Every change and new card coming to Arena in Patch 10.4.
Our Hearthstone Patch 10.4 Arena guide contains details of the new Arena cards and changes coming to the game.
A new Designer Insights video was posted to the Hearthstone YouTube channel late yesterday evening, one in which lead systems designer Kris Zierhut outlines some important changes that are coming to the game’s Arena mode.
Not only is the drafting process being dramatically changed, the new Arena-only cards which were chosen at BlizzCon last year will also be added to the game when Patch 10.4 goes live.
We’ve embedded the video for you below, and also broken down the highlights for those of you who aren’t currently able to watch it:
- In the current Arena, the three cards you’re sometimes presented with are so wildly far apart in terms of quality that the pick is obvious and it’s not much fun.
- The team are changing the system so you’ll be presented with better cards that will have better situational appeal based on the kind of deck you’re trying to build.
- When Patch 10.4 goes live, each Arena pick will feature three cards of relatively equal power level and card rarities will now be mixed as well. You’ll see Commons presented alongside Rares and Epics, for example.
- Legendaries are the only exception to this new rule though, and will remain in their own separate category. But when you see those Legendaries they will be of equivalent power level.
- Picks 1, 10, 20 and 30 will continue to be comprised of Rare quality cards or better.
- The team has temporarily disabled the weighting that meant you were more likely to see cards from the latest expansion during the drafting process.
- The following “chance to see” modifiers do remain in place, however: Class cards, spells and weapons. However, there is now a decreased chance to see these cards if they are of below-average value.
- The goal with these changes is to give players more interesting decisions to make when drafting an Arena deck. You’ll be able to draft for particular synergies and playstyles far more easily.
Patch 10.4 is also the first time you’ll see the new cards that were decided upon at BlizzCon. Each class has one Arena-only card that you’ll only get to play in this mode.
Here’s a screenshot of all the new cards, with a breakdown afterwards:
- Druid – Nature’s Champion [3 Mana] – Return a friendly minion to your hand and give it +5 / +5.
- Hunter – Deadeye [2 Mana] – For the rest of the game, your Hero Power can target minions.
- Mage – Polymorph: ??? [5 Mana] – Choose a minion. Discover a new minion to transform it into.
- Paladin – Hand of Salvation [1 Mana] – Secret: When your second minion dies in a turn, return it to life.
- Priest – Generous Spirit [2 Mana] – Choose a friendly minion. Give it to your opponent and draw 3 cards.
- Rogue – Smoke Bomb [1 Mana] – Give a minion Stealth until your next turn. Draw a card.
- Shaman – Crackling Doom [0 Mana] – Deal 12 damage to all minions. Overload: (10).
- Warlock – Bottled Madness [0 Mana] – Replace your hand with random Demons.
- Warrior – Blazing Longsword [3 Mana] – Weapon: Also damages minions next to whomever your hero attacks. 2 / 3
We’ll update this guide to the Arena changes as soon as we have more information from Blizzard, including a release date for Patch 10.4!
