You get one of those for free - so hopefully you picked up your Adventurers pack. Also, you can always "view" to check their content if you're curious. I'm not one to buy those either, but considering they're all the same price apart from the free one - it's an important q for those that plan to spend money this way.
Now, with the encumber working, I feel that the Dwarf pack is no longer thought as the best, or better, it could be seen as equal of other decks. What do you think? Without the step-bug dominance, do you still think that dwarves have the advantage?
I kinda like elves. It's not being able to Dash, that's kinda useless in most situations (there are more than enough ways to cover movement with equipment). It's Elvish Insight and Elf Mobility, coupled with the fact that nobody plays elves. Humans are alright too, they can provide quite a bit of movement to their team. Dwarves are kind of stronger due to the fact that their weakness is easily covered (anyone can Sprint, Wild Run, Teleport Self, Charge, Team Shift, Step, Dynam Plate, Team Run, Run Team and whatever else movement cards there are through boots, helmets, armors and what have you) and they are rewarded with a lot of extra hp. The fact that there is a whole strategy to fight them already kinda shows the point...
Since there are no encumber spells in the starters i do still think its the strongest the question is does it matter now that you can at least counter it. I would say no not really one will always be stronger and now its not a answer all pack like it used to be so i can be fine with it.
Why yes, I am late to the game. I finally found a spare moment to look into the packs in detail, so here's some input: Fierce Dwarf looks like it's the strongest, setting off a lot of warning bells in my head, and Elven Magic started to set off similar bells so I'll call it second-strongest. Elven Magic has the start of a truly nasty combo: Corsch has a bunch of Wall Of Fire cards, and there's a little hint of enemy-movement-control (Winds Of War, Memory Loss over on Nazapp), but it doesn't implement it fully. Fierce Dwarf, however, fully implements a truly nasty combo. Smasher is dedicated to hitting with boosted attacks: two Blind Rages, an All Out Attack, and an uncomfortable amount of Vicious Thrusts (plus Impaler). Helga is dedicated to high-powered boosts: three Unholy Wellsprings? Oh my goodness. And that's just the start, given an inventory full of other frenzies. There's been assurance that these dwarves are weaker now because Encumber should stop them, but it's not enough, because they are ALSO prepared for this. Smasher has two Charges, which an intelligent player will keep in-hand to bypass typical Encumber. Helga, surprise surprise, has Holy Presence. The only way it could be worse is if she had something like Novice Ablution instead--a level 6 Uncommon, mind you, and therefore (relatively) easy for a new player to get. Thus, if you're still seeking input, I'd suggest making Fierce Dwarf more . . . I dunno, scatterbrained. They're currently almost perfect at what they do.
It's also worth noting that what they do is pretty awesome. Much of my build still looks a lot like what fierce dwarf is trying to do (albeit better, and with no dwarves =P) and I've tried a lot of builds at this point. Also, I still haven't found another rageblood dagger, but I would kill for one... it's a fantastic weapon. I would kill a dwarf. Or three. I have found that any decent amount of encumber (wizard with a staff of winter) will hit fierce dwarf pretty hard though, despite a few ways they have to get around it.
I think there are a bunch of different ways how the question of what the best starter pack is can be interpreted: 1) In a multiplayer tournament using only starter packs, who would win? Probably the Fierce Dwarves. 2) What starter deck is doing best against people who built their own decks? Note that the Fierce Dwarves have drawbacks when you fight against certain common multiplayer builds other than starter packs: A dwarven party is hit much worse by Whirlwinds and encumbrance cards than other builds. 3) What starter pack is best to buy if you want to use the gear for your campaign? If you are brand new to the game, the Adventurers decks gives you cards for all classes, all others have one class missing. Later it depends on what cards you already found.
Fierce dwarf actually handles whirlwinds better than i think every other starter except possibly the all elf wizard one so that doesn't really apply. Unless you are referring to both at the same time in which case everyone is properly owned regardless.
When I got enough pizza for a starter deck, I looked them over and decided that Adventurers were probably the safest choice simply because of the variety. But I waited and looked over the other decks long enough for Gary to give me the Adventurers for free. So I still have the pizza for a deck, and I'm leaning towards the Elves because it has the most items I don't already have and I'd like to try an all elf party in MP but only have one elf skill. And then I discovered this thread, and now I'm even more undecided. That dagger does sound good (but that may just mean it'll be the first to get nerfed), and I also like Helga's items. But the elves give me lots of movement and lava and acid.
I think that, given the relatively small pizza cost, the apparent power levels only matter to people who don't buy pizza. I have bought a couple of the packs twice just to get the items. For example, the whirlwind item on the wizard in the adventurers pack is AMAZING so I bought that pack twice. Also the dwarf pack, due to rage blood dagger. I have played maybe 50games and I think most of the items I use are from the starter packs. I think that is good, because it means that the power gap between a starter and a longer term player is not cataclysmic ally huge
