Jumping into the Arena after just starting. Don't get me wrong,, the Arena is a great game mode, many players enjoy it and it can help you build your card collection. The problem isn't the Arena, but lack of game play experience and new players jumping in soon after they start playing. Hearthstone is a game that takes time to learn. You need to learn at least the basic cards, when to play the cards, and what you can expect your opponent to do next. Until you get to that point you are just wasting gold or money. Experienced players will eat you alive and you may get one win if your lucky. It is better to save your gold and money to buy packs while you learn the game because a card pack is 100 gold and the arena costs 150. At 0 or 1 win, you will likely get a pack. I would say at least 3 months experience is a good idea, closer to 6 would be better, but each person is different.
I kinda disagree with this one.
If you have some experience with other CCG's drafting mode, and know the basics of "smoothing your mana curve, board clears are awesome, cards that kill minios are great, vanilla minions are better than they look, do not try to synergise too much", you can do OK in arena.
I had played draft and sealed in Magic before, and was an average player (not bad, but not especially good either). I started arena about 1 week into hearthstone, and had an average of about 3 wins per run accross my first ~10 runs. An average of 3 wins is about enough to make the make the run 150 gold -> 50 gold (or that much value in cards/dust) + 1 pack, thus being as "worth it" as buying packs.
If you can manage to have an average of 3 wins/run, arena if GREAT for new players, because you don't need to have a 10k dust deck to play, you can compete with anyone.
But, as you said, if you are not good enough and get an average of 0-2 wins/run, this might not be a good idea to play this mode until you get better at the game.
I don't agree with the arena point, I would say arena is a good way to learn cards and odd syngeries while gaining a pack and maybe some gold/dust. The first thing I did was jumping into arena and I loved it. To be fair it was back when it got out of beta so there werent that many mechanics and cards.
Not planning out your turn ahead of time/making fast plays. This is a classic mistake all new players make. While you should be watching to see what your opponent does, you should also be thinking about which card(s) in your hand you should play next turn. Clicking on the board and seeing what the different stuff does when clicked and emoting is a waste of time. Good players think about multiple turns ahead. As a new player that may be impossible, but its a good idea to at least try if you have the time. In the same vein quickly playing your cards without thinking whats going to happen and if the card you just drew may be a better card to play is a disaster. There is a reason there is a turn timer, to give you some time to think. Use that time.
While this is solid advice, maybe a word of caution on the "opposite issue" is in order, too. That is, if you use too much time to plan your move(s), you might find yourself with not enough time left to actually execute the play, especially if it's a complex turn. By complex here I mean some turn where you want to play several cards (like with Lyra / Gadgetzan / Edwin), and/or attack many times, or anyway have a lot of triggered effects and animations. Those require some time as well, so better not wait for the last few seconds of rope ;)
Dusting your collection to make one deck. This is a mistake I made and countless others have made. It seems like such a good idea at the time. Why not have one good deck and dust the cards your not using? As anyone who does this will soon learn its a disaster move. As a new player you really have no idea how useful some of those cards may be. You also have no idea if those cards will turn into must have cards after the next expansion. You also limit your ability to do quests and some tavern brawls. You will soon tire of that one deck and want to play another one. But you have dusted all the other cards you have to make one deck. The only real way out of this fine mess is to start over with another account, spend tons of money on packs, or suffer.
I disagree with this one. Dusting a large chunk of my collection for a single deck is what allowed me to become a solid player. I achieved my first rank 5 the same month and my first legend the following month. It gave me motivation to play more and become and practice and also I got a first-hand outlook of the competitive meta, so I could learn how to play against specific archetypes. A few months later I have multiple competitive decks and I get legend every season.
As for "not jumping into arena", the thing is if you don't play it, you'll never become good at it. There's a safe enough option for anyone no matter "new" player or not: making another account for arena practice (you'll get that shaman avatar too if you "recruit" it via friends menu) or just switching servers on your own account - that at least a couple free arena runs and a chance to experiment with different classes/decks as you get some free stuff including legendaries which will differ from your main server.
Also, OP haven't mentioned some free packs such as Galaxy gifts and rewards for playing on different android/apple devices, which could be easily attained with a little effort.
I think you should reread that section. Its talking to players who have just started. They get eaten alive in arena. The advice is to wait a few months and learn the game, not to never go there.
Il probably add some of the free stuff to the last section. I just expanded it yesterday.
Playing a card just because you can or because it's the most mana efficient play.
While this is correct most of the time especially in midrange/tempo decks, there are a lot of situations where the best play is to do nothing or to play off curve.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
I can't imagine how tough it is to be a new player right now and want to be competitive right from the beginning with aspirations of hitting legendary. I don't think it's even possible to do that without spending boatloads of money and an asinine amount of time learning the cards. But the good news is the game is plenty of fun without that kind of stress. Set modest goals for yourself and don't feel pressured to have to play some top-tier meta deck and nothing else. The most fun I have with this game is when I'm playing something off-meta or even just flat out meme-ish. I might lose 60% of my matches, but when I bash a cubelock with a fully tech'd out anti-meta deck, I end that game smiling ear-to-ear.
Point being - if you feel like you need to dust your entire collection just to play a precise copy of whatever Thijs is doing on stream right now, then you might be doing it wrong. Unless that's fun for you, in which case fucking do it! But find whatever makes you happy and do more of that. Don't let the Hearthpwn front page tell you what you should be doing.
I think the best thing to happen in this game in quite a while is the off-meta spotlight and the 'successful legend decks no one is playing' stats that Blizzard now throws out regularly. It's a great way of showing off that success in this game comes in part from mastering what you have, not pining over what you don't have. Except for time because this game requires that in abundance! Which is why I still suck after playing since beta!
Dont worry, I dont make judgements on people spending real world cash one way or the other. I am more of a budget player who occasionally spends money when I have it and the deal is worth it. I wont add judgements to the first post.
Great write up, IDBY. Good advice to follow. I'm not using Inkeeper, however, as I play on my phone. I try to keep distractions off my computer as I use it for work! That said, I do update my collection on here, manually, as I open new packs :P
Thanks, its my attempt to pay forward for all the help I was given. It looks like you have avoided the top 3. Avoid the 4th "Crafting the hot new card" I made that mistake.
1. New players think the mulligan is the same for every game and every class, while on a beginner's deck you would like to look for a "safe" curve this is not the case for every other deck. While there are cards like Prince Keleseth that you should always mulligan for if your deck is built that way, there are also many cases where you should alsmost always keep a card even if it costs a lot just because it's your win condition and it's an incredibly strong one but that doesn't mean you should always keep it or had mulligan for it, some match-ups are for example too fast for you to keep, there's no point keeping your win condition if you can't reach that turn anyway.
2. They seem to have the need to always play something and always be mana efficient, while this is not a bad way to play for a new player as you climb further on the ladder you realize that going for the mana efficient play or even playing a card on a turn is not the best way to play, sometimes you can play every single card on your hand but it's best just to hero power and pass (Or not hero power even if you still have 2 mana and nothing else to do, this mostly applies for warlock) unless you're playing a hyper aggro deck the winner will be the player that is best at resource managing, sometimes you just need to play a card that leaves you with 3 mana left cause it's better on the long term, learning this is one of the key "skills" on this game, you do nothing playing all your cards into an AoE or playing on curve into a silence or hard removal, baiting is good but you have to know when to tho this and when to push for lethal or to go all in.
Read the whole thing. I've been playing since the beginning and I still enjoyed the read. I think it's safe to say that even veteran players make these mistakes as well. Hat tip to you.
It took me a lot longer than I would like to admit to realise the actual loss on disenchanting verses enchanting. The biggest mistake I ever made was getting the first adventure, and then disenchanting the cards to make a deck I wanted.
I also used to d/e legendaries that weren't Mage (as a noob I only played Mage). Now I never play Mage and still regret it.
Disenchanting cards to make a good deck is okay to a degree but try to think about it properly first. Do dailies, get the gold from that and then get more packs is a better bet to getting a good collection as the dust is really limited. Except for golden cards, if it comes to it, you can D/E and then make the same non shiny card for the same dust at a later date.
The most important advice (besides having fun) is to stay away from Ranked for the first year. If you do not have the cards to compete, you will only become frustrated by the constant stream of meta decks with vastly superior cards.
Do get your five Ranked wins each month for the cardback, then get out and stay out. You want to keep your rank as low as possible for the next month's cardback.
Play in Casual, and expect a 50 percent win rate. The MMR in Casual mode assigns you a hidden ranking that increases or decreases based on the rankings of people you beat or are beaten by. Long story short: It ensures that you win about half your games.
It may not take you a whole year to "git gud," especially if you spend money, but very, very few free players have what it takes to climb the ladder right away.
I think this thread would have been relevant maybe 2 years ago, but I'm pretty sure there aren't many actual new players anymore. Just bad players and good players that are all addicted to this game. Any true new player would quit within a week once they realize that you can only play a handful of decks if you want to actually win.
As an admin on 2 Greek HS groups, i can tell you for sure, that there are new players hopping in the game
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Famous last words, Mind if i roll Weed? Weed Hoarder, Azeroth
I don't agree with the arena point, I would say arena is a good way to learn cards and odd syngeries while gaining a pack and maybe some gold/dust. The first thing I did was jumping into arena and I loved it. To be fair it was back when it got out of beta so there werent that many mechanics and cards.
As for "not jumping into arena", the thing is if you don't play it, you'll never become good at it. There's a safe enough option for anyone no matter "new" player or not: making another account for arena practice (you'll get that shaman avatar too if you "recruit" it via friends menu) or just switching servers on your own account - that at least a couple free arena runs and a chance to experiment with different classes/decks as you get some free stuff including legendaries which will differ from your main server.
Also, OP haven't mentioned some free packs such as Galaxy gifts and rewards for playing on different android/apple devices, which could be easily attained with a little effort.
I think you should reread that section. Its talking to players who have just started. They get eaten alive in arena. The advice is to wait a few months and learn the game, not to never go there.
Il probably add some of the free stuff to the last section. I just expanded it yesterday.
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
Playing a card just because you can or because it's the most mana efficient play.
While this is correct most of the time especially in midrange/tempo decks, there are a lot of situations where the best play is to do nothing or to play off curve.
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The most important tip to add is to have fun!
I can't imagine how tough it is to be a new player right now and want to be competitive right from the beginning with aspirations of hitting legendary. I don't think it's even possible to do that without spending boatloads of money and an asinine amount of time learning the cards. But the good news is the game is plenty of fun without that kind of stress. Set modest goals for yourself and don't feel pressured to have to play some top-tier meta deck and nothing else. The most fun I have with this game is when I'm playing something off-meta or even just flat out meme-ish. I might lose 60% of my matches, but when I bash a cubelock with a fully tech'd out anti-meta deck, I end that game smiling ear-to-ear.
Point being - if you feel like you need to dust your entire collection just to play a precise copy of whatever Thijs is doing on stream right now, then you might be doing it wrong. Unless that's fun for you, in which case fucking do it! But find whatever makes you happy and do more of that. Don't let the Hearthpwn front page tell you what you should be doing.
I think the best thing to happen in this game in quite a while is the off-meta spotlight and the 'successful legend decks no one is playing' stats that Blizzard now throws out regularly. It's a great way of showing off that success in this game comes in part from mastering what you have, not pining over what you don't have. Except for time because this game requires that in abundance! Which is why I still suck after playing since beta!
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
I just checked again, and you don't get 533.33 dust for a legendary. It's still 400, thus 1/4 of the crafting cost.
Thanks, fixed it.
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
Great write up, IDBY. Good advice to follow. I'm not using Inkeeper, however, as I play on my phone. I try to keep distractions off my computer as I use it for work! That said, I do update my collection on here, manually, as I open new packs :P
Thanks, its my attempt to pay forward for all the help I was given. It looks like you have avoided the top 3. Avoid the 4th "Crafting the hot new card" I made that mistake.
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
I think the 2 biggest mistakes are the following:
1. New players think the mulligan is the same for every game and every class, while on a beginner's deck you would like to look for a "safe" curve this is not the case for every other deck. While there are cards like Prince Keleseth that you should always mulligan for if your deck is built that way, there are also many cases where you should alsmost always keep a card even if it costs a lot just because it's your win condition and it's an incredibly strong one but that doesn't mean you should always keep it or had mulligan for it, some match-ups are for example too fast for you to keep, there's no point keeping your win condition if you can't reach that turn anyway.
2. They seem to have the need to always play something and always be mana efficient, while this is not a bad way to play for a new player as you climb further on the ladder you realize that going for the mana efficient play or even playing a card on a turn is not the best way to play, sometimes you can play every single card on your hand but it's best just to hero power and pass (Or not hero power even if you still have 2 mana and nothing else to do, this mostly applies for warlock) unless you're playing a hyper aggro deck the winner will be the player that is best at resource managing, sometimes you just need to play a card that leaves you with 3 mana left cause it's better on the long term, learning this is one of the key "skills" on this game, you do nothing playing all your cards into an AoE or playing on curve into a silence or hard removal, baiting is good but you have to know when to tho this and when to push for lethal or to go all in.
Read the whole thing. I've been playing since the beginning and I still enjoyed the read. I think it's safe to say that even veteran players make these mistakes as well. Hat tip to you.
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It took me a lot longer than I would like to admit to realise the actual loss on disenchanting verses enchanting. The biggest mistake I ever made was getting the first adventure, and then disenchanting the cards to make a deck I wanted.
I also used to d/e legendaries that weren't Mage (as a noob I only played Mage). Now I never play Mage and still regret it.
Disenchanting cards to make a good deck is okay to a degree but try to think about it properly first. Do dailies, get the gold from that and then get more packs is a better bet to getting a good collection as the dust is really limited. Except for golden cards, if it comes to it, you can D/E and then make the same non shiny card for the same dust at a later date.
The most important advice (besides having fun) is to stay away from Ranked for the first year. If you do not have the cards to compete, you will only become frustrated by the constant stream of meta decks with vastly superior cards.
Do get your five Ranked wins each month for the cardback, then get out and stay out. You want to keep your rank as low as possible for the next month's cardback.
Play in Casual, and expect a 50 percent win rate. The MMR in Casual mode assigns you a hidden ranking that increases or decreases based on the rankings of people you beat or are beaten by. Long story short: It ensures that you win about half your games.
It may not take you a whole year to "git gud," especially if you spend money, but very, very few free players have what it takes to climb the ladder right away.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
As an admin on 2 Greek HS groups, i can tell you for sure, that there are new players hopping in the game
Famous last words, Mind if i roll Weed? Weed Hoarder, Azeroth
My decks: please, take a look if you want- a lot of dust-free decks-feedback more than welcome
http://www.hearthpwn.com/members/akasumi/decks?sort=-viewcount
Blizzard's news portal in Greeks wastedmurlocgang.gr