Patch 6.2 launches this week and we have the full raid schedule for Hellfire Citadel. We also take a look at the first week of Tavern Brawls.

Fury of Hellfire

On June 23rd, Patch 6.2 - Fury of Hellfire, will go live. Here’s the official trailer for this large update:

The new 13 boss raid, Hellfire Citadel, will also begin to unlock on patch day. The raid finder version, which begins to unlock on June 30th, will require a minimum item level of 650. Here’s the full schedule of which wings open for the various difficulty tiers:

• June 23 (with the release of Patch 6.2) - Hellfire Citadel Normal and Heroic difficulties open.
• June 30 - Mythic difficulty becomes available. Raid Finder Wing 1 (Hellfire Assault, Iron Reaver, Kormrok) unlocks.
• July 14 - Raid Finder Wing 2 (Hellfire High Council, Kilrogg, Gorefiend) unlocks.
• July 28 - Raid Finder Wing 3 (Shadow-Lord Iskar, Socrethar the Eternal, Tyrant Velhari) unlocks.
• August 11 - Raid Finder Wing 4 (Fel Lord Zakuun, Xhul’horac, Mannoroth) unlocks.
• August 25 - Raid Finder Wing 5 (Archimonde) unlocks.

In addition to the new raid, Tanaan Jungle will finally become available to adventure though. When we first came to Draenor we were briefly in this zone getting introduced to the new setting of this expansion and now we will return to a transformed version of it as Gul’dan has corrupted the land with his fel magic.

Getting to Tanaan Jungle will require strength and a two-pronged attack - ground and sea. To strike from the watters you’ll need to construct a shipyard in your garrison to begin building a naval fleet. As you begin your push into Tanaan you’ll be collecting resources along the way which will allow you to start embarking on various missions out at sea. The naval system will work similar to the follower system in which you’ll assign ships to missions with hopes of earning various rewards. Like followers, there will be a variety of ships that perform different tasks and can overcome unique challenges. Ships can also carry equipment and crew that will increase their chances of success against various mission obstacles.

Like all buildings in the garrison, the shipyard can be leveled up to level 3.

Tavern Fights

Blizzard proved many people wrong when they announced the new Tavern Brawl play mode. When the world thought that Blizzard was only working on paid cosmetic upgrades and not gameplay feature when they announced the hero skins, the Hearthstone developers showed up days later with a brand new play mode. As a matter of fact, this game mode has been in the works since before the game even launched. Now hopefully gamers will stop making knee-jerk assumptions. Who am I kidding?

So what is Tavern Brawl? Every week, from Wednesday to Monday, a Tavern Brawl event will be available to any players who have at least one level 20+ class on their account. This weekly event will feature unique rules that augment the standard one on one battles. For example, the first Tavern Brawl event, called Showdown at Blackrock Mountain, has each player playing as either Ragnaros or Nefarian from the Blackrock Mountain adventure against one another. The decks are premade so it’s incredibly easy to participate in. The first match that you win during the launch week awards one classic pack of cards. It’s unknown what future weeks will award, if anything, at this point. Playing Tavern Brawl matches will contribute to your quests and gold earnings from winning three matches, just as in the regular play mode. The Tavern Brawl UI also tracks how many wins you have for that week without tracking losses. I believe the win count will be reset every week but I’m not entirely sure about that just yet. It should also be mentioned that as of now Tavern Brawl is free to participate in, no money or gold is needed as is the case with Arena.

Future Tavern Brawl rules could possibly augment existing cards by boosting the stats or power of certain card types, placing restrictions or rules on deck construction or something even crazier like placing “bombs” in each player's deck that when drawn damage players or their minions. The possibilities are really fun to think about.

I am a big fan of this feature and I am so glad it’s here. This game mode really expands on the idea of what Hearthstone can be as a digital card game. The unique rules from week to week can really create new and exciting forms of gameplay we haven’t even thought of yet. It’s also a great place to go when you’ve reached a wall in ranked play or are tired of facing the same deck types over and over. I am very curious to see if there will be rewards going forward and what they could be. That being said, after earning a free pack of cards for their first win, I wonder how many players kept playing games in Tavern Brawl before returning to Play mode or Arena? A neat feature that I should also mention is that you can play the Tavern Brawl mode with your friends which can be a lot of fun to explore the new cards and play styles together.

Let me know what you think about Tavern Brawl in the comments below!

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