Frequently asked questions regarding Descent of Dragons expansion and Battlegrounds...
Expansion:
[Q] -> Will Sathrovarr's copies retain buffs after being shuffled into your deck or hand?
[A] -> They will only retain buffs from the board summoning phase.
[Q] -> If you burn/discard your Galakrond, will you be able to activate his Hero Power by invoking him?
[A] -> Yes.
[Q] -> Can you activate Galakrond's Hero Power multiple times per turn?
[A] -> Yes, you can, It's basically working like build-in effect, which will happen no matter what.
[Q] -> Any chance of seeing Zephrys the Great getting improved in the future?
[A] -> Yes, further fixes to Zephrys the Great will be in Descent of Dragons; we'll post details with the patch notes.
[Q] -> Does playing an Invoke minion as Galakrond count as using your hero power (eg. new Hunter minions - inspire)?
[A] -> Nope, they're separate. Invoke doesn't use up your hero power, or count as using your hero power. They just provide the same class-specific effect.
[Q] -> Will we also get a free Legendary Dragon with expansion release?
[A] -> No. You already received Sathrovarr as an expansion preview. You will also receive all 5 Galakrond Hero Cards along with 2 Shield of Galakrond minions for free when the expansion launches.
Battlegrounds:
[Q] -> About balance in BG and new things...
[A] -> Start of December we will do a patch adding a couple units and balancing lots of stuff. In between we are adding 4 new heroes.
[Q] -> About new BG heroes: "4 new Heroes leaked (Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard and Sindragosa)"
[A] -> Reno had design and visual effect issues so he was sent packing.
[Q] -> If you could pick one card to add to the Battlegrounds pool to wildly change the meta, what card would it be and how much would it cost?
[A] -> We playtested Sylvanas and Faceless and it was too busted! We used to have a hero that made your left most minion poisonous (Putricide) so we passed over unstable ghoul. Now that he gives +10 attack (+20 in the future actually) we can include ghoul.
[Q] -> ...I'd also like the ability to flip between games and spy your opponents a bit...
[A] -> In a future patch, you’ll be able to see a count of how many minions of each type players have when you mouse over them. (So you can tell that "XXX" has “4 Mechs, 1 Beast, 1 Demon, 1 Murloc”, so they’re probably playing Mech synergies.)
[Q] -> Will we be able to play Battlegrounds together with 2+ other friends in the future?
[A] -> For initial launch, we used the existing Challenge a Friend tech in order to get duo-queue working, since Hearthstone doesn't have a party system. That's something we're working on for a future patch.
[Q] -> If I have golden Shifter Zerus, will I also get a golden minion out of him?
[A] -> Yes. But they can’t be mid shifting, you have to play them on the board immediately or buy all three on the same turn.
[Q] -> Can Shifter Zerus transform into any minion or only to minions who are left in the shared pool?
[A] -> Shifter Zerus can transform into any Battlegrounds minion, it doesn't pull from the shared pool.
[Q] -> Will cards that player owned be given back to the shared pool when he dies?
[A] -> Yes.
[Q] -> Does dead player’s unit get returned to the pool immediately or wait until the Kelthuzad copy is gone?
[A] -> Immediately
[Q] -> Do discovered/Zerus minions affect the pool?
[A] -> No.
[Q] -> Do magnetize minions return to the pool?
[A] -> Yes, after they're sold (if you magnetize them, they return to the pool when you sell the minion that you magnetized them onto).
[Q] -> Is there a cool-down on discovering Ice Block back to back? (The Great Akazamzarak in BG)
[A] -> There's no cooldown, but if you've had gotten an Ice Block once, the chance of you being offered another one decreases a lot.
[Q] -> I was wondering if Gentle Megasaur can get full 10 Adapt options in Battlegrounds just like it does in normal game.
[A] -> In Battlegrounds, Gentle Megasaur has 8 of the original Adapt options. Shrouding Mist (Stealth) and Liquid Membrane (Can’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers) won’t appear.
[Q] -> Do the minions you or your opponents have or pick affect the minions that you are offered?
[A] -> Yes.
[Q] -> When you tier up your tavern, how does this effect the offering rates of the different tiers of minions
[A] -> Higher tavern tier gives you access to higher tier minions. There are 18 copies of each tier 1 minion and 15 copies of each tier 2 minion (and 13,11,9,6). All the copies of all minions on your tier or less are thrown into a pool and you get one randomly from that pool. If someone else buys one and is still alive then you have less chance of getting it because it isn't in that pool. There are no other multipliers, its just those numbers.
[Q] -> How about when people combine three of a kind? Will the three individual minion cards return to the pool, or will they be "attached" to the golden copy and remain so while the golden copy is still in play?
[A] -> Golden minions count as all 3 minions from the pool. When golden minion's player dies the three copies go back into the pool along with all things magnetized to them.
Mike Donais: We are adding an existing Demon in December to the Battlegrounds, bonus points if you can guess which one.
Editor notes: If you want to check out the source yourself, feel free to click on the "Q or A" word for a specific part. Also, be aware that some of the questions and answers were smoothed out to improve the reading experience.
Five Galakronds PogU
“No. You already received Sathrovarr as an expansion preview. You will also receive all 5 Galakrond Hero Cards along with 2 Shield of Galakrond minions for free when the expansion launches.”
This is really bad answer. People dont like to hear NO and that we already received something :). Otherwise all 5 galakronds is really nice bonus.
I hope we will hear soon for some new tribes in battleground. It really needs maybe 1-2 more tribes. Otherwise this mode is awesome. I never liked dota underlord, but this is much better I think.
I agree,
A much better answer from a PR perspective would have been.. "Yes!, Players will be receiving copies of all 5 Galakrond Hero Cards upon release of Descent of Dragons"
The "no" is paraphrased by hearthpawn article writer. Aka, if you click on the link to the twitter post you'll see there's not a "no" in there.
Void Terror
Interesting idea but I don't think it will be it, Void Terror can create some really broken interactions by activating the deathrattles of the destroyed minions (even more if Baron Rivendare is in play). I've thought about it a bit and I don't think we'll ever see deathrattle activators on BG.
He maybe tells about animation phases :)
[Q] -> Will Sathrovarr's copies retain buffs after being shuffled into your deck or hand?
[A] -> They will only retain buffs from the board summoning phase.
The question seems to be aimed at regular Hearthstone but the answer seems to be about Battlegrounds? What summoning phase?
Sathrovarr summons a copy of an existing minion on the battlefield, shuffles one into your deck, and adds a copy to your hand. The copy that is summoned immediately will retain buffs from the existing minion on the board. Hope that helps!
There are 3 phases of his battlecry, first is shuffle a copy into your deck, second is add a copy to your hand and third is summon a copy on the board. I hope It's clear now. :-)
Void Terror could be pretty dangerous - I won't subject people into sniping it out in my wall of text, but with Brann a Void Terror gets double the stat buff of the thing it consumed. So imagine you've got like a 40/40 minion before you get a Void Terror and Brann combo. Hey presto, one dinner later your void terror is 83/83. That's a huuuge minion even by battlegrounds standards. Or rather than sacrificing an Amalgam that could well have taunt, divine shield and/or poisonous, why not sacrifice a single Annihilian Battlemaster? If it's about 3/30, your Amalgam is going to end up as a 9/63, which is a darn sight bigger - and because the Battlemaster is back in the pool, you'll probably see it again.
Beyond that, Void Terrors can eat other Void Terrors. With Brann around, this results in at least a +6/+6 buff - and that would be assuming that you somehow played a Void Terror with nothing else out, so the Brann caused buff is going to be quite a bit bigger. But the main bit from this is that eating a Void Terror would return it to the pool, making this line much more viable and a crazy good way for late game demons to spend their money, as well as the rest of the board isn't lacking (need enough strength from your other minions to take care of anything with poisonous, so your giant behemoth easily takes care of the rest).
I mean, Brann is a specific 5 star unit so it might be ok if he can roll this high if Void Terror were to get implemented - but it's still quite dangerous. Anyone who has chased specific 5+ star units knows it can be a nightmare to actually land the one you want, but even getting a Lightfang or Mama Bear doesn't give you as much buffing as a single Brann and a couple of Void Terror eats would (first Void Terror = 9/9 if it ate something of equivalent size, next one = 21/21 by consuming the last, third one is 45/45, and fourth one would be 93/93). Not to mention that Brann is already one of the viable endgame demon strategies (board of 4-5 demons including at least one Battlemaster for the giant butt, Brann, then load up on the demon buffs - preferably the +1/+1 to all demons).
Unlicensed Apothecary
The Golden one will deal 10 damage to you when you summon a dude.
FIX...STANDARD...SHAMANSTONE! Why they so transparent on not giving a shit about Standard? Their pride and joy game mode? That practically every professional player has said is broken and simply not fun. Far as I'm concerned their recent track record proves they can't be bothered to make the real changes anywhere close to quickly enough. Simply put, it's not reasonable anymore to trust them to balance their game, which is right at the doorstep to the end for me. Legends of Runeterra seems decent...
Here is hoping that you keep your word and best of luck with Legends of Runeterra.
Just want to have fun, the game is just not fun right now, props to anyone who enjoys it, no ill feelings to anyone personally.
I need to find out where i can ask questions and hopefully have them answered, i was hoping that each hero would use their classic emotes instead of stickers. Might be annoying, but it's better than stickers.
Just ping /u/mdonais on a Hearthstone-related Reddit thread and wait for a response. I've pinged him a few times now and he always gives an answer within a few hours—it's great!
I think the issue with your request is that a lot of the heroes don't really have classic emotes, considering they've never really been fully-fledged heroes in-game. And yeah, it may be a bit more annoying/harder to get across due to the BG interface (since the emotes appear on the history bar).
Guys, is Doubling Imp. Is present in the trailer.
Minute 0:20.
Good catch! I was hoping for a scaling minion for demons (akin to Hyena/Junkbot) since they're lagging behind in some ways, but I'll take anything. There are so few demons (compared to beasts/mechs), so this will be a welcome change.
Kripp mentioned on stream that Doubling Imp was on the Alpha but was removed because it could break the game by having too many copies of it sent to the card pool.
Doubling Imp + Brann Bronzebeard is an example, people would keep making golden Imps, selling it (and then adding and extra Imp to the pool), rolling for another one, and keep doing that over and over untill the pool was so crowded by Imps that you'd see multiple ones at every roll.
So my guess is that the Doubling Imp shown on the trailer is from a pre-Beta/Alpha version of BG.