Hearthstone | New Expansion “Forged in the Barrens” Announced

The very first Hearthstone expansion of 2021 has now officially been confirmed — Forged in the Barrens will ship to live servers in just a couple of months! There’s still no official release date, but if Blizzard’s standard expansion cadence is any indication, this peculiar set should be dropping sometime around March/April.

Either way, it’s right around the corner! And, as always, there’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s begin!

Hearthstone | Forged in the Barrens Expansion

• Players will be able to get their hands on 135 brand-new cards once Forged in the Barrens hits live servers! You can go over recently revealed cards on Blizzard’s official website!
• New Keyword: Frenzy — All minions with this novel keyword will trigger a powerful effect the first time they survive damage. So Razormane Raider, for instance, will attack a random enemy. Blademaster Samuro will deal damage equal to his Attack to all enemy units whereas Druid of the Plains will transform into an entirely different minion. This is just a quick glimpse at the sort of effects you can expect going forward.
• Ranked Spells — All 10 classes will now have access to an all-new Ranked Spell that’ll grow in power as you attain more Mana Crystals, with 5 and 10 crystals being the two current thresholds.
• New Mechanic: Spell Schools — This is a permanent addition to the game and it’ll be retroactively applied to numerous previously released spells. By doing so, Blizzard will create brand-new synergies while also adding a bonus layer of depth. All spells in Standard and Wild can now have a tag from one of seven entirely different spell schools: Arcane, Fel, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, and Shadow.
• Forged in the Barrens will also introduce ten brand-new Legendary Mercenary minions to Hearthstone, with each representing a different class. Their unique stories will also be told as the season progresses in an “all-new year-long narrative!”
• If you log in right now, you’ll get a free copy of Shadow Hunter Vol’jin! Who doesn’t like freebies?

Hearthstone Mercenaries

A brand-new game mode called Hearthstone Mercenaries will be shipping to live servers in the second half of 2021. It’s an all-new single-player game mode (with a competitive component) in which you’ll assemble a team of characters and go through a gauntlet of sorts. The challenges you’ll face will be randomly generated, so think of this as a CCG roguelike. An interesting idea, and one that isn’t all that complicated to pull off, either! We’re always up for more single-player content, that’s for sure!

Overall, if you’re a regular player, then you definitely have a reason to celebrate! Blizzard is making a ton of changes to the game, and most of their decisions are coming from the right place. For the first time in a while, Hearthstone sounds about as exciting as it was back in its heyday! And that’s really saying something. If their upcoming format changes pan out as well, Blizzard will have an absolute winner on their hands!

As always, we’ll bring you more coverage as we inch closer to the release of Forged in the Barrens!