Hearthstone is getting a fresh set of balance changes next week which targets 10 different cards, 8 of which are collectible.
The patch focuses on increasing the costs of some cards and for the most part, making it so cards that would reduce the cost of drawn or created cards to 0 to now only decrease to 1, lowering the power level of many popular decks quite a bit. Demon Hunters are getting hit again with the nerf stick for the fifth patch in a row.
Quote From Blizzard On July 14, we’ll be releasing a patch that includes balance updates for several cards in Standard. Craftable cards listed below will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks after the 17.6 patch goes live.
- Old: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, add 2 other random Dragons to your hand. They cost (0). → New: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, add 2 other random Dragons to your hand. They cost (1).
- Old: Draw a weapon. Give it +1/+1. → New: Draw a weapon. Give it +1 Durability.
- Old: Swap your Hero Power to “Deal 5 damage.” After 2 uses, swap it back. → New: Swap your Hero Power to “Deal 4 damage.” After 2 uses, swap it back.
- Old: 3 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health.
- Old: [Cost 5] → New: [Cost 6].
- Old: [Cost 6] → New: [Cost 7].
- Old: [Cost 2] → New: [Cost 3].
- Old: Battlecry: Draw 1 card. It costs (0). → New: Battlecry: Draw 1 card. It costs (1).
Galakrond, the Apocalypse (Rogue)
- Old: Battlecry: Draw 2 cards. It costs (0). → New: Battlecry: Draw 2 cards. They cost (1).
Galakrond, Azeroth's End (Rogue)
- Old: Battlecry: Draw 4 cards. It costs (0). → New: Battlecry: Draw 4 cards. They cost (1).
We have some Battlegrounds updates planned for the near future as well. Stay tuned!
Comments
Of course they would nerf DH and Warrior... It was so obvious it didn't need mentioning in interview directly...
I'm really surprised about the Alex nerf, but in a very positive way. There shouldn't be neutral highlander cards with such power level. They make it so every highlander deck, regardless of the class, plays the same.
Good needs overall!
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza is hit HARD she is hard to play as is on 9 so IDK she might get pushed out of the meta but she was quite BS anyway so.. it's probably ok.. highlander is/was too strong.
Corsair Cachedunno if this card will continue seeing play it's 2 mana draw 1 and play half an upgrade, sounds much worse now.
Warglaives of Azzinoth is still very good
Metamorphosis- lowers the burst damage of DH,but the card is still quite good.
Kayn Sunfury still does what he is intended to do.. will still see the same amount of play.
Dragoncaster- still powercreep over Inkmaster Solia
Fungal Fortunes- yes was too much draw makes more sense at 3.
Galakrond, the Nightmare- deserved nerf, happy they did it it was too much really..
I didn't expect them to nerf Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. A lot of Dragons are still fantastic at just 1 Mana, but the Swing will be significantly slower... Which sucks, cause that's what makes her so powerful. With that Nerf she's probably unplayable!
After that, I think the Nerf to Warglaives of Azzinoth might be the 2nd strongest Change. It's slower, but more important: Odd DH can't use it! That and the Change to Metamorphosis might put that Archetype in its Place.
I'm sad about dragonqueen.. why not change dragonqueen to only give none-legendaries or something like that? Though, 1 mana dragon's are mostly still good. Rogue galakrond had it coming. 4 zero mana cards is a bit much.
Good news then.. 13 july is the expansion announcement! (they patch the game to have the new expansion banner and preorder)
i'm sad for my highlander mage. they attack two of their win conditions and is not a cheap deck.
Good thing I didn’t hit that juicy disenchant button. This will be close to 4K dust only in duplicate rares!
A meta shake up is exactly what I need rn but not sure very interesting decks will take the top places. I bet this is more of a preparation for the upcoming expansion than anything else
Highlander Mage is hit pretty significantly.
Other highlanders will be knocked down a notch too, because you can't just dump 3 dragons for 9 now... at best 2 dragons for 10...
Warrior nerf isn't very significant, that 1 extra damage didn't matter as much as extra durability for most weapons that it was used with... But some breakpoints will become worse..
DH nerfs do address both wild and standard somewhat, especially Warglaives of Azzinoth coming a turn later is significant, they were already clunky at 5 sometimes. And Odd DH can't run them at all anymore.
Druid could run mostly spells way to easily, so yeah Fungal Fortunes was way better than Arcane Intellect most of the times
Galakrond Rogue is crippled a bit, drawing Backstab or Shadowstep with it now is like even worse...
Its 8 card nerfs, not 10 since 3 are technically the same card
I think it's quite staggering how far off the mark Blizzard were when they released Demon Hunter, how many nerfs in a row is this? Standard will feel it for sure but Odd DH in wild is pretty much over, it cannot survive without glaives. I wanted odd DH turned down but not removed.
I've been playing for five years, and I hit Legend for the first time last month with Odd Demon Hunter with very little effort. So while I'm a little sad to see it nerfed, I do think it was a bit TOO overtuned.
Oh definitely.
It's just in wild it takes a long time for something to change significantly and to have a new deck enter the mix was good, I know the class is new but it was nice having a different deck to challenge the established top aggro decks. A nerf was needed as the deck was sitting with insane winrates, I just think it would have been nicer to tone it down, not remove it completely which is effectively what this nerf does.
Seem mostly reasonable, good thing I have stacks of the rares. Will sadly nerf two out of my 3 playable decks.
Kayne is the only one I wouldn't have predicted. But hopefully these nerfs will shake up the meta. Still hoping for Libram Paladin to become a thing :p
Poor [Hearthstone Card (Dragonqueen Alexstraza) Not Found]. So many decks are already leaving her out because she was too slow in them. This will be another hard hit for her, possibly making her Standard only.
Edit: lmao someone went on a downvote spree
I've been playing a lot less constructed the past few weeks, but I hit Legend in May with Quest Warrior. And it was a grind. The Corsair Cache nerf makes me sad even though I know its power level is higher in better archetypes.
Dragonqueen needed a nerf, but I also worry it's veered into unplayability. Being unable to heal/taunt on turn 9 has a lot of consequences. Or you just need to drop tons of stats to put your opponent on a clock 1 tick faster than yours. That's not going to happen with just an 8/8 even if your next turn is very powerful. The Rogue Galakrond change still feels balanced and powerful because it affects 4 cards you've chosen to put in your deck. With Dragonqueen's RNG, the 1-mana nerf is a ton worse.
All the other changes lower the power-level of the game in a decent way. I don't have strong feelings on them.
The Rogue Galakrond change still feels powerful!? ...Good luck with drawing 1 mana Backstab and Shadowstep.
Those costing 1 when you have 7+ mana to play with will often not be very important. It is not like the early turns where Backstab costing 0 or 1 mana makes the difference between playing a minion and not.
The bigger change is being able to play lots the turn you play Galakrond, and Backstab and Shadowstep were rarely the game winning cards then anyway.
I hope they unnerf [Hearthstone Card (Ancharr) Not Found]!