The Hearthstone team has announced new updates coming to the game, as well as some additional information on features, new cards, and more.
New Classic Cards
With each new Hearthstone year, we’ve chosen certain cards to rotate out of the Standard format. Some of those cards have been part of the Classic set, which is usually an evergreen part of the Standard format.
A few of those cards were also Class cards; but we want each Class to have a roughly equal number of cards available in the Classic set. To accomplish that, we’re adding four all-new cards to fill the gap.
Here are the new Class cards being added to the Classic set. You’ll be able to craft them or open them in Classic card packs next month here.
When designing these cards we were thinking about new players’ first experiences playing Hearthstone. They should be relatively straightforward while still creating some exciting moments and give players a chance to see and play with cards that they don’t own. At the same time, it’s important they aren’t so powerful that they limit future design.
New Player Experience Improvements
We’d like to ease new players into Hearthstone a little more gently, so we’re taking some steps toward improving the new player experience. Here’s what newcomers to the Hearthstone tavern can expect to find soon:
- New players won’t have access to Casual Mode, and will start at the new Rank 50
- Ranks 50 through 26 will be for new players only
- Just like ranks 25 through 20, players can’t lose Stars while ranking up
- Once a player achieves Rank 25, they’ll never drop below that rank again.
In-game Tournaments Update
Earlier this year, we talked about adding a new feature to Hearthstone that would make it easier to organize tournaments for Fireside Gatherings and private events. Unfortunately, In-game Tournaments are now on hold, so we wanted to take this opportunity to explain why.
We have a lot of plans to improve many features of Hearthstone, including its social experience, and In-game Tournaments are an important part of that. Tournaments can target many different audiences, but the implementation we’d arrived at catered to a very specific audience of players. Instead of broadening Hearthstone with an exciting new way to play, it felt “tacked on”, and wasn’t integrating well into the larger Hearthstone experience.
Ultimately, we were forced to conclude that we needed to think about how and where we want to improve Hearthstone’s overall social experience before we can tackle adding a satisfying and robust implementation of In-game Tournaments that all players can enjoy. As developers, sometimes we have to make the difficult decision to step away from a design that isn’t working. We no longer felt that the end result would deliver on everyone’s expectations or the high standards we have for Hearthstone.
As a result, while we want to revisit In-Game Tournaments at a later date, the feature is on hold for the foreseeable future.
Something Spooky This Way Comes
The Headless Horseman returns for another Hallow’s End event starting October 17! The Tavern will be decked out in horrific fashion, the dual Class Arena returns, players will face the Headless Horseman in the Tavern Brawl, and more.
Hallow’s End also marks the arrival of a friendly new Paladin Hero who will be available for purchase as a part of a special deal, Sir Annoy-o!
Updated Welcome Bundle
The new Welcome Bundle coming soon will still offer 10 Classic card packs at a low price. But instead of a random Legendary card, it will now include one of six Legendary dragons from the Classic set: Alexstrasza, Deathwing, Malygos, Nozdormu, Onyxia, or Ysera!
And even if you’ve purchased the Welcome Bundle before, you’ll be able to grab this one, too!
Check out the blog for more detailed information on all these updates and more.
