New achievements are being added in Patch 20.2 which track your overall progression in Hearthstone's rewards track. As you earn progress in each of the different tracks, your overall progress will get updated and allows you to unlock some really awesome-looking hero skins.
The new skins are all drawn with World of Warcraft's Tier 2 armor, so we've got the classic heavy-hitters of Judgement Paladin and Dragonstalker Hunter, which gives us a sweet reward for heavy progress.
Notes:
Rogue gets the Tier 5 armor set, Deathmantle, not Tier 2 since Valeera already uses Bloodfang armor.
Demon Hunters don't have a Tier 2 set so they have something different as well.
Not a whole lot was mentioned in the original patch notes though, just that we'd be seeing the addition of these portraits to the game. Celestalon later confirmed on Twitter how we're going to be getting them:
- Every 200 levels you get on the rewards track, overall, not in a single track, gets you a Tier 2 hero skin.
- These are retroactive so your leveling in the Darkmoon Faire pass counts.
So it looks like these are going to be quite rare to start considering the original base track gave us half as many levels as the new one. Do these new skins incentivize you to want to grind more Hearthstone?
Quote From Blizzard We’ve also added a new progression achievement, Tavern Regular, which tracks total reward track levels earned on your account across all reward tracks from each expansion. Completing each tier of this achievement will reward a choice from 1 of 10 new Hero skins, featuring upgraded armor!
Quote From Chadd Nervigg These are quite difficult to get, definitely prestige items. Every 200 total levels on reward tracks gets you a a choice from that pool of hero skins. (Accumulates across reward tracks, and does count retroactive progress on Darkmoon and Barrens reward tracks.)
Comments
Blizzard going hard on these cosmetics! Love it. Gives me a goal to strive towards & a feeling of progression.
Rare? :D No, i did lvl 380 last pass, and in this i already at 90!
I really want Hunter, Mage, Warlock, Paladin! Iconic tier sets reminding me of Vanilla WoW!
Valeera doesn't really wear Bloodfang, does she? Her armour ist red with gold and green touches, while Bloodfang is red and black... Her book of heroes portrait Gladiator Valeera wears Bloodfang though, so I guess that's why they (randomly) upgraded to T5...
yes, it's true, valeera set is not really bloodfang, although you could argue that it was similar enough to not be worth making into a prestige skin.
I like the Valeera and Jaina ones, but i'm not sold on the other ones. So you get one of these every 200 rewards track levels overall? Pretty sure i'm going to get one the second they get added. (Got like rewards track level 150ish last pass, and i'm at lvl 75ish on the current rewards track.) Hmm, i'm already have the tier 1 Valeera Skin, so i think i might get the tier 2 jaina one. (Considering i don't really like the tier 1 jaina skin tbh.) But whatever, if the Tier 5 Valeera skin has a really cool animation/effect* on the portrait itself i might just get it instead of the Jaina one.) Kinda happy Jaina/Valeera get good skins, because i personally don't really have alternate portraits for them. (Never got Medivh because i dislike that portrait/voicelines, and Maiev got boring after a couple of years of only using her.)
*Here we only see the portraits without any of the animations on it, so perhaps some of the bad looking portraits look way better with the animations when you see them in-game.
I really don't like the new Artstyle of the Heroes since the Rewards Track. The washy colours and lack of contours is not as intriguing for me.
Meh, none of those portraits really grab me except for Shaman, Mage, and Rogue, which look fine.
They did Garrosh dirty though, he looks like a fat ogre in his Tier 2 portrait. It looks so unflattering.
Not really a fan of most of these.
Guess I'll get Shaman because blue is nice and I can't stand looking at Morgl.
Probably Jaina afterwards.
Too bad Rexxar looks like an armored turd
They're fine... but to replace my Magni? Or Medivh? Or Tyrande? Nah. Not troll people with Sir Annoyo? Come on...
I'd love to take one for one of my preferred classes, but the Rexxar isn't as good as my current version, nor the Malfurion as good as Cenarius Malfurion.
Guess the Valeera could replace Maiev... but I nearly never play Rogue, Warlock or DH, and I have the Murloc for Shaman if it gets out of the gutter.
Still... if you're a WoWer with memories of these looks I guess...
I wish they'd commission more intriguing portrait poses. The current options seem to be 'standing still' or 'finishing move!', and pretty as Garrosh looks with a cleaver over his head, it feels odd to be playing a relaxed card game against an opponent permanently locked in battle.
What about, say, Jaina, slightly irked because the hem of her dress got muddy? Garrosh, intently polishing his epaulettes. Valeera, realizing she overpaid for that trinket. Rexxar, about to give you a kiss! . . . well, that one is silly. Sorry. Valeera would never overpay for something.
Anyway, not every portrait has to be intimidating. More silly stuff, please!
I enjoy how much of wow classic's content has influenced recent releases from Hearthstone. The old sets along with weapons found in BWL and so on.
Awesome portraits all of em. Love having the options. Allows me to make a deck stand out more in my list with a different portrait plus the new emote lines are always fun.
Rexxar and Gul'dan are top pics for me. Since I picked Rex last time and they released another one this pass I'll probably do Gul'dan. I do agree with Judgement Paladin the helm is kind of a thing. Maybe a reskin later with the helm on?
Well stuff for free is always good.
Now with all those skins I only need the "random" skin as we have random cardback.
I personally prefer having new characters as hero skins, but I really appreciate the homage being given to these classic sets.
That rexxar pic looks like a bunch of plates just fell on him. I can barely make out that's him.
Those straight mug shots really do lack in some dynamism to be honest. Its almost look like it could fit into their ID card.
Judgement Paladin without showing the helmet on just isn't quite as iconic. But hey, at least we get the shoulderpads! And the sword to match.
Gul'dan and Thrall could almost pass for siblings there. And Garrosh looks kinda Warlock-y, I quite like him and Valeera. Rest not so much.
The all look like Tier 2 armor sets from WoW, apart from Valeera (and Illidan, obviously). Hers reminds me of the PvP set.
Judgement Armor Uther, though? Yes, please and thank you.
Valeera is wearing the Deathmantle set. She also seems like an instapick for me.
retroactive. thats what im talking about