Hearthstone Battlegrounds update adds Sindragosa and many other Heroes

Hearthstone has just released an update for Battlegrounds mode, adding 4 new heroes and removing 4 heroes at the same time, along with making some necessary changes.

Battlegrounds was first announced at BlizzCon 2019 and the Hearthstone team promises that there will be continuous updates for this auto battler mode in the future.

The November 19 update is the first to add a new hero to this early access mode.

But besides the newly added hero, the 4 existing heroes in the game were also removed, leaving the number of heroes unchanged at 24.

Hero changes

The Lich King’s Giant Ice Dragon, Sindragosais the first hero on the list to be added, with a +1/+1 power boost for minions that freeze at the end of the turn.

Elise Starseeker unlocks a ‘Recruitment Map’, which recruits a minion in the player’s current Tavern Tier after upgrading the Tavern.

Brann Bronzebeard and Sir Finley Mrrgglton will also be added to Battlegrounds. In return, the player will have to say goodbye to 4 heroes. King Mukla, Giantfin, Millicent Manastorm and Lich Baz’hial will be temporarily removed from the game.

However, these heroes still have the potential to return if the Hearthstone team regularly updates the Battlegrounds and has a periodic hero rotation.

Changes to the Battlegrounds ranking system

The amount of points awarded to the top player of a match has also been reduced.

Prior to this update, players would get 240 points at the top of the first match and 24 points for the top from the 150th game onwards.

Now, players only get 190 points for the first match and 95 points for the top of the matches from the 150th game onwards.

Here are the full patch notes for the November 19 Hearthstone Battlegrounds update.

Heroes added

• Sindragosa
• Elise Starseeker
• Brann Bronzebeard
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Heroes leaving Battlegrounds

To make room for other heroes, the heroes below will have to temporarily leave Hearthstone Battlegrounds. They will probably return in a future update.

• King Mukla
• Giantfin
• Millicent Manastorm
• Lich Baz’hial

Balance update

Minions:

• Primalfin Lookout
  • Switch from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4
• Voidlord
  • Switch from Tavern Tier 6 to Tavern Tier 5
• Junkbot
  • Switch from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 5
• Coldlight Seer
  • Move from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2

Developer Comment: We wanted to buff Demon and Murloc, so we moved those minions down to a Tavern Tier. Junkbot is a bit too strong for Tavern Tier 4 and makes Mech players unmotivated to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5. With these changes, we think the power of minions is more balanced.

Rating System

We changed the amount of bonus points for 1st place. Initially, you will receive 240 points for your first 1st place, and 24 points for 1st place of matches from 150th match return later. You will now get 190 points for 1st place in the first match, and 95 points for 1st place in matches from the 150th game onwards.

Fixes

• Infested Wold
  • The upgraded version of Infested Wolf has been moved from Tavern Tier 2 to Tavern Tier 3 to match the original.
• Rat Pack
  • The upgraded version of the Rat Pack has been moved from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2 to match the original.
• Tree tokens now spawn from Adapt effects under Tavern Tier 1.
• Now, Snake Trap spawned Snake Tokens belong to Tavern Tier 1.

Some future changes

We’re currently planning an early December update. Below are some of the work the team is working on.

• We want to continue to balance minions and Heroes based on their performance. We have not fixed the changes yet, but will be monitoring closely and will provide more information soon.
• We want to continue to rotate new heroes into the game and bring existing heroes out. We’re planning to include some familiar faces in the December update.
• We’re working on two new minions and plan to include them in our December update: King Bagurgle – a brand new card, and Floating Watcher – a card from the Goblins vs. Gnomes.
• We’re working on the first version of the Stats feature, which will give you more information about your achievements. We also wanted to add some interesting stats, such as how many Triples you made, the top 5 Heroes with the highest win rate, etc. A new version of the Stats feature is coming next year. .