Knights of the Frozen Throne Survival Guide – Launch Time, Tips, Things to Know

All the cards have been revealed and the pre-patch has been added, so now we await the actual release of Knights of the Frozen Throne! I’m compiling a bit of a guide here to go through some of the things you may want to know before you dive into the new expansion, as well as some tips I’ve learned from previous expansion launches!

If you think I missed anything let me know in the comments!

What time will Knights of the Frozen Throne release?

For people in NA the release date is August 10th and for Asia & EU it’s August 11th.

Update

So much for Blizzard’s time estimates, Knights of the Frozen has gone live on NA at 10am! It appears, however, that the single-player content is not yet live. You can now access the single-player mission content if you restart your Hearthstone client! Just be careful, players are starting to get the “tables are full” queue!

Blizzard has announced a release schedule with times and dates!

We estimate that Knights of the Frozen Throne will be available for play by the following times:

Americas Region: August 10 12:00 PM PDT
Asia Region: August 11 07:00 AM KST
Europe Region: August 11 05:00 AM CEST

The new Icecrown Citadel mission content will also be available with the release of Knights of the Frozen Throne, in the form of three parts. One part will release each week, at the estimated release times indicated below:

Rise of the Knights of the Frozen Throne: Prologue & Lower Citadel
Americas Region: August 10 12:00 PM PDT
Asia Region: August 11 07:00 AM KST
Europe Region: August 11 05:00 AM CEST

Battle For Icecrown Citadel: Upper Reaches
Americas Region: August 17 10:00 AM PDT
Asia Region: August 18 05:00 AM KST
Europe Region: August 18 12:01 AM CEST

Showdown with the Lich King: The Frozen Throne
Americas Region: August 24 10:00 AM PDT
Asia Region: August 25 05:00 AM KST
Europe Region: August 25 12:01 AM CEST

Source

Frozen Throne Expansion Launch Tips

Here’s a quick run down of what I’ve learned in the past when dealing with expansion launches.

Tip: Don’t Purchase the Wrong Packs

In the past it’s been easy to absentmindedly purchase the wrong packs, so make sure you are paying attention when you hit the purchase button!

Tip: Save Money by Watching Twitch Streamers Open Packs

Streamers buy a TON of packs, and if you’re on a budget and want to get your fix then I’d advise watching them open packs. It’s not exactly the same, but it can help ease your lust for packs.

Tip: Don’t Craft or Disenchant Legendaries Right Away

It’s tough to not craft a bunch of cool looking Legendaries the day they come out, but if you’re on a budget you should just hang back and wait for the meta to settle a bit. The famous example of tons of people crafting Troggzor the Earthinator comes to mind, where it seemed like a great card but ended up never really seeing any play. This also goes for disenchanting cards! Finja, the Flying Star was not a popular Legendary when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan released, but now it has seen quite a bit of play.

Pre-Purchase the Knights of the Frozen Throne

If you want to get in on the expansion then don’t delay on snagging the pre-purchase because you’ll get 50 packs for the price of 40 as well as the exclusive Frostmourne card back!

Be sure to check out Amazon Coins to see if you can get it for cheaper in your region!

Disenchant your Dreadsteed

With the recent patch adding in the Frozen Throne cards came the nerf to Dreadsteed. The card received a nerf due to the new card Defile and that it would create an infinite loop. Ben Brode even mentioned that before they changed it you could use Knife Juggler, Deathspeaker, Dreadsteed, and Defile to throw knives until your opponent was dead!

New to the Frozen Throne

There’s a totally new card type and a new keyword coming to the new expansion!

Pack Changes

The pack changes actually already went live recently, but with them you will now receive a guaranteed Legendary in the first 10 packs of a new expansion! Not only that, but you will now no longer receive a Legendary you already have in a pack (unless you own all the legendaries from that set). They’ve also made it so you can’t receive more than two of the same card in a pack in the case of Commons, Rares, and Epics.

Single-Player Mission Content

It seems Adventures are a thing of the past, and in their place we will be receiving single-player Mission content with every expansion. This content is completely free! If you complete the Prologue which will be released in the initial launch you will get a free Legendary Death Knight Hero card! There will be four missions to play on day one, and another four over the course of the next two weeks. In addition to the free Legendary, you will also get three free packs for completing the mission content.

Check out Dave Kosak, Lead Mission Designer, discuss The Lich King and the fight you will face against him.

You will be fighting a wide range of bosses, but your final one will be The Lich King himself! The battle with The Lich King is different for every class, and if you are able to defeat him with all nine classes you will receive the Young Prince Arthas Paladin Hero Skin!

Death Knight Hero Cards

These are totally new cards that function similarily to Lord Jaraxxus, but the key difference being they don’t change your Health total. Death Knights are a HERO card type that is completely different from Spells or Minions so they will not interact with cards like Counterspell or Mirror Entity. Each Death Knight card comes with 5 Armor as well as its own unique Hero Power!

Death Knight Cards

Not to be confused with Death Knight Hero Cards! These are token cards that spawn from only two cards: The Lich King and Arfus.

Lifesteal Keyword

The new Keyword coming in Knights of the Frozen Throne is Lifesteal! You might be familiar with this because a similar mechanic has already existed in the game on a couple of cards (which have had the Lifesteal keyword added to them): Mistress of Pain & Wickerflame Burnbristle. It’s a pretty straight-forward mechanic, when your minion deals damage your hero gains it back as health.

Here’s a list of the new cards with the Lifesteal keyword:

In the Meantime…

If you are anxiously anticipating the Frozen Throne release then check out some of this stuff to keep you busy.

Theorycraft Some Decks

Use our Hearthstone Deck Builder to craft some new decks as you wait. You can publish the decks on the site and then use the deck code to save them in game so you’ll be ready for the expansion!

Read More on the Knights of the Frozen Throne Expansion

Leave a Reply

17 Comments

  1. Booboo
    August 10, 2017 at 1:14 PM

    ### Deathwhisper
    # Class: Priest
    # Format: Standard
    # Year of the Mammoth
    #
    # 2x (0) Circle of Healing
    # 2x (1) Binding Heal
    # 2x (1) Inner Fire
    # 2x (2) Divine Spirit
    # 2x (2) Shadow Word: Pain
    # 2x (3) Acolyte of Pain
    # 2x (3) Giant Wasp
    # 1x (3) Magma Rager
    # 1x (3) Moroes
    # 2x (3) Shadow Word: Death
    # 2x (4) Hozen Healer
    # 2x (4) Kabal Chemist
    # 2x (4) Kooky Chemist
    # 2x (4) Shifting Shade
    # 2x (4) Spellbreaker
    # 2x (5) Darkshire Alchemist
    #
    AAECAZ/HAgL1DJ20Ag74AvIF0QrSCtMK1wr7DOyuAvqwAuG6Api7Ate7AtLBAvDCAgA=

    I used this to finish off Deathwhisper. Also feel free to move this where appropriate

  2. BooBoo
    August 10, 2017 at 1:13 PM

    ### Saurfang
    # Class: Warrior
    # Format: Standard
    # Year of the Mammoth
    #
    # 2x (1) Molten Blade
    # 2x (1) Upgrade!
    # 2x (2) Fiery War Axe
    # 1x (2) Forge of Souls
    # 1x (3) Bloodsail Cultist
    # 2x (3) Grimestreet Pawnbroker
    # 2x (4) Arathi Weaponsmith
    # 2x (4) Blackwater Pirate
    # 2x (4) Blood Razor
    # 2x (4) Dread Corsair
    # 2x (4) Naga Corsair
    # 2x (5) Arcanite Reaper
    # 2x (5) Brawl
    # 2x (5) Spiteful Smith
    # 2x (7) Gorehowl
    # 1x (7) Malkorok
    # 1x (7) Tar Lord
    #
    AAECAQcE064CiLACmccC9s8CDT1LsAKRA/8DmgSqBu4GsLAC+bwCub8CzMMCzM0CAA==

    Not sure if this could go here, but feel free to move appropriately. Here’s the decklist I used to beat Saurfang

  3. saltyladderplayer
    August 10, 2017 at 11:35 AM

    got the lich king, lilian voss, and arfus in my first 27 packs!!!

  4. Nandiman
    August 9, 2017 at 10:43 PM

    I have a question about the 10th pack legendary.
    Does it only work on the new expansion packs or does it also work with other packs too?
    e.g:
    – What if I open 10 Un’goro packs?
    – What if I open 9 Un’goro packs and than 1 Frozen throne pack?
    – What if I open 10 Frozen Throne packs, get my legendary, and than open another 10 Frozen Throne packs? Do I get another guaranteed legendary, aka does every 10th pack give you a legendary or only the first 10th pack?

    These are a bunch of little details not specified anywhere.

    • DieRasenwalz
      August 9, 2017 at 11:54 PM

      Blizzard announced that you get a guaranteed legendary within the first 10 packs of a new expansion that you open; so if you ever opened any ungoro packs you are not granted an ungoro legendary. If you ever opened any gadetzan packs you are not guaranteed to get a legendary in the next 10 packs either.
      Only in your first ten card packs of each expansion that you haven’t opened a single card pack of. This also means that you will not get a free legendary every 10 packs – which would be a ridiculously high chance

      • Nandiman
        August 10, 2017 at 3:10 AM

        Ok, thanks.
        I have one more. What if, for the sake of argument, I only ever opened 9 Un’goro packs up until this point, and never got a legendary, and I open a 10th Un’goro pack, do I still get a guaranteed legendary?

    • Onionoil
      August 10, 2017 at 9:14 AM

      It only works with the packs you’ve never opened before. I tried it on my alt account. It is just an arena account and has never even opened classic packs. I got a legendary within the first 6-8 packs. And the the chance of legendary will be back to normal like before, theoretically.

  5. FelixH
    August 9, 2017 at 12:28 PM

    If you want a Death Knight, you’re better off opening your packs before playing the single player missions. The chance of getting a death knight is 9 out of 23, but after playing the mission its 8 out of 22, which percentagewise is worse. So open packs first! Then finish the content!

    • Zachalanche
      August 9, 2017 at 4:22 PM

      Good Tip! Thanks!

    • Clavier
      August 9, 2017 at 8:19 PM

      But if you do this you could get a duplicate though couldn’t you? Because if you open the packs first, the DK from the mission doesn’t state that you would get a non duplicate?

      • Archonaess
        August 10, 2017 at 12:31 AM

        The Death Knight offered follows the non duplicate rule (I do not have the link to the source but I got the information via blizzard official postes)

    • Spyder9899
      August 10, 2017 at 12:55 AM

      More importantly, you have less of a chance to get those awful Prince legendarys.

  6. hero
    August 9, 2017 at 12:05 PM

    12pm seems rather late to me. arent these things usually available around 10am?

    • MPZaki
      August 9, 2017 at 12:15 PM

      Sry man, but i think its not a problem to be sad about “12pm” ^^
      In Europe we standing there and the release is on 05.00 AM ….

      What is this an release time? Blizzard hope that no one is online than and the server doesnt crash?
      Or what is with this release time? ^^

      • Advocaat
        August 10, 2017 at 1:26 AM

        It’s possible because the hype around this expansion seems bigger than ever before. Maybe they are really afraid of crashing servers or at least big loads of players trying to log in.

    • Evident - Author
      August 9, 2017 at 12:49 PM

      Historically they’ve been around 10am, so it is a bit strange. These are estimated times, so it could end up being earlier.