Another BlizzCon has concluded and this year was home to quite a few large announcements! Here's everything you need to know along with links to additional coverage.

Hearthstone Gets a New Expansion - Descent of Dragons

  • A new Hearthstone expansion featuring 140 new cards! The end of the Year of the Dragon.
  • Descent of Dragons releases December 10.
  • The pre-order bundles include more packs than usual (60 & 100) with the larger bundle also including the Deathwing Warrior Hero.
  • Every class gets a legendary dragon!
  • Galakrond is a special legendary playable hero that the 5 EVIL classes will receive. He upgrades in power as you use Invoke.
  • Invoke is a new mechanic that upgrades Galakrond before you play him to get even better effects.
  • Sidequests are another new mechanic that can be played alongside regular quests. They don't get drawn at the start of the game, their draw is randomized.
  • A solo adventure will be launching in January 2020. It is linear rather than a dungeon run.
  • Everyone gets the 5 versions of Galakrond for free for logging in when the expansion hits.
  • If you miss out on the free Galakrond, opening a Descent of Dragons pack will reward him later, much like how C'Thun works with Old Gods packs.

You'll want to check out our Descent of Dragons expansion guide to see all the currently revealed cards and information we have.

Hearthstone Gets a New Game Mode - Battlegrounds

Hearthstone is getting a brand new game mode for the first time since Tavern Brawl!

If you pre-purchase the new expansion, attended BlizzCon, or have a Virtual Ticket, you'll get access to the game mode on November 5. The general availability of beta will be available on November 12.

  • The game mode is 100% free to play with no collection being required to take part.
  • You'll fight against 7 other players in an auto-battler type game, purchasing new cards as the rounds go on.
  • You can queue up with 1 of your friends to play in the same game, but you'll still fight each other.
  • Battlegrounds launches with 24 unique heroes and 10 unique minions. Expect to see some old, friendly faces.
  • Each card in Battlegrounds has a Tavern Tier instead of a mana cost. This indicates strength.
  • Purchasing a card three times, a triple, gives you an upgraded version of that card.

You'll want to see our full overview of Hearthstone Battlegrounds and you can even check out all the Battlegrounds cards in our database. You can expect more support for the game mode here on Out of Cards in the near future.

Diablo 4

  • Diablo 4 is the newest installment in the franchise. It signals a return to the dark roots of Diablo. 
  • Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid are the 3 announced classes with more to come.
  • The game is seamless, not requiring long load screens to move around like Diablo 3.
  • Fully Open World! You can explore anywhere you desire.
  • Skill Trees and Talent Trees are both forms of character customization.
  • Runes from Diablo 2 make a return to customize your gear with Runewords.
  • Some level of trading will return. They want to make sure they also preserve the "loot-finding experience".
  • Some areas of the world will offer PVP.
  • There is no news on a release date, but they promise to give us quarterly updates on the game's progress.

Check out Blizzard's Diablo 4 Feature Overview to get more in-depth.

Overwatch 2

  • Overwatch 2! A new game with all-new co-op missions, a new map type called Push, new heroes, and new maps.
  • The original Overwatch game will get the new heroes and maps as well, for free.
  • Overwatch and Overwatch 2 players will still play together in PVP.
  • All cosmetics earned in Overwatch are available in Overwatch 2.
  • Co-op story missions introduce items into the game which change up gameplay.
  • You'll get to level up your heroes through co-op missions, unlocking talents that customize them further.
  • The graphics engine has been revamped allow for higher detail and better facial storytelling. 

Check out Blizzard's What's Next panel recap.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

  • World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is the new expansion coming out in 2020.
  • Player levels are being reduced to a max of 50 before the expansion goes live.
  • You'll level from 50 to 60 in the Shadowlands.
  • A new starting zone will be available for players from levels 1 to 10. The old ones may still be used.
  • A revamped leveling experience lets you complete an entire expansion's worth of content to get from 10-50.
  • Torghast, Tower of the Damned is a new randomized Dungeon that can be played alone or with up to 4 other players.
  • Torghast brings us new legendary items.
  • Covenants are a new faction feature you can align yourself with, granting you special abilities and cosmetics. Its like class halls from Legion, but there's only 4 of them.
  • There is going to be another Azeroth-wide scourge invasion event in the 9.0 Shadowlands pre-patch.

Additionally, the 15th-anniversary event starts on November 5. You'll want to participate in the raiding event, fighting old bosses, if you want to get your very own Deathwing mount! So many Dragons at BlizzCon.

If you want more information on Shadowlands, Wowhead has excellent coverage. You can start with their Shadowlands What's Next panel recap.

Heroes of the Storm

  • Deathwing is finally coming to the Nexus. He is the most requested hero of all time.
  • If you have a virtual ticket or a physical BlizzCon ticket, you'll get Deathwing for free when he launches.
  • All heroes will be free in the game from now until November 10 so you can try out all the heroes.
  • An event called Mephisto's Revenge will be available this Winter as the "toy event". (See Wowhead)

StarCraft 2

  • A new co-op commander is coming in late November - Arcturus Mengsk!
  • Deepmind, a StarCraft AI, will soon be available to fight at various skill levels.

Warcraft 3 Reforged

  • Beta is available right now for everyone with a Virtual or Physical ticket.
  • No release date has been confirmed yet. It has to still be on or before December 31, 2019.

A teaser was shown at BlizzCon for Arthas vs Illidan.

Hearthstone Global Finals

Check out the results and decks from this year's Global Finals.

Hearthstone: Telling a Year-Long Narrative Panel Recap

One of the few panels at this year's BlizzCon for Hearthstone went into how the team told a story all year-long. It is unfortunate they don't make this available to the public because it was a really good panel that really requires the visuals and audio to properly enjoy. Here's our recap of the panel.

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All BlizzCon 2019 Coverage

We're going to be covering plenty of news from BlizzCon, so be sure to check it all out!

Get Cheaper Hearthstone Packs with Amazon Coins

Learn more about how you can save money on Hearthstone packs for the new expansion with our guide on Amazon Coins!