They considered the consequences of buffing cards for 5 years before they actually did it. I don't think you can fault them for being too hasty. Frankly, 2 out of 16 needing to be reverted out of their first ever batch of buffs is fine with me. I am more than happy to accept that ratio if it means we get more bold balance changes like the Rise of Mechs buffs in future.
As someone who currently plays Control Warrior exclusively on ladder (working toward my 500 wins with the hero), I can definitely say this nerf doesn't strike me as "Oh noes...I have to remove the card from my deck." Which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good in the fact that Blizzard didn't make the card unplayable but bad in the sense that, well...Boom is pretty ridiculous. Even at 9 Mana with 5 Armor that still allows me to play him with 10 mana and be able to Shield Slam most minions for at least half their health if not all that might be left on it. I agree with others sentiment that the real issue with Boom is his ability to give all your Mechs Rush for the rest of the game.
I watched Kibler's video last week on his ideas of what to change and the ideas of making it where the Battlecry grants Mechs in your hand and deck Rush for the rest of the game was a solid option as well as removing the 7 Armor gain version of his Hero Power. Oddly enough, for me at least, it saddens me to see the 7/7 theme go away with the nerf, but I guess the total of 14 is still there with the new cost and armor.
EDIT: Just saw that the 5 Armor reduction was a mistake by Flux (its cool it happens). So now knowing that, Boom + Shield Slam is still pretty OP in that it can wipe off most minions on Turn 10 when paired together.
Agree man, it's not like Warrior will have some good plays alongside 9-mana Boom (yes, Shield Slam, but that's it). If it would cost 10-mana it would be practically the same.
I like you thinking on Luna's. Especially when your point about Blizz experimenting. What I had hoped is that they would try it at 6. I think the card was fun to play, if you hit it. And it did affect deck building. Trying at 6 for while at least, would have continued the test. If it still wasn't OK they could revert it to 7.
Adjusting the mana cost may be boring, but it's almost always the right thing to do. There are two big problems with changing what a card fundamentally does: first, it takes away from the fundamentally cool things that the card can do, and second, it may produce some other broken strategies that will simply require more future nerfing.
By only adjusting the cost, Blizzard hasn't made the strategies these cards support entirely obsolete or entirely different, they've merely made them less overpowering. Cards where the effects have been changed are pretty limited in Hearthstone's history, and the changes are usually small in scope. One example is Raza the Chained. You can still use his effect to do the fun things you used to be able to do (i.e. big damage turns Shadowreaper Anduin and/or early/repeated inspire effects), but it's basically impossible to OTK with it now.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy is one that I see people wondering why it didn't go to 6 mana; the simple answer is that they don't want it to be remotely playable again.
Damn Blizz, i basicly knew this would happen but mana nerfs feel so bad. The community proposed many great ideas for conjurers and Boom! I know you think we’re all dumb and not able to process complex changes but give us a chance for once!?
From a balance perspective, they are great though. I
I think people are underestimating the impact the Dr. Boom change will have. This will slow down the game plan more than just when it is played but it guarantees that Warrior misses using the hero power the turn it is played. I rarely played Dr. Boom on turn 7 as a warrior but frequently played it on turn 9 so I could hero power immediately. Not saying the nerf is good or bad just pointing out that it will have a larger impact on the plays than people seem to think.
Not sure how the other changes will effect those cards or the decks they are used in. I will dust everything on day 1 then sit back and wait to see what happens to the cards to see if I craft them again or keep the dust from them.
I don't know man. That's all easy to say when we are not the ones designing the cards. Hearthstone has been going on for years now, and the pool of strong but unusable cards just keeps getting bigger. I for one don't mind a buff here and there. If a buff is too strong well we get a broken deck for a while then they nerf it again.
Agreed with that, too. Lazy developers at Blizzard should have changed Graveyard/Resurrection mechanics. Let's say your Obsidian Statue is killed and it's the only minion in Graveyard Pool. What they should have done in addition is:
If you played your 1st Resurrect and 2nd Resurrect at same turn, summoned minion should be always in initial form regardless but you couldn't summon 2nd Obsidian Statue. It's like you pick a minion from graveyard pool and kick it out if resurrected, unlike the current situation where it stays forever. Same idea can be applied to Lesser Diamond Spellstone and Mass Resurrection.
Similarly, you can play 1st Eternal Servitude but not 2nd because there will be no minion left to resurrect from graveyard pool.
Very pleased with these changes - there are things I would've done differently, for sure, but they're at least hitting the right decks and not throwing a curveball card in there.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy is one that I see people wondering why it didn't go to 6 mana; the simple answer is that they don't want it to be remotely playable again. You can meme with it all you want, but this experiment showed them that a card like that being good is not fun, which is the most important reason it was nerfed. Putting it to 6 risks it still being too strong, whereas we know that it isn't good enough at 7 to be anything but jank fun.
Conjurer's Calling is still good, but losing the ability to find it from Magic Trick is pretty big. I'd have preferred moving it to only summon one minion - better removal, less good as a board builder - but I can understand them not wanting to change the functionality of a card too much, since historically those kinds of nerfs haven't exactly been good.
Don't really have an opinion on the other three - I don't play Wild that much, and I don't play many decks involving the other two unless for a quest.
I'm happy to see some nerfs and while some of them will definitely change the current situation, I'm a bit concerned about the effectiveness of others.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy back to 7 will totally see less (if not zero) play: it was unplayable before the buff and now its only chance is Tortollan Pilgrim, which doesn't look very convincing in my opinion.
Conjurer's Calling's nerf is the same I suggested literally a week into Rise of Shadows meta: 3 mana CC is just dumb and shouldn't exist. Now that it costs 4, it will be no longer possible to discover it from Magic Trick (pretty big deal) and Mages won't be able to play it three times in the same turn unless they have [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer apprentice) Not Found] on board. Despite being totally fine with this nerf, I kind of liked Kripp's solution to change it in order that it would summon minions of the same cost you payed yours. Oh well, I don't want to be too picky, so I'll take it.
Extra Arms: I don't know man. Ok, but I don't know man.
Barnes: I don't play Wild despite following it, so I don't feel like judging something I haven't felt on my skin before.
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - I think it doesn't totally solve Warrior's problem: don't get me wrong, nerf shouldn't annihilate classes, but the only difference I see is that Aggro will have an easier life, nothing more and nothing less. The issue of a "infinite" removals is still there and that's what worries me the most.
I am having a lot of fun with this deck. I used to run a Dreadsteed deck until it was nerfed to death. This is the closest I think I'll come to recapturing that deck. The only thing missing is a way to more consistently draw the Cruel Dinomancers (I used Sense Demons for the Dreadsteeds).
This card was not even remotely problematic, and it was so important to the fabled Zoo Priest, which never quite materialized but could have next expansion. Why, Blizzard?
To be honest, gettin the buff on a 1-drop was always so strong. And i know this will be irrelevant for 95% of playerbase, but i love the nerf for arena. It was almost an auto-win situation when that happened and it wasnt even that hard. Always reminded me the old Velen's Chosen power level when played on curve on a 2-drop, was very hard to lose from that position. With Extra Arms, you could have done it turn earlier.
Not impressed with these nerfs, especially undoing the two buffs and just upping the mana cost on Dr. Boom. Blizzard needs to expand their horizons when it comes to both buffing and nerfing. There's more mechanics they can tinker with besides mana cost.
The Hearthstone Explorer's Bundle - 20 Standard Packs + 1 Uldum Legendary
Does the legendary in this bundle follow no duplicate rule or is it a completely random one?
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Boom untouched, just slower. Hunter dominates where it once only did well.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
man, they are nerfing 3 legendaries. I am glad they did this instead of nerfing just commons and rares
Card Nerf - Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
I would have hofed all three remaining heros ...
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
They considered the consequences of buffing cards for 5 years before they actually did it. I don't think you can fault them for being too hasty. Frankly, 2 out of 16 needing to be reverted out of their first ever batch of buffs is fine with me. I am more than happy to accept that ratio if it means we get more bold balance changes like the Rise of Mechs buffs in future.
Card Nerf - Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
As someone who currently plays Control Warrior exclusively on ladder (working toward my 500 wins with the hero), I can definitely say this nerf doesn't strike me as "Oh noes...I have to remove the card from my deck." Which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good in the fact that Blizzard didn't make the card unplayable but bad in the sense that, well...Boom is pretty ridiculous. Even at 9 Mana with 5 Armor that still allows me to play him with 10 mana and be able to Shield Slam most minions for at least half their health if not all that might be left on it. I agree with others sentiment that the real issue with Boom is his ability to give all your Mechs Rush for the rest of the game.
I watched Kibler's video last week on his ideas of what to change and the ideas of making it where the Battlecry grants Mechs in your hand and deck Rush for the rest of the game was a solid option as well as removing the 7 Armor gain version of his Hero Power. Oddly enough, for me at least, it saddens me to see the 7/7 theme go away with the nerf, but I guess the total of 14 is still there with the new cost and armor.
EDIT: Just saw that the 5 Armor reduction was a mistake by Flux (its cool it happens). So now knowing that, Boom + Shield Slam is still pretty OP in that it can wipe off most minions on Turn 10 when paired together.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Agree man, it's not like Warrior will have some good plays alongside 9-mana Boom (yes, Shield Slam, but that's it). If it would cost 10-mana it would be practically the same.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
I like you thinking on Luna's. Especially when your point about Blizz experimenting. What I had hoped is that they would try it at 6. I think the card was fun to play, if you hit it. And it did affect deck building. Trying at 6 for while at least, would have continued the test. If it still wasn't OK they could revert it to 7.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Adjusting the mana cost may be boring, but it's almost always the right thing to do. There are two big problems with changing what a card fundamentally does: first, it takes away from the fundamentally cool things that the card can do, and second, it may produce some other broken strategies that will simply require more future nerfing.
By only adjusting the cost, Blizzard hasn't made the strategies these cards support entirely obsolete or entirely different, they've merely made them less overpowering. Cards where the effects have been changed are pretty limited in Hearthstone's history, and the changes are usually small in scope. One example is Raza the Chained. You can still use his effect to do the fun things you used to be able to do (i.e. big damage turns Shadowreaper Anduin and/or early/repeated inspire effects), but it's basically impossible to OTK with it now.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
This.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
If we were equal to devs, we'd have their jobs and their salary. I am not saying it is easy, but it is their responsibility. ;)
As i said, it's ok to buff. But if it is a daring one, and you are forced to revert it, the devs give the idea to be clueless about their job.
Or careless towards their customers.
Neither option sounds good to me.
Card Nerf - Luna's Pocket Galaxy
Card Nerf - Luna's Pocket Galaxy
I don’t know how to feel.. i didn’t craft the current mage decks because i expected the nerf but now i’m sad that i never will play this deck
Card Nerf - Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
The problem of "infinite" removals is still there though: yeah, now Aggro can SMOrc better, but... I don't know man.
I don't play Warrior, but I would still include Boom in every deck (maybe with the exception of Aggro now), which is not a really good sign.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
I do not like most of these nerfs unfortunatly..
Dr.Boom should have just been HoFed.
Barnes is still too god for 5 mana since BigPriest has no legit turn 5 play anyway besides from the 2/6 deathrattle dude maybe.
Extra Arms was very strong for 2 but I dont think it needed a nerf now.
Lunas Galaxy.. Yeah well that one had to be.. Although I enjoyed playing it in my Wild RenoMage.
Conjurers Calling still feels to good for just 4 mana but we will see..
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Damn Blizz, i basicly knew this would happen but mana nerfs feel so bad. The community proposed many great ideas for conjurers and Boom! I know you think we’re all dumb and not able to process complex changes but give us a chance for once!?
From a balance perspective, they are great though. I
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
I think people are underestimating the impact the Dr. Boom change will have. This will slow down the game plan more than just when it is played but it guarantees that Warrior misses using the hero power the turn it is played. I rarely played Dr. Boom on turn 7 as a warrior but frequently played it on turn 9 so I could hero power immediately. Not saying the nerf is good or bad just pointing out that it will have a larger impact on the plays than people seem to think.
Not sure how the other changes will effect those cards or the decks they are used in. I will dust everything on day 1 then sit back and wait to see what happens to the cards to see if I craft them again or keep the dust from them.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
I don't know man. That's all easy to say when we are not the ones designing the cards. Hearthstone has been going on for years now, and the pool of strong but unusable cards just keeps getting bigger. I for one don't mind a buff here and there. If a buff is too strong well we get a broken deck for a while then they nerf it again.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Reverting buffed cards back to their original state? I hope they will now consider more about the consequences of buffing cards in the future.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Agreed with that, too. Lazy developers at Blizzard should have changed Graveyard/Resurrection mechanics. Let's say your Obsidian Statue is killed and it's the only minion in Graveyard Pool. What they should have done in addition is:
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Very pleased with these changes - there are things I would've done differently, for sure, but they're at least hitting the right decks and not throwing a curveball card in there.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy is one that I see people wondering why it didn't go to 6 mana; the simple answer is that they don't want it to be remotely playable again. You can meme with it all you want, but this experiment showed them that a card like that being good is not fun, which is the most important reason it was nerfed. Putting it to 6 risks it still being too strong, whereas we know that it isn't good enough at 7 to be anything but jank fun.
Conjurer's Calling is still good, but losing the ability to find it from Magic Trick is pretty big. I'd have preferred moving it to only summon one minion - better removal, less good as a board builder - but I can understand them not wanting to change the functionality of a card too much, since historically those kinds of nerfs haven't exactly been good.
Don't really have an opinion on the other three - I don't play Wild that much, and I don't play many decks involving the other two unless for a quest.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
I'm happy to see some nerfs and while some of them will definitely change the current situation, I'm a bit concerned about the effectiveness of others.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy back to 7 will totally see less (if not zero) play: it was unplayable before the buff and now its only chance is Tortollan Pilgrim, which doesn't look very convincing in my opinion.
Conjurer's Calling's nerf is the same I suggested literally a week into Rise of Shadows meta: 3 mana CC is just dumb and shouldn't exist. Now that it costs 4, it will be no longer possible to discover it from Magic Trick (pretty big deal) and Mages won't be able to play it three times in the same turn unless they have [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer apprentice) Not Found] on board. Despite being totally fine with this nerf, I kind of liked Kripp's solution to change it in order that it would summon minions of the same cost you payed yours. Oh well, I don't want to be too picky, so I'll take it.
Extra Arms: I don't know man. Ok, but I don't know man.
Barnes: I don't play Wild despite following it, so I don't feel like judging something I haven't felt on my skin before.
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - I think it doesn't totally solve Warrior's problem: don't get me wrong, nerf shouldn't annihilate classes, but the only difference I see is that Aggro will have an easier life, nothing more and nothing less. The issue of a "infinite" removals is still there and that's what worries me the most.
I guess it's time to craft Dinotamer Brann.
The Greatest Dinomancers (aka. 5/5 Dreadsteed Warlock)
I am having a lot of fun with this deck. I used to run a Dreadsteed deck until it was nerfed to death. This is the closest I think I'll come to recapturing that deck. The only thing missing is a way to more consistently draw the Cruel Dinomancers (I used Sense Demons for the Dreadsteeds).
Card Nerf - Extra Arms
To be honest, gettin the buff on a 1-drop was always so strong. And i know this will be irrelevant for 95% of playerbase, but i love the nerf for arena. It was almost an auto-win situation when that happened and it wasnt even that hard. Always reminded me the old Velen's Chosen power level when played on curve on a 2-drop, was very hard to lose from that position. With Extra Arms, you could have done it turn earlier.
Five Card Nerfs Coming Next Week Including Dr. Boom, Mad Genius & Barnes!
Not impressed with these nerfs, especially undoing the two buffs and just upping the mana cost on Dr. Boom. Blizzard needs to expand their horizons when it comes to both buffing and nerfing. There's more mechanics they can tinker with besides mana cost.