Hearthstone players voiced their disappointment in the recently released Scholar Jaina (the first playable character in the Jaina Proudmoore Book of Heroes solo adventure) and Horseman Uther alternate hero portraits for Mage Hero Jaina Proudmoore and Paladin Hero Uther Lightbringer due to the fact that they were hero skins that didn’t feature anything but a simple cosmetic change.
Specifically, there were no custom animations or custom voicelines to accompany the new look of the characters, components of a premium, purchasable Hearthstone skin that have always been implemented in the past with skins such as Mecha-Jaraxxus (part of the The Boomsday Project expansion Mega Bundle), Lady Vashj (part of the Ashes of Outland expansion Mega Bundle) or Sylvanas Windrunner to name a few.
Apparently, the community’s vocal dissatisfaction over voice lines has been heard: a recent blue post on the Blizzard forums confirms that Scholar Jaina and Horseman Uther will be receiving their own unique voice lines in a future Hearthstone patch.
“We wanted to update everyone regarding our new hero skins,” Blizzard Community Manager Kerfluffle said in the announcement, “particularly Scholar Jaina and Horseman Uther. We are planning to add unique voice lines, start of game voice lines, and a couple other special voice lines to both Scholar Jaina and Horseman Uther in a future patch.”
Blizzard will be releasing another new skin in the near future for the Hearthstone Scholomance Academy expansion (we’re guessing Rexxar, to coincide with the next Book of Heroes focal point), one which they assure will come with its own unique set of accompanying voice lines.
“We’ve taken feedback on board regarding emotes for those and upcoming hero skins,” the blue post continued. “The next skin, which will be released shortly, has new emotes for all 6 regular board interactions and a few other commonly played lines as well. There will be hero skins in the next expansions associated with their corresponding Book of Heroes chapters that will not have unique lines at launch, but we plan to add them as soon as VO recording allows.”
Blizzard hinted at adding a method of differentiation for future skins so players can discern between skins that will feature only cosmetic changes, such as the Scholar Jaina and Horseman Uther skins upon their launch, and ones that will be more complete premium skins with accompanying voice lines and unique emotes.
“Adding context as to how we got here: We started out with the idea of adding skins for our classic heroes that allowed us to get more options for visual customization into the hands of our players at a much quicker than normal pace,” the blue post added. “We’re confident in the idea behind these skins and they’re already seeing a lot of use within the game. However, we missed here on painting a clear picture of the difference between these skins and the alternate heroes we’ve done in the past, that include all sorts of unique audio and visual effects. That’s something we should have gotten across better and want to ensure that we address in the future.”
What do you think of Blizzard adding unique voice lines to the Hearthstone Scholar Jaina and Horseman Uther skins? Let us know in the comments.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login