In today's announcements for BlizzConline, a special pre-show welcome video was uploaded that gives us some clues as to what we can expect from the show. With many, if not all, of the segments of the event being prerecorded, likely due to the logistical nightmare that it would be to doing them live during a pandemic, we can already see some of our Hearthstone favs suited up!
You can watch the video down below, or if you want to cut to the good stuff, scroll a bit further!
Brian Kibler Joins Game Director Ben Lee
A sitdown by the hearth between Hearthstone's Game Director, Ben Lee, and community powerhouse, Brian "Don't Call Me Brian "Brian Kibler" Kibler" Kibler, showcases something very important will be announced. This could be the new game mode or perhaps some of the plans for the new Hearthstone year such as those Classic set revamps we're expecting.
The short clip didn't reveal anything specific about said announcement, but it isn't very often that Blizzard busts out the rustic set so they must mean business.
Liv Breeden and Joe Killion Go Adventuring
If you watch the video, you're already going to be excited when you see Kibler having a sit-down but that is nothing when you compare it to Liv and Joe showing up.
The two are seen very briefly with adventurer looks. The backdrop appears to be Kalimdorish, which would point to the more Southern area - could we be exploring The Barrens? What about Thousand Needles and the Razorfen? We're not going to go into full speculation mode here, we'll reserve the right to cover that more in the future, but it is very interesting too see the two in League of Explorers attire.
The League of Explorers has been a very popular theme in Hearthstone, debuting in the adventure of their namesake back in 2015. We've gone on tour with them into Uldum, twice, had interactions within our Journey to Un'Goro, and fought alongside the gang against the League of E.V.I.L. in Galakrond's Awakening. It's been a while since we've seen what our goofy friends are up to, so it's fitting to start a year off with them.
This could mean we're going to get an expansion announcement during BlizzConline, which will be a lot to take in with the expectation that a new game mode is going to drop the week after the online-only convention and we should get to hear about that classic rework (crosses fingers). At the very least, announcing the new year and a roadmap would not be out of the ordinary for February and would be quite welcome to see what we can expect for the next 12 months.
Year of the Explorers anyone?
What do you think of the two clues? Let us know down below!
Comments
A tauren themed expansion being next, and in particular its associated mega-bundle hero portrait, would be guaranteed to annoy druid and/or rogue mains. It's not Hamuul Runetotem? Then druids cry at the missed opportunity. It's not a fabled tauren rogue? Then rogue's cry because, well, where on Azeroth are my hero skins dammit!
(Don't answer that with the fact we already have many tauren rogue skins. I know we do. But if we can't find them we can't use them can we?)
I mean I just want another Rogue skin that's not Valeera.
I’m not an Anything Main, as I play all classes and just play whatever is fun to me at the time. But yeah, Rogue is the most ignored class in terms of skins. They have the same number as DH, which got their first alt skin a month or two into existence.
That said, the Nightslayer Valeera is pretty dope! I love using that skin. I’ve been playing more Rogue since I got that one just because it’s so nice!
I chose Nightslayer Valeera cuz I liked it a little more than the others, but it's not like warcraft is short on heroes they can use for rogues
Same here. I like Valeera (I wouldn't have spent the time drawing and pixel-art-ing a merger of her and a shuckle otherwise :P), but rogue is such a diverse class thematically that it's a crime that after all these years we've only been represented by a silky smooth sneaky elf (Valeera) and a gruff sneaky elf (Maiev).
I know not everyone likes the Cap'n Valeera art, but at least she gives us a pirate skin, which is about all the diversity the class has at the moment.
yeah it's like I keep saying - there's plenty of Rogues in Warcraft to embody what the Rogue class does.
Greed and stealing? Gallywix
Striking from the shadows? Taran Zhu
those are the only two I can think of cuz those are the two I want the most but still give us more rogues, cuz the alt heroes add flavor to the game
I'm 100% down with any idea that would add Pandaran or Tauren hero portraits, regardless of class!
I agree. The big canyon and the bone on the fence scream horde.
I doubt we will see the Explorers return just yet. Their cards are only just about to rotate out of Standard, and even with new versions it would feel a bit stale to have them straight back in again. I can imagine - if Hearthstone is still around in 2 or 3 years - that they will make a return in then.
Maybe the Explorer format? ;)
it being connected to new game format might be the case
I don't think so, the Trailers for Battlegrounds and Duels were 100% animated while this one isn't.
All their trailers are animated. But their chats or announcement videos often feature stuff like this
No gamemode got a dedicated Hearthside chat so far, that's why I wrote "100% animated"
But they are also very likely to at least announce the next expansion name/theme at this event. Since Darkmoon was released early, it's possible they could release the next set and start the new year any time after mid-March, or about a month after BlizzcOnline. So I guess my thoughts were this is likely the expansion announcement.
But also, no other new game modes got a dedicated Hearthside Chat, but they also weren't announced during an event like BlizzcOnline. So it is completely possible they could do something cheesy like this to talk about the new mode. However, I still believe the attire they are wearing has more to do with the expansion theme than with a new mode.
well who said it is a trailer instead of hearthside chat?
Neither the Battleground nor the Duels mode got its own Hearthside chat. Plus hearthside chats always have the same logfire background. So in both cases it seems unlikely that the second image is for the new Gamemode.
I don't know much about WoW lore, but i do really like League of Explorer related things! Seems like there will be some kind of mixed theme between exploration and maybe wild west? Despite seeing them in League of Explorers attires i don't think we will see all League of Explorers this expansion, because somewhere they stated that Highlander cards are very design limiting and that they can now print some stronger cards without worrying about breaking certain Highlander decks..? (I think it was in a AMA with Iksar?) My guess is that we will either see 1 explorer, just like Ungoro with Elise the Trailblazer, OR we will see them all but MOSTLY without Highlander effects. (The odd one out probably being Reno, because it's Reno.)
What i'm personally more hyped for is the facts that every League of Explorers related expansion since LoE involved Quest cards, and i wouldn't be surprised if we will probably get some new Quests! (Ungoro & SoU had quests, and DoD had Sidequests.) Looking forward to seeing what they are going to present during blizzconline 2021!
Have we seen Joe before? I don't recognize him. Either way, I really enjoy getting to see different team members in these videos.
Who's Joe?