Want to learn more about the rotation? Don’t know how to maximize your Dust gain? Check out our rotation guide!
Hearthstone’s Year of the Raven is out and the Year of the Dragon is in. Blizzard’s fourth-ever themed year is set to arrive shortly and with it comes a slew of improvements and changes. For one, it will be the first ever year in which all three expansions will continue to tell the same story. The first expansion will lead to the second which will conclude with the third.
It’s a completely new approach to Hearthstone expansions. Before that, three sets from the same year weren’t really related. A lot of the time, they didn’t even have that much of a backstory. This change should keep the entire Year of the Dragon more consistent and interesting.
We spoke with Principle Game Designer Mike Donais this week to discuss some of the changes. “One of the important things is that each expansion still has a really cool strong theme on its own,” he tells us. “Having a narrative that goes through it should help everyone feel like they understand what’s going on.”
He imagines players will be more attached and invested as to what’s going on throughout the year as a result.
Here are the hints for the upcoming Year of the Dragon expansions:
Hall of Fame
Three Classic cards are being rotated when the Year of the Dragon begins: Doomguard, Naturalize, and Divine Favor. As per usual, these cards will eventually be replaced with new Classic cards a la Tome of Intellect or Call of the Void.
Donais explains that Doomguard has basically just been around for a long time at a power level that’s the team thinks is a bit too much. The same can probably be inferred with Divine Favor. For Naturalize, however, Donais explains that it’s a matter of class identity. Druid is meant to be weak at hard removal and Naturalize breaks that class identity. It also just happens to be very powerful.
For the first time ever, Blizzard is also rotating two set cards: Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane from The Witchwood! These two cards have helped Odd and Even decks to dominate the meta and it seems like Blizzard is finally ready to let other decks shine.
“Even though it feels out of place that we’re moving Baku and Genn to the Hall of Fame, it’s not that much different than us changing their stats or cost. It just feels more different. The reason we decided to move them instead of changing them is that their design is pretty tight. There’s not a lot of things you can change without completely destroying them.” said Donais.
“Some people really like them and we want those people to be able to continue playing them in Wild where they’re more equal in power level with the other big powerful decks.” As a result, Gloom Stag, Black Cat, Glitter Moth, and Murkspark Eel will also be rotated. All of those cards will provide a full dust refund. You will also be able to keep your copies – no need to disenchant them!
But that’s not all Hearthstone team has to offer! There are also other big game updates coming (such as smarter deck builder, random card backs and Arena seasons). Read more about them here.
[…] an AMA over at reddit and answered lots of questions. Most of them were related to the upcoming Year of the Dragon, but some other questions were answered […]
[…] may have been the most packed announcement in the history of Hearthstone development, featuring the Hall of Fame rotation, massive single-player content and the introduction of Arena seasons. In this piece, however, we […]
If you only play Standard, here is another idea to maximize your dust return if you don’t have enough dust to craft more of these future Hall of Fame cards.
You can go ahead disenchant any of the cards you have from the 3 expansions that are going to be rotated out to Wild, which are Journey to Un’Goro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, and Kobolds & Catacombs. Then you can use these dust to craft more new Hall of Fame cards for more dust return when Hearthstone enters the Year of the Dragon.
Hope this helps!
I really expected at least one of Leeroy Jenkins, Alexstaza, and/or Malygos to get Hall of Famed.
Eh, neither are an issue I think
The only one of those I think could have been a problem is Malygos, but with the new rotation, Kobold Illusionist leaves standard, which kills the Malygos rogue combo, and clone/resurrect priest loses so many cards it’s unusable too.
And after all, it is the Year of the Dragon, so it wouldn’t be right to move any dragons out …
I don’t understand…
If i already have Baku and Genn, i will get a 3200 dust and 400 for each one?
Yes.
400 if you want to DE them after the fact
You will get 3200 Dust for both. Then you CAN disenchant them for 400 Dust each, or you can leave them to play in Wild.
Any idea when to do all the craft thing to maximize dust? I mean should I wait and do that end of month or better do that now to be safe and get some free dust off it. I’m a newbie and got only 3500 dust to spend anyways. Don’t have any from those epic, neither Gwen . Only I have is regular Baku. Thanks for help
If you dont mind using the Dust right now, it is probably best to do so. Think of it like an investment. You’ll be out the dust for a month or so but you’ll get the most you can in return if you use all the dust you can and craft these cards.
Check this nice graph to see optimal lines of Crafting: https://imgur.com/a/G1vK2NI
Agreed with PennFifteen. While you should be safe to wait until the end of the month, it’s easy to forget, and then you might be kicking yourself for missing out.
If you’re not planning on keeping the cards after, then I would start with getting a golden Genn Greymane (which you don’t have, unless I’m misreading) for 3200 dust, since you can afford that. You’ll get the best return on that one (50%) since you don’t already have it. (Don’t upgrade your Baku to golden, there’s no net gain.) You’re “investing” 3200 when you craft the golden Genn, then you get 3200 back in the HoF refund, and you can disenchant the golden Genn for 1600.
These are the return percentages if you don’t have the dust to “invest” in them all (again, assuming you don’t already have these cards):
Golden legendary (3200 investment, 3200 refund, 1600 disenchant) – 50% return
Regular legendary (1600 investment, 1600 refund, 400 disenchant) – 25% return
Golden epic (1600 investment, 1600 refund, 400 disenchant) – 25% return
Regular epic (400 investment, 400 refund, 100 disenchant) – 25% return
Golden rare (800 investment, 800 refund, 100 disenchant) – 12.5% return *
Regular rare (100 investment, 100 refund, 20 disenchant) – 20% return *
Golden common (400 investment, 400 refund, 50 disenchant) – 12.5% return
Regular common (40 investment, 40 refund, 5 disenchant) – 12.5% return
* Typically you want to go down this list, in order of decreasing rarity, but if you have limited dust to invest and can’t get them all, you’ll want to prioritize the regular rares after the legendaries and epics.
Hope that helps!
Damn! I didnt think about the ordering of crafting these cards.. I went from the bottom up lol. Ah well. Only had ~3000 dust but I should have started with the Epics
You’ve still got a bunch of time to gather some more dust. And then there’s always next time. It seems like the HoF changes are always going to coincide with the first set of the year, probably around April. So it would be a good idea to save up dust in anticipation of that every year, if you can remember.
I have baku and genn in the non-gold version if i disenchant both now and craft the golden version of it ,when they go to the hall of fame i will get 3200 for each card and then disenchant each one for 1600?
this is correct?
Yes. If you plan to use the golden versions for a while, this makes sense to upgrade.
However, if you were thinking about doing this just to disenchant all versions of those cards right after, then you’ll get the same result in not doing anything right now. If you have non-golden versions for each, you’re going to get 1600 for each for free when they go into the HoF, then you can disenchant them for 400 each after. You’ll net 2000 dust each (4000 dust total) for getting rid of both of them after the HoF rotation.
If you upgrade to golden before and then disenchant your golden version after, for each one you’ll pay 3200 to craft the golden, get 400 for disenchanting the regular, get 3200 back in the refund, and get 1600 for disenchanting the golden. You’ll net 2000 dust each (4000 dust total), which is the same as not upgrading at all.
If that’s your plan, the only difference I can see is that you’ll have some dust tied up and you’ll temporarily have golden versions. If you think you’re going to use the goldens for a while, it’s not a terrible idea. But if you’re going to disenchant them right away, it might not be worth the effort.
Totally fine with Genn / Baku getting the boot, but I feel a little weird about naturalize. “Druids aren’t supposed to have hard removal”? That’s a classic card aka they’ve always had hard removal.
I just hope they don’t completely bury Druid. With the recent nerfs and now this I have a hard time imaging any Druid deck that could have success. I would like it though if they focused more on the lore of Druid forms and adaptability and printed more “choose one” cards. Those always make me feel like I’m more in control of the game and that decisions matter.
My main takeaway based on the change to nat is that big dumb piles of stats are getting a lot better. At this point the only real hard removal will be some random classic stuff that barely sees play along with hex / poly.
Quick question for Legendary crafting (for my gf) because I feel is too good to be true…
Objective = Maximize dust. Card unwanted.
1. She do not have Genn or Baku (both the Golden or non-Golden version).
2. If she crafts the Golden version of one of them (e.g. Baku), she gets the Golden Baku card + 3,200 dust. If she disenchants, she’ll get 800 dust. Correct?
3. If she crafts the non-Golden version of one of them (e.g. Baku), she gets the non-Golden Baku card + 1,600 dust. If she disenchants, she’ll get 400 dust. Correct?
4. Therefore, if card retention is not required, there is no question which to craft to “make profit”, right? She should always craft the Golden version if she has the dust. Am I right to say this?
Please correct me if I’m mistaken.
THANK YOU!
Never mind. I believe I got it right. If the objective is to get dust (not wanting the card), ALWAYS craft golden versions (of course you need to have enough dust) and disenchant after to get the most amount of dust! 🙂
If you don’t own any copies, ALWAYS craft Golden.
If you own regular copies of Common cards, still craft Golden (you get +10 Dust each).
If you own regular copies of Rare, Epic or Legendaries, DON’T do anything.
That’s if you want to maximize Dust. If you care about owning Golden copies, then crafting them is still a good idea.
HAHA! Thanks mate! That’s a SOLID summary. I should’ve waited… Found out the answer myself the hard way. Did all the calculations for the possible (practical) combinations!
Anyways, here’s the detailed math for anyone who’s interested. Covers almost all practical scenarios, except a few rare cases (e.g. crafting and keeping both Golden + Non-Golden versions for Wild).
DON’T HAVE ANY CARD (GOLDEN OR NON-GOLDEN), CARFT GOLDEN (TO KEEP/DISENCHANT):
Craft Golden Legendary (Spend 3,200) = Get 3,200 + Golden Legendary Card = 0 Net + Free Golden Legendary OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +1,600 (per card; MAX x1 = +1,600)
Craft Golden Epic (Spend 1,600) = Get 1,600 + Golden Epic Card = 0 Net + Free Golden Epic OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +400 (per card; MAX x2 = +800)
Craft Golden Rare (Spend 800) = Get 800 + Golden Rare Card = 0 Net + Free Golden Rare OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +100 (per card; MAX x2 = +200)
Craft Golden Common (Spend 400) = Get 400 + Golden Common Card = 0 Net + Free Golden Common OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +50 (per card; MAX x2 = +100)
DON’T HAVE ANY CARD (GOLDEN OR NON-GOLDEN), CARFT NON-GOLDEN (TO KEEP/DISENCHANT):
Craft Non-Golden Legendary (Spend 1,600) = Get 1,600 + Non-Golden Legendary Card = 0 Net + Free Non-Golden Legendary OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +400 (per card; MAX x1 = +400)
Craft Non-Golden Epic (Spend 400) = Get 400 + Non-Golden Epic Card = 0 Net + Free Non-Golden Epic OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +100 (per card; MAX x2 = +200)
Craft Non-Golden Rare (Spend 100) = Get 100 + Non-Golden Rare Card = 0 Net + Free Non-Golden Rare OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +20 (per card; MAX x2 = +40)
Craft Non-Golden Common (Spend 40) = Get 40 + Non-Golden Common Card = 0 Net + Free Non-Golden Common OR Disenchant (No Cards Left) for Net of +5 (per card; MAX x2 = +10)
HAVE NON-GOLDEN, DON’T DO ANYTHING:
Legendary = Get 1,600 (per card; MAX x1 = +1,600)
Epic = Get 400 (per card; MAX x2 = +800)
Rare = Get 100 (per card; MAX x2 = +200)
Common = Get 40 (per card; MAX x2 = +80)
HAVE NON-GOLDEN, CRAFT GOLDEN TO DISENCHANT FOR DUST (KEEP NON-GOLDEN):
Craft Golden Legendary (Spend 3,200) = Get 3,200 + BOTH VERSIONS = Golden Legendary + Disenchant Golden Legendary (Keep Non-Golden) for Net of +1,600 (per card; MAX x1 = +1,600)
Craft Golden Epic (Spend 1,600) = Get 1,600 + BOTH VERSIONS = Golden Epic + Disenchant Golden Epic (Keep Non-Golden) for Net of +400 (per card; MAX x2 = +800)
Craft Golden Rare (Spend 800) = Get 800 + BOTH VERSIONS = Golden Rare + Disenchant Golden Rare (Keep Non-Golden) for Net of +100 (per card; MAX x2 = +200)
Craft Golden Common (Spend 400) = Get 400 + BOTH VERSIONS = Golden Common + Disenchant Golden Common (Keep Non-Golden) for Net of +50 (per card; MAX x2 = +100)
HAVE NON-GOLDEN, CRAFT GOLDEN (KEEP/UPGRADE), DISENCHANT NON-GOLDEN:
Craft Golden Legendary (Spend 3,200) = Get 3,200 + Golden Legendary Card = Golden Legendary (Keep) + Disenchant Non-Golden Legendary for Net of +400 (per card; MAX x1 = +400)
Craft Golden Epic (Spend 1,600) = Get 1,600 + Golden Epic Card = Golden Epic (Keep) + Disenchant Non-Golden Epic for Net of +100 (per card; MAX x2 = +200)
Craft Golden Rare (Spend 800) = Get 800 + Golden Rare Card = Golden Rare (Keep) + Disenchant Non-Golden Rare for Net of +20 (per card; MAX x2 = +40)
Craft Golden Common (Spend 400) = Get 400 + Golden Common Card = Golden Common (Keep) + Disenchant Non-Golden Common for Net of +5 (per card; MAX x2 = +10)
CONCLUSIONS:
1) Don’t have any, craft Golden if possible. Otherwise, craft Non-Golden. Either way, free card or free dust (Golden MAX = +1,600/800/200/100; Non-Golden MAX = +400/200/40/10).
2) Have Non-Golden, want dust = don’t do anything to Rare/Epic/Legendary; but DO crafting Golden Common to disenchant (+20 per pair).
3) Upgrading to Golden from Non-Golden: Difference VS keeping Non-Golden = Common (-35 per card), Rare (-80 per card), Epic (-300 per card) & Legendary (-1,200 per card).
How about priest ? They should ban shadow visions!!! Is so BORING to play against priest!!!
Shadow visions is from Un’Goro so is rotating anyway. Same as their ressurect tools.
If I have a regular Baku and a golden Baku I get 4800 dust, right?
Actually 3200
You’ll get full dust for the most ‘expensive’ version (3.200 in this case) but you can disenchant one (or even both) to get more dust – but for normal disenchanting dust.
I can’t help but be a nerd and point out that this is the 4th themed year, not 3rd. Kraken, Mammoth, Raven, Dragon.
I am sad about the Genn-Baku rotation–I liked the Odd/Even decks! Looking forward to seeing what the new expansion offers, though.
Yeah they were/are a cool concept, but most likely limit design space waaay too much.
was it if you have a normal and a golden legendary that you only get the dust back for the golden one?
Yep, you only get Dust back for the Golden if you own both.
What a major shakeup to the game, this is awesome.
Doomguard: I was never bothered by this card, the discard drawback always seemed to limit it to a final burst of damage if it was needed, and if it didn’t kill your opponent you were usually out of luck, cube combo kinda sucked but cubes rotating. Neutral to this change.
Naturalize: Same thing as Doomguard, sometimes the draw two of naturalize would give me the card I need to cinch the game so it was always a risk/reward thing. The fact that it’s going to annihilate druid combo decks right after they neutered their ramp mechanic is going to put druid in a really weird spot, I wonder what kind of cards they have in store for the class.
Divine Favor: Neutral to this, it gave odd pally a nice refill when it ran out of juice but with Baku gone I see no reason why it has to go HoF, once again neutral thought makes me think they have different plans for the class next expansion.
Baku/Genn: I was 90% sure they would be sent to the HoF next rotation, the only thing that had me second guessing was Blizz not wanting to give players 3.2k dust, but it seems like the team is really listening to player feedback right now and trying to get people back into the game/keep those that are getting tired.
All in all great changes, the only other thing I’d like to see is a nerf to priest combo decks, seems like most every other combo deck is going to be gone except for that, but I’m definitely pleased with these changes. This article doesn’t mention all the new modes and features they’re planning on adding either; arena wins counting towards the 500 wins for portraits (I’d have all golden heroes ages ago lol), wild arena, psuedo-story mode for single player content, deck auto complete that looks at the meta, I for one am super excited.
I feel like I won the lottery if I interpret this correctly. I was super lucky here because I opened these in the last two years:
1x Golden Genn (3200)
1x Golden Baku (3200)
1x Golden Moth / 1x Moth (1600 / 400)
2x Stag (2x 400)
2x Golden Cat (2x 400)
2x Golden Nat (2x 400)
1x Golden DG / 1x DG (800 / 100)
1x Golden Eel / 1x Eel (800 / 100)
2x Divine Favor (2x 100)
Does this really mean I get to keep ALL of them and still get 12.800 dust just like that?!
…and thinking about it, does this mean that we can now use dust to craft any of these in gold and just get it back and keep the card once rotation hits? So it’s technically a free craft as long as I can do in the meantime without the dust?
You only get the free dust for cards up to the maximum you could use in a deck (which you’ve already hit). Technically, yes it’s a free craft to get the golden for a card you already have the regular version of. But you get less free dust overall. For example, in your case you would get 100 dust free for each regular Divine Favor. Net gain of 200 dust. If you craft 2 golden versions, it would cost you 1600 dust (800×2), you would get 1600 dust in the free refund, and the 2 regular Divine Favors don’t get you anything since they’re beyond the maximum in a deck. You could disenchant them before or after and get 40 dust for them. Net gain of 40 dust. You could look at it as, would I rather have make my 2 Divine Favors golden and get 40 free dust, or just get 200 free dust instead?
For these cards going into the HoF, the net dust costs to “upgrade” regular versions to golden (assuming you already have the max cards for a deck) are 35 for common, 80 for rare, 300 for epic, 1200 for legendary. You take the regular version HoF dust refund (what you would have gotten for free if you didn’t “upgrade”) and subtract the disenchant value for the regular version. (The cost of crafting the golden version and the golden version HoF dust refund are part of this calculation, but they’re equal so they cancel themselves out.)
Normally, or for cards not going into the HoF, the net dust costs to upgrade are 395 for common, 780 for rare, 1500 for epic, 2800 for legendary. You take the golden crafting cost and subtract the disenchant value for the regular version.
I spent the dust to upgrade my commons and rares going into the HoF. I’m willing to pay 35 or 80 dust for cards I might use in Wild. But I’d rather have an extra free 300 dust than to switch to a golden version of Gloom Stag or Glitter Moth, and I’d rather have an extra free 1200 dust than to switch to a golden Genn or Baku (though I do like them, 1200 is still a lot).
Hope this helps some people out (and hopefully my math is correct).
So if I dont have genn now and craft The golden verision of it. I will get 3200 dust back and still can disenchant it later for 1600?
Yup! That’s another good point. If you don’t have some of these cards, and you don’t want them at all, you can use this strategy to get free dust. Craft the card, wait until you get the same amount you paid to craft it back as a dust refund, then disenchant it and get the disenchant value as a bonus. The disenchant value should stay the same “forever” so you don’t have to disenchant it right away.
I personally find that most of the cards moved to the HoF are still powerful in Wild, so I like to keep them and I don’t think about disenchanting them after. However, I’ll probably end up disenchanting my Gloom Stags and Glitter Moths if/when I need the dust.
Now that really set it straight, thank you! Like you, I definitely think it was worth to invest that small amount to upgrade to a golden Doomguard… Stag and Moth, not so much. But that card is a classic in the actual sense of the word, I just had to. Thanks for the advice!
You get 12800 plus additional 5600 for the normal ones. You right mate!
This is incredible, wow, thank you! That’s just insane!
I’m not sure where the additional 5600 is coming from in your calculation? I count 12800 for all of them, golden and non-golden. Either way, that’s still a lot of dust!
Do we get the usual refund for all of fame cards? i read in the article that we have full refund for a limited time… i’m confused.
That’s a mistake on our part. Normal HoF rules apply here.
I think that cards like black cat, eel and the other two should stay they don’t want problem at all and maybe print some other support for even/odd but without Baku and genn would be nice
So far, so good. Missing points:
Fixing a settled down meta after 1-2 months into a new expansion and a new Game mode. Pls find a solution für this blizz.
Love the changes so far. Keep it up!
So are there 5 cards rotating to HoF or 9? Do the Gloomstag et al count as rotating to HoF? That would be a LOT of dust!
Yes, the blizzard article and this post confirm that 9 cards in total will rotate to the Hall of Fame:
-Baku and Genn
-Naturalize, Doomguard, Divine Favor
-Black Cat, Glitter Moth, Gloom Stag, Murkspark Eel
= 9
That’s because these cards lose any relevance or value in the standard rotation without Baku and Genn to support the even/odd archetypes. So it’s a hefty card rotation, if you own max copies of all of these cards the dust total comes up to
3200(Baku Genn) + 500 (2xDoomguard, Naturalize, Divine Favor) + 1900 (2xGloom Stag, Moth, Eel, Cat)
= 5600 dust
The article now says this: “All of those cards will provide a limited time full dust refund.”
But if cards are moving to Hall of Fame you get full dust without having to disenchant them right?
That’s a mistake on our part, normal HoF rules apply here too!
Christmas came really early this year. I have to say I won’t be missing neither genn nor baku. Together with sinergistic cards, their HoF rotation will definitely bring a lot of dust to the players.
As for other HoF cards, I am not surprised to see doomguard, naturalize and divine favor on the list. They are all very powerfull cards, limiting the design space. However, I have to admit I was also hoping some other cards would be HoF, like auctioneer, preparation, any of priest combo packages (mind blast, divine spirit, inner fire), perhaps even leeroy. Overall, I feel like they did the right job here.
As for the other news, I am really looking forward to this years expansions and how they are going to connect them all in a single story. It could be really fun experience.
I was thinking about the massive loads of dust as well. Compared to other rotations, this basically makes one Legendary craft possible if you had two copies of all those cards.
Not to mention that genn and baku are legendaries themself and thus they on their own give you enough dust to craft 2 legendaries of your choice. If you have 2 copies of gloomstag and 2 copies of glitter moth, those are worth another legendary, 3 in total. That’s massive for any budget player.
This is HUGE. Nobody expected that Genn and Baku will leave! That should shake up the meta and even things out for classes with powerful Even/Odd archetypes. Love it!
It was actually requested from many players including a lot of the pros as well as suggested by many of the major support sites for hearthstone.
It would have been a huge disappointment if they were not put into Hall of Fame.
Thank god they listened!
I’m even more excited for the rotation! Blizzard seems to be listening to the players!