Hearthstone Open Beta is Open!

The long-awaited Hearthstone beta has been opened up to the public. (as of 1/21 at 5:00 PM eastern).

Hoo-ray! (photo found here)

Short version: click here to start. (http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/)

Longer version:

1. download the game
2. poke around play the tutorials
3. play the AI for a while to unlock all nine characters, beat them all in expert AI mode too
4. level each of your heroes to level 10 against the AI (or in casual play mode, but this is harder when you don't have all the cards unlocked)

Doing all that should unlock all your cards and provide you with a bunch of gold. Now you are ready to venture into the arena and get decent value out of your first free arena ticket and all the ones you can enter with the gold you earned.

Do not buy packs with gold! That is what arena is for. Every arena you enter costs 150 gold, whereas a pack only costs 100 gold, but you get experience with all the cards, the chance to win more gold, plus best of all more Hearthstone, which is what we are all after right?

For more information about arena strategy, check out some of our older posts, especially this one: Successful Paladin Decks - Hearthstone Arena

Hit me up with your gamer tag in game, mine is caruthers #1880. Maybe we can play a match sometime, but unlikely, since I'll probably be in the arena.

I'm ready for battle!