We've got a happy holidays treat from the Hearthstone team with a balance patch coming out later today to bring us buffs, nerfs, and a card ban. The patch is targeting Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and Arena. We've summarized all the non-Battlegrounds changes down below; if you want more in-depth information, Blizzard has written dev commentary that you can find at the end of this post.
What do you think about this balance patch that focuses on 20 different cards?
A Note on Dust Refunds
As usual, all the cards below that are craftable can be disenchanted for their full dust value for a period of two weeks - until January 2.
Due to Blizzard being uncertain about the changes they are going to be making for Signature Cards, any players with the Signature version of Anub'Rekhan as of December 20 at 10 AM PST, will receive 1600 Arcane Dust at login later in the week. This is not a standard distribution going forward, things may change regarding Signature Card refunds.
Death Knight Card Buffs
- Corpse Bride can now spend up to 10 corpses (Up from 8).
- Malignant Horror now spends 4 corpses (Down from 5).
- Meat Grinder now grants 4 corpses (Up from 3).
- Blightfang now has 4 Health (Up from 3).
- Stitched Giant now costs 9 (Down from 10).
- Ymirjar Deathbringer now has 4 Attack (Up from 3).
- Rime Sculptor now has 4 Attack (Up from 3).
- Obliterate now only does 3 damage to your hero (Previously would be equal to the minion's health).
- Blood Tap now spends 2 corpses (Down from 3).
Card Nerfs
- Unleash Fel is now Manathirst 6 (Up from 4).
- Relic of Dimensions now costs 6 (Up from 5).
- Anub'Rekhan now only effects the next 3 minions on this turn (Down from all).
- Boon of the Ascended now costs 5 (Up from 4).
- Priestess Valishj now costs 1 (Up from 0).
- Necrolord Draka now costs 5 (Up from 4).
- Sinstone Graveyard now costs 3 (Up from 2).
- Sketchy Information now costs 4 (Up from 3).
- Forsaken Lieutenant now costs 3 (Up from 2).
- Prince Renathal now only increases your starting Health to 35 (Down from 40).
Wild Card Bans
- Tome Tampering is now banned in Wild.
Arena Updates
Quote From Blizzard Arena draft appearance rates have been adjusted as follows:
- Death Knight and Paladin cards that generate more cards will appear less frequently.
- Death Knight cards that remove opposing minions and leave a board presence will appear less frequently.
- Low winrate cards from low performing classes will appear less frequently.
- High winrate cards from low performing classes will appear more frequently.
- Some Neutral cards will appear more or less frequently, depending on their performance in a given class.
Bug Fixes
Quote From Blizzard Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Potion Belt could not Discover two of the same Concoction.
- [Hearthstone] The wording on Astalor, the Flamebringer has been updated for clarity; this is not a functional change.
- [Hearthstone] Grim Patron and Gruntled Patron will now once again leave Corpses. Adjusted the Corpse Explosion interaction so that it no longer chains infinitely.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Greatsword of the Ebon Blade would lose Durability whenever any card was played, not just minions.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug that made Scourge Strike unable to be played.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where the Scourging Hero Power doesn’t work if your board is full.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Hematology and Unholy Embrace did not count as consuming Corpses.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Unholy Embrace always filled your hand if you had any Corpses to spend when you played it.
Developer Commentary on Patch 25.0.4
Quote From Blizzard Dev Comment: Balance changes at this point in an expansion are made with early, somewhat limited data. For these changes, we like to address the most egregious power outliers and play patterns that we know we don’t like—cards that we’re likely to adjust down the line anyway as the meta evolves over time. We hope and expect to make some spicier changes in our next balance pass, once we have more data.
The following cards are being adjusted to be less powerful:
Unleash Fel
- Old: Manathirst (4)
- New: Manathirst (6)
Relic of Dimensions
- Old: [Costs 5]
- New: [Costs 6]
Dev Comment: The Manathirst on Unleash Fel felt like a non-factor that was almost always on anyway when you wanted to play the card. This change makes the card more interesting and helps reel in a Demon Hunter power outlier. Relics are prevalent and powerful—we like them and didn’t want to fully revert their power level, so we’re just touching the strongest Relic to make it a little less explosive.
Anub’Rekhan
- Old: Battlecry: Gain 8 Armor. This turn, your minions cost Armor instead of Mana.
- New: Battlecry: Gain 8 Armor. This turn, your next 3 minions cost Armor instead of Mana.
Dev Comment: This Brann-Anub’Rekhan combo is not a big winrate outlier, but it represents a play pattern we don’t like. We wanted to reduce lethality and remove the ability for the combo to let players dump their entire hand, while still allowing ramp strategies.
Boon of the Ascended
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New [Costs 5]
Priestess Valishj
- Old: [Costs 0]
- New: [Costs 1]
Dev Comment: Boon Priest is not common or overly powerful at most levels of play, but it is the best performing deck at high legend and it wins through frustrating play patterns. We wanted to give it a couple small adjustments to make it more in line with the rest of the meta, especially after the other adjustments in this patch.
Necrolord Draka
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New: [Costs 5]
Sinstone Graveyard
- Old: [Costs 2]
- New: [Costs 3]
Sketchy Information
- Old: [Costs 3]
- New: [Costs 4]
Forsaken Lieutenant
- Old: [Costs 2]
- New: [Costs 3]
Dev Comment: There are two Rogue decks that we want to adjust this patch. Deathrattle Rogue is a deck that can do some cool, fun things, but it’s too fast for most decks to deal with. We don’t want to destroy these synergies, but we do want to slow them down. Similarly, Miracle Rogue makes for very bad play experiences when their pop-off turns are too powerful too soon. We think it is fun and thematic for Rogue to have those turns where they play a bunch of cards and get rewarded for it, but we want to slow that turn down a little.
Prince Renathal
- Old: Your deck size and starting Health are 40.
- New: Your deck size is 40. Your starting Health is 35.
Dev Comment: Renathal had its run. He’s the most played card in the game and the meta has warped around him for a long time, so we are making this change to open the meta back up. At the same time, we know he’s one of the most popular cards we’ve ever made, so we wanted to preserve his core effect as an option for his fans.
Tome Tampering
- Now banned in Wild.
Dev Comment: Discard is a thematic Warlock archetype with many tools over the years. Those tools have combined into a disruptive force in the Wild meta. Tome Tampering is the powerful enabler that puts this deck over the format’s power level; banning that enabler will let players continue to use those thematic discard Warlock tools, but at a level that is more in line with the rest of the format.
The above craftable cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 25.0.4 (Signature versions of Anub’Rekhan and all versions of Prince Renathal are not craftable).
We're taking a hard look at what systemic changes we want to make to Signature cards in the future, and have not finalized those decisions. This time, players who have the Signature version of Anub'Rekhan as of December 20th at 10am PST will receive a grant of 1600 Arcane Dust at login, later that week. Things may work differently in the future. We will share more information on those future plans once they're finalized.
The following cards are being adjusted to be more powerful:
Dev Comment: Death Knight is the cool new class that many players want to try out, so we’re making some adjustments to open them up a little and give them more toys to tinker with. Like with the nerfs, these buffs are designed to be higher confidence; we specifically looked for low playrate Death Knight cards that seemed primed for upgrades. We plan to take another look in the next balance pass.
Corpse Bride
- Old: Battlecry: Spend up to 8 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
- New: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
Malignant Horror
- Old: At the end of your turn, spend 5 Corpses to summon a copy of this minion.
- New: At the end of your turn, spend 4 Corpses to summon a copy of this minion.
Meat Grinder
- Old: Battlecry: Shred a random minion in your deck to gain 3 Corpses.
- New: Battlecry: Shred a random minion in your deck to gain 4 Corpses.
Blightfang
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Stitched Giant
- Old: [Costs 10]
- New: [Costs 9]
Ymirjar Deathbringer
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Rime Sculptor
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Obliterate
- Old: Destroy a minion. Your hero takes damage equal to its Health.
- New: Destroy a minion. Your hero takes 3 damage.
Blood Tap
- Old: Give all minions in your hand +1/+1. Spend 3 Corpses to give them +1/+1 more.
- New: Give all minions in your hand +1/+1. Spend 2 Corpses to give them +1/+1 more.
Comments
They said its done with limited data, and Im not surprised, because these buffs are very cautious. The real reason for them doing it now is because of the usual end of year holidays. We wont be seeing them for another two weeks, so they decided to push out something, even if its not exactly what everyone wants/thinks.
I mean, anyone who watched those 1 hour priest mirrors in worlds would likely know there's something wrong somewhere.
That said, at least they did the duty on rogue, so that's one thing.
Oh wow, that's 4,800 dust for me just from the legendaries. As long as Wildheart Guff and discover-from-your-deck cards are in Standard, the Anub'Rekhan nerf won't matter too much because Druid can reach 11 mana pretty quickly. The Obliterate buff would be broken if the card belonged to other certain classes. I was hoping to get my Big Shaman deck out of meme status, but alas, buffed Obliterate has obliterated my dreams.
Consistency is a huge hit to combo decks. In the ideal case, yes you can still do the Anub'Rehkan Astalor combo. However, that's now only in the ideal case. You need to get the right mana first. You need the opponent to be at the right health. You need to only play only those cards. You need to have all the pieces line up, which takes more time, which opens the deck up to more losses.
They nerfed my Nozdormu rogue =(
The biggest buff to DK is actually seeing other classes being nerfed. But what Im curious about is how team5 is actually pricing the idea of corpses in DK. Corpse Bride almost never ever reaches that number, whereas Meat Grinder is practically unplayable whether or not it gives one extra corpse. The only true significant change here is to Obliterate, which used to be unplayable, but may now overtake Asphyxiate, especially since rogue got nerfed.
Other nerfs; changing Anub'Rekhan really doesn't change much except druid needs to set up astalor by actually playing him, and now needs 11 mana or an Innervate to do the combo. Yes, it does prevent them from spamming the whole three tiers of astalor with brann in one turn, but changes nothing of that ridiculous win con for that class. At least you'll see it coming now. My only hope is that druid remains tier 2-3 regardless, because it seems like team5 is adamant on this bs play style where your opponent gets 4 mana above your own on turn 5.
Miracle rogue may very much turn 100% on the sharks now, making it even more deliriously high rolling than it was before. The shark build has always been a pet peeve for me, but because it never really exist in standard Ive largely overlooked it. But wouldn't be too surprise to see it resurface (though hopefully not). Draka being nerfed makes this less likely, but pro players always somehow make rogue work regardless.
DK may actually climb to the top half of the tierlist now, because blood DK does make mince meat of aggro and can hold its own, just not against rogue bs. I still dont like the presence of blood DK in the meta, but after a fairly bad first two weeks for the lich king, I guess we'll wait and see.
Edit: I typed in meat wagon the first time. Turns out that even if you look like a meat wagon from the old games a small camera shot of your grinder up front automatically makes you a Meat Grinder instead
Darn it, that Stitched Giant buff hurts Even DK pretty bad :( The deck is already stretched pretty thin for good payoffs and power plays. Might be worth it to flip to non-even but then, you're essentially running a Standard deck into the Wild meta.
Also not too happy about the Anub'rekhan, Relic and Sketchy nerfs, none of these cards are a problem in Wild and now they're paying for the sins of Standard.
With Renathal, I'm split. On one hand, this should make a number of less popular aggro strategies more viable, on the other, the aggro strategies that already are viable all got better. Given that even 40 health decks could blow up to current aggro by turn 4, not sure diluting your deck for 5 extra health is worth it anymore.
The Tome Tampering nerf is the wrong move though. Discard Warlock was absurd, yes, but Tome Tampering has existed for a while and Discolock was nowhere to be seen. It's Soul Barrage that's broken. Make it like a 2/3-mana deal 3 and the problem's solved. You can't reliably copy it with Expired Merchant and you can sling it around with Tome Tampering as much as you want, it's not gonna blow anybody up when it only does half the damage. I mean, I don't mind Mechathun Warlock getting erased from existence, but there's still gonna be games where your Discardlock opponent hits Soul Barrage twice with Expired Merchant, then Cataclysms you once both Merchants are dead and voila, you took 36 damage from hand from Soul Barrages your opponent paid like 1/5th of the mana for.
Blizzard failed to nerf the right card from rogue, which makes this bs possible. That 4 mana Scourge guy, because 4 mana reduction is too much.
Blizz has a hardcore bias for the new and it will remove the less-recent card for the sake of the newest. Witness the tragedy of Caria Felsoul.
Note that, in this very set, Tome Tampering was hit -- but Wild players had that card before now. Meanwhile, Soul Barrage is wrecking face in Wild and the devs don't even mention the card in their writeup.
Their goal isn't to fix the problem but to quiet it. The newest set must be kept as attractive as possible.
Tome Tampering was already a problem in Wild because of its interaction with Malchezaar's Imp. The discard synergies have now been pushed far enough for them to be the primary way to abuse this interaction, but Tome Tampering is definitely the better target here.
I think death knight buffs especially obliterate kind of op. About nerfs, gg wp blizzard.
Yeah, a 2 mana Assassinate is crazy good if you're only sacrificing health
Ironically enough, this is yet another reason not to play full Unholy. The boost to a Blood card is a bigger deal than the boosts to a number of Unholy cards.
Peak privilege is when you have over 100k dust in your bank but still get unreasonably upset that you JUST dusted your golden Forsaken Lieutenant because you happened to open the 2nd plain copy and thought "there is no way they'll nerf this before the clearly busted Illusionist"
My crippling need to see numbers go up will be my undoing one day.
9000 dust - thanks Blizz! ^^
Personally, I think I would have kept Obliterate as it was and swap its Runes with Asphyxiate. Obliterate was a Blood-heavy/Blood-only kind of card to begin with, because only 2-Blood or 3-Blood could handle the damage. Asphyxiate at 1-Blood, meanwhile, could have been used as a way to get through a big Taunt or something for BUU or BFF.
As it stands now with the buff, I kind of don't see a reason for Asphyxiate to exist, especially at 2-Blood.
With Asphyxiate. you can kill minions you can`t target with spells. This is an advantage to Obliterate (especially against some Rogues).
True...I guess I didn't think about that.
DK buffs don't seem like they will be enough to make the class a meta player, the nerfs were all expected and in line with what was expected.
As for wild, I for one have had more than one game where TT was on the bottom of my deck, which in wild means you lose, and even when it wasn't, the deck started to get more and more countered by the day, the high rolls just didn't happen as often as some content creators might have had us believe.
Despite the general consensus, the game knows how to put you in your place if it decides you're having too much of a good time.