Details have arrived on this week's Hearthstone balance changes. We do not have a date confirmed yet.
- Seven cards are getting nerfed in constructed.
- Patches and Pyramad are both returning to the Battlegrounds hero pool.
- Shudderwock, Queen Togwaggle, and Infinite Toki have all had their hero powers adjusted.
- Golden Soul Juggler now deals 3 damage to a minion twice instead of 6 damage once.
- Arena received some card appearance adjustments.
- Druid, Hunter, and Paladin winrates in Arena should be decreased.
- Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock winrates in Arena should now be increased.
The Card Nerfs
All will become disenchantable for full value when the nerfs hit for 2 weeks.
- (Discuss Nerf) Fiendish Rites cost is now 4 (up from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Scion of Ruin cost is now 4 (up from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Ancharrr durability is now 2 (down from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Dragon's Pack now gives +2/+2 (down from +3/+3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Invocation of Frost cost is now 2 (up from 1).
- (Discuss Nerf) Necrium Apothecary cost is now 5 (up from 4).
- (Discuss Nerf) Dragonqueen Alexstrasza can no longer generate herself.
Quote From Kaeyoh Welcome to a new year in the tavern, everyone! We have a balance update in the works that will go live later this week which includes the following changes, primarily for Standard and Battlegrounds:
Warlock
- Fiendish Rites: Mana cost increased from (3) to (4).
Warrior
- Scion of Ruin: Mana cost increased from (3) to (4).
- Ancharrr: Durability reduced from (3) to (2).
Shaman
- Dragon’s Pack: Now reads, “…If you’ve Invoked twice, give them +2/+2.” (reduced from +3/+3).
- Invocation of Frost: Mana cost increased from (1) to (2).
Rogue
- Necrium Apothecary: Mana cost increased from (4) to (5).
Neutral
- Dragonqueen Alexstrasza: Battlecry effect can no longer generate Dragonqueen Alexstrasza.
Once the update is live, adjusted cards will be eligible for a full Arcane Dust refund for two weeks.*
Battlegrounds
This update includes several adjustments and gets more Heroes brawling in Bob’s Tavern than ever before! Further Battlegrounds balance changes are coming very soon, in addition to the exciting new content we have in the pipeline… we’ll have more to share in the near future!
Heroes
- Shudderwock
- Burbling: Cost reduced from (2) to (1).
- Queen Wagtoggle
- Wax Warband: Give a random friendly Mech, Demon, Murloc and Beast +2 Attack. (instead of +1 Health)
- Infinite Toki
- Temporal Tavern: Cost reduced from (2) to (1). Now reads, “Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Include a Minion from a higher Tavern Tier.”
- Patches the Pirate
- Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.
- Fire the Cannons!: At the start of next combat, deal 4 damage to two random enemy minions. (increased from 3 damage)
- Pyramad
- Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.
- Brick by Brick: Give a random friendly minion +3 Health. (increased from +2 Health)
Minions
- Golden Soul Juggler
- After a friendly Demon dies, deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion twice. (instead of 6 damage once)
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Battlegrounds: Selfless Hero’s Deathrattle will now only affect minions that do not already have Divine Shield.
- Arena: The appearance rate of cards in the draft has been updated to ensure class balance remains close to the ideal 50% win-rate. Specifically, the win-rate of Druid, Hunter, and Paladin should now be decreased. The win-rate of Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock should now be increased. Card appearance rates for Mage and Warrior remain untouched.
Comments
If you're on a tight budget, you should never craft anything in the first couple of weeks, period.
It was only one week after release that they announced the first nerfs and said they would probably be nerfing more in January.
So honestly, they did everything they could to keep budget players informed.
PLUS, these nerfs do not completely trash the decks in question. Every single one of these archetypes will still be strong after the nerf. (Not as strong as Quest Priest, which they ignored for some reason, but that's a different conversation.)
I agree, these constant nerfs do make it hard to build a deck and keep it for a while. But if you don't do constant nerfs then the meta will get stale and everybody will hate the game, there is a little gray area and I think team 5 is just trying to find the right number of nerfs in between expansions.
I think the best thing you can do right now it not focus so much on getting the best deck and being competitive. Or you could focus only on 5-6 classes and dust the stuff you get for the others, this is what I do and it has made it a little easier to get good decks for the classes that I play.
Absolutely the same feeling, I pay a lot of attention to which cards to craft and now it's getting impossible to keep a good deck without using again some dust. Besides, with the adventure coming in less than a month, the meta will change again a lot, so I don't know if it's a good idea crafting right now but I don't know what to play anymore
I totally agree.
Especially considering that any strong decks nowadays require one or multiple legendary cards, as well as epics such as the Galakrond decks.
It's not like Galakrond Warrior, Warlock and Shaman are now unplayable, but surely they are not as powerful as they were, when everyone went down crafting Kronx Dragonhoof on day-1, or, even worse, after the Shaman hot-nerf, thinking it was safe then.
There goes my chance to carry a Galakrond package in Odd Warrior...
All fair nerfs anyway.
EXCEPT that on Alex, because it's not even a nerf. It's a clumsy hotfix on a single card for a spike of RNG they dislike. But then they should HARD-fix this, and prevent ANY cards from randomly generating itself. Alex will stay viable in any Highlander decks, but this is certainly NOT how you fix RNG on a card.
At a quick look over, I would say these look pretty good and even handed. Doesn't seem to have killed any of the cards. Certainly will tune down some of the more annoying cards.
I think those are fair however I'm surprised Ancharrr is being nerfed. Was that card really a problem?
Yes, it gave pirate warriors too much card advantage. An aggro deck should have strong tempo in the early game, but have bad card draw in the later game, but ancharrr allowed pirate warriors to get strong tempo and strong card draw which was too much.
I totally understand the nerfs except for alexstrasza. Never thought of here being oppressive or something like that. Well... I guess it was a good choice to keep here in golden (3200k dust incoming)
A legendary dragon that can generate itself for free is not a problem?
This card is busted and by losing itself it only stops the chaining, it does not stop all the other broken free dragons she can give
I played that card a lot and got here like 4-5 times through here battlecry. Maybe it was just bad luck.
It's not that it's oppressive or prone to consistent abuse; it's just too much of a high roll and should not be happening.
No, you don't plan for it, but it's waaaaaay too much when it does happen.
Can we get full dust from Dragonqueen Alexstrasza? Since it didn't get a nerf on the card itself.
Most likely yes. When Yogg was nerfed, they didn't change the card text but did allow full dust disenchants. I think that when the way a specific card plays is changed in a way that makes it less strong, they give full dust. But if a mechanic is changed across multiple cards, that is not considered nerf and there is no full dust disenchant.
Alexstrasza was adjusted so I believe that means it gets a full refund.
The effect being changed is indeed a nerf so you'll be able to full dust refund.
Not even 1 full month has passed yet since DoD was released, we've already got two nerf patches?
What timeline are we living in?
Now I can destroy the Ancharrr I never planned on using. Thanks Blizz :)