Hearthpwn

Important: If you're still having issues with the Plague Quarter, check out this post.
Patch Alert: A patch was deployed earlier today to Hearthstone. It added support for Windows 8 touch devices!

Ben Brode Developer Interview: "Next, We're Planning for a Larger set of Cards"

Ben Brode was on the Turn2 Podcast this afternoon to discuss the development side of Hearthstone. We've watched and summarized the interview for you below. If you'd like to watch it in full, head on over to the Turn 2 #30 Twitch VoD.

Quote from Blizzard

• The next content patch will have more than thirty cards.
• Observer mode is in the works. No details yet!
• If you want something added to Hearthstone, talk about it to let the developers know! Observer mode is being added because the community wanted it.
• There's no current plans to change cards. The team wants to change things as little as possible, they'd rather add new cards to counter them.
• Naxxramas design timeline:
1. Design the cards which will be rewarded from the adventure.
2. Create the normal boss fights. Most time was spent here.
3. Make class challenges and create fun decks for each class.
4. The Heroic fights. How do we make these crazy while keeping them beatable.
• Alexstrasza being denied on Loatheb was good and bad. It was great because it changes things up and makes it fun, but there's a drawback where the visibility of this mechanic wasn't good so you might craft a card like Alexstrasza to beat the fight, but then be punished for it.
• Maexxna is a potentially scary card. They wanted to keep her attack low to prevent her from being overpowered.
• Loatheb was created to be a meta-game tool to be good against decks which run lots of spells.
• Webspinner is a great example of randomness being important, and when used correctly, it increases the skill required to play the game. You have to adapt on the fly to what card it presents you.
• During the creation of the Naxxramas card set, no cards were specifically changed based on arena performance.
• At the moment, it's too tough to say if Zoo is a problem. We need to see how Naxx changes things up and the game needs to settle down before any conclusions can be made.

Crazed Alchemist + Betrayal combo on Four Horsemen is Awesome.

Deck Spotlight: Spark's Beasty Tactics

In today's deck spotlight we're taking a look at Spark's newest Naxxramas hunter deck, Beasty Tactics. This deck is a midrange Hunter deck which incorporates some secrets play for powering up Eaglehorn Bow, Unleash the Hounds for surprise damage, and those awesome Webspinners which can shake things up a bit every game.

The deck is affordable, even on the smallest budgets, coming in at 820 arcane dust (as of posting), and certainly packs a large punch for that price. Check out the deck below if you'd like to get crafting it or head on over the the deck guide to learn more about Naxxramas midrange hunter changes, card strategy, and tips to push this deck as far as it will go.

Military Quarter Heroic Boss Guides

If you need help with the Military Quarter bosses, on normal or heroic, we've got plenty of proven deck lists you should check out!

World Cyber Arena: $190,000 Hearthstone Prize Pool

A new tournament has been announced for Hearthstone which will be taking place at World Cyber Arena 2014. The tournament will feature a ~$190,000 USD (1.2 Million RMB) prize pool, which is only a small portion of the ~3.2 Million USD (20 Million RMB) total prize purse for the event. Hearthstone's first place champion will be taking home close to $95,000 (600,000 RMB) in prize money. 

Information on qualifying or who's being invited has not yet been disclosed, and there is also no information on the format which will be played. The tournament is scheduled to take place on October 2, 2014 in Yinchuan, China.

Sources: GtvBeijing on QQ, WCA Site.

More Plague Quarter Issue Fixes

Natryndon made a post on the forums early this morning stating that several fixes were made last night to fix accounts which are still effected by the Plague Quarter issues. Below you will find steps which may fix your account if you still have issues purchasing the Plague Quarter. If you are still having issues, you can respond in this thread on the Battle.net forums.

Quote from Natryndon

As you may know, we implemented several fixes during the night which should have ‘straightened out’ those affected (i.e. refunded the required gold and unlocked access to purchase again). However, we are still seeing a smattering of on-going cases and we wanted to address these here.

• If you have not received any refund at all: Please exit the game and logout of Battle.net completely. Then, reset your Battle.net account password on the website and try again. If this doesn't work, please post below.
• If you have received a refund but are still unable to make purchases: As above, please exit the game and logout of Battle.net completely. Then, reset your Battle.net account password on the website and try again. If this doesn't work, please post below.
• If you have been refunded gold but you believe it is not enough: We are looking into these cases and will advise you further in due course.
• If you made a real money purchase on the iPad and have not been refunded: Please contact Apple.