The Year of the Raven is Coming to Hearthstone
Caw Caw! The Hearthstone Zodiac for the new year has been announced!
The Rundown
- Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Karazhan, and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan will rotate out with Year of the Raven.
- Ice Block, Coldlight Oracle, and Molten Giant are being added to the Hall of Fame set.
- Molten Giant is going back to 20 mana!
- You will receive free arcane dust for any cards you have that are moving to the Hall of Fame without needing to disenchant the cards.
- Some Daily Quests are becoming easier to complete with reduced requirements.
- Daily Quests that rewarded you with 40 gold will now reward 50 instead.
- In-game Tournaments are coming to Hearthstone. Beta for tournaments to begin around the middle of the year.
- Lunara is being added to the game as the first alternative Druid hero.
- Maiev will no longer be available to collect starting with the first new expansion of the year. If you already own her, she's yours forever.
- A stream will be taking place on March 2 with Ben Brode and Yong Woo for a new year Q&A.
Cards Moving From Classic to Wild
Just like last year, we're seeing some cards moving out of the Classic set and into the Hall of Fame. They will only be playable in the Wild format.
Discuss The Move
Discuss The Move
Discuss The Move
Year of the Raven Video
Announcement Post
Quote from BlizzardEach Hearthstone Year is symbolized by one of the zodiac constellations twinkling in Azeroth’s night sky. The moment when a new constellation comes into alignment heralds the start of the year and a time of jubilation and raucous revelry wherever Hearthstone is played!
This year, we wave farewell to the Year of the Mammoth, and prepare to greet the Year of the Raven!
Set Rotation is Coming
Two years ago, we introduced a New Way to Play, which brought the Standard and Wild game formats to Hearthstone.
In order to keep Hearthstone exciting and accessible as more cards are added, Standard allows players to use the most recently released cards, as well as a core of Basic and Classic cards. Our intention with Standard is to keep the game feeling fresh for all of our players, and to allow newer players to jump into Hearthstone quickly, without the need to collect lots of cards to build a competitive deck. Standard also gives our developers more freedom when designing new cards for the future.
When we release the first new expansion each year, every set that wasn’t released in the same year or the year prior will cycle out and no longer be part of the Standard format.
If you want cards for Wild play or just to fill out your collection, you’ll be able to craft them using Arcane Dust—even cards from Adventures (like One Night in Karazhan) that were previously un-craftable.
While no longer be available for purchase in-game, you can also purchase content that is exclusive to Wild from the online shop.
On Raven’s Wings
Hearthstone’s astrological clock is tick-tocking toward the new Hearthstone Year, and when the next expansion arrives, you’ll also be greeted with an Standard format!
You’ll be able to build Standard decks using the following sets:
- Basic
- Classic
- Journey to Un’Goro
- Knights of the Frozen Throne
- Kobolds & Catacombs
- The first 2018 expansion
Meanwhile, the following sets become exclusive to Wild, along with all previous sets:
- Whispers of the Old Gods
- One Night in Karazhan
- Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
A new Hearthstone Year also means three new expansions! Can you guess what the future holds in store?
Hall of Fame Inductees
To help meet the goal of keeping Hearthstone fresh, certain cards from the Classic set will become exclusive to the Wild format. These cards will be added to the Hall of Fame set. This year, the following cards will be promoted to the Hall of Fame:
Ice Block – This Mage secret is a powerful card, and has been the centerpiece of Standard decks for years. It’s time to make more room for new Mage decks in Standard.
Coldlight Oracle – Coldlight Oracle is becoming exclusive to Wild for several reasons. It offers unusually strong neutral card draw which can be detrimental to class identity. Its “downside” can destroy opponent's cards and prevent opponents from playing the deck they built—which in turn limits some designs related to Battlecry and effects that return a minion to hand.
Taken individually, any one of these reasons might have been enough to prompt a promotion to the Hall of Fame, but when viewed as a whole, we feel that it’s time for Coldlight Oracle to leave Standard play.
Molten Giant – Moving Molten Giant to the Hall of Fame allows us to revert it to its original mana cost, giving players a chance to experiment with decks featuring Molten Giants in the Wild format.
Just like last year, you can keep your copies of these card once they move to the Hall of Fame, and you’ll be granted Arcane Dust as if you had disenchanted them (up to the maximum number that can be used in a deck).
The dust will be automatically awarded once you log-in after the Year of the Raven begins.
Quicker Quests
With the arrival of Hearthstone’s next expansion, quests are about to get better! The requirements for almost every quest will be reduced to make them faster to complete, and all 40 gold quests will now award 50 gold instead. Quests that awarded more than 50 gold will still have the same rewards, but with reduced requirements. Quests that only required a single game to be played, such as Play a Friend, will remain the same.
Here are some examples:
Only the Mighty
OLD: Play 20 minions that cost 5 or more. Reward 40 gold
NEW: Play 12 minions that cost 5 or more. Reward: 50 goldClass Victory
OLD: Win 2 games with one of two Classes. Reward: 40 gold.
NEW: Win 1 game with one of two Classes. Reward: 50 goldClass Mastery
OLD: Play 50 Class cards. Reward: 60 gold
NEW: Play 30 Class cards. Reward: 60 goldWe’re not stopping here—we’ve got our eye on more quests improvements for the future!
In-game Tournaments
We’re working on a feature that will help you run a Hearthstone tournament from your own home or Fireside Gathering! You’ll be able to create a custom tournament and invite your friends--all from within the Hearthstone game client. To start, the feature will include matchmaking and checking decks, but we’ll continue to add new features and functionality over time.
We’re planning to launch in-game tournaments as a beta around the middle of this year, but that's just the beginning. There's a lot of potential to explore as we expand on this very early version of in-game tournaments, and your feedback will help us shape them over the course of the coming year and beyond.
New Druid Hero: Lunara
Lunara is the eldest daughter of the demi-god Cenarius. While her sisters, the dryads, embody peace and the serene beauty of nature, Lunara’s apple didn’t fall far from her father’s tree—she’s a relentless defender of the wilderness and immortal proof that nature is red in claw and thorn.
When your dad is a demi-god, and your grandparents are the goddess of the Moon and a god of the Wild, you’ve got a reputation to uphold. Lunara is more than up to the task.
Win 10 games of Hearthstone in Standard Ranked or Casual mode after the next expansion officially launches to add this ferocious champion of the wild to your Collection.
Last chance for Maiev! With the launch of the first new expansion of 2018, you will no longer be able to acquire the quest to obtain Maiev Shadowsong. If you’ve been away, be sure to obtain Maiev before the next expansion arrives so you don’t miss your chance!
Fireside Gathering Fun
If you’re not familiar with Fireside Gatherings, they’re a great way to get out and meet people just as passionate about Hearthstone as you are! Fireside Gatherings mean a lot to us, and we’re working on even more features to support them during the Year of the Raven!
Raven’s Watch
Want to know more about the Year of the Raven? Ask your questions in the comments, then tune into the official Hearthstone Twitch.tv stream on March 2 at 11:00 am PST to join Game Director Ben Brode and Lead Producer Yong Woo for a Q&A session about the new Hearthstone Year!
Thanks for joining us! We’re excited to share a new Hearthstone year with you, and we’ll see you in the Tavern!
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/186076-ultimate-dust-guide-for-hall-of-fame-cards
This is a comprehensive guide for how this all works. But yes I think you're right.
"Our intention with Standard is to keep the game feeling fresh for all of our players, and to allow newer players to jump into Hearthstone quickly, without the need to collect lots of cards to build a competitive deck"
True enough, to build A competitive deck, you still need only 30 cards. 30 is not "a lot". Sadly, the cost for A competitive deck has gone up quite a lot. Most decks in 2014 and 2015 costed roughly around 3k to 4k wheres nowadays, very few are under 5k, and those are considered "cheap". Many others are around 7k, or around 10k. To be fair, the cost of older decks was lower because adventure cards appear in the statistics as "free", but then again, a full adventure was a whole lot cheaper than just half an expansion.
The quality and presence of the strongest decks have increased a lot as well, actually making it harder then ever for new players to "quickly" get into Hearthstone. The new player experience is actually quite terrible, and it has been so since MSG. Three expansions per year has made that experience even worse, especially for those who don't have much money to spend. The introduction of Standard mode was promising at first, but it has done very little to make it easier for new players to get into the game. Things will get a little better with the rotation, sure, but even then, Standard will feature 4 full sets + Classic. Even at this new starting point, there will be more cards around than right before Standard was introduced.
"If you want cards for Wild play or just to fill out your collection, you’ll be able to craft them using Arcane Dust—...
While no longer be available for purchase in-game, you can also purchase content that is exclusive to Wild from the online shop."
RIP Wild. Seriously, this was stupid in 2016, it is still stupid in 2018, and it is the biggest middle finger in the face of anybody who wants to really get into Wild mode or just enjoy older content. I cannot believe their stubborness in keeping all Wild sets behind a paywall without any decent reason why. Not only do I not get it, I think it seriously hurts the format, the game as a whole, and makes any events like the upcoming Tavern Brawl quite unfair to anyone who joined the game after the WOG release. This is about as stupid as Ben Brode saying about the new Warsong Commander: "new players don't understand how good this effect really is".
"Coldlight Oracle – Coldlight Oracle is becoming exclusive to Wild for several reasons. It offers unusually strong neutral card draw which can be detrimental to class identity. Its “downside” can destroy opponent's cards and prevent opponents from playing the deck they built—which in turn limits some designs related to Battlecry and effects that return a minion to hand"
Talking about class identity, how do you feel that over the last two expansions, almost every class made use to some degree of Corridor Creeper, Prince Keleseth, Patches the Pirate, Southsea Captain, Spiteful Summoner, Bonemare, Saronite Chain Gang, Cobalt Scalebane, sometimes all in the same deck, and it only changed a bit once you nerfed three of those?! That being said, Coldlight Oracle is far from being "detrimental to class identity", as it was rarely ever played outside of Rogue. It became sort of a tech choice against Control Warlock, but if neutral tech cards are "detrimental" now, maybe talk about Spellbreaker instead.
While I am not a fan of Mill decks at all, I think it's kinda sad how they remove the concept almost entirely from Standard now. I guess, Naturalize is still around, but I think it was actually a clever twist that Coldlight's "downside" could be used strategically. It was hardly any good outside of those strategies to begin with. But who knows, maybe they have something planned where Coldlight could indeed have become problematic.
I'm happy about Molten Giant. Maybe there is some hope Ancient of Lore or Arcane Golem have their dignity restored next year.
"With the arrival of Hearthstone’s next expansion, quests are about to get better! The requirements for almost every quest will be reduced to make them faster to complete, and all 40 gold quests will now award 50 gold instead. Quests that awarded more than 50 gold will still have the same rewards, but with reduced requirements."
MORE GOLD?!! While it sounds great, it will roughly net about 4 gold more per day, which means about 14-15 more packs per year. It is another baby step, but sadly not more than that. I think a whole lot more is required, especially with the ongoing three expansions per year, but they also said they have more to announce later this year, so let's hope for the best.
All criticism aside, I am looking forward to the reveal of the next expansion and the Year of the Raven. It's just far below what I hoped for. I thought, maybe they will reconsider this whole "3 expansions" thing, or significantly improve the reward system, or talk about new player experience, or Tavern Brawl, or actually get into details about balancing, or just generally do something a bit more radical. The Tournament-mode sounds cool, I guess, but I'll wait till I see how it turns out in practice.
Aww man, Holy Wrath nerf! Damn you Blizzard!
Love these changes.
Ice Block out of standard. Yes
Coldlight Oracle out means Mill, which is quite frankly an unfun mechanic to play against, is taken out of standard. Also good idea reducing neutral card draw.
Those people saying “what about Gnomeferatu and Rin, the First Disciple?”, well...
1. These are class cards, and quite frankly Warlock should have disruption mechanics as it’s class identity.
2. They aren’t evergreen and will rotate in a year.
Molten Giant reverted! They listened! People wanted old school molten giants back for old school Handlock. And you got it in wild at least. Also isn’t this the first actual (non stealth) strickly buffed card since beta?
Not surprised by any of these HOF moves. Just suprised more by what they left out, was expecting maybe Leeroy Jenkins or Doomguard but not entirely suprised by them still being kept.
But I am super surprised by them keeping in Gadgetzan Auctioneer! Neutral, evergreen, draw engine is not good for standard IMO! But can’t have everything.
IN GAME TOURNAMENTS!!!! YES!
Cheaper quests. Nice!
And alt Druid, easy to obtain. Check!
Nothing bad and no real complaints.
"up to the maximum number that can be used in a deck"
Try and craft 3, and see what happens.
You cannot craft a third copy of any card to begin with. You can, however, craft two golden copies "for free", if you wish.
it would work, if you could craft more than 2 copies of it.
You only get 400 dust for 2 copies, so + 800. So crafting more will net you nothing.
Fantastic thread for dusting-related questions:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/186076-ultimate-dust-guide-for-hall-of-fame-cards
So with Coldlight Oracle and Dirty Rat out quest mage can finally play solitaire with no counter play except playing a face deck.
Ice Block out too.
so do i get full dust for molten for rotation and then when i de it full funded cuz of nerf ?! " after the start of raven year "
After 4 years we still don't have a Tauren Hero? Why the hell put a character from Heroes of the storm instead of Hamuul Runetotem who has been requested as the new Druid rep since it was announced? This just annoys me to no end that we get NPC's from WoW like Murlocs and Dryad's but not even all the core races of WoW are represented.
Guys - listen what Brode said about Hall of Fame cards:
"When we move these cards into HoF you can keep the cards and we will give you the dust like when you disenchanted them".
So - no full dust value?
Ice Block
Like it all :)