Blizzard announced last week that Hearthstone is going to receive a major update that is scheduled to introduce new cards, new game mechanics and for the first time ever, a new class. The update is called Ashes of Outland and it is now available to download for Android. This is a preview version of the update, similar to how Blizzard launches pre-patches before every World of Warcraft expansion.
Hearthstone 17.0.4422 Update
The new update for the Android version of Hearthstone sports the 17.0.4422 version number and it is now available to download via OTA (over the air) channels. As previously noted, the update makes it possible for Hearthstone fans to start playing the prologue campaign so that they can unlock the game’s first new class, the fearsome Demon Hunter!
Full Patch Notes
Now that we have checked out everything there is to know about the new update and how to download it, let’s go ahead and take a look at the official patch notes for the Ashes of Outland update.
Card Packs Now Have Duplicate Protection Across All Rarities
Starting today, your card packs are going to be full of the good stuff—new cards! You’ll no longer receive more than two copies of any Common, Rare, or Epic card until you have owned two copies of all cards of that rarity in a set. Crafting a card counts towards acquiring it, and any cards you acquire and later disenchant (whether golden or non-golden) count as well.
This means that if you get a card that you don’t want, you can disenchant it and you will not receive it again until you have all cards of that rarity from that set. This improvement even affects card packs you already own, but it won’t affect the overall distribution of rarities in card packs.
Free Deck for New and Returning Players
If you’re new to the game—or you’ve been away for a spell—we’d like to help you get right to playing and having fun. Starting today, players new to the game who graduate from the New Player ranks will get a free competitive deck from a class of their choice, built with cards from the Year of the Dragon!
This also applies to players who haven’t logged into the game in the past four months*. *Free deck only available to players who have not logged into Hearthstone in the past 4 months beginning on March 17, 2020. Limit one per account.
Battlegrounds Updates
- If you currently have Battlegrounds bonus stats, choose from 3 Heroes, or visual emotes unlocked—you will get access to the equivalent new perks included with the Tavern Pass starting today, which you can learn about here.
- Battlegrounds Perks earned from collecting Descent of Dragons packs (including the new perks such as choosing from 4 heroes) will expire once Ashes of Outland is released.
- Cobalt Guardian has been removed from the Minion pool.
NEW HERO – Illidan Stormrage added to the pool.
- Wingmen [Passive] Start of Combat: Your left and right-most minions attack immediately.
NEW MINIONS
- Deflect-o-Bot [Mech, Tier 3] 3 Attack, 2 Health.
Divine Shield Whenever you summon a Mech during combat, gain +1 Attack and Divine Shield.
- Felfin Navigator* [Murloc, Tier 3] 4 Attack, 4 Health.
Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +1/+1.
Zephrys the Great—Now Greater Than Ever
- Zephrys the Great has been updated for the changes to the Basic/Classic sets in Year of the Phoenix:
- Removal of the 5 Neutral and 6 Priest cards sent to the Hall of Fame.
- Addition of Demon Hunter Basic cards (pending Ashes of Outland launch on April 7), and the 6 new Priest Basic/Classic cards.
- Improved ordering of simulated attacks to best make use of Rush minions to clear Taunts, in order to maximize potential face damage. This should solve many cases where Zephrys ‘missed lethal’ that involved trading a Rush minion into a Taunt before going face with other minions.
- Zephrys is now more likely to offer a Freeze card when the opponent has a full board since it locks the opponent out of being able to play any minions.
- Fixed a bug where Freeze effects were sometimes offered against already-Frozen enemies.
- Fixed a bug where SI:7 Infiltrator was offered for next turn over Flare for this turn.
- Fixed several bugs involving the opponent’s weapon and/or Frozen state, for calculating whether healing should be offered.
- Fixed a bug where minions whose base cost was higher than 10 (such as Shirvallah, the Tiger) were evaluated as being extremely valuable.
- Fixed a bug where Windfury was not offered for use on a minion that has already attacked once this turn.
- Fixed a bug where Crazed Alchemist was offered to destroy your own Doomsayer.