New Hearthstone beta patch arrives, destroys player progress as planned

Blizzard's Hearthstone beta is receiving today the new patch that wipes all in-game player data and significantly updates (improves, in theory) the experience. Blizzard claims this will be the only wipe, though, and that they'll continue adding players who opt in soon. We described the other changes coming with this patch Tuesday, but full patch notes are inside.

Notes:

General

The maximum level is now 60, and you can earn XP in any game mode up to max level.
Chat has been rejiggered.
Gold gained in Play mode has changed from 5 gold per 5 wins to 10 gold per 3 wins.
You can now acquire Golden Basic minions at higher experience levels.
Arena rewards now give less dust and more cards.
More gold is guaranteed at 5 & 6 Arena wins.
At 9 Arena wins, you are now guaranteed an extra pack or a Golden card.
The animations for Secrets and Fatigue have been sped up dramatically.
All cards now have flavor text when you view them in your collection.
“Spell Power +1” has been renamed “Spell Damage +1”.
Heroes can be unlocked in any mode (Play/Arena/Practice)
Play, Practice and Friendly Play modes will now default to the custom deck selection UI if you've previously created a deck
You can now click on chat bubbles to respond
Social – When your friends complete an Arena run or get a Legendary card in a pack, you’ll be notified so you can tell them, “Grats!”
Quests that required you to win with a class now give you a choice between 2 classes.
Your Hearthstone friends list will now use your live Battle.net account friends list as opposed to the closed beta test friends list. You may discover on log-in that your friends list is quite a bit different! Anyone that you've added to your friends list before the wipe will have to be re-added, unless they were already on your existing Battle.net accounts friends list. Battle.net friends will now be able to see you playing Hearthstone!

New Stuff

Crafting Mode – If you want to craft or disenchant cards, we have a new UI for this. Click the “Crafting Mode” button to check it out.
Credits – Now you can see who’s behind all this nonsense.
Options – Our Game Menu and Options screen have a new look! And you can also re-play the cinematic!
Open Next Pack – Hit Spacebar after you open a pack to quickly unwrap your next one.
Many Golden cards have new animations! More to come! Check out Gelbin Mekkatorque!
Added event to transform coin into a card in your hand if you are going second
Support for custom fonts in Russian and Polish has been added

Generic Minions

Gelbin Mekkatorque’s Repair Bot – Is now a 0/3 and has a new power: At the end of your turn, restore 6 Health to a damaged character.
Sunfury Protector now only gives adjacent minions Taunt.
Mana Wraith – Now a 2/2 (was a 1/3).
Pint-sized Summoner – The cost reduction has been reduced from 2 to 1.
Questing Adventurer is now Rare.
Flesheating Ghoul is now Common.
Emperor Cobra has a new visual to remind you about his venomous power.
Injured Blademaster has 1 more Attack.
Lorewalker Cho has 1 less Attack.
The Beast is now 9/7 (was 10/6).
Lightwarden now gains +2 Attack per heal.
Twilight Drake is now a 4/1 with ‘Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each card in your hand.’
Captain Greenskin is now a 5/4 with ‘Battlecry: Give your weapon +1/+1.’
Dalaran Mage now has 1 less Attack.
Captain’s Parrot now has 1 less Health.
Frostwolf Warlord now has a Battlecry effect instead of an ongoing effect.
Nozdormu has a new visual effect.

Mage

Frostbolt costs 2 Mana (down from 3).
Mirror Image now creates 0/2 minions.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice has 1 more Attack.

Priest

Northshire Cleric - Now costs 1 (down from 2).
Prophet Velen – Now also doubles the damage and healing of your Hero Power.
Fade has been replaced with a new card:
Shadow Word: Death – (3) Destroy a minion with an Attack of 5 or more.
Cabal Shadow Priest – now a 4/5 (up from 3/4).
Power Word: Shield has a new power – Give a minion +2 Health. Draw a card.
Greater Heal has been replaced with a new card:
Holy Fire – (6) Deal 5 damage. Restore 5 Health to your hero.
Lightspawn has 1 more Health.

Warlock

Sacrificial Pact costs 0 (down from 2).
Pit Lord - Now a 5/6 with ‘Battlecry: Deal 5 damage to your hero’.

Rogue

Backstab – New text: Deal 2 damage to an undamaged minion.
Preparation – Now reduces next spell cost by 3 (up from 2).
Shiv costs 2 Mana (up from 1).
Defias Ringleader has 1 less Health.
Conceal costs 1 Mana (up from 0).
Headcrack costs 3 Mana (up from 2).
Patient Assassin has a new visual to remind you about his power.
Hero Power – No longer has the ability to buff a currently equipped weapon.
Edwin VanCleef is now a 2/2, but no longer has Stealth.

Druid

Wrath can no longer be cast on heroes.
Cenarius costs 9 (up from 8).
Starfall can now only hit minions.
Ancient of Lore’s Healing option now only restores 5 Health. (down from 8)
Savagery costs 1 (down from 3), and must target a single minion.

Hunter

Hunter’s Mark – No longer a 1-turn only effect.
Scavenging Hyena – Now only eats your own Beasts.

Warrior

Cruel Taskmaster has 1 more Health.
Inner Rage’s +2 Attack effect no longer goes away at the end of the turn.
Battle Rage costs 3 (up from 2), and also counts damaged heroes.
Frothing Berserker has 1 more Attack.
Commanding Shout now costs 2 (up from 1) and also draws you a card.

Shaman

Hex’s Frog is now a Beast.
Healing Totem no longer heals heroes.

Paladin

Divine Favor now costs 1 more.

Bug Fixes

Cards
Fixed multiple issues with Faceless Manipulator incorrectly copying minions with buffs.
Hunter’s Mark is now correctly reduces a minion’s health to 1.
Fixed an issue with replaying cards returned to your hand causing a game halt.
Playing Thoughtsteal now creates an entry in the game history.
Misdirection no longer triggers if there are no legal targets.
Ice Block now protects the hero from incremental damage.
Blood Imp’s ability now correctly increases Lightspawn’s attack value.
Fixed an issue where playing a minion before Cenarius’s battlecry goes off caused a game halt.
Playing Mind Vision when the opponent has an empty hand no longer gives you a card.
Knife Juggler’s ability will no longer trigger when a minion is copied to your hand.

UI
Fixed an issue where disenchanting cards too quickly caused the Arcane Dust counter to display the incorrect value.
Fixed an issue where gold amounts were showing the wrong value.
Replaying a minion that previously had health/attack modifications now shows the correct stats as it enters play.
The Arena AMM wheel should no longer disappear when you find a match.
Fixed an issue where the Spell Power visual effect could linger in your hand.
Quickly playing minions as card draw effects are occurring no longer causes cards to stack in your hand.
The opponent’s targeting arrow should now be appearing from the correct location.
The visual effect for silence is now appearing over the targeted minion.
Fixed an issue where spell animations would loop when multiple triggers occurred.
Fixed an issue where the hero power button could become tilted.

Gameplay
The announcer’s VO for both players should now be audible in the Arena.
Fixed an issue where the druid AI did not play their choice cards correctly.
Fixed an issue where sound effects would loop while in-game or in the Collection Manager.
Master Volume now also affects music volume.
A toast with your own name should no longer appear on login.
The “farming” area of the Pandaria board will now allow you to spawn three radishes.