We've got a ton of nerfs hitting Hearthstone's constructed play this week on August 17, let's check them all out!
Card Nerfs
- Incanter's Flow - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2).
- Battleground Battlemaster - Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 5).
- Granite Forgeborn - Health is now 4 (Down from 5).
- Conviction (Rank 1) - All ranks now cost 2 mana (Up from 1).
- Flesh Giant - Cost is now 9 mana (Up from 8).
Card Adjustments
These cards have received cost increases but have also had stats increased to somewhat compensate. Seeing these later in the game should help.
- Il'gynoth - Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 4). Stats increased from 2/6 to 4/8.
- Darkglare - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
- Kolkar Pack Runner - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
Quote From Blizzard Dev Comments: After two weeks of monitoring the rapidly evolving United in Stormwind launch metagame, we’re making a few balance changes to slow down the speed of the game by a turn or two. Overall, this translates to two things: limiting the efficiency at which combo decks can assemble the pieces they need to win, and reducing the burst damage that board-based decks have access to from hand. We hope that these changes will give a bit more room for slower strategies to find success in this meta, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on the live game to see if any further changes are needed.
Cards that have been nerfed should be disenchantable for two weeks after the patch hits tomorrow, August 17. That gives us until August 31 to get a full dust refund for the cards.
What do you think of the changes? Are there any cards on this list you're surprised to see or any that you're surprised that they didn't make it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
More Patch Notes
Quote From Blizzard Arena Balance Update
We’ve updated the appearance rate of cards to ensure class balance remains close to the ideal 50% win-rate. Specifically, the win-rate of Druid, Warrior, and Demon Hunter should now be decreased. The win-rate of Mage, Priest, Rogue, and Shaman should now be increased. The win-rate of the other classes should be roughly the same as before.
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Updated the Stealer of Souls animation to now only trigger if the card ends up in your hand (it does not trigger for cards that are Cast When Drawn, such as Soul Shards). The animation will also no longer trigger if the drawn card already costs Health instead of Mana (such as when you have two Stealer of Souls in play).
- Fixed card text errors for Psyfiend and Florist (no functional change to either).
- Fixed a bug where Prismatic Jewel Kit would trigger when effects returned a Divine Shield minion to the owner’s hand or moved a Divine Shield minion from the owner’s hand to the owner’s deck.
- Fixed a bug where Seek Guidance (the Priest questline) would sometimes count the original Cost of cards, instead of the Cost actually paid for the card.
- Fixed a bug where the Initiate Set version of Eye Beam did not properly display card art in the Collection Manager.
- Fixed a bug where Reborn Rites, The Lich King’s Battlegrounds hero power, caused players to disconnect from the game server.
- Added interactions between Pave the Way (part of the Paladin Questline) and Duels-specific hero powers.
- Fixed various bugs in Book of Heroes Gul’dan and Book of Heroes Illidan.
- Fixed a bug where Duels achievements were not tracking properly.
- Fixed a bug where Witchwood collection achievements triggered even though the requirements were not yet met.
- Fixed a bug where completing all Book of Heroes installments would not display the proper achievement or give the proper award. All players who have already completed all 10 Book of Heroes will automatically receive the proper award of a Golden Standard pack.
Comments
No not Ill'gynoth ... i realy liked the card and also Liked playing OTK Demon Hunter - not sure if it could survive the nerf - maybe against realy slow decks and in combination with quest if you can discount the right cards it could still work but i guess i will be way slower and worse than before. Kinda sad for me because i realy like the card. Will try Shenanigans with Jace i guess and play a Fel Deck.
Other Nerfs look decent - Kolkar Pack Runner Nerf is good also is Incanter's Floweven tough im not sure that this could realy slow down Mage - all that much - also wasn't even that prevelant right now.
What surprises me most is that lStealer of Souls didn't get hit - sure they hit Flesh Giant and Darkglare but i guess we will have to wait and see what the nerfs will change in the meta. Flesh Giant Nerf i kinda thought it would go up to 10 Mana ...
Hopefully Quest Rogue and Quest Warrior will be seen more often because i like those.
Also the Nerf to Conviction (Rank 1) and Battleground Battlemaster are decent but it makes the cards still ok - at least conviction - even tough it messes up my Quest Paladin a little :)
The Nerf to Granite Forgeborn is not that hard and it still will see play.
Overall i would say - decent nerfs but kinda surprised with some.
I'm very surprised by the Il'gynoth nerf, that deck is so difficult to play, it requires a high skill cap which makes it a T2 deck on average. OTK DH was never a problem anyway and I usually applaud opponents who manage to get the OTK off
I was concerned that Il'Gynoth's mana increase would kill OTK demon hunter.
And then I played OTK demon hunter this afternoon, and I realized it's still not a great deck in this meta -
any deck that's pro-active will just stomp on ya
and any Paladin deck magically has Oh My Yogg even if their list shouldn't run it which totally invalidates all the draw spells needed to pull off the quest
also you just keep drawing Il'gynoth without discounting him!
too bad I don't have an extra one to dust!
I'm cool with the Kolkar nerf and know that people smarter than me predicted it so it's probably the right target, but can someone sell me on it making a meaningful change to the Face Hunter match-up?
I just honestly feel like I get run out of the game much more often by Warsong Wrangler into Trampling Rhino that I would've loved the former to only buff the card drawn and the latter to be increased to 6-mana. The fact that both the Rhino and Piercing Shot punish value trading is the problem I run into more frequently than Kolkar shenanigans. But again, I'll trust the devs, Viscious Syndicate, and the knowledgeable folks here over my gut reactions.
Rogue does, Hunter will be weaker against aggro/tempo with having Kolkar 1 mana more expensive
Kolkar Pack Runner makes the coin very dangerous. If it gets off early on with coin and Adorable Infestation or Wound Prey its very likely you're going to win unless your opponent has a convenient board clear, that is if they can clear the pack runner as well too.
Of course, I don't agree with this change myself, because I never really got the opinion that this card is causing any trouble. Its only very strong now because no one plays any early board removal, and everyone is jamming Cult Neophyte and Far Watch Post instead. But I expect that to change after mage gets nerfed.
But I can see why people dont like it. It not only snowballs in a very aggressive match already, it also plays for tempo well enough that face hunter can get away with just going face with their minions every turn. The nerf will kill it, in my opinion, unless they overhaul the deck entirely.
Thanks dapper!
I definitely agree that it's a strong card and I think you've sold me on its versatility making it a better nerf target than wrangler + rhino.
You also made me realize that I'm probably biased because I mainly play control decks with early answers so Kolkar doesn't spiral as often.
Thanks again and I hope your prediction comes to pass!
well, I'm really impressed on how blizzard is adjusting the cards, I like the overall changes, I was expecting something on rogue, but I don't se how can adjust the class rn, let's see how the meta adjust
meanwhile rogue & hunter laugh all the way to the bank
wow thanks blizzard for nerfing combo DH and questline mage, two decks that werent even present in the list of overperforming decks they just released and require more actual skill and execution than nearly any other two decks in the format (referring to the miracle questline variant; the pure spell variant is much easier to get away with). cant wait to play against exclusively questline hunter in both formats now, super fun. does the balance team ever plan on releasing a balance patch that isnt utterly disappointing?
Nooo, not Il’gynoth..
Not touching the quest conditions or the rewards is very surprising to me, because if there's any reason why a slower meta can't exist is because of how powerful the rewards are and how quickly they can be assembled.
But admitably changing stuff like Darkglare, Flesh Giant, Incanter's Flow, and Il'gynoth will result in some changes to the meta, though not necessarily make the meta slower.
Changes to incanter's flow and flesh giant are subtle but very impactful change, in standard at least. A lot has to happen to get the flesh giants out early, and one mana will mean all the difference whereas for incanter's flow, its harder to justify keeping it in hand because you can't coin into it and there's no natural cards that follow before and after flow.
Before anyone start crying about ilgynoth, I can say that all this change will do is to make it impossible to win by turn 7, and that's a good thing. You don't need to severely reduce ilgynoth's mana cost to win, you just need to spread the discounts across more cards. It does mean that the quest is a mandatory requirement for the deck to work now, but I don't think that'll bother anyone.
Overall, I'd expect mage and dhunter to take a hard hit to their win rate, hopefully enough that we stop seeing too many of them. As for the rest, kolkar pack runner might be removed from face hunter, warlock has plenty of lists that will still work even with the darkglare nerf, paladin will still run both Battleground Battlemaster and Conviction (Rank 1) because that's basically the only win condition they have other than stats on board, Granite Forgeborn mulligan winrate will take a hit but otherwise its still going to feature as a strong card.
A slower meta is expected with mage and dhunter nerfs, but not likely enough to ever make quest priest work. But might be slow enough for quest warrior, quest hunter and quest rogue to make a rise. Likely to be on top: Quest shaman, face hunter, questlock, handbuff pally, quest rogue. Likely to start annoying the shit out of others: Garrote rogue. Likely to make some sort of comeback: rush warrior, deathrattle dhunter, quest hunter.
I would say that was very expected re: Questlines, I didn't bother bringing them up when discussing potential changes for a reason. It's a fairly consistent trend with the Hearthstone team: unless a new shiny Legendary card is outright breaking the game beyond all redemption, they are very, very unlikely to hit any of the precious toys that are built-arounds. Definitely not so early in the metagame, there is always potential for further adjustments down the line. So for the time being going after some of the associated pieces (which also happened to be problematic for other reasons) made perfect sense.
Il'gynoth might be dead, guess we'll have to go with Jace for a finisher instead
People are again underestimating the impact of mana cost increase on cards. Combo decks need mana reduction to make their combo work. When the pieces have their cost increased this causes a chain reaction within the whole deck as the discounts aren't efficient anymore. The 2 mana increase on Il'gynoth just breaks Lifesteal DH. They will be forced to run both the quest and Skull of Gul'dan to have a better chance at making their combo work without having to wait for turn 10+. More card draw means less healing and less defense which makes them more susceptible to any kind of aggression and not just hyper aggression. The increased stats still allow the card to be played in other decks but they don't matter as much for combo because it is just to risky for a combo deck to drop their main combo piece on the board without having their otk ready. If the main combo piece is destroyed then it's an automatic loss. Tempoing the main combo piece just because of higher stats is still way too risky.
Darkglare is back to its original 3 mana 3/4 stats and that's a good thing. Reducing the cost during the original nerf was a mistake. The card is slower now and mana cheat is at its best when it is super fast. Even a 1 mana increase can make a huge difference. Same applies to Incanter's Flow. They didn't provide any compensation for mage so they are definitely going to feel the blow.
Kolkar Pack Runner being slower also allows board based strategies to have a better chance at pushing Hunter off the board. We already know that 3/4 stats for 3 mana isn't anything special nowadays.
Granite Forgeborn with Yeti stats was extremely silly so the nerf was needed. It isn't even that big of a hit. Just one less health. Easier to remove but the mana discounts are still there.
Battleground Battlemaster deserved a stronger nerf but they are also nerfing Paladin which was the main abuser. It shouln't be that easy to abuse it in very fast strategies anymore but the fact that is still playable is very worrisome. This card just doubles the damage output of 2 minions. It is still an extreme threat in any deck with sizeable minions or buffs (in hand or board). So, i believe it can still be problematic. I hope i'm wrong.
Conviction (Rank 2) at 2 mana is a bigger blow than expected. When cheap cards have their cost increased they lose a lot of flexibility. I don't think the card is unplayable but it is a lot worse because any attempts at comboing it with Battlemaster have been delayed by 2 turns (1 mana on each card).
Now, the truly puzzling one is Flesh Giant. A 1 mana increase on a card that is very easy to discount isn't going to do a whole lot. Not in Warlock anyway. This is a bigger blow on Priest as the class already can't discount the card fast enough to make it impact the game when it is most relevant (early to mid game). Non Shadow Priest decks already suffer from a lack of proactive plays. This card was one of the few that was worthwhile attempting to build around for a more proactive playstyle for Control Priest. A 1 mana increase just makes it a lot worse for the class. Warlock still has tons of self damage and healing so the one mana increase only makes things slightly worse. I think the most relevant hit here is Battlemaster. Now other decks have one extra turn to find a way to deal with the giants. The nerf on Darkglare should help as well.
Kolkar Pack Runner and Darkglare shouldn't be 3/4. Minions should either have premium stats or premium effects, not both. Ignoring Aimed Shot and Stealer of Souls is a bad idea. The former should only be able to target minions, and the latter needs at least a 1-mana nerf short of a rework. They also missed the mark on Il'gynoth decks. Mo'arg Artificer needs to have its effect not stack, similar to how "your Battlecries trigger twice" text on cards doesn't stack. I see no difference or contradiction in Artificer's text functioning the same way (damage is restricted to doubling, not multiplying).
I think like a glass coffin, the remains to be seen. Incanter's Flow may hurt a little in the early part of the game, but still being able to knock down the spells in your deck to 1's and 0's is still there. This card will still see play.
Conviction (Rank 1)will now see play in Even Paladin and perhaps other builds, but will certainly be less of a threat for early games.
Darkglare's nerf isn't surprising, but it will definitely hurt the more aggro versions of these decks. Flesh Giant also will be delayed slightly, but the power balance just isn't there.
Battleground Battlemaster didn't get what needed to happen. It is still a threat that makes the board very beatsticky. It only needs to survive the turn it's dropped and makes the player rely on having a board to abuse it. I stand by my original post saying that this needed to be a Battlecry effect to make it less abusive. It will still help to win games, but will be less devastating for sure.
The only other card change that is worthy to note is Kolkar Pack Runner. This will slow down face hunter substantially, which is kinda needed as the current meta is getting pounded in the face with Face Hunter right now.
The other card updates are less than thrilling and I honestly think are more filler and complain based rather than power balancing.
For the complainers, here is a small collection for cards that got heavily impacted by 1 mana balance changes
Renew
Gibberling
Hysteria
N'Zoth, God of the Deep
High Abbess Alura
Voracious Reader
Jandice Barov
Evocation
Archivist Elysiana
All of them with the exception of Elysiana were still very good cards and widely used... sure, it helps to lower the overall power levels of the cards but we need way more than "slight adjustments" to change the meta into a healthier direction
I can't remember the last time I saw a Gibberling, Alura (pre-rotation), Reader or Evocation since the nerfs.