Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Beta Opt-In)

Blizzard understands addiction very well, and they are developing a new game that will no doubt be even more popular than World of Warcraft. The game is called Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and it's the most exciting and fun card game I can remember playing since Magic The Gathering was released in 1994.

Hearthstone is currently in a Closed Beta. You can opt in to the Beta @ http://us.battle.net/hearthstone So let me explain a bit about... THE GAME Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital strategy card game. Players choose one of nine Warcraft heroes to play as, and then take turns playing cards from their customizable decks to cast potent spells, use heroic weapons or abilities, or summon powerful characters to crush their opponent. Blizzard has designed Hearthstone so that anyone can get into it, no matter how familiar they are with the Warcraft universe or collectible card games. The game will teach you everything you need to know as you play it. THE HEROES While playing the game you represent one of 9 Heroes: Mage, Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Priest and Fighter. Each Hero has a different style and has specific Minions and Spells available to them. For example, the Priest has many healing and health gaining spells and abilities, the Rogue prefers to use Stealth and knives, while the fighter has a "no pain no gain" style of play. THE MINIONS Some of your cards represent minions that you summon to the battlefield. They have Attack power and Health, for example 2/3 means they deal 2 damage when attacking and take 3 damage before they are dead, similar in many ways to other TCGs. Some minions have special abilities, such as Taunt which forces the opponents creatures to attack your minion rather than your Hero directly, or Battle Cry which triggers something to happen as you play the minion, and many more abilities. DECKBUILDING After you obtain cards from Expert card packs you can start building your own decks. Building a deck properly is the key to winning the most games. You need to learn how each card works and come up with a strategy for your deck. There are many card combos that prove to be very powerful. Getting good at deckbuilding will also prepare you for the Arena. THE ARENA The Arena is a competitive mode of the game where players forge decks from a random draft of cards they can choose from, 1 card at a time, until they have a deck of 30 cards. Then you attempt to get as many wins as you can, up to 9 wins to win the Arena game, but they can only lose 3 times before being eliminated. Winning more games improves your prize at the end of the Arena event. After winning 100 regular games in any mode, you will earn 300 gold which can be used to enter the Arena again. A ticket for entry into the Arena is 150 Gold or $2 from your Blizzard wallet. The first time you enter is free, so you can learn how it works and enjoy it stress free. EXTRA BETA KEYS Extra Keys might become available, if you're interested in testing the game early, there might be one for you. Leave a message here and at other gaming web sites and perhaps you can get in earlier. Good luck and see you there!

The game looks pretty neat and still just waiting for a beta invite.

Great post btw.

Nice post TC. I cant wait for this game to release and I hope blizz will port it to android too. I'll still will be playing this on my ipad/pc but it would also be neat to be able to play on my galaxy s4 on the go.

Btw will the online be cross platform?

SKAREO been hacked! He's posting useful (but old) info!

Wish I sold my key or something... I got an invite and used it, played the game like once, probably never going to play again.

It's a pretty fun game so far except the Win X Games as Y Class quests. Way too annoying to get. Also, since they are going to reset this beta phase, I don't want to put too much time in collecting cards that will all go away later. I got a lucky invite from the opt-in. So far I have only gotten into Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone through the opt-in.

It's a pretty fun game so far except the Win X Games as Y Class quests. Way too annoying to get. Also, since they are going to reset this beta phase, I don't want to put too much time in collecting cards that will all go away later. I got a lucky invite from the opt-in. So far I have only gotten into Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone through the opt-in.

James00715

[QUOTE="James00715"]

It's a pretty fun game so far except the Win X Games as Y Class quests. Way too annoying to get. Also, since they are going to reset this beta phase, I don't want to put too much time in collecting cards that will all go away later. I got a lucky invite from the opt-in. So far I have only gotten into Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone through the opt-in.

SKaREO

[QUOTE="slabber44"][QUOTE="SKaREO"]Closed Beta wipe incoming. Looks like it's going to be open beta pretty soon. Also, nice to see a GameSpot ranger trolling legitimate threads.lawlessx

You seem to confuse trolling with a difference of opinion. Maybe Google can help you differentiate...

[QUOTE="lawlessx"][QUOTE="slabber44"]Come on now SKaREO! What do you expect from other forum members when all your usual posts are no more than smart ass comments or some sort of trolling! You reap what you sow sir! Kind of hard to take anything you say seriously even when you do post legitimate things.FelipeInside

You seem to confuse trolling with a difference of opinion. Maybe Google can help you differentiate...

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]

[QUOTE="lawlessx"] should see him on the steam boards...grade A troll over there. SKaREO

You seem to confuse trolling with a difference of opinion. Maybe Google can help you differentiate...

I still don't have bata key :(

I got in the last wave and have been playing it on and off.

It's a fun card game but it's not rewarding enough, something they need to fix or else people will just leave.

@SKaREO:

you havent played Android Netrunner then. it shits all over this joke of a "card game"

I've lost a lot of interest in this game since I stopped playing for a while. They wiped everyone's accounts and started fresh. After I opened a few packs I honestly just didn't feel like rebuilding my collection again and haven't turned the game on for over three weeks.

"... a new game that will no doubt be even more popular than World of Warcraft." -Skareo

"I've lost a lot of interest in this game since I stopped playing for a while. " -Skareo

Looks like it was a colossal success....

See I think that is the downfall with early beta access to games. When they wipe the game its just a chore to do everything over again. I would rather get my experience when the full game releases and not already be burned out before it comes out....

I got my invite on Monday but only started playing it today. As a MTG player, I must say the game is nice and entertaining. Looking forward to the full release, in the meantime, I'll keep playing some matches every now and then.

Good post from really bad user. SKaREO keep posting like this and i will respect you when humanity gets Warp 10 techonology. Maybe,...

I'm optimistic about things I'm ready to support. Rarely do they ever turn out worthwhile. The only game I've played for years that wasn't a collosal failure was GTA V and even it has it's problems, but it's certainly not boring like Hearthstone has become.

Only played little bit of it, seemed interesting.. The only real problem I had with it was the fact that the game went at a lightening pace in the sense that the board was consistently wiped out constantly.. It really didn't feel like you could long term strategize outside of deck building and just holding on to cards and waiting to unleash them all in 1 to 3 turns.. Though maybe that is the case with all card games like it, this is the first one I have ever really tried out.

@SKaREO:

as i said before, anyone that likes card games should be playing Android Netrunner... not this garbage.

This brought sick up into my mouth.

And I thought Warcraft couldn't get any nerdier.

U obviously need to look up the word "sarcasm" in the dictionary.

It's nerdy because you quit playing WoW because you were terrible and nobody wanted you as part of their team and you are angry that WoW isn't WC4.

Aint that right mr star trek nerd?

lol

It's nerdy because the people who play WoW live their lives by the game to get the most enjoyment out of it. Star Trek doesn't require anything of you. I couldn't keep to raid schedules because I had a girlfriend, a job, responsibilities, and other hobbies. Everyone else in the top-tier raiding guilds didn't. While you were busy living your life by your guild's raid schedule, meeting up in Vent with 40 other greaseballs, and preparing to run MC for the 45th time, I was busy having genuine fun doing other things. People like yourself had fun doing the same raids and essentially replaying the exact same scenarios a million times over - I didn't.

I did extremely well in both raiding, in the arenas, and the battlegrounds. You'd have to be a twat to think WoW requires enough skill that only 'elite' players are capable of high-level raiding or arena play. It's no secret that it's not an excess of skill that you possess, it's simply an excess of free-time, patience for repetition, nerdiness, and body fat.

Wait what? You do realize that you don't have to do those things to enjoy the game right? To some how suggest that you need to devout that kind of time and sacrifice is pretty absurd..

So many things wrong with this post.

1) When did you even play WoW? What is there to do at max level other than raid, or PvP? If there's anything at all, it wasn't there when I played.

2) If your question is "what?", you should probably reread the post so you figure out what I actually said lol. People who want to get the most of the game typically do those things to enjoy the game. And as I said, there isn't much else outside that.

3) If you wish to play the game after getting to the highest level and make progression- you have to join a guild and adjust to their schedule of raiding. The best guilds have the strictest raid schedules and raid most regularly. Conversely, the same exist for PvP guilds and BGs. If you don't already know this, you didn't play enough WoW to get into this argument.

......... This just isn't true imo.. There are flex raids and LFR's.. Sure you may not be cutting edge, but that is directly what your b!tching about.. To me it sounds like you are the one with the problem, that to enjoy the game you have to slave your self to these kinds of things, which is absurd.. Then you have the balls to call other people nerds? Hilarious.

And as for pvp, nothing is stopping you from picking up a few partners for arena that you occasionally do it.... You can basically lodge this kind of complaint for any and EVERY competitive video game out there of requiring lots and lots of time to play it.. BUT HERE is the kicker, none of these things are required to enjoy the game even at end game. WoW's current end game has never been so flexible as it is now with what you want to do.. And to play in the end game you are not forced to slave your self to it, if it were I sure as hell wouldn't play it.

@@@FelipeInside:

You obviously need to look at the word "You" in the dictionary, there should be an added 'Y' and 'O' to your 'U'.

You still dont get it, my post was just imitating SKareo like he normally posts. I'm a PC gamer through and through