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[ShinNL]

That's kind of how the game works. There are classes that just do better against others. Hunter vs Warlock Giants and Miracle Rogue is something like a 90-10 match-up. Shaman's have a bad Hunter match-up in general, that's one of their known things which is why it's so hard to climb with them in a Hunter meta.

Do you mean rush Hunters? Because (non-beast) control Hunters have plenty of tools to deal with Warlock Giants. It's not quite like Shaman vs Rush Hunter where it's "You die no matter how innovative you make your Shaman deck". You can tell this bothers me way more than you, since I like building decks, you prefer the "if you can't beat them, join them" approach.

Miracle Rogue IMHO is the craziest stuff ever, with every single deck of mine failing against it except for one: my super simple "summon a gazillion minions" Warlock deck. It's weird.

 

[scy]

Do you mean rush Hunters? Because (non-beast) control Hunters have plenty of tools to deal with Warlock Giants. It's not quite like Shaman vs Rush Hunter where it's "You die no matter how innovative you make your Shaman deck".

You have the way the match-ups go backwards. Warlock Giants and Miracle Rogue are essentially auto-loss to Hunter aggro of any kind. It's 90/95% against them typically.

 

[ShinNL]

You have the way the match-ups go backwards. Warlock Giants and Miracle Rogue are essentially auto-loss to Hunter aggro of any kind. It's 90/95% against them typically.

Oh, you mean it like that. But that doesn't really clarify anything. Because Warlocks and Rogues can change their decks so their winrates increase. What I'm saying is that Shaman can't do that. It's the whole hero ability vs UTH thing, which in that specific matchup is overpowered as it is now. For comparison sake, it's like creating a class specific card that allows you to buff your minion by +x/+x based on the amount of armor your enemy hero has. When a hero ability is actually a buff to a different class, it gets silly.

Edit1:
And unlike Paladins, Shaman do not have Blessing of Kings. To power up those 0/2's, you have to... add even more minions like FTT.

The easy solution is to not summon totems, but in practice that means you are forced to have a super perfect mana curve / draw luck since otherwise you'll fall behind in mana efficiency.

I don't see the need to defend this mechanic, I think it's a broken design.

Edit2:
\/ See my additional typed text as it answers what you've typed.

 

[scy]

Shaman can change their decks to improve their winrate as well, it's just a massive uphill climb. The Hero Power is part of the problem but it's fairly easy to just not hit it. Warlock in general does poorly against Hunter but Warlock Giants is about the worst case example for it. Rogue Tempo decks can sort of try the match up but it's down to trying to win before they lose.

 

[ShinNL]

And really, the stats speak for themselves. The same class (Hunter) has both the highest winrate and the lowest winrate (if you don't count the lowest winrate that is caused by Hunter itself).

And I just noticed that the lowest winrate of Hunter being the Druid, has the lowest winrate against... dun dun dunnnnnn, Shaman. Hahaha, ridiculous. What a joke.

Shaman can change their decks to improve their winrate as well

And this is simply not true, especially not after you just said that some class decks are 10% winrate (according to you) and then have the ability to bump it to 45% or 48%. You can't just then type a sentence: oh, Shamans do that too. No they can't, not in any way significant, otherwise they wouldn't have the lowest winrate of every single possible matchup in the game.

Just typing it doesn't make it true.

And if your 90% auto-lose is true, that means Warlocks and Rogues are even winning MORE against Hunters with changed decks, since they have to compensate for all those who do run Miracle and Giants. Shamans are not doing that, at all.

 

[Haunted]

Sword of Justice into Captain Greenskin?

Don't mind if I do.

 

[scy]

It's worth noting that those are not global stats across the board but just those who run HearthStats. And it encompasses all levels of play.

And this is simply not true, especially not after you just said that some class decks are 10% winrate (according to you) and then have the ability to bump it to 45% or 48%. You can't just then type a sentence: oh, Shamans do that too. No they can't, not in any way significantly, otherwise they wouldn't have the lowest winrate against something for every single matchup in the game.

Who the fuck said they can bring it to 45-50%? I said they can improve the match-up but it's an uphill climb.

Just typing it doesn't make it true.

Same to everything you've said.

Edit: This is the problem with stats in general. What are these win rates from? At Legendary? At Rank 5? 10? 15? 20? 25? Casual? They're all different. At low levels of play, most the match-up numbers aren't highly relevant. Zoo vs Hunter is generally a case of how fast one side wins so it's not really massively unfavored in the match-up. Murlocs is down to how fast Warlord pushes everything out of Explosive range. Miracle Rogue requires them going off before they die / Misdirection occurs. There's things to be done to improve the match-up by a few percentage points but it's a rough deal. That's how the game works in general, though.

 

[ShinNL]

It's worth noting that those are not global stats across the board but just those who run HearthStats. And it encompasses all levels of play.



Who the fuck said they can bring it to 45-50%? I said they can improve the match-up but it's an uphill climb.



Same to everything you've said.

I really don't like how you argue with air.

So what, you meant that they can increase their winrate by 1% or 2%? Who cares then? What's the point of trying to argue with something like that? Of course you can add a Farseer or something, but that doesn't change a thing in the entire scope and argument of things. What's the point of typing that?

 

[KojiKnight]

Sword of Justice into Captain Greenskin?

Don't mind if I do.

Personally found this a lot less useful than it sounds. It's only one additional +1/1 to a minion versus on Truesilver champion which essentially means 1-2 less 5 health minions on the field.

 

[Minsc]

Shaman have a decent chance against hunters... you have a few openings that work ok. Best would be coin Unbound > Feral Spirit. But Unbound into anything with overload is great, even the Stormforged Axe. As long as from turn 3 onward you're hitting them back for 3 or more (preferably 5 or more), it can go either way. Azure Drake, really anything with 4 or more power is great. Once you have them to under 20, you just have to Leeroy/bloodlust (if you had a feral spirit or 3+ creatures) burst the rest before they can. It's not horrible, but certainly requires a little more luck. Ideally you want ~2-4 creatures turns 2-5, and then hope to be down to 2-3 strong creatures turns 6+ with spells to finish the game off in hand (azure drake turn 5 followed by two lightning bolts + lava burst turn 6 hits for 18 damage alone).

 

[borghe]

why the hell are any of you using hearthstats as a basis for anything? that is a VERY spotty sample size at best.

biggest problems with shaman are:

a) they are the worst free class by a massive margin. climbing ranks solely for free with them is painstaking to say the least
b) even with an unlimited budget it can still be a tough class, isn't effective against some of the most popular current meta deck types, and to make a relatively versatile shaman deck means stacking the deck with a large percentage of neutral cards.

Honestly I expect Shaman to get the biggest buff, or rounding out I guess, in the next expansion. I would guess you'll even see it in the basic set, or if there aren't basic expansion cards then shammy commons.

but yeah... shaman against rush or hard aggro hunter right now is rough. the biggest problem is that if they use their ability (which is a large part of the class) it opens them up to UTH madness. Yeah the same is true for a pally, but the foot soldier isn't really as strong a tool for the pally as the totems end up being. a pally can get away with leaving out the foot soldiers.. a shaman leaving out totems is largely cutting off their own nose.

 

[scy]

I really don't like how you argue with air.

I'm not sure what the point of all your hostility is.

So what, you meant that they can increase their winrate by 1% or 2%? Who cares then? What's the point of trying to argue with something like that? Of course you can add a Farseer or something, but that doesn't change a thing in the entire scope and argument of things. What's the point of typing that?

Serious question, how much experience do you have with the genre? When tweaking decks, this is about all you can hope for. Improving your match-up against by a few percentage points. Huge leaps and bounds require radical shifts to the deck by switching out the core parts of it to a different archetype entirely. Certain archetypes are just going to lose to other archetypes. That's how it is. The question is what can be done to improve it without sacrificing too much elsewhere. If the meta is expected to be heavy against them, you just cut your losses and switch to something that isn't as bad in that kind of a meta.

And the Hunter tech was Doomhammer's inclusion as it gives a way to bypass the board requirement. Besides that, it's the hope to stick early game meaningful threats (typically Unbound and Feral Spirits) that you hope to burn down the Hunter before they can reasonably kill you. Hunter is actually pretty bad at dealing a ton of damage in one turn without a ton of setup and Mana (e.g., 2x Kill Command Leeroy with a Beast in play and Bow equipped) so it's usually a case of them doing their lethal over several turns so you have the time to get them to your range. They typically have nothing to stop it.

Ultimately, it seems you're looking for some answer that is "how do I make this a winning match-up for me?" and the short of it is that there's really no clear cut way. Shaman take unnecessary face damage (Weapon use) but lack the Healing to compensate for it later. Their early game isn't that great in terms of board presence but they make up for it with good removal. The problem is that forcing them to use removal early, especially against X/1 chargers, also takes out their late game burn. As a whole, Shaman isn't that good in a heavy charge-based aggro meta, especially when they also have to face good reach damage on top of it all.

a) they are the worst free class by a massive margin. climbing ranks solely for free with them is painstaking to say the least

Shaman are probably the strongest class with just the Free-Common-Rares available.

b) even with an unlimited budget it can still be a tough class, isn't effective against some of the most popular current meta deck types, and to make a relatively versatile shaman deck means stacking the deck with a large percentage of neutral cards.

Shaman have a great match-up against most the really good anti-aggro decks and most of the control decks. For a long period of last season, they were the deck to beat.

 

[ShinNL]

Shaman have a decent chance against hunters... you have a few openings that work ok. Best would be coin Unbound > Feral Spirit. But Unbound into anything with overload is great, even the Stormforged Axe. As long as from turn 3 onward you're hitting them back for 3 or more (preferably 5 or more), it can go either way. Azure Drake, really anything with 4 or more power is great. Once you have them to under 20, you just have to Leeroy/bloodlust (if you had a feral spirit or 3+ creatures) burst the rest before they can. It's not horrible, but certainly requires a little more luck. Ideally you want ~2-4 creatures turns 2-5, and then hope to be down to 2-3 strong creatures turns 6+ with spells to finish the game off in hand (azure drake turn 5 followed by two lightning bolts + lava burst turn 6 hits for 18 damage alone).

One thing I don't understand with those turns: do you not clear anything? Feral Spirit aside (this card probably saves the matchup for 10% winrate), with Eaglehorn Bow, chargers and the cost efficient Animal Companion, an Unbound Element without Feral Spirit doesn't really do that much work either (and if they run Misdirection / Freezing, tears will fall). I pretty much just end up trying to clear the board the whole game and then die. It kinda goes back to my point that Shaman has to do a perfect draw (2 unique cards in the first 6-7 draws) and even then it's still not mindbogglingly effective. Without the hero ability, which is essentially a mana curve fixer, you're stuck with this perfect draw requirement the entire matchup.

Scy, I don't need it to be a winning matchup. At least just not a matchup where I feel like I've wasted my time and should've just conceded on the card selection screen. It's like starting a game of SC2, see that my opponent is Zerg and I happen to be Protoss and I should just quit right away. That's just awful awful design. There's no decision making, deck tweaking that makes up for this.

Serious question, how much experience do you have with the genre?

Considering what you've typed after this sentence, it's not a serious question but a rhetorical demeaning one.

 

[borghe]

Shaman are probably the strongest class with just the Free-Common-Rares available.

Hmm... I mean I said free. Shaman rares are great, but with as many as you need I think it pushes the deck out of the "free" range. Just feral spirit, lightning storm and lava burst alone will run you 600 dust. Doomhammer is also a GREAT epic at some combination of 4/4 and 2/8.

Shaman have a great match-up against most the really good anti-aggro decks and most of the control decks. For a long period of last season, they were the deck to beat.

absolutely. I wasn't implying that it's a bad class. No way. The problem is that it's an uphill battle against the CURRENT meta hunter. In a meta where most hunters want to have things wrapped up shortly after UTH/turn4, it's tough for Shaman's to have reciprocated by that point. It can happen, but I honestly think it has to be a right place/right time. If the game goes out much further than that.. say an 8-13 turn game? Oh hell no. Shaman is sitting pretty.

 

[Minsc]

One thing I don't understand with those turns: do you not clear anything? Feral Spirit aside (this card probably saves the matchup for 10% winrate), with Eaglehorn Bow, chargers and the cost efficient Animal Companion, an Unbound Element without Feral Spirit doesn't really do that much work either (and if they run Misdirection / Freezing it's instant GG). It kinda goes back to my point that Shaman has to do a perfect draw (2 unique cards in the first 6-7 draws) and even then it's still not mindbogglingly effective. Without the hero ability, which is essentially a mana curve fixer, you're stuck with this perfect draw requirement the entire matchup.

Let's see, normal game would be turn 2 Knife Juggler or totem or UB or Storm Axe (I'll summon 1 totem if I have no other turn 2 play so I can rockbiter and trade against the 4/2 charger if need be). Turn 3 would be UB or Feral Spirit or the 3/3 heal 3 guy bringing me back up to 30. Turn 4 would be something minor (maybe FTT if I had two minions left on the board), and then turn 5 would be a threatening 5-drop, Turn 6 would be a 5 or 6-drop, and turn 7 would be hopefully the end of the game either way. I don't really run anything over 6 mana in a shaman deck, except for maybe a single Rag.

I guess it is just two decks against the clock... though that's how I play against most Hunters. I enjoy the matches more than other people I think, because they're really close most of the time. One turn either way for a win, them or me.

 

[scy]

Hmm... I mean I said free. Shaman rares are great, but with as many as you need I think it pushes the deck out of the "free" range. Just feral spirit, lightning storm and lava burst alone will run you 600 dust. Doomhammer is also a GREAT epic at some combination of 4/4 and 2/8.

Sorry: They also have some of the best free cards. Certainly better than most classes. Their weak spot is their Epics. Doomhammer is good in certain matchups but not all so it's not really a requirement. They want ~500 dust in their Rares (2x Feral, 2x Storm, 1x MTT) and that's about it there. The rest are Free and Commons. Those alone can make a fairly decent deck.

Or, basically, see Trump's Free Shaman deck that made it to Legendary.

In a meta where most hunters want to have things wrapped up shortly after UTH/turn4, it's tough for Shaman's to have reciprocated by that point. It can happen, but I honestly think it has to be a right place/right time. If the game goes out much further than that.. say an 8-13 turn game? Oh hell no. Shaman is sitting pretty.

Eh, most Hunter games go longer than turn 4. A lot longer, really. Their goal is usually turn 7 for the UtH + Leeroy + Timber Wolf kill. And Shaman don't really want super late game matches against many classes. Notable exception there is Control Warrior where they just go to Fatigue them out.

Considering what you've typed after this sentence, it's not a serious question but a rhetorical demeaning one.

What. There's nothing of the sort. Christ, I added everything after it since it felt like an attack (since you took it that way when I questioned the Rank before) so it wouldn't be taken offensively.

I lose every which way with you. I'm just done here.

 

[ShinNL]

Let's see, normal game would be turn 2 Knife Juggler or totem or UB or Storm Axe (I'll summon 1 totem if I have no other turn 2 play so I can rockbiter and trade against the 4/2 charger if need be). Turn 3 would be UB or Feral Spirit or the 3/3 heal 3 guy bringing me back up to 30. Turn 4 would be something minor (maybe FTT if I had two minions left on the board), and then turn 5 would be a threatening 5-drop, Turn 6 would be a 5 or 6-drop, and turn 7 would be hopefully the end of the game either way. I don't really run anything over 6 mana in a shaman deck, except for maybe a single Rag.

I guess it is just two decks against the clock... though that's how I play against most Hunters. I enjoy the matches more than other people I think, because they're really close most of the time. One turn either way for a win, them or me.

Judging from that I guess you really do not always clear the board if you calculate that you might be able to burst down the Hunter. I guess having Leeroy in your possession (which I do not) helps with this mindset a lot (and because I don't have Leeroy, I also don't run Windfury).

It kinda makes me sad the game is like this. Against all matchups except the Hunter I can run the most fun decks, all having a good shot, like Ancient Watcher Shaman, Taunt heavy-Shaman, spell-damage Shaman, heck, 26 minions Shaman even works. But for Hunter, you better have the cookie cutter Windfury burst Shaman, or die. This wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to make some sort of healing Shaman, which is quite a common complaint that the class lacks any decent form of healing.

What. There's nothing of the sort. Christ, I added everything after it since it felt like an attack (since you took it that way when I questioned the Rank before) so it wouldn't be taken offensively.

I lose every which way with you. I'm just done here.

Wait, you tell someone they are wrong, then rhetorically ask them about their ladder rank / if they even know the genre (and it really is rhetorical since it changes nothing to what you have to say) and you don't see how that is a demeaning insult? Oh man.

Yeah I've bought, played and enjoyed MTG, Pokémon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh and Shadow Era because I really suck hard at card games and love the constant unbalanced broken nonsense feeling I get from them, cough! Please teach me how card games work!

 

[Phreaker]

biggest problems with shaman are:

a) they are the worst free class by a massive margin. climbing ranks solely for free with them is painstaking to say the least
b) even with an unlimited budget it can still be a tough class, isn't effective against some of the most popular current meta deck types, and to make a relatively versatile shaman deck means stacking the deck with a large percentage of neutral cards.

I thought Trump said it was easier to get to Legendary with his Shaman vs his Mage. Actually, I think it took him quite a few less wins (40 or so) to get to legendary with Shaman.

 

[Ferny]

I thought Trump said it was easier to get to Legendary with his Shaman vs his Mage. Actually, I think it took him quite a few less wins (40 or so) to get to legendary with Shaman.

His Shaman deck is actually quite good for being a value deck. I usually don't like playing Shaman at all, but have been playing recently with his deck and I've been winning a good amount of games with it.

 

[borghe]

will have to check trump's final shaman deck. I watched him around 19-16 or so and he was still struggling.. sounds like he was able to tighten things up at the higher ranks.

 

[zoukka]

Still don't understand how people are winning so consistently as Rogue in arena.

I wonder this as well. You never see Rogues in arena and you definitely never see a rogue winning in arena *shrug*

 

[ShinNL]

I thought Trump said it was easier to get to Legendary with his Shaman vs his Mage. Actually, I think it took him quite a few less wins (40 or so) to get to legendary with Shaman.

Shaman: 184 wins
Mage: 197 wins

7% difference.

 

[Haines]

I downloaded the game yesterday and Ive spent countless hours trying to play but it seems like I cant do jack.

I try and pick good cards, play my best and I just get slaughtered. I feel like people have all gotten really good cards from playing before me and I just cant compete.

I know the answer is prob read guides...but I just want to play. Problem is it has gotten to the point where Im not having fun getting mowed down by legendary cards and people who clearly have good decks of cards that complement each other.

Im new to cards as well, that doesnt help

/frustrated

EDIT: I thought the Arena sounded perfect and I enjoyed it (got 2 wins even) but I cant wrap my head around that I have to pay to play it. Thats not happening.

 

[johnsmith]

I downloaded the game yesterday and Ive spent countless hours trying to play but it seems like I cant do jack.

I try and pick good cards, play my best and I just get slaughtered. I feel like people have all gotten really good cards from playing before me and I just cant compete.

I know the answer is prob read guides...but I just want to play. Problem is it has gotten to the point where Im not having fun getting mowed down by legendary cards and people who clearly have good decks of cards that complement each other.

Im new to cards as well, that doesnt help

/frustrated

Did you unlock all the classes, beat the all AI classes on expert, and leveled every class to 10? Even with just basic cards you should be able to get to rank 20 easily. Just google for some good all basic card decks.

 

[Phreaker]

Shaman: 184 wins
Mage: 197 wins

7% difference.

Ah, okay. I know at one point he was #1 and had 40 or so less wins, but he bounced around a lot in ranks 1-3 before finally hitting Legendary.

 

[Phreaker]

/frustrated

EDIT: I thought the Arena sounded perfect and I enjoyed it (got 2 wins even) but I cant wrap my head around that I have to pay to play it. Thats not happening.

Were you playing Ranked or Casual? Ranked should be easier and you should be less likely to run into "legendary decks" I think, and match you up with others your skill level.

People don't pay for Arena, that I know anyway, you just play it once you've got 150g from doing quests.

 

[tamaster92]

Opened nosdarmu

I think I have roughly 6 legendaries now - getting there

 

[Minsc]

EDIT: I thought the Arena sounded perfect and I enjoyed it (got 2 wins even) but I cant wrap my head around that I have to pay to play it. Thats not happening.

You don't have to pay... you can use 150 gold to play, and the game gives you 50-100+ gold per day, plus tons of free gold when you complete the various achievements... you can play arena @ 1 arena (3-12 games) per day if you use multiple bnet accounts or play in multiple regions. Then when you know how to play arena well, you can trim it back to just playing infinite arena on your main account until you have the cards you want.

 

[Haines]

I unlocked each class. I can't beat the expert modes. I spent all my gold on new packs. I did play the free arena and got 2 packs.

I got a leg and a gold card in them.

So I should just focus earning gold and using that on arenas?

Oh and I've been doing ranked but I'm 24 and it puts me against people that whoop me.

 

[scy]

I wonder this as well. You never see Rogues in arena and you definitely never see a rogue winning in arena *shrug*

Rogue has my highest winrate for Arena personally at around 76%. They get to prey on poorly constructed decks better than most other classes which bloats their winrate to the 5-7-9 range. When facing other well constructed Arena decks, it's a lot harder for them to do well so they tend to fall off at the 10-12 win area.

Essentially, they're really consistent for getting to the mid-range number of wins.

 

[Mr Cola]

Trump is 2-0 picking a troll deck in arena, apparently he doesnt come across the same people I do, maybe NA arena is easier?

 

[scy]

Trump is 2-0 picking a troll deck in arena, apparently he doesnt come across the same people I do, maybe NA arena is easier?

In my experience of playing both sides, EU was a lot easier since it's the only time I could hold an 80% win-rate~

AKA, it's just random for the early game match-ups and then it gets to the same level of competition at the 5+ area.

 

[Card Boy]

Anyone else think The Coin should be nerfed so it doesn't have any effect on other cards besides adding +1 mana?

Right now the coin can synergize with Combo cards, Mage Wyrms, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Questing Adventurer and other cards that gain effect for playing a spell or card.

I must admit i abuse it myself and spam Defias Ringleader and his bum buddy on turn 1.

 

[Cystm]

I love when people friend you after a game just to rage at you.

 

[Haines]

Haha reminds me of morons in StarCraft complaining about balance in lower leagues.

People raging in a card game is kind of funny.

 

[Card Boy]

Only thing that has made genuinely mad is getting Pyroblasted over 2 turns and losing the game when i was about to win. That card needs to be a legendary.

 

[Professor Lich]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys got a Heroes of the Storm Alpha invite?


Edit:

Only thing that has made genuinely mad is getting Pyroblasted over 2 turns and losing the game when i was about to win. That card needs to be a legendary.

Interesting thing about that, when I saw their talks about HearthStone at GDC, a few early cards where show and there were a small number of legendary spells. I'm guessing they were removed for being too good.

 

[Chindogg]

For someone who doesn't have a complete deck yet, should I even bother trying ranked?

 

[Card Boy]

For someone who doesn't have a complete deck yet, should I even bother trying ranked?

Go casual for now, you should try ranked very soon though for the Exclusive deck cover for reaching ranking 20 in Season 1.

Thats what you can get.

 

[jstevenson]

Arena game over lunch as a shaman:

Opening hand:

Earth Shock
Frost Shock
Kobold
Rockbiter.


Turn one coin Kobold (Earth and Shock now 2 damage one mana spells).

Turn 2, Totem - magic totem (Earth and Shock now 3 damage one mana spells).

Turn 3, eliminate a razorfen hunter with frost shock, Totem - healing, use kobold to take out boar, heals back to 2/2.

Basically was game over.

 

[burntchomsky]

So I've been out of the game for a few weeks, just opened a Pagle, wondering if he's still being used at all?

 

[KojiKnight]

Only thing that has made genuinely mad is getting Pyroblasted over 2 turns and losing the game when i was about to win. That card needs to be a legendary.

If your opponent had 2 completely free turns where they could only cast 1 10 damage spell to win, you probably weren't winning as much as you thought you were.

Remember, there will always be "that one card" that finishes you off that if your opponent didn't have, you'd win.

 

[Card Boy]

So I've been out of the game for a few weeks, just opened a Pagle, wondering if he's still being used at all?

Dust it, it might be 3200 dust still due to the nerf. Make 2 other legendaries instead.

 

[burntchomsky]

Dust it, it might be 3200 dust still due to the nerf. Make 2 other legendaries instead.

Nope, looks like its back to normal. I'll probably just hold onto it, just wondered if it is being used at all anymore.

 

[jstevenson]

Nope, looks like its back to normal. I'll probably just hold onto it, just wondered if it is being used at all anymore.

he is. he's not auto include anymore, but still can be useful

 

[OJdaKiller]

I downloaded the game yesterday and Ive spent countless hours trying to play but it seems like I cant do jack.

I try and pick good cards, play my best and I just get slaughtered. I feel like people have all gotten really good cards from playing before me and I just cant compete.

I know the answer is prob read guides...but I just want to play. Problem is it has gotten to the point where Im not having fun getting mowed down by legendary cards and people who clearly have good decks of cards that complement each other.

Im new to cards as well, that doesnt help

/frustrated

EDIT: I thought the Arena sounded perfect and I enjoyed it (got 2 wins even) but I cant wrap my head around that I have to pay to play it. Thats not happening.

Here's a few tips that helped me. I just started playing 3 weeks ago and had never played any card game before but I fell in love with HS fast. Here are some good new player tips if you're coming from the same place I was, or where you are.

1. Unlock all the characters on regular, level everyone to level 10, and then beat each AI expert once...You'll learn from this, get a bunch of gold, unlock the basic cards, and find which character seems to suit your playstyle best.

2. Look online for good builds....I know you said you just want to play and have fun, but is losing fun???? I doubt losing to people w/rank 24 is fun...Very few, if any, people at that rank have awesome cards or are pros..They're new just like you. Finding a build is necessary as all the hard work has already been done for you. People know what works and what doesn't...They'll even show you cards to replace with others if you don't have certain cards.

3. Probably look at making an aggro build of something...From what I've read, aggro builds tend to be cheapest to make and they are effective...

4. Buying a 40 pack of cards helps a lot...There's nothing wrong with this...HS is a great game and getting your foot in the door by buying some card packs is what you're supposed to do (from Blizzard's perspective). If you're a pro, maybe you don't need to, but if you're like me, you need to..It's okay, and gives a lot more build options to try out.

5. Here's a big one...DON'T WORRY ABOUT PLAYING ARENA....I personally hate arena...If you suck at it, like I do, it's frustrating and you don't get much more for the additional 50g you spend...Just buy packs of cards when you hit 100g...Good players shine in Arena so they like it...New players to the genre get rolled...

But ultimately, it's going to take some time...Certainly more than a day to be decent, but it's a very fun game and I'm glad you're enjoying...Stay patient and do your best to learn from your losses..Yeah, some are just getting a bad draw, but a lot of time it's 1-2 mistakes you make that turn the game..Learn what to keep and throw away at the start...That's a big part of this game imo...Any more questions I'll be happy to answer as a fellow new player (as a lot of people on here are very good and veterans to the scene, so they have a different perspective).

 

[OJdaKiller]

I'm having some pretty good luck with the deck right now, but it's hard to tell for sure since the ladder reset and I seem to be playing against a lot of new players (basic decks).

Arcane Golem has definitely proved useful... It means I don't have to wait for Leeroy to be able to do most finishers. I've also started relying more on my Questing Adventurers.... but they are a hard card to play against some classes. Mage for example. Still feels like something is missing to make the deck "perfect". Someone will surely say "Van Cleef" but I don't think so... that's just like having a third Questing Adventurer... so it feels like something early game is missing.

Glad to hear you're having more success...It's certainly a fun build to play...A lot higher of a learning curve than my aggro Pally...But when it pays off, it pays off..I can only imagine the rage it brings about...doing 17-23 dmg in one turn...lol...People just think you're fooling around and then WHAM! Game over...

But anyways, so you have Leeroy but are also using the Arcane Golem? What did you drop for it? I can imagine it'd be nice to basically have a second leeroy, but you're right, that's more end game stuff...In the last couple of days, I've started to get more mileage out of my Mana Addict...People don't seem to want to bother with a 1/3 and if they don't, that turns into a 5/3, 7/3, 9/3 really easy and it's only a 2 mana card...So it's given me some early game punch...Ultimately, I try my best to get my opponent between 15-20 health, then just chip here, chip there, and wait for leeroy or an unchecked questing adv. So yeah, if you're looking for earlier game punch, mana addict certainly has provided me that.

You're right...QA is tough to play...Unless I cloak him, he basically has a big "kill me" sign on his back...I try my best to put him out there with maybe one buff so he doesn't draw attention, buff him 3-5 times on the his attack turn so he does more dmg and is hopefull takes out a couple of enemies when he gets wiped from the board...that's ideal..so much of the time he gets silenced and then he's just fodder....I may grab another QA or MA and completely ditch the AoP...They don't feel like they're worth the hassle...I'd rather just gamble on my Coldwater Oracle and Auctioneers paying off than bothering with those wimps..

 

[Card Boy]

5. Here's a big one...DON'T WORRY ABOUT PLAYING ARENA....I personally hate arena...If you suck at it, like I do, it's frustrating and you don't get much more for the additional 50g you spend...Just buy packs of cards when you hit 100g...Good players shine in Arena so they like it...New players to the genre get rolled...

This.

I just queue up 3 quests when i play Hearthstone and stick to ranked. Its better value for me personally because i don't play everyday and when i do play i don't play more than 5 matches.

 

[AaronB]

There doesn't seem to be much speculation in this thread, but here goes. I've been curious about what other heroes could be announced, and what kind of hero power they could have. Right now they're all more or less distinct and fairly balanced, but what other kinds of abilities may be possible for 2 mana? I haven't played WoW, but I'm just thinking in terms of fantasy staples and Hearthstone's dynamics.

"Give a minion 'Deathrattle: summon a 1/1 skeleton.'" This could work for a necromantic class (Death Knight) it would have class cards based on skeletons or undead.

"The first enemy minion to attack next turn attacks the hero instead." I was trying to come up with a creative idea for a Monk, and I thought of something along these lines.

"Do 1 to 2 damage to a random enemy character." The ability to do 2 damage to minions outright would just be too strong, even if it's random. However, just 1 damage to a random minion would be far weaker than the Mage's ability. This would be pretty balanced; potentially powerful but dependant on RNG. Would go well with a chaotic type of hero.

"Give a minion +1 attack." Could instead be +1 health or even +1/+1, but I think attack would be the most balanced. This ability could also be targeted to a keyword, only working on murlocks or dragons for example.

 

[OJdaKiller]

There doesn't seem to be much speculation in this thread, but here goes. I've been curious about what other heroes could be announced, and what kind of hero power they could have. Right now they're all more or less distinct and fairly balanced, but what other kinds of abilities may be possible for 2 mana? I haven't played WoW, but I'm just thinking in terms of fantasy staples and Hearthstone's dynamics.

"Give a minion 'Deathrattle: summon a 1/1 skeleton.'" This could work for a necromantic class (Death Knight) it would have class cards based on skeletons or undead.

"The first enemy minion to attack next turn attacks the hero instead." I was trying to come up with a creative idea for a Monk, and I thought of something along these lines.

"Do 1 to 2 damage to a random enemy character." The ability to do 2 damage to minions outright would just be too strong, even if it's random. However, just 1 damage to a random minion would be far weaker than the Mage's ability. This would be pretty balanced; potentially powerful but dependant on RNG. Would go well with a chaotic type of hero.

"Give a minion +1 attack." Could instead be +1 health or even +1/+1, but I think attack would be the most balanced. This ability could also be targeted to a keyword, only working on murlocks or dragons for example.

I think most would agree that the DK and Monk will be the next classes...What their abilities will be is unknown.

What might be interesting is adding in racial abilities to pair with classes (just like WoW)...So instead of seeing the same rogue or druid, there would be some variety, plus different synergies between class, race, and card build.