Currently in beta with keys being handed out by waves to anyone who signed up for the beta/opted in through b.net. Pretty decent game for a card game. I'm not really good at explaining and selling games to other people like this so I'm just gonna post some features that stand out to me, some of which I think might turn you on or off to this game. I've played Yugioh most of my life and also have seen the mechanics of MTG and for those that care the game leans more towards MTG features and mechanics over any other card game.

-You gain 1 mana (needed to play cards) every turn naturally instead of having to give up a card or play certain ones (lands).
-There is a max mana cap of 10 total mana.
-You cannot use your minions to block for you UNLESS they have the TAUNT ability.
-Minions suffer from summoning sickness unless they have the CHARGE ability.
-Decks must contain 30 cards. No more no less.
-Up to 2 copies of any card are allowed to be used in a single deck UNLESS the card is of legendary rarity. In this case you can only use one copy in your deck.
-Everyone starts with the same "free" cards
-More cards are gained either through buying packs for cash, buying packs with gold (in game currency), crafted from dust, or won from the arena.
-People who choose to spend money in this game will have the advantage of getting better cards sooner or play the game and win a lot just like in real life
-When creating a deck you have to pick one of 9 classes who each are allowed their specific 2 mana ability and use of specific class cards (i.e. rogue has access to ALL Neutral cards and rogue cards, paladin has paladin cards + neutral, etc)
-Seemingly flawed ranking system ranging from
-The 9 classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior
-Once a day you will be given a quest (win X matches as Class Y, Deal X total damage to heros in any games, etc) which will give you a small boost of gold


I figure those are the main features people will care about although feel free to ask about any others you might be wondering about. If I know the answer I will try to share it with you.

So, anyone else besides Loveless and me in the beta? Like all b.net games they are all linked so just post your b.net names if you haven't shared it yet.

Gameplay


http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Hearthstone_Wiki
http://www.hearthpwn.com/
Some links to community and game information

Got ranked 2 star Diamond as of this post but the ranking system is weak and the devs themselves aren't happy with it since you can't actually lose your rank from losing. I reached and have been stuck in this ranking since the first day of playing the game.

One last thing for anyone who is in the beta, they will understand.


Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 6 2013, 4:23 am by MadZombie.

First of all I wonder about some general info: (please confirm or explain)
So this is a Blizzard game that uses Battle Net 2.0 but is otherwise independent from other games?
It's a free to play (at least in the beta) MMO with micro payments?
When you have keys for friends hit me up.

Otherwise it seems unnecessarily restrictive. Like fixed mana rate, fixed deck size, forced deck theme.
Maybe to make it simple enough for everyone to be decent?

What it'll probably come down to is the cards themselves. How balanced they are, how many strategies, combinations and synergies they have and last but not least how interesting the abilities are.

It does uses b.net 2.0. You're friends list is carried over just like any other modern blizzard game. Cross chat etc. I'm not sure what you mean by independent. This is it's own stand alone game using WoW themes not some mode inside of WoW like a pet battle or something. Not sure if that cleared things up for you.

Yea it is free to play. You can obtain everything through grinding without having to make a payment. When the game releases it will be 100% F2P.

bruh the keys are selling for like 50 dollars. Sorry but If I happen to get a spare I'm gonna try to sell it before they drop in price lol. Many people where making fake accounts to opt into the beta to get keys just to sell.


It is a little casualized but personally the biggest restriction is the current amount of cards. Also there are no matches or sideboarding/decking at the moment and I hope they implement something like this in the future to make it a more competitive game.

It does not require you to own any other Blizzard games and does not share files with any of them either, it is independent from them all. It uses Battlenet 2.0 yes.

Compared to other TCG/CCGs, it is a lot more turn-based like Chess. There are (currently) no cards that can be played during other opponents turns, but there are effects that will persist until activated on some cards. It's a lot more about preparation, reading your opponent, and strategy. To compare it to Magic, which runs gimmick decks through and through, I feel Hearthstone has the potential to offer a lot more depth.

Game is free to play and getting cards is a lot easier than any online CCG I have ever played thanks to how they incorporated Dust, which is basically a way to recycle cards into other cards. You are not required to pay to do well and the starting cards/decks are actually good. There have been a lot of people complaining about the pay-to-win aspect of the game, then start talking about how they played MTG... It doesn't make much sense, most people who play MTG are spending hundreds of dollars a year on it, but complain about having to buy Hearthstone cards.

If you dropped 50$ on the game, like buying any other game, that's enough to build three or four decks worth of cards that you want through the Dust mechanic.

I think I may have an extra key I can give you, NR.

EDIT:
Found it, and sent it to you.

I love this game personally, though the deck-wipe part of it while in beta is a pain.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 7 2013, 12:19 am by DevliN.

I would like to try this, I love card games, but apparently I did not properly sign up to the beta back then and I realised until now that I re-checked since I have not got a key D:

Any spare keys would be appreciated with the promise that if I get selected (I just opted in the beta right now) I'll give your key back. Just give it to Farty, he'll send it to me ;o Or skype me if you know my skype ;o

Thanks!

It's in open beta now in case someone still interested.

I've been playing it the past weeks now and I'm already bored. Progression towards better (specific) cards is painfully slow without investing real money so you can't really build your deck the way you want to.

Strategy is pretty shallow imo, at least compared to Magic. And it's lacking a way to write to your oppenent (just a very limited set of emotes) so the games feel like a boring grind.

Btw. hidden achievements of getting every class to Level 10 and beating all expert AIs net you 100g each.

Good thing is it seems pretty balanced and presentation and effects are pretty neat. (if you like the style)

Yeah, they seem to be taking the Riot approach to the game, nerfing things that are strong and only add new content when they feel the players need something to bite at. I was really hoping that they would be releasing new cards/content sooner rather than later because the number of cards/strategy that is offered right now is dismal. It's all about trading, having a deck about preparation or anything beyond proactive gameplay is out of the question.

Game was immensely fun until I realized that there really isn't much to do unless you want to constantly blow money on the arena... Which a lot of people do. I personally know a few people who have spent over $100 on just the Arena...

I was hoping for either a new set of cards or Matches and sidedecking/boarding before or at the same time as the open beta. It's a good game but the current library doesn't offer the deck types or strategies that I personally enjoy. REALLY dissapointed with like of sidedecking though. I feel that a lot of the problems with mages could easily be solved by players who would side in the cards that heal like 6-10 health for 2-4 mana. You can't even play the game competitively because of this. Even though the game is a bit more casual then other card games it also forces you to casually play this casual game without siding. The point of card games is to reduce the RNG and I can't do that as much as I should be able to at the moment.

I don't know. I was happy for the game at first because I really liked the direction it was going in but enough time has passed for me to be dissapointed with the same things I enjoyed. Too uninterested to even log on to do the dailies. I'd also like to point out my dissatisfaction with the lack of chatting. I should be able to chat with randoms if I can chat with people on my friends list when I play against them. Though they did promise (I think they stressed this was way down the line) the multiplayer 'dungeon raids'.

Some of the higher tier prizes are like 200+ gold in a single box thing when you finish arena. Just get good bro :DDD

Do the daily quests and learn and win more in arena.
My record were 9 wins so far, but I'm not a great HS player. That resulted in like 300+ gold, a card and the pack, I believe.

I've been playing, love this game. I'm Tragikarp #1575

I've sunk $170 in this game... think I'm stopping there lol.

Got talked into trying it by a friend. First impression is that it's very simplified version of MTG. Doubt I'll spend much time with this.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 25 2014, 8:59 am by Zycorax.

www.duelofchampions.com/en/index.aspx

Actually its more or less a rip off of this game.

I wish I stopped at $170. Then again, I do have almost every card.

Lol, u so bad.

I'm at rank 12 or 11 right now, playing a reactive Mind Control/miracle/nuke Priest deck.

I expect that losing to it is an incredibly frustrating process.

>Thoughtstealing or Mind Visioning legendaries
>Mind Controlling legendaries
>Mind Control Teching 4+ minion boards
>When in doubt, Holy Fire or Holy Nova
>Make lots of 1/1 tokens with the minion that spawns tokens on spell cast
>2 of Shadow Word Pain and Death

My friend has a freezemage deck that can deal 20+ damage in one turn though. It was horrifically spooky playing her knowing that the game's outcome could hinge on a single turn or misplay.