Whew, it's been a wild week. Blizzard truly didn't lie when they said they'll share more than ever before. It's more than easy to miss something in such an information flood so let's take a moment to recap everything that has happened and will happen in the near future.
Demon Hunters
- You may have noticed that we're getting a new class! The technology is there!
- Who are these Demon Hunters that call themselves Illidari? Read their origin story here.
- Illidan Stormrage will be their first hero.
- Illidan will be swapped with Xavius as a Classic card for that reason.
- Demon Hunters have a class-specific keyword: Outcast.
- Gain a bonus when a card is played as left- or right-most card in your hand.
- Demon Hunters will get a 10-card Basic set and a 20-card Initiate set to catch up with the others.
- The Initiate set will be part of the Year of the Dragon for rotational purposes.
- They will eventually receive a Classic set too, partially comprising of cards from other sets.
- They'll also get 15 cards per expansion this year, compared to 10 for all other classes.
- The Basic and Initiate sets will be unlocked through a Prologue mission starting on April 2nd.
- This mission will be FREE for all.
- The class will officially unlock with Ashes of Outland launch on April 7th.
In-game Happenings
- Six cards were unnerfed with the pre-order patch, mostly Wild cards.
- You may have encountered Razakus Priest and Yogg more often lately. Yeah that's why.
- A lot of Battlegrounds changes went live.
- Heroes in, heroes out, hero changes, minion changes...
- Everybody got Kael'thas Sunstrider as a freebie.
- We spotlighted some decks to try out earlier this week.
March 26th Changes
- Rarity protection! No more duplicates from any rarity until you own every card of that rarity!
- Don't you open those packs yet!
- Hall of Fame will get some new denizens. Edwin dodged that fate like a boss.
- We recently wrote a guide on how to handle things dust-wise.
- Priest Class gets an overhaul for Basic and Classic sets. Six cards will move to Hall of Fame - don't forget to craft those as well!
- We discussed the changes in detail here.
- Illidan arrives to Battlegrounds.
- Don't you hate when you opponent goes first and snipes the minion you didn't want them to? Illidan is having none of that!
- More card unnerfs! Can a 7-Mana Dr. Boom, Mad Genius challenge the mighty Galakrond?
- Hol' up Blizz! Didn't Giggling Inventor originally cost 5? And you're leaving her at 6? That's not an unnerf, that's a buff.
- New and returning players will be given a competitive deck for a class of their choice.
Other Upcoming Stuff
- Ranked Play gets an overhaul. This comes with a seasonal reward update as well!
- This happens when the new season starts on April 1st.
- Tavern Pass, which unlocks some Battlegrounds bonuses, will become available.
- I'm still not entirely sure what Blizz is trying to say in their blog, but it might mean that those with no pass will lose some perks we have now.
- A three-day legendary questline rewarding packs will start with the launch of the expansion.
- 6 packs will be available: 3 Ashes of Outland and 1 for each other Year of the Dragon expansion.
- A free solo adventure will await us some time early-year of the Phoenix.
- The story will concentrate on the battle against the Rusted Legion led by Mecha-Jaraxxus.
- We'll get a new game mode that uses our collections and is "similar in scope and scale to Arena" some time mid-Year of the Phoenix.
- We'll also (finally) get an in-game achievement system alongside progression system rework some time late-Year of the Phoenix.
Comments
I think that GoliathTheDwarf's article about Illidari's story should have its own article on the front page. I don't think it gets good reach in here... AND IT DESERVES MORE.
Lots of exciting news. Keep up the great work, Blizzard!
A new game mode and an achievement system?! Those are more exciting (to me, anyway) than any of the other announcements. How did I miss them?
Since there is not even a link to go with those last items, I’m guessing there’s no more information?
They were just briefly mentioned in the Year of the Phoenix announcement video where they showed their plan for the entire year. There are some small pieces of information about the game mode flying around though:
I believe we have a speculation post upcoming at some point when card reveals allow us to finalize it. Stay tuned.
"6 packs will be available: 3 Ashes of Outland and 1 for each other Year of the Phoenix expansion." isn't it the year of the Dragon?
I'm pretty sure I wrote Dragon initially but I may be mistaken. I very much agree nonetheless and will swap it back.
If we're going to start getting nitpicky, lets throw in:
"Hall of Fame will get some new denizens. Edwin dodged that faith like a boss."
faith --> fate
I did enjoy the article and the idea behind the recap of the last week or two.
Now that was a blatant error, should've noticed it. Thanks for pointing it out. Seems like my English has been sub-par on the day of writing this.
Please change "sometimes" for "some time" in a lot of those bullet points.... "sometimes" means a thing that happens occasionally. "some time" means something that is coming at some unspecified point in the future. That's the one you want here :)
Thanks, edited. I totally blame everyone who proofread this.
Don't shoot officer, I just made the banners!
I'm not sure I understand the reasoning for Illidan Stormrage swapped with Xavius, while they introduced Sylvanas, Lady Liadrin, Mediv & Khadgar as both alternate hero and collectible cards... and that was a quick list just on top of my head, could have kept going with the explorer's league too ... Anyway, thanks for the recap and summary for everything we may have missed - with all that is going on - this last week felt like a long month ; it is much appreciated
I think it is because those are all special heroes and not basic heroes.
Could totally be why. Fair assumption +1
Nice compilation guide! Just FYI: There's a typo under the dust refunds (Dont instead of Don't)
Fixed, thanks. Glad you liked it!
Very happy about the rarity protection. Now I won't be so afraid to craft anything that's not a Legenday since there won't be a chance that I end up wasting the dust by opening up that very card in a pack right after I craft and have to disenchant for a net loss of dust. That's an honest fear that's been holding me back in the game for years now.
the only downside to this is the fact you can't fish for golden cards anymore
before when you had the full classic collection for example and over the course of an expansion you've collected another 20-30 classic packs, you could've disenchanted a legendary that you wanted golden and then open the packs, as you were sure the legendary you open in those will be the one you disenchanted and there is a small chance for it to be golden
this won't be possible anymore
Be on the lookout regarding this. Note the quotation of Ben Lee:
So they are tracking what cards you have opened, not what is in your collection. And, this is Blizzard..
So you're telling me that Blizz may screw up the perfectly good system they tell us they have and that they are yet to implement as if very few people to non at all tested this before going live?