A significant patch has been released today for Hearthstone which brings some balance changes, a new keyword for an old mechanic and prepares us for The Year of the Mammoth.
First off, starting today, you can pre-order Journey to Un’goro for $49.99 which will give you 50 Card Packs and the Fossil Card Back. The Fossil Card Back will be available immediately; however, you will not be able to open your packs until the expansion goes live in early April.
A new keyword has been added: Poisonous. This keyword replaces the existing text on already existing cards. Pit Snake, Emperor Cobra, Patient Assassin, and Maexxna received this keyword. Simply, any minion damaged by a Poisonous minion is destroyed.
The Ranked Play Milestones are now live. When a player reaches ranks 20, 15, 10 and 5 they will no longer be able to fall below those respective ranks, making an already tedious ladder climb seem a bit more tolerable.
Arena mode will now only contain standard cards. There were also some Arena drafting balances as well. Rares, Epics and Legendaries will be offered more frequently, spells show up more frequently, Neutral/Basic cards show up less frequently, and if you own a Golden version of a card, it will now show up in the draft. An option to turn off Golden cards in arena will be added in a later patch, according to a message sent out by Ben Brode last week.
Small Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws nerfs are now also live as well. You can disenchant them for their full value for a limited time.
In addition to this, the Year of the Mammoth Daily Login Rewards were datamined. These may be subject to change, but as it stands, they are;
- Day 1: 50 Gold
- Day 2: 1 Mean Streets of Gadgetzan card pack
- Day 3: 100 Arcane Dust
- Day 4: 1 Whispers of the Old Gods card pack
- Day 5: 1 Journey to Un’goro card pack
- Day 6: 50 Gold
- Day 7: 1 Journey to Un’goro card pack
- Days 8-14: 50 Gold
A puzzle Tavern Brawl as well as a new Co-op Tavern Brawl were also datamined along with a new keyword: Boss, which should be related to the Co-op brawl.
In addition, the Hearthstone patch improved matchmaking for new players, better account creation for mobile players as well as other technical optimizations.
