Hearthstone Knights of the Frozen Throne Release Schedule

A cold wind sweeps across the land of Azeroth, down from the frozen north. The wind whispers in your ear. "Your current decks will be less than effective, so you had better get that dust ready."

Panic sets in, you load Hearthstone up for the first time in far too long and find the new expansion waiting for you, Knights of the Frozen Throne, themed for one of World of Warcraft's favourite raids; Icecrown Citadel, held by one of the most enduring characters in the WoW lore — The Lich King, Arthas Menethil. (Though technically Bolvar Fordragon now holds this title.)

Preambling story set up aside, the new expansion for Hearthstone is tough as nails. Especially if it's been a while since you have played and haven't got all the good cards. Luckily, the crafting system in Hearthstone has your back in that regard.

Now for the release schedule; the prologue chapter and Lower Citadel has already been released, hitting the Blizzard launcher August 10th for the Americas and August 11th for Asia and Europe.

The second set of challenges, Battle for Icecrown Citadel: Upper Reaches will drop on August 17th (Americas) and August 18th (Asia and Europe)

Week three will see the release of The Showdown with the Lich King, which promises to be fiendishly difficult, you can try your hand on August 24thif you're in the Americas region and August 25th for Asia and Europe.

As well as these missions, the new expansion also brings over 100 thematically consistent cards, adding a new card type "Hero" which transforms your current hero into a "Death Knight" version of that hero, changing your hero power and card art, as well as a new effect keyword "Life-steal" which does exactly what it says on the tin.

If you have the fortitude to take on the Lich King in the final scenario with all 9 heroes in Hearthstone, there is a special reward for you in the form of an alternate Paladin hero card, Arthas Menethil himself before he became the (previous) Lich King. Though apparently, the Lich King battle will be "fiendishly difficult."

The bosses for the weekly challenges, as always, are being kept as close to their themes and gimmicks from WoW itself, and the bosses will more than probably appear in the same order as well, apart from the prologue mission which offers up a rather interesting scenario (no spoilers here).

Below are the first set of bosses with potential tips for people who may have, like me, been out of the Hearthstone scene for quite some time (the prologue chapter kinda plays itself).

Boss 1: Lord Marrowgar

Right off the bat, KotFT isn't pulling any punches; this boss can heal himself up to full so you have to hit him with all 30 damage in one turn, whilst avoiding his four cost minions Bone Spike, which can slap you down for HALF of your health. Fortunately, an old priest deck should see you through this, Divine Spirit + Inner Fire and if you can pull that off on a stolen Bone Spike, all the better.

Boss 2: Deathbringer Saurfang

Saurfang doesn't mess around, only able to take damage from weapons due to a passive hero power, Blood Rune. The easiest way around this is to hit him with a weapon, or weapons. My best success was with a heavily tooled up warrior deck, using Forge of Souls to always make sure I had weapons in hand and all the weapons and weapon buffing cards I could find in my Warrior collection. You will probably want to run a Warrior/Pirate deck and hit him hard and fast.

Boss 3: Lady Deathwhisper

This cold-hearted lich stands between us and victory; she has a massive armour pool, at 90, but worry not, we have an ally in the form of Valithria Dreamwalker, a 30 attack dragon who is immune while damaged, and starts on one health. Lady Deathwhisper's hero power will try to keep it that way, simple workaround—roll a priest and throw every heal you have at that lovely green dragon and you'll win. Just keep Deathwhisper's side of the board clear with your own minions and let Dreamwalker do the heavy lifting.