The big 21.0 patch for United in Stormwind dropped on Tuesday without much fanfare or the particular heads-up we are accustomed to from the Hearthstone team. This time we didn't even get to learn the patch notes or precise dates well ahead of time, all of which had to do with the grave ongoing situation at Activision Blizzard and everything that has since followed. Some card reveals were cancelled in the wake of such events, and the final reveal stream never took place. Almost all communication was halted for a time, so understandably nobody could tell for sure what was going to happen. Or when.

Which brings us to the particular issue of the expired XP bonus for completing Forged in the Barrens Gameplay achievements - something that blindsided many players who were still counting on having at least a few days more for any finishing touches. Even we were hoping to at least be able to run a small 'last minute completion' mini-series before the time was up, just like during the previous expansion. My apologies that did not come to pass, or that we couldn't have provided more of a decisive warning in this case.

With the heavy atmosphere around the company and the game for the past week, it's very unfortunate that we all couldn't find the usual reasons for celebrating what's already looking like a really great creative set and go through the typical motions in preparation for it.

The Confusing Initial Patch Notes

There is also the fact of the early 21.0 patch notes containing the following misleading excerpt: 


(Source)

If you check various other sites that report on Hearthstone more or less regularly, this is the version of the patch notes you might still find snapshotted for posterity, which likely affected the early expectations. 

Of course, that notion was very quickly dispelled as people finished downloading their patches and started logging into the game, only to be greeted by a new set of XP Gameplay achievements... for United in Stormwind. While Forged in the Barrens collection changed from the juicy experience bonus into far less useful plain achievement points. If somebody had several achievements completed but not yet claimed, their potential XP gain had also presumably vanished. Which stung even more for any Tavern Pass holders. 

Several people then actually attempted to ping Celestalon, resulting in the following Twitter exchanges; with many others commenting elsewhere all around the web. And as has often been the case in the past, he did prove to be very responsive, which eventually resulted in the above paragraph being pruned from the official version. 

Quote From Celestalon
Ah; I'll get that fixed, thanks. It's the *Reward Track* that swaps over on Aug 3rd, not achievements.

Quote From Celestalon
Yes, it was removed shortly after the patch notes went up, when we noticed they were in error.

Better Luck Next Time? 

And that brings us to here and now. If you haven't been distracted or discouraged by all the recent happenings around Hearthstone, perhaps it was on your mind to stick to the 'better safe than sorry' route and wrap up everything ahead of time.

After all, there has indeed been a similar precedent when the XP bonus for Darkmoon Faire achievements was going away - except back then we did receive our due warning. And the big Barrens patch went live slightly closer to that expansion's release date, not an entire week early. 

Ah, well. Hopefully one day we can get to the point where everything switches together along with the fresh Rewards Track, which would undoubtedly simplify things for all involved while making the most sense. Right now we even have this curious situation when the Barrens Tavern Pass is still active until August 3 and actually provides the full XP bonus for the new Stormwind Gameplay achievements - but of course the vast majority of them require new cards to be playable for their completion. 

Quote From Celestalon
Sorry for the confusion here. This should be identical to how it worked at the start of Barrens. You can still complete these achievements. They just don't reward the XP anymore (there are new XP-rewarding achievements instead).

I'm also personally disappointed I didn't get to finish all of the more detailed achievement guides for catching our precious XP - relatively small as these bonuses might seem. But that's also in great part due to other various life obstacles. Sorry if anyone here was counting on that and also biding their time until the last moment! They should still see their eventual polish for completion's sake, even if that's only ever going to be useful for the more dedicated achievement points collectors out there. Unless one day the Hearthstone team decides to grace us with extra benefits for all that effort... one can dream. 

This has certainly been a strange and chaotic time for many reasons. I can understand how somebody who was close to triggering 200 Sigils or 100 Caravans might feel somewhat upset about their time investment if they eventually came up short (hopefully these tasks won't be haunting their dreams). When we inevitably look back at this months from now, it shouldn't seem like such a great deal. 

Next time we'll be ready regardless, and considerably sooner (tm) at that. Just in case. Hopefully things will also greatly improve at Blizzard and Hearthstone team will get to focus on what they do best and we will all be able to just get back to cherry picking achievements, enjoying the good ones and complaining about the bad: be it grindy or RNG ones. At least they always come up with some great clever names for them!

Did you get to finish all of your achievement hunting and collect the XP bonuses you wanted in time? Or also thought you still had more time and are bummed it wasn't so? Missed out on any achievement experience you were really close to getting? Share your perspective with us!