Hearthpwn

Thanksgiving Beta Key Giveaway (And some warlock matches)

Long time since an update, but I have something special, a hearthstone beta key to give away :D

Dartol, before perfecting his Rod of Transformation (more info here: http://www.wowdb.com/items/5462-dartols-rod-of-transformation)

I'm with rabidwhale, the AI seems even worse than it was before. Playing against the druid it would constantly pop the hero power and run into my minions with 7+ attack and 4 or so health, and then never follow it up with anything. They still use poweroverwhelming at the end of the turn regardless of if they can attack with the minion or not. On several occasions the AI has even enraged my raging worgen/frothing berserker for me, and just overall makes very questionable minion target choices.

My favorite so far is I had gotten a minion up to 21 attack, he only had 3 health left. The AI played a reckless rocketeer, and instead of running it into the big, dangerous, fatal minion, he runs it into me. I had 27 health.

Quote from Maconi »

So lets say I'm only average at Arena and only end up with 3-4 wins. Would the cards + dust value at that amount of wins be greater than the value of a single pack, break even, or be a loss? I'd assume it'd be closer to break even and 5-6 be profit (since that's what they buffed in the patch) but I just want to make sure.

I'm sure I could pull out good streaks often enough (6+ wins) but I've had some terrible runs too (~3 wins). So if I'm only breaking even on average I might as well save myself time and just buy packs.

Thanks for the insight. :)

Its still tough to gauge properly just because right now we have a bunch of data based on arenas before the changes. Once we have more numbers on how much dust is still being handed out for under 5 wins, and how much bonus gold people are actually getting on average for 5/6 wins then it will be easier to tell. 

Arena is potentially more efficient at 5 wins and up. If you are consistently getting 5+ wins, its more efficient on paper. That said, if packs are your concern you have to factor time into as well. 

Bob wants a pack of cards so he can improve his constructed pool. He has 150g. He can invest 100g for a pack and have 5 new cards in about 10 seconds. He can also try out the arena and get one of the following:

1. A more expensive pack (150g for arena pass resulting in under 5 wins.)

2. An 'even' pack (5 or 6 wins *150g - ~50 for reward*)

3. Bonus pack (7+ wins, gold returned, plus pack)

Bob has to put about an hour into each of these options, and depending on his skill (and luck) he could end up paying more gold for that pack of cards (his primary reason for arena.)

There is a time investment into arena. So thats pretty much it. If you are good at arena, its more efficient, if you suck at arena, and packs are your primary concern (ie you aren't doing arena for fun) then you could just be hurting yourself.

• Conceal (New) Rogues conceal everything but their emotions. You can't get 'em to shut up about feelings."

Ain't that the truth? :P

Quote from SsDrKosS »

wow! then if I play mage...

(if i go second)

turn 1: mana wyrm

turn 2: socerer's apprentice, mirror image(1mana but 0), coin, frostbolt (2 mana now but 1)!!!

suddenly, you will have 3/3 mana wyrm, 3/2 socerer's apprentice (because it is buffed in this patch), and two 0/2 taunt creature in TURN 2 (with your opponent frozen)

MAGE OPPppp (even worse than defias opening of rouge)

(wait, is coin a spell? if it is, 4/3 mana wyrm!!!) 

Well there is still a big difference. It was easy to play scrub leader on turn 1 because all you needed was the coin and ringleader. The combo you mentioned requires you to have 4 cards in the first 2 turns, plus the coin. I don't think people will get quite that lucky on a consistent basis. 

Quote from SsDrKosS »

Quote from Tehstool »

Quote from SsDrKosS »

And am l right? Mirror image is no longer taunt but 0/2 (hope not :o )?

Mirror images should still be taunts, they just have 2 hp instead of 1 now.

REALLY?!? for 1 mana? thats too good :(

Consider that those cards will still work off of Stormwind Champions, Raid Leaders, Shattered Sun Clerics, any card that buffs another card. They won't be challenging Deathwing to fisticuffs, but they're still cheap and able to do something.

Quote from user462»

On a side note: Inner fire might not suck anymore (if you can use it on an enemy minion, which I think you can).

While the situation doesn't arise very often, this is actually a good thing to remember. I've used blessing of might on opponents minions before so I could pop big game hunter and get rid of them (and then proceed to brewmaster it back into my hand...love doing that :p)

But thats really all I see Shadow Word: Death doing...replacing a big game hunter (if you use one in your priest deck.) But personally, when I play priest, I don't tend to lose to my opponent because he brings out a heavy hitter, I tend to lose because he gets a bunch of minions with 4 or less attack and I just can't get rid of them because I have no AOE. Should be interesting to see the priest stats in the coming weeks.

Overall the most surprising change to me was the rogue's hero power being nerfed. That change alone should increase early game survivability against rogues. Won't have to feel like you need to hang onto 2 health minions just because you're going against a rogue.

The backstab change for the most part won't effect the game too much. Its usually used in the early game anyway, that said, it'll be nice not losing a bigger minions to 4 free damage when a double backstab would occur.

Conceal no longer being free is nice, but for a card that makes all your minions non-targetable, it should be more than a 1 mana cost card, or at the very least, should have its rarity increased to make it less frequent in arena.

I think its great the questing adventurer had its rarity increased. This means that during arena you won't see it as often and you might have to choose between some more powerful cards or it. 

Would have liked to see Gadgetzan Auctioneer go up by a mana, surprised he wasnt touched at all. 

Holy Fire looks like a decent addition to the priest deck, and at the same time, they got rid of the auchenai soul priest/greater heal face melt combo. I'm interested to see how SW:D performs in the coming weeks. I have a feeling its going to be very popular, that said, I'm not ready to call it gamebreaking until I can get some games in with it. Its not exactly a 3 mana cost assassinate, but its still a card with a decent dose of utility. 

Velen's buff was a good one imo. By the time you get to play him you could have gone through the damage spells the priest has at its disposal. Allowing the hero power itself to be buffed could be great. That said, double shadow form/velen could be absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with the changes for the most part, but I'm definitely surprised...I thought there would be slightly more drastic changes :x Maybe they didn't need to be drastic though.

Biggest surprise: Gadgetzan Auctioneer untounched.

Almost Biggest Surprise: Shadow Word: Death is like...so OP.

Absolutely. At the very least he is a 3/2, not too bad, at the best he removes a dangerous weapon. I always have at least 1 in every deck for the most part. As for ooze over owls, I say why not both? 1 of each is safe and better than nothing at all.

With the wipe coming, my arena season was an interesting one. For the most part (non-recorded) I averaged 5 wins each time with each hero, the exception being the priest, with which I went 2-3, 3-3 twice, and 4-3. 

When I did videos of the runs though, It was pretty much 3-3 over and over again with the exception of the hunter that took me to 6-3. 

But I've improved a lot, especially in regards to drafting...and its fun!

I love your ideas for the cards, but they definitely need some tweaking. I especially liked the Sword and Board warrior card. Beef up the mana cost to 5 or 6 and its pretty cool :)