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Hearthstone

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
Hearthstone closed beta started.

So far, aside from a fairly derpy tutorial introduction it has been quite fun. Easy to play in a second monitor because the game contains no interrupts. There are trap cards and some reactionary abilities, but no actions can be taken on an opponent's turn.

There are 9 characters to play. Each character has a unique ability. Each character also has a game mechanic that is limited to cards only that are not available to other characters. (ie. Only hunters have trap cards)

Unlike the super-gay Might and Magic CCG, Hearthstone has a draft-style play option where paying to win is impossible.


PS: If anyone wants to trade me B.Net bucks for Neverwinter zen, PM me. Guaranteed cheaper than buying it from Perfect World. ;)
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,981
Would love an invite if you get a spare. I signed up but nothing showed up so far.

From what I've seen it's a lot less interactive than most TCG, and especially compared to something like MTG. Each side sort of does it's thing and smushes minions together. But it makes for faster paced games instead of dicking around passing priority for a 6 card stack of counter-counter-counter-counter-counter plays.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
Sorry, no extra keys. I don't have inside access via a gaming website or anything.

I would describe the feel of play as that of a tug-of-war where each side has alternating surges of effort. The order that you play cards actually has a fairly large skill-cap compared to what I was expecting.
 
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J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
I just beat TotalBiscuit (or at least someone named that) in an arena match, putting me at 8-2 for that arena deck.

If it was him, he will likely post it tomorrow since it was a close match.

Playing my last arena game right now (max wins is 9, max losses is 3), doesn't look like I will be winning it though. Down to 2 health as a mage vs. a shaman with 25 hp.

EDIT: Nevermind, lol. Wish I had a way of recording matches set up. Had a pretty amazing mana wyrm + 4 spell power + frostbolt + ice lance combo. Did over 25 dmg in two turns. :smug:

That makes me an arena Grand Master, bitches!
 
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catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,314
Location
Nirvana for mice
I just spent the last couple of hours watching videos of it online. I can't wait to play it*. :D


* I'll probably get bored with it in a day or so to be honest.
 

zerotol

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
3,602
Location
BE
It looks pretty cool, but i don't have a key. Being watching some streams.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,837
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Aside from being able to draft, this really doesn't look better than the MM ccg aka duel of champions.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,981
If you win 9 out of 11 games you get the best set of rewards, which works out to about double or triple the currency you used to start, though you might get a pile of arcane dust instead of gold sometimes, on average you'll get enough to rejoin and then some. You get a booster pack regardless of how well you do though.

It seems like if you suck at the game you'll quickly run out of gold trying to play arena repeatedly, but given the fan base it shouldn't be that hard to win 90% of your games, from the games I've watched even the best players make stupid, obvious mistakes all the time that should cost them the game but don't.

And I like the arcane dust/card crafting mechanic. Should make it easy enough to build a constructed deck if you know what you're doing once you've played for a while. Doesn't matter how rare the legendaries are if you don't need to open packs to find them and there's no supply/demand shit jacking their price up.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
In arena you draft a deck by picking a hero from a set of 3 and 30 cards from sets of 3. You play until you reach 9 wins or 3 losses.

It costs 150 gold (or $2) to enter. The number of wins you get determines your rewards. I think you need to get at least one win to get a card pack. For comparison, buying a pack of 5 cards outright costs 100 gold (or $1.50).

It is not possible to obtain more than one card pack from arena mode. The rewards are partially random, but a record of about 6 wins and 3 losses will allow you to break even by earning 150 gold to play again.

In my experience, the reward curve tapers off after 7 wins. When I won 9 matches in arena, I was rewarded with: 1 card pack, 200 gold, and ~50 dust. Unless you are lucky and get an epic/legendary card, most card packs contain cards worth a total of 40 dust. You are most likely to spend your dust on epic cards, which cost 100 dust.

For comparison: In addition to a several hundred free gold for learning how to play, you can earn 1 gold per win in the constructed play mode, and 40 gold a day for a daily quest, which is always something you would probably have done anyway and easy to complete.
 

Syril

Liturgist
Queued
Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
1,385
Would like a key, i got Don't Starve on steam for trade for it if someone wants it.
 

Emily

Arcane
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
3,068
Wow that sounds great, and from the looks of it atm it is very free to play.
If anyone got an extra beta key i am interested.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,385
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Copenhagen
Unlike the super-gay Might and Magic CCG

Duel of the Champions is loads of fun and the row/line system is a simple system to fix a lot of normal problems with TCGs. It also has one of the best solutions for Card-Advantage-Is-King that I've witnessed.

But yeah, no draft is gay as fucking fuck.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
It also has one of the best solutions for Card-Advantage-Is-King that I've witnessed.
Does it? Anyway, duel of champions is more luck/grind to win than pay2win since you get decent amounts of money from playing and you can't buy or trade individual cards. Just gotta hope dat RNG gives you nergal.

Anyway, if anyone has an extra beta key for this I'd be interested.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
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Copenhagen

It puts tempo front and center but gives control ways to handle it by playing smart, and to make up for control's late-game aggro has some of the best singularly most powerful cards (control just has more cards total). It works pretty well together with the tactical row/line concept. I like the game. It's it dealt with further by resource divisions that penalizes greedy deckbuilding.

duel of champions is more luck/grind to win than pay2win since you get decent amounts of money from playing and you can't buy or trade individual cards.

If you want competitive decks, yeah, it's grindygrind time. It's a shit pay model. But I'm just playing for fun, and the MM-system is pretty good, so eh.

Just gotta hope dat RNG gives you nergal.

Or use the Forge, if you want him.

Anyway, if anyone has an extra beta key for this I'd be interested.

Me as well.
 
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Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,981
Decided to check out duel of champions. But apparently my uplay account has some fucked password I can't remember, password retrieval is impossible, and both of my email accounts are 'invalid' for making new accounts. Seriously, fuck ubisoft.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
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Messages
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Copenhagen
Jaedar: I have a good example actually. Take a card like Campfire. It's basically a Dark Ritual that give's you another card. It is a completely free card, costing 0 cards and -1 resources (as in, you actually gain resources from it). In Magic, that card would have been auto-include, no question. Here, it's a crappy common used only sparringly in a few decks, because it represents a tempo-loss.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,837
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Jaedar: I have a good example actually. Take a card like Campfire. It's basically a Dark Ritual that give's you another card. It is a completely free card, costing 0 cards and -1 resources (as in, you actually gain resources from it). In Magic, that card would have been auto-include, no question. Here, it's a crappy common used only sparringly in a few decks, because it represents a tempo-loss.
How is it a tempo loss when you end up with the same amount of cards in hand and one more resource to spend on 'real' cards? I guess cause it needs 3 fortune, but even so.
 

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