Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct - Heroes of Starcraft Mini-Set, Arena Rework, Year of the Raptor (2025) Expansions Roadmap

30th Anniversary of the Warcraft series and 20th Anniversary of World of Warcraft is happening this month. Additionally, Hearthstone is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. To commemorate all of that, Blizzard is streaming a special event about the future of the franchise.

Of course, Hearthstone will also be a part of it. Team 5 has been hyping up the event quite a lot, so hopefully we can expect some exciting announcements.

In this post, I’ll be recapping the event after it begins. If you can’t watch it live, you will find every important bit of news below.

Additionally, drops will be active – Hearthstone players can get two card packs (Perils in Paradise and The Great Dark Beyond). Rewards for WoW and Warcraft Rumble will also be available. Find out more about them here.

Warcraft Direct – Hearthstone Recap

Here’s a VoD with the full Hearthstone presentation:

If you’re interested in everything else Warcraft-related, Wowhead has full coverage here.

Intro

Hearthstone celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Nathan Lyons-Smith is talking about the history of the game.
A total of 160 billion Hearthstone matches have been played over the last decade (not including Battlegrounds).
It’s been 5 years since Battlegrounds launched at BlizzCon, after it was initially pitched as a Tavern Brawl.

Heroes of Starcraft Mini-Set

Hearthstone is getting a Starcraft cross-over in the next mini-set (launching January 2025).
All 3 factions (Terran, Zerg, Protoss) will be represented on cards and synergize with each other. They are also usable across multiple classes.
Each of the factions is getting a special Hero card.
Zerg – Queen of Blades (Sarah Kerrigan), playable in Death Knight, Hunter, Warlock, and Demon Hunter. Focused on Aggro and minion swarm.
Protoss – Artanis, playable in Druid, Mage, Priest, and Rogue. Focused on powerful, high mana cost minions. Uses “psionic power of Protoss” to make them cheaper.
Terran – Jim Raynor, playable in Warrior, Paladin, and Shaman. Focused on special Starships called “Battlecruisers”.
Grunty (Terran Murloc) will also be a character in the mini-set.
Heroes of Starcraft will have 49 cards in total (compared to the 38 of the regular mini-set).

Arena Changes

Arena will have some major changes coming in the first half of 2025.
There will be two types of Arena to choose from.
Normal Arena will have a shorter format, letting you complete your runs more quickly.
Underground Arena will have longer runs with a special new feature called “re-draft on loss”.
When you lose, you will have the option to edit your deck a bit. You will draft 5 more cards and you can swap them with some of your current cards to optimize your build. This is not a paid feature, it will be a part of every Underground Arena run.
Arena is getting its own rating – separate for both formats.
Matchmaking in Normal Arena will be based on your MMR, but in Underground you will be able to face any opponent (just as it works currently).

Year of the Raptor (2025)

The next Standard year will be called Year of the Raptor.
The first expansion of 2025 is “Into the Emerald Dream” (with Druids of the Flame mini-set).
Forces of the Old Gods will face off against Druids of the Emerald Dream. They will fight over the fate of the World Tree. Druids of the Flame will join the battle in the mini-set.
Druids of the Flame mini-set is coming out earlier than usual, with Patch 32.2 instead of 32.4. It will drop in the same update as Battlegrounds Season 10. No reason was given yet.
The second expansion is the first-ever Hearthstone sequel, we’ll go back to Un’Goro in “The Shrouded City” (with Festival of the Devilsaur mini-set).
Join Elise Starseeker on the hunt for the mythical lost Tortollan city. After uncovering secrets of the city, take part in the Tortollan celebration in the mini-set.
The third expansion is “The Heroes of Time” (with “The End of Time” mini-set).
Travel with Chromie through alternate realities to recruit Legendary Warcraft Heroes like you’ve never seen them before. The mini-set will feature an epic showdown with Murozond.
Most of the sets listed above are work in progress so their names might still change.