Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Hearthstone: Mobile version and full Blackrock Mountain full card reveal and my thoughts

HearthPwn with all the information:

Mobile achievements sighted in an upcoming Blackrock Mountain Patch
We should be close to the phone version release!

Blackrock Mountain full card reveal
Overall, other than the obvious support for dragons, I think there are quite a few situational cards this time round that depends on other cards/conditions to get better value. There are also a lot of cards similar to Bolvar Fordragon's effect which proved to be quite feasible in matches unlike what a lot of people was thinking during the card's preview. However, we need to evaluate the usefulness of these cards as a standalone without the "bonus" effects first. Bolvar was a basic 1/7 minion for a mana cost of 5 which is reasonable.

On the other hand, Mage's new Dragon's Breath spell is a basic 4 damage spell for a mana cost of 5 while Solemn Vigil is a 5 mana cost card to draw 2 cards which aren't very good. Therefore, the good ones IMO are those that are already reasonable for the initial effect like Revenge. (Warrior seem to be constantly getting at least one good control card with each new card addition) It looks like it will most likely be included into Warrior control decks for me. Quick Shot is 2 mana cost for 3 damage and that is pretty good value in itself so I think Face Hunter decks will most probably run it.

It'll be interesting to see which cards make it into the current decks as we only have 30 slots. I personally don't think there will be a lot of dragon decks coming out after this expansion unlike Naxxramas' Deathrattle and Goblins and Gnomes' mechs. The only notable ones I see are Hungry Dragon, a neutral card and Twilight Whelp, a priest card.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: 4th Dragon Ball Z Collab for Japan (Updated#3)

Update#3: Subreddit discussion on the latest buffs. Super Saiyan 3 Goku got the old Vegito's leader skill while Mystic/Ultimate Gohan's leader skill is now the 5x for all 5 colours like Fire/Light Horus.

The biggest changes were for Vegito though. His leader skill has been updated to include a boost to RCV which is pretty huge. His active skill has also been amended to be similar Ra's active skill while retaining the one turn delay. He also gets a boost to all 3 stats, making him one of the highest overall stat cards in the game. Together with the easy activation of his leader skill's 4x, he has become quite a powerful card now!

Update#2: There was going to be some changes to the Dragon Ball cards and here are the information in Chinese over at pad.skyozora with a subreddit discussion on them. I was expecting awakening changes for Vegito to better fit with his evolution material requirements and be in line with the other gold egg cards evolution's 7 awakenings. He did get good additional awakenings but I don't understand why the active skill and leader skill got changed. The old active was fine and definitely better IMO (I like the new skillup card though as it brings back memories of Vegito's fight with Majin Buu!) and without the need to match all 6 orbs for his new leader skill, his additional orb movement awakening doesn't make sense too. He also gets 200 more HP than Super Saiyan 3 Goku although Goku is the one that is physical typing. I just find his changes odd overall.

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Update: Complete card information from Puzzle Dragon X. Uub's awakenings include 2 skill bind resist, I think with so many existing outstanding leaders, he is more likely going to be used as a sub. The collab-dropped Vegeta is pretty good leader for Gaia Descended. As a sub, he is not that good of a dark orb changer due to lacking a row or two prong awakening as well as a relatively high cooldown. Vegito's awakening is probably going to get looked into according to YamaP (Source: Minpuzz) which I kind of expected. Meanwhile, Goku's Super Saiyan 3's art got updated. The old one made him look like a child IMO while the new one seems more proportionate and menacing. (Art comparison at Minpuzz)

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Information at Puzzle & Dragons Subreddit post

We are still missing information on Uub's awakenings, the latest gold egg addition to the rare egg machine and "Returned Saiyan, Vegeta"'s awakenings, leader and active skills. Uub's leader skill is basically Sonia's but for attackers. He's going to get compared to Sonia but without that important full board change active skill, I think that makes him slightly worse. I am guessing the dungeon drop Vegeta will be an invade and hopefully a useful card.

Regarding the new evolutions, Vegito is interestingly attacker/dragon while his active skills buff dragon and physical types. He also has fewer awakenings but still require rare evolution materials, although double two-prong is aplenty.  Perfect Cell, with his double two-prong awakenings and unconditional leader skill, is literally "perfect" now. Gotenks get 3 skill boosts and double two-prong. I hardly see people using him as a leader so his role is going to be of a very strong sub.

Theere are also some updates to the existing cards and the one that caught my eye was Trunks' double two-prong. He already has a very high attack so this update is huge! This time round, all the silver eggs return to the egg machine, which means it will be technically tougher to get a particular silver egg. (Tenshinhan and Raditz are good silver egg subs Edit: Mr. Satan and Piccolo are other good subs while Android 17 is a good low cost leader)

Being the 4th return of the collab, I think most people have gotten quite a number of rolls from its rare egg machine and the latest new additions aren't worth rolling alone IMO. It's definitely worth rolling if you do not have any gold eggs from it yet or you are a fan of Dragon Ball. Most of the gold eggs are great leaders and a couple of the silver eggs are good subs. With the future Final Fantasy Collab coming inevitably, non-IAP players and Final Fantasy fans should definitely save some stones for that as well.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Hearthstone: TiddlerCelestial's Burst Mage Deck

I've heard about TiddlerCelestial a lot whenever there are Hearthstone tournaments featuring China players. He's definitely one of the top players from China and GosuGamers has an article on his burst Mage deck which has a really interesting strategy; able to switch between offensive and defensive. The decks we normally see are either focused on offensive or entirely defensive (control).

I think there are a lot of different innovative decks from China and Asia and hopefully, we get to see more of them being featured!

Hearthstone: Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Champion Stanislav Cifka on Hearthstone

Yet another Magic: The Gathering professional player that plays Hearthstone. He is also a high-ranked chess player as well! He has an interesting take on Hearthstone in his interview at GosuGamers. His comment on randomness is actually mostly about the mana gain being consistent compared to Magic: The Gathering where you might not draw enough lands for your mana requirements, whereas most people are referring to the randomness nature of the card effects.

He'll be facing of Kolento in the current China vs Europe Season 2 and definitely someone to watch out for. You can check it out in the esl_hearthstone Twitch page.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: How to find out the colour of your present egg for Japan version (Update)

Update: Minpuzz has the wordings for the White Valentine day present egg dungeon (14 March 2015 - 15 March 2015)

There are quite a few present egg dungeons that we get in a year (there is one for Valentine's Day at this time of writing) and here's how to find out about which colour the egg is for the Japan version if you do not understand Japanese.

I will google the dungeon name, for instance, this Valentine's Day is called "バレンタインダンジョン", after the dungeon's opening. I then check out the latest post regarding it, Google results will show how old the pages are.

Minpuzz.com happens to have exactly what we need for this Valentine's Day Present Egg Dungeon:
"

「ハッピーバレンタイン♪」


「素敵なバレンタインを!」


「バレンタイン記念だよ♪」
"

Put those text through Google Translate to find out what each type, the first line above the parenthesis, correspond to. (The type is actually in Chinese too)

Enter the dungeon, move an orb and return it back to the original position so as not to trigger any combos. (This is very important as some players actually try to match something but you don't have to!The present egg will have a 50% chance to flash one of the above words in parenthesis. The other 50% chance is to flash "Wait and See". The behaviour is the same as the English versions, it's just the words that are different.

Match the words to the ones in the parenthesis to find out what color the egg is. If none of the words match, you might have found the wrong dungeon information from Google. For players who want to get a particular color, you can exit the dungeon and retry at the cost of your stamina as long as you don't defeat the egg.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Juggler from Japan's FFCD Collab REM, taking most of the puzzle out of Puzzle & Dragons (Updated with new YouTube Video links)

There is a lot of ongoing discussion about the latest gold egg from the current Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders (FFCD) Collab. The only other time I recall a collab gold egg getting so much attention was Killua from the Hunter X Hunter Collab, being able to clear King of the Gods easily at that time.

I've read that it's a card designed by Square Enix people, hence the "lack of balance" in the leader skill. A 7x multiplier is usually reserved for a leader skill of high difficulty like Ra or Anubis but Juggler only requires 2 combo-s of heart to obtain it which leads to very easy activation with any active skills that creates heart as well as highly flexible teams, focusing on any color, with the option of going row enhance or two-prong heavy. (You can hardly squeeze in a row or two-prong match while activating Ra and Anubis unlike Juggler) It is basically the only leader you need right now to clear most of the content. At a cost of 19, it is even usable for some of the cost-restricted descends as well! (There is some skill required in managing your heart orbs when your active skills are not up in his gameplay though)

The play-style of Juggler is quite similar IMO to the Hero Gods. (...in his reliance on active skills to make hearts) It's a really nice card to have as it makes the game easier but not entirely a definite "must-have" as most egg machines rolls go. A farmable leader like the ultimate evolution Beelzebub is still good enough for clearing most content safely. I'm looking forward to the upcoming FF Collab as I'm a fan of Final Fantasy and with Square Enix probably still involved in the design, we might see another overpowered card there!

Juggler Information & links

Juggler with farmable subs from Puzzle & Dragons sub-Reddit discussion

General discussion of Juggler at Puzzle & Dragons Forum

Juggler scoring 9.5/10 from GameWith. (He's on par with the Hero Gods' score)

Juggler's suggested team page at GameWith and his own page contains 2 more team builds

*New* Ultimate Devil Rush! with no Gold eggs team subs and Ultimate Hera Rush! with no Gold eggs team subs YouTube videos by 黒雪姫のきままにパズドラ (Stats and skill levels are shown at the start of the video very quickly... Jugglers are +297, Black Fairy is +297 for Devil Rush but impressive nevertheless! Interestingly, the Drawn Joker was not evolved and I wonder if it is to avoid blue binds.)

To find Juggler videos on YouTube, just search for '曲芸士PT'. *New* To find 'no Gold eggs' team subs, use the term '無課金'.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain next Adventure Expansion next month

Source: us.battle.net

Time to start saving your gold if you don't plan to spend money on the game! For the previous Adventure Expansion, it was worth it to buy with money instead of gold and it looks to be the same this time round. The first wing will not be free for Blackrock Mountain unlike Naxxramas and if you are buying with money, there is a pre-order choice where you can get an exclusive cardback.

Naxxramas featured quite a few staples, from Haunted Creeper to Loatheb, that are used in a lot of decks so I'm guessing you can expect the same for this upcoming expansion. There's probably no skipping if you want to compete competitively for Hearthstone.