Hearthstone : A look into Naxxramas

A look into Naxxramas

With Hearthstone’s first expansion, The Curse of Naxxramas set to be released on July 22nd, 2014 just about every player of the game is looking to jump in and play through adventure mode, while unlocking a total of 40 new cards which are also introduced with the content patch. The new cards featured in Naxxramas will have a heavy focus on the card mechanic of Deathrattles, but there are still plenty of other cards that have been shown off and listed that have battlecries, or no effects at all.

A look at the new cards

With a total of 40 new cards that will be released over the gated release of Naxxramas, the core focus of each of the cards are familiar faces for those who raided Naxxramas either in Vanilla World of Warcraft or players who played the remade Naxxramas in Wrath of the Lich King. Along with the undead minions who haunt the halls, each class will also be getting one new class card. These class cards range from necessary additions such as hard removal for Druid’s with Poison seeds, a card that destroys all minions and leaves 2/2 treants to replace them. Some other notable class cards includes a new weapon for Warrior’s called Death’s Bite. This weapon is a 4 attack, 2 durability weapon for 4 mana, but what makes it notable is that when the weapon is destroyed, it deals 1 damage to all minions. A lot of players are seeing the card to be a similar effect to swipe. A lot of players are already considering that the priest class card, which is a 3 mana 3/4 and upon its death it provides a friendly minion a bonus of 3 health. Be wary, for you’ll likely see a ton of priests played once Naxxramas is fully released.

With a total of 40 new cards that will be released over the gated release of Naxxramas, the core focus of each of the cards are familiar faces for those who raided Naxxramas either in Vanilla World of Warcraft or players who played the remade Naxxramas in Wrath of the Lich King. Along with the undead minions who haunt the halls, each class will also be getting one new class card. These class cards range from necessary additions such as hard removal for Druid’s with Poison seeds, a card that destroys all minions and leaves 2/2 treants to replace them. Some other notable class cards includes a new weapon for Warrior’s called Death’s Bite. This weapon is a 4 attack, 2 durability weapon for 4 mana, but what makes it notable is that when the weapon is destroyed, it deals 1 damage to all minions. A lot of players are seeing the card to be a similar effect to swipe. A lot of players are already considering that the priest class card, which is a 3 mana 3/4 and upon its death it provides a friendly minion a bonus of 3 health. Be wary, for you’ll likely see a ton of priests played once Naxxramas is fully released.

The Adventure Itself

The way in which the legendary and regular Naxxramas cards will be unlocked is by defeating each of the four quarters, the bosses themselves, and the final hall as well. According to Blizzard, the release of Naxxramas will be gated meaning that only one quarter will be available to be beat when the new mode is first released, and each subsequent week will give you access to the next quarter. Another thing which Blizzard has released information about is the pricing for the entire adventure mode.

If you’re a gold hoarder like myself, you’ll be happy to know that each wing can be bought individually for 700 gold. If you happen to login to Hearthstone on the first week of Naxxramas’ release, you’ll get the first wing for free, which means you can get access to the entire adventure mode for 2800 gold. If you’re someone who has the money to spare however, it’ll cost £4.99 per wing or £17.49 for the entire expansion, which isn’t too bad considering the content being put into the game.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, the release of Naxxramas will help look to revitalize the currently stale meta that’s been seen in constructed for the past little while and help provide sources of innovation, experimentation and an evolution to how the game will be played once the entire card set is available towards you. The fresh breath of new cards will hopefully calm everyone down who is complaining that the game is getting too stale as it stands now.

Brandon Rendina