So you want to open up your card packs. Here's how you go about doing it by creating a Private Fireside Gathering!
- Please note that public Fireside Gatherings are cancelled indefinitely due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Wash yo' hands!
- You can only open your pre-order packs during a Fireside Gathering pre-release. You cannot buy packs with money or gold.
Table of Contents
Too Long; Didn't Read
Rude! Just kidding. Here's the quick version of this guide.
- Visit the Create a Fireside Gathering page.
- Fill in all the details of your Gathering. Make sure it runs anywhere from July 28 at 10 AM PT (4 PM UTC) to July 31 at 10 AM PT.
- Ensure you use the "Unlisted" option for your Gathering.
- Success! Good luck with your pack openings.
For a more thorough adventure in creating a Fireside Gathering, keep reading!
Creating your Private Fireside Gathering
We're going to assume that you already have your Battle.net account and that you've played Hearthstone before. Since we've got that taken care of, it's time to head on over to the official Fireside Gathering site! If you aren't logged in, hit up that top bar to do so.
We won't be able to Find a Gathering anymore since they've been disabled due to Coronavirus, but that's okay! The option we want to hit up is Host a Gathering. Upon going to the Host a Gathering page, we're now able to put in our event details!
It doesn't matter what you call your event, the only important thing here is the starting date and the duration. As long as you host your Tavern during the weekend that is designated for pre-release, you're good to go! Your event duration can be anywhere from an hour to eight hours, though I always choose the maximum just in case.
We're good to go!
Next up is the Venue Details. Now, this is where things should feel funny - safety is important. Should I really be putting my address on this website? As long as you are on FiresideGatherings.com, you're on Blizzard's site which means they should be taking care of this information - plus it should already be on your Battle.net account anyway so there's nothing to lose. You'll want to give your Venue a name, which doesn't matter, and then you're going to want to input your address.
- An accurate location ensures you'll get your gathering setup correctly.
- Do not use a public location. Social distancing!
- Your events must be created at least two hours before they are scheduled to start.
We've done it! Ignore the red box, that means we've entered a bad address. One day...
Now, the most important piece of the puzzle, so pay attention. You have two options here; a public event and an unlisted event. Tick the Unlisted Event box. If you were to create a public event, your Fireside Gathering would show up on the internet for everyone to see. It would be a little awkward when nearby patrons showed up at your house. Upon clicking the private option, you'll have to confirm again to make it private.
"Correct, please do not list this event publicly" is what you want to click.
Congratulations, that's all the setup we needed to do! Now just click the create event button and if you filled everything in correctly, you're good to go! You'll be taken to a webpage that shows you the details of your event and where it is located on a map.
If you haven't yet earned the Fireside Brawl card back, you can do so at your Gathering.
Be sure that this event says it is Unlisted in the banner! Ignore my early date =)
Good luck with your pack openings. Keep in mind you can't use the cards on regular games until the expansion launches, but this does let you start theorycrafting the decks you want to play.
What to do at Your Private Fireside Gathering
- Open your card packs early during "pre-release".
- Play a special Fireside Brawl with other players at your gathering.
Comments
The only brawl everyone wanted to play at my fireside gathering (TITAN deck recipes)
would NOT even work because of some "error" that would freeze one player in character select.
Another shot in the foot for Blizzard to entrust their dying community with these events
I have my event set up, I entered it early to complete set up, and it's now after 10 am PT. So normally at this point I'm able to do the early pack opening. But for some reason today, it won't let me. Technically my "event" doesn't start for another 45 minutes. But in the past this has never stopped me from opening anything. Usually since I can enter the event early as the host, the official start time has been irrelevant. Perhaps they changed it so no one can open packs until the event officially starts.
EDIT: My event time has now passed, and even with the event officially started, I still can't open packs early. Fantastic!
Looks like I'm not the only one.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/fireside-gathering-not-working-for-titans/110764/3
Geniuses at Blizzard strike again!
Me too. I've had 3 different events set up and no success. Thanks Blizz
Still not working for me either at 12:20pm 1:05pm 2:25pm 3:30pm Mountain Time.
Not working for me either, still.
Unfortunately this does not work due bug
https://twitter.com/hsdecktech/status/1598750818978922496
https://twitter.com/hsdecktech/status/1598781000162873344
Yes, it's been actually addressed with the opening line of the post. Apologies if it's not very clear.
useful post
If you goof up and create a public event, there is a nonzero chance that I will show up at your house.
And I will expect themed snacks.
Happy openings, all!
It would be helpful for those who've never done this to also post the times (per timezone) of when the packs can be opened and not just the date. Just a suggestion.
You can open drekthar/Vandar from packs and unlike Korak theyre not desenchantable for full dust, deqpirz that the questline will give you the other one gold (+one of them diamond later on for evryone)
Hope they will change this, but i have my doubts
They definitely occupy a strange space. If you're more casual about the game you might never complete the legendary questline that would get you the golden copy of the second one, so for those players there's something intuitive about having Drek'thar and Vanndar work like any other legendary from a pack. But for many players who will complete it (but who can't possibly get 7200 honor in the next 3-4 days), it presents a certain duplicate protection problem.
For folks who don't care about golden cards, you could always just dust the golden copy when you get it. Then at least you still net one legendary from the quest (even though technically you're getting less dust on net).
Pretty sure but not 100% positive you can d/e the one you opened.
very late to the party here but did anyone open any standard packs during a fireside gathering? curious to see if they will offer the new expansion cards for the next release
Odd that none of these guides - which are presumably for people who never set up a gathering before - mention that the gathering needs to be triggered through the friend list. I was looking everywhere else, restarting the app, trying on PC… 🤪
Also once I started opening packs, it hit me that without knowing what the 2 legendaries, which presumably will unlock on Monday, are, there’s relatively little point to open more and start thinking about what decks I’ll be able to build. I guess it saves time so one can jump right in on day 1.
Anyway, I only got one epic in my gold packs and found this: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/golden-packs-do-not-follow-pity-timer-rules/33948
😣
I opened 90 packs from the Mega bundle and only 3 legendarys (1 Quest and 2 Minions)
Very sad.
It might be worth highlighting that you will be able to use your early opened Stormwind cards in your Duels starting deck. That's atleast how it was during the Darkmoon faire pre-release if I remember correctly.
I wasn't aware of this. That's really cool if it is indeed the case!
edit: Doesn't work. I must have mixed something up.