A deeper look at 'Hearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan'
Hearthstone's upcoming expansion Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sends players into the city of Gadgetzan, a rapidly expanding port town teeming with unsavory folk, crime syndicates and evildoers that make for some game-changing new cards.
Mashable was able to check out a whole bunch of them at BlizzCon as well as sit down with Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes to talk about the fourth expansion.
A handful of new and unique cards will be introduced to Hearthstone when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan goes live in early December. This includes the brand new tri-class cards that can be used by three different classes instead of being relegated to just one.
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This new tri-class system is tied to the story of Gadgetzan, which has become home to three different crime families: the Grimey Goons, the Kabal and the Jade Lotus.
New cards
Hunters, Warriors and Paladins make up the Grimey Goons; Mages, Priests and Warlocks form the Kabal; and Druids, Rogues and Shamans fall under the Jade Lotus. With tri-class cards, players have the opportunity to temporarily access cards belong to the other classes in their crime family, as well as share certain cards.
"Now you may see cards like the Kabal Courier, whose battlecry lets you discover a Mage, Priest or Warlock card," Chayes said.
"What that allows is now all of a sudden Warlocks -- who have historically had this problem with managing life total because of the way Life Tap works -- maybe there's a way they can draw a Priest healing spell that gives them a big buff. That can really give new life and different ways to think about it to Warlock players, but in a way that still keeps the integrity of that class."
These cards alone have huge potential to shift the meta, opening up completely new avenues to players and their decks. To shake up the game even more, there are more traditional tri-class cards that can be used by multiple classes, like Kazakus, leader of the Kabal.
Kazakus is a legendary minion available to Kabal classes, which has a never-before-seen battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, create a custom potion -- a new feature in the game. Players get to choose whether the potion costs one mana, five mana or 10 as well as select its two effects.
"It's such a cool card idea," Chayes said, naming Kazukus as one of his favorites in Mean Streets. "It's something that was inspired by some feedback we had in the community way back when. Besides just the flavor of this mysterious dude who's running the Kabal and using potions for this massive effect, it really creates some interesting tactical decisions you can make as you're playing."
Trying this card out at BlizzCon had some devastating effects. Playing a Priest, I used a 10-mana potion to give myself 10 armor and clear the enemy Paladin's board by doing six damage to all minions -- a total reversal late in the game that led to my victory in the next two turns.
A few other legendary cards turned up, including a super powerful Druid card, Kun the Forgotten King, Paladin card Wickerflame Burnbristle and pirate card Patches the Pirate.
Also there's a Piranha Launcher:
Class buffs
"We got a lot of feedback about [balance] around the time that we launched One Night in Karazhan that Priests really need a lot of love," Chayes said. And love is what they received.
Priests have a few fairly strong new cards that give them a much-needed boost (aside from the help that tri-class cards bring).
Potion of Madness has great potential by itself in the early game, allowing you to easily take out two of your enemies' low-health minions with for just one mana. Paired with some tactical plays in late-game situations, Potion of Madness can be devastating.
I encountered another potion while playing the demo at BlizzCon called Dragonfire Potion, which did five damage to all minions except dragons, opening up a lot of dragon build possibilities for Priest players.
Paladins have also received a handful of great new cards on top of Wickerflame Burnbristle.
Playing against a Paladin, Small-Time Recruits was such an annoying card, especially when paired with some minion bonus cards. Getaway Kodo, equal parts hilarious and helpful, is a great late-game card when you have some heavy hitters out on the board.
Chayes said that no classes are getting nerfed in Mean Streets.
Chayes said that no classes are getting nerfed in Mean Streets (although the Druid in the demo felt very weak), especially considering the nerfs that rolled out in October.
"In terms of what's actually going to push the meta, it's a little hard to say," Chayes told Mashable.
"We have an awesome balance team and this is what they spend their days doing, trying to find the cards that are like, 'Can this break the meta? Is this going to be ok?'
"But there are tools we always want to put out to kind of help push the meta in new directions because I think that's what keeps the game very healthy."
