Hearthstone

For the digital card game, see Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

• Hearthstone
• Binds when picked up
• Unique
• Use: Returns you to <home location>. Speak to an Innkeeper in a different place to change your home location.

A Hearthstone is a device used to teleport the player to their home location, such as an inn. All characters receive a Hearthstone upon creation that returns them to their starting area. Asking an innkeeper to “make this inn your home” will set that as your new home location. Should the player destroy their hearthstone, they can recreate one for free by speaking to an innkeeper.

Notes

Hearthstone by Raneman

• 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."
• After use, the hearthstone has a 30 minute cooldown time. This cooldown continues even if the player logs off.
• The guild perk [Hasty Hearth] reduces the cooldown on your hearthstone to 15 minutes.
• 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 was removed in Cataclysm due to [Divine Shield]'s being reduced to 8 seconds, but returned in Mists of Pandaria thanks to  [Glyph of the Righteous Retreat].
• 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.
• Four items in the world have the same ability as the Hearthstone:  [The Innkeeper's Daughter] (rare Dwarven archaeology find),  [Ruby Slippers] (found on a boss in Karazhan),  [Ethereal Portal] (TCG item), and Dark Portal (TCG item). Each shares their 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 the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and then set one's hearthstone to an innkeeper in the faction hub 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 a Hearthstone, but rather a  [Scourgestone] that acts very similarly, returning them to Acherus: The Ebon Hold. They can acquire a Hearthstone by talking to any innkeeper after completing the introductory quest chain.
• In Patch 5.2, adventurers are provided with a  [Kirin Tor Beacon] or a  [Sunreaver Beacon] upon completion of Quest:The Storm Gathers after reaching the Isle of Thunder. These beacons function as "hearthstones" on the Isle of Thunder, and will return adventurers to their faction's base on the isle. The use of a beacon will not trigger the Hearthstone's cooldown.

Recommended home locations

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, but these were removed with the release of Cataclysm. With Mists of Pandaria, the Shrine of Seven Stars (Alliance) and Shrine of Two Moons (Horde) have taken this role, with portals to all of those locations, as well as Dalaran.

Otherwise, 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
  • Dolanaar
  • Azure Watch
  • Kharanos
• Levels 10-20:
  • Sentinel Hill (Westfall)
  • Lor'danel (Darkshore)
  • Blood Watch (Bloodmyst Isles)
  • Thelsamar (Loch Modan)
• Levels 20-58: Ironforge, Stormwind
• 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)
• Levels 85-90: Shrine of Seven Stars (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

For the Horde

• Levels 5-10:
  • Razor Hill
  • Brill
  • Bloodhoof Village
  • Falconwing Square / Fairbreeze Village
• Levels 10-20:
  • Crossroads (Barrens)
  • The Sepulcher / Forsaken High Command (Silverpine)
  • Tranquillien (Ghostlands)
  • Bilgewater Harbor (Azshara)
• Levels 20-58: Orgrimmar, Undercity
• 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)
• Levels 85-90: Shrine of Two Moons (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

Ghetto hearthing

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

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

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.

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.

In The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, Jaina Proudmoore gives Anduin Wrynn a hearthstone she had already arranged to be created for him, set to Jaina's tower in Theramore so that he could get away whenever Varian is in one of his Lo'Gosh moods. Jaina states that such an object is "rather rare". 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 (in this case, Jaina's name). Anduin assumes that it is purely magical, which Jaina confirms. As it is apparently bound to her, she then instructs him to then hold it tightly in his hand and focus, to "take the stone into himself" and make it his as she placed her hand over his, a faint blue light lining her hand and then his. As Anduin concentrated, Jania could feel the binding of the stone shift from her to him. Anduin later used the hearthstone to escape Ironforge when it fell under the control of the Dark Iron clan.

Both the Alliance and Horde have lent hearthstones to heroes to allow speedy relocation to areas in need of help.

The paladin Gidwin Goldbraids lends the player  [his hearthstone] so that they can return to Light's Hope Chapel.

Legend suggests that warlocks may be able to create hearthstones from living beings. Such apparently happened to Keelin Stonekeeper,  [The Innkeeper's Daughter].

 [Vol'jin's Hearthstone] is bound to The Den in Durotar. After barely surviving an assassination attempt, Vol'jin gives the hearthstone to the player so that they can go ask Thrall for help.

The introduction for the  [Hearthsteed] states that hearthstones are made from a rare mineral, and that this mount was chiseled from the same substance.

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.
  
• 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

See also

• Hearthstone TCG Card

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB