Hearthstone grew today with the release of another expansion called The Grand Tournament . This expansion heavily reminisces on what players experienced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion of World of Warcraft . Players are taken to the continent of Northrend where the Argent Crusade still holds jousting tournaments according to the announcement on the game’s official website .
The Grand Tournament adds a new Inspire mechanic to Hearthstone alongside new dragon, pirate, ogre, and murloc knights. An Inspired minion can become stronger than normal, regain health, or call in aid after being triggered by a Hero Power.
A new joust mechanic on a card lets players pit one random minion of theirs against their opponent. The minion with a greater mana cost automatically wins the joust granting the listed benefits on the joust card. Even the Blizzard CEO expects the addition of new mechanics and cards to create some new gameplay within Hearthstone .
“With the new Inspire and Joust mechanics, and over 130 new cards to play with, The Grand Tournament brings a fun medieval-tournament vibe to Hearthstone. We can’t wait to see what players come up with now that they have their hands full with tons of new deck and strategy options.”
All of the new cards can be viewed at The Grand Tournament website, and of course, a new board is included with its release. A snowy board with medieval tents and training dummies definitely create a fair-like atmosphere. Packs of new Tournament cards can be won as rewards in Arena Mode or the cards can be crafted with Arcane Dust obtained after disenchanting cards. Other current Hearthstone packs can also be won this way including the Classic Hearthstone set and packs from Goblins vs. Gnomes . This expansion to Hearthstone also accompanies new rewards for reaching rank 20 within the season.
Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm both seem to be driving a profitable force of free-to-play titles for Blizzard Entertainment. Although their pay-to-play titles like World of Warcraft and Diablo are still being expanded with an announced expansion for the former and over 30 million units sold for the latter, titles like Hearthstone are quite successful for the company. Alongside Activision’s Destiny , Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm have more than 70 million registered players according to the earning’s call earlier this month posted to the Activision Blizzard quarterly results site .
Are you an avid Hearthstone player ready to take up arms in The Grand Tournament ?
[Images via Battle.Net ]
