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[Rockyrock]

Maybe it was because it was the end of the season, but I started playing ranked and got up to 15 pretty smoothly with my priest deck (season ended, I don't know how far I could've gone). I changed the deck afterwards and i'm having more of a difficult time now but I'm not sure if that's because all the ranks reset or if my deck's a bit more shit now.

the end of the season is easier to rank up because the vast majority of good players have already made it to the high ranks.

the beginning of the season is always difficult because those people are now at the same rank as you, so naturally you are going to lose more.

and on top of that you're playing the hardest class in the game.

 

[Water]

With Zoo a lot of people try to play it as a pure or heavy aggro deck instead of a low mana cost deck built around managing board control through creatures that trade very well from a value perspective.

The idea is to overwhelm like you would in an aggro deck, but you want to do so by wiping the enemy off the board each turn and then still having a lot of creatures left over to do damage.
...
You can watch Reynad explain how to properly play zoo here along with a deck list that's actually built around efficiency: http://tempostorm.com/articles/modern-zoo-reynad-s-guide-to-the-new-zoolock

Yep, classic Reynad zoo is not super-aggressive. If you want to play more aggressive than that, you have to use a different deck where it is the correct play. I have been doing lock dailies with Erom's "16hp I must be safe" deck that generally starts the game looking and feeling like zoo, but switches to the face quicker and finishes with huge burst which the classic zoo cannot do. It doesn't have the meaty minions to keep trading forever like zoo does, so it'll generally be forced to lose board position, but can afford to do so since it can do so much damage from the hand. Also springs right back in action after board clears, and has some silences so that one or two taunts don't ruin your day.

http://www.liquidhearth.com/forum/constructed-strategy/458017-eroms-16hp-lock-guide

Hellfire in that deck often results in mega-lulz. Plenty of people never see it coming from a "zoo" and will dump endless minions on the board. Value++

 

[scy]

With Zoo a lot of people try to play it as a pure or heavy aggro deck instead of a low mana cost deck built around managing board control through creatures that trade very well from a value perspective.

This is the better look at how Zoo really does function. It's a low mana curve deck that serves to control the board through use of high innate value minions and buffs to get as many value trades as possible. Since Hearthstone is attacker advantaged, this is essentially the best archetype for that kind of aggro-control playstyle.

People saying that the deck is purely "just throw stuff at their face" or that it has absolutely no lines of play just kind of reflect a low amount of game knowledge. Zoo is not about hitting their face as a goal, it's about being in position to freely do so. Most of the Zoo plays are about what's the best order of plays (and positions of said plays) since the deck is all about dumping as much of the hand as efficiently as possible due to the existence of Soulfire and Doomguard's forced discard.

Granted, there are variants for going to the face but they're just that: variants. You take the Zoo theme and start subbing out cards to shift it one way or the other. You can usually tell, however, based off the plays (e.g., it's a more aggro variant if you see a Leper Gnome or aggressive Charge use).

 

[ZealousD]

If you want to compare zoo to an actual facedeck, compare it to shockadin.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

are the servers down right now?

 

[frequency]

Paladin seems like a way better class for aggressive face punching. Free (in terms of cards) 1/1s. You can race way better than with life tap, which is like the anti-race ability. I don't know why you would go for a more face-oriented Zoo deck when you can just go with Paladin.

Also when things go wrong and the opponents board gets out of control, Equality and/or Consecrate is a wonderful "reset". Way better than Hellfire, which also blows up your board.

 

[Cipherr]

I want to start crafting cards but I need to disenchant cards first. I'm wondering, is it possible to have more than 2 of any certain type of card? Im thinking of disenchanting cards to make ones I want, but I'm not hot on the idea of losing total access to any of the few cards I own.

 

[thisisalan]

are the servers down right now?

Yep:

 

[JesseZao]

I want to start crafting cards but I need to disenchant cards first. I'm wondering, is it possible to have more than 2 of any certain type of card? Im thinking of disenchanting cards to make ones I want, but I'm not hot on the idea of losing total access to any of the few cards I own.

Anything over 2 copies is worthless. The only siutation where holding on to more than 2 would be better, is if you think the card will get nerfed soon. Then it will give full value, after they change the card, for a limited time.

My advice would be to avoid cannibalizing your collection. Just take your time and earn cards through arena and DE the extras to make the rares you want. If you take it slower, you're more likely to get cards from packs that you don't have, which is obviously better value.

 

[Pyros_Eien]

If you know the value of cards, there's a bunch of rare/epics that are simply more or less crap that you'd never use anyway, so those make good dusts. Also you can get more than 2 of a card which is useless, there's a disenchant all duplicates card button or something like that that will let you remove everything over 2. Note that it doesn't add golden and normal, that's something else you can remove, if you have 1golden and 2 normal, disenchanting a normal is fine since you'll still have 2 total, or disenchant the golden if you don't care much about it, I've disenchanted most of my gold cards early on to craft other stuff, there's only a handful I like and don't care for the all gold thing.

Dropping a bit of money to get a good start is also a valid choice, not necessary by any means but I think the game is easily worth 20bucks or whatever and that will get you a nice bunch of cards, some of which will make a nice bunch of dusts too.

 

[TomServo]

Got Ysera from a pack this morning, and it seems to fit nicely into my work-in-progress Druid deck. In fact a dream card win the first match I played after putting Ysera into the deck.

I've only pulled three legendary cards, but I can't complain about the ones I pulled - Grom, TBK, and Ysera.

Grom works really well with my modified tempo warrior deck. I play it like zoo - cheap minions maintains board control - and try to set up a win with Grom + inner rage on turn 8.

 

[JesseZao]

Anyone can get to rank 5 with their own average to decent deck. If you want live proof, check out Athene's steeam. He has some very questionable cards in his healadin deck (i.e. double divine favor and acolytes) and he makes some pretty dumb plays. Despite that, he's currently rank 6.

If you want legendary, you'll need to have a more tightly tuned deck for the meta and it'll probably end up looking like a netdeck at that point.

 

[Haines]

You may not be net decking good decks

try druid if you have the cards. Most solid class in the game currently

We'll the last two I tried was kalentos new paladin deck and tempo storms fast Druid.

If you have any good decks I have the cards for, I'd love to try them.

 

[Procarbine]

Got Ysera from a pack this morning, and it seems to fit nicely into my work-in-progress Druid deck. In fact a dream card win the first match I played after putting Ysera into the deck.

I've only pulled three legendary cards, but I can't complain about the ones I pulled - Grom, TBK, and Ysera.

Grom works really well with my modified tempo warrior deck. I play it like zoo - cheap minions maintains board control - and try to set up a win with Grom + inner rage on turn 8.

I've found two nozdormus

Spoiler

And a golden baron geddon

 

[ZealousD]

http://kotaku.com/how-to-scare-off-your-hearthstone-opponent-in-one-turn-1602954999

Lol. Man that would suck.

 

[Haines]

My legendary drops have all been top tier aside from maybe 2 out of 10. Black knight and ysera I'm missing tho

Wasn't hearthstone supposed to be back up half an hour go?

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

I've disenchanted shitty priest epics (e.g Shadowform x2) to make other things.

No shame.

Not like I plan to play priest anytime soon.

Current focus now is getting the key epics that'll let me play Druid, but total dust cost will be more than a legendary. Need 2x both ancients (at least 2x lore), at least one faceless, at least one BGH, and possibly a second force of nature before I can play it. Not to mention Cenarius, but he's more optional.

 

[ZealousD]

Not like I plan to play priest anytime soon.

Naxx might change that.

 

[JesseZao]

I can't watch Athene anymore. It's gotten to the point where he's just legitimately awful or he's making bad plays on purpose in hopes that people rage and continue to watch.

Either way. I'm done. Wish there were decent players on during midday to pass the time at work.

 

[johnsmith]

Trump and Forsen are both on. Why don't you just watch them?

 

[Professor Lich]

I still think it would be cool if there was a Death Rattle eater card, but it'll probably won't happen because it might turn into a card that everyone would use.

If I were to make it though, it wouldn't be like the Blood Knight. I think it'd be cool if it got powered up when any death rattle went off, but instead of having that effect, it would just get buffed instead. Then you could combo it with Baron Rivendare and double the fun!

 

[thisisalan]

NA servers are back up now.

 

[JesseZao]

Trump and Forsen are both on. Why don't you just watch them?

Forsen is alright, just was having peoblems with his stream earlier for whatever reason. If trump isn't playing arena he can be okay, but generally he's boring to watch.

 

[Aylinato]

Forsen is alright, just was having peoblems with his stream earlier for whatever reason. If trump isn't playing arena he can be okay, but generally he's boring to watch.

Man trump is awesome to watch when he gets greedy and it backfires on him. Lol

 

[Boba2007]

Was going to play an Arena, but apparently you can't play when the shop is down, even with Gold. These three Mage quests will have to wait...

 

[Super Nothing]

http://kotaku.com/how-to-scare-off-your-hearthstone-opponent-in-one-turn-1602954999

Lol. Man that would suck.

I had a guy drop a Boulderfist Ogre on me on turn one. I didn't concede, just because I refuse to, but it didn't turn out well for me.

 

[Tacitus_]

Forsen is alright, just was having peoblems with his stream earlier for whatever reason. If trump isn't playing arena he can be okay, but generally he's boring to watch.

Well he is playing Arena right now. And I like watching him either way... as long as he isn't playing freeze mage because that deck is boring as fuck.

 

[frequency]

I hate when Trump is streaming his "studying" of better players like Forsen and Kolento. Watching someone quietly (mostly) watch someone else is the most boring thing ever.

Do that on your own free time. Don't stream it...

 

[Water]

Paladin seems like a way better class for aggressive face punching. Free (in terms of cards) 1/1s. You can race way better than with life tap, which is like the anti-race ability. I don't know why you would go for a more face-oriented Zoo deck when you can just go with Paladin.

Why not? Warlock has Flame Imp, Soulfire, Power Overwhelming, Voidwalker all at one mana or less. In terms of pure speed, Paladin isn't close. The hero ability in particular is really slow - naked 1/1 for 2 mana?

Also when things go wrong and the opponents board gets out of control, Equality and/or Consecrate is a wonderful "reset". Way better than Hellfire, which also blows up your board.

Equality and Consecrate are kinda slow, and bad against small and not-small minions respectively, better for a slightly slower deck. Equality doesn't even damage the opponent or kill anything by itself. Hellfire isn't a cornerstone of Warlock aggro, just a nice surprise you can throw in; I don't think anyone would want to play two copies, just one. But together with trading in your own minions, it kills just about everything, and does 3 damage to the opponent to boot. If the trade-Hellfire combo downs all opposing taunts and you have a bit of mana left, you can still follow up with stuff from the hand like Bluegill-PO-Soulfire (3 mana, 10 more in the face) or AG-Soulfire (3 mana, 8 more in the face) on the same turn.

 

[frequency]

Why not? Warlock has Flame Imp, Soulfire, Power Overwhelming, Voidwalker all at one mana or less. In terms of pure speed, Paladin isn't close. The hero ability in particular is really slow - naked 1/1 for 2 mana?
Equality and Consecrate are kinda slow, and bad against small and not-small minions respectively, better for a slightly slower deck. Equality doesn't even damage the opponent or kill anything by itself. Hellfire isn't a cornerstone of Warlock aggro, just a nice surprise you can throw in; I don't think anyone would want to play two copies, just one. But together with trading in your own minions, it kills just about everything, and does 3 damage to the opponent to boot. If the trade-Hellfire combo downs all opposing taunts and you have a bit of mana left, you can still follow up with stuff from the hand like Bluegill-PO-Soulfire (3 mana, 10 more in the face) or AG-Soulfire (3 mana, 8 more in the face) on the same turn.

I haven't run it myself. It just seems that exploding your own face with Flame Imps and Hero Power and possibly Hellfire doesn't come off as a particularly good way to race.

I don't really play face decks myself but I see more Paladins than I do Warlocks in super aggressive face smashing roles. And I personally have more problems with Paladins who I can never stabilize against because of their board clears. Warlocks though tend to fizzle out as they get lower on health from all the damage they do to themselves. And Warlocks seem to have worse trades against a wall of taunts while a Paladin can equality and trade those 1/1s for my former 5/10s.

But Warlocks have higher burst I guess for if my draws are just garbage and I can't stop them.

 

[Lyng]

Miracle Rogue is not ez mode. Control warrior and handlock are not ez mode. You can screw up your plays in many ways on any turn when you play these decks. The older midrange hunter was pretty tricky to pilot as well, the new version is a bit simpler to play.

Control warrior is very easy to play, just very expensive. Handlock is just as easy.

 

[Vio-Lence]

whatever decks ppl play against me are ez. the decks i play r hard.

round and round.

 

[Tacitus_]

I haven't run it myself. It just seems that exploding your own face with Flame Imps and Hero Power and possibly Hellfire doesn't come off as a particularly good way to race.

I don't really play face decks myself but I see more Paladins than I do Warlocks in super aggressive face smashing roles. And I personally have more problems with Paladins who I can never stabilize against because of their board clears. Warlocks though tend to fizzle out as they get lower on health from all the damage they do to themselves. And Warlocks seem to have worse trades against a wall of taunts while a Paladin can equality and trade those 1/1s for my former 5/10s.

But Warlocks have higher burst I guess for if my draws are just garbage and I can't stop them.

Warlocks can smash your face in really good. I've done some gross combos with power overwhelming, charger and soulfire.
If you drop in, say, the arcane golem and have two POs in hand and a soulfire.. thats 16dmg out of hand by turn 5. A bit extreme I know, but I've done it. Felt a bit bad afterwards.

 

[frequency]

Warlocks can smash your face in really good. I've done some gross combos with power overwhelming, charger and soulfire.
If you drop in, say, the arcane golem and have two POs in hand and a soulfire.. thats 16dmg out of hand by turn 5. A bit extreme I know, but I've done it. Felt a bit bad afterwards.

I can see that happening.

I think it's usually less of a problem for me personally though.

I tend to have a decent number of taunts in my deck ever since the rush Hunter days. Miracle reinforced that even more. Lots of burst in the current meta and I tend to play slower decks so I don't like leaving my face exposed for very long.

It still seems to me that Paladin would be a more consistent deck, not so reliant on combos? But anyway, I'll just say I was wrong overall about Warlocks not being so good at racing. I don't have the experience to back that up but you guys do!

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Weird, it says "shop closed" over the shop button in game.

 

[Ashodin]

Weird, it says "shop closed" over the shop button in game.

NAXX Confirmed

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

NAXX Confirmed

I do remember them releasing a patch on a thursday before if I remember correctly.

But I don't see maintenance announcement heheh

 

[Haines]

It's done that before. I'm not sure why it happens. Naxos was confirmed to not come today via twitter tho

 

[Officerrob]

http://kotaku.com/how-to-scare-off-your-hearthstone-opponent-in-one-turn-1602954999

Lol. Man that would suck.

That's cute and all, but why the hell was he playing The Beast

 

[Kettch]

I still think it would be cool if there was a Death Rattle eater card, but it'll probably won't happen because it might turn into a card that everyone would use.

If I were to make it though, it wouldn't be like the Blood Knight. I think it'd be cool if it got powered up when any death rattle went off, but instead of having that effect, it would just get buffed instead. Then you could combo it with Baron Rivendare and double the fun!

Make it so that the card steals the deathrattle for itself. Like a deathrattle mind control. Could be targeted or random, however you want to balance it.

 

[ZealousD]

That's cute and all, but why the hell was he playing The Beast

Can you think of any other 6 drop that poses a greater threat on Turn 2?

The Beast is a bad card only because of the deathrattle. At Turn 2, you aren't going to punch through 7 HP. You'd need hard removal.

So basically, no other 6 drop in the game is more likely to force an auto concede on turn 2. Probably ran it just to make the video.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Can you think of any other 6 drop that poses a greater threat on Turn 2?

The Beast is a bad card only because of the deathrattle. At Turn 2, you aren't going to punch through 7 HP. You'd need hard removal.

So basically, no other 6 drop in the game is more likely to force an auto concede on turn 2. Probably ran it just to make the video.

If only the Paladin had Humility in-hand for turn 2.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I think valeera has the best greeting because it not only servers as a greeting.

Because I do so love beating miracle rogues.

Yes, all the pleasure! All the pleasure is mine! I'll take that pleasure, <snatch>, true to rogue style.

edit:

Maybe the store is just closed due to traffic reasons, but the forums are acting wonky so maybe they are doing something back end to enable naxx. It could be all the naxx content is already on our pcs.

 

[ViviOggi]

It's done that before. I'm not sure why it happens. Naxos was confirmed to not come today via twitter tho

I like how quick they are to confirm something isn't coming but had to delay a pricing announcement by a week

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I like how quick they are to confirm something isn't coming but had to delay a pricing announcement by a week

I think they would know if they are releasing today or not lol

 

[pdog128]

Not to hijack the thread, but I just started playing today and am trying to unlock all the classes. I keep beating them in Practice, but it's not unlocking them. Is there something special I have to do?

Also, any general advice for someone just starting out at this point in the game? I'm playing a Druid right now, just because I always play Druid classes in games. I also loved my Druid in WoW. Are they over/underpowered?

 

[OJdaKiller]

Not to hijack the thread, but I just started playing today and am trying to unlock all the classes. I keep beating them in Practice, but it's not unlocking them. Is there something special I have to do?

Also, any general advice for someone just starting out at this point in the game? I'm playing a Druid right now, just because I always play Druid classes in games. I also loved my Druid in WoW. Are they over/underpowered?

General start tips:

1. Play each class to level ten..You unlock them all that way plus get their standard cards.

2. Beat each Hard level AI once to get additional gold reward.

3. Find a starter build online. Hearthpwn is a good site.

4. Start practicing. I think at 100 victories in ranked you get additional gold as well.

5. Don't be afraid to buy a 40pack of cards if you like the game. Beats grinding. Don't waste gold on arena until you feel confident in your ability to win and know how to play multiple classes with different cards.

I like the Druid. I haven't been following the meta but a couple of months ago I started playing a Druid and I think they are strong..You can get easy mana advantage, decent removal, and good for control play. It's the only class I bother playing competitively now, but I have a lot of Legendary cards to supplement my deck, so I'm not sure how good a Druid would be stock.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Not to hijack the thread, but I just started playing today and am trying to unlock all the classes. I keep beating them in Practice, but it's not unlocking them. Is there something special I have to do?

Also, any general advice for someone just starting out at this point in the game? I'm playing a Druid right now, just because I always play Druid classes in games. I also loved my Druid in WoW. Are they over/underpowered?

You should only have to beat them once to unlock and it doesn't matter whether it is practice or against another player.

Druid has consistently been a top class and may even get better over time. They are very versatile so I don't think you'll regret playing them. Ancients of lore and druids of the claw are two cards you should aim to get asap since they are pretty much staple in every deck. Also make sure you get to level 10 to unlock each basic card for the class you don't get immediately.

edit:
I would aim to get these 2 each of these 3 cards

ancients of lore - 7cc 5/5 that lets you draw 2 cards or heal 5 damage
druid of the law - 5cc which gives you a 4/4 charge or a 4/6 taunt
keeper of the grove - 4cc 2/4 which silences a minion or deals 2 damage to anything

 

[Tacitus_]

I can see that happening.

I think it's usually less of a problem for me personally though.

I tend to have a decent number of taunts in my deck ever since the rush Hunter days. Miracle reinforced that even more. Lots of burst in the current meta and I tend to play slower decks so I don't like leaving my face exposed for very long.

It still seems to me that Paladin would be a more consistent deck, not so reliant on combos? But anyway, I'll just say I was wrong overall about Warlocks not being so good at racing. I don't have the experience to back that up but you guys do!

Oh, if you can get going with minimal interruption, the other guy is dead by turn 5-6, and that's with the "controlling" zoo deck. You've dumped most of your hand by that point and hopefully drawn into a doomguard and after that, you can draw two cards each turn and continue to pile on the hurt.

Though, big taunts will stop it. And I mean ancient of war / earth elemental big. You can run through a bear druid / tazdingo with a power overwhelming or a soulfire if absolutely necessary.

Though fuck priests with pyro coin shield combos. Fuck them all.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

The key to making taunts effective is using early removal so the warlock is forced to eat through the taunt inefficiently. Relying on taunt/aoe is exactly what the zoolock wants you to do because the taunts/aoes people rely on are too high in mana to be used early.