Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm in a hotel in York. I know, to stave off boredom i'll play some Hearthstone!

Down for maintenance

Another thing i hate is when people start saying "thank you" for everything you do, implying that you're doing bad plays and actually helping them. Idiots. I'm glad Blizzard eliminated text from the game. i can only wonder what kind of toxic environment that would be.

Meh nuts to that, achievement goals are reached naturally without using an already beaten player to tick off quest objectives, I certainly wouldn't think of doing that myself, and always go for the killing blow as soon as I'm able to do so, anything else is just being rude and an arsehole IMO.

I always give an opponent chance to land the killing blow as that's polite, but if he starts tossing around with grandiose plays or anything else that doesn't just finish me off, I press the concede button and that's that.

Really? Works for me. I see it was down in the early hours, but that's hours ago.

Squelch is the answer for that shit.



Totally agree. However, there IS text, but only amongst 'friends'.

Up and running now

The cool thing about this game is that it's totally laptop friendly, we've got an old Sony Vaio laptop that was pretty damn good back in its day but it's 4 1/2 years old now (Core Duo M, 4GB RAM, 4650M GPU with 1GB of its own RAM, 1080p screen), and of course the battery was totally shagged.

One new battery later and I've got a perfect Hearthstone gaming machine that lasts well over two hours on a single charge, worked very well on Saturday night when Mrs AE was out and AE Jnr was watching a film and then doing all her bedtime routines

(As an aside, the original hard drive the laptop came with died, so I replaced it with a second hand 128GB SSD that I bought for £50, and the bugger absolutely flies, really impressive for such an old laptop.)

Having lots of comms issues tonight. I can see the other guy moving his pointer around and looking at cards, but every so often it just sits there and doesn't allow me to do anything. Occasionally it has frozen for the duration of my turn, which is frustrating as you can imagine...

Is that maybe just down to notoriously horrible hotel internet?

Last time I was in the UK I tried to use the internet there (which the fuckers charged me £10 for) and for any sort of gaming activity it was essentially a waste of time.

It doesn't even load on the hotel internet, this is using my phone which has a strong HSPDA+ signal.
I suspect it is to do with the connection, but when it freezes up all other internet stuff is working fine. Doesn't bode well for how resilient it is going to be!
I tried it on the train via my mobile connection on the way up, planning to play the practice games against the AI, but it turns out even those matches are fully run on the servers and not in the end client at all, so that was a no-go.

I've got every character up to level 10 now though, but I don't want to do any arena until i'm back on a proper connection

You all sound like the kind of people I like to play against. Taking it all personally and easily rattled!

I think my priest is up to level 33, as I like him. Balance in this game is pretty good. A well-played hand by any character can beat me and often does. It's frustrating to lose but I don't think my opponents are pricks because they've won, or even if they chuck down a couple of pointless cards before they kill me.

At the moment the most unbalanced card is the Frothing Beserker. Too much health and the fact it buffs attack when ANY minion is injured is far too powerful. Getting rid of them is disportionally difficult and at the very least its health needs nerfing.

So, you've met the wife?

Well, most people play with silencers, so i don't think the beserker is that powerful.

In fact i don't remember any card right now that is way too powerfull, which is a good sign.

I'd go for the Priest's (spit!) Mind Control card - even though it costs 10 mana it's still extremely annoying to have some wet Priest nick one of your good cards. But then they have other theft related cards too. Should just rename Priest to Thief.

I had an hilarious game once. I believe I had a nice, game-winningly strong Gurubashi Berseker that a Priest stole from me using a Mind Control.

"Ha!", I thought. "You think you're so clever?", and pow, I stole it right back with my own Mind Control. I chucklesomely then said 'Thank you' to indicate my smugness.

The bastard then stole it right back with a second Mind Control. I had to laugh.

Just had arguably the dream game.

I was playing my warrior against another warrior but the dude was seriously holding back so I knew he had some heavy stuff and/or specific plays coming on later in the game, he was kind of 'parrying' me more than anything else, and holding onto a lot of cards.

True enough out comes the 8 mana legendary warrior Grommash Hellscream card (decent base stats and a savage +6 enrage).

I've got my Faceless Manipulator in my hand so immediately play that and copy Hellscream, then I attack my own Hellscream with Cruel Taskmaster which adds on +2 attack at the cost of 1 health AND triggers the +6 enrage so all of a sudden I've got a 12/9 Hellscream of my own and a taunt down too.

He then replies with a fucking army of murlocs which he's been holding onto and they all buff each other too, so my Hellscream only has one turn in him, since he's missing a taunt I take 12 health off his hero and let his Hellscream live.

He then loses most of his murloc army to take out my Hellscream, and then enrages his Hellscream, ready to unload a can of whip-ass on me next turn.

Oops! He's now got an attack of 7 or better so my Big Game Hunter one shots him.

Needless to say he didn't win the game.

I'd love to watch a replay of that game, it was so perfect you could almost taste it.

And now I've just lost three on the trot and my dream of getting Rank 19 has been shattered.

Some of these legendary cards are stupidly powerful and hard to counter if you're running with pogger decks like I am.

Have you seen the image with all the basic decks builds in it? It's a good starting point for each class.

http://i.imgur.com/OmfQKEG.png

Hmmm... servers seem to be down at the moment

and back up

This is the kind of thing I get addicted to, so I must avoid it.

Honestly Curio I'm very much the obsessional type myself (as my total WoW playing time will bear testament to...) but it genuinely is easy to take this game in relatively small doses. Just 15-30 minutes if you feel like it, or a longer session if you're in the mood.

It's an exquisite piece of work, it really is. And for free, why not give it a try.....?

I don't have any legendary and i'm usually around ranks 12 and 13. I don't think they are essential at all, which is another proof of how good the game is.

Magic The Gathering was ruined by overpowered rares, which is something i hope it doesn't happen with hearthstone.

Well yes it is entirely possible I'm just a bit rubbish

Nearly hit Rank 19 before and that's the best I've managed so far

FUCK. PRIESTS.

Seriously, fuck them in their fucking eyeholes.

EDIT - Removed unnecessary pic of man being fucked in the eyehole

If i do okay this then I'm definitely going to do so as a Priest

I posted that last night when I was a drop of wine to the good and got VERY ANNOYED at the cheaty antics of a priest. I couldn't work out how to delete the attachment so re-posted it this morning minus the pic.

(The pic wasn't that bad, it was just a still from A Serbian Film where Miloš beats the shit out of Raša and then kills him by jamming his erect knob into his eye socket, but the pic I took wasn't that graphic so not to be too NSFW and stuff.)

Priests bug the hell out of me - they steal cards/minions, copy and buff their own health and that of their minions and are no fun at all to play against.

Stop whining and have better tactics

A gentlemanly and noble warrior such as myself has no retort to a cassock-lifting kiddy-fiddling cheaty bastard priest!

I just conceded on Turn 3 because I made a mistake that really pissed me off AND THEN I LOST A FUCKING STAR.

Me vs pally, pally goes fist.

Turn 1:

Him - Secret
Me - Pass

Turn 2:

Him - Frostwolf Grunt
Me - Frostwolf Grunt

Turn 3:

Him - Demolisher <<<< ALERT ALERT, these things are fucking dangerous, take out ASAP!
Me - No problem I think, my Grunt can take out his Grunt (they're 2/2), then I can just Heroic Strike the Demolisher.

So my Grunt attacks his Grunt and the secret is triggered, spawns a stupid 2/1 defender as the new target so my Grunt gets killed and so does the defender, but his Grunt is still up and I can't Heroic Strike the Demolisher until the Grunt is dead because it's got taunt. (The Heroic Strike is perfect to kill the Demolisher 'cause it's 1/4 and the Heroic Strike is 4 damage.)

I can still do it though! I equip my Fiery War Axe (2 mana, primary hero attack) and kill his Grunt, play the Mana Coin card to increased my mana from 1 to 2, and then play Heroic Strike and try to nuke his Demolisher, at which point I'm told that my hero has already attacked and can't attack again this turn.

The thing that really fucked me off is I've now wasted the Heroic Strike, because it's a +4 attack on the current turn only, and it's a powerful low cost card.

I was so fucked off in fact that I just conceded in an emo rage quit stylee, to which my opponent emoted 'Thank you' and then I watched a star disappear from my ranking.

FUCK!

And while we're at it mages can fuck off with that fucking flamestrike as well.

I give up with my warrior.

IT'S ROGUE TIME - slippery bastards that they are I hate playing against them so they must have something going for them.

I've just had an interminably long game against a Warrior - I usually like long games but this arse was taking all of his allotted time each turn and often he only had 3 or 4 cards in his hand so the decision process for each turn wasn't a lengthy one.

But I won.

I haven't had any deliberate time wasters yet in that mould, but have had a few who've apparently just gone AFK when it's obvious they're going to lose and then I have to wait for them to time out on every turn whilst I finish them off.

I did very well with my rogue last night but my performance got progressively worse as the evening went on, which I can only attribute to the intake of wine, as I was starting to make mistakes and miss some pretty obvious plays as I imbibed more.

DON'T DRINK AND HEARTHSTONE!

I just went 10/3 in an Arena run and was rather handsomely rewarded. 275 Gold, an epic card, and a card pack.

Mild adrenaline rush at hidding 10 wins, really thought I might go the full 12. It was a great paledin draft, and so close! Never mind.

You have to make some assumptions and play accordingly. Don't play decent minions with <= 4 health against a mage before turn 7. Bait out a flamestrike with enough to make him use it, and then respond with some decent cards you've kept back.

Same goes against Paledins. Assume a Consecration potential (2 dmg to all) or Hammer of Wrath (3 dmg) on turn 4. Priest, Holy Nova turn 5. etc.

Sometimes you have to let stuff die, put it out there *knowing* it'll die, and prepare to eat some damage until you're ready to play your proper combo.

One of the guys in this Arena run played a polymorph against a 3/3 with Divine Shield. He regretted wasting that (it was a weak play), when I got Ysera out next turn. Keep the good stuff back unless you're utterly desperate.

I think my best in Arena so far is 5/3, however last night I went 0/3 twice in a row, which was really annoying. Not a huge amount you can do with a shit card draw though, especially if you're not that good at the game in the first place

I've gone back to Jaina for a little bit in play mode, as she is the only character that I have a legendary for, which makes a big difference in winning matches!

It was quite the run, I went from 2/2 to 10/2.

The draw is hugely important. I was a Paledin but wasn't offered Blessing of Kings once, but I was offered Ysera which made the critical difference in at least 3 or 4 of the matches. Sometimes I don't get a legendary at all.

I think a run of 3/3 is where you start being profitable doing Arena vs. buying packs with gold. I've played a bunch and have acquired many decks, but even now I rarely have much excess to disenchant - there are just too many cards.

Highly enjoyable and I'll keep playing for some time to come. My constructed decks are rather nice but I only have a couple of legendaries.

For some hilarious nonsense, watch TotalBiscuit's 'Lord of the Legendaries' series. He plays constructed entirely with decks of Legendary cards.

The Jaina legendary I have gives me an extra fireball spell every time I cast a spell. If you save your initial fireballs till after you play it, it is devastating

I've had that played against me a few times of late - it always gets turned into a sheep right away.



As an aside, I'm so very tired of playing against rush decks (mine is more control). They're such brainless decks and aren't at all challenging to play against (I beat most of them). Give me a good long battle of wits against another control deck any day.

I think I dislike Murloc rush decks the most. If you're not set up specifically to put them down, they can be a right pain.

I played as a Shaman in the last arena I did. The last match I pulled all the shaman buff cards at the start, and didn't even get a single minion card to play until about round 4 or 5. I had so many cards in my hand, none of which I could do anything with, and by the time I got a minion card they came out one at a time, so they got killed as soon as I dropped them.

Incredibly frustrating game to play.

On the flip side, my last Jaina match I was down to 1 health at round 7 or so, yet still won in the end due to flamestrike, legendary, and fireball chaining. I suspect the guy I was playing against wasn't happy

It depends - if you manage to stop the initial rush in the first four turns then they are usually screwed. I play as a control Mage (hardly any spells!) and the Fireblast hero power is invaluable for that.

I always run on the assumption that a mage will have a flamestrike, but you can't necessarily assume that they have two, and sooner or later you're going to have to get some minions out there - depending on how your cards are dealt and how the game is going there's no choice sometimes but to simply take a risk and hope he isn't packing two.

It's like when playing a priest I'll assume he has mind control and try to bait him into using it with a decent minion when I still have a better one in my deck, but if he's got two mind controls AND has had them both dealt into his deck, what are you going to do about that?

Don't get me wrong I'm sure all of my games probably contain several sub-optimal plays and the situations could be handled more elegantly by a better player than myself, but some of the sucker punch moves can sting nonetheless.

Don't know about anyone else but I'd getting really tired of the current rush of ...... well, Rush Decks! There's so many of the damn things (mostly hunter, but not exclusively), and for sombody like me who loves a long drawn-out game of skill and talent against a like-minded player the rush decks are a real bore.



BTW, anyone seen this:

It's kind of Hearthstone mixed with The Banner Saga. Looks bloody nice too - think I might back it.

Oh, and it's a game that you pay for up front - none of this "pay to win" nonsense.

I watched two hours of those videos last night and I'll probably do the same tonight, fantastic entertainment and really interesting to see how he plays with the mechanics of the game as well

Used to love his WoW videos too.

Just goes to show how easy it is to win when playing an aggro style, even with a non aggro deck - my Mage deck is is a control deck, yet if I just go for the opponent's face I can win most of the time (although I don't like to play like that - control is much for fun as it makes me think and work out strategies).

This of course explains why there are so many aggro decks out there, particularly when playing as Rexxar - there's simply no brain power involved, a trained monkey could win - just go for the face all of the time.

Seems that Hearthstone is a tad flawed .......

Blizz will balance it out, they'll be gathering a HUGE amount of data from the open beta and I'd be amazed if there wasn't a pretty serious rebalancing before it goes live, despite them saying they'd prefer not to do another big rebalance like they did before the closed beta went to open.

EDIT - And we do have to remember that it is still a beta!