Hearthstone to Receive 28 Balance Changes on Thursday + Death Knight Class Nerf

Published 2 years, 11 months ago by

We've got a boat load of post-expansion balance changes coming, primarily in the form of buffs, and a change to the Death Knight class which Blizzard says will be a "general rules/system change". We don't have all the details yet, those are to come on Thursday (thanks announcement of announcement), but we do have a list of the cards that will be receiving changes!

Card Nerfs Coming

Three cards are set to receive nerfs.

Card Buffs Coming

A total of 25 cards will be receiving buffs. Overall, Warrior is set to receive the most of the buffs with a total of 7 cards being buffed, or slightly more than a quarter of the buffs.

Legendary Card Buffs

Epic Card Buffs

Rare Card Buffs

Common Card Buffs

Death Knight Class Nerf

The Death Knight class as a whole is going to be receiving a change to their core rules. This will make the class weaker and solve negative experiences players are having with the class.

Quote From Nicholas Weiss

The Death Knight symbol is because there’s a general rules/system change coming for Death Knight, that will generally make it weaker and curb some negative play experiences. Details on Thursday.

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  • Infinitize the Maxitude is bad because the pool of mage spells is bad. There are spells that do nothing but generate more spells (eg Tear Reality, Vast Wisdom), spells that rely on synergy to be good (eg Seafloor Gateway), spells that are incredibly low impact (eg Flame Geyser, Snap Freeze), and spells that are outright bad eg (Synthesize).

    There are not enough good spells to make up for the large number of bad spells.

    • I can assure you that Infinitize the Maxitude is just plain bad, nothing to do with the pool of spells. Was grinding out achievements and let me say that even attempting to trigger its finale outside of turn 2 is a nightmare, never mind the fact that 90% of the time you'll never get to play what you pick.

      The unfortunate reality is that discovering a spell whilst having no mana to play it almost always means its useless. I'd rather just play Vast Wisdom. Most games rarely pass the turn 7 mark anyway and trying to get value out of this card is pointless. The fact that team5 is buffing this surprises no one because if this card discounted the discovered spell by 1-2 it'll still be just passable.

      Friendly

      • I think blood dk would happily include Infinitize the Maxitude. But discovering a dk spell is more valuable than discovering a mage spell and mage does not have the survival tools to make a deck that aims to win via attrition. As a mage card, I believe you could remove the finale requirement from it and it would still not see play in any competitve mage deck.

        Sadly, mage only has one great spell, which is Frozen Touch (and the only good mage deck is built around it). Otherwise mage has a bunch of good but not great spells, and a lot of low impact or bad spells.

        • Im not even sure it goes into blood DK, because post turn 2 there's really not much breathing room in that deck to play a 2 mana do nothing. And that's essentially what it was. Fortunately, with the buff to Spitelash Siren, this shit card has now peaked to being at least playable in one deck.

          As for the mage spell comment. Well, Frozen Touch is clearly OP but there are other spells that are impactful. Like Blizzard, Deathborne, the very tilting Objection! and its equally hated sister Counterspell. Not to mention utility cards like Solid Alibi, card draw options, freeze, damage, etc. There are good mage spells in the pool the main problem with Infinitize the Maxitude is that the card is nigh unplayable. Compare this with Vast Wisdom for example and there's an even chance you'll go for that instead of a card whose conditions is atrociously hard to fulfill.

          Friendly

  • From a Wild perspective the nerf to Twig of the World Tree was long overdue. I hope they really nuke it into unplayability because Druid still has Wildheart Guff and Floop's Glorious Gloop - the latter alone can ramp you up by the full 20 Mana if your opponent has a board and you combine it with Flipper Friends or Scale of Onyxia.

    Anyway, Wild will still have a long way to go towards a healthy meta with stuff like Mine Rogue, Big Priest, Shudderwock Shaman, Quest Mage and to some extent Secret Mage staying strong. But I'll try and focus on the bright side of things which is getting rid of one of the worst offenders and the prospect of some more attention for the format once the second expansion hits (see the roadmap for the Year of the Wolf).

    In the meantime, buffs to cards like Halduron Brightwing and Thori'belore will make playing off meta decks that much more interesting. There's a really fun Arcane Hunter deck with double Yogg as the top end that's already almost decent and getting Halduron to buff spells in deck and hand would make him a lot less awkward to play. Regarding the phoenix the expected endless resurrection option would come in really handy and make it a nice board control tool even for Wild standards. Even before Festival of Legends and the Warsong Commander changes I've met a guy on ladder who piloted an Enrage Warrior build to legend with Thori'belore in it so there's certainly potential here if you know what you're doing.

    Last but not least, Stranglethorn Heart. Beast Hunter already is an incredibly strong deck and I would have expected the nerf to twig alone cause it to rise to like tier 2. I can't imagine another way to buff the new legendary spell than decreasing its Mana cost and that will make the deck even better. In my opinion, this is a very good thing because it's a board centric, "fair" deck and I'd like to see more of those in the upper reaches of tiers. I can recommend Swizard's list if you want to try it.

    All in all, very nice changes even if I would have wished for more nerfs in Wild. Now let's hope they don't turn DK's power level down so hard that it follows DH's footsteps as the exciting, new and utterly unplayable class in Wild.

  • I like number of changes and specially for Warrior I was looking to play but he is in dire state now.
    Regarding Death Knight I hope they do not limit Discovery to only used in deck runes as this would not work.
    Frost would have even easier to discover 233 [Hearthstone Card (Frostwyrm's Fury) Not Found] duplicates.
    I would more likely see that 3 rune cards can't be discovered. No more Fury in Blood Knight, Vampiric Blood to save your ass as Frost.
    That would make 3 rune cards really unique for that particular rune deck.

    • Quote From Gobas

      I would more likely see that 3 rune cards can't be discovered. No more Fury in Blood Knight, Vampiric Blood to save your ass as Frost.
      That would make 3 rune cards really unique for that particular rune deck.

      This is the way

  • The fact that death knight is getting some major changes is the step in the right direction, because I think team5 suspects (correctly) that there wouldn't be any real changes in the gameplay pattern, card choices, or overall effectiveness of the class simply because of how the rune system works (Frost Queen Sindragosa still remains impossible to play etc.) and how discover works overall in that class.

    If I were to guess, team5 would probably make it impossible to discover cards outside of the deck runes, and make certain cards like Frostwyrm's Fury no longer up for discovers. But if Im being honest, the best thing they can do is to revamp the rune system so its less restrictive, because its absolutely a joke. I've asked it before, and shall again, why would anyone bother mixing up runes when the triple rune decks are tons better, with no indication that it'll ever change.

     

    Dont like the idea of Rowdy Fan getting nerfed. Pretty much one of the better cards this expansion, and a real card in for contention everytime an aggro deck is built. Not OP by any means, just a really good card. Sad that its getting capped off.

     

    Holy Nova and Shield Block getting buffs is probably not something I'd think is necessary at all. But whatever. Its not like they're ripping off the meta anyway. Shield block probably gets the nod because team5 discovered that no one wants to play control warrior when blood DK does it tons better than warrior ever could.

    Friendly
    • Quote From dapperdog

      The fact that death knight is getting some major changes is the step in the right direction, because I think team5 suspects (correctly) that there wouldn't be any real changes in the gameplay pattern, card choices, or overall effectiveness of the class simply because of how the rune system works (Frost Queen Sindragosa still remains impossible to play etc.) and how discover works overall in that class.

      If I were to guess, team5 would probably make it impossible to discover cards outside of the deck runes, and make certain cards like Frostwyrm's Fury no longer up for discovers.

      1issue with onyl discovering runes of same type as your deck, it makes getitng the best cards even more consistent.

      Blood would get way more Vampiric Blood, or frost way more Frostwyrms fury.

      Which is a buff, theyd rather loose occasional Scourge or such for getting way more consistent acces to their own runes.

      Id guess theyd remove triple runes from being discovered, over limiting to same runes.

       

      Even if remove vampiric and frostwyrms from discover alongside same rune only change, they still get way more consistent.

      Blood would just get way more removal, frost just more burn

    • Either that (you can only discover cards within your rune-scope) or the ghouls stop giving you corpses.

      • If you mean the token generated from hp, dont hold your breath. The whole point of DK's hp is to generate corpses while allowing a ping. It makes control decks in DK more viable, so its unlikely team5 would ever change that.

        Besides which, its hardly broken. I happen to think that DK's hp is perhaps one of the best designed hp among the classes.

        Friendly

  • I am not sure what the nerf to Overseer Frigidara is going to accomplish.  This is a troublesome card, however it is a legendary for a reason.  The bigger concern with Frost DK is obvious the Marrow Manipulator and Frostwyrm's Fury by far are the more concerning cards. 

    Realistically, the discovery of Frostwyrm's Fury from other cards makes it more cumbersome and frustrating.  I know, I've done it.  I was able to play the 2 in my deck, and then discovered another 2 and had the potential to discover more.  Not sure how Bliz will go about balancing this out going down the road, but currently it sucks to be on the end of a beating when they can discover the best cards consistently

    Friendly

    • Frigidara is the statistically highest performing card in Frost DK so it makes sense to nerf her just from a percentage point of view.

       

      Nerfing Frostwyrm or Manipulator mmight just kill the entire Rune outright, which is definitely not what they want.

      Friendly

    • Nerfing Overseer Frigidara to 7 mana would make it more clunky coz then you can't curve into Frostwyrm's Fury. Just hoping this small change along with the overall DK rules rework makes the class a bit more manageable to deal with.

    • Because frigidara into frostwyrm's fury is pretty much a deathknell. Apart from anything else, its a 6 mana AoE that curves and tutors the best card in the deck. If you were a board based deck seeing frigidara on 6 is pretty much an instant concede.

      Team5 probably doesn't want to weaken triple rune cards because those are pretty much the only reasons to play triple rune decks. Curbing their consistency and general bshittiness (discovers etc.) is a better gameplan.

      Friendly

  • Of all buffs, I'm intrigued as to what will happen to Holy Nova. When FoL expansion went live, it could already go to face.

    • I'm more shocked (heh) that they plan to buff Lightning Storm. One-sided 3 damage for 5 total mana is perfectly reasonable. Yeah Hellfire's been buffed to 3 but it blows up your stuff as well and hits your face which is a big deal for Warlock. If they make Lightning Storm overload 1 it's gonna be one of the best basic board clears in the game. Though maybe that might mean they'll finally fix Flurgl + Tox in Wild so that Shaman doesn't have that stupidass crutch holding it aloft for all eternity and has to actually play fair for once.

  • Probably has to do with discover. Having 3 blood runes will prevent you for discovering frostcards.

    However, I dont like the fact that Vampiric Blood will get discovered more.

    • Yeah like I said on our Discord, you're either stuck with "cross-contamination" or a "double-down" on the Runes. If Blood DK uses Nerubian Vizier, they might not find Frostwyrm's Fury or The Scourge...but they'll find Vampiric Blood that much more.

      In making this rule change, it's a bit "damned if you do, damned if you don't". The class' options haven't become diluted enough, in my opinion, to make such a change right now without causing more problems.

      Friendly

      • Zeddy suggested a better option where DK discovers only discover cards with 1 & 2 runes, making 3 rune cards feel more special/unique, like Climactic Necrotic Explosion