The newest Hearthstone patch was released today by Blizzard. The Hearthstone patch is live now on PC and will be available for download on mobile devices soon. This update brings a new legendary card and buffs to 18 cards of the Boomsday Project, as well as the introduction of the Masters Bundle. For the full details of exactly which cards have been buffed, check out our coverage of the initial announcement. Besides the previously announced changes, Blizzard surprised us today with some unexpected improvements to the game. Hidden away under the card buffs in the new blog post is a short announcement of quality-of-life changes made to Hearthstone.
Mobile Hearthstone reconnect feature improvements
These changes are purely for the mobile side of Hearthstone. In the past, if you disconnected, switched apps, or locked the screen of your phone, you would be redirected to the login screen before reconnecting to your game. This often resulted in losing out on turns or entire games if you played in an area with a worse connection. When the update goes live on mobile devices, this should no longer happen and allow for a quicker reconnection to the game.
Mobile Hearthstone will now attempt to reconnect in the background while browsing features, such as browsing the collection manager. Until today, the app closed itself if a disconnection occurred. This caused the user to have to restart the Hearthstone app once the connection to the internet was restored. This reconnection feature is made possible by the fact that Hearthstone is now able to be accessed offline. Although the features of offline mode in Hearthstone are still rather limited, this really is a great improvement for those enjoying the game on their mobile devices.
Matchmaking improvements
This is arguably the most important change for competitive players out there. For years players have asked for this feature, and now it’s finally here: From now on, it will be more difficult to face the same opponents multiple times in a row while playing ladder. The main reason this is a good thing is that it will reduce/stop the counter queuing that has long plagued the higher ranks of Hearthstone. Another side-benefit of this change is the fact that win-trading has become a lot more difficult, which used to be a problem when Hearthstone‘s ladder mattered a lot for qualifying to the pro circuit.
Hearthstone’s Masters Bundle
The bundles of Hearthstone are always a great way to increase your collection. This time is no exception. For $19.99 you can receive 10 Rise of Shadows, 10 Rastakhan’s Rumble packs, the new Stole Thunder card back, and the new hero portrait, the Thunder King for the Shaman class. On top of this, 50 percent of the revenue from the Masters Bundle will be put towards the three Masters Tour event prize pools this year, split evenly between the events. This revenue split will go up to $250,000 per event or a total of $750,000 for the year.
This patch might be the best Hearthstone has ever put out, and we’re sure to give the buffed cards a go. For more coverage of what the future of Hearthstone holds, check out more coverage at Daily Esports!
