Patchnotes 23.2 - Rise of the Naga - Buddies Rotating - Amalgadon Gone!
Prepare for the Rise of the Naga! New Naga Tribe, new Keyword: Spellcraft, 21 new minions and 1 new Hero: Queen Azshara! That's not all! According to Dom Calkosz in the Dev interview with Kripparrian, Buddies will rotate with the Naga Patch!
Also, during their reveal Educated Collins and Shadybunny revealed that Amalgadon is being removed from Battlegrounds while Nightmare Amalgam is seeing a return! As part of another reveal, Carry Potter and Gotorkun announced that Captain Flat Tusk will be removed!
Ninaisnoob just mentioned 2 cards being replaced: Deadly Spore and Seafood Slinger!
A section with frequently asked questions was added at the bottom with official answers!
Ninaisnoob Reveal
Ninaisnoob just revealed 4 new Rise of the Naga cards and mentioned 2 cards being replaced: Deadly Spore and Seafood Slinger!
小孩无敌 (Kid Invincible) Reveal
Source: Huya. Twitter official confirmation: PlayHearthstone.
Carry Potter and Gotorkun Reveal
As part of this reveal, Carry Potter and Gotorkun announced that Captain Flat Tusk will be removed!
Educated Collins & ShadyBunny Reveal
During their reveal Educated Collins and Shadybunny revealed that Amalgadon is being removed from Battlegrounds while Nightmare Amalgam is seeing a return!
Educated Collins and Shadybunny just revealed a new Rise of the Naga card: Deep-Sea Angler
Kripparrian Reveal
Kripparrian just revealed a new Rise of the Naga card: Glowscale
Quote from BlizzardBow down before Queen Azshara, for soon her army of Naga will flood into Battlegrounds! Patch 23.2, launching on May 10, will bring with it the first ever Battlegrounds Season, Rise of the Naga. The new season will bring a Battlegrounds Rating reset, a new hero, and an entire new minion type, the Naga!
New Minion Type: Naga
Naga are spell-thirsty minions that are drawn to magic. They tend to give you spells or get more powerful when spells are played around them.
New Keyword: Spellcraft
Some Naga have the unique new keyword, Spellcraft! Minions with the Spellcraft keyword grant a temporary spell each turn. That spell can give your minions a buff that lasts until the start of your next Recruit phase.
The Queen Comes for the Crown
Queen Azshara will be the newest hero to come to Battlegrounds. The Highborne Queen and her people were cursed to live out their days as vengeful Naga. After transforming into Naga Queen Azshara, wave after wave of Naga will be under your command! Do you have what it takes to lead them to victory?
Master the Magic
The Naga were destroyed by their inability to control their own insatiable thirst for magic. Don’t fall victim to the same fate! Here are few tips about how to play with Naga and Spellcraft to best channel their power:
- Each Spellcraft minion generates a Spellcraft spell every turn.
- Spellcraft effects only last until your next Recruit phase. That means that each turn you get to choose where you put your spells for the next Combat.
- Spellcraft spells leave your hand at the end of your turn—if you don’t use them, you lose them!
- Spellcraft spells are generated as soon as you play the Spellcraft minion, and at the start of each Recruit phase.
- If your hand is full, Spellcraft spells will “wait” until there is a free space in your hand, instead of getting destroyed or being delayed a turn.
- Golden Spellcraft minions will generate Golden versions of the Spellcraft spells, with double the effect.
- Some Naga care about when you play spells. That includes Spellcraft spells as well as things like Coins, Blood Gems, and triple rewards.
The Naga Await
In total, 5 minions will be removed from the minion pool with Patch 23.2, to be replaced with 16 new Naga minions, 5 other new minions, and 2 returning favorites! More Naga will be revealed over the coming days, along with Developer Insights and other tidbits. Tune in as some of your favorite content creators preview some of the upcoming minions and mechanics before all updates are revealed on May 9.
- May 5, 12 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. GMT – Kripp
- May 6, 10 a.m. PT/ 5 p.m. GMT – Edcuated Collins/Shadybunny
- May 6, 12 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. GMT – CarryPotter
- May 7, 9 a.m. PT/ 4 p.m. GMT – 小孩无敌 (Kid Invincible)
- May 7, 12 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. GMT – NinaisNoob
Make sure to also keep an eye on PlayHearthstone for daily recaps, art showcases, and more during this reveal weekend!
Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends
Be sure to watch 16 of the best Battlegrounds players in the world as they showcase Queen Azshara and the new Naga minions in Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends – Noblegarden on May 14 – 15, on YouTube and Twitch! For future Lobby Legends-hopefuls, a Battlegrounds reset means a new season, and the fourth Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends qualifying period will take place May 10 – May 31. Follow Hearthstone Esports on Twitter for updates, future event announcements, and tournament details!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Quote from BlizzardSome clarifications on new BG minions since I've seen some folks asking:
- Mantid Queen does not keep the Start of Turn effects permanently
- If you play a Reef Explorer with all minion types, it'll give you an ALL minion (e.g. Amalgam)
- Macaw/Baron don't do anything with Leeroy
- Murk Eye works with Brann
- Though it isn't a Naga, Orgozoa will only appear in Naga lobbies
- Stormscale Siren will trigger "cast a spell" effects (e.g. Athissa, Critter Wrangler)
- Spells generated from Pashmar (Avenge) disappear at end of turn like normal spellcraft spells
- Mantid Queen will not roll keywords it already has (e.g. Taunt from Argus)
- Mantid Queen can roll +5/+5 multiple times
- Mantid Queen can roll buffs in any order and the chance to roll any of them is equal
- You can still get Mantid Queen, Reef Explorer, Leeroy the Reckless, and Nightmare Amalgam in non-Naga games.
- Start of Combat minions start with whichever player will attack first, starting with their left-most Start of Combat minion. Then it passes to the other player, starting with their left-most Start of Combat minion (that hasn't triggered yet), and repeats back and forth.
5 minions leaving? Goodbye Amalgadon, Tarecgosa, Baron Rivendare, Brann and SI: sefin. Welcome back toxfin, enjoy tier 5. Also welcome back… arcane cannon?
ppl want midrange meta so badly? making most of end game builds completely useless and adding back one of the most frustrating cards to play against? lmao thanks a lot but no
Baron and Brann leaving would be the biggest and worse change to Battlegrounds.
Arcane Cannon made me stop playing battlegrounds. Didnt come back til it went out.
No matter what they do, anything but bringing it back (besides bringing Holy Mackerel back).
Just to remind you, before they introduced buddies and T6 Cook, in that meta Brann was a bad minion and amalgadon was fine. It is because of ability to generate more amalgadons than there is in the minion pool, it became completely busted
Regardless of the game mode (I don't play Battlegrounds), I think the "wait" mechanic mentioned for the spells is the most interesting part of this and hints at interesting opportunities mechanically speaking. This gives an additional "place" for cards to be (beyond hand, deck, board, and graveyard), which could make for neat mechanics that work around hand size or "pocketing" cards to counter hand disruption.
This already exists with buddies. If you get a buddy added to your full hand, it "waits" until you empty a slot in your hand to add it.
My Naga, that Hero Portrait could've made me preorder. Maybe.
The other version they sold with the preorder doesn't look that great.
Just a BG update?
With 0 bug fixes, while some bugs (Nellie, the Great Thresher) soft lock the game?Edit: This isn't the full patch notes, nevermind
Yeah full patch notes should be out early next week. Our ever vigilant Imik caught a tweet that was deleted shortly after which speaks of the Patch coming May 10th. That means Patchnotes on Monday or an hour before the Patch is due on Tuesday (they have used both methods).
https://twitter.com/imik_plays/status/1522279240556707840
I find an hour before is the most common