Licensed to ill: Plague Quarter opens in Hearthstone

The starting position for Heroic Loatheb. Unless you’ve got some healing, you’ll be dead in 10 rounds from his hero power alone.

Today is going to be a crappy day and it’s Blizzard’s fault. We were told that each new quarter of the Curse of Naxxramas expansion for Hearthstone would arrive over the next four Tuesdays. What they failed to mention is that “Tuesday” means 11:59pm Pacific Time. That means that addicts, like me, were forced to stay up until 2am to unlock the next wing of the expansion. Blizzard, you magnificent bastards.

For sane Hearthstone fans, you were greeted this morning with the option to enter the Plague Quarter. If you’re unfamiliar with Warcraft lore, the Plague was a magical disease that turned the humans of Lordaeron into the undead Scourge (and was also responsible for the Sylvanas led Forsaken, but that’s another tale). Thus, in the Plague Quarter, you can expect a lot of undeath and disease, and the bosses do not disappoint.

Noth the Plaguebringer is the first boss and a powerful necromancer. He is the first character with a passive hero power, and it simply raises any of his opponent’s dead minions as 1/1 skeletons on his side. The second boss is the guy who’s been in all the promotional images for Naxxramas, Heigan the Unclean. His power is a 1 mana burst that does 2 damage to your left-most minion. Lastly, we have Loatheb, an undead-fungal-monster-thingee. For 2 mana he can hit your hero for 3 damage, and on top of that he starts with 75 hit points.

The Plague Quarter is available for 700 gold or $7, or cheaper if you purchase it as part of a bundle. Otherwise, Hearthstone is free to download on the App Store.