Hearthpwn

Hmm...this lifelessness and lack of memorable personalities/characters is something I've also noticed across various reviews/impressions.  One of those intangibles that is oh so important to grab people into the game.

I am enjoying the game a lot actually, maybe because I am more fond of the Elder Scrolls Lore then WoW's one.
It is a fact that Legends will be compaired with HS a lot, I will list the things I remember are similar and way different in each game.

MAIN SIMILARITIES:
►The card rarity system is the same - Grey for common, blue for rare, purple for epic and orange to legendary

►Stats-Cost ratio, but this type of distribution is common in card games, MTG did it way before HS

►Arena is quite similar, pick one card out of 3 until you made a 30 card deck, with rewards getting better as you achieve more wins

►Pack opening animation is quite look alike HS' one

MAIN DIFFERENCES:
►Lane mechaninc alone makes TESL completely different to HS. With cards from one lane almost always unable to interact with cards in the other lane, the minion and placement is a bit more strategic in my opinion.

►Rune & Prophecy mechanic were a great idea! The game does not have a bunch of card draw and adding "Summon: Draw a card" to a creature makes it quite expensive (Summon is a sort of Battlecry). The runes make you draw 5 extra cards you would not draw otherwise. The prophecies work along side with the runes, if your enemy breaks a rune, you immediately draw a card, if it has Prophecy you may play it for free during the enemy turn. This mechanic make you think before going full SMOrc on the enemy, since prophecies may screw you

►Effect cost is quite different also. You notice that some cards have really weak stats for its cost, for example there is a 2-cost 1/1 creature with Ward and Guard, which is like an Annoy-o-tron with 1HP :(

►Card evolution! The cards evolve with you! Some cards have a green arrow (Oliver Queen?!) indicating they can evolve at some point, when you level up the card will evolve, changing stats or effects, sometimes you may choose between two evolutions, which is a petty moment of role-playing. Also if you have a card that evolves at a level way higher than you are, you may craft it, there is no level restriction in the crafting process.

►Classes mechanic are completely different (FeelsGoodMan). TESL has 5 attributes and neutral cards, you can make a deck with up to 2 classes, so you can make 15 decks with actual attributes or a full neutral deck, this add a lot of variency to the game.

►Sinnergy kinda works in HS, Beast sinnergy in Hunter and in... Druid? Mech mage was once a thing! And Warrior has sinnergy with a bunch of stuff right now, mostly AoE effects and weapons. But I think TESL explored sinnergy way better. There are cards in each attribute that work really well with cards from other attributes. Not in a forced way as being from a tribe such as Beast or Murloc. You have tribes in TESL, you will find a bunch of tribes from the Elder Scrolls universe (Nords, all sorts of Elvers, Animals, Redguards, Dragons, Daedra), but sinnergy is not restricted to tribes, some cards mechanics such as Shackle (Shackle works as Freeze in HS) are worked well in two attributes (Agility and Intellingence), so you can make a reliable sinnergy between those classes. But the cards were made in a way you can have different sinnergies between these two attributes, this game aspect was the one that made me like TESL the most

TESL PROS:
►NO NETDECKING (So far!)
►Sinnergy worked very well
►Lots of variency, you don't know what to expect from your enemy, there are 15 classes and most of them have more than one viable archtype
►Artwork is great
►It really feels as Elder Scrolls

TESL CONS:
►As said before, not a lot of recognizable figures. Elder Scrolls has a deep lore, but a lot of Legendaries are generic figures with powerful effects. There are some really recognizable cards (Volendrung, Dawnbreaker, Miraak, Nahagliiv, Barenziah, General Tullius, Wabbajack, Goldbrand, Odahviing are some recognizable legendaries, so they exist)
►Lack of card draw at the moment
►Premium cards do not feel quite premium, they are what would be a Golden Card in HS, but they only add shining effects, no animations :(

Ah yes, the premium cards in legends so far are pretty "cheap" (designwise). I don`t care for such stuff and it`S free dust for me anyway but I know some like it more shiny.

I will start to make some deck videos in the near future so expect some netdecking then :P

1. Yes Magic Duels did ultimately fail I think, but it did bring in a ton of people to at least try the game since it is MTG.

2. I'm not a Blizzard fanboy either, Hearthstone is my first Blizzard game.  However the characters as depicted by art and voices are hilarious and full of personality,  Card games are so static compared to other video games, there is little movement/animation/etc in comparison.  That is why the voices (if available), and art is so important in capturing players' imaginations and pulling them into the universe of the game.  For example imagine a card game with no art, just stats and effects.  It would feel completely lifeless.

I dont think the game is superior enough to throw away all the time and effort i have put in hs.

There will be netdecking. The game was at close beta thats why you could not netdeck.

My thoughts :

• Yes - netdecking will come. It always does.
• TESL is no more a rip-off of HS than HS was of M:tG. Blizzard were very astute in realising the potential for a CCG designed specifically for Online play as M:tGO is just awful. They also did well in making the game far simpler than M:tG and hence bringing in a huge player demographic which would've been turned off by too much complexity.
• However, the millions of new CCG players which HS created were, sooner or later, going to evolve and start looking for more complexity. Bethesda seem to have realised this and gone looking to capture that market.
• HS was a cheaper hobby back when it started as there were far fewer cards to collect. When I started out back in season 2 I was amazed at how I could pretty quickly grow a competitive collection without spending money. It was, and still is, HUGELY cheaper than M:tGO.

Quote from pepej_hs >>

I dont think the game is superior enough to throw away all the time and effort i have put in hs.

There will be netdecking. The game was at close beta thats why you could not netdeck.

 

I think the game is smart. It is not hearthstone and more like Magic the gathering. 

Things I like...

1)comeback mechanic that is fair. Dont get me wrong Hearthstone tries really hard to make player 2 and what they get matter but the fact in the matter is player 2 is at an inherent disadvantage. what ESL does is give them more of a chance with the whole "take 5 damage draw a card", 3 "coins", and the prophecy ability. 

2) I feel a part of the game. The story mode, choosing my race, etc. Hearthstone has adventures and whatnot but outside of that you really dont feel a part of the game, ESL is set up like a bethsda game and you feel a part of it.

3) variety with 5 different skills/colors to choose from (up to 2 plus neutral per deck) it adds depth and different combinations that HS seems to lack. Not saying hearthstone isnt fun but its meta and the rate we eat content is so fast it make the game feel lacking. the ESL meta with so many possible strategies and combinations I can see it having a great developing meta

4) AI arena is by far my favorite feature. sure it takes getting up to the final boss to make your gold back vs the 7/12 wins in hearthstone but there is something about no playing against people all the time that is refreshing.

5) lanes are fun and make the board and your strategy matter. just more depth 

Now that being said the game does have its share of problems but with in time it can be the second best digital CCG there is.

I had a ton of fun playing this game. I finished the campaign which was meh to me since I don't care about singleplayer stuff, but I did it for the legendaries and rewards. I immediately built a competitive control deck that so far has 100% win rate on ladder(ranks 12 - 8)with the few cards I unpacked and earned. I love how every 3 wins I get gold and a PACK, every 3 wins! It is not possible to build a competitive deck with such high win rate on hearthstone as a new player since the rewards come so slow. Not to mention the frustration from the ridiculous RNG in hearthstone that can sway the game that undermines the foundation you may have laid out just because of a cheap roll. Aggro gets punished for hitting face too fast with the runes which is a god send. Healing is cheap and the game allows you to range your deck from 50 cards to 70 cards. Even when I was playing a basic deck on unranked, losing never felt frustrating since I knew I could have a chance with the runes. Which isn't OP as a loser since if the loser starts winning the winner starts getting runes too.

One thing that is better on heartstone is ambiance. I was new to blizzard games and heartstone is the only game I played. Right away the card art, animations and voices were interesting enough and funny that it got me interested in the lore of WoW. When I first saw Tirion get played I was in awe on how powerful he looked or when I first seen Ysera and her summon line, I was shitting bricks! I don't get that same vibe from Legends, someone plays a legendary and it is pretty uninteresting and lackluster. Cards seem to have no identity with me is what im trying to say. Everything is just stats and text, no character to the cards at all. However the mechanics for the game are interesting and are not too RNG crazy that the game becomes frustrating like hearthstone.

Ill continue to play both games. Im just too invested in hearthstone to just give it up completely, but I have a feeling I will play legends a lot more. Better mechanics, better rewards, overall more fun.

If anyone is curious about getting into the beta, just sign up and within a day they send an invite. At least that happened to me and my friends who all signed up on different dates.

If some of you not know this here is a fun fact about the ranked ladder in TES legends:

They have currently 12 ranks and the legend rank. If you are able to reach specific points in a season (rank 9, 5 and 1) you will drop to that rank at the start of the next season. So if you are abhle to reach rank 1 or better in one month there is no need to grind back every month from rank 12 again :)

Also you can`t drop in a rank once you have reached a rank (so it`s not possible to drop from rank 5 to 6 e.g.). The start every season at rank 25 (plus bonus stars) at hearthstone is very annoying and will only make the grind unneccessary long, so I`m pretty happy about the system in elders.

Open Beta has launched!  GTFO of Hearthstone and come play the future.

I'm sure that your extensive experience playing Elder Scrolls Legends has informed this opinion.

Hmmm. lanes sounds interesting.... I'm not sure what it is but it sounds like my favorite TCG Legend of the 5 rings.... You had 4 provinces and had to defend each.

Quote from Reeewleta >>

ROFL

But why the hell we talk of another game in a hearthstone website?

Hearthstone is and will be the best card game online.

A cool podcast that I recommend people check out, talks about the game and the first tournament that happened last week.

Haha not a bad game, had some fun with it.

Surely will keep it around when i feel that i need some fresh air from HearthStone.

Elder Scrolls Legends is exactly what I've been waiting for, a card game that combines the accessibility of Hearthstone with the tactical depth of MTG. 

If I was Blizzard, I'd be very worried.

Come little ones to the dark side 

My best pack to date is 3 legs 2 epics 1 rare, beat it! :)

You'll also sometimes get a pack for 3 wins instead of the card!

Quote from KingOfMyOwnMind >>

Am I the only one here who gets the "not responding message" in the middle of loading screen and then it shuts down?