Activision-Blizzard’s Hearthstone has long been a major player in the company’s war chest of gigantic properties. The card-battler exploded onto the scene in 2014 and has since added more expansions and content than you can shake a stick at. Since 2016, the game has operated under a yearly system that sees new sets coming into and out of rotation. The latest year is the “Year of the Phoenix”, and the team is kicking it off with its first expansion, Ashes of Outland, early next month. Check it out.
There is an absolute truckload of new information coming out from the Hearthstone team today. The biggest news is likely the Ashes of Outland expansion. It will take players “beyond the Dark Portal” to the lands World of Warcraft players explored in The Burning Crusade expansion. Coming with the expansion is the introduction of the game’s first new class, the Demon Hunter. It’s kind of wild that they haven’t added in any new classes to the game until now, making this feel like a monumental step for the team. It will be very interesting to see how the community reacts to the class over the coming weeks and months.
The expansion also brings a few cool, new cards. One of the more interesting card-types is the Primes. Basically, these are new forms of Legendary cards. They start as relatively strong minions, but when they die, they activate a Deathrattle that shuffles an even stronger version of the card back into your deck. It looks like a neat way to play with some of the strongest cards in the game.
Outside of the big new expansion and class, the Hearthstone team has several new changes coming to the game. One of the more important ones is duplicate protection for all rarities. Previously, this was only a thing for Legendary cards, but, starting March 26, this will extend to every card. So, no longer will you get countless copies of the same common card. Now, you’ll only get two of each card in a rarity until you have two of every card in that same rarity. It’s a welcome change for a game that has been heavily monetized over the years.
The team is also overhauling ranked mode to improve the experience and get players better rewards. They’re also giving all new players their own starting deck to make hoping into the game much easier. Finally, they’re hard at work on a rework for the Priest class, which will also come to the game on March 26.
Even all of that is a very condensed version of everything the Hearthstone team announced today. If you want the full details, be sure to check out their many blog posts. Hearthstone: Ashes of Outland launches on April 6. The game is available now on Android, iOS, Mac, and PC.
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