We've got the first card reveal for Hearthstone's upcoming Alterac Valley expansion and its a Shaman legendary! Name is not confirmed.
Blizzard hasn't officially started the card reveal season yet for Alterac Valley, nor have they confirmed the name of the expansion, but Eurogamer has taken it upon themselves to leak their card reveal ahead of time. It's quite fitting considering how messy things have been with not much news from Blizzard for their huge Global Inn-vitational taking place this weekend. The leak also gives us a look at the set's new icon!
The new icon.
Could the big expansion reveal be next week with sites that are taking part in card reveals already getting their cards? Given that we'll see a client patch for some card balance changes next week, it would make sense for a pre-order to also go live then. We'll certainly find out real soon and I'm sure all of our sleeping schedules are incredibly excited.
We've got a translated version of Eurogamer's article below and the original because we're expecting it to get deleted once Blizzard notices.
Quote From Eurogamer.it (Translated) Blizzard hasn't been talked about particularly well lately, given the huge scandal that hit it. We discussed it far and wide, following its evolution, up to the modification of the names and costumes of some characters in order to clean up the image a little. However, it seems that the World of Warcraf spin-off, Hearthstone , has so far escaped such changes.
The card game therefore continues to be updated, even with new cards and, exclusively , we can show you the one dedicated to Barorso Gla'cius :
The White Wolves and the Pickaxers have both claimed the Vale. Little did they know they were trampling on the frozen kingdom of Barorso Gla’cius. Whispered tales of His Majesty ran through the ranks. Most dismissed them as bad jokes. Those who listened could seek her out in the treacherous wilderness of Alterac.
Quote From Eurogamer.it Ultimamente di Blizzard non se n'è parlato particolarmente bene, visto l'enorme scandalo che l'ha colpita. Ne abbiamo discusso in lungo e in largo, seguendone l'evoluzione, sino alla modifica di nomi e costumi di alcuni personaggi al fine di ripulire un po' l'immagine. Sembra però che lo spin-off di World of Warcraf, Hearthstone, abbia per ora scampato tali modifiche.
Il gioco di carte continua dunque ad aggiornarsi, anche con nuove carte e, in esclusiva, possiamo mostrarvi quella dedicata a Barorso Gla'cius:
"I Lupi Bianchi e i Picconatori hanno entrambi rivendicato la Valle. Non sapevano che stavano calpestando il regno ghiacciato di Barorso Gla'cius. I racconti sussurrati su Sua Maestà correvano tra i ranghi. I più li liquidavano come brutti scherzi. Quelli che ascoltavano potevano cercarla nelle infide terre selvagge di Alterac."
Comments
"Frostchampion Brukan" as hero?
I doubt it. The 2 legendaries each class gets usually support two different Archetypes.
Popsicle Bru'kan
Not gonna lie, I had to do a double take and make sure I didn't somehow miss April 1st (in the middle of November).
I guess it just follows that after Shadow Priest and Control HUnter they'd try to make yet another meme of the past happen.
Kislev.
Only like 2 years late, but Freeze Shaman is back on the menu boys!
Well, yeah. It's been on ice this whole time.
Time flies really fast: it was actually 4 years ago when Knights of the Frozen Throne was released.
Moorabi returns!
well ... he never really went anywhere ^^
There have been a few Frost Shaman cards before, glad to see something to maybe make it viable
Oh no... they are going to try this shit again...
If nothing else, this one support card already looks dramatically better than any of ones from KotFT.
Given that we also get a Core Set reset next year, I wouldn't be shocked to see Moorabi and other Wild Frost cards be sent to the Core set
Hang on a second. If this is one of shaman's legendaries, then either the mercenary characters won't get a legendary card this time, or Drek'thar (the guy who renounced being a warlock and returned the orcs to their honourable shamanistic past, and personally taught Thrall shamanism too) isn't a shaman card.
I suspect the latter is more likely, which just feels wrong. It has echoes of the missing Mathias Shaw last expansion, who was a sure-fire rogue card replaced by some random HS-original orc... in a set about Stormwind of all places! Come on Blizz, you better at least have made Drek'thar neutral, and not make him suffer the same indignity Shaw did.
Drek'thar might be neutral (or tied into some other mechanic) considering he's the general for the Horde in Alterac Valley. We don't know anything about the set's mechanics yet. Maybe he'll be a Druid/Mage/Shaman/Warlock/Warrior card and Vanndar Stormpike will be a DH/Hunter/Paladin/Priest/Rogue card, or something like that.
Despite the obvious story reasons for them, penta-class cards seem a touch overkill; they might as well just be fully neutral at that point. Nevertheless, you are of course right that we don't know what the main set mechanics are, and Drek'thar and Vanndar might be their flag-bearers. Let's hope they are.
There's actually a small chance that the mercs dont actually feature in its entirety in the next expansion. Tamsin's dead dead, and Cariel as well as Kurtrus's arcs are complete. The only incomplete arc is currently Xyrella's, and its likely that Tavish and Varden will be there. But Guff, Brukan, Rokara, and Scabbs have actually little to no reason to continue beyond this point.
Drek'thar seems like someone that will be in the miniset as a marquee, like how Edwin and Naralex was before. I wouldn't be surprised to not see him in the expansion, but certainly in the miniset. Admitably my WoW knowledge here is limited, so I dont know where the miniset would be placed in the region.
Scabbs' arc hasn't even begun yet, since he's just been a tag-along who we know was sent by SI:7 to recover a naaru shard, but that's about it. I suspect his sleuthing exposing Onyxia as the nefarious driver of the overarching naaru shard stuff will kick off act 3 of the story. We currently have no idea why anyone except maybe Rokara and Tavish (both for clan reasons) would go to AV in the first place, so we're probably still in Stormwind for the next installment, and only Scabbs has anything interesting left to do there. It would mean breaking the alternating Horde and Alliance sequence of the story, but it would make sense that Scabbs is more or less solo for most of it, and in fact he might spend more time with the Horde crew rescuing Varden from the Stockades than his Alliance buddies who are all caught up with Tamsin's mess.
Back on Drek'thar, he's the biggest name in AV, and unlike Edwin or Naralex he's right in the thick of it, not siphoned off to a dungeon. Leaving him out of the main set makes me wonder what exactly the AV theme would be doing that they dismiss the biggest characters from the roster.
I'd be very cautious about Tamsin staying dead. She died once already, it just seems like a formality. It'd be really weird if all the mercs make it back except her and she just gets replaced by some complete randie.
Then again, I have no idea where this story is going in the first place so who knows.