Our latest Hearthstone patch is here! We’ve included a lot of great features and bug fixes in this update, including the ability to abandon one Quest per day, animations for all of our Golden cards, and the addition of the epic rocker Elite Tauren Chieftain! That’s not all—we’ve also added a completely new Ranked Play system, where you can work your way through the ranks to become a Hearthstone Legend. Check out the details on the new Ranked Play system below, along with the full patch notes.

Ranked Play Details

First of all, we’ve really amped up the visuals on the Ranked Play and Unranked Play (now called Casual) tabs in Play mode, so it’ll be immediately obvious which mode you’re about to dive in to once you’re ready to pit your best deck against real opponents.

All players first stepping foot into the revamped Ranked Play mode will start at Rank 25: Angry Chicken. In Ranked Play, you will be pitted against opponents equal to or as close to your rank as possible. You and your opponent’s ranks will be visible to each other as you battle. Every time you find yourself victorious against your opponent, you’ll gain a star above your medal. Collect enough stars, and you’ll eventually find yourself attaining the next rank—Rank 24: Leper Gnome. There are 25 different ranks to attain, starting at Angry Chicken and going up to Rank 1: Innkeeper.

As you progress through the ranks, you’ll continue to be matched with opponents of equal or close-to-equal rank. If you hit a win streak, you may notice you collect more stars per win. However, once you progress up to Rank 20, a loss will cause you to lose stars, so play carefully! Win streaks will also end starting at Rank 5 through Rank 1, so every match will really count at those high ranks.

Once you become a Rank 1: Innkeeper with five stars to your name, another win will push you into a special rank: Legend. Legend rank will be represented by a Legendary orange mana crystal with a number in the middle of it. That number tells you exactly where you rank against other players in your region. If your Legend rank shows the number 300, you’re the 300^th best Hearthstone player in your region.

Legend Ranks and Matchmaking Rating

You’ll continue to be matched against opponents of equal or close-to-equal skill in Legend rank using a hidden Matchmaking Rating (MMR). Matchmaking Rating follows a couple of simple general rules:

• MMR is gained with wins and lost with losses.
• The amount of MMR gained or lost is dependent on the MMR of your opponent.

Legend rankings in your region will only be displayed for the top 10,000 Legend players, so battle on if your Legendary mana crystal doesn’t show a number. Keep racking up those wins, and you may become the #1-ranked Hearthstone Legend!

And So Begins Test Season 1

With all that said, this patch marks the start of our first test season of Ranked Play mode. Since we’re in closed beta, we expect some things to break along the way, and we hope you’ll post your feedback and findings on the forums and contribute to various discussions revolving around the updates we made to this mode.

Every month of Ranked Play is called a “season,” and Ranked Play rankings are intended to reset at the end of every season. However, since this test season is starting a bit later in the month than a season normally would, it may act a little strangely. Casual Play will not reset on a monthly basis like Ranked Play does—Casual Play will continue to match you with other players of similar skill. We’ll keep an eye on things as time goes on and make changes as necessary.

During this first test season, Ranked Play rewards (alternate card backs and Golden Heroes) will not be available. We want to make sure the rewards for Ranked Play are available to anyone who wants to attain them—with your help, we can get Hearthstone out of closed beta and let the game loose to everyone!

Check out the detailed patch notes below, and play Hearthstone!

Hearthstone Patch Notes

General

• You are now able to abandon one quest per day. When you abandon a quest, you’ll receive a new, random quest in its place.
• New Feature: Recently played Opponent – Your friends list now displays the last person you played against, provided they were not a Real ID or BattleTag friend. If you had a particularly great match against someone, you can now friend them for future play!
• New Feature: Players Near Me - You can now opt-in to seeing other Hearthstone players on your local network in your friends list.
• Parental controls can now disable in-game Shop purchases.
• You now have the option to keep the sound playing while the game is running in the background.
• The amount of gold gained by winning games in Play mode per day is now capped at 100. This cap does not affect gold gained through Quests, Arena, or Achievements. There will now be an indication within the game when this gold cap is reached. This cap is intended to combat certain methods of gold acquisition that violate our Terms of Service. The spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, and we will continue to monitor gold acquisition activity closely to ensure a fun and enjoyable game environment for everyone.

Ranking

• The Ranked play system has been completely redone
  • There are now month long seasons that reset at the end of each month
  • There are new ranks and minion portraits for all levels of play
  • You earn a star for each win and lose one for each loss and your stars determine your rank
  • Players who get to top rank of legend and are in the top 10,000 players have their exact region-wide ranking displayed
  • There will be rewards for playing ranked mode in the future, but they were not implemented with this patch, and will be added at a future date.

Arena

• The number of matches you can win in Arena has increased to 12 (up from 9).
• Arena rewards have been restructured.

Gameplay

• General
  • All Golden cards are now animated.
  • The visual effects of some cards have been improved.
    • Ysera now summons her Dream cards directly from the Emerald Dream!
    • King Krush now makes a dinosauric appearance when played!
    • Al’Akir the Windlord now rides into battle on the tempest itself!
• Hunter
  • Unleash the Hounds has been reworked and now reads: (4) For each enemy minion, summon a 1/1 Hound with Charge.
    • The previous version of this card was allowing Hunters to win in a single turn, starting with no minions on the board. The new version should give hunters some fun new card combinations and bolster their AoE ability.
    • Temporarily increased the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting Unleash the Hounds such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft Unleash the Hounds.
  • Starving Buzzard is now a 2/1 (was a 2/2).
    • At some ranks, Hunter was too strong against Mage, Druid and Rogue. This change to Starving Buzzard helps even the playing field against those classes.
• Priest
  • Mind Control’s mana cost is now 10 (up from 8).
    • Mind Control was frustrating to play against. Players worked to summon their powerful minions and not only lose the minion but die to that same minion the next turn. This change will give you a couple more turns to play with your Ragnaros.
• Warlock
  • Flame Imp’s Battlecry now deals 3 damage (up from 2).
    • This minor change should help bring the warlock’s early game down a small amount.  We’re keeping our eye on other cards that help the Warlock maintain early board advantage and will make additional changes if necessary in a future patch.
    • Temporarily increased the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting Flame Imp such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft Flame Imp.
• Neutral
  • Argent Commander is now a 4/2 (was a 4/3).
    • Argent Commander is played more often than we’d like, so we are reducing its power slightly to increase the variety of cards being played.
    • Temporarily increased the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting Argent Commander such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft Argent Commander.
  • Shattered Sun Cleric is now a 3/2 (was a 3/3).
    • Shattered Sun Cleric is keeping the creature rush decks healthy enough to avoid many board clearing spells. By reducing the Health by 1, this leaves Shattered Sun Cleric a bit more vulnerable while still remaining strong.
  • The golden version of the Elite Tauren Chieftain has been added to collections of those who attended BlizzCon 2013 or who purchased a Virtual Ticket.
    • If this card does not show up, make sure the code found on the back of the digital items card found in the badge holder, or sent to you with a purchase of the Virtual Ticket, has been added to your Battle.net Account.

UI

• The chat UI has received additional improvements.
• Your player rank (icon and number) is now visible in the friends list, the versus screen and your BattleTag in-game.
• The PrintScreen key now takes a screenshot of your game and saves it to your desktop.
• Custom art has been added to headers for each class in the collection manager.
• The toggle between Casual and Ranked Play modes is now more explicit.
• The art has been updated for the box and pack opening screens.

Bug Fixes

• Alexstrasza’s ability no longer counts as a healing effect when raising the target’s health to 15 and will not affect Armor when lowering health to 15. 
• Fixed an issue where Truesilver Champion could trigger twice from one attack.
• Faceless Manipulator will now properly copy all buffs on a minion.
• Fixed an issue where replacing your hero with Lord Jaraxxus counted as a minion death.
• Fixed a visual issue where casting Mass Dispel while multiple global buffs were active was not updating the stats correctly.
• Fixed various issues involving the use of Tracking.
• Fixed an issue where Fatigue damage triggering Ice Block caused the client to halt.
• Playing a minion during Brawl’s animation no longer causes client issues.
• Freeze should now always properly cause the affected minion or Hero to miss its next attack phase.
• Fixed various issues involving the mechanic of returning cards to a player’s hand.
• Minions returning to the board from resurrection effects no longer trigger secrets.
• Fixed various issues resulting from viewing the credits.
• The cinematic can now be viewed multiple times from the Game Menu.
• Fixes various issues where twinkling sound effects would loop.
• Using the “<” or “>” symbols while naming decks no longer causes client issues.
• The Coin now displays the correct highlight as it enters your hand.
• The warning message for disenchanting cards should now appear at the appropriate times.
• Green highlights around minions are now updating correctly.
• Golden cards earned in the Arena now appear with the correct border on the reward screen.
• Fixed multiple spelling and grammatical errors in card flavor text.

Today is patch day! This patch contains several quality of life improvements, as well as additional bug fixes. We’ve also tuned one card during this patch, Battle Rage, as noted below. Read on to check out the full patch notes.

Warrior

• Battle Rage now costs 2 (down from 3) and now only counts friendly characters.
• Temporarily increased the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting Battle Rage such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft Battle Rage.

Bug Fixes

• General
  • Matchmaking music can now be adjusted with the volume slider.
  • Fixed a bug where renaming a deck prevented players from editing the deck.
  • Fixed a bug where players could not create or edit a deck on the accounts first attempt.
  • Credits can now be viewed in enGB clients.
  • Fixed an issue where using the spacebar to rapidly open packs made it so you couldn’t view all your cards.
  • Unlocking Advanced Collections in crafting mode will no longer cause players to become stuck in crafting mode.
  • Opened chat windows no longer overlap challenges from friends.
  • Credits roll properly when viewed in any mode.
• Cards
  • Playing Druid of the Claw while Snipe is active no longer causes the client to halt.

Thank you for continuing to provide feedback through our forums during the closed beta testing phase of Hearthstone! Have a bug to report or feedback to share with us? You can find a link to our forums here.

If you haven’t already, you can opt-in to the Hearthstone closed beta here! 

Today is the day for our Hearthstone Closed Beta patch! This patch also includes the account wipe, so when the servers are available for play once more, you’ll be starting again as if you were a new player. For more information on the wipe itself, please revisit our Account Wipe Incoming blog post, found here. Now, onto the patch notes!

General

• The maximum level is now 60, and you can earn XP in any game mode up to max level.
• Chat has been rejiggered.
• Gold gained in Play mode has changed from 5 gold per 5 wins to 10 gold per 3 wins.
• You can now acquire Golden Basic minions at higher experience levels.
• Arena rewards now give less dust and more cards.
• More gold is guaranteed at 5 & 6 Arena wins.
• At 9 Arena wins, you are now guaranteed an extra pack or a Golden card.
• The animations for Secrets and Fatigue have been sped up dramatically.
• All cards now have flavor text when you view them in your collection.
• “Spell Power +1” has been renamed “Spell Damage +1”.
• Heroes can be unlocked in any mode (Play/Arena/Practice)
• Play, Practice and Friendly Play modes will now default to the custom deck selection UI if you've previously created a deck
• You can now click on chat bubbles to respond
• Social – When your friends complete an Arena run or get a Legendary card in a pack, you’ll be notified so you can tell them, “Grats!”
• Quests that required you to win with a class now give you a choice between 2 classes.

New Stuff

• Crafting Mode – If you want to craft or disenchant cards, we have a new UI for this. Click the “Crafting Mode” button to check it out.
• Credits – Now you can see who’s behind all this nonsense.
• Options – Our Game Menu and Options screen have a new look! And you can also re-play the cinematic!
• Open Next Pack – Hit Spacebar after you open a pack to quickly unwrap your next one.
• Many Golden cards have new animations!  More to come!  Check out Gelbin Mekkatorque!
• Added event to transform coin into a card in your hand if you are going second
• Support for custom fonts in Russian and Polish has been added

Generic Minions

• Gelbin Mekkatorque’s Repair Bot – Is now a 0/3 and has a new power:  At the end of your turn, restore 6 Health to a damaged character.
• Sunfury Protector now only gives adjacent minions Taunt.
• Mana Wraith – Now a 2/2 (was a 1/3).
• Pint-sized Summoner – The cost reduction has been reduced from 2 to 1.
• Questing Adventurer is now Rare.
• Flesheating Ghoul is now Common.
• Emperor Cobra has a new visual to remind you about his venomous power.
• Injured Blademaster has 1 more Attack.
• Lorewalker Cho has 1 less Attack.
• The Beast is now 9/7 (was 10/6).
• Lightwarden now gains +2 Attack per heal.
• Twilight Drake is now a 4/1 with ‘Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each card in your hand.’
• Captain Greenskin is now a 5/4 with ‘Battlecry: Give your weapon +1/+1.’
• Dalaran Mage now has 1 less Attack.
• Captain’s Parrot now has 1 less Health.
• Frostwolf Warlord now has a Battlecry effect instead of an ongoing effect.
• Nozdormu has a new visual effect.

Mage

• Frostbolt costs 2 Mana (down from 3).
• Mirror Imagenow creates 0/2 minions.
• Sorcerer’s Apprentice has 1 more Attack.

Priest

• Northshire Cleric - Now costs 1 (down from 2).
• Prophet Velen – Now also doubles the damage and healing of your Hero Power.
• Fade has been replaced with a new card:
  • Shadow Word: Death – (3) Destroy a minion with an Attack of 5 or more.
• Cabal Shadow Priest– now a 4/5 (up from 3/4).
• Power Word: Shield has a new power – Give a minion +2 Health. Draw a card.
• Greater Heal has been replaced with a new card:
  • Holy Fire – (6) Deal 5 damage. Restore 5 Health to your hero.
• Lightspawn has 1 more Health.

Warlock

• Sacrificial Pact costs 0 (down from 2).
• Pit Lord - Now a 5/6 with ‘Battlecry: Deal 5 damage to your hero’.

Rogue

• Backstab – New text: Deal 2 damage to an undamaged minion.
• Preparation – Now reduces next spell cost by 3 (up from 2).
• Shiv costs 2 Mana (up from 1).
• Defias Ringleader has 1 less Health.
• Conceal costs 1 Mana (up from 0).
• Headcrack costs 3 Mana (up from 2).
• Patient Assassin has a new visual to remind you about his power.
• Hero Power – No longer has the ability to buff a currently equipped weapon.
• Edwin VanCleef is now a 2/2, but no longer has Stealth.

Druid

• Wrath can no longer be cast on heroes.
• Cenarius costs 9 (up from 8).
• Starfall can now only hit minions.
• Ancient of Lore’s Healing option now only restores 5 Health. (down from 8)
• Savagery costs 1 (down from 3), and must target a single minion.

Hunter

• Hunter’s Mark – No longer a 1-turn only effect.
• Scavenging Hyena – Now only eats your own Beasts.

Warrior

• Cruel Taskmaster has 1 more Health.
• Inner Rage’s +2 Attack effect no longer goes away at the end of the turn.
• Battle Rage costs 3 (up from 2), and also counts damaged heroes.
• Frothing Berserker has 1 more Attack.
• Commanding Shout now costs 2 (up from 1) and also draws you a card.

Shaman

• Hex’s Frog is now a Beast.
• Healing Totem no longer heals heroes.

Bug Fixes

• Cards
  • Fixed multiple issues with Faceless Manipulator incorrectly copying minions with buffs.
  • Hunter’s Mark is now correctly reduces a minion’s health to 1.
  • Fixed an issue with replaying cards returned to your hand causing a game halt.
  • Playing Thoughtsteal now creates an entry in the game history.
  • Misdirection no longer triggers if there are no legal targets.
  • Ice Block now protects the hero from incremental damage.
  • Blood Imp’s ability now correctly increases Lightspawn’s attack value.
  • Fixed an issue where playing a minion before Cenarius’s battlecry goes off caused a game halt.
  • Playing Mind Vision when the opponent has an empty hand no longer gives you a card.
  • Knife Juggler’s ability will no longer trigger when a minion is copied to your hand.

• UI
  • Fixed an issue where disenchanting cards too quickly caused the Arcane Dust counter to display the incorrect value.
  • Fixed an issue where gold amounts were showing the wrong value.
  • Replaying a minion that previously had health/attack modifications now shows the correct stats as it enters play.
  • The Arena AMM wheel should no longer disappear when you find a match.
  • Fixed an issue where the Spell Power visual effect could linger in your hand.
  • Quickly playing minions as card draw effects are occurring no longer causes cards to stack in your hand.
  • The opponent’s targeting arrow should now be appearing from the correct location.
  • The visual effect for silence is now appearing over the targeted minion.
  • Fixed an issue where spell animations would loop when multiple triggers occurred.
  • Fixed an issue where the hero power button could become tilted.

• Gameplay
  • The announcer’s VO for both players should now be audible in the Arena.
  • Fixed an issue where the druid AI did not play their choice cards correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where sound effects would loop while in-game or in the Collection Manager.
  • Master Volume now also affects music volume.
  • A toast with your own name should no longer appear on login.
  • The “farming” area of the Pandaria board will now allow you to spawn three radishes. 

Many bug fixes have also been included with this patch as well, so if you unearth another pesky bug, don’t forget to post them on our Bug Forums here. Our Technical Support forums for both PC and Mac are also available if you are having problems with graphics or the Hearthstone software itself.

Opt-in to the Hearthstone closed beta here! 

In our previous blog, we covered some of the nitty-gritty facts about the wipe and what exactly it entails. It’s an exciting time for the Hearthstone team, since this wipe will coincide with our first major closed beta patch for both the Americas and Europe regions. Our update covers a wealth of bug fixes and quality of life improvement within Hearthstone, and today we’ll be sharing some of the highlights of this upcoming patch. Many of these changes are based on feedback that you, our valued community, provided to us on the forums.

Daily Quests

We’ve gotten a lot of comments on quests. The community has discovered some fun hidden quests, but some of our daily quests have frustrated those of you who have quests that don’t correspond to your favored class. After the patch, daily quests that require you to win with a specific class will now give you a choice between two classes, allowing you some additional flexibility.

Balance

Class balance has been a hot topic, with many of you commenting on the strength and versatility of the Rogue class compared to other classes, such as the Warrior and Priest. Rogues will have some key spells and minions adjusted to bring them more in line with the other classes. Warriors and Priests will find themselves with new tools and improved cards to round out their arsenal, and we’ve made some adjustments to the other classes here and there as well. We’ll be publishing our full patch notes so you can review these and other changes to the heroes of Hearthstone in full detail.

Golden Cards

Golden cards are fun to collect in Hearthstone, and a cool way to show off your accomplishments. Many golden cards have been updated with new animations, and there are still more to come. If you’ve helped test our in-game store and acquired your new forever-friend Gelbin Mekkatorque, check out his shiny new animation! In addition to the new animations to Golden cards, we have also added the ability to unlock Golden Basic minions at higher experience levels. Now you can shoot for creating a 100% golden card deck to really dazzle your opponent!

Crafting

We’ve received a lot of feedback regarding the crafting system, and how the crafting interface didn’t feel quite as intuitive as it should have been. Crafting is intended to be easy to access and a fun way to craft new cards for your collection, and we want that to be noticeable right away to the new player. We’ve updated the UI for our crafting system, so making cards for your collection should be even easier than before! Click the “Crafting Mode” button to access the updated crafting UI.

Social Improvements

We’ve improved our chat functionality to make it more streamlined and easier to interact with your friends.  We’ve also introduced Toasts: they’re a cool addition to our social features that let your friends know when you’ve done something awesome in-game, like open a Legendary card or complete an Arena run. Combine these two improvements together and you’ll never miss an exciting moment with your card-slinging friends in Hearthstone!

Play Mode and Arena

Finally, we’re aware that a lot of discussion on the forums is revolving around Play and Arena mode, and how to make them more compelling for players to participate in. We’ve changed experience and leveling so you can max out your Hero at level 60 and earn experience in any game mode up to max level. This includes Play mode (ranked or unranked), Practice, matches against friends, and the Arena.

The rate that you acquire gold has been one of the other most-commented on topics on our forums. This patch will improve the gold output of Play mode, changing the gold generation rate from 5 gold per five wins to 10 gold per three wins. We will be monitoring this update as we progress further into closed beta and will continue to make changes as needed.

We’ve made significant changes to the Arena as well: In general, rewards gained will include less dust and more cards, as well as guaranteeing more gold for both five and six Arena wins. To further entice you to become an Arena Grand Master, an extra pack OR a golden card is now guaranteed at nine wins.

Full patch notes will be available alongside the patch, which will include the collection wipe. For more information on the wipe and what that entails, please read our blog here! Thank you for your continued feedback as we continue the closed beta testing phase of Hearthstone.

To opt-in to our closed beta test, please go here!

Hello Hearthstone players (and members of our gracious community still trying to get into the beta)!

Thank you for stopping by to read this important closed beta test update. At the start of the beta, we mentioned that we would reset information at some point, wiping all progress and cards in the process. We built this into our plan as we knew going into the beta that a number of cards were likely to emerge as overpowered and we also knew that we‘d make significant adjustments to the reward system and overall game progression. So, as part of the effort to level the playing field and also prepare our players’ accounts for the release version of our progression system, we made the decision to schedule a one-time wipe of all beta participant accounts. We have just about reached the point in closed beta where we’ll be doing this wipe, and thus wanted to share what that will mean for you, what to expect on the day of the wipe, and what will happen immediately afterwards.

A wipe? What’s a wipe?

If you are participating in the Hearthstone closed beta test, your progress will be reset. This includes your gold, experience and class levels gained through play, arcane dust quantities, cards unlocked through progression, and your medal ranking in Ranked Play mode. When you load up the game afterwards, it will be as if you were starting in Hearthstone as a new player. You’ll have to play the introductory missions once more and show Illidan just how prepared he is! (Spoilers: He’s not.)

When is the wipe happening?

We’re getting ready to release a pretty major beta patch to Hearthstone, and the wipe will coincide with that patch so we can closely monitor testing with the implemented updates.

A patch! What’s in the patch!?

We’ll announce details of the patch in a separate blog, so stay tuned!

I spent real money in Hearthstone! Is that going away!?

No way! As we mentioned in the earlier blog, any money you spent in Hearthstone will be reimbursed as gold, so you will be able to repurchase the same number of packs and Arena tickets you bought previously without additional investment. For each card pack purchased with real money, you’ll get back 100 gold. Each Arena entry will get you back 150 gold. Please note that any packs you purchase after the wipe will be different than the ones you had previously, so it is unlikely that you will receive the same cards again.

A couple examples:

• Tim bought the $2.99 bundle for 2 packs during the beta. After the wipe, he will receive 200 gold (100 gold per pack x 2 packs.)
• Janet bought the $49.99 bundle for 40 packs during the beta. She also bought 3 Arena entries. Janet will receive 4450 gold (100 gold x 40 packs + 150 gold X 3 Arena runs) after the wipe has been completed.

Like all gold, the reimbursed gold credit can be spent on either packs or Arena tickets. So if you bought a pack bundle previously, and would prefer to use your gold credit towards Arena entry, that’s available as an option.

Did you know: Getting back a lot of gold and need to buy a lot of packs at the same time? You can buy mass quantities of packs with gold by double-clicking on the brown “1 Pack” button in the store!

I helped test the store and got a Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque card! Is he wiped too?

Your good friend Gelbin will be waiting for you as soon as you complete the Illidan introductory mission. As soon as you’ve completed that mission you will receive the “Beta Hero” quest reward which will grant you Gelbin, as well as the gold credit for any purchases made prior to the wipe.

Will there be any wipes in the future?

We don’t anticipate any further wipes. This goes for both the Hearthstone beta and after the game’s official release. Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff.

Wait, how will this work for Korea, Taiwan, and China? Closed beta hasn’t even started there yet!

Korea, Taiwan, and China will not be wiped. The wipe only applies to the beta participants currently playing in the North American and European beta tests.