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[Cipherr]

...You're kidding right?

How bad could it possibly be at 25-20?

Don't care, havent played a ranked game to date because the mode is shit. I hate that I have to for the cardback


Edit: Are you fucking kidding me. So its true that my MMR from Play mode doesn't carry over to ranked? Im playing dudes with fucking Silverback Patriarchs in their decks and its OBVIOUSLY because they have no cards and are likely new.

The end game of HS is such shit. I love the game, but the end game is shit.

 

[Princess Carl]

Don't care, havent played a ranked game to date because the mode is shit. I hate that I have to for the cardback


Edit: Are you fucking kidding me. So its true that my MMR from Play mode doesn't carry over to ranked? Im playing dudes with fucking Silverback Patriarchs in their decks and its OBVIOUSLY because they have no cards and are likely new.

The end game of HS is such shit. I love the game, but the end game is shit.

Is there official word on this either way?

 

[johnsmith]

Your rank is your match making rating. What's the problem? Also what MMR? From casual? If you play casual what's your problem with ranked. It's practically the same thing. You're playing against constructed decks. I rarely see any crazy decks in casual, it's usually the same stuff I play on ladder.

 

[Cipherr]

Your rank is your match making rating. What's the problem? Also what MMR? From casual? If you play casual what's your problem with ranked. It's practically the same thing. You're playing against constructed decks. I rarely see any crazy decks in casual, it's usually the same stuff I play on ladder.

I don't like casual mode much either (see my bitching in this thread non stop). But why would they only rank you versus other people in your same rank if they can tell you have played so much more? I could have sworn I saw streamers playing against people that aren't the same rank as them. This is ridiculous, these guys Im playing have literal basic decks and don't really stand much of a chance.

Is there official word on this either way?

It has to be this, or what John said, because the people I'm playing are the same high rank as me since its my first ranked games, but their decks are godawful, and so are their plays. Its clearly not taking anything into account except maybe what rank I am.

So basically people slog through easy wins at the start of every month before they hit rank 5 or legend and they finally settle into challenging opponents?

Maaaaan, Im getting my card back and bailing out. Much better to play in casual mode.

 

[Xanathus]

I don't like casual mode much either (see my bitching in this thread non stop). But why would they only rank you versus other people in your same rank if they can tell you have played so much more? I could have sworn I saw streamers playing against people that aren't the same rank as them. This is ridiculous, these guys Im playing have literal basic decks and don't really stand much of a chance.

That's why there is a win streak bonus where if you keep beating people in a row your rank will jump up very quickly and soon you'll be against players with equal decks.

 

[Cipherr]

That's why there is a win streak bonus where if you keep beating people in a row your rank will jump up very quickly and soon you'll be against players with equal decks.

Ahhh, okay that makes much more sense.

 

[johnsmith]

I don't like casual mode much either (see my bitching in this thread non stop). But why would they only rank you versus other people in your same rank if they can tell you have played so much more? I could have sworn I saw streamers playing against people that aren't the same rank as them. This is ridiculous, these guys Im playing have literal basic decks and don't really stand much of a chance.

Yeah, good streamers will sometimes play people 3-4 ranks below them early in the season because they get to legend so much quicker than average players, there just aren't that many other high ranked people to match them up against. It never happens later in the season when there's a broader pool of players of the same rank though.

So what's your preferred mode? Arena?

So basically people slog through easy wins at the start of every month before they hit rank 5 or legend and they finally settle into challenging opponents?

Maaaaan, Im getting my card back and bailing out. Much better to play in casual mode.

No, the beginning of the month is brutal at even at low ranks since the ladder resets. You get bonus stars, but legends get placed at rank 16, so anything above that is likely to be mostly ex legend players. It takes a couple of weeks for everybody to settle at their new ranks again. But the first week you're likely to play people as challenging at rank 15-10 as rank 5+.

 

[Cipherr]

So what's your preferred mode? Arena?

Yeah, not a fan of the fact that it has a gold cost though, that sort of ruins it for me. But yeah its probably the best mode in my eyes even though it stacks even more RNG into the end. Its better than playing against whatever cheese is in the meta at that moment. (Except for right now! Control is so hot right now and I love it)

No, the beginning of the month is brutal at even at low ranks since the ladder resets. You get bonus stars, but legends get placed at rank 16, so anything above that is likely to be mostly ex legend players. It takes a couple of weeks for everybody to settle at their new ranks again. But the first week you're likely to play people as challenging at rank 15-10 as rank 5+.

Ohhh wow. Okay that explains it even more. That would help thin the pool at rank 25 of the legend players. Alrighty, its not nearly as bad as I thought it was. Explains a bit of the incentive to go for legend also if it lets you skip the top ranks the next month.

 

[ViviOggi]

Ohhh wow. Okay that explains it even more. That would help thin the pool at rank 25 of the legend players. Alrighty, its not nearly as bad as I thought it was. Explains a bit of the incentive to go for legend also if it lets you skip the top ranks the next month.

Rank 16 really doesn't mean shit though as you can streak your way to that in two hours. The actual grind begins at rank 5, where streaking bonuses are disabled and you face a flood of fotm decks, and you have to wade through that cesspit every season to finally get some decent matches.

 

[Gotchaye]

I feel like I still don't understand this game. I play reasonably well, but I have basically no ability to look at two decks and figure out which is favored. I prefer to play Arena, and I can draft reasonably well by abusing arenavalue and exercising only a little discretion, but I'm almost always very wrong about how good the decks I draft are. Decks I think are really strong often top out at 4 or 5 wins, and decks I was really sad about post-draft seem to be much more likely to take me to 7+ wins.

Like, tonight I went 12-2 with this:

missing cards are 2x Argent Commander, the 6 cost 5/4 priestess, and a Molten Giant.

I was pretty unhappy with this draft. I don't like Bluegill, Shiv is mostly just a cycle, I generally avoid Patient Assassins and having two seemed awful, Demolisher and Snapjaw are sub-par, and the priestess isn't wonderful.

But it really came together. Obviously it's not a terrible deck; Coin into Defias is a fantastic start, it's got two Deadly Poisons, plenty of card draw, and surprising reach. But I won a bunch of games thanks to what I was thinking were the weak cards. Early Assassins are really hard to remove and make it impossible for people to play big 4 cost minions. In the final games I would fall behind early on, but then get out the Molten and Priestess in the same turn and stabilize because people were counting on me not healing to finish me off. I even won one game because I topdecked either the Shiv or Bluegill for two damage I needed to break through a taunt.

So I feel like I'm missing something pretty fundamental. In some sense it's the least important part of the game, since you can just steal decks and drafting techniques, but I feel like it's the thinking part of the game. Although I shouldn't ignore how much luck is going to matter in getting the big arena rewards. I suppose it's possible that I'm all right at gauging decks but have just gotten luckier with weaker decks. But I feel like I have a big enough sample at this point that it's weird.

 

[Haly]

Well luck is a part of it, but I don't see that draft as a bad draft, except maybe in terms of curve (because it dips in the middle rather than peak, which is how I prefer to draft). The thing is, it's not immediately obvious what your deck's gameplan is after you finish a draft, and drafts you consider "not good" because they break preconceived rules about drafting can actually work well in unexpected ways.

In hindsight, I would say you drafted some kind of Control Rogue, with Deadly Poison, Assassins, and tempo cards suppressing the early game to lead into the big draws like Blade, Commanders, and Molten Giant. With the two Assassinates, you covered almost all reasonable board control scenarios except for something like Sylvanas, or board flooding. You also had a lot of reach, in the form of Poisons, Blade, Bluegill, even Shiv + Azure Drake. Basically, you had all bases more or less covered, which is more than you can say for most arena decks.

One of the, I think, fundamental flaws of the way drafting works in Hearthstone is that you're rolling dice all the way through from Pick 1 to Pick 30. It's difficult to see any kind of structure forming when you have so little control over what cards you can get in your draft. Contrast this to drafting in MTG, where you can reasonably draft one particular archetype over another depending on card availability and reading your neighbor. Once you familiarize yourself with the format, it's rare that a "bad draft" will surprise you and become a "good draft".

Anyway this is a phenomenon I see in this thread all the time. People going on a huge streak with a "bad draft", and doing poorly with a "good draft". Sometimes it's just a case of not respecting the curve, but I think what determines a "good draft" is more nebulous than people think.

 

[Ken]

reading trump's chat as he streams aliens is more funny than it should be

"locker gives alien lethal"

"Why are you running flare trump, he's not playing secrets "

 

[ShinNL]

I have no time for games.

Don't react to a turn 6 Sylvanas by spamming the board when I'm Shaman, pls. Ancestral Spirit + Faceless = forever no time for games.

 

[Tacitus_]

I feel like I still don't understand this game. I play reasonably well, but I have basically no ability to look at two decks and figure out which is favored. I prefer to play Arena, and I can draft reasonably well by abusing arenavalue and exercising only a little discretion, but I'm almost always very wrong about how good the decks I draft are. Decks I think are really strong often top out at 4 or 5 wins, and decks I was really sad about post-draft seem to be much more likely to take me to 7+ wins.

A good deck will get more wins on average than a bad deck, but streaks happen. I went 12 wins with a mage deck and when I drafted a similar deck, I only got 3 because of bad draws on my part and godly draws on my opponents.

 

[ViviOggi]

With four enemy minions on the board my Bomber still managed to hit me in the face twice.

Stop making me draft this fucking terrible card

 

[Haunted]

pro tip #23

If you almost have lethal on the board but didn't draw into it, still emote "Well Played" and confidently attack face/go through the motions you would as if you had lethal as soon as the turn starts.

The amount of people that will concede before you actually go through with the kill is surprisingly high.

 

[ViviOggi]

I'm sorry but I just can't resist "Whoops" bming whenever I'm playing Mage in arena. Tossed a Flamestrike into my Counterspell? Whoops. Bomber hit your face thrice? Whoops. Duplicated my Belcher? Whoops.

I already picked the mode's most scummy class, might as well go all out.

 

[Minsc]

pro tip #23

If you almost have lethal on the board but didn't draw into it, still emote "Well Played" and confidently attack face/go through the motions you would as if you had lethal as soon as the turn starts.

The amount of people that will concede before you actually go through with the kill is surprisingly high.

Yet another advantage to having bots play for you, infinite patience and never succumbs to rage.

Really, if Blizzard can do nothing about bots (and historically, it seems they cannot), there's no reason to ever spend any money on this game (unless you're going big, for all-gold cards or something), since bots can earn you 1,000+ gold / week.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

pro tip #23

If you almost have lethal on the board but didn't draw into it, still emote "Well Played" and confidently attack face/go through the motions you would as if you had lethal as soon as the turn starts.

The amount of people that will concede before you actually go through with the kill is surprisingly high.

Yeah... many times this has happened, but I've had lethal I just start attacking face immediately and they concede.

Granted, they might be thinking they can never come back from x amount of hp and think it is over either way... but still... heh.

 

[partyphone]

yeah if i'm in that position i'll only concede if i know there's no way i'm coming back. if i have even a little bit of a board or cards in my hand you have to earn the victory.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Hunter is really the only class I will concede early against because of their unstoppable damage. Although if I have a chance I will go for it, usually to die to explosive trap and hero power.... I hate those losses.

 

[ShinNL]

The moment they decide to ignore your minions (in this case Sylvanas) and go for face and you have double Molten Giant, Sunfury and Earth Elemental in your hand.

Oh boy, this Warrior was not happy.

 

[Professor Lich]

I've only conceded once, when I messed up that 20 damage Priest execute, but I'll never give up. Even when it's futile, it's a good time to test stuff out and still make good plays. I'll kill myself if I can though. It's the same as conceding, but has more style.

 

[Super Nothing]

I've only conceded once, when I messed up that 20 damage Priest execute, but I'll never give up. Even when it's futile, it's a good time to test stuff out and still make good plays. I'll kill myself if I can though. It's the same as conceding, but has more style.

I've literally never conceded. I flat out refuse to. I once got pissed at a guy who blatantly passed on lethal two turns in a row, so I started just waiting until the rope burned almost all the way down, armored, and then ended my turn. I did that for like 5 turns in a row. He refused to kill me, and I would just make him sit and wait. I finally drew a Fiery Ware Axe and suicided on one of his minions...but I waited until the turn was almost over first.

 

[Huw_Dawson]

Yay!

This was an utterly stupid deck. The only deck I lost to featured a Ysera I didn't have Polymorph to deal with, but had one to deal with my Rag.

 

[johnsmith]

Yay!

4 skillstrikes and a Ragnaros. That'll do it.

 

[Huw_Dawson]

4 skillstrikes and a Ragnaros. That'll do it.

The Argent Commanders, Loot Hoarders and DI Dwarves carried the day, too.

It's been a couple of good days. I pulled a copy PUT YO FAITH IN DA LIGHT, my first non-Naxx legendary, yesterday. I disenchanted the gold cards and got myself a couple of Knife Jugglers for my Zoo deck.

... I admit I was laughing a lot in the first few games when I was hitting people with two or three Flamestrikes in a row.

 

[slayn]

my favorite bluff I ever pulled was when I was playing miracle rogue and leeroy double shadow would have won me the game but I only had leeroy + 1 shadowstep.

I said well played and leeroyed him twice and then pointed the backstab in my hand at leeroy to get the targeting arrow on his screen and he conceded.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Yay!



This was an utterly stupid deck. The only deck I lost to featured a Ysera I didn't have Polymorph to deal with, but had one to deal with my Rag.

That is possibly the best Arena deck I've ever seen. I'd trade out one of those Flamestrikes for a Pyroblast though if I had the choice.

 

[Kotetsu534]

Take a couple of the weaker 3-drops out, throw in a Harvest Golem, an Azure Drake, and perhaps another strong 5-drop and I'd give it a decent shot on the ladder. Well played all the same though - a brilliant deck doesn't guarantee a 12-1, and that deck does have a little vulnerability.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I am very surprised at how incompetent control warriors decking themselves vs a paladin. I mean, dropping acolyte when you are low on cards and choosing to draw cards off acolyte is just asking to lose. And then he used a shield block...

He was playing a weird deck though. I saw 27 of his cards... only gromm + alexstrasza were his 7+ cards that I saw and I had a second equality if he was running ysera or ragnaros. He ended up not even having an activator for gromm so when I aldor'd it after taking out a measely 1/1, I guess he assumed he had no way to win despite being up to like 45 hp.

And I kind of conclued he had a weak late game due to having 2 cleaves, 2 sunwalkers, and 2 whirlwinds. Definitely tuned for a zoo meta. I think the 3 cards I didn't know about were a second azure drake (odd for warrior), execute, and maybe some other odd ball card.

When I watch people stream control warrior, they're always concerned about drawing too much. This guy had 2 extra draw cards than normal (the azure drakes), so I am surprised by the fact he doesn't watch it closely.

edit:
Also I am in casual, but I see it in ranked a lot too. When you're at 50 hp and your opponent is about to be hit by alexstrasza (I was at 15hp with truesilver champion equipped), you don't have to win fast. You win by fatigue or you save an activator for grommash. I don't think I could have won from 15 hp unless he hit fatigue 3+ cards before me (and he did) because he used cards that got him nothing late game like acolyte and shield block.

Also I am playing an odd ball deck myself, trying out wailing souls with paladin. I figure.... maybe if I have a big board I can equality + consecrate or equality + knife juggler toss knifes, and then wailing soul. So far isn't working out.

edit:
Oh I forgot to mention that he drew 2 cards off dancing swords so he was even 2 cards deeper than he would have been normally. I think he hit fatigue when I had 6 cards left to draw... lol.

 

[Huw_Dawson]

That is possibly the best Arena deck I've ever seen. I'd trade out one of those Flamestrikes for a Pyroblast though if I had the choice.

Did not see a Pyroblast, unfortunately.

I can't emphasise enough how much of a trooper the Loot Hoarders were in that deck. They are guaranteed 1-for-1s and people in arena undervalue them so much that they'll 2-for-1 themselves. And having the draw power of the Acolyte which I had give me at least two cards pretty much every game.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Looks like bnet forums are completely bonkers. Error when opening any thread and the last response was about 4 hours ago.

edit: they are working now

edit2:

Wow, control shaman got big it seems. Figures with how good it is vs undertaker decks. Basically it is what I am running with more of an end game I guess. Probably no doomhammer... maybe not even alakir but that could be run and I may have just not seen it yet. But it is running 2 sea giants, ragnaros, cairne, sylvanas...

lol never mind folks, these are just bots with a bigger end game I think. It is getting harder to tell what is a bot I must admit.

 

[gutshot]

My new dream is a turn 6 win as mage playing nothing but spells to the face. I'm sure it has been done but the card draw has to be perfect.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

escapingjail, that app you recommended is pretty good.

Everyone should use it. It displays cards you have left in your deck on the right, with the %chance you'll draw into a card you have 2 remaining and %chance you'll draw into it if you have 1.

On the left it displays what cards your opponent has played (hint: never forget if they've used coin yet again). It also shows the % chance to draw a 1 of or a 2 of.

On top of their cards in their hand, it shows you which cards are from mulligan and it labels and tracks the coin, labels the draw order as well. So if someone has held a card from drawing turn 1, it'll have a 1 underneath it. I think an S designates a draw not from the beginning of the turn.

If they have a secret out, it will show you which secrets it can be.

Last feature I have found useful is a numerical countdown timer for turns. I haven't gotten into the habit of checking it constantly, but it could be used to ensure you start your turn before the rope starts burning if you have a puzzle you're solving and don't want to time out.

I'm a pretty visual oriented person and this deck app has helped me think about what deck my opponent is running and what cards they probably have in their hand.

https://github.com/Epix37/Hearthstone-Deck-Tracker/releases

I have to admit, this type of tool is even more helpful than I thought it would be. And according to ben brode, it is permitted.

One funny thing it does it actually show you which cards you drew on the overlay before it is shown on your screen. I mean, there is nothing you gain from knowing the card half a second early, but that is still pretty neat. It does this for opponent playing cards as well, signifying there is a delay between your client receiving the information and your opponent's animations. You literally don't benefit from this in any real way.

 

[shadowstar]

Every deck has undertaker and sludge belcher it seems. This is really boring to play against.

 

[Rosenskjold]

Every deck has undertaker and sludge belcher it seems. This is really boring to play against.

I've gotten to the point where I just polymorph sludge belchers as soon as I see them, might not be worth it all the time, but they deserve it!!

 

[Tacitus_]

Flamestrikes and pyros are overrated. I've come around to love fireballs more, I even picked one over a flamestrike for my current draft.

 

[NeoCross]

I'm up against this zoo lock and he's just hovering a card over, but the timer/rope isn't counting down. The fuck?

5 minutes now and still no timer.

 

[ViviOggi]

I'm up against this zoo lock and he's just hovering a card over, but the timer/rope isn't counting down. The fuck?

5 minutes now and still no timer.

It's some kind of server-side desync issue, been happening for ages but Blizz don't care. The card hovering thing its most common manifestation, so for the future, as soon as you see something similar, Alt+F4 the fuck out of Hearthstone and restart it. If you're back in the main menu within 30 seconds (or is it a minute?) you should reconnected to the game and be able to continue as usual.

Sometimes even weirder stuff accompanies this bug, I've seen opponents hovering over their hand cards while the other one keeps floating in the center of the screen, or even emote, but not playing any cards. You're never safe.

 

[zoukka]

I am very surprised at how incompetent control warriors decking themselves vs a paladin. I mean, dropping acolyte when you are low on cards and choosing to draw cards off acolyte is just asking to lose. And then he used a shield block...

...

You can't just avoid card advantage just because the matchup often goes into fatigue.

Flamestrikes and pyros are overrated. I've come around to love fireballs more, I even picked one over a flamestrike for my current draft.

Fireballs have always been the best mage card.

 

[gutshot]

Anyone watching Viagame's House Cup? Reynad is dropping pre-tournament salt. Not even waiting until he actually loses.

 

[CoolOff]

1. Fireball
2. Water Elemental
3. Flamestrike
4. Pyroblast

You know it's true.

 

[Zemm]

Anyone watching Viagame's House Cup? Reynad is dropping pre-tournament salt. Not even waiting until he actually loses.

I don't see it on twitch?

 

[CoolOff]

I don't see it on twitch?

That's because Viagame hosts it.

http://www.viagame.com/channels/viagame-house-cup/439013

 

[Zemm]

Cheers!

 

[Volimar]

That's because Viagame hosts it.

http://www.viagame.com/channels/viagame-house-cup/439013

These commentators are annoying as hell.

lol @ the girl cleaning in the background

 

[Haly]

This stream is like 240p jesus.

 

[Zemm]

It's painful watching people play this on a tablet.

 

[Professor Lich]

Here's my current Priest deck I'm using to get up the ladder. Really slow process since it requires 10 mana and most of the deck to be cycled. I think it needs a little tuning though. I think the pains / deaths could be something else but I'm not sure.

Nice to get it to work too, most people don't expect it. Wonder if there's a more legit deck like this though.