The Mini-Set card reveals and Discord GIF teases for Hearthstone Mercenaries wasn't even the end of various sneak peeks at the upcoming content overload, as the community team has decided to throw together one more surprise preview. This time with 6 extra characters sharing one new tribal tag, while also allowing us a closer look at their abilities and equipment options. 

Old Guardian was provided with the opportunity to showcase this version of Queen Azshara and her cohort. The pack is equally divided into 2 Protectors, 2 Fighters, and 2 Casters. With three of them being Rare, two Epic, and one Legendary (guess who). You can take a closer look at their skin options (still in the form of small GIFs, as per the usual patch notes format) in the YouTube video attached here. And we'll go over each one of them in a little more detail below.

Old Guardian Reveal Video - Naga Mercenaries

Old Guardian was also thoughtful enough to share the images for the new Mercs' sets of abilities & equipment over on the Mercenaries Discord, along with the bonus art for kid Queen Azshara: 

Yes, that's not exactly canonical - if you follow the Warcraft lore even in passing, you should know she might've been a small Night Elf once upon a time, but the transformation into Naga came about much later. Then again, when did Hearthstone ever shy away from exploring its own alternate timelines. Mecha Mercenaries just a matter of time?

New Naga Mercenaries - Abilities & Equipment

This puts us at 18 brand new upcoming Mercenaries, the largest package for a single Hearthstone patch to date. And we don't even know for certain whether that's going to be the final number, or if there is anyone else still hiding underneath (hello, Finley?). If there is one thing to take for granted, it's that the patch notes will be rather extensive. 

Queen Azshara 

Speed and spell school shenanigans along with a different take on a potent resurrection ability? Quite fitting for a queen. The equipment has some good backing in the existing Warcraft lore as well.

Lady Vashj

We are also quite familiar with Lady Vashj, be it from Warcraft or other Hearthstone game modes. More Speed considerations and some Naga synergy - you can see a pattern forming here.

Zar'Jira

A fancy title of one "Sea Witch". So much freezing. As per Old Guardian's clarification from the Discord, the Freezing Touch 5 ability is set at (Speed 4, Cooldown 2).

Tidemistress Athissa

If you've played any Battlegrounds since the latest Naga patch, this one might be instantly recognizable. Old Guardian did note that the text file provided to him by Blizzard put Athissa's maxed stats at 8/79, slightly different than what we see on the graphic. There could've been some small last minute adjustments; we'll only find out for sure once the patch is live.

Fathom-Lord Karathress

A fairly unknown entity. Curious synergy not only with the other Naga, but all summoned minions. And Frost school abilities.

Lord Slitherspear

As far as ability names go, 'You Lift Bro?' might be a winner here. Also clearly not a big fan of Murlocs. Old Guardian noted another possible inconsistency here, with the text file putting this one's maxed stats at 8/80 instead.

That brings us to an end of this sort-of-official last minute special treatment extended towards the Mercenaries mode. There is a good chance we are going to see more (properly) scheduled reveals of the kind going forward.

For now, the existing amount of playable characters is about to expand considerably. Once again, as there's been so many additions since Hearthstone Mercenaries premiered last year in October. Starting from scratch and catching up might already feel like a daunting task. 

Remember, we are expecting to see full patch notes later today, listing abilities & equipment for all those other teased Mercs. Plus new Bounties/Zones, and perhaps something else. The Patch 23.4 itself comes out on June 1.

Do you see any potential new favorites among the Naga?