Hearthstone Patch 17.2.1 went live on Monday, and it brings to the table 12 (!) different balance changes.
In particular, this is the third patch in a row and within a month to regard Demon Hunter, but that's not all - this time we also got a good set of buffs.
Let's take a look at each nerf and buff and see what they'll bring for the game.
The Buffs
Cost reduced from 2 to 1; attack reduced from 2 to 1.
It will probably take more for Paladin to be the best class in the meta, but this buff certainly helps: in the end, Uther sits at the bottom of the food chain with Thrall (see below), so all the help is welcome. After Libram of Justice, another AoO’s Libram card gets buffed. What makes this change remarkable is not the minion by itself, but rather what it represents for Paladin right now: the class misses an opening drop, and this is a 1/3 unit (great statline) that can create an impressive power curve with turn 2 Hand of A'dal (one of the best cards of the last set) into turn 3 Bronze Explorer or Dragonrider Talritha.
The big reduction of Libram spells still rotates around Aldor Truthseeker, but at least now the deck will improve its winrate by a couple of percentages. Nice buff overall.
Imagine if Crystology were still in Standard…
Cost reduced from 5 to 4. Attack increased from 4 to 5.
Wait, two cards together? Why? Because both these buffs are flawed in the same way: pre-change Torrent and Shattered Rumbler were not terrible cards, but the problem is that Shaman (especially Control Shaman) lacks a game plan or, if we can make it even clearer, a Shudderwock type of card, a big payoff which should be surrounded by good cards. Unfortunately, right now Thrall only has the latter. Maybe the meta will slow down a bit and maybe some sort of Galakrond, the Tempest/Boggspine Knuckles list will steal a place in the high tiers, but unfortunately these cards don’t help any specific archetypes to come to light. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate these changes, but they're not particularly flashy or anything. At least not as much as the next one.
Health increased from 3 to 5.
Let's be honest with ourselves: many people have even questioned that its effect was worth of a Legendary. The 3 health statline on a 6-drop was just disrespectful. Now that it has decent stats for the cost and an effect that can be easily exploited in an aggro/token meta like this one, I see The Lurker Below being a staple in any Shaman list that isn't pure aggro. One of the best changes of the whole set.
P.S.: Kibler should be quite happy right now, since he crafted a golden version of this bad boy in the first week of the expansion.
The Nerfs
Health decreased from 7 to 5.
One of the most hated cards in Standard finally takes a hit. Many people will cry tears of joy, many others tears of sadness.
The effect (which is the good part, together with the Demon tag, exploitable with Raging Felscreamer) is still there and can still close games, but this new version has a lot less resilience. There are actually quite a few ways to deal 5 damage from scratch: take Siamat for example, which could be a perfect answer on curve; but even Bloodboil Brute (another nerfed card), Illidan's Metamorphosis itself and Skill Command.
As a side note, Apexis Blast is perfect board clear plus board presence. No Minion Mage is trash right now, but one can dream...
Attack decreased from 2 to 1.
The resemblance to Sludge Slurper's nerf is blatant: the devs wanted to weaken a card you'd have otherwise run in every single Demon Hunter list with no downside. 1 mana cycle for 1 is amazing, even more if you manage to use it to sneak in some cheap damage.
Again, the card's function is still the same, but now Illidan will have to find that missing damage somewhere else, which will mean longer games and probably a lower winrate for the class.
Health decreased from 5 to 4.
If Crimson Sigil Runner's nerf resembles the one given to Sludge Slurper, then this one reminds everyone of EVIL Miscreant; too much health for an early game value generator that can easily snowball. The effect is still there, but from now on you'll be less confident with just coining Hanar on 1 if your opponent has a minion on board.
What does all this mean? The card will become a bit more clunky and slower, which appears to be the devs’ ultimate goal. Well done.
The minion returned to hand costs (1) more instead of (2).
No more unplayable Dragonqueen Alexstraszas, am I right folks? Since its release, everyone knew that a targetable Freezing Trap on a stick would have been pretty good. That was the case. Galakrond Rogue does too many things and all of them pretty damn well.
The card is still ok, but now its effect won't make the opponent minion completely unplayable most of the times (I'm not talking about mana cost, but rather "should I spend 2 more mana for this body?": a question whose answer is usually no). Moreover, someone noted that now even bouncing back your own minions if needed is a fringe opportunity players should take in consideration.
Buff effect decreased from +2/+2 to +2/+1.
For this one I'll take Vicious Syndicate's last meta report's words: "Not much to say about Zoo Warlock. We’re genuinely worried about this deck becoming a top contender in the case Demon Hunter and Warrior ever get nerfed. [...] We’ll be surprised if Imprisoned Scrap Imp isn’t nerfed within the next 2 years." After a couple of hours, the nerf announcement. Man they're so good at their job.
Attack decreased from 6 to 5.
Crazy consistent with Risky Skipper, a minion that many wanted to see on this list but that will have to put up with until further (and hypothetical) patch notes. The card (like most on this list and generally in the last rounds of nerfs), doesn't change what it does, but it just does it slightly worse. 5 damage still trades into a lot of targets in this meta (take nerfed Priestess of Fury if it will still be playable), but something had to be done about Warrior.
Stats reduced from 3/3 to 2/2.
Quite confused on this one. The good part is clearly the effect: wouldn't a mana cost nerf have been better?
We're not (yet) game designers, so we don't know (yet) all the answers, but this is the same principle applied to Crimson Sigil Runner. Even though Bloodsworn Mercenary is often used as a finisher together with Kor'kron Elite, it's not strange to see her played for tempo or on a Rampaged Armorsmith for extra armor; from now on Garrosh will have access to 1 less damage to the opponent's face for every attack, and that (paired with Bloodboil Brute's nerf) may slow down Enrage Warrior a bit. Or at least that is the hope.
Buff reduced from +3/+3 to +2/+2.
Some days ago, someone posted on reddit a picture comparing this spell to Paladin's Call to Adventure; while each class has its own strengths and weaknesses and therefore should have cards that to do a certain thing better than all the others, the user was not completely wrong.
Hunter is in a pretty remarkable shape right now: both Highlander and Aggro/Dragon are top tier lists, and if Rexxar's contenders (namely Demon Hunter and Warrior) are weakened, then it's 1 class vs the other 9 all over again. Scavenger's Ingenuity into Zixor, Apex Predator or Diving Gryphon is insane tempo and, probably, the devs think it is too much for the upcoming meta.
Plus the card is braindead and should be nerfed to the ground (Blizz I have a golden copy: please give me my dust).
What do you think of these nerfs? Did you want some other changes?
Comments
I"d have liked to see more nerfs to Face Hunter... but that's the class.
Crimson Sigil Runner nerf is so pointless. Btw what's with the awful grammar on a Torrent card?
Crimson Sigil Runner's nerf is not pointless (I explained it: otherwise, it wouldn't even be a nerf lol).
What's wrong with Torrent's grammar?
It's literally a 1 mana 1/1 if you don't have it as an Outcast. That's just horrendous. In case of a Torrent card, it says 'if you cast a spell' as if you're doing it right now in the present (this turn) instead of 'if you've cast a spell' which would then correctly refer to the previous turn (past).
Well, Novice Engineer costs 2 mana with pretty much the same effect and sees play here and there.
Demon Hunter is a whole class around cards positioning in your hand and Outcast, which means you'll get the bonus more often then not.
So, is 1 mana draw 1 not good? Yes it is, no question about it. Is 1 mana draw 1 on a stick good? Well damn yes it is.
Plus, on the Torrent side: cast's past simple is both "cast" and "casted".
It doesn't draw a card if it's not Outcast. That's why 1/1 stats sucks for him.
Blizzard's form is correct. It's not past tense, it's a present tense condition referring to something in the past. I can have made a grammar mistake in a previous sentence, but I can't cast the spell unless I make a grammar mistake in a previous sentence (for example).
I didn't understand what you said but it doesn't matter, Blizzard is not known for text consistency anyway..
I've tried a lot of different Things with Shaman over the last few Weeks: Quest, Dragons, a bit of Highlander and now Galakrond/Evolve. There's some Potential, but rn no Matter what you do, there's a Class that's better at it (except for stealing Games with an Evolve Highroll into Bloodlust).
Imo, Shamans biggest Weaknesses are early Removal and Healing. You have Things like Lightning Bolt or Lightning Storm but the Overload just kills any Tempo you gain from those Cards. And Witch's Brew is really inefficient. Sometimes you just sit there and think: „Did I really spend 6 Mana for 12 Health?". (Honestly, I think Shamans would kill to have a Card like Penance)
The Buffed Cards seem promising and I hope that they'll improve the Class' current State, or at least provide a solid Base for Shaman in future Expansions.
Been seeing less dhunters and rogue, but more hunters, mage and paladin. That will obviously change as people adjust and the brief few moments of dhunter not being top of hsreplay will be corrected, so stay tuned.
Just wanted to share some thoughts post nerf;
- Paladin still sucks; the change to Aldor Attendant was welcome, but the lack of card draw and absolutely little to no tempo swing cards are hindering the class. The closest thing we have to a tempo swing is either with Imprisoned Vilefiend + buff, or Lightforged Zealot. So we're trapped in a familiar scenario where they cant out tempo aggro decks like dragon hunter and can't put pressure on value decks like reno mage and priest.
- Shaman still sucks, but I think you hit the nail on the coffin when you mentioned the lack of a powerful payoff card like shudderwock. I'll add one more to the list; shaman's early game sucks, and their early board clears suck even more. Okay so that's two things. We are strangely in a world where Stormforged Axe is one of shaman's best tempo tool early game. Yeah, that's not a good sign.
- I haven't played against a dhunter since the nerfs, but I remain confident that players will simply switch away from the midrange priestess build back into the hyper aggro [Hearthstone Card (frienzied felwing) Not Found] build. Honestly, priestess at 5 is still pretty nice, but since it almost certainly going to die, its an all or nothing move that I think is just not worth it.
- Warrior still very much broken, but nerfing its best matchup means there's a little less of it now. I haven't seen much of warrior, but at some point not being able to farm dhunters off the meta means warrior might need to adjust itself to a ladder filled with value decks. Maybe go bomb? or perhaps even the famed quest warrior that Kibler is apparently swearing on his life is good.
- Priest is very annoying. Its literally live and die by rng as cards like Thoughtsteal and Galakrond's Wit outcomes literally decide games. I think team5 really needs to relook at priest's new design a little deeper.
Stormforged Axe has never been that bad, it just happens to be really effective against Demon Hunter due to all the must-kill 2-health minions it has. The other 9 classes were rarely so reliant on 2-health minions so the Axe never took off.
If anything it is a great example of why cards should not be considered weak based purely on how much they are played. Often they just need the right circumstances to find a home. This has happened before of course: I remember Vanish being considered awful until Un'Goro brought OG quest rogue and everyone has respected the card ever since, even to the point of it being moved to the Hall of Fame.
Stormforged Axe is bad mostly because it overloads you for one, and unfortunately its only good versus dhunters. Against other classes, with the possible exception of rogue, it sucks. The overload here is pertinent. Its bad enough to put cards like that in your deck, its even worse when it disrupts your other plays.
I make a mention of it because shaman's tempo tools early game is so weak. We used to have cards like Zap! and Likkim, but these are now gone with nothing to replace it. Its not an easy comparison with Vanish because Vanish was actually a key card in quest rogue, no matter what the matchup. Had Stormforged Axe been a 3/2 with overload for 1, I might change my opinion, but its not.
A 2 mana 2/3 weapon has always been stronger than vanilla weapon stats. That is not to say you would want to pay the full 3 mana without the overload here, but this is a card where getting it cheaper with overload is important, because it lets you start clearing stuff earlier when 2 attack is enough.
Ultimately there are a couple of fundamental matters on which we'd need to agree before going round in circles on the Axe, namely
I am happy to hold them elsewhere, but right here I'd just say that in the Demon Hunter dominated meta of the last month Stormforged Axe qualifies as a good card by my definition of the term.
Back on Vanish: it was used in more than just quest rogue, as indicated by it being moved to the HoF when The Caverns Below rotated to wild. After people stopped blindly calling it bad and actually gave the card a chance they realised it was actually fairly good in its own right, at least in the metas leading up to its move to the HoF. Besides using the card, the quest opened people's eyes to Vanish's potential, and I am claiming Demon Hunter's 2-health minions are opening people's eyes about Stormforged Axe.
Shaman's early-game tempo is a separate matter entirely and I am not disagreeing with you there.
Priest mirror right now made me want to fall asleep while playing in a way that I haven't felt since rogue mirror during Doom in the Tomb.
Picked up 800 dust from classes I never play. Sweet!
I feel like Shaman would be the best anti-aggro class if it had zap to easily activate those cards. Too bad it rotated out. As I see others play with libram pally, I start to wonder whether hand of whatever is really worth the inclusion.
Nice overview of the cards!
Quick Question to Avalon or anyone who knows: how have you managed to write "[Hearthstone Card (Skill Command) Not Found]" and have it display as Kill Command? I've seen a few people use this trick on the site, but I've been unsuccessful figuring out how to do it myself...
When you write the name of a card, you can do this "[card.]Kill Command[/card.]" (only without the periods) and you will be able to hover over it and see the card. To change the name, you have too do this "[.card text="Skill Command".]Kill Command[/card.]" and then it looks like this: Skill Command
Thank you!
Just add // text="name you want" // like I did in the picture.