Legend of the Innkeeper : A Hearthstone Podcast for Casual Players

LOTI 029  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Quarterpounder with Mustard”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn and I’m Espo.  We’re glad you could join us for our 29th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 2 Epic neutral cards of the week that a newbie should craft

Vastidious – Big Game Hunter, Recombobulator

Ariannwyn – Hobgoblin, Faceless Manipulator

Espo –  Molten Giant, Enhance-o Mechano

News

1. Blizzpro’s HearthPro Podcast is stopping production – https://twitter.com/HearthProShow/status/555831032721989632

Blizzpro’s HearthPro podcast is going offline after 52 episodes.

Getting Better

Interesting Article – Tips on how to improve your skill – http://2p.com/22781780_1/Tips-on-How-to-Improve-your-Skill-Part-1—Basics-by-mYi-FaKe.htm

Part 2 –

http://2p.com/23529336_1/Tips-on-How-to-Improve-your-Skill-Part-2—Advanced-by-mYi-FaKe.htm

https://twitter.com/XcMtbGamer

Open A Pack On Air (Each)

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews: 3 new reviews

Senor Cheezle – 5 Stars! – “YES”

Not sure what this phrase means?  “Holy cow, after throwing down Muster his last turn to hit the mana curve, this Pally just top decked lethal with that Quartermaster.  If he goes all face it’s GG!!”  That’s my Amaz imitation … and this show can translate!  Keep it up guys, two thumbs up.

Gronmore – 5 Stars! – “Way to go!”

Good job you are a lot of fun! Main gripe is know the cards :p

Cheebatank – 5 Stars! – “Time to strap on those dark iron dwarves”

Great fun being had by all! The interplay of the hosting crew is fun as guarantied by Esbo and always possibly sometimes informative usually.  But Moving On, in truth they are a great listen, good information and nice to hear some fellow noobs grabbing a mic and rockin it in the crazy mixed up GvG RNG BBQ world that we now live in.

 

Emails:

hey guys and gal,

just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for the podcast!  im also a casual player and appreciate your musings and antics. i like your father/daughter interactions, it makes me hopeful that my “wee one” will be a heathstone player too.   i liked the episode this week and would love to add you as friends to play some weirdo decks!

thanks!

Matthew

——————————

Hey Guys and Gal,

I just started listening to the podcast back in December and it has become one of my go to podcasts I listen to when I commute to and from work.

I’m loving the show so far and would love to add you guys in game…

Keep up the great work!

Thanks,

Brandon

——————————–

I would just like to say I always enjoy when you guys put out a new episode. its always great to hear whats going on in the world of hearthstone. I try to keep up to date with “the meta” and whats current and you guys do a great job of keeping me up to date.

on a side note: I’ve been playing warrior that synergizes with minions like Frothing Berserker and enraging to do tons of damage. It’s really a head scratcher planning out the damage that other minions take and what not.. but anyways saving up for warrior legendary gromm hellscream to finish out the deck. so far 855, 755 more to go

LOTI 028 – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Movin’ On”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn and I’m Espo.  We’re glad you could join us for our 28th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 Rares that you should craft as a casual player

Vastidious – Coldlight Oracle, Defender of Argus, Questing Adventurer

Ariannwyn – Wild Pyromancer, Azure Drake, Injured Blademaster

Espo –  Knife Juggler, Jeeves, Sunfury Protector

Getting Better

How the Casual Player can have fun even when you lose and don’t have all the cards

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Keeping Hearthstone FUN! – jwongxian

I just started listening in December but I really enjoy this show.  Great dynamics between the father, daughter and Espo.  They have great chemistry and each have their own approach to the game.  Most other HS podcasts and sites assume that you have all the cards and have your goal is to reach legendary.  This podcast assumes that you probably don’t have great cards (sorry, Arianwynn) and that your goal is to have tons of fun playing a game.  I am down with that!  You guys are doing a great job.  Keep it up!

Emails:

Twitter: 121

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow the show on Twitter @LOTIpodcast

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Liked it? Take a second to support Legend of the Innkeeper on Patreon!

LOTI 027 – Legend of the Innkeeper – “I Got The Power!”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn and I’m Espo.  We’re glad you could join us for our 27th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – Commons to craft

Vastidious – Mech Warper, Ship’s Cannon, Antique Healbot

Ariannwyn – Harvest Golem, Annoy-O-Tron, Ogre Brute

Espo –  Mech Yeti, Ironbeak owl, Loot Hoarder

News

1. Tournament Winnings in Review

http://www.dailydot.com/esports/hearthstone-2014-prize-totals/

2. Hearthstone Deck Tracker Updated

https://github.com/Epix37/Hearthstone-Deck-Tracker/

They just added “Replays” to the app.  You can replay past games in the tool now and analyze what you did or didn’t do correctly.

Getting Better

Sent decks by Uhdrill

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/152586-voltron-awakens

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/138654-hob-pally

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews: 2 new ones

* Awesome Podcast – Gaby0515

Great podcast.  Ariannwyn is a bit too obsessed with the priest and Espo needs more friends but great and entertaining podcast.

* This is simply amazing – Umbranbu

For a casual new Hearthstone player, the game is daunting and pretty unforgiving.  You want to enjoy the game but feel everyone is just better than you whether in ranked or arena.  You don’t have a lot of cards, don’t know how to spend your gold, or what decks to make.  What do you do?  For starters, listen to this podcast from episode one.  Every episode offers helpful tips and funny banter.  More importantly though, this podcast is crafted like a journey where the two main heroes start off fairly weak but get stronger, slay more minions, and meet more friends.  I’m only at episode 10 so I have no idea where this journey will go but I’m following wherever it goes.  What I’m trying to say is … just listen to this podcast!

Emails:

Twitter: 118

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow the show on Twitter @LOTIpodcast

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Liked it? Take a second to support Legend of the Innkeeper on Patreon!

LOTI 026  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Listener Questions”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn and I’m Espo!  We’re glad you could join us for our 26th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – If you could get any Legendary for Christmas, what would it be?

Vastidious – Mechgineer Thermaplug

Ariannwyn –

Espo – Mal’Ganis !!!!

News

1. Android version is out!

 

If you play one game on an Android device, you get a free Classic pack.

2. AND you can get more packs for your money through Amazon

There is a tricky way to accomplish this, meaning you have to do it on an Android device, using the Hearthstone app you download from Amazon.  Read the info here for details: http://hearthstone.blizzpro.com/2014/12/20/buy-more-packs-with-amazon-deal/

But if you do it this way, currently you can purchase 71 packs for $49.  Normally you would get 40 packs at that price.

3. Blizzard adjusts pack prices in Russia

If you haven’t been following the news, Russia is having financial issues and the exchange rate of the Rouble has more than doubled in the last few months.  Just this week Apple stopped selling from their online store as they adjust prices.  Blizzard followed suit raising prices on their online store for packs.  2 packs went from 99 Roubles to 186, 7 packs – 320 to 618, 15 packs – 700 to 1220, 40 packs – 1650 to 3175, 60 packs – 2300 to 4302.  Arena went from 66 to 123.

http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2pvhwh/blizzard_adjusts_pack_prices_in_russia/

4. Good Gaming Tournament A Bust

Good Gaming advertised a $10,000 casual player tournament.  It was even posted on the Blizzard client late last week. Entry fee was $5.  The tournament started Friday and reports are that many players were at it for more than 10 hours.  During this time, just after the first round, the tournament gets reset.  6 hours later they announce that instead of 5 wins you now need 4 wins to move on.  Then they change it back to 5 wins.  Then they come out and say that they are just going to stop the tournament and place everyone based on the current standings.  Then they come back and say, oh wait nevermind because one group already played round 6.  Then they come back and say nevermind AGAIN, because the head administrator’s computer crashed and it was over.  Oh they also said that TeamSpeak, which they were using for communications was hacked.

In the end there are reports of players getting booted from both the tournament and TeamSpeak even though they were 4-1 and able to move ahead in the brackets.

Needless to say, it was poorly mismanaged and something I am glad I didn’t sign up for.

Listener Questions – (color coded to separate the questions)

Hey guys, loving the show. Could you talk about the different deck types. Like what’s the difference between a rush deck or a control deck. What’s ramp? What’s tempo? And go in depth with it? I’m trying to build the right decks but I am finding it hard.

All the best from the Gold Coast

Chris Bailey

From @ShinyRob – I come from Magic and tried Hearthstone on a whim on my iPad. I immediately loved the sleek interface and faster gameplay…

* How did you guys get into Hearthstone?

* Have you played Magic?

* Do you play games other than HS and WoW?

Question – How many Play and Arena wins do you all have?

* Alex in Japan

Hello again fellow gamers!

I have a few questions,

LOTI 025  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “GvG Hype – Goblins Rule!?!”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn, and I’m Espo.  We’re glad you could join us for our 25th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – GvG Legendaries

Vastidious – Sneed’s Old Shredder, Bolvar Fordragon, Mimiron’s Head

Ariannwyn –  Iron Juggernaut, Mekgineer Thermaplugg, Mogor the Ogre

Espo – Dr Boom, Mal’Ganis, Troggzor the Earthinator

News

1. Article posted today interviewing Ben Brode and Mike Donais: Randomness, Android and Additional Deck Slots – http://www.shacknews.com/article/87474/hearthstone-senior-designers-on-randomness-the-android-port-and-additional-deck-slots

New/Casual Players

“I know that some people who are not into Hearthstone. They’ve tried it out and just gotten stomped, and that can be discouraging. Are you concerned at all about newcomers having a hard time getting into it as the meta gets more calcified?

BB: Yeah, new players is a really important thing for us. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make their experience better. We have done some things recently with matchmaking for new players that we think will make a big impact. We’ll continue to look at that and see what it is new players are struggling with and how to make their experience better. It’s a very important thing, we’ll continue to monitor and see just how to enhance that experience.”

Deckslots

“Speaking of keeping the interface simple, I know you’ve talked about the deck slots issue that really hardcore players have brought up. Has there been any conceptualizing of how you could keep that simple?

BB: It’s one of the things that players are really passionate about. The funny thing is, if we never got any new players, adding more deck slots would be kind of a no-brainer, I think. Our current players can handle more complexity, that’s not really a concern.

But during our original playtests for Hearthstone we brought in brand new players. What we saw over and over again was that they would look at the Collection Manager, and say “look, I’m not sure this game is for me. It’s much too complicated, I never want to build a deck, this is just too much.” That really scared us, because we had this really great game, and we didn’t want players to throw it all out because the Collection Manager was too complicated. We did a lot of work since then to make the Collection Manager a lot easier to use for new players, so it’s a big concern for us. We want to make sure it’s still accessible for new players.

We know it’s important for players who are playing a lot and want more deck slots. We are talking about ways to potentially explore an elegant solution for both groups, but we don’t have any specifics yet that we’ve landed on, that we’re ready to talk about. We know it’s important, though, and we are discussing the issue.”

I think the concern comes up more when these expansions launch, because people don’t want to trash their current decks to experiment with new ones.

BB: Certainly, and we at the team have the same internal dialogue. It’s definitely something that we talk about a lot.

Android Version

You announced the Android version was coming somewhere near all this. Is that still happening this year?

BB: Yes, the plan is still December. We don’t have that many days left in December, so it should be sometime really soon. I don’t know the exact date.

2. Some players, accidentally purchased Classic packs instead of the new GvG packs! –

LOTI 024  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “HobGoblins vs Gnomes”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious and I’m Ariannwyn.  We’re glad you could join us for our 24th episode.

We have an announcement!

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week (Class)

Question from @Shiny_Rob – @LotiPodcast Now that you’ve played all the classes, which is your favorite? (Priest who?)

Vastidious – Mage, Warlock, Paladin

Ariannwyn – Warrior, Shaman, Priest

Espo – Rogue, Priest, Hunter

News

*

Blizzard has been compensating players with Naxx Issues

http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2o505o/blizzard_is_compensating_players_with_naxx_issues/

Some people have reported that their accounts were credited the Naxx cost, and they were given 700 gold plus packs (some as many as 40 packs!)

*

HearthPwn posts a bunch of information datamined from the upcoming patch – including Golden versions of the Legendary GvG cards AND that we are going to get 1 Arena run and 3 GvG packs at launch!?!

http://www.hearthpwn.com/guides/719-goblins-vs-gnomes-patch-launch-event-animated

 

 

* GvG Cards in the Arena

 

Getting Better

Vastidious cards:

Floating Watcher Echo of Medivh , Seal of Light

Ariannwyn cards:

Shadowboxer Siege Engine Dark Wispers Siltfin Spitiwalker

Espo Cards:

Imp-losion Metaltooth Leaper Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil

Class legendaries

http://2p.com/13105110_1/All-9-New-Goblins-vs-Gnomes-Class-Legendaries-Revealed-by-Corey_T.htm

Neutral legendaries

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/15522942310?utm_expid=68589644-24.yOgsCsWhSz-gOSDIbl82Wg.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

Ariannwyn’s GvG Mill Rogue

Rogue Cards

Name

Type

Cost

Atk

HP

Backstab × 2

Ability

0

0

0

Shadowstep × 2

Ability

0

0

0

Goblin Auto-Barber × 2

Minion

2

3

2

Sap × 2

Ability

2

0

0

Ogre Ninja × 2

Minion

5

6

6

Trade Prince Gallywix × 1

Minion

6

5

8

Vanish × 2

Ability

LOTI #023  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Priest Strategy Guide”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious and I’m Ariannwyn.  We’re glad you could join us for our 23rd episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 Priest cards of the week

Vastidious – Thoughtsteal, Mind Control, Holy Nova

Ariannwyn – Thoughtsteal, Auchenai, Circle of Healing

Espo – Power Word: Shield, Thoughtsteal, Prophet Velen

News

1. Blizzard is removing Golden Heroes from Botters

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/15270098488?abt=nav1&utm_expid=68589644-24.yOgsCsWhSz-gOSDIbl82Wg.1&page=3&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fus.battle.net%2Fhearthstone%2Fen%2Fforum%2F%3Fabt%3Dnav1#57

2. Spreadsheet of every GvG card revealed

http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2nqz78/every_gvg_card_revealed_so_far_in_one_spreadsheet/

New Cards

http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards?display=3&filter-set=101&filter-unreleased=1

Crackle  http://i.imgur.com/717Xhqj.png

Demonheart http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/12237-demonheart

Druid of the Fang http://i.imgur.com/Rd4S3eq.png

Dunemaul Shaman http://i.imgur.com/iMhLVMg.png

Feign Death http://i.imgur.com/M8l0apr.png

Gahz’rilla http://i.imgur.com/FwAmFby.png

Iron Sensei http://i.imgur.com/hXQUHWI.jpg

Lil’ Exorcist http://i.imgur.com/Z2AmFbU.png

Ogre Ninja http://i.imgur.com/VL31B2V.png

Recombobulator http://i.imgur.com/z87fDcD.png

Sabotage http://i.imgur.com/dXXBgWb.png

Scarlet Purifier http://i.imgur.com/HKS9gSL.png

Snowchugger http://i.imgur.com/IY8siY6.png

Spider Tank http://i.imgur.com/94m02Bm.png

Steamwheedle Sniper http://i.imgur.com/YxezRuW.png

Tinkertown Technician http://i.imgur.com/vrtBFhA.png

Getting Better

Priest Guide

If you didn’t know this already, the Priest class is Ariannwyn’s favorite class.  We saved this class for last in our strategy guide segments just so that she had plenty of time to prepare for it.

The Priest class is one of the harder classes to master.  It’s a favorite of Amaz, one of the more well known streamers and tournament winners.  The Priest is sneaky with lots of focus on healing and taking advantage of unique combos and cards.  They can control enemy minions, copy enemy minions, copy enemy cards and draw numerous cards.

I really like how Blizzard has incorporated from WoW both the Holy Priest and the Shadow Priest play styles into the class giving both defensive and offensive powers to the class.

The Priest hero is Auduin Wrynn and his hero power is called Lesser Heal.  For 2 mana,

LOTI #22 – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Mage Strategy Guide”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious and I’m Ariannwyn.  We’re glad you could join us for our 22nd episode.

Special guest Espo!  *crowd goes wild*

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – Mage Cards

Vastidious – [Flamestrike], [Mirror Entity], [Counterspell],[Archmage Antonidas],[Kirin Tor Mage]

Ariannwyn – [Flamestrike], [Mirror Entity], [Counterspell]

Espo – [Archmage Antonidas], [Blizzard], [Pyroblast]

News

New cards!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.810275045681932.1073741864.498467596862680&type=1

[Ancestor’s Call]

[Foe Reaper 4000]

[Anodized Robo Cub]

[Fel Cannon]

[Screwjank Clunker]

[Muster for Battle]

[Cobalt Guardian]

[Toshley]

[Coghammer]

[Call Pet]

http://www.hearthhead.com/news=244632/new-goblins-vs-gnomes-cards-blizzard-card-explanations-expansion-guide-and-champ

 

Summary

The Mage class is the one you are introduced to when you start the game.  The mage is primarily focused on doing direct damage to both enemies and the opposing hero.  But the mage has a wide range of abilities that help them survive in many situations.

The Hero Ability is called [Fireblast].  It costs 2 mana and allows you to do 1 point of damage to any target on the board including your own.  It doesn’t sound like much but trust me, in the early game it helps keep the small minions under control and in the late game can sometimes be just what you need to take out a larger minion.  Not to mention, hitting the opponent in the face here and there to keep their health dropping.

When playing Mages you’ll find some fairly specific types of decks.  You’ll find spell power, frost mages and secret mages.

Combos

What is interesting about the Mage is that there aren’t a lot of combos available to them, like there are with other classes.  The one combo that sticks out is using the [Kirin Tor Mage] (3 mana, 4/3 minion, Battlecry: The next Secret you play this turn costs (0).) with Secrets.  It’s a great way to get secrets out on the board in the early game.

The mage is more about powerful cards in combination with disrupting cards.  One of the big disruptive cards is [Polymorph] (4 mana, Transform a minion into a 1/1 sheep).  As for big damage, the mage has [Fireball] (4 mana, Deal 6 damage.) and [Pyroblast] (10 mana, Deal 10 damage).  Then you have the freezing spells, like [Cone of Cold] (4 mana, Freeze a minion and all the minions next to it, and deal 1 damage to them.); [Blizzard] (6 mana, Deal 2 damage to all enemy minions and freeze them.); [Frostbolt] (3 mana, Deal 3 damage to a character and freeze it.); [Frost Nova] (3 mana, Freeze all enemy minions); and [Ice Lance] (1 mana, Freeze a character.  If it was already frozen, deal 4 damage instead.)

So with those alone you see how powerful the mage can be.

Special Cards

We’ve already talked a little about some of the powerful cards a Mage has available to them, but there are more.  Let’s first look at the Secrets.  The Mage is one of three classes that has secrets available to them (Paladin, Hunter).  A secret cannot trigger on the players turn, so keep that in mind.  Here is a list of the Secrets available to the mage:

[Counterspell] (3 mana, Secret: When your opponent casts a spell, counter it.)

[Ice Barrier] (3 mana, Secret: As soon as your hero is attacked, gain 8 armor.)

LOTI 021 – Legend of the Innkeeper – “Expansion Details Part 2”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious and I’m Ariannwyn.  We’re glad you could join us for our 21st episode.

 

This week we are talking about…

 

Updates:

What did you do this week?

 

Notes:

We decided to continue talking about the upcoming expansion and we had a friend that we wanted to bring on the show.  So we had a conversation with Espo about the upcoming expansion, the new cards and lots more.

Espo – @XcMbtgamer

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow the show on Twitter @LOTIpodcast

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Liked it? Take a second to support Legend of the Innkeeper on Patreon!

LOTI 020 – Legend of the Innkeeper – “BlizzCon Special”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious and I’m Ariannwyn.  We’re glad you could join us for our 20th episode.

This week we are talking about…  BLIZZCON!!!

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – AFTER we talk about Blizzcon – See Below

News

1. Blizzard announces December release for Android tablet version of Hearthstone

http://hearthstone.blizzpro.com/2014/11/04/hearthstone-to-android-tablets-december-2014/

 

* Free Hearthstone Guide

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2lh4vp/the_complete_guide_for_hearthstone_player_free/

Blizzcon Coverage

Let’s get the other news out of the way.  This is the 20th Anniversary for Blizzard and the 10th Anniversary for Blizzcon.  If you aren’t familiar with Blizzcon, it’s Blizzard’s huge conference in which they showcase and usually announce any new games or expansions.  Getting tickets to Blizzcon is a challenge in itself.  They usually have two specific times that they make tickets available and usually they are sold out within seconds of that time.  And I really mean seconds.

The tickets cost $199 this year and it’s a two day event that is the mecca of all that is Blizzard.  This year, the major announcements were a new game title and a new expansion.

New Game: Overwatch

The new game is called Overwatch. It’s a team based shooter where heroes do battle in a world of conflict.  It’s more of a FPS (First person shooter) type MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game.  Other similar type games are Defense of the Ancients (DotA), DotA 2 and League of Legends.

I know Ariannwyn will want to say something about the trailer, right?

One of my first questions, was if this game had anything to do with the previously announced cancelled title, Titan.  Titan was a MMORPG game that was in development by Blizzard for several years and was to be a major title for the studio.  Chris Metzen did acknowledge that aspects of Titan such as maps, have “continuity” with Titan.  But beyond that the games were not identical.

My first impression was “oh great, another game where I won’t be able to compete and will be killed over and over and over again”.  However, they said that their desire was to create a game that placed emphasis on accomplishing goals as a team rather than trying to achieve large number of kills.  Metzen said, “”we have a long legacy of developing multiplayer games, and it came down to ‘is it even possible to build a shooter that doesn’t feel cynical, that doesn’t feel cruel, that doesn’t feel nasty? Can you build one that really promotes teamwork and relationship and having fun with your friends, and not getting killed with a thrown knife from halfway across the map as soon as you jump in?'”

So I’m interested to see how that turns out in the end.  It’s not my style of game but I will be sure to check it out.

New Expansion: Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes

Of course this is what we really want to talk about the most.  The expansion details have finally been released.  It’s named Goblins vs Gnomes.  It’s going to be available to players in December.I was an engineer when I played World of Warcraft and have pretty good experience with engineering, which is a big focus of this expansion.  If you aren’t familiar with the engineering craft in WoW, essentially it allowed players to craft many different mechanical devices for use the game.  Devices like Explosive Sheep and the BlingTron 3000.  They are quirky, unpredictable and can be quite deadly at times.