Knights of the Frozen Throne is Hearthstone's Next Expansion
A new expansion for Hearthstone is releasing in August! Knights of the Frozen Throne will be adding a few brand new mechanics to the game so check out everything that is being added below.
- The expansion releases this August.
- More card reveals will begin on July 24.
- We're getting 135 new cards.
- Everyone dies! Each of the original heroes has a Death Knight version of themselves.
- A new card type is being added that allows you to put Heroes into your deck. This is used for Death Knights.
- Your Hero Power will change when you change your Hero.
- A new mechanic is being added to the game called Lifesteal. When you deal damage with Lifesteal, your hero heals for the amount of damage dealt.
- Deathrattle is making a comeback!
- The adventure portion of the expansion will be taking us to Icecrown Citadel.
- There are three wings followed by the final fight, The Lich King!
- You will earn 1 card pack for completing each wing.
- Completing the prologue of the expansion's adventure content rewards you with a Legendary Hero Card.
- A pre-order is available which will give out a sweet new card back - Frostmourne!
New Cards
Five new cards have been revealed along with a new hero power that goes along with Deathstalker Rexxar.
Discuss this Card Discuss this Card Discuss this Card Discuss this Card
Discuss this Card Discuss this Card
Pre-order Card Back
A new card back is available to those who pre-order the expansion. Frostmourne can be yours for $49.99.
- If you'd like to pre-order now, you can do so via the Battle.net shop.
- The card back reward will be available at a later date. The client requires a patch with the new card back before you can obtain it.
Cinematic
Reveal Video
Expansion Guide
Our usual expansion guide is live!
Updates to this will not happen until post event. You want to be right here on this news post for the latest and greatest news!
New Gameboard
Official Blog Post
Quote from BlizzardThe Scourge. Death Knights. The Lich King. These are among the most frightening, tragic elements of Azeroth’s past. The awful beings residing in Icecrown Citadel are dark, brooding, and terrifyingly powerful… but also really, really cool! The Hearthstone team knew they wanted to explore the story of the Lich King and his horrifying minions, but how to visit such grim themes while preserving the game's friendly and whimsical spirit?
The answer was obvious: kill EVERYBODY!
Well, not everybody. Just all nine Hearthstone heroes. . . In Hearthstone’s next expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, we ask the question: what happens when the heroes fall from the light? When the Lich King raises them from the dead as Death Knights, what will they do with the immense and terrible powers he gives them?
But who is this Lich King we speak of?
The Lord of the Scourge
The tale of the Lich King is a tragic one. It is the story of a young hero willing to take any risk and employ the most extreme measures to save his people. His fear and desperation drove him to take up the cursed runeblade, Frostmourne. While he did gain great power in the process, the promise of power was a trap. The evil in the blade consumed him, setting him on the path to become one of the most powerful and horrifying beings in existence: the Lich King.
As the Lich King, he manifests his strength in the physical realm as the strongest of the Death Knights—commanding power over mortal blood, freezing ice, and unholy corruption. When combined with the soul-devouring hunger of Frostmourne, he is an unstoppable, armor-clad juggernaut. If that weren’t enough, he also controls the vast undead army known as the Scourge from his Frozen Throne atop Icecrown Citadel.
All told, the Lich King and his minions represent one of the greatest threats to life on Azeroth. Foremost among those minions: the Death Knights!
Dead and Loving It
Each Death Knight was once a mighty hero of Azeroth—but after the Lich King raises a hero from the dead, they gain unimaginable strength from beyond the grave. In Knights of the Frozen Throne, each of Hearthstone’s nine heroes has embraced the Lich King’s dark power to serve him as a Legendary Death Knight Hero card! Despite their transformation, they have not fallen completely under the Lich King’s sway, so it’ll be up to you to decide how to wield the awesome abilities at their command.
Hero cards are an entirely new card type that are neither spell, minion, nor weapon. When played, each Death Knight Hero card replaces your hero, casts a Battlecry, dons some hefty armor, AND provides a new Hero Power. While each Death Knight hero is different, they all offer possibilities that can transform the way you play Hearthstone.
Deathstalker Rexxar
When Rexxar’s hunt came to a premature end, he was resurrected as Deathstalker Rexxar. When played, Deathstalker Rexxar fires a flurry of arrows—dealing 2 damage to all enemy minions—and replaces your hero, granting 5 armor and changing your Hero Power to Build-a-Beast.
Build-a-Beast allows Deathstalker Rexxar to stitch together a horrifying new Zombeast by ‘Discovering’ pieces of two former animal friends. The new creation combines all the stats of both creatures he’s sewn together; mana cost, attack, health, and card text. The beastly abomination is then added to Deathstalker Rexxar’s hand to later be unleashed on a hapless foe.
Terrifying indeed! Of course, there are many other threats to found within the Scourge.
The Hunger
Death Knights may be vicious combatants, but they are only a small fraction of the Lich King’s monstrous army. The legions of the Scourge are a menagerie of ravenous undead beings, from lowly ghouls and zombies to hulking, unspeakable abominations that have been stitched together from the flesh of countless victims. The teeming armies of the undead are as gruesome as they are deadly—so you can expect to find some potent abilities among their number!
Some of the Lich King’s spells and minions have the awful power to draw sustenance from the very life essence of a victim: Lifesteal. Lifesteal expands on an ability already found on some cards and gives it a new dedicated keyword. When a card with Lifesteal deals damage, your hero is healed for the same amount. A useful ability to have at hand when you’ve already got both feet in the grave.
Icecrown Citadel
The first steps you’ll take to join the Knights of the Frozen Throne will be within Icecrown Citadel. There you’ll be faced with eight Missions – new single-player content for Hearthstone. Beginning with the Prologue, and then proceeding through grueling battles with Icecrown Citadel’s mightiest denizens, your trial will culminate in a showdown with the Lich King!
Be forewarned! You may find that these are unlike the battles you’ve fought in the past. The forces of Icecrown Citadel are dangerous, and only the determined will prevail. The Lich King himself is a fiendishly difficult opponent, and his tactics will vary when facing each of the nine Classes.
Though you risk your soul merely by entering Icecrown Citadel, the Missions will cost you nothing! The rewards for braving them, however, are enticing indeed: after completing all the Missions, you’ll receive a total of three Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs. Completing the Prologue mission will also add a random Legendary Death Knight Hero card to your collection!
Pre-Purchase Knights of the Frozen Throne
The Lich King rewards devotion. Visit the Blizzard Shop and Pre-purchase 50 Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs for $49.99 USD and receive the soul-devouring Frostmourne card back now.
You will receive the Frostmourne card back and your packs as soon as your purchase is processed, and you can break the seal on your card packs once the expansion is live in your region in early August.
Embrace the Darkness
The dark walls of Icecrown Citadel loom are looming, but you can prepare for the trials ahead by visiting the official Knights of the Frozen Throne site. Hints of the Lich King’s influence pierce the mortal realm even now. Find them on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
We look forward to seeing what you will accomplish with the tremendous powers of the Death Knight when you join the Knights of the Frozen Throne!
Get Cheaper Packs!
This section contains affiliate links. They help the site!
Although you can't make use of this offer for the new packs yet, you can collect cards on the cheap from expansions by using Amazon Coins. It does require an Android device though since you need to install the Amazon Underground Appstore in order to get the correct Hearthstone app that lets you redeem the coins.
So go buy some Amazon Coins at a discount to get cheaper packs! You can save your coins for the launch or spend them on older packs now. Be sure to visit our guide to learn more about Amazon Coins.
Did Blizzard hire the design team from Farmville for this logo? Woof
Awesome gameboard <3
it says that we will get cardback immedietely after preodering but here on hearthpwn it says we need to wait until patch? when is the patch comming?
Next week (that's what me and my friends guess), the patch that it talks about is quest rogue nerf and wild sets becoming purchasable.
1 question here... how will dk heroes work with aquired heroes like Tyrande? :\
Heroes like Tyrande, Liandrin, Morgl, Magni, Khadgar, Medivh, Maiev will be replaced with the Hero Card of the original hero. There are only 9 Hero Cards, for the 9 originals. So Tyrande will become Deathknight Anduin
I prefer honeymustard
I just don't care what will be going on in the new expention. I was sooo waiting for an ICC patch, for the Lich King theme, ill play the game even if face Hunter will return)))
Is it just me, or the ICC was one of the best raids in WOW ever?
So, they are gonna give us Death Knight cards, and then rotate them out next year? That's kinda too bad, nothing major like this staying :/
yeah, well, it still seems to me like this kind of feature should stay in game forever, i.e. moved to Classic...it's not like a regular keyword that can have its moment and then be discarded, imho :S
I mean, if you think like that, then the same could be said of C'Thun cards, or Tri-Class cards, or Quests. It's just another cool mechanic for this expansion, that happens to be themed around Death Knights.
I feel like we'll probably see more Hero cards in the future, themed around something else. Just like we'll probably see Tri-Class cards and Quests again.
wow... I hope they don't mess with drop rates... I'm just saying...
They do, they said 100% legendary in the first 10 packs you open.
they never said better drop rates
no it is a one time event not a better drop rate
Don't know if anyone pointed it out before, but... What if you use "Deathstalker Rexxar" while you are using Alleria instead? How it is going to work exactly? Same for the other hero cards for other classes with more than one skin available.
Alleria is going to have a sex- and race-change surgery, will take some hormones to build muscle and be more masculine, then die, and be raised as a DK Rexxar.
View it as Rexxar getting revenge for being replaced by booting Alleria out