Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions, the former Activision-Blizzard subsidiary that was recently folded into Blizzard proper, have announced Diablo 2 Resurrected, the long-rumored remaster of the 2000 action-RPG classic. It's due out in 2021 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Resurrected will include all of the content from the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, including the Assassin and Druid player classes. The announcement was the climactic moment of BlizzCon 2021, aka “Blizzconline,” Blizzard’s virtual celebration of its company’s games and community after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of last year’s event. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/diablo-2-resurrected-reveal-trailer"] “It’s a great time to bring back Diablo 2,” Diablo franchise executive producer Rod Fergusson told IGN, referencing last year’s 20th anniversary of Diablo 2 and this year’s 30th anniversary of Blizzard itself. And, he was clear, “it’s a remaster, not a remake. We wanted the game.” Diablo 2 Resurrected has a modern 3D layer on top that features particle-based rendering, dynamic lighting, and, where appropriate, upgraded visuals and sound. On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, the remaster will run at 4K and 60fps. PC will also support ultra-wide monitors and gamepads. On the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 families of consoles along with the Nintendo Switch, it will run at lower resolutions. Cross-progression will be supported on any platforms that choose to enable it, according to Blizzard. Underneath, though, is the original game, at 800x600 resolution. And like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and LucasArts’ Special Editions of Monkey Island 1 and 2, you can press a button to switch back and forth between the original game and the remastered version. Cinematics, however, can’t simply be up-rezzed. Blizzard and Vicarious Visions are “fully remaking every minute” of Diablo 2’s cinematics, which amounts to roughly 27 minutes of pre-rendered video. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=You%20can%20press%20a%20button%20to%20switch%20back%20and%20forth%20between%20the%20original%20game%20and%20the%20remastered%20version."] “It's like video game archaeology, learning how these things work,” said Vicarious Visions design director Robert Gallerani. “Because we're using that old system to drive things forward, we keep everything the same. Since it's not a remake, we don't have to rebuild [anything]. It's basically like we're changing the oil, making sure it runs smoothly, but we're not rebuilding everything. We are literally combing every single piece of code.” And, he noted with a smile, “when we do fix a bug we have to be very careful because everything is interconnected.” What he means by that, Fergusson explained, is that the Diablo 2 Resurrected team is “embracing the quirks.” That means some of the now-antiquated (read: goofy by modern standards) animations are still there. But some quality-of-life additions have been made. Some are just baked in, such as new ambient noises like wind rustling the leaves in trees and a shared stash so that you no longer have to make a mule character. Others will be opt-in, such as auto-pickup for gold and loot drops for those that don’t want to have to click on every single piece of loot on the ground. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Blizzard%20has%20added%20a%20shared%20stash%20so%20that%20you%20no%20longer%20have%20to%20make%20a%20mule%20character."] On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team is “taking advantage of what's there” on the new consoles, such as the aforementioned higher framerates and resolution as well as the faster loading times the SSD drives afford. Blizzard is looking at adding things like raytracing effects, but Fergusson was clear about not promising anything and suggested that if any specific next-gen upgrades are added, they’ll come along after the game’s release later in 2021. Finally, with regard to multiplayer, couch co-op hasn’t been added – Fergusson called it “a bridge too far” for this faithful remaster effort – but all of Diablo 2’s original eight-player online functionality is still here. And you’ll now have the option to store characters on Battle.net for dedicated-server play. “It's more secure” when it comes to bots, item duping, and other cheating-related issues that ran rampant in Diablo 2 back in the day, Gallerani said. A technical alpha test is planned for the near future on PC only. Sign-ups will happen on the official Diablo website, and testers will be randomly chosen – not unlike how it went with the original Diablo 2 beta back in early 2000. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions, the former Activision-Blizzard subsidiary that was recently folded into Blizzard proper, have announced Diablo 2 Resurrected, the long-rumored remaster of the 2000 action-RPG classic. It's due out in 2021 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Resurrected will include all of the content from the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, including the Assassin and Druid player classes. The announcement was the climactic moment of BlizzCon 2021, aka “Blizzconline,” Blizzard’s virtual celebration of its company’s games and community after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of last year’s event. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/diablo-2-resurrected-reveal-trailer"] “It’s a great time to bring back Diablo 2,” Diablo franchise executive producer Rod Fergusson told IGN, referencing last year’s 20th anniversary of Diablo 2 and this year’s 30th anniversary of Blizzard itself. And, he was clear, “it’s a remaster, not a remake. We wanted the game.” Diablo 2 Resurrected has a modern 3D layer on top that features particle-based rendering, dynamic lighting, and, where appropriate, upgraded visuals and sound. On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, the remaster will run at 4K and 60fps. PC will also support ultra-wide monitors and gamepads. On the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 families of consoles along with the Nintendo Switch, it will run at lower resolutions. Cross-progression will be supported on any platforms that choose to enable it, according to Blizzard. Underneath, though, is the original game, at 800x600 resolution. And like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and LucasArts’ Special Editions of Monkey Island 1 and 2, you can press a button to switch back and forth between the original game and the remastered version. Cinematics, however, can’t simply be up-rezzed. Blizzard and Vicarious Visions are “fully remaking every minute” of Diablo 2’s cinematics, which amounts to roughly 27 minutes of pre-rendered video. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=You%20can%20press%20a%20button%20to%20switch%20back%20and%20forth%20between%20the%20original%20game%20and%20the%20remastered%20version."] “It's like video game archaeology, learning how these things work,” said Vicarious Visions design director Robert Gallerani. “Because we're using that old system to drive things forward, we keep everything the same. Since it's not a remake, we don't have to rebuild [anything]. It's basically like we're changing the oil, making sure it runs smoothly, but we're not rebuilding everything. We are literally combing every single piece of code.” And, he noted with a smile, “when we do fix a bug we have to be very careful because everything is interconnected.” What he means by that, Fergusson explained, is that the Diablo 2 Resurrected team is “embracing the quirks.” That means some of the now-antiquated (read: goofy by modern standards) animations are still there. But some quality-of-life additions have been made. Some are just baked in, such as new ambient noises like wind rustling the leaves in trees and a shared stash so that you no longer have to make a mule character. Others will be opt-in, such as auto-pickup for gold and loot drops for those that don’t want to have to click on every single piece of loot on the ground. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Blizzard%20has%20added%20a%20shared%20stash%20so%20that%20you%20no%20longer%20have%20to%20make%20a%20mule%20character."] On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team is “taking advantage of what's there” on the new consoles, such as the aforementioned higher framerates and resolution as well as the faster loading times the SSD drives afford. Blizzard is looking at adding things like raytracing effects, but Fergusson was clear about not promising anything and suggested that if any specific next-gen upgrades are added, they’ll come along after the game’s release later in 2021. Finally, with regard to multiplayer, couch co-op hasn’t been added – Fergusson called it “a bridge too far” for this faithful remaster effort – but all of Diablo 2’s original eight-player online functionality is still here. And you’ll now have the option to store characters on Battle.net for dedicated-server play. “It's more secure” when it comes to bots, item duping, and other cheating-related issues that ran rampant in Diablo 2 back in the day, Gallerani said. A technical alpha test is planned for the near future on PC only. Sign-ups will happen on the official Diablo website, and testers will be randomly chosen – not unlike how it went with the original Diablo 2 beta back in early 2000. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the Rogue class will be one of the five playable characters in Diablo 4, joining the Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid, who were all revealed when Diablo 4 was first announced at Blizzcon 2019. In an interview with IGN, game director Luis Barriga likened her to a jack of all trades, but noted that she can master certain things should players choose to push their build that way. He likened the Rogue to a “choose your own dexterity class” in that you can mold her how you want to fit your playstyle. You can go old-school Diablo 1-style and double-down on the bow and arrow. However, you can also tailor her to other ranged weapons or also melee weapons. “Players that are looking for range are going to be happy,” Barriga said, “and they’re probably going to be surprised at how the other versions of the Rogue are going to surprise them.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/diablo-4-rogue-cinematic-trailer"] Barriga also explained that the Rogue has a specialization system. Not unlike the guild quests in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if you choose to work with different Rogue groups and do special quests for them, you’ll unlock a unique combat style that suits that group. You can only pick one at a time, however. When asked if the other classes would have a similar specialization system, Barriga said no and explained with a smile that “every class has their own thing that other classes get to be jealous about.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CPlayers%20that%20are%20looking%20for%20range%20are%20going%20to%20be%20happy%2C%E2%80%9D%20game%20director%20Luis%20Barriga%20said%20of%20the%20Rogue."] Meanwhile, Barriga and art director John Mueller spoke about mounts and noted that players of any character class will have access to them. “We want you to be able to get around in style,” Mueller said, also noting that the mounts are all horses because of Diablo’s gothic medieval roots; the team didn’t want to stray too far into the fantasy Warcraft-style world. You can earn modular pieces of armor to add to your mounts, as well as wearable trophies you get for completing certain pieces of content. “Making your character and your mount match is a pretty compelling aesthetic,” Barriga said. And each class also gets its own unique combat dismount, with the Rogue launching Rain of Arrows, which tends to catch PvP opponents off-guard, according to Barriga. Meanwhile, on the PvP front, Blizzard says you’ll never get caught off-guard if you’re only looking for a PvE experience. “So for us [the solution] was to create these ‘Fields of Hatred’ that are cursed by Mephisto and have become active again,” Barriga explained. So if you don’t want PvP you’ll be safe, but if you enter the Field of Hatred, the PvP is clearly enabled and the looting rules are different and there are objectives within that. “Once you enter, it’s almost like [Diablo 2] rules,” Barriga said. “It’s really dangerous, particularly when Hardcore [difficulty] comes into it.” PvP, Barriga noted, “is going to be an acquired taste” but “no one should be worried about that” because “it’s purely optional.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CWe%20want%20you%20to%20be%20able%20to%20get%20around%20in%20style%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20art%20director%20John%20Mueller%20about%20player%20mounts."] Finally, Camps are another open-world element in Diablo 4. They are effectively the opposite of PvP. Narratively, they held significance long ago. Diablo 4 happens after the world was decimated, and so some of the Camps have a “post-apocalyptic vibe,” according to Barriga. Camps can be old churches, lighthouses, forests, etc. that have tormented souls and ghosts within them, but if you complete the mini-puzzle there, you’ll have cleansed that area and it flips back to being a small town/safe zone. “It’s another way to gain progression,” Mueller noted, because as you unlock waypoints you can get anywhere, thus giving you a non-gear power advantage over other players. “It’s all in a big open world and you can opt-in to this content as you adventure around.” Don’t expect Diablo 4 in 2021, but stay tuned to IGN for much more on the latest entry in the legendary action-RPG series as development continues. In the meantime, stay tuned today and tomorrow for more Blizzcon 2021 coverage. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the Rogue class will be one of the five playable characters in Diablo 4, joining the Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid, who were all revealed when Diablo 4 was first announced at Blizzcon 2019. In an interview with IGN, game director Luis Barriga likened her to a jack of all trades, but noted that she can master certain things should players choose to push their build that way. He likened the Rogue to a “choose your own dexterity class” in that you can mold her how you want to fit your playstyle. You can go old-school Diablo 1-style and double-down on the bow and arrow. However, you can also tailor her to other ranged weapons or also melee weapons. “Players that are looking for range are going to be happy,” Barriga said, “and they’re probably going to be surprised at how the other versions of the Rogue are going to surprise them.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/diablo-4-rogue-cinematic-trailer"] Barriga also explained that the Rogue has a specialization system. Not unlike the guild quests in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if you choose to work with different Rogue groups and do special quests for them, you’ll unlock a unique combat style that suits that group. You can only pick one at a time, however. When asked if the other classes would have a similar specialization system, Barriga said no and explained with a smile that “every class has their own thing that other classes get to be jealous about.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CPlayers%20that%20are%20looking%20for%20range%20are%20going%20to%20be%20happy%2C%E2%80%9D%20game%20director%20Luis%20Barriga%20said%20of%20the%20Rogue."] Meanwhile, Barriga and art director John Mueller spoke about mounts and noted that players of any character class will have access to them. “We want you to be able to get around in style,” Mueller said, also noting that the mounts are all horses because of Diablo’s gothic medieval roots; the team didn’t want to stray too far into the fantasy Warcraft-style world. You can earn modular pieces of armor to add to your mounts, as well as wearable trophies you get for completing certain pieces of content. “Making your character and your mount match is a pretty compelling aesthetic,” Barriga said. And each class also gets its own unique combat dismount, with the Rogue launching Rain of Arrows, which tends to catch PvP opponents off-guard, according to Barriga. Meanwhile, on the PvP front, Blizzard says you’ll never get caught off-guard if you’re only looking for a PvE experience. “So for us [the solution] was to create these ‘Fields of Hatred’ that are cursed by Mephisto and have become active again,” Barriga explained. So if you don’t want PvP you’ll be safe, but if you enter the Field of Hatred, the PvP is clearly enabled and the looting rules are different and there are objectives within that. “Once you enter, it’s almost like [Diablo 2] rules,” Barriga said. “It’s really dangerous, particularly when Hardcore [difficulty] comes into it.” PvP, Barriga noted, “is going to be an acquired taste” but “no one should be worried about that” because “it’s purely optional.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CWe%20want%20you%20to%20be%20able%20to%20get%20around%20in%20style%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20art%20director%20John%20Mueller%20about%20player%20mounts."] Finally, Camps are another open-world element in Diablo 4. They are effectively the opposite of PvP. Narratively, they held significance long ago. Diablo 4 happens after the world was decimated, and so some of the Camps have a “post-apocalyptic vibe,” according to Barriga. Camps can be old churches, lighthouses, forests, etc. that have tormented souls and ghosts within them, but if you complete the mini-puzzle there, you’ll have cleansed that area and it flips back to being a small town/safe zone. “It’s another way to gain progression,” Mueller noted, because as you unlock waypoints you can get anywhere, thus giving you a non-gear power advantage over other players. “It’s all in a big open world and you can opt-in to this content as you adventure around.” Don’t expect Diablo 4 in 2021, but stay tuned to IGN for much more on the latest entry in the legendary action-RPG series as development continues. In the meantime, stay tuned today and tomorrow for more Blizzcon 2021 coverage. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

During BlizzCon 2021’s opening ceremony today, the Hearthstone team announced a raft of updates coming to Blizzard’s hugely popular card-slinger, including a brand new mode called Mercenaries, which is built around strategic RPG gameplay and roguelike missions and will launch later in 2021, and the next expansion, the Warcraft-themed Forged in the Barrens, which will bring 135 new cards to the game and mark the beginning of the Year of the Gryphon. As we’ve previously reported, the next Hearthstone year will herald in the most sweeping set of changes in Hearthstone’s history. Not only will several sets of cards leave the Standard format, including Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons, but the cards that form the baseline for the Standard format will also change. Previously, Hearthstone’s Basic cards and Classic sets were the evergreen underpinning of the game, but soon they’ll be out and a new 235 card core set (which is a mix of new and existing cards) will be in, and free for all players, ensuring everyone has the building blocks required to build half-decent decks. Each year will see a new core set rotate in, and thus create the foundation for the year, giving the game’s designers more opportunities to shape the play patterns for each class and keep the game fresh. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-trailer"] The first core set will go live alongside the new expansion Forged in the Barrens, which is themed around the iconic World of Warcraft location in central Kalimdor. You might say this expansion is being made… FOR THE HORDE! This won’t be a standalone expansion, however, as the Year of the Gryphon will play host to a story that runs across the entire year and touches many facets of the game – including Mercenaries mode. Kicking this off, Forged in the Barrens will introduce ten legendary mercenary minions – one for each class – and we’ll follow their adventures for the whole year. The set also introduces a new keyword, Frenzy, which is a one-time effect that triggers the first time a minion survives damage. Lastly, Forged in the Barrens will have spells that can rank up based on how much mana the player has in total. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-cards&captions=true"] There’s a lot coming in the immediate future, then, but arguably the most exciting new announcement made at Blizzcon won’t be with us until later this year, and that’s the new mode Mercenaries. As we’ve seen with the hugely popular Battlegrounds and the Dungeon Run-inspired PVP action of Duels, new modes can completely reshaped Hearthstone’s gameplay, so it’s going to be exciting seeing what this mode has to offer. For now we know that players will assemble a team of characters both new and iconic – including the likes of Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord – each of which has a unique set of abilities and can level up into increasingly powerful versions of themselves. Each run will be comprised of a new set of randomly generated encounters, with players choosing who from their team will take part before each fight, then teeing up their actions at the same time as their foe and watching it play out. Your characters’ levels and progression will be persistent across the mode as a whole. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-mercenaries-map-character-progression-art&captions=true"] Blizzard is only really teasing Mercenaries right now, but despite that, the team has already put a lot of time into it. They’ve been working on it for almost 18 months, according to Production Director Nathan Lyons-Smith. “We started with a handful of pitches and ideas to explore,” he explains. “One of the things that gets asked about from the community, and that the team is passionate about trying to figure out, is some form of 2v2, and that was actually one of the original pitches. But as we went through, we settled on… character progression, roguelike RPG [elements]… as the thing that we wanted to add to Hearthstone. And we've been prototyping and building and growing that team over the last, I'd say, really 11, 12 months to then have a timeline of, ‘This year, we're expecting to release.’” The Mercenaries team within the Hearthstone team is currently 15 or so dedicated to the project, but with plenty of other staff also hopping in to help out across different disciplines as needed. “The designer that's been taking the lead is Paul Nguyen,” Game Director Ben Lee tells me. “He's the original creator of the Dungeon Run - the Dungeon Run was his pitch and his ideas, obviously [with] tons of talented people [who also] helped make all of those Dungeon Runs across the years. And there's a really great, awesome core [team] working on the Mercenaries mode, but Paul's been spearheading this endeavour and doing really awesome, fantastic work.” Dungeon Run – and the many PVE adventures that have riffed on it within Hearthstone – already offers something of a roguelike experience, so what sets Mercenaries apart? Does it have more of a Slay the Spire feel? Or perhaps take inspiration from something like Thronebreaker? “It's more in the Slay the Spire vein, just for simplicity’s sake,” Lee explains. “It's our own take on it - I think that's our MO, we do our own takes on these things, like Battlegrounds was our take on the auto battler genre. And this is our take on a mixture of strategic RPG and combat elements, and also some wrapping of roguelike levels and progression.[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22It's%20more%20in%20the%20Slay%20the%20Spire%20vein%2C%20just%20for%20simplicity%E2%80%99s%20sake.%20It's%20our%20own%20take%20on%20it%E2%80%A6%22%20-%20Ben%20Lee"] “In Thronebreaker there's an overworld and lots of exploration and that's a big part of it, but the narrative is the real driver there. There's narrative here, but it's pretty light - in Hearthstone, our narrative is more in the fun and whimsical sense rather than the deep, lore-based narrative. We're dipping a little bit into that, but I think if you're familiar with how we've been telling stories with Book of Heroes, I think you can expect things in a similar vein. We want to be true to our license and our lore, but we don't take ourselves too seriously with Hearthstone either.” Like Slay the Spire, each run – or level - will have a randomly generated series of events – usually regular fights, sometime elite encounters and sometimes not combat at all – for players to work through, with a handful of branching paths to choose between along the way. Each run will culminate in a boss – perhaps King Mukla or King Krush. Unlike Slay the Spire – or Dungeon Run, for that matter – this isn’t a deck building game. All the gameplay hinges around the mercenaries in your squad and their abilities. “A mercenary is self-contained,” says Lee. “If you have Thrall, let's say, Thrall has his abilities, and you unlock them through various different means, you actually unlock abilities through levelling up. Then those abilities themselves can be levelled up to be more powerful, equipment can be obtained through drops in levels, and also some other means as well.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/15/how-a-tavern-brawl-became-hearthstone-battlegrounds"] “Progression is all permanent, so you get to take it home with you at the end of a run of your level,” says Lee. “And then you go to the next level and the next level and so on and so forth, and eventually you get into the end game content, which is – in the normal game flow you’re levelling up your characters from level 1 to, say, 30. The end game is enhancing your abilities, your skills, finding the cool builds, the synergies, the way to beat those really hard levels. So there’s a big PVE element to this, but there’s also PVP as well, so you can take your team of characters and fight in cool, strategic combat against other players.” “Once you reach a certain point,” Lee elaborates, “you're going to want to do those levels on Heroic and maybe even more difficulty levels… And there is a point where some of that content, you're deliberately going to be repeating it to earn different equipment drops or different items, and the ability to level up the skills of your characters. So there's a level grinding portion, that's what roguelikes are to some degree, it's repetition and generation… the essence there is that you're going to be levelling up your characters and you'll get new characters, and then you'll want to level them up because they have new abilities that are better against different enemy types or different bosses. A lot of the endgame gameplay is figuring out, ‘Who are the characters that I should take with me to beat Jaina Proudmoore or to beat the Lich King,’ or whoever the boss might be.” [caption id="attachment_2475708" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The sweet key art for Mercenaries.[/caption] As I mentioned earlier, in any encounter both sides of the fight queue up their moves for all their characters at the same time, then watch them play out. “The fun and engagement there is like, ‘How can I get character A and B to synergise to do cool things that riff off each other, that make them more powerful, or to defeat the enemies?’" says Lee. This also makes for some interesting differences between PVE and PVP. “In PVP, there's a lot of... mind games because you don't know what the opponent's going to do,” explains Lee. “When you're playing against the AI, we actually tell you what's going to happen before. It's also tapping into some puzzle elements, so if you know that this character is going to attack you and might damage you, you might be able to channel all your attacks to take that character out, so there's a lot of decision-making in it. So the PVE is also tapping into puzzle elements, which I think a lot of roguelikes do anyway, and the PVP is more tapping into the bluffing and mind games sphere a little bit.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22Hearthstone%20isn't%20a%20game%20that%20only%20makes%20card%20expansions%2C%20we%20do%20a%20lot%20more%20than%20that%20these%20days.%E2%80%9D%20-%20Ben%20Lee"] It sounds exciting, even if it is just a tease at this year’s show. And for Ben Lee, Nathan Lyons-Smith and the team, using the BlizzCon (virtual) stage to announce Mercenaries also serves another purpose – to highlight how much more dynamic Hearthstone is now. “The real big part of… revealing this at BlizzConline is, there's big stuff coming to Hearthstone, there's always big stuff coming to Hearthstone,” says Lee. “We have this huge platform that many, many people are going to watch, and we want them to know that Hearthstone isn't a game that only makes card expansions, we do a lot more than that these days.” Indeed, Hearthstone is no longer a single game, but a platform. “You can come in, and we're going to have a bunch of different types of gameplay for you, using Hearthstone's card game mechanics and the gameplay that you see,” says Lyons-Smith. “We've been exploring that since about the time Battlegrounds shipped.” We’ll have more on both Mercenaries and Forged in the Barrens soon. And be sure to also check out our chat with Ben Lee and Nathan Lyons-Smith discussing all the reveals around Hearthstone’s new core set. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is IGN's AU Studio Lead and has a serious soft spot for rave era breakbeat . He also played more Breath of the Wild than any other game last year. Catch him on Twitter. Maybe.

During BlizzCon 2021’s opening ceremony today, the Hearthstone team announced a raft of updates coming to Blizzard’s hugely popular card-slinger, including a brand new mode called Mercenaries, which is built around strategic RPG gameplay and roguelike missions and will launch later in 2021, and the next expansion, the Warcraft-themed Forged in the Barrens, which will bring 135 new cards to the game and mark the beginning of the Year of the Gryphon. As we’ve previously reported, the next Hearthstone year will herald in the most sweeping set of changes in Hearthstone’s history. Not only will several sets of cards leave the Standard format, including Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons, but the cards that form the baseline for the Standard format will also change. Previously, Hearthstone’s Basic cards and Classic sets were the evergreen underpinning of the game, but soon they’ll be out and a new 235 card core set (which is a mix of new and existing cards) will be in, and free for all players, ensuring everyone has the building blocks required to build half-decent decks. Each year will see a new core set rotate in, and thus create the foundation for the year, giving the game’s designers more opportunities to shape the play patterns for each class and keep the game fresh. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-trailer"] The first core set will go live alongside the new expansion Forged in the Barrens, which is themed around the iconic World of Warcraft location in central Kalimdor. You might say this expansion is being made… FOR THE HORDE! This won’t be a standalone expansion, however, as the Year of the Gryphon will play host to a story that runs across the entire year and touches many facets of the game – including Mercenaries mode. Kicking this off, Forged in the Barrens will introduce ten legendary mercenary minions – one for each class – and we’ll follow their adventures for the whole year. The set also introduces a new keyword, Frenzy, which is a one-time effect that triggers the first time a minion survives damage. Lastly, Forged in the Barrens will have spells that can rank up based on how much mana the player has in total. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-cards&captions=true"] There’s a lot coming in the immediate future, then, but arguably the most exciting new announcement made at Blizzcon won’t be with us until later this year, and that’s the new mode Mercenaries. As we’ve seen with the hugely popular Battlegrounds and the Dungeon Run-inspired PVP action of Duels, new modes can completely reshaped Hearthstone’s gameplay, so it’s going to be exciting seeing what this mode has to offer. For now we know that players will assemble a team of characters both new and iconic – including the likes of Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord – each of which has a unique set of abilities and can level up into increasingly powerful versions of themselves. Each run will be comprised of a new set of randomly generated encounters, with players choosing who from their team will take part before each fight, then teeing up their actions at the same time as their foe and watching it play out. Your characters’ levels and progression will be persistent across the mode as a whole. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-mercenaries-map-character-progression-art&captions=true"] Blizzard is only really teasing Mercenaries right now, but despite that, the team has already put a lot of time into it. They’ve been working on it for almost 18 months, according to Production Director Nathan Lyons-Smith. “We started with a handful of pitches and ideas to explore,” he explains. “One of the things that gets asked about from the community, and that the team is passionate about trying to figure out, is some form of 2v2, and that was actually one of the original pitches. But as we went through, we settled on… character progression, roguelike RPG [elements]… as the thing that we wanted to add to Hearthstone. And we've been prototyping and building and growing that team over the last, I'd say, really 11, 12 months to then have a timeline of, ‘This year, we're expecting to release.’” The Mercenaries team within the Hearthstone team is currently 15 or so dedicated to the project, but with plenty of other staff also hopping in to help out across different disciplines as needed. “The designer that's been taking the lead is Paul Nguyen,” Game Director Ben Lee tells me. “He's the original creator of the Dungeon Run - the Dungeon Run was his pitch and his ideas, obviously [with] tons of talented people [who also] helped make all of those Dungeon Runs across the years. And there's a really great, awesome core [team] working on the Mercenaries mode, but Paul's been spearheading this endeavour and doing really awesome, fantastic work.” Dungeon Run – and the many PVE adventures that have riffed on it within Hearthstone – already offers something of a roguelike experience, so what sets Mercenaries apart? Does it have more of a Slay the Spire feel? Or perhaps take inspiration from something like Thronebreaker? “It's more in the Slay the Spire vein, just for simplicity’s sake,” Lee explains. “It's our own take on it - I think that's our MO, we do our own takes on these things, like Battlegrounds was our take on the auto battler genre. And this is our take on a mixture of strategic RPG and combat elements, and also some wrapping of roguelike levels and progression.[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22It's%20more%20in%20the%20Slay%20the%20Spire%20vein%2C%20just%20for%20simplicity%E2%80%99s%20sake.%20It's%20our%20own%20take%20on%20it%E2%80%A6%22%20-%20Ben%20Lee"] “In Thronebreaker there's an overworld and lots of exploration and that's a big part of it, but the narrative is the real driver there. There's narrative here, but it's pretty light - in Hearthstone, our narrative is more in the fun and whimsical sense rather than the deep, lore-based narrative. We're dipping a little bit into that, but I think if you're familiar with how we've been telling stories with Book of Heroes, I think you can expect things in a similar vein. We want to be true to our license and our lore, but we don't take ourselves too seriously with Hearthstone either.” Like Slay the Spire, each run – or level - will have a randomly generated series of events – usually regular fights, sometime elite encounters and sometimes not combat at all – for players to work through, with a handful of branching paths to choose between along the way. Each run will culminate in a boss – perhaps King Mukla or King Krush. Unlike Slay the Spire – or Dungeon Run, for that matter – this isn’t a deck building game. All the gameplay hinges around the mercenaries in your squad and their abilities. “A mercenary is self-contained,” says Lee. “If you have Thrall, let's say, Thrall has his abilities, and you unlock them through various different means, you actually unlock abilities through levelling up. Then those abilities themselves can be levelled up to be more powerful, equipment can be obtained through drops in levels, and also some other means as well.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/15/how-a-tavern-brawl-became-hearthstone-battlegrounds"] “Progression is all permanent, so you get to take it home with you at the end of a run of your level,” says Lee. “And then you go to the next level and the next level and so on and so forth, and eventually you get into the end game content, which is – in the normal game flow you’re levelling up your characters from level 1 to, say, 30. The end game is enhancing your abilities, your skills, finding the cool builds, the synergies, the way to beat those really hard levels. So there’s a big PVE element to this, but there’s also PVP as well, so you can take your team of characters and fight in cool, strategic combat against other players.” “Once you reach a certain point,” Lee elaborates, “you're going to want to do those levels on Heroic and maybe even more difficulty levels… And there is a point where some of that content, you're deliberately going to be repeating it to earn different equipment drops or different items, and the ability to level up the skills of your characters. So there's a level grinding portion, that's what roguelikes are to some degree, it's repetition and generation… the essence there is that you're going to be levelling up your characters and you'll get new characters, and then you'll want to level them up because they have new abilities that are better against different enemy types or different bosses. A lot of the endgame gameplay is figuring out, ‘Who are the characters that I should take with me to beat Jaina Proudmoore or to beat the Lich King,’ or whoever the boss might be.” [caption id="attachment_2475708" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The sweet key art for Mercenaries.[/caption] As I mentioned earlier, in any encounter both sides of the fight queue up their moves for all their characters at the same time, then watch them play out. “The fun and engagement there is like, ‘How can I get character A and B to synergise to do cool things that riff off each other, that make them more powerful, or to defeat the enemies?’" says Lee. This also makes for some interesting differences between PVE and PVP. “In PVP, there's a lot of... mind games because you don't know what the opponent's going to do,” explains Lee. “When you're playing against the AI, we actually tell you what's going to happen before. It's also tapping into some puzzle elements, so if you know that this character is going to attack you and might damage you, you might be able to channel all your attacks to take that character out, so there's a lot of decision-making in it. So the PVE is also tapping into puzzle elements, which I think a lot of roguelikes do anyway, and the PVP is more tapping into the bluffing and mind games sphere a little bit.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22Hearthstone%20isn't%20a%20game%20that%20only%20makes%20card%20expansions%2C%20we%20do%20a%20lot%20more%20than%20that%20these%20days.%E2%80%9D%20-%20Ben%20Lee"] It sounds exciting, even if it is just a tease at this year’s show. And for Ben Lee, Nathan Lyons-Smith and the team, using the BlizzCon (virtual) stage to announce Mercenaries also serves another purpose – to highlight how much more dynamic Hearthstone is now. “The real big part of… revealing this at BlizzConline is, there's big stuff coming to Hearthstone, there's always big stuff coming to Hearthstone,” says Lee. “We have this huge platform that many, many people are going to watch, and we want them to know that Hearthstone isn't a game that only makes card expansions, we do a lot more than that these days.” Indeed, Hearthstone is no longer a single game, but a platform. “You can come in, and we're going to have a bunch of different types of gameplay for you, using Hearthstone's card game mechanics and the gameplay that you see,” says Lyons-Smith. “We've been exploring that since about the time Battlegrounds shipped.” We’ll have more on both Mercenaries and Forged in the Barrens soon. And be sure to also check out our chat with Ben Lee and Nathan Lyons-Smith discussing all the reveals around Hearthstone’s new core set. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is IGN's AU Studio Lead and has a serious soft spot for rave era breakbeat . He also played more Breath of the Wild than any other game last year. Catch him on Twitter. Maybe.

When Hearthstone’s next expansion - Forged in the Barrens – launches, it will be part of the biggest shakeup in the game’s history. Not only will it usher in the Year of the Gryphon, which means three expansions (and change) leave the Standard format, but we will also see Hearthstone’s very bedrock restructured. Up until now, the Basic cards for each class and the Classic set – the cards that launched with the game back in early 2014 – have been the evergreen cards of Hearthstone. They’ve always been there as the underpinning to additional sets that come and go. This means we’ve been playing with the same baseline set of cards for seven years, and it also means that some classes simply have better building blocks than others. Not only that, but Hearthstone’s designers have learnt an awful lot since those first cards were created, and yet they’re the ones that will always be around. No longer. As of rotation, the Basic and Classic cards will be out and a new core set of 235 cards – mostly comprised of existing cards, but also featuring 29 brand new inclusions – will form the baseline for the next year. This set will be completely free, and will be fully unlocked out of the gate for more experienced players, while newcomers will be able to unlock them all quite quickly. It’s a huge change, giving new and returning players a base collection that has value and ensuring that Hearthstone feels completely fresh for seasoned players. And best of all, the core set will change each and every year. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-trailer"] As part of Hearthstone’s Blizzcon 2021 announcements, we’ve now seen some of the new cards, and we’ve found out that magical spell schools are being added to the game – including retroactive changes to all relevant spells. And not only that, but the team are making a bunch of tweaks to existing cards to bring them into line with Hearthstone in 2021. I quizzed Game Director Ben Lee and Production Director Nathan Lyons-Smith about the core set to find out more. Here are some of the juicier nuggets from that conversation.

The Core Set for New and Engaged Players

Nathan Lyons-Smith: “I've been playing for a long time, since before I was at Blizzard. I somehow got a beta key and I was in and hooked, right? And I loved the Classic set, and then we got Naxxramas and we got Goblins vs. Gnomes, and over time, we've just seen some of the cards in the core set be super powerful, and as a result, we've sent them to the Hall of Fame because we don't want to keep seeing the same cards over and over again. And then there's some cards that just aren't powerful at all and we don't see those, and that's generally okay for the experienced players, but [for] new players, you're getting a bunch of cards that aren't powerful now, and aren't having as easy a time. And so this really does touch on new players getting a meaningfully powerful core set of cards, completely for free, to come in and engaged players are getting a big shake-up from what they're normally seeing. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-core-set-returning-cards-and-tweaked-cards&captions=true"] “I think one of the things Ben describes really well when we talk about this as a team is, there's some cards in the old Basic and Classic set that are power level 11, and then there's some that are power level one. And it's just scattered across the board, and it depends on all the cards we've created since then. So what I'm most excited about as a highly engaged player is, we're able to curate this core set to fit really nicely with the expansions we're planning to launch this year. “And then next year, as we have another set of expansions launch, we're going to have an updated core set that will be curated to work with those. And that feels really awesome to me as an engaged player. And again, I'm really happy that as we're getting new players in or returning players coming back in, that it's easy for them to get into, because here's the core set. And it's free, you earn it just like you earned the current Basic cards.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We're%20able%20to%20curate%20this%20core%20set%20to%20fit%20really%20nicely%20with%20the%20expansions%20we're%20planning%20to%20launch%20this%20year."]

The Core Set and Tying in With This Year’s Classic Warcraft Theme

Ben Lee: “We've tried to carry that [theme] across to the core set as well. I mean, that's generally how we're thinking about our content across all of our modes this year, there's definitely some leaning into that classic era of Warcraft lore and history. So you can expect to see that appearing through Standard, Battlegrounds, Duels and also Mercenaries as well. In terms of the core set, we've tried to be mindful of that, but sometimes gameplay has to take precedence too. So there's some examples that might feel a little out of place, but that card was really awesome for the core set and the mechanics and linking in with the way that it works. And rather than just making a new card with new art, it's cool for players to have a call-back of, ‘Hey, that's that card I played years ago, and it's back.’ So in general, as a guiding light, absolutely, that's totally on point, but sometimes gameplay has to take priority too.”

Designing New Cards for the Core Set and How That Fits With the Goals for the Year

Ben Lee: “I think the original idea comes from the fact that there were just some holes when you look at the set as a whole and what we would want to do in the future. Quite a lot of that's actually in the legendary cards themselves. There's some really awesome, fun designs in the legendaries in the Classic set, but they just haven't really aged with the game and they're not really competitive. And our players - Hearthstone's evolved a lot, it's very data-driven in terms of how players go about building their decks, the meta, et cetera. “And having these fun cards, there's definitely room for those, and we have those still, but I think [in terms of] the representation towards more like, ‘These are cards we want you to play, and these are cards that are just for fun,’ we've definitely skewed more in this [- the former -] direction, and I think you can see that across all of our expansions. So I think that's one of the core principles of it, is that we want players to have this set of cards and for them to be realistically playable, we want these cards to be able to go in decks. Yeah, there's obviously a few exceptions for that are like, ‘These cards are deliberately meant to be fun.’ Obviously some players will put them in decks, but they're not going to be in like your Tier 1 meta decks.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20want%20players%20to%20have%20this%20set%20of%20cards%20and%20for%20them%20to%20be%20realistically%20playable%2C%20we%20want%20these%20cards%20to%20be%20able%20to%20go%20in%20decks."]

Riffing on the Old Designs for the New Malygos, Deathwing and Ysera

Ben Lee: “They're very much inspired by it [- the original designs]. I think Malygos was hard to pull off, which is why it does something different. He still does something with spells, deliberately so, he's the Aspect of Magic after all. But we wanted to try and keep the essence of the original card in those cases as much as we could, and be like, ‘What is the modern take on Deathwing? If we make Deathwing as new a card with the same idea in mind, what would it be?’ And I think Deathwing and Ysera are definitely the best examples of that.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-core-set-new-cards-2021&captions=true"]

The Number of Changes That Have Been Made to Existing Cards

Ben Lee: “I don't know the number off the top of my head, it's quite a lot, there's a lot of subtle changes in there… you've probably seen the mana change to Assassinate, and the Overload changes to Shaman, there's more beyond that though. Generally what we've tried to do is look to these cards and been like, ‘How can we make these more playable?’ And some of them just, like we've touched on already, they just haven't aged well, and when you look back and you're like, ‘Could this card be one less mana or could this card have plus +1/+1 on it?’ And the answer to that in a lot of cases is yes. So I think there's some pretty cool implications here, not only for Standard, but also for Wild, because the reality is, players are going to be able to play those cards there too. “And some of those cards are just – they’re just now better in Wild also. So the core set's actually affecting a very broad spectrum of our modes, and beyond that as well, there's actually a whole bunch of changes and reverts from cards coming to Wild as well, so there's a pretty hefty list of what's coming. Not all cards… but there's a lot of Wild cards and cards from history that are getting changes and tweaks.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=There's%20actually%20a%20whole%20bunch%20of%20changes%20and%20reverts%20from%20cards%20coming%20to%20Wild%20as%20well%2C%20so%20there's%20a%20pretty%20hefty%20list..."]

Adding Spell Schools Into Hearthstone

Ben Lee: “There's some pretty obvious, basic schools out there that are really in your face - Frost and Fire, and I think that's where a lot of this comes from originally. There’s definitely a fantasy of like, ‘I'm a Mage player and I want to build a Frost deck,’ or, ‘I want to build a Fire deck.’ So it starts from that, and I think when we were looking at synergies and combos... We actually really love minion types, and I think that's been really great for Battlegrounds. Minion type is actually a pretty core mechanic in Mercenaries as well. But players respond really well to it, it's just super fun building a team of Murlocs, or whatever the case is in Battlegrounds. “When you think about spell schools, it taps into the same kind of synergies and the same kind of player mindset, ‘I want to be a Fire Mage. I want to be a Warlock that throws Fel magic.’ The big schools that we're really talking about here are Fel, Shadow, Holy, Frost, Fire, and Nature, and Arcane obviously as well. So a lot of it comes from Mages, but there are definitely other classes that dip into it. And also, this actually gives us a chance to really revisit Shadow as a Priest mechanic. Because over the last year or so, there's a large group of Priest players out there that want to be able to not just be the healing and buffing class, they want to do something different. They love their class and they love some of its older identity, and something like this gives us a chance to bring that back to them as well.” Nathan Lyons-Smith: “Yeah, I think the taxonomy is super helpful… and really fits into the theme of, ‘I want to build this type of deck or have this type of experience.’ But it also… give us tools to say, ‘Hey, you can do this kind of thing with this kind of spell.’ And that's not flexibility we've had before, and so I'm really excited. We've carved out this new design space for the designers to go and explore, and see how they can lean into either more power or less power, depending on the spell school and how it gets used. So lots more to do, this is a permanent change and going back to all of the cards, and so I think there's a lot more to come here.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We've%20carved%20out%20this%20new%20design%20space%20for%20the%20designers%20to%20go%20and%20explore%E2%80%A6"]

Spells Without Schools

Ben Lee: “Some spells don't have schools, it's a lot of what you would consider physical spells. Warrior is a great example of this. Let's say you hypothetically have something that creates a taunt minion or something on those lines, it doesn't really fit into a spell school. So a lot of it's inspired by the art actually, if there's a character doing a big Shadow spell in the art, it's a Shadow spell, and in lots of cases, the naming links into that as well. And a lot of the older stuff, it isn't deliberate synergies, we've had to keep that in mind and try and build into that, so it's actually been a really fun exercise. “We're touching a little bit lightly on that in Forged in the Barrens, [but] in the mini-set that's coming, we’re actually hitting it pretty heavily in some of the classes, so I think it's going to be exciting to see. This is a permanent mechanic that we can lean into for the rest of Hearthstone's future, so you can expect there's going to be points in the future where players are going to be referring to decks as the Fire Mage Deck or the Ice Mage Deck. And I think that's cool fantasy the players like.” Exciting times for Hearthstone, and for those of you itching to see all 235 cards, the full core set will be revealed sometime next week. For now though, be sure to read our coverage of Hearthstone’s new expansion, Forged in the Barrens, and new mode, Mercenaries. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-cards&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is IGN's AU Studio Lead and has a serious soft spot for rave era breakbeat . He also played more Breath of the Wild than any other game last year. Catch him on Twitter. Maybe.

When Hearthstone’s next expansion - Forged in the Barrens – launches, it will be part of the biggest shakeup in the game’s history. Not only will it usher in the Year of the Gryphon, which means three expansions (and change) leave the Standard format, but we will also see Hearthstone’s very bedrock restructured. Up until now, the Basic cards for each class and the Classic set – the cards that launched with the game back in early 2014 – have been the evergreen cards of Hearthstone. They’ve always been there as the underpinning to additional sets that come and go. This means we’ve been playing with the same baseline set of cards for seven years, and it also means that some classes simply have better building blocks than others. Not only that, but Hearthstone’s designers have learnt an awful lot since those first cards were created, and yet they’re the ones that will always be around. No longer. As of rotation, the Basic and Classic cards will be out and a new core set of 235 cards – mostly comprised of existing cards, but also featuring 29 brand new inclusions – will form the baseline for the next year. This set will be completely free, and will be fully unlocked out of the gate for more experienced players, while newcomers will be able to unlock them all quite quickly. It’s a huge change, giving new and returning players a base collection that has value and ensuring that Hearthstone feels completely fresh for seasoned players. And best of all, the core set will change each and every year. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-mp4-1613774003302mp4"] As part of Hearthstone’s Blizzcon 2021 announcements, we’ve now seen some of the new cards, and we’ve found out that magical spell schools are being added to the game – including retroactive changes to all relevant spells. And not only that, but the team are making a bunch of tweaks to existing cards to bring them into line with Hearthstone in 2021. I quizzed Game Director Ben Lee and Production Director Nathan Lyons-Smith about the core set to find out more. Here are some of the juicier nuggets from that conversation.

The Core Set for New and Engaged Players

Nathan Lyons-Smith: “I've been playing for a long time, since before I was at Blizzard. I somehow got a beta key and I was in and hooked, right? And I loved the Classic set, and then we got Naxxramas and we got Goblins vs. Gnomes, and over time, we've just seen some of the cards in the core set be super powerful, and as a result, we've sent them to the Hall of Fame because we don't want to keep seeing the same cards over and over again. And then there's some cards that just aren't powerful at all and we don't see those, and that's generally okay for the experienced players, but [for] new players, you're getting a bunch of cards that aren't powerful now, and aren't having as easy a time. And so this really does touch on new players getting a meaningfully powerful core set of cards, completely for free, to come in and engaged players are getting a big shake-up from what they're normally seeing. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-core-set-returning-cards-and-tweaked-cards&captions=true"] “I think one of the things Ben describes really well when we talk about this as a team is, there's some cards in the old Basic and Classic set that are power level 11, and then there's some that are power level one. And it's just scattered across the board, and it depends on all the cards we've created since then. So what I'm most excited about as a highly engaged player is, we're able to curate this core set to fit really nicely with the expansions we're planning to launch this year. “And then next year, as we have another set of expansions launch, we're going to have an updated core set that will be curated to work with those. And that feels really awesome to me as an engaged player. And again, I'm really happy that as we're getting new players in or returning players coming back in, that it's easy for them to get into, because here's the core set. And it's free, you earn it just like you earned the current Basic cards.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We're%20able%20to%20curate%20this%20core%20set%20to%20fit%20really%20nicely%20with%20the%20expansions%20we're%20planning%20to%20launch%20this%20year."]

The Core Set and Tying in With This Year’s Classic Warcraft Theme

Ben Lee: “We've tried to carry that [theme] across to the core set as well. I mean, that's generally how we're thinking about our content across all of our modes this year, there's definitely some leaning into that classic era of Warcraft lore and history. So you can expect to see that appearing through Standard, Battlegrounds, Duels and also Mercenaries as well. In terms of the core set, we've tried to be mindful of that, but sometimes gameplay has to take precedence too. So there's some examples that might feel a little out of place, but that card was really awesome for the core set and the mechanics and linking in with the way that it works. And rather than just making a new card with new art, it's cool for players to have a call-back of, ‘Hey, that's that card I played years ago, and it's back.’ So in general, as a guiding light, absolutely, that's totally on point, but sometimes gameplay has to take priority too.”

Designing New Cards for the Core Set and How That Fits With the Goals for the Year

Ben Lee: “I think the original idea comes from the fact that there were just some holes when you look at the set as a whole and what we would want to do in the future. Quite a lot of that's actually in the legendary cards themselves. There's some really awesome, fun designs in the legendaries in the Classic set, but they just haven't really aged with the game and they're not really competitive. And our players - Hearthstone's evolved a lot, it's very data-driven in terms of how players go about building their decks, the meta, et cetera. “And having these fun cards, there's definitely room for those, and we have those still, but I think [in terms of] the representation towards more like, ‘These are cards we want you to play, and these are cards that are just for fun,’ we've definitely skewed more in this [- the former -] direction, and I think you can see that across all of our expansions. So I think that's one of the core principles of it, is that we want players to have this set of cards and for them to be realistically playable, we want these cards to be able to go in decks. Yeah, there's obviously a few exceptions for that are like, ‘These cards are deliberately meant to be fun.’ Obviously some players will put them in decks, but they're not going to be in like your Tier 1 meta decks.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20want%20players%20to%20have%20this%20set%20of%20cards%20and%20for%20them%20to%20be%20realistically%20playable%2C%20we%20want%20these%20cards%20to%20be%20able%20to%20go%20in%20decks."]

Riffing on the Old Designs for the New Malygos, Deathwing and Ysera

Ben Lee: “They're very much inspired by it [- the original designs]. I think Malygos was hard to pull off, which is why it does something different. He still does something with spells, deliberately so, he's the Aspect of Magic after all. But we wanted to try and keep the essence of the original card in those cases as much as we could, and be like, ‘What is the modern take on Deathwing? If we make Deathwing as new a card with the same idea in mind, what would it be?’ And I think Deathwing and Ysera are definitely the best examples of that.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-core-set-new-cards-2021&captions=true"]

The Number of Changes That Have Been Made to Existing Cards

Ben Lee: “I don't know the number off the top of my head, it's quite a lot, there's a lot of subtle changes in there… you've probably seen the mana change to Assassinate, and the Overload changes to Shaman, there's more beyond that though. Generally what we've tried to do is look to these cards and been like, ‘How can we make these more playable?’ And some of them just, like we've touched on already, they just haven't aged well, and when you look back and you're like, ‘Could this card be one less mana or could this card have plus +1/+1 on it?’ And the answer to that in a lot of cases is yes. So I think there's some pretty cool implications here, not only for Standard, but also for Wild, because the reality is, players are going to be able to play those cards there too. “And some of those cards are just – they’re just now better in Wild also. So the core set's actually affecting a very broad spectrum of our modes, and beyond that as well, there's actually a whole bunch of changes and reverts from cards coming to Wild as well, so there's a pretty hefty list of what's coming. Not all cards… but there's a lot of Wild cards and cards from history that are getting changes and tweaks.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=There's%20actually%20a%20whole%20bunch%20of%20changes%20and%20reverts%20from%20cards%20coming%20to%20Wild%20as%20well%2C%20so%20there's%20a%20pretty%20hefty%20list..."]

Adding Spell Schools Into Hearthstone

Ben Lee: “There's some pretty obvious, basic schools out there that are really in your face - Frost and Fire, and I think that's where a lot of this comes from originally. There’s definitely a fantasy of like, ‘I'm a Mage player and I want to build a Frost deck,’ or, ‘I want to build a Fire deck.’ So it starts from that, and I think when we were looking at synergies and combos... We actually really love minion types, and I think that's been really great for Battlegrounds. Minion type is actually a pretty core mechanic in Mercenaries as well. But players respond really well to it, it's just super fun building a team of Murlocs, or whatever the case is in Battlegrounds. “When you think about spell schools, it taps into the same kind of synergies and the same kind of player mindset, ‘I want to be a Fire Mage. I want to be a Warlock that throws Fel magic.’ The big schools that we're really talking about here are Fel, Shadow, Holy, Frost, Fire, and Nature, and Arcane obviously as well. So a lot of it comes from Mages, but there are definitely other classes that dip into it. And also, this actually gives us a chance to really revisit Shadow as a Priest mechanic. Because over the last year or so, there's a large group of Priest players out there that want to be able to not just be the healing and buffing class, they want to do something different. They love their class and they love some of its older identity, and something like this gives us a chance to bring that back to them as well.” Nathan Lyons-Smith: “Yeah, I think the taxonomy is super helpful… and really fits into the theme of, ‘I want to build this type of deck or have this type of experience.’ But it also… give us tools to say, ‘Hey, you can do this kind of thing with this kind of spell.’ And that's not flexibility we've had before, and so I'm really excited. We've carved out this new design space for the designers to go and explore, and see how they can lean into either more power or less power, depending on the spell school and how it gets used. So lots more to do, this is a permanent change and going back to all of the cards, and so I think there's a lot more to come here.”[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We've%20carved%20out%20this%20new%20design%20space%20for%20the%20designers%20to%20go%20and%20explore%E2%80%A6"]

Spells Without Schools

Ben Lee: “Some spells don't have schools, it's a lot of what you would consider physical spells. Warrior is a great example of this. Let's say you hypothetically have something that creates a taunt minion or something on those lines, it doesn't really fit into a spell school. So a lot of it's inspired by the art actually, if there's a character doing a big Shadow spell in the art, it's a Shadow spell, and in lots of cases, the naming links into that as well. And a lot of the older stuff, it isn't deliberate synergies, we've had to keep that in mind and try and build into that, so it's actually been a really fun exercise. “We're touching a little bit lightly on that in Forged in the Barrens, [but] in the mini-set that's coming, we’re actually hitting it pretty heavily in some of the classes, so I think it's going to be exciting to see. This is a permanent mechanic that we can lean into for the rest of Hearthstone's future, so you can expect there's going to be points in the future where players are going to be referring to decks as the Fire Mage Deck or the Ice Mage Deck. And I think that's cool fantasy the players like.” Exciting times for Hearthstone, and for those of you itching to see all 235 cards, the full core set will be revealed sometime next week. For now though, be sure to read our coverage of Hearthstone’s new expansion, Forged in the Barrens, and new mode, Mercenaries. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-reveal-cards&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is IGN's AU Studio Lead and has a serious soft spot for rave era breakbeat . He also played more Breath of the Wild than any other game last year. Catch him on Twitter. Maybe.

With today's announcement of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic proving that Blizzard won't shy away from making its old WoW expansions available anew, the question becomes: how far will Blizzard take Classic? Will we see Wrath of the Lich King Classic next? Speaking to IGN in advance of BlizzCon 2021, executive producer John Hight and lead software engineer Brian Birmingham are clear that what Classic ultimately becomes will be determined by what the Classic community wants -- after all, it was for the community that Classic servers were originally made, and it was also because of strong community that they opted to take the game into The Burning Crusade this year. "We set the stage even when we announced Classic," said Hight. "That was one of the questions I got on that fateful day at BlizzCon. At that point we already had plans, but we did want to see how popular Classic was going to be. And I think we've said it multiple times, but we were completely overwhelmed with how much positive reception we got... not only did they come in droves to play Classic, but they've continued to play, and it's a vibrant community. We brag now that we have the two biggest MMORPGs in PC gaming. Of course we would go to Burning Crusade." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/world-of-warcraft-burning-crusade-classic-trailer"] When asked more specifically how far Classic could potentially go, Birmingham affirmed that while Blizzard has nothing to announce for now, a possible Wrath of the Lich King Classic would not be off the table. "We want to hear what the community wants," he said. What people want to see is what we want to do. If people are excited about the next chapters, then we want to hear about that and start talking about it." Hight added, "If we have a good party going we want to keep the party going." The two were also clear that the current plan is for the original World of Warcraft: Classic, sans expansions, to keep existing perpetually as it is -- at a minimum.

"There were people who when we did Classic, asked specifically, 'We want the original version of the game,'" Birmingham said. "And we don't want to take that away from them -- we just gave it to them. So we want to make sure they still have that choice.

 "...What we definitely want to do is make sure that we are being true to people to say that there is something that is Classic and feels like that. Then there's an open question: are there other quality of life changes that make sense to make there as more people move on to Burning Crusade? And we're definitely interested in hearing community feedback about what we should do with that."

Hight added, "We know a lot of people love that [version of] WoW, and they have been willing to level up, play for a while, and start that journey over again. We've certainly kicked around some ideas about how best to engage them and support them in that. As Brian said, we're open to ideas. This is their community too."

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic and details about the 9.1 patch for Shadowlands were leaked yesterday ahead of BlizzCon today, when they were formally announced. We also spoke with Hight and Birmingham about other Burning Crusade Classic details, including planned paid character boosts and cloning services, and changes to Burning Crusade from its original version. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

With today's announcement of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic proving that Blizzard won't shy away from making its old WoW expansions available anew, the question becomes: how far will Blizzard take Classic? Will we see Wrath of the Lich King Classic next? Speaking to IGN in advance of BlizzCon 2021, executive producer John Hight and lead software engineer Brian Birmingham are clear that what Classic ultimately becomes will be determined by what the Classic community wants -- after all, it was for the community that Classic servers were originally made, and it was also because of strong community that they opted to take the game into The Burning Crusade this year. "We set the stage even when we announced Classic," said Hight. "That was one of the questions I got on that fateful day at BlizzCon. At that point we already had plans, but we did want to see how popular Classic was going to be. And I think we've said it multiple times, but we were completely overwhelmed with how much positive reception we got... not only did they come in droves to play Classic, but they've continued to play, and it's a vibrant community. We brag now that we have the two biggest MMORPGs in PC gaming. Of course we would go to Burning Crusade." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/world-of-warcraft-burning-crusade-classic-trailer"] When asked more specifically how far Classic could potentially go, Birmingham affirmed that while Blizzard has nothing to announce for now, a possible Wrath of the Lich King Classic would not be off the table. "We want to hear what the community wants," he said. What people want to see is what we want to do. If people are excited about the next chapters, then we want to hear about that and start talking about it." Hight added, "If we have a good party going we want to keep the party going." The two were also clear that the current plan is for the original World of Warcraft: Classic, sans expansions, to keep existing perpetually as it is -- at a minimum.

"There were people who when we did Classic, asked specifically, 'We want the original version of the game,'" Birmingham said. "And we don't want to take that away from them -- we just gave it to them. So we want to make sure they still have that choice.

 "...What we definitely want to do is make sure that we are being true to people to say that there is something that is Classic and feels like that. Then there's an open question: are there other quality of life changes that make sense to make there as more people move on to Burning Crusade? And we're definitely interested in hearing community feedback about what we should do with that."

Hight added, "We know a lot of people love that [version of] WoW, and they have been willing to level up, play for a while, and start that journey over again. We've certainly kicked around some ideas about how best to engage them and support them in that. As Brian said, we're open to ideas. This is their community too."

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic and details about the 9.1 patch for Shadowlands were leaked yesterday ahead of BlizzCon today, when they were formally announced. We also spoke with Hight and Birmingham about other Burning Crusade Classic details, including planned paid character boosts and cloning services, and changes to Burning Crusade from its original version. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.