Frequently asked questions regarding Descent of Dragons expansion and Battlegrounds...

Expansion:

[Q] -> Will Sathrovarr's copies retain buffs after being shuffled into your deck or hand?

[A] -> They will only retain buffs from the board summoning phase.

[Q] -> If you burn/discard your Galakrond, will you be able to activate his Hero Power by invoking him?

[A] -> Yes.

[Q] -> Can you activate Galakrond's Hero Power multiple times per turn?

[A] -> Yes, you can, It's basically working like build-in effect, which will happen no matter what.

[Q] -> Any chance of seeing Zephrys the Great getting improved in the future?

[A] -> Yes, further fixes to Zephrys the Great will be in Descent of Dragons; we'll post details with the patch notes.

[Q] -> Does playing an Invoke minion as Galakrond count as using your hero power (eg. new Hunter minions - inspire)?

[A] -> Nope, they're separate. Invoke doesn't use up your hero power, or count as using your hero power. They just provide the same class-specific effect.

[Q] -> Will we also get a free Legendary Dragon with expansion release?

[A] -> No. You already received Sathrovarr as an expansion preview. You will also receive all 5 Galakrond Hero Cards along with 2 Shield of Galakrond minions for free when the expansion launches.





Battlegrounds:

[Q] -> About balance in BG and new things...

[A] -> Start of December we will do a patch adding a couple units and balancing lots of stuff. In between we are adding 4 new heroes.

[Q] -> About new BG heroes: "4 new Heroes leaked (Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard and Sindragosa)"

[A] -> Reno had design and visual effect issues so he was sent packing.

[Q] -> If you could pick one card to add to the Battlegrounds pool to wildly change the meta, what card would it be and how much would it cost?

[A] -> We playtested Sylvanas and Faceless and it was too busted! We used to have a hero that made your left most minion poisonous (Putricide) so we passed over unstable ghoul. Now that he gives +10 attack (+20 in the future actually) we can include ghoul.

[Q] -> ...I'd also like the ability to flip between games and spy your opponents a bit...

[A] -> In a future patch, you’ll be able to see a count of how many minions of each type players have when you mouse over them. (So you can tell that "XXX" has “4 Mechs, 1 Beast, 1 Demon, 1 Murloc”, so they’re probably playing Mech synergies.)

[Q] -> Will we be able to play Battlegrounds together with 2+ other friends in the future?

[A] -> For initial launch, we used the existing Challenge a Friend tech in order to get duo-queue working, since Hearthstone doesn't have a party system. That's something we're working on for a future patch.

[Q] -> If I have golden Shifter Zerus, will I also get a golden minion out of him?

[A] -> Yes. But they can’t be mid shifting, you have to play them on the board immediately or buy all three on the same turn.

[Q] -> Can Shifter Zerus transform into any minion or only to minions who are left in the shared pool?

[A] -> Shifter Zerus can transform into any Battlegrounds minion, it doesn't pull from the shared pool.

[Q] -> Will cards that player owned be given back to the shared pool when he dies?

[A] -> Yes.

[Q] -> Does dead player’s unit get returned to the pool immediately or wait until the Kelthuzad copy is gone?

[A] -> Immediately

[Q] -> Do discovered/Zerus minions affect the pool?

[A] -> No.

[Q] -> Do magnetize minions return to the pool?

[A] -> Yes, after they're sold (if you magnetize them, they return to the pool when you sell the minion that you magnetized them onto).

[Q] -> Is there a cool-down on discovering Ice Block back to back? (The Great Akazamzarak in BG)

[A] -> There's no cooldown, but if you've had gotten an Ice Block once, the chance of you being offered another one decreases a lot.

[Q] -> I was wondering if Gentle Megasaur can get full 10 Adapt options in Battlegrounds just like it does in normal game.

[A] -> In Battlegrounds, Gentle Megasaur has 8 of the original Adapt options. Shrouding Mist (Stealth) and Liquid Membrane (Can’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers) won’t appear.

[Q] -> Do the minions you or your opponents have or pick affect the minions that you are offered?

[A] -> Yes.

[Q] -> When you tier up your tavern, how does this effect the offering rates of the different tiers of minions

[A] -> Higher tavern tier gives you access to higher tier minions. There are 18 copies of each tier 1 minion and 15 copies of each tier 2 minion (and 13,11,9,6). All the copies of all minions on your tier or less are thrown into a pool and you get one randomly from that pool. If someone else buys one and is still alive then you have less chance of getting it because it isn't in that pool. There are no other multipliers, its just those numbers.

[Q] -> How about when people combine three of a kind? Will the three individual minion cards return to the pool, or will they be "attached" to the golden copy and remain so while the golden copy is still in play?

[A] -> Golden minions count as all 3 minions from the pool. When golden minion's player dies the three copies go back into the pool along with all things magnetized to them.

Mike Donais: We are adding an existing Demon in December to the Battlegrounds, bonus points if you can guess which one.

Editor notes: If you want to check out the source yourself, feel free to click on the "Q or A" word for a specific part. Also, be aware that some of the questions and answers were smoothed out to improve the reading experience.