Be Excellent To Each Other

I've not had that quest in ages even though i bounce 40's if it bounces to another 40 i typically take it anyway

Yeah if a 40 mulligans to another 40 then I just do it.

It's the surprising frequency with which I've been offered the win a pack quest* since I started hoarding gold for the next expansion that irks me a bit.

* Or 40 dust, as it's also known

How much gold / dust are you sitting on ?

I started holding onto gold around 3 weeks ago - I've bought the 50 pack deal but can either go to the arena or buy more packs when the new expansion comes out and I've 1575 gold / 1650 dust (so enough for a legendary if i need it) which i guess is quite a bit behind you

3320 gold, 6650 dust at this moment in time.

As of tomorrow I'll have been saving for six weeks, so I've started to lag behind my 600 gold per week target, but I have had a bad run of 40s and win a pack quests recently, plus my overall play rate has tailed off a bit so I'm getting less 10 gold rewards for winning three games.

I'm going to try and freeload the next expansion, but if I need to buy some packs to give me a card/dust boost for critical cards I wouldn't be averse to doing so. That said, the 6650 dust should go a long way to fill in whatever key gaps are left by the packs I'll buy with the gold.

Mind you, having watched the Trump videos on the card reveals thusfar (which is most of them now), I'm starting to wonder how much the meta will really be shaken up. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out when it all goes live.

Fair to say that Kel Thuzad is an absolute fucking BOSS in the current Tavern Brawl.

I think key characters for it are Kel (as you mentoned) - get the minion back + what it spawned + regain other stuff as well
Alex (knocks their health down and you get a high value replacement)
Baron Riverdare - double deathrattle (so characters with a deathrattle get 2 of those things + 2 others spawned)
Exorcists (gains for virtually every enemy out there)
Piloted shreders (again you get double the drop)
I've not tried molten giants - since their core score is 20 i assume you'll get something back at 12 (next tier it can drop which is another giant ?)
Mountain Giant / clockwork Giant at 12 should only be able to give you sea giant or deathwing (at 10 - not tried but that makes sense?)
Undertaker (because every minion has deathrattle)

Just tried and yes a mountain giant gives you a 10 point card - and with a Baron R you get double



The Deathwing and 'non' deathrattle Sea Giant just came out of a Mountain Giant (which i stole from him with my Sylvanus and i used echos while she was on the board so i have her in hand again)

Actually thats another important card - Echos for a mage - if you have stuff down that has a good battlecry you get the chance to pull it back and get it again (also duplicate)

And of course after saying i'd not seen it in a while todays quest was a 40 - i bounced it and get the 'spectator' one

Molten Giant actually doesn't get you anything, which cost me a match earlier.

:-( - so because there is nothing at 2 below (obviously 0 and 1 manna minions also give none) so the best are clockwork / mountain giants then which drop the Sea Giant or Deathwing

If you play a sea giant for 1 or 0 mana you get no deathrattle. Due to a quirk of the reduced cost and how they calculate it I guess. But if you play it for 2, you get the deathrattle for an 8 mana minion.

Anyway, the brawl is over. I didn't really like that one. Probably one of my least favourite.

I quite liked it. Definitely better and more strategic than the portal one.

Minions summoned at the same cost as your spells again, AKA Play As Druid And Win.

Yeah it really is Druid or Druid for that one.

If you're facing a Druid and he has the coin. Concede.

TODAY WAS THE DAY that I would achieve 4000 gold saved up. I finished yesterday with 3960 gold so it was in the bag, innit?

Just logged in and had a 40 gold quest, so I mulliganed it and got.... Yes, of course.....

4000 gold tomorrow, then.

Today is exactly seven weeks saving up, so averaging just over 570 gold per week, if we pretend I'd just taken the 40 gold quest today....

In this Tavern Brawl, the cards that get summoned are not random, are they? Or if they are, I've had an unfeasible run of luck.

Must have seen Lorewalker Cho in 90% of matches. God he's an annoying bastard.

Yes they're random, but random numbers do very strange things sometimes.

As someone who's done millions of spins on online random slots, I've developed quite a keen appreciation for how mental randomness can be sometimes.

Playing a few games with Patron Warrior.

Cripes. Sometimes it feels like cheating. Two epic ways to win via the Warsong Commander. Wouldn't be surprised to see that card nerfed in some fashion.

Funny I'm doing the same - its worth trying it while it still works because i'm sure the nerf will come shortly - and multiple ways for the big wins with Warsong - Grim and just overload the board / Frothing Berzerker and lots of damage to many characters / Gurubashi Berzerker and hits to it , or the same with a Raging Wargen

When it works it kills the enemy without them really having a chance its just hard for a newbie to see all the 'correct' moves to make

I think they're going down the 'passive nerf' route like they did with Naxx to Miracle Rogue (adding in the sticky and cheap taunt cards, plus Loatheb and suchlike), albeit they did then subsequently nerf the Gadgetzan but they say that was because of all the spare parts in GvG which counted as spells, and could have made Gadgetzan silly in any deck, not just Miracle Rogue.

Patron Warrior is an incredibly powerful deck, no doubt about it, but it is beatable and it's very tricky to play optimally so it's not like the old Buzzard > UTH combo that Hunter used to have which was both brainless and immensely powerful, for example.

On balance, I'm guessing they'll probably leave Patron Warrior alone. It's a very slow deck, basically entirely reactive until such time as it can start to unleash its combos (with a very high skill cap) - I suspect its nemesis is already waiting in the wings, in the Grand Tournament expansion which is very close to release now.

I don't think it is that hard to play, though admittedly I have only taken it to rank 14 or so. Averaging about 4-1 win ratio minimum though, I reckon. Probably more difficult after that, obviously enough.

Haven't even tried with the Gurubashi in there! Can't think of any card I would want to drop though. Not sure I need two of the 'draw a card for each damaged character' cards, but equally they can be bloody useful! Or maybe a gnomish inventor or whatever they're called. Useful but rarely a lifesaver. Does give a body on the board though, and you often need one to just avoid getting thwacked in the face.

Well it's widely regarded as having the highest skill cap in the game, by far better players than me, so I'll defer to their opinion

If you're managing a 4:1 win ratio then you're just not coming up against players who know how to deal with Patron Warrior TBH.



Gurubashi is very much a zaphod slant on things, you won't find it any of the 'known' Patron decks, not that zaphod's variant couldn't work though.

The Battle Rages are essential, you'll see two of them in pretty much every competitive Patron deck, as you need to be able to get through your deck, and often quickly, and if key cards are stuffed down at the arse end of your deck, you need to be able to get them. (You can only stall for so long, and combo pieces absolutely need to be played together.)

I was missing one card from the deck I chose and I'd seen Gurubashi used against me so swapped them in (cant remember what i was missing but i have the main cards so its a minor one somewhere)

I think part of the challenge here is timing and survival , the big stuff all needs at least 8 or so Mana (maybe a little less if you have cards in hand and have thaurissan out for a round) so quicker decks mush you up long before that and I've lost a few games by simply getting to the end of my deck after failing to inflict enough damage (medium Frothing for maybe 17 or 18 or not enough low minions on the board to knock Grim Patrons into to get more)

Announcements last night are that this weeks Tavern Brawl will be using the new cards and the whole thing goes live next week

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blo ... -8-17-2015

So Tomorrow you get to play some pre-defined decks - and the whole thing goes live next Monday (24th)

You won't find Gurubashi because this reason:

Turn 8, Warsong, Gurubashi. You hit the last charge of your Deathbite and you get a single charging 5/6. Meh. Lets say you get off another whirlwind affect too, you get a charging 8/5.

If that had been one patron you'd have at least 9 points of charging damage and 3 minions on the board without all your damage in one basket, and that basket isn't susceptible to BGH.

A suggested nerf for Frothing is that it should only get a maximum of 1 damage from each damaged minion per turn. It could still get big, but not to OTK levels.

I completely agree that playing a Grim... Patron is better , but that only works if you have one in your hand - if not then throwing out a Gurbashi can distract a little from your face or in your scenario Turn 8 , Warson , Gurbashi , last Deathbite (5/6) + Inner Rage (x2) does give you a 15/4 on turn 8 which may just be enough

Again - i'm a complete novice with a warrior right now and that might be the wrong card choice

The problem with putting a Gurubashi in is that it's taking up a slot in the deck that can almost certainly be better utilised, and it doesn't really fit with the combo theme of the deck either.

Fair play if you can get some mileage out of it, but I know of zero Patron Warrior decks out there that put a Gurubashi in! (Well, apart from yours )

I thought it combo'd well with other stuff in that getting damage on it increases its damage by larger and larger amounts ,and because it starts as a 2 it works with the Warsong commander to gain charge

It starts as a 2/7 and if it takes 6 individual points of damage with nothing else then its a 20/1 (and with Inner Rage or Cruel Taskmasters its even higher)

So I suppose the question is what else in that slot

I checked and I'm using this deck http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/224656-s ... on-warrior

With the Gurubashi in place of the Dread Corsair , which does not have any real combo's (other than a cheap taunt when you have a weapon in hand) and I have an extra Inner Rage in place of one of the Firey War Axes (i'd rather hit something with that for more Patrons or a bigger Frothing)

Some similar decks thrown in Grommash who I dont have (I have dust to create him but i'd rather save that right now for the new cards to see what I *must* have straight away)

All 132 new cards revealed

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 680&type=3

The Corsair and War Axe are generally there to stop faster decks from killing you before you get into combo-land.

Against slow decks just hold onto the Corsair, you can use him for bigger Frothings with the whirlwind effects, plus he gets charge as well. (And of course he's free with a Death's Bite in hand.)

But yes they can be absolute life-savers against aggro decks, I played two of them for zero mana with a Death's Bite in hand the other day, saved my life they did. (Although it was still very close.)

One thing that annoys me about Patron Warrior is the slowness of the animation. I have had several turns where I have missed out on damage to an opponent because of how slowly the new Patrons spawn. I can have all the necessary clicks done around the start of the hurry up animation, but after a Death's Bite rattle, it can take 20 seconds to run through the effects! They need to sort that shit out.

Just make sure you've dragged everything that you need to before the rope runs out and all moves will get made. You don't have to wait for the Death's Bite/Whirlwind effects to finish, just drag the Frothings (or whatever) onto the enemy's face (or whatever), and the moves will be queued up.

I had a finisher of about 26 damage the other day, there was no way I was going to add it all up in time so I just made sure I'd dragged everything before I roped out, the Frothings ended up delivering their killer blows long past the point at which the turn would have ended normally. In that regard it was a bit of a punt because I couldn't wait for the Whirlwind to finish to see if I actually had lethal, but that's part of the fun of the deck IMO As it turned out the Frothings were 17 + 17 so I was way over the 26 required.

Yeah, but if you're relying on a group of Patrons too, then you can't drag them until they are created, and they're created too bloody slowly!

Ahhh right yes you do need to get to a certain point in the turn's evolution to be able to get everything queued up. (Your example there would be one of those.)

TBH if I have one of those turns in front of me I generally just go for it and hope for the best, I'd rather put together a flawed finisher attempt than simply run out of time so I never even get the chance to try. It drives me nuts when I'm watching Trump play and he thinks about it for so long that he clearly isn't going to have time to try and do everything before he ropes out, and I'm like, 'At least if you'd just gone for it there's a chance that you could have won.....'

One of the things to look for is the green glow around the outline of the character - they are controllable from that point (even if the animations have not finished playing) - i do think it gives you a little extra time at the end of the rope if animations are still going but it can be quite frustrating (the 'whiz whiz' of a frothing or an armorsmith also seems to take forever but at least for them you can just drag the character and 'go' regardless of what it says on screen)

Hey, my daily quest is to win 3 matches as a Druid, for 50 gold.

Be this new?

Must be - the new patch (3.0) went live earlier but i'd already done my daily quest

New quests are :

"Win 3 games with x class" (50g) and "Win 5 Tavern Brawls" (60g)

And you can see the tournament cards in 'crafting mode' - but cant craft them ..... and your 'chest' for highest level shows in your stats page

Hmmm, so are they the only quests now, or are there more in the list that we just haven't seen yet?

I guess the 50G one averages out to the same as the 40/60s, but I'll be a bit upset if the 100 has disappeared.

Nice to see the Tavern Brawls getting some quest recognition though.

These are 'new' quests there is nothing else to say others have been removed - and my quest for today was a typical 40 'do 100 damage' which i bounced to a 'win 2 games with ...' for 40 (which i then did) so the old quests are there but there are 2 extra quests which you may get.

Tavern Brawl with the Tournament cards is now live - its 2 pre-set decks , I had the Hunter/Jousting set and won my first game with a lucky 'unleash the hounds' at the end when they were on 17 health and i was down to 3 :-)

Fun brawl and nice to get a play with the new cards, looking forward to the full release and for the new Constructed decks.

And a decent incentive to stay in Ranked play now with the Treasure Chest system.

Wouldn't be so bad if the Mage deck didn't completely own the Hunter about 85% of the time.

The mage deck has all the 'inspire' cards , and if they get a few of those down your stuck ( power does double damage / use hero power as much as you want / hero power costs 1) , the thing is to identify those cards and get rid of them - charging rino / the horsemen cards (with charge if you win the joust) , or UTH with a wolf card have worked well for me.

I've won a few times with both and right now I find the hunter deck easier , its just a case of keeping their side of the board down

I don't actually think flame lance is all that bad. It's been handy in this brawl anyway. I really like the 5/9 beast. Lock and load is doomed to suck for Hunters. Nice idea but impossible to pull off competitively.

I've had a few good ones its really down to luck though - getting that out and then getting low point hunter spells as your 'bonus' so they chain together.

I also had some luck with the 5 point 'if you have a beast summon another beast' card *especially* with the Rino down as you have the potential for some big cards with charge (I got King Krush the first time i played it and got 'the beast' another time when i had the Rino)

King Krush has charge anyway but yes, however that would be a 10 mana combo and the rhino seldom survives the previous turn in constructed. So maybe it's good, or maybe on turn 10 you have a 2/5 charger, and a 1/1 charging webspinner from the wrangler dude.

THE GRAND TOURNAMENT launches tomorrow!

I've just this moment tipped over to 4500 gold so that'll be 45 packs tomorrow, as today's quest is done and I won't be earning more than another 10/20 gold through normal wins today, as MAME beckons. (6825 dust in the bank too, if I don't get that new Warrior legendary out of my packs I'm sure as hell going to craft him. He is going to be awesome in Control Warrior.)

STATS WISE eight weeks of saving yielding 4500 gold equals 562 gold per week which isn't too bad, especially considering I've been playing the game at a lower rate of knots than I used to.

I've watched Trump and Kripp's final reviews and for sure there's a lot of shit in the expansion, but at the same time plenty of solid cards and a handful of really good ones too.

EXCITEMENT.

A lot of gimmicky stuff in the cards I played with in Tavern Brawl, but I shall get 12 or so packs and then see what happens.