New Hearthstone Year Announced! - Year of the Gryphon
It is that time of year again when a new Standard rotation comes to Hearthstone. Old expansions are rotating to Wild and the Year of the Phoenix gives way to the new rotation year - Year of the Gryphon!
Quote from BlizzardIt’s time for the great Hearthstone clock in the sky to shift forward yet again! Thank you for joining us for the Year of the Phoenix. Today’s announcement of Forged in the Barrens marks the start of the first phase of our new Hearthstone year—the Year of the Gryphon!
We’ve got expansions, seasonal events, Battlegrounds updates, a new game mode, and so much more planned. On the roadmap below, you can see the massive amount of content we have coming this year!
Click to enlarge.
Core Set, Set Rotation, and Shaman Updates
When Forged in the Barrens launches, card sets from Year of the Dragon (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Descent of Dragons, Demon Hunter Initiate) will rotate to Wild. When this occurs, Basic and Classic cards will move to Wild under the Legacy set and a free Core set of 235 curated cards will take their place! Check out our initial announcement for more details and be sure to visit the card library on February 25 after the full Core set has been revealed!
At BlizzConline we shared that fan favorites Annoy-O-Tron, Tomb Pillager, Tirion Fordring, and Fireball will be returning as part of the Core set! We also showcased some familiar cards that are returning with big updates: Menagerie Warden and Assassinate!
Speaking of cards returning with big updates, we’re revamping our Legendary Dragons in the Core set as well! Behold the awesome power of Ysera, Malygos, and Deathwing!
We also revealed four of the 29 completely new minions included in the Core set: Novice Zapper, Felsoul Jailer, Overlord Runthak, and Vanessa Vancleef! We also revealed a new Priest spell: Thrive in the Shadows!
Finally, we shared some big changes coming for Shaman as part of our 20.0 update. We’re buffing a few Shaman staples such as Feral Spirit, Lightning Storm, and Earth Elemental!
We’re also updating the Shaman Hero Power to replace the Wrath of Air (Spell Damage) Totem with a new totem, Strength Totem, which gives a friendly minion +1 Attack at the end of your turn!
The Classic Format
The Classic format will launch with the 20.0 patch, where you can play Hearthstone as it was shortly after the game launched in 2014! All 240 original cards will be playable in the Classic format, with all balance changes since then reverted. You can learn more about the Classic format here.
We’re celebrating the launch of the Classic format by rewarding all players with a Golden Classic Card Pack just for logging in after the 20.0 patch has gone live!*
*Limit one per account.
New Game Mode - Hearthstone Mercenaries
We’re excited to share some initial details on our next new game mode, Hearthstone Mercenaries! Hearthstone Mercenaries will feature strategic RPG gameplay and roguelike missions that provide a fresh set of challenges every time you play.
In Hearthstone Mercenaries, players will build of a collection of mercenaries from among dozens of fan-favorite Warcraft characters such as Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord (as well as some new faces).
Before a Mercenaries run begins, players will assemble a team of mercenaries from their collection. Each mercenary has a unique set of abilities, and they’ll acquire experience and loot by winning battles, eventually earning the ability to evolve into more powerful versions of themselves!
Mercenaries features a fast-paced combat system that rewards cunning and anticipation. Before each fight, players will select mercenaries from their team to participate in battle. Each turn, they’ll pick their team’s actions simultaneously with their opponents and watch the results of the fight play out.
Players will face a new selection of randomly generated encounters every time they start a Mercenaries run, earning in-game achievements and rewards to bolster their team as they battle their way to the final boss. And in PVP mode, players will be able to pit their mercenary teams against other players!
We’ll have more information to share on Hearthstone Mercenaries, including a launch date, later this year.
Book of Mercenaries
Forged in the Barrens will introduce 10 all-new Mercenary characters as Legendary minions! We’ll be telling the stories for these characters over the course of the year through our expansions, our website, the Hearthstone Mercenaries game mode, and through Book of Mercenaries!
Book of Mercenaries will tell an epic, serialized story featuring all 10 new Mercenary characters and will release on a semi-monthly basis like Book of Heroes. Book of Mercenaries Rokara, the first installment in the series, will release on April 6!
Updating New & Returning Player Experience
As part of the 20.0 update, we’re removing the fights against Malfurion, Tyrande, and Hakkar and overhauling the Legendary quest line for returning players to reward a total of 15 card packs from recent expansions!
For new players, we’re updating both starting Legendary quest lines so that several of the quests can also be completed in Battlegrounds and will offer pack rewards from recent expansions instead of Classic packs.
Additionally, we made a few changes around unlocking the Demon Hunter. Players will now be able to unlock the Demon Hunter just like every other class, by fighting against the class in constructed or beating the class in Practice mode. Completing the Demon Hunter prologue will still unlock the class but will now reward 1 Demon Hunter Class pack for players that have yet to complete it!
Finally, completing all Book of Heroes missions for a class will now unlock that class!
We announced a ton of updates coming to Hearthstone during BlizzConline! Read our other blogs to get all the news:
Forged in the Barrens Card List & Expansion Guide
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.
Fck that change on shaman’s hero power.
it's a game for children nowadays, With Disney and shit involved so...I bet this mentally challenged orc is part of this mentally challenged universe of disney + shit devs.
Wow! WE HAVE A DESIGNER OUT HERE!
Why remove Spell damage totem? What's wrong with these incompetent developers?
than will patch 20.0 release?
Soontm
Preorder is till 22 March or something like that, I guess the expansion will roll out then
Which cards are going to move to the Legacy set? Is it still possible to get the golden version and get the full reimbursement?
There will be no reimbursement, this isn't hall of fame.
All of your classic and basic cards move to legacy. You'll get a whole core set for free. It's possible that you have 2 copies of a legacy classic card and you get 2 more copies in the core set. The core set cannot be disenchanted, the legacy ones can. However, the core set cards can be taken away at rotation of course. Also, your free core set copies of legacy cards cannot be used in the classic format, only your own legacy cards.
It's a bit complicated.
not to thrilled on some of these changes, some i like, others not so much. I like the old Maly better, the +5 spell damage was great. The new version just thins out our deck. Except for mad aspect Deathwing, how offten was classic DW ever played. the new one may see the same fate. Ysera, well don't know what these dream cards are, might as well change Lich king to Battlecry: Add all deathnight cards to your hand.
if they were going to change shamans hero power then the stone skin should be a 4 hp minion, the searing totem should be - deal one damage to a random enemy minion. the loss of wrath totem will be missed.
They want to do something big for hearthstone, give each hero (other portrait hero's of the class, (Elune, Magni, Etc.) a different power or give the player an option to chose a power like they have for duels but based on the class types, example - fire, frost or arcane for mages. or a specialization card - example fire specialization - when you cast a fire spell deal half damage to adjacent minions minimum one damage. Shadow Specialization - when you cast a shadow spell deal one damage to a random enemy.
I'll have to give my full opinion when the set comes out, or till all the cards are seen. So far I'm about 50/50 with the new changes.
The third expansion gives me shadowlands vibes.
Thank you for removing Malygos from standard. No longer will its effect be a constant threat to your design space.
This new Ysera is WAAAAAAY better than old one, I will actually consider including her in my control decks for once, excellent change.
New Deathwing is still unplayable sadly, hand advantage is too important for control and it costs too much for aggro.
Horrible new Malygos. Old one was too iconic, too irreplaceble.
Deathwing has always been a high-end card for mid-range/aggressive mid-range decks my man (like for example Dragon Warrior back in the day), has no place in control/aggro decks
Am I blind? I don't see any changes on earth elemental. It already had the Elemental tag didn't it?Never Mind, I also thought it had Overload 2...
Vanessa vancleef <3
Ugh... RIP to so many of my old favs...
The new dragons are... fine. I don't hate them. At least they're more playable than the old ones, but I am going to be sad about Edwin Van Cleef forever. Vanessa Van Cleef is not very good. (She's alright, but just... Her dad is way cooler.)
My biggest concern is that Rokara (the orc lady) is holding a shield consisting of a wooden frame holding some leather/fabric sheet... Is she mentally deranged or is that some magical leather than won't be pierced by... pretty much any weapon including forks and butter knives?
Never underestimate an angry orc ... ;)
R. I. P. one of my favorite decks. Maly druid. Sad.