Update 9:30 AM EST: Updated the Diablo III Collector's Edition rewards. Although there isn't a Hearthstone promotional card, you get three card packs.
Open Beta Next Year
Earlier today, Jason Chayes, Hearthstone's Production Director, posted an update on open beta on the official Hearthstone blog. Open beta is on its way, however, we will not be seeing it this year. There were a couple of very important things to take note of from Jason's blog.
- As of today, all people who opted in to the Hearthstone beta test on or before December 16, have been given a beta key through email. If you did not receive a key, you may not have been opted-in, it's sitting in your email account collecting dust, or there was an error getting the email to you.
- Opt-ins for the Hearthstone beta are going to be closed on January 7, 2014. The remaining people who have not received a beta invite will be given beta access directly through battle.net account management between the last opt-in day and the release of Open Beta.
Check out the full blog post here!
Common Situations with the Three Resources by Sar
ManaGrind's Sar has posted his second article in his series of analytical articles that help pave you a path to victory in Hearthstone. Last week, Sar discussed the Three Competing Resources - Tempo, Card Advantage, and Life. He's back this week to discuss the three resources more indepth by discussing how your resources are affected by common gameplay situations. Check out a snippet from Sar's article, and if you'd like to read the full thing, head on over to this thread on the ManaGrind Articles forum. Don't forget to leave feedback!
Quote from SarWelcome to Part 2 of the series! The goal is this section is to outline the trade-offs between the three resources associated with some basic plays. Note that there is no implication in this section as to what constitutes a “right” or a “wrong” play; such judgments will vary based on the state of the game. What’s important is to understand what is being gained and lost by certain plays, which may not be obvious at first glance. Also note that in this section, it will be considered a tempo loss to not spend your full mana towards advancing the board position; this makes the analysis simpler.
MLG/ManaGrind Tournaments this Weekend
Once again, ManaGrind and MLG will be running two tournaments this weekend! The MLG/MG NA Open #9 will be held on Saturday, December 21, and the MLG/MG EU Open #9 will be held on Sunday, December 22. Check out the information below if you're interested in playing in this weekend's events, and be sure to check out Ezmod's thread on the forums for more details information. Good luck, have fun!
MLG/ManaGrind North American Open #8 - Saturday, December 14
Major League Gaming and ManaGrind will be running the North American Open #8 on Saturday, December 21 starting at 2PM EST. If you're interested in competing, you can signup here on the Gamebattles website. Entry into the tournament is free, and winners will take home MLG credits that can be used to enter paid tournaments.
MLG/Managrind European Open #8 - Sunday, December 15
Major League Gaming and ManaGrind will be running the European Open #8 on Sunday, December 22 starting at 6PM CET. If you're interested in competing, you can signup here on the Gamebattles website. Entry into the tournament is free, and winners will take home MLG credits that can be used to enter paid tournaments.
Diablo III Collector's Edition Announced - No Hearthstone Reward
Today, Blizzard announced the release date of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - March 25, 2014, and alongside it, the bonuses inside the Digital Deluxe and Collector's Edition! Sadly, there was no announcement of a promotional Hearthstone card, but, as usual, there are rewards for World of Warcraft and Starcraft II. purchasers will receive 3 Card Packs. For more details, check out the post on DiabloFans!
Also, be sure to let us know in the comments how you feel about there not being a Hearthstone promotional card for the Diablo III Collector's Edition.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)I take nothing that Sar says seriously. He's given his opinion that nobody in the game matters except his "top rank 5" players. If that's how he wants the game to be tailored, he can have fun with his game that hardly anyone plays. Cuz I'm about close to that point now for the third time in just beta.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)"Also, be sure to let us know in the comments how you feel about there not being a Hearthstone promotional card for the Diablo III Collector's Edition."
This is probably the first time the I agree with the phrase "It's beta!" in regards to critiques of Hearthstone. It would have been cool, if done right, but the reality is that it is a free to play game in beta development by an expanding development team that is already running behind schedule. Developing a promotional card - again, the right way - is not a priority. With the timing, they would essentially be creating a promotional item for beta testers after having just made a promotional card, essentially for beta testers.
The also have to be concerned with balance - probably would never release a card all players do not have access to, just a gold version of it - like ETC. Promotional items for Hearthstone will probably take the form of aesthetics - gold versions, card backs, hero portraits, maybe alternate card pictures - Old Murk-Eye with a helm, shield & Morningstar.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)It's a good thing they didn't say open beta would be in December, really.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)There have been several updates from Blizzard since BlizzCon saying it they may not make it. Rob Pardo also mentioned that it was BlizzardTime, so it could likely be January. I'll take the fault for that.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)It's definitely not a prank, and I have no idea why you didn't receive a key. All I know is that Blizzard keeps saying anyone who hasn't gotten theirs should check their promotions tab, spam box, and more importantly, search your email for "hearthstone".
If you aren't able to find it, I'm sorry to hear that, but you're unfortunately just going to have to wait a few more weeks for them to manually flag your account. Why they can't manually flag accounts right now? I'm guessing they don't have that functionality finished.
It is possible though that it ended up in your spam folder very early on, and you didn't see it before your email account automatically deleted it. That's why it's very important to have rules in your email settings to make sure anything from Blizzard.com is flagged as "not spam".
Good luck, Cr0wL0ck.
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Posted Dec 19, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give Promotional Card!
On a more serious note, I'm very disappointed that a new promotional card was not announced as a Hearthstone in-game goodie for the Diablo III expansion. It's quite possible that we will see something show up in the coming months, but it's doubtful.
How do you feel about there not being a Hearthstone promo card?
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Posted Dec 19, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)I hadn't realised at first there was no reward but when I did....
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)They did say Hearthstone was going to stay warcraft-specific, so not sure where the surprise is.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)Cause WoW deserves the Treasure Goblin even though it has nothing to do with Diablo 3.
3 packs is a joke... if this is supposed to entice Hearthstone players, they have failed completely.
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Posted Dec 20, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)Warcraft-themed, at least to me, means they won't be adding a "Heroes of Starcraft" expansion onto the game. Having little references to other games.. like a promotional card, isn't exactly killing the Warcraft vibe.
Blizzard could easily keep everything warcraft themed while still doing cross-game promotion. Nothing says a Murloc can't be wearing some Crusader gear :P
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Posted Dec 21, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)3 Packs is fine with me...$4.50 value (Arguably)
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Posted Dec 21, 2013 (Beta Patch 4243)Treasure Goblin in WoW would be worth $10 in the store and I think the man hours gone into making it > than giving 3 packs in Hearthstone...