Hearthstone came out of the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony with three announcements, and the furthest one out is the biggest: the Monk finally arrives in March 2027 as a new playable class, bringing what Blizzard calls its signature fluid playstyle and adaptable nature to the Tavern. Blizzard bills it as the first new class in six years, counting from Demon Hunter in 2020, and once the Monk lands the Evoker is the only World of Warcraft class without a Hearthstone counterpart. Details on the Monk’s cards and mechanics are being saved for later, with Blizzard noting it’s one of the most-requested classes among players.
Another major headline is Reign of the Black Empire, the next expansion, launching October 20. It takes Hearthstone back tens of thousands of years to ancient Azeroth, when the Old Gods were at the height of their power and at war with the Titans, further back in the timeline than the game has gone before. The expansion’s new keyword is Assemble, which merges two cards into a single new one, and Blizzard says the card pool eligible for it runs past 250 cards, which is where the “wildly unpredictable combinations” line in the announcement comes from. Hearthstone executive producer Nathan Lyons-Smith told Inven Global that each Old God in the set has four abilities and can use two of them in a single turn.
But first, Battlegrounds will get an update, with a new minion type called Aberrations arriving September 22. They’re born from the corruption and experimentation of the Old Gods, and the mechanic ties directly into the expansion theme: each Aberration that dies during a match brings your Old God closer to waking. The Aberrations are playable on the BlizzCon show floor this weekend.
Rounding out the announcements is an overhauled Journal, which now ties each expansion together with a narrative wrapper and gathers all of the quests, achievements, and events from past adventures in one place. Blizzard describes it as something that will keep growing alongside future releases rather than a one-time reorganization, and it arrives free for all players alongside Reign of the Black Empire on October 20.
