Don't go for ranked play. It's dull. Concentrate on creating a pretty good Casino Mage or Steal Priest deck, and don't disenchant too much stuff. Fool around with stronger decks but don't craft for them, or at least not much - the further you get in ranked the more stale the meta gets. Strong cards fall out of the meta soon enough as new cards are released, but Yogg and other fun cards are forever.
I finally got exactly where I wanted with great strong cards and decks last month and... was bored to tears.
Ranked isn't the best place for new players. If you're new to the game I'd recommend sticking with casual mode and tavern brawls for awhile until you get a few packs opened.
If you get "Win 3/5 games with this class" quests you're sometimes in a bad spot. Other than that, try to get all the free stuff from the Solo Mode (Packs and Gold), use Tavern Brawls to complete those (for beginners kinda hard) "Win 3/5 games with this class" quests and slowly build up your collection. It's also good to hoard gold for the next expansion since there's always 2-3 broken cards that are played by everyone (Blizzard wants us to play the new expansion so that will happen for sure)
I always hoard until the next expansion so I can buy 40+ packs.
Of course it's though to play multiple Tier 1 decks as a new player, I would just focus on my favorite class first and then slowly expand :)
Also if you really want to climb the ladder you are most of the time limited to some tier 1 decks that everyone plays. Which means if you plan on getting legend with Discard Warlock or Freeze Shaman it's hardly possible because some combos of the tier1 decks are just way to effective. Which means the game becomes boring quite fast...
Don't craft anything right now because a new expansion is going to be released soon, a expansion that will rotate the 3 older sets in standard and will change everything.
Just focus on arena and watch good arena streamers.
Try to maximize gold from daily quest: when you get 40g quest just reroll.
If you're having problems to complete a quest with certain class because you lack good cards just wait for the brawl, it usually helps newcomers to complete class quests.
When the new expansion is released just wait a few weeks -maybe 1 month- until the meta settles and then spend your dust on a tier1 deck you can afford. Aggro is usually cheaper than control, also more favoured because fastest games mean that you'll climb fastest if you've a winrate gt 50%.
If a new player thinks it's reasonable that they should be able to dive in and immediately thrash a three-year veteran, and if that's the only way they can have fun, then no. There's no room in Hearthstone for that new player.
If you can manage to have fun playing in Casual (where the MMR will guarantee you a win rate of 50 percent), completing quests and building your collection, then yes, there is a place for you.
If you want to test your skill in the Arena, where everyone is on completely equal footing and collections don't matter, there is a place for you. This is also a great way to build a collection if you are actually good at it.
If you lack the skill to compete in Arena, then I'm not sure why you think you should be able to compete in Ranked. They are two different skill sets, yes, but your complaint seems to be that the collection disadvantage is what's holding you back in Ranked, and that does not exist in Arena.
If, on the other hand, you accept that your problem is a combination of lack of skill and lack of cards, the correct path forward is to complete quests in Casual for a while. You will gain both cards and skill there, and you'll eventually have enough of both to play more Ranked.
The only benefit to be gained in Ranked is the five-win monthly prize. Once you've got that, there's no reason to play there.
And hey, if you like the game and want to jump-start your collection, pre-ordering the expansion is a pretty good idea.
Well now it's a bad time to start, as you've got a fuckton of cards to take into account and most decks are overinflated power-wise. But after rotation it's gonna be okay.
I remember when I've started playing - WotoG, TGT, 2 adventures and a 3rd one incoming, no classic cards etc. I've carefully crafted, played, invested some money, and without straining myself too much I've got a hefty collection, including full set in KaC.
if you have the time to play, never spend your gold on packs, but rather on arena tickets. 3 wins or more and you are even (min. reward for 3 wins is 1pack worth 100g + 50gold/dust extra), and every win beyond this means you are getting extra rewards.
you can finish your daily quests in friendly matches against friends, where you dont need to have a viable deck for each class ;) this is very useful for "win 3/5 games as ..." quests
Keep practising and getting wiser. I'm a relatively new player myself (~4 months) and this is the first month I managed to climb to a good position in ranked ladder. I used a cheap aggro token druid deck (~1300 dust) and I am sitting in rank 4 right now, which I think is more than enough for now. The only issue I find is that my collection is very limited and I might get bored faster than a player with a wider choice of cards. But that will get better with time as I expand my collection. My greatest worry was not being able to reach rank 5 for maximum profit and it has been already solved.
Try to play an Arena run every day for 3 months and then report back on your collection. (You can do this pretty easily if you do all your quests and get to 4 wins or so on average which is not that difficult if you are working at it)
If a new player thinks it's reasonable that they should be able to dive in and immediately thrash a three-year veteran, and if that's the only way they can have fun, then no. There's no room in Hearthstone for that new player.
If you can manage to have fun playing in Casual (where the MMR will guarantee you a win rate of 50 percent), completing quests and building your collection, then yes, there is a place for you.
If you want to test your skill in the Arena, where everyone is on completely equal footing and collections don't matter, there is a place for you. This is also a great way to build a collection if you are actually good at it.
If you lack the skill to compete in Arena, then I'm not sure why you think you should be able to compete in Ranked. They are two different skill sets, yes, but your complaint seems to be that the collection disadvantage is what's holding you back in Ranked, and that does not exist in Arena.
If, on the other hand, you accept that your problem is a combination of lack of skill and lack of cards, the correct path forward is to complete quests in Casual for a while. You will gain both cards and skill there, and you'll eventually have enough of both to play more Ranked.
The only benefit to be gained in Ranked is the five-win monthly prize. Once you've got that, there's no reason to play there.
And hey, if you like the game and want to jump-start your collection, pre-ordering the expansion is a pretty good idea.
A thing to remember, cards will not determine your rank.
People always saying (complaining) that there are tier 1 decks even at rank 20.
This is because you can buy a full collection and still not be good enough to climb with it.
A full collection brings flexibility in architecture of decks, nothing more.
You need to learn the cards, and all different decks in Meta, plus how to beat them to climb well.
My advice is to watch streamers, and learn. When you are about to play a card, look at all your cards, and see if there is any other plays, then decide which is best for you, every turn.
Since we have had so many people advocate for Arena, I am going to share my thoughts on Arena for new players. Dont get me wrong, Arena is a fine way to build a collection. There is nothing wrong with Arena. But telling a new player to go into the Arena is often times bad advice. Why? Because they havent learned the game and suggesting they go into one of the most competitive areas that requires knowing the game is a bad idea. They are likely to be eaten alive and maybe come out with 1 win if they are lucky. The break even point on Arena is about 4-5 wins. Its simple math. 100 gold for a pack, 150 for arena. If they only win one game and get 1 pack out of it, they have wasted 50 gold. Players should learn the game, spend 3 to 6 months playing (each person is different, but at least 3 months) before heading to the Arena.
You must spend insane amount of money on card packs then you'll have a good enough collection. Other suggestion is to buy accounts that already have good collections, that's much cheaper but I'm not sure if it's legal or not, if illegal please delete my comment.
Try yo harvest as many gold as possible so you can open many packs when the new exp comes out in april. Also buy the welcome bundle if u haven't yet. Its the best deal.
Don't worry, first of all rank 18 is damn good for a new player, you can pre order expansions to get a lot of cards, and if you're a f2p player then don't worry either, just complete quests and win tavern brawls, don't craft without thinking twice, pick a deck you wanna craft first
Since we have had so many people advocate for Arena, I am going to share my thoughts on Arena for new players. Dont get me wrong, Arena is a fine way to build a collection. There is nothing wrong with Arena. But telling a new player to go into the Arena is often times bad advice. Why? Because they havent learned the game and suggesting they go into one of the most competitive areas that requires knowing the game is a bad idea. They are likely to be eaten alive and maybe come out with 1 win if they are lucky. The break even point on Arena is about 4-5 wins. Its simple math. 100 gold for a pack, 150 for arena. If they only win one game and get 1 pack out of it, they have wasted 50 gold. Players should learn the game, spend 3 to 6 months playing (each person is different, but at least 3 months) before heading to the Arena.
Hmm, I have to disagree on this point (from my personal experience at least).
When I started (same as a few other people I know), the #1 most frustrating point was running into people who beat you down with a bunch of legendary cards you can only dream of at that point (back then it was Silvanas, Ragnaros, Tirion, etc.). Sure, they may (and most likely do) have a higher skill and more experience, but you don't see that past all the legendaries they throw at you.
I'm sure there are many types of players and to a certain degree this is a matter of perspective, but it seems that the OP, same as I did back then, doesn't mind losing to higher skill and deeper experience, as after such a loss you can learn something and you can improve. It doesn't feel nearly as bad as losing because of the difference in card collections. What he does mind is being halted back by the lack of cards, which is something he can't do anything about (other than throwing money at the game, which he may not want to do).
I jumped into Arena since week 1 of playing for exactly this reason - to play on even grounds with others, and to have my losses be due to my lack of skill, not cards (RNG aside). Still remember my first run ever being 5 wins, and I was never really good at Arena (I rarely do 7+ even now, did 12 only once, which I think puts me among the lesser skilled Arena players). As a newb, typically I did 3-4 wins per run, which was good enough to learn and to grow the collection - and most importantly - to avoid the frustration that was playing ranked without cards.
Also, a correction - the break-even point in arena is ~3 wins. Sometimes 2 wins is already worth 150g (hell, sometimes you will get 2 packs at 2 wins too, which is great) 3 wins is on average about there (because 1 dust ~= 1 gold in the long run) At 4 wins you are in a definitive plus, and anything beyond that is awesome.
Dunno, listening to the OPs words, it's exactly my feelings in the first few months, and I would say - one Arena every day. Don't disenchant anything unless it's golden or you're really really sure you won't be playing it, pick 1-2 classes to focus on (craft only for those), and when you have the dust for a deck you think you'll like - go for it.
p.s. I was also FTP until one day I said to hell with it and preordered the new expo. A preorder (even one) really goes a long way into enabling you to play multiple decks/classes and experiment with stuff. Also, the next expo is 70 packs for 50$, which, if you like the game, is really not so bad ;)
Since we have had so many people advocate for Arena, I am going to share my thoughts on Arena for new players. Dont get me wrong, Arena is a fine way to build a collection. There is nothing wrong with Arena. But telling a new player to go into the Arena is often times bad advice. Why? Because they havent learned the game and suggesting they go into one of the most competitive areas that requires knowing the game is a bad idea. They are likely to be eaten alive and maybe come out with 1 win if they are lucky. The break even point on Arena is about 4-5 wins. Its simple math. 100 gold for a pack, 150 for arena. If they only win one game and get 1 pack out of it, they have wasted 50 gold. Players should learn the game, spend 3 to 6 months playing (each person is different, but at least 3 months) before heading to the Arena.
Hmm, I have to disagree on this point (from my personal experience at least).
When I started (same as a few other people I know), the #1 most frustrating point was running into people who beat you down with a bunch of legendary cards you can only dream of at that point (back then it was Silvanas, Ragnaros, Tirion, etc.). Sure, they may (and most likely do) have a higher skill and more experience, but you don't see that past all the legendaries they throw at you.
I'm sure there are many types of players and to a certain degree this is a matter of perspective, but it seems that the OP, same as I did back then, doesn't mind losing to higher skill and deeper experience, as after such a loss you can learn something and you can improve. It doesn't feel nearly as bad as losing because of the difference in card collections. What he does mind is being halted back by the lack of cards, which is something he can't do anything about (other than throwing money at the game, which he may not want to do).
I jumped into Arena since week 1 of playing for exactly this reason - to play on even grounds with others, and to have my losses be due to my lack of skill, not cards (RNG aside). Still remember my first run ever being 5 wins, and I was never really good at Arena (I rarely do 7+ even now, did 12 only once, which I think puts me among the lesser skilled Arena players). As a newb, typically I did 3-4 wins per run, which was good enough to learn and to grow the collection - and most importantly - to avoid the frustration that was playing ranked without cards.
Also, a correction - the break-even point in arena is ~3 wins. Sometimes 2 wins is already worth 150g (hell, sometimes you will get 2 packs at 2 wins too, which is great) 3 wins is on average about there (because 1 dust ~= 1 gold in the long run) At 4 wins you are in a definitive plus, and anything beyond that is awesome.
Dunno, listening to the OPs words, it's exactly my feelings in the first few months, and I would say - one Arena every day. Don't disenchant anything unless it's golden or you're really really sure you won't be playing it, pick 1-2 classes to focus on (craft only for those), and when you have the dust for a deck you think you'll like - go for it.
p.s. I was also FTP until one day I said to hell with it and preordered the new expo. A preorder (even one) really goes a long way into enabling you to play multiple decks/classes and experiment with stuff. Also, the next expo is 70 packs for 50$, which, if you like the game, is really not so bad ;)
While some of what the OP may have said references getting beat by people with more cards, to me, some of it is asking how to fix the lack of cards problem. I dont see his statement that he doesnt mind getting beat by people with more skill. So we are left with how can I win with the cards I have. That in most cases isnt possible. The solution is obtaining more cards. The opinions differ on how to accomplish getting more cards. One side says play Arena. But how well are new players going to accomplish the goal of getting more cards when they dont really have a good understanding of how the game works? Not very well. They may get some game experience playing Arena, but they could get experience playing Casual as well. In the end if they are not winning 4-5 games they are not going to come out with the same number of cards playing Arena. That defeats the solution of gaining more cards. By all means, if a new player wants to try arena, more power to them. But they have to look objectively at the results. Sadly some if not most will take the advice and continue to play Arena thinking they must not be doing something right if so many people tell me to do it, I will try again. After a few runs if they are only winning 0-2 games its likely better to cut your losses and save gold and buy packs with it. Im not suggesting avoiding Arena forever, but learn the game, what to play, when not to play a card, what the cards do, what the mechanics are, what your opponent is going to do, how to counter what your opponent is doing. Then you can go into the arena and not waste what little resources you have in the beginning.
I'm still trying to figure this out. I started to play HS lately due to other interests in video games. And i can't understand how am i supposed to compete to others with such better card collections. I started a couple of moths ago and all i could manage is to craft 9-10 cheap cards and only one that cost 1600 dust.. I also made it to standard ranking level 18. I have my cards synced through innkeeper so if anyone has the time to make any kind of suggestion to the better or help feel free to. Cya later.
If you want to get competitive, it takes time. Typically, Hearthstone has been very unfriendly to new players trying to break in. Takes way too long get good cards. HOWEVER, if you stay active in the next few weeks, Blizzard is being very generous with card packs starting on the 26th (and also if you can win a Tavern Brawl with the current 3-pack reward). So, you might just find yourself in a much more competitive spot at the launch of the new expac. Stick with it another month, and you just might be in a much better spot than now.
Basically how HS works is this. You can be F2P and make it to rank 10 if you're really good(Excluding people who have been F2P for years). You then need to Pay2Win if you want to hit rank 5. You then need to be good at the time to get Legend. You then need to have essentially every card in game and be really good to get high legend.
The only way around this is becoming insanely good at arena to make consistent gold. But even then it's torturous trying to save up for that long. I look at it this way. I spend 200$, I instantly have the ability to compete with everyone as long as the meta lasts. I can make 200$ in a few days of manual labor, that 200$ worth of cards would take me months to get F2P.
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Don't go for ranked play. It's dull. Concentrate on creating a pretty good Casino Mage or Steal Priest deck, and don't disenchant too much stuff. Fool around with stronger decks but don't craft for them, or at least not much - the further you get in ranked the more stale the meta gets. Strong cards fall out of the meta soon enough as new cards are released, but Yogg and other fun cards are forever.
I finally got exactly where I wanted with great strong cards and decks last month and... was bored to tears.
Ranked isn't the best place for new players. If you're new to the game I'd recommend sticking with casual mode and tavern brawls for awhile until you get a few packs opened.
If you get "Win 3/5 games with this class" quests you're sometimes in a bad spot. Other than that, try to get all the free stuff from the Solo Mode (Packs and Gold), use Tavern Brawls to complete those (for beginners kinda hard) "Win 3/5 games with this class" quests and slowly build up your collection. It's also good to hoard gold for the next expansion since there's always 2-3 broken cards that are played by everyone (Blizzard wants us to play the new expansion so that will happen for sure)
I always hoard until the next expansion so I can buy 40+ packs.
Of course it's though to play multiple Tier 1 decks as a new player, I would just focus on my favorite class first and then slowly expand :)
Also if you really want to climb the ladder you are most of the time limited to some tier 1 decks that everyone plays. Which means if you plan on getting legend with Discard Warlock or Freeze Shaman it's hardly possible because some combos of the tier1 decks are just way to effective. Which means the game becomes boring quite fast...
Don't craft anything right now because a new expansion is going to be released soon, a expansion that will rotate the 3 older sets in standard and will change everything.
Just focus on arena and watch good arena streamers.
Try to maximize gold from daily quest: when you get 40g quest just reroll.
If you're having problems to complete a quest with certain class because you lack good cards just wait for the brawl, it usually helps newcomers to complete class quests.
When the new expansion is released just wait a few weeks -maybe 1 month- until the meta settles and then spend your dust on a tier1 deck you can afford. Aggro is usually cheaper than control, also more favoured because fastest games mean that you'll climb fastest if you've a winrate gt 50%.
I will crush you!
Well now it's a bad time to start, as you've got a fuckton of cards to take into account and most decks are overinflated power-wise. But after rotation it's gonna be okay.
I remember when I've started playing - WotoG, TGT, 2 adventures and a 3rd one incoming, no classic cards etc. I've carefully crafted, played, invested some money, and without straining myself too much I've got a hefty collection, including full set in KaC.
Patience and time ;)
I've no clue what I'm doing...
two things to add:
if you have the time to play, never spend your gold on packs, but rather on arena tickets. 3 wins or more and you are even (min. reward for 3 wins is 1pack worth 100g + 50gold/dust extra), and every win beyond this means you are getting extra rewards.
you can finish your daily quests in friendly matches against friends, where you dont need to have a viable deck for each class ;) this is very useful for "win 3/5 games as ..." quests
Keep practising and getting wiser. I'm a relatively new player myself (~4 months) and this is the first month I managed to climb to a good position in ranked ladder. I used a cheap aggro token druid deck (~1300 dust) and I am sitting in rank 4 right now, which I think is more than enough for now. The only issue I find is that my collection is very limited and I might get bored faster than a player with a wider choice of cards. But that will get better with time as I expand my collection. My greatest worry was not being able to reach rank 5 for maximum profit and it has been already solved.
Try to play an Arena run every day for 3 months and then report back on your collection. (You can do this pretty easily if you do all your quests and get to 4 wins or so on average which is not that difficult if you are working at it)
Galavant Animation
Top deck is cheat
A thing to remember, cards will not determine your rank.
People always saying (complaining) that there are tier 1 decks even at rank 20.
This is because you can buy a full collection and still not be good enough to climb with it.
A full collection brings flexibility in architecture of decks, nothing more.
You need to learn the cards, and all different decks in Meta, plus how to beat them to climb well.
My advice is to watch streamers, and learn. When you are about to play a card, look at all your cards, and see if there is any other plays, then decide which is best for you, every turn.
Since we have had so many people advocate for Arena, I am going to share my thoughts on Arena for new players. Dont get me wrong, Arena is a fine way to build a collection. There is nothing wrong with Arena. But telling a new player to go into the Arena is often times bad advice. Why? Because they havent learned the game and suggesting they go into one of the most competitive areas that requires knowing the game is a bad idea. They are likely to be eaten alive and maybe come out with 1 win if they are lucky. The break even point on Arena is about 4-5 wins. Its simple math. 100 gold for a pack, 150 for arena. If they only win one game and get 1 pack out of it, they have wasted 50 gold. Players should learn the game, spend 3 to 6 months playing (each person is different, but at least 3 months) before heading to the Arena.
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.
You must spend insane amount of money on card packs then you'll have a good enough collection.
Other suggestion is to buy accounts that already have good collections, that's much cheaper but I'm not sure if it's legal or not, if illegal please delete my comment.
this is so right. this is not like playing on your alternative account. how can a new player be good at playing the arena? is it easier than rank 20?
THIS IS GOATSE!
Try yo harvest as many gold as possible so you can open many packs when the new exp comes out in april. Also buy the welcome bundle if u haven't yet. Its the best deal.
Don't worry, first of all rank 18 is damn good for a new player, you can pre order expansions to get a lot of cards, and if you're a f2p player then don't worry either, just complete quests and win tavern brawls, don't craft without thinking twice, pick a deck you wanna craft first
Don't mind me just passing by
What he does mind is being halted back by the lack of cards, which is something he can't do anything about (other than throwing money at the game, which he may not want to do).
Sometimes 2 wins is already worth 150g (hell, sometimes you will get 2 packs at 2 wins too, which is great)
3 wins is on average about there (because 1 dust ~= 1 gold in the long run)
At 4 wins you are in a definitive plus, and anything beyond that is awesome.
Don't disenchant anything unless it's golden or you're really really sure you won't be playing it, pick 1-2 classes to focus on (craft only for those), and when you have the dust for a deck you think you'll like - go for it.
The solution is obtaining more cards. The opinions differ on how to accomplish getting more cards. One side says play Arena. But how well are new players going to accomplish the goal of getting more cards when they dont really have a good understanding of how the game works? Not very well. They may get some game experience playing Arena, but they could get experience playing Casual as well. In the end if they are not winning 4-5 games they are not going to come out with the same number of cards playing Arena. That defeats the solution of gaining more cards.
By all means, if a new player wants to try arena, more power to them. But they have to look objectively at the results. Sadly some if not most will take the advice and continue to play Arena thinking they must not be doing something right if so many people tell me to do it, I will try again. After a few runs if they are only winning 0-2 games its likely better to cut your losses and save gold and buy packs with it.
Im not suggesting avoiding Arena forever, but learn the game, what to play, when not to play a card, what the cards do, what the mechanics are, what your opponent is going to do, how to counter what your opponent is doing. Then you can go into the arena and not waste what little resources you have in the beginning.
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.
Basically how HS works is this. You can be F2P and make it to rank 10 if you're really good(Excluding people who have been F2P for years). You then need to Pay2Win if you want to hit rank 5. You then need to be good at the time to get Legend. You then need to have essentially every card in game and be really good to get high legend.
The only way around this is becoming insanely good at arena to make consistent gold. But even then it's torturous trying to save up for that long. I look at it this way. I spend 200$, I instantly have the ability to compete with everyone as long as the meta lasts. I can make 200$ in a few days of manual labor, that 200$ worth of cards would take me months to get F2P.