According to gen concious, Hearthstone has become pricer to play? is it true( A F2P player's perspective) Dust wise breakdown.

This is a chart that shows how much dust you will need to craft your collection expansion wise. (From classic to Rise of Shadows) 

This is a breakdown of neutral cards per expansion wise 

This is a breakdown of cards of a class( in this case it is druid) expansion. There have been some fluctuation in classes where some of the class cards went to HoF or Hunter was the only card which received 2 legendaries in TGT (Which takes all total hunter legendaries to 20, for others it is 19) but more or less they are quite same.

Expect 8 of more charts like this. 

This is a dust wise breakdown of cards of a class per expansion(in this case:druid) 

.f you have noticed a pattern then you will that after MSG, Blizzard have reduced the number of neutral legendaries, instead increased the number of class legendaries by 1 (From JtUG).

As a F2P player from open beta I found this new trend more suitable. I have consolidated my attention to a single class (priest) & only craft Priest & neutral cards. After MsG I found it much easier to fill my collection than before. 

I have all of the priest cards & almost half of the Neutral collection (with entire adv: CoN,BRM, LoE, ONK) 

This is the current numbers of neutral cards I need to complete my neutral collection

From this chart you can see that I fared much better from Ungoro than I did before & I am filling up my neutral collection much quicker than before & because of no duplicate legendary rule it has become more easier if you only concentrate on a single class.

I know that different people might have different experience with this new system but for me this new breakdown was more favorable. 

Quote From LogicalTroll

I have all of the priest cards & almost half of the Neutral collection (with entire adv: CoN,BRM, LoE, ONK) 

All you've proven here is that it's less pricey to meet an arbitrary goal you've set for yourself.  

Are you an HS player or an HS collector?  Because even almost all of the most pay to winnest players don't have a full priest collection.  Most players, nevermind f2p players who need dust, would have dusted those mindgames and lazuls long ago to craft relevant cards for one or maybe two other classes (preferably some more known for cheap, competitive decks such as rogue or hunter) for the same amount of dust you have in your collection.  Mind you, I'm not saying playing one class is not a valid f2p option (in fact, it's one I used back when I was f2p), only your specific method of crafting everything in a class.

If you want to roleplay or challenge yourself with alternate goals, that's your own business but it means your collection and experiences shouldn't be used as a baseline when it comes to collection management because it's highly usual, not representative of f2p collections on a whole and sets a very poor example for aspiring f2p players who actually want to play the game rather than collect cards, as you do

Right. The correct approach would be to consider only meta relevant cards. At best separated in 3 tiers. 

I would expect the results to show that RoS has become more expencive because so many legendarys have implications. At the same time, this means that you allmost allways can adapt your collection to the legendarys, you opened.

Besides, the system is over 2 years old now. If anything, cost hasn‘t changed in a long time. 

And finally, 2 legendarys per class is not very f2p friendly since their application is often limited to a single deck. Neutrals like the ich King, N‘zoth or Zilyax are way more usefull.

Quote From NightCrawler

Quote From LogicalTroll

I have all of the priest cards & almost half of the Neutral collection (with entire adv: CoN,BRM, LoE, ONK) 

All you've proven here is that it's less pricey to meet an arbitrary goal you've set for yourself.  

Are you an HS player or an HS collector?  Because even almost all of the most pay to winnest players don't have a full priest collection.  Most players, nevermind f2p players who need dust, would have dusted those mindgames and lazuls long ago to craft relevant cards for one or maybe two other classes (preferably some more known for cheap, competitive decks such as rogue or hunter) for the same amount of dust you have in your collection.  Mind you, I'm not saying playing one class is not a valid f2p option (in fact, it's one I used back when I was f2p), only your specific method of crafting everything in a class.

If you want to roleplay or challenge yourself with alternate goals, that's your own business but it means your collection and experiences shouldn't be used as a baseline when it comes to collection management because it's highly usual, not representative of f2p collections on a whole and sets a very poor example for aspiring f2p players who actually want to play the game rather than collect cards, as you do

I know that different people might have different experience with this new system but for me this new breakdown was more favorable.

As I have already said, this is coming from a personal experience & clearly an opinion that shouldn't be considered as fact. Some of us play it for fun cause very few of the hearthstone playerbase would ever make it as a professional let alone be at the top. I think it's better to be realistic. 

I am not saying that I am writing the golden rulebook of playing hearthstone or my experience is the be all end all. People have approached this game in different manners, even the streamers streaming the game bring lots of variety on the board. I am just sharing my experience & how it have affected my experience with the game. 

No wonder different people with different approach will feel different. 

Well, you presented your post as an argument that the „new“ (8 expansion old) system of two class legendarys is advantageous for f2p. He is simply saying that this is only true in the niche case of playing one class only. In every other situation, the contrary is the case ...

In fact, what you are saying is the following: Since Ungoro, less neutral legendarys are printed. Obviously, a full neutral expansion has become less expencive. 

This argument is flawed on multiple levels.

1. Less legendary cards is less content.

2. You don‘t consider the meta whatsoever. Most players craft the cards, they want to use and the number of „usable“ legendarys is not allways relatet to the total amount of legendarys.

You artificially limit your access to multiple decks and playstyles by sticking to one class and wasting your dust on random neutral cards that may not even synergise with your class.

I would never criticize your way of playing the game. As long as you have fun, great! It‘s simply no advisable strategy for f2p, especially new players.

Let me finish with an example: Let‘s take Rasthakans Rumble. Would you ever consider crafting Griftah over [Hearthstone Card (Zul’jin) Not Found]? The first is at best a meme card that doesn’t support any deck. The later unlocks multiple budget decks, impacts the games significantly and has a high chance to see play in future expansions.

First of all, It's a perspective,an interpenetration not an argument. Now let me dissect your points. 

"1. Less legendary cards is less content." 

- Not necessarily. The change in rarity doesn't translate to less content when it's quite apparent that other rarity of cards of remained same. The total number of legendarily haven't been  decreased. They have just been distributed among the classes while in the past they would have confined to neutral pool. 

Now there's an argument can be represented in favour of more class legendaries that they provide more ways to play & sometimes they bring a total different archetype into the table. Neutral legendaries, no matter how unique they are, lack the flavour that a class legendary usually possesses. 

2. You don‘t consider the meta whatsoever. Most players craft the cards, they want to use and the number of „usable“ legendarys is not allways relatet to the total amount of legendarys.

Dust is a very valuable thing in the game which is very hard to acquire for F2P players (unless they are infinite arena players, but the reality is very few are). For a F2P player when you invest your dust into a card you have to make that decision very wisely while thinking about long term. It's very hard for a F2P player to craft a legendary in a whim.sometimes meta changes all of a sudden making great cards bad over night. For a F2P players it is very hard to keep up the momentum if they go into this cycle of crafting & disenchanting. It's not a viable option cause return from disenchantment is only 1/4th. You are losing a major chunk of your hard earned dust with very little return. Sometimes you just don't know what kind of obscure legendary will sudden become viable (e.G: Black Knight at the very beginning of KFT launch) . SO you always have to keep that in mind that any card have the potential to be viable in any meta. Also there is this case of wild where you need a huge pool of cards in your repository. So anyone with an intent of playing wild have to keep that in mind that crafting all of your cards should be the ultimate goal. Obviously you have to priorities which card you will craft first. But for a F2P player especially if you have started just now, you priority should be a long goal. 

Of course you can climb legend with a meta deck at the very first month you have started playing, but if you want to maintain that consistency so that you can achieve at least rank 5 in every season then you have to think about the long goal. 

3.  You artificially limit your access to multiple decks and playstyles by sticking to one class and wasting your dust on random neutral cards that may not even synergise with your class.

Confining yourself to a single class can be both limited & flexible strategy simultaneously.

Drawback is that you won't be playing any other classes & the archetypes they have to offer. But on the other side it gives you the flexibility of playing both Wild & Standard format to a very deep length. You are facing problem in standard meta then shift to wild for laddering. Wild is appearing too hard then go back to the standard ladder. Building you collection for  some specific decks will never give you that flexibility. Also it gives you the option of experimenting, trying your own decks. That deck can be both competitive but also fun. Also playing meta decks can become grinding & monotonous in a very quick succession. 

At the end of the day a F2P Player has only two choices

1. Either invest into competitive meta decks for multiple classes which will hinder your deck experimentation, trying multiple formats in the long term. 

or

2. Invest into a single class where you can taste almost everything this game has to offer to some extent. A huge problem is that the class you have selected can face a slump & then you will be in slump too & it can happen quite often. 

But no matter how much you try you will be a few step behind to able to access everything this game has to offer without spending anything. It's not impossible but quite a daunting task. So pick your poison. 

The number of epics and legendaries have not really increased with recent expansions and just because a card is epic or legendary doesn't mean it will be used in any working consistent deck that compels someone to craft it for a smooth ladder climb.

Even the bundles, which actually have increased in price, does not automatically equate to you having to buy them due to the content not being gated behind the paywall.

I do something similar with priest. I'm also f2p and I typically craft all priest legendaries. Although sometimes I might craft one and wait with the other, depending on the potential I see/don't see. I typically don't craft the epics (yet) until I see a value/reason for them and then I experiment with the class.

I don't disenchant anything else (except for extra's) so their is enough else to play with. 

I started after. Un'goro and in wild I have a reno priest deck which uses dragons and a dragon priest deck. In standard I have almost all the priest cards and I have (now) 7.5k gold and 16k dust.

So I should be good for the coming expansions.

I enjoy this way, just like op and it lets you at least experiment (although with one class)

Quote From LogicalTroll

 

At the end of the day a F2P Player has only two choices

1. Either invest into competitive meta decks for multiple classes which will hinder your deck experimentation, trying multiple formats in the long term. 

or

2. Invest into a single class where you can taste almost everything this game has to offer to some extent. A huge problem is that the class you have selected can face a slump & then you will be in slump too & it can happen quite often. 

But no matter how much you try you will be a few step behind to able to access everything this game has to offer without spending anything. It's not impossible but quite a daunting task. So pick your poison. 

 

There are two other options: 

1. Invest in decks you find fun that aren't that competitive.  Of those this means that you don't have a meta deck. It's basically the fliped coin of the #1 option and still translates to not being able to taste everything.

2. The hedge.  The key to remember that to compete you really only need at most 2 decks.  For example, anyone who has crafted a Conjure's Calling Mage is pretty much done as far as reaching Legend. 

Thus a F2P player CAN just craft said deck then just spend the rest of the dust on crafting whatever they find interesting.  A F2Per woh enjoys Muck Shaman, Conjure's Mage, Bomb Warrior, and Mech Hunter can craft all four decks effectively*.  At that point you not only have THREE meta relevant decks but a third tier meme deck on top of it.  If you dislike Bomb or Hunter you have room for another meme deck like res priest or Tess Rogue.  

(I have Much and Hunter, I'm one legendary away from Bomb and I have enough dust that I can literally dust every single mage card in the Conjure's mage deck I already own, spend it making a Murloc Druid and handcraft every single card, including legendaries to fully form it and not miss a beat on preparing for the next set.  Note that I literally only play an average of 3 games a day, average 3 wins in arena, and havn't hit above rank 10 in about 2 years.  I'm the poster child for casual.  Point is, making those four decks is NOT a hard thing for an established F2P player)

The PROBLEM is that you can probably make about 3-4 decks per set that require a hefty investment (as in, at least one legendary's worth of cards) so you have to make SURE you hit paydirt.  Make a bomb Warrior and find you hate it.. such a shame.  Made Pogo Rogue because you swore it was going to be The #$)#(.. ikk.  

So what you sacrifice is basically that first month of a new set.  You sit playing Wonderful decks and spamming arena to gather dust/packs.  You ignore the hype and experimental phase.  You wait until Tournaments and pro players perfect their meta decks and folks like Kibler sort out the fun meme decks from the boring ones.  

So it's a way to both play competitively AND play fun decks, but you don't get to experiment and try and fail.  You CAN'T fail.

So you can Play compeititively, Play memeish, Wait a long time then netdeck for both, or go single class.  That's the price of going free.

Which i don't mind.  F2P should NOT be the same as paid.  Otherwise it might as well just be a Free Game.  The point isn't whether paying means more fun: it should be.  The point is whether F2P is enough fun.  If I were to eliminate all of the paid content does it feel like a full game you can enjoy?  If so then that's fine.

As far as Hearthstone, I don't know whether it's easier or harder than the distant past as I didn't get established till around Old Gods.  I DO know that once established the game  became much easier to keep up with and one of the better games I've played in this mode.  Getting TO established though was NOT an easy feat and was getting harder and harder up to Old Gods.  I have no clue how anyone could survive the Old Gods meta if they literally started playing at that point.  By how it sounds it's somewhat easier now but still can go a long way to making it easier for new players to get into the game.

Quote From LogicalTroll

I know that different people might have different experience with this new system but for me this new breakdown was more favorable.

 

As I have already said, this is coming from a personal experience & clearly an opinion that shouldn't be considered as fact. Some of us play it for fun cause very few of the hearthstone playerbase would ever make it as a professional let alone be at the top. I think it's better to be realistic. 

 

I am not saying that I am writing the golden rulebook of playing hearthstone or my experience is the be all end all. People have approached this game in different manners, even the streamers streaming the game bring lots of variety on the board. I am just sharing my experience & how it have affected my experience with the game. 

No wonder different people with different approach will feel different. 

You missed the point I was making, which was that most players' collections should be fairly similar.  ie - an evenly distributed amount of opened cards, then an amount of crafted cards favoring the more powerful or novel ones.  Some might favor specific classes but the distribution of cards that they specifically craft and the mediocre cards that they open should still be about the same

It's not even about playing "for fun" vs playing competitive decks trying to be a professional player.  Most "fun" cards and decks still require powerful cards to be successful.  For example, pogo and thief rogue uses mostly powerful cards from tempo rogue as a shell to keep themselves afloat in winrate

Also, there's a difference between cards that are bad and cards that are fun.  For example, Madame Lazul is a card that is bad but not fun; discovering an opponent's card is not a novel nor synergistic effect that you can build a deck around and no deck, even creative ones, cease to function if you don't have her.  Gonk, the Raptor is a card that is both bad and fun; the effect irreplaceable and can't be replicated with other cards.  You can build a deck around Gonk to OTK, make him a secondary win condition in other combo druids or tempo him out with witching hour in a beast druid.  Gonk druid won't work if you don't have Gonk

When I crafted Gonk, I was thinking, "Gonk is pretty garbage but I came up with a neat deck idea that requires him," not, "I'm a druid main so I should craft all druid cards in case I want to experiment with them later."  That's the difference between crafting to play and crafting to craft.  I'm not crafting Duskfallen Aviana without a better reason than the fact that I main druid.  What deck can't you experiment with if you don't have two Mindgames or a Chameleos?  There are none.  Maybe some fun synergies will be printed later but there's no reason why you can't craft these when that time comes rather than now and do something else with the dust in the meantime.  Conversely, if synergy is never printed (which is extremely likely given history), you've just wasted dust

Quote From NightCrawler

You missed the point I was making, which was that most players' collections should be fairly similar.  ie - an evenly distributed amount of opened cards, then an amount of crafted cards favoring the more powerful or novel ones.  Some might favor specific classes but the distribution of cards that they specifically craft and the mediocre cards that they open should still be about the same

It's not even about playing "for fun" vs playing competitive decks trying to be a professional player.  Most "fun" cards and decks still require powerful cards to be successful.  For example, pogo and thief rogue uses mostly powerful cards from tempo rogue as a shell to keep themselves afloat in winrate

Also, there's a difference between cards that are bad and cards that are fun.  For example, Madame Lazul is a card that is bad but not fun; discovering an opponent's card is not a novel nor synergistic effect that you can build a deck around and no deck, even creative ones, cease to function if you don't have her.  Gonk, the Raptor is a card that is both bad and fun; the effect irreplaceable and can't be replicated with other cards.  You can build a deck around Gonk to OTK, make him a secondary win condition in other combo druids or tempo him out with witching hour in a beast druid.  Gonk druid won't work if you don't have Gonk

When I crafted Gonk, I was thinking, "Gonk is pretty garbage but I came up with a neat deck idea that requires him," not, "I'm a druid main so I should craft all druid cards in case I want to experiment with them later."  That's the difference between crafting to play and crafting to craft.  I'm not crafting Duskfallen Aviana without a better reason than the fact that I main druid.  What deck can't you experiment with if you don't have two Mindgames or a Chameleos?  There are none.  Maybe some fun synergies will be printed later but there's no reason why you can't craft these when that time comes rather than now and do something else with the dust in the meantime.  Conversely, if synergy is never printed (which is extremely likely given history), you've just wasted dust

You'll have to define a functioning deck more specifically to make those claims. A functioning thief priest must not only function but also be a thief priest to be a functioning thief priest, so while no single card of what you mentioned must be in the deck, they're a part of a set from which something must be in the deck, and they are necessary even if they don't boost the winrate at all above that of a basic deck.

What does this have to do with what people craft, then? Well absolutely nothing, but for exactly the opposite reasons than why you'd think so. You claimed that generally speaking players tend to craft good cards, but I speculate that people aren't crafting these kinds of cards despite that they're better than the ways they do spend their dust in. This statistic is from before the ladder update, but 50% of the active player base was below rank 18 - the point being, there's a lot of casual players and they're a lot more casual than anyone committed enough to be on forums realizes.

it is definitely more pricey to get the whole content. Even if you diligently do all of your quests every expansion cycle, you can't sustain a decent collection and also get the adventure. If you get the adventure cash it's actually pretty decent, and honestly i don't really have a problem spending money for pve content, but i wouldnt say the game got cheaper