The Caverns Below has been nerfed! Frozen Throne Pre-order is now in-client!
A new patch has hit the Hearthstone servers. Goodbye Quest Rogue and hello Frozen Throne (pre-orders)!
It's important to note that this patch does not implement the previously announced Legendary changes. Don't open those card packs yet, you need to wait for the expansion to launch.
New Brawl Card
A new brawl card has been added. Perhaps this is for this week's brawl as things cool down with Midsummer?
- Ragnaros? - Can't Attack. Deathrattle: Whoever kills this deals 4 damage to their opponent.
- His client name is "TB_Frost_Rag"
Frost Festival Brawl
To counter the Fire Festival brawl, it looks like we're getting a Frost Festival one with similar, sparkly effects. Are fireworks still fireworks if they're made of ice? Frostworks sounds off.
Quote from HearthPwn
- GLUE_FROST_FESTIVAL_FREE_ARENA_WIN_HEADLINE - HAVE A WIN ON ME
- GLUE_FROST_FESTIVAL_FREE_ARENA_WIN_DESC - Ahune is granting a free win for new runs started during the Frost Festival! Would Ragnaros do that? Nope.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_Arena_01 - ARENA MATCHES ARE A MAINSTAY OF THE FROST FESTIVAL. HAPPY DRAFTING, FOOL!
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_Arena_02 - CELEBRATE MY FROST FESTIVAL BY PLAYING ARENA! ENJOY, FOOL!
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_01 - THE FIRE FESTIVAL IS OVER. IT IS AHUNE'S TURN.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_02 - MY FROST FESTIVAL IS WAY BETTER THAN RAGNAROS' LAME FIRE FESTIVAL.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_03 - PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY MY FROST BRAWL? IT IS MUCH COOOLER THAN RAGNAROS'S BRAWL!
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_04 - ARE YOU ENJOYING FROST FESTIVAL? BE SURE TO TELL RAGNAROS HOW COOL IT IS.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_06 - ENJOY YOURSELF, FOOL.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_07 - ARE YOU HAVING FUN? HAVE MORE FUN!
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_09 - THE WORLD IS GROWING COLDER...
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireFestival_10 - A CHILL WIND BLOWS THROUGH AZEROTH.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_01 - PERFORM THIS TASK. AND ENJOY YOURSELF!
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_03 - PERHAPS YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS....
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_04 - DID RAGNAROS GIVE YOU FROZEN THRONE PACKS? HUH. I DIDN'T THINK SO.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_05 - HERE! A GIFT FROM MY BENEFACTOR.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_09 - PACKS ARE THE BEST QUEST REWARD.
- VO_Ahune_Male_Elemental_FireQuests_11 - A CHALLENGE WORTHY OF MY FROST FESTIVAL!
New Brawl Chalkboards
Three new chalkboards have been added.
- Ahune seems to be an announcer.
- Elementals and Dinosaurs?
- Jaina and Malfurion in a boxing ring and are high-fiving. What?
Other Interesting Images
There's two other images that were added that are crazy interesting. I've also included the new card pack for those who wanted it.
- WOW-008_S - It's a card image but not sure for what. That's definitely a Human cathedral in the background.
- TheBox_Table_Frost - Some frosty bits for the upcoming brawl. Simply... cool.
- Pack_ICC - For art people!
- FrostFestival_FreeArenaWin_Plaque - Free Arena Wins? Pretty sure this is just going to show your opponent in Brawl how many times you've won, but that's a crazy name.
- Season_Page_R-Filigree_02 - Can't figure out where this is, but.. Season pages? I'm interested.
- ICEIcon - Another piece for artsy people.
The Caverns Below? Fill em in I say!
The Caverns Below has been nerfed. It now requires 5 minions of the same name to be played. You can discenchant this card for full dust value like I just did up until the 24th of July. BEAUTIFUL DUST!
Frozen Throne Preorder is Now In-Client!
Nice music in the client. I really miss Icecrown Citadel in World of Warcraft. Those were the days.
Elemental Tags Added
Some cards that didn't have Elemental tags now do!
Arena Balance Statement
Blizzard has finally made it clear what the current arena rates are!
Quote from Blizzard
- Note: Neutral cards form the basis for draft appearance rates.
- On average, Arena runs consist of 60% Common, 28% Rare, 10% Epic, and about 2% Legendary cards.
- Class minions are +100% more common than neutral cards.
- Class Spells and Weapons are +175% more common than neutral cards.
- Journey to Un'Goro cards receive an additional +50% increase in their appearance rate.
- The following cards are unavailable in arena
- Jungle Giants, The Marsh Queen, Open the Waygate, The Last Kaleidosaur, Awaken the Makers, The Caverns Below, Unite the Murlocs, Lakkari Sacrifice, Fire Plume’s Heart, Klaxxi Amber Weaver, Dark Arakkoa, Cult Sorcerer, Hooded Acolyte, Twilight Darkmender, Blade of C’Thun, Usher of Souls, Ancient Shieldbearer, Twilight Geomancer, Disciple of C’Thun, Twilight Elder, C’Thun’s Chosen, Crazed Worshipper, Skeram Cultist, Twin Emperor Vek’lor, Doomcaller, C’Thun, Dust Devil, Totemic Might, Ancestral Healing, Windspeaker, Sacrificial Pact, Sense Demons, Void Crusher, Succubus, Savagery, Soul of the Forest, Mark of Nature, Warsong Commander, Rampage, Starving Buzzard, Timber Wolf, Snipe, Mind Blast, Lightwell, Purify and Inner Fire.
- Flamestrike, Abyssal Enforcer, and Vicious Fledgling will appear in drafts 50% less often.
- Popular cards had small drop rate changes to address class balance concerns. (Note - These changes range from 1-5%. They are small enough that they are unlikely to be noticed during an individual draft, but should have enough cumulative impact to help improve class balance.)
- We’re working to improve the Arena experience, and your feedback is always appreciated!
Patch Notes
The full patch notes, minus the arena "changes" which are covered above can be found below.
Quote from Blizzard
- Pre-purchase for Knights of the Frozen Throne, Hearthstone’s latest expansion, is now available from both the in-game Shop and online! You can pre-purchase 50 card packs and get the Frostmourne card back for $49.99 USD.
- Pre-purchased card packs and the Frostmourne card back will now appear in-game. Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs can be opened when the expansion is released in August.
- Balance Update
- The Caverns Below now reads: Quest: Play five minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.
- The Caverns Below is uniquely powerful versus several slower, control-oriented decks and is played often enough to push those decks out of play. While deck diversity in Ranked Play is good, a change to The Caverns Below was still warranted to help keep that trend going into the future.
- The Caverns Below can now be disenchanted for full Arcane Dust value until July 24 PDT.
- The following minions are now Elementals:
- Jade Spirit, Djinni of Zephyrs, Flame of Azzinoth, Mana Geode, and Hallazeal, the Ascended.
- Added the following card backs:
- Frostmourne – Acquired from the Knights of the Frozen Throne pre-purchase bundle.
- HearthS’mores – Acquired from achieving Rank 20 in Ranked Play, July 2017.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Hearthstone to freeze when closing.
- Fixed some visual issues associated with Deck Importing.
I'll take a tag team match with Jaina and Malfurion vs Gul'Dan and Rexxar. As long as Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross call the action.
"BAH GAWD! TWISTING NETHER! TWISTING NETHER! THE BOARD IS CLEARED!!"
"Malfurion, he's uh.. beating Rexxar like a government muel"
I'm sorry.
So Servant of Kalimos is even better in Shaman now that it can discover Hallazeal the Ascended in addition to Kalimos, Primal Lord and Al'Akir the Windlord. This should be fun!
And also Jade Spirit. Most of Elemental Shaman had already played the Jade Pack. Now it'll be better.
"Fixed an issue that could cause Hearthstone to freeze when closing."
wow they finally fixed that thing it was annoying as hell
Still no wild packs or naxx in the shop. Well done Blizzard. They dont even have to change anything in the client, only in the shop. But i guess that is to much asked for an indie company
Welcome to the fact that the British Pound is dropping, not exactly Blizzard's fault.
Now that Jade Elemental Shaman deck will make sense. Thank you, Blizzard.
If anyone plays on a Mac this patch also seemed to fix the bug that wouldn't let you get out of full screen.
I know it is just cosmetic, but I like the July cardback we get for this month, HearthS’mores:
https://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20904301
Wow Djinni of Zephyrs being elemental could open up some crazy decks now :D
PS: #illidanmatters
anyone has a murloc paladin list? I don't have any of the paladin legendaries and i'm looking to crafting sunkeeper tarim
Elemental Shamy is back!
they broke the resolution on mac again. gotta reselect the resolution every single time after launching again or it looks stretched.
This cards are not elementals wtf. And where the hell is undead tribe? So many minions that could be undead, lost potential imo.
All these cards are elementals according to lore. In reality it didn't make sense for them to NOT be elementals.
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=73738/jadefire-spirit
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=44819/siamat
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=43374/pulsing-geode
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=39705/ascendant-lord-obsidius
Note the "Elemental" tag on all of these.
Flame of Azzinoth was originally a demon but obviously you can't do that as Neutral and it's the same type of creature as Flame Elementals.
And no Naxx out? FeelsBadMan
Beware Ipad users, don't go disenchanting the quest without checking if the patch has been downloaded.