3:41 PM EDT: You'll be able to set a favourite hero for each class. The favourite hero will be used in play mode and arena. (Source)
2:49 PM EDT: Added clarifications: no bundles, emotes will use old categories, gifting.
2:24 PM EDT: Cleaned up the post. Added clarification confirming no new gameboards.
1:58 PM EDT: Added clarification that new heroes are animated whether the hero is golden or not.
1:22 PM EDT: Added a couple of clarifications to the post regarding release schedule and deck slots (not happening)
New Heroes are Coming! Magni Bronzebeard Confirmed
New Heroes are coming to Hearthstone! Magni Bronzebeard has been confirmed to be the second Warrior hero.
- Heroes can be bought for $9.99 USD per hero ($12.99 AUD, 8.99€ EUR, 6.99£ GBP). (Source)
- Heroes are purely cosmetic. They use the same class cards that are in the current game and use the same hero power.
- The hero package includes the new Hero, a special hero-exclusive Card Back, and unique hero-specific Emotes.
- You'll be able to set a favourite hero for each class. The favourite hero will be used in play mode and arena. (Source)
Hero Details
- The portraits come animated by default, unlike the base heroes.
- When they enter the game, it plays a special animation.
- Heroes come equipped with unique emotes.
- The new emotes will use the same categories as the old ones. (Greetings, Thanks..) (Source)
- The area surrounding the hero, the tray, is themed to match the hero. (Source)
- Each Hero has a unique Hero Power animation. (Source)
- The Hero Power border will become golden once you have achieved 500 wins with the class of that Hero. Otherwise, it is wooden. (Source)
- Example: If you've obtained 500 wins with Garrosh, that's 500 Warrior wins which would give you golden hero power Magni.
Further Clarifications
- The new heroes do not come with new deck slots. (Source)
- No new gameboards are included with the new heroes. (Source)
- Heroes will not all be released at the same time. (Source)
- There are no current plans for releasing a bundled discount. (Source)
- There are no current plans to allow for gifting of portraits, or other content. (Source)
Quote from Blizzard“Well, look who it is!”
Some new faces have just shown up at the inn! Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft is happy to welcome new Heroes as they pull up a chair at the game table!
These new Heroes put a fresh face on the classes you know and love, and bring along some unique surprises of their own.
Picture Perfect
These new Hearthstone Heroes will feature beautifully detailed animated Hero portraits, including all-new art never before seen in the Blizzard universe. The first new Hero we’re introducing is a famed Warrior—the mighty King of Ironforge himself, Magni Bronzebeard!
Aside from the vibrant new Hero portrait artwork, these new Heroes also come with unique Hero power animations. Magni’s version of the Warrior’s “Armor Up!” Hero Power is sure to reinforce the fact that his majesty is not to be trifled with!
New Heroes also come with unique emotes and voices that convey their individual personalities, a play area featuring a custom visual theme, and nifty “entering the game” animations so you can greet (or intimidate) your next opponent in style.
If that wasn’t enough, new Heroes also come with a unique card back that will impress even the mightiest of dwarven kings! The steadfast “Magni” card back is added to your collection immediately after purchasing the Magni Bronzebeard Hero, and can be used with any deck of your choice.
New Heroes will be available for purchase from the in-game Shop for $9.99 USD! Usurp the traitorous Garrosh Hellscream and bring down the hammers of dwarven justice with Magni Bronzebeard; the first new Warrior Hero for Hearthstone—coming soon!
New Heroes do not add new cards to your collection or change the classes’ activated Hero Power and are not considered new classes.
its pay2win, and they are already billionair, they could make an effort, specially considering its only cosmetic, and the packs are already way too expensive (more than 1E a pack for 99% crap, srsly?)
Give me Kael'thas!!! *-*
Trump doesn't see any value on this disapproved
hmmmm if there is a new card expansion coming and this new hero stuff has not affected its progress at all then im fine with this. however, if this shit is holding back work for a new card expansion then fuck that, who cares about stupid skins.
Will new heroes have better BM mechanics ?
Nop...
Money? Money! Money Money.. Money Money..Money Money..Money Money..Money Money..Money Money.. Becouse Money.. and then Money and more Money Money !!! $$$$
Get more Money Money.. $$$$ ---> €€€€€€ =
Happines= Money Money..This is great, definitely buying new rogue heroe (when released), keep it up blizz :)
I'm actually glad to see some cosmetics in this game, but 10$ per Portrait? I'd buy these if they had a more attractive price tag, but they're not worth the asking price in my opinion. I have better things to spend 90$ on.
Well... $10 for all 9 heroes would have been ludicrously generous. I'm pretty sure everyone in charge of anything at Blizzard would have had to simultaneously have 'A Christmas Carol'-esque visions for that to happen.
$10 each is of course stupidly expensive, but it makes business sense. Annoyingly.
The 9 $ per Skin isn't at all close to whatever the cost was to make them. And this kind of disparity between cost and price might be perfectly fine in a game like lol, where you practicly donate the money because you get so much else for free.
In a game like hearthstone, where you practicly have to spend quite a bit of money (more than for a full tripple A game) to be somewhere close to competitive, I'm definitly not willing to donate additional money to them.
double posted ;x sorry about that xd.
4 gift, 3 audio clip, 9 €?
uhauhauhauh :D
Pretty sure HotS is F2P in the same way as LoL and DotA2. Other than that, I agree with a lot of what you just said.
HotS free to play, yes. But the monetization is different. Gold is MUCH harder to earn than RP once youve leveled up your heroes. I was a fan at first, since you get gold at an okay pace while you still have levels to gain. But once you reach 5on the heroes and high as an account, the gold nearly stops.
I find it funny because Im more likely to spend money on LoL where its easier to gain RP. I get my heroes for free (usually) and buy the skins I enjoy. Probably spent close to a grand on LoL in its forst three seasons, because I dont feel like theyre squeezing me. Going from LoL to HotS I noticed immediately that things were more expensive on average and then soon saw Gold was hard to come by after your first impressions (likely, their thinking was they would get you into the game and then make spending cash the only feasible way to get more).
I spend on Hearthstone too, several hundred dollars for things with gameplay value. Id pay for a new set, a new adventure, or a new Hero (must have at least new exclusive cards, or a new hero power). I might even start paying for skins if they lower the price to a few dollars, since the 2D art portrait requires significantly less work than a 3D model (basically, your buying the splash art that comes as part of LoL skins for most than most LoL skins. Absurd, imo)
i think magni is cool.
but what i don't think is cool is how you got to pay money just for the character aesthethic (cardback included) and thats it.
At least with the wings i could understand that because afterall i bought both naxx and blackrock wings and had fun. Sure i could have farmed gold and bought it that way, but i rather save a huge chunk of time and still pay for what i reckon was content that was worth my buck.
But this new magni doesn't feel like it .... it's flashy but not worth the asking price. Not saying others can't pay for it if they want to, but imho it would have been better had it been some sort of archievement earned through playing the game. And yes if they wanted to monetize it, fine, at least make it like buy the game officially, then this sort of achievement becomes one of those things you can work toward.
Instead blizzard just wants to sell it off to the rich kids that got money to blow X_X: lel
this is reminiscent of the days dragon age origins tried to sell doodles for a similar price ..... (different company sure, but same strategy lel)
I believe this is actually a great news for HS: until the game brings money to Blizz, the game remains alive... Im not interested though in this new skin, but if you look at the big picture, remain in F2P...
I do look forward to play vs noob zoo warlock with new hero face and crush them... skill is not about the money mate!
You know what guys? I have spend over 500$ on HS for packs, Adventures etc. And more than 400$ on LoL for Cosmetics. Still i will not buy the skin cause 1st is ovepriced, does nothing on terms of Gameplay and what we need is more card backs. Sureeee. Maybe if you got a mana cystal skin and still would be overpriced cause only you can see the crystals. People say here that on LoL no one cries about cosmetics. Ofc they dont when we get on Average 4-5 new heros per year, reworks on older champs (for free) , new Maps (see SR update) , new gamemodes(hello URF), and a balancing patch every month which helps the meta to not get stale. Except Grim Patreon Warrior the meta is stale from GvG and the Undertaker nerf back from December. The last balance was in January for Undertaker. 5 months ago and for 1 card. HS is the milking cow of Blizzard and it starts making more revenue than LoL. And i think is a problem of Blizzard management. They are looking to milk instead of providing content. Just look at the WoW token that you buy for 20$ to exhange it for in-game gold. The inflation is huge and instead of adressing it the help the problem.
So yeah we have the right to b*tch about it. If you keep the quality high with new content ,fixing bugs (did you see the Gold Cards shattering problem- 2 months no fix) then talk about cosmetics on this price.
Fix the problems that is being asked from alpha, like tournament mode more deck slots, change BGH ,slow down the face hunter (but letting him be viable) then try to milk.
Peace out.
Really, really, wish they would focus on the game play of Hearthstone rather than the flash and cosmetics. It would be nice if Hearthstone actually had an online competitor to keep it in check, but for now, they get to focus their model strictly on making money. Cheers to a more competitive future.
Stop thinking of it as we are getting alternate heroes INSTEAD of card releases. That is not the case. It is in addition to other content. The card design and balance teams have nothing to do with this. It in no way affects their plams It is only an art and interface thing. You know, the two teams whose responsibility is too make it cool and flashy. And, teams who have recently released their major challenge: phone capability. People don't complain about them making new game boards, just like they shouldn't complain about this. It is something that people have been asking for since closed beta. You might not be the target audience for it. But, there are hundreds of thousands of people really excited for this.