Help me to figure out the most effective setup for PvE

I do not know why the devs did this, but the prices of items go down as your levels go up. They will not be 500 gold later, and you will get more valuable treasures later too. You can see this by watching the prices in the rare store then looking again in a few levels (but before the weekly reset).

 

As for the "how do I get gold" question... I would say just stop buying things.

You can use what you have for almost every mission out there. Optimize to counter what they have, not to overpower around it. Suddenly not only do you not need to buy anything, but you also have a use for everything you own.

 

I burned my brain trying to decide between these two setups:
[1] Human Warrior, Dwarf Wizard and Elf Priest (pretty balanced)
[2] Dwarf Warrior, Dwarf Wizard and Dwarf Priest (to exploit dwarven battle cry, duck and toughness)
I'm still uncertain but tomorrow i'll start my new playthrough! Thanks for all the useful suggestions.

 

Also to add to Sir Knight post. This is much more that a card game. At higher levels you will need to learn about maneuver, cover and overlapping fields of fire/support.

 

I think in SP you can never go wrong with a human character.

Dwarf warrior with human priest and wizard has worked well for me too.

 

In Beta I had started Dwarf Warrior, Human Priest, Elf Mage. Being able to kite with the mage, and somewhat with the priest when he went lifesteal, was nifty. The dwarf rarely made it to the right place at the right time, so only participated in battles where nobody moved anyway.

I made it to level 11 or so with that party before I decided to try another. I ran pure elf instead of the popular pure dwarf. And it was INCREDIBLE. I was always able to be where I wanted to be.

But having solid attack items to use once I got there was very important. I likely would have struggled with that party if I had started with them, or got them beyond level 11 and tried gear-appropriate missions.

With how often I draw pure move hands early in the course of collecting, I would agree that having pure dwarf for your first party wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

The only important thing for campaining would be to run one of each class. You're going to be getting gear for each class as you go. If you drop one class and double up on another, you're wasting 1/3rd of the gear you find, and splitting one third between two chars. Rarely worthwhile. You'll also regret not having a melee on maps where you can't kite easily. You'll regret not having a caster on maps where enemies run/hit from range. You'll regret not having a healer when you have to take damage, plus (especially early game) the priest has a lot of utility - buff your melee damage, remove enemy cards, draw extra cards.

If you do drop one of them, I'd suggest dropping the healer for a second warrior, but make sure at least one of them has penetrating melee attacks. Heals are kind of weak til late game, so you won't miss it at much if you scrap it early. End game though, you can do 50+ healing in a match, almost doubling your team's longevity.

For race, an elf wizard might give you some trouble later on, when spellcasters start becoming more common. 17 hp isn't all that much, and you don't really need the 4 movement. I like a triple human team, but a dwarf warrior can be worthwhile for the extra HP (and you'll usually have more movement than you need, at least until you're only cleaning up the last 1-2 enemies).