Hearthpwn

After watching the first few videos on Mercenaries it did not appeal to me at all. But, in a moment of pure FOMO I pre-ordered the Lich King bundle on Monday the day before launch. Last night I played for a little just to get the feel of it. All PvE.

Still too early to know if I will really enjoy this mode but I had fun last night. It was a little annoying having to complete the tutorials before I could open my packs but I suppose it gave me a very basic understanding of how the game works even though I'd watched the intro videos so it wasn't really necessary.  

My first impressions after playing it for a little were better than I expected. The game looks good and doesn't feel very clunky once you get used to the combat sequence. Some of the fights were actually quite enjoyable. Some of the character portraits are gorgeous and I definitely get the appeal of customizing your character. 

There seems to be an excellent variety of characters which is cool but maybe a little too many when you consider that you have to earn coins for each character in order to upgrade abilities and equipment. Does anyone know if there is a complete list of all the mercenaries available?

Mercenaries seems like an ideal mode to play on iPad or tablet. Playing BG's on a tablet is super frustrating but I think Mercenaries will be great. Little to no APM required. 

My main concern is that I think Mercenaries has been hyper monetized and designed with monetization in mind from the very beginning. I've read some people getting 8 characters to level 30 in one decent sitting so maybe it is possible to F2P the mode and still enjoy it but with so many characters, each with his own currency, it seems like those who spend $$ will have a significant advantage over those who don't. 

Conclusion: it's better than I thought it would be. Game feels good to play which is no surprise. Let's see how long it takes for the novelty to wear off or how long until someone discovers the best combination of characters and we get a standard meta like PvP experience. 

You know what keeps people coming back to a game? Winning and fun experiences. Winning is more enjoyable than losing. While you learn more from your losses, losing still sucks and is super frustrating. You know what people do when they lose too often? They quit and find something else to do. 

I am personally on the worst BG losing streak I've ever had. In the last week I've played about 20 games and haven't finished higher than 5th. It sucks. I suck at the game but I thought I was getting better. Clearly not. So instead of playing BG's tonight like I've done for the last few months I am going to do something else. Not sure what I'll do yet but I know for sure I ain't touching BG's. Fucking game drives me mad.  A few weeks ago I was winning and climbing nicely. And you know what? I was thinking that maybe I'd pre-order a Mercenaries bundle and maybe buy myself a Tavern Pass for the season and see how it goes. Right now, after having such a shit time playing the game the last thing I want to do is actually spend more money on it. 

So what am I trying to say? The only way for Blizzard to rig HS in their benefit is to ensure people win more and enjoy their time in the game. This will keep players coming back for more and make them more likely to spend money on the game. Why would they go out of their way to punish a random selection of their player base and deliberately give them bad RNG? What purpose would that serve? The only thing it would do is ensure more and more people have a negative experience when playing which increases the odds that they will quit the game and not spend money on it. 

And believe me, the game is not rigged in favour of those who spend money on it. If that were the case I'd finish top 100 legend every month and make the BG's leaderboard. 

All card games have an element of randomness to them. HS even more so because it's an online game with mechanics like discover and spells that generate random effects etc. Sometimes you will draw the nuts and destroy any opponent. Sometimes you will discover exactly what you need to steal a game you were bound to lose. Sometimes you will topdeck exactly what you need. And sometimes you'll draw like shit and die on turn 5. Or your discovers and random effects will work against you. Or you'll pick Patches in BG's and not be offered a pirate in the shop until turn 8. The outcomes, both good and bad are part of the game. 

Generally speaking, humans are averse to losing. A person who loses $100 will lose more satisfaction than the same person will gain satisfaction from a $100 win. It's just how we're wired psychologically. As unique and wonderful as all of us are as individuals, this applies to everyone. I just cannot see how Blizzard would benefit from deliberately creating negative experiences for its players, which they would have to do by default if they rigged the game in favour of certain other players.  

I would strongly encourage you to give BG's a proper try. It's awesome. I haven't played constructed in months. And this is coming from a guy who only ever played constructed and has had a total of 3 arena runs in the 7 years he's been playing HS. It's also the least monetized mode, for now. Skins are just cosmetic and the perks, while they improve the experience a  lot, aren't 100% essential. 

that's just opinion. I like the guy, enjoy his content and he's a better player than the other two who got given previews so I went with him. 

Yeah, watched some of Trump´s video... Mercenaries is a hard pass for me. Zero appeal. Looks pretty boring tbh. 

Well, they finally fixed dragons, yay! But then they also fixed this little Frog fucker which had been disabled as soon as the patch went live. I thought he looked pretty cool at first and I loved the guy the first time I played him. Some crazy shit. No more than 6 hours later BG's descended into a game of whoever forces Frogs wins. I've had several games where 6 people in a lobby are all trying to force beasts. The other 2 players probably don't know how broken he is yet and are trying to go dragons. The winner is usually the first guy to get frog + Barron - that person is usually the most skilled in the lobby, obviously. 

So again, FUCK! Why?? Why is a 2 drop better than a 6 drop wolf for end game comp beasts? It makes no fucking sense at all. Right now Froggy, Rat, Bird, Barron and friends seem unbeatable. There's just nothing you can do. Yes, you can tech Zap but still - it shouldn't be this way.  And Frog builds can build around Zap by buffing Barron so there is literally fuck all you can do in some games. 

On a side note, it would have been nice for Blizzard to let players know which minions were disabled while they were fixing the bugs. I donkey rolled my way to 7th more than once looking for the Frog when he wasn't even in the game! I got 7th only because someone else dc'd or rage quit before I died. 

Right now we're back to where we were 5 days ago w dragons. If beasts are in the lobby it's pretty much guaranteed to be unfun. Unless you're the guy who gets the frog and barron first. 

I have faith in the patch though. I think it's good but they need to do something about the Frog. The demon doomsayer is also an issue but it pales in comparison to the frog.

It´s hard to say. Typically people go Iron Forge turn 1 and then upgrade tier once they get their discover. This seems better than going for the tavern upgrade on turn 1. Going for the upgrade on t1 makes you rush to level and you usually just level from 3 - 4 or 4 - 5. Going with discover a minion quest on t1 gives you more time and then the tavern upgrade is usually from 5 - 6 which is the best value. 

Lately some people go with the +2 attack on t1 into discover a minion on t2 and then tavern upgrade once you discover the minion. This gives a lot of time and the upgrade is usually guaranteed to be from 5 - 6. 

I've also seen Dog just go with the discover a minion quest the entire game and destroy lobbies so I suppose the answer depends. Personally I find +2 attack, discover into tavern upgrade works best for me. Gives me time to build a decent board and not have to stress about power leveling while my crotch is getting stomped on. 

Quote from shad0wseek3r >>

Ok......?

 Yes, I’m ok. How are you?

Quote from P4dge >>

This is why I don't really get the point of 'I'm stopping' or 'I'm back' posts. I don't want to sound harsh, I'm glad the expansion has given you fresh excitement for the game but does everyone need to know everytime? 

As an ongoing game, almost everyone will break from the game at some point. Sometimes for brief periods, sometimes for long periods, sometimes forever.

Not sure why telling people you'll never know or meet what your current status is though is something some people feel the need to do. Seen it in other games, it's not a dig at you.

Just play or don't play the game as you see fit, maybe let anybody that you might play with regularly know that you're having a break but other than that, just do as you please. 

 Fair enough although the same can be said for replying to a thread you feel is irrelevant. In my defense, at least it isn’t an “xyz card needs to be nerfed thread”  but man I’m looking forward to seeing hundreds of those in the next few weeks!! 

They pull me back in! Not too long ago I made a post saying how (I thought) my time with HS was over. I just wasn't enjoying the game anymore. Anyway, I haven't played in nearly two months now but I have to say that I am really intrigued by the new core set. Some of the Barrens cards look sweet as well. 

Bought the pre-order bundles this morning and I'm looking forward to cracking some packs later this evening. Really keen to see how the game feels with the new core set. That's a huge shake up and hopefully standard will feel a lot fresher now. 

So yeah, I'm back :) 

Totally agree with that. You dont need to spent money to be competitive. I have spent a lot of money into this game and never been competitive ;)

Yes, give BG's a try.  Once I gave Battlegrounds a proper try, I found it really is a fun mode.   It's a great way to play and uses a totally different strategy than regular 'ladder' play.
Plus your collection size doesn't matter, all players pick cards from the BG card pool after each round.

I remember when a streamer got very excited about the possibilities of the caverns below when it was revealed, he was a very creative guy who loved to play fun cards for fun but still tried to win games.

And he had a huge rant about it quickly after launch and quit hearthstone not long after, because of how people were using the quest with charge and freeze and other annoying minions to stop the opponent from reacting.

But, this is someone's creativity that made this deck, and that made it good. So i'm feeling very out of touch with many players that seek creativity in Hearthstone, because they complain about the very thing that they seek whenever it is remotely successful. A good deck is more creative than a bad deck. For the creator anyway, of course netdeckers that come after aren't creative but that's not their goal so it's totally ok.

Honestly the thing that bugs me the most in this game is that I’ll purposely play what ever isn’t being played by the other people and never find any power units. 

my last game,

4 people going elementals, 1 demons, 1 mech, so I decide to go beasts (as greybough) . I triple scavenger and pack leader  by turn 7 (feeling lucky). Don’t see a beast besides 2  stupid cats for 20 rerolls over 3 turns on tavern 3. But 3/4 of the elemental players have no trouble tripling up and filling the board. 

Jesus what a circlejerk, starting off with “We’re breaking down barriers” as if this some some heroic act that they blessed us with and not something nearly every gaming service has been doing for years. Lol’d at “excluding China” though.

Excuse you, P.E.T.A.-Pan, it’s called “culling the herd” and it’s necessary to keep the pack and it’s future offspring strong and thriving.

Because popularity is based on performance and achievement; its not handed down to you like gender.  

Common sense has lost.  Getting invited based on gender rather than what people achieved in the game is inherently wrong.

From 7 years of watching HS stuff I can remember exactly one female content creator and that's Alliestraza. 

I'm very much down for more inclusion wherever it's necessary but stuff like this is just a counter-argument for anyone who already thinks "feminism" is a curse word imo... 

Stunning and brave!

I love the fact that gender matters more than popularity and skill. Blizzard must be happy that they will look great in SJWs eyes :)