Because of the large number of non-interactive quests, some Hearthstone classes felt very boring and predictable during the United in Stormwind meta. To somehow change this, my friend Kostya "Twilight" suggested an interesting custom hybrid of class quests and legendary minions. Now instead of unnecessary Questlines like Final Showdown, Defend the Dwarven District, The Demon Seed and Raid the Docks, we will have interactive Hearthstone legendary cards. I hope you enjoy this Custom Hearthstone content and let's get started.
Idea author: Kostya "Twilight"
What is Hearthstone Upgrading Legendaries?
As with any Custom Hearthstone, the most important thing is the idea. In short, Upgrading Legendaries, like Questline, has three stages, but only you decide whether it is worth the effort to finish the upgrade. Instead of small rewards, you get solid abilities and most importantly a body on the board. It is also critical that these cards do not polarize match-ups against aggro and control decks. We made three upgrading legendaries with different effects to try out. They belong to the Rogue, Mage and Warlock class.
Spellburst Jaina (Mage)
Jaina's story is truly tragic. A lost love, a lost home, and a lost father. Kostya tried to reflect this in the stages of development of this character.
First we have Jaina, Kirin-Tor Mage, who is very diligent and has plans for the future. It's clear that she's not physically ready yet, but she knows how to improve. So she can easily find a spell and even enhance it.
After that comes the embodiment of powerless rage. Having lost most of her friends and acquaintances on Theramore Isle turned her into a spirit of vengeance. Jaina the Vengeful offers the easiest solution to the issue of opposition - a painful death. 4 AOE damage will destroy almost any minion spam on turn 5.
The last stage appears in Lord Admiral Jaina, her persona from World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. All of your Spellbursts will activate four times in this game and in addition you can summon four Water Elementals at once. This is the final reward, which on the one hand is very strong, but on the other hand it is interactive, unlike the mage's Sorcerer's Gambit. Even though Jaina is the standard mage hero in Hearthstone, I think she would fit in with a legendary minion that tells her story.
Spell Gul'dan (Warlock)
Warlock remains one of my favorite classes in Hearthstone and undoubtedly Gul'dan embodies all the traits of a cruel sadist and cunning conspirator. However, his beginnings were modest and one might even say very sad, provoking pity.
Guldan the Cripple was an exile of his clan. He appealed to the powers of the elements, only to be rejected. But something else resonated in his mind, and with a new strength, all those thoughts of revenge came back to him. He brutally massacred his clan, with no mercy for the elders or children.
Guldan of Shadow Council, already a powerful warlock, now knows how to create Death Knights. Asssembled from the corpses of the Knights of Stormwind slain in the last battles of the First War, these abominations were then instilled with the ethereal essence of the Shadow Council now serve the Horde in a blasphemous state of eternal undeath.
Great Betrayer Guldan shows how to use the energy of corruption to enslave all living things. The basic idea of the whole upgrading legendary chain is to motivate warlocks to play many spells (both aggressive and defensive). With Great Betrayer Guldan, this becomes possible, as it creates an additional value for almost any spell.
Weapon Vanessa (Rogue)
Daughter of the legendary rogue Edwin VanCleef. Her father was mercilessly killed by Stormwind mercenaries and she is here for revenge. Surprisingly vengeance is the persistent motivation of all of today's characters.
We've already seen the Vanessa VanCleef card in Hearthstone's core set, but now it's a serious rogue card. As Orphan Hope, she went undercover organizing connections in the Defias Brotherhood. With her father's natural talent, she had no problem pretending to be an ordinary country girl.
Vanessa VanCleef, Unmasked offers unique gameplay for poison rogue. On the one hand we get two whole poisons for practically free, on the other hand we can't apply it on the weapon we want. Also, the rogue poisons themselves are random and may not be very useful in the current situation.
Voidblade Vanessa gives permanent effect to all our weapons. Having become part of the elite outlaw guild Uncrowned, it's now on a whole other level. Whenever rogue equips weapon, we get two free poisons from Hearthstone pool, which we discovered earlier.
Custom Hearthstone as it is
The very idea of upgrading legendaries is still not fully explored. These examples are designed more as a way to understand how the system works. In future updates, I'll be sure to finalize this for other classes as well. Kostya "Twilight" and I share the opinion that Hearthstone quests classes such as Warrior (Raid on the Docks), Hunter (Defending the Dwarf District), and Warlock (Demon Seed) degrade each expansion because of non-interactive nature of quests. Hearthstone developers only succeed in killing questlines with changes, because they are very hard to balance. Of course, for us regular Custom Hearthstone fans, we don't get to see as much of Blizzard's inner workings. However, those events during the Demon Seed meta still give me nightmares. On the final line, I would like to thank the authors of the Jaina Proudmoore, Vanessa VanCleef and Warlock Guldan illustrations. You are true artists who inspire to be creative.
Vanessa is gorgeous (´♡(oo)♡｀)
Although, Jaina seems a little too strong to me.