Patch 17.4 - Pirates in Battlegrounds, New Heroes, Shifting Minion Pools, Adventure!
Blizzard has just announced Shifting Minion Pools and Pirates in Battlegrounds as well as the Felfire Festival and other changes. New small BG changes added.
Quote from BlizzardThe Felfire Festival is nearly here! The festivities begin on June 9 with the release of patch 17.4, which welcomes a salty new crew of minions to the Battlegrounds—Pirates! On June 17, the Trial by Felfire Solo Adventure will unlock, followed by Trial by Felfire Challenges on June 24. Beyond that, we’ve got some special Tavern Brawls and legendary quests lined up to mark the occasion.
Check out the full Felfire Festival announcement here!
Battlegrounds Shifting Minion Pools
At the start of each game of Battlegrounds, five of the six currently available minion types (Beasts, Demons, Dragons, Mechs, Murlocs, and now Pirates) will form the recruitment pool for that game. The active minion types will be displayed while you’re selecting a Hero—you can also check anytime during the Recruit phase by hovering over Bartender Bob’s deck. To keep things fair, Heroes designed with synergies around specific minion types will sit out if their corresponding minion type is unavailable.
Pirates will always be available in the minion pool until they join the rest of the shifting minion pool in a future update.
Battlegrounds Hero Pool Updates
Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to the following new heroes before they’re formally released on June 23.
NEW HEROES
Captain Eudora
Buried Treasure [Cost 1]
- Dig for a Golden minion! (4 Digs Left)
Skycap'n Kragg
Piggybank [Cost 0]
- Gain 1 Gold this turn. Increases each turn. (Once per game)
Captain Hooktusk
Trash for Treasure [Cost 0]
- Remove a friendly minion. Discover one from a lower Tavern Tier.
RETURNING & UPDATED HEROES
Queen Wagtoggle [NEWLY ADDED TO PATCH NOTES]
- Updated to include Pirates.
Patches the Pirate
Pirate Parrrrty! [Cost 4]
- Get a Pirate. After you buy a Pirate, your next Hero Power costs (1) less.
REMOVED
- Professor Putricide has been removed from the hero pool.
- Holy Mackerel has been removed from the minion pool.
New Battlegrounds Minions
UPDATED MINION [NEWLY ADDED TO PATCH NOTES]
Lightfang Enforcer
- Updated to include Pirates.
Trial by Felfire Solo Adventure & Challenges
Follow the story of Aranna Starseeker (Elise Starseeker’s crafty younger sister) as she embarks on a thrilling journey of self-discovery, assembling a motley crew of outcasts and teaming up with Illidan to take on the mad architect of the Rusted Legion itself: MECHA-JARAXXUS! All five chapters of this Solo Adventure will be available for free on June 17. Complete the Trial by Felfire and you’ll also earn the Rusted Legion Card Back!
Before the adventure unlocks, Aranna Starseeker will enter Battlegrounds on June 16 as an early-access Hero for players with Battlegrounds Perks to try out before she formally joins the fray on June 30!
Aranna Starseeker
Demon Hunter Training [Passive]
- After you Refresh 7 times, always see 7 minions in Bob's Tavern.Finally, Trial by Felfire Challenges will unlock on June 24, where players will create a deck and battle Outland’s baddest bosses!
Face off against the likes of Doom Lord Kazzak, Supremus, and Mother Shahraz in a gauntlet of iconic raid bosses from the Burning Crusade! Complete all challenges to earn Golden Kael’thas Sunstrider!
Legendary Quest Line
Starting on June 17 there will be a new Legendary quest unlocking weekly with pack rewards!
- June 17, 9:00 a.m. PT: Complete Chapter 1 in the Trial by Felfire adventure and earn 1 Ashes of Outland pack, 1 Year of the Dragon pack, and 1 Rise of Shadows pack.
- June 24, 9:00 a.m. PT: Play 4 Trial by Felfire Challenge games and earn 1 Ashes of Outland pack, 1 Year of the Dragon pack, and 1 Saviors of Uldum pack.
- July 1, 9:00 a.m. PT: Play 4 Tavern Brawl games and earn 1 Ashes of Outland pack, 1 Year of the Dragon pack, and 1 Descent of Dragons pack.
Game Improvements and Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug on mobile where your opponent’s mana crystals would be displayed in the side bar during their turn.
- Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great would not offer Windspeaker in the case where Windfury on an un-targetable minion was highly valuable.
as if playing with and against the same decks over and over isn't repetitive? When you load up a game of BG you are almost guaranteed to get a different experience than the last. A different hero, a different archetype to play with, etc. When you load up a ladder match you are playing with the same deck you always use and probably against an opponent who's deck you can point out all 30 cards in it after the first card they play.
I'm not saying BG is the ultimate form of emergent gameplay or anything but it isn't any more or less repetitive than ladder. They both suffer from similar issues.
Ok. So nothing new in the meta. If you don't like Battleground, you can leave Hearthstone. You will still play the same decks until unknown date. Hearthstone is not Battleground. Battleground is only a mode, quite repetitive in time.
I mean, the meta changes with the new expansion. And that's just an update for the Battlegrounds to keep that gamemode fresh. It was always like that you wait until the next expansion until the game would change. Besides, Blizz does actually quite a lot to keep the meta from being stale, nefring Demon Hunter, giving some other classes buffs. You just seem to be a malcontent
It summons a random Golden minion.
So when is this going to be live in EU?
Today, probably 19:00 CET
What does the 0/2 s from Nat Pagle do?
Except Mechs won't always be in the pool...
7 minions with T2 pool, almost 100% chance of a pogo every turn
How does these perks work?
Do i buy that one time or do i buy that every new season/expansion/whatever?
Well for the two times we had the perks you had to buy them each expansion.
The first time it was more or less free if you play regular HS since you got it if you bought 30 packs of the new expansion.
The second time you had to pay 2500g or whatever $$ it costed and you got the perks + 4 arena tickets, or get the mega pre-order bundle that included the perks. And this is probably the way its gonna be in the future sadlly...
thanks :)
Thats really sad.
They shouldn't. Arena is the only way to build decent collection for f2p players.
It's the most popular game mode played and the most popular game mode streamed. Obviously a LOT of people love BG.
Oh but since YOU don't care for it we have to pretend it's irrelevant and listen to "does anyone really care" posts. Honestly all the "lUlz dOeS aNyOnE evEn PlAy bG" parroting just comes off as insecurity as their game mode of choice falls to the sidelines.
Too bad I don't care about BG.
Does anyone really care that much about bg? If you enjoy it, good for u but putting so much effort into this seems a bit off to me...
Well BG is the most popular HS game mode so to anwser your questions.. YES a lot of people do care and putting effort into it makes a lot of sense
you're getting a ton of free packs and a solo adventure and they've definitely got a new expansion in the works that'll most likely come out in about two months. just because there's a big battlegrounds patch doesn't mean they stopped caring about constructed.
Eeem, I think the majority of players carry much more about BG then any other game mode. It is way more variative, fun and skill dependant then standard
yeah its really bizarre. It was super fun the week it came out then became the same repetitive stuff after that. I don't see how it's still popular either.