Hearthstone
“Hearthstone” is a free online card game produced by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 2014. Set in the Warcraft universe, players build 30 cards and choose a hero, each with unique abilities. The goal is to strategically use mana crystals to play cards, summon minions, and attack your opponent with the goal of defeating their hero. Victories and mission completions earn in-game gold coins and new cards, allowing players to enhance their decks.
Hearthstone is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, with support for cross-platform play. Its success, with monthly revenue of nearly $40 million as of 2017, is driven by its engaging gameplay and regular content updates. As of November 2018, the game has over 100 million players. Unlike other Blizzard games, Hearthstone is an experimental project developed by a smaller team, drawing inspiration from physical card games and the World of Warcraft trading card game.
The positive reviews highlighted the depth of its strategy, and Blizzard capitalized on its popularity by organizing esports tournaments with cash prizes. Hearthstone’s unique approach to digital collectible card play, combined with its integration of Warcraft lore, ensures its place as a beloved and enduring online gaming experience.
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Hearthstone 28.0.3 Patch Notes
Patch 28.0.3 is a data-only patch released today and contains the following updates.
Hearthstone Card Updates
Developer Comment: The team is very pleased with the launch of Badlands Showdown. We see players having fun, exploring, and succeeding in a variety of decks and strategies. This is a lighter patch based on early data and designed to satisfy the biggest feel and power outliers. We’ll continue to monitor how the meta develops following these changes while evaluating data and feedback for the next balance patch, scheduled for late next week in preparation for the World Championship on December 16th and 17th!
blind gunman
- Old: 1/5
- New: 1/3
- Developer Comment: The Naga Demon Hunter is an outlier, but it’s also one of the most popular new archetypes in the expansion, so this change is intended to make the deck weaker without killing it. This change still gives players fun pop-up rounds, but makes it riskier for Demon Hunters to get in early, so there are more early game decisions and less snowballing gameplay.
court order
- Old: Reorder your deck from highest cost to lowest cost. Draw a card.
- New feature: Reorder your deck from highest cost to lowest cost.
- Developer Comment: Paladins are one of the strongest classes at most levels. Court Order is key to Paladin decks, tying them to late game and combo pieces. This adjustment makes the transition slightly less efficient.
Always the bigger ice dragon
- old: [1 Mana]
- new: [2 Mana]
- Developer Comment: Hunters are another of the biggest anomaly classes we want to nerf this patch. Always Bigger Ice Dragon is one of the strongest cards in its tier in terms of stats, and one of the standout cards in terms of gameplay experience. This change makes the deck a little slower and less consistent, as this card can no longer be drawn by the trinket tracker.
defense attorney nathanos
- Old: 5/4
- What’s New: 4/4 (plus added features, see dev comments)
- Developer Comment: In this patch, we’ve updated the rules to make Vindicator Nathanos more suitable for cards like Spurr Square, Twisting Frostwing, and Ox Skeleton. We think this will be more intuitive for players and sounds fun. But at the same time, our overall goal with this patch is to nerf Hunter a little, so we’re giving Nathanos a small, pre-emptive stat adjustment to make up for his new synergy.
azerite snake
- old: [6 Mana] Your hero steals 10 health from the enemy hero.
- new: [4 Mana] Your hero steals 7 health from the enemy hero.
- Developer Comment: Our final tweaks to Azerite Snakes are temporary fixes to an unusual gameplay experience. This tweaking and natural meta-development has gotten Dig Warlock to where we want it to be now. This change brings Azerite Serpents into line with the cost of other Legendary Uncovered Treasures again, but keeps the overall clock and cost roughly the same by requiring 5 activations (instead of the current 3).
The above collectible cards, plus Chimney, Morg’s Drill Fist, and Tram Conductor Gerry, will be eligible for a full dust refund for at least three weeks after patch 28.0.3.
Battlefield update
Abnormal update
- Forest Guardians Orm and Kutrus Ashfallon have now been banned from the Money Match Anomaly game.
- Forester Orm is now banned from games with valuation inflation anomalies.
- The Yogg Itham anomaly has now been returned to the anomaly pool.
Minions Update
Developer Comment: Most of these changes are primarily for power reasons, to curb some of the meta’s currently overperforming and underperforming minions. Some of these changes were made for more subtle reasons, which we’ll detail below.
Goldrinn the Great Wolf
- Old: 3/3. Deathrattle: Your beast has +3/+3 for the remainder of this fight.
- New: 3/2. Deathrattle: Your beast has +3/+2 for the remainder of this fight.
Banana Slima
- old: [Tier 4] 2/5.
- new: [Tier 5] 3/6.
- Developer Comment: Banana Slima isn’t an overwhelming power outlier, but it does tend to be a frustrating mood outlier, especially when a player gets too many outliers too early in the game. We’ve bumped it up a notch to make it less likely to appear and make it harder to get multiple Grand Slams. We’re taking the Mother Bear down a notch so that the beast doesn’t lose too much overall power in this round of changes.
mama bear
- old: [Tier 5] 4/4. Whenever you summon a beast, give it +4/+4.
- new: [Tier 4] 3/3. Whenever you summon a beast, give it +3/+3.
gunpowder express
Dancing Parade
- old: [Tier 4] 3/2. Deathrattle: Elements in the tavern have +3/+2 for the remainder of the game.
- new: [Tier 2] 2/1. Deathrattle: Elements in the tavern have +1/+1 for the remainder of the game.
- Developer Comment: Elemental has been struggling since the removal of Gustrum Trumpeter. To help them out, we’re making a number of small adjustments to the elements to enhance their overall power rather than focusing on individual minions.
Flourish Frosting
- old: [Tier 2] 0/6. Every element you play the game has +1 attack power (no matter where it is).
- new: [Tier 4] 1/1. Every element you play the game has +1/+1 (no matter where it is).
Tavern Storm
- old: [Tier 5] 4/4.
- new: [Tier 4] 2/2.
carbon copy
- old: [Tier 4] 3/3.
- new: [Tier 5] 6/7.
rock rock
- Old: 4/4. When you use an Elemental, give your other minions +2 Attack. (Exchange health next turn!)
- New: 5/5. When you use an element, give your followers +2 attack power. (Exchange health next turn!)
Terrorist Gatherer
- Old: 4/3. Battle Start: Give the Murloc in your hand +2/+2, then summon it only for this battle.
- New: 3/4. Start of combat: Give a minion in your hand +2/+2, then summon it for this combat only.
Basgil
- old: [Tier 5] 8/3. Deathrattle: Only summon the highest health minion from your hand this fight.
- new: [Tier 4] 7/2. Deathrattle: Summons the Murloc with the highest health from your hand during this battle only.
- Developer Comment: Both Bassgill and Diremuck Forager play important roles in Murloc composition, allowing them to summon hand-milled minions into the game. However, Baszir is often used to bring other powerful minions into the game, such as Venom minions or Leroy. We’ve made adjustments to these two cards to make other combos less survivable while keeping them useful in hand strategies.
gloomy
- Old: 6/5. Battlecry: Give friendly Murloc +1/+1. (Every Battlecry minion you play this game will improve!)
- New: 6/4. Battlecry: Give friendly Murlocs +10/+10.
Agham Thorn Curse
- Old: 3/6. After playing a Bleeding Gem on it, give +1/+1 to one friendly minion of each type.
- New: 3/5. After playing a Bleeding Gem on it, give +2/+1 to one friendly minion of each type.
Captain Flattusk
- Old: 9/6. After spending 4 gold coins, you get a Blood Gem.
- New: 9/5. After spending 3 gold coins, you will get a Blood Gem.
variegated square array
- Old: 7/7. ridicule. Deathrattle: Gives one friendly minion of each type +7/+7.
- New: 5/5. ridicule. Deathrattle: Gives one friendly minion of each type +5/+5.
Bug fixes and game improvements
- [Hearthstone] The trams summoned by Gerry in the Trolley Puzzle and Trolley Conductor are no longer mechas (they don’t have a CPU).
- [Hearthstone] Added Fel Spell School to fan the warhammer.
- [Hearthstone] For clarity, Reno, Lone Ranger, and Resistance Halo have received text-only updates.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Forged Exaltant was canceling the farm hand’s cost reduction.
- [Hearthstone] Corrected various localization issues.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Wheel of Yogg-Saron could get stuck in Yogg-Isthol anomalies.
- [Collection] The iconic Slagmaw, the Sleeper can now be disillusioned.
trend
Hearthstone gameplay
Hearthstone is a fun online card game set in the Warcraft world, where two players face off in turn-based battles. Each player selects a hero from eleven classes, each with its own unique cards and hero powers. The goal is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero using a deck of cards.
The game has five types of cards: minion cards, spell cards, weapon cards, hero cards and location cards. Cards come in different rarities, such as legendary cards and epic cards. To keep things exciting, Blizzard is regularly adding new cards through expansions. You can obtain cards by opening card packs or crafting them with arcane dust.
During the game, players play cards using “mana,” a budget that increases each turn. Minions are creatures placed on the board with unique abilities, and spells have special effects. You can play the game strategically, planning your moves based on your mana and the cards in your hand.
There are different game modes such as Standard and Wild that offer various challenges. Players can move up the rankings in Ranked Mode, or enjoy a more relaxed play style in Casual Mode. Rewards are given monthly based on performance. Special multiplayer modes include Arena, Tavern Brawl, Battlegrounds, Duels and Classic. There’s also a single-player adventure with unique challenges.
Hearthstone stays fresh with regular updates, making it a popular and engaging card game for players around the world.
“Hearthstone: Battlefield” Trailer
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