The prognosis period can now begin for this second Hearthstone expansion of the Year of the Dragon. Mike Donais' latest revelations, the visual of the extension calendar and the general lore of the year lead us to some conclusions that may very well prove to be accurate. We go back over all this and put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
The calendar wants to say something
If the location of the first extension was rather easy to discover even without a real clue, the one that concerns us today is a little more so. During the presentation of the Year of the Dragon timeline, we mentioned the fact that the color of the gem and the inscriptions that could be found next to it referred to the nuances that can be found in the Halls of Origination, in Uldum (World of Warcraft Cataclysm). You can find the few images below.
Mike Donais teases the expansion on Twitch
Present at two streams in the last few weeks (planned or not, we will never know), Mike Donais has thrown out a few sentences thatcan make sense if put in the right context.
"The trailer of the next expansion is by far my favourite cause it's related to one of my favourites things, the League of Explorers"
"New cards with the singleton mechanics (such as Reno Jackson or Raza) should be expected."
"The story of Rafaam will keep going through this year expansion but not only his."
"The next expansion might happen in the desert."
"Finley might come back one day."
What can we learn from all this? If we consider that Team 5's communication is usually very controlled, that its members do not disclose information as long as they do not want to, we can easily imagine that all these innuendoes by Mike Donais are intended.
Honestly, we're no fools: they're teasing us.
Discover the news about the future of Hearthstone given by Mike Donais during a stream with his daughter.
Some other relevant clues
The Hearthstone team has mentioned it enough during its communication on the Year of the Dragon: the three extensions will have a link with each other and the story will follow a certain chronology. We followed the adventures of the E.V.I.L League in Dalaran, which was even robbed by Rafaam and his associates. We could very well have the point of view of a more "friendly" League like that of the Explorers for example. For those who did not experience this adventure at the time, it was mainly composed of Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard and Sir Finley Mrlggggton. These were already opposed to Rafaam who was seeking to obtain the Stick of Origin, one of the most powerful artifacts of creation. Since then, Elise has traveled in the Un'Goro Crater, which is simply the neighboring region on World of Warcraft, and the others have been a little lost sight of. Their return is clearly possible, even probable because the enemy they would face is the same (Rafaam). If you make a brief summary of all clues, then it almost becomes a self-evident fact:
- Elise is not far from Uldum geographically speaking. In the single-player mode Dalaran Heist, boss Ol'Toomba has a special interaction with her when he plays his card: "Elise?! Thought you was out in the desert still?"
- Mentioned above by Mike Donais, Finley "could make his return"
- New cards with singleton mechanics should arrive, so why not a new version of Reno Jackson?
- Brann Bronzebeard is also present in Uldum on World of Warcraft with a series of quests that lead to the pyramids
A brief conclusion
All the latest clues and statements corroborate the League of Explorers' theory of return to thwart the E.V.I.L League's plans. In addition, the latter is composed of five heroes (Rafaam, Dr. Boum, Madame Lazul, Hagatha, and Heistbaron Togwaggle) and the "gentiles" of four, which would also fit in terms of the number of heroes in the game. One could then imagine that Elise, Finely, Reno and Brann would become new legendary cards for the Hunter, Mage, Druid, and Paladin classes, like their evil counterparts.
Rafaam wanted to take Dalaran away and hide it to better rob it: what could be better than a remote region like Uldum to do it? Especially since he knows the area very well because he has collected many precious artifacts.
Anyway, the teasing potentially started without any trailer or visuals from Blizzard, and we really don't dislike it!
Stay tuned!
Hearthstone developers have returned to the basics of the game and modified some of them: Vanish and Mind Blast paid for it, and the Hall of Fame is not far away. Once this is done, the Team 5 explains its vision of the different strengths and weaknesses of the classes.
