F2P Experiment

Hi guys! I just downloaded the game and started playing and browsing in the forums I thought that this experiment would be fun. Apparently getting into the game is kinda hard, due to a steppe learning curve and making a first deck being hard for F2Pers.
So my idea is to make my first steps in the game being guided by more experienced players and see how much can I enjoy the game , while documenting every step in this thread.

Who yat do you guys think about my idea?

From what I read in the forums and seen in the launcher, my initial plan is something like this:
1) Make daily quests using a free deck and some solo games to learn more about the game and earn some gold.
2) Try to find someone to play in the "free deck room" for my first PVP games.
3) Spend that gold in something I can use as trade bait and build a low budget deck
4) Head in to the constructeed format room to play some games.

 

Day 1 - 29/04/14

Starting gold: 0
Final gold: 1316

Activity:
Today I played the tutorial, after that I played 5 of the Faction walkthroughs and the 2 daily quests. Finally I played the "Triple Threat" campaign in normal difficulty.

Thoughts:
I liked the tutorial, it is really clear and presents information in an ordered way. It fulfills its objective perfectly.
I felt that some champions had to many abilities and that some abilities were rather complex, making it very hard to take into account everything I should. Altough, most abilities were writen in a way that was very clear and even though some were complex I could easily understand them.
The PVE experience so far has been very good, im learning the basics of the game playing some fun scenarios.

Day 2 - 30/04/14

Starting gold: 1316
Final gold 1666

Activity:
Just the first daily quest, it was a busy day.

Thoughts:
I used my only free time to play pox, good sign

Day 3 - 01/05/14

Starting gold: 1666
Final gold: 3596

Activity:
Today I played quite a bit, started with the dailies, then moved to do the 1st level of the "crazed beasts" campaign. Soon after that I played my first PVP matches! Against a new player just like me, enriquechargoy, he had a dwarf deck with lots of nora generation, so I knew I had to win fast or be overwhelmed by his forces. In the first match I could rush him rather fast, during the second he was able to mantain his fonts during the early game, making his long term plan work, so I lost. During the third and final match, I was rushing to his font, but he then started to summon a lot of champs, his font was really low on health but he had a clear board advantage, so he rised his avatar/shrine/whatever and started running through the board and hiding it between his champs. I finally won with an alacrity to my only 2 champs alive and an avalanche to the face! Lots of fun, especially that last game
After that I played the "skeezick rebellion" campaign, but I wasnt able to finish it due to a bug, in the last level, I had to kill "The son of vindrax" IIRC, but the only thing my opponent had was an impervious font and an impervios "cantrememberwhat nolan". Finally I lost two matches, one against dammtuss and the other one against curbear. I think I had a big mistake in both matches, first, rushing all my efforts to the fonts in the middle, instead of going first for my fonts and after that to the mid ones and the second one was to kill some powerfull champs in an unefficient way, putting to much effort on it, one was an imp vixen equipped with that arrow eater shield and the second was a talgar ironfist.
Also Dammtuss invited me to join his guild, he was very helpfull and nice, so I joined "What The Firk"
PS: All of this was using the "Laughing peaks" deck.



Thoughts:
I doubt ill be able to play PVE for fun when PVP is SOOOOO much better.
I learned a lot today, especially that the PVP exxperience is completely different to the PVE one.

Day 4 - 02/05/14

Starting gold: 3596
Final gold: 1698

Activity:
Today I played both daily campaign and then some more PVP games, ice lost a lot against some more experienced and better players, but it was worth, cause I learned some more stuff. Ive lost against zoran88 stitched (I LOVE stitched, if I get lucky enough with my pack box, thats the bg im building), fun match, I dumbly thought that my hyaenid feshwrangler shenanigans would be enough to stop a stitched tyrant, I was never so wrong , I clearly still have to develop an ability to see how good champs are and how much effort do I need to take them down, many of the games ive lost were because of that, after that match, zoran88 joined WTF, I must have left a good impression hehe . After that, I played planewalkr, who used KF free deck, I lost horribly, I didnt use my cleansing emerald when he cast that AoE pacifism spell which prevented me from attacking with most of my champs.
Then I played my first 2vs2 match! Its a great way to play and the fact that you can mix up to 4 factions in a single side looks like there are a lot of combinations and combo potential. It was zoran88 and coolronan1 vs. dammtuss and me (all guildies of mine hehe), we lost (again ). After that game I played against curbear, which used a deck that was really bad IMO, a bunch of SL runes which didnt seem to work very well togheter, I won, but im blaming it to his deck, yesterday he destroyed me wth his IS.
This is getting rather long, so think ill do this shorter: Lost against kingjad ST, he clearly outplayed me, I made some mistakes that costed me the game. Then I played against a new player, deathwaffler, I was having some problems with the game and asked to friendly quit, he denied because he wanted the easy win gold. Luckily I was able to play anyways and won. Finally I lost against a SL/UD deck.
Today dammtuss and coolronan1 gave me some SL runes, I havent chosen my faction yet, but they had many spare ones from that faction. I bought my first pack (which didnt contain something interesting, the rare was staff of solstice), and traded with them, I may post the actual list if you guys are interested.

Thoughts:
I think im starting to get along with my hyaenids, to understand what champions are meant to do what and to use my high ammount of debuffs to my advantage.
Ive seen that one of my biggest weaknesses is my problem to meassure champions capabilities in the board.
The game is a lot better being in an active guild, the guys at WTF were very helpfull.
I didnt have any "new player luck" in my pack, which sucks a lot.

Day 5 - 03/05/14

Starting gold: 1698
Final gold: 2398

Today I only played the daily campaigns, because I had some serious internet problems. Not a lot of thoughts taken from this haha.

Day 6 - 04/05/14

Starting gold: 2398
Final gold: 3480

Activity:
Today I started playing against Spieky F2P alt (SpiekyF2P), using the laughing peaks deck against grimlic's legion (walkthrough deck from UD). After losing he recommended me to try that deck, I think that in the hands of a skilled player, the laughing peaks deck would work better, but UDs free deck is rather simple and straightfoward, so I gave it a try and started using it. Just after that I played a match against free20play while being coached by Spieky through skype, it was a fun match, he used a creeper deck, his deployment zone got rather big and he was able to place his champions in the middle of the action, I had some problems with his stealthed champions (theres no detection in grimlic's legion) but was able to get over it with superiority (great tip by spieky), fun match, he surrendered after losing some champions, I think he had a chance to win though.
Just after that I played a 2v2 game with zoran88 vs. tw exotic league guys who I cant remember the IGNs, they both played with a skeezick deck which sinergized perfectly with each other, we were 200% stomped. After our complete failure in 2v2 we decided to play a match against each other, he played tortuns and I kept playing UD, he had a lot of ranged champs, which made my demon shields very powerfull, I had a little advantage due to having a pit demon and a grimlic both equiped with demon shields, but he had those pesky privateer captains deploying mines and artillery markers, which made my offensive rather hard, I used my demolish to get in, but just after that he used a time slip in his pigmy, which killed my grimlic and started contesting my font, after that, everything started to go down and he won the match, fair and square.
After that I played 2 matches against tinypickle, who used an elf deck with some d'elim deck, In the first game I had an advantage in the early game, which I used to win a font fight, but I ended up rather weak and the nora generated by my extra font wasnt enough to match his flamemage of the circle who burnt mimics and saplings created by I cant remember who. So he ended up winning. In the second match I just had no chance

Thoughts:
I can see theres a big gap in difficulty between different decks, ive enjoyed using this UD deck, fairly straightforward and simple, a lot better for a new player than the hyaenids.
Id like to have more unskilled players like me, to play some fairer matches, but I dont actually care losing against more exerienced players, I think that its easier to get better battling better players that myself.

Day 7 - 05/05/14

Starting gold: 3480
Final gold: 4758

Today I started playing against curbears SL, I won the game, but as ive saiid before, that BG isnt very good. After that I played the dailies.
After that I played twice against Heines Leoss. I won the first game, we were playing in a small map and he scryed a lot (lke to 35hp), so I could rush easily. Then we played a second one, in which I lost, I failed to manage his leoss magnate and that dude that makes guys impervious.
Just after that I played against drspocs beasts ST bg, its the best game I played since I started, sooo much fun. So ill explain it with a little more detail:
We played in a big 4 shrines map, we started controlling both of our fonts, he aproached one of mines, as I saw he had lots of ranged champs I used my demon shield on a succubbus, which hold her own rather well, I had a deep elf summoner and played a goblin archer, I could repell his offensive. Meanwhile in the other side of the battle, I started pushing towards his font, in a sort of deffensive way, to force him to give attention to it and to get the font in case I actually lost mine, and stay 2/2 in fonts. In the end, after repelling spocs offensive to my font I started pushing there to, as he had no melee champs and I had an arrow eater charming champ and a long range one. After a couple turns, I was controlling 3 fonts and contesting one, and most of spocs champs where either in that contested font or in his shrine. I had a big tempo advantage, but after a couple turns, I was starting to run out of champs and just kept them going and dying. I tried to use that tempo advantage, but I didnt manage my champs very well, and after some more turns I ran out of champs and apparently he still had some in his runedock (is it called like that? lol), so he apparently noticed that my presure was diminishing and starting to advance. At this point I was rather hopeless and he reletlessly advanced to my shrine. I ended up surrendering, as I had to go, but this is by far the best match I played, also I felt as if I actually had a chance to beat him, and spock is actually an exo league player and I used a starter bg, which made me feel great
Well, this is getting long, so ill do it short:
Played 2 matches against zoran88s viol, won one and lost the second, I wanted to play the third as a tiebreaker, but he had to go (iirc)
In my last match I tested the free skellies bg, and my opponent was using zombies, which was awfull, because everytime he killed one of my little summons one of his not so little ones spawned, it was a long match and he really overwhelmed me in the long run.

From 06/05 to 08/05 I wasnt able to play much as I had to study and do a lot of stuff, I barely made some time to make a couple dailies and some matches, but cant actually remember , I ended up with 5858 gold

day 8(ish) - 09/05/14

Starting gold: 5858
Final gold: 8526

Activity:
Today I played A LOT, started with the 2 dailies and then went to the battlegrounds to play some PVP.
Started playing against a new player just like me, arsebandit. He had a pretty nice IS dwarven deck, he used some serious buffs to take his champs to over 20dmg regularly. But his deck had a major flaw which I used to my advantage, he lacked detection, and my BG has 2 imps and 2 head of osarius. So I could easily contest his fonts while being safe, which gave me a big tempo advantage, I won that match. After that we played another game, which pretty much went in the same road, I sugested him to run some champs with detection but he said that 1x that IS spell that destealthes everything was enough, maybe he was right and had some bad luck.
After that I left the game to do soe other stuff, and when I returned played against a guy with a good stuff IS BG, I cant really remember much about that game, but I won.
Then I started playing a match against Smooooth (cant remember the exact amount of "O" lol), I didnt get any champs in my opening hand, nor during my second turn. He offered to friendly quit, I didnt want to agree, this stuff happens, but my brother needed the computer and I took that opportunity. It was hilarious though, how probable is that?
Once my brother finished with the computer, I played against FWshadow, who was is an old player returning to the game. He played a FF FW stitched BG (<3 stitched), I won that match. After that, we played a second match, in which he used a split stitched BG and I lost. We played a third math, in which he used a FW zombie BG, a game which he also won. After those games we chated some more, I invited him to my guild and he decided to join . He then told me that he would help me out with some runes and gave me one of every non exo stitched :O
Soon after that, I was asking in the guild chat about some advice on what to use in the place of the stitched exos, and zoran88 (the guy ive played some games with and invited to join WTF) told me that he wasnt using his stitched and that he could lend me the ones I was missing. Right now ive got most stitched 2x (well, almost half of them are zorans, but I can use them for a while). After that I used the runes people gave me some days ago (Spieky also gave me 2x mobilization and rares worth like 25k poxbox points) to buy the non champ runes I needed.
The BG I wanted to build is:
http://poxbase.com/#!/deck/cuNCyKCyJcuPcyXcyLciIco4CyMCh-CiUciWs4+sgS2HSns5dsOs4fs1lrTr20e25

I didnt have enough runes to buy those, so I ended up building this:
http://poxbase.com/#!/deck/cuNCyKCyJcuPcyXcyLciIco4CyMCh-CiUciWs4+sgS2ls2mSns5dsOs4fS1lr20

I think this F2P experience is waay out of control, I believe that the community in general is very fiendly and that veteran players are willing to help the new ones. But I dont believe that every player will have the same luck I had, right now ive recieved help from Spieky, Dammtuss, coolronan1, FWshadow and zoran88 (also from another guildy which I cant remember now, if your reading this, im sorry!). Thats a whole lot of people, and now im running a very expensive and (I believe) competitive BG.
Im sorry to let you down guys, but thats how things went out, I met a bunch of really good guys and I dont really want to play with the free decks or make a BG from scratch ignoring the help they gave me.
If you still want to, I can continue posting how I do with my new BG and my first steps into ranked play (not yet haha), but I feel that this experiment lost its essence.

 

Reserverd

 

Reserved

 

If you want to farm gold efficiently - including doing the daylies extremely quickly - there are certain rune combinations you should check out. Time Slip and Solitary Garu are your best friends when it comes to quickly ending a shrine.

 

Post moved from #2:
Nice! I would love if you could make a promise of enduring something like a month, even if you feel like you don't like the game, that would be great.
Is your IGN dreamweaver aswell?

The plan is solid.
You should make the tutorial and the walkthroughs first, then the dailies and then some campaigns, triple threat is a nice one to test decks.
As you learn about the game and the factions you should declare what you get on the packs (only buy extended) and we'll see what can you get with that.

 

Reply to ppost 2:
I really like the game, at least from what ive seen, it seems like made perfectly for me , so I think I can keep that promise.

I just made the tutorial and todays dailies and im doing the walkthroughs right now.
Ooh, and my IGN is also Dreamweaver.

 

I just posted the first report, and got some questions: Ive seen in the market that buying those extended packs is a lot better in a box that individually, but 32k gold is a lot (at least for a new player). so I wanted to know if any of the "public decks", either the ones you get for free with the faction walkthroughs or the ones that cost 1000 gold are good enough to play some PVP games. Maybe I could buyone or two of those and use it/them to get enough gold to buy a box.

 

You have to options: playing with public decks and waiting for a box or buying extended packs (3500) for slightly less revenue than a box, untill you can make your own bg and then farm.
in this post you'll find the public decks:
http://forums.poxnora.com/index.php?threads/ktcaops-beginners-guide.329/#post-4072
"the mirefolk" "laughing peaks" "rat pack" and "rebellious few" are particularly well made IMO, I would go for one of them to play PvP if you want to jump into it really quickly

 

Today I used mostly the "laughing peaks" deck, I like their playstyle, applying lots of negative conditions to my opponents while swarming the field with lots of champs (or at least thats the way I though they were used lol). So I think ill use that deck until I have enough to buy a box, maybe after a couple of days Ill buy the "Rebellious few" deck, which is the other one I like from the list you posted

 

Great to see a new face with such intuition! Welcome to Poxnora

 

I actually just recently made a F2P account myself, feel free to send me a message in game (SPiEkYf2p) if you want some pointers or a practice game or what-have-you.

 

Hey guys, ive been playing some games and got enough gold to buy an extended pack. What do you think I should do? Save until I can buy a box or start buying packs? I fill comfortable enough with the "laughing peaks" deck, so im not in a rush to buy my runes right now, im also considering the "rebellious few" public deck, its just 1k gold for another deck to try out.
How many packs do you think I need to build a good deck (I know it really changes according to what i get, but maybe doing a pessimist aproach and/or an average aproach)? Im not talking about a top 1 deck, just something I can use to play some games and get into ranked play (which is the final goal of my experiment).

 

Saving up to a box is better, but it may be a long time.
You could buy packs untill you can make yourself a bg and then save,

 

Depends on how patient you are. If you think you are able to wait, do so; the return on investment is a good chunk better. You get one pack extra AND one guaranteed exotic. If, however, you want new stuff now, buy packs.

Following a pessimist approach it would take almost forever to build a good deck, because you could get really awful runes. Thus, you should think about making a budget BG. Personally I can bouch for FS being able to get you into exotic league with commons, uncommons and a few rares, and most other factions should be able to build such BG's aswell.

The laughing peaks deck is pretty stuffed with expensive runes, btw, so stick to it for a while. Its a bit unpolished, but not without potential.

 

I just posted "day 3", lots of fun

 

Enjoyed it a lot, keep it up! Its great to see enthusiastic fresh blood when even for a veteran it can be frustrating.

 

Day 4 is up, this reports are getting rather big, I might start making them shorter, avoiding details from some things, so I can have some more space to develop my ideas and what not.

Also, it would be great if you could help me build a budget SL bg.

 

Pacify can't be cleansed!
if you could list the runes you have, I can make you a bg.