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.
I assumed that the system looks at your collection when you open a pack and sees which cards you have and which cards you don't. That seems like the only way to handle this without causing player frustration, to be honest. Why hardcode it to just the cards which you've opened?
Edit: You guys are right. "Once this change goes live, you will no longer receive more than two copies of any Common, Rare, or Epic until you have owned two copies of all cards of that rarity in a set. Crafting a card counts towards acquiring it, and any cards you acquire and later disenchant (whether golden or non-golden) count as well." is the official language.
As far as I understand the rule, regardless of whether you dust that second copy now or after the rule gets added in, that lets you open another copy in packs. Unless for some reason it’s different than the current rule for legendaries, then the game only counts cards as “already obtained” if you currently have them, not if you opened them at some point then dusted them (opening a legendary and dusting it won’t protect you from opening it again)
I don't think any non-Blizzard employee knows yet but I would guess it's like Meteorite says: that getting the golden copy essentially "spoiled" your chances of guaranteeing 2 non-golden copy through the protection mechanism, and that when you dust it won't have any effect.
But you can always roll the dice, dust it now, and pray the "already obtained' list hasn't been tallied yet.
One side note: you write that Cabal isn't a meta card, but between the new Scarlet Subjugator and the buff to Shadow Madness there's a chance that "MC Priest" will see some play this expansion. At the least, I know there are several priest players who are chomping at the bit to try it out Day 1.
No. Simply because there's no evidence that every deck will be nothing more than a demon fest.
In DoD, even I gasped as Dragonmaw Poacher was introduced. I gasped even harder to find out that not every deck plays dragons, and there's very little the card can do when there isn't any dragons about.
Even when pirates were everywhere in the early days of Ungoro Golakka Crawler wasn't that abusive.
From what I see, there's no evidence yet that demons will be a mandatory feature in every deck. Even if it is, only warlock has that card. There are better things you can do with [Hearthstone Card (Zephrys the Great) Not Found] than a 0 mana kill a specific minion.
I'm a little surprised they're doing it like this. It seems like this would be the perfect opportunity to pilot virtual fireside gatherings (i.e., not restricting the group to just your physical LAN). Or barring that: just make everyone natively capable of opening packs and playing AoO cards from April 3-6 instead of forcing them to go through the aforementioned exercise. I'm guessing both the aforementioned would require more software adaptations than they have time to implement, so I will at least give them props for being so proactive and communicative.
I don't think it would be justified. Part of the game is suppose to be supporting tech choices--e.g., Dragonmaw Poacher in DoD or Golakka Crawler in Un'Goro (although that card arguably should have been included in MSG as a possible answer to Patches). If the opposing tribe is overly popular then players will slot in "hate" cards to tech against it; if its not, then they won't. It helps keep the meta healthy.
I think Sacrificial Pact will be an okay card in this meta. It depends on how many demons are good. It's a tech card. There's no guarantee your opponent will be running demons, and if they aren't, you have a dead card in your deck. I don't think any of the revealed demons look meta-breaking in any way. Like, at best you might snipe a Battlefiend (as probably the most playable demon they've revealed so far).
Besides, 0 mana destroy a bad 12/12 Legendary isn't much better than 2 mana destroy a bad 12/12 Legendary, which is what Shadow Word: Death is going to be. If you play a stat stick, it'll get hard removed. It's just that the 0 mana one is far more specific.
I could be wrong. Maybe Imprisoned Antaen is just that good, and there's enough other demons around for it to be reliable. I definitely wouldn't bite the bullet right away, though. If it's an issue, it can be nerfed. It's far better to wait and see.
I would however highly recommend running SacPac in the first few weeks of the expansion. There will be demons everywhere while the meta settles, and you might even catch a few Hunters unaware when they drop Frenzied Felwing.
I could easily see myself running 2 copies of this in every warlock deck. With demon hunters being the flavor of the month, this won't have a shortage of targets.
No news atm, but I think that if Sacrificial Pact will be abused a lot they'll probably look into it (but that also mean that there will be really tons of Demons around to justify 2x of it into a decklist). Having it like a situational removal or tech card is ok.
Any chance or news if they will do anything with Sacrificial Pact? For example, making it only affect friendly demons.
With the release of ashes of outland, they have printed a lot of demons for all classes. The demon condition seems to be less situational with all classes likely running demons. For instance With Magtheridon, sac pact could easily be destroy an enemy 12/12, heal 5, for zero mana! A huge tempo swing.
Dusting it after the 26th would achieve the same effect, as there's only protections against cards currently in your collection, so if you dust a card you can get it again.
Does the duplication protection work for Golden cards? I keep the good common cards, but DE the bad ones (f2p). If I open packs after march 26, does that mean that every golden common I get are ones I don't have the regular version of?
Regardless of whichever turns out to be true - if you can still get the perks through packs or not - I think the wording is horrid and I hope they learn to be clearer in the future.
I could understand them believing that using vague wording could quell players who would be mad about them taking away free features - but when things are left to interpretation a majority will always go to the extreme worst-case scenario in their minds.
That's certainly what Wizards of the Coast thought when they introduced the suspend mechanic into MTG. I've definitely thought the same thing as I've looked at these cards. Some have effects that will impact the board when they wake up, but not all, and it can feel pretty bad to spend your early turns doing nothing, or top decking a card that is effectively blank for two turns.
At this point, we have to just assume because these imprisoned cards are a big part of this expansion, they've taken extra care to test these cards to determine whether or not they're reasonably playable.
Dormant minions are kinda getting out of hand already in my opinion. The mana cost is going down and the stats are going up. Kinda frightening already...
And to think that during the last couple expansions, I used to be worried that there wasn't enough demons being added. Random demon pool is getting scarier too ..!
Awakening him is a fair amount of work (killing three 1/3's is easier than hoping your enemy draws three cards from somewhere in their deck, but it's not entirely trivial)
He won't have an impact the turn he wakes up
He's definitely cool enough and powerful enough that people will try to make him work, the flavor is 100% on point, and he'll awaken a lot more consistently than The Darkness, but I suspect we'll see a lot of people feeling pretty bummed when their mini-quest 4-drop is killed by a newly buffed Shadow Word: Death before he gets to do anything.
Didn't jump on the Hearthtrain until TGT, so it's nice to see what people's initial reactions were! And Brode looks different than what I remember, though maybe that's because I haven't seen him in years.
Imprisoned Felmaw is more interesting than I thought on first glance. It hits an random enemy, so it can hit the enemy face. If you're playing some kind of Face Hunter deck, you're probably typically planning to use your hero power on turn 2 anyway, so with this you could plan to try and control the board on turns 1 and 3, and use your turn 2 to prepare for a big hit to the face.
In more of a control archetype, you can play this on 2, play Deadly Shot on turn 3 to help clear enemies out, and then on turn 4 you're playing into what is (hopefully) an empty board.
I dont know if you want to have a state of control like in mtg or hearthstone where you just spam value genegerators(like PWs), play denial(counterspells/discard) and cheap boardwipes in a deck, hope that you draw the fitting cards in time and call that a deck/game.
That should not become the concept in LoR because it is just a joykilling concept (to lock games down).
MTG and Hearthstone are the two most popular and successful CCGs, and have been for years and years. I certainly don't think Runeterra should try to be exactly like them (after all, if it were exactly like them what would be the point of playing?) but clearly people have enjoyed and continue to enjoy those games to this day, so Runeterra should probably take some notes.
So you say that you want lock down to be a thing in runeterra? Thanks for your honest degeneracy :)
What you're describing as "degeneracy" (slowing the game down with counter spells and/or removal tools, and then out-valuing an opponent with more expensive and powerful cards in the late game) is exactly the definition of the control archetype in CCGs. And to the point about "draw the fitting cards in time," I assume you're talking about combo decks. In good CCGs, Aggro, Control, and Combo archetypes balance each other out; Aggro beats Control, Control beats Combo, Combo beats Aggro.
Degeneracy is not having powerful control tools, degeneracy is rampant aggro archetypes. As Marega pointed out, "Spooky Karma" is the only real control deck, and notably the most successful aggro archetypes are able to abuse some of the best Ionia and Shadow Isles control tools (e.g. Deny, Will of Ionia, Glimpse Beyond) to shut down Combo and Control decks.
More than anything, I think this reflects a failure of the base set in Legends of Runeterra. They may be able to patch some of the existing cards to help change which archetypes are excited about using them, but ultimately they will need to add new cards soon to make this game a real competitor to HS and MTG.
The Ultimate Ashes of Outland & Year of the Phoenix Recap
A new game mode and an achievement system?! Those are more exciting (to me, anyway) than any of the other announcements. How did I miss them?
Since there is not even a link to go with those last items, I’m guessing there’s no more information?
Old LoL player who currently plays Hearthstone. How is Runeterra different?
"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:
Now is the time to dust non-duplicate golden cards
I assumed that the system looks at your collection when you open a pack and sees which cards you have and which cards you don't. That seems like the only way to handle this without causing player frustration, to be honest. Why hardcode it to just the cards which you've opened?
Edit: You guys are right. "Once this change goes live, you will no longer receive more than two copies of any Common, Rare, or Epic until you have owned two copies of all cards of that rarity in a set. Crafting a card counts towards acquiring it, and any cards you acquire and later disenchant (whether golden or non-golden) count as well." is the official language.
Welp, that sucks.
Now is the time to dust non-duplicate golden cards
I don't think any non-Blizzard employee knows yet but I would guess it's like Meteorite says: that getting the golden copy essentially "spoiled" your chances of guaranteeing 2 non-golden copy through the protection mechanism, and that when you dust it won't have any effect.
But you can always roll the dice, dust it now, and pray the "already obtained' list hasn't been tallied yet.
One side note: you write that Cabal isn't a meta card, but between the new Scarlet Subjugator and the buff to Shadow Madness there's a chance that "MC Priest" will see some play this expansion. At the least, I know there are several priest players who are chomping at the bit to try it out Day 1.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
No. Simply because there's no evidence that every deck will be nothing more than a demon fest.
In DoD, even I gasped as Dragonmaw Poacher was introduced. I gasped even harder to find out that not every deck plays dragons, and there's very little the card can do when there isn't any dragons about.
Even when pirates were everywhere in the early days of Ungoro Golakka Crawler wasn't that abusive.
From what I see, there's no evidence yet that demons will be a mandatory feature in every deck. Even if it is, only warlock has that card. There are better things you can do with [Hearthstone Card (Zephrys the Great) Not Found] than a 0 mana kill a specific minion.
How to Create a Private Fireside Gathering to Open Ashes of Outland Packs and Play Demon Hunter Early - Its Easy!
I'm a little surprised they're doing it like this. It seems like this would be the perfect opportunity to pilot virtual fireside gatherings (i.e., not restricting the group to just your physical LAN). Or barring that: just make everyone natively capable of opening packs and playing AoO cards from April 3-6 instead of forcing them to go through the aforementioned exercise. I'm guessing both the aforementioned would require more software adaptations than they have time to implement, so I will at least give them props for being so proactive and communicative.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
I don't think it would be justified. Part of the game is suppose to be supporting tech choices--e.g., Dragonmaw Poacher in DoD or Golakka Crawler in Un'Goro (although that card arguably should have been included in MSG as a possible answer to Patches). If the opposing tribe is overly popular then players will slot in "hate" cards to tech against it; if its not, then they won't. It helps keep the meta healthy.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
I think Sacrificial Pact will be an okay card in this meta. It depends on how many demons are good. It's a tech card. There's no guarantee your opponent will be running demons, and if they aren't, you have a dead card in your deck. I don't think any of the revealed demons look meta-breaking in any way. Like, at best you might snipe a Battlefiend (as probably the most playable demon they've revealed so far).
Besides, 0 mana destroy a bad 12/12 Legendary isn't much better than 2 mana destroy a bad 12/12 Legendary, which is what Shadow Word: Death is going to be. If you play a stat stick, it'll get hard removed. It's just that the 0 mana one is far more specific.
I could be wrong. Maybe Imprisoned Antaen is just that good, and there's enough other demons around for it to be reliable. I definitely wouldn't bite the bullet right away, though. If it's an issue, it can be nerfed. It's far better to wait and see.
I would however highly recommend running SacPac in the first few weeks of the expansion. There will be demons everywhere while the meta settles, and you might even catch a few Hunters unaware when they drop Frenzied Felwing.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
I could easily see myself running 2 copies of this in every warlock deck. With demon hunters being the flavor of the month, this won't have a shortage of targets.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
No news atm, but I think that if Sacrificial Pact will be abused a lot they'll probably look into it (but that also mean that there will be really tons of Demons around to justify 2x of it into a decklist). Having it like a situational removal or tech card is ok.
Will there be changes to Sacrificial Pact?
Any chance or news if they will do anything with Sacrificial Pact? For example, making it only affect friendly demons.
With the release of ashes of outland, they have printed a lot of demons for all classes. The demon condition seems to be less situational with all classes likely running demons. For instance With Magtheridon, sac pact could easily be destroy an enemy 12/12, heal 5, for zero mana! A huge tempo swing.
New Neutral Minion - Magtheridon
If you drop it while your opponent has a full board, does it activate immediately? Or becomes dormant forever?
Now is the time to dust non-duplicate golden cards
Dusting it after the 26th would achieve the same effect, as there's only protections against cards currently in your collection, so if you dust a card you can get it again.
Duplicate protection and the dust refunds
Does the duplication protection work for Golden cards? I keep the good common cards, but DE the bad ones (f2p). If I open packs after march 26, does that mean that every golden common I get are ones I don't have the regular version of?
Introducing the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tavern Pass - New Emotes, Choose From Four Heroes, Advanced Stats
Regardless of whichever turns out to be true - if you can still get the perks through packs or not - I think the wording is horrid and I hope they learn to be clearer in the future.
I could understand them believing that using vague wording could quell players who would be mad about them taking away free features - but when things are left to interpretation a majority will always go to the extreme worst-case scenario in their minds.
Magtheridon is a new Legendary Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Expansion
That's certainly what Wizards of the Coast thought when they introduced the suspend mechanic into MTG. I've definitely thought the same thing as I've looked at these cards. Some have effects that will impact the board when they wake up, but not all, and it can feel pretty bad to spend your early turns doing nothing, or top decking a card that is effectively blank for two turns.
At this point, we have to just assume because these imprisoned cards are a big part of this expansion, they've taken extra care to test these cards to determine whether or not they're reasonably playable.
Magtheridon is a new Legendary Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Expansion
I feel like all Dormant minions need to have Rush inherent to them in order to be worth anything.
New Hunter Minion - Imprisoned Felmaw
And to think that during the last couple expansions, I used to be worried that there wasn't enough demons being added. Random demon pool is getting scarier too ..!
The Ultimate Ashes of Outland & Year of the Phoenix Recap
Could totally be why. Fair assumption +1
Magtheridon is a new Legendary Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Expansion
Wasn't Magtheridon purple (at least back in Warcraft 3 - I didn't play WoW Burning Crusade)?
At any rate, Magtheridon is probably not as good as he looks. Similar to The Darkness:
He's definitely cool enough and powerful enough that people will try to make him work, the flavor is 100% on point, and he'll awaken a lot more consistently than The Darkness, but I suspect we'll see a lot of people feeling pretty bummed when their mini-quest 4-drop is killed by a newly buffed Shadow Word: Death before he gets to do anything.
Hearthstone was Announced at PAX East 7 Years Ago Today - Here's What it Looked Like
Didn't jump on the Hearthtrain until TGT, so it's nice to see what people's initial reactions were! And Brode looks different than what I remember, though maybe that's because I haven't seen him in years.
Imprisoned Felmaw is a new Hunter Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Expansion
Free 5 face damage (if it survives for 2 turns)? Sounds good to me!
The Ultimate Ashes of Outland & Year of the Phoenix Recap
"6 packs will be available: 3 Ashes of Outland and 1 for each other Year of the Phoenix expansion." isn't it the year of the Dragon?
Imprisoned Felmaw is a new Hunter Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Expansion
Imprisoned Felmaw is more interesting than I thought on first glance. It hits an random enemy, so it can hit the enemy face. If you're playing some kind of Face Hunter deck, you're probably typically planning to use your hero power on turn 2 anyway, so with this you could plan to try and control the board on turns 1 and 3, and use your turn 2 to prepare for a big hit to the face.
In more of a control archetype, you can play this on 2, play Deadly Shot on turn 3 to help clear enemies out, and then on turn 4 you're playing into what is (hopefully) an empty board.
This patch makes me want to quit this game.
What you're describing as "degeneracy" (slowing the game down with counter spells and/or removal tools, and then out-valuing an opponent with more expensive and powerful cards in the late game) is exactly the definition of the control archetype in CCGs. And to the point about "draw the fitting cards in time," I assume you're talking about combo decks. In good CCGs, Aggro, Control, and Combo archetypes balance each other out; Aggro beats Control, Control beats Combo, Combo beats Aggro.
Degeneracy is not having powerful control tools, degeneracy is rampant aggro archetypes. As Marega pointed out, "Spooky Karma" is the only real control deck, and notably the most successful aggro archetypes are able to abuse some of the best Ionia and Shadow Isles control tools (e.g. Deny, Will of Ionia, Glimpse Beyond) to shut down Combo and Control decks.
More than anything, I think this reflects a failure of the base set in Legends of Runeterra. They may be able to patch some of the existing cards to help change which archetypes are excited about using them, but ultimately they will need to add new cards soon to make this game a real competitor to HS and MTG.