Paving the way for Fractured in Alterac Valley, Hearthstone’s upcoming expansion, Blizzard is shipping a few crucial changes in Patch 22.0, including updates to Mercenaries, Battlegrounds, Duels, and Arena.
Here’s the full list of patch notes for Hearthstone’s latest live update.
Fractured in Alterac Valley primer
Hearthstone’s next expansion is set to launch on Dec. 7. Fractured in Alterac Valley includes 135 new cards and features the new Honorable Kill keyboard, Objective cards, and the return of Hero cards.
As soon as the expansion goes live, all players will be able to compete for Honor and receive free rewards and claims victory for their faction. Players gain Honor by playing and winning during the eligible period:
- 10 Honor for every game played
- 10 more Honor for every game won (20 total)
- 20 more Honor for every game won versus an opponent from the enemy faction (40 total)
Honor can be gained in Traditional, Arena, and Duels modes. Players will climb through the ranks of their faction to eventually capture a golden copy of the enemy faction’s leader. On Jan 11, all Honor will be tallied up, and in a future update, every player from the winning faction will receive a Diamond copy of their faction’s leader card.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries will be getting its second infusion of Mercenaries, Bounties, and Bounty Bosses with Patch 22.0. Every Mercenary listed below will be available with the patch, except Vanessa, who will go live with the expansion.
New Mercenaries
Valeera Sanguinar (Legendary fighter)
- Blood Elf
- 13/73 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Sinister Strike five: (Speed three) Gain +10 attack this turn and attack the lowest health enemy. Combo: Gain Stealth
- Ambush five: (Speed six) Deal 10 damage. If this Mercs was Stealthed, deal 25 instead
- Fan of Knives five: (Speed seven) Deal seven damage to all enemies. Your other Mercs are (three) speed faster next turn
- Equipment:
- Hidden Paths four: Passive: Whenever a friendly character loses Stealth, give them +six attack
- Shadow Dagger four: Ambush is (three) speed faster and gains “Deathblow: Gain Stealth”
- Unnatural Smoke four: Passive: While this Merc has Stealth, friendly characters a (four) Speed faster
Sky Admiral Rogers (Epic caster)
- Human
- 11/76 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Sky Guard five: (Speed five) Gain +five attack and attack an enemy. If it’s a Pirate, gain Immune while attacking this turn
- Master Tactician five: (Speed two, cooldown one) Deal 12 damage to an enemy, or restore 12 health to an ally. It goes next
- Firing Position five: (Speed six, cooldown one) Deal 20 damage to all enemies that have already acted
- Equipment:
- Swash Buckling Sash four: Sky Guard gives an additional +five attack
- Ship’s Bell four: Master Tactician deals four more damage and makes the target go last
- Scout’s Spyglass four: Passive: After this Merc Attacks, deal four damage to all enemies. (Deals critical damage to Pirates)
Trigore the Lasher (Rare protector)
- Beast
- 10/80 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Frenzied Attack five: (Speed seven) Attack an enemy. If this took damage this turn, deal 12 damage to a random adjacent enemy
- Backlash five: (Speed one) The next time an enemy damages an adjacent ally this turn, gain +five attack and deal this Merc’s attack damage to them
- Regrow Heads five: (Speed four, cooldown one) This takes critical damage this turn. At the end of next turn, restore this Merc to full health
- Equipment:
- Infused Amber four: Frenzied Attack deals four more damage
- Razor Claw 4: Backlash gives an additional +four atack
- Regenarative Scales four: Regrow Heads restores 16 Health the turn it is cast
Vanessa VanCleef (Epic protector)
- Pirate
- 10/75 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Burgle Barrage five: (Speed evens) Attack an enemy. Combo: Steal five attack from them
- Makeshift Weaponry five: (Speed three) Spend all stolen attack to deal that much damage to all enemies
- Shifting Satchel five: (Speed five, cooldown one) Deal 16 damage to an enemy. Give +one cooldown to an ability they didn’t use this turn
- Equipment:
- Dreadblades four: Burgle Barrage is (four) faster and always combos
- Extra Pockets four: After using Makeshift Weaponry, this Merc keeps up to five attack
- Blade Catcher four: Passive: Whenever this Merc is attacked, steal four attack from the attacker
New Bounties
- Razorgore
- Vaelastrasz
- Chromaggus
- Nefarian
The new Bounties will be added to the Blackrock Zone. The new Mercenary cards, Portraits, and Coins will be added to all existing relevant Mercenary item pools.
Vanessa VanCleef will also be awarded for free at the start of the Fractured in Alterac Valley free rewards track, and her portraits can be earned with the Tavern Pass. Each new Mercenary will come with its own Task Chain.
Battlegrounds
Diablo defeated
The special Diablo event is now over and Bob’s fine tavern is still standing. Diablo has now been removed from the Battlegrounds hero pool.
New hero
Scabbs Cutterbutter
- I Spy (costs two)
- Discover a plain copy of a minion from your next opponent’s warband
[New] Returning hero
- Lord Barov has returned to the Battlegrounds hero pool
Battlegrounds Boards
Battlegrounds Boards are making their debut in Patch 22.0. An all-new cosmetic option for Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Battlegrounds Boards are special boards that you can bring to the combat phase of your Battlegrounds bouts. These boards sport new visuals for you to see and show off to your opponents.
The first board is the Arena of Champions. It will be available in the shop as soon as the patch goes live.
Duels
Card pool updates
On Dec. 7, Fractured in Alterac Valley and Goblins vs. Gnomes will be added to the eligible card pools. New buckets will be added to cover the cards from the newly added card sets.
Card New passive treasures
Natural Force – Pool one
Kindling Flame – Pool one
Unholy Gift – Pool one
- At the start of the game, shuffle five Death Knight cards into your deck
Bitter Cold – Pool one
Expedited Burial – Pool two
- At the start of the game, change each Deathrattle minion in your hand and deck into a 1/1 that costs (one)
Mantle of Ignition – Pool two
- Whenever you target a minion with a spell, cast it again on its neighbors
Imp-credible Trousers – Pool two
- After you cast a Fel spell, shuffle two Fel Rifts into your deck
Iron Roots – Pool two
- After you cast a Nature spell, give a random friendly minion +2/+2 and taunt
Bronze Signet – Pool two
- Whenever you draw a minion, add a copy of it to your hand
Battle Stance – Pool two
- Your hero has +two attack on your turn
Ring of Black Ice – Pool two
- Whenever a minion is Frozen, add a copy of it to your hand
Idols of Elune – Pool two
- At the end of your turn, cast a spell you’ve cast this turn (targets are random)
Runic Helm – Pool two
- At the end of your turn, add a random Death Knight card to your hand
Cloak of Emerald Dreams – Pool two
- At the end of your turn, add a Dream card to your hand
Glacial Downpour – Pool two
- At the end of your turn, summon a 3/6 Water Elemental if you’ve cast a Frost spell
Arena rotation
The current Dual-Class Arena event will end with the launch of Fractured in Alterac Valley and the pool of eligible Arena sets will rotate so that the following sets will make up the Arena card pool:
- Fractured in Alterac Valley
- Saviors of Uldum
- Kobolds and Catacombs
- League of Explorers
- Scholomance Academy
- The Boomsday Project
- Core
Bug fixes and game improvements
- Fixed a bug that allowed players on certain devices to close out of the Fractured in Alterac Valley faction selection screen without choosing a faction
- Fixed a bug causing Cram Session to not get the spell damage bonus from Talented Arcanist or Lab Partner
- Fixed a bug where Brittlebone Destroyer glowed even when its effect requirements were not met
- Updated Soul Cleave’s text to properly represent that it only hits enemy minions, not all enemies
- Fixed a bug where cards returned to hand by Tenwu of the Red Smoke could not be further reduced by cards like Scabbs Cutterbutter
- Fixed a bug that prevented Goblins v. Gnomes Golden cards from being crafted or disenchanted
- Fixed a bug where cards drawn by Malygos the Spellweaver after Celestial Alignment were not impacted by Loatheb
- Fixed a text bug causing Nithogg’s Storm Eggs to show they summoned 20/20 Devilsaurs instead of the 4/4 Drakes with Rush that they actually summon
- Players will now be able to see their Mercenaries Party while selecting Bounty Treasures
- Completing multiple Tasks and Bounties at the same time will no longer cause the notifications to overlap on mobile
- Several more Daily Quests can now be completed in Mercenaries, including Challenge a Friend, Spectate and Friend, and “Play a certain number of a Type of minion” quests. More Daily and Weekly Quests may be added or reworked for future patches
- Fixed a bug where The Lich King’s Helm of Domination would not trigger as intended in certain circumstances
- Fixed a bug where Blink Fox’s Mind Thief Ability would retain a copied Ability over two uses, instead of only one, while Tenth Tail is equipped
- Fixed a bug where using Mutanus’s Devouring Attack caused Reincarnated Cairne to become invisible
- Fixed a bug where Eudora’s Briny Bracers were giving two less health
- Fixed a bug where Edwin, Defias Kingpin was showing the wrong art within its Diamond frame
- Fixed bug causing iOS users to be incorrectly shown “low RAM” warning when entering Battlegrounds
- Fixed a bug where Mercenaries Equipment Achievements were counting each Equipment upgrade as a new Equipment
- Fixed a bug where Small Backpacks in Duels could draw C’Thun, the Shattered before he, well, shatters
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from using the Hero Skin picker functionality in Classic
- Fixed a bug where Steel Guardian Malfurion and Vanndar Stormpike Hero Skins were missing their custom hero power animations
All images via Blizzard Entertainment
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