Edit: Sathrovarr seems to be no longer available after the patch, but it’s simply a bug – don’t worry, it will be fixed soon!
Just as promised, the new patch is out! Here’s a quick roundup of what it means to regular Hearthstone:
- Descent of Dragons cards are already in game – you can view them in your client and read their flavor text.
- Login bonuses – after Descent of Dragons launches, players who log in withing 90 days will be awarded with all five Legendary Galakrond Hero cards, three Descent of Dragons packs and 2 copies of Shield of Galakrond.
- Two new Hero portraits! Tyrande is coming back to Hearthstone. Players will be able to claim her & related card back for free in shop. Another Hero coming to the shop is Sylvanas Windrunner (leaked yesterday), a new Hunter Hero. Sylvanas will cost the regular $9.99 and also come with unique card back. Three Heroes currently available in shop rotate out with expansion’s release, so hurry up if you still want to buy them.
- Changes to how Echo works. Echo cards can no longer be reduced to 0 mana. The change is targeted at the deck which is oppressing Wild format for a while – SN1P-SN4P Warlock. SN1P-SN4P, Glinda Crowskin and Sound the Bells! will get a full Dust refund until December 19.
- 23 cards that were temporarily rotated into Standard are moving back to Wild with this patch.
- Winter Veil celebration starts December 11. Players will be able to participate in a special Tavern Brawl to earn a Winter Veil Treat Card Back. Additionally, Winter Veil Wonder Bundle will be available for purchase starting December 19 – it will come with a new, unique Druid Hero.
- Wild packs will be available in the in-game shop for Gold soon!
- Galakrond’s Awakening – Descent of Dragons single player content will release in January. Apparently, it will come out with 35 new, collectible cards. We should get more info about that soon.
- Some Zephrys the Great improvements.
Read more in the official blog post below!
he skies above Dragonblight stir with tension as the League of E.V.I.L. eagerly seeks to resurrect Galakrond, Progenitor of all Dragonkind, and use his great power as a tool of destruction in their sinister plans. To answer the impending threat, the League of Explorers are calling upon powerful allies, the same Dragon Aspects who defeated Galakrond once before. To turn the skies in their favor, both good and E.V.I.L. are unveiling some fresh tactics of their own…
Read on for the full details of what’s coming to the tavern with the Descent of Dragons expansion, including a major update to Battlegrounds, and how to claim the Tyrande Priest Hero and Card Back for free with the launch of the new in-game shop!
Descent of Dragons – Launching December 10
Galakrond
There are 5 new legendary Galakrond Hero Cards, one for each League of E.V.I.L. Class: Rogue, Warrior, Warlock, Shaman, and Priest. Over the course of a game, Galakrond can be powered up in three stages – each doubling the strength of his Battlecry, with his final form additionally equipping a 5/2 Claw weapon!
New Keyword: Invoke
When it comes to maximizing Galakrond’s potential, Invoke is an essential mechanic. Each time you play a card with the Invoke keyword, you will gain a class-specific bonus, wherever Galakrond is. Invoking Galakrond twice will upgrade his base form to “Galakrond, The Apocalypse”. From there, Invoking two more times will earn you his ultimate form, “Galakrond, Azeroth’s End”.
Sidequests
While the forces of E.V.I.L. are busy invoking the might of Galakrond, the heroes of good can take on new Sidequests to earn advantages of their own! Unlike the Legendary Quests you would typically build a deck around, Sidequests offer a more lightweight objective with moderate rewards that can fit into varying styles of play. Another key difference from Legendary Quests is that you can put 2 copies of a Sidequest in your deck.
Legendary Dragons
The Dragon Aspects are here in a way you’ve never seen before, along with powerful new Proto-Dragons and Togwaggle’s own candle creation, Waxadred! There’s a total of ten new Legendary Dragons joining the fight – one specific to each class, and the neutral Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. Each class-specific dragon will also have a corresponding Dragon Breath – these cards gain significant bonuses while holding a Dragon. So, remember to keep your friends close, but keep your Dragons closer!
Kronx Dragonhoof
Kronx Dragonhoof, The Herald of Galakrond, can earn you a sizeable advantage whether you have already become Galakrond, or if he is still in your deck. Use Kronx to pull a fully upgraded Galakrond, or if you’ve already become Galakrond, you’ll be able to choose one of four game-changing Devastations to unleash on the battlefield!
Login Bonuses:
Spread your wings and soar into battle as the ultimate dragon! Log into Hearthstone any time within the first 90 days of the launch of Descent of Dragons and receive 3 Descent of Dragons Card Packs, plus 2 copies of Shield of Galakrond to get Invoking straight away. Additionally, when you go to open your packs, you’ll receive all 5 Legendary Galakrond Hero Cards. Now that you’re well equipped for a draconic conquest, embark on a new Legendary Quest Chain to earn gold and even more packs!
Pre-Purchase:
Descend in style with these bonuses when you pre-purchase a Descent of Dragons bundle through December 9!
- Standard Bundle: Includes 60 Descent of Dragons Card Packs, the Shattering Card Back, and a random Descent of Dragons Golden Legendary.
- Mega Bundle: Includes 100 Descent of Dragons Card Packs, the new Deathwing Warrior Hero, The Shattering Card Back, and a random Descent of Dragons Golden Legendary.
Coming Soon – Galakrond’s Awakening:
The final battle in the Year of the Dragon’s solo adventure story is Galakrond’s Awakening, coming this January! We won’t spoil too much, but we hope you’re ready to battle E.V.I.L. (or good) and collect 35 new cards! More details on Galakrond’s Awakening will be coming soon.
Features and Events
New In-game Shop
Hearthstone’s in-game shop is being redesigned to improve navigation and accessibility, with these changes rolling out globally December 9-10. In the new shop, you’ll find bundles, Card Packs, Alternate Heroes, and more together in a single location – additionally, Adventures and Wild Card Packs are being added, with the option to purchase Wild Card Packs using gold.
Claim the Tyrande Whisperwind Priest Hero and Card Back for free!
On December 10, we’re bringing back fan favorite Tyrande for everyone! Stop by the new in-game shop to claim the Tyrande Priest Hero and Card Back for free!
Sylvanas Windrunner Hunter Hero and Card Back
Also coming to the shop on December 10 for a limited time, the Sylvanas Windrunner Hunter Hero and Card Back will be available for $9.99!
Heroes rotating from the shop
On December 10, we’ll be rotating the current lineup of Heroes available in the shop – they may return at a later date, but for now, be sure to take advantage of the current Hero sale featuring Magni, Medivh, and Alleria!
Special event cards moving back to Wild
During the Doom in the Tomb event, 23 cards from Wild were released to be playable in Standard. On December 5, these cards will return to Wild, and any temporarily granted copies will be removed.
Winter Veil Celebration
Snowy cheer will be filling the tavern starting on December 11, with festive board dressings and the return of Winter Veil emotes! Grab your favorite ornament…al axe and wreak havoc in the Decorating Dalaran tavern brawl to earn the Winter Veil Treat Card Back!
Looking for the perfect gift for your favorite Hearthstone pal? Celebrate the season with the new Winter Veil Wonder Bundle, available from December 19 until January 7 for $24.99! Included in this bundle:
- The new Dame Hazelbark Druid Hero and Card Back
- 30 Card Packs – 6 packs each from Saviors of Uldum, Rise of Shadows, The Witchwood, The Boomsday Project, and Rastakhan’s Rumble
- The Arena draft pool has been updated:
- Basic
- Classic
- Blackrock Mountain
- The Grand Tournament
- One Night in Karazhan
- Knights of the Frozen Throne
- Rastakhan’s Rumble
- Descent of Dragons
Game Improvements and Bug Fixes
- Echo
- Copies of cards with the Echo keyword can no longer cost less than (1). Full Arcane Dust refunds will be available for the following cards until December 19:
- SN1P-SN4P (Normal Only)
- Glinda Crowskin (Normal and Golden)
- Sound the Bells (Normal and Golden)
- Dev Comment: This change is targeted at a very popular deck in Wild that utilizes SN1P-SN4P along with the Echo mechanic to generate extremely large minions or near infinite damage. This change should put a stop to that interaction while having very limited impact on the average use case for Echo cards. Glinda, SN1P-SN4P, and Sound the Bells were the three cards that took advantage of generating 0-cost copies through Echo, so we’ve opted to refund all three of those cards as a result.
- Zephrys improvements
- Fixed a bug where minions with both Stealth and Taunt (such as Wardruid Loti) weren’t properly accounted for.
- Fixed a bug where weapons would sometimes be offered as a removal option against Stealthed minions.
- Druid Choose One cards now account for having the ‘Choose Both’ effect
- Fixed a bug where Starfall could be offered as removal against a single minion.
- Fixed a bug where Earth Shock was incorrectly offered as removal against targets that were reduced to 1 health by Shrink Ray or Equality.
- Adjusted how Zephrys values enemy Deathrattles.
- Fixed a bug with lethal calculations including Rush minions not eligible to attack heroes.
- Fixed several bugs involving certain cards not being offered:
- King Krush
- Faceless Manipulator
- Shadow Madness
- Doomhammer
Wish we got more cheap dragons this expansion, got full of mechs and pirates instead in neutral cards
Gotta say……For all the boo hooing about Snip Snap in Wild. I can honestly recall only playing against him once. What levels was he being abused at? I’m usually in casual and low ladder for quests.
It’s because the deck costs so much, so you won’t see him until later, plus the people playing it usually reach the top pretty quickly
I liked playing Glinda alongside 0-mana Sea Giants. RIP. I think they should have just made Mechwarper not reduce cards cost below (1) – just like the Warlock Portal.
Yes and no. Right now Mechwarper / SN1P-SN4P combo is a problem, that’s true, but reducing Echo cards to 0 is a mechanic that’s just asking to get abused in the future. This nerf is more future-proof, although it hurts balanced combos too.
I would agreee, it’s sad to an extent, but vitally important
I am curious about Sn1p-Sn4p nerf. It was given for free and as such can’t be disenchanted. How exactly is the dust refund going to work?
I checked in-game, and it still can’t be disenchanted, whereas both Glinda and Sound the Bells give you full dust. Hence I guess this is only for those who either opened or crafted Sn1p-Sn4p.
Yup it’s only for the “normal” one as explained in the patch note.
You won’t get a refund for the golden version everyone got for free. You can’t craft or disenchant that one. Only the regular version gets a refund – so people who got it after Rise of the Mech event.
Thanks for clarification.
I know that the article writes that the dust refund for the cards of nerfed mechanics will happen until December 19, but just wanted to check whether anyone has got it already after installing the latest patch?
you have to dust the nerfed card to get it
As Nephilim99 said, you have to disenchant the cards. But they indeed give you full dust already.
So, apparently, outof.cards managed to get info (datamined) on Legendary Quest chain on the DoD Release.
It’s consists of 6 Daily Legendary Chain which grants multiple packs and golds.
Shouldn’t this info be added?
Can you open your packs early with a fireside gathering yet?
You should be ble to open them starting today (December 6th).
I really dislike the cards being tied to the adventure. I don’t think it is a fair way to gate off content. Cards should come from packs, not from a completely separate system. The gold cost for adventures is very high and could be problematic to free to play players. This feature annoyed me enough that I quit the game after Goblins vs Gnomes since I couldn’t see myself spending actual money on the game at the time.
The removal of cards from the adventures is what helped bring me back into the game. While I am now playing the game regularly and have bought the last few adventures (in a completely different financial place then I was previously) I think this is a bad way to add content. I know it will drive a number of friends who are free to play players out of the game again. I wish they would reconsider.
The friend I play HS the most with has very limited time (we find some time at work to play during lunch). He will never be able to complete the adventure to get the cards. This once again gates him out of the game. I would not be shocked if this drives him to quite HS as well.
It was terrible that you couldn’t even craft the cards for the adventure until it rotated out of standard. If you can at least allow people to craft the cards from the start that might prevent some of these issues.
I see that you’re assuming that the new adventure will be paid – but they actually haven’t said anything about that yet. Given that it comes with lots of new cards, I would imagine that it might actually be free. Or at least cheap enough to be easily accessible by everyone.
Because yeah, releasing a full expansion and then another 35 cards locked behind paywall a month later would be a little bit too much.
True. I am going off of past history of adventures which included cards always being an extra outlay of money. Really hope you are right, but I tend to be cynical when it comes to most things.
I think it might work like the adventures which was a pretty cool system, though you needed gold to build decks, you could get free legendaries after buying it and this one seems to be another dungeon run
and how about 2 latest adventures? there are many echo card that we use many times making them 0
You just (PROBABLY – maybe they’re an exception) won’t be able to make them 0 – they will cost 1. But honestly, that’s not a big deal. Some treasures will just get slightly weaker. And what would you want them to do about it?
yes. finally. they redesign shop.
could I be finally buy old adventure using my country currency? we’ll see soon enough
and one question, did I misheard that when you login, you’ll get a random legendary aside from those Galakronds? It’s not mentioned anywhere within the update info..
Like Random Quest Card in SoU?
I thought that we will be getting one, but at this point I’m not sure. I guess that we’ll see in a few days.
Yeah, I think that should be possible. If they will be in in-game shop, you will be able to buy them in whatever currency you’re normally paying in there.
Isn’t this patch 16.0, not 15.6?
Yep, you’re right, sorry!
And hooray! Shamanstone has ended!
So, Will the wild Packs just be 100 gold? Or Will they be more expensive than normal Packs.
Regarding the snip snap warlock nerf, i dont think they had to nerf it that hard, Like Maybe that mechwarper cant ovveride summoning portal and it stays at 1mana.
Sathrovarr is also gone?
No, that card is from DoD and Will rotate along with it
We’ve just got information from Blizzard that it’s a bug – don’t worry, it will be available again soon!