LOTI 255 : Post-BlizzCon

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

News

BLIZZCON 2019 

First, J. Allen Brack addressed the situation with Blitzchung.  He said, I’m sorry, we moved too fast and I’m accountable. We aspire to bring the world together, when we get it right, the community comes together.  My actions will say more about my intent to do better in the future. Seemed a sincere, emotional apology.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Starcraft: New Villain commander: Arcturus Mengsk

Diablo:  Diablo 4 was announced and shown. Very dark and will feature the Barbarian, the Sorceress and the Druid, so far.  Lots of cool stuff there, but no release date.

Heroes of the Storm: BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket holders, get the new hero Deathwing, for free.

World of Warcraft: New Make a wish pet, Baby Alpaca, Dotty.  

World of Warcraft: New expansion, Shadowlands was announced and shown. 

Overwatch:  New announcement of Overwatch 2.  A PvE focused off-shoot of the game, with no release date.

Warcraft III: Reforged:  Everyone at BlizzCon and a Virtual Ticket gets Beta access, which just started.

Hearthstone: New expansion, Descent of Dragons

* Heading to Dragonblight, where there will be more Dragons than ever before* 140 new cards* New Hero Card – Galakrond.  Everyone gets him free when the set launches.* Galakrond is an ancient Proto-Dragon and manifests as 5 unique Hero cards for the LoE classes: Rogue, Warrior, Warlock, Shaman and Priest.* New keyword: Invoke – Play cards with the Invoke keyword several times to upgrade Galakrond* Galakrond has a different battlecry and hero power in each of the evil classes* Dragon Breath cards: These are spells that give you powerful bonuses if you are holding a dragon.* Sidequests: Mages, Druids, Hunters, and Paladins can do Sidequests, cards that offer powerful rewards, but are easier to complete than standard Quest cards. These do not start in your hand.* Everyone gets a Legendary Dragon when the set goes live.

BATTLEGROUNDS

* New game mode: Battlegrounds – 8 player mode that is inspired by the autobattle genre.* Open beta of Battlegrounds on November 12th, BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket holders have access now.* 8 player, free for all.  You choose 1 of 3 Heroes, each with a unique Hero Power.* Then you start a Recruit phase, where you build your deck by purchasing cards using gold.* Then a Fight phase, where the battle auto completes for you, where minions fight from left to right in order.* Then you rotate back to Recruit phase, with another gold to spend.* You can upgrade your tavern by Cheering (which costs gold) during the Recruit phase.  You get more powerful minions to choose from later. You can upgrade to a max of 6.* You can choose to Freeze the available minions for free, to use the next turn if you want to save them.* If you get 3 of the same minion, it will upgrade to a Golden version which has better stats.* There is a page on the website where you can see all the unique minions and heroes, plus a leaderboard.  playhearthstone.com/battlegrounds

* Battlegrounds Brawl – Login to https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/vote/battlegrounds to choose a team.  And any team that gets 250,000 wins of 4th place or higher from their supporters,