What is Hearthstone?
With Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment has delivered its first free-to-play title. The game is the PC implementation of the physical trading card game (TCG), which is no longer continued. But the term “trading” is misleading because at Hearthstone you can neither trade nor exchange the cards, just collect them and then compete against other players. Is it fun?
Hearthstone is a card game. We have thirty cards in the deck, some of them in hand. We play them to cast spells or to summon wolves and knights (so-called “servants”) who fight for us. The goal is to remove the thirty life points of the opposing hero (online connected player) before he or she does the same with ours.
Our hero belongs to one of nine “classes” known from “World of Warcraft, Link opens in a new window”, for example priests, hunters or magicians. Depending on the class, we have completely different cards in the deck and therefore a completely different way of playing. Mages can do a lot of damage with individual spells and thus hit the hero hard or sweep away several servants at once. Priests heal or steal an opponent’s powerful monster.
What makes Hearthstone competitive?
As usual with such games, the actual competition is only half of the game. Putting the deck together, i.e. putting together a strategy, is just as important. Which of the class-specific cards suit my style of play? How do I supplement general cards with a profit? Do I have enough cheap cards to get into a game well? Do I have enough cards to finish it?
Gameplay
What distinguishes Hearthstone from other trading card games is the focus on the essentials. This is most clearly shown in the mechanism by which resources are built up. If a card says that it costs nine «mana», we have to have it to be able to play it out. So if we only have two mana, we cannot play the strong card yet.
In most trading card games, obtaining resources is complex. In the grandmother of the genre, “Magic: The Gathering”, you first have to play country cards. These can then be turned to gain mana and play new cards. So whether players have enough resources available here also depends on whether they have enough country cards in their deck and whether they then draw them.
Hearthstone greatly simplifies this principle: in the first move we have a mana crystal, in the second two and in the tenth the maximum of ten is reached. The consequence of this is that games start right away because we don’t have to slowly build up resources first.
Quick and Short Games
In addition, individual games are quite short, between ten and twenty minutes. This is not only good for casual gamers or the famous “Just one more!” game at four in the morning.
It also promotes putting together a good deck. Because to know if the changes really improved my deck, I have to try it out. And that works better when the trial game is over quickly.
If manufacturer Blizzard can do something, it’s balancing. This is important for a trading card game, because we must not get the feeling that the opponent won only because he has a rare card that is much stronger than ours.
Pretty Well Balanced Game
And this balance has worked very well after a long beta phase. In many, many hours, maybe in one or two games, I felt as if I had been overwhelmed by an unfairly overpowered card. In most of the games, on the other hand, strategy and luck in cards were always decisive, not the possession of a single card.
The more we play, the better we know the different classes and their special skills. We learn how to counter strong cards. There can be a maximum of two of each card in one deck, in the case of “legendary”, ie particularly strong, only one. That is why we can also try to trick the opponent into playing strong cards too early – comparable to “pulling trumps” when joking.hearth
In the first game you can inspect your initially meagre card collection of the magician class (starting heroine is magician Jania Proudmoore), build a deck from it or have one created automatically and then compete against other human players in ranked or unrated matches – mind you without chat and only with one Handful of emotes, which prevents flame orgies, howls and hatred between players. You can also compete against computer opponents (practice) or go to the arena – a special case of PvP tournaments.
Actually you can compete against other players immediately after the tutorial and thanks to the matchmaking system you usually (but not always) meet opponents with a similar rating. But it goes without saying that the initial card selection for your deck is quite limited. So new cards are needed and that is the basic motivation behind everything: collect cards and improve the deck.
Also available on Mobile
Hearthstone is also available on mostly all mobile platforms such as iOS and Android. This makes it even easier to play from where you left off and thus making it portable. You can just play a rounds or two while watching your favourite tv show. And then too quickly continue it when you are on your super high priced gaming rig or laptop.
The games are challenging, have many twists and turns and the opponents always have surprises in store that you can learn from yourself. You can play the game super one or two rounds in the evening on the couch while watching TV, but just as well concentrated on the next lan.
Hearthstone is by the way, but therefore not as lax as most mobile games. I just really like the gameplay and it’s fun to measure yourself against friends or even complete strangers and to gradually improve your deck.
Tips And Tricks
For everyone who is just beginning their Hearthstone career, here is the guide for getting started. If you follow this Hearthstone beginner’s guide, it will take you to the point where you have all the beginner’s aids and bonuses and have to decide how to proceed. We start right after the Turorial ends because there is really nothing to say about it.
Tutorial
In the tutorial, you got the mage and its starting deck. you should now defeat all heroes in practice mode in order to unlock them. Each hero is supplied with his starting deck. And in the end, a bonus of 100 gold is waiting. I would advise against buying a pack immediately. It would hardly help you with the next steps, and you might think of better use later. Nor would I change the decks now. That comes in the next step and is just confusing you. They are enough as they are.
Now you have unlocked all characters and their star deck. The starting decks are only part of the basic cards. You get the rest by levelling the heroes up to level ten. Continue beating yourself up in AI practice mode. Every win is worth about one level and so you can get on quickly. You would get an XP bonus against human opponents, but with the start decks you normally don’t see a country, so be patient, please! It is best to raise each hero to level 10 in turn.
This gives you a feeling for the class and you can decide which cards you want to replace because you are now getting new cards for your deck. If you are still unsure, you can also have a deck suggested and then make changes over time. If you have brought all heroes to level 10, you have all the basic cards and receive a free pack.
Start PvP
Now is the time to take on human opponents for the first time. Put together a deck that you know how to play and get going: off to play mode and good luck! You can already win here, there are many players with simple decks or little experience in the lower ranks. But even if you lose it doesn’t make a difference at the moment.
You are here to collect two rewards: one free pack to play once and 100 gold to play three times, and wins are not a requirement for either. Have a look at your quest log: Some Daily quests are very easy to do, even with little experience and few good cards. For example, the ‘destroy x minions’ or the ’cause x damage to heroes’ quests. You could just take it with you. But don’t get lost in difficult quests.
There are still easier goals to achieve.
Regardless of whether you were successful in play mode or not, you should now return to the training camp. There is another 100 gold to be earned. To do this, you have to defeat all expert AIs. A little note about this: You will not be shown which AIs you have already conquered, so either proceed in an orderly manner or take notes if your memory is as weak as mine. As soon as you are done with this, you have completed all initial quests. There is still a reward of 300 gold for 100 victories in any game mode, but you just fulfill it by the way, you do not target it.
Bottomline
Hearthstone knows exactly what it wants to be: A brisk and entertaining card game that both beginners and experts can have fun with. And it succeeds with flying colors. The game is not quite as complex or extensive as some other genre representatives, compared to the five mana colors of a Magic: The Gathering, I find the automatic resource collection, for example, a bit shallow.
But there is method behind the simplicity: Beginners have grasped the rules after just a few rounds, casual gamers can play a quick game from time to time, and for experts, the fundamentally simple game mechanics hide new strategies even after countless games. So if you can even make friends with trading card games remotely, you should give Hearthstone at least a chance.
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