Imo one of the first things players should look at if they want an online resource is https://masteringruneterra.com. It gives you a good insight on the meta and gives a general sense of direction for what is strong and what isn't. I can't find any up to date resources for beginner's but there are a couple on https://runeterraccg.com/beginners-guides/ that might be worth looking at.
Card collection:
Honestly, this game gives you a lot of cards pretty quickly just from playing. You should be able to get a meta deck within a week or two. If you're wondering which cards you should be aiming for. Just pick a deck to aim for and look at the highest cost cards that you haven't gotten yet and go for that region. You can try to maximize your XP gain by playing Path of Champions but if it's not your cup of tea then feel free to skip it, it's not a necessity. Getting cards in this game should not be a worry.
Also, the strongest cards in this game are often cheap as hell. Outside of champions, the rares and epics make up a good chunk of the strongest cards in this card. The epics card pool are 80% worthless cards that's not worth trying to go for.
Meta decks or general deckbuilding:
There are a lot of sites online that can show you the meta decks to netdeck from. However, the easiest and fastest way to get some is just by going through the leaderboards and looking at the decks those players are using. This is generally the best way to get a good deck even if they're not the best for newer inexperienced players. I don't suggest crafting them immediately if you're unsure what the deck is, but it should be a good direction to look at.
I think it's a pretty neat mechanic, specifically because it's thematic of what blacksmiths would do. Buff one equipment to oblivion and use it to win the game. It turns cards like Demacian Steel into something that can be potentially useful by having a cheap equipment buffed and attaching it onto an overwhelm unit or something else.
That depends on your definition. I know that Raphterra climbed to Masters with Maokai Bard Undying. That's a deck that was popular for a short while only because TealRed popularized it and he made adjustments to it before people tried playing it and realizing it had pretty horrendous winrates.
Damn why is Catch! so much better than Radiant Strike lmao. Not only does it do something else other than +1/+1, it's also technically in three regions (if you want to count Weaponmaster as one).
I've faced that deck like twice now. It's usually an easy tell whenever someone is Draven SI. This combo isn't good because it's a 4 card combo (you need to give +1 Power to Eternal Dancers as well and most of the time it's Draven's Spinning Axe) and if it misses that turn, it's unlikely they can do it again and that deck doesn't have any other wincons.
I do however think that it's weird why they didn't give the same restrictions for Kalista even though the 2 cards are pretty similar in terms of what they do.
I feel like Eternal Dancers is just simply a lot more abusable than any other card in the game as of right now. The fact that it does not contain "the first time" like Kalista and also the fact that it can also resummon Champions while Kalista have those restrictions is so bizarre. Like there is no way the devs didn't see Eternal Dancers + Survival Skills + Katarina/Ruined Reckoner and thought yeah no one's going to spot that combo. Other than that, I don't think the card is particularly good.
For the most part, I feel that this meta is stale but refreshing? I don't play ranked but I do look at the meta stats out of curiosity from time to time. It feels like the top decks have not changed except for the inclusion of Kai'Sa which understandably is quite a pain in the ass. Bard, Illaoi, Annie are still pretty strong and just as tier 1.
That said, I play normals a lot and this time around I'm surprised at how much more random pairings of champions appeared with the new champs despite last expansion having quite a bit of variety for each champion introduced. Not very many of them are any good though.
Other than that, I don't think the meta is solved just yet. I do feel like this time around it's relatively quicker. I'm awaiting for people to realize the power of Lulu Shen midrange-aggro but I'm not sure that's ever going to come true.
Also, I will say Nifty I do notice one pattern of when you say a meta is good. That's literally whenever Azirelia is meta.
Some archetypes only really come into their own after further support is released for them. Might be like that for world waker Champs, there's nothing really stopping the devs from releasing more skill cards, more husks, more chimes, more hollowed, more evolved.
In that context these "runeterra" region Champs might end of feeling like their own stand alone regions after a while.
That's true but it's not like that's a guarantee. Tahm/Soraka has not received any new support cards (mostly because they're LoR's black sheep) and not all support cards really push the archetype. I still think that making the Runeterra champions' region as "the other 6-7 cards I'm released with" is a bit lame.
I would argue that the stronger Jhin decks require him to run cannon barrage and double ludens setup and play him in path of champions lol.
To me the champion in pvp is a joke and I won't bother building decks around him as there are many better decks to pick up right now imo like KatarinaYasuo for example
Yeah that's fair. I've been running a Jhin/TF deck that I netdecked from someone who hit Masters with it and I gotta say, it's a stark difference between trying to run stun/control packages vs just straight up cramming burn.
When it comes to jhin I kinda find it funny how Jhin right now feels weaker than Yasuo.
The issue really is that lvl 1 Jhin is BAD as a unit without keywords that needs to attack to do anything.
Lvl 2 Jhin is a lot stronger but still... lvl 2 Yasuo right now is proably better.
I don't really get why you're comparing Jhin with Yasuo when those two do different things. Jhin's an aggressive card finisher/engine while Yasuo is a payoff card for stun/recall decks. Jhin doesn't really benefit greatly from stunning units but instead from spells and skills being on the stack. Also you typically don't play Jhin unless he's leveled.
Currently, I imagine the reason why Jhin isn't played as much is because there are better variations of his decks like Annie/TF, but I imagine that he's still a good aggressive card. It does kinda suck that the stronger Jhin decks require him to be paired with Annie or TF.
As much as I feel like Ben Brode holds the majority of the responsibility, I would also say that the rest of the dev team which are also ex-Hearthstone devs and card game veterans should very much know their own player base. Not to mention they advertised this game as F2P while locking cards behind a paywall.
Also no one is begging to spend money to craft cards. That is literally the opposite of what people want. We want to be able to chase towards cards while not spending a cent and not actively getting screwed over by RNG. You can't call their actions as clueless because if their reactions to boosters have not been clear enough, they don't want you to get cards fast without paying. Their business model literally is a gacha system. Pay money, get a chance to get what you want or get faster progress.
Honestly speaking, this is a great write-up of why the Nexus Events are terrible. However, it doesn't really encapsulate why they're disappointing.
This was an update that many and I mean MANY hoped for to be the positive turning point for Snap after tons of initial feedback being negative about the terrible card acquisition rate. They had talked about changing the collection system for a while and said that the Nexus Events will fix that. Many people (including myself) were saving up all their gold for these Nexus Events in the hope that it is an easy way to get cards. Not only that, they were teasing Nexus Events with ambiguity that I believe you would be nuts to think these """EVENTS""" are anything else but loot boxes.
I don't think the cost is the only reason why this is bad. Many people would still have been severely disappointed to know that they have added loot boxes and less agency for card acquisitions. Not to mention, the changes to the collection level road which is meant to be mostly positive and what the players have been asking for, turned out to be opposite. Effectively they changed rewards that are meant to give a random card from Pool 3 to be a chance to get a random card. They made the rewards more common so maybe this was a good thing.
However, the past updates have been actively making the game worse. They removed random card variants (skins) and added a mystery reward which might give 10% to get a random card variant while the other 90% of the rewards are bad. They added a season pass that contains potentially meta breaking cards (one already is meta breaking) to be exclusive for people who pay and those who don't will have to wait and try their luck months after. Then, when people wanted ways to get more credits because it felt like they were capped too low, the response is by capping even more things other than credits.
All in all, it just feels like every response given by the devs have been tone deaf and every action have been screwing the fanbase by squeezing more money out of them. To think that this would happen in the closed beta where there are people who still have gotten no access and will fall behind in the global release.
Basically, they're introducing loot boxes into the game. Pretty much everything about sounds scammy from the title "Nexus Event" not being an event or arena game mode but rather just loot boxes to the fact that they're hiding a lot of details from public view.
These Nexus Events happen twice a month, introducing new cards which might or might not be meta breaking btw (and you can't get these until weeks after it ends). Each pull costs approximately 4 dollars (a bit less). The shop says that you're guaranteed a rare reward from 10 pulls and it's the first thing you see. HOWEVER, it does not mention that the cards shown are super rare rewards and that super rare rewards has 1.5% drop rate and has a pity of 50 pulls not 10.
So to get a card guaranteed which you probably will because it's a fucking 1.5% chance, it costs approximately less than 200 dollars. And there's 2 cards. And there's 2 Nexus Events per month.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
They removed guaranteed cards that you can get on the collection rewards into a mystery reward that may contain a card or credits at higher collection levels. The upside to that is that these rewards become more common so maybe a good thing? However, looking at Nexus Events, I don't have high hopes nor do I trust the fact that they're stating that it's better than the old system.
You can get your YiA procs really quickly and if you have 2 Husks on board which seems like it happens a bit according to the video, you can go tall and that buff is also permanent and they also get keywords on top of that. There's potential in there I believe, but it feels a bit hard to evaluate a Runeterran champion until we get our hands on it.
Honestly, I'd be more excited if Bandle Tree Evelynn becomes a thing because at least it's a more interesting take on Evelynn. Honestly though it's more likely just a YiA deck than anything.
A lot of people are overestimating Annie's capabilities imo, especially in Control decks. The only reason she's there is because of Ravenbloom Conservatory which is a strong card but not overpowered. However, I'm also biased since I find it a fun build-around card. If it does become an issue anyways, it's relatively easy to tweak its number by increasing the countdown.
As for Bard, I had a feeling this was coming the moment I saw his Origin. The issue with Bard is that he has 6 cards in his "region" so they gave him a really strong effect in return to balance it out, resulting in a very awkward card to play deckbuild if his effect is not strong enough but too easy if his effect is too strong (like rn). I feel like they could make his start of round effect into something more like Jhin's where you get Chimes when you behold him and when you play something.
Probably something like:
For each Bard that started the game in your deck, plant a Chime in your deck when you play a unit while you Behold Bard.
A bit wordy but I think it's a lot better than what it is right now.
Online Resources:
Imo one of the first things players should look at if they want an online resource is https://masteringruneterra.com. It gives you a good insight on the meta and gives a general sense of direction for what is strong and what isn't. I can't find any up to date resources for beginner's but there are a couple on https://runeterraccg.com/beginners-guides/ that might be worth looking at.
Card collection:
Honestly, this game gives you a lot of cards pretty quickly just from playing. You should be able to get a meta deck within a week or two. If you're wondering which cards you should be aiming for. Just pick a deck to aim for and look at the highest cost cards that you haven't gotten yet and go for that region. You can try to maximize your XP gain by playing Path of Champions but if it's not your cup of tea then feel free to skip it, it's not a necessity. Getting cards in this game should not be a worry.
Also, the strongest cards in this game are often cheap as hell. Outside of champions, the rares and epics make up a good chunk of the strongest cards in this card. The epics card pool are 80% worthless cards that's not worth trying to go for.
Meta decks or general deckbuilding:
There are a lot of sites online that can show you the meta decks to netdeck from. However, the easiest and fastest way to get some is just by going through the leaderboards and looking at the decks those players are using. This is generally the best way to get a good deck even if they're not the best for newer inexperienced players. I don't suggest crafting them immediately if you're unsure what the deck is, but it should be a good direction to look at.
I think it's a pretty neat mechanic, specifically because it's thematic of what blacksmiths would do. Buff one equipment to oblivion and use it to win the game. It turns cards like Demacian Steel into something that can be potentially useful by having a cheap equipment buffed and attaching it onto an overwhelm unit or something else.
That depends on your definition. I know that Raphterra climbed to Masters with Maokai Bard Undying. That's a deck that was popular for a short while only because TealRed popularized it and he made adjustments to it before people tried playing it and realizing it had pretty horrendous winrates.
His deck guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0tBiIHxnM
I feel like we're missing one card. The Demacia/Freljord chef follower.
I understand but I just find it funny that gun loses to pot.
Damn why is Catch! so much better than Radiant Strike lmao. Not only does it do something else other than +1/+1, it's also technically in three regions (if you want to count Weaponmaster as one).
It's kinda hard to imagine it's not Jax. The cards seem to be supporting a Runeterran champion and they referenced him in Fireth's flavor text.
New apparently means cards you've not played this game. Like Purrsuit of Perfection.
I've faced that deck like twice now. It's usually an easy tell whenever someone is Draven SI. This combo isn't good because it's a 4 card combo (you need to give +1 Power to Eternal Dancers as well and most of the time it's Draven's Spinning Axe) and if it misses that turn, it's unlikely they can do it again and that deck doesn't have any other wincons.
I do however think that it's weird why they didn't give the same restrictions for Kalista even though the 2 cards are pretty similar in terms of what they do.
I feel like Eternal Dancers is just simply a lot more abusable than any other card in the game as of right now. The fact that it does not contain "the first time" like Kalista and also the fact that it can also resummon Champions while Kalista have those restrictions is so bizarre. Like there is no way the devs didn't see Eternal Dancers + Survival Skills + Katarina/Ruined Reckoner and thought yeah no one's going to spot that combo. Other than that, I don't think the card is particularly good.
For the most part, I feel that this meta is stale but refreshing? I don't play ranked but I do look at the meta stats out of curiosity from time to time. It feels like the top decks have not changed except for the inclusion of Kai'Sa which understandably is quite a pain in the ass. Bard, Illaoi, Annie are still pretty strong and just as tier 1.
That said, I play normals a lot and this time around I'm surprised at how much more random pairings of champions appeared with the new champs despite last expansion having quite a bit of variety for each champion introduced. Not very many of them are any good though.
Other than that, I don't think the meta is solved just yet. I do feel like this time around it's relatively quicker. I'm awaiting for people to realize the power of Lulu Shen midrange-aggro but I'm not sure that's ever going to come true.
Also, I will say Nifty I do notice one pattern of when you say a meta is good. That's literally whenever Azirelia is meta.
That's true but it's not like that's a guarantee. Tahm/Soraka has not received any new support cards (mostly because they're LoR's black sheep) and not all support cards really push the archetype. I still think that making the Runeterra champions' region as "the other 6-7 cards I'm released with" is a bit lame.
Yeah that's fair. I've been running a Jhin/TF deck that I netdecked from someone who hit Masters with it and I gotta say, it's a stark difference between trying to run stun/control packages vs just straight up cramming burn.
I don't really get why you're comparing Jhin with Yasuo when those two do different things. Jhin's an aggressive card finisher/engine while Yasuo is a payoff card for stun/recall decks. Jhin doesn't really benefit greatly from stunning units but instead from spells and skills being on the stack. Also you typically don't play Jhin unless he's leveled.
Currently, I imagine the reason why Jhin isn't played as much is because there are better variations of his decks like Annie/TF, but I imagine that he's still a good aggressive card. It does kinda suck that the stronger Jhin decks require him to be paired with Annie or TF.
As much as I feel like Ben Brode holds the majority of the responsibility, I would also say that the rest of the dev team which are also ex-Hearthstone devs and card game veterans should very much know their own player base. Not to mention they advertised this game as F2P while locking cards behind a paywall.
Also no one is begging to spend money to craft cards. That is literally the opposite of what people want. We want to be able to chase towards cards while not spending a cent and not actively getting screwed over by RNG. You can't call their actions as clueless because if their reactions to boosters have not been clear enough, they don't want you to get cards fast without paying. Their business model literally is a gacha system. Pay money, get a chance to get what you want or get faster progress.
Honestly speaking, this is a great write-up of why the Nexus Events are terrible. However, it doesn't really encapsulate why they're disappointing.
This was an update that many and I mean MANY hoped for to be the positive turning point for Snap after tons of initial feedback being negative about the terrible card acquisition rate. They had talked about changing the collection system for a while and said that the Nexus Events will fix that. Many people (including myself) were saving up all their gold for these Nexus Events in the hope that it is an easy way to get cards. Not only that, they were teasing Nexus Events with ambiguity that I believe you would be nuts to think these """EVENTS""" are anything else but loot boxes.
I don't think the cost is the only reason why this is bad. Many people would still have been severely disappointed to know that they have added loot boxes and less agency for card acquisitions. Not to mention, the changes to the collection level road which is meant to be mostly positive and what the players have been asking for, turned out to be opposite. Effectively they changed rewards that are meant to give a random card from Pool 3 to be a chance to get a random card. They made the rewards more common so maybe this was a good thing.
However, the past updates have been actively making the game worse. They removed random card variants (skins) and added a mystery reward which might give 10% to get a random card variant while the other 90% of the rewards are bad. They added a season pass that contains potentially meta breaking cards (one already is meta breaking) to be exclusive for people who pay and those who don't will have to wait and try their luck months after. Then, when people wanted ways to get more credits because it felt like they were capped too low, the response is by capping even more things other than credits.
All in all, it just feels like every response given by the devs have been tone deaf and every action have been screwing the fanbase by squeezing more money out of them. To think that this would happen in the closed beta where there are people who still have gotten no access and will fall behind in the global release.
Basically, they're introducing loot boxes into the game. Pretty much everything about sounds scammy from the title "Nexus Event" not being an event or arena game mode but rather just loot boxes to the fact that they're hiding a lot of details from public view.
These Nexus Events happen twice a month, introducing new cards which might or might not be meta breaking btw (and you can't get these until weeks after it ends). Each pull costs approximately 4 dollars (a bit less). The shop says that you're guaranteed a rare reward from 10 pulls and it's the first thing you see. HOWEVER, it does not mention that the cards shown are super rare rewards and that super rare rewards has 1.5% drop rate and has a pity of 50 pulls not 10.
So to get a card guaranteed which you probably will because it's a fucking 1.5% chance, it costs approximately less than 200 dollars. And there's 2 cards. And there's 2 Nexus Events per month.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
They removed guaranteed cards that you can get on the collection rewards into a mystery reward that may contain a card or credits at higher collection levels. The upside to that is that these rewards become more common so maybe a good thing? However, looking at Nexus Events, I don't have high hopes nor do I trust the fact that they're stating that it's better than the old system.
You can get your YiA procs really quickly and if you have 2 Husks on board which seems like it happens a bit according to the video, you can go tall and that buff is also permanent and they also get keywords on top of that. There's potential in there I believe, but it feels a bit hard to evaluate a Runeterran champion until we get our hands on it.
Honestly, I'd be more excited if Bandle Tree Evelynn becomes a thing because at least it's a more interesting take on Evelynn. Honestly though it's more likely just a YiA deck than anything.
A lot of people are overestimating Annie's capabilities imo, especially in Control decks. The only reason she's there is because of Ravenbloom Conservatory which is a strong card but not overpowered. However, I'm also biased since I find it a fun build-around card. If it does become an issue anyways, it's relatively easy to tweak its number by increasing the countdown.
As for Bard, I had a feeling this was coming the moment I saw his Origin. The issue with Bard is that he has 6 cards in his "region" so they gave him a really strong effect in return to balance it out, resulting in a very awkward card to play deckbuild if his effect is not strong enough but too easy if his effect is too strong (like rn). I feel like they could make his start of round effect into something more like Jhin's where you get Chimes when you behold him and when you play something.
Probably something like:
For each Bard that started the game in your deck, plant a Chime in your deck when you play a unit while you Behold Bard.
A bit wordy but I think it's a lot better than what it is right now.