Hearthstone’s new expansion celebrates World of Warcraft’s best boss

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King ClassicAnd Hearthstone are both revisiting one of the franchise’s most beloved villains: Arthas Menethil, the Lich King. Arthas appeared for the first time in Warcraft 3 Blizzard was 20 years old in 2002 and still tells and reteils the story about his rise to corruption and eventual fall. Arthas has made such consistent appearances as a villain because he’s a walking origin story for half of the heroes in Azeroth.

Players get ready to face the Lichking in the future, as they prepare for battle. Wrath Classic, Hearthstone is exploring a hypothetical battle for the city of Silvermoon that celebrates the game’s most angsty elves, the Blood Elves. The card game’s newest expansion, March of Lich KingDec. 6, added the Death Knight hero class free of charge and introduced 145 cards.

“Arthas is for sure our most popular character — there’s star power there, and excitement to see his story. Knights of the Frozen ThroneIt was one of our most successful expansions. But we haven’t gotten to tell Arthas’ story in Hearthstone It has been played before and is now available to a wider audience than it might have previously. World of WarcraftAnd Warcraft 3.” says Chadd Nervig, features lead on Hearthstone.

The players can unlock Hearthstone’s Death Knight class by playing through a story prologue that introduces Arthas and shows his impact on the rest of the cast. (Spoiler: it’s not a good one, and no one else likes him very much.) HearthstoneIllidan The Demon Hunter, was the first class to be introduced in 2020. “It’s very important to us that playing that class in Hearthstone feels like it does in World of Warcraft — the vibe is there, with the iconic spells and abilities,” says Nervig.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

With a new rune system, and an army made up of undead, the Death Knight rose. This tutorial for hero classes includes an exhibit of blood, undeath and frost runses. “One of the things we learned from the Demon Hunter prologue is that it did a great job of Illidan’s origin story, but players were kind of left to solve what [gameplay] archetypes were there for themselves,” says Matt London, modes designer. “We were able to show off the power of each rune and give players an idea of what each specialization is trying to do.”

But it’s not much fun for a Death Knight to rampage over weak enemies. Enter the Blood Elves, one of the Lich King’s biggest foes in Warcraft 3. Arthas’ campaign to Northrend and the Frozen Throne led him through his own homelands and the elven homeland of Quel’Thalas, where the Scourge killed 90% of the High Elf population. To rebuild their population, the elves became Blood Elves and began drinking demonic crystals as well as torturing a Naaru, a pure Light being, to obtain paladin power.

“There are few absolute black-and-white sides to conflicts in Warcraft lore,” says Nervig. “There are different shades of gray, and Blood Elves were on the darker side in some cases, and they’re coming out of that [circa early Wrath of the Lich King], but some of those roots are still visible in there.”

This new pillar was made possible by the Blood Elves. HearthstoneThe team began to iterate on the initial concept and expanded. Something that was different from the rest was needed by Blizzard. Knights of the Frozen ThroneIcecrown citadel but had a solid foundation in lore. It was also a long-held dream of the team to create a Blood Elf-oriented expansion. So pitting them against their arch-nemesis makes sense. Arthas has gone on the offensive and is now partnering with Silvermoon for Round 2.

It recalls simpler times. WarcraftBefore the Shadowlands metaphysical implications, lore was a part of our ancestors’ lore. Although the team states that Ardenweald expansions are possible, WhereIt is not about an IfThen, HearthstoneIt is right beside. World of Warcraft ClassicEnjoying the nostalgic nostalgia of 2008