Yes. There are shared cards, class-specific cards, and a class-specific hero power. The game modes are Constructed and Arena; Constructed is you playing with a premade deck from your collection against other players with premade decks (ranked/unranked), and Arena is where you pick one of three randomized heroes and construct your deck by picking one of three random cards over and over again, and then you play against other Arena players.
If you're into watching stuff like this (I thought I wasn't, but I found out I was), I recommend this guy. He's brilliant at the game and delivers the occasional deadpan humor, and he talks less than TotalBiscuit and those other Hearthstone casters.
Here's a full Arena run by him:
Edited, Jan 13th 2014 2:54pm by Mazra
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Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
You're not locked into it in terms of "I am a Druid and I will always be a Druid."
It just means that the class is your deck's "type." It's a lot like land cards from Magick, which determine what cards you can use. Except now the effects are less intense. Instead of choosing to build a green deck, and only really having green cards/lands, you get to build a Shaman deck, where you get some Shaman cards, and you get some shared cards. And it's nice because you could be running a Shaman deck and your opponent could be running a Warrior deck, and you could both use the same card, and it might have very different synergy and play a different strategy for you two.
But if you don't like playing as a Shaman, all you have to do is build a deck of a different class. You "unlock" a class by beating an opponent of that class (AI in training or another player), and you fully unlock the basic deck by leveling that class to 10.
As far as I can tell, there's no benefit for leveling past 10 besides showing off your experience, sort of like one form of ranking.
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
You're not locked into it in terms of "I am a Druid and I will always be a Druid."
It just means that the class is your deck's "type." It's a lot like land cards from Magick, which determine what cards you can use. Except now the effects are less intense. Instead of choosing to build a green deck, and only really having green cards/lands, you get to build a Shaman deck, where you get some Shaman cards, and you get some shared cards. And it's nice because you could be running a Shaman deck and your opponent could be running a Warrior deck, and you could both use the same card, and it might have very different synergy and play a different strategy for you two.
Except that in MtG you're not locked into a colour, you can combine any number of cards of any colours you like and I've played a deck with white & red cards and no lands that could give me white or red mana because the deck used other means to get those cards into play and I've ran a red goblin deck that had a bunch of red & black lands to cast the one black spell I had in the sideboard to play against some opponents (and for fetch land but that's getting into details to much). Having a deck with just 1 colour is quite rare in any sort of serious deck and it's virtually impossible for the tournament play with the oldest/least limited cards as there are cards that are so good you'll want to have them in your deck anyway and there are always a myriad of ways to make that work.
So if anything, the effects are far more intense than they are in MtG.
Your class determines some of your cards and your hero power. You don't HAVE to pick class cards in your deck, although you usually do, because that's why you chose the class.
Hearthstone is not as complex as MtG, but it's strangely engaging, and the Warcraft theme makes it oddly familiar.
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Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
It's definitely more accessible than MtG. But I'm inclined to say that's a good thing. I wouldn't have wanted a game MORE complex than Magic, and Magic is already filling that particular niche.
If anything, this will get more people interested in card-based games, and those looking for something more hardcore will gravitate towards Magic.
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
I don't think accessibility is a problem with MtG, at least not to the extend that you need people to play against and with. If you've got people playing and learning the game at the same time as you are then the game is simple enough, I managed to learn to play the game with my friends when I was 9 or 10 and none of us could read English. Money and people to play with are the big drawbacks to the game and pretty much the reasons I don't play it anymore.
That all said, the complexity of MtG is what has kept me interested in the game, the total freedom it gives on building and testing decks to do anything you want in whatever way you want is the best part of the game.
I managed to learn to play the game with my friends when I was 9 or 10 and none of us could read English.
I tried watching some MtG tournaments, but I had no ******* clue what was going on. I've watched maybe a dozen videos from people playing it and I still haven't scratched the surface of what the hell is going on.
Hearthstone I picked up instantly. It's easy to learn, but difficult to master. The intuitive design means you know what's going on without having to read through eight lines of flavor text on each card first. No tapping and keeping control of your mana, you get one mana every turn to a maximum of 10, and your mana is replenished every turn. Doesn't get more simple than that.
At the same time, though, it's very complex if you play pro constructed players. You need to calculate math and guesstimate draws two or three turns ahead, just like in other card games. This is an excellent example of complex play in Hearthstone:
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Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
I managed to learn to play the game with my friends when I was 9 or 10 and none of us could read English.
I tried watching some MtG tournaments, but I had no @#%^ing clue what was going on. I've watched maybe a dozen videos from people playing it and I still haven't scratched the surface of what the hell is going on.
Well yeah, obviously. MtG tournament play is about the metagame and there's hundreds of mechanics and tactics. It's a whole different game than it is when you're just playing friends or even small time MtG tournaments.
Don't worry, I remember that, too. Then I didn't pay attention to it at all for a decade, and then I started playing a little with their online offerings and it was just insane.
I like complex. But if I can't play you as a casual hobby, I'm never going to play you. I like when a game is accessible, and there's room to grow and develop skill. But I haven't been able to get into super competitive games like LoL or DOTA2 because of the skill threshold required just to be able to not suck horribly.
____________________________
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
I'm curious to try Hearthstone. I've heard from a couple friends that it's really fun. I don't think I've gotten an invite yet though.
Also, trying to change your sleep schedule sucks. Trying to stay up to 6am tonight, and then 8am tomorrow. I will be very happy once I'm adjusted to graveyard lol.
I'm a residential counselor for a facility that tries to rehabilitate parolee teenage boys. Basically just a glorified babysitter, but I'm happy to have a job where I'm making a difference in someone's life.