Hearthstone
Ben Brode: BlizzCon, what up! Well met. Wow, there is a lot of people here. This is awesome. I have never done the opening ceremony before. This is crazy.
Listen, if you would love a Hearthstone like I do, this is going to be the best BlizzCon yet. We outgrew the convention center. They had to build us a brand-new hall. I am standing here on the Legendary Hearthstone eSports stage where the Invitational will take place later this weekend. You get it.
The Hearthstone tavern is back, and bigger than ever. Come stop by for a drink or to challenge one of the Hearthstone developers. I think it is one of the coolest things of Blizzcon. Listen, this has been an awesome year for Hearthstone. We journeyed into the Un’Goro Crater, we joined the Lich King and became Knights of the Frozen Throne, and today you are going to see the final sets in the Year of the Mammoth.
It comes out next month, and it takes us back to the roots of classic fantasy, full of monsters, treasures, and traps. It brings back memories of sitting around a table gaming with your buddies, delving deep into dark dungeons. Get ready for Hearthstone’s next expansion.
I love this set. It is awesome. Kobold tunnels full of treasure, this is our love letter to that classic fantasy dungeon crawling vibe. So, what kind of cards can you expect from Kobolds and Catacombs? I am not going to tell you. I am going to let you discover the sets for yourselves. Steel yourselves adventurers, we are going in.
Okay. You are in the entrance to a dungeon on a quest to find a legendary treasure. To your left is a tunnel, stinky goo lines the floors and walls, to your right is a massive door with a huge lock but the lock is broken, where do you want to go?
Alright, cheer if you want to go into the tunnel. Now cheer if you want to go into the door.
I think I heard tunnel louder, so we are going to go left, to the sticky goo tunnel. Let’s go!
So, you slide through the tunnel and into a room with a huge ooze creature lying dead on the floor. Prying a chest from its remains is the legendary adventurer, Marin the Fox.
So, Marin will spawn a chest, and if you can break the chest open you learn one of the craziest cards we have ever made in Hearthstone, cards like Tolin’s goblet. Draw a card, fill your hand with copies of it. It is pretty crazy.
Marin is so excited to join your party that he is coming out way before the rest of the sets, everyone who logs in starting Monday will get Marin the Fox for free. Also, everyone here at BlizzCon or watching at home via the virtual tickets will also get a golden copy.
Okay, back to the dungeon. Marin winks to you and escapes with the treasure. You see two doors in front of you. To your left is a door with a sign on it that says: “Kobold treasure hoard, adventurers keep out!” To your right is a door with the words: “Certain death!” scrawled on it. Where do you want to go?
Okay, we are going to go right. You guys are bold, alright. Let us check it out.
So, your party enters the room and as you do, the walls start closing in crushing half of your party. What did you expect? Everybody from here to here, you are all dead.
On the bright side, you found another new card: Crushing Wall — “Destroy your opponent’s left and right-most minions.” This is a Hunter card. You guys are going to have to recruit some new party members to finish the dungeon. Fortunately, the new keyword in Kobold and Catacombs is: Recruit.
Alright, so Recruit means that you’ll pull a minion directly out of your deck and put it directly into the battlefield.
So imagine pulling Ysera for only 6-Mana. She will make a pretty good healer for your party I think. Alright, you can tell they are close to finding the legendary treasure. This next decision is very important. To your left is a hallway and claw marks marking the entrance. To your right is another hall that is literally on fire. Where do you want to go?
Okay, if you want to go left, cheer, how about right?
Okay, we are going to go right, let us go. So, you run through the hallway burning away most of your clothes, and you went to a room filled with kobold candles surrounding a pedestal with a glowing disk atop it. It is the legendary treasure you were searching for. The priest card: Dragon Soul.
Yes, this is Hearthstone’s first legendary weapon. Every time you cast three spells, you summon a huge dragon. We have made legendary weapons for all 9 classes, even ones that have never had weapons before. I am super excited about these 9 cards. They are crazy.
BlizzCon, congratulations on completing the dungeon and escaping with the legendary treasure, good job. Well done. Unfortunately, you missed some of the cards in the dungeon. So you will have to come to the panel later today to see the things you didn’t get to explore. Check out some of the other cards, and then other mechanics in Kobolds and Catacombs.
So, look there was a reason I ran your through a dungeon, and it wasn’t just to kill this half of the room. We also have a new single-player experience, and it is nothing like what we have done in the past.
This time we are introducing a totally new single-player mode, and it is called the Dungeon Run. So, the Dungeon Run is all about defeating bosses, collecting loot, and leveling up your character; and in a Kobolds and Catacombs Dungeon Run we will shuffle up an 8-card boss deck, and you will defeat 8 random bosses. And each time you defeat a boss, you will earn some new cards for your deck. We will start with a lowly 10 card deck, you will earn some new cards for your deck, increasing your power each game.
If you lose, we throw your deck away, and you have to start all over from the beginning with a new strategy. It is essentially a Hearthstone rogue-like, and it is our most replayable single-player content ever. Also, it is completely free! It is totally separate from the Hearthstone collection. You don’t need any cards to play. Come check it out here in the North Hall in our demo stations over there. Come try. I think you are going to love it. It is awesome.
Don’t forget to come to the panel later today to see the cards that you missed in the Dungeon Run, and some of the other new mechanics on the sets. The team is so excited about Kobolds and Catacombs. We cannot wait to share the set with you and the new Dungeon Run mode when it comes out next month.
And now, it is my great pleasure to introduce someone who I personally have run a bunch of dungeons with in my time. From the Overwatch arena, Jeff Kaplan.
NEXT: OVERWATCH
| BlizzCon 2017 Opening Ceremony panel transcript | |||
| 1. Intro by Morhaime | 2. Heroes of the Storm | 3. Hearthstone | 4. Overwatch |
| 5. World of Warcraft | |||
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