My new toy!

 ASUS MeMO Pad FHD 10

I ponder and waited and looked and thought some more.  Then I decided on this.  I don't think I'll be sorry.

I have been looking for a while for a 10 inch tablet.  I wanted something in my price range.  I wanted to get something quality that would allow me to USE it.  I looked at the Nexus 10, but even used they were a little too expensive, especially since they had no expandable storage.  I looked at the Galaxy Note 10.1 (not the 2014), but the resolution and Touchwiz were off-putting.  I looked at the Transformer series, but the technology seemed a bit dated and I wasn't sure I'd use the keyboard.  I looked and looked and felt pretty like I might have to save up some more and drop about 6 bills on a quality current gen tablet.

I stumbled upon this beast while doing some research.  I was intrigued by the Intel CPU powering this thing.  I was then even more intrigued at the price.  Sure, it is not a top-tier device, but I don't need it to be.  For the price I expect this thing to be mid-level and allow me to enjoy using the tablet for a plethora of things.  I have a PC to play games on and I have 51 inch plasma to watch TV on.  The tablet needs to be an in-between device to consume different forms of media on while I am able to be connected.

I haven't had much time to dig into it just yet, but I plan to put it through the paces for the next few days.  I will be back with more details and overall thoughts once I've had some time to spend with device.

Hearthstone: Arena beatdown!

I have played through all of the decks to level 10.  I've practiced, I'm played unranked matches, I've even dabbled with a couple decks in some ranked.  The one thing I still hadn't done was Arena.  I tried it last night.

It hurt.  Bad.



I entered the Arena with for the first time and was greeted with the free pass and offered a choice of three classes.  I picked a class.  I've had decent success with a Priest and I see people complain about how OP they are.  Let's do it!  I get the first group of three cards.  I gaze upon them in great wonder.  It is like I've never played this game before.  OH SHIT!  The thought slams into my face.  I don't get to make any REAL choices.  There is a basic plan to most of my decks.  This is my focus and highlight and this is how I support it.  Not in Arena....

I go through and I pick cards that I feel have a decent synergy.  I mull over choices and build my deck.  I'm not happy with it.  I only had two taunts show up.  Almost everything is spells and I'm not too excited about a caster Priest deck build.  I immediately regret making this decision and hate my deck.

The first match starts.  I have nothing, I play nothing.  1/1 Boar with Charge.  Okay.  Not too bad.  It goes horribly down hill.  I'm playing a Druid and by the time they have 7 resources the game is fucking OVER.  DONE.  ENDED.  It took six fucking turns to wipe me.  This is disgraceful.  I feel bad.  I feel like shit.  What have I learned in this game?  Am I new here?  What is wrong with me?  What is wrong with my deck!?  GOD DAMMIT!

I go again and find similar results.  This time all of my draws are shit and I see the EXACT SAME STRATEGY.  It's all low-drop bullshit.  This isn't a deck, this is a fucking zerg.  A bunch of shitty low-drop menus that just swarm you.  Charges seemed pretty popular, too.  There was no real strategy, draw cards, play cards, BOOM.  Ugh.  I knew what was going to happen.  I wasn't wiped as quickly, but still didn't do very well.  I managed to get them down to 12, though, before being zerged down.

Fuck this!  I'm going again!

My draws at the beginning were bad, again.  I redraw ALL of my cards and get even worse cards, somehow.  Gross.  This match goes much better.  I get them down to 3 HP before being trampled.  The last match was a Paladin who healed for 8, 6 and 6.  It was literally like killing them twice.  GAH!  I see the same thing again.  Lots of low drops supported in between by heals or Paladin damage buffs.  I did my best to keep control, but just couldn't outlast those big heals.

Three-and-out.  Disgusting.  I was pretty unhappy with the entire thing.  My first stab at the Arena was bitter.  I wasn't happy at all at my showing.  However, at the end I did get a few gold, a couple of dust and a pack of cards that gives me one blue and 4 white dupes.  OH BOY!  A free card pack ain't so bad, I guess.

I'm gonna have to regroup and get some confidence up and give this another try.

Hearthstone: MOAR CARDZ!

I bought 40 packs of cards today.  I didn't feel good about it, but I did it.

I wish that I had a sweet video to share or that I had some kind of awesome story, but I don't have one.  I opened a bunch of fucking cards and didn't really get anything really awesome or that makes a super amazing deck.  I actually got a very even spread of cards, which is good and bad.  At least... I guess it is.

I still don't know what direction I plan on going or which deck it is that I want to stick with.  Everyone is leveled up to 10, finally and I've unlocked all those cards for each class.  I am hoping to get a little extra time and put some work into getting my shit together and trying out some decks.  I'm not sure about trying Arena just yet.

I finally have some people that are in the beta so we can kick it and play together and I can try out some stuff against them.  WOO!  Hopefully more people will get in and I will have even more "friends" to play with.

If this experience did nothing else, it made me realize how unlucky I am.  Based on these packs, I'm gonna need like 160 more packs before I can get enough cards to feel comfortable building a good deck.  Ugh.  That ain't gonna be cheap.

Hearthstone: Druids Suck and STOP CONCEDING!

Yes, I'm still talking about Hearthstone.  I haven't picked up NBA 2k14 yet and since I don't raid the last WoW patch gives me, pretty much, nothing to talk about.

I've had a pretty good time playing Hearthstone.  Last time I talked about leveling the different class decks.  It isn't always the most entertaining thing to do, but it is something that needs to get done.  I am still powering through getting them leveled.  Warlock and Paladin are all I've got left.  My latest conquest has been the Druid.

I don't think I've seen a shittier set of cards that are more all over the place...  I played the WoW TCG and enjoyed it, hell I've got a ton of cards and would actually enjoy still playing.  The TCG pushed you into a spec to get certain abilities so that your deck wasn't constructed with no real focus.  You know, kind of like specs in the game.  Sure, an Enhancement Shaman can heal, but it isn't gonna be super awesome.  The bonus for specs was a couple of very power cards and specific things that helped to flesh out a focused deck.    You could obviously have several different decks and utilize things differently.  Hearthstone does not have that.  I think it needs it, badly.

The Druid starter deck is terrible.  Beyond that the starting cards are all over the damn place.  I feel like any of these cards would be awesome if applied to another deck, but this class is spread far too thin.  I understand that the Druid is a jack-of-all-trades, but this is pure silliness.  It took me nearly 3 hours to muster two wins while trying to level the deck and complete the daily quests for a few extra gold.  YIKES!  I'm no pro, but I'm not terrible.  Druid is obviously not going to be my go-to deck, and honestly it is the class I see represented the least.  I feel like Blizzard may need to step in and make some changes to the class to help bring it up to par as other classes.

Gross.  It's just gross.

Now, when I'm not playing Druid decks I have seen a very annoying trend both in rated and unrated play.  Conceding.

STOP IT!  I have 11 damage on the board that I am going to deal, you have 7 HP and no taunt.  You know it's over.  Just take the loss.  Why would you concede to end the game 10 seconds faster?  It makes zero fucking sense.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen people give up halfway in, because their hand sucks.  I've seen people play the wrong card or end their turn before doing something and just concede.  I don't get it.  I had a Warlock play a Void Terror tonight that would have ended me, decidedly, on the very next turn.  When you see a 16/14 beast in front of you that seems like a good time to concede.  I don't concede.  EVER.  I can stare that loss in the face and let them hit me and get it over with.  I drew my card and managed to pull out a win with MOONFIRE.  I had a Murloc Raider on the board, Savage Roar and Claw in my hand.  I drew the Moonfire card.  The Warlock had 10 HP.  I pop Shapeshift, play Savage Roar and Claw.  I've got 5 attack now, the Murloc has 4... Moonfire is, literally, the difference.  I almost felt bad for the guy.  It was pure RNG luck.

It isn't over until you're at zero.  A single mistake can cost you the game, but that doesn't mean that you need to give up and find another game.  Maybe you'll pull great cards, you don't know.  If you are one hit from losing, JUST FUCKING TAKE IT, PUSSY!

Hearthstone: Leveling Decks

I've been putting most of my focus into Hearthstone.  The little time I've had has been dumped into getting the basics down and working on building out decks.  One of the features of the game is that the class of your deck levels with you.  I've been trying to work through leveling these decks.  Slowly, but surely.

Let's say for instance that you wanted to give the Warrior deck a go.  You select Warrior and you can use the default deck of you can build a custom deck.  The customer deck gives you options of cards you have available, however some cards are unlockable.  This being the case, that means that you'll need to level to get some of these.  So far I've only seen that class cards are unlockable, so I am unsure if any of the other cards are.  As you play games you get experience.  Experience turns into levels and every two levels up to 10 you gain a new card (you get two of them, though).  For some classes this is AWESOME.  As a Warrior the card I got at level 8 was amazing for the build I was going for.  For a Rogue Assassinate seems killer.  The class-based cards that you get as you level are pretty nice.

I am trying to get everyone to 10, get all of the basic cards fleshed out and then decide what I want to do.  I haven't opened any expert packs because I am trying to hold out for as long as possible.  I am trying to avoid the "pay to win" stereotype for the moment.  Every card game is pay to win, so I understand that I can't avoid it forever.  So far I've been doing unranked matches with random decks when I get the chance and giving my Warrior or Hunter deck a whirl in the ranked world.  Yeah.... not doing so hot there, but without a better card selection I don't feel too bad.

The end goal is to play and have a good time.  So far I've had a really good time and even though I haven't put a lot of money into it, I think I could.  I could see myself investing 50 bucks into it every couple of months or so.  That would get me 40 packs at the current price, which would yield me plenty of cards.  Considering that I'm skipping the current generation of blockbuster FPS games and the WoW expansion is probably a year away, I don't have much to spend money on.  NBA 2k14 just came out, but I'm going to give it a chance to get some solid PC reviews in before I buy it.

With the present system and the way that you accumulate cards I can see Blizzard making changes over time.  Allowing the ability to unlock a card through leveling or giving the winner of a ranked match a chance at "loot".  I know that Arena already offers decent stuff, but I'm not pro enough to get into Arenas just yet.  I've gotta work on my deckbuilding skills (and the fact that RNG fucking hates me) before I take a stab there.

Slowly, but surely.

Hearthstone, finally!

I finally managed to get into the Hearthstone beta.  I've been in for about a month and could have been in longed IF I HAD CHECKED MY TABS IN GMAIL!  Ugh.  Apparently this was a promotion, according to Gmail.  At least that is what it decided to file it as.  LAME!

I haven't had a lot of time to play it because I have been working a lot of overtime.  SOOOOOO... I gave it as much time as I could.  Unfortunately, there was an impending wipe (which just happened) and none of the progress I had was saved.  No big deal, it's beta.  I got the general idea behind gameplay and got to play around with some deck building.  Generally, I'm not great at this stuff.  I have an idea and concept, but the RNG always fucks me.  Always.  Over the first month before the wipe I was able to get a grasp on what Blizzard is trying to do... and I really like it.  The look, the feel, the flow.  It's great.  It is a lot of fun.  I feel like there is a lot more they can do with it and a lot more that can be added, especially if they pull from the TCG.  I've got an absurd amount of TCG material (okay, well maybe not absurb... but a lot) and it's excellent.

The way that the game plays is really great.  The ease at which you can get a match or your ability to create a deck and go directly to different difficulty levels of practice mode to try it out before hitting a game.  OH MAN!  It's a breeze.  The original UI was kind of lacking, but they have cleaned it up pretty well.  Going from one screen to another is fairly seamless and the entire design of the game is very basic.  Yes, basic.  You know, Blizzard's version.  That means that it is stripped down to essential working parts, but they are all very stylized.

The look of the game isn't anything super amazing.  Yes, there are some cards that have sweet animations.  Yes, the game doesn't look like dog shit.  This however is not a game that needs striking visuals to pull it off.  The menus look fine and at 1920x1080 I have no complaints about how it looks or performance.  I was actually kind of shocked that my machine didn't chug a little more, especially based on early reports of laggy interface on nicer machines.  The feel, like I said, is very stylized.  You can tell you are playing a Warcraft game from the moment you start it up.  It does a great job borrowing from the cards in TCG, as well as adding it's own flair with a lot of cool cards.  The flavor text is still there and it is still a lot of fun.

The game, obviously, has a lot of variation.  You are going to be going up against other players with different decks as well as RNG.  I had a lot of success with a low-drop Mage deck prior to the wipe.  That same concept is not working after the wipe.  I did rather poorly with a crappy Hunter beast buffing deck, but have found that it has been a lot better in practice than before.  My next goal is to go for a Shaman Murloc deck and be a low-drop dickhead and swarm people to death.  It's gonna happen.  I'm still trying to figure out AOE and board control against some classes, so I've still got some work to do.

The game will be "pay-to-win".  You can buy packs of cards and then fill your class and neutral needs with them.  Your extra cards can be "disenchanted" and you can use that dust to either create new cards of your choice or to make your current cards "gold".  Gold cards are basically foiled versions of the original with a cool animation, like I mentioned above.  While you can buy more and more cards,
you can't buy the dust.  That being said, you can open packs to get gold cards AND you can disenchant those cards, too (they give more dust, too).  The more you invest the better your odds at being successful will be.  This is with anything like this, though.  It happens.  The game is fun even without a huge investment.  I spent 3 bucks to get two packs and ended up getting several packs for completing quests and then a few more by doing MORE quests.  Sure, the gold didn't come super quick, but the more I played the more I got.

Overall, the game is very fun.  It is something that I hope my friends pick up and something that I hope I get to play with them.  I haven't had a chance to test the features of playing with your buds, because I don't have any buds who have this game.  Hopefully I will see a couple of people trickle in soon.  Until then, I've gotta keep working on my deckbuilding and finish unlocking all of the basic cards for each class.