Last Updated: June 05, 2015
Note: This is the third part of the Free to Play Journeyman Guide Series. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 first!
No Ten
Majhongg. No, NOT the tile-matching game which goes by the other, lesser-known translation of the word Majhongg; "the busy receptionist". I'm referring to the four player game of skill that is similar to rummy, on which the Japanese black market economy was built in the pre-WWII era. Anyone who enjoys this tile game should learn the Japanese Rules, as by far the most interesting version of the game remains the original. A bit like the first version of, well, everything. And if you haven't watched a sub-titled version of the anime Akagi, well, you really should. In this game there can arise a situation called "No Ten" - "no way to win". This occurs when the only tiles you can draw to complete your hand have already been discarded or used by other players, and you cannot change your hand because any discard from the tiles you have would let someone else win. Some observers translate this into English as: "You're #$@!ed", but your mileage may vary. It occurs in Hearthstone as well:


Routes to Victory









The Final Three Decks
Let's peruse the last 3 decks in my gauntlet before we summarize how everything performed as a whole during the season. Sick children are time sponges, the very opposite of what you want to loot in a Greater Rift, and for my sins I have collected the "bonus" for a completed set of them (aka involuntary insomnia). Therefore the past week or so I've just been doing the bare necessities to complete daily quests, all the while applying cosmetics to hide my zombie pallor. With few packs opened I only added 4 significant cards to my collection: my second Earthen Ring Farseer


































































- When you have Wicked Knife from the hero power, do not attack to the opponent's face unless you have lethal damage or can remake the knife without losing Tempo. Rogue plans to power up the damage of the Knife with Deadly Poison
, Goblin Auto barber, or especially Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
. If you draw the key element but only have 1 durability on your Knife you will rue that wasted attack - especially if the plan is to power it up, attack with it, and then play Blade Flurry
for lethal damage. Whoopsy.
- Relentlessly attack enemy minions with your Wicked Knife if you can kill them. A Rogue player facing several enemy minions is a dead Rogue unless they're all dead by the end of turn. Expect to frequently defend with your face, so pack aspirin in the shape of Earthen Ring Farseer
and Antique Healbot
.
Progression: It performs as expected for a Tempo deck, but gets slightly better results than other heroes using the same strategy because this is what the Rogue does best. But there's only so much one can do with the tools at hand, and there has not been too much progression from the Basic Deck.
Season Results
So how did these decks do last season overall? After all, my goal for the first full season was to reach and stay at rank 15, remember?






The Wall

The Lure of Naxxramas


















Gold
So what is the most efficient manner of getting 2100g before July? Short of being an amazing Arena player there are no short-cuts. But the daily quests have one element that can help. Each day one can reroll any one daily quest. For every quest one can reroll from 40g to 60g we gain 6 wins! So the plan is to complete any quest that offers 60g or more (or the free Classic pack from Watch and Learn), but to reroll any 40g quest. If we "miss" - ie get a different 40g quest - we do not complete that quest that day (get our 6 wins some other way) unless it is unavoidable (kill 40 minions, deal 100 damage, 3 wins any class). The idea is to let it roll over to the next day, so that we get a chance to reroll it again should we get a new quest that is 60g or better. Naturally the 40g quests are more common, so there will come a time when you have three 40g quests, in which case it's best to do only 2 of them to restart the cycle. Typically 68g is the average for the 6 win per day strategy; if rerolling quests can get us 5g more per day we can get the gold we need in a month. Let's do this thing! Oh, note that Total Domination offers 100g for "7 wins in any mode". Note the wording: "any mode" includes games against the AI. This is helpful if you're battling to beat humans that day, even though it means you'll fail to get the 6 wins for 20g daily target. Naturally, the first quest I get on this gold drive is "Watch and Learn". :) I suppose I can put off gold farming until tomorrow.... Well, hello Doomguard
Next Installment
Going forward I'll focus more on individual heroes rather than the 3-at-once approach I've used until now. As it stands you have an appreciation of the strength of my collection and an idea of what I'm playing and why (ie Tempo unless I've got something better). Once I have some Naxx cards I'll take a look at how I could shape the collection to get better use of the new cards, and we might have to abandon the "craft only Legendary minions" rule if we want short term gains. As ever, thanks for your time. Comments and criticisms welcome (and praise - thanks dadezander!). I'd love to hear from fellow FTPers on how they handled, or are handling, the Journeyman stage.SHOW MORE
Last Updated: June 05, 2015
Note: This is the third part of the Free to Play Journeyman Guide Series. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 first!
No Ten
Majhongg. No, NOT the tile-matching game which goes by the other, lesser-known translation of the word Majhongg; "the busy receptionist". I'm referring to the four player game of skill that is similar to rummy, on which the Japanese black market economy was built in the pre-WWII era. Anyone who enjoys this tile game should learn the Japanese Rules, as by far the most interesting version of the game remains the original. A bit like the first version of, well, everything. And if you haven't watched a sub-titled version of the anime Akagi, well, you really should. In this game there can arise a situation called "No Ten" - "no way to win". This occurs when the only tiles you can draw to complete your hand have already been discarded or used by other players, and you cannot change your hand because any discard from the tiles you have would let someone else win. Some observers translate this into English as: "You're #$@!ed", but your mileage may vary. It occurs in Hearthstone as well:


Routes to Victory









The Final Three Decks
Let's peruse the last 3 decks in my gauntlet before we summarize how everything performed as a whole during the season. Sick children are time sponges, the very opposite of what you want to loot in a Greater Rift, and for my sins I have collected the "bonus" for a completed set of them (aka involuntary insomnia). Therefore the past week or so I've just been doing the bare necessities to complete daily quests, all the while applying cosmetics to hide my zombie pallor. With few packs opened I only added 4 significant cards to my collection: my second Earthen Ring Farseer


































































- When you have Wicked Knife from the hero power, do not attack to the opponent's face unless you have lethal damage or can remake the knife without losing Tempo. Rogue plans to power up the damage of the Knife with Deadly Poison
, Goblin Auto barber, or especially Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
. If you draw the key element but only have 1 durability on your Knife you will rue that wasted attack - especially if the plan is to power it up, attack with it, and then play Blade Flurry
for lethal damage. Whoopsy.
- Relentlessly attack enemy minions with your Wicked Knife if you can kill them. A Rogue player facing several enemy minions is a dead Rogue unless they're all dead by the end of turn. Expect to frequently defend with your face, so pack aspirin in the shape of Earthen Ring Farseer
and Antique Healbot
.
Progression: It performs as expected for a Tempo deck, but gets slightly better results than other heroes using the same strategy because this is what the Rogue does best. But there's only so much one can do with the tools at hand, and there has not been too much progression from the Basic Deck.
Season Results
So how did these decks do last season overall? After all, my goal for the first full season was to reach and stay at rank 15, remember?






The Wall

The Lure of Naxxramas


















Gold
So what is the most efficient manner of getting 2100g before July? Short of being an amazing Arena player there are no short-cuts. But the daily quests have one element that can help. Each day one can reroll any one daily quest. For every quest one can reroll from 40g to 60g we gain 6 wins! So the plan is to complete any quest that offers 60g or more (or the free Classic pack from Watch and Learn), but to reroll any 40g quest. If we "miss" - ie get a different 40g quest - we do not complete that quest that day (get our 6 wins some other way) unless it is unavoidable (kill 40 minions, deal 100 damage, 3 wins any class). The idea is to let it roll over to the next day, so that we get a chance to reroll it again should we get a new quest that is 60g or better. Naturally the 40g quests are more common, so there will come a time when you have three 40g quests, in which case it's best to do only 2 of them to restart the cycle. Typically 68g is the average for the 6 win per day strategy; if rerolling quests can get us 5g more per day we can get the gold we need in a month. Let's do this thing! Oh, note that Total Domination offers 100g for "7 wins in any mode". Note the wording: "any mode" includes games against the AI. This is helpful if you're battling to beat humans that day, even though it means you'll fail to get the 6 wins for 20g daily target. Naturally, the first quest I get on this gold drive is "Watch and Learn". :) I suppose I can put off gold farming until tomorrow.... Well, hello Doomguard
Next Installment
Going forward I'll focus more on individual heroes rather than the 3-at-once approach I've used until now. As it stands you have an appreciation of the strength of my collection and an idea of what I'm playing and why (ie Tempo unless I've got something better). Once I have some Naxx cards I'll take a look at how I could shape the collection to get better use of the new cards, and we might have to abandon the "craft only Legendary minions" rule if we want short term gains. As ever, thanks for your time. Comments and criticisms welcome (and praise - thanks dadezander!). I'd love to hear from fellow FTPers on how they handled, or are handling, the Journeyman stage.SHOW MORE
0 COMMENTS
You must log in to leave replies