Introducing two new mechanics and a new tribe, the journey starts at the beginning of April.
It has been hinted at and spoken about a lot, but today finally the official announcement came of the upcoming Hearthstone expansion. Journey to Un'Goro will bring 135 new cards to the game, and introduce two new mechanics and a new tribe. The set can be pre-ordered soon™, with the usual "50 packs for $50 + a special card back" deal.
The first new mechanic is called Adapt. Dipping into Darwinism, some minions of Journey to Un'Goro can enhance themselves with varous upgrades through a Discover-like method. A few of those upgrades were already shown: +3 attack, Taunt, Divine Shield. In total there are ten possible adaptations a minon can have, making them somewhat of a small [card]Kazakus[/card]. Verdant Longneck is the first minion with the Adapt mechanic that we got to see.
Secondly, Quests are being introduced to Hearthstone, in the shape of Legendary spells (FINALLY). Once a Quest is in play, a player has to complete a certain task for the reward to be given to them. Those rewards are big, but do require serious investments. The first Quest spoiled is the quest Awaken the Makers, a Priest-only spell. Upon completing the quest of summoning 7 Deathrattle minions, the player is rewarded with Amara, Warden of Hope, which you can see below.
Aside from two new mechanics, another tribe is added as well. After Beasts, Demons, Pirates, Dragons, Totems, Mechs and Murlocs, we now will be enjoying the company of Elementals. These minions are - surprisingly - dedicated to one of the many elements in WoW. Minions that already exist in Hearthstone as of today and are also considered an elemental will be granted the tag of Elemental too (think of [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card] and [card]Neptulon[/card]).
The first new Elemental was shown in the announcement video as well: Pyros, the new Mage legendary. It starts off as a 2 mana 2/2, but being a phoenix, reincarnates to become stronger. Upon dying it returns to its owners hand, but becomes a 6 mana 6/6. If Pyros 2.0 then dies too, it returns to the hand to become a 10 mana 10/10.
The Shaman class will receive a new AoE spell, though it can backfire heavily. Volcano reminisces of [card]Spreading Madness[/card], though players cannot be hit by Volcano's effect.
All cards that will be revealed in the future are going to be uploaded to our Un'Goro spoiler page, so be sure to keep an eye on it.
Lastly, with a new expansion, of course a new board joins the game too. Check out the dangerous looking new game board below!
