Well Met!

We are happy to announce the /r/Hearthstone Discord Server! If you are looking to talk about the game, find new friends to play with or just hang out with like minded people, feel free to join us!

Also a big thing to point out is our registered users just passed 25,000 on the Discord server and we are partnered with Discord in order to give you guys a bunch of extra features and better quality voice channels!

Discord Event: Enter The Dungeon

Want to earn some exclusive rewards for the discord server and the /r/Hearthstone subreddit? Make sure you check out the new channel #enter-the-dungeon to experience the Discords fourth server wide event which puts users to the test in a race to defeat the Kobold King!

If you would like to join us, please download and install the free Discord Client and then click on this link. Mobile and Tablet Clients are also available.

Let the GamesMemes Begin!

~/r/Hearthstone moderation team.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Js6ur

One of the very few decent counters to Explosive Runes

Last year's announcement came on 2/27, with a reveal stream on Friday 3/17.

Assuming that the reveal stream could/would be on Friday 3/16, we would have expected an announcement on 2/26, so we're officially one day later than last year.

I also had this thought today on why an "announcement of an announcement" is helpful. It's the same reason why Blizzard's move to scheduled card reveals are helpful, and that is: it reduces F5 anxiety.

What is F5 anxiety? I made it up, but basically the idea that in the absence of any sort of schedule or information, we as a community are constantly waking up going "maybe today's the day!", hearthpwn: F5, F5, F5; reddit: F5, F5, F5...nothing? ugh okay.

I would rather hear "hey, nothing on the new expansion until March 10th" - I'd get over the fact that it's not coming for another 10 days preeeeetty quick, but the fact that it's completely unknown is stressful and a bit annoying.

That said, love Blizz, love hearthstone, love everything they do, but hoping for some discussion on this topic.

EDIT:Grammar, ugh
EDIT 2: I'd like to just point out, for what it's worth, that I don't agree with anyone saying "Blizz is late" .. they're not late. They make the schedule, and they're on time. They are just later than last year, and in the absence of communication, failing to meet the community's (perhaps unrealistic) expectation. Didn't mean for this to be another blizzard witch-hunt thread.
EDIT 3: https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/4387-the-year-of-the-raven-is-coming-to-hearthstone-ice

I've mentally prepared myself to be downvoted into oblivion here, so feel free to do so. I am ready.

So I often see posts and comments on this subreddit, HS Facebook groups, and other forums complaining about how Blizzard manages the game, particularly about how expensive the game can be, money or dust-wise to build a meta deck.

I traveled the much country playing in competitive Yugioh tournaments, and let me tell you - Konami is one of the most abusive companies to their playerbase. It got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore - Meta decks costs upwards of $1000, and after the set got popular, they'd reprint the popular cards in lower rarities, destroying any investment you had made into the competitive scene. I started looking for a new game.

I considered them all. Magic was far too expensive, Force of Will didn't have the player base, Cardfight Vanguard is a horrible game (lmao), etc. I have always loved Blizzard games, so I figured I'd give HS a try. But after browsing the forums mentioned above, I was a little apprehensive - complaint after complaint about how Blizzard monetizes their game.

After playing hardcore for 3 months now, I have to say, I think the community should step back and appreciate how well Blizzard actually treats us all, especially in comparison to other card games.

• The fact that you guys even have an option to be f2p is amazing. The only f2p version of Yugioh was an online version called duelingnetwork, which Konami shut down for copyright infringement. The tool many competitive players used to practice for tournaments. Yup.

• During my 7 years playing, I was never given a single gift by Konami, but now I get gold just for playing the game. I get even more gold for winning.

• I can get a free pack just for playing in a weekly event that's completely free to me, including no cost for gold or dust.

• When cards do get nerfed (in Yugioh it was called an "errata"), I can get full value back for that card. If Konami nerfed a card you had spend 50 bucks on? Oh well, suck it.

• Set rotations mean you know exactly what is safe to craft. In Yugioh, we had banlists that came whenever Konami felt like it, so you never knew if your investment was safe.

• When cards do rotate, you are able to keep using them in an official competitive mode, where you can win all the same rewards mentioned above.

• Competitive meta decks can usually be crafted by buying <100 packs and dusting what you don't need. I'm not saying that's cheap, but $100-$150 (if you need an adventure as well) for a meta deck that's a safe investment for at least the next month or two is extremely reasonable, compared to other card games.

I know Blizzard's model isn't perfect, but as an ex-yugioh player, sometimes I think it's lost on the community how good we have it. They are much more generous to their playerbase than any other mainstream card game out there.

When I do feel frustrated at some of Blizzard's ratios and monetization tactics, I step back and remember that not only is this game significantly more affordable than every other mainstream card game out there, but it's important to remember Blizzard has employees, who have families, who have to eat and pay their bills.

Blizzard is a business. Their number one priority is profit. I think they've found a much better middle ground between maximizing profits and keeping this game affordable to their player base.

Commence the downvoting. I am awaited in Valhalla.

EDIT: I'd like to address some of the repeat points many people are making in the comments.

Comparing bad to worse isn't a valid argument: You missed my point completely. I don't believe I'm comparing bad to worse, I believe I'm comparing good to bad. I think the HS community is treated very well by the devs. They give us a lot, more than any other mainstream card game. Emphasis on mainstream, because a lot of you are talking about other games with smaller communities. THAT is comparing apples to oranges imo. Those smaller games have to offer more, because they have to compete with the big boys. If one of them ever became more mainstream and as big as HS, Magic, or YGO (in its day), they would peel back their offers as well.

Yugioh decks don't cost $1000: I tried to convey this in the original post, but I guess I was ineffective. Competitive tier one decks absolutely push into the $1000s. TeleDad, Dinorabbit, Nekroz, Lightsworns all hit over $1000 while they were dominating their respective metas. Also, Pot of Duality and Tour Guide from the Underworld were both mandatory 3 ofs in any competitive deck and both reached nearly $200 per copy. That's almost $600 for 3 cards out of your 40 card deck (not to mention your extra deck).

You cant compare digital ccg to a physical one: This also can be written as "it's a video game," "you have a physical card collection," etc. I don't think I'll find much common ground here with dissenters, but to me, HS is a card game that happens to be played on a screen. It's fundamental mechanics are that of a card game. Would you call online chess a video game? I wouldn't. If you would, fair enough - we'll have to agree to disagree.

You can sell your cards to make your money back: While this is true on the surface, it doesn't quite work out that way in practice. Konami is famous for destroying card value in the blink of an eye. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you held onto a meta card/deck for too long, it would drop in value by at least half. I do believe the secondary market for Magic is more stable, but in Yugioh every player loses money in the long run unless you're a vendor, god-like player, or thief (which the Yugioh community is full of lol).

So given that both games will lose you money in the long run, HS is the much better option when it comes to how much loss you'll take over your playing career. Meta decks are much cheaper, and when you factor out how much money you're spending vs. the time your spending having fun, HS gets you more bang for your buck per minute of fun.

Also, thanks for the gold, Ben Brode kind stranger!

Yesterday i went shopping with my girlfriend and i saw the Warcraft movie DVD for sale. Inside the hardcase cover was a 1 page booklet with promo codes for WoW, HotS & HS. Even tho it said that this code is only available 'till 1st October 2017, it still worked. Had a great evening yesterday with the WC movie and free (5,90 € for the DVD) hero.

https://i.imgur.com/n3oUVwj.jpg

Here me out on this one... I know it sucks in any video game to lose. Nobody wants to lose 5 games in a row playing Capture the Flag or Team Deathmatch or in a Control Warrior mirror match up. The difference is, in a lot of games there is still some form of progression when you lose. You still get XP or some equivalent to unlock something in game or generally just get the feeling of progression...

The problem with Hearthstone is that it's ALL OR NOTHING. You lose, you lose in every way and you end up feeling more like you've wasted between 5-15 mins because you are no better off now than you were before you started the previous game. In fact you've gone backwards.

The only form of progression you get is in the XP meter, which is capped at 60 and overall feels fairly useless in the game of Hearthstone.

So I think one simple change could help alleviate this. What if you got 10 gold for every three games COMPLETED and not WON. Games were you concede or rope/AFK wouldn't count, and Blizz have proven they have the capability to implement that in games VS friends.

Now I understand the main push back on this post will be that "Blizz won't do it because there'd be infinitely more gold out there and it would cost them money" but this is a genuine way to help new players, who still gain some gold despite facing harder decks. There's progression here that helps tweak an economy designed years ago for a game that has evolved around it.

Just think of it from a psychological perspective. The fact that people aren't entirely punished for losing would make close loses hurt a little less. You're losing ladder rank sure, but you're still getting some gold back.

A simple change, that might hurt Blizzards gold economy, but would alleviate the feeling of defeat somewhat, and could ultimately lead to people playing Hearthstone longer. Sometimes a quality of life change is more important than a little less gold for the player

TL:DR; If Blizzard changed the 10 gold for 3 games won to 10 gold for 3 games completed, it would go along way to helping combat the feeling of lost games being wasted time.

Last night Feno hosted a 11 game Showmatch between Zalae on Cubelock and Noblord on Control Warlock. They agreed upon decklists together and it was casted by Feno, Casie and BunnyHoppor.

Cubelock ended up winning 6-3. There was a lot of dicussion afterwards into the match/decks afterwards and the insight was priceless.

I did a writeup on the series and conclusions https://f2k.gg/articles/1551. For the full experience i'd recommend checking out Feno or Noblords VoD.

Recently, a few players posted on the hearthstone reddit, claiming to have won a prize as part of the Quest for Packs Promotion.

With a lack of communication from Blizzard, some of us speculated that because the claims were only for 3 packs, there was a chance that not all the prizes had been distributed. With 51,001 e-mails to send, staggering the release of packs made sense to some, especially due to potential legalities of larger prizes (e.g. Affidavit of Eligibility).

Unfortunately, for those of you who were holding your breath, you can breath now. Today, a Blizzard representative confirmed on a forum that all the prizes for the Quest for Packs Promotion have already been distributed.

The reality is, with only ~51,000 prizes and >70,000,000 accounts (not all of which are active), the chances of winning anything were pretty abysmal. This is exactly why we only heard of ~5 winners (of 3 packs) on the reddit. Even worse, some regions weren't even eligible to participate in the competition, while other regions received a guaranteed 6 Kobolds and Catacombs Packs just for logging in.

Despite being a global, online game, Blizzard has consistently treated regions differently from one another, making for an unappreciated discrepancy in player experience. For example, on February 1st, 2018, Khadgar was made available again as part of promotion for China, but nowhere else.

As a new player to Hearthstone, the potential to win 3000 prizes excited me, as it did most players. But an issue arises when we make an RNG fest for an RNG game. Right now, the popular opinion is that the Quest For Packs Promotion was far from a success. Without a substantial quantity of prizes, any communication from Blizzard, confirmation of raffle submission, or specification of what when the contest "day" began and ended, this promotion was as poorly organized as it gets.

That being said, I don't want this post taking away from the excitement of those of you who did win. For those ~5 of you who won... congrats!

Haha, but in all seriousness, there's the official word from customer representative, Grizzle, himself. I was just hoping to update the community so that y'all weren't still crossing your fingers like me!

Do you enjoy watching streamers? Do you wish there was an easier way to find new up-and-coming streamers beyond the well-known, established Twitch goliaths?

Do you have a stream yourself? Are you looking to get exposure but not sure how given how Twitch displays streams and how one-shot stream promotion posts on Reddit tend to get ignored? Is anyone still reading these questions?

This thread is for you!

If you are a streamer or know of a cool, lesser-known (read: doesn't regularly pull in 1K+ viewers) streamer feel free to post the URL and a short, informative pitch about why you feel others would be interested to watch it. Why should someone watch your suggested stream rather than one of the hundreds of other streams out there?

The next great streamer might be just one comment away.

Enjoy!

Note: I am a bot. Questions or feedback regarding this thread? Message the moderators.

The Heroes are predominantly major lore characters, Jaiana, Medivh, and Khadgar all play significant roles in Warcraft, for example, likewise Garrosh, Thrall, and Gul'dan are probably the most famous orcs in WoW. The upside of this is that we get to play as badass characters from Warcraft history! The downside is that races like the Trolls, Tauren, and Forsaken have been left out entirely.

Here's the current breakdown of heroes by race:

Characters with a † next to their name have in-game alignment that differs from their race, or that I've been otherwise told that I got wrong in some way. (See the comments for details)

Of the vanilla World of Warcraft races, Trolls, Tauren, and Forsaken have no representation. (I've been a Forsaken since the beginning, Dark Lady watch over you.)

If we expand to the DLC races we can add Goblins, Worgen, Draenei, and Pandaren to that list.

Cards on the table here: I love Hearthstone, but I want to play as the Horde, I always have. Yeah, it's just a portrait at the bottom of the window, it doesn't stop me from playing, it doesn't affect the actual quality of the game... but I'd like the game just a little bit more if I saw my jawless Undead mage staring back at me from that little portrait than Jaina, Medivh, or Khadgar.

Blizzard, please, give the Horde some love.

Edit: Khadgar and Medivh are neutral, yes, but they come from Alliance races, which was the main thrust of my argument. Though I concede that the title doesn't reflect my intention. In the draft version of this post I had written that we have 7 elf characters, but I figured that would get picked apart since they're actually from three different variety of elves.... I thought I was being too specific, now it seems like I'm not being specific enough. /sigh I'm going back to r-Politics, where things are simpler and less nuanced.

Edit 2: And I forgot Morgl the Oracle in the title count. I updated the chart, though! Thanks for the find, u-colossus_geopas!

The card 'Muster for Battle' is translated as 'Ruf zu den Waffen'. But 'Ruf zu den Waffen' means actually call to arms. Yet 'Call to Arms' is translated as 'Auf in die Schlacht' which can loosely be Translated to 'Muster for Battle'.

Literally unplayable.

I mean there is 3 major expansions per year and the game is digital so there is no manufacturing costs for the card or anything even if the price drops are for sales like 20% off for a week or something.

Here is my Spell Hunter at 499 wins and one win from legend.

My game with the Final Boss. I went from being super happy with the mulligan to nearly having a heart attack after he plays Dirty Rat on 3. Still pulled out a win, though, as his 2nd Dirty Rat betrays the poor mage on turn 7. Rat giveth and Rat taketh away.

500 wins and legend rank.

Honestly, I don't know how players do this on a consistent basis. The climb from 5 to legend is more stress inducing than anything I encounter at work. But it's a good stress. The type of stress you get from anticipation while getting closer and closer in line for a bad ass roller coaster.

And for anyone wondering if they should craft Spell Hunter, I highly recommend it. It's a very skill intensive and rewarding deck where the margin of victory or defeat can come down to using a single hero power. I was getting absolutely crushed when I first started, but after analyzing my losses (after the rage settles down), I realized I could have played very differently in so many of my games that may have led to a different result. I'm finally decent at Spell Hunter and was able to put together winning streaks like this. You can, too.

This was only my 2nd time getting legend and I had a blast. So get out there and crush the ladder, boys.