Exactly How the Upcoming Legendary Drop Changes Will Work
We're getting closer to the next Hearthstone expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, and with the launch of the expansion we're going to have some very welcome changes to how Legendary cards will be dropping from card packs. Due to some confusion out there about exactly how this will work, and a recent update on it from Daxxarri, it seems like a good time to go over it.
How Legendary Drops Will Work
The following will only be true AFTER the Knights of the Frozen Throne patch goes live. This will happen sometime in August.
You will no longer receive duplicate Legendary cards.
- If a specific Legendary is in your collection, it will not drop again from packs until you've acquired all the legendaries from that same set.
- Golden cards and Normal cards are considered the same for the purposes of this feature.
- Disenchanting a Legendary removes it from your collection which allows it to once again be found in packs. Ew.
- No longer do we need to feel bad about crafting a Legendary and then immediately after opening it up from a pack. Woot!
You will receive a guaranteed Legendary within the first 10 card packs opened of a new set.
- This will remain the case long after an expansion has come out. Great for new players or players who have been absent from the game.
- Players who have opened 1 or more packs from a specific set prior to the change going live will not receive this bonus for that set.
Completing the Frozen Throne Prologue gets you a Death Knight Legendary.
- Upon completion of the Prologue, you will receive a random Death Knight Legendary card.
- This Legendary uses the same no dupes rule that is described above.
- We don't know if future expansions will do something similar through their mission content, but it would be cool.
The Starter Pack Legendary follows the non-dupe rule too!
- The Classic Legendary card you get from the starter pack won't be a duplicate.
- If you own all the Classic class legendaries though, you will get a dupe.
- This is sourced from Yong Woo on twitter.
Our Recommendations
- Don't open any card packs you obtain from now until the expansion. This is because before the expansion goes live, you're still able to obtain duplicate legendaries and that would be sad.
- Hit up the weekly brawl to get that classic pack. It will help put a dent into that pity timer!
- Save your gold. If you aren't already saving your gold, it's not too late to start. A few Icecrown packs will be good to go.
- When the Frost Festival begins, play arena! You're going to get a free run each week during the Frost Festival. This will give you Un'Goro packs and an Icecrown pack.
- Use Amazon Coins to Save on Card Packs! You can buy packs at a discount with the currency provided you have an Android device that can launch Hearthstone.
Recent Updates
Quote from DaxxarriUnfortunately, no. If you've opened any packs of a set before the change goes live, you won't receive a Legendary in your first 10 packs.
However, you will get that legendary for any new sets that come out, and for any sets that you never acquired any packs for.
So how does this apply to golden and non-golden legendaries ? If I have ALL of the legendaries in that expansion, will I start getting only golden ones, or will I start getting duplicates ?
"Golden cards and Normal cards are considered the same for the purposes of this feature."
Of course, after you will receive all Legendaries, you will receiving Normal or Golden cards with the chances as it was before the changes.(Do you know anyone who receiving only golden cards now, even if he has full golden collection?)
You.. omg
Really want this to be implemented a year or so earlier...
Before I opened the 3rd Anomalus...
Your telling me, I got 4 Unite the Murlocs. I didn't even think that was possible...until it happened.
My first 8 legendaries? 3 King Mosh, 2 Pyros, 3 Hemet, Jungle Hunter.
To have 3 legendaries, only one playable, after 100+ packs and NONE OF THEM QUESTS in an expansion that was all about the quests, was extremely frustrating. Luckily I had a ton of dust from the rotation to craft what I wanted, but pack opening still felt disappointing because of that.* If the no duplicate rules had been in effect, I would have had 5 more legendaries to play with.
* - Fun fact, I finally opened my first quest card at about 150 packs: The Last Kaleidosaur.
You will, it means that if you opened any Un'Goro pack (for example) the 10 packs new rule won't work, it will only work on any set that you haven't openned yet.
Another Recommendation:
If there is a specific legendary that you want a golden version of, craft a golden version before opening packs. Otherwise, you might open a non-golden version and still need to craft the golden one. If you craft it first you're guaranteed for that not to happen. Of course, you might've pulled the golden version if you hadn't crafted it, but the odds are extremely slim.
This is for people like me who often want at least one specific Legendary as gold (I crafted Kazakas and Elise the Trailblazer as such).
You can also disenchant a non golden leg you want in gold before opening 20+ packs from that set, given you own the complete collection of legs for that set, if you find it non golden, dust again when rdy to open 20+
I'm disappointed that they're considering a golden legendary and normal legendary one in the same. :(
Here's a wrinkle I haven't seen clarified yet.
Will the "legendary in first 10 packs" rule apply to players who have never opened a pack from an expansion that already exists? Standard and wild?
What if they've never opened a pack from an expansion, but they have crafted 1 card from it?
I ask because my wife started playing after the first rotation and never had a chance to buy GvG packs. But she did craft a Piloted Shredder once for a brawl before she really understood the costs of crafting stuff.
Also, I have a friend who just started playing this past week. Told him to hold off on opening any packs besides classic until the new expansion drops. Hoping the rule will net him a few legendaries when he dives into the other standard sets.
It says "Players who have opened 1 or more packs from a specific set prior to the change going live will not receive this bonus for that set." so to me that means that as long as they don't open any packs from a set until after the expansion, they should get a legendary in the first ten packs.
Yeah, I agree that's a good assumption considering the info we have, and that's probably the case. It's just this wrinkle of owning cards in a set in which you haven't opened packs hasn't been specifically addressed. So there's a little ambiguity there. I'd like to see the devs say, "When you started playing is not a factor. Having cards in a set is not a factor. Only the act of opening a pack from a set prior to the change matters."
It's nitpicking, I know. But I'd still feel better getting my friend hooked on this game right now if they clarified it for me.
Only for the legendaries I'm afraid
I have a legit question.
I just finished a 12 win Arena run, and in the rewardboxes I found a legendary! A first for me. However... It was a third White Eyes.
Will duplicate legendaries still pop up in rewardboxes, or will these also always be new ones?
I believe this will be in effect in ANY form or fashion that you receive new cards as a reward. Blizzard gave the example of the free Hero Card legendary we will get from the KOFT Prologue. If you happen to open all of your packs before doing the Prologue and say, get 2 or 3 Hero Cards, the random free one you receive abides by the new rules and will not be a dupe. So I take that to mean that you would have not received a duplicate White Eyes if this were after the update.
"If a specific Legendary is in your collection, it will not drop again from packs until you've acquired all the legendaries from that same set."
Receiving from another sources doesn't count, so yes, you can receive duplicates as reward in Arena. (Arena is not a Pack)
P.S. Legendary card from Arena...what a lucky person. I never got it.
yeah, I asked because of that line. It doesn't specify anywhere.
And yes, even though it was a third White Eyes, I too never got a legendary this way. Sure was lucky, but its only an epic in my case.. (dust)
Why exactly do we need to wait for the legendary change? Seems like a general QoL thing that could be implemented immediately.
Guys i have qustion. I have 2 copies of a legendary, will i get 1600 dust anyhow after changes apply?