Hearthstone

We’re in the process of deploying a hotfix that includes some balance changes for Battlegrounds and Duels, and a handful of bug fixes.

Developer’s Note: Because this is a hotfix change, the changes will not show correctly while hovering over the minions in the shop, on the hero select screen, or when hovering over the Buddy Meter. This will be corrected in a future update.

Hero Changes

• Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4

Minion Changes

• Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]

• Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 3 Attack, 6 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 2 Attack, 4 Health

Duels Updates

• All Together Now was moved from Treasure Pool 1 to Treasure Pool 2.
• Battle Totem, Disks of Legend, and Totem of the Dead were are all moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug where your opponent playing a Choose One card while holding a Pathmaker would cause a floating card to remain on your screen.
• Fixed a bug where Arfus would sometimes summon Reborn minions, instead of the properly resurrected 1 Health minions, when combined with Khadgar.
• Fixed a bug where certain Buddies’ on-play voicelines would not play in certain circumstances.
• Made progress on a bug where players were locked out of the Mercenaries Training Grounds. While a permanent solution is planned for Patch 22.4, restarting Hearthstone should now allow you to access the Training Grounds again if you were locked out.
• Fixed a bug where Duels achievements were not properly tracking runs.
• Fixed a bug where Duels Health totals did not match the Health totals intended for run progress.

Patch 22.2, launching on January 25, includes a massive Battlegrounds update, tons of Duels changes, balance changes for Standard and Wild, a new building to the Mercenaries Village, bug fixes, and more!

Card Updates

The following cards have been adjusted down in power level:

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
  • Dev Comment: Rogue has seen significant increases in playrate and winrate since the last patch, and Scabbs is a pretty clear outlier in terms of power. We expect this change to make a fairly large impact in the strength of Rogue archetypes across the board.

• Old: [Costs 5] 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Costs 6] 3 Attack, 5 Health
  • Dev Comment: Wildpaw Gnoll was intended to be a strong payoff for Maestra of the Masquerade’s fun effect, but it has been overperforming in this role—even in decks that don’t have dedicated Burgle strategies. We’re adjusting Gnoll to both come down a bit later, as a slightly smaller threat when it does.

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
  • Dev Comment: We’re happy with Poison Rogue when it’s a niche player in the metagame, but the current playrate of the archetype is much higher than intended. Cloak of Shadows also combined with Shadowcrafter Scabbs for frustrating play experiences. Reducing the power levels of both these pieces should bring Poison Rogue’s overall power level back in line.

• Create a Distraction (the second part of the Questline)
  • Old: Questline: Play 2 Pirates. Reward: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy twice. New: Questline: Play 3 Pirates. Reward: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy twice.
  • Dev Comment: Pirate Warrior is not a power outlier at the highest ranks of play, but it is overperforming at many of the lower ranks of play. Going from 7 total Pirates to 8 total will promote deck diversity in the Bronze through Diamond ranks.

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
  • Dev Comment: When combo Mages play Incanter’s Flow on an early turn, they can assemble their game winning combo at a very fast rate. Similar to our goals for combo-based decks in the previous patch, pushing Incanter’s Flow up a Mana will slow down combo Mages by a turn or two, giving slower strategies a better chance to thrive in the overall meta.

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
• Old: Twinspell Deal 1 damage. → New: Twinspell Deal 2 damage.
  • Dev Comment: The Rapid Fire and Sorcerer’s Apprentice changes are targeted at some of the strongest decks in the current Wild metagame, to improve the long-term, overall health of the format. Both of these balance adjustments are aimed at decks with extremely efficient from-hand damage, which puts big constraints on which strategies can find success in Wild. By removing power here, the format should open up for a few more viable archetypes to see play, and for the Wild format to slightly slow down overall.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 22.2 patch goes live.

The following card has been adjusted up in power level:

• Old: [5 Armor] → New: [10 Armor]
  • Dev Comment: Rokara is one of the less viable Hero cards right now. We want each class to have exciting play options, so we’re increasing her Armor to give her more leeway in swinging into high-Attack minions, and to better synergize with some of Warrior's Armor-focused cards.

Battlegrounds Updates

GENERAL UPDATES

• Battlegrounds Buddies are here! Learn more about the new Battlegrounds Buddy System below.
• The Battlegrounds Armor System will be deactivated while we try out the new Buddy System. As of now, we plan to re-activate the Armor System in a later patch once we’ve reassessed the power levels of the Heroes with their new Buddies.
• Hero selection has also been temporarily extended by 10 seconds (to a total of 70 seconds) while players learn the new Buddy System.
• The Cost to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5 has been increased by 2 Gold. Its Cost now starts at 11 Gold.
• On January 25, the current Battlegrounds season will end, ratings will be reset to zero, and the new season will begin.

NEW BUDDY SYSTEM

Every battle’s better with a buddy! In this patch, we’ll be introducing a new Battlegrounds Buddy System! A Battlegrounds Buddy is a special minion that’s unique to each Hero, designed to synergize with that Hero’s gameplan.

Buddies are played like normal minions, but they can’t be bought from the shop. Instead, every Hero has a “Buddy Meter” that fills up during the combat phase whenever you: enter combat, deal damage to enemies, pop Divine Shields, or win or tie a combat phase. You also get a small bonus each turn for how many minions you have at the start of combat. Buddies are earned at three different rates, with those at lower Tavern Tiers being earned more quickly than those at higher Tavern Tiers. Finally, there’s a limit to how much a Buddy Meter can be filled in a given round, so that no Buddy runs away with the game.

The Buddy Meter has two sections. Fill the first section to get 1 copy of your Hero’s Buddy added to your hand. Fill the second section to get 2 more copies! After both sections have been filled, the Buddy Meter breaks and is no longer available for the rest of the match (regardless of whether you tripled your Buddy or sold any copies off along the way).

You can meet all 75 Battlegrounds Buddies by clicking on their corresponding Hero here!

NEW HEROES

• Embrace the Elements [Costs 0]
  • Choose an Element. Start of Combat: Call upon that Element.
    • Fire Invocation – Start of Combat: Double your left-most minion’s Attack.
    • Lightning Invocation – Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to 5 random enemy minions.
    • Earth Invocation – Start of Combat: Give 4 friendly minions “Deathrattle: Summon a 1/1 Elemental.”
    • Water Invocation – Start of Combat: Give your right-most minion +3 Health and Taunt.

• Lead the Frostwolves [Costs 0]
  • Choose a friendly minion. It copies the Attack of your highest Attack minion for next combat only.

• Lead the Stormpikes [Costs 0]
  • Choose a friendly minion. It copies the Health of your highest Health minion for next combat only.

• Deadeye [Costs 0]
  • Take aim! Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to your target. (Upgrades each turn!)
    • Aim Left! – Passive. Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to the left-most enemy minion.
    • Aim Low! – Passive. Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to the lowest Health enemy minion.
    • Aim High! – Passive. Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to the highest Health enemy minion.
    • Aim Right! – Passive. Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to the right-most enemy minion.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to the four new Heroes before they are formally released on February 8.

HERO UPDATES

• Odds for Tier 6 Dragons are no longer reduced.

• Bob’s Tavern no longer counts as being Refreshed at the start of turn if no new minions are added.

• Hero power now reads: “Give a minion Divine Shield.”
• Developer Note: This allows you to target shop minions as well as your minions.

Kael’thas, Silas Darkmoon, and Chenvaala will be temporarily disabled when the 22.2 patch launches, while we address a bug found late in testing. They will be added back into the Hero Pool in a future update.

MINION UPDATE

• Text now reads: “Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each Health your Hero is missing.”
• Developer Note: This text change more accurately describes how the card currently works (specifically, in games where the Hero had Armor at some point). This is not a functional change to the card.

Mercenaries Updates

VILLAGE UPDATE

The Training Grounds (previously announced as the “Training Hall”) has come to Mercenaries! The Training Grounds is a new space for your Village that allows your Mercenaries to passively gain experience as you do Bounties with your other Mercs, play other game Modes, or even while you sleep! Just enter the Training Grounds, select a Mercenary you want to train, and leave them there for as long as you want. Check in on them periodically to claim their accrued experience and see how they’re doing, or pull them out when you think they’re ready to start joining you on your adventures!

The Training Grounds costs 100 Gold to create (with one slot for training) and 200 Gold to upgrade (to a total of two training slots).

NEW MERCENARIES

• Human
• 10/73 Maxed Stats
• Abilities:
  • Flame Dart 5 (Fire): (Speed 3) Deal 10 damage. Give them +3 Frost Weakness.
  • Frost Dart 5 (Frost): (Speed 4) Deal 12 damage. Give them +3 Fire Weakness.
  • Frost Burn 5: (Speed 7, Cooldown 1) Deal 11 damage to all enemies. Either gain +3 Frost Damage or +3 Fire Damage.
• Equipment:
  • Lesser Fire Elemental 4: Battlecry: Summon a 10/15 Lesser Fire Elemental that applies +3 Fire Weakness to characters it damages.
  • Lesser Water Elemental 4: Battlecry: Summon a 10/15 Lesser Water Elemental that Freezes characters it damages.
  • Stormpike’s Salvation 4: Passive: At the end of each turn, give all your characters +5 Health.

• Orc
• 11/71 Maxed Stats
• Abilities:
  • Rending Cleave 5: (Speed 5) Attack an enemy. If it has not acted this turn, apply Bleed (8) to it and adjacent enemies.
  • Fatal Strike 5: (Speed 3) Deal 8 damage to an enemy. It can’t heal for 2 turns.
  • Frightening Shout 5: (Speed 6, Cooldown 1) Deal 10 damage to all enemies. If they have acted, the ability they used gains +3 Cooldown.
• Equipment:
  • Fury of the Frost Wolf 4: Passive: Friendly characters have +5 Attack.
  • Drek’Thar’s Boom 4: Fatal Strike also applies Bleed (5).
  • Deafening Howl 4: Frightening Shout deals 5 more damage.

• Human
• 12/73 Maxed Stats
• Abilities:
  • Creeping Madness 5 (Fel): (Speed 8) Attack an enemy. Next turn they must use a different Ability or take 20 damage.
  • Tail Swipe 5 (Shadow): (Speed 6) Deal 20 damage, randomly to the left or right-most enemy.
  • True Form 5: (Speed 3, Cooldown 2) Become a Dragon. Gain +0 Health. (Health increased by damage dealt by this Merc). (Transform into Fel Reign 5).
    • Fel Reign 5 (Fel): (Speed 8, Cooldown 1) Deal 3 damage to all enemies. Repeat 4 times. (Starts off cooldown.)
• Equipment:
  • Chimera of Fear 4: Creeping Madness makes the enemy (4) Speed slower.
  • Black Dragon Scales 4: Tail Swipe also applies Bleed (5).
  • Horn of Wrathion 4: True Form has no cooldown and also grants +6 Attack.

• Elemental
• 9/82 Maxed Stats
• Abilities:
  • Hail Storm 5 (Frost): (Speed 5) Deal 3 damage to a random enemy. Repeat 5 times.
  • Frost Shock 5 (Frost): (Speed 9) Deal 10 damage to an enemy. Their next ability gives them +5 Frost Weakness for that turn.
  • Snowball 5 (Frost): (Speed 7, Cooldown 1) Deal 10 damage. Damage increases by +5 every time another Frost ability is cast. Resets after use.
• Equipment:
  • Icy Focus 4: Hail Storm repeats 4 more times.
  • Frigid Winds 4: Passive: After an enemy acts, gain +4 Frost damage until the end of the turn.
  • Shroud of the Ice Lord 4: Passive: Friendly Elementals have +20 Health.

• Dragon
• 13/75 Maxed Stats
• Abilities:
  • Wracking Swipe 5: (Speed 6) Attack an enemy. If you control another Dragon, apply Bleed (10).
  • Mana Barrier 5 (Arcane): (Speed 2, Cooldown 1) Restore 50 Health to a Dragon, its next ability is (3) Speed slower.
  • Twilight Extinction 5 (Shadow): (Speed 5, Cooldown 1) Restore 20 Health to this Merc. At the end of next turn, deal 30 damage to all enemies.
• Equipment:
  • Hooked Talons 4: Wracking Swipe applies an additional Bleed (5).
  • Mana Brooch 4: Mana Barrier restores 10 more Health and reduces damage taken by 5 this turn.
  • Shard of Woe 4: Twilight Extinction restores 20 more Health and deals 10 more damage, but has +1 Cooldown.

EQUIPMENT UPDATE

For the five new Mercenaries introduced in this patch, their third Equipment will be earned by completing a specific Heroic Bounty while that Mercenary is in your Party. The Heroic Bounty needed for each Mercenary will be listed under the Equipment’s unlock criteria. This change will not be retroactive, but our current plan is to use this new system for upcoming Mercenaries in future patches. We will monitor how the new system ends up working in this patch and make adjustments if needed.

NEW BOUNTIES

A new Zone is coming to Mercenaries: Alterac Valley! The Battle for Alterac Valley has spilled over into Mercenaries, bringing with it six new Bounties:

• Ravak Grimtotem
• Louis Philips
• Captain Galvanger
• Popsicooler
• Drek’Thar
• Lokholar the Ice Lord

Dodge Stormpike bullets and Frostwolf fangs on this mammoth hunt for those sweet, sweet prizes.

Duels Updates

GENERAL UPDATES

• On January 25, the current Duels season will end, rankings will be reset, and a new season will begin.
• Duels Achievements will be updated to be hero-specific, instead of class-specific. Various in-game text will be updated to mention hero names instead of classes.
• New card buckets will be added to better support the new heroes.
• [NEW] Pool 2 Treasure offerings will now be more synergistic with your deck.

[NEW] CARD POOL CHANGES

• Embrace the Shadow, Ignite, and Korrak the Bloodrager have been banned from deck construction.

NEW HEROES

The battle for Alterac Valley rages on with Vanndar Stormpike and Drek’Thar joining Duels! They will be Hearthstone’s first Neutral Heroes, with special Treasures that allow them to ally with one of the classes in their faction! If they ally with one of their faction’s classes, they will be changed from Neutral to the Allied class for deckbuilding and throughout the run. Each also has one signature treasure that keeps them Neutral for the run, but gives them a taste of all their faction’s classes!

Drek’Thar has 3 new hero powers that you can unlock as you play:

• Warmaster’s Frenzy [Costs 2]
  • Deal 1 damage to ALL minions. Honorable Kill: Gain +1 Attack this turn.

• Harness the Elements [Costs 1]
  • Draw a spell. Reduce its Cost by (1).
  • Unlock criteria: Play 40 spells that cost 3 or more.

• War Commands [Costs 2]
  • Draw a Neutral minion that costs (3) or less. It costs (0) this turn.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 60 Neutral minions that cost 3 or less.

Drek’Thar also has 6 new signature treasures that you can unlock as you play:

• Valorous Display
  • 6 mana Spell. Discover a weapon and equip it, then destroy all minions. Allied: Warrior.

• Elemental Chaos
  • 6 mana Spell. Call upon the power of all four Elements! Allied: Shaman.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 20 Battlecry minions.

• Pact of the Lich
  • 4 mana Spell. Shuffle 5 Fel Rifts into your deck. Draw 3 cards. Allied: Warlock.
    • Fel Rifts: [3 Mana Fel Spell] Casts When Drawn Summon a 3/3 Dread Imp.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 25 Fire spells.

• Magister Unchained
  • 1 mana Spell. Until the end of your turn, after you cast a spell, draw a spell. Allied: Mage.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 50 Frost spells.

• Gift of the Heart
  • 5 mana Spell. Gain 4 empty Mana Crystals. Allied: Druid.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 25 cards with Honorable Kill.

• For the Horde!
  • 1 mana Spell. Start of Game: Draw this. Shuffle 15 Tradeable spells into your deck that Discover a spell from the Horde.
    • Power of the Horde: [0 Mana Spell] Tradeable. Discover a spell from the Horde. (Druid, Mage, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior).
  • Unlock criteria: Play 200 Neutral minions from the Year of the Gryphon.

Vanndar Stormpike has 3 new hero powers you can unlock as you play:

• Promote! [Costs 1]
  • Give a minion +1/+1 and Rush, Poisonous, Taunt, Windfury, Divine Shield, or Stealth.

• Send in the Scout [Costs 2]
  • Summon a 2/2 SI:7 Scout.
    • SI:7 Scout: [1 Mana 2/2 Minion] Deathrattle: Add a random card to your hand (from your opponent’s class).
  • Unlock criteria: Play 40 Deathrattle minions.

• Battle Tactics [Costs 2]
  • Reduce the cost of Neutral minions that cost (4) or more in your hand by (2).
  • Unlock criteria: Play 60 Neutral minions that cost 4 or more.

Vanndar Stormpike also has 6 new signature treasures you can unlock as you play:

• Forge in Light
  • 6 mana Spell. Give all minions in your hand +3/+3 and Divine Shield. Allied: Paladin.

• Spymaster’s Gambit
  • 7 mana Spell. Summon copies of each minion in your hand and give them Stealth. Allied: Rogue.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 20 Tradeable cards.

• Stalker’s Supplies
  • 3 mana Spell. Shuffle each Improved Secret into your deck. Allied: Hunter.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 25 Secrets.

• Rending Ambush
  • 6 mana Spell. Summon the left and right-most minions from your hand. They attack random enemy minions. Allied: Demon Hunter.
  • Unlock criteria: Attack 30 times with your hero.

• Devout Blessings
  • 4 mana Spell. Add a copy of each friendly Deathrattle minion that died this game to your hand. Allied: Priest.
  • Unlock criteria: Play 50 cards with Deathrattle.

• For the Alliance!
  • 1 mana Spell. Start of Game: Draw this. Shuffle 15 Tradeable spells into your deck that Discover a spell from the Alliance.
    • Stand as One: [0 Mana Spell] Tradeable. Discover a spell from the Alliance. (Demon Hunter, Paladin, Hunter, Priest, and Rogue).
  • Unlock criteria: Play 200 Neutral minions from the Year of the Gryphon.

HERO CHANGES

• Removed from the Hero Pool.
• Dev Comment: Diablo has been defeated in Duels, but can a Prime Evil ever be so easily vanquished?! We expect Diablo to return one day, it’s only a question of time, and he may have one more trick for you when he does. . .

• Old: [Costs 0] → New: [Costs 1]

NEW PASSIVE TREASURES

• After you play a Legendary minion, add a random Legendary minion to your hand.

• After you play your first minion each turn, add a 1/1 copy of it to your hand. It costs (1).

• After you cast an Arcane spell, transform a random enemy minion into a 1/1 Sheep.

• After you cast a Holy spell, summon an Ancient Guardian with stats equal to its Cost.

• After you cast your first Fire spell in a turn, add a Fireball to your hand.

• Whenever a Neutral minion dies on your turn, gain 1 Mana Crystal for that turn only.

• After you summon a Dragon, shuffle a Dream Portal into your deck that summons a Dragon when drawn.

• After you cast a spell, refresh your Hero Power.

• At the start of the game, set your Health to 10. You can only take 1 damage at a time.

• Every third spell you cast each turn costs (1).

TREASURE POOL CHANGES

• Fireshaper, Ever-changing Elixir, LOCUUUUSTS!!!, and Conduit of Storms have been removed from their respective treasure pools.
• Bag of Coins was moved from Treasure Pool 1 to Treasure Pool 2.
• Expedited Burial was moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
• Expedited Burial was removed from the Hunter (Professor Slate) Treasure Pool.
• Mantle of Ignition was moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
• Mantle of Ignition was removed from the Priest (Mindrender Illucia) and Warrior (Rattlegore) Treasure Pools.

TREASURE BALANCE CHANGES

• Old: [Costs 5] 6 Attack → New: [Costs 6] 5 Attack

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

• Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]

• Old: Passive: After you play a Dragon, give it Deathrattle: Go Dormant. Revive in three turns. → New: Passive: After you play a Dragon, give it Deathrattle: Go Dormant. Revive in two turns.

Special Tavern Brawl—Tavish vs. Rokara

Edwin VanCleef was defeated in the Deadmines, but agents of Lady Prestor have taken the shards of naaru to Alterac Valley, where Kazakus awaits. The Alliance and the Horde mercenaries face off for the right to retrieve the shards. In this special Tavern Brawl, you play as Tavish or Rokara and select one of your mercenary companions to join you (as your Hero Power). Each combination has unique dialogue interactions that tell more of the Mercenaries story. Try them all when this Tavern Brawl launches on January 26! Your prize for your first win in this Tavern Brawl is a Standard pack, which can include cards from any set in Standard.

Book of Mercenaries—Tavish

The hunter Tavish Stormpike never wanted anything to do with his stuck up, overbearing cousin Vanndar, but fate (and the promise of loot) have brought him back to Alterac Valley. The troll Kazakus plans to restore the shattered naaru and use its power to complete a mysterious ritual. To stop him, Tavish must overcome the Frostwolves, Horde mercenaries, angry troggs, his own family, and food poisoning! Can he stomach it? Find out when Book of Mercenaries Tavish launches on February 1. Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Hunter pack, containing on Hunter cards from Standard.

The Lunar New Year Celebration Starts Soon!

[Updated] Hearthstone’s annual Lunar New Year celebration is coming soon, featuring legendary quests, and more! Look for more information about the celebration in the coming weeks. In the meantime, start the celebration early with the Dancing Lion Card Back, available for free in the Shop, starting on January 25!

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Updated more individual card timings to make them match the general timing rules. The most notable update in this pass is that cards with “while damaged” effects will persist through enchantments. For example, a damaged Grommash will now have 7 Attack after a Wave of Apathy, instead of 1. In this pass, Lightborn Cariel (the final reward from the Paladin Questline, Rise to the Occasion) was also updated to now work like similarly worded cards, such as Southsea Captain, when a card like Equality is played (your Silver Hand Recruits would have 3 Health).
• [Updated] Updated Friends List rank and mode display. Your Battlegrounds medal will always be shown while in the Battlegrounds game mode now, and your Hearthstone rank for the selected format will display when in the Hearthstone game mode. While in any other mode, the friends list will display your best rank between these modes, based on a rough calculation of relative rankings.
• [NEW] There was a slight tweak to how Tradeable functions under the hood, which could cause different behavior in certain situations. Tradeable now inserts the card into the deck at a random location, then draws a different card. (Previously, it was put on the bottom of the deck first, then the draw occurred, and then finally a shuffle happened.)
• Fixed a bug where Wildpaw Gnoll would occasionally have its cost increased by cards being added to your hand.
• Fixed a bug where the demons summoned by Kurtrus, Demon-Render would not get upgraded if he attacked a minion with Divine Shield.
• Fixed a bug where Maestra of the Masquerade doubled your Armor when she revealed your true identity.
• Snowfall Guardian no longer gets the stat bonus if Living Dragonbreath prevented it from successfully Freezing any minions.
• Doubling a Flanking Maneuver (like with a Solar Eclipse) will no longer give you two 4/2 Demons per initial 4/2 Demon that dies that turn.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the game to crash after playing Bloodsworn Mercenary.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the game to crash when playing Zephrys the Great.
• Fixed a bug where Pilfered Power was limited to the player having up to 10 mana, even if the player was able to have more.
• Fixed a bug where Consume Magic lost its Shadow spell school.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to get stuck on a “Waiting” screen when trying play Battlegrounds as a group.
• Fixed a bug where Scabbs was a bit too stealthy and would not appear in the Battlegrounds Collections display.
• Updated the representation of Mercenary Portraits while opening Mercenary Packs to make it clearer whether you got a new Portrait versus a new Mercenary Card.
• Fixed a bug where the “Maxed Out!” celebration image was uncentered and clipped.
• Fixed a bug where if the “Challenge a Friend” quest was completed in Mercenaries, only the player who had the quest would get credit for its completion.
• Fixed a bug where Antonidas’s Searing Pendant Equipment did not add +1 Cooldown to Fireball Storm.
• Fixed a bug where the Rolling Fireball Ability did not properly calculate modifiers such as Divine Shield, Fire Resistance, Fire Weakness, or Spell Damage.
• Updated the text of Valeera’s Hidden Paths Equipment to match its function.
• Fixed a bug where Cairne’s Endurance Aura would remove Taunt in situations where it wasn’t supposed to be removed (like if it was also granted by a Boon or another effect).
• Fixed a bug where Old Murk-Eye’s Primordial Fin 4 did not grant Giantfin Divine Shield.
• Fixed a bug where Bru’kan’s Chain Lightning would overkill targets that were already dealt lethal damage. Now it will skip targets that are already functionally dead.
• Updated the text of Grommash Hellscream’s Task 12 to match its function.
• Fixed a bug where Grommash Hellscream’s Staggering Slam’s Speed reduction would not be cleared if the target’s next Ability was one that summoned a minion.
• Fixed a bug where cards on the Rewards Track were not appearing in Arena offerings.
• The Collection Manager “missing” search term will now work for non-card cosmetics. This will also work for Mercenaries, Battlegrounds Heroes, and Battlegrounds Bartenders. The functionality will be added for Battlegrounds Boards in a later patch.
• Fixed a bug that blocked players from using the term search function in the Collection Manager while building a Wild deck on mobile.
• Fixed a bug where Steel Guardian Malfurion was missing his Hero Power sound effects.
• Fixed a text issue where the level 70 Rewards Track reward’s text did not match the image or effect.
• Fixed a bug where Alterac Valley collection Achievements did not count Vanndar or Drek’Thar as being owned if they were claimed before Alterac Valley launched.
• Fixed a bug where the Gesundheit achievement was not tracking correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the Third Cousins Twice Removed achievement could not be completed as written.
• Misc. other performance improvements, bug fixes, and visual issues.

Patch 22.0.2, launching today, includes balance changes for Standard and Battlegrounds, a system update for Mercenaries, and more!

Standard Balance Updates

Dev Comment: We’re coming up on two weeks since the launch of Fractured in Alterac Valley and, while players are still finding success with quite a variety of strategies, we want to open up the format further. This patch is mainly focused on weakening some of the stronger, combo-centric strategies that have had long-term success throughout the Year of the Gryphon.

The following cards have been adjusted down in power:

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
  • Dev Comment: Although Celestial Alignment is not usually a card used for from-hand, burst damage, it does frequently allow for absurd turns that happen a little earlier than we feel is healthy. Moving it up a mana should allow for more setup and counterplay before Celestial Alignment is cast.

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 1 Health
  • Dev Comment: Paladins have a very consistent, powerful package of cards that they can include in quite a few distinct strategies. Alliance Bannerman is one of these cards that can fit into a wide range of decks. Lowering its Health by one should tone down Paladin decks by a small amount across the board.

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 3]
  • Dev Comment: Efficient Octo-bot has been a little too efficient at the upper echelons of play. We’re slowing it down as part of the general goal of toning down the power level of combo strategies.

• Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 6]
  • Dev Comment: Snowfall Guardian was designed with the intent of giving Freeze Shaman decks a powerful tool, but it is a little too efficient at locking up the board, especially when combined with cards like Brilliant Macaw. Moving it up one mana should soften the power of this interaction.

• Old: Deal 2 damage to a minion. If it dies, restore 4 Health to your hero. → New: Deal 2 damage to a minion. If it dies, restore 3 Health to your hero.
  • Dev Comment: Touch of the Nathrezim is meant to be a solid removal option for slower Warlock decks, but the overall Health restoration in Warlock is slightly too high. This is meant to be a softer change that leaves Warlock with a powerful removal option, but reduces overall Warlock healing capabilities enough to bring that aspect of the class back in line.

• Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]
  • Dev Comment: Runed Mithril Rod was an incredibly strong tool in the first few days after the launch of Fractured in Alterac Valley. While players were able to find a counter to it in cards like Rustrot Viper, we believe going up a Mana here will lead to healthier play patterns for the game overall.

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 1 Health
  • Dev Comment: We’re reverting our previous change to Bloodsail Deckhand. Questline Warrior ended up slightly stronger than intended, and we believe it will continue to find success after this change.

• Old: After your opponent casts a spell, summon a copy of this. → New: After your opponent casts a spell, summon another Irondeep Trogg.
  • Dev Comment: Irondeep Trogg has the capability of running away with games very early when combined with minion buffs like Noble Mount or Doggie Biscuit. Taking into account the rest of the changes we’re making with this patch, we want to adjust Trogg to remain a viable counter to early spells, but to better match the targeted power level of the format as a whole.

• Old: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 3] 2 Attack, 5 Health
  • Dev Comment: Mo’arg Artificer does too much, too efficiently for decks with large amounts of removal. Increasing its cost by one will make the card a little less efficient as a tool for cheap clears, large amounts of life gain, and combo finishers.

The collectible cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 22.0.2 patch goes live. Bloodsail Deckhand is not eligible for the dust refund, because it's a Core Set card, not a collectible one.

Dev Comment: Alongside the changes above, we’re also making a couple adjustments aimed at powering up slower Mage decks and the less powerful Hero Cards.

The following cards have been adjusted up in power:

• Old: [Hero Power Costs 3] → New: [Hero Power Costs 2]

• Old: [Costs 8] 6 Attack, 6 Health → New: [Costs 6] 4 Attack, 5 Health

• Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]
• Old: Hero Power: Deal 1 Damage. Honorable Kill: Gain +2 Damage. → New: Hero Power: Deal 2 Damage. Honorable Kill: Gain +2 Damage.

• Old: Increase the damage of your Hero Power by 1. → New: Increase the damage of your Hero Power by 1 this game.
  • Dev Comment: This is a minor rework to make it so that Wildfire will now persist after swapping Hero Powers. Although we don’t envision this being dramatically impactful, we do think it will allow for a smoother gameplay experience with Hero Power changing cards like Magister Dawngrasp.

Battlegrounds Balance Updates

HERO UPDATES

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 1 (0 Armor) to Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)
• Sneed’s Replicator
  • Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

• Fragrant Phylactery
  • Old: [Costs 0] Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its Health to all your others. → New: [Costs 1] Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to all your others.

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 2 (2-5 Armor) to Tier 1 (0 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 6 (6-9 Armor) to Tier 7 (7-10 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 4 (4-7 Armor) to Tier 5 (5-8 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 3 (3-6 Armor) to Tier 5 (5-8 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 6 (6-9 Armor) to Tier 7 (7-10 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 3 (3-6 Armor) to Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)

• Armor Tier changed from Tier 4 (4-7 Armor) to Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)

MINION UPDATES

• Old: 5 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 2 Attack, 5 Health

Mercenaries Update

• All Heroic Level 30 Bounties will now include at least one pile of Legendary Coins (chosen from the selection of Coins designated for each Bounty) as part of their Bounty completion rewards.

Arena Update

• Abominable Lieutenant is no longer draftable in Arena.

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• The base versions of Drek’Thar and Vanndar are now eligible for full dust refunds. We will be doing a separate update later on patch day to grant additional Arcane Dust to players who already disenchanted either card.
• Fixed a bug where the Duels treasure Impcredible Trousers did not properly shuffle the imp portals.

Patch 22.0, launching tomorrow, paves the way for Hearthstone’s latest expansion, Fractured in Alterac Valley, launching December 7! The Patch also includes updates to Mercenaries, Battlegrounds, Duels, and Arena, as well as bug fixes and more.

Storm into Alterac Valley on December 7

(Updated) Fractured in Alterac Valley launches on December 7. The new expansion includes 135 all-new cards, featuring the new Honorable Kill keyword, Objective cards, and the return of Hero Cards! See all the new cards in the official card library today.

As soon as the set is live, the Battle for Alterac Vally begins! All players will compete for Honor in order to receive free rewards and claim victory for their faction. You gain Honor by playing and winning during the eligible period:

• 10 Honor for every game played
• 10 more Honor for every game won (20 total)
• 20 more Honor for every game won versus an opponent from the enemy faction (40 total)

Honor can be gained in Ranked, Arena, and Duels Modes. As you gain Honor, you climb through the ranks of your faction, and across the frozen battlefield—eventually capturing a Golden copy of the enemy faction’s leader! On January 11, all Honor will be tallied. Then, in a future update, the winning faction’s victory will be forever enshrined in Hearthstone when every player receives a Diamond copy of the winning faction’s leader card!

Clarification: The period for tallying the winning faction is from December 7 to January 11, but you can collect Honor to complete your personal Legendary Quest Chain at any point throughout the Fractured in Alterac Valley expansion. After the expansion period, the Legendary Quest Chain will be replaced with another means to earn these rewards.

Mercenaries Updates

Mercenaries will be getting its second infusion of Mercenaries, Bounties, and Bounty Bosses with the 22.0 patch! The Mercenaries listed here will enter the fray when the 22.0 patch goes live, while Vanessa will go live with the expansion on December 7.

NEW MERCENARIES

Valeera Sanguinar (Legendary Fighter)

• Blood Elf
• 13/73 maxed stats
• Abilities:
  • Sinister Strike 5: (Speed 3) Gain +10 Attack this turn and Attack the lowest Health enemy. Combo: Gain Stealth.
  • Ambush 5: (Speed 6) Deal 10 damage. If this Mercs was Stealthed, deal 25 instead.
  • Fan of Knives 5: (Speed 7) Deal 7 damage to all enemies. Your other Mercs are (3) Speed faster next turn.
• Equipment:
  • Hidden Paths 4: Passive: Whenever a friendly character loses Stealth, give them +6 Attack.
  • Shadow Dagger 4: Ambush is (3) Speed faster and gains “Deathblow: Gain Stealth.”
  • Unnatural Smoke 4: Passive: While this Merc has Stealth, friendly characters a (4) Speed faster.

Sky Admiral Rogers (Epic Caster)

• Human
• 11/76 maxed stats
• Abilities:
  • Sky Guard 5: (Speed 5) Gain +5 Attack and Attack an enemy. If it’s a Pirate, gain Immune while Attacking this turn.
  • Master Tactician 5: (Speed 2, Cooldown 1) Deal 12 damage to an enemy, or restore 12 Health to an ally. It goes next.
  • Firing Position 5: (Speed 6, Cooldown 1) Deal 20 damage to all enemies that have already acted.
• Equipment:
  • Swash Buckling Sash 4: Sky Guard gives an additional +5 Attack.
  • Ship’s Bell 4: Master Tactician deals 4 more damage and makes the target go last.
  • Scout’s Spyglass 4: Passive: After this Merc Attacks, deal 4 damage to all enemies. (Deals Critical Damage to Pirates).

Trigore the Lasher (Rare Protector)

• Beast
• 10/80 maxed stats
• Abilities:
  • Frenzied Attack 5: (Speed 7) Attack an enemy. If this took damage this turn, deal 12 damage to a random adjacent enemy.
  • Backlash 5: (Speed 1) The next time an enemy damages an adjacent ally this turn, Gain +5 Attack and deal this Merc’s Attack damage to them.
  • Regrow Heads 5: (Speed 4, Cooldown 1) This takes Critical Damage this turn. At the end of next turn, restore this Merc to full Health.
• Equipment:
  • Infused Amber 4: Frenzied Attack deals 4 more damage.
  • Razor Claw 4: Backlash gives an additional +4 Attack.
  • Regenarative Scales 4: Regrow Heads restores 16 Health the turn it is cast.

Vanessa VanCleef (Epic Protector)

• Pirate
• 10/75 maxed stats
• Abilities:
  • Burgle Barrage 5: (Speed 7) Attack an enemy. Combo: Steal 5 Attack from them.
  • Makeshift Weaponry 5: (Speed 3) Spend all stolen Attack to deal that much damage to all enemies.
  • Shifting Satchel 5: (Speed 5, Cooldown 1) Deal 16 damage to an enemy. Give +1 Cooldown to an Ability they didn’t use this turn.
• Equipment:
  • Dreadblades 4: Burgle Barrage is (4) faster and always Combos.
  • Extra Pockets 4: After using Makeshift Weaponry, this Merc keeps up to 5 Attack.
  • Blade Catcher 4: Passive: Whenever this Merc is Attacked, steal 4 Attack from the Attacker.

NEW BOUNTIES

• Razorgore
• Vaelastrasz
• Chromaggus
• Nefarian

The new Bounties will be added to the Blackrock Zone. The new Mercenary Cards, Portraits, and Coins will be added to all existing relevant Mercenary item pools. Vanessa VanCleef will also be awarded for free at the start of the Fractured in Alterac Valley free rewards track, and her Portraits can be earned with the Tavern Pass. Each new Mercenary will come with its own Task Chain, similar to those of existing Mercenaries.

Battlegrounds Updates

DIABLO IS DEFEATED

You all took on the raid boss and survived! The special Diablo event is now over and Bob’s fine tavern is still standing—and preparing for the next round of new combatants. Diablo has been removed from the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.

NEW HERO

• I Spy [Costs 2]
  • Discover a plain copy of a minion from your next opponent's warband.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to Scabbs Cutterbutter before the Hero is formally released on December 14.

(NEW) RETURNING HERO

• Lord Barov has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.

BATTLEGROUNDS BOARDS

Bob’s got something new to show you. Introducing Battlegrounds Boards, an all-new cosmetic option for Hearthstone Battlegrounds! Battlegrounds Boards are special boards that you can bring to the combat phase of your Battlegrounds bouts. These boards sport new visuals for you to see and show off to your opponents. Because Battlegrounds Boards are shared with you and your opponent, you may not see your Board every round.

Bob’s first board is the Arena of Champions, a celebration of Bob’s favorite customer: you! Give your warbands the royal reception they deserve, with suits of armor and flourishes of purple and gold. Get yours in the shop as soon as the patch goes live!

For gameplay purposes, the bottom right portion of all Battleground Boards are simplified when playing on mobile.

Duels Updates

CARD POOL UPDATES

On December 7, Fractured in Alterac Valley and Goblins vs. Gnomes will be added to the eligible card pools. New buckets will be added to cover the cards from the newly added card sets.

NEW PASSIVE TREASURES

• Nature Spell Damage +2

• Fire Spell Damage +2

• At the start of the game, shuffle 5 Death Knight cards into your deck.

• Frost Spell Damage +2

• At the start of the game, change each Deathrattle minion in your hand and deck into a 1/1 that costs (1).

• Whenever you target a minion with a spell, cast it again on its neighbors.

• After you cast a Fel spell, shuffle 2 Fel Rifts into your deck.

• After you cast a Nature spell, give a random friendly minion +2/+2 and Taunt.

• Whenever you draw a minion, add a copy of it to your hand.

• Your hero has +2 Attack on your turn.

Ring of Black Ice – Pool 2

• Whenever a minion is Frozen, add a copy of it to your hand.

• At the end of your turn, cast a spell you've cast this turn (targets are random).

• At the end of your turn, add a random Death Knight card to your hand.

• At the end of your turn, add a Dream Card to your hand.

• At the end of your turn, summon a 3/6 Water Elemental if you've cast a Frost spell.

Arena Rotation

At the launch of Fractured in Alterac Valley, the current Dual-Class Arena event will end and the pool of eligible Arena sets will rotate so that the following sets will make up the Arena card pool:

• Fractured in Alterac Valley
• Saviors of Uldum
• Kobolds and Catacombs
• League of Explorers
• Scholomance Academy
• The Boomsday Project
• Core

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug that allowed players on certain devices to close out of the Fractured in Alterac Valley faction selection screen without choosing a faction.
• Fixed a bug causing Cram Session to not get the Spell Damage bonus from Talented Arcanist or Lab Partner.
• Fixed a bug where Brittlebone Destroyer glowed even when its effect requirements were not met.
• Updated Soul Cleave’s text to properly represent that it only hits enemy minions, not all enemies.
• Fixed a bug where cards returned to hand by Tenwu of the Red Smoke could not be further reduced by cards like Scabbs Cutterbutter.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Goblins v. Gnomes Golden cards from being crafted or disenchanted.
• Fixed a bug where cards drawn by Malygos the Spellweaver after Celestial Alignment were not impacted by Loatheb.
• Fixed a text bug causing Nithogg’s Storm Eggs to show they summoned 20/20 Devilsaurs instead of the 4/4 Drakes with Rush that they actually summon.
• Players will now be able to see their Mercenaries Party while selecting Bounty Treasures.
• Completing multiple Tasks and Bounties at the same time will no longer cause the notifications to overlap on mobile.
• Several more Daily Quests can now be completed in Mercenaries, including Challenge a Friend, Spectate and Friend, and “Play a certain number of a Type of minion” Quests. More Daily and Weekly Quests may be added or reworked for future patches.
• Fixed a bug where The Lich King’s Helm of Domination would not trigger as intended in certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug where Blink Fox’s Mind Thief Ability would retain a copied Ability over 2 uses, instead of only 1, while Tenth Tail is equipped.
• Fixed a bug where using Mutanus’s Devouring Attack caused Reincarnated Cairne to become invisible.
• Fixed a bug where Eudora’s Briny Bracers were giving 2 less Health
• Fixed a bug where Edwin, Defias Kingpin was showing the wrong art within its Diamond frame.
• Fixed bug causing iOS users to be incorrectly shown “low RAM” warning when entering Battlegrounds.
• Fixed a bug where Mercenaries Equipment Achievements were counting each Equipment upgrade as a new Equipment.
• Fixed a bug where Small Backpacks in Duels could draw C’Thun, the Shattered before he, well, shatters.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from using the Hero Skin picker functionality in Classic.
• Fixed a bug where Steel Guardian Malfurion and Vanndar Stormpike Hero Skins were missing their custom hero power animations.
• (NEW) Updated priority resolution when card effects conflict.

Patch 21.8, launching today, paves the way for Hearthstone’s next expansion with balance changes, Fractured in Alterac Valley pre-purchase, and more!

Choose Your Faction, Claim Your Leader

Next time you log in to Hearthstone, you will get to choose between Horde and Alliance! Your choice comes with a different free Golden Legendary ahead of the expansion. Joining the Horde will instantly get you the mighty Drek’Thar, of the Frostwolf clan! Those who aid the Alliance will instantly receive the stout Vanndar Stormpike, leader of the Stormpike Dwarves!

Pre-Purchase Fractured in Alterac Valley

Hearthstone’s next expansion, Fractured in Alterac Valley, is coming on December 7! After a year of growth, the set follows our Mercenary heroes to a frozen battlefield where they join their factions in a final showdown for honor and powerful shards of a fallen naaru!

Fractured in Alterac Valley includes 135 new cards, inspired by weather as cold as the feelings between Alliance and Horde. You can prepare yourself for battle with two pre-purchase options, starting today!

Fight for Honor and Battle for Alterac Valley!

After the expansion launches, from December 7 to January 11, all players will compete for Honor in order to receive even more free rewards and to claim ultimate victory for their faction! You gain Honor by playing and winning during the eligible period:

• 10 Honor for every game played
• 10 more Honor for every game won (20 total)
• 20 more Honor for every game won versus an opponent from the enemy faction (40 total)

Honor can be gained in Traditional, Arena, and Duels Modes. As you gain Honor, you climb the ranks within your faction and progress a Legendary Quest chain that takes you through the Alterac Valley battlefields and rewards cards from the expansion! All players who complete the Quest chain will receive the same total end rewards, including a Golden copy of the enemy faction’s leader. The order of the rewards depends on which faction you choose, and will be revealed closer to release!

At the end of the event, all Honor will be tallied and the winning faction’s accomplishment will be forever enshrined in Hearthstone, because every player will receive a Diamond copy of the winning faction’s leader card (Drek’Thar or Vanndar)! Every time a player opens their Collection, they will remember this glorious battle!

Card Balance Updates

• Old: 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health
  • Dev Comment: We’re scaling back on Battleguard to allow a few more answers to it in the early game. Taunt Druid is performing quite well, so we’ll be monitoring it closely to determine whether any more changes are needed.

• Old: Battlecry: For the rest of the game, you have Spell Damage +3. → New: For the rest of the game, you have Spell Damage +2.
  • Dev Comment: Reducing the lethality of Questline Mage should help open up additional room for slower strategies to succeed.

• Old: Deal 2 damage to the enemy hero. Shuffle 3 Bleeds into your deck that deal 2 more when drawn. → New: Deal 2 damage to the enemy hero. Shuffle 2 Bleeds into your deck that deal 2 more when drawn.
  • Dev Comment: Garrote Rogue has performed quite well at higher ranks. This is a softer change aimed at increasing the breakpoint of Spell Damage needed from 2 to 3, while also making Armor a more effective counter to the strategy.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 21.8 patch goes live.

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
  • Dev Comment: Priest archetypes outside of Shadow have been underperforming relative to the field. This revert should add a bit of power back to those strategies.

Battlegrounds Updates

NEW ARMOR SYSTEM

Introducing the Battlegrounds Armor System! Starting in patch 21.8, Battlegrounds heroes will be awarded Armor at the start of each game to help balance and spice up the Tavern. All heroes will get a random amount of Armor from within a range, based on their power levels, with the strongest heroes getting 0 Armor and the weakest heroes being eligible for up to 10 Armor. At launch, these will be the Armor ranges and placements:

Our plan is to review these ranges and placements as part of our Battlegrounds balancing going forward, but we also want to hear your feedback on this new system after you play with it. The system may come in and out of the mode from patch to patch as we refine the system and introduce other new features or major changes.

NEW HERO

• Fragrant Phylactery [Costs 0]
  • Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its Health to all your others.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to Tamsin Roame before the Hero is formally released on November 30.

UPDATED HERO

Diablo will be sticking around a little bit longer, so that he can have another chance to make his mark before he goes. To help with that, three of the Diablo Treasures have been changed:

• Sigil of Hell’s damage has been increased:
  • Tier 1: Old: 1 damage → New: 2 damage
  • Tier 2: Old: 3 damage → New: 4 damage
  • Tier 3: Old: 6 damage → New: 8 damage
  • Tier 4: Old: 12 damage → New: 16 damage
• Claws of Terror’s stat buff has been increased:
  • Tier 1: Old: +2/+2 → New: +4/+4
  • Tier 2: Old: +6/+6 → New: +8/+8
  • Tier 3: Old: +12/+12 → New: +16/+16
• Hellfire Hooves’s Attack buff has been increased:
  • Tier 1: Old: +1 Attack → New: +2 Attack
  • Tier 2: Old: +2 Attack → New: +4 Attack
  • Tier 3: Old: +3 Attack → New: +8 Attack
  • Tier 4: Old: +6 Attack → New: +16 Attack

MINION POOL UPDATES

• Bristleback Knight has been removed from the minion pool.
• Mythrax has returned to the minion pool.
• Thorncaller has returned to the minion pool.

UPDATED MINIONS

• Old: 6 Attack, 3 Health. Avenge (2): Deal 6 damage to the highest Health enemy minion. → New: 5 Attack, 3 Health. Avenge (2): Deal 5 damage to the highest Health enemy minion.

• Old: After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, give it +2/+1 permanently. → New: After a friendly minions loses Divine Shield, give it +1/+1 permanently.

• Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 3 Attack, 1 Health

• Old: 2 Attack, 6 Health → New: 3 Attack, 5 Health

• Old: Battlecry: Give a friendly Pirate +1/+1 for each Pirate you bought this turn. → New: Battlecry: Give a friendly Pirate +1/+1. Repeat for each Pirate you bought this turn.

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 6 Health

• Old: Avenge (5): Make another friendly Pirate Golden permanently. → New: Avenge (4): Make another friendly Pirate Golden permanently.

• Old: 4 Attack, 3 Health → New: 5 Attack, 3 Health

• Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health. The first Blood Gem played on this each turn gives an extra +2/+2. → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health. The first Blood Gem played on this each turn gives an extra +3/+3.

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health

• Old: Tier 3 → New: Tier 4
• Old: Battlecry: Choose a friendly minion. It steals all Blood Gems from its neighbors. → New: Battlecry: Play 2 Blood Gems on a friendly minion. It steals all Blood Gems from its neighbors.

Mercenaries Updates

Several Mercenaries have been buffed.

• Old: 10 Attack, 67 Health (Level 30 stats) → New: 10 Attack, 73 Health (Level 30 stats)

Cornelius Roame

• Hold the Front
  • Old: Speed 4, Cooldown 1 → New: Speed 2, Cooldown 0
• Blessing of Sacrifice
  • Old (Rank 5): Speed 3 → New (Rank 5): Speed 2

Grommash

• Staggering Slam
  • Old: Speed 4 → New: Speed 2
• Battlefury
  • Old: Speed 9 → New: Speed 6

• Fist of Jaraxxus
  • Old (Rank 5): Speed 6, Deal 12 damage to a random enemy. Repeat for each of your other Demons. → New: Speed 4, Deal 15 damage to a random enemy. Repeat for each of your other Demons.
• Fel Infernal
  • Old: Speed 5, Cooldown 1 → New: Speed 4, Cooldown 0

• Retaliation:
  • Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown 0
  • Old (Rank 5): After an enemy Attacks this turn, Attack it. → New (Rank 5): After an enemy Attacks this turn, Gain +5 Attack and Attack it.

• Old: 9 Attack, 69 Health (Level 30 stats) → New: 12 Attack, 74 Health (Level 30 stats)
• Blade Dance
  • Old: Cooldown 2 → New: Cooldown 1
• Demon Shroud (Equipment)
  • Old: Take 5 less damage while Attacking. → New: Take 10 less damage while Attacking.

• Scaly Taunt
  • Old (Rank 5): Gain Taunt and this takes 3 less damage this turn. → New (Rank 5): Gain Taunt and this takes 5 less damage this turn.
• Iridescent Neckless
  • Old (Rank 4): Scaly Taunt makes this Merc take 3 less damage this turn. → New (Rank 4): Scaly Taunt makes this Merc take 3 less damage and is Immune to Critical Damage this turn.

• Felfin Navigator
  • Old (Rank 5): Give your other Murlocs +3/+5. → New (Rank 5): Give your other Murlocs +5/+5.
• Giantfin
  • Old (Rank 5): 16 Attack, 16 Health → New (Rank 5): 20 Attack, 20 Health
• Primordial Fin (Equipment)
  • Old (Rank 4): Giantfin gains +8 Attack. → New: Giantfin gains +8 Attack and Divine Shield.

• Old: 9 Attack, 76 Health (Level 30 stats) → New: 11 Attack, 76 Health (Level 30 stats)
• Hulking Overfiend
  • Old: Rush. Deathblow: This Attacks the lowest Health enemy. → New: Battlecry: Attack the lowest Health enemy. Deathblow: Attack the lowest Health enemy.

• Orc Onslaught
  • Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 5

• Old: 8 Attack, 69 Health (Level 30 stats) → New: 10 Attack, 72 Health (Level 30 stats)

• Old: 9 Attack, 69 Health (Level 30 stats) → New: 12 Attack, 69 Health (Level 30 stats)

• Siphon Life
  • Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 6

Arena Updates

• Deeprun Engineer is now banned in Arena.

Book of Mercenaries Scabbs

There is a traitor in the Stormwind court, and superspy Scabbs Cutterbutter is on the case! The mercenary rogue's search for the truth will lead him to the depths of the Stormwind Stockade and an unlikely ally. Together they must escape and race to the Deadmines where a band of pirates led by the rebel Edwin VanCleef seek to smuggle the gathered shards of naaru out of Stormwind. Find out where they're headed when Book of Mercenaries Scabbs launches November 16. Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Rogue pack, containing only Rogue cards from Standard!

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug where Dormant cards would not show a preview on hover while dormant.
• Fixed a bug where Celestial Ink Set would not lose durability in some cases where it should’ve.
• Fixed a bug where Tyrantus was missing the Cannot be Targeted by Hero Powers and Spells trait.
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to move Tradeable cards around during the other player’s turn.
• Fixed a bug where Monstrous Parrot would not trigger Deathrattles last triggered by other cards like Oblivitron or Necrium Blade.
• Fixed an extremely rare occurrence where a minion’s health could get so large in Battlegrounds it could be deleted from the warband entirely.
• Fixed a bug where minions that had their Blood Gems stolen by Necrolyte no longer have a +0/+0 enchantment banner.
• Updated Edwin’s Sharpen Blades Battlegrounds Hero Power text to reflect that it’s restricted to friendly minions.
• Fixed a bug where Battlegrounds party invites would not send if the receiving player was editing a deck.
• Fixed a bug where the loading screen wheel would appear zoomed in if a player joined a Battlegrounds party while spectating a game.
• Fixed a bug where players could become stuck in the Mercenaries tutorial.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where equipping Grommash’s Halting Sash would decrease the speed reduction of Staggering Slam.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where claiming completed tasks could make non-completed tasks appear completed.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where completing two tasks at the same time could cause a visual overlap of their pop-ups.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where the Majordomo Executus bounty was incorrectly named as the Ragnaros bounty on story task 22.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Varden Dawngrasp’s Deathrattle’s were not affected by Frost Damage modifiers.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Lady Anacondra’s Mark of the Viper 3 would apply to King Krush twice.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where campaign tasks were missing their flavor text.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Seal of Light could retarget an enemy if the originally targeted friendly minion died before the ability was used.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where the Majordomo Executus bounty could be unlocked prematurely.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Mr. Smite’s Sharpened Scabbard would show inconsistent numbers between passive and enchantment text.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Cookie, the Cook’s Cookie’s Cooking would not provide extra healing despite having Iron Ladel equipped.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Rokara’s Task 3, Surprise! referenced and ability Rokara doesn’t have.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Mirror Clone could cause the duplicate minion to change position with other Mercenaries.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Scaly Taunt would not reduce damage.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Hunting Shroud 1 would not add Attack for Bear Trap 2.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Soul Burn would not update to reflect Spell Damage.
• Fixed a Mercenaries bug where Jaina’s Ice Block Talisman would not activate.
• Multiple Mercenaries packs can now be purchased at the same time with Gold.
• Fixed a bug where player Gold totals would not update after buying a Mercenaries pack until the client was restarted or a different pack type was purchased.
• Added tooltips and corrected typos for several abilities in Mercenaries.
• Fixed text issues for several Mercenaries related Achievements.
• Updated several Mercenaries tasks that had outdated or incorrect text.
• Fixed a Duels bug where Quel’Delar would be shuffled into your deck instead of being added to your hand at the start of the game.
• Fixed a Duels bug where Fire Stomp would not update to reflect Spell Damage.
• Fixed a Duels bug where Legendary Loot’s card text did not match its functionality.
• Fixed a Duels bug where favorite card backs were not being applied to decks.
• Fixed a bug where both the legacy and core set versions of a card could be added to Tavern Brawl decks when using Complete My Deck.
• Fixed a bug where choosing a Hero Skin at the end of the Rewards Track would not mark it as owned until the journal was reopened.
• Fixed a bug where the in-game Shop button was difficult to click on pop-ups.
• Fixed various localization issues.

Patch 21.6, launching November 2, brings big updates across Hearthstone, including a Mini-Set full of scoundrels and scallywags! Arrrrr you ready?!

Deadmines Mini-Set Launches on November 2!

Delve into the Deadmines in the United in Stormwind Mini-Set, coming November 2! Edwin VanCleef and his crew are waiting for you with 35 unique new cards featuring Pirates and new Tradeable synergies! Get them in United in Stormwind packs, or get the entire 66-card Mini-Set* for $14.99 or 2000 Gold! Card reveals will take place over the weekend and the full Mini-Set will be published in a PlayHearthstone.com blog on Monday, November 1. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated on the latest!

* 4 Legendary Cards (x1), 1 Epic Card (x2), 14 Rare Cards (x2), and 16 Common Cards (x2).

Mercenaries Updates

Mercenaries is getting its first content update! Five iconic swashbucklers are raiding the mode with unique new Abilities and Pirate Type synergies! On top of that, we’re introducing three new Bounties and Bounty Bosses for your new recruits to take on.

NEW MERCENARIES

• Edwin, Defias Kingpin (Legendary Fighter)
  • Pirate
  • 13/80 maxed stats
  • Abilities:
    • Assassin’s Blade 5: Speed 5. Attack an enemy. If it hasn’t acted yet this turn, gain +5 Health and Attack it again.
    • Assisted Strike 5: Speed 5, Cooldown 1. Gain +5 Attack for each friendly Pirate and Attack a random enemy. Combo: Gain Immune while Attacking this turn.
    • Kingpin’s Bounty 5: Speed 4, Cooldown 2. Deal 10 damage to an enemy. Repeat for each other Pirate you control. Deathblow: Restore 25 Health.
  • Equipment:
    • Black Flag 4: Passive: Adjacent Pirates’ Abilities are (4) Speed faster.
    • Round of Drinks 4: Assisted Strike is (3) Speed faster and always has Immune while Attacking.
    • Even Shares 4: Kingpin’s Bounty restores 10 more Health and affects all friendly characters.

• Sneed (Epic Protector)
  • Pirate
  • 7/77 maxed stats
  • Abilities:
    • Bzzz!!! 5: Speed 6. Deal damage equal to your Attack. If Activate Saw is active, also damage target’s neighbor.
    • Activate Saw 5: Speed 3, Cooldown 1: Gain +6 Attack for 2 turns. Attack a random enemy.
    • Disarm 5: Speed 3, Cooldown 1: Attack an enemy. Give it –5 Attack permanently.
  • Equipment:
    • Skull Dust 4: Bzzz!!! Gains Bleed (5).
    • Titanium Blades 4: Activate Saw gives +4 Attack and lasts 1 more turn.
    • Extra Blades 4: Sneed starts with Activate Saw 5 active for 1 turn.

• Eudora (Epic Fighter)
  • Pirate
  • 10/78 maxed stats
  • Abilities:
    • Coup d’Etat 5: Speed 4. Attack an enemy. If it’s the left or right-most enemy, fire Eudora’s Cannons at it.
    • Prepare the Cannons 5: Speed 7, Cooldown 1. Summon a Cannon to the left or right of this Merc. (Starts off Cooldown.)
    • Covering Fire 5: Speed 7, Cooldown 1. Restore 12 Health to a friendly Merc and return them to your bench. Fire all your Cannons.
  • Equipment:
    • Shrapnel Shot 4: Cannons deal 5 more damage.
    • Primed Armaments 4: Battlecry: Summon a Cannon.
    • Briny Bracers 4: Passive: +2/+10.

• Mr. Smite (Rare Protector)
  • Pirate
  • 7/75 maxed stats
  • Abilities:
    • Smite Slam 5: Speed 8. Gain +5 Attack for each enemy with 40 or less Health. Attack an enemy.
    • Avast ye Matey 5: Speed 2. Gain Taunt this turn. After an enemy Attacks this Merc gain +5 Attack.
    • Overboard 5: Speed 3, Cooldown 1. After another friendly character is damaged this turn, gain +10 Health and Attack a random enemy.
  • Equipment:
    • Sailor’s Cap 4: Mr. Smite gains an additional +4 Attack from Smite Slam.
    • Heavy Anchor 4: Overboard grants +6 Attack if the damaged friend is a Pirate.
    • Sharpened Scabbard 4: Whenever another friendly Pirate Attacks, gain +4 Attack.

• Cookie, the Cook (Rare Caster)
  • Murloc
  • 6/70 maxed stats
  • Abilities:
    • Fish Feast 5 (Nature): Speed 2. Deal 10 damage to an enemy. Deathblow: Give +15 Health to all friendly characters.
    • Cookie’s Cooking 5 (Nature): Speed 5, Cooldown 1. Bleed (5) to all enemies. Restore 5 Health to friendly Murlocs and Pirates.
    • Go Fish! 5 (Nature): Speed 4, Cooldown 1. Summon a random fish for your opponent, with a Deathrattle that benefits you.
  • Equipment:
    • Seasoned Pan 4: Fish Feast gives +5 Attack as well.
    • Iron Ladel 4: Cookie’s Cooking restores an additional 5 Health.
    • Appetizers 4: Start of Game: Give friendly characters +9 Health.

NEW BOUNTIES

• Highlord Omokk
• General Drakkisath
• Rend Blackhand

The new Bounties will be added to the Blackrock Zone. The new Mercenary Cards, Portraits, and Coins can be obtained through Mercenary Packs, similar to how Mini-Set cards are added to their expansion’s existing packs. They will also be added to all other places where these items can normally drop (such as from Bounties or the Fighting Pit), and any other future ways that these items will be able to be obtained. All future Mercenaries will continue to be added to that same general pool. Each new Mercenary will come with its own Task Chain, similar to those of the existing Mercenaries.

Battlegrounds Updates

NEW HEROES

• Realm of Terror [Passive]
  • Passive. Every 4 turns, ALL enemies fight the Lord of Terror and your warband for loot.

Diablo is a special event character that will only be in Battlegrounds for a limited time. In that time, he will be equally available to all players, not just those who have Battlegrounds perks.

• Sneed’s Replicator [Cost 1]
  • Give a friendly minion: Deathrattle: Summon a random minion of the same Tavern Tier.

• Stir the Pot [Cost 0]
  • Throw a minion in your pot. When you've gathered 3, Discover from their minion types.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to Sneed and Cookie the Cook before they’re formally released on November 16.

Duels Updates

When the 21.6 patch goes live on November 2, all players’ Duels ratings will be reset and the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card start deck will be updated to include cards from the new Deadmines Mini-Set. Please note that 21.6 will be the first time that players with active Heroic runs are cashed out for rewards based on their run progress when the patch goes live, and those players will be compensated with a Tavern Ticket (much like how active Arena runs are cashed out when sets rotate). Additionally, card buckets will be adjusted to account for the new Mini-Set cards.

LIMITED-TIME NEW HERO

Diablo will be Duels’s first dual-class character, combining powerful Warlock and Warrior card pools and effects!

Diablo has 3 new hero powers that you can unlock as you play:

• Primal Power [Cost 3]
  • Deal 3 damage to yourself, then gain 3 Attack and 3 Armor.

• Demonic Transformation [Cost 1]
  • Discard a random card. Add a random Demon to your hand with the same cost. It costs (2) less.
  • Unlocked by summoning 25 minions with 8 or more Attack as Diablo.

​

• Doom Charge [Cost 6]
  • Discover a minion from your deck. Summon a copy that attacks a random enemy. Then, it dies.
  • Unlocked by gaining 66 Armor as Diablo.

Diablo also has 5 new signature treasures, 3 of which can be unlocked as you play (there is a 6th treasure coming in the future, but it will be unusable at patch launch):

• Claws of Terror
  • 6 mana weapon. 6 Attack, 3 Durability. Start of Game: Draw this. Also damages adjacent minions.

• Fire Stomp
  • 3 mana spell. Deal 3 damage to ALL enemy characters. Restore 1 Health for each enemy hit and 1 additional Health if it dies.

• Apocalypse
  • 8 mana spell. Destroy all minions. Your opponent takes double damage for the rest of the game.
  • Unlocked by destroying 150 characters as Diablo.

• Soulstone Trap
  • 3 mana spell. Destroy a minion. Gain Attack and Armor equal to its Attack and Health.
  • Unlocked by playing 30 weapons as Diablo.

• Horns of Flame
  • 3 mana weapon. 0 Attack, 3 Durability. At the start of your turn, add a random Shadow or Fire spell to your hand.
  • Unlocked by playing 100 Shadow or Fire spells as Diablo.

ACTIVE TREASURE UPDATE

• Add a Diablo Signature Treasure card to your hand. Shuffle this into your deck.
• Pool 2
• Available to all heroes except for Diablo.

HERO UPDATES

• Starting in Patch 21.6, all original Scholomance Heroes will have all their unlock requirements removed.

Dev Comment: School's out for Summer!

PASSIVE TREASURE UPDATES

• Old: At the end of your turn, transform a friendly minion into one that costs (1) more. → New: At the end of your turn, transform a friendly minion into one that costs (2) more.

• Old: Whenever your weapon is destroyed, equip a random weapon of the same cost. → New: Whenever your weapon is destroyed, equip a random weapon of the same cost. Give it +1 Attack.

• Old: Whenever a Demon dies, draw a card and deal 1 damage to your hero. → New: Whenever a Demon dies, draw a card.

• Old: After a friendly Dragon dies, give your minions +1/+2. → New: After a friendly Dragon dies, give two minions in your hand +1/+1.

• Old: After you play a minion, deal 1 damage to it and give it +1 Attack. → New: After you play a minion, deal 1 damage to it and give it +2 Attack.

• Old: Your Weapons cost (1) less. → New: Your Weapons cost (1) less. At the start of the match, draw a weapon.

• Old: Whenever you play a Nature spell, restore 2 Health to your hero. → New: Whenever you play a Nature spell, restore 2 Health to all friendly characters.

• Old: Whenever damage is dealt to a Frozen enemy minion, destroy it. → New: Whenever you deal damage to a Frozen character, double it.

• Old: After you cast a Fire spell, summon a 1/2 Flame Elemental. → New: After you cast a Fire spell, summon a 1/2 Flame Elemental and add one to your hand.

• Old: Whenever you play a Holy spell, give all friendly minions +1 Health. → New: Whenever you play a Holy spell, give all friendly characters +1 Health.

• Old: After you play a Legendary minion, reduce the cost of a random minion in your hand by (1). → New: After you play a Legendary minion, reduce the cost of a random card in your hand by (2).

• Old: At the start of your turn, give a random minion in your hand +1/+1. → New: At the start of your turn, give two random minions in your hand +1/+1.

• Old: Your Taunt minions cost (3) less, but not less than (1). → New: Your Taunt minions cost (3) less, but not less than (2).

• Old: After your first Discover in a turn, reduce the cost of spells in your hand by (1), but not less than (1). → New: After your first Discover in a turn, reduce the cost of spells in your hand by (1), but not less than (2).

• Old: Whenever you cast a Fel spell, give a minion in your hand +3/+2. → New: Whenever you cast a Fel spell, give the left- and right-most minions in your hand +2/+2.

• Old: After you destroy a minion with a Shadow spell, add a copy of that minion to your hand. → New: After you destroy a minion with a Shadow spell, add a copy of that minion to your hand. Reduce its costs by (2).

• Old: After the first enemy dies each turn, raise a 1/3 Bloated Zombie. → New: After the first enemy dies each turn, raise a 1/1 Bloated Zombie.

• Old: At the start of the game, equip a random Legendary weapon. → New: On your first turn, Discover a Legendary weapon.

• Old: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, destroy the minion with the lowest Health. → New: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, trigger the Deathrattle of a friendly minion.

• Old: Your Battlecry cards cost (1) less, but not less than (1). → New: Your Battlecry cards cost (1) less, but not less than (2).

• Old: After you play a minion, shuffle two copies of it into your deck. They cost (1). → New: After you play a minion, shuffle two copies of it into your deck. They cost (3).

• Old: At the start of the game, destroy all minions in your deck. Your spells cost (1) less and gain +2 Spell Damage. → New: At the start of the game, destroy all minions in your deck. Your spells cost (1) less.

• Old: Your Neutral minions cost (1) less and have +1/+1. → New: Your Neutral minions have +1/+1 and cost (1) less, but not less that (2).

• Old: After you play your first Battlecry card in a turn, draw a card. It costs (2) less. → New: After you play your first Battlecry card in a turn, draw a card. It costs (2) less, but not less than (2).

PASSIVE TREASURE POOL UPDATES

• Small Pouches, Rhonin’s Scrying Orb, Caltrops and Scattered Caltrops have been removed.
• Small Backpacks has returned to Duels in Pool 1.
• Book of Wonders, Cannibalism, Starving, From the Swamp, and All Together Now have been moved from Pool 2 to Pool 1.
• Elixir of Vigor, Ooops, All Spells!, Meek Mastery, and Rally the Troops have been moved from Pool 2 Ultra Rare to Pool 2.

Arena Rotation

When the Deadmines Mini-Set unlocks on November 2, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:

• Deadmines Mini-Set
• United in Stormwind
• Ashes of Outland
• Rise of Shadows
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Journey to Un’Goro
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
• Core

November 2 also marks the start of the Hallow’s End Dual-Class Arena event. Pick a class’s costumed portrait, then pick another class’s hero power, and build a deck from a combination of the two!

Battle-Ready Decks Return November 2!

Battle-Ready Decks will return to the shop for a limited time with four decks (Rogue, Druid, Hunter, or Paladin) designed to be immediately competitive in the latest meta—some of these are so fresh that they include Mini-Set cards! 21.6 Battle-Ready Deck recipes will be added to the patch notes here when they become available for purchase on November 2 for $14.99 and will be limited to one per account.

Agents of SI:7 – Rogue

Go go Gizmo! Utilize the agents of SI:7 to collect sneaky Spy Gizmos that can surprise your enemies and swing the battle in your favor. Contains 30 Cards total, 24 disenchantable: 3 Legendary, 4 Epic, 6 Rare, 11 Common.

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• 2x (0) Shadowstep
• 1x (1) Find the Imposter
• 2x (1) Prize Plunderer
• 2x (1) Secret Passage
• 2x (1) SI:7 Extortion
• 2x (1) Spymistress
• 2x (2) SI:7 Skulker
• 2x (2) Swindle
• 1x (2) Tenwu of the Red Smoke
• 2x (3) Greyheart Sage
• 2x (3) SI:7 Agent
• 2x (3) SI:7 Operative
• 1x (4) Edwin, Defias Kingpin
• 2x (4) SI:7 Infiltrator
• 2x (4) SI:7 Informant
• 1x (6) Battleground Battlemaster
• 2x (7) SI:7 Assassin

Swaming Squirrels – Druid

Swarm the enemy with early Taunts, Squirrels and a Peasant!? Go nuts with powerful token-based synergies and finish with Arbor Up! Contains 30 Cards total, 30 disenchantable: 2 Legendary, 4 Epic, 12 Rare, 12 Common.

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• 2x (1) Adorable Infestation
• 2x (1) Druid of the Reef
• 2x (1) Guardian Augmerchant
• 2x (1) Peasant
• 2x (1) Vibrant Squirrel
• 2x (2) Bonechewer Brawler
• 2x (2) Composting
• 2x (2) Encumbered Pack Mule
• 2x (2) Far Watch Post
• 2x (2) Razormane Battleguard
• 2x (3) Oracle of Elune
• 2x (4) Park Panther
• 2x (5) Arbor Up
• 1x (5) Greybough
• 2x (5) Teacher's Pet
• 1x (6) Cornelius Roame

Dwarven Defense – Hunter

Cast damage dealing spells to fend off enemies. Once you've cast 6, turn the tables of battle with the aid of Tavish, Master Marksman. Contains 30 Cards total, 21 disenchantable: 4 Legendary, 3 Rare, 14 Common.

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• 1x (0) Devouring Swarm
• 2x (1) Arcane Shot
• 1x (1) Defend the Dwarven District
• 2x (1) Overwhelm
• 2x (1) Tracking
• 2x (1) Wound Prey
• 1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
• 2x (2) Bola Shot
• 2x (2) Explosive Trap
• 2x (2) Manafeeder Panthara
• 2x (2) Quick Shot
• 2x (2) Wandmaker
• 2x (3) Aimed Shot
• 1x (3) Professor Slate
• 2x (3) Venomous Scorpid
• 2x (4) Piercing Shot
• 1x (4) Rinling's Rifle
• 1x (5) Barak Kodobane

Knights of Stormwind – Paladin

Defend Stormwind through unity and honor! Strengthen your minions with powerful hand buffs to overwhelm your foes. Contains 30 Cards total, 23 disenchantable: 3 Legendary, 2 Epic, 9 Rare, 9 Common.

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• 2x (1) Argent Squire
• 2x (1) Knight of Anointment
• 2x (1) Prismatic Jewel Kit
• 2x (1) Righteous Protector
• 2x (2) Annoy-o-Tron
• 1x (2) Deeprun Engineer
• 2x (2) Encumbered Pack Mule
• 2x (2) Hand of A'dal
• 2x (3) Alliance Bannerman
• 2x (3) Catacomb Guard
• 2x (3) Goody Two-Shields
• 1x (4) Blademaster Samuro
• 2x (4) First Blade of Wrynn
• 1x (5) Blessing of Authority
• 1x (5) Overlord Runthak
• 2x (6) Battleground Battlemaster
• 1x (6) Highlord Fordragon
• 1x (6) Mr. Smite

Book of Mercenaries Cariel – Coming November 9!

The paladin Cariel Roame has returned home to find Stormwind in flames. Her sister Tamsin has summoned the dreadlord Anetheron and assaulted the city with an army of demons. Cariel and her companions are the city's last line of defense. At least one mercenary won't make it out alive. Find out who when Book of Mercenaries Cariel launches November 9. Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Paladin pack, containing only Paladin cards from Standard!

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• The following cards have been added to the Shadow Spell School: Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, Mask of C’Thun, Idol of Y’Shaarj. Trifle with the Old Gods at your own risk!
• A Bleed that is Cast When Drawn will now consume the temporary Talented Arcanist Spell Damage increase.
• Temporary Spell Damage will no longer apply to delayed effects like sigils or secrets. (For example, playing Prestor’s Pyromancer and then Flame Ward will consume the temporary Spell Damage effect, but will not apply the additional Spell Damage when the Flame Ward is eventually triggered).
• Fixed a bug where playing an additional copy of Razormane Battleguard would cause an additional Taunt minion to be discounted that turn.
• Fixed a bug where Prismatic Jewel Kit would trigger from transform effects.
• Fixed a bug where Blightborn Tamsin did not redirect damage that was redirected back at the player through Eye for an Eye.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rat King to duplicate itself when paired with cards that trigger extra Deathrattle effects.
• Fixed a bug that caused Alexstrasza the Life-Binder to be unable to deal damage to a player when the player activated an Ice Block and then changed heroes.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Supercollider animation to play twice.
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause a card to show the wrong Cardback and be unable to be flipped over during pack openings.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Battlegrounds matchmaking in friend lobbies.
• Fixed a bug that caused Early Access heroes to be unevenly distributed when guaranteed in every game. We are re-enabling the system that guarantees that Early Access heroes are offered in every game where players have Battlegrounds Perks.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Tarecgosa from keeping all buffs gained in combat.
• Fixed a bug where Dynamic Duo’s effect would not trigger from Charlga playing a Blood Gem on itself.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Mercenaries Welcome Bundle shop image to sometimes display a random Epic as part of the bundle, instead of the random Legendary that is actually part of the product.
• Updated some Mercenaries tasks that could not be completed as written.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Bear Trap ranks 2-5 from working properly with Rigged Wiring ranks 1-3.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Blink Fox’s Mind Thief Ability from copying Abilities that summon minions.
• Updated the art on some Mercenaries Abilities that were incorrectly still displaying temp art.
• Updated miscellaneous descriptions on some Mercenaries Abilities and Equipment to fix typographical errors, better match style guides, and/or clarify their text.
• Updated some Mercenaries Treasure names that incorrectly used Roman numerals.
• Fixed a bug that required you to restart your client after unlocking Wild for you to be able to access Wild.
• Fixed a bug that caused some in-game purchases to not immediately appear as “owned” after purchasing.
• Fixed a bug that rarely caused achievement progress and points to show as empty upon login.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some achievements from being able to be completed or claimed.
• Fixed a bug with the seamless re-connect feature.
• Updated Unity version.
• Fixed bugs causing crashes and miscellaneous other general performance issues.
• (NEW) You will no longer be prompted to auto-complete an invalid deck every time you click "Done" while editing it. The "Complete My Deck" button will continue to let you automatically finish an invalid deck if desired.
• (NEW) We've added a landing page to the Heroes tab of the Collection manager to show your currently-favorited heroes, organize all heroes by class, and more easily track your collection.

The 21.4.4 patch, releasing later today, includes bug fixes, Battlegrounds updates, and miscellaneous non-player-facing backend updates.

Battlegrounds Updates

MINION UPDATES

Omega Buster

• Old: 6 Attack, 6 Health. Deathrattle: Summon six 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1. → New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Deathrattle: Summon five 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1.

Holy Mecherel

• Old: 8 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 6 Attack, 4 Health.

Recycling Wraith

• Old: After you play an Elemental, your next Refresh costs (0). → New: After you play an Elemental, your next Refresh costs (1) less.

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Added missing lightning bolt symbol to signify some Avenge triggers.
• General performance updates to Mercenaries mode.
• Fixed Diablo’s Apocalypse Ability to show the correct damage numbers while Magma Horn is equipped.
• Fixed a text error where Jaina’s Task 2 stated the wrong Ability name.
• Fixed a bug preventing privacy settings from being saved for new players.

The 21.4 patch, releasing tomorrow, launches Hearthstone’s newest game mode, Mercenaries! The patch also includes some bug fixes and preparations for future updates.

Quite the Roster

Mercenaries is launching with 51 playable Mercenaries! We’ve compiled a list of all Mercenaries who will be playable at launch, as well as all their Abilities and Equipment. The Card Library will hold all this information in a future update. On top of the stats shown here, every Mercenary gets an additional +1/+5 when you fully max them out at level 30, with max Abilities and Equipment.

Keep in mind, this is just a snapshot of all the Mercenaries as they will exist at the launch of Hearthstone Mercenaries. We plan to cover future updates in patch notes and other blog posts, and in the Card Library once it’s been updated.

A Village Comes to the Tavern

With the addition of Mercenaries comes a new way to interact with Hearthstone, in the Mercenaries Village. The Village is the jumping off point for all things Mercenaries, including managing your collection in the Tavern, setting off on Bounties, jumping into the Fighting Pit, and more! You can also upgrade the buildings in your Village as you play, to upgrade their functionality or make them more efficient. Some upgrades are free, unlocked through gameplay, while others cost Gold. At launch, it will cost 900 Gold to fully upgrade your Village: 100 to unlock the Fighting Pit, 200 to upgrade the Travel Point (which unlocks Heroic difficulty for Bounties), 200 to upgrade the Campfire (to add a slot to the Task Board), and another 400 to upgrade the Campfire a second time (to add another slot to the Task Board). You can learn more about navigating by checking out our Village/Collection blog.

Mercenaries Matchmaking and Rating System

The Mercenaries Fighting Pit will have its own, new matchmaking and rating system. This new system is the most complex matchmaking and rating system Hearthstone has ever seen, to account for all the variables in each Mercenaries matchup. And if the perfect match can’t be found, we’ll make one for you with new A.I. opponent technology! Look for an article highlighting and further explaining the new system, soon.

A Note on Quests and Other Known Issues

At launch, most Daily and Weekly Quests will not be compatible with Mercenaries. The only Quests that will be able to be completed in Mercenaries will be those that require you to win games in any mode, and those that require you to take a certain number of turns. In future patches, we will be fixing the Quests that are not working properly, as well as possibly making new Daily and Weekly Quests or adjusting the language of certain existing Quests to include Mercenaries.

Don’t worry, you will still be able to complete your Daily and Weekly Quests in the other modes. On top of that, the new Campfire Tasks in Mercenaries are separate from the Daily and Weekly Quest system, so you can still complete those for even more rewards. You can head to the forums for a list of known issues shipping with 21.4.

Spooky Season is Nearly Here

Preparations for Hallow’s End begin in patch 21.4, with festive box dressing and fun, costumed cosmetic options coming next week. The Fairy Tales Bundle includes fairy tales-themed hero skins for Rexxar, Jaina, Thrall, and Anduin. The Battlegrounds Bundle – Hallow’s End includes a Gala Medivh alternate Bartender and seven costumed hero skins. After you’ve gotten your costume picked out, the festivities will kick off in patch 21.6 (details coming closer to that patch).

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the middle of the screen to become unclickable.
• Fixed a bug where Blood Knight would cause Highlord Fordragon to trigger for all minions, regardless of whether they had Divine Shield.
• Changed the name of the 3/3 token spawned by The Beast to Pip Quickwit.
• Fixed a bug where, when the Duels Treasure Meek Mastery was in play, and a minion affected by it was Silenced, the minion got healed 1 Health.
• Fixed a bug where minions buffed by the Duels Treasure Avenging Armaments retained their buffs if moved from the board into the hand or deck.
• Updated the wording and punctuation on several Duels cards and effects to be clearer and more consistent with established Hearthstone formatting.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to get stuck in the Boomsday Project and Dalaran Heist single-player content, and cause the game to crash.
• Fixed a bug that caused friends who are online, but not in the Hearthstone client, to appear able to be challenged to a Friendly Challenge.
• Fixed a bug that made you unable to re-challenge a friend after completing a match against them.
• Fixed a bug where having your friends list open while reconnecting to Battle.net would cause the friends list to sometimes not fully populate.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Options menu to be cut off while playing in Practice mode on mobile.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused pack types to switch places on the pack opening screen.
• Fixed a bug that incorrectly showed Achievements as completed after clicking through them.

The 21.3 patch, releasing tomorrow, includes several updates across Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, Duels, and Arena.

Standard and Wild Updates

The following cards have been adjusted down in power level.

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]

Dev Comment: Irebound Brute was playable a bit earlier than intended on average. Pushing it back a turn should soften extreme turns.

• Old: Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn. → New: Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s until end of turn.

Dev Comment: With the refinement of Shadow Priest in recent weeks, Mindrender Illucia has been overperforming in the archetype, in an unintended way. Instead of being used as a late game disruption tool, Shadow Priests have been using Illucia as an early game play to essentially skip the opponent’s turn. This change is aimed at removing that problematic gameplay from Illucia, while still keeping her in a similar space with her effect.

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

Dev Comment: Perpetual Flame is a very efficient removal tool for Questline Shaman. Going up one mana here will give board-based decks a better shot against Shaman in the early- and mid-game.

• Tame the Flames (the third portion of the Questline)
  • Old: Play 2 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan. → New: Play 3 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan.

Dev Comment: Slowing down the speed at which Questline Shamans can get their final reward should open up more room for counterplay, particularly from slower strategies.

• The Demon Seed (part 1 of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 6 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Establish the Link (part 2 of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 7 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Additionally, The Demon Seed is now banned in Wild.

Dev Comment: After monitoring both Standard and Wild since the release of Stormwind, we’ve decided to both increase the damage required on the first two steps for Standard and ban the Questline in Wild. In Standard, we are slightly upping the amount of damage needed to complete the Questline to slow down the speed at which Tamsin locks up games. In Wild, where there are many more efficient self-damaging cards, The Demon Seed can be completed at an unintentionally fast rate. We are banning the card to protect the format from the problematic gameplay it created. When The Demon Seed rotates to Wild, we will unban it and reposition the card to be more appropriate for the format.

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

Dev Comment: Runed Mithril Rod is overperforming relative to mana-generation sources in other classes, mainly due to Warlock’s card draw potential. Going up one mana will bring Runed Mithril Rod’s power level more in line with what other classes have access to.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 21.3 patch goes live.

The following cards have been adjusted up in power level.

Dev Comments: We’re looking at opening up a few more strategies for some of the less-diverse classes and underrepresented archetypes in the Standard metagame. These buffs are aimed at some of the weaker archetypes to make them more appealing options to play with. Some of these changes are on the lighter side, in anticipation of the mini-set coming in the next major patch after the patch launching Mercenaries.

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

• Old: 1 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 3 Health

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

• Old: [Costs 10] 10 Attack, 10 Health → New: [Costs 8] 8 Attack, 8 Health

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 6 Health

• Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

Battlegrounds Updates

GENERAL UPDATE

• Turn lengths have been reverted to their pre-21.2 times (turns 3-9 have been reduced by 5 seconds after they were temporarily increased by 5 seconds in Patch 21.2).

HERO UPDATES

• Snicker-snack
  • Old: [Costs 0] → New: [Costs 2]

• Dungar’s Gryphon (Eastern Plaguelands Option)
  • Old: In 5 turns, upgrade your Tavern Tier. → New: In 5 turns, your next Tavern Tier upgrade costs (5) less.

• Power of the Storm [Passive]
  • Adjusted the odds of hero power offerings (no text changes).

MINION UPDATES

• Defiant Shipwright has been removed from the minion pool.
• Southsea Captain has been returned to the minion pool.

• Old: [Tavern Tier 3] Avenge (3): Add a random Demon to your hand. → New: [Tavern Tier 4] Avenge (4): Add a random Demon to your hand.

• Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 7 Attack, 5 Health. Your other Demons have +3 Attack. Your Hero is Immune. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. Your other Demons have +2 Attack. Your Hero is Immune.

• Old: Deathrattle: Give a friendly Beast +2/+2 and this Deathrattle. → New: Give a friendly Beast +1/+1 and this Deathrattle.

• Old: After this attacks, trigger a random friendly minion’s Deathrattle. → New: After this attacks, trigger another friendly minion’s Deathrattle.

• Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 6 Attack, 2 Health. → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 7 Attack, 3 Health.

• Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health. After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +2 Health. → New: 2 Attack, 5 Health. After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +1 Health.

• Old: Deathrattle: Give this minion’s maximum Health to a friendly minion. → New: Deathrattle: Give this minion’s maximum Health to another friendly minion.

• Old: [Tavern Tier 6]. → New: [Tavern Tier 5].

• Old: 5 Attack, 3 Health. After a card is added to your hand, give another random Pirate +1/+1 → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health. After a card is added to your hand, give another friendly Pirate +1/+1.

Dev Comment: The text change portion of this change is just to clarify the card’s current, intended functionality. It does not represent any functional change.

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health.

• Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 5 Health.

• Old: 2 Attack, 3 Health. → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health.

• Old: 1 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 2 Attack, 4 Health.

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health.

• Old: 3 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 5 Health.

• Old: At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all other friendly minions. → New: At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all friendly minions.

Duels Updates

• Party Replacements, Rally the Troops, and Oops, All Spells! have all been moved from Passive Treasure Pool 2 to Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
• All Together Now has been moved from Passive Treasure Pool 1 to Pool 2.
• Voidtouched Attendant is now banned from deck creation.

Arena Updates

Ramming Mount will no longer be draftable in Arena. Additionally, we discovered a bug with some card offering rates. We’ve addressed that bug and will be re-adjusting the offering rates to match the intended rates, which should help move all classes closer to the 50% class winrate.

(UPDATED) Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug causing crashes when the friends list was opened.
• Fixed a bug where friends could sometimes not be challenged.
• Fixed a bug where Maestra of the Masquerade would sometimes have you start the game as a Rogue (not her best disguise).
• Fixed a bug that prevented Grand Magus Antonidas from hitting Stealth targets and resulted in Antonidas potentially hitting the caster’s own face if the enemy hero was in Stealth.
• Fixed a bug where Tradeable cards would keep enchantments if shuffled into your deck by something other than Tradeable.
• Fixed bugs where cards like Razormane Battleguard would not properly reduce the cost of cards after Celestial Alignment was played.
• Fixed a bug where Barrens Scavenger’s cost could be reduced below 1 while you had 10 or fewer cards in your deck.
• Fixed a bug where Highlord Fordragon would trigger on minions that were not in play.
• Fixed bugs where cards like Master of Realities and Whelp Smuggler would have an incorrect number of triggers.
• Fixed a bug where swapping a Tavern Tier 6 minion (such as with Arcane Alteration, Malygos’s Hero Power) would sometimes cause it to disappear.
• Fixed a visual bug that caused enemy Tavern Tiers to show as reset to Tavern Tier 1.
• (NEW) Fixed a bug where chat settings were not being saved in the Hearthstone client.

Today's 21.2 patch brings pre-purchase for Mercenaries, the massive revamp for Battlegrounds, a new Book of Mercenaries featuring Tamsin, and more!

Mercenaries for Hire!

Hearthstone Mercenaries is the new game mode where you collect iconic Mercenaries, assembling Parties to take down procedurally generated Bounties. It is an entirely new way to play Hearthstone, combining RPG and roguelike elements with some of your favorite Hearthstone characters. Check out our Overview, Gameplay, and Village blogs before pre-purchasing—Mercenaries launches worldwide on October 12!

Pre-purchase

Standard Balance Updates

• Old: [Costs 4] 2 Attack, 6 Health → New: [Costs 6] 4 Attack, 6 Health

Dev Comment: While the winrate of decks including Stealer of Souls isn’t particularly high, the games where these decks win are often won in an extreme way. This change, like our philosophy in the first Stormwind balance patch, is aimed at slowing the down the speed of Stealer of Souls and softening those extremes. Note: Stealer of Souls will remain banned in Wild alongside this change.

• Old: [Costs 9] → New: [Costs 10]

Dev Comment: We’re moving Flesh Giant up another mana to further reduce the speed at which comes down in the average game. After monitoring the initial balance to change here, we believe it was a bit too soft and are adjusting Flesh Giant accordingly.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 21.2 patch goes live.

Battlegrounds Revamp

Today we’re introducing an entirely new Battlegrounds specific keyword, Avenge, that does something after X friendly minions die. Then, we’re replacing 37 minions with new ones and adding two new Heroes! You can get an idea of how the Avenge keyword works by checking out those new minions below.

Before you do, we’ve made a few fundamental changes we want to make you aware of. We’ve added a damage cap of 15 damage until the first player dies, meaning that no player can take more than 15 damage from combat until the first player in a lobby dies or disconnects. We’ve also increased turn timers so that everyone has time to get familiar with the new content: the length of turns 3-9 have been increased by 5 seconds. Everyone will start fresh with this update as ratings will be reset with the 21.2 patch to make way for a new season.

General Updates

• Battlegrounds Specific Keyword added, Avenge: Does something after X friendly minions die.
• The length of turns 3-9 have been increased by 5 seconds. We may further adjust the length of turns sometime in the future.
• Darkmoon Prizes have been disabled.
• All players’ Battlegrounds ratings have been reset for a new season.
• Damage cap of 15 damage has been added until the first player dies. Please note that the damage cap does not check for player deaths until the start of each Recruit Phase, meaning if someone concedes, disconnects, or dies during the Recruit Phase (Is Wrath Weaver ever really on your team?), the damage cap will still be present for that combat.
• Players with Battlegrounds Perks are now more likely to be offered new Heroes during the two-week early access period that follows their initial announcement. In every lobby during the two-week early access period, the option to play with new Heroes will be distributed at random between players with Battlegrounds Perks. No player will be offered more than one new Hero.

New Heroes

• Power of the Storm [Passive]
  • At the start of every turn, choose from 2 new Hero Powers.

Cariel Roame

• Conviction (Rank 1)
  • Give a random friendly minion +1/+1. (Upgrades at Tavern Tier 3.)
• Conviction (Rank 2)
  • Give three random friendly minions +1/+1. (Upgrades at Tavern Tier 5.)
• Conviction (Rank 3)
  • Give five random friendly minions +1/+1.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to the Heroes above before they’re formally released on September 14.

New Minions

BEASTS

• [Tier 2, Beast] Deathrattle: Give a friendly Beast +2/+2 and this Deathrattle.

• [Tier 2, Beast] Deathrattle: Summon a 2/3 Turtle with Taunt.

• [Tier 3] Avenge (1): Give your Beasts +1/+1.

• [Tier 4, Beast] Battlecry: Give a friendly Beast Reborn.

• [Tier 5, Beast] Avenge (2) and Deathrattle: Give another friendly Beast +6/+6.

DEMONS

• [Tier 1, Demon] Deathrattle: Give this minion's maximum Health to a friendly minion.

• [Tier 1, Demon] Deathrattle: Summon two 1/1 Imps.

• [Tier 3] Avenge (3): Add a random Demon to your hand.

• [Tier 4, Demon] Your other Demons have +3 Attack. Your Hero is Immune.

• [Tier 5, Demon] Taunt. After you play a Demon, consume a minion in Bob's Tavern to gain its stats.

• [Tier 6, Demon] At the end of your turn, each friendly Demon consumes a minion in Bob's Tavern to gain its stats.

MECHS

• [Tier 1, Mech] Divine Shield

• [Tier 4, Mech] Avenge (2): Deal 6 damage to the highest Health enemy minion.

• [Tier 4, Mech] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, give it +2/+1 permanently.

• [Tier 5, Mech] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain Divine Shield.

• [Tier 6, Mech] Deathrattle: Summon six 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn't fit, give your Mechs +1/+1.

MURLOCS

• [Tier 2, Murloc] After you play a Murloc, give two other friendly Murlocs +1 Health.

• [Tier 3, Murloc] Battlecry: Gain +2/+1 for each other friendly Murloc.

• [Tier 5, Murloc] Avenge (3): Give a friendly Murloc Poisonous permanently.

• [Tier 6] Battlecry: Make a Murloc Golden.

DRAGONS

• [Tier 1, Dragon] After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, double this minion's Attack.

• [Tier 2] After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +2 Health.

• [Tier 3, Dragon] This permanently keeps enchantments from combat.

• [Tier 4, Dragon] Start of Combat: Give adjacent minions +1/+1 for each friendly Dragon.

• [Tier 4, Dragon] Whenever another friendly Dragon attacks, deal 3 damage to its target.

PIRATES

• [Tier 2] After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, add a random Pirate to Bob's Tavern.

• [Tier 3, Pirate] At the end of your turn, if you have another Pirate, add a Gold Coin to your hand.

• [Tier 4, Pirate] After a card is added to your hand, give another Pirate +1/+1.

• [Tier 5, Pirate] Avenge (5): Make another friendly Pirate Golden permanently.

• [Tier 6, Pirate] Every two turns, add a random Golden minion to your hand.

ELEMENTALS

• [Tier 3, Elemental] Battlecry: Give a friendly Elemental stats equal to your Tavern Tier.

• [Tier 4, Elemental] Avenge (2): Elementals in Bob's Tavern have +1/+1 for the rest of the game.

• [Tier 4, Elemental] After you play an Elemental, your next Refresh costs (0).

• [Tier 6] Taunt. After a friendly Elemental gains stats, gain +1/+1.

QUILBOAR

• [Tier 3, Quilboar] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain a Blood Gem.

NEUTRAL

• [Tier 3] Avenge (3): Give adjacent minions +2/+1 permanently.

• [Tier 4] Avenge (3): Add a random Battlecry minion to your hand.

Updated Minion

• Old: 5 Health → New: 4 Health

Removed Minions

• Fiendish Servant
• Vulgar Homunculus
• Micro Machine
• Murloc Tidecaller
• Dragonspawn Lieutenant

• Pack Leader
• Kindly Grandmother
• Steward of Time
• Waxrider Togwaggle
• Southsea Captain
• Tormented Ritualist

• Arcane Assistant
• Imp Gang Boss
• Infested Wolf
• Iron Sensei
• Hangry Dragon
• Bloodsail Cannoneer
• Warden of Old
• Crystalweaver
• Thorncaller

• Virmen Sensei
• Hexruin Maurader
• Junkbot
• Toxfin
• Herald of Flame
• Qiraji Harbinger
• Bolvar, Fireblood
• Security Rover

• Sneed's Old Shredder
• Nat Pagle, Extreme Angler
• Seabreaker Goliath
• Ironhide Direhorn
• Mythrax, the Unraveler
• Mal'Ganis
• Faceless Taverngoer

• The Tide Razor
• Lieutenant Garr

Duels Update

• Meek Mastery has been moved from Passive Treasures Pool 1 to Pool 2.

Dev Comment: In this patch, we are moving Meek Mastery to Passive Treasure Pool 2. We will continue to monitor Duels and make small adjustments as needed while we work on a much larger Duels update, planned for later in this expansion cycle.

Book of Mercenaries Tamsin – Coming September 7

After escaping a vengeful demon hunter in the Barrens, the warlock Tamsin Roame has vengeance on her mind as well. Her bloodthirsty mission will take her to the Alliance's seat of power, the city of Stormwind, Tamsin's home when she was mortal. There she will attempt to unleash the demon Anetheron upon the city. But when Tamsin comes face to face with her own father, will she or anyone in the city survive? Find out when Book of Mercenaries Tamsin launches September 7th. Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Warlock pack, containing only Warlock cards from Standard!

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

• The main menu has been updated. A Mercenaries button has been added (locked until mode is live), Battlegrounds can now be accessed from the main menu, and Solo Adventures have been moved under Modes—where Arena and Duels can still be found.
• The first-time user experience has been updated and streamlined. New Players can now play Battlegrounds right away or the original Hearthstone tutorial.
• Fixed a bug where players were able to delete their first deck immediately after the tutorial and were unable to build a new deck because they had not yet unlocked any playable classes.
• Fixed a bug that caused the friends list to load slowly for players who had many friends online and made it difficult to challenge a friend from that list.
• Fixed a bug that caused Deathrattles to be tracked as triggered (by cards such as Counterfeit Blade) in situations where the Deathrattle condition was not met.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Wild Growth and Overgrowth to award Excess Mana if the mana cap was reached through temporary mana (such as Innervate or Lightning Bloom).
• Fixed a bug where the Fireballs cast by Grand Magus Antonidas were not affected by Spell Damage.
• Fixed a bug where if multiple versions of a card name exist in a player’s deck (such as one with a buff and one without) Southsea Scoundrel would count them as distinct for the first half of its battlecry, but not the second half. Now they will count as distinct for the entire Battlecry.
• Fixed a bug where Reckless Apprentice used up the mana cost reduction from Tour Guide.
• Fixed a bug where Transfer Student was not receiving the correct effect on the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire game board.
• Fixed a bug where Purified Shard (the Priest Questline final reward) was revealed to the opponent when drawn.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to play a deck that included Stealer of Souls in Wild if the deck was a Standard-legal deck.
• Fixed a bug where Wild was not properly unlocking for some players who had met the unlock criteria.
• Fixed a bug that allowed a Battlegrounds player to face Kel’Thuzad if an even number of players remained in the lobby.
• Fixed various display errors in the Achievement Journal.
• Fixed a bug causing opponents’ names to appear smaller than intended on phones.
• Fixed a visual bug with Pandaren Importer’s Golden animation.
• Fixed a bug where the wrong art was displayed for Sphere of Sapience’s “A New Fate” option, Learn the Truth (the second phase of the Rogue Questline), and Repair Bot (summoned by Gelbin Mekkatorque).