Major Battlegrounds Buddies Changes Coming in Today's 22.2.2 Hearthstone Patch, Archdruid Hamuul Removed

Published 4 years, 1 month ago by (Updated 4 years, 1 month ago)

We've got some major Battlegrounds Buddies Balance changes arriving TODAY! Patch 22.2.2 should be going live soon and in addition the buddies balancing, we're also going to see Archdruid Hamuul removed from the minion pool.

Additionally, there was a nice bugfix which made it where Golden Kil’rek will no longer give two copies of the same Demon when its Deathrattle was triggered.

Why Was Archdruid Hamuul Removed From Battlegrounds?

Game Designer on Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Dom Calkosz, spoke to the reasoning behind his removal.

Quote From Dom Calkosz

What was the reasoning behind the Hamul removal?

Hamuul was removed primarily to lower power level across the board. Lots of powerful late-game things going on, and Hamuul most rewards those who are already ahead.

He can also Refresh for a shop full of Amalgadons in certain cases, but that’s not the primary reason.

Battlegrounds Patch 22.2.2 Notes

Quote From Blizzard

MINION POOL CHANGE

  • Archdruid Hamuul has been removed from the minion pool.

BUDDY CHANGES

Elementium Squirrel Bomb (Millificent Manastorm’s Buddy)

  • Old: Deathrattle: Deal 4 damage to a random enemy minion. Repeat for each of your Mechs that died this combat. → New: Deathrattle: Deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion for each of your Mechs that died this combat.

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_17_Buddy_enUS_ElementiumSquirrelBomb-77805_NORMAL.png

Eclipsion Illidari (Illidan Stormrage’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 2] “Wingmen” also gives “Immune while Attacking” for one attack only. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] Your first minion that attacks has “Immune while Attacking” for one attack only.

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_08_Buddy_enUS_EclipsionIllidari-77626_NORMAL.png

Snack Vendor (A.F. Kay’s Buddy)

  • Old: At the end of your turn, give your Tavern Tier 3 minions +1/+1. → New: At the end of your turn, give your Tavern Tier 3 minions +1/+2.

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_16_Buddy_enUS_SnackVendor-77774_NORMAL.png

Captain Fairmount (Cariel Roame’s Buddy)

  • Old: At the end of your turn, give three random friendly minions +1/+1. → New: At the end of your turn, give five random friendly minions +1/+1.

NEUTRAL_BG21_HERO_000_Buddy_enUS_CaptainFairmount-77778_NORMAL.png

Ticket Collector (Tickatus’s Buddy)

  • Old: Battlecry: Discover a Darkmoon Prize from the most recent Prize turn. → New: Battlecry: Discover a Darkmoon Prize from the next Prize turn.

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_94_Buddy_enUS_TicketCollector-77845_NORMAL.png

Muckslinger (Shudderwock’s Buddy)

  • Old: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. → New: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. Give it +2/+2.
  • [Golden version] Old: After you play a minion, add two Battlecry minions to Bob’s Tavern. → New: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. Give it +4/+4.

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_23_Buddy_enUS_Muckslinger-77827_NORMAL.pngNEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_23_Buddy_G_enUS_Muckslinger-77828_GOLDEN.png

Crabby (Tavish Stormpike’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 2 Attack, 3 Health

NEUTRAL_BG22_HERO_000_Buddy_enUS_Crabby-77880_NORMAL.png

Karl the Lost (George the Fallen’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 7 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 3 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_15_Buddy_enUS_KarltheLost-77495_NORMAL.png

Baby Elekk (Xyrella’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_BG20_HERO_101_Buddy_enUS_BabyElekk-77851_NORMAL.png

Mishmash (The Curator’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 2] 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 2 Attack, 2 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_33_Buddy_enUS_Mishmash-77837_NORMAL.png

Valithria Dreamwalker (Ysera’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 6 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_53_Buddy_enUS_ValithriaDreamwalker-77855_NORMAL.png

Master Gadrin (Vol’jin’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]

NEUTRAL_BG20_HERO_201_Buddy_enUS_MasterGadrin-77849_NORMAL.png

Arfus (The Lich King’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_22_Buddy_enUS_Arfus-77841_NORMAL.png

Tuskarr Raider (Patches the Pirate’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_18_Buddy_enUS_TuskarrRaider-77815_NORMAL.png

Bilgewater Mogul (Trade Prince Gallywix’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_10_Buddy_enUS_BilgewaterMogul-77847_NORMAL.png

Sparkfin Soothsayer (Fungalmancer Flurgl’s Buddy)

  • Old: 7 Attack, 5 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_55_Buddy_enUS_SparkfinSoothsayer-77786_NORMAL.png

Asher the Haberdasher (Dancin’ Deryl’s Buddy)

  • Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_36_Buddy_enUS_AshertheHaberdasher-77477_NORMAL.png

Magnus Manastorm (Millhouse Manastorm’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_49_Buddy_enUS_MagnusManastorm-77803_NORMAL.png

Unearthed Underling (Lich Baz’hial’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_25_Buddy_enUS_UnearthedUnderling-77510_NORMAL.png

Hunter of Old (Tess Greymane’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_50_Buddy_enUS_HunterofOld-77835_NORMAL.png

Warden Thelwater (Scabbs Cutterbutter’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_BG21_HERO_010_Buddy_enUS_WardenThelwater-77870_NORMAL.png

Flight Trainer (Galewing’s Buddy)

  • Old: 4 Attack, 3 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_BG20_HERO_283_Buddy_enUS_FlightTrainer-77788_NORMAL.png

Baby Kodo (Guff Runtetotem’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]

NEUTRAL_BG20_HERO_242_Buddy_enUS_BabyKodo-77790_NORMAL.png

Lady Sinestra (Deathwing’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 8 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 1 Attack, 6 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_52_Buddy_enUS_LadySinestra-77782_NORMAL.png

Lil’ K.T. (Mr. Bigglesworth’s Buddy)

  • Old: 5 Attack, 2 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_70_Buddy_enUS_LilKT-77807_NORMAL.png

Jr. Navigator (Elise Starseeker’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_42_Buddy_enUS_JrNavigator-77484_NORMAL.png

Sklibb, Demon Hunter (Aranna Starseeker’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 4 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_59_Buddy_enUS_SklibbDemonHunter-77468_NORMAL.png

Piloted Whirl-O-Tron (Sneed’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 2]

NEUTRAL_BG21_HERO_030_Buddy_enUS_PilotedWhirl-O-Tron-77874_NORMAL.png

Apostle of Galakrond (Galakrond’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 7 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 3 Attack, 5 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_02_Buddy_enUS_ApostleofGalakrond-77494_NORMAL.png

Sr. Tomb Diver (Reno Jackson’s Buddy)

  • Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 7 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 1 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_41_Buddy_enUS_SrTombDiver-77825_NORMAL.png

Evergreen Botani (Forest Warden Omu’s Buddy)

  • Old: 7 Attack, 6 Health → New: 9 Attack, 7 Health

NEUTRAL_TB_BaconShop_HERO_74_Buddy_enUS_EvergreenBotani-77493_NORMAL.png

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

Fixed a bug where Golden Kil’rek would always give two copies of the same Demon when its Deathrattle was triggered.

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Comments

  • I'm really sad about Hamuul. He was one of the few things making Hogger Pirates a decent lategame option and overall allowed smoothing out the process of filling your board with the tribe you want once you were decided on a strategy.

    As for the buddy changes, some of these are really great (e.g. Tickatus, Illidan, Curator,  Elise, Guff, Aranna) but a lot of these don't feel impactful enough or won't achieve the intended result.

    AFKay: You won't be anywhere close to having your buddy by the time your hero power activates so the process of catching up to the rest of the lobby won't really start until way too late. In addition, AFKay no longer has her dream opening of Deflect-o-bot + Iron Sensei and a lot of power has been moved to tier 4 and 5, so you can't really even make a tier 3 build with this buddy in mind. It's a throwaway and getting an extra +0/+1 won't change a thing, especially if the buddy itself isn't tier 3 to scale itself. IMO, the buddy should scale all minions that are higher tavern tier than it, and AFKay's hero power activation should partially fill the buddy meter. Otherwise, she essentially has nothing to offer, and will frequently chain-lose games until death after about two turns of her hero power activating.

    Tavish: Tavish is still nuts and gets free wins off of a free hero power regardless of the buddy being a tavern tier higher. Tarecgosa + Crabby is still a major problem. By the time Tarecgosa becomes available, Tavish will already have the buddy even on tier 4 given the free wins and extra combat damage he gets off of his free (!) hero power.

    George: Still toxic AF. Having to face down a board of 45/2s with divine shield is exactly zero fun and the only counterplay is tokens (Unstable Ghoul still doesn't win you the game because you're down a minion, you need tokens or to have health over the top of George's attack). IMO the buddy should simply be a body for permanent scaling off of broken divine shields, kinda like the tier 3 dragon except it would keep its stats. That way George has to actually work towards making a threatening, scalable board, instead of just sitting on what he has and spamming hero powers on garbage in the tavern.

    Flurgl: Who cares about the buddy's stats??

    Deryl: -1/-1! My day is ruined. What was this supposed to achieve? I'd be surprised if Deryl's winrate moves by more than 0.05 % after that change.

    Tess: Way too inconsistent. Some buddies do absolutely nothing for you, others are outright broken to get for free repeatedly. I guess putting this in the middle of the buddy tavern tiers makes sense, so there is some upside of being able to nab tier 4 buddies (like Rag's) before your opponents  even have them (similar to Finley) but the outcomes will still be kinda meh on average and, more importantly, you can't really afford to make a build out of buddies, so at most you are keeping one opposing buddy and then just cycling the ones with battlecry. Not awful, but given the number of useless buddies that essentially just equal 1 gold for you (like Illidan's or Maiev's), they could have given the dude a bit more stats as well so he's at least useful in combat while you sit and wait to get what you want. But Tess by nature is a lot about the luck of the lobby so I guess this guy is on theme, if not on par on power level.

    Galewing: This buddy is still awkward as hell. The numbers on the flightpath turns and the progress given by the buddy just don't gel well at all. +1/+1 hardly changes a thing. This buddy is getting sold as soon as you are able to fill the board with synergies because it does so little. Even tripled it's questionable in effectiveness. If this allowed you to have multiple flight paths active at a time (1 extra base, 2 extra golden), it would be more useful. Constantly scale your stats while you wait for the other two paths to tick down.

    Deathwing: About the only good thing about this buddy is that it will help you fill the buddy meter so that you can triple it, level, discover a tier 6 and sell it. Of course, your hero power already helps your opponents fill their buddy meters too, and almost all the buddies are better than yours, so you're still periodically assisting your opponents in beating you lategame while your reward is a tier 6 discover. What a bargain!

    Sneed: First off, you don't want to play this thing early. You want to copy high tier deathrattles and you want to copy minions that already have a bunch of your hero powers on them. You won't be doing that on tier 2-3. More like tier 5-6 because by then you will have had the time to use your hero power a bunch on higher tier minions. So this buddy coming out earlier doesn't really do anything for you unless you are desperate for an option to stay in the game and have to copy a bomb or something. In addition, this being lower tier makes the effects of your hero power it copies worse. This is almost a nerf because of that.

    Galakrond: Evolving the tavern has never been good. It wasn't good with Vashj, it wasn't good with Darkmoon Prizes, it's not good with Tickatus. And you get it as your buddy. As if Galakrond didn't have enough struggles. Secondly, this buddy makes no sense for the hero. Galakrond sits on low tavern tier for a long time. Evolving a board of tier 2s into random tier 3s won't get you anywhere so you'll have to either sit on this for a longass time (until you're tavern tier 5 which will take ages with your levelling curve) or you have to use it essentially as a free hero power use. Drop this on a board of tier 3s, make some tier 4s, hero power one of the tier 4s, next turn you're making it a 6. That's on par with the power level of...no buddy in the game. Even Galewing can probably get more out of their buddy than you.

    Reno: This buddy is still only good when combined with like 10-11 minions in the whole game (8 of the Avenge minions, Gentle Djinni, Tarecgosa and Rivendare).

  • I really love how the buddy system makes it easier to balance the battlegrounds heroes without meddling with their hero powers again and again.

  • Now he has reason to be...Crabby

  • I personally would rework completely Tess and Scabbs' buddies. They are fun but feel so weak (unless you get a good buddy like Millificient's).

  • may be card changes: 

    Wildheart Guff may cost 7 Mana and draw 2 Cards 

    Amplified Snowflurry may read "Your next Hero Power Freezes the target" 

    Najak Hexxen may cost 6 Mana 

    Brilliant Macaw may cost 4 Mana 

    Defias Cannoneer may cost 5 Mana 

    Guild Trader may have 2 Attack 

    Mr. Smite may cost 8 Mana 

    Swinetusk Shank may cost 5 Mana and have 1 Attack 

    Mozaki, Master Duelist may cost 8 Mana and has 4 Attack 

    Argent Braggart may cost 4 Mana 

    Level Up! May cost 5 Mana

    Sorcerer's Apprentice may be 3 Mana 4/3 

    • I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here, perhaps trying to summon changes, but there were no constructed balance changes this week.

      • Quote From Fluxflashor

        I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here, perhaps trying to summon changes, but there were no constructed balance changes this week.

        Maybe. Maybe not