New Set Pieces, Immunity Skill Cooldowns, GR Pylons Not Spawning, Patch 2.2 PTR Impressions

"Adventure Awaits"

Closed Beta Test Friend Invites Incoming, Upcoming Mount Changes

Patch 6.1.2 PTR - Build 19711, CC DR Changes, Blue Tweets, Patch 6.1 Known Issues

Hearthstone UI Through the Years - GDC 2015

Hearthstone's Senior UI Designer, Derek "Figluster" Sakamoto, spoke talked about Hearthstone's UI design in a panel today at GDC 2015 and showed plenty of screenshots of Hearthstone's interface through the years, and how they go through the design of the interface, all of which we've got below in a gallery.

Here are some interesting bits from the talk. If you want to see the entire thing, Gamespot has has a recording.

Hearthstone got the greenlight at Blizzard under the title Warcraft Legends: Fire and Ice.

The initial prototype of Hearthstone used Adobe Flash.



Originally there was this idea that you would travel across the map of Azeroth, unlocking new regions while completing quests.

The matchmaking spinner has gone through a few different lives, including:

Gurubashi Arena: You see the Heroes of Warcraft flying by until your opponent was found. They'd then drop down into the arena with you.



Azeroth Map: You would see an overview of Azeroth, and would fly through the overview, seeing other people playing games in "zones". You'd then land in your zone with an opponent waiting for you.

The Hearthstone Box which we are all familiar with really helped the team design the interface.

Little trays to keep things organized.



Keys to unlock precious goods.

The team designs using flavor over efficiency, although a core value at Blizzard is still Gameplay First , so sometimes compromise is needed.

, so sometimes compromise is needed. Each part of the box needs to feel like its own place.



Flavor: Not being able to edit your deck on the screen where you choose you hero for the next battle. You need to go to the collection manager for that.

Panel Slide Gallery

First Look at Hearthstone on Mobile

During the UI panel at GDC 2015, an image appeared with some mobile devices running Hearthstone on them at the beginning screen. It was also stated in the Q&A that we'd see it "in the next a couple of months", and that it was "looking pretty awesome".

Deck Spotlight: Spark's Deadly Tactics

In today's deck spotlight, Spark is back with another one of his Hunter creations, Deadly Tactics, for Season 12! This Hunter deck makes heavy use of the Deathrattle mechanic in association with Feign Death to pull off some crazy good combos which lead to some pretty funny moments.

The deck is vulnerable to aggro decks, so if you're seeing a lot of those where you're at on the ladder, you may want to think again before picking it, but Spark has had plenty of success with it against non-aggro decks! If you're having issues with aggro decks, check out Spark's Snake Bite deck.

At 6800 dust, the deck is a bit on the higher end of the spectrum for crafting, but if you already have Dr. Balance and Sneed's Old Shredder, you're halfway there. Check out Spark's fantastic guide to this deck, or check out the deck below to begin crafting.

New Forum: Adventures!

In preparation for the upcoming Blackrock Mountain adventure, we've opened up a new forum dedicated to the discussions of adventures.

Go ahead, take yourself on an adventure over to the new forum.