Add a very massive patch following right after one of the biggest Hearthstone announcements to date, and you are more than likely to end up with a recipe for equally massive headaches. Or perhaps the game has simply decided that a show of solidarity was in order to match our own notable site issues. Be that as it may, we all know the pains of early update days very well at this point. If something can go wrong, it usually does go wrong. Unfortunately this time was no exception. 

The expected droves of Hearthstone players rushing in to check out all the Death Knight novelties might have had something to do with the very unstable client/server processing. We've both heard about and experienced various latency issues, slow screen transitions and laggy games, or even problems with accessing the in-game collection and deckbuilder. A large part of the community reported being forced to restart the game after every single match played. Bad news all around. 

If you've found yourself in a similar position (some of us got lucky and weren't particularly affected), it's important to note that the overall client performance might have already improved, with Features Lead Celestalon communicating the following on behalf of the team: 

Quote From Celestalon
We've got a new client build in flight, that will hopefully solve a bunch of the intermittent issues being experienced. Starting with just PC in EU right now, and will expand to other platforms/regions as we verify that it's working right. Let us know if the lag/issues stop!
 

Quote From Celestalon
The new client build is 24.6.0.154818, and it does seem to be solving the largest issues. This is now an optional update for everyone on PC/Mac. Working on Android/iOS next.
 

So if you've noticed your Battle.net desktop clients or mobile storefronts showing available updates, that's why. Hopefully it's going to be enough. As usual, we'll be keeping this space up to date meanwhile. There are also a few other points of interest, as posted in the regular dedicated thread on the official Blizzard forums. 

General Issues

You might've noticed the Hearthstone in-game shop had a slight revamp, including the displaying method for certain offers. It has a slight issue, as well. 

Besides that, some mobile players have been less fortunate than others. 

Quote From Blizzard

  • The team is aware that the back button from the Shop has a slightly smaller responsive area than intended, and is too close to the products, leading to players sometimes missing the button. This will be resolved in a future patch.
  • [Update, 11/2] The team is aware that some Amazon users are having issues installing and updating to 24.6, this is currently being investigated.
 

Battlegrounds 

Cosmetic woes. With the amount of them being produced plus high-intensity animations and particle effects that some of the Battlegrounds Strikes utilize, something was bound to break the game sooner or later. Watch out for your toys! 

Quote From Blizzard

  • The Reaper’s Toll Battlegrounds Strike has been temporarily disabled, as it is causing disconnections when eliminating a player. It can still be marked as your favorite, but the effect will not trigger in-game. It will be reenabled once the issue is resolved.
  • [Update, 11/2] A hotfix is being deployed to fix the Reaper’s Toll Battlegrounds Strike issue, in addition to adding general server stability. Reaper’s Toll will become available again once this update has deployed to all platforms.

Plus one minion forced to sit it out, for the time being. Beware of the Faceless. 

Quote From Blizzard

  • [Update, 11/2] One Battlegrounds Minion, Faceless Disciple, has been temporarily disabled due to it causing crashes in the 24.6 update.
 

Mercenaries

As Mysterious Stranger is no more, the mystery node has been replaced by the Cursed Treasure! instead. Except, of course the transition wasn't smooth. Those of us who had a Bounty run in progress which stopped exactly right before what used to be a Mysterious Stranger tile before the patch are now stuck. Just wonderful. 

Quote From Blizzard

  • The team is investigating reports that a small number of Mercenaries players got “stuck” in a Bounty if they started that Bounty with a Mystery Node before the 24.6 patch and then attempted to complete the Bounty after the patch. Players should be able to Retire the run to “unstick” themselves.
 

Gee, thanks Blizzard. I definitely want to retire my Heroic Bounty run that's just a couple nodes away from completion, and get nothing for it in exchange. 

Mysterious Stranger Card Image Cursed Treasure! Card Image

Patch 24.6 - Other Bug Fixes and Improvements 

When the major patch was released on Tuesday, it also included the usual compilation of various little updates. In case they haven't been on your radar up until now, everything is listed below for easy reference. We definitely approve of being able to skip Tutorials! 

Quote From Blizzard

  • [Quests] Some Daily and Weekly Quests will now include an arrow at the bottom. Press this arrow to be taken directly to the part of the client where that Quest can be completed.
  • [Hearthstone] The Hearthstone tutorial can now be skipped by pressing “Leave Tutorial” in the in-game menu.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Blademaster Okani’s ability could be wasted if a spell was also Countered at the same time by Ice Trap.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual mobile bug with destroying a Location with Demolition Renovator.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Reno the Relicologist could cause disconnects under certain conditions.
  • [Battlegrounds] The Battlegrounds Track will now open to the page of the most recently earned item.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where some Alternate Bartenders were not saying their voicelines as frequently as expected.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bugged interaction between the Time Thief Darkmoon Prize and the Secret Sinstone Quest Reward.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where minions summoned off the Evil Twin Quest Reward were not copied by Khadgar. There remains a visual bug where the now copied Evil Twins will not have their mustaches; we will award them the appropriate facial hair in a later patch.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Leeroy Jenkins killed the last minion that damaged him, not the one that dealt him lethal damage.
  • [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug where Ysera’s Nightmare Ability was being treated as a Nature Ability instead of a Shadow Ability.
  • [Mercenaries] Fixed a bug where Genn’s Smooth Transformation Equipment would trigger while he was on the bench.
  • [Achievements] Fixed a bug with the “One of the Classic Blunders” Achievement.
  • [Achievements] Fixed a bug with the “Shut Up, Dad” Achievement.
  • [Collection] You can now search “tag:imp” or “tag:whelp” to return all cards in your collection that have those tags. You can type just “imp” if you want all text matches as well as all cards with the Imp tag.
  • [Misc.] Fixed a bug causing computer opponents to make unexpected plays.

This list will probably grow over the coming days as new bugs come up, and then ideally shrink once relevant hotfixes start getting deployed. As always, we'll keep you posted! Check back for updates at a later date, and let us know in case you've stumbled upon any other issues with Patch 24.6.