Hearthstone: CAG-Style

Just ranked up to Level 20 for June.  I think I'm going to try playing ranked for real this month.  I need to unlock a lot more cards to be competitive but I'm sitting on 2,000+ gold for Naxx so anything I earn going forward will be towards packs.

I do hate the beginning of the month though - so many freaking legendary cards being thrown down against me.  Someone played a Ysera on turn 9 and then I stole it (I was playing as priest) and then the next turn he threw down a Ragnaros so I just quit.  It was his third legendary of the game and I was just so annoyed at that point.

Also, I decided not to friend anyone (a few of you have thrown out requests) - my son plays a ton too and I just don't want him potentially exposed to other players online.  Oh well.  It is still fun to talk about the game here though...

 
Wow, so we go from the coolest possible card back to the gayest (literally; or could be "girliest").  I suppose I'll rank up to 20 to get the rainbow back, but I'll never use it. 

UPDATE: Got to 20 on the 1st day.  I'm not one to complain, but I think the goal for getting cardbacks is set a bit too low.  Maybe they should do 15? (I don't personally know how much harder it gets past 19)

Any release date or prices on the single-player campaign yet?  I don't want to spend any gold at all until I know I have enough to cover at least a few of them.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Javery said:
Just ranked up to Level 20 for June. I think I'm going to try playing ranked for real this month. I need to unlock a lot more cards to be competitive but I'm sitting on 2,000+ gold for Naxx so anything I earn going forward will be towards packs.

I do hate the beginning of the month though - so many freaking legendary cards being thrown down against me. Someone played a Ysera on turn 9 and then I stole it (I was playing as priest) and then the next turn he threw down a Ragnaros so I just quit. It was his third legendary of the game and I was just so annoyed at that point.

Also, I decided not to friend anyone (a few of you have thrown out requests) - my son plays a ton too and I just don't want him potentially exposed to other players online. Oh well. It is still fun to talk about the game here though...
Click to expand...
If you haven't already, make an account on Hearthstats.net and use it track your ranked games. It will prompt you to create decks and fill in the cards, but I just created one empty deck for each class named something like "generic Mage". Then when I play a ranked match at the beginning of the match I select the deck I'm using, my opponents class, and if I got the coin or not. At the end of the match click on whether you got a win or loss. It's pretty quick and easy.

Then you can go to the statistics screen and see your win rate for each class. You can also see your wins and losses versus specific classes. It really helps to understand which decks you are strong or weak with so you can focus on the strong ones to climb the ladder.

 
Out of curiosity, does anyone else often win like 4 or 5 in a row then lose the next three in arena? I ask because I am beginning to think that they match you up against harder opponents if you are on a winning streak. This happens to me often.

 
lastemp3ror said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone else often win like 4 or 5 in a row then lose the next three in arena? I ask because I am beginning to think that they match you up against harder opponents if you are on a winning streak. This happens to me often.
Click to expand...
Supposedly you are matched with someone with the same number of wins/losses as you, or as close as possible. So when you get to higher wins you're facing tougher decks from players who are also at higher wins. So there's a "ranked" matchmaking going on in arena, it isn't just totally random matchups.

 
I'm getting a little better but I still only win about 55% of the time. I have also opened at least 75 packs so far and I only have 3 legendaries (Mage, Druid and that worthless 4/4 one that helps your opponent crush you). Millhouse Assface or something. I don't understand how people have like 10 of them and they are all useful. I really want a Leeroy or a Ragnaros...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Javery said:
I'm getting a little better but I still only win about 55% of the time. I have also opened at least 75 packs so far and I only have 3 legendaries (Mage, Druid and that worthless 4/4 one that helps your opponent crush you). Millhouse Assface or something. I don't understand how people have like 10 of them and they are all useful. I really want a Leeroy or a Ragnaros...
Click to expand...
I have probably opened 500 packs and probably got like 10 legendaries. You aren't supposed to get legendaries that often. I think not even 5% of the time, which is about what you are hitting at.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I tried the beta for like a game or two but I did not really get into it, but I think I might start tonight. Does anyone have any beginners tips, as in how to progress collecting gold and stuff. I know I need to beat the deck masters to unlock the classes, but I don't know how I should be progressing besides that.

Thanks.

 
Sir_Fragalot said:
I tried the beta for like a game or two but I did not really get into it, but I think I might start tonight. Does anyone have any beginners tips, as in how to progress collecting gold and stuff. I know I need to beat the deck masters to unlock the classes, but I don't know how I should be progressing besides that.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I am not a great player however I would say I am good at avoiding spending money on this game to get coins/cards/dust. I do it by spending most of my time doing arena matches. If you do those and get to about 5/6 wins and complete the daily challenge you will make back the 150 coins you spent, plus you get 5 cards and some dust. If you get higher than that, then the reward is even better.

In regards to drafting cards in arean, go by this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AifXEOqTcGcLdFVvWk1GRjVJTHJUaTVLcGViR1RRTFE&gid=16

Best arena hero's are (imo) Mage/Paladin/Druid/Shaman. In that order.

That should start you out pretty well.

 
lastemp3ror said:
I have probably opened 500 packs and probably got like 10 legendaries. You aren't supposed to get legendaries that often. I think not even 5% of the time, which is about what you are hitting at.
Click to expand...
Still, I feel like there should be a bare minimum - like at least 1 for every 20 packs you open. I just made a list of the cards I'm missing and the dust I'll need to create them and it is depressing - not happening any time soon and even if I decided to pay, there's no guarantee I'll get what I need. The last 20 packs I've opened I got 77 cards to dust and only 23 I didn't have (and less if you count goldens - I got 3 of those but I already had 2 of the regular versions).

I should also add that I'm a bit scared to play Arena, which is probably the best place to play since you could get on an endless loop assuming you get good enough. I tried the free admission and went 1-3 and haven't been back.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sir_Fragalot said:
I tried the beta for like a game or two but I did not really get into it, but I think I might start tonight. Does anyone have any beginners tips, as in how to progress collecting gold and stuff. I know I need to beat the deck masters to unlock the classes, but I don't know how I should be progressing besides that.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Depends on how much you're planning on playing each day. But typical plan would be this:

1) Beat all AI opponents

2) Beat all AI opponents on hard

3) Keep fighting AI opponents to level every class up to 10, while learning information about each class

4) While doing all this, also try to complete your daily quests when your quest log gets full (3 quests)

5) After doing all this, you should have a bunch of gold, a lot of it from achievements. After this, if you're good at arena, and/or you don't plan on playing for hours a day, you should be able to solely play arena games, funded by arena rewards and daily quests. I have 1600+ gold now, and I've never spent a cent or grinded ranked/casual.

 
Javery said:
Still, I feel like there should be a bare minimum - like at least 1 for every 20 packs you open. I just made a list of the cards I'm missing and the dust I'll need to create them and it is depressing - not happening any time soon and even if I decided to pay, there's no guarantee I'll get what I need. The last 20 packs I've opened I got 77 cards to dust and only 23 I didn't have (and less if you count goldens - I got 3 of those but I already had 2 of the regular versions).

I should also add that I'm a bit scared to play Arena, which is probably the best place to play since you could get on an endless loop assuming you get good enough. I tried the free admission and went 1-3 and haven't been back.
Click to expand...
Don't get discouraged. Recently I went 0-3. There is a lot of skill in this game, but there is also a lot of luck. Somebody may have had a beast draft. Or someone had an amazing starting hand while you had nothing to play until turn 4.

 
lastemp3ror said:
Don't get discouraged. Recently I went 0-3. There is a lot of skill in this game, but there is also a lot of luck. Somebody may have had a beast draft. Or someone had an amazing starting hand while you had nothing to play until turn 4.
Click to expand...
I know... I seem to have little skill and virtually no luck!

I guess it is the fear of losing 50G for playing Arena that has me staying away. At least buying a pack for 100G is guaranteed. I could play 2 Arenas and come away with 2 packs for 300G or I could just buy 3 packs for the same price. Although now that I think about it... I'm probably at the point where getting new packs is worse than getting dust since I need to craft the specific cards I'm missing. Not counting Legendaries (of which I'm missing 30), I need 94 more cards to complete the expert set. My luck in opening packs is really diminishing (as expected) so maybe Arena is the way to go after all...

 
Played my first Arena tonight. It wasn't fun. I mean the game is fun but when 3 minutes into the match you know you have no chance of winning, yeah...

Went 0-3. I need more practice I guess but still, it was one sided as fuck and I play MTG.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I added everyone on the spreadsheet please add me if you can. Just looking to play casually I don't even play ranked matches since I got in on hearthstone late and everyone already has crazy cards. I do enjoy arena mode until I get stuck facing mages 5 times in a row...

James#13467
United States
Favorite class- Druid
 
The wait for Naxx is killing me... I have 3,000 gold saved up but I really just want to get 30 packs of cards.  I just want to know how much they are going to charge - I don't really care about when it actually releases (although sooner is better).

 
Javery said:
The wait for Naxx is killing me... I have 3,000 gold saved up but I really just want to get 30 packs of cards. I just want to know how much they are going to charge - I don't really care about when it actually releases (although sooner is better).
Click to expand...
Nothing is for sure, but the number I saw thrown around the most is 1,500 gold for everything.

 
They've already announced the first wing is going to be free.  I just plan on buying the other wings with cash if I don't have enough gold.

 
Maybe not the place for this, if so I'm sorry.
I've been playing hearthstone for a couple months. I've deleted it from my iPad about a dozen times because I get so frustrated with it. I have good cards, I'm just a bad player I guess.
Long story short. I'm done playing. I'm getting rid of the account, all the good hunter cards, plus some good Mage ones. You can make any popular hunter deck you want. Including Leeroy Jenkins.
Will post pics if anyone's interested.
Created a blizzard account and an email to play . Nothing else will go to the email, I've never even checked it.
I don't want a lot. Some Nintendo eshop $$$. Ps store $$$ , or msoft $$$.

Let me know if you're interested. I'll give more details.
 
Javery said:
Seriously? Did I win? Haha
Click to expand...
Yep, I tried to friend request you, but I remember you said you weren't accepting 'em cause of your kid(s)...so I posted this here hoping you would see.

I won't tell ya who won. O:) I was playing my Control Pally deck (similar to a "Healidan"). Looked like you were playing a Ramp Druid. It was yesterday and you were at Rank 16.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
AtlasShrugged80 said:
Yep, I tried to friend request you, but I remember you said you weren't accepting 'em cause of your kid(s)...so I posted this here hoping you would see.

I won't tell ya who won. O:) I was playing my Control Pally deck (similar to a "Healidan"). Looked like you were playing a Ramp Druid. It was yesterday and you were at Rank 16.
Click to expand...
I probably lost. I got all the way up to 15 with 3 stars and then lost like 6 in a row yesterday. I played some more today and I'm down to 17 with 2 stars and I decided to take a break from my Druid and play some casual. I like my deck but I'm not consistent - I depend heavily on the draw of the cards (like everyone I suppose) but I seem to get into lots of situations where I either have to waste a silence or something (that I know I'll need later) or not play a minion on a turn, which kills the tempo. I've also never been in a situation where I've played Cenarius and buffed my minions - it is always a defensive play (same thing with Druid of the Claw but that's more of a 70/30 split).

The other class legendary I have is the Mage and after about 20 games I was only able to actually use the legendary to put a fireball in my hand once... but I didn't really need it because the game was basically already won on my end. I think I just stink at this game, which bothers me because I'm usually good at puzzles and shit.

 
I've got 2100 gold saved up for Naxx.  My plan will be thus:

1st Wing free

2nd & 3rd wing = 1400 gold

4th & 5th wing = $10

It's a really good deal buying any of the multiple wing bundles, as they're only $5 each, that's almost $10 worth of gold if you ever buy packs or pay arena admissions.  Also a 2-fold bonus:

1. Supporting them for their fantastic free game ($10 is definitely worth what they've given me)

2. If I hate Naxxramas, I can bail out of it and not worry about the last few wings.

I have plenty of time to change my mind, of course, but the pricing structure they've created is very well done, especially compared to that early Asian leaked info of: Free; 500; 1,000; 1,500; 2,000!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kerig said:
I've got 2100 gold saved up for Naxx. My plan will be thus:

1st Wing free

2nd & 3rd wing = 1400 gold

4th & 5th wing = $10

It's a really good deal buying any of the multiple wing bundles, as they're only $5 each, that's almost $10 worth of gold if you ever buy packs or pay arena admissions. Also a 2-fold bonus:

1. Supporting them for their fantastic free game ($10 is definitely worth what they've given me)

2. If I hate Naxxramas, I can bail out of it and not worry about the last few wings.

I have plenty of time to change my mind, of course, but the pricing structure they've created is very well done, especially compared to that early Asian leaked info of: Free; 500; 1,000; 1,500; 2,000!
Click to expand...
I also have 2100. I also agree with your statement above. I have been putting most of my gaming time towards Hearthstone and I wouldn't mind supporting Blizzard on this awesome F2P.

 
I can't believe I'm probably going to spend real money ($20) on the expansion.  It is a MUCH better value than spending gold.  I've got about 2200G saved up now and even if they release it next Tuesday, by the time the 5th wing is out we can easily save up another 2000G assuming a 70G per day average. 

I think I'd rather have the ~42 packs of cards and be out $20 instead of Naxx and 14 packs.  Tough call, which is exactly why they priced it like this.  I've also enjoyed Hearthstone more than any game in recent memory so I don't feel so bad throwing them a few dollars for their efforts.

I like your ideas though about spending $10 and using gold for 2 wings.  Hmmm.... that's 28 packs for me and only out $10.... hmmm...

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Javery said:
I can't believe I'm probably going to spend real money ($20) on the expansion. It is a MUCH better value than spending gold. I've got about 2200G saved up now and even if they release it next Tuesday, by the time the 5th wing is out we can easily save up another 2000G assuming a 70G per day average.

I think I'd rather have the ~42 packs of cards and be out $20 instead of Naxx and 14 packs. Tough call, which is exactly why they priced it like this. I've also enjoyed Hearthstone more than any game in recent memory so I don't feel so bad throwing them a few dollars for their efforts.

I like your ideas though about spending $10 and using gold for 2 wings. Hmmm.... that's 28 packs for me and only out $10.... hmmm...
Click to expand...
In my opinion, buying packs is a big waste of gold. For starters, it is a complete crap shoot. Especially if you already have the majority of the cards (which I do). I am not that good, and I average about 7 wins, in which I get 155 gold back plus card pack. Anyhow here is the breakdown of 5 wins which is the minimum you would need to have better value than buying a card pack:

5 win Arena cost: -150 Gold

Card Pack Reward: +100 Gold

Gold Reward: +55 Gold

= return of 5 gold plus dust

Plus there is some value to the card drafting experience in the Arena, and the value of experience of playing in the Arena to add to it. All of which isn't present in just spending 100 gold for a card pack.

 
It is a tough call.  I am currently missing 90+ epic/rare cards and 30+ legendaries.  I am not getting new cards at an acceptable rate though by opening packs.  I just opened 10 packs the other day and only got 3 or 4 cards I didn't have (no legendaries).  So 50 cards and less than 10% of them were new for me.  It seems like I'll have to craft the cards I want going forward.  I just have a feeling that I'll suck at Arena.  I could see myself winning 2-4 games on average but rarely passing the point where it pays for itself (is 5 wins all you really need?).

 
You need 5 wins to have better value than buying a card pack. Anything above that is gravy. I don't ever buy cards anymore because it doesn't make sense. 

If you aren't that good at Arena, I would check out some youtube video's on it. Trump is really good at arena and probably averages 10 wins. There is also a lot of spreadsheets on drafting cards. 

My drafting technique is to take the best card of the three for the first 10 picks. The last 10 picks I focus on rounding out my mana curve. The middle 10 I do a hybrid of the both. Meaning I still try to draft the best cards, but if it is a close call I choose the card that helps round out the curve.

 
lastemp3ror said:
In my opinion, buying packs is a big waste of gold. For starters, it is a complete crap shoot. Especially if you already have the majority of the cards (which I do). I am not that good, and I average about 7 wins, in which I get 155 gold back plus card pack. Anyhow here is the breakdown of 5 wins which is the minimum you would need to have better value than buying a card pack:

5 win Arena cost: -150 Gold

Card Pack Reward: +100 Gold

Gold Reward: +55 Gold

= return of 5 gold plus dust

Plus there is some value to the card drafting experience in the Arena, and the value of experience of playing in the Arena to add to it. All of which isn't present in just spending 100 gold for a card pack.
Click to expand...
5 wins gets you 3 rewards. The card pack, ~55 gold, PLUS another reward (gold/dust/card). The breakeven point is more like 3 wins, which (if you get an all-gold reward) nets you a card pack + 45-60 gold. Although you also have to take into account that arena wins don't get you gold like ranked/casual wins do (10 gold per 3 wins). So, it's probably more like 4 wins to have "better value".

But perhaps more importantly is the time investment. It can easily take an hour for an arena run. If you have 3,000 gold saved up, that's 30 hours (assuming the "break even" cost of 100g per run) if you want to spend it all in the arena. Versus 5 minutes if you buy packs with them.

Edit: There's no way Trump is averaging 10 wins in the arena, BTW. Very early on, he said he had a 70% win rate (i.e. 7 wins), and I'm betting that the competition has caught up to him more than he has distanced himself from the competition.

Edit 2: Trump has a 72.97% win rate in the arena (source: http://local.se/trumpstats.pl). That's about 7-8 wins average, not 10.

Javery said:
I just have a feeling that I'll suck at Arena. I could see myself winning 2-4 games on average but rarely passing the point where it pays for itself (is 5 wins all you really need?).
Click to expand...
It takes 7 wins to "pay for itself". What lastemp3ror was referring to was the amount of wins it would take to be a better gold value than buying packs.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
madcatz1999 said:
5 wins gets you 3 rewards. The card pack, ~55 gold, PLUS another reward (gold/dust/card). The breakeven point is more like 3 wins, which (if you get an all-gold reward) nets you a card pack + 45-60 gold. Although you also have to take into account that arena wins don't get you gold like ranked/casual wins do (10 gold per 3 wins). So, it's probably more like 4 wins to have "better value".

But perhaps more importantly is the time investment. It can easily take an hour for an arena run. If you have 3,000 gold saved up, that's 30 hours (assuming the "break even" cost of 100g per run) if you want to spend it all in the arena. Versus 5 minutes if you buy packs with them.

Edit: There's no way Trump is averaging 10 wins in the arena, BTW. Very early on, he said he had a 70% win rate (i.e. 7 wins), and I'm betting that the competition has caught up to him more than he has distanced himself from the competition.

Edit 2: Trump has a 72.97% win rate in the arena (source: http://local.se/trumpstats.pl). That's about 7-8 wins average, not 10.

It takes 7 wins to "pay for itself". What lastemp3ror was referring to was the amount of wins it would take to be a better gold value than buying packs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the edits. I didn't look up Trump's exact stats but was basing it off of the videos I watched.

Unless I am misunderstanding your "investment of time" comment, you are incorrect. You invest time regardless of if you play Arena, Ranked, or Casual. Javery didn't rack up 3000 coins by not playing. He got it from completing quests. Some of which require 7 wins. So time investment is irrelevant in this discussion. He investing time one way or another.

 
lastemp3ror said:
Thanks for the edits. I didn't look up Trump's exact stats but was basing it off of the videos I watched.

Unless I am misunderstanding your "investment of time" comment, you are incorrect. You invest time regardless of if you play Arena, Ranked, or Casual. Javery didn't rack up 3000 coins by not playing. He got it from completing quests. Some of which require 7 wins. So time investment is irrelevant in this discussion. He investing time one way or another.
Click to expand...
You are misunderstanding his statement, I think. He's not taking into consideration the time it takes to get the gold. He's looking at once you have the gold. To drop 100 coins on a pack, it takes a minute. To get that same pack and make sure you get your gold value back in the arena, it could take an hour or more.

 
Ltrain23 said:
You are misunderstanding his statement, I think. He's not taking into consideration the time it takes to get the gold. He's looking at once you have the gold. To drop 100 coins on a pack, it takes a minute. To get that same pack and make sure you get your gold value back in the arena, it could take an hour or more.
Click to expand...
Ah ok. I see what he is trying to say and I guess that is kinda a down side to Arena. However I am assuming since we all subscribe to this thread that we all like and play this game a lot. Hence spending your time in Arena shouldn't be viewed as a choir :)

 
Yes - love the game so playing isn't a chore. I'm going it try arena this weekend using some of the online spreadsheets. If 2 or 3 runs gets me 0-3 records I'll have to rethink it...
 
Javery said:
Yes - love the game so playing isn't a chore. I'm going it try arena this weekend using some of the online spreadsheets. If 2 or 3 runs gets me 0-3 records I'll have to rethink it...
Click to expand...
I never get more than 2-3 wins in the arena, but since I don't have many expert cards it's always worth the extra 50 to try out new cards that I've previously never seen or thought about buying. Just about every card I've ever crafted was due to wanting it after playing it a few times in the arena.

 
Don't forget you could use the arena for the daily quests as well. So not only can you profit but you're accomplishing something. It's especially useful for beginners like me who don't have the cards to win with some of the classes for the daily quests.

 
I'm okay.I can definitely get some wins in casual but in Ranked and Arena I get steam rolled.Have rares but basic cards. How do people get legendaries.Someone pulled 3 of them on me in Areana,very frustrating.  

 
mrx001 said:
I'm okay.I can definitely get some wins in casual but in Ranked and Arena I get steam rolled.Have rares but basic cards. How do people get legendaries.Someone pulled 3 of them on me in Areana,very frustrating.
Click to expand...
In arena it is all about luck to get 3 legendaries. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, you just got to accept it.

 
mrx001 said:
I'm okay.I can definitely get some wins in casual but in Ranked and Arena I get steam rolled.Have rares but basic cards. How do people get legendaries.Someone pulled 3 of them on me in Areana,very frustrating.
Click to expand...
Cards 1, 10, 20, and 30 (or maybe 1, 15, 30, don't recall) are all guaranteed to be at least rare. Other than that, yeah, just gotta be lucky.

 
woohooo! the decks are going to be all over the place for the foreseeable future.  I'll have to screenshot some of my current decks so I can make room for building new decks experimenting with the new cards.  

 
Naxx should be fun. I still don't have anywhere close to a full set of cards though. I think I'm going to buy Naxx and open 30 packs.
 
I hardly buy any packs/Arena tickets, but I haven't gotten anything other than 4 commons and 1 rare (bare minimum) in I-don't-know-how-long.  Back when I started, I would almost always get an Epic card along with at least one rare.

I'm very curious to see exactly how much content is in Naxxramas, I hope it's not just a slow way of distributing new cards.  I want to enjoy it.  My endgame for Hearthstone is to have fun, not to have the biggest deck.

 
Just recently got the paladin legendary from a pack and then the next day got another one, that was pretty disappointing :/ only have a handful of legendaries and was hoping for one of the better ones
My battle tag is Devilsarm#1807
 
RPGamer246 said:
Just recently got the paladin legendary from a pack and then the next day got another one, that was pretty disappointing :/ only have a handful of legendaries and was hoping for one of the better ones
My battle tag is Devilsarm#1807
Click to expand...
I would feel happy you got two legendaries in two days. You can turn the other one into 400 dust, and get a great card out of it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top