Guild Wars 2 - What profession (Class) should I play? [2018] & Every Elite Specialization Explained by Kyosika

Guild Wars 2 - What profession (Class) should I play? [2018] & Every Elite Specialization Explained!

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What profession should you play (next) in Guild Wars 2? Well, look no further! I got you covered. In this video I explain every class, "profession" as they call it in game, and their elite specializations in about 1-2 minutes! This guide is completely up to date for 2018. That means that the elite speicializations of Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire are included in this video. So, before you get any of the expansions you can see some gameplay of the professions and their elite specializations in my video. In this video I'm going to cover the following points: • Help you choose what profession should you play • The Elite Specializations for Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire • My personal Guild Wars 2 profession tier list in 2018 (beginning of the video) • Gameplay for each of the professions in Guild Wars 2 • Provide a short guide, explanation and overview for each profession A shorte note, keep in mind that your race (Human, Asura, Charr, Norn or Sylvari) don't matter when choosing your profession. The races don't have any supriority over others. Just choose the one that appeals to you! As always, if you have any questions during or after the video, you can put them in the comments! Timestamps for the professions and elite specializations: 1:00 - My personal Guild Wars 2 profession tier list and their difficulty 2:00 - The Warrior - Berserker and Spellbreaker 3:20 - The Guardian - Dragonhunter and Firebrand 5:20 - The Revenant - Herald and Renegade 6:40 - The Ranger - Druid and Soulbeast 8:10 - The Thief - Daredevil and Deadeye 9:50 - The Engineer- Scrapper and Holosmith 11:40 - The Necromancer - Reaper and Scourge 14:00 - The Elementalist - Tempest and Weaver 16:15 - The Mesmer - Chronomancer and Mirage Thanks for watching! For more: Subscribe: ►https://www.youtube.com/kyosika Twitch ► https://www.twitch.tv/kyosika Twitter ► https://twitter.com/TheKyosika

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World of Warcraft - Class Breakdown for New Players by AMG_Crusade

Hey all!

I have seen a number of posts over the last few weeks from new players that are confused on classes and specs. I have written a guide that might help you in picking a new class.

I have not written one of these before, so if you don't understand something please ask.

Also, to the seasoned players, if I have missed something or have not done your class/spec justice, please let me know. I am all for bettering this post to make it as accurate as possible:

Firstly, there are 4 types of character roles:

• Tank – A Tank generally leads the raids or dungeons. Classically do low damage, but have very high armour and survivability. The tank must hold the bosses attention and be hit by the bosses attacks, using his skills to take reduced damage, so that the damage dealers of the group can damage the boss in turn. If the tank dies, the group dies very quickly afterwards.
• Healer – Generally do not do any damage when in group, and can lead the dungeon as often as Tanks. They use spells and abilities to keep their groups alive against enemies. The tanks have abilities to reduce incoming damage, but ultimately the healer keeps them alive and makes sure the rest of the group is alive to do damage. Similarly to a good tank, a good healer makes a dungeon or raid much easier.
• Range Damage Dealer – Deals damage to the enemies via ranged spells, guns, thrown traps etc. Generally have to be more conscious of boss mechanics that specifically target range, and need to be able to relocate to a safer place to stand while casting at a moment’s notice. What makes one range better than the other is when a player is skilled enough to know how to move while maintaining their damage output, rather than stopping completely while moving.
• Melee Damage Dealer – Deals damage at a closer range. Generally have to focus on staying behind targets when in a group to prevent being parried, while also needing to remain as mobile as possible to dodge boss AOE damage.

Important to note on the above – All classes have different specs (IE Mage can be Fire based, Arcane based or Frost based) Some of these alternate specs allow different roles to the player. (EG A Paladin can be a tank, a healer or a Melee DPS Dealer) When picking your class, it is worth considering if you ever want to try one of these roles. Also note ALL classes have a DPS option for when you play alone. Tanks and Healers are generally in higher demand than damage dealing classes.
DPS is the abbreviation for a damage dealer (Damage Per Second)
AOE is the abbreviation for Area of Effect, and refers to damage that affects all targets in a specific area, like a broad swing of a sword that hits many targets

ONE – Do you want to be:

• Melee DPS that maybe wants to try Tanking one day? Go to 1
• Melee DPS that maybe wants to try Healing one day? Go to 2
• Melee DPS that maybe wants to try both Healing and Tanking one day? Go to 3
• Melee DPS and never want to Tank or Heal? Go to 4
• Damage dealer who can go Range or Melee? Go to 5
• Range DPS that maybe wants to try Healing one day? Go to 6
• Range DPS that maybe wants to try Tanking one day? Go to 7
• Range DPS that maybe wants to try both Healing and Tanking one day? Go to 8
• Range DPS and never want to Tank or Heal? Go to 9

1 – Melee with Tank option – Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Warrior
2 – Melee with Healing option – Druid, Monk, Paladin, Shaman
3 – Melee with Both – Druid, Monk, Paladin
4 – Melee Damage dealer only – Rogue
5 – Melee and Range Damage options - Hunter, Shaman, Druid
6 – Range with Healing option – Druid, Priest, Shaman
7 – Range with Tanking option – Druid
8 – Range with Both - Druid
9 – Range only – Mage, Warlock

TWO - Once you have chosen one of the above, read the below class descriptions to see which ones you like the sound of. If your option only has one class in it (eg: Range with Tanking options – Druid), skip to Section THREE.

• Death Knight – Effectively undead, these are the warriors of death and disease. Summon ghouls, grip targets from a distance and pull them towards you, and infect your targets with plagues. Alternatively can embrace the cold chill of death, freezing his enemy and slashing them down with the classic scythe of Death. 1 Tank spec, 2 Melee DPS specs.
• Demon Hunter – Agile and brutal, the demon hunter literally slashes parts of their victims souls off to heal themselves. Able to double jump, and morph into demon form occasionally. Has wings that allow them to glide. 1 Tank spec, 1 Melee spec.
• Druid – The most versatile of all classes, the druid is a warrior of nature itself, able to transform its body and playstyle according to what is demanded in each situation; from a mighty bear, to a stealthy cat, to a lifegiving tree, to an overgrown chicken that can literally throw moons at its enemies. 1 Tank spec, 1 Heal spec, 1 Melee spec, 1 Range spec.
• Hunter – The legend of traps, bows and beasts. The hunter can tame wild beasts found throughout the world to fight for him and with him. Or they can chose to be more of a sniper, with devastating long range attacks. Lastly in this coming expansion, the hunter can now also be melee damage, with a polearm, fighting alongside his pets, hurling traps and caltrops and harpoons at his enemies. 2 Range spec, 1 Melee spec.
• Mage – A master at the classic sorcerous elements. The Mage can become the embodiment of Fire, scorching their enemies and setting them ablaze for bonus burning damage. Or they can embrace the Frost, slowing their enemies movement and commanding a pet made of pure water and ice. Lastly they can draw upon the Arcane, exploding their enemies and bursting impressive build ups of fluctuating power. 3 Range specs
• Monk – Masters of martial arts and the body itself, the monks can use their knowledge of oneself and potent brews to inflict devastating damage, or heal their allies wounds, or harden their skin to take sustained damage. 1 Melee spec, 1 Heal spec, 1 Tank spec.
• Paladin – Righteous, pure and incorruptible, these warriors of the Light use their powerful blessings, holy powers and selfless nature to empower and inspire all those around him. Capable of Melee damage by judging their targets evils, healing through holy presence, or tanking with impressive defensive capabilities. 1 Tank spec, 1 Healing spec, 1 Melee spec.
• Priest – Servant of the Gods, either light or dark, the priest embraces his religious abilities completely, even at his own expense. Powerful heals of pure holy energy, shielding his allies from harm by damaging his enemies, or embracing the darkness, and flaying the minds and souls of those before him. 2 Heal specs, 1 Damage spec.
• Rogue – Masters of the melee combat, the rogue can be the fencing pirate, the brutal assassin, or the master of misdirection and stealth. These agile melee legends can utilise grappling hooks, pistols, poisons and bleeds to bring their enemies down. 3x Melee spec.
• Shaman – The shaman are one with the world, capable of unleashing attacks empowered and encompassing nature itself. Lava, rock, rains and lightning itself bend to his will, while also capable of communing and transforming into spirits themselves to speed their travel and empower their attacks. 1 Range spec, 1 Melee spec, 1 Healing spec
• Warlock – The spell-weavers of death, corruption and demons themselves. Warlocks not only embrace the darkest of magics, but master and enslave others to it as well. Scorch and burn their enemies in fire and chaos, or cast a plethora of damage over time spells to let their enemies life literally drain from them, or summon and command a horde of demons to fight for you. The warlock is a cherished member of a raid team as well, able to summon other players to them from anywhere, as well as provide other with free health potions. 3 Range Specs.
• Warrior – The classic bloodthirsty, furious warriors. There is a reason they are in every Role Playing game. These masters of blades, shields and maces are fuelled by their rage, becoming more dangerous and powerful the longer combat transpires around them. Charge at enemies, or become a spinning vortex of blood and blade, or aim brutally powerful cleaves to mow down foes. 1 Tank spec, 2 Melee specs.

THREE – Spec break down – This section is a brief summary of each of the specs you can play based on the above classes. As stated in section one, keep in mind you can swap between these spec options on your class in game at almost any time (IE – Shaman can swap from Melee damage to a Range damage or Healer at any time)

Death Knight

• Blood – TANK – Surround yourself with the blood and bones of fallen victims to increase survivability.
• Frost – MELEE - Wield 2 Icy blades and become the cold harbinger of death itself, with scythes and icy winds.
• Unholy - MELEE – Summon the undead to do your bidding, infecting your enemies with plagues and diseases which in turn empower your minions.

Demon Hunter

• Havoc – MELEE – Agile masters of melee combat. Transform into Demon Form and wield glaives that tear enemies souls asunder.
• Vengeance - TANK – Harvesters of souls, they empower themselves with sigils, demon form, and by devouring the severed pieces of their enemies spirit.

Druid

• Balance – RANGE – At one with the lunar forces, these spiritual range casters burn their targets with the fires of the Sun and moon.
• Feral – MELEE - Cat form of the druid. They rely on raking their enemies with swipes and slashes of their claws, bleeding their targets before mauling them.
• Guardian - TANK – The mighty Bear, capable of surviving massive incoming damage, while mauling anything that comes within range of its claws.
• Restoration - HEALS – The life-giving tree. The healing form of the druid utilises the world itself, classically using more healing over time spells than brute force healing. This way they can sustain multiple allies with ease.

Hunter

• Beast Master - RANGE – The mighty BM Hunter has powerful pets he commands in battles, and can summon a stampede while he stands clear and fires at his enemies from a distance.
• Marksman - RANGE - Master of the bow, the Marksman usually chooses to forsake their pet companions, preferring more powerful range attacks that pincushion their enemies for terrific damage.
• Survival – MELEE – The new melee class. This time the hunter puts down his rifle, and fights alongside his pet companions, utilising caltrops, traps and harpoons.

Mage

• Arcane – RANGE – Casters who manage their mana and alternates between delivering a high bursts of explosive damage at higher cost, or low damage but efficient spells for sustainable and formidable damage.
• Fire – RANGE - Casts balls of fire at their targets, or make fire explode at their enemies feet. Also causes their targets to catch aflame, burning them for additional damage.
• Frost – RANGE - Attacks that slow and chill their enemies, and also utilise a pet of water to compliment these icy barrages.

Monk

• Brewmaster - TANK - The drunken boxers. These monks are hardened kung-fu masters capable of staggering high damage to effect them gradually rather than in bursts, making them very difficult to kill.
• Mistweaver - HEALS – The mist weavers utilise their knowledge of life and mind to heal their allies. Coupled with the monks natural agility, the healing monks are welcome on any raids. Aesthetically brilliant, commanding healing mists around yourself and allies.
• Windwalker - MELEE – The kung fu masters, the windwalker uses their formidable martial arts skills to swiftly beat down their enemies with a torrent of kicks and punches

Paladin

• Holy – HEALS - Empowered by the light, yet utilising his plate armour, the holy paladin is the holy healer that grows more powerful the closer he is to combat, making him effectively a melee range healer in the thick of the fight.
• Protection - TANK - Few tanks can defend against such raw damage as easily as the paladin. With his plate armour and broad shield, he burns the ground below him with his holy powers, damaging all enemies foolish enough to challenge him.
• Retribution – MELEE – Putting aside the mighty shield, the Ret Pally elects a massive two handed weapons, judging the targets and hammering and slashing them down with the zeal and passion of warrior of the Light.

Priest

• Discipline – HEALS – The Disc Priest is the versatile healer, shielding his allies from damage, and healing them by actually attacking the surrounding enemies… heals friends by harming enemies.
• Holy - HEALS – The holy priest is the brute force healer, capable of massive and sustained heals of raw health in an array of different situations.
• Shadow - RANGE – A priest of the darkness, a Shadow Priest wears away at the target with damage over time effects, slowly losing his own mind until he gives into the insanity, gaining unimaginable power.

Rogue

• Assassination - MELEE – Brutal damage and combat multipliers, the assassination rogue in unparalleled in surprising his targets, bleeding his enemy and utilises poisons with deadly efficiency.
• Outlaw – MELEE – The pirate class. This swashbuckling adventurer wields a rapier and pistol, and is a pirate in all sense of the word, while also inheriting the rogues natural stealth and agility.
• Subtlety - MELEE – The subtlety rogue is a master of stealth, speed and agility, dealing more damage to unsuspecting foes, and capable of stunning and savage burst damage

Shaman

• Elemental - RANGE – Embrace the mastery of the world itself, throwing rock, lava and lightning at enemies, while being empowered by totems.
• Enhancement - MELEE – Bend the powers of the world around your dual wielded weapons, causing lightning to crash down around you and swing with weapons imbued with the ferocity of a storm.
• Restoration - HEALS – Calling upon the worlds rains and waters, the Restoration is capable of powerful healing totems, waterfalls of life, and heals that chain from one ally to the next.

Warlock

• Affliction - RANGE – Underestimate the affliction warlock at your own risk. They will throw spell after spell at you, not dealing much damage initially, but suddenly, your life is ticking away faster and faster and faster. The affliction warlock is capable of putting these damage over time spells on many many targets, making him a legend amongst damage dealers.
• Demonology - RANGE – Why do damage yourself, when you can summon a fleet of demons to damage your enemies for you? The more demons you summon, the more damage you deal.
• Destruction - RANGE - Unlike affliction and demonology, the destruction warlock causes his damage upfront. Chaos and fire are his forte, burning his enemies with cold brutality, becoming stronger the longer he fights.

Warrior

• Arms - MELEE – Cold and calculating, the arms warrior picks his moments to do the most damage possible. Capable of devastating slashes and mighty cleaves, the arms warrior brings purpose to the brutality of the warrior
• Fury – MELEE – Opposite to the massive calculating swings of the arms warrior, the fury warrior instead rages and slashes as hard and fast as he can, sacrificing his own safety in a headlong furious rush to bring his enemies down to pacify his insatiable bloodlust. Can wield a two handed weapon in each hand easily with his massive strength.
• Protection – TANK - The mighty warrior tank. Where other tanks can heal themselves, or stagger the damage, the protection warrior just laughs and chooses to ignore the damage. All that he needs are his rage, his sword and his shield, while somehow encompassing both the bloodlust of Fury, and precision of Arms in a combination of a truly formidable tank.

Hope this helps. Any questions please ask

SOURCE

Hearthstone - New Player & Beginners Guide by sebZeroToHeroes

For some time now, I've seen new players come here and ask again and again about how to get into the game. There are many resources around on the net (including on this subreddit), but didn't find any single one I could easily reference to and that took things step by step in a logical order.
I've thus started writing a blog post to answer this question, and that has been reproduced below.
I'm mainly looking for community advice on how to make this more complete; or more easily understandable, or even fix some mistakes I might have made.

Thanks for your help!

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In Fall 2015, I discovered HearthStone and HearthStone's subreddit. It has been a great source of help and advice at the beginning, and for a few months now I've been trying to give back to the community by helping beginners who had questions about how to get better at the game.
The three questions that were asked over and over were:

• I'm a new player, how do I get into the game? How can I stop sucking and climb over the 18-20 wall? More generally, how can I improve my gameplay?
• What should I do with my gold or real money? Packs? Arena? Adventures? Which ones? What should I do with my dust?
• How do I get better at Arena?

I've also read the advice that many people provided on the subreddit, and wanted to compile what I found the most useful in a quick post for future reference.
It's easy to be overwhelmed at the beginning. There are lots of things in the game, lots of different cards, and the game (or rather, the matchmaking system) is rather unforgiving to new players. So you have to take things step-by-step, accept that at the beginning your card collection will suck, and steadily get better at the game by both improving your gameplay and your card collection.

Get familiar with the game

Get familiar with all the classes by leveling each of them to level 10 first (first against the Innkeeper, then against the Expert Innkeeper, then against other players in Ranked, Standard mode - casual's matchmaking will often pit you against strong players, and Wild makes collection gaps even more difficult to bridge). Even if you don't plan to use them, you need to understand the basic strengths and weaknesses of each class.
I suggest you use no-dust deck like Sheng's 0-dust decks. These decks also come along with detailed guides that explain the cards and how to play them. It will give you a solid basis to attack the game with and be competitive on the first levels of the ladder.
Then play for a while with these basic decks while doing your daily quests and unique quests. These are one-offs that will give you rewards (usually gold or packs) when certain conditions are met.
Also, level one of your classes to level 20 to get access to the Tavern Brawl (and get a free pack every week). This will give you a feel for the game that you can't have otherwise, which will help you a lot going further.
Once you feel you are familiar with the game, it's time to get to the second step: improving your mastery.

Improve your gameplay

It is actually more important to improve your gameplay (your knowledge and skill at how to play the game) than increasing your card collection. At the beginning, you can beat seemingly much stronger decks with simple ones just because you understand the game very well.
To do so, there are 3 things you can do in parallel:

• Read beginner guides and resources. This will give you the basics of strategy and understanding of the game mechanics. For now I'm linking to hearthstoneplayers.com resource (which is pretty good), but I'll add more individual links as time goes on
  • You should start with Trump's Teachings, which does a great job at explaining the basic concepts of the game
• Watch streamers to get a feel of what to do and what not to do. Prefer educational streamers (ie streamers that explain their moves and thought process), like:
  • Trump
  • Kibler (prefer his stream here, as the YouTube channel contains more highlight moments from his stream rather than more traditional gameplay videos)
  • Savjz (prefer his stream here, as he doesn't have that much YouTube content)
  • StrifeCro
  • ThijsNL
  • Dog
  • wowhobbs
  • Kripp
• Once you have an idea of what you should do, time to know if you're doing it right. Record your games and discuss them with other experienced players (trackers like Hearthstone Deck Tracker are the best way, and I wrote a guide if you need more help). You'll get to learn tons about how to play the game, especially since the advice will be directed at your specific mistakes, and not simply generic advice on the net. Zero to Heroes lets you do just that, and here are two examples of games that got reviewed for illustration.

You'll know when you have gotten good enough at the game. You'll be able to predict the moves the streamers will make, and reviewing your games won't reveal any big mistake.
And one last thing: HearthStone is a card game, so with natural RNG. Some cards again add some RNG to the mix. Being a good HS player means learning to play with this in mind. You won't win all your games (you need to accept that most pros win only slightly more than half of their games), but you can play in a way that maximizes your chances.
At this stage, it's time to increase your collection to be able to build competitive decks (this is obviously mostly valid for free-to-play players. If you're willing to spend money to buy packs, getting cards will be a lot easier).

Improve your collection

There are three main ways of improving your collection (I'm not counting the Watch and Learn quest, which gives you a free pack but pops rather rarely, or the Tavern Brawl that is limited to one pack per week):

• Buying packs
• Buying Adventures
• Getting packs from Arena

The article (and this section in particular) is written mainly with f2p in mind, so using gold instead of real money. If you're using real money, Adventures are the best bang for your buck. And in any case, never buy an Arena ticket with real money, it's just not worth it.

Packs

Buying packs is the most obvious way to go by, and what you should start with. Buy 15-20 packs of the Classic expansion, and as much from the latest one (Whispers of the Old Gods). Please note you can earn 13 free WotOG packs by winning some games in Standard, which you should obviously do. This will gradually lets you expand your collection, get to know more cards, and possibly gain access to stronger decks.
Once you're there, you have two possible paths: Arena or Adventures. There is no consensus on which one you should follow, and it mainly depends on whether you have fun in Arena, or if you are looking for specific Adventure cards.

Arena

First, should you play Arena at all? This is still a controversial subject.
My take is that at this point, if you took things step by step and focused on improving your gameplay, you should be able to do decently (~3 wins) in Arena. Which, if you like the format, is enough to justify doing Arena to get your packs.
Otherwise, it can be pretty frustrating, and the time investment may not make it worth it compared to playing ranked for your quests.
So before going into Arena, make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Read a few guides to learn how to draft and how the gameplay is different from constructed, and watch streamers to get a feel for it. Then do a few test runs, and depending on your results decide whether you'd like to go down this route or not.
Being good in Arena will let you pay 150 gold to earn a pack AND other rewards, mostly gold and dust. At some point (it used to be when you have at least 7 wins, but rewards have changed with WotOG and we don't have any clear stats yet), you'll get more gold than your entrance fee, which lets you get a pack for free and do another Arena to continue the chain.
How to achieve this is the subject of a whole post by itself and long hours of sucking at it, but luckily there are plenty of resources available on the net (including an article on this blog).

Adventures

Adventures are pretty straightforward, and lets you play against the AI in predefined scenarios to earn certain specific cards. Two Adventures are part of Standard today: League of Explorers (LoE) and BlackRock Mountain (BRM). It's probably better to start with LoE. You get more cards for cheaper, and the majority of the set contains viable cards, as opposed to BRM which just has a few playable cards for specific decks. You can build a pretty good deck built around the LoE cards, and they're really good for new players.

Understand the cards and build your own decks

The final step, and a difficult one. It's again the subject of a whole article, and again hearthstoneplayers has some interesting resources.

Closing words

Getting into HS is more difficult than it should be. Blizzard has done some nice things to make things easier with WotOG, and I hope this trend will continue in the future.
This said, the HS community is very helpful and will help you get past this initial wall. Set your goals to getting better at the game, and you'll be able to enjoy it from the start.

SOURCE

Heroes of the Storm: A guide for new and experienced LoL/ Dota players by tackles

What makes HotS different?
HotS is centered on 4 aspects. Map objectives, shared experience, hero talents, and teamwork.

Shared Experience: Teams in HotS share the same pool of XP and level as a team. XP can be earned through killing minions, slaying enemy players, and destroying structures.

Talents: Heroes gain access to talents that augment their skills or offer new abilities at level 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 20. Heroes do not start with access to all of their talents. As you play a hero they will level up and gain full access to all of their talents at level 4. Map Objectives: There are 5 maps available to play at the time of this post (and 3 in development). The map is chosen randomly when a game is started (unless you play the Custom Game Mode). Blackheart’s Bay, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shrine, Garden of Terror, and Haunted Mines. Sky Temple expected to be the 6th map introduced. Each map has a unique objective. The overall goal of each map is to destroy enemy structures and finally their core. The maps have added objectives that aid in the overall goal. It is important to remember that in HotS neutral camps, called Mercenaries, will fight for you after you defeat them.

Blackheart’s Bay: The unique objective of this map is to gather coins and turn them in to have the ghost ship bombard the enemy structures. Coins can be gained from chests that spawn (there will be an audio announcement when they appear as well as a mini-map icon), mercenary camps, and neutral mob camps (noted by a purple flag on the mini-map). The first time coins spawn on the map it will take 10 coins to activate the ghost ship. Subsequent turn ins requires 2 additional coins each time (10, 12, 14,…)
Players can be interrupted while attempting to turn in coins, and if a player dies while carrying coins they will drop allowing friendly or enemy players to retrieve them (by walking over them). This is the only map that requires players to turn in the items they gather. On the other maps once you collect an objective item it will not be lost on death.

Curse Hollow: The goal of this map is to disable enemy structures and weakening enemy minions. The map will spawn “tributes”. A team needs capture 3 tributes to curse the enemy team. You do this by clicking on a tribute and channeling it item to receive it. Cursed teams will lose functionality of their turrets and their minions will be reduced to 1hp. It is important to remember that when the announcer indicates a tribute is spawning you have a short window to travel to the location and ready for a team fight. There is not enough notice to recall to base to heal before the tribute will spawn.

Dragon Shrine: This map has two shrines. One located above the center of top lane and the other located below the center of bottom lane. Standing in the indicated area around the shrine allows a team to capture the shrine. When a team successfully controls both shrines one member of that team can use the Dragon Shire located in the center of middle lane. The Dragon has two abilities. The first will allow you to breathe fire leaving behind a DoT AoE that burns enemies that stand in it. The second ability allows you to punt an enemy player away from you. The primary purpose of the Dragon is to damage enemy structures and push lanes. Your team should back you up when you control the Dragon to allow the controller to focus on punting enemies away and damaging structures.

Garden of Terror: When night falls on this map you will want to group up with your team and head to the Terrors. These neutral minions only spawn at night and drop flower bulbs. Collecting 100 bulbs will allow you to grow a Terror. Once you have grown a Terror you must go back to base and briefly channel the creature to take control of it. It is important to note that a grown Terror will not stay in your base indefinitely. After one minute the Terror will wilt and die so make sure someone is recalling to base to control it. Terrors have three abilities. The first places a plant that will cause AoE damage and disable enemy structures. The second will polymorph enemy players in to small plants that can only run away. The third ability will increase your movement speed for 3 seconds.

Haunted Mines: This two lane map has a second tier to it. When the mines open there will be icons that indicate where players enter the mines. Get your team together and enter the mines to kill neutral minions and gather skulls. There are 100 skulls total and when all 100 are collected each team will spawn a Golem. The power of your Golem is dependent on how many skulls you collect. If you manage to collect more than the enemy team your Golem will be more difficult to kill. Remember there are only 100 skulls and you’ll be competing against other the enemy to gather them.

Sky Temple (in development): This map consists of three lanes. Each lane has a temple. When temples become active they can be claimed by a team after the team defeats the temple guardian(s). Once a team controls a temple it will continuously damage enemy structures in that lane for a period of time.

What HotS does not include: HotS has opted to forgo some mechanics seen in other MOBAs. The most noticeable things not included in HotS are gold (currency), itemization, individual XP, and snowballing (carrying).

Gold (currency): Each map has a unique currency to fuel the objectives of each map. These currencies were discussed previously. The only other currency is XP that is shared by team members. Gaining a level advantage can make or break team fights.

Itemization: In HotS characters are customized through talents acquired at levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 20. This design choice simplifies character balancing and removes multi-tier punishments found in other games.

Snowballing: Blizzard chose to focus on encouraging team fights. Good play calls, communication, and teamwork are the best ways to shine in HotS. Without the ability to solo-carry a team players are rewarded for working together and abandoning the traditional solo-que mentality.

Multi-tier Punishment: In other MOBAs teams can fall behind in several ways. Map objectives, currency, items, level, snowballing, vision, and more. Streamlining how many levels a team can be dominated on means that even when you are ahead you must maintain good game play. HotS offers multiple chances for teams to continue maintaining their earned advantage, but over confidence can lead to a great power shift between teams. Players can find a losing game turn around with a few good pushes or well-timed objective skirmishes.

What HotS accentuates: Players often wonder what sets HotS apart from other MOBAs. The design choices of Blizzard have led to a game that encourages teamwork, coordination, timing, and persistence. With opportunity to recover from poor fights and improve over the course of individual games players can turn bad games into victories. The talent system allows players to customize their Hero to aid their team or counter enemy players. Map designs offers variety of game play and shifting meta.

Expected changes: HotS is still in Alpha. Closed Beta will begin January 13th, 2015. No further account wipes are planned. Any cash shop purchases will remain on your account. If an unplanned wipe is deemed necessary Blizzard has refunded previous purchases in the past, this would occur again, but no future wipes are anticipated.

MMR (Matchmaking Rating): Currently this system is lacking due to the small player pool and absence of Ranked play. We should see improved team matching with Closed Beta.

Talents: Blizzard is striving to provide a balanced experience for players. Talents are meant to offer unique upgrades that are meaningful and fun. As the game evolves players can expect to see changes to existing talents or the introduction of new talents.

Maps: 3 additional maps are in development. In-game and Post-game stats: Currently the summary of stats for player damage, healing, xp gain, and other actions is limited. Blizzard has announced their intention to implement improved visualizations for these stats.

Reconnect System: Currently the reconnect system is subpar. Blizzard is aware of the issues with reconnecting and the long time it takes to rejoin a game after a client crash or prolonged disconnect. Blizzard has stated they are working on a new reconnect system, but no ETA has been announced.

Leaver Queue: Closed Beta should bring the addition of the Leaver Queue. Players that frequently quit games will be placed in a separate queue with other players that frequently leave games. Players can earn their way out of this queue by playing games until they are finished. There are no details on how many games are required to escape the Leaver Queue, but once it is released we can expect more details.

Future Heroes: Sylvanas (WoW), Thrall (WoW), and The Lost Vikings (a SNES title) are the three champions announced for release. The next champion is expected to be released with Close Beta, but no confirmation has been given.

HotS Level System: Players level their account and Hero levels in and out of game.

Account level: This is akin to the League of Legends Summoner level. Unlike LoL, in HotS your account level grants rewards. Gold for buying access to heroes, additional F2P heroes, and access to daily quests (which grant bonus gold for purchasing heroes). When Closed Beta launches players will be able to access Draft Mode at level 30 and Ranked-Draft Mode at level 40. Blizzard has stated they would like to add additional rewards for account leveling, but no new details have been made available. The max level is 40.

Hero Level (out of game): Heroes gain XP based on the XP earned in-game. All heroes start at level 1 and can be raised to level 10. Level milestones provide access to different things.

• Level 1: Starting point
• Level 2: Heroic Ability (can be used in game)
• Level 3: Expert Talents (can be used in game)
• Level 4: Advanced Talents (can be used in game)
• Level 5: 500 gold (used to unlock Heroes, mounts, or master skins)
• Level 6: Hero Portrait & Mount Variation (recolor) if hero uses a mount.
• Level 7: Skin Variation (recolor)
• Level 8: Skin Variation (recolor)
• Level 9: Master Portrait & Mount Variation (recolor) if hero uses a mount.
• Level 10: Ability to purchase the heroes Master skin for 10k gold.

Hero Level (in game): In-game teams start at level 1 and level together through a shared XP pool.

For more information check out the /r FAQ Post: http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/wiki/faq

Source: r/hots 

Hearthstone - How to create a viable deck when starting out by robhimself

Going to write a short guide here explaining hidden quests, competitively viable legend decks that you can craft for minimal dust by playing AI, and most importantly, make fun of newer generation gamers who think everything should be handed to them without working for anything.
 
Hidden Quests:
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Quest

• First Blood | Complete a game in Play mode. | 1 Classic Card Pack.
• The Duelist | Play 3 games in Play mode. | 100 Gold.
• Level Up | Get any class to level 10. | 1 Classic Card Pack.
• Crafting Time | Disenchant a card. | 95 arcane dust.
• Enter The Arena | Enter The Arena. | 1 Arena Credit.
• Chicken Dinner | Win 100 games in any mode. | 300 Gold.
• Ready to Go! | Unlock every Hero. | 100 Gold.
• Crushed Them All! | Defeat every Expert AI Hero. | 100 Gold.
• Got the Basics! | Collect every card in the Basic Set. | 100 Gold.
• GvG Event | Log in during event. | 3 GvG packs.
• GvG Event | Log in during event. | 1 Arena Credit.

Level all classes to 10 playing AI. Defeat all expert AI. Once these two objectives are done you will have nearly (or exactly) 100 matches played.

Total: 700g, 2 arena credits, 95 arcane dust, and 5 free packs.

That will on average, be over 1000-1500 free dust that you can use to craft cards.

An important tip; disenchant all of the cards you don't need. Bad rares, bad legendaries, bad epics, etc. You can figure out which cards are worth playing from tournament decklists.

The Decks:
Assuming you want to get legend immediately since the only thing holding you down in the rank 45's is your low card base, the best option would be spending $25 on Naxxramas to get access to all of the top tier cards released in the expansion.

If you want to stay completely F2P, you can grind the gold for Naxx, so I will post some deck lists and tell you what cards to craft for the most optimal decks in the meanwhile.

The two cheapest and most competitively viable decks are Warlock Zoo and Hunter (if you have Naxxramas cards regarding Hunter). Shaman, Mage, and Mech Rogue decks are also very cheap.

These decks are just a starter guide to give you an idea on what cards to craft. You can find alternative deck lists all over the forums, deck lists posted by pros, etc.

Warlock:
Without Naxx/GvG Cards: 1240 Dust
With GvG Cards: 1360 Dust
With Naxx Cards: 1120 Dust
There are several variations of this deck, you can find them all over this subreddit, other forums and tournament decklists if you want to follow them card for card. This is just for guidance. However, all deck variations hover around 1,000-1,500 dust.

Hunter:
With Naxx Cards: 800 Dust
Likewise with Naxx Hunter, several variations. If you have Naxx cards they all fall within the 700-1,000 dust range.

Shaman:
With GvG: 1320 Dust

Mage:
With GvG: 2700 dust

Other Cheap Decks:
There are several decks within the 1,000-2,500 range that constantly reach Legend, search yourself you lazy pleb. But for the lazy: Rogue Mech, Mage Mech, Druid Mech, GvG Shaman, etc.
Tournament Decks
CompetitiveHS
Sticky Threads from /r/Hearthstone
Basic & Naxxramas Deck Guide for All Classes
Hearthstone Intermediate Guide
Beginner's Guide to Consistency and Success in Arena

Source: hearth