We now have details on the upcoming December 19 card nerfs. This will be the fastest balance update in Hearthstone's history, beating Rastakhan's Rumble's nerfs by a week.
- (Discuss Nerf) Corrupt Elementalist cost is now 6 (up from 5).
- (Discuss Nerf) Sludge Slurper attack is now 1 (down from 2).
- (Discuss Nerf) Faceless Corruptor attack is now 4 (down from 5).
- (Discuss Nerf) Mogu Fleshshaper cost is now 9 (up from 7).
Official Patch Notes
Quote From Blizzard Hey everyone!
The 16.0.5 balance update for Hearthstone will be going live tomorrow. Below are the included changes, and as always, we’ll be evaluating the results of these changes over the coming weeks and look forward to your feedback!
Corrupt Elementalist
- Now costs 6 Mana (up from 5).
Sludge Slurper
- Now has 1 Attack (down from 2).
Faceless Corruptor
- Now has 4 Attack (down from 5).
Mogu Fleshshaper
- Now costs 9 Mana (up from 7).
Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.*
Battlegrounds:
- The Boogeymonster
- Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4.
- Mechano-egg
- Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4.
- The Beast
- Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 3.
- Coldlight Seer
- Moved from Tavern Tier 2 to Tavern Tier 3.
- Primalfin Lookout (changed last week)
- Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 5.
- Nightmare Amalgam
- Has been removed from the pool of available minions.
- Brann Bronzebeard
- Has been removed from the pool of available heroes.
- Bartendotron
- Has been added to the pool of available heroes.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 12 - Day 2 [Finished]](dark-beyond-reveals-day-2-thumb.webp)
Comments
I even wrote to my friend, Pack Opening Algorithm, before opening my packs! I think he was pretty busy though to be fair.
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/602-descent-of-dragons-launch-survival-guide-everything-you-need-to-know?page=2#comment-59871
I can't believe the didn't change the text of Faceless Corruptor, it's just not cool that Shudderwock can still copy itself and generate more copies in hand, under NO circumstance. The only counter play is that one Rogue legendary.
On other news, I expected harsher nerfs. I just hope they tested the cards better this time.
These nerfs are mediocre at best. They're not going to prevent the deck from overpowering most other decks just fine.
Nightmare Amalgam gone from battlegrounds!
LOLZ! Galakrond Shaman is still going to be oppressive as hell. The issue was that all of the invocations had Rush. I know it seems stupid, but the fact that you could upgrade your Galakrond AND get board control was the problem. It doesn't matter that the double whammy is now on turn 6 instead of 5. Honestly, the issue was Rush minions.
[Hearthstone Card (Faceless Corruptor) Not Found] still will be included in most decks. Although it won't be an auto-include because it won't be as devastating, for Mutate or Evolve shamans,not to mention Mogu Fleshshaper, it will still be widely used. Especially if they hit the Heart of Vir'naal, then lackeys still can do the job relatively easily. Say hello to Giants and other mean things being cheated out on the board. Hope you have board wipe!
All said and done, I hope that these nerfs will add variety to the meta and not just shift it to Deathrattle Rogue and anything Hunter related.
I'm thinking that during the past few days, they've noticed other archetypes like Face Hunter and Deathrattle Rogue start to gain ground, so maybe that resulted in a milder treatment of the Shaman nerfs? The Sludge Slurper one is weird though. And I thought for sure they would adjust the Galakrond battlecry.
My thoughts too
There has been some emerging threats to Galakrond Shaman and I think they wouldn't want to hammer it down just in the beginning of the expansion. I think it's fair like this...
And I also didn't understand the Sludge Sluper nerf... it's now a class Cable Rat. The overload may be a now a huge downside in non-overload centered decks (like the Galakrond ones)
Great ! Some well deserved nerfs. Galakrond Shaman will finally find a strong counter in aggro encounters and won't be as oppressive overall.
These nerfs might allow more aggro tempo decks to resurface. In that case it might be that Necrium Apothecary just becomes too slow or too inconsistent to just rely on Anubisath Warbringer alone.
I like the nerf to Faceless Corruptor. A little down but not out. Not so much for Corrupt Elementalist. Its still the best invoke card in the game, just one turn slower. I guess the idea is that its will also slow down Dragon's Pack, which for some reason managed to dodge the nerf stick this time.
I wasn't expecting the nerfs to be so...mild. I thought the usual rule of thumb for nerfs in hearthstone was to nuke cards off the screen.
I think extreme nerfs were made in the past because balance updates were so infrequent - they had to be absolutely certain the problem was dealt with or risk further aggravating the player base. Faster and more frequent balance updates should give Team 5 more room to try out milder nerfs. If the problem still persists, at least players won't have to wait too long for the next update.
Agree with the first sentence; disagree with the second one.
I feel that the problems we were complaining about are still there and aren't significantly changed. What feels bad to play against will still feel bad. It looks like they did this patch just because of "yes: there go you, nerfs; now shut up and go back playing".
On the other hand, nerfing cards shouldn't erase them from the game unless their existence is a threat to the game itself (see Naga Sea Witch): I in fact applaud team 5 for not nuking Faceless Corruptor but keeping it playable.
Oh yeah, they finally decided to get rid of the fearsome and oppressive Sludge Slurper!
I was so sick of seeing it being abused in every single Shaman deck. Let's be honest folks, it was clearly one of the biggest problems out there: I'm glad the devs decided to straight halve its attack, since it is was so good it often decided most of the matches it's been played in.
On a serious note: excuse me sir what the fuck? Yeah, what the fuck? First of all, the "dangerous" part of Sludge Slurper is the card generation in combination with Corrupt the Waters' Heart of Vir'naal; secondly, what the fuck?
I get that now with 6 mana Corrupt Elementalist Dragon's Pack won't be as effective as it's been in the last week, but I don't think the situation will change so much. I really hope to be wrong.
Farewell Mogu Fleshshaper: rot in whatever there is in hell.
Faceless Corruptor will still be good: it won't be an autoinclude in like every single deck anymore, but will surely see decent amounts of play.
I guess it's time to craft the second copy of Necrium Apothecary...
I think most players will drop Sludge Slurper down on 1 if they can, and rarely this card is kept in the hand until the quest completes. The nerf to attack may seem insignificant but there have been more games than I care to remember where this tiny turdling managed to keep me from playing some cards for fear of losing tempo.
The loss of one attack means its just gonna get eaten by just about every card in the early game and that is an early tempo loss which shaman can usually ill afford.
I guess you can see it that way as well.
It's just that the timing isn't appropriate at all, and we can agree on that: in the past (April-August, the golden age of these times' Control Warrior) Eternium Rover has been far more problematic than Sludge Slurper has ever been, but no nerfs. Same can be said for stuff like Northshire Cleric (but Priest can't be discussed here since it's in a situation of its own and should be addressed according to that).
In the end, now it's just a 1/1 overload (1) that generates a Lackey, so an EVIL Cable Rat that can come down one turn earlier, which is not bad but doesn't thrill me at all.
It's probably me that I thought there was no way Dragon's Pack wasn't getting nerfed, and against my own convictions I found Sludge Slurper to be the one hit.
I'm not so sure how to feel about Mogu mutating into a Colossus of the Moon.
I think the bigger news here is that Amalgam and Brann are leaving the Battlegrounds. That should really mix things up.
This is how I see it: Mogu's strength was not the chance to turn it into a big minion, but rather the timing you were able to do it in the game.
I honestly think that dealing with a 10 drop on turn 7/8 is much more manageable than killing an 8 mana on turn 3/4.
Therefore, given that Mogu has seen play mostly because you could abuse its cost reduction, it will see much less play.
The meta has already moved towards super aggro decks (especially the really nasty Face Hunter) that beat Galakrond Shaman and Apothecary Rogue, so I'm not sure how much this will really shift things. As a Rogue player I already beat Shaman unless they got four 5/6 taunts out relatively quickly.
I mean just about every nerf was to slow the deck down. Sludge does half the damage it did before and it is highly unlikely they will get a mogu out before turn 5 in most games especially if you are paying attention. And the cultist coming down a turn later seems like a pretty big deal because a lot of the time that means another turn they have to wait to play the wolves and get the 4 directed damage from the cultist for board control. I think these changes will make it even worse against the aggro decks, slightly worse against midrange, but for control the only big difference is giving them another turn to come up with an answer to wolves. At least I think that will be the results we will see, I am a little sad that the wolves did not get directly hit or the rush on either part of Galakrond but I think a light nerf is worth a try. As a side note I am interested to see if the apothecary ends up being a problem or not, I think not but it will be swingy and high rolling sometimes.
100pc agree. Super aggro is often beating this deck BEFORE the nerfs let alone now it will be that much slower. We may end up with a horror meta of warrior/warlock/hunter fighting it out to see who can hit the face for 30 quickest.
the only relevant nerfs are to mogu and sludge slurper. invoking is still op as shit, making the nuttty battlecry from shaman galakrond still game breaking with shudderwock saying high a couple of turns later. galakrond hero power is insane the ability to stall with lackeys and the freeze spell that invokes is broken as shit following up on the wolves spell still untouched. they will still be tier 1 for sure. maybe not tier S but they will still give the middle finger to most decks