Ticking Abomination, Frost Festival, Balance, Nerfs, and More ‘Hearthstone’ Weekly News in ‘Touchstone’ #106

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Welcome to another Touchstone Tavern, our weekly Hearthstone (Free) roundup of cool news and videos. Even though we’re in the middle of the summer and everyone is pretty much toasting in the sun, the Hearthstone world is still moving along towards the Frozen Throne. We have a story on a new Frozen Throne minion, the first of the latest reveals. We also have quite a few interviews with different developers on various aspects of the new expansion, clarification on the new events and the card pack rules, talk on the current state of the game, and more. Let us begin.

New Frozen Knight Minion Revealed

The new expansion reveals have commenced, and the first card we got to see is Ticking Abomination, a 4 mana 5/6 minion with a deathrattle deal five damage to your minions. The pretty nasty deathrattle is there to give some balance to the card’s stats, but it still doesn’t seem like a great card according to the streamer who revealed it and the writer of this article. What do you think?

Ben Brode Talks Balance

As this article talks about, Overwatch has seen a ton of updates and balance fixes, but Hearthstone hasn’t. So, the writer asks how this game is balanced and how the two games are balanced differently. Ben Brode explains how they go about nerfing and patching the game based on how the game is built. He also explains how they are making changes to the underlying structure of the game so they can make card changes without having to patch the game. He also talks about how the team is hesitant when it comes to nerfing. There’s even more info on nerfing in the article, so go check it out.

Expect More Events in the Future

In a recent reddit post, Dean Ayala responded to a player’s comment on loving the new Festivals and said that the team is planning on continuing what they call live-events (brawls, fireside gatherings, etc). That’s all part of Blizzard’s plans to keep players engaged and will continue to bring more events to the game. Are you enjoying these events, or is there something different you would like to see?

Old Expansions Won’t Have the Guaranteed Legendaries

Even though Blizzard is changing the rules when it comes to new expansions and giving players a guaranteed Legendary within the first ten packs opened, that rule won’t be applied to older sets if you have opened any packs from it. In other words, if you have opened any packs from let’s say The Grand Tournament in the past, don’t expect a legendary in the first 10 packs. If, however, you have never bought any TGT packs and do so after the Frozen Throne releases, you’ll get your guaranteed legendary in the first 10 packs. Check out the details here.

Pros and Personalities on the State of the Game

This article pulled together the opinions of some of the game’s most popular players and personalities on how the game is right now. The article first introduces the many different respondents and goes on to ask questions about the new expansion, the new Death Knight heroes, the Un’Goro meta, and much more. Definitely an entertaining and informative read, so go check it out.

Designers Talk Frozen Throne, Hero Cards, and More

This interview with Mike Donais and Jerry Mascho goes into more depth on the Hero cards both from an artistic and mechanics standpoints, a bit about how the missions will play out, the role of Hero cards in the Arena, and more. Donais also says that he’s very excited about the Rogue Hero Card, which is probably busted. Check out the whole interview here.

The Future of Hearthstone Esport

This interview focuses on the esport side of the game and where the developers want to see the game be in the next few years. It talks about the new additions, like the Wild tournament, and goes on to talk about how important player personalities are, the role of the casters, future changes to the information displayed during tournaments, and more. Check out the whole interview here.

Hearthstone Comics Prepare Us for Frozen Throne

Blizzard has published three episodes of a comic book that tells the story of the Knights of the Frozen Throne and offers some fun context and entertainment. The episodes are free and you can get them all here. They are pretty fun and the art is good too.

The Frost Festival Has Begun

If you want more free stuff, make sure you play some Hearthstone now that the Frost Festival has begun. The Frost Festival will be offering Frozen Throne packs, and you can get them in different ways. For instance, doing 3 Arena runs gets you packs, and you get an Arena entry ticket for free. Check out our story for more.