Hearthstone is a fast-paced Card Game set in the Warcraft universe. Players collect individual cards from a pool of over 300, and build customized decks around one of 9 distinct classes. New cards can be unlocked by opening Booster Packs, or through the in-game Crafting system.
Hearthstone is not a game where spending obscene amounts of money, or investing hundreds of hours in a daily grind will give you a clear edge over your opponent. The vast majority of Hearthstone games are won by the player who displays superior decision-making and risk assessment. Only a small percentage of matches are decided by deck superiority, bad starting hands, or random outcomes.
Hearthstone is designed around correspondence gameplay, meaning you don't make any decisions during your opponent's turn, and only need to pay attention on your own turns. This means it's easy to to play on a second monitor, laptop or tablet. You can play it while AFKing in the MMO of your choice, and it's even possible to play it while writing the OP of a thread, although I don't recommend doing this if you plan to play Rogue :{
Hearthstone isn't what most people expect from a 'Free To Play' game. The thing that sets Hearthstone apart is that it really is absolutely free. Throwing money at booster packs will is possible, but will only leave you heartbroken and regretful. Trying to rush a class to level 50 is possible, but will cause you to spend a lot more time losing, than if you worked your way through Arena Mode. The most enjoyable Hearthstone experience is to simply collect gold from Daily Objectives, play Arena Mode for free once every 4 days, and play an hour or two of Constructed decks when you feel like it.
Hearthstone isn't a life-encompassing game, like a new MMO release, or something you should sit down and practice for 4 hours a day, like Dota 2. It's, a fast, skill-based game that's perfect for playing in short bursts, but has enough depth and variety to never get stale. So just put this apple on your head, give me a quest and pull up a chair by the hearth. Mind if I roll weeeed?
The top-left of each card displays it's Mana Cost. This is how many Mana Crystals you need to spend, in order to play the card. The Crystals all refill at the start of each of your turns, so while you'll have to wait until Turn 3 to play this card, you'd also be able to spend that turn playing 3 cards that only cost 1 Mana each, or any other combination you can afford.
Attack : A Minion's purpose is to fight, and once you've paid the Mana cost and played the card, it enters the battlefield where it will (hopefully) engage in battles. The Attack stat shows the amount of damage the card will deal to anything it enters into combat with.
Health : When a minion does receive damage, it's loses health equal to the damage it's being dealt, and if the health remaining ever reaches zero, the Minion instantly dies. For example, if two Flesheating Ghouls were to enter combat with each other, they'd both deal two damage to the other Ghoul's 3 health. Both Ghouls would survive, but would be left on a single remaining health point. Unlike some TCGs, a Minion can only gain it's health back if an effect or Spell Card allows you to heal it.
Type : Some Minions have a specific 'Type' printed on the card. Some spells will affect “all Beasts”, or only trigger when “a Murloc attacks”. Not all Minions have a type, but so far we've seen Beasts, Dragons, Demons, Murlocs and Pirates.
The vast majority of Minions will also have an Effect printed on the card. The very best effects allow you to draw a card or indiscriminately destroy an opponent's Minion, but there are also some interesting combos that can be setup by having Minions with different effects in play. Because some of these effects are similar, they're often written with 'Keywords' that are fully explained when you mouse over the card.
Battlecry : This effect happens when the card is played, as The Minion enters the battlefield. If you can somehow return the minion to your hand, you can play it again to get it's Battlecry a second time.
Charge : The Minion is immune to Summoning Sickness, and may attack the turn it's played.
Combo : This effect only happens if a card has already been played this turn.
Deathrattle : This effect happens when the Minion is destroyed.
Divine Shield : The first time this minion is damaged, the entire damage is absorbed.
Enrage : One the minion has been damaged (by anything), it will permanantly receive it's Enrage effect, if it's healed.
Silence : When a minion is silenced, all effects written on the card are removed.
Stealth : A stealthed minion cannot be attacked or targetted by any effects.
Taunt : If a Minion has Taunt, the opponent cannot attack your hero (or any of your other minions), until it's destroyed.
Every time a player plays a Minion card, it enters play, any 'Battlecry' effects happen, and then.. It just stands there. Unexplained TCG Law #1 decrees that they have 'Summoning Sickness', which prevents them from attacking until your next turn. This means that any Minions already in play will be able to get a free shot at it before it can do anything. This is why going first and being able to play your 7-cost Minion a turn earlier than your opponent's 7-cost Minion is a big advantage.
However, the player going second gets to draw one extra card, and also receives another card called The Coin, which they can play at any time in the game, to receive 1 (temporary) mana. This is generally considered to be an even bigger advantage than going first.
When your next turn rolls around and the Summoning Sickness wears off, your Minion can start attacking things. Unlike some TCGs, you'll be able to choose the target of your Minions' attacks – you can either attacj their hero, or any of their Minions. When a Minion enters combat with another Minion, they each deal damage to each other at the same time, based on their Attack stat, and lose Health equal to the opponent's Attack stat.
The best way to control the game is to create combat situations where your Minion will kill the opposing Minion, without dying itself. Having a Minion enter combat and live to see the next turn is a great thing, because the opponent has not only lost one card to it in combat, but will now have to use another card to kill it. This is known as 'Card Advantage', and creating situations where you can use one card to either destroy or waste two of your opponent's cards will quickly help you dominate games.
The game continues until one player can attack his opponent's hero enough to reduce their health to zero. Some crazy stuff usually happens along the way, involving weapons, dragons and the fetching of Arclight Spanners.. Whatever they are.
Was really hyped about Heartstone, but the more I've seen of it the less I'm interested. Never been one for daily quests and grind2play mechanics.
dat murlogs
anyone still playing this?
yes
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
[R]eporting for duty
Someone explain this to me please WTF :!:(click to show/hide)
It really is pay 2 stay with the meta, I've not bought either of the expansions and its either a horrible grind to get them or paying 60 bucks for 10 cards which you really need to compete against others.Yeah its great.
The only thing you can do as a new player is play Arena, and those you can only do one of per 3 days (unless you make a profit in Arena but then you have to know alot of stuff already about hearthstone).