What games are you currently playing?

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Nah, I've never found MTG to be nearly as bad.

Granted, HS is only just started whereas MTG has nearly 15 years on it. But at least in MTG, Mana dictates what you can play. I'm not a big fan of the general card pool being so big and the class cards so small. There also doesn't seem to be distinct themes like MTG has.

For example, Lifelink is mainly white but also sometimes seen in black, and never in the other 3 colors. Direct damage is almost solely red, very rarely white (and only ever in combat). HS doesn't do this and it makes the game a little frustrating in that regard.

MtG is over 20 years old now. MtG Alpha edition was released in 1993.

But you're right in the respect that MtG is much better about keeping each color/faction with its own unique flavor and strategic style. Other colors may dabble (usually to their detriment or at an inefficiency cost), and that's not true in HS.


Icemage

[cidbahamut]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Hearthstone also lacks even a shadow of the variety that MtG has. There's really only one approach to winning: play creatures and back up their assault with spells. With MtG there are so many approaches to winning that it's a little overwhelming if you stare at it for too long.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Nah, I've never found MTG to be nearly as bad.

Granted, HS is only just started whereas MTG has nearly 15 years on it. But at least in MTG, Mana dictates what you can play. I'm not a big fan of the general card pool being so big and the class cards so small. There also doesn't seem to be distinct themes like MTG has.

For example, Lifelink is mainly white but also sometimes seen in black, and never in the other 3 colors. Direct damage is almost solely red, very rarely white (and only ever in combat). HS doesn't do this and it makes the game a little frustrating in that regard.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Eh I burned out on the game pretty quickly tbh.

Lately Hearthstone has been nothing but a ragefest though. So sick of money decks all spamming the same OP cards (Ragnaros has got to be the single most over-played card in the game).


Fucking people blowing $400+ on packs. I went through 35 packs (all gold) and only got 2 legendaries, both of them Cenarius - oh, yay... and a bunch of other trash.

You're describing every TCG ever there.

[Feba]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

My battle.net tag is Enotz#1316

Honestly, I'm pretty fine with the way the game works. Absolutely nothing is off limits to f2p players, and the progression speed isn't painfully slow "Wait ten hours to do one thing" type stuff; they even add quests to give you more incentive to play. And the f2p community is beneficial; not just in opportunity cost for potential future sales, but in enriching the playerbase. Even the single player add-on content is going to be accessible to f2p players.

It certainly beats traditional card games. Without a trade system, or a "buy this card" system, it's completely random; your f2p pack has just as good a chance of having a golden legendary as a paid pack. In fact, over the past few days I've opened four or five packs, with 2 legendaries and three or four gold cards. The only reason to really pump that much money into the game is if you want to get instantly to a decklist prepared by someone else, instead of setting up your own deck with what you have. Over a couple weeks of very light play (hour a day, tops, and really probably closer to half an hour), I've got Pegle, Illidan, Ysera; Pegle and Illidan in the past few days, Ysera I got just going through the tutorial.

I think Bliz has done a very fair job of keeping the game balanced, while providing incentives to pay. It's certainly not unwinnable if you don't pay; you simply have a larger selection of cards if you do. I have zero problem with that. Heck, the dust system is hugely bent towards f2p players if anything; if you buy all your cards, you don't really need to use dust; if you have a small limited collection that you're trying to make do with, a bit of dust can go a long way with dealing with the trash cards.

Besides, there's enough strategy in the game that a smart f2p will beat a stupid p2w, and by the time you get to be a smart f2p you'll probably have all the cards you need anyway.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Eh I burned out on the game pretty quickly tbh.

Lately Hearthstone has been nothing but a ragefest though. So sick of money decks all spamming the same OP cards (Ragnaros has got to be the single most over-played card in the game).


Fucking people blowing $400+ on packs. I went through 35 packs (all gold) and only got 2 legendaries, both of them Cenarius - oh, yay... and a bunch of other trash.

[Fliegar]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I was playing Warframe on the PS4 as well, and recently switched over to the PC version. It's pretty fun.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Been playing Warframe on PS4. This game is amazingly good for a free to play game. It feels like what Mass Effect 3's multiplayer always wanted to be, but never quite managed to be. Tons of customization options, very mild pay-to-play requirements, lots of unique weaponry and customizable abilities, and more importantly, you can't buy most of the best stuff in the game. Paying saves you time and expands you inventory slots, but not much else. The game is good enough that I think I'll throw some money at it because I've already gotten 30+ hours of gameplay out of it and paid a grand total of $0 so far, but you could more or less make your way through the entire game and never spend a penny if you so chose (it'd just take a lot longer).


Icemage

[Yellow Mage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Finally got around to beating Portal 2 single-player. (I actually did the co-op first, and have completed all but the bonus levels.)

Also was convinced by a friend to try out a new MORPG called NEStalgia. Terrible name, but the execution is spot-on. Pretty good timewaster, if a bit grindy (presumably by design). I have a level 14 Ninja (the cap is inexplicably 32, but I hear that's going up soon), and am strongly considering rolling a Ranger--if only because Rangers here play a lot like Red Mages.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Seriously though, it's like they took the grindiness of the mythic quest and then decided to Magian Trial the living shit out of it.

What the Hell Yoshida? We wanted content that lasts and something hard to work for, but not this X.x


When I saw the quest details I was expecting some epic FFT Tribute with 12 new FATE involving the Lucavi or something. Guess that would have been too much work so they took the lazy path and made the quest so obscenely RNG based and lengthy no one will ever want to even attempt (nevermind finish) more than 1 weapon. It's fucking Hamlet 2.0 is what it is, only infinitely worse (especially since, AFAIK, you have to do the atma part for each weapon + the books.... the fuck man?!)


The Zodiak weapons had damn well better be stupidly OP by the time we finish them.

[Caspian]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

This is like if Mythic and Empyrean had a freak baby that decided to murder them because they weren't hardcore enough.

Made me laugh more than it should.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah I honestly don't get what the hell they were thinking with this.

At first the patch just seemed awesome, but they've really turned it into a grindy RNG hell. Uh, we wanted elements of XI to come back, not exact mechanics guys >_>

[Ketaru]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

You know, in XI's defense, for a very long time the endgame never felt compulsory in the way it did post level-cap increase. Endgame stuff was nice and certainly helped. But you could still do pretty well for yourself with high-grade AH stuff. That's not the feeling I got from the game after Abyssea or from XIV.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah I have no fucking chance at getting a Zodiac weapon. With the spawn times of the FATEs, and how FATE NM Spawn mechanics work in general, I will have to quite literally quit my job to have a chance at it.

At least getting Rowena Tokens isn't just one huge fuck you to people that can't stay on the game 24/7. It just takes a long time to farm the Soldiery Tomes.

The massive nerf on Tome drops in general is a giant middle finger to all but the most stupidly hardcore as well. 10-45 Soldiery per run is just fucking stupid. The only viable way to cap out each week is to run Turn 4 of Coil 45 times for 10 per run due to how fast it is to clear (14 mins in a good group). Good luck doing that in that time without a static though.

They have basically turned the game from something that respects the time of the gamer to FFXI 2.0. It's just fucking ridiculous. 10.5 hours of playtime just to cap out for the week is a massive slap in the face to the players. They done fucked it up.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Currently at 3/12 atma and after that, 9 books totalling 13,500 myth in cost.... what the fuck SE?

I don't mind a grind for a long-term ub3r weapon but holy shit tone it down a notch/remove the RNG element at least. This is like if Mythic and Empyrean had a freak baby that decided to murder them because they weren't hardcore enough.