Our coverage of BlizzConline continues with the Hearthstone Deep Dive panel which we're covering live down below.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @OutOfCardsHS to get notified of new card reveals! You can also follow along with us on Discord.
Live Recap
- There are 10 new characters being highlighted throughout the year.
- Spell Schools - Like minion types but for spells!
- Arcane, Fel, Fire, Frost, Nature, Holy, and Shadow are the schools.
- Ranked Spells - Gain power as a match progresses. They grow in power at 5 and 10 mana.
- Wrath of Air Totem replaced with Strength Totem. A 0/2 that at the end of the turn gives a random friendly minion +1 attack.
- New Keyword: Frenzy Effects triggered the first time a minion survives damage.
Core Set
- Basic & Classic get replaced by 235 cards in the new Core Set.
- Some previously rotated cards are coming back into the Core Set to provide modern gameplay.
- 29 of the cards in the Core Set are going to be completely new.
- Everything in the Core set is completely free by leveling your classes.
- Fireball and Tirion Fordring are sticking around for the Core Set.
- Annoy-o-Tron is in the Core Set.
- Tomb Pillager is in the new Core Set.
- Menagerie Warden is in the new Core Set.
- Assassinate is getting buffed and will be in the Core Set.
- Feral Spirit, Earth Elemental, and Lightning Storm are each getting buffed.
- Core Set card reveals are happening next week.
Battlegrounds
- Year of the Gryphon is going to bring even more changes to Battlegrounds to keep it fun and thriving.
- Some of the new mercenary heroes are going to be added to Battlegrounds.
- New minion types are coming!
- In Patch 20.2, Quilboar is a Battlegrounds-exclusive minion type that is being added.
- Quilboars will generate a resource and take advantage of it. They have not finalized all the details yet.
Duels
- More heroes are being added. You will not lose progress on your current heroes.
Book of Heroes
- Stories are still being told this year.
- Valeera is up next!
Book of Mercenaries
- Like the book of heroes, we'll be getting to learn more about the stories behind characters.
- This solo content will focus on the 10 mercenary heroes being added to Hearthstone.
Hearthstone Mercenaries
- A new game mode that takes lots of different elements of other games.
- They take elements of Roguelikes and Tactical RPGs.
- Your three chosen characters have different abilities and you want to use them to create power combos against your opponents.
- You'll progress through a map - combat and other interesting things to do.
- Progression in Mercenaries is permanent. You keep the stuff you've earned.
- If you fail to complete a level, you can come back and try it again.
- It does not use your collection at all, much like Battlegrounds.
- Hearthstone is becoming a platform for different types of card games. Mercenaries is just one type of game within Hearthstone.
- A lot of the content is single-player but there are multi-player parts. They are hoping for high-skill games against other players.
- The mode has less RNG than normal Hearthstone.
- Tirion Fordring is one of the new characters being added.
- The mode releases during Phase 1 of the Year of the Gryphon.
New Forged in the Barrens Cards
New Core Set Cards
Year of the Gryphon Roadmap
Year of the Gryphon Expansion Teasers
Watch Live
You can watch BlizzConlive on the official site or the stream below.
Learn more about Forged in the Barrens
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Forged in the Barrens to learn more about the new expansion and to see all the revealed cards!
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![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 12 - Day 2 [Finished]](dark-beyond-reveals-day-2-thumb.webp)
Comments
1st Expac: Barrens = Horde
2nd Expac: I'll say Elwynn Forest = Alliance
3rd Expac: Alterac Valley and the conflict of the 2 hour long BG.
Seeing Runthak with Rush and Tidal Surge with Lifesteal in the Core set is cool and all, but I'll miss being able to point out fan-made cards that use the Classic watermark with these effects as being incorrect. :'(
I don't know a huge amount about WoW lore, but I would guess that if the first expansion is about the birth of the Horde, then the second will be about the formation of the Alliance. The Alliance's symbol fits very well with the year of the Gryphon too, considering their crest is flanked by gryphons (and a gryphon is part lion). And following that, I would guess that the final expansion may be about one of the two factions' first major battles? I know that there were multiple iterations of both, but from what FitB seems to be implying about which Horde they're referring to (with trolls, tauren, etc), maybe it would be the Third War? We've had a lot of content from that time, what with Kel'Thuzad and Prince Arthas/The Lich King featuring so prominently, but I would guess there's an event/area tied to it that hasn't gotten so much attention.
So about Year of the Gryphon.
1st expansion - Barrens and Horde
2nd expansion - Alliance
3rd expansion - war on snowy terrain - Alterac Valley?
Is Vanessa VanCleef the replacement for Edwin as the class legendary for Rogue in the core set? Copy a card my opponent played on a combo trigger... Really? Edwin was way too strong, i get it. But why these replacements to classic legendary cards need to be so meh? It was the same thing with Natalie Seline. That card's only reason for existing is as an option for Zephrys. Priest has way too many efficient targeted removal spells and they are all cheap. The class doesn't need an extremely slow and expensive removal on a stick. Also, i really dislike how this card lacks any other utility or synergy. It's a card that does only one thing. It has zero flexibility. Velen could at least be used to improve your healing. It was mostly used for broken combos but it could do something else. Natalie can't do anything other than kill one thing (eating up your whole turn in the process) and die immediately after. The class is lacking a classic legendary ever since Prophet Velen was moved to the Hall of Fame. And Rogue seems to be heading in the same direction as the design of this new card doesn't inspire any confidence. That's how i feel about it.
Agree that Natalie is not a very interesting legendary, however I’ve got the impression that she is going to legacy so yay?
On Vanessa, personally I think she’s more interesting than Edwin. Play lots of cards in one turn to plonk down a big body that you then pray doesn’t get silenced or removed next turn - that’s gotten old. In place of that, you have a card that requires a bit of that Rogue sneakiness, knowing what to steal and when, and all the while you have your opponent looking over their shoulder, worrying what they might potentially be giving you - that seems more flavourful to me.
No Core set card is a direct replacement of any Classic or Basic card. ALL Legacy cards are moving out, and only a small number are immediately returning as Core. This change is much bigger than "Edwin is out and Vanessa is in."
All classes are going to feel and play differently than they used to, and the difference will be more noticeable for some classes than for others.
If you truly believe Rogue cannot function without Edwin, you can always play Wild or Classic. (You'd be wrong, of course. The top Rogue decks at this very moment are extremely strong without Edwin.)
I never said Rogue can't function without Edwin. I just think this new card doesn't look interesting or exciting to play with. It doesn't look very fun or rewarding. If you like the whole burgle thing then it's fine. But i'm not really into it. Making a big play with Edwin always felt good even if he got removed afterward. This new card is just a body that gives you one card. It simply looks boring to me. But Natalie Seline is way worse. She is boring, slow, weak, inefficient (due to high cost) and has no purpose for existing other than Zephrys. I hope she gets axed and another legendary takes her place in the core set. She is just not playable.
Sorry if the question is dumb. There are a few Core cards with Classic watermark. Does that mean they'llbe obtainable from Classic packs?
It looks to me I made a mistake opening those long time hoarded packs..
Thank you all, it makes better sense now. :)
They have a new watermark on Blizzard's images. I guess that Out of Cards just didn't have time yet to add the new watermark to their card renderer.
I think maybe the watermarks are changing? I wouldn't worry about it too much. Everyone gets all the Core cards for free.
If a card was in the Classic (or Basic) set at launch, it will be obtainable in Classic packs. Otherwise, it will not. (Exceptions are the two cards that used to come from hidden quests. They will now come from achievements that mirror those old quests.)
Thanks. It's would then be interesting to see what would happen with them after the rotation. The only solution I see in that case is those cards would be free for everyone to use in Wild, as removing them would be strange.
Putting them in Classic packs like those replacement for HoF cards still seems more logical to me, especially since they will return HoF-ed ones to packs too, so the set already expanded.
Anyways, yeah, it was just a couple of packs, didn't even get the legendary in them.
For Core cards that are brand-new to the game, I believe the plan is to remove them completely if they don't make the cut for next year's Core. The whole point of Wild is to let you keep using the cards you've actually bought so that no one can accuse Blizzard of stealing or rendering your collection worthless. Balance and continuity in that mode are a distant second and third priority.
My sense is that Classic packs will only contain cards that are playable in the upcoming Classic mode. Cards that replaced the HoF’ed cards, like Natalie Seline, will not appear in Classic packs after rotation, which is why a dev suggested opening Classic packs now if you’re missing some of those newer cards.
Great !!!!
So now you'll be stealing an extra 2000 gold each expansion under the name of "mini set" from all the players. Great going Blizzard, you just gave the term F2P a whole new meaning...
FORCED 2 PAY 😡😡😡
I don't think you understand what "stealing" and "forced" actually mean.
2000 gold for a guaranteed set of 37 cards is about a million times better than opening 20 randomized packs. If you don't see that, you are very bad at money and I'm not surprised you have to be f2p.
Instead of complaining about it, you should be asking Blizzard to do it this way more often -- say, with full expansions.
My thoughts on Expansion teaser image:
Obviously exp1 is Barrens with a strong Horde theme, mini-set might be Razorfen Kraul/Downs. They mentioned that we'd see more Alliance themed locales and characters later, and the three exp would have a loose theme. So with that in mind I'm thinking exp2 is Westfall with the Deadmines as the mini-set and adventure solo content. Exp3 will likely be based on a WoW battleground for that Horde vs Alliance feeling, and it's giving me Alterac Valley feelings, looking like snow blowing around some vegetation and the middle of the image, which could be a top down view of a tower in Alterac, and the broken gem is to show the conflict that is occuring in the zone.
When was the priest card Thrive in the Shadows revealed?
I guess this means they weren't able to get the new game mode from the Year of the Phoenix phase 3 ready as soon as they originally planned.
Expansion 2: Clearly Alliance based.
Expansion 3: Shadowlands?