Hearthpwn

State of the Meta with Jotto

It's that time again, for another State of the Meta, with Jotto! There's two Hearthstone tournaments going on this weekend, so it's time to review what we've seen this past week to help prepare. Check out an excerpt from this week's SotM below, and check out the full article here.

Quote from Jotto

Mages are still hanging around as expected they fought through the now very anti Mage metagame with the frozen giant deck coming both 1st and 2nd. However I will not be talking about these decks this week, why? With the new Mage changes coming up the freeze based Mages will fall back down a bit so that we won’t have the severe Mage dominance that we have become used to. So what about the rest of the top 4?
Continue Reading - State of the Meta..

If you'd like to see more of Jotto, be sure to check out both his YouTube Channel and Twitch Stream!

Missing Hearthstone Beta Keys

As announced on Thursday, all players who were opted-in to the Hearthstone beta test before December 16 have been sent a key to their Battle.net email account. There have been several comments over the past couple of days from people saying that they did not receive this beta key, and that they were opted-in to the beta test. There is at least one case that Blizzard has looked into, and the player in question received an invite back in August but never claimed it. If you did not receive a beta key email, and were opted in for the hearthstone beta test before December 16, check out the following post from Zeriyah.

Blizzard will not be sending out replacement keys, however, all accounts that have opted-in to the Hearthstone beta test will be automatically flagged for access sometime in January.

Quote from Zeriyah

We cannot troubleshoot each email provider used by our players - we only can verify that they have been sent from our servers. Some common things players have been reporting with regards to beta invite emails are:

-Emails have been found in the Trash or Spam folders.
-Emails have been found in Gmail's newer "Promotions" tab.
-Some emails have been found by using the Search function in your email provider, searching for "Blizzard" or "Hearthstone".
-Some providers do block messages they feel are spam.

The last thing noted we can't do much about in an email-based key distribution system. Seeing these issues and reports of people still not getting their keys even though they were sent frustrates us as much as it frustrates the intended recipient, which is why we've decided to flag accounts for Hearthstone access like we mentioned here. Flagging accounts won't involve emails so we can ensure that those of you that opted-in and did not claim a beta key will get access to Hearthstone.

Blue Posts

Why is blue such a soothing color?

The Art of Balance

Quote from Zeriyah

Nerfing (and buffing) cards are both things that require delicate balance. We've stated that we don't want to be making constant changes to cards, and it takes time to see what changes may be necessary to cards over an extended period of time. We would rather make the correct change to a card once than make multiple changes to a card as a knee-jerk reaction.

There may be some cards that appear to have a basic answer at first glance, but the evolution of the meta and the long term ramifications of changing a card are really what we look at. Lead Designer Eric Dodds made an excellent point about card changes and the balance of the meta during the Hearthstone panel at BlizzCon when he discussed cards like Acolyte of Pain and their power levels in the early stages of Hearthstone.

A "nerf" in itself isn't necessary bad, though it is perceived that way to many since it appears to make a card worse. Another way to look at it is that card nerfs simply buffs the cards used in conjunction with it, while the "nerfed" card is simply brought down to a level that is more even with cards of a similar cost or power.

We're always trying to make sure that the decisions that a players makes in Hearthstone feel meaningful, and that there are creative counters, checks and balances to cards of all types. Sometimes certain cards fall out of that ideal, and we have to make the careful changes to bring them back in line so that your choices and interactions continue to feel meaningful in the long run.

Hearthstone Test Season 1 End Reminder

Quote from Keganbe

Thank you for helping us test our very first Ranked Play season! This season is intended to conclude on January 2nd, so be sure to wrap up your climb up the ladder before that date. Once the season is over, everyone’s ranking will be reset back to Rank 25, and Test Season 2 will begin!

During the course of this first test season we’ve gotten some very valuable feedback and data from you regarding the new Ranked Play system. We greatly appreciate your efforts in helping us test this updated Play mode, and we look forward to seeing your future feedback in Test Season 2. In the future, once the Test Seasons have concluded, we look forward to adding our Ranked Play rewards: Alternate card backs and Golden Heroes. We can’t move on without your help! 

Be sure to continue reporting bugs on our Bug Report forum here, and give us your feedback on Ranked Play mode on our general discussion forum here. 

Thank you for helping us test Ranked Play mode!

Hearthstone Now on Google+!

Quote from Blizzard

For some time now, you’ve been able to interact with us and keep up to date with developments via Facebook and Twitter. We’re happy to announce that you can now also find us on Google+! Tune in to our brand-new official Hearthstone Google+ page to make sure you stay connected.

Join the Hearthstone community and make sure you don’t miss any of our news and insight into the game. We’ll see you there!

Legends of Hearthstone - Week 8

Blizzard has posted the top 100 players on NA and EU ladder. Did you make the list?

The top 43 players from North America, and the top 23 players from Europe are Legend rank. Congratulations!!

Please note that this list only includes players who are currently at Legend rank. If not enough players are at Legend rank to display here, this list will display the top ranked Legend players as well as other top Ranked Play players in order of stars accumulated. This data is up-to-date as of yesterday, December 19th, 2013.

North America			Europe
Change	BattleTag	Ranking	BattleTag	Change
73	Serbitar	1	Astray
24	StrifeCro	2	Elfandor
39	weet	3	gnumme
	Retropelet	4	Marlu
55	Briggles	5	Kalle	9
3	curi	6	DarKFoRcE
	Cloak	7	Savjz
46	Daxxon	8	Sfayne
73	Realz	9	Kolento
	Fortune	10	KadaverBB
	NicJam	11	ManuGodineau
	Iksar	12	Falcon	51
	Stoyven	13	LazyLarry
	Phantiks	14	Ostkaka	1
	Elfflame	15	Zeroxv
	Uyo	16	MaNzAnUKi
	Zalphx	17	durr
	TripleAKGF	18	Деамонда
5	Zeys	19	Garrickz	8
	Draven	20	Freshgaming	3
4	Puree	21	Scantid
69	Narchon	22	sUrb4n
58	Fjord	23	oRioN
	rushwizard	24	Kirtar	43
20	XzaM	25	Imperius
	PatrickliN	26	Kaor	44
	Snig	27	weak4	5
17	Chakki	28	Ekop
	Dracore	29	HysteriA
	Popzap	30	lottodomo	1
	LuigEzz	31	Vinkari
22	SuperSB	32	Vyrtyx
	DaaX	33	Darkwonyx	35
32	Kithros	34	ryo	31
22	Jez	35	COOLER
32	dengxu	36	Wampie
6	adyb	37	Twi	38
8	koyuki	38	solow
33	SPeCiaLiST	39	GeneraL
39	zRusheR	40	Finalfuntasy
55	hyped	41	Torlk	9
51	Amaz	42	Wick
21	Kringe	43	Socrates
34	AWice	44	wtk300	26
	zykon	45	Manni
	DjBigRuss	46	Xixo
29	DustDevil	47	PewQ
	Gigaduckman	48	Subutai
7	realmage	49	Necx
21	Picklz	50	Abraham
	Mutubah	51	JLHEnt
	Savjz	52	Pulverizer	11
2	Kisstafer	53	bkbgrnrjefek
	doomdg	54	Ribbo
	Rngezus	55	Yliajo	47
	Gyll	56	TrippyWormS	6
	Gunba	57	toxifly	33
50	johnnyd23	58	Montezuma
	apDrop	59	Tekki	29
	JAB	60	Vortex	37
	Soniti	61	vanistar
	Top8	62	basilis
	Secrets	63	Buksna
28	Cowplow	64	FoxTheFeared
	kitkatz	65	RageKhv	59
	Gardener	66	Narfoholiker
	Tatsh	67	Olinho
	Dragoon	68	Shibe
55	ErA	69	irpk
	Ðart	70	Kerber	13
	Hogstrong	71	Ashine
56	Razor	72	Silentblade	3
	Status	73	petterud	57
	SnipedAgain	74	Desis
	Badhorse	75	SensoR
	lulubee	76	Seeker
	Kurumi	77	nevermore
	JimbozGrapes	78	Bestmarmotte
	mar1zzle	79	Sou1Taker
	Meeee	80	Phobia
	Yellowflash	81	jpmaxxy
	JoAlmighty	82	Stinkweed
	Trebolution	83	DIRTYDIEGO
77	JakeAlmighty	84	Damajer
18	GoldenPants	85	Ekibyo	12
45	Ararat	86	Mats	58
	YohanMaximus	87	Hupra
	TheoConfidor	88	Bob
	Luthlol	89	Broccoli
	Snuss	90	Aira247
	Chuncho	91	Aramore
	madtimmy	92	max
32	Ace	93	Ehlers
	Mousetrap	94	Age	6
	nine	95	Cekarius
	OMGIllithan	96	MrMiier
	postman	97	Suezay	90
	TidesofTime	98	gjPit
	Ditka	99	novaspace
	Vylo	100	Dido

Curse Premium Membership Now Includes a FREE Game from Curse and GOG.com

If you missed it earlier, Curse and GOG.com announced a new partnership which gives all Curse Premium Members their choice of one of GOG's most popular titles - FREE! This offer applies to all current Premium members and all new Premium subscriptions purchased between now and December 31, 2014. More information can be found in this news post!