Battlegrounds players have more to look forward to than the new balance changes and heroes introduced with today's update - Battlegrounds is getting a Tavern Pass!
What's a Tavern Pass you ask? We've included the full information from the blog post below, but essentially players will be able to purchase a pass specifically for Battlegrounds to unlock special perks for the mode, including advanced stats and the ability to choose between four heroes at the start of a game.
The Tavern Pass replaces the need to purchase packs from the latest expansion to get these bonuses. Players who already have these bonuses will get the perks of the Tavern Pass starting March 26th. Come the release of Ashes of Outland, they'll need to purchase the pass again, for $19.99 or 2500 Gold.
Quote From Blizzard Introducing the Tavern Pass
With the release of Ashes of Outland, we’re introducing the Tavern Pass—an all-new way to access Perks for Battlegrounds. Available for $19.99 or 2500 Gold, the Tavern Pass includes four Arena Tickets and the following Battlegrounds Perks for the duration of the Ashes of Outland expansion cycle: advanced stats, visual emotes, a third and fourth hero to choose from at the start of a game, and early access to new Battlegrounds Heroes (subject to the release schedule of new Heroes).
If you currently have Battlegrounds bonus stats, choose from 3 Heroes, or visual emotes unlocked—you will get access to the equivalent new perk starting on March 26. Battlegrounds Perks earned from collecting Descent of Dragons packs (including the new perks such as choosing from 4 heroes) will expire once Ashes of Outland is released. With the introduction of the Tavern Pass, which is included in the Ashes of Outland Mega Bundle, players will no longer have to purchase card packs in order to unlock Battlegrounds Perks.
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Comments
How about Corona virus economic recession pricing.
It was only a matter of time before Activision started gouging players for more money from Battlegrounds. Locking stats and heroes behind packs wasn't enough for them. Always have to make more money.
Well, it's almost an entirely new (in Beta) and different game than HS. People worked on it so they should get some money out of it.
Still, $20 or 2500 is a lot per expansion, especially if they are gonna remove (most likely, as understood from the text) the perks you got from buying DoD packs.
"Oh! This is exactly what I wanted them to announce!"
-said nobody ever
I don`t really care about BG. I only play a handfull of games in this mode in a month only at a low rank (about 5500). Of course advanced stats and more heroes to choose are nice - but for me it doesn`t matter much I have these things or not. I can still enjoy BG casually from time to time without these advantages.
I understand why some people are frustrated by these changes, but at the end Blizz "needs" to get money from this mode too, which they are working on very regulary. So I think for people who are focussed more on BG than on constructed 2500 gold for this mode is not much at all.
I think at the end a lot of people have to decide: What is more important for me? BG or constructed? Or I am interested enough in both modes to spend the needed amount of gold / money to stay "on top" in both modes?
I'm really hoping you can still get Battlegrounds perks by buying packs. I was going to buy a ton of packs ANYWAY, and I hardly play arena, so this is a terrible deal for me. I think it's a great option for those who play BG and Arena more than constructed. Just not for me.
And here I was thinking, so how are they going to make money from Battlegrounds? Right...
The wording is disingenuous.
"Players will no longer have to purchase packs. . . . Players will no longer need to purchase packs to get these perks."
Sorry, but--who was complaining about this? Was anyone really complaining "oh gee, I have to go and sink my gold into actual Hearthstone value in order to enjoy Battlegrounds"? I doubt it. The wording makes it sound like this was such a drag--having to buy packs that would give you cards that you could use in other modes, heaven forbid.
Instead, we are so lucky! We get to dump 2500 gold--25 packs worth--into a mode for literally pay-to-win perks like extra hero choices. And we are so fortunate to not get anything other than Battlegrounds out of our gold. Definitely didn't want to get anything of actual monetary value for my investment! Who needs cards, anyway?
This just makes Battlegrounds a game mode for the whales. They can have at it.
Hey you do get 4 arenas... it is like 600 gold value if you care for arena...
If you cant get the perks for battlegrounds by buying packs,
well there goes my battlegrounds experience. I dont think its remotely possible to be engaged to both standard and battlegrounds. Just too expensive.
If I understand this correctly, this seems like a total ripoff to have to repurchase the tavern pass every expansion.
Way overpriced. Don't like to have only 2 options of heroes? Pay 20 bucks a month. Will this sneaky move manage to slip by amidst tons of hype? Or do we expect backlash?
It's not 20$ a month. It's 20$ per expansion which is roughly every 4 months.
My brother returned from a 3 year hiatus b/c of Battlegrounds, and has no intention of playing Standard. This is a package designed for him and any other players that don't find value in the collectible nature of HS, but enjoy the Arena/Battleground experience.
So, can we still get the emotes, stats, and 3 heroes if we don't get the pass? Or does the pass come with extra emotes and extra stats and heroes? Cause I don't want them to start monetizing something that was already free to begin with.
It says that players "no longer have to purchase card packs" which makes me believe that the option to obtain perks via card packs is still there. I can't confirm that, however.
I do know that the Tavern Pass comes as an addition to the Mega Bundle.
The wording from Blizz isn't the easiest but I believe those that don't buy the pass will lose the advanced stats and 3-4 hero selection and other stuff once the expansion drops.
I'm not surprised that they're trying to monetize Battlegrounds as it's very popular but the price of the pass is surprisingly high.
High?
It gets rid of the necessity of buying 30 packs to unlock all the perks - 30 packs is 3000 gold, so this is already 500 gold less.
You ALSO get four Arena tickets - At 150 a pop that 600 gold, so that's 1100 gold savings right there, which means the perks themselves are ONLY 1400 gold.
How the hell can you even consider this high priced?
Somewhere in those calculations, you lost 30 packs worth of cards :)
The thing is, you don't spend 3,000 gold on Battlegrounds benefits, you spend them on 150 cards with the battlegrounds benefits as an added bonus. With this, you are spending 500 less gold, yes, but you also get 30 less packs. You do get the 4 arena tickets, which is worth 600 gold, but that doesn't compensate for the amount of packs you could have bought with that 2500 gold.
All in all, you are spending 1900 gold on battlegrounds benefits alone. I am not sure why they added the arena tickets in the first place, maybe to encourage more people to play the format? Maybe to mask the price of the product? But it would have been better if they had just reduced the cost of the Battlegrounds benefits and not have added irrelevant stuff to the bundle.