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[blueblimp]

The next expansion of Hearthstone will introduce a PvE deck-building mode called Dungeon Run. (Oddly, I can't find an official announcement to link, but there's been plenty of third-party coverage over the past few days.)

I assume Peter Whalen (of Dream Quest fame) was involved. I'm looking forward to trying it, although the demo makes it look like every run starts with a few boringly easy bosses, so that's not great.

[popsofctown]

PvE arena? Uh, no thanks.

[blueblimp]

PvE arena? Uh, no thanks.

The deck-building mechanic is entirely different from arena. You're offered dungeon-run-specific effects, dungeon-run-specific cards, and bundles of ordinary cards as you progress through the run.

IDK if it will have any lasting value as a mode, but it's something quite distinct from the other modes they've done.

[popsofctown]

How is that different? Here are three things, pick one of the three things to modify your deck and prepare you for a random set of possible foes (random bosses instead of random classes played by humans)

It's about as different as when a new set releases, we're now offered Knights of the Frozen Throne specific cards in arena now.  If you want me to count Dungeon Run as a new expansion, sure, it's that.  But it's not sealed or something.

I don't know how I'm supposed to be extra excited about the cards that cost 0 mana and start in your hand.  Nonccg RPG elements in the ccg game, sure.

I'll play this, though.  It's a new expansion.  It's just one I have to play against AI which is likely to be less fun.  I expect I'll get less out of it than Halloween.

[markusin]

How is that different? Here are three things, pick one of the three things to modify your deck and prepare you for a random set of possible foes (random bosses instead of random classes played by humans)

It's about as different as when a new set releases, we're now offered Knights of the Frozen Throne specific cards in arena now.  If you want me to count Dungeon Run as a new expansion, sure, it's that.  But it's not sealed or something.

I don't know how I'm supposed to be extra excited about the cards that cost 0 mana and start in your hand.  Nonccg RPG elements in the ccg game, sure.

I'll play this, though.  It's a new expansion.  It's just one I have to play against AI which is likely to be less fun.  I expect I'll get less out of it than Halloween.

I wish I played more Halloween arena.

At the end of the day, it's still single player (against presumably a lousy AI). I have several other things I could be doing with my limited time, like play a game built around single player (e.g. a first person shooter) or play some games of Dominion against the bot.

I will try it though. It's a way to get some possibly fun Hearthstone action without having to get the newest cards.

[sitnaltax]

As a Dream Quest fan, this mode is really good (and obviously inspired heavily by Dream Quest). Only the first fight (opponent starts with 10 HP, you have 15) is easy or pro forma. From there you're quickly adding game-breaking powers to your deck while to counter the ever more ludicrous bosses you encounter.

The worst part is running into a brick-wall boss, one that happens to counter your specific deck. There's not much you can do about that other than to try again, since even a longish run is short.

In about 12 runs I've won once and made it to the last boss two other times, so it's a little easier than DQ.

[ashersky]

Not knowing Dream Quest at all, I generally like the mode.  The final boss is significantly harder than the rest every time so far.

[popsofctown]

I did it on like my sixth.  I was immediately successful when I resolved to do the heroes in eastern reading order instead of English reading order, because Garrosh sucks as much as he does in the other limited format.

[markusin]

I did it on like my sixth.  I was immediately successful when I resolved to do the heroes in eastern reading order instead of English reading order, because Garrosh sucks as much as he does in the other limited format.

I did Garish first as I don't have him at level 60 yet. I think I beat 60 bosses with Garrosh before beating the final boss with perma-stealth pirates.

This is a pretty cool mode. There are a lot of surprises so I shouldn't spoil anything. I've completed Dungeon run with 5 heroes so far. I'm trying to beat it with Hunter now. The Hero power upgrade ability is pretty darn good on Rexxar and can turn up after the first win, but it's significantly less useful against the final boss than it is against like everyone else. Plus the final boss has like an answer for everything.

It also seems to me like certain heroes attract certain bosses. That or it's the decks that attract the bosses.

[Galzria]

I've enjoyed it thusfar.

I've run 5 of them:

Hunter - Lost to boss 8
Hunter - Lost tu boss 6
Hunter - Lost to boss 7

Shaman - Lost to boss 8

Mage - Won

My fear is that, like most solo adventures, it'll quickly grow stale after beating each class. Is there incentive outside neat mechanics to keep playing?

[Drab Emordnilap]

Man, that evolve guy. He seems way harder than his depth would normally account for.

[markusin]

Man, that evolve guy. He seems way harder than his depth would normally account for.

Yeah I hate that guy. Lucked out once as a hunter to pull a win against him, but I had the Justicar Hunter Hero power there and the boss made some horrible misplay.

[Galzria]

Man, that evolve guy. He seems way harder than his depth would normally account for.

Yeah I hate that guy. Lucked out once as a hunter to pull a win against him, but I had the Justicar Hunter Hero power there and the boss made some horrible misplay.

The AI is definitely not the best. Had an opponent hit a minion with a 33/1 weapon to clear my board when I had 34 and he had 42. Went on to win easily.

[popsofctown]

I had the Rogue Quest boss get a major logic error and refuse to do anything at all on a turn that he had 7 5/5's against 2 fresh bilefin hunters.  He probably couldn't play a minion and has an AI error where that makes him freak out.

It was going to be really interesting whether I drew into a way to deal 8 damage to him, but then I just got it for free.

[Watno]

5 cost giants are pretty good.

[Galzria]

Completed Paladin on my second run.

Puts me at:

Hunter: 4 runs: 8/6/7/8, no win
Shaman: 1 run: 8, no win
Paladin: 2 runs: 6/8, win
Mage: 1 run: 8, win

I suck so much at Rogue though. I'm dreading running that class.

I'm having trouble with Hunter which is usually my best class. The +1/+1 bonus is amazing, but beyond that I haven't found anything that I'm crazy about.

[Galzria]

Beat Rogue on first run. :-/

Ran Jade Rogue with double Deathrattle. I got the card burn boss for round 8, but was still able to get my Jades up to 8/8, despite burning more than half my Jade cards.

[popsofctown]

Beat Rogue on first run. :-/

Ran Jade Rogue with double Deathrattle. I got the card burn boss for round 8, but was still able to get my Jades up to 8/8, despite burning more than half my Jade cards.

I beat him even though I was warlock and tapped a ton.

He's probably the weakest final boss.  He just plays regular ass cards you'd see in arena and gets the equivalent of a zero mana Sinister Strike in his starting hand.

[Galzria]

Beat Rogue on first run. :-/

Ran Jade Rogue with double Deathrattle. I got the card burn boss for round 8, but was still able to get my Jades up to 8/8, despite burning more than half my Jade cards.

I beat him even though I was warlock and tapped a ton.

He's probably the weakest final boss.  He just plays regular ass cards you'd see in arena and gets the equivalent of a zero mana Sinister Strike in his starting hand.

The boss I seem to have the most trouble with is the Priest running treasure chests. I took him as Mage by blasting face past him, but anything that's required board control has me struggling.

[markusin]

Beat Rogue on first run. :-/

Ran Jade Rogue with double Deathrattle. I got the card burn boss for round 8, but was still able to get my Jades up to 8/8, despite burning more than half my Jade cards.

Same thing, but double Battlecry with several copies of Jade Spirit and Aya Blackpaw. The guy plays Dooooom! (Or whatever it's called), but then you drop some 9/9 and 10/10 jades.

[markusin]

Beat Rogue on first run. :-/

Ran Jade Rogue with double Deathrattle. I got the card burn boss for round 8, but was still able to get my Jades up to 8/8, despite burning more than half my Jade cards.

I beat him even though I was warlock and tapped a ton.

He's probably the weakest final boss.  He just plays regular ass cards you'd see in arena and gets the equivalent of a zero mana Sinister Strike in his starting hand.

The boss I seem to have the most trouble with is the Priest running treasure chests. I took him as Mage by blasting face past him, but anything that's required board control has me struggling.

This is the only boss of the five final bosses I faced that I have yet to beat.

[Watno]

Got all 9 classes done.

[markusin]

Got all 9 classes done.

I finally got all nine classes done as well. Class that required the most bosses defeated to finally clear was Hunter. Easiest final boss to beat has to be Azari the mill demon boss (I still have never beaten the dragon).

Coolest deck that got a clear was my Mage deck that had lots of board clears and burn with the +3 spell damage artifact. The last boss for that Mage was The Darkness where I had to play a messed up minigame to summon Water Elementals while the boss was dying to fatigue edit: with Frost Lich Jaina.

[ashersky]

I must not be very good at this game.  I’ve yet to clear any.

I generally always make it to the final, and then just get stomped.  My best try so far lost quickly to the treasure guy who gets free awesome cards every turn via hero power.  I played the fill your board with legendaries with an empty board?  He counters with the silence then destroy all enemy minions card.  The whole fight was like that.

Sometimes the buffs you draw just don’t line up through the run, that’s fine.  But these final bosses have generally just been too tough for me.

[markusin]

I must not be very good at this game.  I’ve yet to clear any.

I generally always make it to the final, and then just get stomped.  My best try so far lost quickly to the treasure guy who gets free awesome cards every turn via hero power.  I played the fill your board with legendaries with an empty board?  He counters with the silence then destroy all enemy minions card.  The whole fight was like that.

Sometimes the buffs you draw just don’t line up through the run, that’s fine.  But these final bosses have generally just been too tough for me.

You kinda have to hope that you face off against a final boss that doesn't completely counter your deck. That Kobold boss seems kinda BS based on clips I have seen. You can't really play around him much. Oddly enough, he was the first final boss I defeated, as a Warrior with Stealthed +1/+1 pirates.

Apparently, you get a super ez-mode OP weapon if you manage to assemble Quel'delar by getting both the 1 mana 3/3 weapon and the 1 mana +3/+3 buff. I don't know what the odds on getting that is, so I wouldn't recommend it.

One thing I do find cool about Dungeon run is that each clear feels like a story. Also, most of the bosses stick only use collectible cards outside of hero powers, including some of the final bosses I think. There's this weird handbuff sludge boss that has non-collectible cards which compare to the unfairness of some adventure boss cards of old.

[blueblimp]

Of my 17 runs so far, 5 are wins, and 5 are losses to Candlebeard. That guy's OP, I swear.

[markusin]

Of my 17 runs so far, 5 are wins, and 5 are losses to Candlebeard. That guy's OP, I swear.

He beats me when I have perma-stealth, then says "hoisted by your own petard" or something as a taunt. I strongly suspect that was intentional. Though, he's only tough when you encounter him as the 6th or 7th boss I find.

Edit: Candlebeard is the guy that gives his minions Charge as a hero power.

You can fight that evolve guy as the 6th or 7th boss, where his hero power costs 1 mana and upgrades a minion by 3 mana. Somehow it ends up being easier than when you encounter him earlier, where his hero power costs 0 mana and upgrades a minion by 1 mana. What makes that guy unfair is that he can curve out perfectly and use the hero power to play around his negative deathrattles and understatted battlecry minions. When his hero power costs 1 mana, he just misplays horribly by dropping stuff on curve without synergy e.g. playing Doppelgangster when he only has 5 mana or playing Dalaran Aspirant (Druid 2/3 Ramp minion) when he only has 2 mana.

[Lekkit]

Canlebeard and that silly end boss dragon is what usually gets me. Not a fan of those two bosses. Managed to beat it with all classes yesterday. Priest took like... 100 tries or something.

[ashersky]

I finally won — got the dragon.

[popsofctown]

Wow, priest was my one and done run.

I think the foe matters than your side. 

[Drab Emordnilap]

I don't think I've lost to candlebeard yet. I also don't think I'm beaten the evolve guy yet. Does someone want to trade with me?

[popsofctown]

No, because your runs take slightly longer I'd guess

[Galzria]

I cannot beat Priest. Over 80 bosses faced.

[popsofctown]

I won by getting the Double your Battlecries boon and drafting Cthun.

[Galzria]

I won by getting the Double your Battlecries boon and drafting Cthun.

I've attempted that on two of my runs to this point with no success. 

[markusin]

My successful Priest run was a messy highlander deck with Reno/Kazakus where I had the artifact that makes no minions cost more than 5 and this 1-mana weapon that gives you a random Mage spell every turn. Managed to eke out a win against the demon mill final boss who wasted Doooom! on a single minion and played Mal'ghanis into the Frozen Clone secret (gained from the Mage spell weapon).

So uh, I can't really give you much advice.

[blueblimp]

Rogue is giving me issues. I don't know if I'm playing the class wrong or just getting unlucky.

My current status:

Completed:

Hunter: 1 run
Shaman: 1 run
Warlock: 1 run
Druid: 2 runs
Paladin: 2 runs
Priest: 3 runs
Mage: 4 runs

Unfinished:

Warrior: 3 runs
Rogue: 9 runs

[Haddock]

Turns out getting +1/+1 minions and the upgraded Paladin hero power that costs 1 is just TOTALLY broken.

After that I beat every remaining boss with less than 5 damage taken.

[blueblimp]

I finished my remaining classes then played more runs until seeing all the rare bosses, then some more with some tips from a guide to see if I can up my win rate. My all-time win rate is 30.7%, which apparently is terrible. Strong players win almost every run: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/7i3bbq/twitch_30000_dungeon_run_challenge_announcement/. Dunno why I'm so bad at it. Might be that I didn't quite realize that when you pick a package once, it greatly increases the chances to see that package again. Since some of the packages are way better than others, you can help yourself out by making early picks that promote being offered good picks later. It also seems to be important to anticipate certain bosses as you build your deck.

Overall I found dungeon run to be a fun mode. It falls into the genre of tactical encounters held together by a strategic glue (e.g. X-Com, FTL), and for me, whether such a game is fun depends on how interesting the tactical encounters are. Blizzard must have done a lot of play-testing and tuning, because the boss encounters managed to be non-trivial yet usually winnable, which is hard to do. The places where this didn't quite work out (mostly King Togwaggle) just highlight how well most of the bosses are designed.

Strategically, I apparently missed the point in several ways, but still enjoyed it. It seems as though at a high-level you're a bit railroaded into certain approaches, because many packages are terrible, and to avoid getting hard countered by certain bosses (such as Gutmook). Even so, it's still more flexible than arena deck-building.

[LibraryAdventurer]

Anyone know why there's a quest for Dungeon Run but not Monster Hunt? Monster hunt was more fun.

[markusin]

Anyone know why there's a quest for Dungeon Run but not Monster Hunt? Monster hunt was more fun.

There are in fact daily quests for Monster Hunt. I've gotten more of the Monster Hunter quests than Dungeon Run quests. Maybe you are just unlucky.

I really like the Cannoneer/Warrior run, but none of the others excite me.

Man, after seeing the Taverns of Time quests, the usual daily quests feel so tedious to complete. There are some classes I don't want to play at all anymore, like Shaman and Priest.