Hello, all. I believe it may be worthy to finally talk about a growing elephant in the room. Before I begin, I want to address a few things.
First, read until the end. While this may me a more lengthy post, I implore you to read this for yourself before replying “Hearthstone can’t die” as this isn’t what this post is about. This post is comparing the states of these games, and my experiences with them.
And second, I’d like to personally thank Haunter187, a friend who eventually got me to try LoR. And, on top of him being the reason I am able to even make this write-up, more importantly showing me a game I sincerely enjoy very much. So, thank you, Haunter.
Now, to get into it. I have been playing Hearthstone since 2015, and have been regularly paying per expansion since 2017. I, at its core, love this game very much and I’ve seen this game get better. The game is much better than how it was, and how the game is going to continue to get better, even if the meta isn’t a great one. However, little change is made over large periods of time. It took 3 years for duplicate protection on Legendaries, and 6 for triplicate protection.
All while these very small concessions are made, the game gets more expensive at a rapid rate. We have gone from one expansion, and two adventures a year (2015) to three full expansions a year, PLUS an adventure (2019). This is a massive difference. In 2015, you could comfortably get much more than 2800 gold every 4 months, each which covered an entire 4 months worth of cards. You could then focus the rest all on the full expansion.
However, in 2019, you now had to keep up with getting enough gold per 4 months (MAYBE 10k, I’d say average is 6-8k per 4 months playing regularly)but this would never get you anything near a full set. Maybe 5 legendaries with that gold.
Out of 27.
This hike up in price is ridiculous, and the measures Blizzard put to curb this has been flimsy, at best. However, I still happily paid. Not until did I start playing LoR did I realize how disgusting what Blizzard is doing is.
The difference is day and night. I will go from each and every point, broken into the F2P experience and the P2P experience.
The Free To Play Experience Compared
Both games are free to start. However, the differences are immediately noticeable. LoR features a robust tutorial system, which teaches you most of what the game does. This is necessary, due to the high amount of keywords, and high skill ceiling of the game. There are 10-20 tutorials, which grant you experience when completed. I will get into experience soon. However, it is also worth noting going through the very beginning tutorials scores you certain cards, including Champions, which are similar to Hearthtone’s Legendaries.
In Legends of Runeterra, you get rewards for logging in daily for the first seven days, ending in an entire deck. Along the way of these dailies, you get many cards and even a Champion. However, this goes away after a week.
Another very notable thing is being able to pick a region, and level it up. Instead of classes, LoR features 7 regions, and you can make a deck using cards from any two regions. You can pick a certain region to go down, and as you gain XP, you go through it, similar to a battle pass. Each has 25 levels, with each level giving you rewards for leveling up. You can switch them at any time with no penalty.
It is also worth noting for free players, there is no packs. Instead, there is a Wildcard system. You get wildcards from opening chests, which you get from leveling up a region, or possibly from the weekly vault. Wildcards are self explanatory, and can be used to make ay card from their respective rarity.
In addition, you can complete daily quests, which gives a large amount of XP. To further this, your XP also goes towards a weekly vault, which you level up as you gain XP. As it levels up, the rewards increase, which you get for free every Tuesday.
So, you are given very large amounts of rewards, free cards, the ability to get cards from a specific region by going down it, and overall a hefty amount of goodies for just playing the game. And while they of course drop off, they remain strong still, as the weekly vault is likely to give 1 or more Champions, and for reaching legend in Hearthstone, which is once a month, you aren’t given much at all in comparison.
In LoR, decks are of 40 cards, instead of 30. Cards can also be put in 3 times max, including Champions. If you get duplicates of cards you already completely own, you will instead get shards, which is dust. Shards are also gotten through chests, however one Legendary being 3000 shards and getting only 10-20 for a common makes the system on par, if not worse than the dust system.
Hearthstone, on the other hand, gives you a handful of classic packs and a deck to begin with. While the deck is a hefty reward, Hearthstone has a much more expansive (and expensive) collection, which means that deck can mean much less than what LoR gives. In effect, in the long-run F2P players are going to be consistently treated much better than from Hearthstone. A full collection in LoR is a realistic goal, and both games you can get an S-Tier deck in a short amount of time if you tried.
The P2P Experience
TL;DR: Hearthstone is way more expensive.
LoR uses premium currency; coins. Coins can be bought in increments of 5, 10, 20, 35, 50, and 100 USD. At the base, 5$ will get you 475 coins. With these coins, you can buy boards, in-game pet-like guardians, card backs, emotes, boards, or even Wildcards. Champion Wildcards are 300 coins, Epic is 120, Rare is 30, and Common is 10. Putting a price on cards is effective, allowing people to simply make whatever card they prefer. It is also notable there are more cosmetics in shop than Hearthstone ever had.
To compare costs, you would, from a Reddit post (so this number may be vaulty) needing 21000 coins for a full collection, (although with the Vault you can get it for free in around 5 months) which is 200$. 200$ in Hearthstone will get you likely a set and a little more. However, the way LoR’s expansions are, it makes it much, much easier to complete the set with the amount of shards and going through the faction will give you towards it.
For any final points, the F2P, and PP2 experiences of LoR crushes Hearthstone. You are treated like you matter to Riot, at least more than Blizzard does. I feel actively rewarded on a daily basis for logging on and playing a bit to advance my vault or my faction.
Riot is continuously updating the game. In fact, a slew of card buffs and nerfs just went live a few days after announcement, along with a video going live in a few hours detailing what is next for the game. We never get this with Hearthstone, it feels like the devs care much more about their product in comparison.
Now, we arrive at the closing. LoR isn’t perfect. I’m not saying it is. But for anybody who really read this post, you must really care as much as I do about either game.
What’s the point of this post, you ask? That the devs on Team 5 need to WAKE. UP. I implore all of you to go and give LoR a shot. It will grow on you like it did me. Like it did Haunter. Like it did everyone else playing. Go try out to see the rewards Blizzard COULD give us, but don’t.
But now, times are different. LoR is here, and we, WE are the consumers. We must make the competition happen. It will make the devs wake up, to try and keep us as an audience.
Because really? I’m debating staying on LoR with how I’m treated. How it opened by eyes to Blizzard’s needlessly lazy and GREEDY job at keeping us there.
This being said, Hearthstone can’t die. It’s too perfect. It’s charming, it’s simple, it’s effective, fun, and addicting. Hearthstone will not leave, and i’m fine with that. We must all accept this. However,
There is a better option to all of us, now. Trust me, give it a shot. You have the power to push Blizzard in a direction so let’s take it.
And remember, everyone. Competition is always good for consumers.
Now is the best time we will ever have.
