Complete Nub

[Shasta Tampon]

Haven't really played this game since launch, and I only did then for the WoW mount. Started up again recently and am quite enjoying it. Problem is, I'm years behind in cards and dust. Once I ladder into the teens, I get wrecked. People drop cards on me that make my naughty bits tingle with jealousy. I've got about 2500 gold, should I spend that on packs, and if so, which ones? Should I buy the Kara expansion? I guess what I'm really asking is...where to now? I understand it's going to take a while to get what I need (I'd prefer not to drop hundreds of real life dollars). Just looking for a push in the right direction. It's all foreign to me. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Nikkaszal]

If your aim is to rank up no matter the cost, then there are several super cheap decks that are still very viable. Zoo Lock and Pirate Warrior are still in the meta, neither require legendaries to function, and are mostly full of basic/common cards that can be cheaply crafted

If your aim is to have fun playing with whatever, then you'll need to invest time to be competitive and build your collection (just how, for example, a player new to WoW should not expect to be Mythic raiding straight away)

1) Play the Tavern Brawl every week for at least one win. Well, except for this week, where they threw Heroic Brawl at us again out of the blue. It'll reward you with a free Classic pack each week and will be your primary way of getting Classic cards

2) Use your gold to unlock Karazhan first. It's going to remain relevant for another year, and unlike cards from Expansions (Kara is an Adventure) you CANNOT obtain these cards any other way, like crafting

3) Don't try and spread yourself over every single class at once. Your collection won't be able to handle it, and the amount of dust needed to make multiple meta decks from scratch is staggering. Pick one... maybe two... classes you like and focus on them first. One thing I did when first starting was play Rogue and Shaman exclusively and ruthlessly cull almost everything from other classes to use as Disenchanting fodder. With that dust I made two solid decks. I then moved to another class, and kept culling everything from the remaining six to make a third deck. Later a fourth. And so on.

[Mormolyce]

I recommend deciding on a desired deck to build first, then you can decide what's worth it to buy.

If you want something cheap, there's a hunter deck at the moment that uses mostly standard cards that I'm finding a bitch to play against.

Personally I'd say that standard cards would be your first call anyway, before any expansions. If your standard deck is lacking.

Once I ladder into the teens, I get wrecked.

That'll still happen even when you have almost all the good cards in the game like me :P

[Twoddle]

If your aim is to collect cards as fast as possible then you will need to look and plan into the far future. Buy packs from sets where you have the least proportion of cards to lower the chance of duplicates. Forget about Old Gods, Karazhan and Gadgetzan they will rotate out in 1 year from now.

Start buying and saving for the latest sets and for the expansions coming out this year, in 2 years time you can start disenchanting this years sets and in 3 years time you will be almost up with where the rest of us are now, gl.

Of course if your aim is to start having fun NOW then forget all that and follow other's advice but you will be somewhat further behind in cards next year. Alternatively pump a few hundreds of $'s £'s or €'s into the game and you're good.

[NED funded]

If you want to rank in the ladder fast and cheap I'd recommend midrange hunter. No legendaries and easy to pilot, although it hits a ceiling around rank 5. If you want something more competitive, but expensive go for pirate warrior.

As for what you should spend your money on:

a) Buying Kharazhan up unitil the third wing should be fine. Unless you want to play freeze mage or discardlock.
b) Start buying classic packs, like crazy. Most decks run quite a lot of cards from the classic set and having the "core" of hearthstone should make the process of building new decks easier.
c) Play Tavern Brawl and Arena once you have the usefull cards in classic.

[Deleted]

Research your decks before you choose to play them. I stupidly de'd all my cards to get enough dust for a deck, created dragon priest. I hate it. So i pretty much wasted 4k dust. Try and play something similar to what you want to create just to get a feel for whether you like the game play or not.

[Colmadero]

As other have stated, it largely depends on what your focus is.

Do you want to rank high? Build and spend dust into cheap, effective decks such as Zoo Lock, Beast Hunter or Pirate Warrior. These are the most bang for your dust/time decks since they rely mostly on being aggressive and beating the opponent down by brute force.

Do you want to play for fun? Buy Karazhan, beat it (has great replayability) and slowly buy un'goro, Wotg and msog packs. I'd say 70% un'goro, 20% msog and 10% wotg

[Lomzor]

I would totally start using some gold for arena.
You would then learn a variety of play-styles and at the same time and get at least one pack + gold for your run depending on results. You would also be on a much more level playing field in terms of cards due to the "random" nature of the drafting.
Also definitely pump some of that gold in to Karazhan. Quite a few of the cards in that set are bankers!

[caractacus]

Arena can be pretty amazing if you put the work in. I remember when i first started the game I tried arena and got heavily burnt losing something like 0-3 or 1-3. Then I took a bit of time to play the game and learn the mechanics, watch streamers and read up on arena tactics then I hit the arena again and started hitting some big rewards which really allow to kick off your collection.

[Twoddle]

Arena can be pretty amazing if you put the work in. I remember when i first started the game I tried arena and got heavily burnt losing something like 0-3 or 1-3. Then I took a bit of time to play the game and learn the mechanics, watch streamers and read up on arena tactics then I hit the arena again and started hitting some big rewards which really allow to kick off your collection.

The downside of switching to arena is that even though you get more packs for your gold, you still have to grind out the games and by the time you've fleshed out a decent collection with a few legendaries the next expansion comes along and the cycle starts over.

[caractacus]

The downside of switching to arena is that even though you get more packs for your gold, you still have to grind out the games and by the time you've fleshed out a decent collection with a few legendaries the next expansion comes along and the cycle starts over.

Yea I must admit I hardly play arena any more, I just do my dailies and save for expacs. When i used it to boost me it was back when the game first came out and it was just the core set.