Blizzard unveils its latest Hearthstone expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire tomorrow on Thursday, November 11th and with it a veritable sideshow of new changes being implemented. Among those changes are the introduction of the Darkmoon Faire’s ringleader, Silas Darkmoon as a brand-new Battleground Hero, early access to the Duels: Early access mode and an overhaul of the Progression and Rewards system.
Check out the full list of changes from the official Hearthstone website for Hearthstone patch 19.0 below:
Tomorrow’s 19.0 patch includes an all-new progression system, several game improvements, and some updates to Battlegrounds. Its arrival means Hearthstone’s newest expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, is almost here! All Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards have officially been revealed, and while you can’t use the new cards until they’ve unlocked on November 17, you can get a head start on building your launch day decks with our online deck builder!
Duels: Season One also begins on November 17, but tomorrow’s patch grants Duels: Early Access to everyone, introduces Whispers of the Old Gods to the pool of eligible sets, and adds Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards to loot buckets! Once Duels: Season One begins, you’ll be able to add Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards to your starter deck as well! You can learn more about Duels in our announcement blog here.
Tomorrow’s patch will also add a new unlockable Hero Power and two Signature Treasures for each class in Duels, which you can obtain by owning Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards. Check out our Pre-Release blog to learn how you can open Madness at the Darkmoon Faire packs early!
New Battlegrounds Hero
Silas Darkmoon
- Come One, Come All! [Passive]
- Darkmoon Tickets are in the Tavern! Get 3 to Discover a minion from your Tavern Tier.
- Random minions in Bob’s Tavern will have Darkmoon Tickets. Buy three of these minions to Discover a minion from your current Tavern Tier.
Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to Silas Darkmoon before the hero is formally released on December 1.
Progression & Rewards Revamp
The 19.0 patch adds an entirely new progression system to the Tavern! In what is Hearthstone’s biggest systems update ever, the progression revamp includes four major parts:
- The addition of an Achievements System that tracks your in-game accomplishments.
- A central Rewards Track for all earnable rewards outside of Ranked play.
- A Quest Revamp that supports daily and weekly quests.
- An updated Profile Page with player info, ranks, and stats.
You’ll be able to access each of these pages by clicking on a new Journal icon that will replace the Quest Log on the main menu. You can read the full breakdown for each part of the progression revamp here. We’ve got a few additional details to share on the progression update today:
- Quests – Quests can be completed in Casual, Ranked, Arena, and Duels. Certain quests may also point you to Battlegrounds or Tavern Brawls. Quests can also be completed in the Friendly Challenge variants of any of these modes.
- Achievements – Achievements are broken up into categories and subcategories. As you’d expect, the Game Modes and Adventures categories can only be completed within their specified modes. The more general Progression and Gameplay categories can be completed in Ranked, Arena, and Duels modes.
- Dev comment: There is a known issue that sometimes causes Collection Achievements to appear to have incorrect progress—this will be fixed in an upcoming patch. When that happens, Collection Achievements will update to the correct progress, but no Achievements will be taken away.
- Reward XP – You can earn XP just for playing the game in most game modes. This includes Casual, Ranked, Arena, Duels, Battlegrounds, Tavern Brawls, and Adventures. Friendly Challenge variants of these modes do not give XP.
We’re investigating an issue which may impact minimum spec mobile devices (those with fewer than 2GB of memory) on this patch which may result in degraded performance. This behavior may be triggered by accessing the new in-game Journal. We’re advising players to exit and relaunch Hearthstone if they encounter these issues.
Tavern Pass
The Rewards Track includes a free track for all players, and a paid track that can be unlocked with the Tavern Pass, which will be available for purchase for $19.99. Purchasing the Tavern Pass at any point during the expansion will immediately grant the Golden Silas Darkmoon Legendary minion, a 10% XP Boost that lasts for the duration of the expansion, and all items up to your current level on the paid track. You’ll earn an additional XP Boost as you progress with the Tavern Pass during the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion, in addition to the Annhylde Alternate Warrior Hero and Card Back, three Jaina Hero Skins, three Thrall Hero Skins, and one of Hearthstone’s first-ever collectible Cosmetic Coins!
Battlegrounds Perks
Battlegrounds Perks will be available as a standalone purchase on November 17, separate from the Tavern Pass, for $14.99 or 2000 gold. Battlegrounds Perks will allow you to pick from 4 Heroes at the start of a Battlegrounds match and grants advanced stats, visual emotes, and early access to new Heroes! Battlegrounds Perks are also included in the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Mega Bundle.
Hearthstone Patch 19.0 Game Improvements & Miscellaneous Updates
- Hovering over the opponent’s Mana tooltip will now display a count of their Overloaded Mana Crystals. The friendly Mana tooltip has also been updated to display a count.
- Drustvar Horror will now randomly pick one option for Runic Carvings instead of casting both.
- Fixed a Duels bug where Golden cards would appear as normal cards.
- Fixed a Duels bug where the Best Runs counter was being unintentionally reset.
- Fixed a Duels bug where Heroes were not playing their voice line when selected for a run.
- Fixed a Duels bug where Book of the Dead was not counting enemy minions that had died.
- Fixed a bug where Dormant minions would not consume discounts provided from Studies.
- Fixed a bug where the arrow for targeted Hero Powers in Battlegrounds would begin offscreen.
- Fixed a bug where emotes would overlap with the post-game victory or defeat screen.
- Fixed a bug where portraits shown in history tiles were inconsistently sized between devices.
- Free decks for new and returning players have been updated (recipes can be found here).*
- Card text for Corrupting Mist and Chaos Gazer have been reworded to avoid confusion with the new Corrupt keyword. Functionality of both cards remain the same.
* Limit one per account. A returning player is defined as one who has not logged into Hearthstone for 120 consecutive days
November 17 – Arena Rotation
When Madness at the Darkmoon Faire launches on November 17, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:
What do you think of the changes being implemented in Hearthstone Patch 19.0? Are you excited for the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion? Let us know in the comments.
Ninja Gaiden was my rite of passage at an early age. After finally beating that game (and narrowly dodging carpal tunnel) I decided to write about my gaming exploits. These days I enjoy roguelikes and anything Pokemon but I'll always dust off Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country and StarFox 64 from time to time to bask in their glory.
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