3:41 PM EDT: You'll be able to set a favourite hero for each class. The favourite hero will be used in play mode and arena. (Source)
2:49 PM EDT: Added clarifications: no bundles, emotes will use old categories, gifting.
2:24 PM EDT: Cleaned up the post. Added clarification confirming no new gameboards.
1:58 PM EDT: Added clarification that new heroes are animated whether the hero is golden or not.
1:22 PM EDT: Added a couple of clarifications to the post regarding release schedule and deck slots (not happening)
New Heroes are Coming! Magni Bronzebeard Confirmed
New Heroes are coming to Hearthstone! Magni Bronzebeard has been confirmed to be the second Warrior hero.
- Heroes can be bought for $9.99 USD per hero ($12.99 AUD, 8.99€ EUR, 6.99£ GBP). (Source)
- Heroes are purely cosmetic. They use the same class cards that are in the current game and use the same hero power.
- The hero package includes the new Hero, a special hero-exclusive Card Back, and unique hero-specific Emotes.
- You'll be able to set a favourite hero for each class. The favourite hero will be used in play mode and arena. (Source)
Hero Details
- The portraits come animated by default, unlike the base heroes.
- When they enter the game, it plays a special animation.
- Heroes come equipped with unique emotes.
- The new emotes will use the same categories as the old ones. (Greetings, Thanks..) (Source)
- The area surrounding the hero, the tray, is themed to match the hero. (Source)
- Each Hero has a unique Hero Power animation. (Source)
- The Hero Power border will become golden once you have achieved 500 wins with the class of that Hero. Otherwise, it is wooden. (Source)
- Example: If you've obtained 500 wins with Garrosh, that's 500 Warrior wins which would give you golden hero power Magni.
Further Clarifications
- The new heroes do not come with new deck slots. (Source)
- No new gameboards are included with the new heroes. (Source)
- Heroes will not all be released at the same time. (Source)
- There are no current plans for releasing a bundled discount. (Source)
- There are no current plans to allow for gifting of portraits, or other content. (Source)
Quote from Blizzard“Well, look who it is!”
Some new faces have just shown up at the inn! Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft is happy to welcome new Heroes as they pull up a chair at the game table!
These new Heroes put a fresh face on the classes you know and love, and bring along some unique surprises of their own.
Picture Perfect
These new Hearthstone Heroes will feature beautifully detailed animated Hero portraits, including all-new art never before seen in the Blizzard universe. The first new Hero we’re introducing is a famed Warrior—the mighty King of Ironforge himself, Magni Bronzebeard!
Aside from the vibrant new Hero portrait artwork, these new Heroes also come with unique Hero power animations. Magni’s version of the Warrior’s “Armor Up!” Hero Power is sure to reinforce the fact that his majesty is not to be trifled with!
New Heroes also come with unique emotes and voices that convey their individual personalities, a play area featuring a custom visual theme, and nifty “entering the game” animations so you can greet (or intimidate) your next opponent in style.
If that wasn’t enough, new Heroes also come with a unique card back that will impress even the mightiest of dwarven kings! The steadfast “Magni” card back is added to your collection immediately after purchasing the Magni Bronzebeard Hero, and can be used with any deck of your choice.
New Heroes will be available for purchase from the in-game Shop for $9.99 USD! Usurp the traitorous Garrosh Hellscream and bring down the hammers of dwarven justice with Magni Bronzebeard; the first new Warrior Hero for Hearthstone—coming soon!
New Heroes do not add new cards to your collection or change the classes’ activated Hero Power and are not considered new classes.
Watch out huntards.. It's hammer time!
I'm starting to realize that Blizzard's pricing for this item makes perfect sense in terms of creating desire and maximizing profits. Given that very few people are going to buy all of or even most of the heroes, people (in general) will either choose not to buy them or only buy alternate heroes of their favorite class(es), which means they will be special and inherently more valuable than they would be if they were set to a lower price, like diamonds. Now, you could argue that, much like the diamond market, blizzard is taking advantage of our evolved human desire for rare shiny things, causing us to to spend more money on the game than we really should be. However, despite how ridiculously unfair diamond distribution can be, it tends to be very effective from a business standpoint. Blizzard has determined that this price point is high enough that people will never become bored with the aesthetic specialness of these portraits, yet low enough that, over time, a very, very large number of people will be persuaded into buying portraits for their favorite class(es), putting significantly more money into the game than they normally would have.
I just don't understand all the rage... like people have never seen stuff like these before. Look at the pricing of the cosmetic items in WoW. Pets(which have little to no cosmetic value) cost $10, mounts $25, and helms $15. $10 for a portrait, new animations and a card back is totally fine. Cosmetic stuff always tends to be a little bit "expensive", as some people put it.
The fact that this is an expansive, reoccurring problem is more of a reason to be angry, not less of one. Expense it not entirely a relative phenomenon. There is only so much money that one can spend.
I always expected Varian to be the alternate Warrior, as he the most likely the counterpart of Garrosh, but King Magni is pretty close, although I preferred Muradin.
Here are my predictions:
Warrior: Varian Wrynn
Mage: Kael'thas Sunstrider
Shaman: Nobundo
Druid: Hamuul Runetotem
Priest: Tyrande Whisperwind
Hunter: Shandris Feathermoon
Warlock: Cho'gall
Rogue: Wrathion / Zul'jin
Paladin: Maraad
Chicks, man. Your selection lacks chicks.
Plus I think Varian will make an amazing Legendary card, just like Sylvannas!
I'm just happy they are making us pay for something unnecessary than for something useful in the game.
I guess someone has already asked but if you have the golden warrior hero will buying this reset i.e have to get 500 wins again to get a golden magni bronzebeard.
No it doesn't. If you have a golden hero, the frame in the hero power becomes golden.
I think I read somewhere that your goldenes will remain regardless of the hero because it's a class thing not a portrait thing. Atleast I hope so, I'm not grinding 500 wins again. :p
when it says "new heroes, new stories..." does it mean there a mini story mode or something? because that would explain its price.
apparently ghe portraits wasn't the "big part" of the patch so we'll see.
I just hope that in the future there will be another way other than real money to get these new heroes..
Nope, they did this for money. Garrosh is NO different from Magni, aside from the aspects.
Guarantee that nearly everyone would buy it for $2? I hardly think so. A significant majority of Hearthstone players probably never pay anything at all, and if they did they would be far more likely to spend the money on cards than something purely cosmetic.
They already sell the damn cards. It's much harder to get decent cards on a F2P basis in HS than it is on other card games - I can tell you that I played M&M:DoC for three months, didn't spend a single penny on that game, and had almost all good cards for all factions (at least for Standard decks; didn't really cared about Classic, since then I'd have to spend real money to get the packs). And that was BEFORE they made the change to the Demon Pit/Altar of Wishes (or whatever that was called) and the daily quests, which made EVEN EASIER to get gold. The only bad thing was that, for the first month a new expansion was released, it was available only for real money, so I had to wait to get the new cards.
What Blizzard is doing is a complete rip off. And the player base will let them get away with this. Unbelievable.
i dont see them being greedy at all.... how many hours have all of you played this game without paying a penny?
i bought both nax and blackrock wings. i'm guessing you think even i a paying customer aren't allowed to critisize this bs 9.99 skin crap X_X:
sure it's cool but not for that price. And if anything they should make it part of some achievement. And yeah sure monetize it. But not in this way ....
its the same price for LoL, dota and Hots skins though, no one seems to mind
I thought this would be a new class I didn't think about the difference between "hero" and "class"
I'm slightly let down.