The best way to start building one’s collection

I’ve been playing ESL for exactly three months now. I’m currently sitting at around 80% in-game collection completion (75% real completion, according to this page’s manager) and 8k+ soul gems waiting to be spent in this new season. I’ve only spent money in the 5€/$5 Welcome Pack available in the lower right corner of the in-game menu, which is almost identical to that of Hearthstone and I definitely recommend to acquire if you’re enjoying the game.

You might have already noticed that the game is actually pretty rewarding in terms of cards and gems, so I wouldn’t worry too much on building your collection. The most efficient way to invest your gold, as in HS, is avoiding card packs and playing Arena mode, either Solo or Versus. I’d definitely start with Solo Arena due to being much easier to exploit, and because along the way you’ll have the chance to experiment with different cards and refine your knowledge of the game. Keep in mind, however, that the AI playstyle is quite different from that of real players, so you’ll need to adjust your strategies accordingly.

Once you reach Rank 1 you’ll stop receiving the extra 50 gold Rank-Up reward, so I’d focus on Versus Arena, which IMHO is far more entertaining. An average 4-to-5-win run in VS Arena typically gives you 50-80 gold, 2 card packs and a couple of random rewards (random cards, soul gems or even a third pack), whereas a 7 win run gives you full gold refund, 3 packs and a random reward. As you see, this is the best way to get packs, since on average you end up getting them much cheaper.

Another option that many players exploit is just playing Practice Mode against the AI for soul gems. You earn 15 gems per win in expert difficulty, and that amount stacks up to a daily maximum of 300 gems (20 wins). Personally, I don’t care so much about farming as to even consider wasting my time this way, but according to what I’ve seen in the ESL subreddit most players do so. At least it’s good to know, I guess.

As for the arena, it seems all but one of my opponents were agility/xxx classes with a relatively low curve (i’ve picked my cards in more hearthstone-ish way, with like 30-35% of deck being 4-drops and trying to balance offensive/defensive stats) and killed me pretty fast. 3 out of 6 were also lucky to pick that support which gives all creatures pilfer +1/+1.

So i guess assassin in versus arena here is the op class, like that Jaina in hearthstone…

I used to play HS too, but the RNG meta made me quit the game even before I knew about ESL and the hardest part for me to get was the lane control and rune breaking. Since I mostrly played zoo in HS I got the hang of controlling the lane pretty quickly but rune breaking is so context-dependant that it is hard to do right.

Leveling Up and getting the 3-win bonuses make it very easy to build a solid collection even if you are not farming gems. You also get 2 free legendaries according to your chosen race, check this guide out for more info on that.

As for VS Arena strategies… Well, I learned on my way, but blue and green are definitely the best colors to choose, because there are many valuable common and rare cards, as well as powerful prophecies. Yellow is also quite good in my opinion, due to Piercing Javelin being common. My favorite choices are Assassin, Mage, Scout and Sorcerer, and if possible I try to build a deck containing about 6-to-8 [2](or lower), [3] and [4] picks, and 4-to-6 [5] and [6+] picks. The math doesn’t always work, but the curve should definitely peak at 2-4 magicka.

My advice is exactly what DarkVaati said! Solo Arena –> Versus Arena –> constructed. Try to craft as few cards as possible (it is very hard to resist) and if any, craft only legendaries (this is very hard too since there are a lot of must-have epics), because you may get the missing cards while grinding.

But the most important rule: have fun and enjoy the game!