(OUT NOW!) 19.0 Patch Notes – Progression System Update, Achievements, Duels Early Access For Free, Tavern Pass, Arena Rotation, New Battlegrounds Hero – Releases Tomorrow (November 12)

Update: The patch was just released on PC and should be soon on mobile devices. Learn more about it below!

Patch notes for tomorrow’s 19.0 update were just released. It’s a massive patch adding the entire Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion to the game (although new cards won’t become available until November 17), as well as many other features. Here’s a quick recap of everything in this patch:

  • New Progression System / Quest Revamp – The entire Hearthstone Daily Quest system is getting updated. Quests will no longer give Gold, but XP, which you then will use to progress on the rewards track. We’ll also get Weekly Quests on top of the usual Daily Quests. Remember to finish all your Quests before tomorrow, or else they disappear (read more here).
  • Achievements – Achievements system is getting added to Hearthstone – some will be harder, some will be easier, but there will be a lot of interesting stuff to do for min-maxers. Certain achievements will have rewards, such as extra XP or cosmetics.
  • Duels – The new mode becomes available to everyone in early access and Whispers of the Old Gods expansion is added to the pool of available cards. Season 1, which adds more Hero Powers, Treasures and Darkmoon Faire starts on November 17.
  • Tavern Pass – Tavern Pass is a way to unlock another, special rewards track on top of the regular one. It won’t give players any extra packs etc. but instead boost the overall XP you’re getting and give you multiple cosmetics, such as Hero skins or a new skin for Coin (first time ever). Tavern Pass will cost $19.99.
  • Battlegrounds Perks – Perks got separated from Tavern Pass. They will still give you the same stuff (being able to pick from 4 Heroes in BG, access to emotes etc.). Perks will cost $14.99 / 2000 Gold, and probably half of that after mid-expansion discount ~2 months from now.
  • New Battlegrounds Hero – Silas Darkmoon
  • New Arena Rotation – We’re back with Arena rotations, the mode will no longer remain in Standard format.

Of course, this is just a short version – check out full patch notes below to learn more.

Tomorrow’s 19.0 patch includes an all-new progression system, several game improvements, and some updates to Battlegrounds. Its arrival means Hearthstone’s newest expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, is almost here! All Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards have officially been revealed, and while you can’t use the new cards until they’ve unlocked on November 17, you can get a head start on building your launch day decks with our online deck builder!

Duels: Season One also begins on November 17, but tomorrow’s patch grants Duels: Early Access to everyone, introduces Whispers of the Old Gods to the pool of eligible sets, and adds Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards to loot buckets! Once Duels: Season One begins, you’ll be able to add Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards to your starter deck as well! You can learn more about Duels in our announcement blog here.

Tomorrow’s patch will also add a new unlockable Hero Power and two Signature Treasures for each class in Duels, which you can obtain by owning Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards. Check out our Pre-Release blog to learn how you can open Madness at the Darkmoon Faire packs early!

New Battlegrounds Hero

Silas Darkmoon

  • Come One, Come All! [Passive]
    • Darkmoon Tickets are in the Tavern! Get 3 to Discover a minion from your Tavern Tier.
    • Random minions in Bob’s Tavern will have Darkmoon Tickets. Buy three of these minions to Discover a minion from your current Tavern Tier.

10_16_HS_DMF_Blog_19p0_PatchNotes_enUS_InlineBlogImage_Heroes_SilasDarkmoon_760x760_JY_v01.png

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to Silas Darkmoon before the hero is formally released on December 1.

Progression & Rewards Revamp

10_06_HS_Blog_ProgressionRewards_Header_760x270_JY_v01.jpgThe 19.0 patch adds an entirely new progression system to the Tavern! In what is Hearthstone’s biggest systems update ever, the progression revamp includes four major parts:

  • The addition of an Achievements System that tracks your in-game accomplishments.
  • A central Rewards Track for all earnable rewards outside of Ranked play.
  • Quest Revamp that supports daily and weekly quests.
  • An updated Profile Page with player info, ranks, and stats.

You’ll be able to access each of these pages by clicking on a new Journal icon that will replace the Quest Log on the main menu. You can read the full breakdown for each part of the progression revamp here. We’ve got a few additional details to share on the progression update today:

  • Quests – Quests can be completed in Casual, Ranked, Arena, and Duels. Certain quests may also point you to Battlegrounds or Tavern Brawls. Quests can also be completed in the Friendly Challenge variants of any of these modes.
  • Achievements – Achievements are broken up into categories and subcategories. As you’d expect, the Game Modes and Adventures categories can only be completed within their specified modes. The more general Progression and Gameplay categories can be completed in Ranked, Arena, and Duels modes.
    • Dev comment: There is a known issue that sometimes causes Collection Achievements to appear to have incorrect progress—this will be fixed in an upcoming patch. When that happens, Collection Achievements will update to the correct progress, but no Achievements will be taken away.
  • Reward XP – You can earn XP just for playing the game in most game modes. This includes Casual, Ranked, Arena, Duels, Battlegrounds, Tavern Brawls, and Adventures. Friendly Challenge variants of these modes do not give XP.

We’re investigating an issue which may impact minimum spec mobile devices (those with fewer than 2GB of memory) on this patch which may result in degraded performance. This behavior may be triggered by accessing the new in-game Journal. We’re advising players to exit and relaunch Hearthstone if they encounter these issues.

Tavern Pass

HS_19p0_DMF_12_TP_Social_Twitter_1280x720_JS01.jpgThe Rewards Track includes a free track for all players, and a paid track that can be unlocked with the Tavern Pass, which will be available for purchase for $19.99. Purchasing the Tavern Pass at any point during the expansion will immediately grant the Golden Silas Darkmoon Legendary minion, a 10% XP Boost that lasts for the duration of the expansion, and all items up to your current level on the paid track. You’ll earn an additional XP Boost as you progress with the Tavern Pass during the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion, in addition to the Annhylde Alternate Warrior Hero and Card Back, three Jaina Hero Skins, three Thrall Hero Skins, and one of Hearthstone’s first-ever collectible Cosmetic Coins!

Battlegrounds Perks

The Tavern Pass!

Battlegrounds Perks will be available as a standalone purchase on November 17, separate from the Tavern Pass, for $14.99 or 2000 gold. Battlegrounds Perks will allow you to pick from 4 Heroes at the start of a Battlegrounds match and grants advanced stats, visual emotes, and early access to new Heroes! Battlegrounds Perks are also included in the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Mega Bundle.

Game Improvements & Miscellaneous Updates

  • Hovering over the opponent’s Mana tooltip will now display a count of their Overloaded Mana Crystals. The friendly Mana tooltip has also been updated to display a count.
  • Drustvar Horror will now randomly pick one option for Runic Carvings instead of casting both.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where Golden cards would appear as normal cards.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where the Best Runs counter was being unintentionally reset.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where Heroes were not playing their voice line when selected for a run.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where Book of the Dead was not counting enemy minions that had died.
  • Fixed a bug where Dormant minions would not consume discounts provided from Studies.
  • Fixed a bug where the arrow for targeted Hero Powers in Battlegrounds would begin offscreen.
  • Fixed a bug where emotes would overlap with the post-game victory or defeat screen.
  • Fixed a bug where portraits shown in history tiles were inconsistently sized between devices.
  • Free decks for new and returning players have been updated (recipes can be found here).*
  • Card text for Corrupting Mist and Chaos Gazer have been reworded to avoid confusion with the new Corrupt keyword. Functionality of both cards remain the same.

* Limit one per account. A returning player is defined as one who has not logged into Hearthstone for 120 consecutive days

November 17 – Arena Rotation

ArenaRotationUpdated.jpg

When Madness at the Darkmoon Faire launches on November 17, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:

Year of the Phoenix Page Footer Image

Mana Crystals Page Footer Image

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

6 Comments

  1. MJT3ll3r
    November 13, 2020 at 4:45 am

    Can we find a details breakdown of how much xp it takes to reach each level all the way to 50?
    And a detailed summary of how much xp a lost/won game grants, a game against AI, against a friend, a game of Battlegrounds or any other mode…
    The xp granted for achievements…

  2. Pandamonium
    November 12, 2020 at 10:47 pm

    How good of an idea would it have been to keep 10 gold per 3 wins with the cap exactly as it was?? Come on Blizzard this could have been the one way to consistently get some scrap gold after taking away the core way to get it.

  3. Limogley
    November 12, 2020 at 8:39 am

    I’m pretty disappointed that the tavern pass and battlegrounds perks are separate I guess i jumped the gun and assumed they would be together. Was about to spend money on the game but I guess I wont.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      November 12, 2020 at 9:06 am

      It was already announced that they will be separate. And I think it makes sense – Tavern Pass gives you cosmetics like Hero portraits and Coins, so BG players probably wouldn’t be interested in them. On the other hand, someone who only plays Constructed and wants those cosmetics might not be interested in BG perks. So bundling them together would be clunky.

      I think that they should be a bit cheaper, though.

      • Limogley
        November 12, 2020 at 9:35 am

        Yeah I must have misread earlier. I think the tavern pass isnt a bad price but the battlegrounds perks is too much. I hope they find a different way to monetize battlegrounds without hampering your ability to choose from heroes.

        • Durps
          November 12, 2020 at 12:30 pm

          Tavern Pass was 2500 G before after 2 months after an expansion is out it goes to 50% or 1250G but not sure what will happen this time with “battlegrounds perk” though