It looks like the news has changed regarding Hearthstone's Classic mode from when Dean Ayala talked about it last week! Dean had previously stated the new mode would be going live alongside the release of the Forged in the Barrens and not patch 20.0 which was our initial guess. An update to Blizzard's core set blog since then has stated this is not the case!
This is going to give us something different to play for a few days before the expansion comes out, which will enable us to make a less difficult decision when it comes to picking which shiny new toy to play with. Hearthstone's Classic mode, and 20.0 patch, should launch prior to the pre-release weekend which takes place on March 26, though no time and date have been confirmed yet. We can expect to hear something during the final card reveal stream taking place on March 22.
Thanks to RidiculousHat for pointing this out.
Quote From Blizzard This blog originally stated that Classic would go live alongside set rotation, which occurs at the launch of the expansion. We've updated it to reflect that Classic will unlock earlier, with the 20.0 patch.
Comments
Smart to release this earlier than the expansion!
I'm guessing this means that the unrevealed nerfs (Nitroboost Poison) will go live on March 23rd as well.
It's a good decision IMHO. However, I fear that while the new Classic mode will bring joy for veterans as well as people who joined the train later, it will die out pretty soon once the initial hype is over and the meta is 'solved' due to a very limited card pool.
Still a welcome addition to the game tho.
Players who are not interested in Classic or Wild would disenchant Classic cards with the rotation. If they try out the new mode prior to the rotation, they can change their mind.
I think it's a win-win both for players and Blizzard.
They get to keep their hard-earned collection if they decide to keep playing Classic. It would be worse to craft them later.
Less dust for new expansion, more pre-purchase.
Classic sounds fun but I barely have any classic cards so I'll just try it out a bit and disenchant when I need dust.
Omg, that will be probably the next Tuesday/Wednesday. The hype is real!
You know what, we could just ask Dean again to be sure.
I think the faster they launch it, the faster the majority of the players to find a bug and fix it, since an update this big surely have bugs somewhere.
Dean said on Twitter that he was wrong!
https://twitter.com/IksarHS/status/1372073844882685955
Unfortunate situation but hey, at least everything makes sense now!
Well, then we can experience two new things in the space of one week. As someone who don't really have much time with games in general, its welcoming news.
THANK YOU!
I did think it felt stupid to simultaneously launch both the expansion and Classic since I'd imagine a lot of people want to play both and they would just be torn between the two.
Yeah, I kinda wanted to smack my monitor when that was written because it just seemed tone-deaf.
Now we can play Classic for a few days and then come back to it a week in when some class is destroying the meta in Standard and we're waiting on that early balance patch.
This will be an exciting few days where the meta doesn't know what to do!