Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

New player's first impressions (spoilers: I haven't been this hooked in a while!)

Warning: wall of text incoming

So,I started playing about 4 days ago and I have to say that so far I'm truly impressed. After trying pretty much all the digital TCG/CCGs on the market I got into the Alpha thinking I'd have to deal with a clunky UI and some terrible placeholder artwork and it was the opposite...

The UI is really nice, (I can't express how much I love the fact that there's an in game clock) built with Pc and not only mobile in mind (I'm looking at you Shadowverse and Duel Links) and thanks to those exclamation marks and pop ups I haven't had any problems claiming quest rewards or figuring out what to do next. The music in the background is also very relaxing so props for that too.

The artworks are beautiful and I really appreciate the fact that you can zoom in to see the full art of the cards. Also,I have a thing for cosmetics and I'm a completionist so all those Avatars,Deck Images and Card backs to choose from are a huge huge plus for me.

There are replays and a built-in Deck tracker! I mean,that's every Hearthstone's player wet dream!

I can't really tell how story mode is going to unfold with just 1 Chapter but the sole fact that are so many references to various Mythologies makes it appealing to me.

As for the gameplay itself the rules are pretty easy to get accustomed to (especially if you played Magic before),the lanes add a nice layer of complexity to the game without making it difficult to understand and I also love that there's little to no RNG.

Personally,I absolutely love the fact that the attacking player chooses what to attack and not viceversa (That's the one feature of Magic and the likes that I can't stand) and I feel that Paths were a great addition to the game because they help generating resources (No one likes topdecking every single turn) and give different feels to each Deck.

Hero Powers on the other hand are kinda meh imo,I like the healing one and the action one is okay but 2 mana (especially when you don't necessarily get 1 mana each turn) to deal 1/2 damage face or give +1 ATK to a minion just doesn't seem worth it to me most of the time.

One small QOL update I'd like to see (assuming it's not already there and I missed it somehow) is the ability to zoom in cards while drafting cause,you know,even with glasses my sight isn't exactly sharp and I have to get closer to the screen to read the effects sometimes.

I haven't really tried Ranked yet (I've just been spamming Gauntlet,another feature I absolutely love, to try to get a feeling for the various cards) so I have no idea what the meta is or even if there's a meta at all but in case someone from the Dev team reads this post I'd like to share my opinion on some of the cards I feel might use some changes and wouldn't mind having insight about the design direction of the game.

• Belovode: Admittedly I've never played against the card but on paper it looks swingy and annoying to play against to me. If you don't have removal for the enchantment itself or for the minion occupying the enchantment you're in for 2/3 turns if not more of being unable to do basically anything.

• Allfather's Horn: This should cost 1 or 2 more mana or 3 gems imo,you're basically getting another turn and if you have a board that usually means game.

• Dashing Ringmaster: Right now it's probably okay but it limits design space terribly so I guess it could use a change.

• Freki Sidecar: Same as above.

• Volition: This card screams OTK,I personally don't have any problems with OTK decks (as long as their fair and have counters) but many people seem to dislike them so I felt like pointing it out.

Overall my experience so far has been great (like 8.5/10) (and I'll certainly spread the word that is a great game) so I really hope this game continues to grow,doesn't make the mistakes some other did (Artifact/Gwent/ESL) gets some attention,and who knows that Hearthstone might finally get a worthy competitor.

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