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[BUG] Pity Timers were Accidentally Reset–Fix in the Works

by - 7 years ago

Earlier today, Community Manager Molly O. confirmed what some players had suspected: their “pity timers” had been reset with Patch 8.4.

The “pity timer” is a term used to explain Hearthstone’s pack-opening algorithm, which is designed to increase odds of opening a Legendary or Epic after a player opens a certain amount of “bust” packs. Community understanding is that the normal Legendary pity timer is designed to guarantee a Legendary after no more than 40 packs without one. Patch 8.4 brought with it the groundwork for the exciting pack upgrades starting with Knights of the Frozen Throne, including the upgrade that sets the Legendary pity timer for new sets at just 10!

Unfortunately, it seems that Patch 8.4 also brought a bug that prematurely reset pity timers on existing sets. This resulted in a small number of players not receiving a Legendary when they should have (the number was small because not all people who have opened packs since the Patch should have had their pity timers tripped). Luckily, Blizzard has identified the problem (and those affected), and is working on a fix.

Now seems to be a good time to remind everyone that players who want to get the most value out of their gold should not be opening any packs right now. This is because, in addition to the pity timer upgrade, the Knights of the Frozen Throne will make it such that you will no longer open duplicate Legendaries (until you’ve collected all of them in the set). That means that opening any packs right now carries with it the risk that you will get a duplicate Legendary instead of a new one–effectively wasting 1200 dust–a risk that will no longer exist in about one month’s time.

So stop opening packs now, hang tight for Blizzard’s fix if you happen to have opened some bugged packs since the last patch, and track your pity timer for next set (pity timers are set-specific) so that you can pick the optimal time to stop buying more and start saving for the next, next set.

Check out Molly’s original post, below, and let us know about your luck opening Legendaries in the comments.

Originally Posted by Molly (Blue Tracker / Official Post)
Hearthstone Patch 8.4 introduced new infrastructure to prepare for the recently announced improvements to card drop rates. An unexpected side effect of this change was that a small number of players who opened packs after the patch received one fewer Legendary or Epic card than they would have otherwise. We’ve identified the issue and expect it to be resolved next week. It’s important to us that Hearthstone players feel great about opening card packs and we apologize for this issue and any disappointment that it may have caused. We will be reaching out to all affected players in the next few weeks with details regarding our resolution plan.

 


Nicholas Weiss

Is a lawyer by day and a cardslinger by night. He's decent at both. He's been playing Hearthstone since open beta and writing about it for a few years now.


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