2020 Announcements Live Recap - Standard Year, Hall of Fame, New Cards, Ashes of Outland, Demon Hunter and More!
By Stonekeep -
Update: You can find all of the new information in our individual posts:
- Hearthstone is getting a new class - Demon Hunter!
- The upcoming expansion is Ashes of Outland.
- Patch 16.6 is out - Kael'Thas Sunstrider is given out for free, a lot of Battlegrounds balance changes were released.
- Year of the Phoenix is the next Standard year. Learn more about it here.
- Standard & Hall of Fame rotations are coming soon. Check out more info and learn how to maximize your Dust gains here.
- Priest class will get a Basic/Classic sets rework - 6 new cards, 7 old cards getting changed.
- Ranked system is also getting a big overhaul - more ranks, MMR-based matchmaking, better rewards.
- Duplicate protection will now work across all rarities, new/returning players will get a free deck.
- 6 card nerfs (1x Standard + 5x Wild) were reverted in the latest patch.
The long awaited 2020 announcements are finally coming! Live stream with Brian Kibler, Game Designers Chadd Nervig and Dean Ayala, as well as the Game Director Ben Lee is starting soon.
The stream will go live at 9 AM PT (17:00 CET). You will be able to watch it on Twitch, as well as YouTube.
But if you can't watch it live or you miss something during the stream, don't sweat it. We will cover everything live in this thread. We will post all the necessary info, screenshots, any new card that gets revealed etc. Let's all hope for some great announcements!
Year of the Phoenix
Next year is the Year of the Phoenix!
- Updates to packs. Duplicate protection across all rarities!
- Returning players will be able to get competitive decks for any class they pick for free.
- More modes are coming! Some will be big an will take long to develop like Battlegrounds, others will be smaller. The first new mode is coming after Expansion 2.
- Ranked system is getting updated!
Demon Hunter Class
NEW CLASS IS COMING TO HEARTHSTONE! Demon Hunter (represented by Illidan) will be the new class. Demon Hunter will be an "aggressive", "in your face" type.
Other than being an aggressive "attacker", Demon Hunter will also have a lot of Demon synergies. They will be able to swarm the board with small Demons. Unlike other token classes, Demon Hunter won't buff minions, but rather synergize with them dying!
Demon Hunter comes with a new mechanic / keyword - Outcast! If the Outcast card is the left-most or right-most card in your hand, it gets an extra effect.
Here's the class Hero Power - 1 mana "Demon Claws" that give your Hero +1 Attack.
A little bit more info about DH. The class will be free for everyone, you will just need to finish Prologue to get all 30 starter cards + a starting deck. Each expansion will have 15 DH cards.
Illidan will also join Battlegrounds line-up on March 26!
Demon Hunter Cards
Hall of Fame Rotation
Hall of Fame Rotation was just announced! Leeroy Jenkins, Mountain Giant, Mind Control Tech, Acolyte of Pain and Spellbreaker are rotating out.
Priest Class Rework
Priest Basic/Classic set is getting reworked! They want to establish a better baseline for the class identity. To make room for new cards, some of the old cards are rotating out to Hall of Fame.
And here are the new cards that will replace HoF'd ones.
On top of new cards, many of the current Basic/Classic cards will get reworked. Most of them are buffs, but arguably one of them could be seen as a nerf (Power Word: Shield).
Ranked System Revamp
Ranked system is getting revamped. Instead of 25-1, we'll get 50 ranks in total, spread between 5 tiers - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond (+Legend).
Players will get reset back to Bronze 10 at the end of every season, however they will get a bonus to rank gain based on how high they've climbed last season. E.g. Legend players will get back to Legend very quickly.
We'll also have a ranked floor every 5 ranks!
We're also getting a rewards overhaul. Better end of season rewards (card packs) + one time rewards for reaching certain rank floors for the first time.
New ranked system will be 100% MMR based - it won't match you against people who are similar rank, but who have similar MMR. E.g. players who reset back to Bronze 10 from Legend won't be facing new players.
Ashes of Outland
New Hearthstone expansion was just announced! Ashes of Outland will feature lots of familiar faces and take players, well, to Outland!
Trailer
New Cards
Kael'Thas will be released TODAY and it will be given out to everyone for free!
Release Schedule
36 Comments
TheWatcher
Is here yet? Is it here yet? Is it here yet?
RoNiN2X
I imagine Burn mage is going to be all over the ladder by the end of today. Get your pyroblasts ready for some Kael action.
Vincent
Leeroy Jenkins, Mountain Giant, Mind Control Tech, Acolyte of Pain and Spellbreaker will be moved to the Hall of Fame.
Rolioli
Wasn’t there something about a free legendary today?
Phoesias
Yes.
You can craft all of them in golden version for max Value. You will get the full refund + you can disenchant them if you dont want to use them in wild.
Make Sure to disechant the normal Versions cause refund will give you max 2 copies.
Phoesias
its alrdy online and playble.
Rolioli
On iOS?
mikek12003
Whats happening with cards going to HoF again? I can craft legendary and get back dust? Also If remember correctly if u have a normal and a legendary u get dust for legendary only right?
Phoesias
Yes.
You can craft all of them in golden version for max Value. You will get the full refund + you can disenchant them if you dont want to use them in wild.
Make Sure to disechant the normal Versions cause refund will give you max 2 copies.
mikek12003
So 1 normal +1 golden will give u refund for normal version also?
Beerdserkr
Firstly I can't tell how, but I have a feeling this new ranked system is going to make it more difficult to rank up for new people or people like me that are very average players. Secondly of we have duplicate protection across all rarities how the hell are we supposed to collect dust? Seems like a real negative to me no?
VirginMinion
For ranked what you say is completely natural, how do you expect being an average player and ranking up? High ranks are supposed to be for the best players, medium ranks for average, and low ranks for bad players. As for the dust, logic says you ‘ll be able to collect all low rarities relatively fast (in the first 100 packs presumably) and then you will start opening them golden, so it will mitigate the loss.
rotorko
You should really learn to read their news articles.
"Crafting a card counts towards acquiring it, and any cards you acquire and later disenchant (whether golden or non-golden) count as well. This means that if you get a card that you don’t want, you can disenchant it and you will not receive it again until you have all cards of that rarity from that set."
It´s from their blog. First read all, then ask questions.
Beerdserkr
So the same way it works for legendaries now, MEANING as I SAID, less duplicates, LESS dust.
Stonekeep
It doesn't work like that. It's NEVER good to get duplicates. If you only get cards you don't own, you have a much higher chance to get something you need, but if you get bad cards, you can still Disenchant them if you need Dust. There's absolutely no scenario in which you'd prefer to get duplicate over a new card.
Duplicate card is Dust 100% of time. New card can STILL be disenchanted for the same effect, but it can also be playable.
nikpan19
What you are saying about dust makes NO SENSE. The value you are getting from a disenchanted card is MUCH LESS than a new card of the same rarity that you don't have! Imagine you open a duplicate legendary. it's just 400 dust. Now imagine that you open a new legendary that you don't have. Then you have the OPTION either to disenchant it if its unplayable(or if you dont want to play it ever) OR to keep it use it in your decks and save yourself 1600 dust you would need to craft it!! So duplicate protection is great news for everyone especially for f2p players!!!
About your question how you will gain dust, there are two answers:
First and most important is that you will NEED MUCH LESS DUST, because if you are getting no duplicates there are many more chances to GET THE CARDS YOU NEED!!!
Secondly you can still get duplicates (dust) if you get all the cards of a rarity from an expansion. And if you need the dust you can also disenchant trash cards or want ever play.
Though, this might be also a trap because if start disenchenting and crafting whatever, you may end up with no dust and lots of unplayable cards! So we need to be very careful about crafting and disenchanting cards. Thankfully, this site provides us with quides for both!!! :)
Njuns
Nooooo they didn't mention the un-nerfed cards at all, please bring back Raza and Yogg :'(
Njuns
OMG my bad just saw your latest article, it's happening Yohoooooooooooooooooo <33333
TheWatcher
That spellbreaker HoF, it hurts my heart. What's he ever done?
Profit on the rest though.
hurtstone
i know right?? Need a good silence minion... I might as well play wild
TheWatcher
We can still craft Velen to get him free right?
lupin
Hey Topdecks, are you going to make a craft guide for the hall of fame rotation?
Stonekeep
Yep, soon!
Kj10062670
When will the “all rarities“ Card protection take place
Stonekeep
March 26.
Plaidiator
Demon hunter class looks awesome! I love the complex decisions and comboing of cards as well as the dance between attacking and casting which is how the class feels in WoW and it is so fun.
I am shocked by the Hall of Fame cards! They are removing some critical go-to cards for teching against certain issues (spellbreaker and MCT). I really dont want to use ironbeak owl for silence (bad value). I hope we get something else to replace them.
I actually like the change for priest to being more about buffing health and minions than twisting healing into damage.
Questions: Will non-returning players have the opportunity to play the "returning player" scenario with mage illidan and get the cards for a deck?
OldManSanns
I'm sure its just a coincidence, but I think its really bad optics for them to be announce a new metal-based ladder ranking so close to the release of Legends of Runeterra which already uses an extremely similar ranking system. :-/
MarmotMurloc
Basically what they are doing is switching it over to their overwatch ranking system. If you havent played overwatch, the ladder goes bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master, grandmaster, top 500. I don't think they mean to copy anything other then themselves, but I agree that it is a weird switch.
HuntingFor90
In Overwatch do you reset to the very bottom after each season?
Stonekeep
To be fair, Runeterra isn't doing anything new there. I've seen this kind of ranked system used for like 10 years already. At this point it's the "standard" ranked system, variations of which Blizzard has also used in their other games. E.g. they've been using a similar system (but with Master instead of Legend) in Starcraft for many years now.
While it's rather obvious that some of those changes (especially things like duplicate protection) were pushed because Blizzard was afraid of the competition, I'm 100% sure that Runeterra is not the reason they decided to push this ranking system. From my talks with devs, they have planned a ranked overhaul for a long time already.
GlosuuLang
Well they have been true to their word and this is indeed a big announcement and a ton of good stuff coming to Hearthstone. The only thing I think is sad is I'll miss Leeroy. T_T
Best change by far is the duplicate protection. That change in economy was long overdue.
I think it's great that Blizzard has finally stepped up their game with new modes, friendlier economy and even a new class. Competition with other CCGs has been fiercer than normal and we have other great card games to thank. I'm currently playing tons of MTG and LoR and very little HS, but I might come back to this game more if the changes feel good. The polish of HS is still unbeatable among digital CCGs.
DPiofire
I’ve logged in a bunch today and did not get the new free card, what do I need to do?
sbud78
Did the patch go through for you? It took a while for me on mobile, but it's there now
Stonekeep
If you downloaded a patch and still didn't get it - you should probably contact support.
If you still haven't got a patch, try downloading the game again.
nhhoanglong
Hi , will we got the full dust for Priest HOF ?
Stonekeep
Yes, we will.
Comments are closed.