Nerfs ahoy! It looks like that balance meeting that took place yesterday was a success because Hearthstone's Alec Dawson is teasing an upcoming patch.
Hearthstone's 20.0.2 patch will go out early next week and include six card changes. We have not yet been given a breakdown on the exact changes, Alec says those details are coming "soon", but he does mention that they'd like to create more space for experimentation in this early Forged in the Barrens meta.
With that in mind, what do you think is going to be targeted?
Mage and Paladin are clearly outperforming everyone else right now, and Rogue has some nastiness to them as well - the three classes dominating the meta - so it isn't much of a surprise they are being hit. Although not confirmed, Pen Flinger seems like an appropriate choice given its popularity since its addition to Hearthstone. It also would not be surprising to see the crazy value generator, Deck of Lunacy, receive a hit alongside that dominant Far Watch Post which caused players to just leave games early on the Barrens.
The launch of Forged in the Barrens has been rough so far but with a quick reaction from Blizzard, and some potentially lethal nerfs, it could leave plenty of room for new strategies to takeover, reshaping the meta quite a bit.
Stay tuned to find out what the changes will be, whenever Blizzard makes the big announcement.
Quote From Alec Dawson Balance changes to go out early next week with 20.0.2. We'll be targeting some cards in Mage, Paladin, Rogue, and Neutral. Hoping to create more space for experimentation in the early Barrens meta and have a more diverse field of classes. 6 changes in total, details coming soon.
Comments
Oh I'm sure I didn't play perfectly. Ultimately why I chose not to use fireball on the minion was that 1) I was hoping that the Trick totem would absorb some damage, or remove damage from the board (it didn't really). And that the fireball would be for a bigger threat and/or burst. As it turns out, even though I may have misplayed a little; I ultimately still ended up being able to win purely on my opponent's misplay as well (they didn't kill trick totem, if they had, I would have had nothing to buff with the power word card, and thus would have lost by not being able to clear his board).
Yeah, like I said, I'm not trying to judge your plays - we all make mistakes in the moment (I know I've made plenty of misplays). I just really enjoy thinking about replays and how to improve across the board - it's not personal at all. (Your opponent, for instance, screwed up their turn 2 by not playing around Combustion to preserve their ravens. That's a mistake I probably would have made in the moment too, so I expect I'll be more mindful of that going forward.)
My point was just that lots of other decks that want to play for the board wouldn't end up at this position on turn 7, and that even in your game there were choices you could have made to avoid your opponent getting that far ahead. So using this near defeat as proof that Token Druid is too powerful isn't really fair - Token Druid might be very strong after Lunacy Mage is nerfed, but it won't exist in a vacuum, and lots of other decks are better-suited to deal with it.
More than anything, I think your replay demonstrates the OP nature of Lunacy Mage. You didn't really fight for the board, and thus got overrun, but still won in the last moments thanks to random, super cheap spells.
Just to address this one point, if there is a reason why aggro decks are currently doing well is ironically because of lunacy mage, which stomps on every midrange deck except for paladin. To beat this deck, the general rule is to have an early tempo lead, followed by a late burst finish, and that's exactly what every deck except for paladin is doing right now.
Its not really that there aren't any anti aggro tools around; Death's Head Cultist, Gold Road Grunt, and Mor'shan Watch Post. Its just that all of them suck vs lunacy mage, and that's what the meta is currently populated with. As the meta shapes up after the nerfs I'd be expecting more tempo oriented decks, instead of the usual burst damage ones, especially since we're almost certain that something will be done to either Pen Flinger or weapon rogue in general.
The changes are probably hitting stealth rogue since its basically the old version from scholomance and team5 already said many times they prefer things to move on.
I doubt the watchposts would be hit at all. All three play specific functions. Its no coincidence that we're seeing more Far Watch Post now since mage can't really destroy this thing outside of Devolving Missiles, which they don't mulligan for anyway. After the nerf, I'd expect Mor'shan Watch Post to be more prominent instead.
That paladin nerf is likely to be Sword of the Fallen, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see Libram of Hope upped 1 mana, or Aldor Attendant becoming a 2 drop again. To be honest, hitting the librams would be the smarter choice in my opinion.
sword of fallen would be good nerf, aldor/libram No.
Are the Watch Post cards really that big of a deal in terms of needing a nerf? Personally I don’t mind them, and I’d rather they leave them be for awhile. Hopefully when they say Neutral they are just referencing Pen Flinger.
Watch Posts are one of the themes of the set, so I don't think they'll hit them this soon after release. Pen Flinger was already on many people's nerf shortlist before rotation, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't receive a nerf.
My guesses: Sword of the Fallen, Pen Flinger, Deck of Lunacy, Refreshing Spring Water, Far Watch Post
Or the librams could be slightly changed to disable lowering their cost below 1 mana.
If they want to nerf weapon rogue, I guess Self-Sharpening Sword will be hit next, but that would just push Swinetusk Shank in that slot with not much accomplished.
I guess Deck of Lunacy, Sword of the Fallen, Far Watch Post, Mor'shan Watch Post, Jandice Barov and another Paladin card like Aldor Attendant or First Day of School.
So... Deck of Lunacy, Sword of the Fallen, Pen Flinger and [Hearthstone Card (Far Watch Tower) Not Found]. But what are the other two? Rogue is to my knowledge third best right now, so this would be a preventative nerf like for Dinotamer Brann. A propos of nerfs: he wrote 6 changes, not 6 nerfs. So one change could actually make a card more playable, helping an archetype out? Like nerfing Lunacy mage to the ground, but making hero power mage better.
Refreshing Spring Water is gonna get hit for sure.
I don't typically complain about games, but man, this expansion hasn't been very fun so far. Every single game is no minion mage or rogue/paladin with pen flinger...
"Hey loser!" x 50
"Wasn't me" x 50
EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.
I agree! As clearly powerful as Pen Flinger is when used by Rogues and Paladins, I hate his voice lines way more!
Also the animations take forever when they are playing 6+ of them a turn.
I assume the change will be it can't go face, and be more about board control, frenzy or enrage activation etc.
Wow 6 card changes, that's quite a lot. Here i was hoping at least Deck of Lunacy and Sword of the Fallen would've been nerfed.