Fractured in Alterac Valley is coming soon and with it, 135 new cards enter constructed play in Hearthstone. The launch of an expansion is a joyous time but it can also be stressful with so many new cards and decks to explore. Welcome to the Out of Cards Fractured in Alterac Valley Survival Guide where we're going to make that introduction into battle a little bit easier.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Fast Facts
- 135 new cards have been added to the game - Visit our Fractured in Alterac Valley Expansion Guide to see them all.
- Hero Cards Return - Our mercenary friends are the focus of these beloved cards. They feature powerful Battlecries and Hero Powers.
- New Keyword: Honorable Kill - Bonus effect if the card deals exact lethal to an enemy minion on your turn.
- Objective Spells - They last for three turns and provide you with a benefit for their duration.
- There is a faction war taking place during the expansion:
- You'll choose which faction to join - Horde or Alliance.
- You receive a golden legendary card for your faction leader in Alterac Valley.
- At the end of a questline, you'll get the opposing faction leader as a golden legendary.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Freebies
We've got a few freebies with Fractured in Alterac Valley, though they will not all be available right away, one even requiring that you work toward it.
- Logging in, everyone can choose to go with the Horde or Alliance which rewards either Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike.
- Once the expansion launches, completing a Legendary Quest Chain will reward you with the faction leader you didn't choose.
- A Diamond card will be given out to all players based on the winning faction's general.
It is important that we point out that you can open the opposing faction leader in card packs even though they can be earned on the legendary questline. This is due to there being the possibility that you want this card and may never finish the questline. The downside is that if you do complete the legendary questline, that we've got details on below, you run into a problem where you can't disenchant the normal version of the card for the full dust value. It's not a great situation and we're hoping Blizzard will address this in the future because it feels like an oversight. Not that we should be complaining about free stuff, but it does feel like we're losing some pack value.
Reminder: Sync Your Collection to Out of Cards Automatically
We've got a plugin available for Hearthstone Deck Tracker! You can use this plugin to automatically sync your collection which can help you find decks to play on the site with personalized crafting costs.
- You can access your collection manager by using your user dropdown on the site's navigation. Click "HS Collection".
- Collections are private and are not shared with other users.
- Calculations are performed in-browser to prevent the servers from melting.
If you were having crash problems, this was fixed in our most recent update. Please reinstall the plugin from the link above or click here.
Earn Honor to Progress Your Legendary Quests!
During the event, everyone will earn Honor points by playing games in Standard, Wild, Classic, Arena, and Duels with wins providing more honor.
Here is a breakdown on how much honor you can earn per game:
- 10 Honor for every game played
- 10 more Honor for every game won (20 total)
- 20 more Honor for every game won versus an opponent of the enemy faction (40 total)
These Honor Points will contribute to your Legendary Questline which grants you golden rare card rewards and a golden legendary card at the end. You can see the Horde and Alliance versions of these questline rewards (they're the same, just a different order based on faction) over in our dedicated article. The faction questlines will be available throughout the entire expansion so you have around 4 months to grind out around 300 games.
Hero Cards Return to Hearthstone as Our Mercenaries
Whether you love them or hate them, we can all agree that Hero cards have made a big impact in the history of Hearthstone and its about time every class gets to equip themselves with a powerhouse. A really neat bit of trivia about them is that all our classic classes (not you, Demon Hunter) are equipped using their World of Warcraft "Dungeon Set 1" gear. These are the first end-game sets of gear characters can collect in WoW before they enter raids which means all the Mercenary characters have leveled up to 60 - we're so proud!
It would be crazy to list them all, but here's a taste of the new Hero cards that have arrived. You can find all of them over on our expansion guide - click on the cards to go to their database pages to see their hero powers.
What Is Honorable Kill?
Honorable Kill is a brand new keyword that is making its Hearthstone debut in Fractured in Alterac Valley. This keyword triggers the stated effect if the card it is attached to deals exact lethal damage to a character. If an enemy (or friendly) minion has 2 health and you deal 3 damage to it, that's a no go. The health of the target must resolve to 0 to trigger the effect.
- Honorable Kill can trigger as many times as long as you meet its condition.
- Honorable Kill works on friendly characters too.
Here are are a few examples of cards with Honorable Kill.
But wait, a challenger approaches! Not only do Honorable Kills matter, but Korrak is an interesting legendary which requires that he gets honorably killed or he'll come back! There's a cool interaction with this card and Counterfeit Blade. If you pickup his Deathrattle on the blade, when the blade breaks, you'll summon Korrak!
What Are Objective Spells?
Objective Spells aren't a unique card type or keyword but rather a group of spells that share similar functionality. The core identity of an objective spell is that it has a duration of 3 turns once cast and can be identified as having the text "Lasts 3 turns."
Each class received their own objective spell in the expansion, here's a few of them to see what is possible.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Diamond Cards
Two cards are getting the Diamond treatment with Alterac Valley - Korrak the Bloodrager and Balinda Stonehearth! A third one will be made available at a later date based on the faction war.
Korrak is obtained instantly when you purchase the Alterac Tavern Pass with Balinda being a reward for owning 25 Alterac Valley legendary cards.
New Fractured in Alterac Valley Achievements
Blizzard has added a fresh batch of achievements to the game for Fractured in Alterac Valley. If you're looking to farm experience, these have some great potential in helping you complete the rewards track earlier than by just playing games alone. You can check out all the new achievements here which includes those that do and don't reward experience.
Remember: Once the next expansion comes out, in March or April of 2022, Fractured in Alterac Valley achievements will no longer reward XP, so do them while they are worth it!
Fractured in Alterac Valley Day 1 Theorycraft Budget Decks
Our own Sule has put together a list of nine budget decks you may want to give a shot if you're playing Hearthstone on a budget or you just want something easy you can dive into and upgrade.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Day 1 Theorycraft Wild Decks
It wouldn't be an expansion launch without Frosty taking care of the wild side of the community in our round up that features some great community lists that make use of the new questlines.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Day 1 Theorycraft Standard Decks
We've got a round of theorycrafted decks for Standard players straight out of our card reviews! Click on any of these to go to the deck pages and get yourself a deck code for importing.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Class Reviews
Our team of definitely-never-been-wrong-before writers have put together reviews on each of Hearthstone's 10 classes. If you're looking to kill some time before the launch or need to do some last-minute catching up on the cards, we highly recommend checking them all out. You may even learn something!
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Fractured in Alterac Valley Community Compendium
I voted, you voted, we all voted; And then the math gods did some calculations and the scores are in! Our Fractured in Alterac Valley Community Compendium is now live and showcases the best and worst cards before we got a chance to play with them. How well will we do? We'll have to check back in a few weeks!
See you all out there in Fractured in Alterac Valley - may the best faction win!
Comments
There's a mistake, you used the Valeera Book of Heroes version of the hero power "Sleight of Hand" rather than the Scabbs' one.
Just noticed the same and fixed it; the wrong Sleight of Hand might cause some "happy" matches if it truly was the collectible card's Hero Power.