A new Hearthstone patch hit during the madness of yesterday's expansion reveal - Saviors of Uldum. Here's everything you need to know about the patch with the official notes being available here.
Uldum Pre-Order Available In Client
The patch brings us the pre-order for Saviors of Uldum in-game.
- For $49.99 USD you get 50 Saviors of Uldum packs, the Elise's Journal card back, and one random Golden Legendary from the set.
- For $79.99 USD you get 80 Saviors of Uldum packs, the card back, Golden Legendary, and the new Druid Hero - Elise Starseeker!
Fire Festival
The Fire Festival is going to return this year and with it we're getting some quests and a special tavern brawl / adventure hybrid called Blackrock Crash.
- There is a chain of 7 quests that rewards 7 Card Packs and 400 Gold.
- Rakanishu appears to be involved with this year's festivities.
- The cosmetic fireworks are returning!
Here are all the datamined Fire Festival quests as they are given to you. Keep in mind datamined information can sometimes not be entirely accurate.
Quote From Out of Cards
- Welcome to the Fire Festival! - Play 3 Games.
- Rewards: 200 Gold
- Happy Fire Festival! - Play 30 Cards.
- Rewards: 1 Witchwood Pack
- Happy Fire Festival! - Play the Tavern Brawl 3 Times.
- Rewards: 1 Rise of Shadows Pack
- Happy Fire Festival! - Play 5 Mechs.
- Rewards: 1 Boomsday Pack
- Happy Fire Festival! - Draw 50 cards.
- Rewards: 1 Rise of Shadows Pack + 1 Rastakhan's Rumble Pack
- Happy Fire Festival! - Take 25 turns.
- Rewards: 1 Rise of Shadows Pack + 1 Boomsday Pack
- Happy Fire Festival! - Play 3 games.
- Rewards: 200 Gold
Card Art Censorship
UPDATE: Hearthstone's Dave Kosak talked about the art change with PC Gamer.
Quote From Dave Kosak We went back and really just brought everything up to our standards.
It wasn't because we were looking at ratings, or international [regulations], or anything like that. We really just wanted our artists to feel good about everything in the set.
[We] wouldn't print those same cards today.
Following the Jaina art change earlier this year which changed her outfit to include a camisole, another round of card art changes have come to Hearthstone. This art update further reduces sexuality of some of the art pieces, completely changing the characters in some cases, and removes blood from some cards.
Sexuality Focused Changes
- Succubus renamed to Felstalker, a completely different character.
- Mistress of Pain renamed to Queen of Pain. Less leg showing, no longer looks seductive.
- Windfury Harpy is now more covered up, different pose.
- Secretkeeper now has a frontal post, no more behind.
Blood / Gore Focused Changes
- Eviscerate no longer shows blood, uses old art. (Especially noticeable on golden version)
- Bite new art, higher detail. No longer biting into anything, just showcasing sharp teeth.
- Deadly Shot is now a ballista shooting an arrow.
- Headcrack showcases a slingshot with a ball on fire instead of a character being smacked in the head.
How do you feel about the changes? Are there any cards you think could be next?
Here they are in a gallery format with the new art on the left and old art on the right.
Quote From Fluxflashor We're no longer being factual, this is an opinion. You've been warned.
I suspect all the changes are due to Chinese regulations being slapped onto gaming. Blizzard is being forced to make changes to the game so they can continue to publish Hearthstone in the East. What I fail to understand though is why they can't pull a The Skeleton Knight and have different artwork depending on where you're playing the game. This is done heavily in World of Warcraft which censors almost all the skeletons in China while everyone outside of the country gets Undead in all their glory.
If China isn't the reason for the changes, it would be nice for some transparency from Blizzard letting us know why they're taking the time to go back and update old art.
Undead in World of Warcraft, World vs China (Source)
The Skeleton Knight in Hearthstone, World vs China (Source)Succubus I understand more than the others that received changes, even if it doesn't sit well with me since they still are everywhere in World of Warcraft, you just can't really localize a seductress. Which actually asks the question, why is this stuff okay in World of Warcraft but not Hearthstone?
On a positive note, the new art does look quite good on Secretkeeper, Windfury Harpy, and Queen of Pain. They look like cards that will kick some serious ass and they're much more detailed.
Card Changes - Consistency Update
Quote From Blizzard Pilfer: We’ve updated the card text and functionality for Pilfer to match the recent changes to other “Burgle” cards currently available in Standard.
- Old Text: Add a random card to your hand (from your opponent's class).
- Updated Text: Add a random card from another class to your hand.
Multi-Target Cards
We’ve updated the following multi-target cards to function even if there is only one viable target on the board. These cards will now also properly trigger when played by random effects such as [Hearthstone Card (Yogg'Saron, Hope's End) Not Found].
Tavern Brawls Now Active All Week
Quote From Blizzard Downtime for Tavern Brawls has been reduced to 1 hour per week. Tavern Brawls will now begin every week on Wednesday at 9:00 AM PDT and end the following Wednesday at 8:00 AM PDT (times and dates will vary by region).
Comments
I don't see how a few drops of blood was a massive change that would majorly affect artists opinions of it, the explanation is bs
Yeah its definitely china's fault. What a waste, secretkeeper's art was 100 times better, and eviscerate without blood is such a punch in the eye. But at least the art for windfury harpy is cool.
Also nice excuse "we wouldn't print those cards today" the game is literally based on world of warcraft bro
I didn't mind the change to the Secretkeeper art, but it turns out they changed her voice lines as well. Shame, I found the old voice sexy :(
Back to the 1950s I guess with card art.[Hearthstone Card (CardID or Name) Not Found]
Wait, so all this horrible art changes just because of China? Pathetic. They could have put them for China only, just like they did with The Skeleton Knight. Also, they were alright with an old art for over 5 years but now it’s a problem? I guess when Chinese people see blood or a woman with cleavage, they instantly get a heart attack.
Looks like we got some info about this from Dave Kosak (update in article above).
Why do I see Kripp's face on all of these girls? Damn those well-made thumbnails! 😁
I'll miss that Headcrack art :(
I'm not sure the Censorship changes are due to China entirely. I mean back in MoP when Oondasta was a Fresh World boss, I remember a Post on MMO-C of the "Chinese Censored" Player deaths. Instead of Skeletons everywhere their were Tombstones. to mark your dead body. Also Wrath of the Lich King was delayed release, if I remember, in china due to having to censor all the Skulls and Bones. Imagine what their Naxx and ICC looked like. Both examples are Blizzard making separate Client side changed for a specific region with stricter Censorship laws. I personally think they are doing this to be more "Family Friendly". The Eviscerate change reminds me more of the "Unholy Strength" change Wizards of the Coast did in Magic: the Gathering. From Alpha to Revised there was a Pentagram in the artwork, come Fourth addition it was removed, due to outcry from religious firebrands. This all reeks like Sylvanas getting "proper armor", back in 7.0 (?). Blizzard is trying to erase anything that even looks erotic or violent it seems.
So will Multi-Shot deal 3x2 damage to one minion now? The text doesn't say "two different random enemy minions". So if there's is only 1 minion on there board, it should logically "randomly" hit the same minion with both shots. Just saying...
No, it's just 3 damage to one minion. I already witnessed this in Dalaran Heist and thougth the game broke as I was used to "must have two targets" situations and hadn't noticed that part of the patch notes.
I feel like this is the most important change and it's the least well defined.
And I am sitting here, reading this, ending up in the comment section and just wonder: why!?
Thanks China!
the gory stuff may be related to china, but the hotness nerf looks like the Magic The Gathering trend for the last couple of years to tone down the "objectification" of the female body , forcing artists to reduce the breast size, cover any cleavage and body bare skin
Why was Bite changed? I get it, when other cards display something too sexual, or too grim/goory, but a cat biting a monster: there was no display of violence coming from humanoids nor against humanoids. Why didn't they just cut the blood, like in Eviscerate?
Why do Cleave and Multi-Shot say "two random enemy minions" while Forked Lightning and Dark Bargain say "2 random enemy minions" ? Blizzard fix your game
I already chimed in on this in a separate thread on the topic yesterday, but to add a few more points. Aside from being pretty spineless in how they just kow-tow to these senseless and unwarranted demands (yo, how about China stops being stuck in the 1700s in terms of puritan views, just a few miles east of them they got the Japanese merrily fawning over schoolgirls showing panties in every game they make...from one extreme to another in Asia it seems).
It's not just that, though, it's, above all, completely arbitrary and with no sense of logic. They censored these cards...and the rest of the cards are ok? Sanguine Reveller? Master of Disguise? Blood Warriors? Whirlwind? All of the skeleton-showing cards like Holy Smite? Apparently peeling the skin off of someone with magic is fine, but a bit of blood from eviscerating someone is not. The line that is being drawn is completely random. So not only is Blizz spinelessly kow-towing, they're doing it lazily and half-assedly too...to the point that they might as well not do it at all cause censoring 8 out of like 50 cards that could fit the description doesn't make the game any more "China-friendly" than it was before.
It's like they rushed to show they're at least doing something, while not taking the time to do it properly, or not thinking through the consequences of what they'd have to do if they start bowing down to China like this. China is not a fan of dead bodies and skeletons. They have their special Skeleton Knight art. But yet there is like a dozen skeleton minions or zombie minions in the game that nobody in China has apparently given a damn about for years. But The Skeleton Knight? Oh that was too much! (If that is the case then Shadowverse probably doesn't even exist in China, seeing as one of the classes is literally all about skeletons and zombies).
So what is it exactly? Is Blizz going to do the barest, laziest minimum like they are now and hope the Chinese are going to just wave it off, or are they actually planning to change Kel'Thuzad's art, redraw Happy Ghoul and Flesheating Ghoul, rename Corpse Taker and Meat Wagon, paint happy ponies on all the Lich King cards (including Arfus)...and essentially just remove and repaint the entire Scourge faction out of the game? they obviously can't take this China-friendly approach all the way, so why in the name of fuck are they even meddling with this in the first place?
I wouldn't say they're doing this spinelessly. It's as simple as they either make the changes, as are likely requested by some Chinese official, or they say goodbye to Hearthstone revenue in China. It's not likely that they picked card art to change arbitrarily either. My hunch is that these were specific cards that some Chinese official pointed out in a review of the games assets. And sure, they could've just doctored the image to remove the sexuality or gore. Why they didn't do that is less clear. My guess would be that the cards simply didn't have much identity, so aquiring new art is acceptable and cheaper than requesting edits to existing art. It's less likely that they'd go this route with cards like Kel'Thuzad given the flavor and identity of the card. If that's their logic, the Scourge should be safe from any major art changes.
Atleast the Secret Keeper, Harpy and Queen of Pain look better. I am okay with Evis and the bite change as the first one hasn't changed to much and the latter isn't terrible. Deadly Shot and Headcrack look meh to me.