkeeper Tarim's stat change works as intended with Stormwind Champion's board buff and now Shrink Ray and Equality do as well.

Yo dude, I've played about 20 games today with control Shaman and can say it's amazing (about %65 atm). Keep Shudderwokk. He's the game winner in control matchups like warrior, mage, priest, and Shaman. Stormsurger is a big deal to get to your Hagatha's Scheme, for which I've also found the Swarm of Toads  to be a useful 1 of. Seriously, the Scheme is the MVP of the deck (one me many games single handedly).  Do everything you can to get one in your hand early.

There seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding of video game economics in these posts. The money side has nothing to do with greed or a disrespect/unconcern of the player experience. Quite the contrary. The OP had it correct when he stated that the game is F2P to build a large enough player-base that individuals willing and able to pay for the game will be incentivised. Because multiplayer games are only fun when you have people to play against, you need a large enough playerbase to guarantee any and every player will be able to play the game at their convenience. Games that are already popular become more popular by virtue of friends playing games specifically to play with friends. Similarly you need a large enough playerbase to diffuse the costs of designing and maintaining the software / servers. As there become fewer paying players, the cost of each transaction must go up to cover the same services. This is simple supply side economics theory and is verifiable in literally tens of thousands of companies failures and successes. As the popularity of a game declines, the costs will go up which will make it even less popular and so begins a cycle of decay for a game's lifecycle.

Hearthstone has over 100 million accounts and earned ~$414 million in 2018. That's an average of $4.14 per account (many of which were likely untouched throughout the entire year of 2018). We don't actually have public data on how many accounts actively play (at least 1 game/week average), but that would be a much more important barometer of what the average user spends. More important than what the average user pays is what percentage of the player base actually pays and what is their average cost for our collective ability to play the game at all. If Blizzard doesn't make enough money to cover it's overhead, the game must cease to be. Keep in mind, that overhead has nothing to do with already earned profits. For the game to be sustainable it must earn annually what it costs to keep everything in place that makes the thing happen (servers, developers, offices, tournaments, advertising, etc.) If a game ever ceases to cut even, it must discontinue. Price hikes are a strong indicator that a game is moving toward unsustainability; conversely, it's a sign that the game was underpriced all along. If after the average cost per player is increased and the player base continues expanding, then we know Blizzard was charging us less than the product was worth. Of course the value of a product like this is directly correlated with it's popularity, so the game's value now is greater than it was 5 years ago when it was first released (and at this moment less than it was during 2017 at its peak popularity).

... that's a silly perspective. Computing power, internet connection, interface medium, HUD, and support programs all make the experience vastly different. Either you have never played on PC, or your phone is one I've never heard of.

Battletag: Ferule#1469

Region: NA

Trade Only?: Yes

Battletag: Ferule#1469

Region: Americas

Trade Only: Yes

I find losing to be exciting and fun so long as the matchup was competitive (i.e. both of us had the cards we needed to pull out the victory and the win came down to better plays).

Where the saltiness comes in is with the sensation I'm playing rock paper scissors, or that lady luck has bent me over makin's sure I won't be able to sit for a week. Repeatedly going against opponents that you've teched against, but never seeing the cards you need when you need them is about the most frustrating thing to lose to.

What I'd love to see hit ladder is a "class ban" mechanism, making it so you could greatly reduce the rock, paper, scissors element, along with limiting what needs to be teched against. I think saltiness would be reduced dramatically if one could simply say "no more dude pally today, Blizzard!"

Great tech card if token aggro remains a thing and for when it inevitably returns. Also interesting as a standard card in control pally as it combines well with Aldor Peacekeeper and the weird possibility of seeing Humility. 

This card is going to enable tempo Warrior to be top tier competitive. Between triggering itself and incoming rush mechanics, this this will beef up quickly. Compound that with huge survivability and you have a recipe for most hated/feared card in the matchup. Especially since this will hit the board after Frothing Berserker, who will likely soak some good removal. Anyone negging this card is evaluating it in a vacuum.

Read this "Book of Sphincters"...

How is no one noticing that this is an incredible tempo card? It doesn't matter what you play it on; you're guaranteed to at least have a 10/10 on turn 10 (when you play it on curve). That it will also have whatever benefits of the card it hits is a bonus.

$4,328.25/mo. is average annual income/household in the US as of 2014 (according to Wikipedia).

Hey team,

I've recently quit playing Hearthstone and would like to uninstall Innkeeper from my computer, but I do not have an uninstall launch that I can find by such a name. Could you please inform me of the uninstall process from Windows 7?

Thanks!

Hey ptorlak,

I'm noticing very few comments posted in this thread give any specific feed back, so here is a short list of skills that high level players often focus on in order to help them overcome the RNG associated with the game and prove there is a significant element of skill involved:

1) Constant lethal awareness. On literally every one of your opponents turns I recommend calculating total damage available on your turn supposing best case scenario (that means including your upcoming draw potential). This information should always be the first information registered consciously at the beginning of each of your turns. I can guarantee you that if you develop the habit of saying your max damage out loud at the beginning of each turn, you will have fewer missed lethals (none, if your calculations are always accurate).

2) Inverse the 1st rule; know your enemy's class/deck well enough to predict the worst possible outcome (absurd RNG scenarios excluded). If you are mentally tracking the cards your opponent has played (of which you should pay closer attention to that than the cards you've played), then you can make reasonable guesses as to the likelihood of a scenario and subsequently can turtle or set up for lethal appropriately. A very common awareness of this concept is with Druid and the inevitable Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo and the incoming 14+ damage it brings. Invest knowing your opponent's likely combos and their damage output and this will become an automatic calculation, reserving more time on your turn for the next rule.

3) Play out your next two turns with the worst possible responses from your opponent as their following turns (Dr. 5, Dr. 6, Dr. 7, Dr. 8, GG type curves). Put yourself in your future shoes and you'll regret far fewer of your plays. Maybe that Mountain Giant is very much intimidating you and your meager 16 life and the Big Game Hunter in your hand seems like a no-brainer response, but you do have enough board presence to remove him with your current resources (obviously not so efficiently). The realization that his playing a Mal'Ganis in an upcoming turn would seal your fate unless you lucked into an immediate response, it becomes prudent to save that BGH.

4) Overcome tilt. The ability to Command one's emotions is the single most valuable asset in RNG control. If you've ever watched someone else play a game while on tilt, you'll likely have noticed that their misplay count begins to soar. Skilled players never remain on tilt. If they feel themselves entering that state, they very powerfully and immediately resume control of their emotions and, subsequently, rational thought. A few practices to help make this an automatic response:

• For every expletive you release, you forfeit one turn before continuing to play the match with full attention and intention of winning. The realization that you will likely lose is precisely the factor that is going to skyrocket your skills; in order to win after such a grievous loss of tempo will generally require both flawless play on your part AND miss-plays on your opponent's. The wins you derive after such a practice will be a very powerful reminder that all is never lost, and the losses will help to separate you from the importance you've associated with your rank (a truly skilled player doesn't care what rank he/she is; they're already and always Legend in their own minds. The game and the satisfaction it produces becomes about performing each turn with a perfect elegance, rather than the excitement of a win streak).
• Always have one (1) purely RNG driven deck (at least 20 cards have RNG effects; better yet with a full 30 cards) ready to play. If you ever end a game on tilt, your next match must be with this deck, it must be played on ladder, and you will continue to play with it until you win. This will serve as a constant reminder that first, the game is not RNG defined (you will very likely lose a LOT more than you win with this deck; you'll begin to trust that your wins are very much the result of your skill). Second, this will help to calm you; you're already expecting a string of losses to be the result and so, as what might otherwise be frustrating circumstances, because you've separated your wants/hopes from a win those seemingly insurmountable obstacles no longer hold sway over your emotions. Lastly, it will prove to you that anything CAN happen in this game, but the absurdly fortuitous events that your opponent's always seem to have really don't occur all that often and that they do indeed also happen for you. It's luck. Sometimes it's playing more strongly for the other guy. If there was nothing you could do, why did the loss matter anyway? You still had a blasty blast proving your resource management skills against unthinkable odds.
• Take brief breaks when you enter tilt. Stand up, get a glass of water and read a post on something exciting for you, tell your room mate a joke, do a quick but super intense workout, whatever so long as it demands attention that is strong enough that your attention can no longer be shared with your frustration. Make sure this is simply a break and that you don't end the session on tilt. That might be the most unhealthy habit/relationship you can develop with this (or any) game.

I hope this gives you some food for thought as of how to improve your skills with the game. If I get enough up-votes on this post, I'll write up a more official and cleanly formatted guide for beginners/intermediates/veterans that goes into deeper concepts that will streamline your thought process in-game and delve into recommended tables/charts/statistics/probabilities to have memorized when attempting to play on the highest levels. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt; I am not a pro-player and have mastered none of these concepts (though I am quite good at them). I'm simply deep enough in my understanding of problem solving, games, mathematics and specifically Hearthstone to be able to see the mind of a master clearly.

I was never confused with the text, but I do agree that yours is more descriptive in a similar amount of words.