So yeah, one reason I haven’t blogged or done any OSS work recently is I’ve been playing Hearthstone obsessively. I installed it with some trepidation and immediately got hooked so hard it is kind of scary. Now I can’t get enough. I read the blogs, watch the streams, follow the drama.
I’m strictly a casual player, and I’ve promised myself I won’t spend any actual money on this game. So in order to beef out my collection I’ve been grinding the Arena for the better part of two months. The Arena is pretty fun, as you get to play around with a lot of cards you wouldn’t usually get your hands on. It’s also punishing, as you really need to rack up those seven wins in order to recoup your gold investment. Last week I decided enough was enough, and switched to playing ranked games.
This season I was toiling away at level 20 for quite a while playing different decks, but then made a conscious commitment to learn the Shaman Way. Shaman is good for casuals like me since you can put together a solid deck out of just commons and rares, and it will both be fun to play and have a decent chance on the ladder. Playing Shaman correctly isn’t easy though; you have to pace yourself and learn when to strike with Lightning Storm, when to unleash your Feral Spirits, and what to hit with your Earthshock. And most importantly, when to hold back and just play a totem.
You also need to think hard about the mana curve. Despite being an all-round awesome card, I realized Chillwind Yeti had no place in my deck; on turn three I usually play an Overload card, which ruins turn four. After dropping the yetis, and a few other tweaks I was shocked how good the deck was doing. I went on win streak after win streak and hit rank 9 today. My one to two hours of game time a day isn’t enough to take me to Legend, but it was pretty sweet to at least break single digit.