Ever since Blizzard Entertainment released their take on the next great thing in gaming, auto-chess, it's all the Hearthstone community is talking about. When Battlegrounds went live in the Hearthstone client back in the middle of November, a switch was flipped. Content creators, professional players, and viewers flocked to the game mode in droves. In the weeks since, that remains true. At this point, one may forget that Hearthstone is a digital card game opposed to an auto-chess giant. Or is it now both?
As the final Hearthstone expansion of the year is set to be released next Tuesday, the development team surprised players one more time on Thursday afternoon with a special announcement via a company blog post. A little more than two weeks after the Hearthstone Battlegrounds team implemented four new heroes into the game mode, they're back at it again with three more. Joining the pool of selectable characters are Sylvanas Windrunner, Edwin Vancleef and Arch-Villain Rafaam. Additionally, Millificent Manastorm and Lich Baz'hial are returning after a brief absence. To keep the number of heroes at 24, Patches the Pirate, Bartendotron, Pyramad, Professor Putricide, and Trade Prince Gallywix are rotating out for the time being.
With all eyes in the Hearthstone community focused on the Descent of Dragons expansion launching on Tuesday, December 10, the development team shared a blog post Thursday afternoon detailing additional content coming next week as well. A small bit of news is the announcement of the final Year of the Dragon solo adventure, Galakrond's Awakening, which is coming out in January and will allow players to collect 35 new cards. According to Blizzard, more information will be coming in the near future.
'Tis the season in Hearthstone! On Tuesday afternoon, Blizzard Entertainment announced the return of their Winter Veil seasonal event for Hearthstone. Set to kick off on Wednesday, December 11 (the day after the upcoming expansion, Descent of Dragons goes live), players will be rewarded with a free Winter Veil Treat Card Back just for logging in during the three-week-long event (ends the 31st).
With the (almost) full League of Explorers added to Blizzard Entertainment's auto-chess game mode, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, in a recent patch, it only makes sense that one of their most notorious villains joins them. In a recent stream, Mike Donais, the Principal Game Designer on Hearthstone, confirmed that Arch-Thief Rafaam will be coming in a patch coming on Thursday, December 5.
With a little more than two weeks until Hearthstone's final expansion of 2019 (Descent of Dragons) is released, Blizzard Entertainment has begun revealing some of the 135 cards that players will be able to play with on December 10. On Monday morning, the team released a video showcasing a few new cards with Senior Game Designer, Chadd Nervig, as an on-site reporter.
On Friday morning, Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang, one of the largest content creators in the world, announced that he has signed an exclusive agreement to stream on Facebook Gaming for the near future. Wang, who has millions of followers across his numerous social media and streaming platforms, will make his debut later in the day at 12 p.m. PDT on his official channel, according to a statement from his agency.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Hearthstone development team shared a blog post about what's coming in their auto-chess mode called Battlegrounds. Within the post, four new heroes (which were recently revealed via data miners) were confirmed and the four heroes they would be replacing were made public. Additional design decisions were brought to light as well.
On Tuesday evening, data miners revealed that inside Hearthstone's most recent patch (15.6.2.36393) were four upcoming heroes for the game's auto-chess game mode, Hearthstone Battlegrounds. While the information can change at any time with if new patch ships, the League of Explorers will become selectable characters when players first fire up a game of Battlegrounds. All of them except maybe their most famous member that is. The following custom art images are from Hearthstone Top Decks to visualize what players may experience.
Although the game has only been out for one week, Activision Blizzard's development team is making sure that Hearthstone Battlegrounds is getting the respect it deserves. On Monday afternoon, a member of the Hearthstone community team shared the game's first patch notes since the mode went into Early Access last week. With numerous balance changes, game fixes, and updates taking place, Blizzard is working to ensure that Battlegrounds isn't a flash in the pan. The following changes are currently live on the PC version of the game while the mobile version will be updated over the next few hours.
Activision Blizzard's take on the popular auto-chess genre, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, has only been live via early access for three days but that hasn't stopped the game's community from debating over what (or who) is best. With 24 different heroes to choose from, all of which have a unique hero power that is intended to keep gameplay fresh, there are bound to be some that are better than others at any given time depending on the meta.
Activision Blizzard's take on the popular auto-chess genre, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, has been live for only 24 hours but that hasn't stopped players from grinding to the top of the game's leaderboards. Currently, the title is only available to those who attended BlizzCon, purchased a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, or pre-purchased the upcoming Dragons of Descent expansion card bundle. For those who haven't done any of the above, Battlegrounds is scheduled to go live on Tuesday, November 12 at 10 a.m. PDT.
For the first time in Hearthstone history, a woman has been crowned the title of World Champion and BlizzCon Champion at the annual event held at the Anaheim Convention Center. In front of a packed crowd of fans watching on, Xiaomeng "VKLiooon" Li swept Brian "Bloodyface" Eason in three straight games to take the title of the best player in the world, along with a $200,000 cash prize on Saturday afternoon.
Every year since 2005, tens of thousands of gaming enthusiasts travel from around the world to California to experience BlizzCon. There are few places like it on earth. From cosplayers posing for photos to hundreds standing in line to try out the newest demos to a sea of fans listening to Activision Blizzard executives announce what's the come for their company, it's a gaming utopia for many. As BlizzCon is scheduled to kick off next Friday, November 1 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Inven Global decided to look at what's been revealed, hinted at and leaked thus far in terms of potential upcoming announcements.
Few individuals are as synonymous with the competitive Hearthstone scene as Nathan "Admirable" Zamora. Known for his analytical mind, quick-quips, and beard, Admirable's work behind the desk has allowed him to work within the budding esports' scene since its' early days. Currently, he's one of North America's Grandmasters on-air talent. That may all be coming to an end, according to a statement he shared on his personal Twitter account Thursday evening.
On Wednesday morning, Tim Sweeney, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Epic Games -- the creator of the global phenomenon, Fortnite -- took to his official Twitter account to let it be known that his company stands behind freedom of speech amid controversy taking place within the video game industry. All of this began on Sunday when professional Hearthstone player, Ng "blitzchung" Wai Chung, dedicated his post-match interview live on Activision Blizzard's official Twitch broadcast to call for the liberation of Hong Kong amid political turmoil in China.
It was only a matter of time until an influencer within the Hearthstone community would issue a public statement regarding Activision Blizzard's recent decision to ban Ng "blitzchung" Wai Chung for using his post-game interview to make a political statement calling for the liberation of Hong Kong amid political unrest out east. The first domino fell Wednesday morning when long-time caster, popular streamer, and community figure, Brian Kibler, shared a statement on his official website. Not one to shy away from speaking his mind or voicing his stances on politics, Kibler did not hold back his feelings as this one hits particularly close to home for him.
Hearthstone's meta just got a little spookier. Starting on Tuesday, October 8 at 10 a.m. PDT, the Hearthstone team will kick off the newest in-game event titled "Hallow's End: Doom in the Tomb." Until the event ends on October 30, new (Or...old) cards will be thrown back into the Standard card pool, a brand new Tavern Brawl can be played, dual-class Arena will return once again, and much, much more.
Halloween is coming to Hearthstone and the League of Explorers will have their hands full yet again. Starting on Tuesday, October 8 at 10 a.m. PDT, the Hearthstone team will kick off the newest in-game event titled "Hallow's End: Doom in the Tomb." Until the event ends on October 30, new (Or...old) cards will be thrown back into the Standard card pool, a brand new Tavern Brawl can be played, dual-class Arena will return once again, and much, much more. For a list of all 23 cards returning to Standard check out our story here.
Long before Hearthstone was announced in March of 2013, the development team had been making cards to go into the game. In the six-plus years since, thousands upon thousands of cards have been theorycrafted, designed, coded, tested, implemented, played and enjoyed. Cards with a more basic "pack filler" design may take only a few man-hours to create, design and test before they go live. And others, the development cycle can be much longer. In the most recent Hearthstone card expansion Saviors of Uldum the development team pushed their creative limits to new heights by creating a card that took more man-hours than any other in the game's history, Zephrys the Great. A unique design that combines skill and luck, this genie means business and has captured players interest since the expansion went live in recent weeks.
