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.
Never thought Mecha-Jaraxxus could go so heavy metal in the trailer. The idea jams me. :P~
These BG changes are fantastic! As much as I love everything about the new pirates, I think the best change is the rotating minion pool! I was hoping for more food for the other modes though..
For the purposes of unit rotation, will Megasaur count as a Beast or a Murloc?
It's technically a beast, but if murlocs are rotated out it's utterly worthless. And for Murlocs, when Beasts rotate out, losing megasaur would now mean they have no T6 units with makarel gone. I'm glad to see Makarel go, I never understand wtf Bliz was thinking introducing it in the first place; but while I'm not a huge fan of Megasaur either, it seems wrong to leave Murlocs with no T6 unit at all when beasts shift out.
I'm sure it must be part of the murloc pool and Waxrider Togwaggle and nadia the red must be in the dragon pool. They did say heroes with specific tribal synergies would rotate with them, so I can only assume that they're doing the same with relevant minions.
But I guess the only definite answer is "we'll find out"
Just saw it on stream where a round without beasts started but megasaur was an option on 6
I knew that! Blizzard, you are so generous : D
Thanks to RIOT, thank you so much for that you are! I don't play HS anymore although i like stop by to have a laugh from blizzard : D
am I the only one who's kinda disappointed by golden kael'tas reward? I was expecting something like I dunno, a new card? like SN1P SN4P maybe?
Monstrous Macaw with Kaboom Bot and Baron Rivendare will be disgusting. Especially is a Triple Monstrous Macaw triggers a friendly minion's deathrattle twice.
I was thinking about that combo. Do you think it is going to work?
Why wouldn't it?
Everything else that triggers a deathrattle without killing it with baron on the board still has it trigger twice
Cool, thanks
Pirates seem interesting so far but not overpowered. can't wait to test it.
Worried they might have stat scaling issues. Nearly impossible to permenately buff their life pools, and no access to divine shield. THey mostly have to depend on in-combat temporary buffs it looks like. Dunno how well that will hold up. THe +3 power to all pirates battlecry can let them go heavy glass cannon, but with no survival buffing, any opposing comp with divine shield or death rattles will wreck them.
They are a death rattle comp. The tier 6 that summons 3 pirates, and the pirate that triggers friendly deathrattles means they're a deathrattle comp.
Arena is in the worst shape EVER and no update for it once again. Whoever is in charge of Arena needs to be fired for doing such a terrible fucking job.
With 0 changes to arena for a long time thinking that there is someone in charge is kinda illogical for me.
And why d'u think its in the worst shape? Winrates are kinda ok (for 5 classes at least, just don't pick DH) and card rotation was done.
Arena is in stagnation form, there were worse times for sure.
The power level of decks are off the charts. It's basically constructed right now, with bullshit discover effects and and crazy neutral minions.
No one cares about Arena. The time to farm off noobs is over.
So the only reason arena is "in worst shape EVER" is power level of cards?
No total domination of 1 class, like it was with DH.
No unbalanced decks like it was before they made groups of cards.
No chicken wins and other bugs like it was before.
Just power level of cards. Yup, definitely the worst times.
Its not the worse shape ever, powerful cards are more fun then playing neutralstone. The 2 major things I hate are they that have admitted to balancing by increasing twin tyrant offering rates to classes that aren't doing well, and Warrior is offered way to many Imprisoned Gan'arg's which is way to good for early tempo into late control.