The next Hearthstone expansion is Titans

The next Hearthstone expansion is Titans, set in the distant past in the city of Ulduar, which stands above the imprisoned Yogg-Saron. The Titans have been traveling the cosmos, and the players will see them at the height of their power, setting the foundations for what will happen on Azeroth as all the different races develop and evolve.

There will be eleven Titans total, one tied to each class — including some that aren’t exactly canonical to World of Warcraft lore, such as the new titan “Amitus.” Each Titan will be represented in-game by a new type of card that is technically a minion, but with extremely powerful abilities that you can use by clicking on them.

In total, this expansion will feature 145 new cards, bringing back the Magnetic keyword, and introducing the new Forge keyword. Besides the Titans themselves, we’ll also be able to play with some of their creations, and some of the Titan Keepers. So let’s showcase a few of those cards to give you a taste of what to expect from Titans.

The eleven Titans are minions with very powerful passive and activated abilities

Each Titan is represented by a “special” minion card that works differently from regular minions. A Titan card comes with a passive ability, plus three additional abilities that you can activate — so they’re kinda similar to Locations in that sense.

Initially, Titans can’t attack. Every turn, you can click them to use one of those active abilities — the three ability options will show up on your screen for you to pick one. The Titan will be able to attack normally once all three active abilities have been used.

Titan abilities are very powerful, so you can only use one per turn. However, you can use one of them as soon as the Titan hits the board — no need to wait for the next turn, ensuring that they’ll always make some impact when played.

Despite those special abilities, Titans are still regular minions that can be Frozen, killed, etc. We have a couple of those Titans to preview up next.

Druid

The Druid Titan is Eonar, the Life-Binder: 10 mana, 5/7.

• Passive Ability: After this uses an ability, summon a 5/5 Ancient with Taunt.
• Active Abilities:
  • Spontaneous Growth: Draw cards until your hand is full.
  • Bountiful Harvest: Restore your hero to full Health.
  • Flourish: Refresh your Mana Crystals.

That’s a crazy powerful card. It costs 10 mana, but it ensures that upon playing it you’ll get to either heal yourself fully, draw cards until your hand is full, or refresh all your Mana Crystals, in addition to summoning a 5/5 with Taunt.

Since you can use one of those abilities immediately upon playing the card, one of those three powerful effects will happen at least once, before your opponent has the chance to destroy your Titan and prevent you from using their other abilities.

Mage

The Mage Titan is Norgannon: 6 mana, 3/8.

• Passive Ability: After this uses an ability, double the power of the other abilities.
• Active Abilities (when you first play the card all three will be available):
  • Progenitor’s Power: Deal 5 damage.
  • Ancient Knowledge: Enemy cards cost (1) more next turn.
  • Unlimited Potential: Cast 1 random Mage Secret.
• Active Abilities (after you’ve used one ability, two will be available):
  • Progenitor’s Power: Deal 10 damage.
  • Ancient Knowledge: Enemy cards cost (2) more next turn.
  • Unlimited Potential: Cast 2 random Mage Secrets.
• Active Abilities (after you’ve used two abilities, one will be available):
  • Progenitor’s Power: Deal 20 damage.
  • Ancient Knowledge: Enemy cards cost (4) more next turn.
  • Unlimited Potential: Cast 4 random Mage Secrets.

Norgannon is not as impressive as Eonar at first glance, but his passive ability is what really makes the card — assuming the opponent doesn’t deal with him before you can take advantage of it.

It’s hard to believe that you’ll be able to keep Norgannon alive up to the point where you can simply click him and deal 20 damage directly to your opponent’s face, but you might still get some value out of him by dealing some damage, or by disrupting your enemies once or twice, either with a cost increase on their cards, or with some Secrets for them to deal with.

New keyword: Forge, and returning keyword: Magnetic

Cards with the new Forge keyword can be upgraded while in your hand for the cost two mana, by dragging them into your deck — like you do with Tradeable cards. When you do so, there’s a cool animation effect where the forging happens, and then the card returns to your hand in its “Forged” form — including upgraded text and art, similarly to how Infused cards or Corrupted cards behave.

Magnetic cards are back! Like in Battlegrounds, they no longer require an extra board space to be used: you can Magnetize even when you already have seven minions on your side of the board. Not every class will feature new Magnetic minions, though.

Summon Titan Keeper minions, and a Legendary Location: the Prison of Yogg-Saron

Besides the Titans themselves, this expansion will feature other minions related to them, such as the Titan Keepers. One such example is Hodir, Father of Giants, for Hunters.

Hodir, Father of Giants

• 8 mana, 8/8 Legendary Hunter minion.
  • Battlecry: Set the stats of the next three minions you play to 8/8.

At the same time, Paladins will call upon the aid of Tyr to resurrect their minions that have fallen in combat.

Tyr

• 7 mana, 4/5 Legendary Paladin minion.
  • Battlecry: Resurrect a 2, 3, and 4-Attack Paladin minion.

Locations are here to stay in Hearthstone, and Titans will feature more of them. Every expansion usually features a card that is given away to players just for logging into the game, and this time around, that card is Prison of Yogg-Saron, a Neutral location.

Prison of Yogg-Saron

• 7 mana, 3 durability Legendary Neutral Location.
  • Choose a character. Cast 4 random spells (targeting it if possible).

I love how time and again Hearthstone finds new ways to let us praise Yogg!

The Midsummer Fire Festival Event is returning

While not directly related to this expansion, we’ve received word that the Midsummer Fire Festival event returns! It’ll take place from July 11 to August 1, and feature Event Quests for both traditional Hearthstone and Battlegrounds.

The rewards this time around are: six assorted Hearthstone packs, the Felblaze Illidan skin for the Demon Hunter class in Constructed, and the Sparkhoarder Togwaggle hero skin for Battlegrounds.

So there you have it! The Titans are ready to forge Hearthstone into a new, improved game, and we can’t wait to see just how powerful they really are.