Old LoL player who currently plays Hearthstone. How is Runeterra different?

As the title implies, I've seen a few images and videos of the game, but my interest is piqued regarding the game.

What are some draws to this game versus Hearthstone? (As someone who has played HS since it's beta)

I guess I'm asking for Pros and Cons.  How easy is it to gather a viable collection as a casual player versus Hearthstone? (I buy the 80 dollar expansion pack in Hearthstone each expansion, I'm fine with that, but want to get a comparison on cost analysis between the two)

What are your favorite moments of Runeterra?  Also, I don't plan on stopping Hearthstone, I think they both are probably fun games in different ways, but I'm curious if it's worth investing both time and/or money into Legends of Runeterra at this time.

Thanks in advance!

Yea I understand the reveal is today,  so no worries.  Just when you get a moment if you want to share more in depth feedback that would be great.

Quote From Sykomyke

Old LoL player who currently plays Hearthstone. How is Runeterra different?

Short answer: its better in every conceivable way.  :-P

Ok, ok, trying to be serious:

• It's WAY more F2P friendly.  You get the equivalent of 6-9 packs from vaults and then let's say another ~4 packs + legendary from region rewards + expedition rewards every week for ~5 hours playtime.  Cash is mostly for cosmetics, although of course it does help accelerate your collection if you're impatient.  I'm probably at ~60% of the collection right now 8 weeks in and I haven't spent a dime.
• It's much more strategic, much less RNG.  Every little decision matters.
• Riot is committed to making very single card viable (although not necessarily top-tier), which is impressive.  Compare to HS e.g. when Galakrond Shaman was too powerful it just got nerfed into oblivion, meanwhile archetypes like Chavala and Hack the System are totally forgotten after Week One. 
• Getting to float mana between turns is huge--it turns an experience that just feels awful in HS to a powerful catchup opportunity in LoR.
• Things are reactive.  Where as in HS, if you put something like an emperor or Brann out its almost guaranteed to get killed before your next turn, in LoR you can actually react to your opponent's removal with your spells to counter--and then he can counter back--etc.  It's a bit like if you could actually control when a trap goes off instead of being forced to trigger it whenever the game decides. 
• This will be debatable, but I'd say its easier to go off-meta.  Every week on reddit someone will hit top-10 and share a decklist which looks very different from anything else I've seen.

Honestly, man: if you've got a couple of hours, install it and give it a whirl.  What do you have to lose? 

Pros:

-very f2p friendly. Rewards dedicated players who spent more time, but still gives casuals enough to continue playing

-strategic and involving. Every decision feels like it matters, knowledge of mechanics is being rewarded

-great artwork and overall design

-large variety for possible deck archetypes and experimenting

Cons:

-once you actually play the meta it ends up very one-sided. There's plenty of situations where you'll just lose because your opponent plays a deck you can't beat (compare to Hearthstone where you basically always have a chance if RNG is in your favour)

-Riot's balancing decisions are...questionable at best. I get a lot of LoL-vibes where they just simply don't seem to realize obvious problems with even more obvious solutions and just keep skirting around the issue with bandaid fixes. This is where Blizzard actually shines in comparison: If there is a problem card in Hearthstone it will get nerfed. It miight end up useless or balanced, but in any case they problem will be fixed.

It's a good game and has a lot of appeal, but fuck me I can't play it any longer because I'm not gonna relive the trauma of playing League and hoping for competent balancing only to be disappointed every SINGLE patch.

In terms of Balance, they seem to take a slow and steady approach, so you shouldn’t give up hope yet. I’m sure if SI and elusives remain a problem they’ll nerf more cards

I had really high hopes for LoR, even invested some money, but the game failed to live up to the hype. It's not dead, but... it will not be successful.

It's very F2P friendly. Don't spend any money. You simply don't need to.

Art is okay.

Limited Format is actually the best thing. I guess.

On the first sight, design seems cool, but then you realize something is off. Although strategic, tactical and complex "just enough", many pieces obstruct each other and the whole. In HS keywords can live side by side, but not in LoR, they obstruct each other there. Those keywords which exploit what is supposed to be the fundamental rule of the game (-> blocking system), arise and shut down everything else. Any attempt to fix is like running in a circle. Only complete rework would help here, which is unlikely. LoR team is stuck with design mistakes, because they started by adding a content which undermines the fundamental rules (another example, if you block and kill, your opponent activates removals against you). It's a question, do they see that at all, all the contradictions. Some of their plans are laughable, like having 10 meta decks, while now we don't have more than 3, and all are just variations. Some cards and interactions are too much exploitable and feel like cheap tricks. The devs were light-minded when they thought it will be easy to address some problems of card games in general.

Another problem is that ...3 copies of a card, low rng, consistency, similar cards, always the same way of answering... make the game monotone and tedious rather fast. Emotional aspect is just inferior to HS, where you have silly effects, sounds, art and overall presentation that keeps you interested. Plus some rng (which is awful (Alex, Zephrys, 0 mana cards...), but now I see monotony is much worse).

Secretly, we don't like when opponents interfere with our decks, hand and turn. 

Although complex and needs a bit more skill, when i came back to HS, I realized HS has enough of big brain decisions making, too.

The game is fine, it will provide you with some epic games and moments, but HS is better and will prevail. HS is more fun, better emotionally, more approaches... LoR Twitch numbers are quite low, which is awful for a game which wanted to seriously compete with HS.

I still play the game, but occasionally, just a game or two, for a quest or two. I may play it more when they add more content or after getting a bit tired from HS. Good economy system allows just that, to be something secondary.

pros:

-Deep lore connection to the league lore, the art feels in place.

-VERY F2P friendly, almost have full "classic" collection in just 2 months of playing.

-The deck building is very varied and the combinations are endless while there being just 6 regions (classes) in the game, while Riot will add more in the future.

-The interface is quite comfortable.

- 30 deck slots

-Spell mana is the best mechanic introduced in any card game I ever played period that mechanic is genious. (you can save up to 3 mana you floated to cast spells in other turns)

-Devs that are committed to balance changes every month, also are more talkative and take more feedback than the hs devs.

-The game has low amounts of RNG and when there's rng it's in a small pool of cards.

cons:

-More complex than hs in it's game play.

-You can't do "whatever you want" in your turns as in hearthstone.

-Some meta issues with elusive units being annoying but every game has it's meta issues.

-The game has low amounts of RNG and when there's rng it's in a small pool of cards.(some like it.. some don't so it's a pro for some.. con for others.)

So I installed the game last night.  I do see some underlying issues with the mechanics but it does seem fun, and it brings back some memories of the fun I had in League of Legends with some classic champions.

Given that, what are some good cards I should craft with my wildcard tokens I've earned?

Also, someone mentioned mechanics that conflict with each other.

Also, what are expeditions? Is that like the equivalent of Hearthstone's Arena mode? 

I'm still trying to understand how certain things resolve. (spells, attacks, etc).

For example the tutorial mission where you use overwhelm to kill the nexus with specific cards, it wasn't very intuitive on the attack order, I just naturally assumed units attacked left from right, but it didn't clarify that anywhere, so I felt like I was just randomly using the order of cards until I completed the tutorial "mission" so Draven leveled up and killed the nexus.

Quote From Sykomyke

So I installed the game last night.  I do see some underlying issues with the mechanics but it does seem fun, and it brings back some memories of the fun I had in League of Legends with some classic champions.

Given that, what are some good cards I should craft with my wildcard tokens I've earned?

Also, someone mentioned mechanics that conflict with each other.

Also, what are expeditions? Is that like the equivalent of Hearthstone's Arena mode? 

I'm still trying to understand how certain things resolve. (spells, attacks, etc).

For example the tutorial mission where you use overwhelm to kill the nexus with specific cards, it wasn't very intuitive on the attack order, I just naturally assumed units attacked left from right, but it didn't clarify that anywhere, so I felt like I was just randomly using the order of cards until I completed the tutorial "mission" so Draven leveled up and killed the nexus.

Don't craft cards, craft decks.

If you're looking for a good, relatively cheap, start deck I'd recommend spider aggro. It's kind of Runeterra's zoolock, if you will. A board-centric aggro deck that helps beginning players to learn the basics of the game.

Expeditions are indeed like arenas in Hearthstone. If you get your weekly vault to level 10 you will get a token for a free expedition run. Expeditions award a single random champion and dust based on the amount of wins you got. 

Regarding how intuitive the game and its mechanics are, there are indeed a few confusing aspects within the game, still, which also aren't explained very clearly in the tutorials, if at all. Seeing how the game is still in beta this is kind of expected in my opinion and will most likely improve going forward.

Craft...decks? So how do I do that? Are there pre-built decks that I can craft or am I missing something here?

Also, zoolock/aggro has never appealed to me.  Is there a good semi-control deck that is viable for low cost crafting?  I liked the Braum/buff deck (plus I always liked Braum in LoL).  Is there a decent Braum/Friejlord deck that is viable for low level usage while I'm still learning the game and stuff?

So I played some more and used my first expedition token last night.

I ended up going 3 wins on my first trial.  My final loss was to a guy who had Ashe and a TON of frostbite synergy to the point that I couldn't do anything against him.

I drafted my 2nd trial with Shen and Thresh.  Not sure how good it's gonna be but it has a lot of "revive" synergy in it.  

What's a good number of wins for each trial? It looks like 12 wins is the total between both trials?  So I'm assuming 7 wins is the "break even" point?  (Is it similar to Hearthstone where if you get 7+ wins you essentially can re-buy an arena/expedition?)

Between the two trials, the one with the most wins determines your rewards. A full 7 wins constitutes the "break-even-point" as you'll receive 3,000 shards, which is the exact entry fee for an expedition. Of course, you'll receive a champion card and some other stuff (a Diamond Chest, I blieve?) on top of that if you reach 7 wins. In that case, the only thing that the 2nd trial will give you is extra bonus XP.

Quote From Sykomyke

Craft...decks? So how do I do that? Are there pre-built decks that I can craft or am I missing something here?

Also, zoolock/aggro has never appealed to me.  Is there a good semi-control deck that is viable for low cost crafting?  I liked the Braum/buff deck (plus I always liked Braum in LoL).  Is there a decent Braum/Friejlord deck that is viable for low level usage while I'm still learning the game and stuff?

I would wait until after next Tuesday before seriously spending any resources: you'll have another vault, another expedition token = random champion, plus hopefully your first champion from region rewards, and that will go a long way towards deciding how exactly you want to go.

Regarding Braum: I don't think he's in any of the "top tier" decks, but he's definitely viable.   Again: what's the best way for you to go will probably depend on exactly what legendaries and epics you open.  As an example, below is my personal favorite use of him, my Braum/Vlad deck--this probably isn't a good use of wildcards, but I will say I enjoy it.  I also saw a neat Braum/Kalista poro deck on Youtube last night.  There's also some Decamia decks.  Really: anything that can buff Braum can turn him into a threat.

Yea I like the crimson/vlad thought of the deck, but I don't have vlad or any of the crimson cards and very few noxus cards.  I think my first free legendary champion I got that wasn't handed to me was Anivia.

there's a braum buff deck megamogwai played a few days ago, looks fun also not very expensive..

most decks are not expensive anyway..

as for control you got many options but you should look into shadow isles and ionia for the "spooky karma" deck or in freljord/shadow isles for the warmother's call control deck.. they run at least 3 champions though..

Probably should create a new thread at this point but...

How feasible is it to fully unlock the vault each week?  I've been playing since last Tuesday and pretty much done all quests/ pvp'd every day and I'm at the tier 12 vault, but it seems kinda tough to fully unlock the vault.  Is it X number of games a day and completing every quest each day?

Have you tried playing expeditions? They can grant a lot of XP at higher wins. Also, It’s not that important to get to lvl 13 every week, getting to lvl 12 is just fin

Quote From Sykomyke

Probably should create a new thread at this point but...

How feasible is it to fully unlock the vault each week?  I've been playing since last Tuesday and pretty much done all quests/ pvp'd every day and I'm at the tier 12 vault, but it seems kinda tough to fully unlock the vault.  Is it X number of games a day and completing every quest each day?

13 level vault is 25.000 exp total. Completing every quest gives you 7.000 exp if you get only 1.000 exp. quests. It will be around 10.000 with 1.500 exp quests, I presume.

So, you need to do more than daily quests to level your vault up to 13. First 3 win of the day gives you 400, 200 and 100 bonus exp. Normal win exp is 200 for first 10. So first 3 wins will give you 200(+ 400) + 200 (+ 200) + 200 (+ 100) = 1.300 exp per day x7 = 9.100 per week.

So, if you get 3 wins each day (You will get probably some loses here so i would count + 400) and do your daily quests you will get around 9.100 + 10.000 = 19.100 + 400 = 19.500 exp.

There is a fact that you might do some expeditions with the given token from vault, you might boost your vault a bit with it. I mostly do my 3 expeditions in Tuesdays and got my vault at maximum on Wednesdays with it but 1x Expedition Token will give you enough experience to get 13-level vault if you can get 7 win from it.

Daily quests only guarantees 10-level Vault, You should play more than daily quests for 13-level one.

I guess, 3 wins per day + Daily Quests + a 7-win Expedition would guarantee 13-level Vault generally.

I hope the given maths shaped some tactics to get 13-level Vault for you because every player have their own way to play. Some doesn't like expeditions, Some doesn't like ladder etc. :)

Quote From Sykomyke

How feasible is it to fully unlock the vault each week?  I've been playing since last Tuesday and pretty much done all quests/ pvp'd every day and I'm at the tier 12 vault, but it seems kinda tough to fully unlock the vault.  Is it X number of games a day and completing every quest each day?

"Feasible" is a subjective word.  Almaniarra's math is spot-on, but I will warn you the man is machine when it comes to time-played so I'll append his numbers with these thoughts:

• The difference between a Platinum Chest and a Diamond Chest is 1 capsule.  In other words: Level 10 is a soft-cap; after that, every additional 4k XP only will award you one additional capsule (equivalent to 1 HS pack), so don't feel obligated to max out.
• Every chest has a 20% chance of upgrade (but Diamond is the max), so even if you stay at 12 you have a 1:5 chance of getting 3 Diamond Chests anyways.  Incidentally, this is exactly what happened to me this past Tuesday.
• The most important thing is getting at least Level 10 every week, which is only 13k.  That's when you get the expedition token, which in turn gives you 1 champion plus the potential for lots of bonus XP and cards.  Anything beyond 10 is the proverbial gravy.

To put it simply: it's more complex - and SPELL MANA.

Those are really the two reasons why I feel it will do better than Hearthstone (I still play HS as well) and ultimately compete with MTG. =)