HearthStone Strategy Guide – Taunts, Tips and Damage Spells

This is our third HearthStone Strategy Guide that we’re putting together with helpful hits, tips and techniques that we pick up as we play. In our first guide we went through the initial options of the game and our first impression. In our second guide we briefly looked at the Heroes and how to choose one, what Deck types there are, and some strategic tips on actual in-game skills.

Today we’ll be mentioning some valuable tips we picked up on actual playing strategies. If you have not played HearthStone yet then these probably won’t make too much sense:

1. The more you play the better you get

We mentioned this before, but we cannot stress it enough. With HearthStone you have to simply jump in there and compete against other players. The number one way to become better is to play a lot. In doing this you will:

• Learn how your Deck works  for you
• Learn which card combinations work and which doesn’t
• Learn how the other Heroes work, what their strengths and weaknesses are.

2. Taunt Minions are very important

Let’s talk defence. Certain minions have an ability called Taunt. This means you cannot attack your opponents hero with your own minions until you have destroyed his Taunt minion. Naturally this makes any minion with Taunt a valuable damage blocker, or like a font-line defender you have to get through before you can get to the quarterback. There are various situations in-game that may call for extreme measures, so what we mention below may not always the de facto standard. but they have definitely helped us improve :

• Resist the temptation to cast all your taunts that you have in your hand onto the battlefield in one or two rounds. If you have spares, always keep one Taunt minion in your hand for an emergency. There’s nothing worse that praying you draw a Taunt on your next turn.
• Don’t use your Taunt minions to attack normal minions. The whole point of casting a Taunt minion is to defend. Not attack (Except if your enemy has no minions and you can attack his Hero). So if you deal damage to your Taunt by simply trying to get rid of an enemy minion, you are effectively weakening your defences come your opponent’s next turn.
• Depending on your opponents strategy, focus on buffing your Taunt minions. If your opponent relies heavily on using minions and not spells: focus your spells that increase health on your Taunt minions. This is a very frustrating defensive strategy. If your opponent uses spells and more direct Hero damage: You can put less focus on your Taunt minions and use your buff spells on your own minions.

 3. Direct Damage Spells

An ability spell is a spell that, when used correctly can sway the outcome of the battle to your side. Such a spell can have various effects. From drawing extra cards, dealing direct damage, restoring damage, buffing units, etc. When we look at direct direct damage spells only, there’s often a question on when is the best time to use such a card.

A direct damage spell is a spell that causes direct damage to the Hero or minion. Like these cards below:

I’ve seen players whip these cards out at the beginning of the game, which I think is really pointless. The best way to use such a card is at the end of the game. Use these spell cards as the final blow, the ‘coup de grace’ if you will. Calculate the damage you can inflict with your minions, add  the damage of the direct damage spell card and check if that is enough to kill your enemy. Using these cards this way comes very unexpectedly when your opponent still has lots of health left. This is the last thing he will suspect.

We hope these tips come in helpful when you play. We’ll be expanding our HearthStone Strategy Guide as we continue playing. See you on the battlefield!

Let us know in the comments if they work for you.

If you’ve  been following us here at GeekShizzle then you would know that we are completely addicted to HearthStone. We’ve been playing non-stop and have even started putting together some handy tutorials. Have a look and learn:

1. In our first guide we went through the initial options of the game and our first impression.
2. In our second guide we briefly looked at the Heroes and how to choose one, what Deck types there are, and some strategic tips on actual in-game skills.
3. In our third guide we looked at how important Taunt cards are and how to use them, as well as the best possible times to use direct spells.