The latest Hearthstone patch didn’t have any balance changes, but it did introduce a whole new system. Recruit A Friend, inspired by the old World of Warcraft system that unlocked mounts and other goodies, lets you introduce your mates to Hearthstone and receive a cosmetic Shaman hero portrait, Morgl the Oracle, as a reward. If you keep doing it, you also get some free Classic set packs. The patch also featured a few bug fixes and tweaks, plus introduced new Brawl cards to the backend.
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The new hero got his own trailer, naturally:
Nobody has ever loved their job as much as Chris Metzen voice acting.
To be as pleased as that, and get to use Morgl, you’ll need to head over to the Recruit A Friend page and get the link unique to you. Pass it to a friend, and once their account has a combined hero level of 20, he’ll be unlocked. You can then do this another four times, rewarding one Classic pack each time.
The system is exploitable of course, if you want to create five alt accounts and spend an evening having a friend concede to you to level them all up. Blizzard probably don’t mind because it buffs up their registered account numbers. There’s nothing in the terms for RAF saying don’t either, but if they change their minds, there’s always a possibility you’ll get in trouble.
Here’s a full playthrough with all of his emotes and voice lines:
As for the patch itself, not a lot was changed and full notes are over on the official site. Most notably a new cardback was added, and is Murloc themed, for the month of July. Outside of what was in the patch notes, various new Brawl cards were found buried deep in the files. One switches the hands of the players, while another couple reference a boss fight of some sort. The only running theme seems to be co-op play returning, with Nefarian as the enemy. Here’s the full list, with images over at Hearthpwn:
- Bamboozle: Swap player’s hands.
- Cleave: Deal 7 damage to a minion and its owner.
- Cleave: Deal 4 damage to a minion and its owner.
- Don’t Push Me!: He’s getting angry….
- Explosive Rune: Summon an ‘Explosive Rune.’
- Explosive Runes: Summon two ‘Explosive Runes.’
- Flame Missiles: Deal 5 damage randomly split among all other characters.
- Flame Missiles: Deal 10 damage randomly split among all other characters.
- Glorious Finale: The true battle begins….
- Immolate: Deal 4 damage to each hero.
- Immolate: Deal 7 damage to each hero.
There’s also various voice lines for Nefarian getting angry. This is likely to be a Brawl within the next month or so.