Drag your active Hero portrait to the Hero power and it should turn off. It is quite sensitive, but should work pretty consistently.
Good luck with traversing the huge map, took me quite awhile to complete four dungeons and get the required twenty gold coins. I even got lost in the last dungeon (the top-right one, which was not entirely mapped out), but I managed to reposition myself.
I used the mobile client to complete this secret achievement, so the desktop client might have issues which I am not aware of.
Thank you all for sharing your personal stories and great advice. I truly appreciate all your positive feedback.
Starting today, my goal is to cut back on my daily time spent on this wonderful community site which unfortunately also means having less interactions with you nice people. For sure, I will stop posting my complaints about the ongoing state of the game since it was getting repetitive and did not serve any meaningful purpose anyways. I was just venting my frustrations over and over again for which I have concluded was actually trapping me inside a negative downwards spiral. Thus, I will return to my personal mantra of "If what you are about to say is negative, keep it to yourself instead."
As for actually playing Hearthstone, I will keep my focus on the parts I still enjoy (as long as it lasts) like completing quests, achievements and attempting to reach Legend every now and then.
Good luck to you all and have lots of fun, cheers! 👋
For three consecutive seasons, I have reached Legend on the EU ranked ladder using slightly different variations of this Freeze Shudderwock Shaman. It has very decent to excellent matchups against the other popular Tier-1 decks. There is always a fighting chance instead of queuing into unwinnable matchups.
Usually, you do not even have to use Shudderwock to win matches. Just by controlling the board using Snowfall Guardian and Brilliant Macaw works already half of the times. Bouncing or repeating your own Loatheb and Boompistol Bully stalls your opponents indirect win conditions very often too. Disrupting combo decks using multiple Dirty Rats and Mutanus is very satisfying. Playing Skulking Geist is also very effective against most control and combo decks.
If you have all the cards or enough arcane dust to spare, I would recommend piloting this deck on the ranked ladder and have lots of fun!
@Crusader2010: Thanks for your long and very insightful response which I greatly appreciate. I have read it a few times already and it most definitely contains useful pieces of advice. By the way, nice to meet you too! ^_^
I am not going to write in the same detail, but I will give some reflection on certain passages and try to be as objectively as I possibly can (I also have no ill intention whatsoever).
First of all, I love psychology and long philosophical discussions which often use hypothetical situations. If not for my study of choice computer science I could very well have been studying that field instead. The human mind is absolutely fascinating and a marvel of evolution.
I too am certain that I already hold the answer to my (self created) problem and I know that I am the only one that can make that U-turn for heading towards positivity again. The most influential person in one's life is always that person itself. Perfectionism and procrastination are two of my biggest flaws by the way. For Hearthstone, I would prefer to not make another heavy handed overkill (pull-all-the-plugs) decision again. My "outcry for help" should perhaps be best perceived as looking for similar wandering souls instead of seeking out a one size fits all silver bullet solution.
Secondly, there is no known offspring of my own running around (yet) otherwise that would definitely soak up most if not all of my time and simultaneously "solve" my current situation (two birds, one stone).
As for my relevant digital gaming background, I will say that I fell in love with Blizzard games with titles like: Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft. Playing RTS games used to be one of my favorite pastimes. In real life, I was introduced to Magic: The Gathering back in 1996 and it was almost like love at first sight if that is even possible at all with a card game, lol. I loved the complexity and all the strategies involved and of course the fantasy theme. There was even a time where I qualified for nationals, but alas did not manage to extend the run to world championships. The worst part of that game was obviously its immense financial upkeep and after several years of having great fun I had to pull the plug on it.
Fast forward to 2014 and Hearthstone bursted onto the digital cardgame scene and I finally found a less costly alternative to Magic: The Gathering. It even solved the annoying mana (land) issue and it had amazing artwork plus built-in humor (flavor) as well. I cannot pinpoint exactly where Hearthstone took the first turn for the worse, but I can safely say that the questlines of United in Stormwind were the tipping point for me and games became almost unbearable. Personally, I enjoy a longer more controllish style of gameplay and loathe the "If you cannot beat them, just join them" response.
All other game modes besides constructed are not really my cup of tea, because I like to be in control as much as possible and the huge RNG factor of Arena for instance I simply cannot enjoy all that much. I also hated drafting in my M:TG period even when that was a necessary evil to accumulate enough tour points. I somehow managed to get my 12 wins Arena key within a very short time and I was glad I did not have to repeat that achievement ever again. It was kind of unfortunate that Team 5 decided to remove that piece of coveted artwork from my in-game statistics though. Hopefully, it will return some day soon™. I have been Legend 26 times (and counting) which means I can set the checkmark for that achievement as well. Going the distance is still a pain in the ass, especially since I lost that lovely 11* bonus a long time ago. The increasing amount of bugs in Hearthstone is also very discouraging. I mean if Team 5 seemingly no longer cares about its own game anymore, why should a long time player as myself still care?
I agree that constructed is currently often not very enjoyable at all and it might not ever recover its once former glory time. Though I sure hope that it does in some way or another. The next rotation might help out Standard, but unfortunately I cannot imagine Wild to escape this suffering due to its eternal format. Playing constructed Hearthstone is sometimes still fun for me, so I should "simply" adapt my playtime to reflect the amount of enjoyment I can get from playing it.
Cheers to you too and once more thanks for sharing (i.e. caring)!
@DragonDraena: Thanks for the kind words of encouragement!
I had to think twice before realizing which balance you were asking about. Your question is of course not related to my in-game gold and arcane dust totals (which are plentiful), but how I spend my daily time besides consuming different forms of Hearthstone content 😅
Honestly, Hearthstone has been my one and only hobby for the past few years. This used to be a big excuse of mine to spend a decent chunk of money on this game. Hence my earlier comment about being a whale. The huge influx of new cosmetics and its higher frequency in 2021 finally made me stop collecting all the paid unique DLC. I am really glad I at least managed to convince myself to spend less money on this game.
Also, not really able to go outside and meet up with family and friends during most of the pandemic naturally did not help me out either. At home, most of my leisure time is usually going towards watching TV, browsing the internet randomly and playing Hearthstone.
If only there was some other hobby that would interest me more, which would probably soak up some time from Hearthstone. However, it would not surprise me at all if that new thing would eventually replace Hearthstone and become the new major "offender".
One more important thing to consider in this discussion is that my general view of the world and its inhabitants has become a lot more negative since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The current war in Ukraine also does not improve my opinion about my fellow Europeans. I do not know whether including health and political issues is useful, but it is an undeniable influence on (my) daily life.
My own self diagnosis: "I seem to be trapped inside a negative feedback loop" 😔
Neb, are you feeling like you might miss out on tasks/quests/rewards? I think you and I both play enough that the slots are empty by the end of the day/week.
Or are you wishing you cared a little less about Hearthstone? Is it taking up too much space in your brain?
When new quests arrive, the daily quest slot is empty again within minutes and the weekly quest slots are usually empty within the same day.
You have actually asked the perfect question DragonDraena, I would very much want to care less about Hearthstone.
Before the introduction of the Rewards Track I just cleared the dailies and I played a few longer stretches here and there. However, my playtime has skyrocketed since then.
Also, my browser homepage is set to this wonderful community site and I still visit Hearthpwn because I noticed in the past some Hearthstone news was missing over here. This means besides playing the actual game, I still consume Hearthstone content during offtime.
Furthermore, I always collect the free packs from official Hearthstone events even when I absolutely do not need them because new expansions are usually completely collected within days after their launch.
I still like and enjoy Hearthstone very much, but it has become so noticeably time consuming that it cannot possibly be considered healthy even from a bystanders point of view. My brain is somehow taking me hostage and trapping me inside a Hearthstone universe or dimension for the past couple of years.
By the way, I highly doubt dropping this game entirely will have a lasting positive effect because history tends to repeat itself over and over again. Hearthstone was not the first game where I had this recurring feeling. Although it is clearly the worst "offender" of them all.
PS.: Even discussing this addiction somehow feels like adding time towards Hearthstone "imprisonment".
I was wondering, how do you deal with the feeling of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in Hearthstone or any other game?
I am pretty sure I have never missed out on a daily or weekly quest and I recently completed the entire Rewards Track (for the second time) with a full month to spare. I have to attribute these personal feats mostly to FOMO.
I have played other games in the past which consumed most of my spare time and my only working solution so far was to complelety abandon them. Since I am a Hearthstone whale I cannot rationally convince myself to repeat the same thing nor should it be necessary I feel.
I guess I should be glad that Team 5 implemented a hard cap to the Rewards Track. Otherwise I would most likely continue to gather XP until the very last day, lose my freaking mind and even more of my spare time.
NebuchadnezzarHS, how about you complete my achievements and RT for me? 😅😁
Been lagging behind this expansion coz the achievement bugs put me off achievement hunting 🤦♀️
@Caro: For a moment, I was seriously considering your suggestion and it further proves that I have a Hearthstone addiction. However, even before Mercenaries was launched I had already abandoned my four F2P accounts to reduce my overall Hearthstone playtime (slightly) and also because I was not getting those sweet Challenge a Friend! quests frequently enough. In short, I think it is unwise for me to complete your XP achievements and Rewards Track, but I am very flattered that you thought I would be sufficiently trustworthy to wield your Battle.net account on your behalf 😇 Good luck with gathering all that XP, I believe you can do it just as fine!
I am still sitting comfortably at level 400, lol. Killing time by saving up all the highest grossing XP quests for the next Rewards Track.
@Rifraff & rocketfodder: Thank you for acknowledging my bizarre and devoted madness for Hearthstone! 😋
@Alleria: Yeah, we encountered quite a few weird and annoying bugs with both the Alterac Valley and Onyxia's Lair achievements. I obviously do not need the related XP, but I would like to finish the last three for completeness sake.
I have noticed during the last couple of days that playing Hearthstone without the XP progress and gold increments is a lot less fun. Kind of makes me wonder if I would still enjoy Hearthstone if it was vanilla. At least I have learned by now that the Rewards Track has become a truly vital aspect of this game for me.
For the time being, one of my last few goals is to complete the three remaining XP-less general gameplay achievements:
Me Go Face (9317/10000)
Over Encumbered (3624/5000)
Tanks! You're welcome. (8720/10000)
My (useless) achievements points total is currently: 29780. It shows that I am in need of help to overcome this unhealthy Hearthstone addiction. Although this is (partially) a running gag of mine, I honestly feel it is probably not even that far away from the actual truth 🙄
Anyways, good luck to you all with the last stretch of this Rewards Track!
Think of very old people, some of them become very forgetful. What is the name of this 'disease'? Add the Winter theme to it and you should be able to find the answer. If not, I will try again and present you the answer by replacing the actual words using synonyms 😋
Think of very old people, some of them become very forgetful. What is the name of this 'disease'? Add the Winter theme to it and you will find the answer.
Hint #2
What is the job name for people who work at weather stations? They also predict weather forecasts.
With this update the chance to get Quel'Delar will increase slightly. Something to think or worry about every time the Duels treasure pool of Kazakusan gets a bit smaller.
Drag your active Hero portrait to the Hero power and it should turn off. It is quite sensitive, but should work pretty consistently.
Good luck with traversing the huge map, took me quite awhile to complete four dungeons and get the required twenty gold coins. I even got lost in the last dungeon (the top-right one, which was not entirely mapped out), but I managed to reposition myself.
I used the mobile client to complete this secret achievement, so the desktop client might have issues which I am not aware of.
Except for the '???' achievement, mine are all done and at 139% ^_^
Thank you FrostyFeet for showcasing my latest Wild Legend deck! 😎
Thank you all for sharing your personal stories and great advice. I truly appreciate all your positive feedback.
Starting today, my goal is to cut back on my daily time spent on this wonderful community site which unfortunately also means having less interactions with you nice people. For sure, I will stop posting my complaints about the ongoing state of the game since it was getting repetitive and did not serve any meaningful purpose anyways. I was just venting my frustrations over and over again for which I have concluded was actually trapping me inside a negative downwards spiral. Thus, I will return to my personal mantra of "If what you are about to say is negative, keep it to yourself instead."
As for actually playing Hearthstone, I will keep my focus on the parts I still enjoy (as long as it lasts) like completing quests, achievements and attempting to reach Legend every now and then.
Good luck to you all and have lots of fun, cheers! 👋
For three consecutive seasons, I have reached Legend on the EU ranked ladder using slightly different variations of this Freeze Shudderwock Shaman. It has very decent to excellent matchups against the other popular Tier-1 decks. There is always a fighting chance instead of queuing into unwinnable matchups.
Usually, you do not even have to use Shudderwock to win matches. Just by controlling the board using Snowfall Guardian and Brilliant Macaw works already half of the times. Bouncing or repeating your own Loatheb and Boompistol Bully stalls your opponents indirect win conditions very often too. Disrupting combo decks using multiple Dirty Rats and Mutanus is very satisfying. Playing Skulking Geist is also very effective against most control and combo decks.
If you have all the cards or enough arcane dust to spare, I would recommend piloting this deck on the ranked ladder and have lots of fun!
@Crusader2010: Thanks for your long and very insightful response which I greatly appreciate. I have read it a few times already and it most definitely contains useful pieces of advice. By the way, nice to meet you too! ^_^
I am not going to write in the same detail, but I will give some reflection on certain passages and try to be as objectively as I possibly can (I also have no ill intention whatsoever).
First of all, I love psychology and long philosophical discussions which often use hypothetical situations. If not for my study of choice computer science I could very well have been studying that field instead. The human mind is absolutely fascinating and a marvel of evolution.
I too am certain that I already hold the answer to my (self created) problem and I know that I am the only one that can make that U-turn for heading towards positivity again. The most influential person in one's life is always that person itself. Perfectionism and procrastination are two of my biggest flaws by the way. For Hearthstone, I would prefer to not make another heavy handed overkill (pull-all-the-plugs) decision again. My "outcry for help" should perhaps be best perceived as looking for similar wandering souls instead of seeking out a one size fits all silver bullet solution.
Secondly, there is no known offspring of my own running around (yet) otherwise that would definitely soak up most if not all of my time and simultaneously "solve" my current situation (two birds, one stone).
As for my relevant digital gaming background, I will say that I fell in love with Blizzard games with titles like: Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft. Playing RTS games used to be one of my favorite pastimes. In real life, I was introduced to Magic: The Gathering back in 1996 and it was almost like love at first sight if that is even possible at all with a card game, lol. I loved the complexity and all the strategies involved and of course the fantasy theme. There was even a time where I qualified for nationals, but alas did not manage to extend the run to world championships. The worst part of that game was obviously its immense financial upkeep and after several years of having great fun I had to pull the plug on it.
Fast forward to 2014 and Hearthstone bursted onto the digital cardgame scene and I finally found a less costly alternative to Magic: The Gathering. It even solved the annoying mana (land) issue and it had amazing artwork plus built-in humor (flavor) as well. I cannot pinpoint exactly where Hearthstone took the first turn for the worse, but I can safely say that the questlines of United in Stormwind were the tipping point for me and games became almost unbearable. Personally, I enjoy a longer more controllish style of gameplay and loathe the "If you cannot beat them, just join them" response.
All other game modes besides constructed are not really my cup of tea, because I like to be in control as much as possible and the huge RNG factor of Arena for instance I simply cannot enjoy all that much. I also hated drafting in my M:TG period even when that was a necessary evil to accumulate enough tour points. I somehow managed to get my 12 wins Arena key within a very short time and I was glad I did not have to repeat that achievement ever again. It was kind of unfortunate that Team 5 decided to remove that piece of coveted artwork from my in-game statistics though. Hopefully, it will return some day soon™. I have been Legend 26 times (and counting) which means I can set the checkmark for that achievement as well. Going the distance is still a pain in the ass, especially since I lost that lovely 11* bonus a long time ago. The increasing amount of bugs in Hearthstone is also very discouraging. I mean if Team 5 seemingly no longer cares about its own game anymore, why should a long time player as myself still care?
I agree that constructed is currently often not very enjoyable at all and it might not ever recover its once former glory time. Though I sure hope that it does in some way or another. The next rotation might help out Standard, but unfortunately I cannot imagine Wild to escape this suffering due to its eternal format. Playing constructed Hearthstone is sometimes still fun for me, so I should "simply" adapt my playtime to reflect the amount of enjoyment I can get from playing it.
Cheers to you too and once more thanks for sharing (i.e. caring)!
@DragonDraena: Thanks for the kind words of encouragement!
I had to think twice before realizing which balance you were asking about. Your question is of course not related to my in-game gold and arcane dust totals (which are plentiful), but how I spend my daily time besides consuming different forms of Hearthstone content 😅
Honestly, Hearthstone has been my one and only hobby for the past few years. This used to be a big excuse of mine to spend a decent chunk of money on this game. Hence my earlier comment about being a whale. The huge influx of new cosmetics and its higher frequency in 2021 finally made me stop collecting all the paid unique DLC. I am really glad I at least managed to convince myself to spend less money on this game.
Also, not really able to go outside and meet up with family and friends during most of the pandemic naturally did not help me out either. At home, most of my leisure time is usually going towards watching TV, browsing the internet randomly and playing Hearthstone.
If only there was some other hobby that would interest me more, which would probably soak up some time from Hearthstone. However, it would not surprise me at all if that new thing would eventually replace Hearthstone and become the new major "offender".
One more important thing to consider in this discussion is that my general view of the world and its inhabitants has become a lot more negative since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The current war in Ukraine also does not improve my opinion about my fellow Europeans. I do not know whether including health and political issues is useful, but it is an undeniable influence on (my) daily life.
My own self diagnosis: "I seem to be trapped inside a negative feedback loop" 😔
@Thraxus: I completely agree with all your sensible reasoning when I read your thoughtful comment.
Unfortunately for me, in the eyes of the beholder (or prisoner in my case) all this logic seems to fade away somehow when I think about Hearthstone.
When new quests arrive, the daily quest slot is empty again within minutes and the weekly quest slots are usually empty within the same day.
You have actually asked the perfect question DragonDraena, I would very much want to care less about Hearthstone.
Before the introduction of the Rewards Track I just cleared the dailies and I played a few longer stretches here and there. However, my playtime has skyrocketed since then.
Also, my browser homepage is set to this wonderful community site and I still visit Hearthpwn because I noticed in the past some Hearthstone news was missing over here. This means besides playing the actual game, I still consume Hearthstone content during offtime.
Furthermore, I always collect the free packs from official Hearthstone events even when I absolutely do not need them because new expansions are usually completely collected within days after their launch.
I still like and enjoy Hearthstone very much, but it has become so noticeably time consuming that it cannot possibly be considered healthy even from a bystanders point of view. My brain is somehow taking me hostage and trapping me inside a Hearthstone universe or dimension for the past couple of years.
By the way, I highly doubt dropping this game entirely will have a lasting positive effect because history tends to repeat itself over and over again. Hearthstone was not the first game where I had this recurring feeling. Although it is clearly the worst "offender" of them all.
PS.: Even discussing this addiction somehow feels like adding time towards Hearthstone "imprisonment".
I was wondering, how do you deal with the feeling of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in Hearthstone or any other game?
I am pretty sure I have never missed out on a daily or weekly quest and I recently completed the entire Rewards Track (for the second time) with a full month to spare. I have to attribute these personal feats mostly to FOMO.
I have played other games in the past which consumed most of my spare time and my only working solution so far was to complelety abandon them. Since I am a Hearthstone whale I cannot rationally convince myself to repeat the same thing nor should it be necessary I feel.
@Iplaywhite: Thanks!
I guess I should be glad that Team 5 implemented a hard cap to the Rewards Track. Otherwise I would most likely continue to gather XP until the very last day, lose my freaking mind and even more of my spare time.
@Caro: For a moment, I was seriously considering your suggestion and it further proves that I have a Hearthstone addiction. However, even before Mercenaries was launched I had already abandoned my four F2P accounts to reduce my overall Hearthstone playtime (slightly) and also because I was not getting those sweet Challenge a Friend! quests frequently enough. In short, I think it is unwise for me to complete your XP achievements and Rewards Track, but I am very flattered that you thought I would be sufficiently trustworthy to wield your Battle.net account on your behalf 😇 Good luck with gathering all that XP, I believe you can do it just as fine!
I am still sitting comfortably at level 400, lol. Killing time by saving up all the highest grossing XP quests for the next Rewards Track.
@Rifraff & rocketfodder: Thank you for acknowledging my bizarre and devoted madness for Hearthstone! 😋
@Alleria: Yeah, we encountered quite a few weird and annoying bugs with both the Alterac Valley and Onyxia's Lair achievements. I obviously do not need the related XP, but I would like to finish the last three for completeness sake.
I have noticed during the last couple of days that playing Hearthstone without the XP progress and gold increments is a lot less fun. Kind of makes me wonder if I would still enjoy Hearthstone if it was vanilla. At least I have learned by now that the Rewards Track has become a truly vital aspect of this game for me.
For the time being, one of my last few goals is to complete the three remaining XP-less general gameplay achievements:
My (useless) achievements points total is currently: 29780. It shows that I am in need of help to overcome this unhealthy Hearthstone addiction. Although this is (partially) a running gag of mine, I honestly feel it is probably not even that far away from the actual truth 🙄
Anyways, good luck to you all with the last stretch of this Rewards Track!
Cheers & Welcome to the dark side! 👽
Well done Horus, one more clue to go and you can join us in to the dark side!
With this update the chance to get Quel'Delar will increase slightly. Something to think or worry about every time the Duels treasure pool of Kazakusan gets a bit smaller.
I... Can... Not... Move... Must... Throw... Snowball... BACK! 🥶