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Hearthstone |OT2| Created by Unstable Portal

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I keep putting my gold into Arena and I average 5-6 wins.

I'm never going to get enough to play the rest of the Naxx wings without putting actual money into the game... which I refuse to do. =p
 

MisterArrogant

Neo Member
New Pirates card back for the Sept. season:

TD2RQMIF86OZ1409767362301.jpg


http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en...anked-play-season-plundering-pirates-9-3-2014

Nice. I really like that one.
 

Slashlen

Member
I keep putting my gold into Arena and I average 5-6 wins.

I'm never going to get enough to play the rest of the Naxx wings without putting actual money into the game... which I refuse to do. =p

Arena isn't really the best way to earn gold(unless you can reliably hit 7). It's the best way to spend it generally. If you want Naxx wings, you may need to lay off Arena for a while.
 
Arena isn't really the best way to earn gold(unless you can reliably hit 7). It's the best way to spend it generally. If you want Naxx wings, you may need to lay off Arena for a while.

I know, I know. I like to switch off between arena and ladder, so my gold doesn't really accumulate. I guess it's time to save some gold. D=
 
My first 9-win (back when 9 was the max) Arena run was with a Mage that had Ysera, 2 Yetis, 3 Fireballs, 1 Pyroblast, 2 Flamestrikes, 2 Water Elementals, and the rest of the deck had a nearly perfect curve with high-value shit like Harvest Golems. Was so ridiculous.
 

Alrus

Member
Having a really good (early) curve is more important than getting legendaries in Arena. I've seen drafts without any legs or epics going high just because the curve was so good.

My first 9-win (back when 9 was the max) Arena run was with a Mage that had Ysera, 2 Yetis, 3 Fireballs, 1 Pyroblast, 2 Flamestrikes, 2 Water Elementals, and the rest of the deck had a nearly perfect curve with high-value shit like Harvest Golems. Was so ridiculous.

That's a dream draft right there, damn.

I wonder if Blizzard will ever change the value of certain basic cards (making them rare for example while still being basic cards of course) in order to balance arenas a bit more. It wouldn't affect the meta in any ways. But my guess is they don't really give a shit about arena balance.
 
So is there ANY advantage to doing Arena over just buying packs with gold?

1) If you enjoy Arena, you'll have fun.
2) If you win at least 3 games on average you'll easily make back 50 gold and a free pack in addition to some dust, meaning 3+ wins will be a better investment than just buying a pack. If you win 4+ games on average per Arena run, you'll actually be making more per gold spent than just on buying a pack.
 
2) If you win at least 3 games on average you'll easily make back 50 gold and a free pack in addition to some dust, meaning 3+ wins will be a better investment than just buying a pack.

i hate that this is true. i don't like arena which means i'm missing out on gold because i just buy straight up.

they should do the same for constructed.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
1) If you enjoy Arena, you'll have fun.
2) If you win at least 3 games on average you'll easily make back 50 gold and a free pack in addition to some dust, meaning 3+ wins will be a better investment than just buying a pack. If you win 4+ games on average per Arena run, you'll actually be making more per gold spent than just on buying a pack.

I'm not sure it breaks out quite there. At 3+ wins you need to make back 60 gold and at 6+ wins you need to make back 70 gold.

Here is the gold/dust you can win at various wins:

wins | gold+dust range from prizes (converting cards to dust)
1: 5 - 50 (worse than buying packs)
2: 5 - 50 (worse than buying packs)
3: 30 - 60 (worse than buying packs)
4: 45 - 85 (could be worse than buying packs)
5: 50 - 120 (could be worse than buying packs)
6: 80 - 285 (better than buying packs)
7(+): 155(+) - 350(+) (better than buying packs)

So, it's not really until you consistently hit 6 wins or more on average that you come out ahead. You can hit 4-5 wins and be coming out with only ~50g worth of prizes, which would be worse than just playing ranked and putting the money in to packs and not missing out on the 10g per 3 wins. Even getting 6 wins at arena you could still only earn 10g over just putting the money straight in to packs, granted that's the worst case scenario for 6 wins, but it's still possible to basically only break even at 6 wins now.
 

Haunted

Member

Thanks, you guys.

I think I've been neglecting the basics in my recent drafting and haven't looked at the curve and a basic overall strategy enough. Looking at individual card value is great, but it needs to fit in an overarching plan as well.


It's great. Sorry about the Parkinson's though.
taaTe.gif


damn son
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
I'm not sure it breaks out quite there. At 3+ wins you need to make back 60 gold and at 6+ wins you need to make back 70 gold.

Here is the gold/dust you can win at various wins:

wins | gold+dust range from prizes (converting cards to dust)
1: 5 - 50 (worse than buying packs)
2: 5 - 50 (worse than buying packs)
3: 30 - 60 (worse than buying packs)
4: 45 - 85 (could be worse than buying packs)
5: 50 - 120 (could be worse than buying packs)
6: 80 - 285 (better than buying packs)
7(+): 155(+) - 350(+) (better than buying packs)

So, it's not really until you consistently hit 6 wins or more on average that you come out ahead. You can hit 4-5 wins and be coming out with only ~50g worth of prizes, which would be worse than just playing ranked and putting the money in to packs and not missing out on the 10g per 3 wins. Even getting 6 wins at arena you could still only earn 10g over just putting the money straight in to packs, granted that's the worst case scenario for 6 wins, but it's still possible to basically only break even at 6 wins now.

I've always seen that you break even around 3 wins and come out slightly ahead at 4. Work from the average case, not the worse case scenario.
 

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
Usual 20-30 minute game against a stupid priest as a mage. He kills my Stalagg which summons my Thaddius which he promptly Shadow Words. But, BUT, I had another Stalagg on the board that I created with a Faceless, so I Frostbolted my own dude not knowing if that would work and it totally did and I got another Thaddius. I was at 1 health for 3 turns and he started at 30 before losing. Poor guy.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
I've always seen that you break even around 3 wins and come out slightly ahead at 4. Work from the average case, not the worse case scenario.

You'll almost never break even at 3 wins. Look at the rewards. Only with the best case scenario at 3 wins can you get 60g. Everything else is under 60g. 4-5 wins has a good chance of just breaking even I'd say looking at the rewards, it's very possible you get under 60 gold and then a card or some dust, leaving you behind in gold, but slightly ahead in gold + dust.

That link tells you exactly what you can win at each rank, and you can almost never break even at 3 wins, take a look, they give extremely detailed information about what you can get at each win amount.
 
Usual 20-30 minute game against a stupid priest as a mage. He kills my Stalagg which summons my Thaddius which he promptly Shadow Words. But, BUT, I had another Stalagg on the board that I created with a Faceless, so I Frostbolted my own dude not knowing if that would work and it totally did and I got another Thaddius. I was at 1 health for 3 turns and he started at 30 before losing. Poor guy.
That's one reason why Stalagg and Fugenn are great with Shamans. With Reincarnate and Ancestral Spirit, you can cycle in multiple Thaddiuses.


Edit : One thing I keep forgetting to ask you guys, do you ever see people in arena with more than two Mind Blasts? We always hear about multiple Fireballs, Truesilvers, and Fire Elementals, but never about Mind Blast. I'm just wondering if it's regulated behind the scenes.

My dream arena deck will have six mind blasts.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
That lucky bastard who got 285g at 6 wins lol, I rarely even get that much at 12

That requires getting the maximum of the 85g for the 6 wins (from the box that gives out gold), and then getting 2 golden rare cards for the extra boxes (which inherently requires getting the "Chance for one random reward" as well), in which you end up with a 285 total for gold+dust (the totals I picked in the chart I made above represented gold+dust, not just max gold, as you can get higher totals factoring in dust too). So it's probably almost never happened, certainly not for me.
 

Aylinato

Member
ladder meta:

druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter, druid, hunter, druid, druid, hunter, druid, hunter hunter, druid, hunter, druid, hunter, hunter,



I think people get confused when they face my deck because I've been playing it extremely standard until towards the end of the game where I then start milling my opponent.


Of course I haven't actually fucking ran into any handlock decks on my Druid mill and it pisses me the fuck off that I don't get that easy win.
 
lol just played someone who brought out Rivendare. Turn after brought out a deathlord. I killed it and it brought Rag and Sylvanas onto the board haha
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
You'll almost never break even at 3 wins. Look at the rewards. Only with the best case scenario at 3 wins can you get 60g. Everything else is under 60g

A card is worth about 20 gold and 20 dust is worth about 20 gold. So you're guaranteed 25-35 gold and then a 20-25 gold equivalent. After counting the 10 gold for a win streak in constructed you are only slightly less than breaking even.

Gold is not the only resource that matters.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
A card is worth about 20 gold and 20 dust is worth about 20 gold. So you're guaranteed 25-35 gold and then a 20-25 gold equivalent. After counting the 10 gold for a win streak in constructed you are only slightly less than breaking even.

Gold is not the only resource that matters.

3 wins nets you:
- One expert pack
- 25-35 gold
- One random reward

The random reward is (one of):
- 20-25 gold
- 20-25 dust
- One common card (worth 5 dust)
- One rare card (worth 20 dust)

So your earnings for 3 wins (converting everything to dust and calculating dust at 1:1 with gold) are:

30-60 (gold + dust total).

Lets say you have an equal chance of getting each item from the random pool, there'd be a 25% chance you get a single common card, worth only 5 dust (and really screwing your earnings in this bracket).

Even on average you are going to be coming out behind, like you mention, due to the 10g win streak for playing ranked/casual instead. So I would not qualify 3 wins as breaking even.

Edit: I guess the main fault I have is with you placing the value of "a card" at 20g, when in fact it is worth exactly 5 or 20 dust. When you get 5 random cards for 100g, yes, 1 of those could be argued to be worth 20g, but a random card can be anything, epic, legendary, rare, common, or even a golden version of any of those. The card you get for your prize is only a (non-golden) common or rare, so it's worth far less than 20g, it's worth either 20 dust or 5 dust to be exact. Splitting the difference you could place it at 12.5 dust I guess, but that's still then a worse deal for both card items than either the gold or dust items now.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
It's not until I played FFXIV that I realized how ugly WoW is.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Edit: I guess the main fault I have is with you placing the value of "a card" at 20g, when in fact it is worth exactly 5 or 20 dust. When you get 5 random cards for 100g, yes, 1 of those could be argued to be worth 20g, but a random card can be anything, epic, legendary, rare, common, or even a golden version of any of those. The card you get for your prize is only a (non-golden) common or rare, so it's worth far less than 20g, it's worth either 20 dust or 5 dust to be exact. Splitting the difference you could place it at 12.5 dust I guess, but that's still then a worse deal for both card items than either the gold or dust items now.

Your evaluation of a common or rare card being 5 or 20 dust assumes you're going to disenchant the card. This is only true if you aren't going to keep the card. Otherwise it could be evaluated at 40 or 100 dust. So your logic only applies to more veteran players who have most of the commons or rares.
 

TTUVAPOR

Banned
My wife and I bought a new set of Magic the Gathering cards, it's basically a two-deck dueling set you can pick up at the book store, shuffle and ready to play. I'm trying to explain the differences between Hearthstone and Magic, what's the best way to explain it in layman's terms?
 

Aylinato

Member
My wife and I bought a new set of Magic the Gathering cards, it's basically a two-deck dueling set you can pick up at the book store, shuffle and ready to play. I'm trying to explain the differences between Hearthstone and Magic, what's the best way to explain it in layman's terms?


Hearthstone is fun.


Magic I've never played and never been allowed to play as my friends would never let me.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Your evaluation of a common or rare card being 5 or 20 dust assumes you're going to disenchant the card. This is only true if you aren't going to keep the card. Otherwise it could be evaluated at 40 or 100 dust. So your logic only applies to more veteran players who have most of the commons or rares.

Basically everyone who's played the game for longer than 4 months probably would count them as duplicates (5/20 dust), yes. At that point you'll have a high percentage of the common/rares. And I still wouldn't value it at 20 gold even if I was totally new because 1/5th of an expert pack is 20g and as I mentioned a card from an expert pack is worth more. I'd much rather get an expert pack with a chance of getting golden/epic/legendaries than 5 shots at a regular rare/common from the 3 win pool.

Also, I wouldn't evaluate a golden epic as being worth 1600 gold, even if I didn't have it, I wouldn't feel like I got a prize worth 1600 gold, since any golden epic I have would only be worth 400 dust.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
I think Blizzard's intent was for arena and buying packs to be considered essentially the same, otherwise players would always play arena or always buy packs. And just mathematically speaking, 3 wins is going to be the average number of wins in arena.

So Blizzard built the rewards system of arena around trying to make them equal. If it was really such a slam dunk that 3 wins puts you down, then people would not play arena.

Also I think evaluating the cost of cards purely by disenchanting cost is silly. I'd much rather have a good golden epic than 400 dust. I have a golden gorehowl and you'll pry that from my cold dead hands. It is worth 1600 dust to me.
 

Zemm

Member
warrior, warrior, paladin, druid, warrior, paladin, mage, all apart from the mage and druid were aggro (hearthstone tracker is pretty good). Did a streamer make a rush warrior/paladin deck or something? On the plus side, no hunters yet. This game certainly feels like the lowest common denominator right now, like a fisher price card game.
 

Zemm

Member
You need to get past rank 5 to play a gentleman's game.

I did, everything_was_hunters.jpg haha. I still have fun so whatever, just a bit annoying when you face so many aggro decks, and it would be the same if there were too many handlocks or control priests etc which would be just as boring. Hopefully they can get a balance soon.
 

zoukka

Member
Deathlord says, put a minion in play, not summon a minion. Still those minions trigger summon effects... oh you HS.

also Priest is still shit tier. Dark Cultist didn't change anything about that fact :b
 

Aylinato

Member
Hearthstone is basically babbys first MTG.


I don't think ill ever play MTG. They take it too hardcore/not as fun as I like to play games.

I equate it to people attempting to get mad at me in call of duty because I'm dicking around doing what I want to have fun when their concerned with being try-hards. However MTG is more laid back then CoD, but all the MTG players I know talk down to me like a child so there is also a lot of arrogance too.
 
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