Hearthstone

When the 9.1 Hearthstone update is deployed, a number of cards that are part of the Witchwood expansion pack will be seeing some significant changes. Most involve hefty changes to mana cost, most notably the Naga Sea Witch that will see an increase from 5 mana to 8.

From May 9th to May 13th, Hearthstone players can take part in the Noblegarden event that "celebrates the joy of life and friendship". Players can get hold of new greeting emotes, paint Noblegarden eggs during a new Tavern Brawl and everyone who logs in will earn a brand new pair of Golden Cards, the Eggnapper and the Golden Devilsaur Egg.

Hearthstone players who like a solo challenge will be interested in the latest content addition to The Witchwood expansion. Monster Hunts allow players to choose from one of four Heroes that are specific to the new game mode - Tracker, Cannoneer, Houndmaster and Time-Tinker. Each Hunt has its own end boss and allows player to progress "through a series of increasingly difficult encounters". Once a player completes a Hunt with each character, all four face off against a epic final boss.

It appears that Blizzard Game Director Ben Brode isn't the only one who has left the Hearthstone team. In an odd "tag team" post to Brode's Twitter announcement, Hearthstone Executive Producer Hamilton Chu wrote "Weird! It was mine too..." There is no other word about where Chu is planning to go next and there is no long farewell on the Hearthstone forum similar to that posted by Brode. This marks the second high-profile departure from the Hearthstone team. Do we smell change in the wind?

The face of Hearthstone is leaving Blizzard. In a lengthy note on the Hearthstone forums, Brode bids Blizzard goodbye after today and after 15 years with the company, 10 with Hearthstone alone. He does not indicate what his future plans are beyond "to start a new company" that will "probably make games, but we haven't figured anything else out yet". He goes into great detail to thank his team and the community for all the years they've had together.

The latest Hearthstone Developer Chat has been posted, this time hosted by Lead Mission Designer Dave Kosak. In this episode, Kosak reveals the first details about next week's single player component of the Witchwood expansion, Monster Hunt.

The Year of the Raven has officially kicked off in Hearthstone with the arrival of the game's latest expansion, The Witchwood. Players can look forward to "135 hair-raising new cards" and a completely new setting in and around the city of Gilneas. Expect lots of lycanthropic action and new gameplay mechanics. Two new Legendary cards have been released as well: Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane.

During PAX East 2018, Hearthstone's Ben Brode was on hand to talk about the upcoming expansion, The Witchwood. Garrett Fuller caught up to Ben to check out what's new in The Witchwood and much more.

Hearthstone players will be thrilled to hear that the next expansion, The Witchwood, will be launching on April 12th. Once launch day arrives, simply logging into the game will yield three free card packs and a random Class Legendary card from The Witchwood.

Peter Whalen takes to the latest Hearthstone chat to reveal a pair of new cards coming in the Witchwood expansion, the Face Collector and the Warpath. He also discusses the importance of Echo in both early and late game.

In a new HearthStone fireside chat, Designer Dean Ayala provides a bit of explanation for two new deck types coming in the Witchwood expansion. One deck will feature only odd-cost cards, while the other will utilize only even-cost cards.

In an eerie throwback to The Blair Witch Project, the HearthStone team has taken to the woods to introduce the first expansion for 2018: The Witchwood! "In 2018, three Hearthstone game developers went into the Irvine California backwoods surrounding Blizzard Entertainment to discover the truth about The Witchwood. The film you are about to see was recovered from the recording equipment they left behind in the woods*."

Hearthstone Lead System Designer Kris Zierhut has taken to the airwaves to reveal a number of changes coming to the Arena system that will be coming in a future update. In the current system, player choose from a presented number of cards on each "pick". Players and developers felt that the choices were not as meaningful as they would like, hence the changes.

The next Hearthstone expansion has been named. Called Year of the Raven, the new content is named for one of the heavenly bodies surrounding Azeroth. Year of the Raven comes with changes to both Standard and Wild game types and will include three new expansions to the card set. In addition, some of the Classic set will be inducted into the "Hall of Fame" and will be usable only in Wild ruleset games.

The latest update has been deployed to Hearthstone that brings the four card balance changes mentioned last week into the game. In addition, Wildfest has arrived that allows players to take part in Wild Arena and two different tavern brawls from February 19th to March 11th.