Hearthstone Plans Include More Events, Easier Quests, New Hero Portraits, And Standard Shakeup

The dev team for Hearthstone's got a lot going on under the hood -- or, as they put it, behind the tavern doors -- and revealed all their plans in a blog post today. Well, not all of their plans -- they aren't quite minions of E.V.I.L., blurting out their nefarious schemes to whomever happens to pass by.

Following in the footsteps of the popular Fire Fest-E.V.I.L., more events are on the way, offering larger rewards, themed Tavern Brawls, and greater changes to the game -- some that are hinted at as possibly being permanent. A "spooky" event will be revealed on Oct. 4 "featuring Dungeon Run-inspired Tavern Brawls, dual-class Arenas, Legendary quest rewards," and more. To help make quests and rewards better overall, less-popular daily quests will be removed or have their requirements lowered.

Also on Oct. 4, players will learn about the 23 -- yes, 23 -- cards that will be returning to the Standard format from Wild for a limited time, including Ragnaros, the Firelord and N’Zoth the Corruptor. Every player will receive copies of these cards (that cannot be crafted or turned into Arcane Dust) to help level the playing field.

Finally, new hero portraits will be rolling out soon, given to players who have managed at least 1,000 wins with that class, retroactive to the update. They look cool, but I'd like to see wins in Arena mode count as well as those in Ranked play. For now, at least, that doesn't seem to be in the ... well, cards.