Patch 25.0, launching tomorrow, rallies the troops for Hearthstone’s newest expansion, March of the Lich King, launching December 6! This patch also includes updates to Battlegrounds, Mercenaries, Duels, and Arena, as well as bug fixes and more.

March of the Lich King Launches on December 6!

Hearthstone’s next expansion, March of the Lich King, sets off on December 6! The new expansion includes 145 all-new cards, featuring the new Death Knight class, dual-type and Undead minions, the new Manathirst keyword, and more! See all the new cards in the official card library today, and don’t forget to get your pre-purchase bundle—this time, available until up to one week after expansion unlock!

The Mega Pre-Purchase Bundle is entirely focused on the Hearthstone mode this time, granting more cards than ever before, including Signature cards, Signature Packs, and the entire 49-card Path of Arthas set!*

* Path of Arthas includes 26 distinct Death Knight cards (2 copies of each, except for 1 copy of each of the 3 Legendary cards) that are not part of March of the Lich King and can’t be opened in packs. In addition to being included in the Pre-Purchase Mega Bundle, Path of Arthas cards can be crafted or purchased as a complete set after the expansion goes live.

With the launch of March of the Lich King comes a new Rewards Track with tons of cosmetics, XP boosts, packs, and a huge infusion of Gold! Check out our Rewards Track Refresh blog tomorrow for details.

Undead Invade the Tavern

A new minion type has been added with March of the Lich King, Undead! Hundreds of minions from past card sets have been given the new Undead type, along with an army of minions in this expansion. With the addition of Undead, we’ve also added Dual-Type Minions so that we can best capture the essence of these minions. Some past and new minions will now feature two minion types, such as Undead Dragons and Demon Pirates.

The Reborn keyword is making its return in March of the Lich King, and it will become a keyword we regularly use going forward. Minions with Reborn return to life with 1 Health the first time they die. Reborn is commonly featured on Undead minions, but you might occasionally see it on other cards as well.

Card Updates

Theotar, the Mad Duke

• Old: [5 Mana] 3 Attack, 3 Health
• New: [6 Mana] 4 Attack, 4 Health

Dev Comment: The release of a new class is an incredibly exciting moment for Hearthstone players everywhere, and a moment that we want to be as enjoyable and accessible as possible. Knowing the importance of this new class release, our plan with Theotar was to test out a smaller change to the card (from 4 to 5 mana in Patch 24.4.3) before potentially moving for a larger change if necessary. Theotar’s play rate did not drop as far as we would have liked it to with the smaller change, and is still higher than we would like it to be leading into March of the Lich King. Our aim with this second change is to lower the card’s play rate to ensure that the release of Death Knight is as fun as possible for players with a wide variety of interests and experience levels.

 

Ice Revenant

• Old: Whenever you cast a Frost spell, gain +2/+2.
• New: Whenever you cast a Frost spell, gain +1/+1.

Dev Comment: The nerf to Ice Revenant might appear out of place, but it feels like a necessary one in a world where Death Knight has access to multiple cheap Frost spells (like Horn of Winter). In testing, we were frequently seeing Ice Revenants at game-ending sizes as early as turn 4, and the card was simply overshadowing many of the new and exciting things in the set.

Signature Cards are Here!

Signature is a new cosmetic quality (like Golden or Diamond) that cards can have, starting with Patch 25.0, featuring full-art images! Signature cards can’t be crafted or disenchanted; they can only be opened in packs or obtained through special means. Two are included in the Pre-Purchase Mega Bundle, along with regular and Signature March of the Lich King packs that will give you chances to open more! Learn more about Signature cards and Signature packs in our Expansion Announcement blog and explainer post.

Death Knight Prologue Available December 6

Play through the iconic story of the haughty prince Arthas Menethil as he forsakes the Light and becomes The Lich King, Hearthstone’s first Death Knight! The prologue will show you the strength of the Death Knight as you explore its new Hero Power and three Runes: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. Complete the Death Knight Prologue to unlock the Death Knight class and immediately receive 32 free Death Knight cards, added to the Core Set.

Death Knight Launch Event Starting December 6

To celebrate the launch of the March of the Lich King, a special expansion launch event will be taking place using the new Events system. From December 6 to December 20, complete daily Event Quests to earn Event XP on a special Event reward track! Complete the Event rewards track to get 6 Signature cards (2 copies each of three non-Legendary cards), a March of the Lich King pack, and a special Card Back.

A Winterveil Event will be coming later this patch. Stay tuned for more details on that event in the coming weeks.

Tavern Brawl: A Lich King Recipe – December 7

The deck recipe brawl is back for March of the Lich King! Choose one of Hearthstone’s now 11 classes and play with a battle-ready Standard deck. But this time, there’s a twist! When you choose Death Knight, you will randomly play with one of three decks, each highlighting a different rune.

 

Battlegrounds Updates

 

The following updates will go live with Patch 25.0, on November 29.

New Hero

Enhance-o-Mechano (Armor Tier 1)

• Enhancification
  • Passive. After each Refresh, give a minion in Bob’s Tavern Taunt, Reborn, Windfury, or Divine Shield.
  • Dev Comments: The odds for each enhancification are equal (25%), except that a minion won’t be given a keyword it already has. So if ALL minions in a shop offering already have one of the keywords, it will roll something else.

This new hero will be available in all lobbies for two weeks after patch launch.

New Quest Reward

Enhance-a-matic: At the start of your turn, get an Enhanced Part that gives +5/+5 and a random bonus.

Enhanced Parts:

• Mega Horn: Give a minion +5/+5 and Taunt.

• Blazing Blades: Give a minion +5/+5 and Windfury.

• Bunker Plating: Give a minion +5/+5 and Divine Shield.

• Death Rewinder: Give a minion +5/+5 and Reborn.

Dev Comment: The odds for each of the Enhanced Parts are equal (25%).

 

Mercenaries Updates

• Rattlegore can now be earned through all normal means.
• Chromie can be obtained on the 25.0 Rewards Track.

New Mercenary

Chromie (Epic Protector)

• Gnome—4/84 Maxed Stats
• Abilities
  • Rewind 5: (Arcane-Speed 8) Deal 17 damage to a character. Deathblow: Its neighbors go last next turn.
  • Reading Chromie 5: (Arcane-Speed 6, Cooldown 1) Deal 22 damage. Gains +5 damage each time you cast an ability with higher speed than this.
  • Change the Timeline 5: (Arcane-Speed 5, Cooldown 2) Gain +20 Health. For two turns, abilities with higher speed act first. (Starts off Cooldown.)
• Equipment
  • Stroke of Midnight 4: Battlecry: Activate Change the Timeline for one turn. It goes on Cooldown for 2 turns.
  • Chaos Theory 4: The first time this Merc dies, rewind to the start of the turn and give your characters +8 Health.
  • Body Euphoria 4: Start of Game: Give your Gnomes +10/+20.

Chromie and her Portraits will not initially be available through packs or crafting. They will be available through all normal means in a patch after the end of the 25.0 Rewards Track.

 

Duels Updates

General Updates

• On November 29, there will be a major change to how Duels card buckets function (discussed below).
• On November 29, March of the Lich King, Path of Arthas, and Knights of the Frozen Throne will be added to the Duels card buckets (subject to the new buckets logic). At the same time, Knights of the Frozen Throne will also be added to deckbuilding.
• On December 6, the current Duels season will end, ratings will be reset, and ongoing runs will be concluded.
• On December 6, March of the Lich King and Path of Arthas will be added to deckbuilding and the two new Death Knight heroes will be added to the hero pool.
• Death Knight deckbuilding rules will apply to the initial Duels deckbuilding phase, just like the Hearthstone mode.
• You are not required to complete the Death Knight Prologue to unlock the Death Knight heroes in Duels. However, you won’t have the Death Knight Core Set available to you in deckbuilding if you haven’t unlocked the class. If you don’t have any Death Knight cards, you will only be able to use Neutral cards in your deckbuilding.

Card Bucket Revamp

With Patch 25.0, the Duels card bucket system will be getting a major update. The “Group Learning” bucket will be removed entirely. All other buckets will be adjusted to give cards by expansion, instead of by grouped type of effect. Cards for buckets will be generated based on cards from your deck, then a bucket will be generated based on the associated bucket pool.

New Heroes

Shai Shadestorm (Death Knight)

• Hero Powers
  • Ghoul Blitz: [2 Mana] Summon a 1/1 Ghoul with Charge and Reborn. It dies at end of turn.
  • Gathering Storm: [2 Mana] Gain a Corpse. Draw a card.
  • Lichborne Might: [1 Mana] Give a friendly minion +3/+3. It dies at the end of your turn.

• Signature Treasures
  • Gluth: [4 Mana Minion—Undead Beast]
    • 4/2. Battlecry: Give your other Undead +2/+1 and Reborn.
  • Glaciaxe: [4 Mana Weapon]
    • 5/2. Deathrattle: Equip a 2/5 Wings of Glaciaxe.
      • Wings of Glaciaxe: [4 Mana Weapon] 2/5. Windfury, Deathrattle: Summon four 1/1 Zombies with Reborn.
  • Remembrance of Ice: [6 Mana Spell—Frost]
    • Resurrect the minions your Frost spells have killed this game.
  • Unholy Embrace: [4 Mana Spell]
    • Spend up to 10 Corpses and add an Unholy Rune card to your hand for each.
  • Gluth-sicle: [7 Mana Minion—Undead Beast]
    • 6/4. Battlecry: Summon two Undead from your deck and Freeze them.
  • Inexorable Ghoul: [5 Mana Minion—Undead]
    • 5/5. Rush Revive: (2)

Scarlet Leafdancer (Death Knight)

• Hero Powers
  • Blood Parasite: [2 Mana] Summon a 2/1 Bloodworm with Lifesteal.
  • Hematology: [1 Mana] Spend up to 3 Corpses. For each, reduce the cost of a card in your hand by (1).
  • Scourging: [2 Mana] Discover an Undead.

• Signature Treasures
  • Runed Soulblade: [4 Mana Weapon]
    • 3/4. After your hero takes damage, deal 1 damage to all enemies and lose 1 Durability.
  • Scourge Strike: [3 Mana Spell]
    • Gain 1 Corpse, destroy 1 enemy minion, and draw 1 card. (Improves during run)
  • Crimson: [1 Mana Minion—Undead Beast]
    • 1/1. Whenever your hero is healed, this minion gains that much Attack and Health.
  • Ironweave Bloodletter: [3 Mana Weapon]
    • 3/2. Battlecry: For the rest of the game, whenever you consume one or more Corpses, restore 2 Health to your hero.
  • Greatsword of the Ebon Blade: [3 Mana Weapon]
    • 1/5. Whenever you play a minion, give it Reborn and this loses 1 Durability.
  • Contagion Concoction: [2 Mana Spell]
    • Infect a minion with “Deathrattle: Deal 3 damage to your hero, then infect a neighbor.”

 

New Passive Treasures

Cadaver Collector [Pool 1]: After the first time you gain a Corpse in a turn, gain 1 additional Corpse.

Blood Shields [Pool 1]: After the first time you spend a Corpse in a turn, gain 1 Health.

Ghouls Rush In [Pool 2]: After the first time your spend a Corpse in a turn, summon a 2/2 Risen Ghoul with Rush.

Cold Feet Pact [Pool 2]: At the end of your turn, summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to half your Corpse total.

 

New Active Treasure

Tiny Thimble [Pool 1]: 3 Mana, 3/3 Minion—Undead. Rush, Deathrattle: Add a Regular-Size Thimble to your hand.

• Regular-Size Thimble: 4 Mana, 5/5 Minion—Undead. Rush. After this attacks and kills a minion, gain +2/+2.

 

Arena Updates

On December 6, when March of the Lich King launches, all current Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. The eligible card sets will rotate so that the following sets will make up the Arena card pool:

• Core
• Curse of Naxxramus
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
• Knights of the Frozen Throne*
• The Witchwood
• United in Stormwind
• March of the Lich King
• Path of Arthas

Additionally, Death Knight will be added as a playable class in Arena. When playing as a Death Knight, Arena deckbuilding will dynamically update as you pick cards so that the Death Knight Rune system is followed.

* As a reminder, Knights of the Frozen Throne will be rotated back out of the Core Set with the launch of March of the Lich King.

 

New Feature: Improved Duplicate Card Handling

We often include specific non-disenchantable cards as part of Reward Tracks, Events, Achievements, and Shop purchases. Starting with 25.0, if you claim one of these, but already own a lower quality copy that’s disenchantable, you’ll get a popup that offers to re-roll the lower quality copy to a different card of the same rarity from that card set.

For example, Diamond Grand Magister Rommath is on the March of the Lich King Tavern Pass. If you already own a Golden Rommath when you claim the Diamond, you’ll immediately get a popup offering to reroll Golden Rommath into a different March of the Lich King Golden Legendary (which, of course, respects duplicate protection). This feature also applies when you find a Signature card in a pack!

 

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Countered Secrets would not be revealed when Countered.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Immolate would not destroy cards that were Infused after being Immolated.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Afterlife Attendant would not progress a Huntsman Altimor’s Infuse form if the Infuse counter went to 0 while Altimor was in the deck.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Soul Seeker could result in an invisible card being summoned in certain circumstances.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Disarming Elemental’s Battlecry would not trigger if the person playing Disarming Elemental had an empty deck.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Silas Darkmoon’s rotation effect would kill Doomsayer.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Akama Prime was not stealthy enough and would lose Stealth when attacking.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Lotus Assassin was too stealthy and wouldn’t lose Stealth after Flare was played.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where certain visuals would remain on the board if the card causing them was Countered.
• [Battlegrounds] Elder Taggawag (Queen Wagtoggle’s Buddy) will now no longer have its effect blocked just because you control an “All” typed minion.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where The Golden Hammer Quest Reward could be used on an already-Golden minion, and then would result in that minion losing its Goldenization the following turn.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Leeroy Jenkins’s effect doesn’t work if he is mortally wounded and saved, and then later killed.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Ethereal Evidence didn’t respect minion type bans when offering Quest Rewards.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug causing disconnects and crashes under certain circumstances.
• [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug that could lock players into a Bounty if they had an active Bounty with a mystery node when the Mysterious Stranger was removed from mystery nodes.
• [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug where completing a Heroic Bounty would not count for Tasks requiring a Normal Bounty completion.
• [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug where Neeru Fireblade’s Imp-losion only dealt damage once.
• [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug where PVE enemies would go first in Speed ties.
• [Collection] Fixed a bug where the “Complete My Deck” feature did not work with Prince Renathal decks.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where the level 100 Rewards Track Hero Skin could not be selected.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where players who reached the level 400 Rewards Track cap would no longer receive quests.
• [Shop] Fixed a bug where the “Back” button’s selection space was too small and placed where players could sometimes accidentally click into a product when they meant to go back.
• Misc. other improvements and bug fixes.