(December 28th, 2013, 20:27)Merovech Wrote: I'm so torn about Ysera. She's not usable in my deck (or many decks), but I also don't want to disenchant her. I guess I will if I ever get to 1200 dust without Rag, Slyvanas, the Black Knight, and Tinkmaster.
I don't think disenchanting cards you have only once is the right way to go. In the long term, we might see many buffs and nerfs so that any card might become valuable at some point in time.
In addition the meta changes rather fast, so maybe next month you want to play a deck in which you can use Ysera very well.
Continuing the Druid theme, I took my big Druid deck into constructed last night and this morning. One of the more annoying things about playing on my laptop (I'm with family for Christmas rather than being at home!) is that I can only play for half an hour or so before the laptop overheats from the stress of running such a graphically intensive program - I kid you not. My laptop is five years old, needless to say.
My Druid deck has got to the point where I can say it is good, however. I'm on a six-game win streak, which took me from rank 13 to rank 10. Bonus stars are really nice! The win streak also included a highly improbable win over a Murloc Warlock deck. Usually it gets destroyed by any sort of rush deck - if I had some Ancient Watchers and stuff to activate them, I'd definitely run something like that, but I don't so I can't. I also didn't draw any Swipes, despite my prayers to the RNG gods, which is usually GG against Warlocks. This time, however, he ran out of steam at just the crucial moment. He had a 50/50 shot to do lethal damage - his Soulfire discarded a second Soulfire that would have killed me! - but my strong removal and my Turn 8 Ironbark won me the game, finishing him off with a Starfire and a tree to the face. I was on 2hp as the game ended.
I won't post the whole deck right now, as I can't open Hearthstone again until my computer decides to operate at a reasonable efficiency. However, there are some things I've learned:
Kobold Geomancer into Swipe is one of the best AoE combos in the game for 6 mana;
Gadgetzan Auctioneer is brilliant with Innervate and removal spells (Turn 5 Gadgetzan, double Innervate, double Wrath got me 4 cards, cleared the board and gave me a 4/4 in one of my games!);
Tinkmaster Overspark is excellent hard removal in a class that doesn't have any hard removal except for Naturalize, which is colossally expensive;
Ragnaros is straight-up OP. Particularly in a Druid deck.
I might stream some games with my deck when I get home this evening. I'd be interested to see how close it is to the current FotM deck.
(December 29th, 2013, 06:14)SevenSpirits Wrote: So... beta invites are just random, right? Is there anything to do other than sign up in beta preferences and wait?
There used to be a lot of contests to win beta keys. Not so much anymore since everyone got a key who signed up before a certain date this month. Well, everyone should have gotten a key according to Blizzard.
If worst comes to worst, you could always grab a key on eBay in case you don't want to wait. Some keys are now less than 5 Euros.
(December 29th, 2013, 05:58)v8mark Wrote: [*]Tinkmaster Overspark is excellent hard removal in a class that doesn't have any hard removal except for Naturalize, which is colossally expensive;
I like Big Game Hunter. 1 is usually featured in the pro decklist, IIRC. I don't find the Tinkmaster really that excellent due to the random nature of his Battlecry. Yes, a 5/5 minion is easier to handle than a 8/8, but killing the 8/8 right away is still better (the decklist I looked at first included both Tinkmaster and Big Game Hunter, though).
(December 29th, 2013, 06:14)SevenSpirits Wrote: So... beta invites are just random, right? Is there anything to do other than sign up in beta preferences and wait?
There was a korean site (Information here that allowed you to sign up for a beta key and get it a few days later, unfortunately it ended on the 29th (today) and as Korea is ahead of us I figure they much have closed it now.
(December 28th, 2013, 20:27)Merovech Wrote: I'm so torn about Ysera. She's not usable in my deck (or many decks), but I also don't want to disenchant her. I guess I will if I ever get to 1200 dust without Rag, Slyvanas, the Black Knight, and Tinkmaster.
I don't think disenchanting cards you have only once is the right way to go. In the long term, we might see many buffs and nerfs so that any card might become valuable at some point in time.
In addition the meta changes rather fast, so maybe next month you want to play a deck in which you can use Ysera very well.
Yeah, you're right.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
The more I think about it, the more I think arena runs should be free, and there should be an entry cost of some sort into Constructed: as it is new players are at a huge disadvantage to deck construction and so don't have an awful lot of options with how to play, when other people are rocking legendaries. I'm not even sure that the skill cap is that high in actual play, more it's seen in good deck construction...which is what makes Arena seem like a better place to let new players have a go at the game.
I what world do new and a veteran TCG players have the same chances? Even ~20 years ago it was clear that the kids who had more money to buy more booster packs had more options. And this time the game is actually free2play, so how would Blizzard make money if everyone had the same chances from the very beginning in a free arena mode? (aside from the fact that I could simply resign all my games and claim a free booster after 3 quick losses, which means arena prizes would have to be cancelled).
I would also argue that Arena is not really better suited for beginners. Most likely you will pick inferior cards and have a deck disadvantage from the start whereas in ranked you can at least build a viable deck if you have the cards in your collection.By doing ranked games you are paired against players of the same rank, so if you don't have many epic and legendary cards in the beginning, you can still play balanced games against other players with a smaller collection at lower ranks.
And if you do dailys regularly you can earn 4 booster packs a week, so if you put in the time you will get ~100 free booster packs in half a year, which will probably give you all the important cards you need for a large variety of decks without spending a single $. If you want it faster, you will have to pay, that's just F2P. Compare that to any TCG out there, where you have no chance whatsoever to get your hands on free booster packs and in comparison Hearthstone looks quite fair.
The other option is to enter the infinite arena loop and be good enough to earn a 150 gold with each run. If you can't do it, just do an arena run once you have enough money from dailys.
I'd love to see the deck when you have a chance. One question already: Wild Pyromancer seems much better than Kobold Geomancer. Same +1 spell damage (to minions) plus better stats plus added AOE to some spells. Wrath is now a 3-mana swipe. Or a mini-swipe plus draw. Does Pyromancer proc from Claw? That would be totally ridiculous: for 3 mana you would get a 3-damage mini-swipe plus a 3/1 minion.
