Blizzard just posted patch notes for the upcoming 30.4 update! The patch drops next Tuesday (most likely around 10 AM PT / 19:00 CET), and while the main new addition is the mini-set, we have some other cool stuff too. Here’s a summary of what’s coming in the update:
- Heroes of Starcraft Mini-Set – Mini-set for The Great Dark Beyond is released together with the patch. It’s the first crossover set in Hearthstone, as the name suggests cards will be based on the Starcraft universe. There will be 49 cards in total divided between 3 factions (Zerg, Protoss, Terran). Each class is assigned to one of those factions and can only play cards from their own class + “Neutral” cards from their faction. The only exception is Grunty, a Legendary Murloc card that hasn’t been revealed yet (it’s actually the last card to get revealed – it was supposed to drop today but it was delayed until Sunday). An important thing to note is pricing. It costs 2500 Gold or $20, 500 Gold or $5 more than regular mini-sets. While it contains 11 more cards than usual, they are all Common (8) or Rare (3). And those don’t really increase the value by all that much. Because of that, the mini-set has about 16% worse Dust value when purchased with Gold and about 24% worse Dust value when purchased with real money compared to a regular mini-set (thanks to TacoRocco for calculations). If the cards turn out to be strong, it’s still worth it, but I sure hope that this is not Blizzard preparing us for a price hike.
- Constructed Updates – We have a small Constructed update, one card is getting nerfed – Ethereal Oracle goes up to 4 mana. Well, I say small, but given that Oracle is one of the most popular cards in the meta, it might have a bigger impact than it seems.
- Arena Updates – A new Arena season launches together with Patch 31.4 with Sunken City, Castle Nathria, Whizbang’s Workshop, Perils in Paradise and The Great Dark Beyond (including mini-set) in the rotation. We’re also getting a new Arena-exclusive card that generates extra Starship Pieces. It’s most likely to make the mechanic more viable in Arena, since drafting Starship-based decks was quite unreliable. As always, when the season changes, all of the current runs will be forcefully retired. If you have an ongoing run, you will get compensated with a Tavern Ticket (so it’s always wise to start a new run and play up to 2 loses to maximize the rewards you get).
- Twist Update – A “new” Twist season launches in February by adding Un’goro to the mix, just like it was last time during Wonders seasons. After that, the Twist will “be on hiatus” again with more info coming in the future… Yeah. If that’s not a sign they gave up on it then I don’t know what is.
- New In-Game Event – A new in-game event called “Heroes of Starcraft” starts on January 21 and it’s quite meaty. You pick one of the three factions and get a total of 13 card packs + a special skin for one of the classes from the faction you picked (Shaman for Terran, Rogue for Protoss and Warlock for Zerg). As usual, the other 2 skins will later be purchasable in the shop if you want to get them. But 13 packs and a skin makes it a really solid event after quite a long break (the last one already ended a few weeks ago).
- New Mythic Skin – Another Mythic skin joins the ranks of Ragnaros, this time playable by FOUR classes. Queen of Blades will be usable in all Zerg classes – Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Warlock. While the cost hasn’t been disclosed yet, Ragnaros was priced at $60 and I assume that this one will be similar. The skin has a lot of cool special effects (and I mean it, they look great), but as always, the pricing makes it quite hard to recommend unless you have a lot of extra income to spend on your hobbies.
- Loaner Decks Update – Loaner decks (free decks given to new/returning players) will be updated with Patch 31.4. We still don’t know what they look like, but I’ll make an update to our loaner decks post once they go live.
- Bug Fixes & QoL Changes – As always, the patch comes with a hefty list of bug fixes and smaller changes to game functions.
Check out the full patch notes below:
Patch 31.4, launching on January 21, pushes Hearthstone further than it’s ever gone with the Heroes of StarCraft Mini-Set, the new Mythic Kerrigan Hero Skin, a new Arena-only card, and more!
It’s About Time—Heroes of StarCraft is Here!
Explore the StarCraft universe with new cards across Zerg, Protoss, and Terran multi-class factions. Experience aggressive Zerg swarms, huge Protoss swing turns, the Terran Starship armada, and more!
Heroes of StarCraft is our biggest Mini-Set ever, with 49 all-new cards. Get them in The Great Dark Beyond packs or as a complete 94-card mini-set.* Get the normal version for $19.99 or 2500 Gold, or get the all-Golden version for $79.99 or 12,000 Gold. The all-Golden version also comes with a bonus Diamond copy of the Grunty Legendary minion! Individual factions from the Mini-Set are also available for $9.99 or 1200 Gold. You can see all the cards from the Heroes of StarCraft Mini-Set in the official Card Library.
* 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (x2), 20 Rare card (x2), and 24 Common cards (x2).
Become the Queen of Blades
The Zerg swarm has infested Hearthstone! Now you can become their leader, Sarah Kerrigan, with Hearthstone’s next Mythic Hero skin. This quad-class skin can be used by all the Zerg classes—Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Hunters, and Warlocks—and includes new emotes, special animations for attacks, victory, and defeat, special board visuals, and more. Spread the infestation!
Hearthstone Card Update
Ethereal Oracle
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
Dev Comment: Ethereal Oracle has been one of the strongest and most ubiquitous cards in the meta since the launch of The Great Dark Beyond. In hindsight, this is a card we probably should have addressed in the last balance patch. Unfortunately, the timing of that patch wasn’t ideal because we try to avoid high-impact changes heading into an extended winter break where we wouldn’t be able to react to unforeseen problems that might arise. Instead, we’re adding the change into this major patch because we’re already expecting a meta shakeup with the mini-set, and we have our usual built-in balance window a few weeks from now for any necessary follow-up adjustments.
Disenchantable versions of Ethereal Oracle will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks after this change goes live with Patch 31.4.
In-Game Event: Heroes of StarCraft
Choose your faction and fight for glory! From January 21-February 11, pick one of three Event Tracks to complete for 13 packs (5 Perils in Paradise packs and 8 The Great Dark Beyond packs) and a faction-specific Hero Skin. Which campaign will you join?
Event Hero skins not earned through the event will be available in the in-game Shop after the event ends.
Arena Updates
When Patch 31.4 launches, all current Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. The Arena pool will be adjusted so that the following sets make up the card pool this season:
- Voyage to the Sunken City
- Murder at Castle Nathria
- Whizbang’s Workshop
- Perils in Paradise
- The Great Dark Beyond (including Heroes of StarCraft)
Additionally, a new Arena-only card will be added to the card pool to help you probe the depths of the meta:
Loaner Deck Updates
Loaner decks for new and returning players* are getting updated with the launch of Patch 31.4. These new decks are tuned to let you immediately jump onto the ladder and include cards as new as The Great Dark Beyond main set!
* Returning players who have been away for 90 or more days are eligible for a free deck just for logging in. Returning players can claim these returning decks each time they are eligible. New players are eligible for their free deck after completing the tutorial and Apprentice Track.
February Twist Update: Return to Un’Goro
On February 4, the Wonders XL format will end and the Wonderful Un’Goro format will begin. Wonderful Un’Goro is back to a 30-card format using the Wonders format, but with Journey to Un’Goro added. The following sets will make up the format:
- Legacy
- Curse of Naxxramas
- Goblins vs Gnomes
- Blackrock Mountain
- The Grand Tournament
- The League of Explorers
- Whispers of the Old Gods
- One Night in Karazhan
- Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
- Journey to Un’Goro
- The Caverns Below is banned.
- Caverns of Time
The Wonderful Un’Goro format will end with the February season and then Twist will be on hiatus. We will have more information about future Twist seasons in a future update.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [General] Updated Unity version.
- [Hearthstone] Like Galakrond and C’Thun, you will not be able to randomly Discover or generate StarCraft faction cards unless you started the game with at least one card in your deck from that faction or you are actively the Hero for that faction.
- [Hearthstone] Some older cards have had their names updated (Banshee is now Wailing Banshee, Mothership is now Stormcoil Mothership, and Hallucination is now Spore Hallucination).
- [Hearthstone] Cards that draw an unfixed amount of cards will now check for player deaths between draws (meaning that if you draw a Plague from a card like Malygos the Spellweaver and your life goes to 0, you will now immediately lose, instead of continuing to draw and possibly gaining the life back). However, cards that draw a set amount (like Arcane Intellect) will finish their full effect before checking for deaths.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Spore Empress Moldara could be added to E.T.C.’s Band.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug with copying or repeating the Deathrattle of Velen, Leader of the Exiled with Xyrella, the Devout.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug were Screaming Banshee didn’t work with Airlock Breach.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Magnetic effects didn’t work properly with static board-wide stat increases (like Zilliax Deluxe 3000 or Stormwind Champion).
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where launching a Starship could count as summoning twice for “when summoned” effects.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Lucky Comet could trigger Bounty Wrangler’s Quickdraw effect twice.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Exarch Maladar’s effect could use Corpses to pay for Forge or Tradeable costs.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Dreamboat’s buff effect counted minions summoned by his heal effect (like if you had a Mana Geode in play).
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Galaxy’s Lens targeting an Elusive minion would switch the target to the enemy Hero.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Tess Greymane wouldn’t replay Spontaneous Combustion.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where you could launch your Starship with Bloodbloom.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Orbital Halo would get reduced to 0 when your opponent played cards.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where, for some reason, Bloodbound Imp didn’t get buffed by Kil’jaeden’s Portal.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where all the minions in Diamond Kil’jaeden’s Portal would come out Golden, even if they had a higher quality (Diamond or Signature) available.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed an issue where certain Legacy cards were not included in the eligible Twist Wonders card pools.
- [Battlegrounds] Reverber Drake and Echoing Roar will be temporarily banned at patch launch due to a bug that is scheduled to be fixed in an upcoming hotfix.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Knockoff Wisdomball would sometimes Refresh into an empty Tavern (not very helpful).
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Efficient Engineer couldn’t trigger an Echoing Roar on an Upbeat minion during its off turns (not very efficient).
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed various bugs with Karmic Chameleon sometimes not correctly copying (not very… Karmic?).
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Rylak Metalhead, Reverber Drake, and Persistent Poet didn’t work together.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Thundering Abomination’s buff overrode Butchering’s buff on Reborn minions, instead of them stacking.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Golden Private Chef wasn’t animated.
- [Collection] Players who missed getting Bob the Bartender from the event can now get the normal version by going to the pack opening screen with a regular The Great Dark Beyond pack and get the golden version with a Golden The Great Dark Beyond pack.
- Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.
