Changes: Hearthstone

Revision as of 00:18, 28 March 2011

A Hearthstone is a device used to teleport oneself to any home place (an inn, location set by the player) in the world. All characters receive a Hearthstone upon creation. Should the player destroy it, asking an innkeeper to “make this inn your home” will recreate one for free.

Notes

It is unique so you can only have one.
The target inn destination of a hearthstone can be changed by binding to a different inn, by talking to an innkeeper and choosing "Make this inn your home."
You can destroy the Hearthstone if you so desire. To get a new one, speak with any innkeeper and set the bind point.
Using a hearthstone takes 10 seconds to activate (effectively a 10 second Casting Time spell).
The Hearthstone can be used during combat; however, the casting will be interrupted if the user takes any hits.
- Being hit will not interrupt the casting of a Hearthstone, if the player is immune to the type of damage caused by the hits. Bubble Hearthing is not longer available since the Shattering because Divine Shield has been reduced to 8 seconds.
After use, the hearthstone has a 30 minute cooldown time. This cooldown continues even if the player logs off.
The Hearthstone is initially bound to the starting zone of the player. To be exact, the very spot that your character was initially created. There is no way to set your hearthstone back to this location if you change it.
Two items in the world have the same ability as the Hearthstone, the [Ruby Slippers] (found on a boss in Karazhan), and [The Innkeeper's Daughter] (rare Dwarven archaeology find). Both share the cooldown and home location with the original Hearthstone.
Scribes can make and use stacks of [Scroll of Recall] of various levels. They have a 20 minute cooldown, and the scroll is consumed on use.
The Shaman's spell [Astral Recall] reproduces the ability as well, but has the cooldown reduced from 30 to 15 minutes.
Due to their ability to teleport to capital cities, mages can be much more flexible with where they set their home to than other classes. Many set their home at Argent Tournament so they can help summon others to Ulduar or Crusaders' Coliseum, as well to complete the Tournament Daily Quests; Wyrmrest Temple is used for general accessibility in all Northrend, Naxxramas or Obsidian Sanctum; some set it elsewhere, maybe in Azeroth, like Booty Bay to complete the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza faster, or Light's Hope Chapel if they're grinding for the Baron's mount.
While low-level players may not reach it conventionally, it is possible to be ported by a mage directly to Dalaran and then set one's hearthstone to a local innkeeper there. This is occasionally done for alts for accessibility to cities far away from each other, particularly the Exodar. However, it makes some travel longer due to the lack of immediate flight points past the large city itself.
Hearthing can be done while seated and while laying down.
Unlike the other classes, Death Knights do not start with Hearthstones. Instead, they can get them from an innkeeper after completing their starting zone.

Recommended home locations

Blood elf using hearthstone — Casting Hearthstone

Dalaran was once the best home location for all level players because it had portals leading to every capital on Azeroth as well as Shattrath City. However, they were removed.

Now the home is usually set to a convenient location bearing in mind the zones in which the player will be questing and the instances they might be going to. They will likely look like the following:

For the Alliance

Levels 5-10: Goldshire (human), Dolanaar (night elf), Azure Watch (draenei), Kharanos (dwarf & gnome)
Levels 10-20: Sentinel Hill (human), Auberdine (night elf), Blood Watch (draenei), Thelsamar (dwarf & gnome)
Levels 20-58: Ironforge, Stormwind or Theramore
Levels 58-68: Shattrath City
Levels 68-74: Valiance Keep or Valgarde
Levels 74-80: Dalaran
Levels 80-85: Stormwind (for the Cataclysm zone portals)

For the Horde

Levels 5-10: Razor Hill (orc & troll), Brill (undead), Bloodhoof Village (tauren), Falconwing Square/Fairbreeze Village (blood elf)
Levels 10-20: Crossroads (tauren, orc & troll), The Sepulcher (undead), Tranquillien (blood elf)
Levels 20-58: Orgrimmar, Undercity or Grom'gol Base Camp
Levels 58-68: Shattrath City
Levels 68-74: Warsong Hold or Vengeance Landing
Levels 74-80: Dalaran
Levels 80-85: Orgrimmar (for the Cataclysm zone portals)

Ghetto hearthing

The subject of this section has been removed from World of Warcraft.

As of patch 3.1.0, ghetto hearthing has been removed from the game. Instead of returning to the home location, the character will be transported to the nearest graveyard. The cooldown of a hearthstone was also lowered to 30 minutes.^[1]

This trick involved creating a group for an easily accessible instance (such as the Stockade), zoning in, then passing lead to the other person and leaving the group, thus forcing the system to teleport you to your hearthstone point.

Hearthstones in Lore

In the novel Stormrage, hearthstones are depicted as very rare objects. King Varian believes them to be only a legend. "Things heard only in stories concerning magi... or elves." A hearthstone owned by the night elf ambassador to Stormwind was the goal of Tyrande, Broll Bearmantle, and Thura. They intended to use it to return to Darnassus when Stormwind was attacked by the Emerald Nightmare. In the end, the group was ambushed and only Broll made it back.^{[citation needed]}

In The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, Jaina Proudmoore gives Anduin Wrynn a hearthstone set to Jaina's tower in Theramore so that he could get away whenever Varian is in one of his Lo'Gosh moods. She explains that it would bring Anduin straight to her hearth. The rune on the hearthstone means "home". It also has runes that refer to the location it is set to.^[2] Anduin later used the hearthstone to escape Ironforge when it fell under the control of the Dark Iron clan.^[3]

Patch changes

Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): The cooldown will be reduced to 30 minutes. 'Ghetto hearthing' will bring you to the nearest graveyard, instead of your home location.^[1]
Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): The mouse pointer changes when hovering it over an innkeeper NPC that can bind:

interact with innkeeper

innkeeper out of range

References

^ ^a ^b World of Warcraft official forums (02-26-2009). Change Hearthstones to 30 Minutes. Retrieved on February 28, 2009.
^ The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, pages 71-72
^ The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, page 227

External links

[bluepost-1] World of Warcraft official forums (02-26-2009). Change Hearthstones to 30 Minutes. Retrieved on February 28, 2009.

[2] The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, pages 71-72

[3] The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, page 227

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * Using a hearthstone takes 10 seconds to activate (effectively a 10 second [[Casting Time]] spell).
 * The Hearthstone can be used during combat; however, the casting will be interrupted if the user takes any hits.
-** Being hit will ''not'' interrupt the casting of a Hearthstone, if the player is immune to the type of damage caused by the hits.  Since a paladin's [[Divine Shield]] spell makes him immune to all damage for 12 seconds, and the casting time of the Hearthstone is 10 seconds, it's possible for the paladin to escape combat via [[Bubble Hearth|Bubble Hearthing]]
+** Being hit will ''not'' interrupt the casting of a Hearthstone, if the player is immune to the type of damage caused by the hits.  [[Bubble Hearth|Bubble Hearthing]] is not longer available since the Shattering because Divine Shield has been reduced to 8 seconds.
 * After use, the hearthstone has a 30 minute [[cooldown]] time. This cooldown continues even if the player logs off.
 * The Hearthstone is initially bound to the starting zone of the player. To be exact, the very spot that your character was initially created. There is no way to set your hearthstone back to this location if you change it.

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