LOTI 161 : Almost BlizzCon Time

News

New Patch went live Tuesday

Hallow’s End – October 24 – November 6

Log in each week for a ‘treat’

New tricky Tavern Brawl

Dual class Arenas

Note: If you have an Arena run in progress when Hallow’s End begins on October 24, then it will be retired and you’ll receive the normal rewards for the number of wins you achieved and a free Arena ticket. In the hours just before the beginning and conclusion of Hallow’s End on October 24 and November 6, it will temporarily be impossible to purchase a new Arena ticket.

Mechanics Update

Changed some underlying rules to prevent Wild Pyromancer from triggering off of Mindgames, and Djinni of Zephyrs from triggering off Entomb. See this update for details. (update)

Fireside Gatherings have their own game menu

Friends list options are now bundled into a sub-menu

Spells that are canceled by Counterspell will now trigger any “Whenever you cast a spell” and “After you cast a spell” effects.

Lord Jaraxxus no longer triggeHers Repentance, Sacred Trial, and Snipe.

Unlicensed Apothecary now reads “After you summon a minion, deal 5 damage to your hero.” It will no longer activate from any Evolve effects.

It is no longer possible to cancel Choose One cards before the choices appear, resolving issues where the Choose One effect could be canceled too easily.

Hearthstone’s engine is updated to Unity version 5.6

Animations for Mimic Pod, Chromaggus, Shifting Shade, Ghastly Conjurer, and Cutpurse should no longer have a pause.

Mana-cost reductions on cards such as Dragon’s Breath, Solemn Vigil, Everyfin is Awesome, and Obsidian Shard will now apply after all other mana cost changes, such as the effects from cards like Naga Sea Witch.

Arena updates

Vicious Fledgling can no longer be drafted in the Arena

The first two picks in an Arena draft are no longer more likely to include synergy-based cards.

Small appearance rate adjustments have been made to a number of cards.

Stay updated on Arena rules on the forums.

Have Amazon (Twitch) Prime? In November you will get a Golden Classic Pack, which contains 5 golden cards. The pack will be available from Nov 6 until Jan 9. It does not follow any pity timer rules.

Hallow’s End will be visiting Fireside Gatherings between October 9 and November 5. They will have a new hero, Nemsy Necrofizzle, if you play at any Fireside Brawl starting on October 17th. And she will continue to be available after Hallow’s End, ends.

BlizzCon Digital Goodies Update

Hearthstone – Golden Legendary to be revealed after BlizzCon

World of Warcraft – Stormwind Skychaser and Orgrimmar Interceptor

Overwatch – BlizzCon 2017 Winston Skin

Starcraft II – Junker SCV, Probe and Drone skins

Heroes of the Storm – Nexus Razorback Mount … and more

Diablo III – Murkromancer Pet

Ben Brode spoke with Gamebeat

Casual Mode

Casual, like ranked, has an MMR system that is internal

The goal is to keep you at a 50% winrate in Casual, like in ranked

The better you do in Casual, the more likely you’ll see better decks

Ranked Play

Pirate Warrior and Secret Mage are currently 14% of the meta at Legend rank

Those archetypes at Rank 20 are only 5% of the meta

Most active Hearthstone players are between ranks 20 and 18

Game Play

Being able to support a feature where players could ban certain cards for tournament play is “very compelling”, especially for Fireside Gatherings.

He saw a tournament in Kansas City,