Probably the biggest feature of Patch 18.4 and the Masquerade Ball event is a huge Battlegrounds update. It’s been four months since we’ve seen anything that big (coincidentally, it was in Patch 17.4 when Pirates were added) – and Battlegrounds players know that introducing a new minion type is a massive meta shake-up. We’ve also got more information about the upcoming Battlegrounds MMR reset.
We’ll get 16 new minions that are either Elementals or synergize with them. On top of that, 4 new Heroes will be released. While they won’t be available for two more weeks unless you’re holding a Tavern Pass – another news is that Tavern Pass’ price will be cut in half until the end of this expansion (just like they did last set).
Check out a full list of new minions, Heroes and learn more about the MMR reset below:
New Battlegrounds Heroes
Ragnaros the Firelord
- DIE, INSECTS! [Passive]
- After you kill 20 enemy minions, get Sulfuras.
- Sulfuras [Passive]
- At the end of your turn, give your left and right-most minions +4/+4.
Chenvaala
- Avalanche [Passive]
- After you play 3 Elementals, reduce the cost of upgrading Bob’s Tavern by (2).
Rakanishu
- Tavern Lighting [Cost 2]
- Give a random friendly minion stats equal to your Tavern Tier.
Al’Akir the Windlord
- Swatting Insects [Passive]
- Start of Combat: Give your left-most minion Windfury, Divine Shield, and Taunt.
Starting September 28, the price of the Tavern Pass will be reduced for the remainder of the Scholomance Academy expansion cycle! Players with the Tavern Pass will have early access to these new Heroes before they are formally released on October 13.
New Battlegrounds Minions
Elementals will always be available in the minion pool until they join the rest of the shifting minion pool in a future update.
Sellemental
- [Tier 1, Elemental] 2 Attack, 2 Health
- When you sell this, add a 2/2 Elemental to your hand.
Refreshing Anomaly
- [Tier 1, Elemental] 1 Attack, 3 Health
- Battlecry: Your next refresh costs (0).
Party Elemental
- [Tier 2, Elemental] 2 Attack, 2 Health
- After you play an Elemental, give another friendly Elemental +1/+1.
Molten Rock
- [Tier 2, Elemental] 2 Attack, 3 Health
- Taunt. After you play an Elemental, gain +1 Health.
Stasis Elemental
- [Tier 3, Elemental] 4 Attack, 4 Health
- Battlecry: Add another random elemental to Bob’s Tavern and freeze it.
Arcane Assistant
- [Tier 3, Elemental] 3 Attack, 2 Health
- Battlecry: Give your other Elementals +1/+1.
Crackling Cyclone
- [Tier 3, Elemental] 4 Attack, 1 Health
- Divine Shield. Windfury.
Whirlwind Tempest
- [Tier 4, Elemental] 6 Attack, 6 Health
- Your minions with Windfury have Mega-Windfury.
Wildfire Elemental
- [Tier 4, Elemental] 7 Attack, 3 Health
- After this attacks and kills a minion, deal excess damage to a random adjacent minion.
Deadly Spore
- [Tier 4] 1 Attack, 1 Health
- Poisonous.
Majordomo Executus
- [Tier 4] 6 Attack, 3 Health
- At the end of your turn, give your left-most minion +1 / +1 for each Elemental you played this turn.
Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare
- [Tier 5] 4 Attack, 4 Health
- After you play an Elemental, Elementals in Bob’s Tavern have +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
Lil’ Rag
- [Tier 5, Elemental] 4 Attack, 4 Health
- After you play an Elemental, give a random friendly minion stats equal to the Elementals tavern tier.
Tavern Tempest
- [Tier 5, Elemental] 4 Attack, 4 Health
- Battlecry: Add another random Elemental to your hand.
Lieutenant Garr
- [Tier 6, Elemental] 8 Attack, 1 Health
- Taunt. After you play an Elemental, gain +1 Health for each Elemental you have.
Gentle Djinni
- [Tier 6, Elemental] 6 Attack, 8 Health
- Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon another random Elemental and add a copy of it to your hand.
Battlegrounds MMR Reset
External Battlegrounds ratings will be reset for all players and a new progression system will be introduced. The new system is similar to the progression system players are familiar with from our constructed Ranked mode.
Players will see their rating reset to 0, and all new players will start with 0 rating. With every Top 4 placement, players will gain rating—up to 300 per win. A player's rating will never go below 0, and they cannot lose rating until they’ve climbed above 2000.
Here are the nuts and bolts of how the new system works:
- Between 2000 and 6000 rating, every 500 rating (2500, 3000, etc.) will act as a new rating floor where you cannot lose rating.
- Below 6500 rating, players will earn a small bonus to their rating gains at the end of each match, which will in turn make for a faster climb.
- Rating losses will remain consistent.
Matchmaking will now be done based on the player's invisible internal rating, which we’ve been tracking since Battlegrounds launched. Internal ratings for players will not be reset and will not be affected by the above modifications to external ratings. When your external rating is lower than your internal rating, you will gain rating faster. Read more about the ratings update in our Dev Insights blog!
no Lightspawn?
I am seeing wrong or at first sight these elementals feel way worse than pirates, which are already Bad?
Yeah the early ones seem good but the middle-end ones seem very eh, except for like 1 or 2
had 2 games as elementals and 4 against elementals so far. what makes elementals way better than pirates, seems to be the fact that theyare way better transistable into/out of since they aren’t as heavily reliant as pirates are. goldgrubber was literally the only pirate that was playable outside of 7 pirates, heavily limiting your decissions and heavily klogging your board, elementals however can easily be played with only one or two elementals on the board. Espescially in the lobby where murlocs were banned later in the game I had double amalgadon and a garr that had over 300 hp. that’s some serious big numbers in a lobby where poisonous is VERY rare.
It’s interesting that the deadly spore is not an elemental.