Did you catch the Hearthstone streams from last weekend’s BlizzConline? Considering all the simultaneous major announcements for other Blizzard games like Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, no one can blame you if you found yourself jumping from one stream to another every five minutes or so. But while you were checking out those other streams, you might have missed out on some big Hearthstone news. For your convenience, here’s a recap of all the major announcements from the Hearthstone BlizzCon streams.
We’ve come to know the Year of the Phoenix as a year of big changes–it shook things up in big ways through a new class, a new game mode, and even a new progression system. With the Year of the Gryphon fast approaching, it seems that the Hearthstone dev team are showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to updates and changes. In the Year of the Gryphon’s roadmap, we can see that they’re planning on continuing to update various Hearthstone game modes both PvE and PvP.
When the Year of the Gryphon goes live through the game’s 20.0 patch, we’ll also be moving on to the upcoming Core set from the Basic and Classic sets. The full Core set will be revealed in the coming weeks as the Year of the Phoenix comes to a close. Don’t worry about missing your Basic and Classic cards, though, because the Core set will be accompanied by the release of the Classic format, which will let you experience Hearthstone in its early days with cards as they were in 2014. You can read more about the Core set and Classic format here.
In the Deep Dive stream for the Year of the Gryphon, Hearthstone Game Director Ben Lee discussed their plans for expansions in the upcoming year. For the next three expansions, the Hearthstone dev team will be revisiting old Warcraft lore to bring more classic Warcraft characters to Hearthstone, and they’re starting with the rough and rowdy inhabitants of the Barrens. Home to the kaldorei, centaurs, and quilboars of the Horde, the Barrens makes for the perfect setting to introduce some classic characters like Shadow Hunter Vol’jin and Blademaster Samuro.
The new keyword to be introduced in Forged in the Barrens is Frenzy, which is an effect that triggers when your minion survives damage for the first time. Much like the recent keyword Spellburst, its one-off, time-based effect will prove handy in extracting value for each card’s mana cost.
Alongside the new keyword, Forged in the Barrens will also be introducing Spell Schools. Spell Schools will function as “tribes” or classifications for spells, dividing them into seven categories: Arcane, Fel, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, and Shadow. What’s exciting about these new Spell Schools is that they’ll be retroactively applied to already-existing spells in the game, so even classic spells like Fireball and Frost Bolt will be getting a slight update with their new classifications as Fire and Frost spells.
Another big addition coming soon to Hearthstone is the new game mode: Mercenaries. The upcoming mode will feature RPG and rogue-lite style gameplay, tasking players with building a team of mercenaries and battling their way through a randomly generated map for new cards, items, and upgrades. A glance at the mode’s sample map indicates that it might be similar to games like Monster Train or Slay the Spire, but further details on the gameplay are yet to be revealed.
And finally, the hugely popular Battlegrounds mode is getting its own exclusive minion tribe: quilboars. The addition of quilboars was teased on Day 1 of Hearthstone’s stream, and it’ll be tying in with the upcoming Forged in the Barrens expansion. While no quilboar cards have been revealed yet, Game Designer Alec Dawson described the quilboar minion tribe as having a playstyle that relies on resource management. Will quilboars be the new value-for-gold Battlegrounds minions after Pirates and Elementals? We’ll find out soon when they roll out in the middle of the upcoming expansion.
Which of these announcements are you most excited about? Share your thoughts with us in the comments! You can read more about the upcoming expansion, the Year of the Gryphon, as well as the current updates being made to the game on Hearthstone’s official blog. And if you’ve got some time to spare, check out the full Deep Dive on the Year of the Gryphon below.
Our Privacy Commitment
TV5 Network Inc. values and respects your privacy. We are committed to safeguarding your personal data in compliance with Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations.
We have developed a Privacy Policy that adopts and observes appropriate standards for personal data protection. While our Privacy Policy sets out the general principles governing the collection, use, and disclosure of our users’ personal information, our Privacy Commitment seeks to inform you more about TV5’s privacy practices.
Why do we collect your personal information (as applicable)?
We may collect and maintain basic information about you as site user of TV5 sites for the following purposes:
Where do we get your personal information?
There are several ways we collect your personal information.
Information that you personally provided.
Most of the personal information we have are those that you have provided us when you:
Information we collect during your engagement with us
We also collect information as you use our products and services, like:
Information we collect from other sources
Other means of collection of information may be through:
When do we disclose personal information?
There may be instances when we are required to share the information you provided us. In such cases, we ensure that your personal information will be disclosed on a confidential manner, through secure channels and in compliance with the Data Privacy Act and other privacy laws.
We will never share, rent, or sell your personal information to third parties outside of TV5 except in special cases where you have given consent, and in cases described in our privacy policy.
In some instances, we may be required to disclose your personal information to our agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, business partners and other third-party agencies and service providers as part of our regular business operations and for the provision of our programs and services. This means we might share your information with our service providers, contractors, and professional advisers who help us provide our services.
How we protect your personal information
The integrity, confidentiality, and security of your information is important to us. We have implemented technical, organizational, and physical security measures that are designed to protect your information from unauthorized or fraudulent access, alteration, disclosure, misuse, and other unlawful activities.
We also put in effect the following safeguards:
TV5 will not collect, use, or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than those identified in this Commitment, your Service Agreement or our Terms of Service, and any other purpose that you may have given your consent for.
What are your choices?
We make sure that we have your consent to continue to collect, use, and disclose your personal information for the purposes that we have identified. We want you to know that you may object or withdraw your consent and/or edit your consent preferences at any time.
If you wish to have access to the personal information in our custody or if you think that the personal information you provided is incomplete, or otherwise inaccurate, you may get in touch with our Data Protection Officer through the contact details provided below. In some instances, we may request for supporting documents or proof before we effect requested changes.
Data Protection Officer
TV5 Network Inc.
Reliance corner Sheridan Streets
Mandaluyong City
tv5dataprivacy@tv5.com.ph
What happens when there are changes in our Policy?
From time to time, we may update our privacy policy and practices to comply with changes in applicable laws and regulatory requirements, adapt to new technologies and protocols, and align with the best practices of the industry.
You will be provided notices if the changes are significant and, if we are required by law, we will obtain your updated consent.