Following the brief announcement of the announcement from the day before, the patch notes for the latest round of Hearthstone balance changes went up just a little while ago. The patch itself was expected to follow right afterwards, with a client data update (changing existing cards and abilities is a different process from adding brand new assets to the game). In which case it usually means simultaneous downloads taking place for both desktop and mobile.
Quote From DeckTech Patch is expected at around 10am. So you have about an hour to freak out about these changes.
Update: The patch is now available on all desktop Battle.net clients and mobile devices!
There is a larger variety of high power level cards getting hit with the nerf bat, probably making for a more extensive field than most of us might've even expected. That's bound to shake things up for the current Standard and Wild metas:
- Control Warrior dominance curbed with adjustments to From the Depths, Shield Shatter, Tidal Revenant, and Nellie's Pirate Ship (from Nellie, the Great Thresher).
- Fel Demon Hunter gets a small slap on the wrist with changes to Caria Felsoul and Battleworn Vanguard.
- Various potent Neutral/Class cards in the crosshairs: Mr. Smite, Lightforged Cariel, Spitelash Siren, School Teacher, Wildpaw Gnoll.
- On the Wild side of things, Lightning Bloom no longer offering such great early tempo, but also Earthen Scales becoming more expensive (more so as a result of being part of the current Core Set for Standard).
But, there are also enough positive upgrades to talk about for Battlegrounds and Mercenaries:
- A number of Battlegrounds buffs to Heroes & Minions, plus Armor Tier adjustments.
- A handful of Mercenaries abilities receiving buffs to their Speed and Cooldown values.
The detailed list and patch notes for all of the above Hearthstone modes as follows:
Standard & Wild
Quote From Blizzard Card Updates
Dev Comments: We have a lot of big Standard balance changes coming this patch (and one for Wild!) which are attempting to accomplish a few different goals. First, we want to lower the power level of the most powerful decks in the current metagame - Fel Demon Hunter and Control Warrior variants. Roughly half of the changes in this patch are balance-motivated and intended to target the winrates of these decks directly.
The rest of the changes in this patch are not primarily motivated by power level, but are instead focused on improving the play-against experience of some of the more polarizing cards in the game.
The following cards have been adjusted to have their power reduced:
Shield Shatter
- Old: Deal 5 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have. → New: Deal 4 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have.
Tidal Revenant
- Old: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 8 Armor. → New: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 5 Armor.
Nellie’s Pirate Ship (the Colossal appendage summoned by Nellie, the Great Thresher)
- Old: Taunt. Deathrattle: Add Nellie’s Pirate crew to your hand. They Cost (1). → New: Taunt. Deathrattle: Add Nellie’s Pirate crew to your hand. They Cost (1) less.
From the Depths
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
Dev Comment: Both Charge Warrior and Control Warrior variants have been overperforming on the ladder, and trend towards higher and higher winrates the further up the ladder you climb. These decks share several key cards, and this batch of changes is intended to lower the winrates of both those archetypes. We don’t want or expect these decks to disappear entirely after the changes, but we do hope that some of the more frustrating plays that they are capable of (such as Nellie creating 1-cost Mr. Smite) will be removed or weakened going forward.
Caria Felsoul
- Old: [Costs 6] 6 Attack, 6 Health. Battlecry: Transform into a 6/6 copy of a Demon in your deck. → New: [Costs 7] 7 Attack, 7 Health. Battlecry: Transform into a 7/7 copy of a Demon in your deck.
Battleworn Vanguard
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 1 Health
Dev Comment: Demon Hunter has been the other standout winrate class since the release of the latest mini-set. Although we’re happy to see the new and improved Xhilag making a splash, we aren’t as excited about Caria being used to cheat out a copy of Xhilag ahead of schedule. In addition to slowing down that interaction, we’ve shaving one Health off Battleworn Vanguard in order to lower the odds that it sticks early and snowballs the game.
Wildpaw Gnoll
- Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 5 Health
Dev Comment: Rogue has been one of the most played classes in Standard, and it didn’t feel right for us to hit the other popular classes without taking a small amount of power out of Rogue. Wildpaw Gnoll has been a tricky card for us to get right, but we’re optimistic that the latest change to it will leave both the card and the class in the right place.
Lightforged Cariel
- Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
Dev Comment: We are happy to see hero cards pack a late game punch for their classes, but felt like Cariel was providing that power a turn earlier than she should have been. Paladin is in a pretty healthy spot in the current metagame, and with the rest of the changes we are seeing in this patch, we expect things to stay that way.
Spitelash Siren
- Old: [Costs 4] 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Costs 5] 2 Attack, 6 Health
Dev Comment: Spitelash Siren is a fun and interesting card for Naga mage decks, but we felt that it was capable of effectively ending games in a way that didn’t leave enough room for counterplay. We are hoping that by moving this effect back one turn, opponents of the card will have more time to interact with the wide boards it is capable of generating.
Earthen Scales
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: Druid hasn’t been a dominant class since the mini-set, but it can still be quite frustrating to lose to. We felt Earthen Scales was doing too much for a one-mana card, and that increasing its cost by 1 the class should be a little easier to attack in the mid-game.
Lightning Bloom
- Old: Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only. Overload: (2). → New: Refresh 2 Mana Crystals. Overload: (2).
Dev Comment: As we tracked gameplay following the mini-set, we noticed concerns about game experiences in Wild, particularly when it comes to Big Shaman decks. These decks can sometimes ramp out big threats very early, which could make games feel like non-games. We quickly identified Lightning Bloom as the card which was creating the most problems for the format both in the short-term and long-term, so we are making an aggressive adjustment to it.
Mr. Smite
- Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Costs 7]
Dev Comment: Mr. Smite is a powerful, game-ending card that doesn’t need to be quite as powerful as he is on curve. This change will hopefully make the card a little more tolerable in the mid-game, while also slowing down the various combos he is involved in.
School Teacher
- Old: 5 Attack, 4 Health → New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Dev Comment: Though we’re generally happy with the kinds of gameplay that School Teacher provides, a card with a premium Battlecry effect doesn’t also need to have premium stats. We expect this card to still see plenty of play, but we hope that it won’t be quite as ubiquitous as it is now.
Any craftable versions of the cards listed above will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 23.4.3 (Core Set versions of cards that are in the Core Set, and the Golden versions of School Teacher that were given as part of the Voyage to the Sunken City Rewards Track, are not craftable).
Battlegrounds
Quote From Blizzard Battlegrounds Updates
Hero Power Updates
Onyxia Broodmother – Broodmother
- Old: Avenge (4): Summon a 2/1 Whelp. It attacks immediately. → New: Avenge (4): Summon a 3/1 Whelp. It attacks immediately.
Ozumat – Tentacular
- Old: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Upgrades after you sell a minion!) → New: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)
Dev Comment: This is not a functional change; this change is just for clarity.
Pyramad — Brick by Brick
- Old: [Costs 1] Give a random friendly minion +4 Health. → New: [Costs 0] Give a minion +2 Health. (Gains +1 Health each turn you don’t use this!)
Tamsin Roame — Fragrant Phylactery
- Old: Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to four friendly minions. → New: Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to five friendly minions.
Armor Tier Updates
The following heroes were adjusted to have more armor, and are now in the following armor tiers:
- Al’Akir, Ambassador Faelin, Galakrond, Malygos, and Vol’jin are in Armor Tier 2.
- C’Thun is in Armor Tier 3.
- Bru’kan, Edwin VanCleef, Fungalmancer Flurgl, and Queen Azshara are in Armor Tier 5.
- Deathwing, Elise Starseeker, Illidan Stormrage, Lord Jaraxxus, and Tess Greymane, are in Armor Tier 6.
- Aranna Starseeker, Cariel Roame, King Mukla, Overlord Saurfang, Rakanishu, The Curator, and The Rat King are in Armor Tier 7.
The following heroes were adjusted to have less armor, and are now in the following armor tiers:
- Alexstrasza, Death Speaker Blackthorn, Ini Stormcoil, Maiev Shadowsong, Patches the Pirate, Shudderwock, The Lich King, Trade Prince Gallywix, and Xyrella are in Armor Tier 1.
- Reno Jackson is now in Armor Tier 2.
- Dinotamer Brann is now in Armor Tier 3.
Minion Updates
Bubblette
- Old: 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health
Tarecgosa
- Old: Tavern Tier 4 → New: Tavern Tier 3
Coldlight Seer
- Old: Tavern Tier 4 → New: Tavern Tier 3
Shoal Commander
- Old: 1 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health
Waverider
- Old: Spellcraft: Give a minion +1/+1 and Windfury until next turn. → New: Spellcraft: Give a minion +2/+2 and Windfury until next turn.
Critter Wrangler
- Old: 5 Attack, 6 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+1. → New: 5 Attack, 7 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+2.
Corrupted Myrmidon
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health
Tidemistress Athissa
- Old: 7 Attack, 3 Health → New: 7 Attack, 8 Health
Mercenaries
Quote From Blizzard Mercenaries Updates
Alexstrasza:
- Dragonqueen’s Gambit
- Old: Cooldown 2 → New: Cooldown 1
The Lich King
- Death Coil
- Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown 0
Yu’Lon:
- Jadeflame Buffet
- Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown 0
Tidemistress Athissa:
- Wave Crush
- Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 6
- Riptide:
- Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown: 0
Rexxar:
- Old: 11/72 Maxed Stats → New: 11/82 Maxed Stats
Xuen, the White Tiger
- Equalizing Strike
- Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 5
Captain Hooktusk
- Cutthroat Negotiation
- Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 2
Uther
- Blessing of Protection
- Old: Speed 3 → New: Speed 1
How many of these have you predicted correctly, and which ones you wouldn't have ever seen coming?
Comments
So I just finished Alexstrasza's Tasks in Mercenaries. One of them was to kill 40 enemies with Dragonqueen's Gambit. FORTY. Good god it was annoying, but at least the ability was at Cooldown 1 instead of 2. Any salty players out there had to do this already before this buff?
Not me, fortunately (and ouch, this still awaits me some day). Sometimes taking it slow pays off. I've heard from many folks who pretty much speed rush through all the tasks as much as they can.
I don't play Wild at high enough ranks to have really met Pirate Rogue much, but isn't it a pretty conventional aggro/tempo deck? I would have thought you could tech against it reasonably easily if that is your intent. E.g. weapon removal, Golakka Crawler, AoE and healing/armor. Traditional control stuff.
Swordfish is definitely OP, but I imagine this is why they didn't hit the deck while they see if kneecapping Big Shaman opens more space for people to tech against rogue.
Oh my fucking god, I always knew even before the buffs that Caria Felsoul had huge potential if Xhilag is massively buffed. I just didn't expect her to get nerfed instead of Xhilag. My impatient dumb ass already disenchanted her. Rip 1200 dust.
The new Lightning Bloom is honestly just what it should've been from the very start.
Agree...always thought it should have been refresh too. Been waiting for this day to come....saved 34 copies of it for 1360 dust
im gonna try to be charitable for this one but blizz hitting lightning bloom genuinely makes me so upset. to all the people praising the lightning bloom nerf: how are you justifying nerfing a card that is relevant in like 5+ different druid decks (NONE of which are overpowered) instead of any more specific cards to big shaman that would affect only that deck? what is the point of hurting a wide variety of druid decks that currently arent hurting the meta in any way? furthermore, big shaman has been a thing long before now using lightning bloom and hasnt been an issue until the printing of that 7/7 fish fuck i cant remember the name of and the colossal legendary. therefore, why nerf a card thats been non-problematic in that deck for ages and (more importantly) has an incredible degree of importance in a huge number of other decks instead of nerfing/banning one of the new cards that has caused this imbalance of power? malygos druid JUST managed to get back onto its feet after being mostly outmatched by other ramp druid variants, now maly druid along with a good number of those other variants are getting kneecapped for NOTHING. we have the statistics to see that they are not winning to an overpowered degree, there's a wide variety of different decks and variation between archetypes that stimulates such interesting deckbuilding between different versions, so why hit those decks? really depressing for me, i truly dont understand why druid had to be punished infinitely harder than the class that was actually causing problems.
It reads refresh, which means whatever the hell druid is doing they will likely still be able to do it. The only thing they cant do is cheat out their ramp or win cons. And I call that a 100% positive result.
Also, Lightning Bloom got a free pass for 2 years before completely cleared out from standard. The fact that it took this long is already charitable enough, considering the massive bs it did in standard. How many turn 1 Overgrowth, or turn 2 guffs, or turn 1 Wildpaw Caverns does it take before someone starts getting a picture of what this card does or did?
Edit: If its gets hit because its a dual class card, that's rough. But we cannot continue to ignore turn 1 concedes. Sorry
Okay, so the balance patch dropped and I got shocked, because I wasn't expecting such extensive changes. In fact, the change is so drastic its almost suggesting that the previous meta was wildly problematic, when in my opinion it wasn't.
Everyone was expecting warrior to get hit, but to get hit this hard? Ouch. I guess we're back to quest warrior until the next expansion. Because I cannot see control warrior ever getting back. The nerf to Shield Shatter basically shattered its AoE because its no longer guaranteed to clear 4 drops (or anything midrange for that matter), and then that massive nerf to From the Depths makes it even harder to play without dying, probably end up completely deleting that card from competitive.
Nerf to cariel...well that's been requested for ages. I personally disagree with it, but that card is basically in every paladin deck and now at 8 mana it'll likely no longer be so.
Changes to gnoll is near mandatory. Its insane that even the most greediest rogue deck around basically gets a free pass early game because of these things. The 3/5 will still be playable, but at least its no longer as offensive. The biggest change though is actually to Mr. Smite, which just completely demolish all of rogue's end game, making sure you can no longer do the combo with Shadowstep+edwin. I guess its all down to Pirate Admiral Hooktusk or bust.
Spitelash Siren change boggles the mind a bit. Not because the nerf wasn't expected, but why the additional health? Its hard enough to clear this shit as a 2/5 and now with 6 health its nearly impossible if you dont have board. I simply have to trust that team5 did the testing and the win rate drops from this change.
One change with a massive thumbs up. Lightning Bloom. Been asking for this since its very inception and for the life of me I cant understand why making this change took nearly 2 years, but here we are; a more balanced bloom. 2 years team5 have resisted and its not even druid's fault. Nice.
So where does this all leave us? My expectation would be warrior goes right back down to the bottom of the tier list, followed by rogue. On the top it might still be dhunters, followed by paladin. Priest, mage and shaman to fight off third spot. The wildcards here is hunter and warlock, because either its stuck on the bottom, or its literally the best class in the game.
Edit: I should have pointed out that nellie went from being the best colossal to instantly being the very worst of them. In fact its nigh unplayable now. They had one job, and that's simply removing mr smite from the pool. And instead we got this.
I think people are overstating the Nellie nerf. At that stage of the game, it's not that big a difference whether most pirates cost 1 or 1 less. It's only 4+ costs that really care much, and most of those wouldn't be your first choice if Smite wasn't available. Honestly, this version where you still get Smite half the time feels stronger to me than the old one with Smite removed.
The story is a bit different when rogues generate Nellie since they have lots of 4+ mana pirates that are good without charge, but warrior's pirates are generally cheaper.
There's still some good ones like Stonemaul Anchorman or Southsea Scoundrel on the top end that are actually good cards, more so if they cost only 1. I think team5 changed it into reduce cost by 1 because smite, costing 7 or not, is still going to lop games sideways because of the three 1 cost pirates. Besides, having it as 1 mana also enables brann to sometimes do silly things, particularly with scoundrel.
But ultimately nellie will likely never recover from this unless there's yet more crazy pirates in future expansions. The whole point of playing it in the first place is because of its interactions with smite. And since smite costs 7, and the pirates no longer costing 1 from nellie, it defeats all purpose of playing it in the first place.
The Anchorman is good, sure, but it is also good at 4 mana and its still going to feel like Nellie has done something worthwhile.
As for the Scoundrel, I'm not so sure you'd take her over most 3-cost pirates if it wasn't for Smite giving her charge. Hence, I didn't think warrior would actually care much about 4+ cost pirates if Smite wasn't present, since the Anchorman is the only serious choice in that scenario.
In the bigger picture, "is Nellie still a good card?" is the more important question than "is Nellie significantly weaker?" I guess she now looks something like a 5/5 + Stegodon + a slightly stronger variant of the traditional 5 mana draw/generate 3 cards. That's still a lot for 7 mana. She's no longer bs, but that doesn't mean she's bad.
Its still going to be a matter of opportunity cost. Running a 7 mana card that doesn't win you the game is usually a tense decision, and warrior having been nerfed to this extent makes me pessimistic about its chances.
If I look back at the times Nellie doesn't give me a 1 mana Smite (which thanks to my goddamn luck happens fairly frequently) I find her very underwhelming. Almost not worth it to even play, unless cheated out early. The 3 pirates (thats not smite) is nice and all, but control warrior rarely ever care about them unless they're winning the game for you.
On a side note. Scoundrel is actually an amazing card for a slow meta. Its hard to believe, but there was a time where this card was actually being played competitively in standard. I'd still take her if Im facing a control or value deck, especially if its still 1 mana 5/5.
Which is why it is important Smite is still included, so you can still create some burst damage from the pirates, just without tons of mana left over to do other stuff too. That is what Nellie should be doing imo, and the reason she was bs was the scale of the mana cheating, for Smite in particular. In that regard I'm not too worried if she makes the final cut in meta decks - many good/great cards don't - though she should still be decent in questline warrior where they have mana to spare at that point in the game.
Re Scoundrel: in a slow game, does it matter much whether she costs 1 or 3? 1 is objectively better, of course, but on turns 8+ it's not a huge deal unless you're trying to squeeze her into a combo turn (i.e. with Smite).
Argh, I was really hoping Pirate Rogue's weapon would get touched. I am glad to see Lightning Bloom bite the dust, though.
Conflicted on some of these.
Shield Shatter was deserved and helps a lot. It's now a bit easier to actually have a board that can survive the 2-mana boardclear so it no longer feels like you're just stacking bricks waiting to be knocked down.
Tidal Revenant seems a bit overkill considering the two other changes we also got. I guess it might be future-proofing in case the next set boosts WArrior again, but I personally would have waited on the nerf.
The Nellie, the Great Thresher nerf seems downright vindictive though. I get she was OP, but you literally killed her completely, she's unplayable now. At least you could have made thee discount (2) or (3) but now with the added Smite nerf this is just a death sentence. There were many ways to tone her down without making her unplayable, but I guess the devs don't like her either. Oh well, free dust for me.
I fundamentally disagree with From the Depths. For one, I am still salty I didn't realize the potential earlier and dusted all my extra copies early, and secondly, FTD felt like Warrior's way to keep up with all the highrolling nonsense currently around. Granted, said nonsense mostly got nerfed as well, but I still never felt like losing just to FTD when playing against Warrior unless they highrolled Nellie (who is now obsolete) so this feels like overkill. Then again, maybe it's just necessary, Warrior was really broken for the last couple days.
Caria Felsoul is an unfortunate casualty, but a neecessary one. You could have reverted Xhilag of the Abyss but that would effectively render both cards useless and since Xhilag on 7 isn't that much of a problem I guess Caria was the best choice to hit.
Battleworn Vanguard is a card that should have been nerfed a month ago...when I still had like 15 extra copies..... This keeps happening to me, I think I'm just never going to DE anything ever again. Jokes aside, this is a good nerf that hits a large issue with DH right now, mainly their ability to snowball early while still having insane lategame burst.
Wildpaw Gnoll seems fair. Not as harsh as the last nerf and should keep it plenty strong, especially now that most of the Rogue counters have been nerfed anyways.
Lightforged Cariel is somewhat unnecessary but still welcome. The card is fine in concept but when she comes down at exactly 7 and cucks you out of lethal she's the least fun experience you can have so the nerf is warranted. Also I'm tired of Paladin being carried this hard by a single card.
Spitelash Siren nerf is also necessary for the future. The deck is fine, but if you just get highrolled out of existence on turn 5 it just feels like bullshit. Ironically, the health increase might be a buff in the long run in matchups where you don't just Siren as fast as you can but stack ressources for a better turn. Against aggro decks Naga Mage is now significantly weaker though. Against Rogue for instance a one-turn difference will lose you the game.
Earthen Scales nerf seems somewhat pointless now but I guess it's future-proofing. Can no longer be abused with Ivus with a cheeky Innervate.
Lightning Bloom nerf is just funny to me. After almost two years of Druid abuse it's Shaman that finally breaks it.
Mr. Smite nerf feels like fan-service at this point. The card is fine but people won't shut up about it so I guess it makes sense to nuke it.
School Teacher is uncalled for. The card will lose relevance once the next expansion hits and the spell pool gets bigger. It's currently one of the most enjoyable cards and effectively functions as a neutral class card that can fill different roles. NOw it's just awkward to play. Could have just made it a 4/4.
Can't say anything about Battlegrounds, but Pyramad is probably better now (although not by much) while Tamsin is probably still shit. Strange to see Nagas buffed again though. I guess it really was Siren breaking the entire archetype.
The Merc's changes are just comical at this point. FUCKING HELL, JUST REVERT TRIGORE YOU GOBLINS. I don't even care about refunds, just nerf the cancer that ruined PvP beyond repair. What am I going to do with 10-extra health on Rexxar? take him to PvE? What for? I have a Fire team, it kills everything anyways.
Wow, I guess I'm lucky I haven't dusted both free epics from Sunken City track until now. I mean, it's sucks to have gotten them in the packs.
Does Caria really deserve a nerf? Did the pros abuse her too hard? In BIG DH she is perfectly mediocre unless you hit exactly Xhilag (1/6-7 chance) exactly on curve and even then it's far less backbreaking than the actual metadecks are capable of on turn 5-6 :( As a guy who unpacked Caria as my free Alterac leg and golden Xhilag i am very emotionally conflicted at the recent changes carousel.
Caria didn't. Blizz, like many game companies, is effectively a cult of the new -- the newest product must be protected. Xhilag has the highest value because of novelty, Caria less so for the opposite reason, so Caria gets rendered basically worthless (she was borderline at 6 in the first place). Xhilag can't be made into a larger value proposition because DH doesn't have any tools to make a value deck work in Standard -- it's aggro/tempo or nothing -- and it can't be buffed any further without making it an instawin when you highroll and face an empty board with it.
They could have done something clever and given Caria something else to balance out her 7-mana hit, but it's simply easier to delete the older card entirely.
So the thing is they sorta overbuffed Xhilag so now it can actually just wins by itself when it hits an empty board. Caria turned that into a very highrolly win condition
In a perfect world Caria would be left untouched but Xhilag would be reverted (and maybe buffed to 6-mana as compensation) but we don't live in that world so instead they chose to let Xhilag be playable and shaft Caria, perhaps because there are more powerful big demons yet to come or maybe because they won't support the archetype any further in Standard and so it's better to not render the standalone Xhilag unpllayable yet again.