Despite the controversies surrounding many of its recent decisions, Blizzard continues to endure.Blizzard recently celebrated its 30th anniversaryby giving away gifts in its various titles, includingHearthstone.
While those gifts are well and good, they don’t change the fact thatHearthstonehas been in a rocky place as of late. The new Tavern Pass, which overhauled the game’s progression system, was despised by many players, and Blizzard is looking for a way to get back in their good graces. Luckily, Blizzard seems to have hit on a way to do so with the introduction of Hearthstone Classic Mode.
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Hot on the heels ofHearthstone’s first mini-expansion, The Darkmoon Races, Blizzard is taking a huge step back to the past with Classic Mode. If it sounds familiar, it’s because the mode sets out to do something similar toWorld of Warcraft Classic. In Classic mode, players can only use the cards that were available at the launch ofHearthstone, and those cards will be reset to how they were before any balance changes were implemented, both in terms of classic stats and effects. These versions of cards will only be available in Classic Mode.
Other changes are coming alongside Classic Mode. For one thing, the Core Set is being restructured, and will now contain both older and newer cards, with the new ones being either from newer sets or completely new. The cards from the old Core set that don’t make the cut are being put in their own pack: the Legacy set. The new Core Set will be usable in Standard format alongsideThe Darkmoon Faire and other new expansionsand will change over time as new cards are introduced. No longer will the Core Set be steady, reliable, and static, now it changes with the seasons.
There’s a real question of whether or not Blizzard will be able to maintain this frozen Classic state forHearthstone, where the game stays frozen in its 2014 state. EvenWOW Classicis adding older expansions, repeating history as it marches towards the present-day game.
UnlikeWOW Classic, this is just one mode ofHearthstone, and players can still hop into Standard or Wild format easily. The announcement has been met with general praise, as originalHearthstonewas very different from the current day, and much beloved. WithoutHearthstone’s newest nerfsor the massive amount of RNG present in its later expansions, players can once more experience the original joy that drew them toHearthstoneto begin with.
Hearthstoneis available on PC and mobile.
