We're getting a new balance patch for Hearthstone early next week and its going to be hitting 10 different cards including many changes to Demon Hunter.
Within these 10 card changes, 9 of the changes are nerfs and 1 is a buff to Libram of Justice. We don't yet know what the changes will be, but this is the hardest a single class has ever been hit upon the release of the new expansion. We can give Blizzard a pass on that though, it's good to see them quickly reacting to their new class.
Quote From No Author Specified The second Ashes of Outland balance patch is planned for early next week. Looking to make changes to Battlefiend, Altruis the Outcast, Glaivebound Adept, Kael'thas Sunstrider, Bad Luck Albatross, Frenzied Felwing, Open the Waygate, Bloodbloom, and Sacrificial Pact. Details will come later on official channels.
This update will also include a buff to Libram of Justice and a nerf to Millhouse in BG. We'll continue to monitor live game data and player feedback and make any further changes as necessary.
Upcoming Card Nerfs
How do you think these cards will be changed?
Upcoming Card Buffs
Could we see a cost reduction on Libram of Justice?
Comments
I have a feeling that demon hunter is gone after these nerfs. It’ll finally be balanced for standard, and far too slow for wild.
bad luck albatross might actually see in an increase in play if Reno decks take the top spot back, so unless the nerf makes it big game hunter bad, I’d expect to see it everywhere.
the change in the next set idea sounds good on paper, but has been awful in the past. Cards like skulking Geist prevent Druid from ever being dominant again in wild, which is insane if you think about it. The lack of sideboards in hearthstone makes hate cards much more difficult to make, since they need to shut them down, but not prevent them from ever recovering.
Druid is absolutely very much playable despite Skulking Geist, they just can't rely solely on Jade Idol to win every game now. The most prominent Druid deck in Wild right now doesn't have many tech answers beyond Loatheb and Mana Burn, and those cards are not particularly reliable at that. The best play pattern to beat it is kill them by turn 4 or 5, or to just maintain a high life total and gain armor, or play deathrattle-Quest Priest.
I think you're wrong about "the next set idea sounds good on paper, but has been awful in the past." Adding checks and balances has been the way standard formats in card games have stayed healthy over the years. The common reasons things have been banned from a standard format has always been a card being too powerful after multiple sets have come out despite tech options being introduced (but failing), or a card being so meta-warping that all the strongest and most playable decks in a format revolve around it in an unhealthy way. Sets are usually designed with the most recent sets and some future sets in mind, so this "let's ban/change cards before the half-life of a set" attitude is very concerning about either a design team's assessments, or a community's intolerance for finding answers to things in the meta themselves.
There's such a thing, as we know of from other card games, of continuous and regular bannings/nerfings causing dissatisfaction among a playerbase. In the case of Hearthstone, dust refunds are a nice thing to have, but they don't refund the dust spent to craft cards that interact with the cards that get nerfed. Beyond that, having cards, interactions, and decks pulled out from under players gets unsatisfactory pretty quickly. I personally think Wild is the only thing worth playing HS now (beyond Battlegrounds, which has a terrible monetization strategy now), and I wouldn't like to see the one format in this game I enjoy dies for the sins of Standard.
Not sure why you got downvoted, but I agree. This feels very heavy handed and I'm worried about a fresh fun new class getting smacked into oblivion. Unless DH is going to get future tools to help them build decks that aren't just "me go face" this doesn't feel like it's helping anything other than the whining masses who can't figure out how to build decks to counter DH.
DH already has some Big DH cards, I'm sure we will see more support for it in the next expansion
Its like The Caverns Below's saga, all over again, but way more condensed in time ^^
Battlefiend - either 1/2 or 2/1. If the idea is to preserve dhunter competitively, then it would be a 1/2. Its still not that weak as a 1/2 honestly, but will definitely hit the class.
Altruis the Outcast - this one is obvious. The nerf will remove its ability to hit the face. Honestly, that was what's broken about this card
Glaivebound Adept - Didint see this one coming to be honest. Will likely tone his attack down to 5. Otherwise the effect will deal 3 damage instead of 4. Maybe even both. a 7/4 is pretty dangerous to leave alive. A 5/4, not as much.
Kael'thas Sunstrider - remove the ability to cast ALL third spells for free. Only the first will cost 0. This, I believe, was the original design. They then went on to make it what it was. Well, its about time that it got back to being normal again. This change will ensure other classes can still do stuff with kael, and will hit only druid hard and I'm okay with that.
Bad Luck Albatross - Well, its been fun. Will likely see a stat nerf to 2/2. Its sin was being good enough to see inclusion in any deck. As a 2/2, not so much.
Frenzied Felwing - Likely cost 6 now. So the earliest you can get this out is at least turn 3. Will likely kill the card and relegate it to being shaman fodder for evolve moves, much like poor old Corridor Creeper.
Open the Waygate - Increase requirement from 6 to 10. Still playable, just weakened for aggro. I much rather they nuke the card, but making it slower might be enough for now.
Bloodbloom - Increase cost to 4. Kinda a shame, I really love the design. But it had to be done at some point. They would probably want to ensure [Hearthstone Card (mecha'tun) Not Found] can still be played, while removing Darkest Hour cheese as a possibility.
Sacrificial Pact - Affect only friendly minions. Yes, you've had your one expansion of fame, now back to the collection book with you until the next time a demon deathrattle gets printed.
Libram of Justice - Mana buff to 5 instead of 6. I don't really know why this one got buffed. They could've just buffed up Libram of Wisdom to a 1 mana spell instead. Maybe after all the nerfs playtesting reveals paladin get to actually play for once, so they'd rather not go too far.
Or...if the idea is to make Libram of Justice one of paladin's best card, just give a 1/2 weapon with immune while attacking. That works as well.
I agree with most of your predictions.
Albatross might only be nerfed to 3/3: if it's not statted aggressively, I think aggro decks will be looking for replacements.
Isn't the point of Bloodbloom in Mecha'thun Warlock to discount Cataclysm? In that case, it would not contribute anything to the combo at 4 mana. What they could do is make it work like Preparation: 0 mana, take two damage, discount your next spell this turn by 2 mana.
After some thought I kinda agree somewhat with you on Bad Luck Albatross. Maybe a nerf to albatross to a 2/2 for 3 mana is perhaps a little too far. Conventionally a tech card should be around 1 mana slower than vanilla, so maybe as a 3/2 is more appropriate.
Mecha'thun warlock already play cards like Emperor Thaurissan to discount the combo. So now they have to weigh either playing an additional Drakkari Enchanter or play Galvanizer + brann. An appropriate nerf to mecha'thun warlock, I think.
Making Bloodbloom work like prep is a nice suggestion, but team5 historically starts by nerfing stuff like mana cost first. They rarely change card descriptions.
In that case, it's probably easier to bump the Albatross to 4 mana. Same goal but preserves the card more. 4 mana for a minion with "no" effects is probably too much to just put in a deck randomly.
I prefer it at 3 so some silly combo can still be done with albatross. Also, allowing it to come out 1 mana earlier means its more effective at doing what it's supposed to be doing in the first place, mostly to block Zephrys the Great. Blocking zephrys 1 turn earlier can be decisive in some games.
YOU can give them a pass if you want, Flux, but personally I feel like I'm getting whiplash from trying to play this game. This is the second straight expansion where they release a handful of grossly OP cards and respond with a two emergency balance patches. At this point, I have to seriously question their balancing strategy.
I agree that its not a good strategy to print OP cards only to nerf them a few weeks later. But I think we can make an exception to dhunters, since its a new class and the idea is to hype it up as much as possible.
But we're staring down two nerf cycles in 2.5 weeks. That's a little too much honestly.
Battlefiend will become a 1 mana 1/2 with same text
Glaivebound Adept will become a 5/4 with same battlecry
Altruis the Outcast will cost 4 mana
Kaelthas Sunstrider will cost 7 mana
Badluck Albatross will now be a 2/3 or 3/2
Frenzied Felwing will cost 4-5 mana
Open the Waygate will be increased to 8 spells that didn't start in your deck. It's not even that hard, still
Bloodbloom will be increased to 3 or 4 mana
Sacrificial pact will be "Target friendly demons only"
These are my speculations
NO idea on what they'll do with Libram of Justice
If open the waygate gets nerfed to that the deck will literally not even flinch. It could be at 12 and still be tier two, which is both disheartening, but encouraging that they could probably nerf it without nuking it. I’m so sick of the deck I’d rather they nuke it, but putting it up to 12 would probably be the balanced option
Battlefiend - if they make it 1/2 it's not a good nerf at all(plus they keep a growing 1 drop in the game.. THOSE ARE BAD FOR THE GAME!), if they make it a 2/1 it's not playable anymore, hoping for a mana increase to keep the card viable.
Altruis the Outcast - 4 mana probably.. or doesn't target face.
Glaivebound Adept - I dunno I hope they don't kill the card, could see them lowering it's hp or attack and keeping the effect. or lowering it's effect to 3.. any of that is probably fine.
BTW the above 3 cards could be much more balanced without Twin Slice at 0 mana.
Kael'thas Sunstrider - 7 mana maybe.. even 8 he comes online too early and does crazy things..
Bad Luck Albatross - they will either give it 4 mana or 4/2 or 3/3 one of those.. if it's shuffles just one it ruins it as a highlander counter card.
Frenzied Felwing - probably we will see it either at 6 or they will reduce it to a 3/2. (IDK why they though this card was ok on release).
Open the Waygate - probably play 10 spells that didn't start in your deck, that's how easy it is now to create them.. don't play enough wild but they normally complete it too fast when I do play against it.
Bloodbloom - hoping for a mana cap of 5 to keep Mecha'thun around but kill that obnoxious combo, but it's Blizzard so +1 mana cost and the power level is too low for wild.
Sacrificial Pact- this one is no brainer - "a FRIENDLY demon" keep it as good as it is in galakround warlock before AOO. also if you do this please remove it from zephyrs' pool I can already see zephyrs suggesting this card after that nerf.
Libram of Justice - happy they finally acknowledge they should buff archtypes that came up too weak (too bad for freeze shaman, it could use so many buffs... still have a morabi(obviously didn't craft)).
As for the buff, the card already does what it does(you can't really change anything on the card) so I think a mana cost change of costing 5 or if they REALLY want to push librams so 4 (rip equality)
I find it really weird that they're buffing Libram of Justice. Isn't it already pretty good?
Either way, my guesses are:
Why would you think that?
https://hsreplay.net/cards/#text=libram&sortBy=playedWinrate has it as the worst libram out of the 3: deck winrate of 48.5%, played winrate of 45.4%. In other words: it's the only libram where you're winrate actually DECREASES when playing it--presumably due in large part to it acting as a "lose less" card more than the stabilization it was intended to provide.
Libram of Justice will get windfurry and possibly can't attach Hero. But I don't think it would need that.